True Discernment

from wayoflife:

Everywhere we look evangelicals are turning to Roman Catholic styles of contemplative spirituality (which in many cases were borrowed from pagan sources), such as ritualistic rote prayers, chanting, meditation, mindless centering prayer, the use of prayer beads, the Stations of the Cross, lectio divina, labyrinths, and “the daily office.”

The cover story for the February 2008 issue of Christianity Today was “The Future Lies in the Past,” and it describes the “lost secrets of the ancient church” that are being rediscovered by evangelicals. The ancient church in question happens to be the Roman Catholic, beginning with the so-called “church fathers” of the early centuries.

The article observes that many young evangelicals dislike both “traditional” Christianity” and the seeker sensitive churches. Traditional Christianity is described as too focused on “being right,” too much into “Bible studies” and “apologetics materials.” Instead, the young evangelicals are lusting after “a renewed encounter with a God” that goes beyond “doctrinal definitions.” This, of course, is a perfect definition of mysticism. It refers to experiencing God beyond the boundaries of Scripture.

Christianity Today recommends that evangelicals “stop debating” and just “embody Christianity.”

Toward this end they should “embrace symbols and sacraments” and dialogue with “Catholicism and Orthodoxy”; they should “break out the candles and incense” and pray the “lectio divina” and learn the Catholic” ascetic disciplines” from “practicing monks and nuns.”

Christianity Today says that this “search for historic roots” will lead “to a deepening ecumenical conversation, and a recognition by evangelicals that the Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox are fellow Christians with much to teach us.”

This is a no holds barred invitation to Catholic mysticism, and it will not lead to light but to the same darkness that has characterized Rome throughout its history, and it will lead beyond Rome to the paganism from which Rome originally borrowed its “contemplative practices.”

The January 2001 issue of Christianity Today contained a lengthy description by Mennonite pastor Arthur Boers of his visit to four ecumenical religious communities-Taize, Lindisfarne, Iona, and Northumbria–and HIS INCREASING LOVE FOR LITURGICAL PRACTICES. Boers

testifies: “About two decades ago, on a whim, I bought a discontinued book by a famous Catholic priest. As a convinced evangelical Anabaptist, I was skeptical. But I was also curious. As it turned out, this book became the starting point in my recovery of a fuller prayer life through the daily office.”

THE TAIZE APPROACH

The mystical movement is strongly influenced by Taize (pronounced teh-zay). This is a religious community that was formed in southeastern France during World War II by Roger Schutz, a Swiss Protestant pastor who went by the name of “Brother Roger” and who led the community until his death in 2005. Its goal is to work for world peace and ecumenical unity. The Taize monastic order includes some 100 allegedly “celibate brothers” from different countries and denominations, including Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, and Reformed. While the Taize community itself is very small, the Taize philosophy has influenced churches throughout the world.

Taize is a major force for non-doctrinal ecumenism. Thousands of people per week make a pilgrimage to Taize. These include Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and the unaffiliated. The Roman Catholic connection is very strong. Schutz participated in the Catholic Vatican II Council, and Pope John Paul II visited Taize in October 1986. Since Schutz’s death, Taize has been led by a Roman Catholic priest named Alois Loeser.

The Taize services are non-dogmatic and non-authoritative. There is no preaching. “It does not dictate what people must believe. No confessions of faith are required. No sermons are given. No emotional, evangelical-style testimonials are expected. Clergy are not required.” Schutz described the philosophy of Taize as, “Searching together–not wanting to become spiritual masters who impose; God never imposes. We want to love and listen, we want simplicity” (”Taize,” Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, Sept. 20, 2002).

Taize’s non-doctrinal ecumenical Christianity is fueled by mysticism. A “shadowy medieval”

atmosphere is created with the use of such things as candles, icons, and incense (Vancouver Sun, April 14, 2000). The goal is to bring the “worshipper” into a meditative state, “to a place beyond words, a place of just being.” There is a lot of repetition, with “one-line Taize harmonies repeated up to 15 times each.” The Taize web site promotes the use of icons.

The Taize community is heavily involved in the same type of “social-justice” issues that are popular with evangelicals today.

