LTRP Note: Just as we were about to post this letter to the editor, which in part talks about Vineyard churches, we received a phone call from a LT reader who warned us about a book written by Ken Wilson titled Mystically Wired: Exploring New Realms In Prayer. Co-incidentally, according to the back of the book, Ken Wilson, is a senior pastor for a Vineyard church and a member of the national board for Vineyard churches. As the title indicates, his book, Mystically Wired, is advocating contemplative mystical prayer.
Dear Lighthouse Trails Editors:
I have followed your blog for over a year now, and I’ve ordered some of your booklets on Contemplative Prayer and Lectio Divina to pass on to others. I felt compelled to write you a short e-mail about your recent posts on Shalem-Trained “Christian” leaders/teachers. I have always admired your tenacity in speaking out for the truth and exposing these sham belief systems. First off, I was literally dumbfounded when I clicked the link to the Shalem Institute . . . right there on the front page is a depiction of a labyrinth, and then there was the advertisement for a speaker who is a Universalist and Unitarian!!? And Christians think that sitting at the feet of these teachers from the Shalem Institute is ok?
All I can say is I am more convinced than ever that we are in the end times. I am praying for our spiritual state.
Also, I wanted to mention that my son who is now ___ years old attended YWAM in _______ for 4 years and was a leader there. He is not the same man who left prior to joining YWAM. I do know he read books by Merton and thus was exposed to this evil. I am terribly grieved at how his beliefs have changed to be more universalist than Christian. He and his wife attend a Vineyard Church in __________ that teaches you don’t have to be a Christian to be a “follower of Jesus.” How inexplicably sad!
But thank you for all you do, and don’t give up sounding the alarm! I will pray for your continued blessing by God the Father and may the peace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, be with you.
Good info article! It is sad how satan has infiltrated Christianity. Ed Simetz is wickedly deceived and satan’s voice. True Christianity is only about the Bible which cannot be added to or subtracted from. Not even a mark is to be added that changes any meaning of the Scriptures. Plus, no impure words are to be used by believers. His vile words expose his vile heart.
really, with all do respect, your fears are unfounded. the form of prayer known as “contemplative” reaches all the way back to the early church, to the Church Fathers and Desert Fathers, which as its precedents in the Jewish rabbinic traditions and the traditions of the schools of the prophets as represented in Torah. please, don’t be so — and I’m going to have to say it — tight-assed and paranoid. Could some of your un-allayed fears and paranoia be due to an extremely rigid and legal reading of scripture, circling of the wagons, and as to the church universal–you just don’t get out too much.