The #1 Reason I Believe the Enneagram is Deceptive

Ah yes… the Enneagram… how have I not made a video about this before? I want to briefly share 3 reasons with you why this popular personality trend isn’t what you think it is. When things like this come up I usually wait and learn as much as I can I thought it first before I give an educated opinion. Sometimes I see Christians making a bigger deal out of things than they need to be, and other times they were spot on. I believe it takes wisdom, time, and discernment to come to a solid conclusion. Though I'm still learning about this topic, I've come to a point where, indeed, this is a major issue within the Christian community. In this video, I share why. Timestamps: #1: False History- 3:12 #2: Richard Rohr- 3:46 #3: My Main Issue- 5:32 * *(This was actually a point brought up by Jeremiah Roberts in their Cultish Podcast with Marcia Montenegro. You can listen to that here: https://thecultishshow.com/podcast/pa... ) The Book, "Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret": https://midwestoutreach.org/enneagram/ Book Website: enneagramsecret.com Marcia Montenegro's Website: http://www.christiananswersforthenewa... Joy and Don Veniot's Website: https://midwestoutreach.org/ More Resources: My Testimony: https://youtu.be/QSVnprFKoVw Sharing Truth in Love: https://youtu.be/f7yCxWvttJs What is the Gospel?: https://youtu.be/YkxEdB_3QLM Scriptures Showing why Universalism, Mysticism, Oneness, Law of Attraction are not Biblical: https://youtu.be/Jtg4q84vBD4 What is Progressive Christianity?: https://youtu.be/wkrWR-d9Hyw Top 5 New Age Teachings in the Church: https://youtu.be/FCDbO8Lc5NU Breaking Down Scriptures that seem to support Word of faith and new Age teachings with Mike Winger: https://youtu.be/C8K8h0OL9sQ Bethel Church embracing the New Age and the book Physics of Heaven: https://youtu.be/uG2GueeiBmE Why the Law of Attraction is garbage: https://youtu.be/-eQYJf0gcDQ What is Word of faith, and why is it important?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVixv... My Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewAgeToChri... Instagram: @melissadougherty77 If you are led, please consider donating: https://paypal.me/MelissaDougherty77

OCCULT ENNEAGRAM INVADING SCHOOL & CHURCH

SEE: https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/item/37048-occult-enneagram-invading-school-church;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

In this interview with The New American magazine's Alex Newman, Midwest Christian Outreach chief Don Veinot explains that occultism is invading homeschool materials and is even being peddled by well-known Christian publishers. In particular, the occult Enneagram is being marketed as a tool to help Christians get closer to God. And yet, the evidence proves this is a dangerous scheme that was received using "automatic writing," Veinot explains, offering video proof. Veinot says it is important for Christians and homeschoolers to be on the lookout for this sort of infiltration.

PLEASE SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT THE ENNEAGRAM:

 


WARNING: ZONDERVAN INTRODUCES ITS FIRST-EVER FILM “NINE: THE ENNEAGRAM DOCUMENTARY” TO RELEASE IN THEATERS FALL 2020

SEE: https://enneagram.movie/

WARNING: ZONDERVAN INTRODUCES ITS FIRST-EVER FILM "NINE: THE ENNEAGRAM DOCUMENTARY" TO RELEASE IN THEATERS FALL 2020

SEE: https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2020/newsletter20200602.htm;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
The promotional poster for the Enneagram documentary by Zondervan; used in accordance with the U.S. Fair Use Act for the purpose of critique, analysis, and review.

LTRP Note: The news release below regarding the Christian publisher, Zondervan, is posted for informational and research purposes. Lighthouse Trails warned about the Enneagram in our booklet, The Enneagram—An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception? (written by Lois Putnam), which we released last Fall. Obviously, when one of the largest evangelical publishers releases a film (their first film ever) on the Enneagram, it’s clear this is a fast-growing trend within evangelicalism. We believe the Enneagram (as is Lectio Divina) is a gateway “tool” to further integrate the occultic contemplative prayer movement into the church, a movement that has so significantly influenced millions of Christians.

News Release from Zondervan Publishers

Zondervan announces the first-ever Enneagram film, NINE: THE ENNEAGRAM DOCUMENTARY, will debut in North American theaters fall 2020, featuring internationally renowned Enneagram expert and bestselling author Christopher L. Heuertz.

The documentary, produced in association with Sandoval Studios, marks Zondervan’s first foray in producing a film. Zondervan sees film as a way to broaden key messages from its authors to reach a wider audience and is actively exploring this format. Click here to continue reading.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT HEUERTZ & THE ENNEAGRAM:

https://ratherexposethem.org/?s=HEUERTZ

https://ratherexposethem.org/?s=ENNEAGRAM 

WHY THE ENNEAGRAM IS A DANGEROUS NEW AGE TOOL

WHY THE ENNEAGRAM IS A 
DANGEROUS NEW AGE TOOL 
Marcia Montenegro of ChristianAnswersForTheNewAge.com and Don Veinot of MidwestOutreach.org expose the shocking hidden dangers of the Enneagram in their new book, “Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret,” available at EnneagramSecret.com
INTERVIEWED BY DOREEN VIRTUE, EX-NEW-AGER, CHRISTIAN CONVERT
SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS:
https://ratherexposethem.blogspot.com/search?q=ENNEAGRAM


AND:

Passion Conference Louie Giglio Gives Thumbs Up to Enneagram—Could Influence Scores of Young Evangelicals
SEE: https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2020/newsletter20200512.htmrepublished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Louie Giglio is an extremely popular megachurch pastor and author as well as the founder and leader of the Passion conferences, which have drawn in hundreds of thousands of mostly young people since 1997.(1) On the week of March 16th, Giglio (a Calvinist) was a guest on emergent social-justice “Gospel” advocate Ian Morgan Cron’s Enneagram podcast. A week later, part 2 of the interview took place.
While it of no great surprise that Giglio (who has shown himself to be part of the ecumenical, “new” spirituality in more ways than one(2)) would form an attachment to Morgan Cron’s Enneagram, it is most unfortunate: because of Giglio’s vast following, the Enneagram has now received a substantial thumbs up in the evangelical world, especially among young evangelicals. So not only are Giglio’s followers being influenced by Calvinism and the New Spirituality, they are also being led into New Age-rooted practices.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Enneagram, Lighthouse Trails released a booklet in October of 2019 titled The Enneagram—An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception?. Below are the contents of the booklet (written by Lois Putnam and the Editors at Lighthouse Trails):

The Enneagram—An Enlightening Tool and an Enticing Deception?

Today, there is an increasing amount of interest by Christians in the Enneagram, a nine-pointed diagram used to determine personality traits and character tendencies. While it may seem harmless and nothing more than a useful tool, the Enneagram is a seducing lure to deception and an example of what the Bible refers to as “the wiles of the Devil.” In this booklet, we hope to show how this tool is drawing participants away from biblical truth and in an enticing but dangerous direction.
A book titled The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Riso and Russ Hudson describes the Enneagram, stating:

The Enneagram . . . is a development of modern psychology that has roots in spiritual wisdom from many different ancient traditions. 1

The Enneagram Institute, a go-to website for information on the Enneagram, says:

The Enneagram . . . [is] one of the most powerful and insightful tools for understanding ourselves and others. At its core, the Enneagram helps us to see ourselves at a deeper, more objective level and can be of invaluable assistance on our path to self-knowledge.2

A 2017 Religion News Service article states:

In 1990, Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr effectively Christianized the [Enneagram] system for Americans when he published “The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective” in English. This sparked a growing interest that slowly crept into church pulpits and small groups. In 2016, Christianity Today published “An Evangelical’s Guide to the Enneagram” after InterVarsity Press became the first evangelical publisher to release a book on the topic.3

While the Enneagram’s popularity within the Christian church has continued to grow, especially among millennials, there have been those in the church who have voiced their concerns about the Enneagram. Martin and Deidre Bobgan, who have studied psychology from a biblical perspective for many years, say this about the Enneagram:

Although the Enneagram is purported to be an ancient spiritual tradition, it is relatively new to the Western world. George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, who brought the Enneagram to Europe in the 1920s, claimed it originated about 2500 years ago in a Babylonian wisdom school. He taught that each person is born with a “planetary body type” with certain physical and psychological traits. He believed that a person’s physical and psychological characteristics are related to a dominant endocrine gland and to planetary influences on that gland. This implicates the Enneagram with Babylonian astrology, since those characteristics would be signified by a point on the Enneagram.4

Apologist and author Mike Oppenheimer says this about the Enneagram:

Enneagram claims to be an entry point for deep personal healing and renewal. Enneagram is a psychological and spiritual system for a higher consciousness. We are told it will help us understand the personality types and the differences in each other which should reduce unnecessary conflicts (transforming one into a more tolerant person). We can transform our habits by being our own observer in how we think and go from unconscious behavior to conscious behavior. This is done through a series of probing questions called a Personality Profile questionnaire where one learns what his or her type is. . . . The nine lines comprise a perfect triangle and a twisted hexagon contained within a circle. This is a New Age-type mandala, a mystical gateway to personality classification. The drawing is based upon a belief in the mystical properties of the numbers 7 and 3. 5

Richard Rohr’s Role

At the very epicenter of today’s Enneagram movement is Franciscan priest Father Richard Rohr, founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC). Rohr’s website states:

Seven of the nine Enneagram types are associated with the “capital” or “deadly” sins which originated with the Desert Fathers. But it was not until the late 1960s that Oscar Ichazo began teaching the Enneagram as we know it today. From Ichazo’s school in South America, a group of Jesuits learned the system and brought it back with them to the United States. Richard Rohr learned about the Enneagram from this group and was one of the first people to publish a book about it in English.

The Enneagram gained popularity as a tool within spiritual direction.* Today it is widely taught as a way of understanding personality, addiction, relationships, and vocation.6 (emphasis added)

After Rohr learned about the Enneagram in the 1970s, he shared his Enneagram teaching on ten tapes, later writing his now classic best-selling book, Discovering the Enneagram: An Ancient Tool for a New Spiritual Journey (now titled The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective).
In Rohr’s book, he explains that the underlying premise behind the Enneagram is that each person has a “true self and a “false self,” and with the help of the Enneagram, we can identify our true selves, and thus having identified it, we can now be spiritually transformed to live in that true self. Rohr explains:

[Co-author] Andreas Ebert and I again offer the Enneagram as a very ancient Christian tool for the discernment of spirits, the struggle with our capital sin, our “false self,” and the encounter with our True Self in God.7

When Rohr, who is an outspoken panentheist, says “True Self in God,” he is referring to his belief that the true self is the God within every human being. In echoing the Catholic mystics Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen, Rohr advocates the concept of dharmakaya. Rohr states:

God’s hope for humanity is that one day we will all recognize that the divine dwelling place is all of creation. Christ comes again whenever we see that matter and spirit co-exist. This truly deserves to be called good news.8 (emphasis added)

To further understand what Rohr means when he says, “the divine [God] dwelling place is all of creation,” we need to understand his views about Jesus Christ. In an article on Rohr’s website titled, “The Cosmic Christ,” he says that Christ is more of an energy than a personal being:

Christ is not Jesus’ last name, but the title of his historical and cosmic purpose. Jesus presents himself as the “Anointed” or Christened One who was human and divine united in one human body—as our model and exemplar. . . . This Christ is much bigger and older than either Jesus of Nazareth or the Christian religion, because the Christ is whenever the material and the divine co-exist—which is always and everywhere. . . . The coming of the Cosmic Christ is not the same as the growth of the Christian religion. It is the unification of all things.9

For Rohr, Christ and humanity are not separate because Christ is not a person (or God come in the flesh to save man from his sins) but is an energy that exists in everyone and everything. Man’s only problem isn’t that he is sinful; rather, it is that he doesn’t realize he already has divinity within him. This is where the Enneagram comes in, for according to Rohr the Enneagram is a “key to self-knowledge,”10 and the goal for using the Enneagram is “an awakening of true self-love [i.e., the divinity within].”11

Rohr’s Enneagram Disciples

Some of Richard Rohr’s most popular “disciples” who carry on his Enneagram teachings include Ian Morgan Cron, Suzanne Stabile, and Chris and Phileena Heuertz (though countless others have been influenced by Rohr). Since each of these people has written Enneagram books and are key presenters and teachers of Enneagram programs, let us examine them to further understand the Enneagram.

Ian Morgan Cron’s Road to Self

Episcopal priest Ian Morgan Cron is a best-selling author and psychotherapist. He wrote the best-selling book (co-authored by Suzanne Stabile), The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery (published by InterVarsity Press). In chapter one, Cron relates how as a grad student, he found Rohr’s Enneagram book at a conservative seminary retreat. Upon showing it to his professor, he was told to get rid of it. Cron confided:

I was a young, impressionable evangelical, and though my gut told me my professor’s reaction bordered on paranoid, I followed his advice.12

Although, as Cron wrote, he didn’t read the book until later when he was re-introduced to it by his spiritual director, “Br. Dave.” Upon reading it, he tells how he discussed with Br. Dave his initial reactions to the Enneagram. As they talked, Cron shared a Thomas Merton quote with him which read:
Sooner or later we must distinguish what we are not and what we are. . . . We must cast off our false, exterior self like the cheap showy garment it is . . . We must find our real self, in all its elemental poverty, but also in its grand and very simple dignity created to be the child of God, and capable of loving with something of God’s own sincerity and his unselfishness.13 (emphasis added)
The theme of the “self” permeates Cron’s book. In fact, the word “self” is in his book over 160 times (e.,g., “self-knowledge,” “self-aware,” “real self,” “self-understanding,” “authentic self,” the “original shimmering self,” “true self,” “deep knowing of self,” “self-confident,” “self-actualized,” and so forth). Cron states:

[B]y overidentifying who we are with our personality we forget or lose touch with our authentic self—the beautiful essence of who we are . . . we have a God who . . . remembers who we are . . . and he wants to help restore us to our authentic selves.14

Here, when Cron equates the “authentic self” (i.e., true self) with “the beautiful essence of who we are,” he echoes Richard Rohr’s belief that within each person is divinity. Contrary to Rohr’s and Cron’s building up of the “true self” as divine and beautiful, the Bible speaks otherwise:

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51:5)

Cron a “champion of the Enneagram,” and “pioneer in the contemporary Enneagram movement” tells us who he is in his “Manifesto.” He begins with:

Today I will throw my hat into the ring of life. . . . I will stand on my own two feet and live my truth.15

Like so many in today’s post-modern “progressive” Western world, Cron will do his own thing and decide his own beliefs. To the contrary, Scripture reminds us that Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me.” A believer in Christ is not called to live his own truth but rather follow the One who says He is “the truth.” At the end of his Manifesto, Cron declares, “Today I will be my True Self.”16 This is the Enneagram’s goal like the book title says, The Road Back to You. Full of I, I, I.

Cron and Rohr Interview

Ian Cron hosts an Enneagram podcast titled “Typology. In “Episode 014: Richard Rohr, Finally Getting Over Your ‘Self’ with the Enneagram Pt.1,” Ian interviews Richard Rohr. He asks Rohr what has caused the “tidal wave of interest culturally and in church of personality identity”17 using the Enneagram. Rohr says its because we’ve done such a bad job of teaching Christians their “true identity.” We didn’t, he espouses, teach people about their images and their likeness of God. Rohr says most Christians find their identity in their group or denomination and never understand who they themselves are.
The crux of the interview is when Rohr asserts we don’t know our individual “Imago Dei” which cannot be given to us or taken away from us. This idea levels the “playing field of all humanity”18 says Rohr. Distinctions such as black and white, Catholic and Protestant, American and Canadian, or gay and straight do not mean anything. Rohr says that the “true gospel must be proclaimed that everything—humans, animals, or materials—is created in the image of a trinitarian and loving God.”19 Therefore, says Rohr, that settles all questions. For then we are all “universal children of God,”20 and thus, we are in “union” with all other children of God. Why? Rohr says it is because we all have the divine and the beautiful in us from the very start.
How contrary to the biblical Gospel that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and that in order to become a child of God, we must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. In Enneagramism, it’s not about sinners (“none that doeth good”—Romans 3:12) needing to be redeemed by a Holy God. There is no need for that. Rather, after working through our false self-delusions to find our true selves, we come to the realization that we have always been lovely and good. Ian Morgan Cron’s view of the self stands in stark contrast to the apostle Paul’s description when he says he has “no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3).

Suzanne Stabile

Suzanne Stabile, Cron’s co-author of the book The Road Back to You, is an internationally recognized Enneagram master, teacher, and author. Like Cron, Stabile is a great admirer of Richard Rohr and one of Rohr’s Enneagram disciples. After meeting Rohr, Stabile was so enamored with Rohr’s Enneagram program that she studied under him, consenting not to teach or share the material for five years.
At present, Stabile has conducted over 500 Enneagram workshops over the past 25 years, speaking to audiences at colleges, divinity schools, churches, and health centers. She has also taught at the Center for Action and Contemplation (Rohr’s contemplative center) and even internationally at Assisi with Rohr himself.
In a 2016 Houston Chronicle article titled, “Christians Rediscovering Ancient Enneagram,” Emily McFarlan Miller said she met Cron and Stabile at a Chicago Enneagram conference. Miller noted that Cron “thought the Enneagram was ‘genius,’ and saw nothing in it that conflicted with the gospel.”21 She wrote that Cron found it fascinating that even “the (conservative) evangelicals were completely fine with it.”22 Miller said that Stabile hoped that “teaching people to learn about the way they see the world and eight other ways people see the world will encourage compassion.”23 Stabile told Miller, “Our hope is that the book makes the world a more compassionate, more loving, and more generous place.”24
And this is the promise of the Enneagram, to make people (and the world) more compassionate, generous, and loving. The premise is, if we can somehow gain access to understanding our True Selves (i.e., the divine part of us), then we will become compassionate and loving individuals thus making the world a better place. But can the Enneagram accomplish this? If the premise is correct, then perhaps so. But according to the Holy Word of God, the premise of the Enneagram couldn’t be further from the truth.

Chris Heuertz

Chris Heuertz is another Rohr mentee and Enneagram enthusiast. Heuertz came from a Catholic family that converted to evangelicalism. His parents had six children. An article written by Jason Byassee titled “On the Side of Hope” describes how Heuertz’ parents worked seven jobs at one time just to send the children to private schools. Heuertz graduated from an Assembly of God high school and went on to Asbury College (now Asbury University).
In his book The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth, Heuertz states that the Enneagram is a tool for “excavating our essence, our True Self, from the lies, programs, and temptations we’ve wrapped around our identity.”25 (emphasis in original)
Soon after graduation from Asbury, Heuertz joined Word Made Flesh ministry to work with “the most vulnerable of the world’s poor.”26 This was how he landed in Calcutta, India working with Mother Teresa. Here he was later joined by his wife Phileena. Of the WMF organization, Jason Byassee wrote:

Rejecting the idea that missionaries bring salvation and services to benighted poor people, WMF has learned . . . that the poor are Jesus. WMF or ‘Fleshies’ . . . do not necessarily seek to fix poverty or convert people. Their first intention is to seek friendship with the poor. And through that they seek, with their friends, to be converted anew to God.27

Speaking of the “model of missions,” Heuertz states:

If I bring anything, it’s presence and hope . . . We work to recognize the divine imprint in all humanity, then together we are all converted to God. I’m not bringing a poor kid with me to Christ. I’m following their journey to the places in God’s heart that break in the face of such suffering.28 (emphasis added)

The Heuertz’ social justice work with WMF took them to Cambodia where Heuertz encountered the Enneagram. Fascinated, Heuertz later would delve deeply into the Enneagram, abandon his WMF community, establish the Gravity Center, and write The Sacred Enneagram (which we will talk about a little later in this booklet).

Phileena Heuertz

Phileena Bacon Heuertz was two years behind Chris at Asbury College. Phileena came from an evangelical family, her father being a Wesleyan Methodist pastor in Indiana. While working with WMF, the Heuertzes began their contemplative journey upon meeting Catholic contemplative priest Thomas Keating of Snowmass, Colorado. From him, they learned centering prayer (a form of contemplative prayer). The more they dipped into this contemplative path, the further they separated from their evangelical backgrounds. Eventually, in 2012, they left the WMF to establish the Gravity Center for Contemplative Activism.
Throwing aside her evangelical Wesleyan past, Phileena converted to Catholicism for she believed its rituals, liturgy, and prayer practices would best enhance her “inner work” to shed her false self and find her true self.29
Along the way, the couple met Richard Rohr, imbibed deeply from his teaching, and locked arms with him. Today, Phileena is on Rohr’s CAC board. Rohr, in turn, wrote the foreword to Phileena’s 2018 book Mindful Silence: The Heart of Christian Contemplation. Phileena is considered one of the top young contemplative prayer activists today. She is a retreat guide, a spiritual director, and a Yoga instructor and has spoken at numerous Christian universities including Biola University and Taylor University.

The Sacred Enneagram

In 2017, Chris Heuertz wrote what became a best-selling book, The Sacred Enneagram (published by Zondervan). In the foreword, written by Richard Rohr, Rohr writes:

Chris Heuertz, my dear friend and confidante, has gone on his own journey of transformation, I am most happy to recommend his excellent book on the Enneagram to you. In its pages you will find excellent content, many new insights, and the compassion that genuine spirituality always provides . . . You will not be the same after you read this book.30

Rohr is also an integral part of the Heuertz’ Gravity Center, serving as a founding board member much like Phileena serves on his CAC board.
In two chapters of Heuertz’ book, he unlocks his agenda for the reader to couple the Enneagram to contemplative practices to achieve finding one’s true self.

A Sacred Map?

Throughout the book, Heuertz uses terms such as “sacred experience,” “sacred Enneagram,” and “sacred map.” He says:

When we give ourselves to the hard work of integrating what we have come to learn about ourselves, the Enneagram becomes a sacred map of our soul, one that shows us the places where we have vulnerabilities or tendencies to get stuck as well as the possibilities of where we can go for deeper freedom and inner peace.31 (emphasis added)

Here we can see that Heuertz has exchanged what gives true freedom and peace for a powerless substitute—the Enneagram! There is only one true “sacred map,” and that is the Word of God.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

We do not find freedom and peace by identifying our “personality types” and discovering our “true selves.” The fact is, our true selves are our sinful, fleshly, carnal selves. It is only found in the person of Jesus Christ, who promises to come into our hearts and commune with us if we invite Him in and put our trust in Him (Revelation 3:20). Our Father in Heaven promises to deliver us from the kingdom of darkness (our fleshly carnal selves) into the kingdom of Light (through being born again into Christ).

[God] hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14)

The Enneagramites have missed the mark bigtime. They see the key to an abundant meaningful life lying in ourselves when in fact, it is quite the opposite as John the Baptist said when he proclaimed, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Jesus said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63). Paul, the apostle, said, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18). How interesting (and sad) that Chris Heuertz uses the term “Fleshie” to describe himself. Fleshies put the emphasis on how good their true selves are. “Believers” put the emphasis on believing in the finished work of the Cross (how good Jesus Christ is).

The Inclusive Kingdom

Chris Heuertz’ book, The Sacred Enneagram, uses The Inclusive Bible (authored by “Priests for Equality”) for all its Scripture quotations. Billed as the first egalitarian translation, a blurb on Amazon says:

. . . it is a re-imagining of the scriptures and our relationship to them. . . . [offering] new and non-sexist ways to express the same ancient truths. . . . Priests for Equality is a movement of men and women . . . where sexism and exclusion are left behind.32

Leaving “exclusion” behind is another way to reject the Bible’s message that says the kingdom of God is exclusive to “whosoever” believes on Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is the opposite of “inclusive,” which is the teaching of universalism (all are saved) and interspirituality (all paths lead to God). This inclusivism is what the New Age is all about.

The True Self

In Heuertz’ The Sacred Enneagram, the term “True Self” (capitalized to show the supposed divine attribute) is used over sixty times such as in the following quote:

The Enneagram offers much more under the surface. Its various facets—the names and needs, the Holy Ideas and Virtues—give us practical handles to better identify and understand our type. By digging deeper into the why behind each type we start to unravel the mystery of our True Self and essential nature. This is the real substance we aim for.33 (emphasis added)

Again, in Scripture, there is nothing good about our “essential nature.” The late Ray Yungen, who studied the New Age for many years, explains:

The New Age and Christianity definitely clash on the answer to the question of human imperfection. The former—the New Age—espouses the doctrine of becoming self-realized and united with the universe, which they see as God but in reality is the realm of familiar spirits. On the other hand, the Gospel that Christians embrace offers salvation to humanity through grace (unmerited favor). Romans 3:24 boldly states: “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

This gift is not earned or given as a reward for earnest or good intentions as Scripture clearly states: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
This Scripture that tackles the issue of pride sharply distinguishes all of man’s religions from Christianity. Religion persuades us that man is innately good and, therefore, can earn his way to Heaven through human perfectibility or, better yet, through the realization of his own divinity. Christianity emphatically states the opposite view that man needs to humbly recognize his own sinfulness and fallibility, and consequently needs salvation through grace.
The Holy Spirit, through the Scripture, convicts the sinner of his sinful and lost condition and then presents God’s solution—salvation through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the Cross (Ephesians 1:7 and Romans 10:9-10).

It all comes down to the preaching of the higher self [i.e., “True Self”] versus the preaching of the Cross.34

Essential Virtue and Purity

Throughout The Sacred Enneagram, there are over one hundred diagrams of Enneacircles and Enneacharts. One of these (on page 108) is titled “Virtue Structure.” Of this chart, Heuertz writes:

I . . . emphasize Virtue because when we do return to our essence [i.e., True Self] . . . Our Virtue is the lingering fragrance of our essential purity; it is what makes each of us beautiful. . . . Of course, returning to our Virtue is familiar, like a homecoming, because it is who we have always been.35 (emphasis added)

God loves humanity. It is why He sent His Son to die on a Cross so that any person who believes on Him would be reconciled to God. And God does value us (He would never have sacrificed His Son to save us if He didn’t). But He does not love us or value us because we are pure or holy or virtuous; rather, He loves us and values us in spite of the fact we are not those things. He loves us because His very nature is love, forgiveness, and holiness; and no matter how much we learn about “ourselves,” we can never come close to matching the nature of God (although He does promise the born-again believer that we can be partakers of His nature—2 Peter 1:4. But being a “partaker” is not the same as owning it yourself. It is someone else’s, and you are given access to partake in and benefit from it).
You see, the Enneagram is the very antithesis of the Gospel. With the Enneagram, man is glorified; with the Gospel, God is glorified. And if we love God, how can we not desire to glorify Him who alone has done so many incredible and awesome things and will continue to throughout eternity. How can we, who cannot even create a speck of dust, glorify ourselves and not our Creator? Isaiah 42:8 says, “I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.”

Contemplative Prayer and the Enneagram

It is important to note that the majority of those who teach the Enneagram are proponents of contemplative prayer. In chapter ten of The Sacred Enneagram, “An Invitation to Inner Work,” Heuertz introduces the reader to three prayers that can be used “as an on-ramp to the . . . Christian contemplative tradition.”36 Introduced first is centering prayer: “Praying with the Feeling Center.” Of its relationship to the Enneagram, Heuertz states:

Centering prayer. . . is easily aligned with each specific Enneagram type, but even more so, it may be among the most effective in confronting the root additions of each of the Enneagram’s Intelligence Centers.37

Second is St. Ignatius of Loyola’s “The Examen: Praying with the Head Center.”38 Last is, “The Welcoming Prayer: Praying with the Instinctive Body Center” whose creator was Mary Mrozowski. Mrozowski was a Catholic mystic and lay contemplative who in 1983 attended the first ever “Centering Prayer” retreat experiment at the Lama Foundation in New Mexico.** It was she who helped found the Contemplative Outreach Ltd. She was also founder of the Chrysalis House which became “an incubator” of contemplative prayer practices, especially centering prayer.39 She was close to and encouraged by the late Thomas Keating.
In Phileena Heuertz’ book Mindful Silence, she explains how “incredibly helpful” the Enneagram is for “spiritual development.”40 She assures her readers that using the Enneagram is a crucial part of “expanding consciousness.”41 She says:

The Enneagram is a powerful resource for the contemplative path, for as it deconstructs the false self, it simultaneously reveals your true self.42

“Waking Up,” the last chapter, describes Phileena’s ongoing search “to live into your divine nature”43 as she took time for a hermitage at the Lama Foundation.*
In the foreword of Mindful Silence, Richard Rohr praises how quickly “contemplative teaching is occurring in our time.” He then says that “we are building on the Perennial Tradition.” Rohr describes what he means by “Perennial Tradition” in a 2015 article on his website:

The things I teach come from a combination of inner and outer authority, drawn from personal experience and a long lineage of the “perennial tradition” . . . The Perennial Tradition points to recurring themes and truths within all of the world’s religions.44 (emphasis added)

The Perennial Tradition (or Perennial Wisdom as it is also called) is the belief that all the different religions in the world are interconnected through metaphysics (mysticism). The fact that the “father” of today’s Enneagram movement (Rohr) promotes the Perennial Tradition in a book written by one of his foremost disciples—openly welcomed in mainstream evangelicalism—should not be overlooked or dismissed as irrelevant; nor should the Enneagram’s compatibility and connection with contemplative prayer and mysticism.

Christian Leaders Promoting the Enneagram

With the growing popularity of the Enneagram in the evangelical church, many well-known Christian leaders are coming out in favor of it. One of these is Mark Batterson, the senior pastor of a mega church in Washington, DC. and the author of the New York Times best-selling book, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears. Lighthouse Trails released a booklet in 2017 titled Circle Making and “Prayer Circles” Versus The Straight Line of Truth, which addresses Batterson’s teaching on “circle making,” a practice he popularized inspired from rituals of an ancient mystic name Honi. Our 2017 booklet states:

[Batterson convinces] people that if certain rituals or methods are performed, then things can be changed. In his 2017 book Whisper: How to Hear God’s Voice, Batterson continues with this mystical focus (i.e., contemplative spirituality). In one section, he gives a lesson on Lectio Divina, a practice that involves taking a word or phrase from Scripture and repeating it slowly, which is said to facilitate hearing God’s voice (in reality, Lectio Divina is a gateway practice to full-blown eastern-style meditation).45

Knowing Mark Batterson’s mystical propensities, we were not surprised to learn that Batterson had endorsed Ian Morgan Cron’s 2016 book on the Enneagram, The Road Back to You. Of Cron’s book, Batterson states:

Ian Morgan Cron, partnering with Suzanne Stabile, has gifted us with another timely and brilliantly written book. We’ve long needed a fresh, spiritually grounded approach to helping people grow in self-knowledge and compassion. This is a winsome and thoughtful primer!46

On a podcast called Typology, hosted by Ian Cron, Cron interviewed Batterson on October 24, 2019. The show’s title was “The Blessings of the Enneagram” where Batterson talked about he and his wife’s “journey” with the Enneagram.47
Numerous other evangelical leaders are rallying behind the Enneagram as well. New York Times best-selling author and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries Lysa TerKeurst was on Cron’s podcast in June of 2019 talking about how much the Enneagram means to her.48 Other evangelical figures who promote the Enneagram are William P. Young (author of The Shack), Michael Hyatt (former CEO of Thomas Nelson publishers), Aaron and Shawna Niequist (Shawna is Willow Creek’s Bill Hybels’ daughter), and Anita Lustrea (co-hosted Moody Radio’s Midday Connection program for 15 years).

The Enneagram or The Word of God?

The Enneagram focuses endlessly on the self through self-awareness, self-observation, self-motivation, self-knowledge, self-love, self-wound, self-this, and self-that. For as 2 Timothy 3:2 states, “For men shall be lovers of their own selves.” Through the “Sacred Enneagram,” it is said we’ll discover that underneath all our failures of our false selves, we’ll uncover our essence—that true self enabling us to make our world a better and more compassionate place.
On the other hand, God’s view of our “selves” is that at our core, we are sinners as Romans 3:23 declares, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Therefore, we need to believe not in the power of the Enneagram or the voice heard in contemplative prayer but in a Savior who can save us from ourselves and our sins. Scripture says:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8,9; emphasis added)

In the end, it is through the Word of God and the sacrifice on the Cross by Jesus Christ, not the Enneagram, where we can find out who we are and what we must do. In 1 Corinthians 2:5, Paul tells us:

That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

And as Proverbs 9:10 reminds us, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom . . .” not the Enneagram! We pray that this enticing tool of deception will be rejected by Christian believers, pastors, and leaders.

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

For endnotes or to print this booklet for free, click here. To order copies of The Enneagram—An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception? click here.
*Spiritual direction or spiritual directors are terms used in the contemplative prayer movement (i.e., Spiritual Formation movement). Contemplative spirituality is an ancient mystical prayer practice in which the participant goes into what is called “the silence” by repeating a word or phrase so that the mind is no longer distracted with thoughts. In this altered silent state, one can supposedly hear the voice of God and be spiritually transformed. Spiritual directors are utilized to help the contemplative meditator “discern” the voice and messages received during meditation. Rohr’s statement above reveals to us that the Enneagram and contemplative prayer (both based on mysticism) are very compatible with each other.
**The Lama Foundation is tied to a well-known spiritual teacher and New Age Hindu guru Ram Dass who wrote Be Here Now.
Endnotes to the first 2 paragraphs of this post.
1. According to Wikipedia, the Passion Conferences have drawn over 1 million university students since 1997. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Giglio.
2. Check out the following articles: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-significance-of-youth-filled.html, https://pulpitandpen.org/2017/03/13/louie-giglio-goes-new-age, https://coercioncode.com/2019/04/30/louie-giglio-as-you-never-knew-him.

 

MUCH MORE ON ROHR, PLUS ENNEAGRAMS, KYTHING & NON-DUALITY THINKING

    We mentioned Richard Rohr, Catholic/Buddhist Franciscan mystic priest in a recent post. As with all contemplatives, there is so much more to be said, as they seek to undermine and destroy Biblical Christianity through an “unmediated” (without Jesus Christ) universalist syncretism, pointing to a one world church in which Jesus Christ is brought down in degradation to a level with pagan gods.

    Apprising does a thorough job of exposing just who Rohr is and his Catholic (almost Jesuit-like) anti-Reformation career. See:
http://apprising.org/2008/05/10/who-is-richard-rohr/.
Rohr believes that the future of the church is ecumenical:

and on the emerging church:

and again on the emerging church:

http://apprising.org/2009/05/13/richard-rohr-among-seducing-spirits-re-interpreting-the-message-of-the-genuine-christian-faith/.
Rohr teaches the “non-violent” Jesus, which he claims was lost since Constantine (313 AD):

http://apprising.org/2009/01/25/richard-rohr-roman-catholicism-and-christian-universalism/.
http://apprising.org/2009/01/25/richard-rohr-conversations-convergence-and-emergence-apostasy/.

Rohr promoting “spiritual practices” over beliefs (i.e., doctrine and dogmas):

http://apprising.org/2009/03/24/richard-rohr-four-phases-of-emergence-christianty/.
1) “Honest, broad, and ecumenical Jesus scholarship”
2) “Contemplative mind” which negates a “dualistic” mindset.
     See video here about “non-duality” (that bad form of Greek judgmentalism):

and also here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvg2DgjVgbE.
3) “Non-negotiables” that Christians firmly adhere to were never what Jesus taught or said. The “new kind of Reformation” is developing, which does not oppose the old reformations, but incorporates them. We can never be 100% right (paraphrased)
4) What are the new “community (fascist) structures” which abhor denominational structures.

http://apprising.org/2010/03/30/richard-rohr-and-the-emerging-church-as-the-third-way/.
http://apprising.org/2012/07/31/the-gospel-coalition-and-trevin-wax-now-recommending-richard-rohr/.
http://apprising.org/2012/08/02/influence-of-richard-rohr-on-rob-bell-and-his-love-wins-mythology/.
http://apprising.org/2010/09/23/priscilla-shirer-points-us-to-richard-rohr/.
http://apprising.org/2009/06/29/richard-rohr-letter-of-endorsement-for-soulforce/.

