If you have children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews,or friends with children, or if you work with children, we hope you’ll read this article. With Lighthouse Trails’ motto, “bringing light to areas of darkness,” we have been reporting on child sex abuse and the “new” sexuality since the beginning of Lighthouse Trails. Some may feel that sex abuse and the “new” sexuality do not fall within the parameters of exposing spiritual deception, but we believe it does. Why are we doing this? It’s quite simple, really. What is sown today will bear fruit tomorrow. In other words, what we do for or against the younger generation (children, teens, and young adults) today will be evident in how they function as Christians tomorrow. If we give them sexual abuse, deceit, sensuality, mysticism, pride, arrogance, carnality, lust, surely we must realize what this will reap in the future.
There are many facets of child sexual abuse in the church that we won’t be covering in this article, such as predators who claim to be Christian but are not and who infiltrate churches for the mere purpose of abusing children. But even that is still ultimately the responsibility of the local church wherein they should be screening children’s workers and by all means, not covering up abuse and then allowing perpetrators to continue working with children, either in their church or in another associated church.
The “new” sexuality that has been brought into the church through emerging contemplative advocates has paved the way for even more abuse to take place because of the carnal, sensual nature of the “new” sexuality and the “new” spirituality. One of the things that is very troubling about that is while the emerging church movement says they are wanting to reach out to the young people of this culture (blaming fundamentalist Christians for not doing that satisfactorily), many of these young people have been sexually abused as children, then they come into an emerging church where homosexuality is becoming more widely embraced, and they come into a contemplative church where things like tantric sex are being subtly introduced. And they come into a carnal church that abuses children and then covers it up.
While the “new” evangelicals boast that they are helping young people far more than the previous generation did, with their updated methods and ideas, the opposite is true. What young people need today is the Word of God AND a pure church.
Now we know that the church can only be pure as it submits itself to Jesus Christ and allows His purity and His life to dwell within us as believers in Christ. We cannot have this purity apart from Him.
The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. Psalm 19:8
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. James 3:17
By turning to false “gods,” so to speak – contemplative mysticism, spiritual disciplines, new sexuality, social justice, purpose-driven, etc. – the church is doing more harm than good to these wounded young people.
God cannot and will not use a church that is arrogant, prideful, lustful, and deceptive. We call upon Christian pastors and leaders who have allowed these vices into their own lives and into their churches to repent, allow God to cleanse, and be truly used of God to help young people.
There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. Proverbs 30:12
In the past several days, since our story about Calvary Chapel was released, we have heard from many people, a number who have shared their own or their children’s personal accounts of abuse and cover up (not all are within Calvary Chapel). Why weren’t these stories reported to authorities, some may ask. Anyone who knows anything about child molestation knows that the victim often feels too ashamed to tell about his or her abuse. And in the case where abuse takes place in a church, there is often coercion to “deal” with the matter privately within the confines of the local church. But sadly, often the abuse is NOT dealt with and the molester is moved to a new location. We saw this tragedy happen in the Catholic church. But it is happening in the Christian church as well. We know there are many churches who do protect their children – for this you are commended. But there are too many that don’t.
The majority of people who contacted us after our article last week were extremely supportive of this story coming out. But a few were angry and upset. Some of those felt that the story should not have been released as this is a “private” matter for the church, not for the world to see. New believers will stumble, they say, by this coming out. This is nothing but gossip and so on. Basically, what they are saying is that this shouldn’t be talked about publically. But that poses a problem because it isn’t being dealt with within the church. Children are being abused, and adult leaders are covering it up.
Today, a lot of Christian figures talk about “revival” and a “new” reformation taking place. However, we should note that whenever true revival has taken place in the past, it was a revival of repentance. People would be humbly confessing their sins. This is a sharp contrast to today’s “revival” mentality where sins are pushed under the rug, never dealt with – or worse yet, they are no longer called sin. A “new” reformation or revival that is fleshly, devilish, and sensual is not a reformation from God at all.
ENOUGH
by Catherine Brown
May kids be brave enough to tell
Parents be strong enough to believe
The Church, Christ-like enough to support
America, wise enough to judge
May offenders be sorry enough to stop
[If you are someone who has in the past sexually abused a child, the “new” evangelicalism cannot help you. Only by repenting and putting your full trust and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can you be helped. Wash yourself in the Word of God daily, make restitution to those you have harmed, be accountable to a godly person, and do not put yourself in temptation’s way. And remember sexual abuse against a child is a crime. ]
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