See also Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of our 2018 Year in Review. The following are the 10 top stories for 2018 written by the editors at Lighthouse Trails. Listed in order of date posted.
1. Moody Bible Institute—Trying to Hold on to a Biblical Heritage While Riding the Wave of the Emerging Church – Moody, once considered a stalwart institution to the Gospel of Jesus Christ (named after the great evangelist D.L. Moody), began caving in to the “new” spirituality several years ago (as documented by LT), allowing contemplative, emergent influences into the school. Maybe they thought if they became culturally relevant, cool, hip, contemplative, and missional, they could continue being successful and on top of the Christian college scene.
2. Canadian Government Says Lighthouse Trails Transgender Booklet “Hate Propaganda” – Will Not Allow It In Their Country – On January 29th 2018, Lighthouse Trails released a new booklet titled Transgenderism and Our Children, written by LT authors Maria Kneas and Lois Putnam. The booklet describes the transgender issue and how it is affecting children. While the booklet does say that transgenderism is not God’s will for any human being, there is no language in the book to incite hate against transgenders.
3. Focus on the Family STILL Defends Contemplative Prayer—Says Jesus and Disciples Practiced It – Since 2006, when we first contacted Focus on the Family, the organization has shown no interest in taking a serious and biblical look at contemplative spirituality. On the contrary, one only needs to read their current statement on their website to see that they have not lessened their stance but rather have emphasized it.
4. Francis Chan Warns Those Who Criticize Christian Leaders: “God Will Destroy You” – Without giving specific names, Chan spoke of those who present any negative criticism of leaders (naming Rick Warren, Mark Driscoll, and John Piper as examples of leaders who should not be criticized). Chan took it a step further and described incidents in the Bible where God took people’s lives as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:10) to predict that God will take the lives of those who have negative things to say about the teachings of today’s spiritual leaders.
5. Kenneth Copeland Carries On Tony Palmer’s Crusade to End the Protestant Church – As many readers may remember, in 2014 Word of Faith preacher Kenneth Copeland invited the Anglican priest Tony Palmer to speak to his congregation.* Palmer, who died in a motorcycle accident a few months later, was an “evangelist” for Pope Francis to convince leaders in the Protestant church that the reformation was over and that there was no longer any need for division between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant church.
6. YWAM—Wants Every YWAMer to Practice Contemplative Prayer! – YWAM (Youth With a Mission), an evangelical missions organization (founded in 1960 by Loren Cunningham) that trains about 25,000 people every year for world-wide mission trips, has issued an announcement regarding its commitment to teaching contemplative prayer.
7. Long-Time BSF Leader Steps Down As BSF Heads Deeper Into Emergent Waters – Lighthouse Trails noted in 2010 that BSF’s current executive director Susie Rowan is a proponent of contemplative prayer (and we knew this would eventually lead to an emergent, social-justice “gospel.”)
8. Willow Creek Has A Lot More to Repent of Than Sexual Abuse Cover-Ups – In August 8, 2018 Christianity Today article titled Willow Creek Elders and Pastor Heather Larson Resign over Bill Hybels chronicles events that led to Willow Creek founder Bill Hybels’ resignation from the megachurch due to numerous women having come forth with accusations of years of sexual misconduct and abuse by Hybels.
9. “Together 2018” – “A New Jesus Movement” for a Mystical All-Inclusive “Christianity” – Nick Hall’s Together event is back again . . . On the promotional video below, it lists the line up of speakers and musicians which includes a conglomeration of popular evangelical and charismatic celebrities including Bethel Music from Bill Johnson’s extreme charismatic, contemplative Bethel Church, Jesus Culture (an offshoot of Bethel Church), Hillsong, Francis Chan (who recently said God was going to kill those who criticize Christian leaders), Priscilla Shirer (a long-time strong advocate for contemplative prayer), her father Tony Evans, Ravi Zacharias (who will share a platform with “anyone” in order to share “his” message), and Loren Cunningham (founder of YWAM).
10. Media and Advocacy Groups Ignore Larger Anti-Semitic Culprit—the New Age/New Thought “God” Who Minimizes the Holocaust – While major media voices such as Newsweek and groups such as Poland’s Auschwitz Memorial are speaking up this week about a group of Wisconsin high school boys who allegedly gave a Nazi salute in a group photo, media and Jewish advocacy groups seem unaware that one of the most popular well-admired New Age authors states in a best-selling book that God told him Hitler didn’t “inflict suffering” on the Jewish people, but rather he “ended” it.