Rohr was a speaker at the 2012 Wild Goose Festival (Giant Emergent Fest), http://wildgoosefestival.org/wild-goose-west-announces-first-lineup.
and: https://ratherexposethem.org/2011/06/wild-goose-festgiant-emergent-fest.html.
______________________________________________________________
Way of Life stated in:
“THE EMERGING CHURCH, PAGANISM, CATHOLICISM, AND THE NEW AGE (Friday Church News Notes, March 20, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Richard Rohr and the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is hosting an emerging church conference for three days beginning March 20. Speakers include Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle, and Shane Claiborne. It is billed as “the first large gathering of Roman Catholic, Mainline Protestant, Evangelical, and other Christians seeking to explore this emergence and convergence together.” Rohr is a Franciscan priest who is heavily involved in contemplative mysticism and liberal “social-justice” works. He holds to a universalistic, panentheistic doctrine and believes that much in the Bible, such as the Garden of Eden, is mythical. Like Thomas Merton, Rohr integrates pagan contemplative practices with that of ancient Catholic “saints.” He has adapted such things as Buddhist koans and Hindu mantras. In January 2008 Rohr and his organization sponsored a conference called “Jesus and Buddha: Paths to Awakening.” The announcement said, “The teachings of both Jesus and Buddha call us to transformational honesty. They are both teaching us how to see, and how to see all the way through! They both knew that if you see God for yourself, you will see the Divine in all things.” Rohr says that his philosophy teaches “us to be both-and” and “keeps us from either-or.” It “keeps us from the false choice of liberal or conservative” and “allows us to enjoy both sides of things”; it “is far beyond my religion versus your religion” and “allows us to be both distinct and yet united.” In fact, this is the essence of Hinduism, the New Age, and the Emerging Church. Biblical Christianity, on the other hand, teaches us that there is truth and error, right and wrong, good and bad, God and the Devil, light and dark, that there is only one way of salvation and many false ways, and that men are either saved or lost. The end-time New Age Tower of Babel is being built before our very eyes.”
________________________________________________________________


Mission America shows Rohr’s homosexual friendly approach at: http://www.missionamerica.com/articletext.php?artnum=190, full text below:

Emergent Church Heresy Growing

PAGAN PRACTICES AND SEXUAL SIN EMBRACED

by Linda Harvey
The “Emergent” church needs to be on everyone’s radar. Their ideas and approach are poison. This is NOT authentic, biblical Christianity, and it’s becoming more evident all the time. Many of the leaders are truly “coming out of the closet” and unashamedly advocating heresy.
The Emergent Church leaders are now collaborating with a pro-homosexual Catholic priest, Richard Rohr. He is on the docket at conferences with Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne, Phyllis Tickle and others.
Just a quick background: these “Emergent” leaders advocate pagan spirituality dressed in new clothes.”Practices” not belief, “spiritual formation” and other approaches are unveiled as alternatively “progress” or a return to ancient church practices. But it’s mystical “knowledge” (i.e., contact with some spirit) that is sought over faithful doctrine informed by Scripture.
Contemplative prayer, seeking some “experience” of God, is an open door to deception, and is not the prayer model of Scripture, nor does God ever teach us that sensational experiences are the key to knowing Him. These are sensualists, not authentic believers.
How did Jesus tell us to know Him? “…If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. Then you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32) “Spiritual formation” comes through authentic belief in Christ as Savior, repentance of sin, and embrace of all the truth He teaches. Failure to accept that, is failure to have the Holy Spirit enter your heart. It’s that simple. The only “spiritual formation” that will then happen will be through demons. And it may seem like revelation and enlightenment. But it’s a sham.
Truth becomes really unimportant in the Emergent model.The message is that Christ is not necessarily the only way to salvation, and we need to reconsider homosexuality, and abortion,and not be hateful like the fundamentalists are.They engage in near-constant trash-talk about the “religious right,” meaning those who want to expose this deception and remain biblically-faithful. Youth are gobbling this up, especially those with little biblical background, because it is packaged as a way to embrace worldly sexual sin and still believe one is a “christian.”
If you see any of this creeping or galloping into your your churches, beware. These are the doctrines of demons.
Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest, talks about “practices” being the key–he advocates running away from doctrine–and there’s a reason he avoids doctrine. His angle is not just the “social gospel,” i.e., feeding the poor brings salvation, although he does talk about this.
His web site really shows his main focus: “rites of passage” masculinity retreats for men, where they get in touch with themselves by blending male and female, the “yin” and “yang” of Eastern faiths. This gender synthesis experience is open to males as young as 16 and open to males without fathers.So you see where this is leading…


Rohr has a letter of endorsement on the web site of Soulforce, the homosexual religious group pressuring colleges and churches for manipulative “dialogue.” Rohr writes: “Our gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered brothers and sisters have been left outside of his [Jesus’] realm of grace for far too long….”
Not true. They exclude themselves because of their proud sin. Jesus is open to any of us who are repentant. These folks aren’t. They want Jesus to change. Ancient sin, new packaging.”
_______________________________________________________________
Mennolite.wordpress.com reveals the effects of Rohr on Anabaptists: http://mennolite.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/richard-rohr-impacts-the-mark-centre/, in which the following quote from Rohr:
In a recent video clip for a conference on Franciscan Mysticism: I Am That Which I Am Seeking, Rohr says that most of us believe things because our church told us to believe them, but there is something called The Univosity of Being (one voice)…
“When you speak of God, when you speak of angels, when you speak of humans, when you speak of animals, when you speak of trees, when you speak of fish, when you speak of the earth, you are using the work Being univocally . That might seems like an abstract philosophical position but I hope you can see how that creates an inclusive universe where everything is sacred where you can’t divide the world into the sacred and profane anymore. It’s over, and yet, most Christians to this day, in what was called the mainline orthodoxy still, most Christians I meet, Catholic and Protestant, still have the world divided into the sacred and the profane.”
-Richard Rohr, Franciscan Mysticism Conference preview

and:
Rohr is also a promoter of the Cosmic Christ, whom he believes is the foundation for interfaith dialogue. He writes:
Only a truly cosmic Christ is adequate to the breadth of our problems and the depth of our hopes today….I personally do not believe that Jesus came to found a separate religion- as much as he came to present a universal message of vulnerability and foundational unity that is necessary for all religions, the human soul, and history itself to survive.”
– July-Sept. 2002 Radical Grace, “A Cosmic Christ” by Richard Rohr.
http://www.lospequenos.org/RohrDossier/Material/9.3%20Cosmic%20Christ.pdf

and:
https://ratherexposethem.org/2011/06/wild-goose-festgiant-emergent-fest.html
 The term “cosmic Christ” reminds us that everything and everyone belongs. We’re all unworthy but the mystery of the Incarnation means the divine indwelling is in all of us. We’re indeed the body of Christ. God’s hope for humanity is that one day we will all recognize that the divine dwelling place is all of creation. Christ comes again whenever we see that matter and spirit coexist. This truly deserves to be called good news.”
________________________________________________________________________________________


Apostasy Alert has this startling revelation at: http://www.apostasyalert.org/REFLECTIONS/mystic.htm, wherein this:


“Kything Prayer”:

    This is a way of calling up another person’s spirit to enter you, so that you can use their energy and gifts for yourself. You can also let others “centre” into your spirit to call your spirit to them. You can do this with saints as well as others who are dead and it’s all done in the name of Christian Prayer. Kything was popularized at the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a Catholic monastic retreat whose founder, Franciscan priest Richard Rohr(pictured at right) wrote a book called, “The Enneagram, A Christian Perspective.” “The Enneagram is from Sufism,” according to Catholic scholars, that “was developed by…an occultist and Sufi master” who “held the view that the universe is ‘a living and evolving structure administered by conscious beings’ and, that universe is also ‘an intelligent organism.’”


Theolyn explains that communication with Nephalim is possible through kything:

From http://www.theolyn.com/nephalim: “The Nephalim are recorded in ancient texts as being part-human, part-divine and, since 2009, I have been communicating with twelve of them using a new technique called kything. I describe this as three-dimensional channelling and I have discovered that the Nephalim are here to help us become like them — 100% human and 100% divine. You too can learn how to kythe with the Nephalim and realise your own potential as a complete person, fully embracing your divinity and your humanity.”

_________________________________________________________________

Rohr gives an occultic enneagram lesson here:




ALLIE BETH STUCKEY INTERVIEWS STEVEN BANCARZ: NEW AGE VS. CHRISTIANITY

Steven Bancarz explains how ideas such as astrology, spiritual energy, universalism, psychics, aliens, reincarnation, and self-love are all impacting the church and society as a whole today. He also walks us through his journey from enjoying success as a New Age teacher to transforming into a born-again Christian. Part one of a two-part, jam-packed episode of Relatable. ---------- Steven Bancarz's Website: reasonsforjesus.com
How is New Age spirituality affecting the church today? Yoga, word of faith, karma, enneagrams and self-love are becoming accepted practices, increasingly, every day. Steven Bancarz and Allie break down how the "god of self" has no comparison to the salvation of Jesus Christ. ---------- Steven Bancarz's Website: reasonsforjesus.com

 

WHY NEW AGE & CHRISTIANITY CAN’T BLEND

Doreen Virtue tried to blend new age with Christianity for decades, and the results were disastrous as she explains in this video why they are polar opposites that can never blend. Doreen discusses yoga, the enneagram, essential oil blends, eastern meditation, and crystals. She warns parents about new age marketing toward children, and warns Christians about new age infiltrating into the Church.

This video originally aired on Engage Truth at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTjC... and on Engage Apologetics on Facebook.

Doreen's blog on the topic is at: https://doreenvirtue.com/2019/08/26/1...

For more information on Doreen's new book, please visit: DeceivedNoMoreBook.com

Please also visit her on social media at:

Instagram.com/Doreen Virtue

Facebook.com/DoreenVirtueForJesus

Parler: DoreenVirtue

“CHRISTIANITY TODAY”: “WE ARE THEOLOGICALLY CONSERVATIVE—COMMITTED TO THE GLORY OF GOD”~CT HISTORY SHOWS DIFFERENTLY

“CHRISTIANITY TODAY”: 
“WE ARE THEOLOGICALLY CONSERVATIVE—COMMITTED TO THE GLORY OF GOD”~
CT HISTORY SHOWS DIFFERENTLY 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 
purposes:
On December 19th, 2019, Christianity Today, the magazine that considers itself the “flagship” magazine for Christianity released an article written by the just-retired editor-in-chief, Mark Galli, titled, “Trump Should Be Removed from Office.” According to CT, the article set off a firestorm. And by our estimates, millions have now seen the article as scores of media outlets across the country reported on the story.1 However, that article will not be the focus of this Lighthouse Trails report. Rather, we will be discussing something said in a rebuttal article aimed at the critics that came out on December 22nd titled, “The Flag in the Whirlwind: An Update from CT’s President,” written by CT president Timothy Dalrymple.
In his effort to defend and define Christianity Today, Dalrymple’s article states that CT is “theologically conservative” and is “committed to the glory of God.” 
Lighthouse Trails hopes to show that in the last 20+ years, since the emerging “progressive” socialist church was birthed, that Christianity Today has not been theologically conservative and has actually helped to propagate an emergent socialist, very non-theologically conservative spirituality that does anything but bring glory to God.
Emergent Church Background
In Roger Oakland’s 2007 book Faith Undone, he chronicled the birth of the emerging church, dating back to the 1950s with Peter Drucker who eventually inspired another business guru, Bob Buford. Around 1998, Buford’s organization, Leadership Network, with encouragement and enthusiasm from Leith Anderson, Rick Warren, and Bill Hybels, pulled together a group of youth pastors from around the country to form what would be called Terra Nova. Some of these young men included Brian McLaren, Mark Driscoll, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt. Chris Seay, and Tony Jones.
The Terra Nova group eventually broke up with each of these men going their own ways; but today’s postmodern emergent church was birthed, and much theological and spiritual damage has been done because of it. Countless young people, raised in Christian homes and confessing a faith themselves, were introduced to emergent Marxist/socialist-leaning ideologies by professors in Christian colleges, youth pastors who were enamored with the Terra Nova men, hundreds of books by Christian publishers, and Christian magazines. Christianity Today was right there at the forefront giving a major platform and thrust to the commencement of the emergent church. Many of the young people who were taken down the emergent path through these venues either became emergent themselves or walked away from the Christian faith all together.
Lighthouse Trails has documented this tragic occurrence for nearly 18 years. So to hear Christianity Today defend itself and say it is a “theologically conservative” magazine that brings glory to God compels us to show the role it has played in bringing about quite the opposite. And as we described in our 2013 article, “They Hate Christianity But Love (Another) Jesus – How Conservative Christians Are Being Manipulated and Ridiculed, Especially During Election Years,” those who have propagated the emergent church (including Christianity Today) have had political motives that are cloaked in supposed theological and spiritual interests.
Our 2013 article stated:
In 2008, which was an election year, books, videos, broadcasts, and news articles were pouring into mainstream America with a guilt-ridden message that basically manipulated conservative Christians into thinking that either they shouldn’t vote because “Jesus wouldn’t vote,” or they shouldn’t vote on morality issues such as abortion or homosexuality. Suddenly, all over the place, there was talk about “destroying Christianity,” or “liking Jesus but not the church,” or “Jesus for president” (suggesting that maybe we could get Him on the ballot but certainly we shouldn’t vote for anyone already on the ballot). It all sounded very noble to many. . . .
It’s hard to believe there was not at least some political agenda in this storm of “we love Jesus but not the church or Christianity” especially witnessed in election years. And we believe this agenda was aimed particularly toward young people from evangelical conservative upbringings who had joined the emerging church movement. In a CBS Broadcast, anchorman Antonio Mora suggests there may have been over twenty million participants in the emerging church movement in the United States alone by 2006.2 Even half that number would be enough to change the results of a presidential election.
Our 2013 article also referred to the role that the “social justice gospel” played, something that changed the minds and spirituality of millions of young people, which inadvertently changed the outcomes of elections.
In 2011, we wrote an article titled “Christianity Today’s New 5 Year Teaching Series, the ‘Global Gospel Project,’ May Have Political and Emerging Objectives.” The article explained that Christianity Today had come up with a plan to help alleviate the confusion that so many young people now had regarding their spiritual beliefs (such as the atonement). In our article, we challenged Christianity Today for helping to create the problem in the first place through their continual and energetic endorsing and promotion of the emergent movement and then turning around and proposing to help solve the problem. In essence, that is what they have done for many years now—help create the problem then seemingly innocent and concerned offer to help solve the problem and act as if they have been on the right side all along. This is what they were doing over two decades ago, and by all appearances, this is what they are doing today.
In conclusion, we have put together a chronological list of a few of the countless articles Christianity Today has posted over the last four decades that have given backbone and stamina to the emergent socialist “church.” CT might argue that they are merely reporting without bias, but that is not the case as their steady history of often one-sided reporting (especially from emergent-leaning editors and writers), accolades, and hearty praise to the emerging, contemplative, social-justice church shows their bias as does their own published materials (magazines, journals, podcasts) and their recommended reading lists, book reviews, and endorsements. This small sampling of CT articles below illustrates how this supposedly “theologically conservative” magazine has made a steady concerted effort to change and redefine traditional evangelical views on issues such as the New Age and mysticism, the biblical relevance of the nation of Israel, the sin of homosexuality, conservative politics, interspiritual ecumenism, and other “conservative” issues. All this to say, Christianity Today is anything but “theologically conservative.” Some will say that interspersed with the bad, Christianity Today has good articles too. But as Harry Ironside said, “Truth mixed with error is equivalent to all error, except that it is more innocent looking and, therefore, more dangerous.”3
As for the Christianity Today article calling for the removal of President Trump, given that so many church goers and proclaiming Christians see the magazine as a trustworthy manifesto and directive for Christianity, you can be sure, it will alter the way many evangelicals vote this coming November, just like it played its part in helping to alter the election in 2008.

An Incomplete Chronological List of CT’s Articles Promoting Emergent, Socialist, Contemplative, Progressive Spirituality

Summer 1981—“An Invitation to the Spiritual Life” (by Henri Nouwen)
Spring 1992—“SOULWORK ” (promoting contemplative meditation practices)
August 1993—“Leadership Network: The 21st-Century Church” (on Buford and Drucker)
January 1996—“Helping the Successful Become Significant” (on Bob Buford/Leadership Network)
Fall 1999—”BiblioFile Recommended Reading ” (Recommending New Age sympathizer, Leonard Sweet)
April 2000—“Measuring What Matters” (making plans for the growth of the emerging church and the contemplative prayer movement)
Fall 2001—”Amaze-ing Prayer” (by Dan Kimball, on the use of the labyrinth)
Summer 2003—“Emerging Values” (by Brian McLaren)
February 2005—“Jim Wallis: ‘I See Genuine Soul-Searching Among Democrats'” (Encouraging evangelicals to compromise on abortion and other conservative issues)
May 2005—“Yes to Yoga”
September 2005—“The New Monasticism” (uplifting social-justice emergent Shane Claiborne)
October 2006—”Elementary Disciplines: Spiritual formation for little lambs” (promoting contemplative prayer for children)
January 2007—“Fresh Air”
January 2007—“Five Streams of the Emerging Church” (by emergent Scot McKnight)
February 2008—“Braking for Bloggers” (CT upset that Cedarville cancelled event with emergent Shaine Claiborne)
May 2008—“What form should our love of LGBT neighbors take in the public square?” (Encouraging evangelicals to remain silent on the LGBT issue)
October 2008 (just prior to election)—“After the Aloha Shirts” (promoting Rick Warren’s PEACE Plan and Saddleback’s presidential forum (of which some analysts said helped to get Obama elected by swinging the views of many evangelicals)
October 2008—“Preach and Reach “ (helping to alter the election)
November 2008—“John Ortberg’s Lessons from the Election” (Ortberg is a major player in the contemplative prayer movement)
November 2008—”Listening and Learning in the Middle East ” (by anti-nation of Israel Lynne Hybels)
September 2009—“Lord, Save Us From Your Followers” (on emergent, see our commentary)
August 2010—“Discernment: Is There an App for That?” (article promoting New Age centering prayer)
August 2010—“What Is the Gospel Response to the Prop. 8 Decision?” (Hoping to stop conservative laws on LGBT)
February 2013—“Why You Shouldn’t Have a Position on LGBTQs.” (Attempt to silence evangelicals on homosexual issue)
June 2013—“Sex Without Bodies” (Manipulating evangelical views on homosexuality)
March 2014—”Evangelicals Defend ‘Christ at the Checkpoint’ from Israeli Critics” (article with a strong anti-Israel slant)
December 2016—“Are Trump’s White Evangelical Supporters Racist?” (with emergent socialists Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo)
August 2018—“In the Beginning Is Silence” (Mark Galli)
Related Articles:
Endnotes:
  1. One media outlet, The Hill, received tens of thousands of views and “shares” when they announced the CT article about removing Trump from office.
  2. Cited from Faith Undone, from chapter 1; taken from Antonio Mora, “New Faithful Practice Away from Churches” (CBS Broadcasting, July 10, 2006).
  3. Harry Ironside, “Should Christians Expose Error?”

LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS RESEARCH: WILL CHRISTIANS REPLACE COMMITMENT TO THE GOSPEL FOR A UNIFIED DOMINIONIST AGENDA TO “SAVE THE COUNTRY”?~”SCHOOL” OF CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER

LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS RESEARCH ARTICLES:
WILL CHRISTIANS REPLACE COMMITMENT TO THE GOSPEL FOR A UNIFIED DOMINIONIST AGENDA TO “SAVE THE COUNTRY”? 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
The headline above is from an article Lighthouse Trails wrote in 2015. We are posting this article again because this month four highly popular evangelical leaders did something that more than surprised many people. And we believe what they did is a perfect example of what this article is warning.
On October 18, 2019, Religious News Service reported:
This week SBC adherents watched in (near) terror as prominent Southern Baptist pastors, including Franklin Graham, Jack Graham (no relation to Franklin or Billy), Robert Jeffress and Greg Laurie [not SBC], tweeted their approval of a new book by Paula White, President Trump’s spiritual advisor. In another time, these long-respected gospel preachers and conservative leaders would never have risked reputation and religious conviction to promote her.
One can only speculate at this point why these high-profile evangelical leaders would endorse a book written by someone who has aligned with the prosperity-gospel and the New Apostolic Reformation (see links below). It doesn’t take much imagination to believe that these endorsements by the two Grahams (not related), Jeffress, and Laurie were politically motivated.
As we explain below, there is every reason for American Christians to be seriously concerned about the state of our country and to hope and pray for godly leadership in the political realm. But will Christian leaders and pastors replace commitment to the Gospel for commitment to a unified dominionist agenda to “save the country”? Sadly, in many cases, the Gospel has already been replaced with various substitutes, and dominionism is one of those.
2015 Article by the Editors at Lighthouse Trails:

Will Christians Replace Commitment to the Gospel for Commitment to a Unified Dominionist Agenda to “Save the Country”?

As America is fast approaching another presidential election year, Dominionist/Kingdom Now political and religious figures are joining forces with evangelical Christian groups. While having concern for the state of America is more than legitimate, will Christians replace commitment and loyalty to the Gospel for commitment and loyalty to a dominionist agenda? If they do, they will learn the hard way that compromise and a “whatever it takes” attitude will do more harm to the cause of Jesus Christ than good.
This article is not a statement that Christians should not be involved in or concerned about the political state of their countries. Rather, the intention of this article is to exhort believers to use discernment in understanding the times in which we live. It is to show how a present ecumenical, dominionist movement (that is heading toward a one-world religion to “establish the kingdom of God on earth”) is operating and deceiving many Christians. As Christians, we are to be witnesses for Jesus Christ and His Gospel message of salvation. But today, many Christians may be on the brink of buying into a plan that will ultimately create a global religion and global government.
The apostle Paul was very clear that we are not to entangle ourselves with those who say they are of the faith but preach “another gospel” (Romans 16:17, Titus 3:10, 2 Corinthians 11: 13-15).
The definition below of dominionism is helpful in understanding the goals of the dominionist movement:
The Gospel of Salvation [according to dominionism] is achieved by setting up the “Kingdom of God” as a literal and physical kingdom to be “advanced” on Earth in the present age. Some dominionists liken the New Testament Kingdom to the Old Testament Israel in ways that justify taking up the sword, or other methods of punitive judgment, to war against enemies of their kingdom. Dominionists teach that men can be coerced or compelled to enter the kingdom. They assign to the Church duties and rights that belong Scripturally only to Jesus Christ.
Dominionism shares some of the same ideologies as the emerging church, the primary similarity being the belief that a utopian “kingdom of God” will be set up on earth prior to the return of Jesus Christ, and in fact there won’t actually be a bodily physical return of Christ; but rather His presence will become more manifest within us the more the kingdom of God on earth is created. This is totally contrary to Scripture that tells us that Jesus Christ will return physically (where every eye shall see Him), and it will be to a world that has become completely chaotic and reprobate, not utopian and godly.
Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. (Revelation 1:7)
An article titled “7 Mountains – Set to Go Viral” examines the goals of this dominionist agenda, expressing “concern that this radical mandate for dominionism, and the leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) which birthed it, are becoming part of the political Right and evangelical mainstream.” The article states that the “7 mountains mandate is already becoming a unifying rally point among evangelicals from many diverse theological camps and from some very unexpected quarters.”
The Dominionist/Reclaiming our Culture mind-set is a dangerous path that leads, not to biblical truth, but rather to an ecumenical, Road to Rome, “Army for God” that will attempt to force culture to be “Christian” (something Jesus Christ or the disciples never mandated) and will end up leading all down that Road to Rome and eventually into a one-world religion and one-world government.
The article assesses:
Not only does the Kingdom of God have a different King to the kingdoms of the world, but it has different citizens, has a different future and it operates by different principles. One of the principles that makes God’s Kingdom radically different to that of the world is the lust for power as opposed to the willingness to serve.
“Jesus said: ‘Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.’” (Matthew 20:25-28).2
This is not to say that Christians should not try to be a light and the “salt” in a fallen culture (Matthew 5:13). But there is a difference between what Scripture instructs us to do and what the 7 Mountains movers teach; they  believe they are “building an actual PHYSICAL kingdom here on earth — structurally through man’s mechanisms. This is the 7 mountains that they want to take over. They believe they can take them over by political, scientific, and psycho-social means.” And like the New Agers, they also want to build the spiritual kingdom within, “which they believe they can perfect themselves here on earth via mysticism” thus “they will begin to ‘manifest’ Christ — become the sons of God.”3
A Civil War?
In a radio transcript titled “Blues and Grays,”  Roger Oakland of Understand the Times states:
Christianity is about to be purified through a civil war, they say. Is this behavior indicative of a revival as some claim? Or is this exactly what occurred in the past when “enlightened Christians” became the “manifested sons of God”?
[In] an article written by Rick Joyner called the Coming Civil War in the Church. . . . Joyner states he believes a civil war will soon be breaking out within the church. He states: “There is a huge portion of the church which is being held bondage to the same religious spirit that manifested itself to the Pharisees, and it will attack any new movement that arises in the church. The more anointed the new movement is, the more these traditionalists will be threatened by it, and the more vehemently they will attack it.”
Joyner’s solution for removing the people who oppose this “anointed new move” sounds rather militant. Listen to what he says:
“The longer we continue to compromise with such institutions which use manipulation or control for the sake of unity or for any reason the more it will ultimately cost us to remove the cancer from our midst.”
Joyner then went on to describe how the conflict in the church will develop:
“The coming spiritual civil war will be between the Blue’s and the Gray’s. In dreams and visions blue often represents heavenly-mindedness, and gray speaks of those who live by the power of their own minds – which is equivalent to the brain’s gray matter. This will be a conflict between those who may be genuine Christians, but who live mostly according to their natural minds and human wisdom, and those who follow the Holy Spirit.” 4
In Kevin Reeves book, The Other Side of the River, Reeves discusses Rick Joyner. Reeves, a former elder of a Latter Rain/dominionist church, states:
Joyner’s blatant Latter Rain beliefs were assimilated into our congregation on the wings of the mythical end-times revival which would supposedly sweep millions into the kingdom. A super-spiritual elite group of prophets and apostles will be raised up, Joyner states, and will transform the world of these last days, doing greater miracles than even the apostles who walked with our Lord. Whole nations will tremble at the mention of their names.
Interesting. Sounds a lot easier to deal with than Jesus’ prophecy that “[Y]e shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9).5
In Final Quest, Joyner says he hears from a dead saint (one of the foolish virgins mentioned in Scripture), who has told him the things that are to come. According to one researcher, “Rick Joyner was one of the ‘Kansas City Prophets’ who now wields considerable influence through his ‘prophecies’ about a coming militant church.”6 Joyner states:
We are coming to the times when passive Christianity and passive Christians will cease to exist. There is a maturity, a discipline, and a divine militancy coming upon the people of God. Those who have succumbed to humanistic and idealistic theologies may have a hard time with this, but we must understand that God is a military God. The title that He uses ten times more than any other in Scripture is “the Lord of hosts,” or “Lord of armies.” There is a martial aspect to His character that we must understand and embrace for the times and the job to which we are now coming.7
We know that the Lord will return with a cloud of witnesses to bring down judgment on the earth, but we don’t believe Rick Joyner or the self-proclaimed apostles and prophets will be leading the way.
Will the Christian Church Sell Out?
During the years just prior to the 2008 presidential election, an all out effort was made by leaders in the emerging church to help get elected a liberal, far left president. Many of these leaders, such as Rick Warren, said things that made many conservative Christians feel guilty for voting on moral issues such as abortion and homosexuality. Books by emerging “progressive” authors suggested that Christians shouldn’t even become involved in politics (e.g. Shane Claiborne’s book, Jesus for President) (see our booklet on this issue).  And while the older conservatives were being manipulated not to vote, young Christians were being persuaded to vote differently than their “old fashioned parents,” to vote for social justice regardless of biblical standards or lack of them.  And, well, no need to say what these emerging efforts did to America.
No single political party can save the world. The Bible says that the closer we draw to the second coming of Christ, the worse the state of the world will be in. Rather than “evolving” into perfection, mankind is disintegrating.8 It’s because of man’s sin and a world that has for the most part rejected the Savior of the world. Revelation 12:9 states that the day will come when Satan will “deceiveth the whole world.” Yet just as Jesus gave the coin to pay the tax to Caesar, so too we as Christians can be responsibly active in our world. But foremost, let us remember that the Bible says we cannot serve both God and man at the same time (Matthew 6:24).The true calling of born-again believers is to preach the Gospel, make disciples, and contend for the faith. And we must never compromise by embracing dominionist agendas and interspiritual Peace Plans and joining forces with those whose goals and ambitions are contrary to the Christian commission given to us by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We must ask ourselves, is a militant dominionist agenda what we really want to embrace and support? Is it what we want to serve?
In a powerful radio interview a few years ago, former radio host Ingrid Schlueter addressed this dominionist agenda. She stated:
We have a group of leaders who are horrified with the moral collapse in this country. I am horrified with the cultural collapse in this country. We have a problem in identifying and discerning why our culture is collapsing. What we are seeing around us is not fruit of Christians not caring. It’s fruit of Christians abandoning the gospel. And if we’re not going to define the gospel along biblical terms, and we’re going to allow false teachers in among us, and we’re going to link arms with said false teachers, and we’re going to work with them who are preaching another gospel, who are teaching lies, if we’re going to link arms with them to save the culture, we are not only engaged in a futile effort, but God is going to, in turn, judge that conduct. Because judgment, Scripture tells us, begins at the house of God.9
An article on this issue states:
The sad fact is that great opportunities to present the message of the gospel of salvation are being lost. Precious time is being wasted . . . Those who truly need to hear a message of repentance, salvation and hope aren’t being witnessed to. Discipleship isn’t happening. . . . It is a false gospel that preaches that the culture/nation can be changed rather than focusing on the lost who will perish in hell if they do not repent. . . . And when the lost are truly saved and born again, their lives will change and this is when the miracles begin to happen and when the culture around them begins to be positively impacted by the salt and light of their changed lives.10
Lighthouse Trails is dedicated to warning the sheep about last-days spiritual deception. While it is difficult to have to sound this warning at a time when many are concerned about the state of their countries and the world at large, Jesus made it very clear about how we are to view the world, behave in the world, and reach out to the unsaved. He never told his disciples to form associations with those promoting spiritual deception in order to establish a kingdom on earth. On the contrary, Jesus said:
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. (John 15:18-19)
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. (2 Corinthians 6:17)
My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. (John 18:36)
Notes:
  1. “Dominionism and the Rise of Christian Imperialism”: http://www.crossroad.to
  2. “Seven Mountains Set to Go Viral
  3. Discernment Ministries in an e-mail conversation on 8/15/2011 with Lighthouse Trails.
  4. “Blues and Grays” by Roger Oakland
  5. Kevin Reeves, The Other Side of the River, (Eureka, MT: Lighthouse Trails Publishing, 2007), p. 99.
  6. http://www.discernment-ministries.org/ChristianImperialism.htm
  7. “TAKING THE LAND—“We Are Establishing Our Eternal Place And Position Here On Earth” by Rick Joyner, 11/29/05, http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word.html?ID=3617
  8. Please watch Roger Oakland’s powerful DVD lecture series on evolution vs creation. It shows the connection between evolution and the current spiritual deception in the world today: Searching for the Truth on Origins.
  9. VCY America interview with Ingrid Schlueter
  10. “May Day Prayers: What Repentance?” 

Links to Paula White’s teachings (click here then scroll to the bottom of that page to see several video clips)

