On June 1st, Lighthouse Trails posted an article by M. Danielsen titled, “Sojourners Founder Jim Wallis’ Revolutionary Anti-Christian “Gospel” (and Will Christian Leaders Stand with Wallis?).” On June 19th, we posted a second article titled TRAVESTY at LIFEST – PARENTS: Don’t Send Your Kids – Radical-Emergent/Liberal Jim Wallis to Speak at Lifest (What is Luis Palau Doing There?).” This second article included a link to a radio interview by VCY America’s Ingrid Schlueter and Mare Danielsen on this same subject. Yesterday, June 30th, a Wisconsin radio station (Lifest is held in WI) pulled its sponsorship of Lifest because of Wallis’ appearance. All of these things led to a response by Jim Wallis on his Sojourner’s blog today. That article begins as such:

Calling People to Faith

by Jim Wallis 07-01-2010

Several months ago, I was invited to speak at Lifest, a Christian festival in Wisconsin with more than 100 musicians and 50 speakers that draws tens of thousands of mostly young people. That invitation has recently become controversial, as a number of false accusations have been made against me and our Sojourners ministry. One long article [Danielsen's article on Lighthouse Trails] actually put me in the company of Rick Warren, Bill & Lynne Hybels, and the National Association of Evangelical as heretical. Most recently, a local radio station in Wisconsin pulled their sponsorship of Lifest, saying “we believe the social justice message and agenda they promote is a seed of secular humanism, seeking an unholy alliance between the Church and Government.”  Nevertheless, Bob Lenz and the leadership of Lifest stood by their invitation for me to speak next week. I wrote this statement at Bob’s request in response to the controversy.

It has come to my attention that there is some controversy around the invitation I received to speak at Lifest. It seems there have been false rumors and misperceptions spreading about me and about Sojourners, the organization I lead. I wanted to help clarify who we are in an effort for us all to put the main focus back on the mission of Lifest, which is to call people to faith in Jesus Christ. (To read this entire article by Jim Wallis, click here.)

The questions many may be asking, what DOES Jim Wallis believe in and stand for, and should he be representing biblical Christianity and standing on platforms with evangelical speakers, addressing Christian youth whose parents believe their kids are attending a “Christian” event with Bible-believing speakers? In other words, do Wallis’ beliefs line up with the main message in the Bible, which is the Cross and atonement of Jesus Christ, the foundation of true Christianity.

In an article last week, we stated: “As more and more talk arises about a ’spiritual revolution’ or awakening, believers should be asking, is this a revolution from God? Or is this coming global ‘revolution’ part of the great falling away of which the Bible speaks?” Many of today’s major Christian figures  (Rick Warren, Leonard Sweet, Erwin McManus, William Paul Young (The Shack), Tony Campolo, Brian McLaren, and yes, Jim Wallis) are all talking about “revolution.” Former New Age follower, Warren B. Smith, identifies this emerging “revolution” as “indeed the same New Age ‘revolution’ attempting to transfix and transform the church today.” Smith adds: ” We should be very concerned when self-professing Evangelical leaders with New Age sympathies talk about starting a “spiritual revolution” (A “Wonderful Deception, p. 134). Sadly, all of the aforementioned names above hold to “New Age sympathies,” in particularly their embracing and resonating with contemplative mysticism (the basis of which is panentheistic – God is in all).

M. Danielsen’s article laid out clearly Wallis’ and Sojourners‘ socialistic, marxist ideologies. But what about Wallis’ views on the nature of spirituality itself, mainly contemplative mysticism, which is the antithesis of the atonement of Jesus Christ? And is Sojourners providing a dynamic platform for an anti-biblical “gospel”?

It doesn’t take too long in looking at Sojourners to find their contemplative-mystical persuasions. On their website, on a video clip,  two Sojourner editors discuss contemplative practices. The video is actually classified as a “how-to video on contemplative prayer” with Sojourner editors Rose Marie Berger and Jeannie Choi.

(Note: Wheaton College is mentioned in this video as the place the one Sojourners editor learned contemplative practices. See our research on Wheaton.)

For sake of time, we will show just one more piece of proof of Wallis’ stance on the contemplative/New spirituality movement.  This case in point, last summer on God Politics: a blog by Jim Wallis and friends, an article by Richard Rohr was posted. Rohr, founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation and a Catholic priest,  is a panentheist who wrote the foreword to a 2007 book called How Big is Your God? by Jesuit priest (from India) Paul Coutinho. In Coutinho’s book, he describes an interspiritual community where people of all religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity) worship the same God. Incidentally, in the same year Rohr wrote the foreword for Coutinho’s book, Rohr and Wallis were the speaking team at a conference in Ohio. Rohr, one of the most popular speakers in the Catholic church today and commands the respect of thousands of priests, states: 

