By Ray Yungen From a theological viewpoint, there now exist two branches (so to speak) of the Catholic Church—the traditional (as defended by someone like Karl Keating in his book Catholicism and Fundamentalism) and the progressive or contemplative* element (as exemplified by Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen).1 And while these two branches (or movements) can … [Read more…]
In May of 2013, Lighthouse Trails released a report titled, “They Hate Christianity But Love (Another) Jesus – How Conservative Christians Are Being Manipulated and Ridiculed, Especially During Election Years.” In view of the upcoming elections and some of the things going on around the country in the “background,” it seems diligent to repost … [Read more…]
By Roger Oakland You may not have heard the term before, but contextual theology is a prominent message from the emerging church. In his book, Models of Contextual Theology(1992), Stephen B. Bevans defines contextual theology as: . . . a way of doing theology in which one takes into account: the spirit and message of … [Read more…]
By Gregory Reid It was, of course, inevitable that the Emergent Church would begin to have babies that were even more unbiblical than itself. Andy Stanley is one of those spiritual offspring of a departure from biblical faith and adoption by experiential religious deception. In 2016, he told a group of pastors at the Southern … [Read more…]
By Roger Oakland Understand the Times, International Recently, I read a Facebook post by a southern California pastor that the “emerging church” was no longer a problem for him or his church. He stated that the emerging church was just another passing fad that had come and then disappeared never to be heard of again. … [Read more…]
By Mike Oppenheimer Editors Note: Today, it is common to hear the argument that since Paul quoted pagan poets in Acts 17, it’s OK for Christians to quote those who teach false doctrine. Adherents of the emerging church and contemplative spirituality have basically turned Acts 17 into a license for a free-for-all kind of … [Read more…]
A Note From Lighthouse Trails: Shortly after we sent out our January 15th Lighthouse Trails E-newsletter, we discovered that a link we provided to an article about Moody Bible Institute was no longer working. We learned that the website called The Broken Twig (which we believe was created by some Moody alumni) had been taken … [Read more…]
See also Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of our 2017 Year in Review. The following are the 10 top stories for 2017 written by the editors at Lighthouse Trails. Listed in order of date posted. 1/Emergent IF: Gathering Conference Coming to a Town Near You (Coming For Your Daughters and Granddaughters)! … [Read more…]
As groups around the world celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation with highly ecumenical events and speeches, Brian McLaren, once likened to Luther,1 has outlined his view of what the next reformation will look like in an article he wrote on November 1, 2017 titled, “The Last Reformation … and the Next Reformation.” A … [Read more…]
A Lighthouse Trails reader sent us an article this week from a Pacific Northwest newspaper* describing how members of a local church are changing the way they practice church and view Christianity, doing away with their traditional church methods and embracing what they call a “contemplative approach.” The article states that they were inspired, in … [Read more…]
Guest Commentary by Don Jasmin Fundamental Baptist Ministries Used with permission. [The following is a] critical evaluation of a sermon by Dr. Andy Stanley, a leading mega-church Emergent pastor on the above title [“Speaking the Way the First Century Christians Did”], along with a scriptural analysis of how the first century Christians actually did speak. … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: The force behind this event that took place in June is Jim Wallis and his organization SoJourners. To understand the socialist, anti-biblical roots of this effort, read Mary Danielsen’s article/booklet What You Need to Know About Jim Wallis and the Social-Justice Gospel. It is important to be aware of events such as the … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: Recently, we sent out a Special Note to our readers asking you to pray for us as we have been undergoing extra pressures from forces that wanted to see Lighthouse Trails come to an end. While we can’t say that all pressure has been relieved, we can say that God has answered your … [Read more…]
It was ten years ago that Lighthouse Trails wrote its first article about Radio Bible Class ministries (now called Our Daily Bread Ministries). That article shocked many readers because Radio Bible Class is a ministry that has been around since 1938 when Dr. Martin DeHaan founded it in 1938. It has been considered a staple … [Read more…]
On February 22nd, 2017, Biola University hosted a one-evening live recording of the renowned public radio podcast “ON BEING with Krista Tippett.” During the event, which was free to attend to all Biola students and others, Tippett interviewed artist Enrique Martinez Celaya. Biola, a Christian university, began wandering into the contemplative/emergent camp many years ago, … [Read more…]