________________________________________________________
Remembering Ray Yungen and Richard Foster’s “School” of Contemplative Prayer
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 begannearly 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 promoting Richard Foster’s writings. The notice was from a group called Conversatio Divina (from The Dallas Willard Center). The late Dallas Willard was the man who initially influenced Foster toward the contemplative path. We consider these two men (Willard and Foster) the leading pioneers in bringing contemplative spirituality into the evangelical church (something that has had devastating results).
We estimate that, to one degree or another, almost every evangelical church in North America has been affected by contemplative spirituality (i.e., Spiritual Formation). If that sounds like an exaggeration, consider this as one way this happened: In Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Church (his first book which has sold over 1 million copies), Warren identified Willard and Foster as the two key players in the Spiritual Formation (i.e., contemplative prayer) movement (p. 126). Later in his book The Purpose Driven Life (which has sold over 32 million copies and been used by over 400,000 pastors), Warren encouraged the use of contemplative breath prayers (p. 115) and “practicing the presence” (pp. 114-116). Between the two books, tens of millions of Christians and hundreds of thousands of pastors have been introduced to contemplative spirituality.
Below is an article Ray Yungen wrote about Richard Foster’s contemplative affinities. We encourage you to read it because sooner or later your church is going to encounter this deceptive anti-Gospel spirituality. And we hope when that day comes, you will be ready to identify it and stop it from entering your church.
A Serious Look at Richard Foster’s “School” of Contemplative Prayer
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By Ray Yungen
[W]e should all without shame enroll as apprentices in the school of contemplative prayer.1—Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline: the Path to Spiritual Growth
Christianity is not complete without the contemplative dimension.2—Richard Foster
In Portland, Oregon there is a large bookstore devoted entirely to New Age spirituality. Every Eastern mystical and metaphysical topic under the sun is found there. Interestingly, there is a sizable section on contemplative prayer with Catholic monk Thomas Merton having a whole shelf devoted just to his writings. Why would a New Age bookstore give valuable space to a topic that purports to be Christian? That is a legitimate question. May I suggest the reason is that the “Christian” mystical tradition (i.e., contemplative prayer) shares a sense of profound kinship with the Eastern mystical tradition. There is ample evidence to support this claim.
In this booklet, we are going to examine a few of the major players in the contemplative prayer movement to show that Richard Foster’s “school” of contemplative prayer does not belong in Christianity. In fact, as you will see, the message behind it is the very opposite of biblical Christianity and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
What is the “School” of Contemplative Prayer? In Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster says “we should all without shame enroll as apprentices in the school of contemplative prayer.” What does he mean when he says “school” of contemplative prayer? When Foster uses the word school, he does not mean, of course, a building or an institution somewhere. For example, Webster’s New World College Dictionary has nine different definitions for the word school. The one that fits what we are trying to get across is:
. . . a group of people held together by the same teachings, beliefs, opinions, methods, etc.3
When one examines the spiritual context of this definition, one can see what kind of spiritual “fruit” it produces. The only way you can ascertain the real essence of a movement is to look at the leaders or prominent individuals in that “school” to see just where their practices have led them, what conclusions they have come to, and what propels their vision of truth.
Let’s first establish what is meant by the word contemplation. Carl McColman in his Big Book of Christian Mysticism explains the context of it in the following way:
[Contemplation] comes from the Latin word contemplare, which means “to observe” or “to notice.” The word is also rooted in the word “temple,” however, relating it to sacred space. . . . Once Christianized, contemplation lost its association with divination [soothsaying] and came to signify the prayerful practice of attending to the presence of God.4
So if Foster is correct, the leaders of this movement are those who have turned to the presence of God in a unique and profound way, and their methods should be followed to achieve the same results.
Now let’s look at the spiritual perspectives of these leaders in the “school of contemplative prayer.”
Thomas Merton Thomas Merton, a Catholic monk, is the most widely recognized of the modern-day contemplative writers. His influence is enormous in the contemplative field. Richard Foster quotes Merton over a dozen times in Celebration of Discipline and in other books as well, and many other evangelicals also quote Merton. The following entry from Merton’s published work, The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton (written during his last trip to Asia*) speaks volumes as to Merton’s spiritual sympathies:
We went looking first for Chatral Rimpoche [a Tibetan holy man] at his hermitage above Ghoom. . . . We were told he was at an ani gompa, a nunnery, down the road. . . . So off we went toward Bagdogra and with some difficulty found the tiny nunnery . . . and there was Chatral, the greatest rimpoche [a Buddhist teacher] I have met so far and a very impressive person.
. . . We started talking about dzogchen and Nyingmapa meditation and “direct realization” and soon saw that we agreed very well. . . . The unspoken or half-spoken message of the talk was our complete understanding of each other as people who were somehow on the edge of great realization . . . and that it was a grace for us to meet one another. I wish I could see more of Chatral. He burst out and called me a rangjung Sangay (which apparently means a “natural Buddha”) . . . He told me, seriously, that perhaps he and I would attain to complete Buddhahood in our next lives, perhaps even in this life, and the parting note was a kind of compact that we would both do our best to make it in this life. I was profoundly moved, because he is so obviously a great man, the true practitioner of dzogchen, the best of the Nyingmapa lamas, marked by complete simplicity and freedom. He was surprised at getting on so well with a Christian and at one point laughed and said, “There must be something wrong here!”If I were going to settle down with a Tibetan guru, I think Chatral would be the one I’d choose.5 (emphasis added)
An equally revealing aspect of Merton’s Asian trip is what he experienced at a Buddhist shrine in Ceylon:
. . . an inner clearness, clarity, as if exploding from the rocks themselves, became evident and obvious. . . . All problems are resolved and everything is clear, simply because what matters is clear. The rock, all matter, all life, is charged with dharmakaya[the unity of all things and all people]. . . I don’t know when in my life I have ever had such a sense of beauty and spiritual validity running together in one aesthetic illumination. Surely . . . my Asian pilgrimage has come clear and purified itself. I . . . have seen what I was obscurely looking for. I don’t know what else remains.6 (emphasis added)
Why would someone who was so heavily involved in “Christian” mysticism be so entwined in and enthusiastically embracing of Buddhist mysticism? I considered titling this booklet Something’s Wrong Here because even though Chatral meant it in a positive way, when he said those words to Merton, he himself was shocked that Merton, a professing Christian, was basically on the same page as him and that they were able to fellowship.
One of Merton’s biographers, William Shannon, made this very clear when he explained:
If one wants to understand Merton’s going to the East it is important to understand that it was his rootedness in his own faith tradition [Catholicism] that gave him the spiritual equipment [contemplative prayer] he needed to grasp the way of wisdom that is proper to the East.7
What Merton meant by “dharmakaya” is actually what the New Age and eastern religions call cosmic consciousness (i.e., God is in everything and everybody.) But Foster, in his book Celebration of Discipline, guarantees the reader that what he’s promoting will not lead to cosmic consciousness. He states, “It involves no hidden mysteries, no secret mantras, no mental gymnastics, no esoteric flights into the cosmic consciousness.”8
Foster’s attempt to assuage any suspicion of practicing contemplative prayer is countered by William Shannon’s assertion that it was precisely contemplative prayer that brought Merton into his embracing of this Buddhist worldview.
A skeptic might say, well, Merton was just an anomaly who got off track, but in general the contemplative leads to the God of the Bible. I beg to differ. To show this is not the case, we need to look at other teachers in the “school of contemplative prayer.”
Henri Nouwen Dutch Catholic priest, Henri Nouwen, would probably rank second to Merton in influence and admiration. Popular evangelical author Tony Campolo calls Nouwen “one of the great Christians of our time,” stating:
[Nouwen’s] writings have guided and inspired Christians of all persuasions . . . whose life was a brilliant example of twentieth-century saintliness.9
Campolo’s admiration is widely mirrored in the evangelical world; just as Merton is quoted in many evangelical books these days, so also is Nouwen. Kay Warren, Rick Warren’s wife, is one of the popular evangelicals who sees great value in Nouwen’s work:
My wife, Kay, recommends this book: “It’s a short book, but it hits at the heart of the minister. It mentions the struggles common to those of us in ministry: the temptation to be relevant, spectacular and powerful. I highlighted almost every word!”10 (emphasis added)
The book Kay Warren recommends is In the Name of Jesus by Nouwen, who devotes an entire chapter of that book to contemplative prayer, saying:
Through the discipline of contemplative prayer, Christian leaders have to learn to listen to the voice of love . . . For Christian leadership to be truly fruitful in the future, a movement from the moral to the mystical is required.11 (emphasis added)
But just as Merton had absorbed eastern spirituality so too had Nouwen, which is no surprise because he was a disciple of Merton. Nouwen wrote the foreword to a book that mixes Christianity with Hindu spirituality, in which he says:
[T]he author shows a wonderful openness to the gifts of Buddhism, Hinduism and Moslem religion. He discovers their great wisdom for the spiritual life of the Christian . . . Ryan [the author] went to India to learn from spiritual traditions other than his own. He brought home many treasures and offers them to us in the book.12
Nouwen apparently took these approaches seriously himself. In his book, The Way of the Heart, he advised his readers:
The quiet repetition of a single word can help us to descend with the mind into the heart . . . This way of simple prayer . . . opens us to God’s active presence.13
But what “God’s active presence” taught him, unfortunately, stood more in line with Hinduism than evangelical Christianity. He wrote:
Prayer is “soul work” because our souls are those sacred centers where all is one, . . . It is in the heart of God that we can come to the full realization of the unity of all that is.14 (emphasis mine)
Again, a Christian admirer of Nouwen may think the previous quotes could fit into a legitimate Christian experience of God’s love and grace and that I am just taking these out of context. But this is certainly not the case. Nouwen himself revealed his spiritual influences in his diary, Sabbatical Journey, which he wrote shortly before his death:
On our way to the health club I had bought a Walkman to listen to an audiotape with a talk by Matthew Fox called “Creation, Spirituality, and the Seven Chakras.” So, while working up a sweat on the trotter, I tried to make my time useful listening to Matthew Fox.15
This piece of information reveals that Nouwen was connected to the idea that the chakras, (which the previous quotes are based on) are integral to spiritual development. The crown chakra, in particular, is the one that is tied to the idea that all is one and the unity of everything that is.16
In the book, The Essential Henri Nouwen, which is published by Shambhala Publications (a Buddhist publishing house), Nouwen said contemplative prayer “opens our eyes to the presence of the divine Spirit in all that surrounds us.”17 That is exactly the same as what Merton meant by dharmakaya, that God is in everything that exists (panentheism, which mirrors occultism).
Thomas Keating Thomas Keating, a trappist monk like Merton, is head of an organization called Contemplative Outreach. He is closely identified with the contemplative prayer (which he calls centering prayer) movement. Keating has written numerous books on the subject of contemplative prayer; in fact, one of evangelical Christianity’s most popular teachers, Ruth Haley Barton, considers Keating to be a strong spiritual influence in her life.18
Keating actually makes this point when he informs his readers that “‘meditation’ means to people exposed to Eastern methods what we Christians mean by contemplation as a way of disregarding the usual flow of thoughts for certain periods of time.”19
As with the others, Keating went in a Hindu or New Age direction, and he wrote the foreword to a book devoted to what practitioners of Yoga call the Kundalini or serpent power:
Since this energy [kundalini] is also at work today in numerous persons who are devoting themselves to contemplative prayer, this book is an important contribution to the renewal of the Christian contemplative tradition. It will be a great consolation to those who have experienced physical symptoms arising from the awakening of kundalini in the course of their spiritual journey . . . Most spiritual disciplines world-wide insist on some kind of serious discipline before techniques of awakening kundalini are communicated. In Christian tradition . . . the regular practice of the stages of Christian prayer . . . contemplation are the essential disciplines.20
To show how far someone can stray using contemplative prayer as a way to reach God, Keating is a perfect example. Keating enthusiastically endorses a book titled Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey in Christian Hermeticism. Fortune-telling Tarot cards are one of the major tools for divination in occultism; and Hermeticism is a set of ancient esoteric beliefs based on the writings of Hermes Trismegistus, the one who coined the occult term “as above so below.” Keating said the book is one of the “great spiritual classics of this century.”21 He drifted so afield from even Catholicism that it is difficult to comprehend.
Richard Rohr Without a doubt, Catholic priest Richard Rohr is one of the most prominent living proponents of contemplative prayer today. His organization, The Center for Contemplation and Action, is a bastion for contemplative spirituality. And like our other contemplative prayer “school” masters, he has been embraced by numerous popular evangelical authors. Richard Foster, for example, had Rohr on an advisory board for a 2010 book Foster edited titled 25 Books Every Christian Should Read: A Guide to the Essential Devotional Classics.22
Rohr has essentially become the new Thomas Merton to an entirely new generation of evangelical Christians. In an interview, Rohr said:
[O]ne of my publishers . . . told me that right now my single biggest demographic is young evangelicals—young evangelicals. Some of my books are rather heavy. I’m just amazed.23
Rohr’s statement is correct about young evangelicals. A case in point is an organization called IF: Gathering. The leaders of IF are dynamic energetic women who hold large conferences geared primarily toward young evangelical women. While these women may be sincere in what they are trying to do, they promote figures such as emergent leaders Brian McLaren and Rob Bell, as well as Richard Rohr. Lighthouse Trails has published a booklet on IF that I encourage you to read to understand the full scope of this growing women’s movement.24
To further understand the significance of this, Rohr is a prominent champion for the idea of a global religion that would unify the world. He says that “religion needs a new language.”25 And that language to bring about this one-world religion is mysticism (i.e., contemplative prayer)! Rohr stated:
Right now there is an emergence . . . it’s coming from so many different traditions and sources and parts of the world. Maybe it’s an example of the globalization of spirituality.26
This view ties in perfectly with the emerging church’s perspective that is so popular among younger evangelicals today. It’s no wonder that Richard Rohr and emerging church leaders (such as Brian McLaren) are so supportive of each other and endorse each other’s books.
In echoing Merton and Nouwen, Rohr also advocates the concept of dharmakaya. This is the recurring theme of the “school” of contemplative prayer. Rohr states:
God’s hope for humanity is that one day we will all recognize that the divine dwelling place is all of creation. Christ comes again whenever we see that matter and spirit co-exist. This truly deserves to be called good news.27
To dispel any confusion about what Rohr is saying, he makes it clear in the same paragraph what he means by God dwelling in all creation. He uses a term that one finds throughout contemplative literature, which signifies that Christ is more of an energy than a personal being. Rohr explains the term “cosmic Christ,” telling readers that everything and everyone belongs to God’s kingdom.28 That’s even the name of one of his books, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer.
In his 2011 book, Falling Upward, Rohr implies that we (humanity) are all an “immaculate conception.”29 If these things are true, then there was no need for Jesus Christ to die on the Cross for the sins of mankind. We would not need a Savior because we would already be divine ourselves. In truth, contemplative spirituality is the antithesis of the Gospel. That is why there are countless mystics who claim to know God (or Jesus) but will have nothing to do with the Cross.
The New Age Connection Lighthouse Trails Publishing’s main endeavor since its inception has been to show the strong connection between the contemplative prayer movement and the broader spectrum of New Age spirituality as pointed out at the beginning of this booklet. One can prove the overwhelmingly strong parallels. The authors I have just profiled are not unique in what they say. I could list several pages of other contemplative authors that say the identical things.
I want to showcase one other author who represents the typical contemplative viewpoint. Tom Harpur, a well-known author, broadcaster, and Anglican priest in Canada sums up what you would find in virtually every contemplative book from the Roman Catholic and Anglican tradition. In talking about his upbringing in the traditional Anglican church, he explains the radical difference between his former Christianity and his contemplative Christianity:
There was much more emphasis on our basic sinfulness and depravity than there ever was on the possibility of God already being present in our souls or “hearts.” I was told to again accept Christ and “let him come in” instead of being helped to acknowledge the fact that all I had to do was to open my inner eye and realize God was already there waiting to be known and followed. We were taught little, if anything, about the great mystics and about the long tradition of meditation in our own Christian faith.30 (emphasis added)
Harpur makes Lighthouse Trails’ point very succinctly that the mystical tradition that is coming to the forefront now does not correspond to the biblical Gospel that has been at the heart of Christianity.
Let me say this: If the contemplative prayer movement was not connected to historically respected denominations, that if it was an independent organization such as the ones found in books on cults, then the contemplative prayer movement would be labeled a cult by most evangelical organizations because of the extreme aberrations one finds concerning the Gospel. Merton’s dharmakaya cannot be reconciled with justification through faith by the blood of Christ.
The Age of Enlightenment Another good example to show that contemplative prayer shares the same view as known occultists can be found in a book called Tomorrow’s God by New Age author Neale Donald Walsch, in which he presents the coming world religion that will unify mankind in what is called the Age of Aquarius or Age of Enlightenment (i.e., the New Age). He says the first step is to “[b]egin a schedule of daily practice in meditation, deep prayer, silent listening.”31 After giving the mechanics of the new spirituality, Walsch gives the theology which is: “In the days of the New spirituality the unity of all things will be experiential.”32
This is what the contemplatives experience in their mystical sessions. Walsch again says, “The Big Idea is that there is only One God, and this one God does not care whether you are Catholic or Protestant, Jewish or Muslim, Hindu or Mormon, or have no religion at all.”33 This is basically what Richard Rohr is saying in Everything Belongs. And this is the reason why Richard Foster’s “school” of contemplative prayer is not, and never will be, compatible with traditional biblical Christianity or the Gospel message proclaimed by Jesus Christ and his disciples.
Final Thoughts If I were to ever meet someone who asked me, “why are you out to destroy Richard Foster?,” I would tell them: I actually care about Richard Foster. The things I write about him are not out of malice or ill-will but out of a deep sense of commitment to his and his readers’ spiritual well-being. Celebration of Discipline is at the heart (both directly or indirectly) of the majority of Spiritual Formation programs in Bible schools, seminaries, Christian colleges, and universities. What the Tibetan holy man said in response to Thomas Merton’s belief—“There must be something wrong here!”—is the same sentiment that propels the writing of this booklet. There is something wrong here!
Contrary to what the contemplatives teach, there is duality, and the Bible teaches it—there are the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares, the saved and the unsaved, and the righteous and the unrighteous. New Age thinkers would reject this because they believe all is God. In the contemplative camp when Richard Rohr says everything belongs, this is what makes it New Age. The golden calf and Yahweh are not the same God. It was the cause for God’s anger. Simply put, everything does not belong!
My prayer is that people can see the logic in this. And what makes it even more imperative is that this contemplative view comes from supernatural sources. We are not dealing with just human perspectives and ideas.
Richard Foster’s “school” of contemplative prayer employs the same methods as those of Richard Rohr and Thomas Merton that lead to a certain perception. The following quote by Foster further illustrates this:
We shut out every other source of stimulation—sensual, intellectual and reflective—in order to focus on God alone. At this level, we even move beyond our thoughts of God in order to dwell in his presence without thought or distraction.34
This is exactly the contemplative prayer that Thomas Merton embraced, which led Episcopal priest Brian C. Taylor to say:
The God he [Merton] knew in prayer was the same experience that Buddhists describe in their enlightenment.35
What we conclude is that Thomas Merton’s spirituality has come into the evangelical church through Richard Foster’s “school” of contemplative prayer. And this is one school where no Christian should enroll.
To order copies of A Serious Look at Richard Foster’s “School” of Contemplative Prayer in booklet format,  click here.
Endnotes: 1. Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1978 edition), p. 13. 2. Interview with Richard Foster, Lou Davies Radio Program (KPAM radio, Portland, Oregon, Nov. 24, 1998). 3. Webster’s New World College Dictionary, p. 1283. 4. Carl McColman, Big Book of Christian Mysticism (Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Road Publishing, 2010), p. 222. 5. Thomas Merton, The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton (New Directions Books, 1975), pp. 234-236. 6. Ibid. 7. William Shannon, Silence on Fire (New York, NY: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1991), p. 99. 8. Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline (HarperCollins, 2009, Kindle Edition), p. 17. 9. Tony Campolo, Speaking My Mind (Nashville, TN: W. Publishing Group, 2004), p. 72. 10. Rick Warren quoting Kay Warren on the Ministry Toolbox (Issue #54, 6/5/2002, http://web.archive.org/web/20050306004007/http://www.pastors.com/RWMT/?ID=54). 11. Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus (New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing, 2000), pp. 6, 31-32. 12. Thomas Ryan, Disciplines for Christian Living (Mawah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1993), pp. 2-3 (the foreword by Henri Nouwen). 13. Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1991), p. 81. 14. Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1997), Jan. 15 and Nov. 16 daily readings. 15. Henri Nouwen, Sabbatical Journey (New York, NY: The Crossroad Publishing Company, Kindle Edition), Kindle Locations 496-497. 16. These two thoughts are found in the writings of Matthew Fox and many other New Age advocates. 17. Robert A. Jonas (Editor), The Essential Henri Nouwen (Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, 2009), p. 38. 18. Lighthouse Trails Editors, “More Evidence and a Final Plea as Assemblies of God Conference with Ruth Haley Barton Begins August 5th” (Lighthouse Trails blog: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=12401). 19. Thomas Keating, Intimacy with God (New York, NY: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1994), p. 117. 20. Philip St. Romain, Kundalini Energy and Christian Spirituality (Crossroad, 1995). This excerpt is in the foreword by Thomas Keating. 21. Thomas Keating, review: http://www.allthingshealing.com/Tarot/Book-Review-Meditations-on-the-Tarot/9699#.VeGxISLbKos. 22. Lighthouse Trails Editors, “Richard Foster’s Renovare Turns to Panentheist Mystic Richard Rohr and Emerging Darling Phyllis Tickle For New Book Project” (September 14, 2010, http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=4986). 23. Kristen Hobby, “What Happens When Religion Isn’t Doing Its Job: an interview with Richard Rohr, OFM” (Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction, Volume 20, No. 1, March 2014), pp. 6-11. 24. You can read the entire booklet at: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=17334 or purchase it as a booklet at www.lighthousetrails.com. 25. Kristen Hobby interview with Richard Rohr, op. cit. , p. 6 26. Ibid. 27. Rich Heffern, “The Eternal Christ in the Cosmic Story” (National Catholic Reporter, December 11, 2009, http://ncronline.org/news/spirituality/eternal-christ-cosmic-story). 28. Ibid. 29. Richard Rohr, Falling Upward (San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, 2011), p. ix. 30. Tom Harpur, Prayer: The Hidden Fire (Wood Lake Publishing, Kindle Edition, 2012), Kindle Locations 1099-1102. 31. Neale Donald Walsch, Tomorrow’s God (New York, NY: Atria Books, 2004), p. 223. 32. Ibid., p. 263. 33. Ibid., p. 241. 34. Richard Foster, Gayle Beede, Longing for God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2009), p. 252. 35. Brian C. Taylor, Setting the Gospel Free (New York, NY: Continuum Publishing, 1996), p. 76.
To order copies of A Serious Look at Richard Foster’s “School” of Contemplative Prayer,  click here.
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“The Kingdom of God on Earth” Without a King
BY ROGER OAKLAND
A cleverly devised plan is underway declaring the Reformation is over. The “Holy Spirit” is supposedly uniting the church for a mighty revival before Jesus returns. Ecumenical madness is spreading like a virus. Few pastors take the time to listen carefully to what the present pope himself is saying. He is all for unity with anyone and everyone who will join with Rome. This is what the Jesuit agenda is all about, to unite all people and all religions under the authority of Rome. And for the first time in history, the Roman Catholic Church has a Jesuit pope! When you consider that the first Jesuits five hundred years ago were commissioned by the pope to do whatever it takes to bring an end to the Reformation and then consider the efforts being made today by the papacy and some Protestants (such as the late Tony Palmer) to end the Reformation, it’s a chilling scenario.
The ecumenical wheel has many spokes, but all the spokes lead to the hub. The hub is the Vatican located in Rome with the pope on the throne of “Peter.” From there, the “kingdom of God” will be established. In an article titled, “Pope’s Mass: We’re not Christian Without the Church,” reporting on Pope Francis speaking to a large group assembled for Mass, we read:
There is no such thing as a Christian without the Church, a Christian who walks alone, because Jesus inserted himself into the journey of His people: This was Pope Francis’ reflection at Mass this morning in Casa Santa Marta. Beginning with the first reading of the day, Pope Francis said that when they proclaimed Jesus the apostles did not begin with Him, but the history of the people. In fact “Jesus does not make sense without this history” because He “is the end of this story, [the end] towards which this story goes, towards which it walks.”1 (brackets in original)
Obviously, with Pope Francis speaking to a group assembled before him as he is presiding over the Mass, when he says “church,” he is talking about the Catholic Church. Anyone who doubts he was addressing the Roman Catholic “faithful,” the following quote will confirm this:
Looking forward, the Christian is a man, a woman of hope. And in this, the Christian follows the path of God and renews the covenant with God. He continually says to the Lord: “Yes, I want the commandments, I want your will, I will follow you.” He is a man of the covenant, and we celebrate the covenant, every day in the Mass: thus a Christian is “a woman, a man of the Eucharist.”2
Or consider the following information available at the Catholic website Catholicism.org:
“Outside the Church there is no salvation” (extra ecclesiam nulla salus) is a doctrine of the Catholic Faith that was taught by Jesus Christ to His Apostles, preached by the Fathers, defined by popes and councils and piously believed by the faithful in every age of the Church. Here is how the Popes defined it:
  • “There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved.” (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.)
  • “We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.)
  • “The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church.” (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441.)3
Who Has the Keys to the Kingdom If you have ever walked around St. Peter’s Square in Rome, you will know there is a statue of Peter before you enter the basilica, illustrating one of the main pillars of the Roman Catholic Church. The statue represents Peter, the disciple Catholics claim was the one Jesus chose to become the first Pope. The claim is that Roman Catholicism is the only true representation of Christianity because its beliefs can be traced back to the appointment of Peter as the successor of Jesus. He was handed the “keys to the Kingdom” by Jesus, they say.
In order to trace the origin of this claim, we need to go to the Scriptures and check out if this claim is valid. It is based on the portion of Scripture found in Matthew chapter 16 when Jesus asked the disciples the question who do they say I am?:
When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. (Matthew 16: 13-21)
While Roman Catholics avidly believe Jesus chose a man to succeed Him to head the Church, that is not what Jesus said. Jesus was responding to the question He had asked and Peter had answered. Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The rock or the foundational belief that Christianity would be based on would not be following a man. The foundation was about knowing who Jesus is and the role He plays in history. This key was the key to the Kingdom of Heaven, not a key to a kingdom established here on Earth by a man even though it might be in the name of Jesus.
According to Roman Catholic dogma, the succession of popery throughout the ages has made the claim that salvation can only be dispensed by Rome. From the beginning, at Philippi, Jesus made it clear to the disciples and Peter that in no way should any man be followed and given a title to indicate he is a form of Jesus Christ in the flesh.
When Jesus told the disciples what would happen to Him and that He would suffer, die, and be resurrected, Peter refused to believe this vital message which fulfills the Gospel according to the Scriptures: The Bible states: “Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee” (Matthew 16: 22).
Jesus immediately responded to Peter’s heretical claim by saying: “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 16: 23).
Therein lies the error that has been passed down through the generations and has impacted not only the Roman Catholic Church but many Protestant pastors and leaders who profess to believe the Gospel of Jesus. It is man that gets between God and man. Men not only misunderstand what Jesus said about the rock or foundation that Christianity should be built upon, men take the position of the Good Shepherd and make the claim that they, and only they, have been given custody over the keys to the kingdom.
Kingdom-Now Evangelicals While Rome leads the way with the bold claim that God chose Peter and the succeeding popes to take the title of “Vicar of Christ” and determine what the sheep should or should not believe, other groups believe they have been called to usher in or even prepare and set up the kingdom of God here on Earth without the presence of the King. Often taking the position that Jesus will not actually physically return to rule and reign for a period of one thousand years, this group sees itself as chosen by God to be human vessels for this purpose.
Common names for this teaching are: Kingdom Now, Dominion Theology, and Reconstructionism. It is the idea that before Christ can return, the world must be brought together in unity and perfection, and this work will be done by the Christian church. Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven P.E.A.C.E. Plan, Jim Wallis’ social gospel agenda, and Tony Campolo or Brian McLaren’s emergent church are a few of the avenues through which this is being propagated. The goal is to basically eradicate all the world’s ills (e.g., disease, poverty, terrorism, and pollution) and thus, we will have created a “Heaven on Earth” Utopia.
While creating such a world sounds very good, it is not what the Bible says is going to happen. Many Scriptures, in both the Old and New Testaments, describe a very different scenario, such as the following:
Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:9-14)
The following list of the some of the erroneous teachings in Kingdom-Now theology illustrate how dangerous this belief system is, yet it has tremendously pervaded the church today:
  • Prophetic Scriptures are denied or fulfilled in 70 AD (as is also the belief of preterism).
  • The church is the new Israel (replacement theology)
  • Armageddon is the ongoing battle between the forces of light and darkness.
  • The Antichrist is a spirit, not an actual person.
  • We are already in the Tribulation, but at the same time, we are in the Millennium. It doesn’t get any stranger! It’s one or the other.
  • Rather than following traditional Bible prophecy, they follow “new revelations.”
  • Modern-day prophets must be obeyed and not judged for their inaccuracy.
  • They want to restore the Edenic nature even though Eden is where sin began.4
This movement has swept the planet, and those who refuse to join hands are considered “colonial,” “militant fundamentalists,” and “narrow-minded crackpots” who are not willing to catch the “new wave” and get on board with the mighty revival that is moving the world toward unity and peace. Many of the leaders in this movement have no problem whatsoever joining with the pope in Rome and the kingdom-of-Earth plans he has for joining together with other religions, including Islam.
While some discerning Christians can see how this trend plays a role in light of Bible prophecy, there is a huge portion of Christianity that does not. These are those who are reading books by authors who promote emerging church (or “progressive Christianity”) ideas for the postmodern generation that reject the teachings of the Bible and embrace establishing the kingdom of God on Earth right now. They are willing to join hands with other religions by reinventing Christianity into a “broad-way” spirituality where all are saved and part of God’s Kingdom. No longer do they believe in the “narrow road” to eternity. The kingdom of God is for all religions, they say (and even for those who believe in nothing). Unity, peace, connectedness, and oneness is all that matters, while biblical doctrine is being set aside as irrelevant to the “new reformation” at hand. Obviously, such a view leaves little room for the Cross and the biblical Gospel. And Scriptures such as this one are overlooked:
And he [Jesus] went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are. (Luke 13:22-25; emphasis added)
Unfortunately, while there may be many pastors, like Rick Warren, who still hold to a personal belief in Jesus Christ as their Savior, the time will come when the path they are now taking may cost them dearly. It is my hope that these leaders might wake up to see what they are doing before it is too late. And let us not forget the countless number of people following these shepherds who may never embrace a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ because of the truths being withheld from them for the sake of “peace” and “unity.”
It is also grievous to know that a good number of “Christian” leaders no longer believe (or have never believed) in the Cross as a propitiation for sin but maintain their belief that such a concept is both archaic and barbaric. They hold to the view that Christianity needs to be reinvented for our times. Brian McLaren, who in 2015 represented “Christianity” at the Parliament of the World Religions in Utah, holds to just such a view. In one interview, he said that the idea of God sending His Son to a violent death is “false advertising for God” and he equally rejected the doctrine of Hell as well.5
In addition, McLaren has played a significant role in promoting kingdom-now theology as can be seen in his book The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth That Could Change Everything. McLaren, who was once listed by Time Magazine as one of the top 25 most influential persons associated with evangelical Christianity, has sought to upgrade the Christian faith in order to make it relevant for today. He asks a number of questions at the beginning of his book that imply the church has misrepresented Jesus’ core message and promotes the idea that Christians need to be honest with themselves even if that means altering their faith. In this book, he makes the following statement:
Sadly, for centuries at a time in too many places to count, the Christian religion has downplayed, misconstrued, or forgotten the secret message of Jesus entirely. Instead of being about the kingdom of God coming to earth, the Christian religion has too often been preoccupied with abandoning or escaping the earth and going to heaven . . . We have betrayed the message that the kingdom of God is available for all, beginning with the least and last and the lost—and have instead believed and taught that the kingdom of God is available for the elite, beginning with the correct and the clean and the powerful.6
In McLaren’s 2016 book titled The Great Spiritual Migration: How the World’s Largest Religion is Seeking a Better Way to be Christian, he describes this all-inclusive “kingdom of God” that incorporates “multifaith [i.e., all religions] collaborations.” He states:
This kind of collaboration leads to a fresh understanding of what it means to evangelize. I was taught that it meant converting people to the one true religion, namely, my own [Christianity]. Now I believe evangelism means inviting people into heart-to-heart communion and collaboration with God and neighbors in the great work of healing the earth, of building the beloved community, of seeking first the kingdom of God and God’s justice for all. Members of each tradition bring their unique gifts to the table, ready to share and receive, learn and teach, give and take, in a spirit of generosity and vulnerability. Neither my neighbors nor I are obligated or expected to convert. . . . As we work together for the common good, we are all transformed. Those who haven’t experienced this kind of transforming collaboration simply don’t know what they’re missing. . . . Through multifaith collaborations, I have come to see how the language Paul used about one body with many members (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12: 4– 5) applies not only to differing gifts among individual Christians but also to differing gifts among religions.7 (emphasis added)
While many evangelicals have now pushed Brian McLaren to the sidelines of evangelical Christianity, others have continued carrying on his message, sometimes in more subtle ways. But as the Bible says, there is nothing new under the sun. Satan’s devices are always in play. His goal is to destroy the message of the Cross, and while he cannot ever actually destroy it, he can cause untold numbers to reject it by offering them substitutes. But we know there is no substitute for the finished work on the Cross by Jesus Christ, who is the only Savior for mankind.
What Does This Tell Us? There is a common cliché: if it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, and has feathers like a duck—it is a duck! In this article, we have touched on three different areas with regard to establishing the kingdom of God on Earth right now without the King. Is this what Jesus intended would happen, or are we being misled by human beings who are following the thoughts of their own imagination or worse yet the inspiration of Satan?
While the idea that the kingdom of God is being established here on Earth by human leaders has been around for centuries, we should pay special attention when current events reveal that though the world gets worse and worse, we are being told it is getting better and better. When false religions become part of the kingdom, then clearly, this is not God’s kingdom, but rather it is the kingdom that belongs to the god of this world. Jesus made it very clear there are two kingdoms—one of God and one of this world—when he told Pontius Pilate shortly before He was crucified, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Jesus also said to Pilate in that same conversation “Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” Ask yourself this, are you hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd, or is it the voice of the god of this world who leads a kingdom that is not of God?
Endnotes:
  1. Pope Francis, “Pope’s Mass: We’re not Christian without the Church” (Rome Reports TV News Agency, May 5, 2015, ).
  2. Ibid.
  3. “Outside the Church There is No Salvation” (Catholicism.org, “an online journal edited by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” St. Benedict Center, NH, ).
  4. Taken from “Kingdom-Now Theology” (Lighthouse Trails blog, March 6, 2007, ).
  5. Interview by Leif Hansen (The Bleeding Purple Podcast) with Brian McLaren, January 8th, 2006); Part 1 ; Part II ).
  6. Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2006), pp. 78-79.
  7. Brian McLaren, The Great Spiritual Migration (New York, NY: Convergent Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2016), Kindle location 2768.
Roger Oakland is the author of several Lighthouse Trails books, booklets, and lecture DVDs. He is the founder and director of Understand the Times, International and the Bryce Homes for Widows and Children.
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New Booklet: The Enneagram-An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception?
BY LOIS PUTNAM
NEW BOOKLET: The Enneagram—An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception? by Lois Putnam and the Editors at Lighthouse Trails is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklet. The Booklet is 18 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are available. Our Booklets are designed to give away to others or for your own personal use. Below is the content of the booklet. To order copies of The Enneagram—An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception? click here.
New Booklet: The Enneagram—An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception?

The Enneagram—An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception?

By Lois Putnam and the Editors at Lighthouse Trails
Today, there is an increasing amount of interest by Christians in the Enneagram, a nine-pointed diagram used to determine personality traits and character tendencies. While it may seem harmless and nothing more than a useful tool, the Enneagram is a seducing lure to deception and an example of what the Bible refers to as “the wiles of the Devil.” In this booklet, we hope to show how this tool is drawing participants away from biblical truth and in an enticing but dangerous direction.
A book titled The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Riso and Russ Hudson describes the Enneagram, stating:
The Enneagram . . . is a development of modern psychology that has roots in spiritual wisdom from many different ancient traditions. 1
The Enneagram Institute, a go-to website for information on the Enneagram, says:
The Enneagram . . . [is] one of the most powerful and insightful tools for understanding ourselves and others. At its core, the Enneagram helps us to see ourselves at a deeper, more objective level and can be of invaluable assistance on our path to self-knowledge.2
A 2017 Religion News Service article states:
In 1990, Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr effectively Christianized the [Enneagram] system for Americans when he published “The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective” in English. This sparked a growing interest that slowly crept into church pulpits and small groups. In 2016, Christianity Today published “An Evangelical’s Guide to the Enneagram” after InterVarsity Press became the first evangelical publisher to release a book on the topic.3
While the Enneagram’s popularity within the Christian church has continued to grow, especially among millennials, there have been those in the church who have voiced their concerns about the Enneagram. Martin and Deidre Bobgan, who have studied psychology from a biblical perspective for many years, say this about the Enneagram:
Although the Enneagram is purported to be an ancient spiritual tradition, it is relatively new to the Western world. George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, who brought the Enneagram to Europe in the 1920s, claimed it originated about 2500 years ago in a Babylonian wisdom school. He taught that each person is born with a “planetary body type” with certain physical and psychological traits. He believed that a person’s physical and psychological characteristics are related to a dominant endocrine gland and to planetary influences on that gland. This implicates the Enneagram with Babylonian astrology, since those characteristics would be signified by a point on the Enneagram.4
Apologist and author Mike Oppenheimer says this about the Enneagram:
Enneagram claims to be an entry point for deep personal healing and renewal. Enneagram is a psychological and spiritual system for a higher consciousness. We are told it will help us understand the personality types and the differences in each other which should reduce unnecessary conflicts (transforming one into a more tolerant person). We can transform our habits by being our own observer in how we think and go from unconscious behavior to conscious behavior. This is done through a series of probing questions called a Personality Profile questionnaire where one learns what his or her type is. . . . The nine lines comprise a perfect triangle and a twisted hexagon contained within a circle. This is a New Age-type mandala, a mystical gateway to personality classification. The drawing is based upon a belief in the mystical properties of the numbers 7 and 3. 5

Richard Rohr’s Role

At the very epicenter of today’s Enneagram movement is Franciscan priest Father Richard Rohr, founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC). Rohr’s website states:
Seven of the nine Enneagram types are associated with the “capital” or “deadly” sins which originated with the Desert Fathers. But it was not until the late 1960s that Oscar Ichazo began teaching the Enneagram as we know it today. From Ichazo’s school in South America, a group of Jesuits learned the system and brought it back with them to the United States. Richard Rohr learned about the Enneagram from this group and was one of the first people to publish a book about it in English.
The Enneagram gained popularity as a tool within spiritual direction.* Today it is widely taught as a way of understanding personality, addiction, relationships, and vocation.6 (emphasis added)
After Rohr learned about the Enneagram in the 1970s, he shared his Enneagram teaching on ten tapes, later writing his now classic best-selling book, Discovering the Enneagram: An Ancient Tool for a New Spiritual Journey (now titled The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective).
In Rohr’s book, he explains that the underlying premise behind the Enneagram is that each person has a “true self and a “false self,” and with the help of the Enneagram, we can identify our true selves, and thus having identified it, we can now be spiritually transformed to live in that true self. Rohr explains:
[Co-author] Andreas Ebert and I again offer the Enneagram as a very ancient Christian tool for the discernment of spirits, the struggle with our capital sin, our “false self,” and the encounter with our True Self in God.7
When Rohr, who is an outspoken panentheist, says “True Self in God,” he is referring to his belief that the true self is the God within every human being. In echoing the Catholic mystics Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen, Rohr advocates the concept of dharmakaya. Rohr states:
God’s hope for humanity is that one day we will all recognize that the divine dwelling place is all of creation. Christ comes again whenever we see that matter and spirit co-exist. This truly deserves to be called good news.8 (emphasis added)
To further understand what Rohr means when he says, “the divine [God] dwelling place is all of creation,” we need to understand his views about Jesus Christ. In an article on Rohr’s website titled, “The Cosmic Christ,” he says that Christ is more of an energy than a personal being:
Christ is not Jesus’ last name, but the title of his historical and cosmic purpose. Jesus presents himself as the “Anointed” or Christened One who was human and divine united in one human body—as our model and exemplar. . . . This Christ is much bigger and older than either Jesus of Nazareth or the Christian religion, because the Christ is whenever the material and the divine co-exist—which is always and everywhere. . . . The coming of the Cosmic Christ is not the same as the growth of the Christian religion. It is the unification of all things.9
For Rohr, Christ and humanity are not separate because Christ is not a person (or God come in the flesh to save man from his sins) but is an energy that exists in everyone and everything. Man’s only problem isn’t that he is sinful; rather, it is that he doesn’t realize he already has divinity within him. This is where the Enneagram comes in, for according to Rohr the Enneagram is a “key to self-knowledge,”10 and the goal for using the Enneagram is “an awakening of true self-love [i.e., the divinity within].”11

Rohr’s Enneagram Disciples

Some of Richard Rohr’s most popular “disciples” who carry on his Enneagram teachings include Ian Morgan Cron, Suzanne Stabile, and Chris and Phileena Heuertz (though countless others have been influenced by Rohr). Since each of these people has written Enneagram books and are key presenters and teachers of Enneagram programs, let us examine them to further understand the Enneagram.

Ian Morgan Cron’s Road to Self

Episcopal priest Ian Morgan Cron is a best-selling author and psychotherapist. He wrote the best-selling book (co-authored by Suzanne Stabile), The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery (published by InterVarsity Press). In chapter one, Cron relates how as a grad student, he found Rohr’s Enneagram book at a conservative seminary retreat. Upon showing it to his professor, he was told to get rid of it. Cron confided:
I was a young, impressionable evangelical, and though my gut told me my professor’s reaction bordered on paranoid, I followed his advice.12
Although, as Cron wrote, he didn’t read the book until later when he was re-introduced to it by his spiritual director, “Br. Dave.” Upon reading it, he tells how he discussed with Br. Dave his initial reactions to the Enneagram. As they talked, Cron shared a Thomas Merton quote with him which read:
Sooner or later we must distinguish what we are not and what we are. . . . We must cast off our false, exterior self like the cheap showy garment it is . . . We must find our real self, in all its elemental poverty, but also in its grand and very simple dignity created to be the child of God, and capable of loving with something of God’s own sincerity and his unselfishness.13 (emphasis added)
The theme of the “self” permeates Cron’s book. In fact, the word “self” is in his book over 160 times (e.,g., “self-knowledge,” “self-aware,” “real self,” “self-understanding,” “authentic self,” the “original shimmering self,” “true self,” “deep knowing of self,” “self-confident,” “self-actualized,” and so forth). Cron states:
[B]y overidentifying who we are with our personality we forget or lose touch with our authentic self—the beautiful essence of who we are . . . we have a God who . . . remembers who we are . . . and he wants to help restore us to our authentic selves.14
Here, when Cron equates the “authentic self” (i.e., true self) with “the beautiful essence of who we are,” he echoes Richard Rohr’s belief that within each person is divinity. Contrary to Rohr’s and Cron’s building up of the “true self” as divine and beautiful, the Bible speaks otherwise:
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51:5)
Cron a “champion of the Enneagram,” and “pioneer in the contemporary Enneagram movement” tells us who he is in his “Manifesto.” He begins with:
Today I will throw my hat into the ring of life. . . . I will stand on my own two feet and live my truth.15
Like so many in today’s post-modern “progressive” Western world, Cron will do his own thing and decide his own beliefs. To the contrary, Scripture reminds us that Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me.” A believer in Christ is not called to live his own truth but rather follow the One who says He is “the truth.” At the end of his Manifesto, Cron declares, “Today I will be my True Self.”16 This is the Enneagram’s goal like the book title says, The Road Back to You. Full of I, I, I.

Cron and Rohr Interview

Ian Cron hosts an Enneagram podcast titled “Typology. In “Episode 014: Richard Rohr, Finally Getting Over Your ‘Self’ with the Enneagram Pt.1,” Ian interviews Richard Rohr. He asks Rohr what has caused the “tidal wave of interest culturally and in church of personality identity”17 using the Enneagram. Rohr says its because we’ve done such a bad job of teaching Christians their “true identity.” We didn’t, he espouses, teach people about their images and their likeness of God. Rohr says most Christians find their identity in their group or denomination and never understand who they themselves are.
The crux of the interview is when Rohr asserts we don’t know our individual “Imago Dei” which cannot be given to us or taken away from us. This idea levels the “playing field of all humanity”18 says Rohr. Distinctions such as black and white, Catholic and Protestant, American and Canadian, or gay and straight do not mean anything. Rohr says that the “true gospel must be proclaimed that everything—humans, animals, or materials—is created in the image of a trinitarian and loving God.”19 Therefore, says Rohr, that settles all questions. For then we are all “universal children of God,”20 and thus, we are in “union” with all other children of God. Why? Rohr says it is because we all have the divine and the beautiful in us from the very start.
How contrary to the biblical Gospel that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and that in order to become a child of God, we must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. In Enneagramism, it’s not about sinners (“none that doeth good”—Romans 3:12) needing to be redeemed by a Holy God. There is no need for that. Rather, after working through our false self-delusions to find our true selves, we come to the realization that we have always been lovely and good. Ian Morgan Cron’s view of the self stands in stark contrast to the apostle Paul’s description when he says he has “no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3).

Suzanne Stabile

Suzanne Stabile, Cron’s co-author of the book The Road Back to You, is an internationally recognized Enneagram master, teacher, and author. Like Cron, Stabile is a great admirer of Richard Rohr and one of Rohr’s Enneagram disciples. After meeting Rohr, Stabile was so enamored with Rohr’s Enneagram program that she studied under him, consenting not to teach or share the material for five years.
At present, Stabile has conducted over 500 Enneagram workshops over the past 25 years, speaking to audiences at colleges, divinity schools, churches, and health centers. She has also taught at the Center for Action and Contemplation (Rohr’s contemplative center) and even internationally at Assisi with Rohr himself.
In a 2016 Houston Chronicle article titled, “Christians Rediscovering Ancient Enneagram,” Emily McFarlan Miller said she met Cron and Stabile at a Chicago Enneagram conference. Miller noted that Cron “thought the Enneagram was ‘genius,’ and saw nothing in it that conflicted with the gospel.”21 She wrote that Cron found it fascinating that even “the (conservative) evangelicals were completely fine with it.”22 Miller said that Stabile hoped that “teaching people to learn about the way they see the world and eight other ways people see the world will encourage compassion.”23 Stabile told Miller, “Our hope is that the book makes the world a more compassionate, more loving, and more generous place.”24 And this is the promise of the Enneagram, to make people (and the world) more compassionate, generous, and loving. The premise is, if we can somehow gain access to understanding our True Selves (i.e., the divine part of us), then we will become compassionate and loving individuals thus making the world a better place. But can the Enneagram accomplish this? If the premise is correct, then perhaps so. But according to the Holy Word of God, the premise of the Enneagram couldn’t be further from the truth.