The term “cosmic Christ” reminds us that everything and everyone belongs. . . . God’s hope for humanity is that one day we will all recognize that the divine dwelling place is all of creation. Christ comes again whenever we see that matter and spirit co-exist. (“The eternal christ in the cosmic story,” NCR, 12/11/09)

Make no mistake, there is ample evidence available to show that Wallis (and Sojourners) is a conduit for contemplative (ie., New Age/New Spirituality)  (which we believe is the driving force behind this emerging/emergent church and will be the propeller to bring about a global “awakening” (i.e., a global mass deception). Consider these two verses:

“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:9

“And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness.” II Corinthians 11:14-15

Wallis, Rick Warren, Brian McLaren, and other emerging-type leaders have tried to convince our society that the church has failed, and that is why the world is in such a mess today. They conveniently neglect to tell people that the reason the world is in such disarray is because of sin and man’s rejection of Jesus Christ. It is not because of the true body of Christian believers, which through the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit, long to help others and share the true “Gospel of Jesus Christ.”  These heretical teachers are attempting to convince Christians,  that they need to lay down their moralistic conservative views such as wanting to stop the murder of millions of babies and proclaim that marriage should only be a civil and legal union between a man and a woman. They go to great lengths to lay upon the conservative Christian guilt for the state of the world. They say we have been too narrow-minded, and as Rick Warren has stated, they say we need to look for a “new reformation,” one that includes Muslims, gays, and all belief systems. And look how so many have bought into it. The Shack, which proclaims the same “gospel” as Rick Warren and Jim Wallis proclaim, remains a New York  Times best seller, and that is mostly among proclaiming Christians. Yes, look how many have caved in to these lies. Nearly every denomination and Christian movement has been affected to some degree: Christian Missionary Alliance, the Mennonites, the Southern Baptists, some Calvary Chapel churches, the Nazarenes, the Wesleyans, even some Amish and Independent Baptist groups  … certainly too many to ignore.

Where will this all lead? Ray Yungen, who has been warning the church of this contemplative New Age  ”revolution” for nearly twenty years, says this:

Some day, and it could be soon, the Lord will allow the man of lawlessness [the antichrist] to emerge. In the mean time, the world is opening its arms to wholly embrace a spirituality that will exist under the umbrella of mysticism. The correlating theme will be—we are all One. When the man of lawlessness does rise to power with a one-world economy and political base, he will seduce many into searching for their own Christ consciousness rather than the Messiah, Jesus Christ. (A Time of Departing, pp. 127-128)

Among this group of men such as Wallis, who are attempting to redefine biblical Christianity, is Leonard Sweet who in his own writings exalts this idea of “christ consciousness” and tells his followers that he sees some of today’s most prolific New Age/New Spirituality leaders as his “new light heroes.”1 

In spite of this clear and obvious move away from biblical faith by so many of today’s prolific figures, when one looks over at the arena of Christian leaders, teachers, and pastors today, a deafening silence fills our ears. These men and women who say they represent Christianity, stand on the side lines holding the cloaks of those who fervently seek to persuade people away from traditional biblical truth.

In conclusion, Jim Wallis’ vision, although noble sounding in some respects, it has at its center, as its spiritual component a practice and belief system that could be legitimately called part of the mystery of iniquity (discussed in II Thessalonians 2). One of the major icons of this movement, Thomas Merton, told a Muslim mystic in essence that it didn’t matter whether one believed in the atonement and redemption of Jesus Christ or not (*see citation below). What did matter was that Muslims and Christians will hopefully someday share in divine light. This is where Sojourners vision will lead. Sojourners shares Merton’s hope for the future.

Lighthouse Trails is not against justice and mercy; Lighthouse Trails is not against feeding the poor and helping those who are downtrodden and destitute - Lighthouse Trails is against a mystical belief system that proclaims that the divine is in everything, including all of humanity regardless of faith in Christ or not.

This is beyond speculation. One of the pioneers of this “reconciliation”/mystical revolution, Henri Nouwen (frequently quoted by Sojourners), rejoicingly said:

The God who dwells in our inner sanctuary is also the God who dwells in the inner sanctuary of each human being. (Nouwen, Here and Now, 1997, p. 22)

The apostle Paul wrote that we are reconciled with God through the death of His son. It goes without saying that Christians are supposed to have the fruit of the spirit, which is what this so-called “progressive Christianity” claims to portray, but the bedrock of Christianity which cannot be compromised, is this very thing, but contemplative/emerging spirituality is moving people away from reconciliation through the Cross rather than toward it.

At Lifest with tens of thousands of young people, while Wallis may inspire them to remember the poor and the hurting, he will no doubt also inspire them to follow this dangerous mystical paradigm shift.

