See Part 1 of Year in Review: Top 10 Letters to the Editor.
See Part 2 of Year in Review: Top 10 Out-of-House News Stories.
See Part 3 of Year in Review: Top 10 Articles by LT Authors
See Part 4 of Year in Review: Top 5 Guest Writer Articles
In this last part of our 5-part Year in Review series, the following 5 articles are written by the editors at Lighthouse Trails.
1)“InterVarsity’s “2030 Calling” – Raising Up Young Evangelicals to Be the Mystics of Tomorrow”: One of the publishing companies that is at the forefront of this effort to bring the New Age/new spirituality practice of contemplative prayer into the church is InterVarsity Press which has a particular focus on young evangelicals. In light of this, our concerns have only heightened upon learning of InterVarsity’s “2030 Calling,” especially when we consider how contemplative spirituality is one of the most robust vehicles that lead young evangelicals into an anti-biblical, anti-moral, “progressive,” pro-emergent outlook. Read more.
2) “Our Present Situation—Emergency Mode”: As we now move away from the year 2020 and reflect on where that year has taken us, I am reminded of an interesting experience I had years ago. It was 1972, and having been drafted into the military, on one particular day one of our training sessions was on navigation. It seemed a bit peculiar to me that this session was running so late in the day until I later realized we would be doing our navigation exercise at night. Read more.
3) Drugs, Meditation, & “A Fully Developed Spirituality”: It is interesting how God orchestrates things in life which demonstrate His great love and ongoing mercy to ordinary people like myself. But, more specifically, I am thinking right now about how years ago I happened to come across a copy of a nearly forgotten book at the university library while working on a project. I still find it amazing that this secular humanistic library even had a copy of Stories From Indian Wigwams and Northern Campfires—a book written by a missionary to the Canadian Native peoples of the 1800s sharing not only his life among them but the incredible stories they would tell him as they would warm themselves before a fire. This book is a treasure of the long-forgotten heritage of the Cree and Saulteaux tribes and how their lives were wonderfully transformed through the proclamation of the Gospel. Read more.
4) After Ignored Warnings by LT, Gungor Worship Leader Tweet Says Buddha, Muhammad and You Are Christ: In 2012, Lighthouse Trails tried to warn the church about the contemplative-promoting band, Gungor, in our article titled Tens of Thousands Introduced to Contemplative Advocates Gungor and David Crowder at Greg Laurie’s Harvest Crusade. Our warning was ignored by Christian leaders such as Greg Laurie and certain other large Calvary Chapel churches. Read more.
5) A Special Notice From Lighthouse Trails: Some of you may remember that in 2010, we relocated Lighthouse Trails to Montana. In so many ways, it’s been a wonderful place to run the ministry. However, for various reasons, some of which we mention below, we made the decision to return to Oregon. For the last few years, it has been an ongoing struggle to acquire the hired help we need, partly because we live in an area that has a low employee pool. This has presented a lot of stress and challenge for us. Read more.
(photo of painting from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission)
From many teachers comes wisdom.
A pastor over a century ago was deeply concerned about evangelizing without teaching doctrine. He insisted on intense examination of potential new members and also before allowing anyone to participate in communion.
His church fired him.
In short order it became liberal then rejected scripture as inerrant God breathed and immutable. They drifted into apostasy as he had feared. Oddly today the vast majority of exegetical preachers avoid explicit instructions on essential doctrines from the pulpit. This can only eventuate in leaving the flock vulnerable to various deceptions.