Chris Heuertz

Chris Heuertz is another Rohr mentee and Enneagram enthusiast. Heuertz came from a Catholic family that converted to evangelicalism. His parents had six children. An article written by Jason Byassee titled “On the Side of Hope” describes how Heuertz’ parents worked seven jobs at one time just to send the children to private schools. Heuertz graduated from an Assembly of God high school and went on to Asbury College (now Asbury University).
In his book The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth, Heuertz states that the Enneagram is a tool for “excavating our essence, our True Self, from the lies, programs, and temptations we’ve wrapped around our identity.”25 (emphasis in original)
Soon after graduation from Asbury, Heuertz joined Word Made Flesh ministry to work with “the most vulnerable of the world’s poor.”26 This was how he landed in Calcutta, India working with Mother Teresa. Here he was later joined by his wife Phileena. Of the WMF organization, Jason Byassee wrote:
Rejecting the idea that missionaries bring salvation and services to benighted poor people, WMF has learned . . . that the poor are Jesus. WMF or ‘Fleshies’ . . . do not necessarily seek to fix poverty or convert people. Their first intention is to seek friendship with the poor. And through that they seek, with their friends, to be converted anew to God.27
Speaking of the “model of missions,” Heuertz states:
If I bring anything, it’s presence and hope . . . We work to recognize the divine imprint in all humanity, then together we are all converted to God. I’m not bringing a poor kid with me to Christ. I’m following their journey to the places in God’s heart that break in the face of such suffering.28 (emphasis added)
The Heuertz’ social justice work with WMF took them to Cambodia where Heuertz encountered the Enneagram. Fascinated, Heuertz later would delve deeply into the Enneagram, abandon his WMF community, establish the Gravity Center, and write The Sacred Enneagram(which we will talk about a little later in this booklet).

Phileena Heuertz

Phileena Bacon Heuertz was two years behind Chris at Asbury College. Phileena came from an evangelical family, her father being a Wesleyan Methodist pastor in Indiana. While working with WMF, the Heuertzes began their contemplative journey upon meeting Catholic contemplative priest Thomas Keating of Snowmass, Colorado. From him, they learned centering prayer (a form of contemplative prayer). The more they dipped into this contemplative path, the further they separated from their evangelical backgrounds. Eventually, in 2012, they left the WMF to establish the Gravity Center for Contemplative Activism.
Throwing aside her evangelical Wesleyan past, Phileena converted to Catholicism for she believed its rituals, liturgy, and prayer practices would best enhance her “inner work” to shed her false self and find her true self.29
Along the way, the couple met Richard Rohr, imbibed deeply from his teaching, and locked arms with him. Today, Phileena is on Rohr’s CAC board. Rohr, in turn, wrote the foreword to Phileena’s 2018 book Mindful Silence: The Heart of Christian Contemplation. Phileena is considered one of the top young contemplative prayer activists today. She is a retreat guide, a spiritual director, and a Yoga instructor and has spoken at numerous Christian universities including Biola University and Taylor University.

The Sacred Enneagram

In 2017, Chris Heuertz wrote what became a best-selling book, The Sacred Enneagram (published by Zondervan). In the foreword, written by Richard Rohr, Rohr writes:
Chris Heuertz, my dear friend and confidante, has gone on his own journey of transformation, I am most happy to recommend his excellent book on the Enneagram to you. In its pages you will find excellent content, many new insights, and the compassion that genuine spirituality always provides . . . You will not be the same after you read this book.30
Rohr is also an integral part of the Heuertz’ Gravity Center, serving as a founding board member much like Phileena serves on his CAC board. In two chapters of Heuertz’ book, he unlocks his agenda for the reader to couple the Enneagram to contemplative practices to achieve finding one’s true self.

A Sacred Map?

Throughout the book, Heuertz uses terms such as “sacred experience,” “sacred Enneagram,” and “sacred map.” He says:
When we give ourselves to the hard work of integrating what we have come to learn about ourselves, the Enneagram becomesa sacred map of our soul, one that shows us the places where we have vulnerabilities or tendencies to get stuck as well as the possibilities of where we can go for deeper freedom and inner peace.31 (emphasis added)
Here we can see that Heuertz has exchanged what gives true freedom and peace for a powerless substitute—the Enneagram! There is only one true “sacred map,” and that is the Word of God.
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
We do not find freedom and peace by identifying our “personality types” and discovering our “true selves.” The fact is, our true selves are our sinful, fleshly, carnal selves. It is only found in the person of Jesus Christ, who promises to come into our hearts and commune with us if we invite Him in and put our trust in Him (Revelation 3:20). Our Father in Heaven promises to deliver us from the kingdom of darkness (our fleshly carnal selves) into the kingdom of Light (through being born again into Christ).
[God] hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14)
The Enneagramites have missed the mark bigtime. They see the key to an abundant meaningful life lying in ourselves when in fact, it is quite the opposite as John the Baptist said when he proclaimed, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Jesus said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63). Paul, the apostle, said, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18). How interesting (and sad) that Chris Heuertz uses the term “Fleshie” to describe himself. Fleshies put the emphasis on how good their true selves are. “Believers” put the emphasis on believing in the finished work of the Cross (how good Jesus Christ is).

The Inclusive Kingdom

Chris Heuertz’ book, The Sacred Enneagram, uses The Inclusive Bible (authored by “Priests for Equality”) for all its Scripture quotations. Billed as the first egalitarian translation, a blurb on Amazon says:
. . . it is a re-imagining of the scriptures and our relationship to them. . . . [offering] new and non-sexist ways to express the same ancient truths. . . . Priests for Equality is a movement of men and women . . . where sexism and exclusion are left behind.32
Leaving “exclusion” behind is another way to reject the Bible’s message that says the kingdom of God is exclusive to “whosoever” believes on Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is the opposite of “inclusive,” which is the teaching of universalism (all are saved) and interspirituality (all paths lead to God). This inclusivism is what the New Age is all about.

The True Self

In Heuertz’ The Sacred Enneagram, the term “True Self” (capitalized to show the supposed divine attribute) is used over sixty times such as in the following quote:
The Enneagram offers much more under the surface. Its various facets—the names and needs, the Holy Ideas and Virtues—give us practical handles to better identify and understand our type. By digging deeper into the why behind each type we start to unravel the mystery of our True Self and essential nature. This is the real substance we aim for.33 (emphasis added)
Again, in Scripture, there is nothing good about our “essential nature.” The late Ray Yungen, who studied the New Age for many years, explains:
The New Age and Christianity definitely clash on the answer to the question of human imperfection. The former—the New Age—espouses the doctrine of becoming self-realized and united with the universe, which they see as God but in reality is the realm of familiar spirits. On the other hand, the Gospel that Christians embrace offers salvation to humanity through grace (unmerited favor). Romans 3:24 boldly states: “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
This gift is not earned or given as a reward for earnest or good intentions as Scripture clearly states: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
This Scripture that tackles the issue of pride sharply distinguishes all of man’s religions from Christianity. Religion persuades us that man is innately good and, therefore, can earn his way to Heaven through human perfectibility or, better yet, through the realization of his own divinity. Christianity emphatically states the opposite view that man needs to humbly recognize his own sinfulness and fallibility, and consequently needs salvation through grace.
The Holy Spirit, through the Scripture, convicts the sinner of his sinful and lost condition and then presents God’s solution—salvation through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the Cross (Ephesians 1:7 and Romans 10:9-10).
It all comes down to the preaching of the higher self [i.e., “True Self”] versus the preaching of the Cross.34

Essential Virtue and Purity

Throughout The Sacred Enneagram, there are over one hundred diagrams of Enneacircles and Enneacharts. One of these (on page 108) is titled “Virtue Structure.” Of this chart, Heuertz writes:
I . . . emphasize Virtue because when we do return to our essence [i.e., True Self] . . . Our Virtue is the lingering fragrance of our essential purity; it is what makes each of us beautiful. . . . Of course, returning to our Virtue is familiar, like a homecoming, because it is who we have always been.35 (emphasis added)
God loves humanity. It is why He sent His Son to die on a Cross so that any person who believes on Him would be reconciled to God. And God does value us (He would never have sacrificed His Son to save us if He didn’t). But He does not love us or value us because we are pure or holy or virtuous; rather, He loves us and values us in spite of the fact we are not those things. He loves us because His very nature is love, forgiveness, and holiness; and no matter how much we learn about “ourselves,” we can never come close to matching the nature of God (although He does promise the born-again believer that we can be partakers of His nature—2 Peter 1:4. But being a “partaker” is not the same as owning it yourself. It is someone else’s, and you are given access to partake in and benefit from it).
You see, the Enneagram is the very antithesis of the Gospel. With the Enneagram, man is glorified; with the Gospel, God is glorified. And if we love God, how can we not desire to glorify Him who alone has done so many incredible and awesome things and will continue to throughout eternity. How can we, who cannot even create a speck of dust, glorify ourselves and not our Creator? Isaiah 42:8 says, “I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.”

Contemplative Prayer and the Enneagram

It is important to note that the majority of those who teach the Enneagram are proponents of contemplative prayer. In chapter ten of The Sacred Enneagram, “An Invitation to Inner Work,” Heuertz introduces the reader to three prayers that can be used “as an on-ramp to the . . . Christian contemplative tradition.”36 Introduced first is centering prayer: “Praying with the Feeling Center.” Of its relationship to the Enneagram, Heuertz states:
Centering prayer. . . is easily aligned with each specific Enneagram type, but even more so, it may be among the most effective in confronting the root additions of each of the Enneagram’s Intelligence Centers.37
Second is St. Ignatius of Loyola’s “The Examen: Praying with the Head Center.”38 Last is, “The Welcoming Prayer: Praying with the Instinctive Body Center” whose creator was Mary Mrozowski. Mrozowski was a Catholic mystic and lay contemplative who in 1983 attended the first ever “Centering Prayer” retreat experiment at the Lama Foundation in New Mexico.** It was she who helped found the Contemplative Outreach Ltd. She was also founder of the Chrysalis House which became “an incubator” of contemplative prayer practices, especially centering prayer.39 She was close to and encouraged by the late Thomas Keating.
In Phileena Heuertz’ book Mindful Silence, she explains how “incredibly helpful” the Enneagram is for “spiritual development.”40 She assures her readers that using the Enneagram is a crucial part of “expanding consciousness.”41 She says:
The Enneagram is a powerful resource for the contemplative path, for as it deconstructs the false self, it simultaneously reveals your true self.42
“Waking Up,” the last chapter, describes Phileena’s ongoing search “to live into your divine nature”43 as she took time for a hermitage at the Lama Foundation.*
In the foreword of Mindful Silence, Richard Rohr praises how quickly “contemplative teaching is occurring in our time.” He then says that “we are building on the Perennial Tradition.” Rohr describes what he means by “Perennial Tradition” in a 2015 article on his website:
The things I teach come from a combination of inner and outer authority, drawn from personal experience and a long lineage of the “perennial tradition” . . . The Perennial Tradition points to recurring themes and truths within all of the world’s religions.44 (emphasis added)
The Perennial Tradition (or Perennial Wisdom as it is also called) is the belief that all the different religions in the world are interconnected through metaphysics (mysticism). The fact that the “father” of today’s Enneagram movement (Rohr) promotes the Perennial Tradition in a book written by one of his foremost disciples—openly welcomed in mainstream evangelicalism—should not be overlooked or dismissed as irrelevant; nor should the Enneagram’s compatibility and connection with contemplative prayer and mysticism.

Christian Leaders Promoting the Enneagram

With the growing popularity of the Enneagram in the evangelical church, many well-known Christian leaders are coming out in favor of it. One of these is Mark Batterson, the senior pastor of a mega church in Washington, DC. and the author of the New York Times best-selling book, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears. Lighthouse Trails released a booklet in 2017 titled Circle Making and “Prayer Circles” Versus The Straight Line of Truth, which addresses Batterson’s teaching on “circle making,” a practice he popularized inspired from rituals of an ancient mystic name Honi. Our 2017 booklet states:
[Batterson convinces] people that if certain rituals or methods are performed, then things can be changed. In his 2017 book Whisper: How to Hear God’s Voice, Batterson continues with this mystical focus (i.e., contemplative spirituality). In one section, he gives a lesson on Lectio Divina, a practice that involves taking a word or phrase from Scripture and repeating it slowly, which is said to facilitate hearing God’s voice (in reality, Lectio Divina is a gateway practice to full-blown eastern-style meditation).45
Knowing Mark Batterson’s mystical propensities, we were not surprised to learn that Batterson had endorsed Ian Morgan Cron’s 2016 book on the Enneagram, The Road Back to You. Of Cron’s book, Batterson states:
Ian Morgan Cron, partnering with Suzanne Stabile, has gifted us with another timely and brilliantly written book. We’ve long needed a fresh, spiritually grounded approach to helping people grow in self-knowledge and compassion. This is a winsome and thoughtful primer!46
On a podcast called Typology, hosted by Ian Cron, Cron interviewed Batterson on October 24, 2019. The show’s title was “The Blessings of the Enneagram” where Batterson talked about he and his wife’s “journey” with the Enneagram.47
Numerous other evangelical leaders are rallying behind the Enneagram as well. New York Times best-selling author and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries Lysa TerKeurst was on Cron’s podcast in June of 2019 talking about how much the Enneagram means to her.48 Other evangelical figures who promote the Enneagram are William P. Young (author of The Shack), Michael Hyatt (former CEO of Thomas Nelson publishers), Aaron and Shawna Niequist (Shawna is Willow Creek’s Bill Hybels’ daughter), and Anita Lustrea (co-hosted Moody Radio’s Midday Connection program for 15 years).

The Enneagram or The Word of God?

The Enneagram focuses endlessly on the self through self-awareness, self-observation, self-motivation, self-knowledge, self-love, self-wound, self-this, and self-that. For as 2 Timothy 3:2 states, “For men shall be lovers of their own selves.” Through the “Sacred Enneagram,” it is said we’ll discover that underneath all our failures of our false selves, we’ll uncover our essence—that true self enabling us to make our world a better and more compassionate place.
On the other hand, God’s view of our “selves” is that at our core, we are sinners as Romans 3:23 declares, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Therefore, we need to believe not in the power of the Enneagram or the voice heard in contemplative prayer but in a Savior who can save us from ourselves and our sins. Scripture says:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8,9; emphasis added)
In the end, it is through the Word of God and the sacrifice on the Cross by Jesus Christ, not the Enneagram, where we can find out who we are and what we must do. In 1 Corinthians 2:5, Paul tells us:
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
And as Proverbs 9:10 reminds us, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom . . .” not the Enneagram! We pray that this enticing tool of deception will be rejected by Christian believers, pastors, and leaders.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Colossians 2:8)
To order copies of The Enneagram—An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception? click here.
*Spiritual direction or spiritual directors are terms used in the contemplative prayer movement (i.e., Spiritual Formation movement). Contemplative spirituality is an ancient mystical prayer practice in which the participant goes into what is called “the silence” by repeating a word or phrase so that the mind is no longer distracted with thoughts. In this altered silent state, one can supposedly hear the voice of God and be spiritually transformed. Spiritual directors are utilized to help the contemplative meditator “discern” the voice and messages received during meditation. Rohr’s statement above reveals to us that the Enneagram and contemplative prayer (both based on mysticism) are very compatible with each other.
**The Lama Foundation is tied to a well-known spiritual teacher and New Age Hindu guru Ram Dass who wrote Be Here Now.
Endnotes:
  1. Russ Hudson, The Wisdom of the Enneagram (New York, NY: Bantam, 1999, online edition: https://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/DCARead?standardNo=0553378201&standardNoType=1&excerpt=true).
  2. https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/about.
  3. Jonathan Merritt, “What is the ‘Enneagram,’ and Why are Christians Suddenly So Enamored by It …” (Religion News Service, September 5, 2017, https://religionnews.com/2017/09/05/what-is-the-enneagram-and-why-are-christians-suddenly-so-enamored-by-it/).
  4. Martin and Deidre Bobgan, “The Enneagram versus Christianity Today (PsychoHeresy Awareness Letter, May-June 2017, Vol. 25, No.3, http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/enneagram.html).
  5. Mike Oppenheimer, “The Power of Personality” (http://www.letusreason.org/Current42.htm).
  6. “The Enneagram: An Introduction” (https://cac.org/the-enneagram-an-introduction/).
  7. Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert, Discovering the EnneagramAn Ancient Tool for a New Spiritual Journey (now titled The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective) (Chestnut Ridge, NY: Crossroad Publishing, 2016 Kindle edition), Kindle location 239.
  8. Rich Heffern, “The Eternal Christ in the Cosmic Story” (National Catholic Reporter, December 11, 2009), quoting Richard Rohr.
  9. Richard Rohr, “The Cosmic Christ” (https://cac.org/the-cosmic-christ-2015-11-05/).
  10. Rohr/Ebert, The Enneagram, op. cit., Kindle location 5200, p. 228.
  11. Ibid., Kindle location 5760, p. 256.
  12. Ian Morgan Cron, The Road Back to YouAn Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, Kindle edition, 2016), Kindle location 124, p.14.
  13. Ibid., Kindle location 182, p.18.
  14. Ibid., Kindle location 260-268, p. 23.
  15. https://ianmorgancron.com/about.
  16. Ibid.
  17. https://www.typologypodcast.com/podcast/2017/09/28/episode14/rohr.
  18. Ibid.
  19. Ibid.
  20. Ibid.
  21. Emily McFarlan Miller, “Christians Rediscovering Ancient Enneagram” (Houston Chronicle, October 8, 2016; ).
  22. Ibid.
  23. Ibid.
  24. Ibid.
  25. Chris Heuertz, The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017), p. 193.
  26. Jason Byassee,“On the Side of Hope” (https://faithandleadership.com/side-hope).
  27. Ibid.
  28. Ibid.
  29. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2Go9k5-y4k).
  30. Chris Heuertz, The Sacred Enneagram, op. cit., Foreword.
  31. Ibid., p. 32.
  32. “Priests for Equality,” The Inclusive Bible (UK: Rowman & Littlefield, Publisher, 2007), description on Amazon.
  33. Chris Heuertz, The Sacred Enneagram, op. cit., p. 39.
  34. Ray Yungen, “The Difference Between the Cross and the “Higher Self” (https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=16339).
  35. Chris Heuertz, The Sacred Enneagram, op. cit., pp. 108-109.
  36. Ibid., p. 227.
  37. Ibid., pp. 228-229.
  38. Ibid., pp. 229-231.
  39. “In Memory of Mary Mrozowski”
  40. Phileena Heuertz, Mindful Silence: The Heart of Christian Contemplation (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2018), p. 23.
  41. Ibid.
  42. Ibid.
  43. Ibid., p. 174.
  44. Richard Rohr, “The Perennial Tradition” (December 20, 2015, https://cac.org/the-perennial-tradition-2015-12-20/).
  45. Cedric Fisher and Nanci Des Gerlaise, The Circle Maker (https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=27394).
  46. Inside front cover of Road Back to You, endorsement by Mark Batterson.
  47. https://www.typologypodcast.com/podcast/2019/24/10/episode03-013/markbatterson.
  48. https://www.typologypodcast.com/podcast/2019/27/06/episode02-048/lysaterkeurst.
To order copies of The Enneagram—An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception? click here.

ARTICLES FROM LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS RESEARCH ON NEW AGE, ISLAMIC MYSTICISM, APOSTASY

THE ENNEAGRAM: DOES IT HAVE A PLACE IN CHRISTIANITY?

Definition of Enneagram: System of spiritual psychology based on an ancient Sufi [Islamic mysticism] typology of nine personality types or primary roles with the recognition of one’s type tantamount to a spiritual awakening” from Alternative Health Dictionary


Enneagram

Recently, Lighthouse Trails has received numerous inquiries from readers about the Enneagram because of it being used in their churches or by Christians with whom they are acquainted. Below, we are posting some various items we have on file regarding the Enneagram. We hope they provide enough information to cause any believer to stay away from the Enneagram (or to at least do further research before utilizing it). The first item is a letter to the editor we received a couple years ago that will help illustrate the problem.

Dear Lighthouse Trails:

I wanted to write and share with you yet another example of church leadership embracing New Age methods. Recently, an acquaintance on Facebook posted a link to an Enneagram chart happily reporting her number and encouraging others to contact her if they want to know more about the Enneagram. What concerned me the most is that this acquaintance is the wife of a pastor of a young, but rapidly growing church in our area. Though not familiar with the Enneagram, I knew it likely had mystic / New Age origins by its very description. It broke my heart that a pastor’s wife would encourage such a thing. A day after her post, and after researching it for myself, I reached out to her privately warning her of its roots. I encouraged this pastor’s wife that God’s Word is enough and then hoped for a gracious response.

Her response was quick and indeed gracious, but defended their use of the Enneagram by explaining how they have looked at several resources tying what the Enneagram reveals back to the Gospel and that they were using it much like the Myers-Briggs or other personality type system to learn more about each other in order to build one another up.

Sadly, that is how so many of these New Age ideas enter even the conservative church. Someone somewhere at some point put a Christian spin on such an idea, wraps it up in attractive packaging, and tags it “christian.” And the young, hip, “relevant” pastors / leaders gobble it up. All discernment thus goes out the window. For the discerner, it is both sad and frustrating.

I did reply back to my acquaintance and gently yet firmly challenged her that if they were indeed just using the Enneagram as a personality test such as the Myers-Briggs, why not then just use the Myers-Briggs? Why use something that opens up the door to other mystic / occult type practices that seekers or young-in-faith believers might choose to explore?

She never replied back.

This is yet another reminder of how Satan is the master of deceit and confusion. What better way to continue to destroy the church by “innocently” introducing things that seem otherwise “harmless”? Both leaders and lay people need to be courageous at speaking up and warning others about such practices and reject them unequivocally. 
Sincerely ___________

The following is an excerpt of an article written by Mike Oppenheimer:

Enneagram claims to be an entry point for deep personal healing and renewal. Enneagram is a psychological and spiritual system for a higher consciousness. We are told it will help us understand the personality types and the differences in each other which should reduce unnecessary conflicts (transforming one into a more tolerant person). We can transform our habits by being our own observer in  how we think and go from unconscious behavior to conscious behavior. This is done through a series of probing questions called a PERSONALITY PROFILE questionnaire where one learns what his or her type is.
The Enneagram symbol is a nine-pointed, star-like figure. The nine lines comprise a perfect triangle and a twisted hexagon contained within a circle. This is a New Age type mandala, a mystical gateway to personality classification. The drawing is based upon a belief in the mystical properties of the numbers 7 and 3. (source)

Excerpt from an Article by Ed Hird:
Enneagram and the Occult

Gurdjieff’s work led to the formation of the New-Age cult, Arica, founded by his disciple Oscar Ichazo. It was Ichazo and his colleague Claudio Naranjo (an instructor at the Esalen Institute) who together developed the Enneagram in the 1960s as an indicator of personality in its current form.(14) Naranjo merged the Enneagram with 9 of Freud’s 10 personality defense mechanisms….

Barbara Metz, SND, and John Burchill, OP, recommend the Enneagram as a way of engaging in “kything prayer”. Kything Prayer can be done with any other person, present or absent, dead or alive, whose Enneagramic reading ‘moves against your numerical arrows’. The key is to “let your center find itself within the person with whom you are kything” and to “Picture yourself within the [other] person.” An alternative form of Enneagramic kything is to “invite the other person’s spirit into themselves.”(19) One may very well ask how appropriate it is for Christians to be inviting the spirits of the dead into themselves. Does this not slide into occultic channeling/mediumistic practices that are clearly forbidden by Holy Scripture?(20) Is it enough for Enneagram advocates like Jim Scully of Pecos Abbey to say “that ‘occult’ and ‘satanic’ are not synonyms? God told me back in 1979 that the greatest issue facing the Church in the 1990’s would be the deception of inter-faith syncretism. Maybe it is time for us as Anglicans and Christians to truly wake up and repent of our syncretistic mixing of Christ and the occult, of good and evil, of truth and deception, of light and darkness. “Gurdjieff and the Enigmatic Enneagram” by Ed Hird, Anglican Renewal Ministries of Canada


An article from The Berean Call

Are You My Type? The Enneagram Catches on with Christians
The Enneagram came to the United States in the 1970s, where it initially caught on among Catholic seminarians and priests and became a tool for spiritual formation.
In its present form, the Enneagram includes nine personality types, or numbers, illustrated by a nine-pointed geometric figure. (The term Enneagram comes from the Greek words meaning “nine” and “drawing” or “figure.”) Each, at its worst, is tied to one of the deadly sins – plus two more traits that have been added in.
A person’s “type” is determined by self-examination; the goal being to better understand oneself – and one’s strengths, weaknesses and tendencies – and those of others.
But it may not be as modern as it sounds, or as alien to the faith as some might fear. In fact, some trace the Enneagram to a fourth-century Christian monk and ascetic named Evagrius, whose teaching later influenced the formation of the seven deadly sins, according to Cron and Stabile. Others detect elements of the Enneagram within Sufism and Judaism. (source)
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Marianne Williamson: If I Am President, I Will Take Control of Your Children and Make Them New Agers

By Philip Gray
Course in Miracles promoter, Marianne Williamson, who is running in the 2020 presidential election, has big plans for the children of this country if she is elected. Among other things, part of those plans is to make sure children in American public schools are trained in mindfulness meditation. While tens of thousands of public schools in the U.S. are already teaching children mindfulness meditation, no doubt, with a New Age president, every school would be including it.

As president, I would advocate for the following: Mindfulness training in the schools.—Marianne Williamson, 2019 (source)

Williamson also promises to advocate for “universal pre-K.” This would help make sure that children as young as 3 and 4 would be placed into the public school system. Advocates of universal pre-K believe they need more time with America’s children and want to get their hands on them much earlier than 5 or 6 (Kindergarten).
Parents beware. If Marianne Williamson (or another candidate with her “values,”) becomes president, this country’s children will be at even greater risk than they are now. And you can be sure, she will not be advocating for homeschooling families.
(photo from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission for editorial purposes)
_______________________________________________________________

The Significance of Understanding Leonard Sweet’s 
“More Magnificent Way of Seeing Christ”

LTRP Note: Over the past few decades, a number of New Age sympathizers have had a significant influence in the evangelical church. One of the chief is Methodist author, speaker, and teacher Leonard Sweet. Sweet openly calls the Father of the New Age Movement—the late Jesuit priest Teilhard de Chardin—“twentieth-century Christianity’s major voice.” Sweet also teaches the foundational New Age doctrine that God is “in” everyone and everything—that God is embedded in all creation. Brought forward and popularized by Rick Warren, Leonard Sweet and his New Age sympathies have not been adequately addressed by today’s pastors and church leaders. A look on Sweet’s website shows he has partnered with numerous popular figures such as Brian McLaren, Mark Batterson (Circle Maker), Erwin McManus, Mark Driscoll, Frank Viola, and Karen Swallow Prior (professor at Liberty University). The following booklet by Warren Smith reveals the “New Age Christianity” that Leonard Sweet has helped to bring into the church.

By Warren B. Smith
To survive in postmodern culture, one has to learn to speak out of both sides of the mouth.1—Leonard Sweet

Who is Leonard Sweet?

Leonard Sweet is an ordained Methodist minister who is presently the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. He is also a visiting distinguished professor at George Fox University in Portland, Oregon. On his various websites, he is described as a “scholar of American culture” who has authored over 60 books and 200 articles and has published over 1500 sermons. A “Phi Beta Kappa graduate,” he is a “frequent speaker at national and international conferences, state conventions, pastor’s schools, retreats” and “serves as a consultant to many of America’s denominational leaders and agencies.” Descriptive terms such as “distinguished,” “most influential,” “widely quoted,” “highly sought after,” and “the Picasso of Preaching” give visitors to his website the distinct impression that this is a man they should definitely pay attention to. And many people are doing just that.
Day-to-day believers may or may not be familiar with Leonard Sweet, but many in Christian leadership are very familiar with this self-described “semiotician.” According to his website, a semiotician is someone who “sees things the rest of us do not see and dreams possibilities that are beyond most of our imagining.” And as a “cultural futurist” and “Christ follower,” he seems to be very comfortable assuming the role of a postmodern prophet who provides hip observations of what is and what will be. His mission is to help the church become more culturally relevant in the 21st century. However, as he attempts to walk the narrow line between the Gospel and the world, he frequently walks over that line into the false teachings of the New Age/New Spirituality. When he does, legitimate questions need to be raised about what he is doing.
In June 2010, Sweet became the object of a swirling controversy, and his name suddenly disappeared from the list of scheduled speakers at a National Worship Conference taking place in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The controversy centered around the New Age implications of many of the quotes and teachings found in his 1991 book Quantum Spirituality: A Post Modern Apologetic. Prior to the conference, a number of people were starting to ask pertinent questions about Sweet and what he was teaching. In my 2009 book A “Wonderful” Deception, I wrote three chapters on Leonard Sweet and the obvious New Age implications of what he was teaching. In the first chapter on Sweet, I described some of my initial impressions regarding this man, and in particular, his book Quantum Spirituality:

Highly intellectual and well-read, Leonard Sweet almost dares you to keep up with him as he charges through the spiritual marketplace. Operating at lightning speed and quoting from countless books and articles, he will impress many readers with his quick wit and spiritual insights. However, as he treacherously dives into New Age waters and challenges his readers to go there with him, serious problems arise within his “postmodern apologetic.”
In reading Quantum Spirituality, I recalled the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus warned that you can’t serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). Leonard Sweet may be a professing evangelical Christian, but he also simultaneously praises New Age authors and their teachings.2

Sweet’s “Response” to Critics

Keenly aware of the controversy he has created, Sweet has a statement prominently posted on his present home website titled—“A Response to Recent Misunderstandings.” While his attempt to explain himself might satisfy the uninformed reader, his “Response” does not address the specifics of what he has written and is actually teaching. His simplistic denunciation of the New Age is unconvincing. His statement that the “New Age rhymes with sewage” and his encouraging the use of a “daily ritual of starting the day by standing in front of a mirror and saying: “God is God and I am not” do not speak to the fact that he has never even addressed, much less renounced, the specific New Age teachings that he was otherwise appearing to deny and disparage. And his stating “back when the New Age was a movement” completely misses the fact that the New Age movement never went away. Those of us who came out of New Age teachings and have been observing the New Age over the past several decades know that contrary to Sweet’s claims, the New Age movement has actually grown exponentially and is now mainstream and an inherent part of our culture. Due to its continued wide-spread growth and influence, the New Age threat to the church (and the world) is larger than ever before. But now it is just hiding in plain sight behind the facade of other names like “New Spirituality,” “New Worldview,” or in Sweet’s case—the “New Light” teachings of a “Quantum Spirituality.” But by any other name a rose is still a rose and the New Age is still the New Age.
Because Sweet’s “A Response to Recent Misunderstandings” left so many unanswered questions and because of his continued influence in the church, it seems imperative that thoughtful Christians take a deeper look at what Leonard Sweet is really teaching. For starters, here are five immediate concerns to consider.

FIVE IMMEDIATE CONCERNS

1) Leonard Sweet teaches the New Age doctrine of “Immanence” that would have the church believe God is “in” everyone and everything

In her 1948 book The Reappearance of the Christ, New Age matriarch Alice Bailey and her spirit guide Djwhal Khul describe how the path to their New Age God will be based on an “immanent” God that is “within every form of life”:

. . . a fresh orientation to divinity and to the acceptance of the fact of God Transcendent and of God Immanent within every form of life. These are the foundational truths upon which the world religion of the future will rest.3 (emphasis added)

Likewise, in his 1980 book, The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom, New Age channeler Benjamin Creme, states that the New World Religion will be based on the proposition that “Christ” is “immanent”—“in man and all creation”:

But eventually a new world religion will be inaugurated which will be a fusion and synthesis of the approach of the East and the approach of the West. The Christ will bring together, not simply Christianity and Buddhism, but the concept of God transcendent—outside of His creation—and also the concept of God immanent in all creation—in man and all creation.4 (emphasis added)

In Leonard Sweet’s 1999 book SoulTsunami—with its front cover endorsement by Rick Warren—Sweet introduces this same New Age idea of God not only being transcendent but also immanent. He writes:

To survive in postmodern culture, one has to learn to speak out of both sides of the mouth. It should not be hard, since Christianity has always insisted on having things both ways. Isn’t it based on the impossible possibility of Jesus being “beyond us, yet ourselves” (poet Wallace Stevens)? Biblical theological is not circular with a fixed center, but elliptical, revolving around the double foci of God’s immanence and God’s transcendence.5 (emphasis added)

Sweet clearly spells out what he means by “immanence” in his 1991 book Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic. As a self-described “radical,” he presents his “radical doctrine” that God is immanently embodied “in” His creation. He writes:

Quantum spirituality bonds us to all creation as well as to other members of the human family. . . . This entails a radical doctrine of embodiment of God in the very substance of creation. . . . But a spirituality that is not in some way entheistic (whether pan- or trans-), that does not extend to the spirit-matter of the cosmos, is not Christian.6 (emphasis added)

But Sweet’s “radical” panentheistic doctrine is a key New Age teaching—as is so much of what he wrote in Quantum Spirituality. In his “A Response to Recent Misunderstandings,” Sweet tries to dispel questions about Quantum Spirituality by saying, “Would I write the same book today? No. Would I say the same things differently? Yes. I started working on the book in my late 20s. I hope I’m older and wiser now.” But when it comes to the New Age implications of what he is teaching, he is not any wiser in regard to his previously stated New Age doctrine. In several subsequent books, Sweet reintroduces his New Age doctrine of immanence—that God is immanently embodied “in” His creation. For example, in his 1999 book Soul Tsunami, Sweet writes:

Postmodern evangelism is first of all telling people how special they are, how much God loves them, how unique each and every one of them is. The fourth-century theologian Athanasius said in one of his letters that God became one of us “that he might deify us in Himself.” Similarly, elsewhere he wrote that Christ “was made man that we might be made God.”7

In Sweet’s 2010 book Nudge: Awakening Each Other to the God Who’s Already There, he expresses in different words what he wrote in Quantum Spirituality about the “embodiment of God in the very substance of creation”:

An incarnational God means that God-stuff is found in the matter of the universe.8

In this same book he also wrote, “Nudgers help people discover their inner Jesus.”9 But God is not “in” everyone and everything. Jesus is not “in” everyone and everything. Sweet may seem to denounce the New Age, but what he is teaching is New Age. This is dangerous and unbiblical leaven. The apostle Paul lamented that it only took “a little leaven” to lure the Galatians away from the Gospel they once knew so well.

Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?  This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. (Galatians 5:7-9)

God states in the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The New Age “God” who is “in” everyone and everything is another “God” and therefore a false God. Contrary to Leonard Sweet’s teaching in Quantum Spirituality, God is not embodied in His creation. Contrary to his teaching in Nudge, “God-stuff” is not found in the matter of the universe, and everyone does not have an “inner Jesus.” Scripture is very clear. Man is not God because God is not “in” everyone and everything. In Jeremiah 16:20, God warned: “Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?” In Matthew 23:12, Jesus warned, “And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” For further scriptural references on why God is not “in” everyone and everything and how this false teaching has entered both the world and the church, see my booklet Be Still and Know that You Are Not God.

2) Leonard Sweet describes the “Father” of the New Age Movement” as “Twentieth-century Christianity’s major voice”

Sweet describes heretical Jesuit Catholic priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin—the “Father of the New Age Movement—as “Twentieth-century Christianity’s major voice.” 10 In her best-selling New Age classic, The Aquarian Conspiracy, author Marilyn Ferguson describes Teilhard de Chardin as “the individual most often named as a profound influence by the Aquarian Conspirators who responded to a survey.”11 He is also the most frequently referenced New Age leader in her book. The Teilhard quote “This soul can only be a conspiracy of individuals” is found on the very first page of her book and inspired her to title her book The Aquarian Conspiracy. Ferguson wrote that “Teilhard prophesied the phenomenon central to this book: a conspiracy of men and women whose new perspective would trigger a critical contagion of change.”12
Evident in his posted “Response,” Sweet appears to be baffled by everyone’s concern about some of the things he is writing. He seems to take any criticism as a personal attack. But this criticism, if you will, is not about him personally, it is about what he is teaching. Jesus didn’t say “Get behind me Satan” to Peter because he thought Peter was Satan. He said “Get behind me Satan” because of what Peter was saying. And because Sweet describes the “Father of the New Age movement” as “Twentieth-century Christianity’s major voice,” I believe the Lord would tell Leonard Sweet the same thing today. This should become especially evident when you read the following unbiblical statements made by Teilhard de Chardin in his book Christianity and Evolution:

What I am proposing to do is to narrow that gap between pantheism and Christianity by bringing out what one might call the Christian soul of pantheism or the pantheistic aspect of Christianity.13 (emphasis added)
The cross still stands . . . But this is on one condition, and one only, that it expand itself to the dimensions of a New Age, and cease to present itself to us as primarily (or even exclusively) the sign of a victory over sin.14
I can be saved only by becoming one with the universe.15
I believe that the Messiah whom we await, whom we all without any doubt await, is the universal Christ; that is to say, the Christ of evolution.16
[I]f a Christ is to be completely acceptable as an object of worship, he must be presented as the saviour of the idea and reality of evolution.17
A general convergence of religions upon a universal Christ who fundamentally satisfies them all: that seems to me the only possible conversion of the world, and the only form in which a religion of the future can be conceived.18

Teilhard Again?

