Lighthouse Trails Research Project - Exposing Contemplative Spirituality

Lighthouse Trails is a Christian publishing company. While we hope you will read the books we have published, we also provide extensive free research, documentation, and news on our Research site, blog, and newsletter.

We pray that the books as well as the online research will be a blessing to the body of Christ and a witness to those who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.

What is Contemplative Spirituality?

definition: contemplative spirituality: a belief system that uses ancient mystical practices to induce altered states of consciousness (the silence) and is rooted in mysticism and the occult but often wrapped in Christian terminology; the premise of contemplative spirituality is pantheistic (God is all) and panentheistic (God is in all).

spiritual formation: a movement that has provided a platform and a channel through which contemplative prayer is entering the church. Find spiritual formation being used, and in nearly every case you will find contemplative spirituality. In fact, contemplative spirituality is the heartbeat of the spiritual formation movement.

How Widespread Has Spiritual Formation Become? Read our list of ministries that are promoting it. Please pray for the leaders of these groups that their eyes may be opened.

Fox News Dismisses Oprah's New Age Impact

On April 17th, Fox News released an article titled, "Is Oprah Starting Her Own Cult?." Fox reporter Roger Friedman begins the article by stating: "Oprah Winfrey may have gone too far in exploiting and distributing the teachings of a questionable New Age writer." He is referring to Oprah's present promotion of New Ager Eckhart Tolle and his new book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. However, while Friedman's title and subtitle give the impression that this will be a warning to readers of the serious dangers of Oprah's New Age philosophies, Friedman put most of his energy into trying to show that Oprah's motivation and passion for what she does is money and power related. In addition, he minimizes the New Age's impact and reality by calling it "gobbleygook," "nonsense," and "kooky."

What's more, Friedman questions whether Eckhart Tolle is "an appropriate spiritual leader," but his concerns focus more on Tolle's troubled past rather than Tolle's spiritual beliefs. Of Tolle, Friedman says: "He says he spent time wandering and sitting in London's parks, with "no relationships, no job, no home, no socially defined identity." Friedman adds:

His books, "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth," are the same gobbledygook as most New Age stuff. They're all about self-empowering and how to find out who we are. "Awakening" is Tolle's key word.

Friedman goes after Oprah, but not for her spiritual affinities--he believes the energy that drives Oprah is pure greed. He makes statements like: "Winfrey is nothing if not gifted at recognizing what's already popular in the culture and exploiting it," and "You'll notice that she, not Tolle, has the sole copyright on the broadcasts. Ka ching!" For an article that starts off in one direction, Friedman veers off with an entirely different focus.

While no one can argue that Oprah is an extremely wealthy woman, and she is most likely not complaining about that, Friedman misses the mark when he insinuates that this is her main agenda. Oprah is a woman on a spiritual mission, and it just so happens that this mission is to bring "awakening" to humanity through New Age philosophy. And though Friedman alludes to what this New Age philosophy is when he says "awakening," he does not seem to understand the implications of the New Age vision to awaken mankind to his own divinity.

Friedman is not alone in his assessment that the New Age is nothing more than gobbledygook and nonsense. Many people feel this way about it. Ray Yungen explains that the reason they do is because they don't believe that mysticism (i.e., New Age) or the supernatural are real. Therefore metaphysics is just "kooky," like Friedman refers to A Course in Miracles. Yungen illustrates why mysticism is not just silliness and is based on an actual presence:

If mystical experiences are not real, then there would be no continuity in their end results. But through the ages, when one examines different reports, it is clear to see there is uniformity to these experiences, meaning that they are tied into a central force of spiritual connection that does not change its message.

Friedman's article is actually a kind of paradox, and here is why: Friedman, representing Fox News, says that A Course in Miracles is "kooky." But would Fox's owner, Rupert Murdoch, agree with that? Probably not. Recently, Murdoch showed his support for Robert Schuller by participating in the Rethink Conference at Crystal Cathedral. In an article on WorldNet Daily (Rethinking Robert Schuller), former New Age follower, Warren Smith, documents Schuller's long-standing commitment to A Course in Miracles, which incidentally is also being promoted heavily by Oprah this year. As Smith points out, in Schuller's 2005 book Don't Throw Away Tomorrow: Living God's Dream for Your Life, A Course in Miracles advocate Gerald Jampolsky's endorsement sits on the back cover. Schuller is as dedicated to A Course in Miracles today as he was in 1982 when he praised Jampolsky in his book Self Esteem: The New Reformation.(1) One can only wonder what Rupert Murdoch would think if he knew Fox News was calling A Course in Miracles, "kooky."