LTRJ Note: The following is the content of Roger Oakland’s booklet, The New Missiology – Doing Missions Without the Gospel. We are reposting this important article because Lighthouse Trails has many new readers who may not have seen this. By Roger Oakland Emergent Missiology I must add, though, that I don’t believe making disciples must … [Read more…]
[God] will take this hell on earth and someday show us how hell was building heaven.—Jennie Allen (founder of IF: Gathering) Have you heard of the IF: Gathering? If you haven’t, you most likely will soon enough. The women’s movement started just a few years ago but is already making some big inroads into the … [Read more…]
Lighthouse Trails has been warning readers for several years about the emergent church. In those warnings, we’ve addressed the spiritual leanings of Erwin McManus.1 We also challenged David Jeremiah because he told his church that he wanted to use McManus’ book The Barbarian Way to help bring about a “major paradigm shift” in his church.2 … [Read more…]
To Lighthouse Trails: What is “The Voice” translation of the Bible and what do you think of it? Our Comments: Our answer (from a 2007 LT article): According to an article in Christian Today, “New Bible Project for Young Generation Launched”, Thomas Nelson’s 2006 “Bible” project called The Voice is going full speed ahead. The … [Read more…]
By Chris Lawson Each of the following authors professes to be Christian and/or uses biblical terminology in his or her writing, yet promotes at least one of the following serious false teachings: contemplative spirituality (i.e., Spiritual Formation), the emergent, progressive “new” spirituality, the seeker-friendly, church-growth movement (e.g., Willow Creek, Purpose Driven) and/or Yoga. (This list … [Read more…]
To Lighthouse Trails: Good morning: this question is asked in sincerity, not contention. I believe I once read in one of your posts that Beth Moore was headed in the emergent church direction (or, perhaps it was in some sort of false teaching). I’ve recently attended one of her video courses and deliberately looked for … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: I wanted to thank you for your tremendously exhaustive efforts to uncover the dangerous deception happening in and to the Church. I was all too aware of the New Age movement, having been seduced into it through massage school, persuaded by my very New Age instructors that it was completely cohesive with … [Read more…]
By Erik G. Guest Commentary I saw the article, on Tony Campolo: “Christians Should Vote for Hilary.” It was quite revealing. Well on his website (redletterchristians.org), he wrote a short article called, “Going the Jesus Way” (http://www.redletterchristians.org/going-the-jesus-way/). He describes what the “Red Letter Christians” are all about. It’s off the mark to say the least. … [Read more…]
Recently, a reader brought to our attention a new development within the emerging church – the Cana Initiative, a think tank comprised of “faith-engaged organizations, individuals, institutions and networks.” On the Cana Initiative website, it states: The CANA Initiative seeks to create a healthy ecosystem for connection among existing and emerging individuals, organizations, and networks and will serve … [Read more…]
by Roger Oakland The emerging church talks a lot about the kingdom of God on earth, but in language and philosophy much different from the Bible. One emergent writer hopes the emerging church will handle the problems of this world in a manner that is “smarter” and “more effective” than those who have gone before. … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: For several years, Lighthouse Trails has been warning that thanks to the emerging church and to the mega-leaders who have promoted it, the views on sexuality within the evangelical church would change. And it has, as you can see from this CNN article below. After you have read this article, please read some … [Read more…]
2014 Update: To further illustrate how Compassion International is going down the contemplative/emergent path, in April 2013, there was a lectio divina “webinar” held at Compassion International. To Lighthouse Trails: We have seen references to conferences with Willow Creek that included several Emergent speakers, but link search on your site did not lead me to any specific article … [Read more…]
J. P. Moreland is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot (Biola) School of Theology and a faculty member at David Noebel’s Summit Ministries 1. He has written numerous books and has spoken at over 200 colleges. He has many academic credentials and honors such as: Outstanding Young Men of America, 1981 and Senior Class Professor … [Read more…]
In April, Blue Like Jazz, the movie named after the New York Times best-selling book by Donald Miller, hit theaters. While we can’t comment on the movie at this time, having not seen it, we are compelled to say something about the book. No doubt, tens or hundreds of thousands of young people will see the movie, which … [Read more…]
by Roger Oakland In a Relevant Magazine interview, Erwin McManus, pastor of a church called Mosaic and a popular author and speaker, states the following: Because people don’t know where to put our community [Mosaic] they put us in the “emergent” category, and we really are a different animal than emergent. We’re not against emergent, … [Read more…]