Sweet’s affection for Teilhard de Chardin surfaced again in his 1999 book Aqua Church. After quoting a strong Bible-based stanza from the hymn “Jesus Savior Pilot Me,” Sweet follows it with a very revealing quote from Teilhard de Chardin. Teilhard stated that those who “see” Christ as he does understand Christ in “a much more magnificent way” than all those who went before him:

Christ is in the Church in the same way as the sun is before our eyes. We see the same sun as our fathers saw, and yet we understand it in a much more magnificent way.19

Really? Teilhard and his followers understand Christ in a much more magnificent way than their “fathers”? More than all the martyrs? More than the original disciples? This seems to indicate that Teilhard and Sweet and their “semiotic” emergent postmodern “Christ followers” are “seeing” something about Christ that the rest of the church does not see. Would Sweet have the church believe that Chardin’s seemingly updated New Age “Christ” is the real Christ? Is the “semiotic” Sweet trying to show us that if we adopt the New Age teachings of Teilhard, we, too, will “see” Christ in a “much more magnificent way” than the Christians who came before us? Sadly, it would seem that this is so.
Sweet seems to believe that with new understandings from quantum physics, a New Age/New Gospel/New Spirituality/Quantum Spirituality would enable Christians to see Christ in a much deeper and “more magnificent way.” The church would finally understand that the science of quantum physics proves that God is an energy force that interpenetrates and embodies His creation. Therefore, we are all “connected” because we are all “God” because God is “in” everyone and everything. Sweet argues that Christians of the past weren’t ready to deal with things like quantum physics, quantum wavelengths, and the New Age implications of a Quantum Spirituality that would totally transform their faith and challenge everything they thought they knew about being a Christian. In his 2016 book Jesus Speaks, Leonard Sweet writes:

The Holy Spirit brings Jesus’ voice to life through history, theology, science, and social experience. Jesus told the disciples, “I have much more to say to you” (John 16:12). In other words, Jesus was saying, “You can’t handle everything I have to say to you right now. Some of my truth has a wavelength, and it needs time, maybe even centuries, to play itself out.20

But this implies that God’s Word is incomplete and insufficient and therefore in need of new revelation. This is simply not true. Besides, when Jesus said “I have much more to say to you, He was talking to His disciples—not to the church today. It is also important to notice how Sweet conveniently squeezed “wavelength” into his interpretation of Jesus’ words to set up his Quantum Spirituality. But Jesus wasn’t withholding spiritual insights that would have to be delivered to His people two thousand years later. This kind of false teaching is an inherent part of the New Age deception. The fact is Jesus has already given us everything we need to know in His Holy Bible.
Jesus warned of false prophets who would come in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). And there would be those who honor Him with their lips, but their hearts would be far from Him (Matthew 15:8). He also warned of those who serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). Psalm 144:11 warns of vain men who deceive with the “right hand of falsehood.” In Psalm 12:2, David warned of those who speak with a “double heart.” In James 1:8, James taught that “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. In 1 Timothy 3:8, Paul referred to these same men as “double-tongued.” For Leonard Sweet to exalt the “Father of the New age movement”—Teilhard de Chardin—and suggest that Teilhard’s way of seeing Christ is a “much more magnificent way” than our forefathers is to fall prey to our Adversary’s deceptive devices. One thing is for sure: The New Age movement hasn’t gone away—it has entered the church through men like Teilhard de Chardin and those like Sweet who exalt him as “Twentieth-century Christianity’s major voice.”

(3) Leonard Sweet Praises New Age leaders as his “Heroes” and “Role Models”

While some Leonard Sweet defenders argue that his postmodern “New Light” apologetic flies right over the heads of “Old Light” “fundamentalist” types, the facts tell a different story. But what one learns in reading Quantum Spirituality is that Sweet wants to transform biblical Christianity into a Quantum Spirituality that is, in reality, a New Age/New Spirituality. Without any apology, Sweet writes that he is part of a “New Light” movement, and he describes those he especially admires as “New Light leaders.” But many of Sweet’s “New Light leaders” are New Age leaders who are in the process of overturning biblical Christianity through obliging New Age sympathizers like Leonard Sweet.

Sweet’s New Age “role models and heroes”

In the acknowledgments section of Quantum Spirituality, Leonard Sweet expresses his deep gratitude and admiration to various “New Light leaders” whom he openly praises as “the most creative religious leaders in America today.” But many of these “New Light leaders” are New Age leaders. Included in this group are a number of men I was very familiar with from my years in the New Age—among them are Willis Harman, Matthew Fox, and M. Scott Peck. Sweet describes these three men—along with numerous other New Age figures cited—as “extraordinary” and “great” New Light leaders. He goes so far as to say that they are his “personal role models” and “heroes” of “the true nature of the postmodern apologetic.” Sweet writes:

They are my personal role models (in an earlier day one could get away with “heroes”) of the true nature of the postmodern apologetic. More than anyone else, they have been my teachers on how to translate, without compromising content, the gospel into the indigenous context of the postmodern vernacular.21

But many of the men and women Leonard Sweet cited have compromised the “content” of the Gospel by translating it into the “postmodern vernacular” of a New Age/New Spirituality. For example, Willis Harman, Matthew Fox, and M. Scott Peck have all played leading roles in the initial establishment and popularization of today’s New Age/New Spirituality movement. But rather than commending these New Age/New Light leaders, a self-professing Christian leader like Sweet should be warning the church about them. A brief look at these three “New Light” leaders and their teachings will make this very clear.

Willis Harman (1918-1997)

Willis Harman is listed as one of the most influential Aquarian/New Age conspirators in Marilyn Ferguson’s The Aquarian Conspiracy. Harman was a social scientist/futurist with the Stanford Research Institute and one of the chief architects of New Age thinking. He wrote the book Global Mind Change:The New Age Revolution in the Way We Think. A review by The San Francisco Chronicle on the front cover of the book reads: “There never has been a more lucid interpretation of New Age consciousness and what it promises for the future than the works of Willis Harman.”22

Matthew Fox (1940- )

Another one of Sweet’s self-described “role models” and “heroes” is Matthew Fox, a former Catholic priest who was dismissed from the Catholic church for openly professing heretical New Age teachings—teachings that include those of his revered mentor, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Fox, like Teilhard, teaches that all of creation is the “Cosmic Christ”—therefore the Cosmic Christ is “in” everyone and everything. In his book The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, Fox writes: “Divinity is found in all creatures.”23 and “We are all royal persons, creative, godly, divine, persons of beauty and of grace. We are all Cosmic Christs, ‘other Christs.’ But what good is this if we don’t know it.”24 Leonard Sweet actually credits Fox in a footnote in Quantum Spirituality for inspiring Sweet’s own description of the “cosmic body of Christ” and actually refers readers of Quantum Spirituality to Fox’s New Age book The Coming of the Cosmic Christ.25

M. Scott Peck (1936-2005)

M. Scott Peck, the late psychiatrist and best-selling author of The Road Less Traveled, is another one of the “role models” and “heroes” that Leonard Sweet cites in his book Quantum Spirituality. The Road Less Traveled was on the New York Times best-seller list for over ten years. In a subsection of his book titled “The Evolution of Consciousness,” Peck describes God as being “intimately associated with us—so intimately that He is part of us.”26 He also writes:

If you want to know the closest place to look for grace, it is within yourself. If you desire wisdom greater than your own, you can find it inside you . . . .To put it plainly, our unconscious is God. God within us. We were part of God all the time.27

When Matthew Fox’s The Coming of the Cosmic Christ was published in 1988, the lead endorsement on the back of Fox’s book was written by M. Scott Peck. Peck and Fox were obviously in New Age agreement. Peck, like Fox and Sweet, describes Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in glowing terms. He describes Teilhard as “[p]erhaps the greatest prophet” of the “mystical,”  evolutionary leap that will take mankind toward “global consciousness” and “world community.”28 And it is this mystical New Age Christ of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Willis Harman, Matthew Fox, M. Scott Peck, and Leonard Sweet that challenges biblical Christianity today.

4) Leonard Sweet thanks New Age Leader David Spangler for helping him develop his Quantum Spirituality’s “new cell understanding of new light leadership”

If we want to possess a magic crystal for our New Age work, we need look no further than our own bodies and the cells that make them up.29—David Spangler, 1991
I am grateful to David Spangler for his help in formulating this “new cell” understanding of New Light leadership.30—Leonard Sweet, 1991

In his “A Response to Recent Misunderstandings,” Leonard Sweet states: “Because I quote someone does not mean I agree with everything that person ever wrote.” He goes on to say that “Some of the quotes I chose were meant to provide contrasting positions to my argument, some to buttress my argument, some even to mock my argument. The key consideration to whether I quoted someone was not ‘Do I agree with them?’ but ‘Does this quote energize the conversation?’ ‘Guilt by association’ is intellectually disreputable and injurious to the whole body of Christ.” But there is a big difference between “guilt byassociation” and “guilt by promotion.” Leonard Sweet is praising, thanking, and glorifying many of these New Age leaders—hardly guilt by association, especially when Sweet writes:

I believe these are among the most creative religious leaders in America today. These are the ones carving out new channels for new ideas to flow. In a way this book was written to guide myself through their channels and chart their progress. The book’s best ideas come from them.31

Ironically, one of the “channels” guiding him was an actual New Age channeler—David Spangler. A pioneering spokesperson for the New Age, Spangler has written numerous books over the years. His book The Revelation: The Birth of the New Age is a compilation of channeled transmissions that he received from his disembodied spirit-guide “John.” At one point in the book, Spangler documents what “John” prophesied about “the energies of the cosmic Christ” and “Oneness”:

As the energies of the Cosmic Christ become increasingly manifest within the etheric life of Earth, many individuals will begin to respond with the realization that the Christ dwells within them. They will feel his presence moving within and through them and will begin to awaken to their heritage of Christhood and Oneness with God, the Beloved.32

In a postmodern-day consultation that bears more than a casual resemblance to King Saul’s consult with the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28), Leonard Sweet acknowledges in Quantum Spirituality that he was privately corresponding with New Age channeler David Spangler. Sweet even thanks Spangler for assisting him in forming his “new cell understanding” of “New Light leadership.”33 But as believers we are to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.” Rather than thanking them, we are to reprove and expose them (Ephesians 5:11).

(5) Misapplication of Quantum Physics: Trying to Draw Spiritual Truth From Physical Theory

Leonard Sweet—just like New Age leaders—tries to use Quantum Physics to prove that God indwells his creation.

The coming together of the new biology and the new physics is providing the basic metaphors for this new global civilization that esteems and encourages whole-brain experiences, full-life expectations, personalized expressions, and a globalized consciousness.34—Leonard Sweet, SoulTsunami
When we experience such a quantum of transformation, we may simultaneously feel that the whole of the New Age is happening right now, that we are on the verge of overnight transformation—the fabled quantum leap into a new state of being.35—David Spangler, Reimagination of the World
We have the epitome of a great science . . . quantum physics . . . Everyone is God.36—New Age Channeler J.Z. Knight, What the Bleep Do We Know

In his book The Tao of Physics: An Explanation of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism, New Age physicist Fritjof Capra describes the union of mysticism and the new physics. He wrote “this kind of new spirituality is now being developed by many groups and movements, both within and outside the churches.”37 As an example of how this “new spirituality” is moving into the church, he actually cites one of Leonard Sweet’s “role models” and “heroes”—Matthew Fox.38
When Sweet refers to the new biology and the new physics as metaphors, he stretches these “metaphors” to the position of being actual fact. From his understanding of quantum physics, he asserts that all things are composed of energy and that this quantum energy must be God, hence God is embodied in all things. Yet, this metaphor falls on its face when we learn from Paul’s writings that God and creation are two separate things as is illustrated in chapter one of Romans: “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). Paul further exposes the error of spiritualizing physical creation showing that all things are not God, nor are they even spiritual. As he points out, the “earthy” is only temporary and will be done away with:

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption . . . There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. . . .  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. . . . Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. (1 Corinthians 15:42, 44, 48, 50)

Leonard Sweet and Rick Warren’s “New Spirituality”

In their 1995 joint presentation The Tides of Change, Leonard Sweet and Rick Warren had a quantum conversation as they discussed “waves,” “quantum metaphors,” “revival,” and what they were calling—even back then—a “New Spirituality.” Sweet told Warren:

Yeah, this is a wave period. I really love that metaphor of the wave and the wavelength. First of all, it is a quantum metaphor. It brings us out of the Newtonian world into this new science.39

Quantum waves, quantum wavelengths, quantum metaphors—all leading to a universal Quantum “God” and the Quantum New Age “Christ” of a New Spirituality, a New Worldview, and ultimately a New World Religion—a New World Religion that will be based on New Age teachings that have been labeled scientific but are, in reality, “science falsely so called”:

Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:19-21)

Conclusion

Teilhard de Chardin, Leonard Sweet, and an ever-growing band of New Age sympathizers would have us believe that all those who preceded us in the faith were unable to “see” the big picture, because, after all, they didn’t have access to all the new scientific discoveries that we have today—scientific information that would have helped them gain the new spiritual understandings that Leonard Sweet claims to have acquired.
In that vein, Leonard Sweet, Rick Warren, and other Christian leaders are now teaching that God is in the process of bringing a new “Reformation”40 and a “great spiritual awakening” to the church. Sweet writes: “God is birthing the greatest spiritual awakening in the history of the church.”41 Yet this new reformation and great awakening Sweet heralds, is falsely founded on his hybridized New Age Christianity with its “radical doctrine of embodiment of God in the very substance of creation.”42 Ironically, while Sweet—as previously mentioned—encourages “a daily ritual” of standing in front of a mirror affirming “God is God and I am not,” he at the same time tells people that, as a part of creation, God is embodied in them. He also encourages people to be “nudgers.” He says “nudgers are not smudgers of the divine in people.”43 “Nudgers help people discover their “inner Jesus.”44
When the true Christ was asked what will be the sign of his coming and the end of the world, He said, “Take heed that no man deceive you.”(Matthew 24:4)—that many false prophets would arise and deceive many (Matthew 24:11). He specifically warned us to beware of false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing. He said we would know them by their fruits.

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? (Matthew 7:15-16)

We must exhort one another daily. We must continue to preach the Word and not fall prey to those who would diminish the Word with their worldly wisdom, clever stories, metaphors, and false teachings. The Bible and our Lord Jesus Christ always have been and always will be sufficient for all our needs.

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

Regarding Leonard Sweet’s “radical doctrine of embodiment of God in the very substance of creation,” Jesus warns:

Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.45 (Matthew 15: 7-9)

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Endnotes
1. Leonard Sweet, SoulTsunami: Sink or Swim in New Millennium Culture (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), p. 28.
2. Warren B. Smith, A “Wonderful” Deception: The Further New Age Implications of the Emerging Purpose Driven Movement (Magalia, CA: Mountain Stream Press, 2009), p. 106.
3. Alice A, Bailey, The Reappearance of the Christ (New York, NY: Lucis Publishing Company, Lucis Press, Ltd., 1948), 1996, p. 150.
4. Benjamin Creme, The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom (London, England; The Tara Press, 1980), p. 88.
5. Leonard Sweet, SoulTsunami, op. cit., p. 28.
6. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic (Dayton, OH: Whaleprints for SpiritVenture Ministries, Inc., 1991, 1994), p. 125.
7. Leonard Sweet, SoulTsunami, op. cit., p. 304.
8. Leonard Sweet, Nudge:Awakening Each Other to the God Who Is Already There (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2010), p. 157.
9. Ibid., p. 40.
10. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, op. cit., p. 106.
11. Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s (Los Angeles, CA: J.P. Tarcher, Inc., 1980), p. 50.
12. Ibid., p. 25.
13. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Christianity and Evolution (New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanivich, Inc., 1971), p. 56.
14. Ibid,. pp. 219-220.
15. Ibid,. p. 128.
16. Ibid,. p. 95.
17. Ibid,. p. 78.
18. Ibid,. p. 130.
19. Leonard Sweet, Aqua Church: Essential Leadership Arts for Piloting Your Church in Today’s Fluid Culture (Loveland, CO: Group Publishing, Inc., 1999), p. 39.
20. Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, Jesus Speaks: Learning to Recognize & Respond to the Lord’s Voice (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, an imprint of Thomas Nelson, 2016), p. 85.
21. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, op. cit., p. viii.
22. Willis Harman, Global Mind Change: The New Age Revolution in the Way We Think (New York, NY: Warner Books, 1988), front cover.
23. Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row Publishers, 1988), p. 154.
24. Ibid., p. 137.
25. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, op cit., pp. 124, 324.
26. M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1978), p. 281.
27. Ibid.
28. M. Scott Peck, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1988), pp. 205-206.
29. David Spangler and William Irwin Thompson, Reimagination of the World: A Critique of the New Age, Science, and Popular Culture (Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Company Publishing, 1991), p. 62.
30. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, op. cit., p. 312.
31. Ibid., p. ix.
32. David Spangler, The Revelation: Birth of A New Age (Elgin, IL: Lorian Press, 1976), p. 177.
33. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, op. cit., p. 312.
34. Leonard Sweet, SoulTsunami, op. cit., p. 121.
35. David Spangler and William Irwin Thompson, Reimagination of the World, op. cit., p. 126.
36. What the Bleep Do We Know (DVD) (20th Century Fox, 2004, http://www.whatthebleep.com), transcribed by author.
37. Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics: An Explanation of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1999), p. 341.
38. Ibid.
39. The Tides of Change (A 1995 audio presentation with Leonard Sweet and Rick Warren that was part of an ongoing series called “Choice Voices for Christian Leadership,” distributed by Abington Press). On file with publisher.
40. Leonard Sweet, SoulTsunami, op. cit., p. 17.
41. Ibid., p. 34.
42. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, op. cit., p. 125.
43. Leonard Sweet, Nudge, op. cit., p. 31.
44. Ibid., p. 40.
45. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, op. cit., p 125.

To order copies of Leonard Sweet—A More Magnificent Way of Seeing Christ?, click here. 
Related Reading:
Be Still and Know That You are Not God!—God is Not “in” Everyone and Everything

SUE MONK KIDD: FROM SOUTHERN BAPTIST TO GODDESS WORSHIP

TWO NEW AGE MYSTICS 
SUE MONK KIDD: FROM SOUTHERN BAPTIST 
TO GODDESS WORSHIP
BY DAVID CLOUD
SEE: https://www.wayoflife.org/reports/from_sb_to_goddess_worship_sue_kidd.htmlrepublished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Republished February 13, 2019 (first published July 15, 2008)
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061
866-295-4143, 
fbns@wayoflife.org

Sue Monk Kidd is a very popular writer. Her first two novels, The Secret Life of Bees (2002) and The Mermaid Chair (2005), have sold more than 6 million copies and the first one is being produced as a movie. She has also written two popular books on contemplative spirituality: God’s Joyful Surprise (1988) and When the Heart Waits (1990).


Kidd is quoted favorably by evangelicals such as David Jeremiah (
Life Wide Open), Beth Moore (When Godly People Do Ungodly Things), Richard Foster (Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home), and Philip Yancy (Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?). Kidd’s endorsement is printed on the back of Dallas Willard’s book The Spirit of the Disciplines. She wrote the foreword to the 2006 edition of Henri Nouwen’s With Open Hands and the introduction to Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation

It is “contemplative spirituality” that changed Kidd’s life, and her experience is a loud warning about flirting with Catholic mysticism. 
She was raised in a Southern Baptist congregation in southwest Georgia. Her grandfather and father were Baptist deacons. Her grandmother gave devotionals at the Women’s Missionary Union, and her mother was a Sunday School teacher. Her husband was a minister who taught religion and a chaplain at a Baptist college. She was very involved in church, teaching Sunday School and attending services Sunday morning and evening and Wednesday. She describes herself as the person who would have won a contest for “Least Likely to Become a Feminist.” She was even inducted into a group of women called the Gracious Ladies, the criterion for which was that “one needed to portray certain ideals of womanhood, which included being gracious and giving of oneself unselfishly.” 

But for years she had felt a spiritual emptiness and lack of contentment. Prayer was “a fairly boring mental activity” (Kidd’s foreword to Henri Nouwen’s 
With Open Hands, 2006, p. 10). She says,
“I had been struggling to come to terms with my life as a woman–in my culture, my marriage, my faith, my church, and deep inside myself” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 8). 
She was thirty years old, had been married about 12 years, and had two children. 

Instead of learning how to fill that emptiness and uncertainty with a know-so salvation and a sweet walk with Christ in the Spirit and a deeper knowledge of the Bible, she began dabbling in Catholic mysticism. A Sunday School co-worker gave her a book by the Roman Catholic monk Thomas Merton. She should have known better than to study such a book and should have been warned by the brethren, but the New Evangelical philosophy that controls the vast majority of Southern Baptist churches created an atmosphere in which the reading of a Catholic monk’s book by a Sunday School teacher was acceptable. Their thinking goes like this: Who are we to judge what other people read, and who is to say that a Roman Catholic priest might not love the Lord?

Kidd began to practice Catholic forms of contemplative spirituality and visit Catholic retreat centers and monasteries.
“… beginning in my early thirties I’d become immersed in a journey that was rooted in contemplative spirituality. It was the spirituality of the ‘church fathers,’ of the monks I’d come to know as I made regular retreats in their monasteries. … I thrived on solitude, routinely practicing silent meditation as taught by the monks Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating. … For years, I’d studied Thomas Merton, John of the Cross, Augustine, Bernard, Bonaventure, Ignatius, Eckhart, Luther, Teilhard de Chardin, The Cloud of Unknowing, and others” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, pp. 14, 15). 
Of Merton’s autobiography, 
The Seven Storey Mountain, which she read in 1978 for the first of many times, she says,
“My experience of reading it initiated me into my first real awareness of the interior life, igniting an impulse toward being … it caused something hidden at the core of me to flare up and become known” (Kidd’s introduction to New Seeds of Contemplation, 2007, pp. xiii, xi).
Of Merton’s book 
New Seeds of Contemplation she says, “[It] initiated me into the secrets of my true identity and woke in me an urge toward realness” and “impacted my spirituality and my writing to this day.”

Merton communicated intimately with and was deeply affected by Mary veneration, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sufism, so it is not surprising that his writings would create an appetite that could lead to goddess worship. 

In 
The New Seeds of Contemplation, Merton made the following frightening statement that shows the great danger of Catholic mysticism:
“In the end the contemplative suffers the anguish of realizing that HE NO LONGER KNOWS WHAT GOD IS. He may or may not mercifully realize that, after all, this is a great gain, because ‘God is not a what,’ not a ‘thing.’ This is precisely one of the essential characteristics of contemplative experience. It sees that there is no ‘what’ that can be called God” (p. 13).
What Catholic mysticism does is reject the Bible as the sole and sufficient and perfect revelation of God and tries to delve beyond the Bible, even beyond thought of any kind, and find God through mystical “intuition.” In other words, it is a rejection of the God of the Bible. It says that God cannot be known by doctrine and cannot be described in words. He can only be experienced through mysticism. This is a blatant denial of the Bible’s claim to be the very Word of God. 

This opens the practitioner to demonic delusion. He is left with no perfect objective revelation of God, no divinely-revealed authority by which he can test his mystical experiences and intuitions. He is left with an idol of his own vain imagination (Jeremiah 17:9) and a doctrine of devils. 

Kidd’s own first two books were on contemplative spirituality.

The involvement in Catholic contemplative practices led her to the Mass and to other sacramental associations.
“I often went to Catholic mass or Eucharist at the Episcopal church, nourished by the symbol and power of this profound feeding ritual” (p. 15).
There is an occultic power in the mass that has influenced many who have approached it in a receptive, non-critical manner. 

She learned dream analysis from a Jungian perspective and believed that her dreams were revelations. One recurring dream featured an old woman. Kidd concluded that this is “the Feminine Self or the voice of the feminine soul” and she was encouraged in her feminist studies by these visitations.

She spent much time with a friend who had a feminist mindset and was “exploring” feminist writings, and she began to read ever more radical feminists, such as Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Elaine Pagels, and Rosemary Radford Ruether. 

We are reminded of the Bible’s warning, “
Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Cor. 15:33).

She says, “I began to form what I called my feminist critique” (p. 59). She learned to see “patriarchy” as “a wounder of women and feminine life” (p. 60). 

She determined to stop testing things and follow her heart, rejecting the Bible’s admonition to “prove all things” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
“I would go through the gate with what Zen Buddhists call ‘beginner’s mind,’ the attitude of approaching something with a mind empty and free, ready for anything, open to everything. … I would give myself permission to go wherever my quest took me” (p. 140).
She rejected the doctrine that the Bible is the sole authority for faith and practice. In church one day the pastor proclaimed this truth, and she describes the frightful thing that happened in her heart at that moment:
“I remember a feeling rising up from a place about two inches below my navel. … It was the purest inner knowing I had experienced, and it was shouting in me no, no, no! The ultimate authority of my life is not the Bible; it is not confined between the covers of a book. It is not something written by men and frozen in time. It is not from a source outside myself. My ultimate authority is the divine voice in my own soul. Period. … That day sitting in church, I believed the voice in my belly. … The voice in my belly was the voice of the wise old woman. It was my female soul talking. And it had challenged the assumption that the Baptist Church would get me where I needed to go” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, pp. 76, 77, 78).
She began to think that the Bible is wrong in its teaching about women and that women should not take the subordinate position described therein. She came to believe that Eve might have been a hero instead of a sinner, that eating the forbidden fruit had actually opened Eve’s eyes to her true self. Kidd came to the conclusion that the snake was not evil but “symbolized female wisdom, power, and regeneration” (p. 71). She was surprised and pleased to learn that the snake is depicted as the companion of ancient goddesses, concluding that this is evidence that the Bible is wrong. 

She determined that she was willing to lose her marriage, if necessary.
“I would not, could not forfeit my journey for my marriage or for the sake of religious acceptance or success as a ‘Christian writer.’ I would keep moving in my own way to the strains of feminine music that sifted up inside me, not just moving but embracing the dance. … I felt the crumbling of the old patriarchal foundation our marriage had rested upon in such hidden and subtle ways. Though both of us would always need to compromise, there was no more sacrificing myself, no more revolving around him, no more looking to him for validation, trying to be what I thought he needed me to be. My life, my time, my decisions became newly my own” (pp. 98, 125).
In her case, her husband stayed with her and came to accept her feminist vision, even leaving his job in the Christian college and becoming a psychotherapist, but in many other cases the feminist philosophy has destroyed the marriage. She says, “I’ve met women who in such circumstances have stayed and others who’ve left. Such choices are achingly difficult, but I’ve learned to respect whatever a woman feels she must do.” It is amazing how a person can come to the place where he or she is convinced that it is a righteous thing to renounce a solemn marriage vow that was made before God and man. 

She rejected God as Father. 
“I knew right then and there that the patriarchal church was no longer working for me. The exclusive image of God as heavenly Father wasn’t working, either. I needed a Power of Being that was also feminine” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 80).
She came to believe in the divinity of man.
“There’s a bulb of truth buried in the human soul that’s ‘only God’ … the soul is more than something to win or save. It’s the seat and repository of the inner Divine, the God-image, the truest part of us” (When the Heart Waits, 1990, pp. 47, 48).
“When we encounter another person … we should walk as if we were upon holy ground. We should respond as if God dwells there” (God’s Joyful Surprise, p. 233).
She began to delve into the worship of ancient goddesses. She traveled with a group of women to Crete where they met in a cave and sang prayers to “the Goddess Skoteini, Goddess of the Dark.” She says, “… something inside me was calling on the Goddess of the Dark, even though I didn’t know her name” (
The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 93). 

Soon she was praying to God as Mother.
“I ran my finger around the rim of the circle on the page and prayed my first prayer to a Divine Feminine presence. I said, ‘Mothergod, I have nothing to hold me. No place to be, inside or out. I need to find a container of support, a space where my journey can unfold’” (p. 94).
She came to the place where she believed that she is a goddess.
“Divine Feminine love came, wiping out all my puny ideas about love in one driving sweep. Today I remember that event for the radiant mystery it was, how I felt myself embraced by Goddess, how I felt myself in touch with the deepest thing I am. It was the moment when, as playwright and poet Ntozake Shange put it, ‘I found god in myself/ and I loved her/ I loved her fiercely’” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 136).
“To embrace Goddess is simply to discover the Divine in yourself as powerfully and vividly feminine” (p. 141). 

“I came to know myself as an embodiment of Goddess” (p. 163).

“When I woke, my thought was that I was finally being reunited with the snake in myself–that lost and defiled symbol of feminine instinct” (p. 107).

She came to believe in the New Age doctrine that God is in all things and is the sum total of all things, that God is the evolving universe and we are a part of God. 
“I thought: Maybe the Divine One is like an old African woman, carving creation out of one vast, beautiful piece of Herself. She is making a universal totem spanning fifteen billion years, an extension of her life and being, an evolutionary carving of sacred art containing humans, animals, plants, indeed, everything that is. And all of it is joined, blended, and connected, its destiny intertwined. … In other words, the Divine coinheres all that is. … To coinhere means to exist together, to be included in the same thing or substance” (pp. 158, 159).
She built an altar in her study and populated it with statues of goddesses, Jesus, a Black Madonna — and a mirror to reflect her own image. 
“Over the altar in my study, I hung a lovely mirror sculpted in the shape of a crescent moon. It reminded me to honor the Divine Feminine presence in myself, the wisdom in my own soul” (p. 181). She even believes that the world can be saved by the divine mother.
“I know of nothing needed more in the world just now than an image of Divine present that affirms the importance of relationship–a Divine Mother, perhaps, who draws all humanity into her lap and makes us into a global family” (p. 155).

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter ends with the words, “She is in us.”

According to this book, Kidd’s daughter, too, has accepted goddess worship.

We conclude by reminding our readers that Sue Monk Kidd is quoted favorably by evangelicals such as David Jeremiah (
Life Wide Open), Beth Moore (When Godly People Do Ungodly Things), Richard Foster (Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home), and Philip Yancy (Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?). Kidd’s endorsement is printed on the back of Dallas Willard’s book The Spirit of the Disciplines. She wrote the foreword to the 2006 edition of Henri Nouwen’s With Open Hands and the introduction to Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation. Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, praises Kidd’s book When the Heart Waits. He says, “As I read her book, Kidd became a companion. I love having her walk with me on my journey.”

LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS RESEARCH: “MY CHURCH-HEADING INTO TROUBLED WATERS WITH ONE DECEPTIVE TEACHER AFTER THE NEXT”

LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS RESEARCH: “MY CHURCH-HEADING INTO TROUBLED WATERS WITH ONE DECEPTIVE TEACHER AFTER THE NEXT” 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
 
Dear Lighthouse Trails:
I recently began reading A Time of Departing. A very well-documented book. I am blown away by the amount of research Ray Yungen put into that book! Thank you for publishing it. Thank you also for your posts dealing with the Spiritual Formation movement, contemplative prayer, etc. I do not know exactly how I first got onto the scent of the Spiritual Formation trail about two years ago, but I think it was through research I was doing into some “worship” songs that were being used at our church. While concerned for different reasons, I was introduced into Bethel Church (directly through our church’s music selection) and Spiritual Formation indirectly as I was becoming aware of the broader things that ail the “evangelical” church. Initially, I was concerned enough about what I was discovering about Spiritual Formation to learn more about it, but at the same time I was thinking, “this is important to know about, but I can’t see this affecting the Christian circles I run in.”
I was wrong.
After gaining a basic understanding on the ideas and players in Spiritual Formation, I moved on to other things. It was about six months later that our church (a small rural church) called a new pastor. It was kind of a “shot-gun” marriage so to speak. The elders announced they had found their candidate, he would preach in church on the following Sunday, a Q&A would follow the service, and a vote would be held two days later. Yikes!  As the Q&A began that Sunday, there was the initial awkward silence. No questions. I was thinking, “Good grief, this most likely will be our new pastor, we know next to nothing about him, and no one has any questions!” So I raised my hand to ask a question. Keep in mind that I am in introvert extraordinaire so I am about the last person to ordinarily speak in such a situation. What question(s) does one ask in such a situation when rightfully a million questions should be asked? I asked this: “What pastors/theologians do you read?”  I figured as with a book, the footnotes would give as much information on the content of the book as could be ascertained in such a short time. His reply, among other names, included Brennan Manning and John Ortberg. . . . That day there were one or two other questions on his philosophy of ministry and that was about it. The rest of the questions were small talk: dogs, cats, kids, weather, etc. I was quite disappointed that the members of the church seemed to care so little about his beliefs. . . .  The pastor was voted in as fully expected.
A few months later, a message went out to the women of the church from the pastor’s wife inviting them to go to an area church for the IF:Gathering. I had never heard of the IF:Gathering before, but thought I’d look it up. As you know, it is quite new so I could not find much information on it. Since the conference seemed to be flying under the radar, I began looking up who past speakers had been. Needless to say when I saw the likes of Jen Hatmaker and Christine Caine, I became concerned. It didn’t take me long to stumble across one of the speakers referring to “contemplative prayer.” Then another woman making the same reference. I began looking for connections between the other women and Spiritual Formation/Contemplative Prayer; it seemed like it was one right after another. Now this stuff IS showing up in the circles I run in! It just took a pastor and his wife who are big into the “conference culture” to bring it to us; the “conference culture” is new to our church and its absence had spared us from many of the things that ail evangelicalism.
At this point, I knew I could not be silent. I approached our pastor about my concerns. This is the first time I have approached a pastor about something that I have adamantly disagreed about, and that is no small thing for an introvert like me. One evening, we met and I read for about 1.5 hours the things that these women had written, said, and people that they quoted (the heretical, mystical, universalist Richard Rohr seemed to be their favorite person to quote). I think the pastor was taken aback both by what these women believed and that I was able to produce so much horrid material on them. I only read him their own words; I did not read him your blog (or anyone else’s) because I figured anything that was not original source material might be dismissed as opinion/speculation. He agreed that the mysticism was bad, but that they didn’t teach this stuff at the conference because his wife has gone before and she has good discernment. To me it does not matter if they teach this stuff or not, you are leading people to teachers who are into dangerous things. The claim that they do not “teach” this stuff at the conference may or may not be true, but IF:Gathering does sell on their website books on the Desert Fathers and Mothers, books written by Catholic spiritual directors, they include Richard Foster in their material, and they gave away Pete Scazzero’sbook Emotionally Healthy Spirituality to the live conference attendees this year.
Our pastor said he would think about what to do. Fortunately, he told the church that the church would no longer advertise the event due to some of the beliefs of the speakers. Unfortunately, his wife hosted the webcast conference as a private event in their home; about 1/3 of the women of the church attended.
There have been additional things that have occurred at church since then that very much make my future in that church quite uncertain.
I wanted to bring to your attention Chris and Phileena Heuertz. You mention each in passing in a couple of your blog posts, but nothing too in-depth. I first became aware of Phileena when I was researching Shauna Niequist for the IF:Gathering. Shauna is big into contemplative spirituality, and Phileena is the one who taught her Centering Prayer. Also, Shauna has written the foreword to one of Phileena’s books. Phileena Heuertz is a very memorable name, so while I did not devote too much attention to her in my research of Shauna, the name stuck with me.
Recently, the ladies of our church were invited to another upcoming women’s conference. Two of the speakers have been speakers at IF:Gathering. But there are two new faces, one of which is the “campus pastor” of the “conservative” Christian college hosting the event. She has a degree in Spiritual Formation and is into the Enneagram. When I looked further into her, I found that she has written an endorsement of Chris Heuertz’s book, The Sacred Enneagram. Furthermore, she has had Chris Heuertz [Phileena’s husband] speak a few times at that college’s chapels. Chris recently spoke at a local church on the Enneagram. He and his wife are constantly traveling and speaking at such events. Richard Rohr is a spiritual mentor to them both; Rohr serves on the board of directors of their organization (https://gravitycenter.com/home-page/host/community/board-of-directors/); another board member is a Muslim woman.
Anyway, I keep seeing this couple appear. I don’t know if their presence is growing or if I am just seeing them more because I know the name. I have never seen anything from either of these two that remotely approaches the Gospel. They are very much into interspirituality.
Much could be said about this couple, but here are a few things for your consideration:
This short video by Chris on his book is so un-Biblical it’s unbelievable that he would be permitted into a “conservative” evangelical college: https://gravitycenter.com/sacredenneagram/
A recent tweet from Chris showing his un-biblical worldview:
 


Here is a flavor of Phileena’s view on spirituality as seen in her recent reTweet: We are all of one religion? Really? More evidence where this mysticism really does lead.
 
Her tribute to Thomas Keating [who just died] (what an apropos photo to choose):
 
Anyway, I want to put this couple on your radar as they are up to no good and they are gaining acceptance into the evangelical church.
Blessings.
Jake
(photo: from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission)

BAD NEWS FOR GAITHER FOLLOWERS: GLORIA GAITHER PRAISES NEW AGE TEACHERS SUE MONK KIDD & RICHARD ROHR

BAD NEWS FOR GAITHER FOLLOWERS: 
GLORIA GAITHER PRAISES NEW AGE TEACHERS SUE MONK KIDD & RICHARD ROHR
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

Last week, we received the following information from a reader:

Gloria Gaither

Gloria Gaither

Dear Lighthouse Trails:
Gloria Gaither is the author of many influential songs
including “There’s Something About That Name.” She writes glowing
reviews of the two books listed below. One by Richard Rohr, a Roman
Catholic priest and the other by Sue Monk Kidd who believes herself to
be a goddess. These book reviews are from Bill & Gloria Gaither’s
Homecoming Magazine website.
Thanks,
Jeff
Quote by Gloria Gaither About Sue Monk Kidd:
“Most of the time I choose a nonfiction book that brings a new
insight or fresh approach to an eternal truth or encourages spiritual
growth in an area that seems to need emphasis for the times in which
we are living. But this time I am recommending the New York Times bestselling book of fiction, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees. . . . Sue
Monk Kidd is an amazing writer who tells a story with such skill that
she somehow manages to both prick our consciences and give us great
hope. (source)

Sue Monk Kidd
Sue Monk Kidd

Quotes by Sue Monk Kidd:

“I often went to Catholic mass or Eucharist at the
Episcopal church, nourished by the symbol and power of this profound
feeding ritual” (Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 15).
“I would go through the gate with what Zen Buddhists call
‘beginner’s mind,’ the attitude of approaching something with a mind
empty and free, ready for anything, open to everything. . . . I would
give myself permission to go wherever my quest took me” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 140).
“I remember a feeling rising up from a place about two
inches below my navel. . . . It was the purest inner knowing I had
experienced, and it was shouting in me no, no, no! The ultimate authority of my life is not the Bible;
it is not confined between the covers of a book. It is not something
written by men and frozen in time. It is not from a source outside
myself. My ultimate authority is the divine voice in my own soul.
Period. . . . That day sitting in church, I believed the voice in my
belly. . . . The voice in my belly was the voice of the wise old woman.
It was my female soul talking. And it had challenged the assumption
that the Baptist Church would get me where I needed to go” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, pp. 76, 77, 78, emphasis added).