*Thomas Merton citation: Quoted in chapter 3 of A Time of Departing; Rob Baker and Gray Henry, Merton and Sufism, p. 109

Related Stories:

Film Warning: “With God on Our Side” – Championed by Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, Brian McLaren & Steve Haas (World Vision)

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By Michael Carl
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 The unorthodox program was announced on the website for the school, and detailed in a statement released by school media-relations officer Claudia Pearce.

President Jerry Campbell declined to be interviewed, although a video of a news conference with him was featured on the school website.

 ”Christians, Muslims and Jews will now have the opportunity to take classes together to learn about each other’s religious traditions, to study topics that deal specifically with interfaith issues and to build bridges through coursework that assists them, our society’s future religious leaders, to act collaboratively in response to the various issues that face our society and world,” the statement said.

The statement from Pearce said the program the school calls “the university project” isn’t compromising the basic truths of Christianity.

In answer to a question concerning the reality that all three faiths have exclusive truth claims, the statement says only some of each religion’s followers hold to exclusivity.

“There are a variety of beliefs regarding exclusivity in each of the traditions, and not all Christians, Jews and Muslims believe that their way is the only way,” the school said. Click here to continue reading.

by David Cloud
Way of Life Ministries

Richard Foster’s writings have been at the forefront of the contemplative movement since the 1970s. No one has done more than this man to spread contemplative mysticism throughout Protestant and Baptist churches.

Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline, which has sold more than two and a half million copies, was selected by Christianity Today as one of the top ten books of the 20th century. (For this review I obtained multiple editions of Celebration of Discipline, plus three other books by Foster.)

The Quaker Connection

He grew up among the Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends), was trained at George Fox College, has pastored Quaker churches, and has taught theology at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, and at George Fox. One website calls him “perhaps the best known Quaker in the world today.”

The Quaker connection is important, because one of their peculiar doctrines is direct revelation via an “inner light.” This is defined in a variety of ways, since Quakerism is very individualistic and non-creedal, but it refers to a divine presence and guidance in every man. There is an emphasis on being still and silent and passive in order to receive guidance from the inner light. Other terms for it are “light of God,” “light of Christ,” “inward light,” “the light,” “light within,” “Christ within,” and “spirit of Christ.”

George Fox used the expression “that of God in everyone.” In his journal Fox said, “I was glad that I was commanded to turn people to that inward light, spirit, and grace, by which all might know their salvation, and their way to God; even that divine Spirit which would lead them into all Truth, and which I infallibly knew would never deceive any” (The Journal of George Fox, revised by John Nickalls, 1952, p. 35).

Another prominent Quaker, Robert Barclay, called this “the light of the heart” and said “there is an evangelical and saving Light and grace in all.”

Isaac Pennington said, “There is that near you which will guide you; Oh wait for it, and be sure ye keep to it.”

The inner light teaching is said to be based on John 1:9 — “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Yet this verse does not say that there is a divine light in every man. It merely says that Christ gives light to every man. The epistle of Romans tells us more about this. There is the light of creation (Romans 1:20), the light of conscience (Romans 2:14-16), and the light of the Scripture (Romans 3:2). When men respond to the light that they have, they are given more light (Acts 17:26-27).

Because of the fall, man’s heart is darkened and foolish (Rom. 1:21; Eph. 4:18).

The inner light teaching was exalted above reliance on the Bible. Martin Meeker says, “… the early Quakers’ reliance on the Bible as a source of spiritual knowledge and inspiration was secondary to their belief in the Inner Light as the primary path to salvation and communication with God” (The Doctrine of the Inner Light). Click here to read more.

Related Information:

Richard Foster’s Legacy Endures – Christian Leaders Help to Make it So

Sandy Simpson on Dialectic Deception

The following video link is to a segment from Concerned Nazarenes DVD project on the new spirituality. This particular segment is an interview between missionary Sandy Simpson (founder of Deception in the Church) and interviewer John Loeffler.

[To receive a free copy of the DVD, please send a request to the following email address: concernednazareneslist@hotmail.com.  They will send a DVD postage paid to you.]

LTRP Note: The following article describes how teens are ”getting high” from listening to certain high frequency digital sounds on the Internet. Basically, what is happening is the sounds are being used as a mantra to take listeners into altered states of consciousness, similar to drug use or contemplative/centering prayer (i.e., eastern meditation). It was the contemplative mystic, Thomas Merton, who compared contemplative meditation to that of an LSD trip. Now, parents have a new worry – their kids getting “high” without drugs. All the more reason for Christian parents to make sure their teens understand the dangers of contemplative spirituality.

In an article Lighthouse Trails wrote regarding Rick Warren’s promotion of contemplative, we referred to Saddleback pastor Lance Witt who spoke of “changing frequencies” when meditating. After you read the article below, we hope you will read the Rick Warren article to better understand what is meant by “changing frequencies” as it ties in with the Atlantic article on teens.