A Course in Miracles and the New Age are anything but "kooky." Instead, they are a serious attempt to redefine biblical Christianity; and it is not just Oprah who is introducing these false teachings to the world. They are also being presented by men like Robert Schuller, but unlike Oprah, no one is calling Schuller into account--on the contrary many high profile Christian figures continue to support him.

It is difficult to know what Friedman's objective was in writing this article. Possibly political, trying to discredit Obama by discrediting Oprah, such as in the recent release of Carrington Steele's book Don't Drink the Kool-Aid. But whatever the reason Friedman wrote the article for Fox, he did not issue a needed warning about the New Age vision for the world and the ramifications this vision will have on millions of people throughout the earth. No one can know for sure to what degree money plays in Oprah's zeal, but one thing we can know is that Oprah has been devoted to the New Age vision for many years and she is passionate about helping others to grab hold of this "awakening" of divinity within. Friedman insinuates that Oprah cares more about money than she does about people. It is poor reporting to attack what cannot be proven and to avoid reporting on the obvious. Oprah has shown herself to be a caring person, who is often willing to give her own money to help the needy. This cannot be legitimately disputed. What must be disputed though is her message - Creator and creation are one and the same, and thus man is divine. For all the well-meaning efforts Oprah makes to help humanity, her zeal and passion are leading millions down a road that goes further and further away from mankind's only hope - Jesus Christ, as Lord, Savior, and God.

Although Oprah claims to be a Christian and sees Jesus as a great spiritual master, she does not see Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and does not see Him as a personal Savior; rather, she sees Him as a model for the christ-consciousness. This is what Jesus proclaimed would be the sign of His coming in Matthew 24.(2)

Perhaps Friedman truly believes that New Age spirituality is a bunch of silliness. Some Christian leaders believe this too. Rick Warren's chief apologist has stated: "[Rick] Warren has made it very clear that he feels the New Age and everything connected to it is pure silliness."3

The Bible is very clear that familiar spirits (those which are behind the New Age spirituality) are not to be dismissed as kooky or silly. Scripture warns adamantly of the enemy of our souls who seeks to devour us, ("Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." I Peter 5:8) and who is the father of lies (John 8:44). It also says that a day will come upon the earth when there will be such a great falling away that if possible even the elect (the body of Christ) would be deceived (I Timothy 4:1, Mark 13:22). And it states that we should not be caught unaware of these coming times like a thief in the night (I Thessalonians 5:1-4). We are to recognize and expose the deeds of darkness and let our lights shine so others may accept the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, who is God come in the flesh. And let our zeal not be in vain for worldly matters but rather let our zeal be found in Him.

It's time that the media and those who represent themselves as Christian leaders present the New Age and its teachings for what they are--a paradigm shift that is seeking to remove biblical Christianity from our world today.

For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. (Romans 10: 2-4)

Notes:

1. Warren Smith, Deceived on Purpose (Magalia, CA: Mountain Stream Press, 2004), chapters 5 and 9.

2. To understand this in light of biblical prophecy, read For Many Shall Come in My Name.

3. Quote by Richard Abanes

David Jeremiah Points to Mystic/Panentheist Henri Nouwen ... Again

For many people, it is hard to understand why Lighthouse Trails includes David Jeremiah in its reports and research on contemplative prayer. He is a devoted Christian with a longstanding reputation in Christian ministry. And when it comes to the New Age and eastern mysticism, he even wrote a book of warning about the topic several years ago. Invasion of Other Gods clearly denounces eastern-style meditation and the New Age.