Quote by Gloria Gaither About Richard Rohr:
In an interview between Gloria Gaither and Catholic mystic monk,
Richard Rohr, Gaither said: “First of all, I want to say thank you to
you [Richard Rohr] because so many of your books have been impacting
my life, especially Falling Upward. I think that changed my
thinking about . . . just about everything. We have studied that book
in our Monday night Bible study.” (source)

Richard Rohr

Richard Rohr

Quotes by Richard Rohr:

“every time God forgives us, God is saying that God’s own
rules do not matter as much as the relationship that God wants to
create with us.”― Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
“The most amazing fact about Jesus, unlike almost any
other religious founder, is that he found God in disorder and
imperfection—and told us that we must do the same or we would never be
content on this earth. ”― Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See

LTRP Comments: In 2009, we were first alerted to the direction that the Gaithers appeared to be going, and we posted an article titled, “Gaither Family Fest To Include The Shack Author.” In that article, we stated:

Bill and Gloria Gaither will be hosting the 19th annual Family Fest in May and will be featuring The Shack
author William Paul Young. The Gaithers have been a popular Christian
music team for many years. . . . In 2005, the Gaithers held their
Gaithers Praise Gathering in which they invited Brian McLaren, Leonard
Sweet, and other emerging church leaders to be speakers. In 2008, at
the Gaither’s Fall Festival, Brian McLaren’s book, The Secret Message of Jesus (see Faith Undone
for information on that book) was featured in the Readers Breakfast
Club. Gloria Gaither is also on the Advisory Board for the Spirit and
Place Festival, an organization sympathetic to the “new (age)
spirituality.” McLaren is a featured personality in that organization.
The Gaither’s promotion of The Shack, Brian McLaren, and
Leonard Sweet are strong indicators that the Gaithers are attracted to
emerging spirituality, and this will no doubt influence many of their
followers.

As for this promotion of Richard Rohr and Sue Monk Kidd,
this is a perfect example of the downward slide of deception. Sadly,
the Gaithers have millions of followers through their music, and now
these followers are being pointed to two New Age panentheists rather
than to the Cross. When the Gaithers wrote and sang “There’s Something About That Name [Jesus],”
who would have thought they would be able to sing such high praises for
people who are following a different Jesus and a different Gospel?
Additional Information on Sue Monk Kidd:
Of Sue Monk Kidd, Ray Yungen states:

[Sue] Monk Kidd’s spirituality is spelled out clearly in her book, When the Heart Waits.
She explains: “There’s a bulb of truth buried in the human soul
[everyone] that’s only God . . . the soul is more than something to win
or save. It’s the seat and repository of the inner Divine, the
God-image, the truest part of us. . . .
How did a Baptist Sunday school teacher come to believe
that divinity is within all? [A]Sunday school co-worker handed her
[Monk Kidd] a book by Thomas Merton telling her she needed to read it.
Once Monk Kidd read it, her life changed dramatically. What happened
next completely reoriented Sue Monk Kidd’s worldview and belief
system. She started down the contemplative prayer road with bliss,
reading numerous books and repeating the sacred word methods taught in
her readings.
She ultimately came to the mystical realization that: “I
am speaking of recognizing the hidden truth that we are one with all
people. We are part of them and they are part of us . . .  When we
encounter another person . . .  we should walk as if we were upon holy
ground. We should respond as if God dwells there.”-A Time of Departing, 2nd ed., p. 134-135

Dance of the Dissident Daughter, published six years after When the Heart Waits,
shows Monk Kidd’s transition into goddess and panentheist
spirituality, going so far as to say that God can be found even in
human excrement. In speaking about mysticism, she states:

As I grounded myself in feminine spiritual experience,
that fall I was initiated into my body in a deeper way. I came to know
myself as an embodiment of Goddess…. Mystical awakening in all the
great religious traditions, including Christianity, involves arriving
at an experience of unity or nondualism. In Zen it’s known as
samadhi…. Transcendence and immanence are not separate. The Divine is
one. The dancer and all the dances are one. . . . The day of my
awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God, and God
in all things (pp. 161-163, Dance of the Dissident Daughter).

Additional Information on Richard Rohr:
Rohr’s spirituality would be in the same camp as someone like Episcopalian panentheist Matthew Fox (author of The Coming of the Cosmic Christ). Rohr wrote the foreword to a 2007 book called How Big is Your God?
by Jesuit priest (from India) Paul Coutinho. In Coutinho’s book, he
describes an interspiritual community where people of all religions
(Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity) worship the same God. For Rohr to
write the forward to such a book, he would have to agree with
Coutinho’s views. On Rohr’s website, he currently has an article titled
“Cosmic Christ.” One need not look too far into Rohr’s teachings and
website to see he is indeed promoting the same Cosmic Christ as Matthew
Fox – this is the “christ” whose being they say lives in every
human-this of course would nullify the need for atonement by a savior.
________________________________________________________
SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS:
https://ratherexposethem.org/2018/01/contemplative-prayer-or-holy-spirit-it.html 
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/01/sue-monk-kidd-guideposts-norman-vincent.html 
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/01/sacred-shegoddess-worship-just-not.html 
https://ratherexposethem.org/2012/12/sue-monk-kidd-former-sbc-sunday-school.html 
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/04/much-more-on-rohr-plus-enneagrams.html 
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/04/associaacsi-still-promoting.html 
https://ratherexposethem.org/2015/09/a-serious-look-at-richard-fosters.html 
https://ratherexposethem.org/2016/02/david-g-benners-gift-of-being-yourself.html 
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/04/the-connection-between-lgbtq-soulforce.html 

MYSTIC HERETIC “SHACK” AUTHOR PAUL YOUNG STATES: “CHRIST IS ‘IN’ EVERY SINGLE HUMAN BEING”, IN JUST RELEASED NEW BOOK

 http://wmpaulyoung.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/perks-1.jpg
“SHACK” AUTHOR PAUL YOUNG STATES: 
“CHRIST IS ‘IN’ EVERY SINGLE HUMAN BEING”, 
IN JUST RELEASED NEW BOOK
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

By Warren B. Smith

For the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine; But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves
teachers, Having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from
the truth and shall be turned unto fables.
(2 Timothy 4:3-4)

YOUNG PUBLICLY ENDORSES UNIVERSAL SALVATION
In his just-released book (March 7th), Lies We Believe About God,
best-selling author Paul Young openly describes himself as a
universalist. In chapter 13, Young would have us believe it is a “lie”
to tell someone, “You need to get saved.”1 Young asks himself the
rhetorical questions, “Are you suggesting that everyone is saved? That
you believe in universal salvation?”2 He answers, “That is exactly what I
am saying!”3 Young then goes on to teach that “every single human being
is in Christ” and that “Christ is in them.”4 With this unbiblical
teaching, one recalls how Young put these same heretical words in the
mouth of his “Jesus” character in The Shack. He wrote:

God, who is the ground of all being, dwells in, around, and through all things.5

THE TRINITARIAN LIE
Young would have us believe his trinitarian lie that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit inherently indwell everyone.6
This is exactly what the false “Christ” of the New Age teaches. In
fact, it is the foundational teaching of the New Age/New
Spirituality/New World Religion that has progressively moved into the
world and into the church.

NEW AGE IN THE CHURCH
As I pointed out in my booklet, The Shack and Its New Age Leaven,7
the teaching that God is “in” everyone is a heretical New Age teaching
that has been increasingly popularized over the last thirty years by New
Age authors and teachers and heavily promoted by people like Oprah
Winfrey. Sadly, it is also found in the books and teachings of
well-known church figures like Robert Schuller, Rick Warren, Eugene
Peterson, Leonard Sweet, and Sarah Young.8 And in a November 1, 2016 Catholic News Service
article titled, “Pope Offers New Beatitudes for Saints of a New Age”
Pope Francis, in a Catholic Mass in Malmo, Sweden, proposed a new
“beatitude”—”Blessed are those who see God in every person and strive to
make others also discover him.”9

WHAT WILL THE CHURCH DO?
Paul Young wanted to have a conversation about the
nature of God, and that conversation is now front and center before the
church. Will pastors and leaders and day-to-day believers contend for
the faith and fight the good fight, or will they let false teachers like
Paul Young have their uncontested say and have their uncontested way?

Endnotes:
1. Chapter 13 title in Lies We Believe About God is “You need to get saved.”
2. William Paul Young, Lies We Believe About God (New York, NY: Atria Books; An imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2017), p. 118.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., p. 119.
5. William P. Young, The Shack (Newbury Park, CA: Windblown Media, 2007), p. 112.
6. In C. Baxter Kruger’s book, The Shack Revisited: There Is More Going On Here Than You Ever Dared to Dream, in the foreword, Shack author William Paul Young writes: I want to say, “Thank you, and please read The Shack Revisited.” He adds, “If you want to understand better the perspectives and theology that frame The Shack,
this book is for you. Baxter has taken on the incredible task of
exploring the nature and character of the God who met me in my own shack” (p. ix). On page 49 of The Shack Revisited , Kruger writes: “For inside of us all, because of Jesus, is nothing short of the very trinitarian life of God.” C. Baxter Kruger, The Shack Revisited: There Is More Going On Here than You Ever Dared to Dream (New York, NY: FaithWords), p. 49.
7. To read this booklet, click here: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=12290.
8.  I have documented a short history of how this deceptive
New Age teaching has entered the world and the church in my booklet Be Still and Know That You Are Not God. The booklet includes quotes by each of these figures. To read this booklet, click here: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=17572.
9. Cathy Wooden, “Pope Offers New Beatitudes for Saints of a New Age” (Catholic News Service, November 1, 2016,).
_____________________________________________________

 Fourth Letter to Christian Leaders Goes Out – 
A Warning About The Shack

Lighthouse Trails has now sent out its 4th letter since early 2016 to
over 130 prominent Christian leaders. Along with the letter, we
included a copy of the booklet we publish, The Shack and Its New Age Leaven
plus a news brief we released recently. Both the booklet and the news
brief are written by former New Age follower Warren B. Smith. Here is
the letter we wrote to the leaders introducing the material:

Dear Christian Leader:

Please find enclosed one of our booklets titled The Shack and Its New Age Leaven by Lighthouse Trails author Warren B. Smith along with a short news brief we released on March 9th. As you probably know, The Shack movie came out this month, which no doubt will bring renewed interest in the book, The Shack.
When you read this booklet and the news brief, we hope you will
understand our sense of urgency given that many Christian leaders and
pastors are now endorsing The Shack. In William Paul Young’s newest book, Lies We Believe About God, he once again openly rejects biblical tenets of the Christian faith.

We hope you will read and prayerfully consider the content of both the booklet and the news brief.

Sincerely in Christ,

The Editors at
Lighthouse Trails Publishing, Inc.

The letters and booklets were mailed out from our office in Montana on March 13th. You can read the news brief we included by clicking here. And here is the link to the content of the booklet we sent.

Since we began sending out letters and booklets to Christian leaders in early 2016, we have received the following responses:

Short letters of thanks from the ministry offices of: Chuck Missler, Nancy DeMoss, Tony Evans, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Beth Moore

Notes of thanks personally signed by Tim Tebow, Kay Arthur, George Wood (Assemblies of God General Superintendent)

A letter of thanks via e-mail from Ben Kinchlow’s ministry manager (Kinchlow is the founder of Americans for Israel and former 700 Club host)

An e-email from the office of Chuck Swindoll telling us to stop sending booklets (we have since removed his name from our list).

It is our hope and prayer that many of the leaders on our list will take a few moments to read the material we sent out on The Shack.

If you would like us to add the name of a leader to our
Christian leaders list, please send the name and mailing address to us
at: editors@lighthousetrails.com. Because of time restraints, we will
not be able to add a name without an address. Plus, because we cannot
send out these letters and booklets to every pastor in the country,
we ask that you only submit names of pastors and/or church leaders who
have written at least one book (you can check Amazon) thus moving him
or her into a place of influence throughout the church at large.

We wish we could send booklets to every Christian pastor in
North America. However, here is an idea given to us from one of our
readers for anyone who feels compelled to reach the pastors in his or
her denomination and/or state: Last month, a woman contacted us from
Mississippi who learned that we were sending out booklets to Christian
leaders and pastors. She said she was burdened for Southern Baptist
pastors in her state and asked us to put together a mailing of two
booklets and a letter and mail it to every Southern Baptist pastor in
Mississippi.  Our reader paid for the list (which we purchased for her),
the booklets, the postage, and our labor. At her request, we sent
each pastor a copy of 10 Scriptural Reasons Jesus Calling is a Dangerous Book by Warren B. Smith and 5 Things You Should Know About Contemplative Prayer by Ray Yungen. If you have a group you would like us to reach in this manner, please contact our office.

If you would like to view and/or print a list of the
Christian leaders we are currently sending booklets and short letters
to 3-4 times a year, click here.
Perhaps you would like to pray for these men and women who, in total,
influence millions and millions of people throughout the world.
Incidentally, just because a name is on this list does not necessarily
mean that leader is in deception. We have included a wide assortment of
names in this list. There are many pastors and Christian leaders who
may not be part of the deception but, for various reasons, are not
aware of what is happening in the church today.
_____________________________________________________

This is Not a Review of the “SHACK”: 
BY C.H. FISHER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

I’m not going to write a review or detailed critique of William P.
Young’s book or movie both entitled “The Shack.” The reason is because
there are already a number of good reviews available. You can access
plenty of information on Lighthouse Trails Research. What I will do is
present a warning.

First, I want to point out that there are some heresies and
deceptions that one should not need a review to recognize and reject.
The televangelist selling God’s favor, which increases with the size of
the donation, is one. Another one is a preacher smoking pot or getting
drunk on video while claiming that it is the way to get closer to God.
One more is the preacher that declares that God has entrusted only him
with new revelation essential to understanding the Bible. Likewise, does
anyone really need to inform a true Christian about what is wrong with
“The Shack”?

Now for the warning. God’s word declares that the end times will be
very dangerous for Christians. There will be many spiritually wicked
individuals masquerading as servants of God. They will present heresies
and other lies for the purpose of deceiving God’s people. However, some
professing Christians declare that it is impossible for Christians to be
deceived and apostatize. If that is true, then who is Satan deceiving
and who is apostatizing? The lost are already deceived and cannot
apostatize from faith that they do not have.

Obviously, the deception has to be very clever. If it were disguised
as an orange, it would appear exactly as a genuine orange. Therefore, we
can expect lies disguised exactly as truth. However, if people accept
enough false oranges loaded with a mind-numbing drug, it stands to
reason that false oranges will no longer be needed. Then whatever is
being disguised by the falseness will be offered without pretense.

Leading Christians accepted and promoted movies such as the “Son of
God” and “Noah”. Now professing Christians are accepting “Silence” and
“The Shack”, movies, which are more obviously wicked. Does anyone want
to know what is coming next that professing Christians might support?

William Paul Young, author of “The Shack”, wrote another book, “Eve.” Young explains about his book:

“As The Shack awakened readers to a personal, non-religious
understanding of God, Eve will free us from faulty interpretations that
have corrupted human relationships since the Garden of Eden.”

Any warning bells going off yet? If one is deceived by “The Shack”
one is probably unaware of the diabolical boasts in Young’s explanation.
Remember, this is not the author of a timeless Christian classic, but
the author of a heretical book that blasphemes the Holy Spirit.

What is it that Young intended to set us free from with “Eve”? Here are a few links in the chain of our “bondage.”

  1. The story of Creation is replaced by the Big Bang.
  2. Adam was an infant nursed by the breasts of God.
  3. Adam was a sinner before Eve was created.
  4. Adam became pregnant and gave birth to Eve.
  5. Adam and Satan conspired to deceive Eve.

But it gets even worse. Young has a new book entitled, “Lies We
Believe About God.” Here are some of what Young calls lies about God.

  1. “God wants to use me.”
  2. “God is in control.”
  3. “God is a prude.”
  4. “God does not submit.”
  5. “Hell is separation from God.”
  6. “Sin separates us from God.”
  7. “God is disappointed in me.”

If professing Christians accept the blatancy of that satanic
deception, their fate is sealed. When one of these books also becomes a
movie, professing Christians will fawn all over them and declare that
anyone that opposes them is ignorant or just plain mean-spirited.

The false orange is no longer needed. Professing Christians are
significantly deceived by number and intensity to consume the raw lies.

However, the subsequent deception does not stop with convincing them
to believe the lies. Additionally, they believe that the fact they can
so easily line up for the feast is not proof of deception. Instead, they
consider it to be evidence that they are superior in spirituality and
knowledge to the ones who refrain.   Tragically, those feasting masses
can be warned, but they are unable to receive the warnings.
_______________________________________________________

 When People Say, “But The Shack is Just a Novel!” 

A woman standing in line outside the theater to see The Shack movie was eager to talk with me about Paul Young’s best-selling book. She said she “loved” The Shack
and couldn’t understand why it had so many critics on the Internet. She
was especially perplexed by the number of “negative” comments made by
pastors. Obviously confused by all the controversy, she suddenly
exclaimed—”But The Shack is just a novel!”

What the woman and so many other Shack
readers fail to take into account is that the book is much more than
just a novel. It is a carefully crafted presentation of Paul Young’s
alternative “Christian” universalist theology based on “real”
conversations he claims to have had with God. In Young’s forward to The Shack Revisited, a book written by his friend C. Baxter Kruger, Young corrects any misunderstanding that The Shack is “just a novel.” He writes:

Please don’t misunderstand me; The Shack is theology. But it is theology wrapped in story.1

If you want to understand better the perspectives and theology that frame The Shack,
this book [Kruger’s] is for you. Baxter has taken on the incredible
task of exploring the nature and character of the God who met me in my
own shack.2

According to Young, God came to him in the “Great Sadness” of his own “shack” and communicated directly with him. Much of The Shack’s theology is based on what Young learned in his conversations with God.

Young’s Conversations with God

A Christian news source recently reprinted
excerpts from several posts Young made on his personal blog back in
August 2007. In these excerpts, Young explained that The Shack is a story, but it is a story based on real conversations he was having with God, his friends, and his family. He writes:

Remember, I am thinking about writing
this for my kids, so I am searching for a good vehicle to communicate
through. I figure a good story would be great . . . but I didn’t have
one. So I started with what I did have . . . conversations. So, off and
on, for about three months I wrote down conversations; conversations that I was having with God mostly, but which often included friends or family.3 [emphasis added by W. Smith]

Is the story “real”? The story is
fiction. I made it up. Now, having said that, I will add that the
emotional pain with all its intensity and the process that tears into
Mack’s heart and soul are very real. I have my “shack,” the place I had
to go through to find healing. I have my Great Sadness . . . that is all
real. And the conversations are very real and true. . . .

So is the story true? The pain, the loss, the grief, the process, the conversations,
the questions, the anger, the longing, the secrets, the lies, the
forgiveness . . . all real, all true.4 [emphasis added by W. Smith]

Young’s “Christian” Universalism

In a February 16, 2008 post on a blog called Christian Universalism: The Beautiful Heresy: The Shack,
an avowed “friend” of Paul Young corroborates Young’s 2007 blog post
about his conversations with God. The friend describes how the
conversations Young’s main character Mack has with God in The Shack
are “real conversations” that Paul Young actually had with God. She
reveals how these conversations “revolutionized” Young, his family, and
friends such as herself. She says that the “radically dangerous”
teachings that Young put in his novel have become her new “systematic
theology” and The Shack is her new “systematic theology
handbook.” The following are her exact words and punctuation as they
were originally posted on the “Christian Universalism” blog:

I know the author well—a personal friend.
(Our whole house church devoured it last summer, and Paul came to our
home to discuss it—WONDERFUL time!) The conversations that “Mack” has with God, are real conversations that Paul Young had with God . . .  and they revolutionized him, his family, and friends
(Paul had a very traumatic past, raised by missionary parents, who left
him in the care of the stone-age Dani tribe, while they did “God’s
work.” He was abused by them, in the process—and there were other
tragedies in his life, later on. When he was a broken mess, God began to speak to him).
He wrote the story (rather than a “sermon”) to give the real
conversations context—and because Jesus also used simple stories to
engage our hearts, even by-passing our objective brains, in order to
have His message take root in our hearts, and grow. . . .

I had already come to believe all the
“radically dangerous” teachings within this book—so it mostly confirmed
what I already believed. But, it most definitely highlighted the reality
that I don’t yet KNOW (KNOW!) how much God loves me. I want the
relationship with God that I see in Paul Young’s life. . . .

This was the first book that I read
straight through 4 times. First to absorb it. Secondly, to underline.
Third to highlight. Fourth, to put “headers” on the top of each page, so
that I could find certain passages again. It’s become my new
“systematic theology” handbook!5  [emphasis added by W. Smith]

Thus, by his own account and that of his friend, Paul Young would be the first to deny that The Shack is “just a novel.”

Young the Universalist

Back to my conversation with the woman in front of the movie theater. When she said that The Shack
was “just a novel,” I described how his novel was actually a fictional
device used as a “vehicle” for presenting some of his own misguided
theological teachings—teachings that had more in common with New Age
teachings than biblical Christianity. When she acknowledged knowing
about the New Age movement, I told her that some of The Shack’s
teachings were actually New Age teachings. But before I could explain
what those specific teachings were and how I had once been involved in
the New Age myself, the theater doors opened, the line started moving,
and our conversation was suddenly over. She seemed relieved as she
turned toward the theater and away from me. Praying that she would come
to understand that Paul Young has more in common with New Age
universalism than biblical Christianity. I had no idea at the time that
Young was about to publicly declare in a new book what so many of us
already knew. In Lies We Believe About God, which was released
on March 7th, Young states that he believes in “universal salvation”6
and that “every single human being is in Christ” and “Christ is in
them.”7 Thus, Young himself makes it very clear in his own words that The Shack
is not “just a novel” but rather a “cunningly devised fable” (2 Peter
1:16) for presenting some of his own heretical universalistic New Age
views.

Who is Paul Young Really Listening To and Conversing With?

Paul Young would have us believe that he has been having “real” conversations with God and that he was inspired by God to write The Shack. Yet
he is now declaring himself to be a universalist who believes in the
false New Age trinitarian doctrine that God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit
are already  “in” everyone. In other words, Young, as a professing
universalist, would have us believe that all of humanity is already
saved (universal salvation). The question that naturally arises and
that is now before the church is—just who is Paul Young
actually listening to and conversing with? The God of the Bible or the
false “God” of the New Age?

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that
in the latter times some depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits, and doctrines of devils. (1 Timothy 4:1)

Endnotes

1. C. Baxter Kruger, The Shack Revisited: There Is More Going on Here than You Ever Dared to Dream ( New York, NY: FaithWorks, Hatchette Book Group, 2012), p. xi.
2. Ibid., p. viiii.
3. Sunny Shell, “The Shack, a Biblical and Interactive Review” (http://blogs.christianpost.com/abandoned-to-christ/the-shack-a-biblical-and-interactive-review-28674/, posted 2/16/17, quoting Paul Young from his August 15, 2007 blog titled “The Shack
– update – Background #2″
(http://web.archive.org/web/20070911092057/http://www.windrumors.com/29/the-shack-update-background-2/).
4. Sunny Shell, “The Shack, a Biblical and Interactive Review” (http://blogs.christianpost.com/abandoned-to-christ/the-shack-a-biblical-and-interactive-review-28674/, posted 2/16/17, quoting Paul Young from his August 15, 2007 blog titled “Is the story of THE SHACK
true . . . is Mack a “real” person?
(http://web.archive.org/web/20070911092319/http://www.windrumors.com/30/is-the-story-of-the-shack-trueis-mack-a-real-person/).
5. Christian Universalism-The Beautiful Heresy: The Shack (http://web.archive.org/web/20080307051159/http://christian-universalism.blogs.com/thebeautifulheresy/2008/02/the-shack.html, posted February 16, 2008 by Dena Brehm. (Thanks to Kent McElroy for bringing this blog to my attention).
6. Wm. Paul Young, Lies We Believe About God (New York, NY: Atria Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2017), p. 118.
7. Ibid., p. 119.
_______________________________________________________

William Paul Young (The Shack Author) 
& His Connection with Panentheist Richard Rohr 

LTRP Note: The Shack movie has just been
released. Millions of Americans will go to theaters to watch the movie.
Most likely, the majority of them will be church goers and proclaiming
Christians since The Shack book is vetted as a Christian story.
Recently, a church contacted Lighthouse Trails and ordered 300 copies
of Warren B. Smith’s booklet The Shack and Its New Age Leaven.
If you have family, church members, pastors, and friends who might be
considering attending this movie, please pick up some copies of the
booklet and pass them out. As you can see from the piece below by
Lighthouse Trails author Lois Putnam, William Paul Young resonates with
panentheists (God is IN all), and we know from our research that The Shack resonates with this concept too. Please do what you can to warn everyone you know. The false “Christ” of The Shack
has big plans to deceive many. If you can’t afford to buy the booklet,
you can print the content from our blog; but we believe this very inexpensive booklet is a better way to go (in a published bound format, it helps give credibility to the material and the source).

By Lois Putnam

Catholic priest and panentheist mystic Richard Rohr (along with co-author mystic emergent Mike Morrell) recently wrote the book The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation.  William
Paul Young wrote its foreword.  Inside, its dedication says:  “From
Richard Rohr: To all unsuspecting folks who do not know they are already
within the ‘Divine Flow’” [i.e., panentheism].  In the foreword, Young
says, “May we feel within us the eternal life of Jesus reaching through
our hands–to heal, to hold, to hug–and celebrate the bread of our
Humanity, the sanctity of the Ordinary, and Participation in the
Trinity.”

Other endorsers include Rob Bell, Brian D.
McLaren, and a host of others.  As Lighthouse Trails Research points out
in “In Case You Still Aren’t Sure About the Shack and Its
Author,” perhaps Young’s “Twenty Books Everyone Should Read” will
convince you otherwise.  Click onto the article here: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=17684

And Young, continuing his close association
with Rohr, will join him and Cynthia Bourgeault in April 6-8, 2017 to
take part in a program titled: “Trinity: The Soul of Creation”
in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Its online descriptive ad reads, “Rohr,
Bourgeault, and Young believe the Trinity . . .  has the capacity to
change everything.  We already participate within this dance whether we
realize it or not [that God is in everyone].  But when we consciously
engage in loving communion, we open ourselves to being transformed at
the deepest levels.  Bring your heart, mind, and body to this . . . 
conversation.  Join an ecumenical and inter-faith gathering, moving
together through reflective experiences, including contemplative prayer,
music, movement (Yoga, Tai Chi Chin, and walking meditation), group and
individual processing. …” To read Lois Putnam’s entire article on The Shack, click here.  

Note: Cynthia Bourgeault is a
name we know well at Lighthouse Trails. Ray Yungen spoke of her to us
often. She is an Episcopal priest who is a devoted advocate for
everything contemplative. Here is a list of some of her books to prove our point.

Related Articles:

Something to Think About – Richard Rohr, the New Age, and Young Evangelical Christians

IF: Gathering Leader/Pastor Melissa Greene—A Female Version of McLaren, Bell, Rohr, and Merton

Richard Foster’s Renovare Turns to Panentheist Mystic Richard Rohr and Emerging Darling Phyllis Tickle For New Book Project 
_______________________________________________________
SEE OUR POST ABOUT CATHOLIC MYSTIC RICHARD ROHR:
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/04/much-more-on-rohr-plus-enneagrams.html 
 

DAVID G. BENNER’S “THE GIFT OF BEING YOURSELF” REVIEWED~ANOTHER INTERSPIRITUALIST MYSTIC WRITES HERESIES, INCLUDING CATHOLIC

David G. Benner

AN ECUMENICAL HUB FOR THE STUDY & PRACTICE OF 
“CHRISTIAN” SPIRITUALITY
EXCERPTS: Internationally known depth psychologist whose life’s work focuses on the interaction of psychological and spiritual dynamics and the pursuit of transformation via the unfolding of the self through the journey of awakening. Author or editor of more than 25 books, including the recent titles Soulful Spirituality: Becoming Fully Alive and Deeply Human and Spirituality and the Awakening Self. A master teacher at the Rohr Institute’s Living School for Action and Contemplation.” (See this blog’s previous posts about Richard Rohr, Catholic priest and mystic: 
Richard Rohr
“Franciscan priest of the New Mexico province and globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the perennial tradition. Founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is home to the Rohr Institute, where he is the academic dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation. Author of numerous best-selling books, including Everything Belongs, The Naked Now, Falling Upward, and Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self. Learn more on his website.”

MUCH MORE ON ROHR, PLUS ENNEAGRAMS, KYTHING & NON-DUALITY THINKING:

https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/04/much-more-on-rohr-plus-enneagrams.html

______________________________________________________
FROM: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2016/newsletter20160222.htmrepublished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

To Lighthouse Trails:
Our Pastor has started a series based on a book “The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self Discovery” by David G. Benner. What can you tell me about this book and the author? What our pastor has read from this book is very strange because in the first few pages there is no mention of the Bible. Can you help me because I think this book is a farce.
B.G.
Dear B.G.
david bennerDavid Benner is one of the major heavy weights in contemplative spirituality. First of all, this particular book of his is promoted and endorsed by some of the most prolific contemplative mystics out there today, including the Catholic interspiritualist priest Richard Rohr (a modern day Thomas Merton) and Adele Ahlberg Calhoun (Handbook on Spiritual Disciplines). In addition to the endorsements, the foreword is written by Basil Pennington. Ray Yungen discusses Pennington in his book A Time of Departing. Yungen explains:

In the book Finding Grace at the Center, written by Thomas Keating and Basil Pennington (both Catholic monks), the following advice is given: “We should not hesitate to take the fruit of the age-old wisdom of the East and capture it for Christ. Indeed, those of us who are in ministry should make the necessary effort to acquaint ourselves with as many of these Eastern techniques as possible … Many Christians who take their prayer life seriously have been greatly helped by Yoga, Zen, TM and similar practices …” Thomas Keating and Basil Pennington have taken their Christianity and blended it with Eastern mysticism through a contemplative method they call centering prayer … Keating and Pennington have both authored a number of influential books on contemplative prayer thus advancing this movement greatly. Pennington essentially wrote a treatise on the subject called Centering Prayer while Keating has written the popular and influential classic, Open Mind, Open Heart, and both are major evangelists for contemplative prayer. (p. 64)

The following two quotes by Pennington show his panentheistic beliefs (God is in all):

It is my sense, from having meditated with persons from many different [non-Christian] traditions, that in the silence we experience a deep unity. When we go beyond the portals of the rational mind into the experience, there is only one God to be experienced. ( Centered Living, p. 192)
The Spirit enlightened him [Merton] in the true synthesis [unity] of all and in the harmony of that huge chorus of living beings. In the midst of it he lived out a vision of a new world, where all divisions have fallen away and the divine goodness is perceived and enjoyed as present in all and through all. (Thomas Merton, My Brother, pp. 199-200.)

Enneagram

Enneagram

Regarding the specific book by Benner of which you inquired, it is loaded with quotes by, references to, and ideas from numerous contemplative mystics including Thomas Merton, Dallas Willard, Gary Moon, Richard Rohr, Thomas Keating, and of course, Basil Pennington. And throughout the book, Benner recommends contemplative meditation, enneagrams (a meditation tool), visualization, and other means to help the reader become a contemplative mystic. The fact is, the very essence of this book shares the same vision and emphasis that most contemplative books do.  It is important to understand what the contemplative means by “self-discovery,” or finding your true self. To the contemplative, we each have a false self and a true self. This true self can only be reached or attained to through going into the meditative silence, whereupon, they say, we find that true self which is the divinity within all human beings. The core of contemplative spirituality is panentheism (God in all) and the fruit is interspirituality (all paths lead to God).  In The Gift of Being Yourself, Benner’s focus is on helping readers find their “true self,” their divinity within (not dependent on being born again and having Jesus Christ living in you).
Benner has devoted his writing career to spreading the contemplative prayer message such as his book Open to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer, in which teaches readers the contemplative practice lectio divina. You can read our article/booklet on this subject: LECTIO DIVINA-What it is, What it is not, and Should Christians Practice it?
Isn’t it something that The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self Discovery is published by InterVarsity Press! While they have certainly published many contemplative books, this one truly shows how strongly they believe in this panentheistic, interspiritual spirituality. And it reminds us once again that the Christian church is in very big trouble, and yet virtually no Christian leader is warning about it. On the contrary. Rick Warren himself has promoted many contemplatives over the years including Henri Nouwen, Richard Foster, Gary Thomas, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, and several others.
We would encourage you to see if your pastor would read a copy of A Time of Departing. However, we fear that he, like so many other pastors today, may be well down the contemplative road. If he, himself, is practicing contemplative meditation, then he is being drawn in by seducing spirits (familiar spirits); and to convince someone to step away and denounce those euphoric mind-altering experiences is as hard as convincing a drug addict to give up heroin. That’s why the Catholic priest Thomas Merton likened an LSD trip to the contemplative experience. Both entice their victims to think they are reaching God when in fact they are falling into spiritual darkness.
Note: You can find more information about most of the names mentioned above on our research site:www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com and in our books and booklets.


“THE SILENCE & THE SOUND” BY SORENSON, FORMER BAYLOR MUSIC PROFESSOR~A CONTEMPLATIVE MYSTICAL CHRISTMAS CANTATA IMPORTED BY FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH DELAWARE

APOSTATE MUSIC FOR THE “HOLIDAYS”
INTRODUCTION TO PRACTICING THE SILENCE, CATHOLIC CONTEMPLATIVE STYLE 
FOR CHRISTMAS;
FEELINGS BASED; LEAVES OUT AND/OR ADDS TO SCRIPTURE NARRATIVE
CHRIST NOT FOUND WITHIN; 
REVELATION NOT FOUND WITHIN
I “I am learning to embrace my marks; you see, every time God’s chisel chips away a part of me, it exposes a piece of Christ underneath. The scars that seemed to strip me of my own beauty are changing me into a picture of God’s Beautiful Son. And in this light, I am honored to bear God’s marks. They have changed my image of God, my relationship with God, and they have changed my worship of God.” 

Deeply Etched,
Heather
Heather Sorenson
DRAWING ON CATHOLIC CONTEMPLATIVE MYSTICISM & FRENCH ECUMENICAL TAIZE SILENCE AND MANTRA HYMNS, INFLUENCED BY  APOSTATE BAYLOR UNIVERSITY:
HEATHER SORENSON’S CANTATA:
PRODUCT MOSTLY OF HER IMAGINATION 
FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH, 
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE
“THE SILENCE AND THE SOUND Christmas cantata will be 
our 10:45AM morning service on December 20. This 
presentation is more than just a retelling of the nativity; this 
presentation explores both the mystery and the majesty of 
Christ’s birth. Filled with original sacred songs and beloved 
carols, this innovative cantata is not only a beautiful concert 
experience, but it is also a true worship experience. We hope 
you will join us and bring a friend!”
__________________________________________________
COMPOSER, ARRANGER, PIANIST, CLINICIAN 
EXCERPTS:
Composer and arranger Heather Sorenson entered the church music industry several years ago, and her name has quickly become a welcomed fixture in the publishing world. Heather is hired by the largest and most respected publishers in the world, and her pieces remain at the top of bestseller lists and Editor’s Choice selections.

Heather’s publications include choral compositions, piano books, children’s music, orchestrations, and two piano albums.  Her compositions are performed weekly in thousands of churches around the world, as well as in historic concert venues including the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., DAR Constitution Hall, and Carnegie Hall in NYC.
Teaching has become a large part of Heather’s career and ministry.  She taught all elementary levels of music at Grace Academy of Dallas for 4 years, served as an adjunct music professor at Baylor University, and has served on many master class panels in piano and songwriting.  Heather regularly is a guest speaker and conductor at churches across America, and leads scores of sessions each year at various worship conferences, schools, and universities. 

Currently Heather spends her time juggling a full writing load as well as traveling as a guest artist and lecturer.  She makes her home in the Dallas, TX area with her beagle baby. 
_________________________________________________________________
“GOD WAS SPEAKING DIRECTLY TO ME” 
WHEN I COMPOSED & ARRANGED THIS CANTATA
“POPPED INTO HER HEAD”, BUT DID NOT CHECK WITH GOD’S WORD

________________________________________________________
PERFORMANCE AT BRANDYWINE VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE; INTERVIEW AT SAINT MATTHEWS LUTHERAN CHURCH, HANOVER, PENNSYLVANIA
NEW (ECUMENICAL) PASSIONS?
Published on Aug 14, 2015
Heather Sorenson tells Pepper about her dream to have her music performed by popular contemporaries.
Published on Aug 14, 2015
Heather Sorenson talks about what makes her music popular with both contemporary and traditional worship communities.
____________________________________________________
INFLUENCED BY BAYLOR UNIVERSITY’S CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUAL FORMATION PROGRAM

Baylor University Invites Ken Blanchard, Contemplative Proponent:

EXCERPT: Quick to jump on the band wagon for accepting the homosexual lifestyle is Baylor University, (the largest Baptist university in the world). According to a July 8th 2015 Time magazine article titled “This University Has Dropped Its Ban on ‘Homosexual Acts,’”  Baylor “dropped a prohibition on ‘homosexual acts’ from its sexual conduct policy”this past May.”