“A new worry for parents – ‘digital drugs’ sold on the Internet”
Press of Atlantic City Media Group

For decades, parents, doctors and school administrators have worried about the dangers of drugs. In the digital age, they’ve got a new arena for concern: Sound waves that, some say, affect the brain like a drug – and cost only 99 cents on iTunes and Amazon.com.

Many scientific experts say they’re unfamiliar with “digital drugs” – sometimes sold under the brand name I-Dosers – and doubt whether sound patterns could have the same effect as chemical drugs. But some parents – and at least one Oklahoma school system – worry that downloading these sounds could be a teen’s first step toward physical drugs.

As proof, they point to YouTube, where hundreds of videos – some of teen “users” getting “high” – have been posted. On the I-Doser Facebook page, users recommend tracks with comments such as, “Last night I did ‘peyote’ and ‘alter-x’ and they really worked.” The I-Doser free software is the second most downloaded program in the science category on CNET.com, with 6,500 downloads in a single recent week. Click here to continue reading.

Related:

The Music and the Mystical by Larry DeBruyn

ON CREATION 2010 – “Contemporary Christian Music Sways Youth to Worldly Lifestyles, Doctrinal Confusion and New Age Spirituality”

Below is a partial speaking schedule for Lighthouse Trails authors Warren B. Smith and Ray Yungen. If you live near any of these areas, we hope you will get the chance to attend. All these events are offered free of charge. If you are interested in having Warren or Ray (or both) speak to your group, call us at 406/297-7756, or email at editors@lighthousetrails.com.

July 25th, 2010 (8:30 and 10:30)
Candlelight Fellowship
Warren B. Smith
5725 N. Pioneer Drive
Coeur d' Alene, Idaho
208-772-7755
No cost.

August 12-14, 2010
Pastors and Leaders Conference
Warren B. Smith, Xavier Reis
500 South Lee Ave
Olathe, KS 66061
Phone: (913) 829-9306

September 10-11, 2010
Calvary Chapel Appleton, Wisconsin

September 18, 2010
Calvary Chapel Pasadena, CA (Pastor Xavier Reis)
Warren B. Smith and Ray Yungen

2011

April 9-11, 2011
Prophecy Conference
La Crete, AB, Canada

April 2011
Cedarburg Cultural Center
W62 N546 Washington Avenue
Cedarburg, Wisconsin
Warren Smith, Larry DeBruyn, Sarah Leslie

May 21, 2011
(9:30-4:00)
Gold Country Calvary Chapel
Warren B. Smith, Ray Yungen, Johanna Michaelsen
13026 LaBarr Meadows Rd
Grass Valley, CA 95949
530-274-2108
No cost. Free will offering.

October 12-15, 2011
Winnipeg Prophecy Conference
Winnipeg, MB, Canada

2012

April 13-14, 2012
Discerning the Times Conference
Warren B. Smith, Rob Lindsted, John Plantz, Dave Dunn, Steve Herzig
Ramada Inn
806 Idylwyld Drive North, DIEFENBAKER ROOM
Saskatoon, Sask.
1-306-371-6877 (conference contact)
No cost. Free will offering.

On June 22, 2010, Lighthouse Trails launched its first interactive online forum and message board. Please take a moment to check it out. We are still working on adding many more topics, but it is ready to go for those who would like to register. The forum is free, and we hope many will find it beneficial. It's a chance to meet others who are contending for the faith and also an opportunity to discuss some of the vital topics affecting Christians and the world today. Click here to visit the Lighthouse Trails Forum.

1. FREE PRINT NEWSLETTER: Starting January 2010, From the Lighthouse print newsletter will be mailed to those requesting it. If you would like to request the newsletter, please fill out our Newsletter Request Form.

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The 2nd issue of the print Lighthouse Trails newsletter is in the mail to those on the mailing list. We have about a thousand extra copies, and if you would like some to distribute at your church or Bible study, just give us a call, and we can send you some. This is a free 32-page newsletter that will be coming out 4-6 times a year. Each issue will carry Lighthouse Trails’ most significant stories as well as other features like Letters to the Editor, Product Catalog, Q & A, Resources and more. While the newsletter is free (on a donation basis for those who wish to help cover printing and postage), for these quantity mailings we only ask that you cover postage to send you your extra copies. Typically, we can ship 8 for $4.95 or about 45 for $10.20 for U.S. mailing (more for international). You can pay us by check, Paypal, or a credit card. If you want extra copies, call us at 866/876-3910 (US & Canada). For other international, call 406/297-7756. Or you can email at editors@ftlh.org or fax request to: 406/297-7993.

Bob Ayanian's new CD, At the Edge of the World, is now available. Lighthouse Trails was privileged to help with the design of the packaging. We are very happy to be able to carry this CD. The music is Americana Folk Gospel, and the lyrics are biblically sound, pointing to the Cross and the Gospel.

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