Leonard Sweet: He is quoted by Christian authors and leaders frequently. His name appears on many Christian ministry websites, and his books are used in countless Christian seminaries and colleges. Rick Warren endorsed the cover of one of his books (Soul Tsunami) and even did an audio series with him (Tides of Change) in the mid nineties. (Sweet’s name also appears several times on Rick Warren’s pastors.com website.) Zondervan publishing publishes books by him, and he enjoys a spot on CCN (Church Communication Network) with Christian leaders like Joni Eareckson Tada, Stormie Omartian, and James Dobson (Focus on the Family). Reggie McNeal (Southern Baptist Convention), someone that many look up to, is part of Leonard Sweet’s Advances events. In A Time of Departing, Ray Yungen writes: [Leonard] Sweet is said to be “one of the church’s most important and provocative thinkers.” (quoting Robert Schuller) Clearly, Leonard Sweet is considered by many to be a trustworthy Christian leader.
But what does Sweet believe, and what is the message he is teaching? The best way to get the answers to these questions is to take a look at his book, Quantum Spirituality. Now while he wrote the book in the early 90s, he still believes in the message of this book. How do we know that? He offers a free download of the entire book on his website. If he had changed his mind about that book, realized in later years that it was heretical/New Age, he certainly would not be offering it on his website.
Leonard Sweet is a futurist. Better put, he is a New Ager, which means he believes that God (or divinity) is in all things and connects all things together. What’s more, it also means he believes that a time is coming when the people of the world will become united enough (through a critical mass), largely through meditation, that an age of enlightenment will overtake the earth, when we all realize we are one with each other and with God. New Age simply is the doctrine that was started by Lucifer (the enemy of God), when he aspired to be like the Most High God (Isaiah 14). One of the great doctrines of the New Age is that the gap between good and evil will be eradicated. This is clear when you read the works of people like Neale Donald Walsch, who says even Hitler will be in Heaven, but Leonard Sweet talks about this eradication too.
Part of this futuristic mind-set that Sweet propagates (which by the way is very similar to that of dominionists like Rick Warren, although somewhat disguised at this point) is that the Armageddon scenario talked about in the Bible (Matthew 24, Revelation, Daniel, etc.) does not have to happen at all, and that rather, the church (or those enlightened ones) will rise up and change the culture, control the governments and bring in the “Age of Enlightenment” (Rick Warren calls it a new reformation – same thing), through force, awareness or “whatever it takes.”
In Quantum Spirituality, Sweet reveals quite a bit before he even gets started. In the acknowlegments and Preface (usually the rather boring parts of a book), one can find an entire book in and of itself. Listen to Ray Yungen explain:
The acknowledgments section of Quantum Spirituality shows very clearly Sweet’s spiritual sympathies. In it, Sweet thanks interspiritualists/universalists such as Matthew Fox (author of The Coming of the Cosmic Christ), Episcopalian priest/mystic Morton Kelsey, Willis Harman (author of Global Mind Change) and Ken Wilber (one of the major intellectuals in the New Age movement) for helping
him to find what he calls “New Light.” Sweet adds that he trusts “the Spirit that led the author of The Cloud of Unknowing.”In the preface of the same book, Sweet disseminates line after line of suggestions that the “old teachings” of Christianity must be replaced with new teachings of “the New Light.” And yet these new teachings, he believes, will draw from “ancient teachings” (e.g., the Desert Fathers). This “New Light movement,” Sweet says, is a “radical faith commitment that is willing to dance to a new rhythm.”
Throughout the book, Sweet favorably uses terms like Christ consciousness and higher self and in no uncertain terms promotes New Age ideology: [Quantum spirituality is] a structure of human becoming, a channeling of Christ energies through mindbody experience….
Sweet also tells his readers that humanity and creation are united as one and we must realize it. Once humanity comes to this realization, Sweet says:
Then, and only then, will a New Light movement of “world making” faith have helped to create the world that is to, and may yet, be. Then, and only then, will earthlings have uncovered the meaning … of the last words [Thomas Merton] uttered: “We are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity.”
Leonard Sweet is what could be called an Alice Bailey Christian because his views on the role of mysticism in the church are evident. He states:
Mysticism, once cast to the sidelines of the Christian tradition, is now situated in postmodernist culture near the center…. In the words of one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century, Jesuit philosopher of religion/dogmatist Karl Rahner, “The Christian of tomorrow will be a mystic, one who has experienced something, or he will be nothing.” [Mysticism] is metaphysics arrived at through mindbody experiences. Mysticism begins in experience; it ends in theology
This is why we spend so much time talking about the New Age. It is this same theology that is being promoted by today’s Christian leaders, and most of us didn’t even know it was happening. Perhaps we underestimated Satan’s determination to win in the end.
It’s kind of a connecting-the-dots challenge, but when they are all connected, as they are being done before our very eyes today, it includes not only New Agers but many who have been considered Christian leaders for a very long time. And at some point, perhaps in the near future, there will be a convergence of the two mindsets. Contemplative spirituality (mysticism) is helping to bridge the two together. Unfortunately, because so many Christians look up to these leaders, it will be a pied piper effect, and many undiscerning, unaware Christians will go over the cliff of deception with them.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matthew 24:24
If your church or Christian college is using materials by Leonard Sweet, perhaps its time to bring this to the attention of your pastor or professor.
For related information:
Spiritual Fusion – East Comes West
“Reinvent or Die”
The connections between the two men [Rick Warren and Leonard Sweet] include a 1994 audio set titled The Tides of Change. In the set, Warren and Sweet talk about “new frontiers,” “changing times” and a “new spirituality” on the horizon. Later, in Sweet’s 2001 book, Soul Tsunami, Warren gives an endorsement that sits on the back as well as on the front cover of the book. Of the book, Warren says:
Leonard Sweet … suggests practical ways to communicate God’s unchanging truth to our changing world.
Some of these “practical ways” include using a labyrinth and visiting a meditation center. Sweet also says, “It’s time for a Post Modern Reformation,” adding that “The wind of spiritual awakening is blowing across the waters.” He says that times are changing and you’d better “Reinvent yourself for the 21st century or die.” A Time of Departing, 2nd ed.
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