FULL BORE INTO CATHOLIC CONTEMPLATIVE MYSTICISM & SPIRITUAL FORMATION DISCIPLINES, BORROWED FROM THE MONKS

Baylor University Spiritual Life Celebrates Opening of Elliston Chapel with a Week of Contemplative Services

EXCERPT: WACO, Texas (April 29, 2015) – Baylor University will celebrate the completion and opening of Elliston Chapel with gatherings and services from Tuesday, April 28, to Thursday, April 30.
“We wanted to build a sacred space as part East Village, but we also wanted this one to be accessible to the general Baylor community,” said Burt Burleson, D.Min., university chaplain and dean of spiritual life. “Elliston Chapel is unique in that it’s not a part of another facility. It’s everyone’s chapel.”
Each service will last less than 30 minutes and be contemplative in nature.
The schedule of events is as follows.
Tuesday, April 28, at 4:30 p.m. – Prayers for the Persecuted
Wednesday, April 29, at 3:30 p.m. – Vespers, a liturgical prayer service
Thursday, April 30, at 4:30 p.m. – Taize, (http://taize.fr/), a prayer service based on the simple, chant-like approach to prayer of a monastery in southern France
In addition to the three public services, Elliston Chapel will welcome prayer services and religious programming from various campus groups.
Elliston Chapel is a 3,000-square-foot, 120-seat chapel that will accommodate small Bible studies, group worship and individual reflection. It was funded with a lead gift from Molli, B.S. (Education) ’75, and Gary Elliston of Dallas.
The chapel is located at 1701 S. Third St. It is open to the public daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
“Elliston Chapel is an uplifting space filled with bright energy and open windows,” Burleson said. “Our hope is that it will be used not by chaplains leading services, but that student organizations will use it for worship, prayer and various other spiritual programming. We wanted to celebrate its first week by welcoming the chapel to Baylor with all of these services.”

FROM: http://www.baylor.edu/alumni/magazine/1203/news.php?action=story&story=142716; EXCERPT:

“At their regular February meeting, Baylor University’s Board of Regents approved $1.7 million for the design and construction of the Elliston Chapel, a 3,000-square-foot chapel that will accommodate small group Bible study, group worship and individual reflection. Funded with a lead gift from Molli, BA ‘75, and Baylor Regent Gary Elliston of Dallas, the 100-seat chapel will be built next to Hallie Earle Hall on the East Village property at Third Street and Bagby Avenue. Construction on Elliston Chapel is expected to begin this spring and be completed by spring 2015.
“We are truly grateful to Molli and Gary Elliston for this generous gift to the University,” said Richard S Willis, BBA ‘81, MBA ‘82, chair of the Baylor Board of Regents. “Molli and Gary believe that the pursuit of truth and calling is at the heart of the Baylor student experience. With this gift, the Ellistons have made possible the creation of a sacred space on our campus that will provide the opportunity for worship and reflection and empower our students as they become agents of transformation, advancing God’s kingdom in all that they do.””
_____________________________________________________________

Blake Burleson, Ph.D., Talks about his Book on Contemplative Prayer:

“Entempling: Baptist Wisdom for Contemplative Prayer”
EXCERPT: About Praxis: Praxis was founded ten years ago to publish and manufacture quality materials, texts and resources for the contemporary spiritual seeker. Since our small beginnings we have grown and produced books and texts, a journal, educational materials, manuals for study and reflection, and provide retreats and seminars. We produce and sell the original handmade Anglican Rosary as well as other products of quality such as bells for meditation purposes. 


Juli Rosenbaum, MA 

Licensures and Certifications

  • Reiki Healing Level I, American Reiki Academy (September 6, 2011 – Present)

Presentations and Proceedings

“Using the Enneagram in Business and Teaching,” presented at the Dean’s Teaching Tea Workshop: The Enneagram, Cashion 404, November 2013. 


“Using the Enneagram in Business and Teaching,” presented at the Dean’s Teaching Luncheon Workshop #2: The Enneagram, Cashion 404, November 2013. 


“Contemplative Pedagogy,” presented at the Contemplative Pedagogy at the University Level, Faculty McMullen Center, November 2013. 


SEE OUR PREVIOUS POST ABOUT ENNEAGRAMS:
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SEE ALSO:
MYSTICISM: 
SPIRITUAL FORMATION PROGRAM: 
LETTER FROM SPIRITUAL FORMATION TO INCOMING TRUETT SEMINARY STUDENTS:
Dear Incoming Truett Student,

We are so happy that you have elected to come to Truett Seminary. We think you will find Truett Seminary a warm and welcoming Christian community in which you will be challenged to grow both academically and spiritually. The spiritual formation program at Truett is based on small group discipleship. These small groups are made up of six to eight students who meet weekly for prayer and spiritual formation. Students stay together within their group for their entire time at seminary. This allows them to build strong bonds of spiritual trust and an environment of encouragement and growth throughout their Truett experience.
Each semester the focus of the group changes so that students are exposed to the challenge of reshaping their lives around their commitment to Jesus Christ in a variety of ways and situations. You, as a first year student, will be exposed to basic spiritual disciplines including prayer, community and the use of silence in the spiritual life.
Your spiritual formation program for each semester will include reading a book, practicing the different spiritual disciplines found within the book and then sharing about that experience with your covenant group. You will also practice these disciplines with your group as you meet each week. You will be given the name of the book at the first covenant group orientation so that you may be able to purchase it. Most first and second semester groups have an outside leader or mentor to help the group along. They act as a guide for your meeting times together in which you will read Scripture and pray. You are also encouraged to meet your group occasionally for lunch or other outside fellowship time, to help you further develop community with each other. Most first and second semester covenant groups meet at 9:30am on Thursdays at Truett (except for those groups that are for commuter students or dual-degree students). We suggest allotting five hours a week for spiritual formation. This time will include one hour per week in Chapel, one hour per week in your covenant group, and thirty minutes, five days a week, for covenant group readings and prayer. You must receive credit at the end of each of the six semesters of covenant groups as part of the basic requirements for graduation and the M.Div. degree.
Please make sure you complete this Covenant Group Questionnaire. This will help us in placing you in a group. You will also need to purchase and read Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas (you can also purchase the Kindle edition). We will discuss this book at the New Student Orientation on Thursday, January 10th and you will also reflect upon the information learned in the book in your first assignment for covenant group (and again in your final). This book describes nine distinct spiritual temperaments. In one or more of them, you will see yourself and the ways you most naturally express your relationship with God. Please take the short quiz with each chapter to help you identify which temperament most reflects you at this time. We will discuss these during our time in new student orientation. I have attached a scanned copy of the first chapter for you to help you get started.
Mark your calendars for Thursdays January 17th and 24th at 9:30 am in the chapel for your covenant group orientations. We look forward to getting to know you next semester.
Sincerely,
Tiffani Harris
Assistant Director of Spiritual Formation, Truett Seminary
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SIMILAR TO BETH MOORE’S FALSE VISION IN PICTURES ABOUT CATHOLICISM
JOHN PIPER LEADS CATHOLIC “LECTIO DIVINA” IN SILENCE 
WITH BETH MOORE

JOHN MACARTHUR DEBUNKS CONTEMPLATIVE MYSTICISM
“DIVINE REVELATION” IS EXTERNAL TO HUMANS; 
NOT FOUND WITHIN










“NEW WAYS” SODOMITE CATHOLIC GROUP GETS RECOGNITION & VALIDATION FROM POPE FRANCIS~SOME STILL KNOW SODOMY IS SIN & REFUSE TO CONDONE IT

Sodomite Catholic group gets VIP treatment at Vatican for first time
AND
New Ways Ministry pilgrims pose in St. Peter’s Square 
following the papal audience with Pope Francis.
“a gay-positive ministry of advocacy and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Catholics, and reconciliation within the larger Christian and civil communities.
Through research, publication and education about homosexuality, we foster dialogue among groups and individuals, identify and combat personal and structural homophobia, work for changes in attitudes and promote the acceptance of LGBT people as full and equal members of church and society.
New Ways Ministry is a member of Equally Blessed, a coalition of faithful Catholics who support full equality for LGBT people both in the Church and in civil society.”
SEE: http://the-trumpet-online.com/sodomite-catholic-group-gets-vip-treatment-vatican-first-time/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – A prominent American Catholic gay rights group was given VIP treatment for the first time at an audience with Pope Francis on Wednesday, a move members saw as a sign of change in the Roman Catholic Church.
“This is a sign of movement that’s due to the Francis effect,” said Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, which ministers to homosexual Catholics and promotes gay rights in the 1.2 billion-member Church.
Gramick and executive director Francis DeBernardo led a pilgrimage of 50 homosexual Catholics to the audience in St. Peter’s Square.
They told Reuters in an interview afterwards that when the group came to Rome on Catholic pilgrimages during the papacies of Francis’s predecessors John Paul and Benedict, “they just ignored us”.
This time, a U.S. bishop and a top Vatican official backed their request and they sat in a front section with dignitaries and special Catholic groups. As the pope passed, they sang “All Are Welcome,” a hymn symbolizing their desire for a more inclusive Church.
Sister Jeannine Gramick and Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry. (Reuters)A list of participants released by the Vatican listed “a group of lay people accompanied by a sister” but did not mention that they were a gay rights organization.
“What this says is that there is movement in our Church, movement to welcome people from the outside closer to the inside,” Gramick said in St. Peter’s Square.
Several months after his election, Francis made his now-famous remark about how he could not judge gay people who are have good will and are seeking God.
But he so far shown no sign the Church will change its teaching that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are.
Last October, bishops from around the world meeting in Rome to debate questions concerning family issued an interim report calling for greater acceptance of gays in the Church.
That passage was watered down in the final version of the report after conservative bishops complained. A second and final meeting on family issues is scheduled for October.
DeBernardo said Catholic gay and lesbian couples and other non-traditional families should be invited to the meeting, known as a synod, to speak to the bishops about their faith and their sexuality.
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Pope says gay people must not be judged:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnT-uBAArDE



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SISTER JEANNINE GRAMICK
FRANCIS DE BERNARDO
New Ways Ministry’s LGBT Catholic Pilgrims Get VIP Seats at Papal Audience
republished below in full unedited:

In what is surely the most official welcome from Church officials that New Ways Ministry has received in its 38-year history, a pilgrimage group of 48 LGBT Catholics and supporters led by our co-founder, Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL, received VIP seating at the papal audience in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City, on Ash Wednesday, February 18, 2015.
Sister Jeannine had written to Pope Francis in December 2014, asking him to meet personally with the group when they visited Rome as part of their ten-day pilgrimage to Florence, Assisi, and the Eternal City.
Two weeks before departure on February 12th, she received a letter from Archbishop Georg Ganswein, Prefect of the Papal Household, letting her know that he had reserved tickets for the group for the Ash Wednesday audience.  She assumed that these were the general seating tickets. On the night of February 17th, when the group picked up the tickets at St. Peter’s, they learned that they were VIP seating.
When the group arrived at St. Peter’s Square in the morning, we were guided by papal ushers to the level of the Square where the pope sits.  All were astonished!    While we were not able to shake the pope’s hand personally, it is very significant that the Vatican responded so positively to an LGBT group by giving us such a prominent place at the audience.
When the pope passed by our group, we all sang “All Are Welcome,” a popular hymn which calls for an inclusive church.  We also called out several times that “We are LGBT Catholics!”
Pope Francis greets pilgrims at the Ash Wednesday audience.

Pope Francis greets pilgrims at the Ash Wednesday audience.

Although Sister Jeannine Gramick has led two other pilgrimages to Rome under the two previous popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, their presence was ignored at the papal audiences.

Religion News Service story in The Washington Post noted that it was not just Vatican recognition that was significant, but that several other Church leaders helped the process along the way:

“. . . Archbishop Georg Ganswein, head of the papal household and the top aide to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, responded to New Ways’ request for a papal meet-and-greet by reserving tickets for the group at Francis’ weekly public audience in St. Peter’s Square. It’s not a private meeting — which is tough for anyone to get — but it’s not nothing.

“The pope’s ambassador to Washington forwarded a similar request to Rome. Even San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone — point man for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ battle against gay marriage — had written a letter to the Vatican on their behalf.

“Last December, Cordileone had a constructive meeting with Frank DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways, and Sister Jeannine Gramick, a co-founder of New Ways and a longtime advocate for LGBT inclusion in the church. But they were still surprised by the archbishop’s willingness to write a letter for them.”

Sister Jeannine Gramick and Francis DeBernardo in St. Peter's Square following the Ash Wednesday audience.

Sister Jeannine Gramick and Francis DeBernardo in St. Peter’s Square following the Ash Wednesday audience.
Gibson also noted that a British cardinal has given similar prestigious recognition to an LGBT Catholic pilgrimage which is also in Rome this week:

” . . . British Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster sent a warm blessing to a group of LGBT Catholics from London who are joining up with New Ways in Rome. ‘Be assured of my prayers for each and every one of you,’ Nichols wrote. ‘Have a wonderful pilgrimage. God bless you all.’ “

Reuters story published on Huffington Post captured the response of New Ways Ministry’s leaders just after they left the papal audience:

” ‘What this says is that there is movement in our Church, movement to welcome people from the outside closer to the inside,’ Gramick said in St. Peter’s Square. . . . “DeBernardo said Catholic gay and lesbian couples and other non-traditional families should be invited to the meeting, known as a synod, to speak to the bishops about their faith and their sexuality.”

An Associated Press video also reported their reactions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhM3UMRl830 Several of the LGBT pilgrims were visibly moved by the welcome they received and by the experience of seeing the pope in person.  Several noted that they felt this was one more step in the progress–albeit, slow–that LGBT Catholics have been making in the Church for several decades.  All agreed that this day will never be forgotten.
–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry
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“THE GATHERING AND DRAINING OF DESIRE”:
SEE NEW WAYS EVENT FACILITATED BY RICHARD ROHR 
NEW AGE, CONTEMPLATIVE, MYSTICAL FRANCISCAN MONK AT:
FOR $225 PER PERSON
The goal of the retreat is to provide a supportive environment in which gay
priests and brothers, their leaders, and formators can explore how to create conversations around issues of gay sexuality and spirituality in their faith
communities. The retreat will include lecture, prayer, quiet time, and dialogue
sessions with the speakers and with one another.

Richard Rohr, OFM, is a Franciscan priest and internationally known inspirational
speaker. He is best known for his writings on spirituality and his audio and video 
recordings. Scripture as liberation, the integration of action and contemplation,
community building, peace and justice issues, male spirituality, the Enneagram
and eco-spirituality are themes that he addresses in his writing and preaching. 

Fr. Rohr founded the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1971 and
the Center for Action and Contemplation inAlbuquerque, New Mexico in 1986, where he presently serves as Founding Director. He is a contributing editor and writer for Sojourners magazine. 
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Detroit Archbishop Blocks Pro-Gay New Ways Ministry From Speaking At Catholic Parish:

November 24, 2014
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

On Monday, LifeSiteNews reported that Detroit’s archbishop Allen Vigneron exercised his authority over his archdiocese by blocking the activist group New Ways Ministry, a nominally Catholic organization that seeks to change the church’s teaching on homosexuality, from speaking at Christ the King Parish in northwestern Detroit. 
Despite the headlines, the Catholic church has not changed its teaching on homosexuality or gay marriage, but that didn’t stop Christ the King pastor Father Victor Clore from violating Canon law when he decided his parish would serve host New Ways Ministry leader Francis DeBernardo giving a presentation to Fortunate Families, a group for Catholics whose children are openly homosexual.
New Ways Ministry has already been banned by the Vatican and has also been condemned by several bishops since 1984, including Pope Benedict XVI back in 1999 when he was known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. 
Both Father Victor Clore and Francis DeBernardo have protested archbishop Vigneron’s decision, citing Pope Francis as their reason. 
“I’ll give you a quote from one of my parishioners, who said, ‘It amazes me how Pope Francis eagerly and happily engages those who openly deny the divinity of Christ, yet DeBernardo is deemed unworthy to enter our church,’” Father Clore said. “That’s pretty much my feeling, too,” the priest continued. “It’s treating people as if they were children.”
DeBernardo told the Detroit Free Press, “The Detroit archdiocese’s actions run counter to Pope Francis’ more sympathetic posture toward gay Catholics.”
A spokesman for Archbishop Vigneron said New Ways Ministry is not an approved organization to address Catholic teachings on homosexuality.
“It was brought to the archdiocese’s attention a few weeks back that New Ways Ministry had been scheduled to speak at Christ the King Church,” Joe Kohn said in a statement. “Because New Ways Ministry had been identified as a group that might cause confusion in regards to Catholic church teaching, the archdiocese did clarify that a presentation by New Ways Ministry should not be hosted on church property.”
The event was moved to clubhouse of a local condominium. 
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Gay Catholics Receive Vatican Welcome:

Rob Bell to Oprah: Church Is ‘Moments Away’ from Embracing Same-Sex ‘Marriage’

February 18, 2015 by Heather Clark
Bell
SEE: http://christiannews.net/2015/02/18/rob-bell-to-oprah-church-is-moments-away-from-embracing-same-sex-marriage/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

This past Sunday, during an episode of Oprah’s “Super Soul Sunday,” Rob Bell, the former head “pastor” of Michigan’s Mars Hill Bible Church and author of “Love Wins,” a book questioning the orthodox Christian view of Hell, told the talk show host that he believes the Church is “moments away” from embracing same-sex “marriage.”
Bell had appeared on the broadcast with his wife Kristen to discuss their book “The Zimzum of Love: A New Way of Understanding Marriage.”
“I think it’s great that you all made a conscious choice to include gay marriage in [the book],” Oprah states following a clip showing Mrs. Bell reading a selection claiming that same-sex nuptials are a gift to the world. “Why [did you do that]?”
“One of the oldest aches in the bones of humanity is loneliness,” Rob Bell replied. “Loneliness is not good for the world. Whoever you are, gay or straight, it is totally normal, natural and healthy to want someone to go through life with. It’s central to our humanity. We want someone to go on the journey with.”
“When is the Church going to get that?” Oprah asked.
“We’re close,” he responded.
“I think it’s evolving,” Bell’s wife interjected.
“Lots of people are already there,” Bell added. “We think it’s inevitable and we’re moments away from the Church accepting it.”
He asserted that the Church will “continue to be even more irrelevant” if it continues to cite the Bible’s prohibitions on homosexual behavior.
“I think culture is already there, and the Church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from 2,000 years ago as their best defense,” Bell said, “when you have in front of you flesh-and-blood people who are your brothers and sisters, and aunts and uncles, and co-workers and neighbors, and they love each other and just want to go through life.”
“There are churches who are moving forward and there are churches who are almost regressing and making it more of a battle,” his wife added.
As previously reported, Bell first publicly came out in support of same-sex “marriage” in 2013.
“I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man,” he said. “I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs—I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.”
Bell likewise opined that many evangelicals can no longer be classified as conservatives because their beliefs have changed with the times.
“I think we are witnessing the death of a particular subculture that doesn’t work. … You sort of die or you adapt,” he asserted. “And we have supported policies and ways of viewing the world that are actually destructive. And we’ve done it in the name of God and we need to repent.”
In light of his controversial views, some have said that Bell is leading many down a dark and destructive path.
“Plain and simple, Rob Bell’s teachings are not true to the words of Scripture,” Eric Ludy, pastor of Church at Ellerslie and president of Ellerslie Mission Society in Windsor, Colorado, told Christian News Network in 2013. “They are a sly attempt at blending the philosophies of our post-modern age with the vernacular of pop-Christianity. The end product is highly dangerous to the human soul because it is the forging of a golden calf god—a god of our culture’s making—and certainly not the God of the Bible.”
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REPOSTED: ROMA DOWNEY NEW AGE ADVOCATE PARTNERS WITH WOMEN OF FAITH

Lighthouse Trails Research reports that Roma Downey, New Age advocate, is joining arms with “Women of Faith”, and warns, as before, that Christian women should avoid their conferences.

Max Lucado, contemplative proponent and believer in “baptismal regeneration” also promotes “Women of Faith”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_1BvDQ5DN8.

Priscilla Shirer, another reason to avoid the conference:
See posts about Shirer by Apprising:
http://apprising.org/2012/02/27/women-pastors-priscilla-shirer-and-the-southern-baptist-convention/.
http://apprising.org/2010/07/26/priscilla-shirer-and-contemplativecentering-prayer/.
http://apprising.org/2010/08/28/priscilla-shirer-promoting-contemplativecentering-prayer/.
http://apprising.org/2010/09/23/priscilla-shirer-points-us-to-richard-rohr/
(See Rohr below in our posts)
http://apprising.org/2012/08/23/true-woman-conference-speaker-priscilla-shirer-hears-gods-still-small-voice/.
http://apprising.org/2012/11/26/priscilla-shirer-excited-her-brother-performed-at-joel-osteens-heretical-word-faith-church/.
And our own previous posts about Richard Rohr, mystical monk:
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/04/much-more-on-rohr-plus-enneagrams.html.
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/04/the-connection-between-lgbtq-soulforce.html.

Christine Caine of Hillsong, Australia, another reason to avoid the conference:
Ruth Haley Barton, a contemplative mystic, will be attending the Assembly of God “Believe” conference event in Orlando, Florida, August 5-9, 2013, along with Franklin Graham, Christine Caine of Hillsong, Australia, Judah Smith, and Joni Eareckson Tada, among many others. See: http://generalcouncil.ag.org/.
See posts about Caine by Apprising:
http://apprising.org/2012/01/22/word-faith-pastrix-christine-caine-preaches-sunday-morning-sermon-for-steven-furtick/.
http://apprising.org/2011/09/23/code-orange-speaker-christine-caine/.
http://apprising.org/2012/06/06/the-budding-femance-between-word-faith-pastrix-christine-caine-and-kay-warren/.
http://apprising.org/2012/06/22/pastrix-christine-caine-honored-to-speak-at-lakewood-church-youth-conference/.
http://apprising.org/2012/10/03/christine-caine-to-preach-weekend-services-at-saddleback-church/.
http://apprising.org/2012/09/17/christine-caine-says-word-faith-teacher-joyce-meyer-is-her-spiritual-mother/.

Lysa Terkeurst promoting “breath payers” in her book “Made to Crave”, and who endorsed Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand GiftsAnn Voskamp has a blog where she shares how to do Lectio Divina. Both of these women are deceiving many women with their contemplative mysticism.
See Lighthouse Trails Research about “breath prayers”: 
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/breathprayer.htm, and “lectio divina”:
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=10887.



A number of other Word of Faith heretics and rock groups will be at this convention, so avoid!

MercyMe Rock Group: 
See: Way of Life: 
file:///C:/Users/John/Downloads/Directory_of_Contemporary_Worship_Musicians%20(1).pdf: Select quotes:
“MercyMe is a rocking contemporary band that is ecumenical and charismatic. In early 
2011 they included Roman Catholic Matt Maher on their Rock & Worship Roadshow. It is obvious that the members of MercyMe fill  their minds and hearts with a lot of licentious secular rock. MercyMe’s popular “Word of God Speak” worship song is pure charismatic mysticism. Consider the lyrics:
“Word of God speak, would you pour down like rain, washing my eyes to see our majesty. To be still and know that you’re in this place, please let me stay and rest in your holiness. … Finding myself in the midst of you, beyond the music, beyond the noise. All that I need is to be with you and in the quiet I hear your voice.” This “open yourself to the flow of the Spirit” has led to all sorts of unscriptural doctrines and practices.”

Third Day Rock Group:
See: Way of Life: Select quotes:
“One of the themes of CCM is ecumenical unity, and that is evident in Third Day’s “Come Together” album. Third Day performed for the Roman Catholic Youth Rally in 2011, which featured Pope Benedict XVI and a Catholic mass during which a piece of bread allegedly became Jesus.”

Mark Lowry:
See: Way of Life: Select quotes:
Mark Lowry labels living standards and ecclesiastical separation “legalism”Lowry’s tirade against “legalism” is a smokescreen for his rebellion against Bible-believing Christianity. Lowry’s ecumenical, positive-only philosophy is evident in his attitude toward preaching on Hell. In 1997, Lowry joined Roman Catholic Kathy Troccoli and 40 other CCM artists to record Love One Another, a song with an ecumenical theme. In an article in CCM Magazine, Lowry praised Mother Teresa and Princess Diana. Lowry had no word of warning about Mother Teresa’s false gospel that has caused multitudes 
to die with a false hope.”
Example video, titled:

“Mark Lowry Recovering Fundamentalist”, 

(Funny “Christian” Humor, But Still Very Ecumenical 

in Spirit and Mocking of Fundamentalists):



See our previous post about Roma Downey and her husband Mark Burnett:
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/05/global-leadership-summit-2013.html,
with this part about Downey:


Roma Downey:

Dave Mosher Blog has a group of excellent posts http://davemosher.wordpress.com/?s=roma+downey on Roma Downey and her New Age beliefs and associations, in particular this one:
http://davemosher.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/touched-by-an-angel-roma-downeys-new-age-ish-little-angels-series-for-preschoolers-claims-to-be-christian/, revised March 27, 2013. In it we see Roma Downey on the cover of OM Times, http://omtimes.com/a New Age publication. See Downey’s biography and interview at OM Times here: http://omtimes.com/2011/07/roma-downey-truly-an-angel/.



David Cloud’s Way of Life reports:
Roma Downey, the Roman Catholic co-creator (with her husband, Mark Burnett) of the History Channel’s popular “The Bible” miniseries, says Pope Francis is “a new pope of hope” (“Roma Downey,” Christian Post, April 4, 2013). Here is the promotion video of “The Bible” series:



    Downey, famous for her role as “the angel Monica” in the new-agey TV series “Touched by an Angel,” plays the part of Mary in “The Bible” miniseries. She says the example of Pope Francis will cause “the seeds of hope to flourish in people’s hearts and people’s lives.” In an earlier interview, Downey said, “I have prayed to Mary and loved her my whole life” (“The Bible: An Epic Mini-Series,” Catholiclane.com, Feb. 28, 2013). Roma attended the University of Santa Monica http://www.universityofsantamonica.edu/offering Master’s degrees in Spiritual Psychology“founded by New Age spiritual and self-help guru John Roger” (“Roma Downey Happy Out of Spotlight,” Beck/Smith Hollywood, April 23, 2013). She says that she listens to books on tape by New Age guru Eckhart Tolle, who teaches the divinity of man. The creators of “The Bible” miniseries have not been afraid to add to and change God’s Word.

Christian Research Network discusses Downey and the “Bible” miniseries:
http://christianresearchnetwork.org/2013/03/15/roman-catholic-roma-downey-producer-of-the-bible-miniseries-says-francis-i-will-be-a-pope-of-hope/.


Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church invited Downey and Burnett to do a “question and answer” time during February 2013 showing of the Bible miniseries: http://saddleback.com/blogs/communityblog/mark-burnett-and-roma-downey-coming-to-saddleback/.

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Lighthouse article in full, unedited:

    Lighthouse Trails first addressed concerns about the Women of Faith conferences in 2006. In an article, we stated:

Women of Faith is a Christian franchise that has held conferences for over 3 million women since its inception in 1996. In 2000, Christian publisher Thomas Nelson bought the Women of Faith franchise and has a strong influence in the organization. Nearly all of the regular Women of Faith speakers are Thomas Nelson authors, and Thomas Nelson books are sold at the Women of Faith conferences, thus women attending the conferences will get a hearty dose of Thomas Nelson.
In light of books published by Thomas Nelson that have contemplative slants, women attending these conferences should use discernment and wisdom. Below is a list of some Thomas Nelson books and authors that have New Age and/or contemplative content. Incidentally, nearly all of these books below are sold through the Women of Faith online bookstore, including Yoga for Christians and The Secret Message of Jesus:
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher
The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren
Cure for the Common Life by Max Lucado
Speaking My Mind by Tony Campolo
Celebration of Discipline (Spanish) by Richard Foster
The Sacred Romance by John Eldredge
Turn My Mourning into Dancing by Henri Nouwen
How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life by Mark Victor Hansen
Seeing What is Sacred by Ken Gire
So You Want to Be Like Christ (Workbook) by Chuck Swindoll

In 2007, Lighthouse Trails posted an article titled “10, 000 Expected to Attend Women of Faith Conference.”  In that article, we stated that the “women who attend Women of Faith conferences will be exposed to mystical spirituality, and because they trust Women of Faith, they will be caught unaware and put in harm’s way.”
In 2010, we posted John Lanagan’s article “Why Are Women of Faith Promoting Mystic/Emerging Brian McLaren?”  Lanagan expressed his concerns about Women of Faith including the fact that the organization was selling Brian McLaren’s books. Lanagan stated:

When a well known organization like Women of Faith is the reason women are exposed to false teaching, whether through exposure to The Message paraphrase, or to the apostate rebellion of Brian McLaren, this should not be accepted with a yawn and a shrug. . . .  Is Women of Faith on its way to purveying a generic spirituality?

We fear we must say yes to John Lanagan’s question. Women of Faith is going from the frying pan into the fire. In a June 21stChristian Post article, “Mark Burnett, Roma Downey Partner With Women of Faith, ‘Believe God Can Do Anything’ Tour,”  it explains how Women of Faith “has partnered with ‘The Bible’ producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey to incorporate parts of the highly successful History Channel program into its ‘life-changing’ tour. That probably sounds UN-alarming to most people. After all, what could be wrong with a  program called The Bible?  And the series (now seen by over 100 million people), The Bible,  is being promoted widely by many Christian organizations and ministries with a broad marketing target.
It was concerning enough knowing these past several years that Women of Faith introduced their women to Brian McLaren and other emergent-type names. But Roma Downey falls as much in the New Spirituality camp as McLaren, if not more. First of all, Roma promotes the Roman Catholic church. In an article we posted earlier this year,Rick Warren Endorses 2013 Book, “Catholics Come Home” – Calls Catholic Evangelization “Critically Important,” we quoted Downey as saying this about the Catholics Come Home book: “Catholics Come Home inspires each of us to share God’s love with others, in order to help change the world for the better, for eternity!” And, in a book titled Practical Praying: Using the Rosary to Enhance Your Life, there is a companion “Meditation” CD by Roma Downey that comes with the book.
But Roma Downey isn’t just a Catholic promoter. She is a New Age/New Spirituality promoter. Within the pages of a book titledLoyalty to Your Soul by Ron and Mary Hulnick (published in 2010 by the New Age publisher, Hay House), Downey endorses the book saying:

As a USM [ University of Santa Monica – a New Age metaphysical school] graduate, I know firsthand the value I received from participating with Ron and Mary  in the Master’s degree Program in Spiritual Psychology. I am so grateful to haveLoyalty to Your Soul to sweetly remind me of all I have learned. Let’s just say that I went from playing an angel on TV to living more of an angelic life every day. The teachings in this beautiful book have sent me on a journey to the very center of my own being where, wrapped in the safe wings of Love, I feel as though I have come home.

Downey’s endorsement in the Hulnick’s book is nestled in with full-blown New Agers like Barbara Marx Hubbard, Joan Borysenko, and Gay Hendricks (The Corporate Mystic). By the way, Neale Donald Walsch, the New Ager who said that Hitler did the Jews a favor by killing them,wrote the foreword to Loyalty to Your Soul.
Clearly, Downey read this book and resonates deeply with it to say what she did about it. To get an idea of this “journey” that Downey is on, listen to a few quotes from Loyalty to Your Soul:

Center your awareness in your heart and consciously look for the Loving Essence in the person in your presence. By doing so, you’re signifying your respect for the Soul before you . . .  Maintain awareness that you’re in conversation with another Divine Being who is engaged in having a human experience. (p. 209)
We ask for the presence, protection, guidance, and Love of the Divine Beings  who work with each of us. (from the “Invocation” – emphasis added
“When people speak of spirituality, they simply mean awareness of the sacred reality of the Divine Essence within and beyond all creation.” (p. 8, quoting favorably a New Age “spiritual teacher”)
For the awakening person, there is a growing yearning for time in the silence. There is a sense of needing time and space for contemplation, meditation, walking in nature, and just plain being alone. Attuning to the inner channel of Divine Love is supported by quiet moments. (p. 27)
You begin to recognize others as Divine Beings, and the situations and circumstances of your life as learning devices. (p. 31)

Those familiar with New Age teachings will recognize such statements as being the core essence of the occult (that man is divine).Loyalty to Your Soul is a contemporary version of A Course in Miracles (the New Age book Warren B. Smith talks about in his biography, The Light That Was Dark).
In addition to endorsing Loyalty to Your Soul, Downey also endorsed a book called Angels in My Hair: the true story of a modern day Irish mystic by Lorna Bryne. The book is about spirit guides in people’s lives.
We find it disconcerting to know that someone with Downey’s spiritual propensities, who attended a New Age university, helped to create a program on God’s Word.
So, the question we have is this: Now that Women of Faith has “partnered” with Roma Downey, will the millions of women who attend Women of Faith conferences be led down the same path Downey has found herself on? Perhaps we should ask Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer,
 Lisa Harper
(See Lighthouse Trails brief description of Lisa Harper at http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=10843, with a quote from this link: “In looking at her 2011 book, Stumbling into Grace, she is quoting several major contemplatives: Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Brennan Manning, Richard Foster, Anne Lamott, and at least one New Age author, Gerald May. We don’t know that she is advocating contemplative practices in her book, but clearly she is reading from and gleaning from the mystics and passing those “insights” onto her readers.”)
and Sheila Walsch the answer to that question – they will be the speakers at the Women of Faith “Unwrap the Bible” conference in 2014 (see video below where Downey promotes this conference). But then, you might get a biased answer – Moore, Shirer, Harper, and Walsch are all proponents of contemplative spirituality, and those who understand the dynamics of contemplative prayer know that it is a comfortable companion to the ”theology” behind A Course in Miracles.
Evangelical and Protestant Christianity are becoming synonymous with contemplative spirituality. In other words, where you find evangelical and Protestant Christianity, you will increasingly find contemplative spirituality (i.e., Spiritual Formation). And in this paradigm shift, we can see that Alice Bailey’s prediction that the church will be the avenue through which the “Aquarian Age” will enter the world, preparing for that one whom the Bible warns will deceive the whole world.
Related Video: (If you cannot see this video below, click here.)
(Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUJxZq6rT04).

Who’s Promoting Burnett/Downey’s The Bible:
Southern Baptist Conventionhttp://www.lifeway.com/Article/The-Bible-Miniseries-An-Interview-with-Roma-Downey-and-Mark-Burnett.
Focus on the Familyhttp://www.focusonthefamily.com/radio.aspx?ID={8AA137FE-2171-40A9-9569-E902F99BD82B}
Willow Creek Associationhttp://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/speaker_mark_burnett.asp
Rick Warren and Saddlebackhttp://saddleback.com/blogs/communityblog/mark-burnett-and-roma-downey-coming-to-saddleback/
Oprahhttp://www.oprah.com/own-oprahs-next-chapter/Why-Diogo-Morgado-Didnt-Feel-Worthy-to-Play-Jesus-Video
More endorsements, click here.om the Frying Pan into the Fire: Women of Faith Partners with New Age Advocate Roma Downeyrom the Frying Pan into the Fire: Women of Faith Partners with New Age Advocate Roma Downey

ROMA DOWNEY NEW AGE ADVOCATE PARTNERS WITH “WOMEN OF FAITH”~WOMEN SHOULD AVOID THESE CONFERENCES

Lighthouse Trails Research reports that Roma Downey, New Age advocate, is joining arms with “Women of Faith”, and warns, as before, that Christian women should avoid their conferences.

Fall 2013 Promo videos:





Max Lucado, contemplative proponent and believer in “baptismal regeneration” also promotes “Women of Faith”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_1BvDQ5DN8.


Priscilla Shirer, another reason to avoid the conference:
See posts about Shirer by Apprising:
http://apprising.org/2012/02/27/women-pastors-priscilla-shirer-and-the-southern-baptist-convention/.
http://apprising.org/2010/07/26/priscilla-shirer-and-contemplativecentering-prayer/.
http://apprising.org/2010/08/28/priscilla-shirer-promoting-contemplativecentering-prayer/.
http://apprising.org/2010/09/23/priscilla-shirer-points-us-to-richard-rohr/
(See Rohr below in our posts)
http://apprising.org/2012/08/23/true-woman-conference-speaker-priscilla-shirer-hears-gods-still-small-voice/.
http://apprising.org/2012/11/26/priscilla-shirer-excited-her-brother-performed-at-joel-osteens-heretical-word-faith-church/.
And our own previous posts about Richard Rohr, mystical monk:
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/04/much-more-on-rohr-plus-enneagrams.html.
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/04/the-connection-between-lgbtq-soulforce.html.


Christine Caine of Hillsong, Australia, another reason to avoid the conference:
Ruth Haley Barton, a contemplative mystic, will be attending the Assembly of God “Believe” conference event in Orlando, Florida, August 5-9, 2013, along with Franklin Graham, Christine Caine of Hillsong, Australia, Judah Smith, and Joni Eareckson Tada, among many others. See: http://generalcouncil.ag.org/.
See posts about Caine by Apprising:
http://apprising.org/2012/01/22/word-faith-pastrix-christine-caine-preaches-sunday-morning-sermon-for-steven-furtick/.
http://apprising.org/2011/09/23/code-orange-speaker-christine-caine/.
http://apprising.org/2012/06/06/the-budding-femance-between-word-faith-pastrix-christine-caine-and-kay-warren/.
http://apprising.org/2012/06/22/pastrix-christine-caine-honored-to-speak-at-lakewood-church-youth-conference/.
http://apprising.org/2012/10/03/christine-caine-to-preach-weekend-services-at-saddleback-church/.
http://apprising.org/2012/09/17/christine-caine-says-word-faith-teacher-joyce-meyer-is-her-spiritual-mother/.


Lysa Terkeurst promoting “breath payers” in her book “Made to Crave”, and who endorsed Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand GiftsAnn Voskamp has a blog where she shares how to do Lectio Divina. Both of these women are deceiving many women with their contemplative mysticism.
See Lighthouse Trails Research about “breath prayers”: 
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/breathprayer.htm, and “lectio divina”:
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=10887.





A number of other Word of Faith heretics and rock groups will be at this convention, so avoid!


MercyMe Rock Group: 
See: Way of Life: 
file:///C:/Users/John/Downloads/Directory_of_Contemporary_Worship_Musicians%20(1).pdf: Select quotes:
“MercyMe is a rocking contemporary band that is ecumenical and charismatic. In early 
2011 they included Roman Catholic Matt Maher on their Rock & Worship Roadshow. It is obvious that the members of MercyMe fill  their minds and hearts with a lot of licentious secular rock. MercyMe’s popular “Word of God Speak” worship song is pure charismatic mysticism. Consider the lyrics:
“Word of God speak, would you pour down like rain, washing my eyes to see our majesty. To be still and know that you’re in this place, please let me stay and rest in your holiness. … Finding myself in the midst of you, beyond the music, beyond the noise. All that I need is to be with you and in the quiet I hear your voice.” This “open yourself to the flow of the Spirit” has led to all sorts of unscriptural doctrines and practices.”