A DESCRIPTION OF ONE OF THE CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICES

To illustrate how unscriptural and spiritually dangerous the contemplative practices are we will look at the most popular one called Centering Prayer.

Centering prayer is also called centering down.

It involves quieting the mind and emptying it of conscious thoughts about God with the objective of entering into a non-verbal experiential communion with God in the center of one’s being and thereby achieving direct revelation from God.

Thomas Merton, one of the modern fathers of centering prayer, claims that “the simplest way to come into contact with the living God is to go to one’s center and from there pass into God”

(Finding Grace at the Center, p. 28).

Here is how he describes it:

“Then we move in faith to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, dwelling in creative love in the depths of our being. This is the whole essence of the prayer. … All the rest of the method is simply a means to enable us to abide quietly in this center, and to allow our whole being to share in this refreshing contact with its Source”

(Finding Grace at the Center, 2002, p. 32).

“… savor the silence, the Presence…” (p. 35).

“As soon as we move in love to God present in our depths, we are there … we simply want to remain there and be what we are” (p. 39).

“We might think of it as if the Lord Himself, present in our depths, were quietly repeating His own name, evoking His presence and very gently summoning us to an attentive response. We are quite passive. We let it happen” (p. 39).

“… to enter into our Christ-being in the depths” (p. 42).

“… we want immediate contact with God Himself, and not some thought, image, or vision of him…”

(p. 42).

“… open yourself interiorly to the mystery of God’s enveloping presence” (p. 48).

“… interior silence is the proximate goal of this prayer” (p. 52).

“… our theme is the center, that is, the place of meeting of the human spirit and the divine Spirit” (p. 80).

The practice is called “this union, this face-to-face encounter” (p. 15), “passive meditation” (p. 20), “a fourth state of consciousness” (p. 34), “savoring the silence”

(p. 35), “this nothing” (p. 49), “the deep waters of silence” (p. 52), “deep tranquility” (p. 54).

The practice of centering prayer requires entering into a non-thinking mode. Basil Pennington said: “In a meditation like Centering Prayer, you leave the rational mind and emotions behind, open yourself to rest in the Divine. St.

Thomas Aquinas says, ‘Where the mind leaves off, the heart goes beyond’” (interview with Mary NurrieStearns published on the Personal Transformation website,

http://www.personaltransformation.com/Pennington.html).

In The Signature of Jesus, Brennan Manning says centering prayer requires three steps.

The first step is to quiet down and “stop thinking about God” (p. 212).

The second step is to choose a “sacred word” and “without moving your lips, repeat the word inwardly, slowly, and often” (p. 218). The word might be “love” or “God” or something else. This is to be done until the mind is dwelling upon that one word without distraction and is carried by that practice into a non-thinking communion with God at the center of one’s being. The mantra is the key to entering the non-thinking mode. Ray Yungen explains:

“When a word or phrase is repeated over and over, after just a few repetitions, those words lose their meaning and become just sounds. … After three or four times, the word can begin to lose its meaning, and if this repeating of words were continued, normal thought processes could be blocked, making it possible to enter an altered state of consciousness because of hypnotic effect that begins to take place. It really makes no difference whether the words are ‘You are my God’

or ‘I am calm,’ the results are the same” (A Time of Departing, p. 150).

The mantra, or repetition of a word, produces a mindless hypnotic state. The actual meaning of the word quickly becomes lost to the mind, and that is the objective. The mantra allows the practitioner to put aside thinking in order to reach an altered state of consciousness called “the silence place” in which one allegedly experiences God directly.

Practitioners of eastern religions recognize the power of the mantra in entering this state.

Deepak Chopra, for example, says:

“A mantra … has little or no meaning to distract us. Therefore it is an easier vehicle for going inward than prayer or verbal contemplation” (How to Know God, p. 94).

Amazingly, Chopra, who is a New Age Hindu who believes in the divinity of man, recommends the ancient Catholic contemplative manual The Cloud of Unknowing. He considers the centering prayer techniques to be the same as Hindu yoga.

