SPECIAL NOTICE

New Edition of A Time of Departing Arriving 6 Days Late

If you have ordered a copy of the new edition of A Time of Departing, we wanted to let you know it is going to be 6 days late. Due to a FedEx mix up on getting the proof to the printers on time, it delayed production by nearly a week. The book will be in stock on April 5th. We will ship all backorders that day. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.

This new edition has increased in information and volume by quite a bit, with updates on all the original chapters, over 70 additional pages and more than 200 new endnotes. There are also two new chapters -- "America's Pastor" (showing the connection between Purpose Driven and contemplative) and "Christian of the Future," addressing the emerging church.

Since the first edition came out in 2002, contemplative spirituality,now often referred to as the Spiritual Formation movement, has literally swept into Christian churches, colleges, and organizations like no other movement has ever done. Does Ray Yungen believe it is only a fad that will pass in time? Not at all. He does believe that it will help bring about a world-wide religious unity through mysticism and that contemplative spirituality could be the avenue to the falling away the Bible says will take place before the return of Christ.

A Time of Departing will provide you with all the information and documentation you need to help warn those you love about this pervasive spirituality which has a premise that all paths lead to God, thus negating the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

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In light of Witt's statement to me and his article, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to know that Rick Warren has promoted a book called Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas. In Ray Yungen's new edition of A Time of Departing, Yungen brings this out. He quotes Warren who says of Thomas' book: "Gary has spoken at Saddleback, and I think highly of his work ... he tells them [readers] how they can make the most of their spiritual journeys. He places an emphasis on practical spiritual exercises" (see pg.151 ATOD, 2nd ed.). Yungen then quotes from Thomas' book: "It is particularly difficult to describe this type of prayer in writing, as it is best taught in person. In general however, centering prayer works like this: Choose a word (Jesus or Father, for example) as a focus for contemplative prayer. Repeat the word silently in your mind for a set amount of time (say, twenty minutes) until your heart seems to be repeating the word by itself, just as naturally and involuntarily as breathing" (p. 152 ATOD, 2nd ed.). It is through this twenty minute long repetition that frequencies can be changed.

This promotion of contemplative by Rick Warren is just another example of a long line of promotions of contemplative spirituality that have come through Purpose Driven. Ray Yungen, in the new edition of his book, A Time of Departing (March 2006) wrote an entire chapter on this matter. By the time you finish reading that chapter, we think you will be convinced beyond doubt that Rick Warren is an advocate for the very spirituality that Thomas Merton claimed made him feel deeply impregnated with Sufism (Islamic mysticism). The following is another excerpt from the new edition of A Time of Departing:

The question you may be asking right now is, "Why is Rick Warren included in a book that is covering New Age interspirituality and exposing the dangers of contemplative prayer? Are you saying that Rick Warren is heading in that direction too? Not America's pastor! Surely not." If that were the case, we'd hear about it from Christian leaders. Right? ... If indeed Rick Warren is promoting contemplative prayer, as I believe he is, this guarantees that contemplative prayer will be promoted on an enormous scale. Through Rick Warren, Richard Foster's vision could enter fully into mainstream evangelicalism both in North America and around the world; and with the unprecedented following and support Warren has gained, we could be heading towards a crisis in the church that might possibly lead to the falling away that the Apostle Paul warns about (pp. 142-143, ATOD, 2nd ed.).

Like a volcanic mountain that has simmered silently in the background for years, building pressure and waiting to explode, so too is contemplative spirituality. As many of you have already witnessed, this mystical, dangerous belief system is now everywhere, even in the teachings and ministries of "America's pastor," who is influencing millions of people around the world.

New Agers believe that the world will be unified and brought to peace through a majority of people practicing meditation. What surprise they must be experiencing now to see evangelical Christendom join ranks and leave behind a solid, bible-based faith in Jesus Christ and exchange it for their own spirituality.

Are InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Ancient Commentaries on Scripture promoting contemplative prayer and spiritual formation? According to General Editor Thomas Oden, the commentaries cover "the era from Clement of Rome (fl. c. 95) to John of Damascus (c. 645-c. 749)," a time period that includes the desert fathers. Furthermore, Oden, in speaking of the ecumenical impact of the ACCS series says: "The ACCS has from the outset been an ecumenical effort. It is stimulating new interest in the earliest layers of exegesis as the basis for new perspectives on contemporary ecumenism. Evidences of this are found in the conversations that are continuing between the World Evangelical Alliance and the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, as well as Evangelicals and Catholics Together, and in the newly emerging plans for the recovery of Faith and Order in the North American ecumenical conversation." It is very common to see ecumenical efforts connected to the spiritual formation movement (i.e., contemplative spirituality). Associate Editor and contributor to the series, Christopher Hall, promotes contemplative spirituality partly through his connections with Richard Foster. Hall is a contributor to Richard Foster's Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible; and at the 2005 Renovare International Conference, Hall taught a workshop on the desert fathers and mothers. This summer, Hall will be teaching a Christian Spirituality course at Regent College; the course includes the writings of mystics and contemplatives.

Endorsers of the ACCS include J.I. Packer, Eugene Peterson and other known evangelicals.

Are indeed these commentaries going to be another avenue through which the spiritual formation movement will enter the church? Listen to the words of Thomas Oden as he discusses the ACCS: "Renewing religious communities of prayer and service (crisis ministries, urban and campus ministries, counseling ministries, retreat ministries, monasteries, grief ministries, ministries of compassion, etc.) are being drawn steadily and emphatically toward these biblical and patristic sources for meditation and spiritual formation. These communities are asking for primary source texts of spiritual formation presented in accessible form, well-grounded in reliable scholarship and dedicated to practical use" (from General Introduction, p. xvi).

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