LTRP Note: The following letter to the editor is asking about a practice called visio divina. Below her letter are our comments, and below that is our article/booklet on Lectio Divina. Dear Lighthouse Trails: I’m attending a Bible study at _________________________, and they recently had a women’s 2-day conference. I didn’t attend, because throughout the … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: For over a decade, Lighthouse Trails has been issuing warnings regarding the Church of the Nazarene’s embracing of contemplative and emergent teachings (i.e., Spiritual Formation). We have focused largely on the numerous Nazarene universities that have been training future Nazarene pastors with these unbiblical teachings. In 2004, our editors spoke with Dr. Jim … [Read more…]
By John LanaganThe Word Like Fire “It has been with great dismay that I have watched one Christian leader after another succumb to the appeal of contemplative spirituality,” states Ray Yungen in A Time of Departing. (pg.184) Some, like IHOP leader Mike Bickle, have been involved with contemplative prayer for decades. During the Passionate Pursuit … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: The following letter to the editor is posted with permission. It is written by a graduate student of a Christian university. We find the professor’s remarks to this student provocative, especially considering what we discovered after reading the professor’s post. Please see our comments after the two posts below. Dear Lighthouse Trails: I … [Read more…]
A summer 2018 Relevant Magazine article titled “Why Learning to Breathe May Be the Best Way to Pray,” tells readers that, Breath prayer [are] an ancient Christian prayer practice with origins in the lives of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, is a vehicle we can use to live out Scripture’s call to “pray without ceasing. (1 … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: For sixteen years, Lighthouse Trails has been warning about the contemplative prayer movement. In the following article, Ray Yungen has provided information that makes the contemplative argument (against it) irrefutable. We have sent a copy of this booklet to all of the major Christian leaders whom we have challenged including Beth Moore, Rick … [Read more…]
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. On Saturday, a reader alerted Lighthouse Trails to a June 2018 YWAM promotional audio piece on the YWAM … [Read more…]
Just as Lighthouse Trails was about to issue a post this week about Celebration of Discipline’s (by Richard Foster) 40-year anniversary announcement (that we received by e-mail this month), we received the following e-mail from a Christian university graduate: Three years ago this past September, I began my studies at Tyndale University in Toronto, Ontario. … [Read more…]
NEW BOOKLET: Sound the Trumpet in the Midst of Apostasy: The Enemy is in the Camp by David Dombrowski is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklet. The Booklet is 10 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 away to … [Read more…]
By David Dombrowski Lighthouse Trails Editor Over the past decade and a half, we have watched with a mixture of surprise and sadness at how an apostate church has materialized before our eyes. It all began for us here at Lighthouse Trails when we met Ray Yungen in 2000. Though we were not publishers back … [Read more…]
The repetition [of a word or phrase] can in fact be soothing and very freeing, helping us, as Nouwen says, “to empty out our crowded interior life and create the quiet space where we can dwell with God.”—Jan Johnson, When the Soul Listens, p. 93 Years ago, I got a chance to meet Jan Johnson. … [Read more…]
By Ray Yungen Contemplative advocates propose that there has been something vital and important missing from the church for centuries. The insinuation is that Christians have been lacking something necessary for their spiritual vitality; but that would mean the Holy Spirit has not been fully effective for hundreds of years and only now the secret … [Read more…]
Sometimes we think of spiritual formation as formation by the Holy Spirit. Once again. That’s essential. . . . But now I have to say something that may be challenging for you to think about: Spiritual formation is not all by the Holy Spirit. . . . We have to recognize that spiritual formation in … [Read more…]
By Lois Putnam Ray Yungen, Lighthouse Trails special author and supporter, died October 16, 2016 much to the sadness of his many Lighthouse Trails friends and readers. And although I never met Ray, his writings and warnings impacted my life many times over! Here are a few of the things I remember from his book: A Time of Departing. … [Read more…]