“There is no doubt that people resist the whole notion of God being an inner phenomenon. … Yet its importance is stated eloquently in the medieval document known as ‘The Cloud of Unknowing,’ written anonymously in the fourteenth century. … The writer informs us that ANY THOUGHT IN THE MIND SEPARATES US FROM GOD, because thought sheds light on its object. …

Even though the cloud of unknowing baffles us, it is actually closer to God than even a thought about God and his marvelous creation. We are advised to go into a ‘cloud of forgetting’ about anything other than the silence of the inner world. For centuries this document has seemed utterly mystical, but it makes perfect sense once we realize that THE RESTFUL AWARENESS RESPONSE, WHICH CONTAINS NO THOUGHTS, is being advocated.

…

“We aren’t talking about the silence of an empty mind … But the thought takes place against a background and nonthought. Our writer equates it with KNOWING SOMETHING THAT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE STUDIED. The mind is full of a kind of knowing that could speak to us about anything, yet it has no words; therefore we seek this knowingness in the background” (Chopra, How to Know God, 2000, pp. 94, 95, 98).

In this same book, Chopra says, “I believe that God has to be known by looking in the mirror” (p.

9). Thus Chopra is describing meditative methods whereby the individual can allegedly come into contact with his “higher self” or divinity, yet he is using Catholic mysticism to get there! And the same manual, The Cloud of Unknowing, is one of the most popular manuals among contemplative evangelicals. Chopra says that mantra-induced mind-emptying centering prayer techniques result in non-verbal revelation.

This is a loud warning to those who have ears to hear.

Richard Foster says repetitious prayers such as “breath prayers” “BIND THE MIND” (Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, p. 124).

Tricia Rhodes, in her book The Soul at Rest, which is “a step-by-step journey of learning contemplative prayer, suggests:

“Make every effort to stop the flow of talking going on within you–to slow it down until it comes to a halt” (The Soul at Rest, 1996, p. 28).

The third step is to return one’s mind to the sacred word when distractions come. Manning suggests ending the session by quoting the Lord’s Prayer in a rote manner. He recommends two 20-minute centering sessions per day.

The result of centering prayer is supposed to be mystical knowledge obtained through communion with God in one’s being.

“For in this darkness we experience an intuitive understanding of everything material and spiritual without giving special attention to anything in particular” (The Cloud of Unknowing, chapter 68).

“To know God in this way is to perceive a new dimension to all reality” (Finding Grace at the Center, p. 60).

“… we learn that our willingness to listen in silence opens up a quiet space in which we can hear His voice, a voice that longs to speak and offer us guidance for our next step” (Ruth Barton, “Beyond Words,” Discipleship Journal, Sept-Oct. 1999).

CHRISTIAN BOOKSTORES

Christian and secular bookstores have begun carrying many books promoting “this pre-Reformation form of spirituality.” These include The Cloister Walk, Book of Hours, The Soul Aflame, Evensong, A Book of Daily Prayer, The Divine Hours, and The Prayer Book of the Medieval Era. There are books by an assortment of Catholic “saints” and mystics, including GREGORY OF SINAI and JOHN OF THE CROSS (early desert monastics who believed salvation is by works), TERESA OF AVILA (who had visions of Mary), JULIAN OF NORWICH (who walled herself off from society for 20 years in a tiny cell), IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA (the founder of the Jesuits who were at the forefront of the brutal Counter-Reformation Inquisition), AUGUSTINE (who claimed that baptism takes away an infant’s sin and claimed that Mary did not commit sin), MADAME GUYON (who experienced what she thought was union with the essence of God), THOMAS MERTON (a Catholic Trappist monk who called himself a Buddhist and died in Thailand on a pilgrimage to Buddhist shrines), BASIL PENNINGTON (who taught that man shares God’s divine nature), THOMAS KEATING (who promotes occultic kundalini yoga), John Michael Talbot (who prays to Mary and calls Buddhist and Hindu gurus “our brothers and sisters”), and HENRI NOUWEN (who taught that all people can be saved “whether they know Jesus or not”). You will also find The Cloud of Unknowing, which was written by an unknown 14th century Catholic monk who taught that the meditation practitioner can find union with God by emptying the mind of thoughts.