Yet, in spite of Jeremiah's 1995 book, he has been building a case against his own writing for some time now with continuous favorable referencing of New Agers and contemplatives as well as with his more than once promotion of emerging futurist Erwin McManus (who recently partnered with Robert Schuller at the Rethink Conference). And once again, today (April 16,) Jeremiah has favorably quoted a mystic - Henri Nouwen.

In his daily Turning Point commentary today, he includes a quote by Nouwen: "Where there is pain, there is healing. Where there is mourning, there is dancing. Where there is poverty, there is the kingdom." This quote is from Nouwen's 1995 article titled "Moving from Solitude to Community," posted in Christianity Today's Leadership Journal. When Nouwen says "Solitude," he is referring to eastern-style meditation (i.e., contemplative prayer). This is easy to see when one studies the works of Nouwen. In an article by Ray Yungen titled Henri Nouwen and Buddhism, Yungen points out Nouwen's spiritual affinities:

Nouwen's endorsement of a book by Hindu spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran [in 1991], teaching mantra meditation, further illustrates his universalistic sympathies. On the back cover, Nouwen stated, "This book has helped me a great deal."1

Nouwen also wrote the foreword to a book that mixes Christianity with Hindu spirituality, in which he says:

[T]he author shows a wonderful openness to the gifts of Buddhism, Hinduism and Moslem religion. He discovers their great wisdom for the spiritual life of the Christian ... Ryan [the author] went to India to learn from spiritual traditions other than his own. He brought home many treasures and offers them to us in the book.2

Nouwen apparently took these approaches seriously himself. In his book, The Way of the Heart [1991], he advised his readers:

The quiet repetition of a single word can help us to descend with the mind into the heart ... This way of simple prayer ... opens us to God's active presence.3

But what God's "active presence" taught him, unfortunately, stood more in line with classic Hinduism than classic evangelical Christianity. He wrote [in 1997]:

Prayer is "soul work" because our souls are those sacred centers where all is one, ... It is in the heart of God that we can come to the full realization of the unity of all that is. 4

It is critical to note here that Nouwen did not say all Christians are one; he said "all is one," which is the fundamental panentheistic concept of God--the God in everything unites everything. Like Thomas Merton, it was Nouwen's intent to make mystical prayer a pervasive paradigm within all traditions of Christianity. He felt the evangelical church had many admirable qualities but lacked one vital one: mysticism. He sought to remedy this by imploring, "It is to this silence [contemplative prayer] that we all are called." 5 (from A Time of Departing, ch. 3)

Today's commentary by David Jeremiah isn't the first time he has included Nouwen in his writings. In his book Captured by Grace, he favorably discusses Nouwen (and even includes an endorsement from New Age sympathizer Ken Blanchard in the book). While Jeremiah has been quoting or referencing Nouwen as far back as 2001, it is his 2003 book Life Wide Open that clearly shows a change in Jeremiah's outlook. Ray Yungen states:

In the introduction [of Life Wide Open], Jeremiah tells his readers: "A small handful among us have discovered what the rest of us would pay dearly to know: How can we bring real, living excitement into this life?"

Calling his book "a map to the life of passion and purpose" and saying that it will "totally transform the way you see your existence and your purpose," Jeremiah proceeds to share with readers the insights from this "small handful" of people who have "discovered what the rest of us would pay dearly to know."

One of the people Jeremiah points to is Calvin Miller, quoting from his book Into the Depths of God (a pro-contemplative book). Yungen elaborates on Jeremiah's choice of Miller:

It is perplexing why Jeremiah chose Miller as an example we should follow. In Into the Depths of God, Miller encourages readers to engage in centering prayer and explains it as a union between man and God.... Into the Depths of God is an exhortation in contemplative spirituality and is brimming with quotes by Thomas Merton and other contemplatives. Miller speaks of the "wonderful relationship between ecstasy [mystical state] and transcendence [God]," and says that "Ecstasy is meant to increase our desire for heaven" (p. 96). This state of "Ecstasy" is the same state Thomas Merton likened to an LSD trip and which made him say he wanted to be the best Buddhist he could be.

