Dear Lighthouse Trails: Yesterday, I was reading 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, where Paul is writing about the wisdom of God versus the wisdom of the world. I was reminded of our former Baptist pastor in the early ’80s who was highly intellectual, which attracted a lot of people from academia in our college town. … [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…]
LTRP Note: Recently, a father called us very concerned about the growing popularity of “Pub Theology.” He asked if we had any information about it. The late Larry DeBruyn wrote the following article in 2009 and gave permission for Lighthouse Trails to post it. Since 2009, Pub Theology has indeed increased greatly in popularity, especially … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails editors: Do you remember “the Jesus Movement” of the late 60s and early 70s? The Lord brought to my mind something, and I thought I would share. I don’t know what was taking place where you lived in that era, however, where I lived, kids were bringing God’s Word with them to school. … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: For several years now, Lighthouse Trails has received letters from many women who have been involved with BSF (Bible Study Fellowship). Each one expressed a concern that the organization once taught God’s Word but over the last decade especially began to drift. Lighthouse Trails noted in 2010 that BSF’s current executive director Susie … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: We received the following comment today from a reader regarding the article we posted earlier this week by Roger Oakland about the emerging church. From phone calls, e-mails, and letters we receive, we know many are going through similar situations in their churches. We pray that pastors who do seem to have some … [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…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: By the grace of God, I have led women’s Bible studies since 1982. In the past ten years, I have noticed a departing from the fundamentals of the faith in the materials I used by Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer, and others. New thought, strange language, omission of teaching the repentance of sin, … [Read more…]
By Kevin Reeves and the Editors at Lighthouse Trails A number of years ago, a book written by emerging-church leaders Brian McLaren and Leonard Sweet was released. The book was called A is for Abductive: the language of the emerging church. Going through the alphabet, the authors identified many terms they hoped would be picked … [Read more…]
In an article titled “How Evangelicals Became Over-Committed to the Bible and What Can Be Done About It,” Biola University professor J.P. Moreland says that evangelical Christians are too committed to the Bible. He states: “In the actual practices of the Evangelical community in North America, there is an over-commitment to Scripture in a way that is … [Read more…]
NEW BOOKLET: How to Find a Good Church (And What To Do if You Can’t) by the editors at Lighthouse Trails is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklet. The Booklet is 18 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are as much as 50% off retail. Our Booklets are designed to give … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: I am a believer in Christ and consider myself a defender of the Faith. I live in a small town in ________ and attend a tiny Free Methodist church. I do not consider myself Free Methodist, nor does my husband, but we feel we have been given a unique opportunity to serve … [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…]
By Manny Silva of Concerned Nazarenes “I am deepening in the mystical forms of prayer.” (Dan Boone) Thanks to the undiscerning “leadership” of President Dan Boone, Trevecca Nazarene students will have the opportunity to go on a mystical ride. Once again, it time for the “Spiritual Formation” retreat at the Gethsemani monastery in Kentucky, spiritual … [Read more…]
Below are four video preview clips (each about 10 minutes long) taken from Bob DeWaay and Warren B. Smith’s lecture series, Exposing the Quantum Lie: God is NOT in Everything. This profound, insightful, and biblical material is absolutely vital to understanding what is happening in the church today. You can get the entire 4 lectures … [Read more…]
This week we received the following information from a reader: Dear Lighthouse Trails: Gloria Gaither is the author of many influential songs including “There’s Something About That Name.” She writes glowing reviews of the two books listed below. One by Richard Rohr, a Roman Catholic priest and the other by Sue Monk Kidd who believes … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: Last week, a Lighthouse Trails reader called our office, wondering about Marcus Borg because one of her grown sons was reading Borg. This tells us that the younger generation of Christians is gleaning from the earlier writers of the emerging church. Certain leaders tried to convince the church that the emerging church had … [Read more…]
Several years ago, Rick Warren said something that still haunts us—leaders of the new purpose-driven, emergent “Christianity” will have to wait until resisters either leave or die before the plan can be fully implemented.1 In other words, they are going to eventually accomplish what they are trying to do—revamp Christianity into a “new” spirituality that … [Read more…]
Note to Lighthouse Trails: As a pastor, I decided to go back to seminary for some extra courses that were offered at a Christian college in Maine as the price was right. I shortly noticed very real problems when one course was using a book authored by a Catholic apologist (unsaved), and this was the … [Read more…]
For many years, Lighthouse Trails has written about the slide that Biola University in Southern California has taken into contemplative spirituality. Our first indication that the school was heading that way was in February of 2006 when we learned that Biola was actively participating in a publication called Conversations Journal, a magazine whose primary purpose … [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…]
Every year around this time, Lighthouse Trails presents its Year in Review. Over the next few days, we will be posting our top stories from different categories from 2017. This is an opportunity to read stories you may have missed and also to get a wide-lens glance at important things happening in the church and … [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…]
On October 23rd, Lighthouse Trails sent out the 6th letter plus two booklets to 160 influential Christian leaders in the evangelical camp. We began mailing out short letters and Lighthouse Trails booklets in February 2016 to a list that started with 100 names. To learn more about this project, click here to read the first … [Read more…]
To Lighthouse Trails: . . . having a form of godliness but denying the power there of. I was a cultural Christian, and I was baptized in the Baptist church that I was raised in. I was not born again. Sadly, it was departing from the faith; however, God used my evil for good. I … [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…]
These revealing quotes are from well-known figures who have significantly influenced the religious landscape in today’s culture. Sadly, they have helped to mislead millions with their promotion of contemplative prayer (a mystical, panentheistic-rooted practice). Shalem Prayer Institute “This mystical stream [contemplative prayer and other monastic traditions] is the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality.”—Tilden Edwards, Spiritual … [Read more…]
By Sandy Simpson When did ANY of the Patriarchs and Prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles or Jesus Christ in the New Testament ever claim that the “supreme beings” of the nations were Elohim/YHWH, the one True God? And yet, this very thing is being taught by popular figures within the Christian church … [Read more…]
Fall is quickly approaching, and by now, if you have a child or grandchild who is going to attend Christian college this year, he or she is most likely enrolled and ready to go. As Lighthouse Trails has reported over the last several years, the majority of evangelical/Protestant colleges, seminaries, and universities are now, to varying … [Read more…]