SOUTHERN BAPTIST SEMINARIES

On a visit to Golden Gate Theological Seminary (Southern Baptist) in February 2000, I noticed that most of the required reading for the course on “Classics of Church Devotion” are books by the aforementioned Roman Catholic authors, including Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius of Loyola, The Cloud of Unknowing, New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton, Confessions of Saint Augustine, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis, Selected Works of Bernard of Clairvaux, and The Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila.

VINEYARD CHURCHES

On August 31, 2003, I visited the Vineyard Fellowship in Anaheim, California, for research, and the speaker, a Vineyard pastor, preached a message on contemplative prayer that was deeply influenced by Roman Catholicism. The speaker described contemplative prayer as “gazing at length on something” and as “coming into the presence of God and resting in the presence of God,” as lying back and floating “in the river of God’s peace.” The speaker described sitting on a couch “in the manifest presence of Jesus.” He quoted St. John of the Cross, “It is in silence that we hear him.” He recommended the writings of the late Thomas Merton (a Catholic priest who converted from the Anglican Church), who wrote a book on contemplative prayer and whose voice is influential in the “centering prayer” movement.

Merton spent the last 27 years of his life in a Trappist monastery devoted to Mary (Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky) and promoted the integration of pagan practices such as Zen Buddhism and Christianity. The titles of some of his books are “Zen and the Birds of the Appetite,” “The Way of Chuang Tzu,” and “Mystics and the Zen Masters.” For three years, Merton lived as a complete hermit. The Vineyard speaker described personal revelations that he has allegedly received from God, claiming that on one occasion Jesus said to him, “Come away, my beloved,” and he obeyed by staying in a monastery for some days. He used several Catholic “saints”

as examples of the benefit of contemplative prayer, and there was no warning whatsoever about their false gospel, their blasphemous prayers to Mary, or any other error. In fact, he recommended that his listeners “read the lives of the saints.” He mentioned St. Catherine of Siena and said that Christ appeared to her and placed a ring on her finger signifying her marriage to Him, thus giving credence to this deception. He mentioned “St. Anthony,” one of the fathers of the deeply unscriptural Catholic monasticism.

Anthony spent 20 years in isolation, and after that, according to the Vineyard pastor, the “saint’s” ministry was characterized by “signs and wonders.”

CHRISTIAN ROCK FESTIVALS

One of the seminars advertised for the annual Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, Illinois, June 30 - July 3, 2005, was “Pilgrimage: Creativity & Contemplative Prayer” led by Debra Strahan. The official program said: “Debra will be speaking daily at the Prayer Tent on traditional methods of prayer and the part creativity and art expression plays in breathing life into worship.

She will speak on Lectio Divina, or praying the Scriptures, with an accompanying workshop using beads as a tool for concentration. Also there will be direction in processing and meditating on the installation pieces in the Pilgrimage.”

RICK WARREN

Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church in southern California, frequently quotes from Roman Catholics to promote meditation, centering prayer, and other Catholic-pagan forms of spirituality. In The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life, Warren advises his readers to “practice his presence” as per Brother Lawrence (of the Roman Catholic Carmelite Order), to use “breath prayers” as per the Benedictine monks. Warren quotes from John Main (Benedictine monk who believes that Christ “is not limited to Jesus of Nazareth, but remains among us in the monastic leaders, the sick, the guest, the poor”); Madame Guyon (a Roman Catholic who taught that prayer is not from the mind and does not involve thinking); John of the Cross (who believed the mountains and forests are God); and Gary Thomas (who defines Centering Prayer as “a contemplative act in which you don’t do anything; you’re simply resting in the presence of God”).

Warren recommends mystic Richard Foster (The Purpose Driven Church, pp. 126, 127) and states that the contemplative movement will help bring the church into “full maturity” and that it “has had a valid message for the church.” Warren also quotes from Mother Teresa and Henri Nouwen, who were contemplative universalists that believed that men can be saved apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ. Nowhere does Warren warn his readers that these were dangerous false teachers.

Warren has yoked up with Ken Blanchard on various occasions. Blanchard visited Saddleback in 2003 and Warren told the church that he had “signed on to help with the P.E.A.C.E. Plan, and he’s going to be helping train us in leadership and in how to train others to be leaders all around the world” (Ken Yungen, A Time of Departing, pp. 162, 163). Warren teamed up with Blanchard and Bill Hybels in the Lead Like Jesus conferences and audio series. Warren used Blanchard’s materials in a Preaching and Purpose Driven Life Training Workshop for Chaplains at Saddleback in 2004 (A Time of Departing, p. 167). Warren endorsed Blanchard’s book Lead Like Jesus (—).