Life Wide Open also points to Buddhist sympathizer Peter Senge. Yungen explains:

Jeremiah uses Senge to address the issue of getting old and losing vision when he quotes from Senge's book The Fifth Discipline. The discipline Senge speaks of in that book is the belief that we can create our own reality.... Senge says:

Deep down, all of the contemplative traditions of the world, of which there are an extraordinary variety, stem from the same source ... Before there were all the religions of the last 3,000 years or so, there was a common religion that was shared by indigenous people all around the world.6

Yungen goes on:

While it is disconcerting to see David Jeremiah using Peter Senge and Calvin Miller as examples of those who have "secrets" for the rest of us, it is Jeremiah's favorable quoting of Sue Monk Kidd that I find most disturbing of all. As I have shown [in A Time of Departing], Monk Kidd went from being a Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher to a contemplative prayer practitioner. And yet Jeremiah quotes her from When the Heart Waits in a manner that would give her credibility with his readers.

In this particular book of Monk Kidd's, she describes her journey to find her true self through the writings of Thomas Merton and other mystics. This ultimately led her to embrace the following beliefs in her next book, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, which incidentally was already in print when Jeremiah quoted her in his book. Monk Kidd states:

As I grounded myself in feminine spiritual experience, that fall I was initiated into my body in a deeper way. I came to know myself as an embodiment of Goddess (p. 161)

Mystical awakening in all the great religious traditions, including Christianity, involves arriving at an experience of unity or nondualism. In Zen its known as samadhi.... Transcendence and immanence are not separate. The Divine is one. The dancer and all the dances are one.(p. 163)

The day of my awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God, and God in all things.49

When the Heart Waits is so filled with contemplative spirituality that it fits right in with more outright New Age books.... How is it that the example David Jeremiah gives for "passion for God" and "something we embrace with heart and soul" is from such a book as When the Heart Waits? In Life Wide Open, Jeremiah quotes Monk Kidd when she says: "[A] spiritual journey is a lot like a poem ... you dance it, sing it, cry it, feel it on your skin and in your bones ... it lives in the heart and the body as well as the spirit and the head."7

But what Monk Kidd feels on her skin and bones and in her heart and body is not the Christian Gospel. How can Jeremiah tell readers to embrace the spirituality and the passion that drive Monk Kidd when her spiritual journey has led her directly into the arms of Thomas Merton who was "impregnated with Sufism"?8 ... Right under Jeremiah's nose, contemplatives have slipped into his writings, and now, through his level of influence, may slip into the lives of countless others.

What makes this situation so ironic is that in 1996, while on a trip to Southern California, I attempted to deliver a video tape to Dr. Jeremiah warning him of the dangers of mystical prayer. I myself owned a copy of Invasion of Other Gods and saw Jeremiah as a mentor and ally. I gave the tape to his secretary but never heard back from him. You may be wondering what came of that. I suppose the information I have just given you is my answer. But with When the Heart Waits, Jeremiah had occultism staring him right in the face.

It is sad to note that in November 2007, Jeremiah quoted the late New Ager M. Scott Peck in his Turning Point commentary. And that is strange because in Jeremiah's book, Invasion of Other God's he actually warned against Peck (p. 18)! We hope and pray that David Jeremiah will heed his own 1995 warnings against the New Age and stop quoting mystics like Henri Nouwen who at the end of his life said:

Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God's house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God. --From Sabbatical Journey, Henri Nouwen's last book
page 51, 1998 Hardcover Edition

Notes:

1. Eknath Easwaran, Meditation (Tomoles, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1991 edition), back cover.
2. Thomas Ryan, Disciplines for Christian Living (Mawah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1993), pp. 2-3.
3. Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1991), p. 81.
4. Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1997), Jan. 15 and Nov. 16 daily readings.
5. Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart, op. cit., p. 66.
6. Peter Senge cited in "Inviting the World to Transform" (A Research Report by the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, http://www.contemplativemind.org/programs/cnet/inviting.pdf).
7. David Jeremiah, Life Wide Open, op. cit., p.87, citing Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits (New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1990), p. 71.
8. Rob Baker and Gray Henry, Editors, Merton and Sufism (Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 1999), p. 69.