NOTE: Lighthouse Trails released this booklet in 2014. For those who have not read it yet, we are highlighting it this week. The Story Behind Lighthouse Trails is our newest Lighthouse Trails Print Booklet Tract. The Booklet Tract is 14 pages long and sells for $1.50 for single copies. Quantity discounts are as much as … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: Please see the video below, which is an 8-minute talk Pope Francis recently gave regarding this matter. While listening to him talk, it was hard not to think of the martyrs described in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, many of whom died at the hands of Roman papacy because they would not accept Catholic … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: I thought this link would interest you. The Western Canadian District of the C&MA in Canada is promoting (yet with a disclaimer!) a number of books that teach the practices of contemplative prayer. I was surprised to see it promoted so blatantly on their website. http://www.transformcma.ca/resources-2/ There is also something called a … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: In October, I was in Bosnia and Montenegro (ex-Yugoslavie). I saw that the pastors are not good to speak with. So I wondered. I looked on the Internet, and I found out that in 2011, 2012, and 2013, there was a group there to teach about prayer: the College of Prayer with … [Read more…]
It is not often that Lighthouse Trails can report on a major Christian leader actually renouncing earlier endorsements of the contemplative mystics. Rick Warren, Beth Moore, Chuck Swindoll, David Jeremiah, and many others have written books that have promoted contemplative teachers, and Lighthouse Trails has documented many of these situations. And in every case, even … [Read more…]
by Ray Yungen If you have ever wondered why New Age authors and their teachings are creeping past many Christians, then maybe the definition of creeping might help. The term means: slowly advancing at a speed that is not really apparent until you look back over a long time period. For instance, creeping inflation is not noticed in the … [Read more…]
To Lighthouse Trails: Just wondering if you all have any research on The (Emergent) Journey? It’s the name of a 3-phase course being taught in a number of churches by a group called Vantage Point3. Seems tied strongly with Emergent/Contemplative. My church is teaching this . . . right on the heels of introducing Renovare’s … [Read more…]
By David Dombrowski Editor at Lighthouse Trails Publishing & Research I find it rather interesting how God has orchestrated 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 … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: We received the following e-mail from a group in Ireland who will be hosting research analyst and author of A Time of Departing, Ray Yungen, this summer. If you live in Ireland, we hope you can make it to hear Ray speak. If you don’t, please pray that God will use this time … [Read more…]
A Lighthouse Trails concerned reader has informed us that this month the Christian Missionary Alliance Mahaffey Family Camp has invited New Age sympathizer Leonard Sweet as a camp speaker. CMA has been going down the contemplative/emerging path for a long time. In fact, CMA is listed on the Lighthouse Trails 50 Top Contemplative-Promoting Organizations. Also … [Read more…]
The Story Behind Lighthouse Trails is our newest Lighthouse Trails Print Booklet. The Booklet is 14 pages long and sells for $1.50 for single copies. Quantity discounts are as much as 50% off retail. Below is the content of the booklet. To order copies of The Story Behind Lighthouse Trails, click here. The Story Behind Lighthouse … [Read more…]
Hi Lighthouse Trails! Thank you so much for your ministry! My family has been learning about apostasy for a little while now, and we stumbled across your website recently. . . We read your article about VOM and Michael Wurmbrand and were deeply saddened by it. We have supported VOM for many years so it … [Read more…]
Corban University of Salem, Oregon used to be called Western Baptist College. It used to be a Christian college that did not promote contemplative spirituality or the emerging church, and it used to be on the Lighthouse Trails “good” Christian colleges list (colleges that don’t promote Spiritual Formation). But that was then, and today is … [Read more…]
by Ray Yungen I once heard a radio interview with Richard Foster that revealed the high regard in which many influential evangelicals hold him. The talk show host made his own admiration obvious with such comments to Foster as, “You have heard from God . . . this is a message of enormous value,” and … [Read more…]
To Lighthouse Trails: I’m a new student at __________College in ___________ Canada. The President of the College himself teaches the Spiritual Formation classes. The Lord delivered me out of 30 years of spiritual seeking last year (where I tasted of and practiced just about every spirituality and philosophy and practice on the planet) and brought me to … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: Because “soaking prayer” is becoming increasingly popular, and because we believe the effects of it are potentially dangerous (kundalini), we are posting this warning by Ray Yungen. As well as the links below this article, we have information on our research site about “soaking prayer.” by Ray Yungen Many Christians might have great … [Read more…]