Blanchard, in turn, is a mystic with strong New Age associations. He wrote the foreword to Jim Ballard’s What Would Buddha Do at Work? He wrote:

“Our folks get to hear words of wisdom from great prophets and spiritual leaders like Buddha, Mohammed … Yogananda and the Dalai Lama.”

Blanchard wrote the foreword to the 2007 edition of Ballard’s book Little Wave and Old Swell, which is inspired by Hindu guru Paramahansa Yogananda. This book is designed to teach young people and children that God is all and man is one with God. In the foreword Blanchard makes the amazing statement: “Yogananda loved Jesus, and Jesus would have loved Yogananda.” I was a disciple of Yogananda before I was saved, and there is no doubt that he did NOT love the Jesus of the Bible! Blanchard has appeared on the front cover of Corporate Mystic. His recommendation appears on the back cover of Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. He wrote the foreword to Ellen Ladd’s book Death and Letting God, which promotes clairvoyance. Blanchard says that he and his wife encourage the practice of yoga and mantra meditation (Mair, p. 11).

Blanchard’s endorsement appeared on the back cover of the 2005 book Zen of Business Administration, which is subtitled “How Zen practice can transform your work and your life.”

Blanchard joined members of the New Age occultic project The Secret in January 2008 for a one-day seminar entitled “Your Best Year Ever” (”Ken Blanchard Joins ‘The Secret’ Team,” Lighthouse Trails, Jan. 14, 2008). In her acknowledgements, the author of The Secret, Rhonda Byrne, thanked “Esther Hicks and the teachings of Abraham.”

Abraham refers to a group of spirit guides that Hicks channels. The Secret teaches the New Age doctrines that man is god. “You are God in a physical body … You are all power … You are all intelligence … You are the creator” (p.

164).

Lighthouse Trails wisely observes:

“Did Rick Warren know of Blanchard’s sympathies when he brought him in to help at Saddleback? Of course he did. And do you think that Rick Warren and Ken Blanchard are going to train their ‘billion’ soldiers for Christ how to practice New Age mysticism and learn how to go into altered states of consciousness? You bet. And that is definitely something to be concerned about”

(”Rick Warren Teams up with New Age Guru,”

Lighthouse Trails, April 19, 2005).

Warren is also associated with New Age mystic Leonard Sweet. He teamed up with Sweet in 1994 to produce the Tides of Change audio set published by Zondervan. A photo of Warren and Sweet are pictured on the cover. Warren endorsed Sweet’s book Soul Tsunami, the endorsement appearing on both the front and back covers. In this book Sweet promotes the use of the labyrinth and visiting meditation centers. Warren invited Sweet to speak at the 2008 Saddleback Small Groups Conference called Wired.

Sweet promotes a New Age spirituality that he calls New Light and “the Christ consciousness.”

He describes it in terms of “the union of the human with the divine” which is the “center feature of all the world’s religions” (Quantum Spirituality, p. 235). He says it was experienced by Mohammed, Moses, and Krishna. He says that some of the “New Light leaders” that have led him into this new thinking are New Agers Matthew Fox, M. Scott Peck, Willis Harman, and Ken Wilber, plus Catholic-Buddhist Thomas Merton. In his book Quantum Spirituality Sweet defines the New Light as “a structure of human becoming, a channeling of Christ energies through mindbody experience”

(Quantum Spirituality, p. 70). He says humanity needs to learn the truth of the words of Thomas Merton, “We are already one” (Quantum Spirituality, p. 13). Toward this objective, Sweet draws heavily from Catholic mysticism. He

says: “Mysticism, once cast to the sidelines of the Christian tradition, is now situated in postmodernist culture near the center. … In the words of one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century, Jesuit philosopher of religion/dogmatist Karl Rahner, ‘The Christian of tomorrow will be a mystic, one who has experienced something, or he will be nothing’”

(Quantum Spirituality, 1991, p. 11).