THE FALSE IMAGINING OF THE FALSE CHRIST

by Larry DeBruyn

Over three-and-one-half decades ago, John Lennon came out with the hit song Imagine. The lyrics project a utopian vision of the world in which, because there is no heaven or hell, no countries or religion, no possessions or greed, nothing to kill or die for, all the people will be one.[1] Internationally, Lennon's song about the new world remains most popular. Increasingly, political, religious, and media ideologues are suggesting that for Lennon's dream to become a reality, a one-world community must become committed to one-world spirituality.

As these societal movers and shakers might imagine, the new utopia will necessitate the dawning of a new spiritual consensus. Such messianism envisions christ to be mental, not personal, and that being the case, asks people to "shift" their consciousness to a one-world spirituality in order to build a one-world community. Utopia would, it is theorized, be based upon spiritual unity. Religion will no longer divide, but unite. There will be no heaven or hell, no countries or religion to die for. Terrorism will become obsolete. As John Lennon imagined, the world will be as one. But, under what guise might this spiritual shift be coming?

Its core belief appears to be this: In essence, the cosmos consists of a pantheist-christ spirit permeating everything.[2] Thus, everything, animate and inanimate, becomes "sacred." This sacred christ is the one reality which comprises both the center and circumference of the universe. That's why it's called the cosmic christ. Christ is whatever constitutes time, matter, and space. Christ is Source. Christ is Moment. Christ is Energy. Christ is Thing. Christ is Presence. Christ is Being. Christ is Consciousness. Christ is Oneness. Christ is you. Christ is me. Christ is . . . In all of this, and unlike His portrayal in Holy Scripture, there is no sense in which Christ is personally before, above, without, or outside the world. (Oh, by the way . . . prepositions contain great theology!) This christ is co-existent and co-extensive with the universe. Because the New Age christ permeates nature, it is nature. If the universe didn't exist, this christ wouldn't exist. According to the math of the twin deceptions of New Ageism and the New Spirituality, christ minus the universe equals nothing. Arbitrarily, they take whatever is, assign divinity to it, and call it "christ."

After stating a god-essence resides "in every creature, every flower, every stone," Eckhart Tolle theorizes, "All that is, is holy." Then he adds, "This is why Jesus, speaking entirely from his essence or Christ identity, says in the Gospel of Thomas: 'Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up a stone, and you will find me there.'"[3] Similarly, Matthew Fox wrote that God and Christ are in all things. As the "pattern that connects," Fox sees his cosmic-christ as offering hope "by insisting on the interconnectivity of all things and on the power of the human mind and spirit to experience personally this common glue among all things."[4] In his book Quantum Spirituality, emergent-evangelical Leonard Sweet advocates monism that nuances pantheism. Investing the cosmos with "christness," he states, "The world of nature has an identity and purpose apart from human benefit. But we constitute together a cosmic body of Christ."[5] Even Rick Warren's reference to the New Century Version of Ephesians 4, and verse 6 ("God . . . is in everything"), plugs into the growing popularity of monistic spirituality.[6] So what might a Christian believer think about this redefinition of Christ? Click here to read the rest of this article.

Other related articles by Larry DeBruyn:

Should We Wait in Silence

Breath Prayers

Be Still

On Contemplative Prayer

Washington Students Take Up Yoga

By Rachel Schleif
World Publishing
"Lincoln students take up yoga for WASL nerves
Lincoln students take up yoga for WASL nerves"

WENATCHEE - WASL testing kicked off Tuesday, and with it began a new kind of stress relief for elementary school kids: morning yoga.

A 10-year-old girl at Lincoln Elementary requested it. Her fourth-grade teacher Tina Nicpan-Brown couldn't say no.

"For them it gives permission to just relax and not think about anything," Nicpan-Brown said after yoga Tuesday. "They deal with a lot of pressure between home and school, so if there's anything I can do to take that anxiety away, I will."

