Nearly eight years ago researcher Ray Yungen passed away at the age of 64. As regular Lighthouse Trails readers know, it was through Ray’s work that Lighthouse Trails began 22 years ago. Since Ray’s passing, Richard Foster’s contemplative prayer has infiltrated countless numbers of churches throughout North America. It is the late Dallas Willard who was the man who … [Read more…]
Editor’s Note: Lighthouse Trails wrote this report in 2014. Since then, we have watched “Spiritual Formation” explode within the church. After over twenty years of warnings, to our dismay, the issue has not been challenged or even questioned by most of today’s Christian leaders and pastors. By Lighthouse Trails Editors Is your church involved in … [Read more…]
We want to bring our readers’ attention to numerous reports presented by John Lanagan’s blog, The Word Like Fire. The reports are documented exposés on the co-founder of the highly popular Bible Project, Tim Mackie. The Bible Project began in 2014 and was created by Tim Mackie and his friend Jonathan Collins. The project consists … [Read more…]
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.… And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (I John 4:10, 14) This weekend, people throughout the world will … [Read more…]
As many of our readers know, Lighthouse Trails has been publishing a printed research journal since 2013. We started out with 6 issues a year and currently have 4 issues a year. These journals are 36-40 pages long and are filled with important articles, letters to the editor, resources, and news items. Many times, readers … [Read more…]
Recently, we received an e-mail from a reader who is trying to explain to some people in a prominent Christian organization who are practicing contemplative prayer that contemplative prayer (i.e., Christian contemplation) is no different than Eastern meditation (i.e., mysticism). The following article by Ray Yungen explains what contemplative prayer is and how it is … [Read more…]
For many years, Lighthouse Trails has tried to warn the church about evangelical publishing houses that are releasing countless materials which promote and teach contemplative spirituality. 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 … [Read more…]
By Lighthouse Trails Editors Is your church involved in a Spiritual Formation program? If so, you might want to ask the question, what exactly is Spiritual Formation? It’s a fair question, and one that, if not asked, could end up surprising you when your church changes in ways you never imagined. A Christianity Today article states: “Spiritual … [Read more…]
On December 12, 2019, Christianity Today posted an article by “new” Christianity pastor Ed Stetzer, giving a recap of the GC2 Summit that took place on December 6th. The article, titled “Lies Pastors Believe, Part One,” states: Two months of planning for our GC2 Summit on Facing Hard Truths & Challenges in Pastoral Ministry couldn’t … [Read more…]
Three years ago today author and researcher Ray Yungen passed away at the age of 64. As regular Lighthouse Trails readers know, it was through Ray’s work that Lighthouse Trails began nearly 18 years ago. Interestingly, on the eve of this 3rd anniversary of Ray’s departure, we read an e-mail notice we received this week … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: We are posting this letter to the editor not to single out this one particular Christian & Missionary Alliance church because the CMA denomination from top leadership down has embraced contemplative spirituality (see links below), and thus, it is no surprise that Yoga would enter in as well. This is happening in numerous … [Read more…]
By Ray Yungen From a theological viewpoint, there now exist two branches (so to speak) of the Catholic Church—the traditional (as defended by someone like Karl Keating in his book Catholicism and Fundamentalism) and the progressive or contemplative* element (as exemplified by Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen).1 And while these two branches (or movements) can … [Read more…]
By Lighthouse Trails Editors Is your church involved in a Spiritual Formation program? If so, you might want to ask the question, what exactly is Spiritual Formation? It’s a fair question, and one that, if not asked, could end up surprising you when your church changes in ways you never imagined. A Christianity Today article … [Read more…]
These revealing quotes are from well-known figures who have significantly influenced the religious landscape in today’s culture. Sadly, they have helped to mislead millions with their promotion of contemplative prayer (a mystical, panentheistic-rooted practice). Shalem Prayer Institute “This mystical stream [contemplative prayer and other monastic traditions] is the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality.”—Tilden Edwards, Spiritual … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: In view of our recent post on Albert Mohler who promoted the book The Benedictine Option (a book that encourages contemplative prayer practices), we are posting this article by Ray Yungen from his book A Time of Departing so readers who are unfamiliar with the contemplative prayer movement can gain better understanding. By Ray … [Read more…]