Observe how close the ties are between

“Christian” contemplative spirituality and the New Age!

BILL HYBELS AND WILLOW CREEK COMMUNITY CHURCH

Willow Creek has jumped onboard the mystical bandwagon, and Willow Creek is not only one megachurch that is located west of Chicago but it is also a network of more than 12,000 churches that hold the same philosophy. The Fall 2007 issue of Willow magazine contained the article “Rediscovering Spiritual Formation” by Keri Wyatt Kent. It is a glowing recommendation for mystical practices, including monastic communities. She cites Richard Foster and other contemplative mystics. While noting that some conservatives are suspect of the new mysticism, she says that the practices have largely become mainstream.

Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit in August 2006 introduced Jim Collins to the 70,000 participating Christian leaders. He became a disciple of New Ager Michael Ray after taking his Creativity in Business course in 1982. The course “takes much of its inspiration from Eastern philosophy, mysticism and meditation techniques”

and promotes tapping into ones inner wisdom. It describes an “inner person” called “your wisdom keeper or spirit guide” that “can be with you in life.” Collins wrote the foreword to Michael Ray’s 2005 book The Highest Goal: The Secret that Sustains You in Every Minute, which claims that man is divine and recommends Hindu mind emptying meditation. The book quotes Hindu gurus Ram Dass, Jiddu Krishnamurit, and Swami Shantananda. Yet Collins calls it “the distillation of years of accumulate wisdom from a great teacher.”

Following is a quote from the book:

“I attended a meditation-intensive day at an ashram [Hindu spiritual center] to support a friend. As I sat in meditation in what was for me an unfamiliar environment, I suddenly felt and saw a bolt of lightning shoot up from the base of my spine out the top of my head. It forced me to recognize something great within me … this awareness of my own divinity” (Michael Ray, The Highest Goal, p. 28; the foreword is by Jim Collins).

Again we are reminded that the

evangelical-emerging church contemplative movement has close and growing ties with the New Age.

CHUCK SWINDOLL

In his book “So, You Want to Be Like Christ?

Essentials to Get You There,” Chuck Swindoll promotes Roman Catholic style contemplative spirituality disciplines. He favorably quotes Richard Foster, Henri Nouwen, and Dallas Willard.

He calls Foster’s work “Celebration of

Discipline” meaningful and has an entire chapter on Silence and Solitude. There is no warning about the false doctrine of the men he is quoting and whose disciplines he is recommending. Dave and Deborah Dombrowski of Lighthouse Trails testify of their efforts to warn Swindoll: “In September 2005, we were informed that Chuck Swindoll was favorably quoting Henri Nouwen and Richard Foster on his Insight For Living program.

We contacted Insight for Living and spoke with Pastor Graham Lyons. We shared our concerns, then later sent ‘A Time of Departing’ [by Ray Yungen] to him and also a copy to Chuck Swindoll. In a letter dated 10/3/05 from Pastor Lyons, we were told, ‘With his schedule I doubt he will read it.’ We are sorry that Chuck Swindoll has time to read Henri Nouwen and Richard Foster but no time to read ‘A Time of Departing,’ especially in light of the fact that thousands of people will read Chuck Swindoll’s book, listen to his broadcasts and now believe that the contemplative authors are acceptable and good. Incidentally, Swindoll quoted these men, not just a few times, but many times throughout the book.”

The Lord Jesus Christ warned about repetitious prayers, and He gave no liturgy to the churches apart from the simple ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. There is no New Testament pattern for the use of rote prayers, chanting, ringing bells, wearing special clothes, prayer beads, lighting candles, and such things.

Rome replaced New Testament spirituality, which is a living relationship with Jesus Christ through the new birth and the guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit and the study of Scripture, with its false traditions and dead liturgy and sensual worship. It is sad to see men who profess to be “anabaptists” and evangelicals going back to this empty ritualism.