Gym lights dimmed to a soft glow Tuesday morning. Babbling creek sounds and wooden flutes flowed from a stereo in the corner. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Related Stories:
Message Bible for Little Kids Instructs on Contemplative Meditation

New York Times Article Shows Kids Are Learning to Meditate in Schools

'Yoga lite' stretches into public schools

Yoga for children (in public school, that is)

Ancient-Future Heresies

by T. A. McMahon

Here's an idea. Let's go back through historical church eras and glean from such time periods those issues deemed to be of value in the development of the Christian faith. Let's review the first-century church, the church between A.D. 100 and 600, then consider the medieval era (A.D. 700 to 1500), followed by the Reformation period (A.D. 1500 and later), and so on. To be effective in this endeavor, it's important to have a good understanding of the cultural context in which the Christians of each era practiced their faith. In addition, we'll need to study the Church Fathers and gain the insights they provided. Why? Well, those who are promoting this "re-presenting the past" believe that today's Christianity will greatly benefit as it "re-invents itself" in order to effectively bring the message of the gospel to the postmodern world. If you think this may not be a good idea, you could be labeled a "traditionalist," one whose faith and practice is inflexible and out of touch with our rapidly changing culture-and church.

That's the view that Christianity Today (CT) has of what's going on in evangelical Christianity. In introducing its February 2008 feature article with a cover-page declaration, "Lost Secrets of the Ancient Church: How evangelicals started looking backward to move forward," CT senior managing editor Mark Galli writes:

You might say a number of CT editors have a vested interest in this issue's cover story. David Neff, Ted Olsen, Tim Morgan, and I have been doing the ancient-future thing for many years, at Episcopal and/or Anglican parishes. And if this were not enough immersion in the topic, in his spare time, David Neff heads up the Robert E. Webber Center for an Ancient Evangelical Future, founded by the father of the ancient-future movement.

Acknowledging the magazine's inherent (and historic) bias, Galli notes that "the ancient church has captivated the evangelical imagination for some time [yet] it hasn't been until recently that it's become an accepted fixture of the evangelical landscape. And this is for the good " (emphasis added). That, of course, is Galli's opinion and, sadly, a growing multitude of influential Christian leaders agree. Click here to read this entire article.

Warren Smith, Ray Yungen Speaking at Calvary Chapel Conferences this Summer

Warren Smith, author of Deceived on Purpose and The Light That Was Dark, will be a featured speaker at the 2008 Senior Pastors Conference in Murietta, California starting on June 2nd . This conference is the annual pastors conference for Calvary Chapel Senior pastors.

Warren Smith will join Ray Yungen, author of A Time of Departing and For Many Shall Come in My Name, for the Pastors and Leaders Conference in Johnson County, Kansas on August 7th. The theme of this conference will be "The Shepherd and the Watchmen."

Both Smith and Yungen have written extensively on the New Age/New Spirituality, documenting how it is coming into the church through various avenues such as Purpose Driven, the emerging church, spiritual formation, and more.

Papal Challenge to the USA: Spread God's Kingdom

NEW YORK, APRIL 20, 2008 (Zenit.org)- Benedict XVI challenged the Church in the United States to pray and work to hasten the spread of the kingdom of God in the nation.

The Pope urged the more than 58,000 people gathered in Yankee's Stadium today for the last major event of his five-day visit to pray "in the Lord's own words: 'Thy Kingdom come.'"

"This prayer needs to shape the mind and heart of every Christian in this nation," he said. "It needs to bear fruit in the way you lead your lives and in the way you build up your families and your communities.

"It needs to create new 'settings of hope' where God's kingdom becomes present in all its saving power."

The Holy Father said praying for the coming of the God's kingdom "also means being constantly alert for the signs of its presence, and working for its growth in every sector of society."Click here to read this entire article.

Related Story: Pope Ends Visit With Yankee Stadium Mass

IMPORTANT NOTE FROM LTRP: To gain an understanding of the Pope's New Evangelization program through the Eucharistic Christ, read Roger Oakland's powerful expose, Another Jesus.

Understand the Times Comments on the Pope's Visit to the US.

by Roger Oakland

While our web site has been paralyzed for the last three weeks as the result of hackers and the malicious damage that has been caused, UTT has still been researching and reporting on the news as it relates to the Bible. The following news alert regarding the pope's visit to the United States is very significant.