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship has come under public heat because it recently announced they were giving an ultimatum to employees who saw nothing wrong with same-sex (homosexual) marriage. In a Charisma magazine article (we are not endorsing Charisma), the author states: InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is one of the leading campus ministries, and its publishing arm, InterVarsity … [Read more…]
Dr. George Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God denomination, is scheduled to share the platform with New Age sympathizer Leonard Sweet next year in Berlin, Germany at an event called Luther 2017. Dr. Wood was the subject of several Lighthouse Trails articles in 2013 for his promotion of contemplative teacher Ruth Haley Barton … [Read more…]
By Ray Yungen For many years during my research, I would come across the term contemplative prayer. Immediately I would dismiss any thought that it had a New Age connotation because I thought it meant to ponder while praying—which would be the logical association with that term. But in the New Age disciplines, things are … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: Lighthouse Trails began publishing Booklets nearly three years ago. Our first booklet was Ray Yungen’s 5 Things You Should Know About Contemplative Prayer. Ray has now updated and expanded this booklet with new information that is vital to our warning about contemplative prayer. The updated, expanded Booklet is 18 pages long and sells … [Read more…]
Dear Editors at Lighthouse Trails: I stumbled onto your website while looking for a video from this year’s Alliance Council featuring John Stumbo. In your writings, you largely promote the idea the C&MA is espousing the emergent church, contemplative prayer, spiritual formation blather. I have never, ever heard this in my church. EVER. So, for … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: After reading Seduction of Christianity by Dave Hunt years ago, I have watched the insidious encroachment of mysticism into the evangelical Christian church. When I discovered you several years ago, I used some of your resources to help inform the small part of the flick that I have contact with. There is … [Read more…]
By Menno-lite Ruth Haley Barton, founder of The Transforming Centre[1], was trained at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation which teaches: “This mystical stream [contemplative prayer] is the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality … It is no accident that the most active frontier between Christian and Eastern religions today is between contemplative Christian monks … [Read more…]
By Chris Lawson Spiritual Research Network Each of the following authors professes to be Christian and/or uses biblical terminology in his or her writing, yet promotes at least one of the following serious false teachings: contemplative spirituality (i.e., Spiritual Formation), the emergent, progressive “new” spirituality, the seeker-friendly, church-growth movement (e.g., Willow Creek, Purpose Driven) and/or … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails Editors, I recently found your website and have been glued to it everyday, reading all the articles. I admit, I have been in the dark about a lot of the information I’ve read thus far. My husband and I recently left our little country church in rural ________ about 6 months ago. … [Read more…]
Is Your Church Doing Spiritual Formation? (Important Reasons Why it Shouldn’t) by the editors at Lighthouse Trails is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklets. The Booklet is 16 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 others or … [Read more…]
Greetings Lighthouse Trails: I never thought I would be writing you, but I would like to tell you how much I appreciate your efforts, for few are those doing your type of ministry, certainly not in my experience, especially at the local level by church leadership! Let me get straight to the point of my writing—my … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails, I left my church of 43 years, because they were promoting books like Ruth Haley Barton’s “Solitude and Silence”; they had built a Labyrinth next to the Memorial garden where my parents ashes lay and were performing mystic rituals along with contemplative prayer and Spiritual Formation. Before I left my church, I … [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…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: I am writing to you to in the hope you might be able to give me information about Spiritual Direction as our Church is becoming involved with it. As a Spiritual Director this person is a member of The Australian Network of Spiritual Directors (ANSD) and of Spiritual Directors International (SDI). After … [Read more…]
On October 16th, Biola University will host its Torrey Conference 2013, and contemplative teacher Ruth Haley Barton will be a featured speaker at the event. This does not come as a great surprise to the editors at Lighthouse Trails because Biola has been going down the contemplative path for quite sometime. But because there are … [Read more…]