Third Day Rock Group:
See: Way of Life: Select quotes:
“One of the themes of CCM is ecumenical unity, and that is evident in Third Day’s “Come Together” album. Third Day performed for the Roman Catholic Youth Rally in 2011, which featured Pope Benedict XVI and a Catholic mass during which a piece of bread allegedly became Jesus.”


Mark Lowry:
See: Way of Life: Select quotes:
Mark Lowry labels living standards and ecclesiastical separation “legalism”Lowry’s tirade against “legalism” is a smokescreen for his rebellion against Bible-believing Christianity. Lowry’s ecumenical, positive-only philosophy is evident in his attitude toward preaching on Hell. In 1997, Lowry joined Roman Catholic Kathy Troccoli and 40 other CCM artists to record Love One Another, a song with an ecumenical theme. In an article in CCM Magazine, Lowry praised Mother Teresa and Princess Diana. Lowry had no word of warning about Mother Teresa’s false gospel that has caused multitudes 
to die with a false hope.”
Example video, titled:

“Mark Lowry Recovering Fundamentalist”, 

(Funny “Christian” Humor, But Still Very Ecumenical 

in Spirit and Mocking of Fundamentalists):




See our previous post about Roma Downey and her husband Mark Burnett:
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/05/global-leadership-summit-2013.html,
with this part about Downey:


Roma Downey:

Dave Mosher Blog has a group of excellent posts http://davemosher.wordpress.com/?s=roma+downey on Roma Downey and her New Age beliefs and associations, in particular this one:
http://davemosher.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/touched-by-an-angel-roma-downeys-new-age-ish-little-angels-series-for-preschoolers-claims-to-be-christian/, revised March 27, 2013. In it we see Roma Downey on the cover of OM Times, http://omtimes.com/a New Age publication. See Downey’s biography and interview at OM Times here: http://omtimes.com/2011/07/roma-downey-truly-an-angel/.



David Cloud’s Way of Life reports:
Roma Downey, the Roman Catholic co-creator (with her husband, Mark Burnett) of the History Channel’s popular “The Bible” miniseries, says Pope Francis is “a new pope of hope” (“Roma Downey,” Christian Post, April 4, 2013). Here is the promotion video of “The Bible” series:



    Downey, famous for her role as “the angel Monica” in the new-agey TV series “Touched by an Angel,” plays the part of Mary in “The Bible” miniseries. She says the example of Pope Francis will cause “the seeds of hope to flourish in people’s hearts and people’s lives.” In an earlier interview, Downey said, “I have prayed to Mary and loved her my whole life” (“The Bible: An Epic Mini-Series,” Catholiclane.com, Feb. 28, 2013). Roma attended the University of Santa Monica http://www.universityofsantamonica.edu/offering Master’s degrees in Spiritual Psychology“founded by New Age spiritual and self-help guru John Roger” (“Roma Downey Happy Out of Spotlight,” Beck/Smith Hollywood, April 23, 2013). She says that she listens to books on tape by New Age guru Eckhart Tolle, who teaches the divinity of man. The creators of “The Bible” miniseries have not been afraid to add to and change God’s Word.

Christian Research Network discusses Downey and the “Bible” miniseries:
http://christianresearchnetwork.org/2013/03/15/roman-catholic-roma-downey-producer-of-the-bible-miniseries-says-francis-i-will-be-a-pope-of-hope/.


Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church invited Downey and Burnett to do a “question and answer” time during February 2013 showing of the Bible miniseries: http://saddleback.com/blogs/communityblog/mark-burnett-and-roma-downey-coming-to-saddleback/.

_______________________________________________________________

Lighthouse article in full, unedited:

    Lighthouse Trails first addressed concerns about the Women of Faith conferences in 2006. In an article, we stated:

Women of Faith is a Christian franchise that has held conferences for over 3 million women since its inception in 1996. In 2000, Christian publisher Thomas Nelson bought the Women of Faith franchise and has a strong influence in the organization. Nearly all of the regular Women of Faith speakers are Thomas Nelson authors, and Thomas Nelson books are sold at the Women of Faith conferences, thus women attending the conferences will get a hearty dose of Thomas Nelson.
In light of books published by Thomas Nelson that have contemplative slants, women attending these conferences should use discernment and wisdom. Below is a list of some Thomas Nelson books and authors that have New Age and/or contemplative content. Incidentally, nearly all of these books below are sold through the Women of Faith online bookstore, including Yoga for Christians and The Secret Message of Jesus:
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher
The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren
Cure for the Common Life by Max Lucado
Speaking My Mind by Tony Campolo
Celebration of Discipline (Spanish) by Richard Foster
The Sacred Romance by John Eldredge
Turn My Mourning into Dancing by Henri Nouwen
How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life by Mark Victor Hansen
Seeing What is Sacred by Ken Gire
So You Want to Be Like Christ (Workbook) by Chuck Swindoll

In 2007, Lighthouse Trails posted an article titled “10, 000 Expected to Attend Women of Faith Conference.”  In that article, we stated that the “women who attend Women of Faith conferences will be exposed to mystical spirituality, and because they trust Women of Faith, they will be caught unaware and put in harm’s way.”
In 2010, we posted John Lanagan’s article “Why Are Women of Faith Promoting Mystic/Emerging Brian McLaren?”  Lanagan expressed his concerns about Women of Faith including the fact that the organization was selling Brian McLaren’s books. Lanagan stated:

When a well known organization like Women of Faith is the reason women are exposed to false teaching, whether through exposure to The Message paraphrase, or to the apostate rebellion of Brian McLaren, this should not be accepted with a yawn and a shrug. . . .  Is Women of Faith on its way to purveying a generic spirituality?

We fear we must say yes to John Lanagan’s question. Women of Faith is going from the frying pan into the fire. In a June 21stChristian Post article, “Mark Burnett, Roma Downey Partner With Women of Faith, ‘Believe God Can Do Anything’ Tour,”  it explains how Women of Faith “has partnered with ‘The Bible’ producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey to incorporate parts of the highly successful History Channel program into its ‘life-changing’ tour. That probably sounds UN-alarming to most people. After all, what could be wrong with a  program called The Bible?  And the series (now seen by over 100 million people), The Bible,  is being promoted widely by many Christian organizations and ministries with a broad marketing target.
It was concerning enough knowing these past several years that Women of Faith introduced their women to Brian McLaren and other emergent-type names. But Roma Downey falls as much in the New Spirituality camp as McLaren, if not more. First of all, Roma promotes the Roman Catholic church. In an article we posted earlier this year,Rick Warren Endorses 2013 Book, “Catholics Come Home” – Calls Catholic Evangelization “Critically Important,” we quoted Downey as saying this about the Catholics Come Home book: “Catholics Come Home inspires each of us to share God’s love with others, in order to help change the world for the better, for eternity!” And, in a book titled Practical Praying: Using the Rosary to Enhance Your Life, there is a companion “Meditation” CD by Roma Downey that comes with the book.
But Roma Downey isn’t just a Catholic promoter. She is a New Age/New Spirituality promoter. Within the pages of a book titledLoyalty to Your Soul by Ron and Mary Hulnick (published in 2010 by the New Age publisher, Hay House), Downey endorses the book saying:

As a USM [ University of Santa Monica – a New Age metaphysical school] graduate, I know firsthand the value I received from participating with Ron and Mary  in the Master’s degree Program in Spiritual Psychology. I am so grateful to haveLoyalty to Your Soul to sweetly remind me of all I have learned. Let’s just say that I went from playing an angel on TV to living more of an angelic life every day. The teachings in this beautiful book have sent me on a journey to the very center of my own being where, wrapped in the safe wings of Love, I feel as though I have come home.

Downey’s endorsement in the Hulnick’s book is nestled in with full-blown New Agers like Barbara Marx Hubbard, Joan Borysenko, and Gay Hendricks (The Corporate Mystic). By the way, Neale Donald Walsch, the New Ager who said that Hitler did the Jews a favor by killing them,wrote the foreword to Loyalty to Your Soul.
Clearly, Downey read this book and resonates deeply with it to say what she did about it. To get an idea of this “journey” that Downey is on, listen to a few quotes from Loyalty to Your Soul:

Center your awareness in your heart and consciously look for the Loving Essence in the person in your presence. By doing so, you’re signifying your respect for the Soul before you . . .  Maintain awareness that you’re in conversation with another Divine Being who is engaged in having a human experience. (p. 209)
We ask for the presence, protection, guidance, and Love of the Divine Beings  who work with each of us. (from the “Invocation” – emphasis added
“When people speak of spirituality, they simply mean awareness of the sacred reality of the Divine Essence within and beyond all creation.” (p. 8, quoting favorably a New Age “spiritual teacher”)
For the awakening person, there is a growing yearning for time in the silence. There is a sense of needing time and space for contemplation, meditation, walking in nature, and just plain being alone. Attuning to the inner channel of Divine Love is supported by quiet moments. (p. 27)
You begin to recognize others as Divine Beings, and the situations and circumstances of your life as learning devices. (p. 31)

Those familiar with New Age teachings will recognize such statements as being the core essence of the occult (that man is divine).Loyalty to Your Soul is a contemporary version of A Course in Miracles (the New Age book Warren B. Smith talks about in his biography, The Light That Was Dark).
In addition to endorsing Loyalty to Your Soul, Downey also endorsed a book called Angels in My Hair: the true story of a modern day Irish mystic by Lorna Bryne. The book is about spirit guides in people’s lives.
We find it disconcerting to know that someone with Downey’s spiritual propensities, who attended a New Age university, helped to create a program on God’s Word.
So, the question we have is this: Now that Women of Faith has “partnered” with Roma Downey, will the millions of women who attend Women of Faith conferences be led down the same path Downey has found herself on? Perhaps we should ask Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer,
 Lisa Harper
(See Lighthouse Trails brief description of Lisa Harper at http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=10843, with a quote from this link: “In looking at her 2011 book, Stumbling into Grace, she is quoting several major contemplatives: Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Brennan Manning, Richard Foster, Anne Lamott, and at least one New Age author, Gerald May. We don’t know that she is advocating contemplative practices in her book, but clearly she is reading from and gleaning from the mystics and passing those “insights” onto her readers.”)
and Sheila Walsch the answer to that question – they will be the speakers at the Women of Faith “Unwrap the Bible” conference in 2014 (see video below where Downey promotes this conference). But then, you might get a biased answer – Moore, Shirer, Harper, and Walsch are all proponents of contemplative spirituality, and those who understand the dynamics of contemplative prayer know that it is a comfortable companion to the ”theology” behind A Course in Miracles.
Evangelical and Protestant Christianity are becoming synonymous with contemplative spirituality. In other words, where you find evangelical and Protestant Christianity, you will increasingly find contemplative spirituality (i.e., Spiritual Formation). And in this paradigm shift, we can see that Alice Bailey’s prediction that the church will be the avenue through which the “Aquarian Age” will enter the world, preparing for that one whom the Bible warns will deceive the whole world.
Related Video: (If you cannot see this video below, click here.)
(Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUJxZq6rT04).

Who’s Promoting Burnett/Downey’s The Bible:
Southern Baptist Conventionhttp://www.lifeway.com/Article/The-Bible-Miniseries-An-Interview-with-Roma-Downey-and-Mark-Burnett.
Focus on the Familyhttp://www.focusonthefamily.com/radio.aspx?ID={8AA137FE-2171-40A9-9569-E902F99BD82B}
Willow Creek Associationhttp://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/speaker_mark_burnett.asp
Rick Warren and Saddlebackhttp://saddleback.com/blogs/communityblog/mark-burnett-and-roma-downey-coming-to-saddleback/
Oprahhttp://www.oprah.com/own-oprahs-next-chapter/Why-Diogo-Morgado-Didnt-Feel-Worthy-to-Play-Jesus-Video
More endorsements, click here.om the Frying Pan into the Fire: Women of Faith Partners with New Age Advocate Roma Downeyrom the Frying Pan into the Fire: Women of Faith Partners with New Age Advocate Roma Downey

CONTEMPLATIVE RUTH HALEY BARTON DEFENDED BY ASSEMBLIES OF GOD GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT AND HEAD OF WOMEN’S MINISTRIES

Here is the Lighthouse Trails Research report in its entirety to date, which does not yet include their response:

Assemblies of God General Superintendent Letter Responds to Lighthouse Trails Article 
– Defends Contemplative Spirituality
“Regarding the Lighthouse Trails article, SPECIAL REPORT: Assemblies of God “Believe” 
Conference Makes Bold Move – Brings in Contemplative Key Player Ruth Haley Barton,” 
the General Superintendent of the AOG denomination, George O. Wood,

has issued a response via e-email. Because this response has been sent out to an undisclosed
number of people as a form letter, we consider this a public response; thus we are posting the entire
response below. Dr. Wood  has included a statement from “Dr. Jodi Detrick, chairperson for the
Network for Women in Ministry, which is cohosting this gathering along with the Assemblies of God
Theological Seminary.” Lighthouse Trails will be preparing its own public response to Dr. Wood and
to Dr. Detrick. However, at this time, we are only posting their letter. We will say this, however: Dr. 
Detrick has attempted to insert an ad hominem argument of Pentecostalism vs. 
non-Pentecostalism; Lighthouse Trails will not be engaging in that discussion as the true issue at
hand is contemplative spirituality versus the Gospel and the authenticity of the Cross”:


From the General Superintendent:
“Ruth Haley Barton is the scheduled speaker for the evening gathering for female ministers 
at General Council. 

Below is a statement from the Task Force for this event and Dr. Jodi Detrick, chairperson

for the Network for Women in Ministry, which is cohosting this gathering along with the 
Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. Dr. Detrick is an ordained minister and a 
respected religion columnist for the Seattle Times. She is also the spouse of Dr. Don Detrick, 
who serves as Secretary-Treasurer of the Northwest District of the AG and is the current 
leader of the AG Secretary/Treasurer’s Fellowship, as well as a member of the General 
Presbytery. I trust the response that she and her Task Force has provided will be helpful.”
George O. Wood, General Superintendent.
________________________________________________________________________
There are three websites that the Detricks have online:
http://growingorganicdisciples.com/, which promotes Don Detrick’s book: “Growing Disciples
Organically-The Jesus Method of Spiritual Formation”. This website contains a reference 
to an article he wrote in 2007 titled “Sacred Serenade: The Role of Music in Spiritual 
Formation”, and in which he refers to Dallas Willard (a very well known contemplative 
proponent), Brian McLaren (well known emerging church leader and contemplative), 
and Chuck Swindoll (well known Christian “psychologist”).
http://jodidetrick.com/, and http://jesusheartedwoman.com/, the latter promoting her own 
book “The Jesus Hearted Woman”.

_____________________________________________________________________________
“We have received your inquiry regarding the guest speaker for the credentialed women in 
ministry event at General Council 2013. A couple of websites attempt to discredit Ruth Haley 
Barton (along with Beth Moore, Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Moody Bible Institute, Focus 
on the Family, and many others—several of the most effective ministries and Christ-like 
teachers of the Word and of the Christian life today). These websites (which as far as we can 
tell are by non-Pentecostals) generally do not report their qualifications to do “research” 
and condemn her ministry specialty, contemplative prayer, (along with spiritual formation 
and direction—two other well-recognized forms of in-depth discipleship) as a false version of 
Christianity, more akin to something practiced in Eastern religions. Therefore, we want to 
respond to the issues at the root of this misunderstanding. 
As people of Pentecost, we believe in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, in a dynamic faith that 
can be experienced. Through the help of the Holy Spirit, we are called to share the Christ-life: to live like 
Jesus, to do the works of Jesus, and to know the Father as Jesus did—personally and intimately. One 
way to cultivate such intimacy is to quiet ourselves from all of the noise around (and within) us, and wait 
upon the Lord, in order to hear from Him. Such “tarrying” has a rich tradition within our Movement. Our 
early forebearers like Maria Woodworth-Etter and Smith Wigglesworth communed with the 
Lord like that, and as a result preached under a powerful anointing, while ministering with 
signs and wonders. The pursuit of communion with God through intimate, personal experience 
is a kind of spirituality that has been part of the Assemblies of God since the beginning, but 
sadly, the number of Christ-followers actually practicing it has declined over the years. Interestingly, 
today there is a growing hunger, even outside our Fellowship, for that kind of relationship and experience 
with God. 
Ruth Haley Barton is committed to helping people connect with Jesus Christ in a meaningful way, 
especially those who have been so busy serving Him that they’ve forgotten how important it is to really 
know Him, and to spend time with Him. 
Sadly, some are saying that seeking the Lord in such a way equates with the practices of 
meditation and contemplation in Eastern religions. This couldn’t be further from the truth, and 
is an unfortunate and inaccurate identification. Eastern religions utilize pagan practices designed 
to empty one’s mind, thus opening oneself to the spirits of darkness. In fact, Satan often attempts to 
steal, copy, or distort Christian practices that have their origin in true faith. One can find false religions 
that practice prayer, fasting, forms of divine healing, visions, tongues, prophecies, and other things we, 
as Pentecostals hold dear. Even yet today, there are many that would accuse Pentecostals of 
being cultish mystics because we embrace the mysteries of a divine God who moves outside 
of our natural realm. 
Conversely, Christian contemplative prayer is a biblical spiritual discipline with a goal of focusing one’s 
attention on God in order to thoroughly fill one’s heart and mind with Christ and His Word. Following 
biblical instruction to “meditate on God’s word day and night,” and to “be still and know that He is God,” 
such activity has been practiced by Pentecostals for centuries. This is reminiscent of an old hymn that 
reminded believers to “turn your eyes upon Jesus” so that the “things of earth may grow strangely dim 
in the light of His glory and grace.” 
Some have inaccurately reported that Ruth Barton teaches the use of only three words as the sum of 
all prayer. This is a misrepresentation of her encouragement to find a simple, personal prayer to say to 
God when one is entering into a time of silence and listening in His presence. This act of listening in 
quietness is only one narrow aspect of prayer life but one that is often greatly neglected, to our loss. 
Of course we are to pour our hearts out in fervent prayer and intercession, and also to shout with praise. 
But it is also important to cultivate stillness; using a simple prayer (not as a mantra, as some have 
implied) to call our hearts back from stray thoughts and distractions is the goal in Mrs. Barton’s 
instructions on how to “be still and know that He is God.” Pentecostal Christians often pray and sing 
repetitive words. In our weekly church services, we hear the words, “Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus.” 
repeated often in sincere prayer. We sing and pray “Come Holy Spirit, I need Thee,” and mean it from 
our hearts. The Psalms are full of prayers that use repetition as a way to honor God and to focus on 
Him. Every time people say the Lord’s Prayer, they are repeating a “prescribed prayer” that our Lord 
told us to pray. In Matthew 6:7, Jesus was very intentional with His use of words when He told his 
disciples ‘not to use vain repetition as the heathen do.’ 
Our prayers are not to be vain, useless words repeated without thought. He also said the heathen 
thought they would be heard for their “much speaking” but obviously He did not mean that every long, 
extended time of heartfelt prayer is prohibited. We must be careful not to condemn our brothers and 
sisters in Christ who are committed to Scripture and are being used mightily by God, even though, 
on the surface, it looks somewhat different than we are accustomed to. 
One other caution we would be wise to heed is not to judge a person’s current theology or 
spiritual vitality based solely on secondary associations or those whom they may have 
studied under in the past. 
Acts 7:22 says, “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech 
and action.” In Acts 22:3, Paul said, “I studied under Gamaliel…” God chose to include this academic 
background about these men in His Word. Both of them had those influences in their history that we 
would certainly deem questionable, at best, but they went on to embrace different beliefs as they 
encountered the living God in a personal way. In the bio on her website, Mrs. Barton includes these 
important words: “The breadth of Ruth’s study and learning in a variety of settings contributes to the 
strength of her teaching and writing. While she values all that she has gained from the teachers and 
institutions in which she has studied, this does not imply endorsement of everything taught in these 
environments. Ruth’s teaching and writing have been most profoundly shaped by her commitment to 
“examine the Scriptures to see if these things are so.” (Acts 17:11)” Here is the link to her statement 
of faith and it would helpful to read what she believes and adheres to, in her own words, and not from 
Further, it is unwise to jump to conclusions that since Speaker A, once quoted Speaker B, who then 
quoted secular speaker C – that therefore Speaker A and Speaker C are in the same boat with one 
another. The Apostle Paul quoted pagan poets in Acts 17, but that did not mean he was a pagan. 
And, interestingly, his quotation was not even used in a negative context meant to disprove that pagan 
poet. In fact, he used what the pagan poet had said to make a case for God’s truth. 
We want to assure those with concerns that there is not even the smallest part of us that 
embraces any form of eastern religion or the New Age movement’s teachings and practices
We are a group of Spirit-filled women, all volunteers, who prayerfully met together and considered who 
might bring something valuable to our event at General Council. Scripture exhorts us that we will 
know a tree by the fruit it bears. Countless AG people, and credentialed leaders, have 
testified to drawing much closer to the Lord as a result of Ruth’s books and teachings. We 
have personally talked with those who were on the verge of dropping out of ministry until they read, 
“Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership,” her book based on the life of Moses. Ruth was chosen 
by our credentialed women in ministry committee because so many of them have come to appreciate 
her message of setting aside all the busyness and noise to focus on Jesus, and quietly wait upon the 
Lord. It’s really no wonder that the enemy would like to keep this message from being heard. He would 
prefer that Christian leaders remain too busy to stop their activity, wait on God, and hear from Him. 
It is our prayer that God will use this event to continue to draw women closer to Him and to 
help our female ministers fulfill their calling with longevity, spiritual health, and an even greater 
anointing of the Holy Spirit.”

The Task Force for the Women in Ministry-AGTS Event at General Council
Jodi Detrick, Chairperson for the Network for Women in Ministry

____________________________________________________________________________

THIS BLOG WOULD LIKE TO REFUTE THE ABOVE 
APOLOGETIC OF BARTON BY REFERRING TO A 
PREVIOUS POST OF OURS SHOWING BARTON’S 
LONG HISTORY OF CATHOLIC, BUDDHIST, AND 
EASTERN MYSTICAL INCLINATIONS, EDUCATIONAL 
BACKGROUND, ASSOCIATIONS AND TEACHINGS:

Ruth Haley Barton and her Transforming Center 
(see: http://www.thetransformingcenter.org/
Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCKTa0EGEdE&list=UUbhNejtTjSPfsbJEmDDrq4g&index=4,
operate out of a Catholic convent in Wheaton, Illinois known 
as the Loretto Center (see: http://lorettocenter.org/), which has its 
own pagan labyrinth http://lorettocenter.org/labyrinth.html, and is 
run by the IBVM nuns. The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, founded 
in 1609, is an apostolic community of Catholic women present in 26 countries 
across six continents. We live our Ignatian (Saint Ignatius Loyola of the 
Jesuit priests) spirituality of “contemplatives in action” cherished by our 
founder, Mary Ward. 
    Barton led a Catholic Good Friday “Stations of the Cross” at the 
Loretto Chapel on March 29, 2013. 
See: http://www.transformingcenter.org/events/good-friday-service-2/.
    Barton has been trained at the Shalem Institute, http://www.shalem.org/
and contains contemplative articles by other of Shalem’s affiliates here http://www.shalem.org/index.php/resources/publications/articles-written-by-shalem-staff
    Because Barton is mentioned above in Wilhoit’s book, we would like to expand further on this one person’s long term Catholic/Buddhist (eastern) contemplative/mystical influence over churches and Christians. This is not to imply that the others Wilhoit quotes in his book are any less dangerous to true Christianity because of their contemplative/mystical positions.
    Barton has had a long association with Shalem which recently had a “Contemplative Communion Good Friday Service”. See: http://www.shalem.org/index.php/shalem-programs/contemplative-communion-service/22-groups/289-contemplative-communion-service?tmpl=component&print=1&page=.
    Lighthouse reports: “Shalem’s contemplative roots go back to its beginning. And when we say contemplative, we mean contemplative in its “purest” form, meaning interspiritual, universalistic, New Age/New Spirituality, and so forth. But the story from our vantage point (actually a two-fold story) is that first, mainstream Christianity (United Methodist, Episcopal, etc) has stepped over that line onto the New Age playing field, and second, largely because of one key figure who was trained at Shalem, the evangelical church is right behind them. 
    “Barton was trained at the Shalem Institute and later became the Associate Director of Spiritual Formation at Willow Creek. There, she teamed up with John Ortberg to create Willow Creek’s curriculum on Spiritual Formation. While Richard Foster was bringing contemplative prayer into the church through his 1978 classic Celebration of Discipline, Barton and Ortberg were bringing it in through a side door, the highly influential Willow Creek. Today, both Barton and Ortberg are actively doing their part in bringing about this paradigm shift to evangelical Christianity.”
    If one would like to see what the evangelical church is becoming, one only needs to take a look at Ruth Haley Barton today. After she left Willow Creek, she went on to start her own organization, The Transforming Center. There, her program trains thousands of pastors and church leaders how to become contemplative.”
    Barton’s biography can be found at: http://www.shelfari.com/authors/a975772/Ruth-Haley-Barton/.
    In September 2008, Apprising reported in depth on Barton herehttp://apprising.org/2008/09/17/who-is-ruth-haley-barton/, in which Ken Silva reports that Shalem was founded by Tilden Edwards, who in his book, “Spiritual Friend: Reclaiming the Gift of Spiritual Direction”, Edwards enlightens us that his particular:
“mystical stream is the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality (and to that of Sufi Moslems and some Hassidic Jews in the West as well). The Zen warning not to confuse the pointing finger…for the moon to which it points is a saying that a Christian mystic easily understands. It is no accident that the most active frontier between Christian and Eastern religions today is between contemplative Christian monks and their Eastern equivalents. Some forms of Eastern meditation informally have been incorporated or adapted into the practice of many Christian monks, and increasingly by other Christians.”
    As Ken Silva reported in this same article, Edwards admires and quotes both Catholic and Buddhist monks, and Barton follows suit. There is abundant evidence of this in their writings. 
Apprising also reported on Barton herehttp://apprising.org/2008/10/22/pastor-ruth-haley-barton-on-her-national-pastors-retreats/, where she calls herself a “pastor” (pastrixes are not Christian), and talks about going into the Catholic “Great Silence” in this video:


    Power to Stand Ministries has already warned on December 20, 2012 about Barton’s influence on Women of Gracehttp://www.wgusa.org/ here: https://ratherexposethem.org/2012/12/fgbc-concerns-pt-5-contemplative.html, and is very similar to our serious concerns about Barton.
    Sometimes Barton denies any “eastern emptying of the mind” as in this video, which contradicts all prior endorsements of both Catholic and Buddhist mystical practices and her own spiritual “practices” taught to others, and which certainly do involve such emptying into a “state of nothingness”. In this video and much of her other media sources there is the emphasis on the “unmediated” (i.e., without Jesus Christ) access to God, which is totally un-Christian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_5ZC8yzlao.
    Barton will be attending the Assembly of God “Believe” conference event in Orlando, Florida, August 5-9, 2013, along with Franklin Graham, Christine Caine of Hillsong, Australia, Judah Smith, and Joni Eareckson Tada, among many others. See: http://generalcouncil.ag.org/.
    Barton has studied the Enneagram with Russ Hudson of the Enneagram Institute https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/

Let Us Reason has a complete explanation of the Enneagram in their article “The Power of Personality”:
http://www.letusreason.org/Current42.htm.

Christian Answers For the New Age (CANA) explains the occult mystical origins of the enneagram, and further links worth exploring: http://www.christiananswersforthenewage.org/Articles_Enneagram.html.

Apprising has an article http://apprising.org/2012/01/16/peter-scazzero-introducing-enneagrams-into-mainstream-evangelicalism/, showing the enneagram being used by Peter Scazzero of New Life Fellowship Church, Elmhurst, Queens, New York City http://newlifefellowship.org/, and Emotionally Healthy Spirituality http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/The same article shows that Scazzero is importing such into Bill Hybels’ Willow Creek Association.

This video explains the enneagram which Lighthouse explains as 
occult ancient Sufi typology of nine personality types or primary roles. See: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=2298:


    

ASSOCIATION OF CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS INTERNATIONAL (ACSI) STILL PROMOTING CONTEMPLATIVE EASTERN MYSTICAL PRACTICES; THE INFLUENCE OF JAMES WILHOIT AND RUTH HALEY BARTON

Lighthouse Trails Research has been reporting since January 2008 that ACSI has been promoting Catholic/Buddhist contemplative eastern mysticism and spiritual formation to its member schools around the world, by giving books from mystic authors to them.
See: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=2084.
    In July of 2013, in Colorado Springs, ACSI will be presenting the “2013 ACSI Leadership Academy.” The theme at this year’s annual event is“Spiritual Formation: Christian Schools Matter”! The keynote speaker will be Dr. James C. Wilhoit, author of Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered, as pictured below: 



(a copy of this book will be mailed to every registrant). Each registrant will also receive one semester hour of graduate credit from George Fox University (one of the most contemplative colleges out there today).
    A second article was written by Lighthouse Trails Research in March, 2008:
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=1892.
    A third article was written by Lighthouse Trails Research in September, 2008:
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=1486.
    On March 29, 2013, Lighthouse received an e-mail from someone reporting that:  
    “I received a copy of an upcoming ACSI Leadership Academy that will be held this summer July 18-21. http://www.acsiglobal.org/events/acsi-leadership-academy. The title of the academy made my hair bristle: Spiritual Formation: Christian Schools Matter. The keynote speaker is none other than the infamous Dr. James C. Wilhoit. I have removed the flyer so no one will know about it. But I want to let my school administrator know that this is not something that would be beneficial, especially with the title of the conference.”
    Quote from Lighthouse article: 
    “Regarding James Wilhoit’s book, Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered (the book that ACSI will be giving out to members), the book is packed with references of and quotes by some of today’s most staunch and influential contemplative names: Dallas Willard (who wrote the foreword), Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, Ruth Haley Barton (trained at the interspiritual Shalem Institute), David Benner, Kenneth Boa, Richard Foster, Emilie Griffin, Brother Lawrence, Henri Nouwen, Eugene Peterson (author of the Message Bible), Pete Scazzero, Klaus Issler, and Marjorie Thompson (Soul Feast). (Refer to our research site for information on these names.) The book is basically a primer on contemplative prayer and emerging spirituality and backs up the teachings of the names which it includes. Wilhoit is currently a professor of “Christian Formation” at Wheaton College.”
    It should be noted that Wilhoit has published at least two other books that are troublesome because they also promote contemplative eastern mysticism and spiritual disciplines typical of Catholic and Buddhist monasteries.

and: http://jimwilhoit.com/discovering-lectio-divina.html:



_______________________________________________
 

  
    Ruth Haley Barton and her Transforming Center 
(see: http://www.thetransformingcenter.org/
Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCKTa0EGEdE&list=UUbhNejtTjSPfsbJEmDDrq4g&index=4,
operate out of a Catholic convent in Wheaton, Illinois known as the Loretto Center (see: http://lorettocenter.org/), which has its own pagan labyrinth http://lorettocenter.org/labyrinth.html, and is run by the IBVM nuns. The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, founded in 1609, is an apostolic community of Catholic women present in 26 countries across six continents. We live our Ignatian (Saint Ignatius Loyola of the Jesuit priests) spirituality of “contemplatives in action” cherished by our founder, Mary Ward. 
    Barton led a Catholic Good Friday “Stations of the Cross” at the Loretto Chapel on March 29, 2013. See: http://www.transformingcenter.org/events/good-friday-service-2/.
    Barton has been trained at the Shalem Institute, http://www.shalem.org/, and contains contemplative articles by other of Shalem’s affiliates here http://www.shalem.org/index.php/resources/publications/articles-written-by-shalem-staff
    Because Barton is mentioned above in Wilhoit’s book, we would like to expand further on this one person’s long term Catholic/Buddhist (eastern) contemplative/mystical influence over churches and Christians. This is not to imply that the others Wilhoit quotes in his book are any less dangerous to true Christianity because of their contemplative/mystical positions.
    Barton has had a long association with Shalem which recently had a “Contemplative Communion Good Friday Service”. See: http://www.shalem.org/index.php/shalem-programs/contemplative-communion-service/22-groups/289-contemplative-communion-service?tmpl=component&print=1&page=.
    Lighthouse reports:Shalem’s contemplative roots go back to its beginning. And when we say contemplative, we mean contemplative in its “purest” form, meaning interspiritual, universalistic, New Age/New Spirituality, and so forth. But the story from our vantage point (actually a two-fold story) is that first, mainstream Christianity (United Methodist, Episcopal, etc) has stepped over that line onto the New Age playing field, and second, largely because of one key figure who was trained at Shalem, the evangelical church is right behind them. 
    “Barton was trained at the Shalem Institute and later became the Associate Director of Spiritual Formation at Willow Creek. There, she teamed up with John Ortberg to create Willow Creek’s curriculum on Spiritual Formation. While Richard Foster was bringing contemplative prayer into the church through his 1978 classic Celebration of Discipline, Barton and Ortberg were bringing it in through a side door, the highly influential Willow Creek. Today, both Barton and Ortberg are actively doing their part in bringing about this paradigm shift to evangelical Christianity.”
    If one would like to see what the evangelical church is becoming, one only needs to take a look at Ruth Haley Barton today. After she left Willow Creek, she went on to start her own organization, The Transforming Center. There, her program trains thousands of pastors and church leaders how to become contemplative.”
    Barton’s biography can be found at: http://www.shelfari.com/authors/a975772/Ruth-Haley-Barton/.
    In September 2008, Apprising reported in depth on Barton herehttp://apprising.org/2008/09/17/who-is-ruth-haley-barton/, in which Ken Silva reports that Shalem was founded by Tilden Edwards, who in his book, “Spiritual Friend: Reclaiming the Gift of Spiritual Direction”, Edwards enlightens us that his particular:
“mystical stream is the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality (and to that of Sufi Moslems and some Hassidic Jews in the West as well). The Zen warning not to confuse the pointing finger…for the moon to which it points is a saying that a Christian mystic easily understands. It is no accident that the most active frontier between Christian and Eastern religions today is between contemplative Christian monks and their Eastern equivalents. Some forms of Eastern meditation informally have been incorporated or adapted into the practice of many Christian monks, and increasingly by other Christians.”
    As Ken Silva reported in this same article, Edwards admires and quotes both Catholic and Buddhist monks, and Barton follows suit. There is abundant evidence of this in their writings. 
Apprising also reported on Barton herehttp://apprising.org/2008/10/22/pastor-ruth-haley-barton-on-her-national-pastors-retreats/, where she calls herself a “pastor” (pastrixes are not Christian), and talks about going into the Catholic “Great Silence” in this video:


    Power to Stand Ministries has already warned on December 20, 2012 about Barton’s influence on Women of Grace http://www.wgusa.org/ here: https://ratherexposethem.org/2012/12/fgbc-concerns-pt-5-contemplative.html, and is very similar to our serious concerns about Barton.
    Sometimes Barton denies any “eastern emptying of the mind” as in this video, which contradicts all prior endorsements of both Catholic and Buddhist mystical practices and her own spiritual “practices” taught to others, and which certainly do involve such emptying into a “state of nothingness”. In this video and much of her other media sources there is the emphasis on the “unmediated” (i.e., without Jesus Christ) access to God, which is totally un-Christian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_5ZC8yzlao.
    Barton will be attending the Assembly of God “Believe” conference event in Orlando, Florida, August 5-9, 2013, along with Franklin Graham, Christine Caine of Hillsong, Australia, Judah Smith, and Joni Eareckson Tada, among many others. See: http://generalcouncil.ag.org/.
    Barton has studied the Enneagram with Russ Hudson of the Enneagram Institute https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/

Let Us Reason has a complete explanation of the Enneagram in their article “The Power of Personality”:
http://www.letusreason.org/Current42.htm.


Christian Answers For the New Age (CANA) explains the occult mystical origins of the enneagram, and further links worth exploring: http://www.christiananswersforthenewage.org/Articles_Enneagram.html.

Apprising has an article http://apprising.org/2012/01/16/peter-scazzero-introducing-enneagrams-into-mainstream-evangelicalism/, showing the enneagram being used by Peter Scazzero of New Life Fellowship Church, Elmhurst, Queens, New York City http://newlifefellowship.org/, and Emotionally Healthy Spirituality http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/. The same article shows that Scazzero is importing such into Bill Hybels’ Willow Creek Association.


This video explains the enneagram which Lighthouse explains as 
occult ancient Sufi typology of nine personality types or primary roles. See: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=2298:

    Richard Rohr, contemplative Franciscan Catholic priest, also uses the enneagram:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq9nRszFcM8. This video shows Rohr’s affiliation with Shalem:

Rohr gives an occultic enneagram lesson:



The merging of Jesus and Buddha is demonstrated at Rohr’s websitehttps://cac.org/, as in
https://cac.org/store/cds/item/828-jesus-and-buddha-paths-to-awakening:

Jesus and Buddha: Paths to Awakening

Jesus and Buddha: Paths to AwakeningJesus and Buddha: Paths to Awakening

In January 2008 James Finley and Richard Rohr gave a conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Jesus and Buddha: Paths to Awakening. This recording contains the pre-conference and conference teachings.
The Four Noble Truths are the distilled essence of Buddhist teaching. In these talks, each is introduced and explored, with emphasis given to the presence of these truths at the heart of Jesus’ call to awaken to God’s presence in every detail of our lives.
Topics include:
  • Receive and Reflect: Practicing Awareness—Richard Rohr
  • Buddhism 101—James Finley
  •  Jesus and Buddha—Richard Rohr
  • A Deep Look at the First Two Noble Truths—James Finley
  • The Ten Cords of Bondage—Richard Rohr
  • The Four Limitless Qualities—Richard Rohr
  • The Mind of Christ—Richard Rohr
  • The Eight-Fold Path—James Finley
  • Question & Answer Session—James Finley & Richard Rohr
  • Chant and Gesture—Jim Reale
  • Nirvana and Kingdom Consciousness—James Finley
  • The Heart Sutra & Walking Meditation—James Finley
  • Closing Prayer—Richard Rohr

    Barton would like church leaders to move away from secular business models to the mystical:



Barton drifts toward “solitude and silence”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_dH4NqeeQw.