Most people are not aware that the Roman Catholic Church headed by the pope has an agenda to win the world to the Roman Catholic Jesus (the Eucharistic Christ). The Eucharistic Christ, is different from the historical Jesus in that the Roman Catholic Jesus requires a Roman Catholic priest to formulate "his" presence through the "mystery" of transubstantiation. This "Jesus" (a wafer) is then offered at mass as the Sacrament of the Eucharist (called an unbloody sacrifice). The Eucharistic Christ is also found on the altar in many Catholic churches and worshiped and adored in what is termed Eucharistic adoration.

In the article beneath (click here), the pope uses ecumenical speak when he states the following:

I have come to repeat the Apostle's urgent call to conversion and the forgiveness of sins, and to implore from the Lord a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church in this country.

While statements like this seem to impress leaders like Pat Robertson as well as other "evangelical Protestants," that Roman Catholicism has relaxed the view that the Roman Catholic Church is the one and only true church, another statement in the same article indicates otherwise. While the word evangelization is used in the title of the article, this is not accurate. The term that should have been used is the "new evangelization." In fact, later in the same article, we read that the pope actually used this term:

Those who have "taken up the challenge of the Second Vatican Council, so often reiterated by Pope John Paul II, and committed their lives to the new evangelization" also received the encouragement of the Pope.

The goal of Eucharistic adoration is to win the "separated brethren" and eventually all religions to the Roman Catholic Church in order to set up the kingdom of God here on earth. As the pope stated:

... the Holy Father prayed that Catholics in America will use this momentus occasion "to reaffirm their unity in the apostolic faith, to offer their contemporaries a convincing account of the hope which inspires them (cf. 1 Pet 3:15), and to be renewed in missionary zeal for the extension of God's Kingdom."

It is amazing to see the delusion that the Bible indicates will happen in the last days. Few seem to have the discernment what is happening. This is a time to follow Jesus and His word and not some man (holy Father) and his movement.

It is also interesting to see the role that the Purpose Driven Peace Plan and the Emerging Church has to work together with Roman Catholics and anyone of any religion for the purpose of establishing the kingdom of God here on earth.

What "kingdom" is this? Could it be the kingdom being set up for the antichrist?

IMPORTANT NOTE FROM LTRP: To gain an understanding of the Pope's New Evangelization program through the Eucharistic Christ, read Roger Oakland's powerful expose, Another Jesus.

Seeds of Compassion Webcast

On March 30th, Lighthouse Trails reported that the Seeds of Compassion event in Washington would take place in April. That event, with the Dalai Lama, Rob Bell, and Doug Pagitt, has now come and gone. To view the webcast of this event, we have provided this link. Seeds of Compassion

Please read our report Rob Bell and the Dalai Lama - A Dream Come True? and use discernment when viewing the Seeds of Compassion webcasts.

Publishing News

See our Falling Sparrow series.

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Lighthouse Trails Publishing now has sample chapters available online for most of the books we publish. We believe you will find each of these books to be well-written, carefully documented, and worthwhile. Click here to read some of the chapters.

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Newsletter in Print - Coming Soon

If you would like to receive the Coming from the Lighthouse newsletter in print form by mail, please send an email to newsletters@lighthousetrails.com. Be sure and include your mailing address in the email. We will be issuing a printed newsletter several times a year for those who prefer that over the email edition or for some reason need both.

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Book Spotlights

These two important books expose the truth about contemplative spirituality, spiritual formation, and the new age.
A Time of Departing and For Many Shall Come in My Name

HOLOCAUST: LEST WE FORGET
A true story that will change your life and challenge your faith ..

"Will sweep you into 1930s Germany and back with your faith intact ... [Trapped in Hitler's Hell] carries a stark message for today's Western Christian ... will refocus your priorities and recharge your spiritual life."-Leo Hohmann, Read entire review at The Messianic Times Trapped in Hitler's Hell

See all books and DVDs on the Holocaust

The Other Side of the River by Alaskan Kevin Reeves

When mystical experiences and strange doctrines overtake his church, one man risks all to find the truth ... a true story. Read more about this important book.

Find out the truth about the emerging church and the avenues through which it is entering Christianity.

Faith Undone by Roger Oakland

Find out more about the book that tells it like it is.