DAVID JEREMIAH

“In his 2003 book Life Wide Open Jeremiah favorably quotes the following New Agers, Buddhists and contemplatives ( i.e. mystics): Sue Monk Kidd, Peter Senge (Buddhist), Jim Collins, Calvin Miller, Erwin McManus, St. John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, David Seamands, Eugene Peterson, Rick Warren. Jeremiah’s church, Shadow Mountain, encourages their men to become involved with contemplative spirituality. Currently, Pastor John Gillette of Shadow Mountain encourages the use of Richard Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline. In 2006 Jeremiah signed on with Ken Blanchard and Laurie Beth Jones in the Lead Like Jesus conference.

Jeremiah’s 2006 book, Captured by Grace, discusses Henri Nouwen and includes endorsement by Ken Blanchard” (”David Jeremiah Quotes New Ager,” Lighthouse Trails, Nov. 19, 2007).

PRAIRIE BIBLE INSTITUTE

“In Mosaic (a Prairie student run paper that shows how the students at Prairie have been very affected by contemplative/emerging

spiritualities) in a December 2006 article titled ‘The Arrogance of the Evangelical Church,’ Morgan Mosselman (listed as the Commissioner of Spiritual Life and officer of the Prairie Student Union in the 2005-2006 Chapel handbook) suggests we can ‘learn from our Catholic friends’ in the area of spiritual life. Mosselman then favorably refers to a man named Simon Chan. Chan is described as ‘the world’s most liturgically minded Pentecostal.’ His book Liturgical Theology is a primer for the Catholic Eucharist and other Catholic means of spirituality. In that same issue of Mosaic, there is an article by contemplative writer Lauren Winner (Girl Meets God). And in other issues, regular columnists write about and quote from other mysticism proponents such as Erwin McManus. Prairie Bible Institute’s textbook lists have authors that include contemplative proponent John Ortberg, mystic promoter Jim Collins, and Richard Foster’s colleague, Dallas Willard (Renovation of the Heart). They also have textbooks by Ruth Haley Barton (trained at the interspiritual Shalem Institute), as well as Gary Thomas (Sacred Pathways where he says to repeat a word or phrase for twenty minutes) and Rick Warren (both whom avidly promote contemplative)” (”Will Prairie Bible Institute Ignore Contemplative Problem?”

Lighthouse Trails, Nov. 18, 2007).

RADIO BIBLE CLASS

The June 6, 2006, entry for the Radio Bible Class’s Our Daily Bread is built around the book The Return of the Prodigal Son by the late Roman Catholic Henri Nouwen. Not only was Nouwen a Roman Catholic priest but, as we have already documented, he believed that men could be saved apart from Jesus Christ.

Ken Silva writes:

“I strongly admonish you in the Lord to stay away from contemplative spirituality. This is a deadly deception which originated within the apostate Church of Rome and is being spread by her daughter the Ecumenical Church of Deceit.

Contemplative spirituality (transcendental mediation in Christian terms) will only lead you into a false sense of our true depraved nature and into the love of man” (Slice of Laodicea, June 6, 2006).

BIOLA UNIVERSITY

J.P. Moreland and Klaus Issler, professors at Biola, have coauthored The Lost Virtue of

Happiness: Discovering the Disciplines of the Good Life (NavPress, 2006). Consider the following quotes:

‘Go to a retreat center that has one of its purposes the provision of a place for individual sojourners. Try to find a center that has gardens, fountains, statues, and other forms of beautiful artwork. In our experience, Catholic retreat centers are usually ideal for solitude retreats. Å  We also recommend that you bring photos of your loved ones and a picture of JesusÅ  Or gaze at a statue of Jesus. Or let some thought, feeling, or memory run through your mind over and over again” (The Lost Virtue of Happiness, pp. 54-55).

“We recommend that you begin by saying the Jesus Prayer about three hundred times a day. … When you first awaken, say the Jesus Prayer twenty to thirty times. As you do, something will begin to happen to you. God will begin to slowly occupy the center of your attention” (The Lost Virtue of Happiness, pp. 90, 92).

LABYRINTHS ARE INCREASING IN POPULARITY AMONG EVANGELICALS TODAY

Even though labyrinths have their roots in pagan “spirituality” and Roman Catholic Church, they are increasing in popularity among evangelicals today.

On October 13, 2007, Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisburg, Virginia, dedicated its new labyrinth. It was the fulfillment of a 15-year dream by Wendy Miller, professor of spiritual formation (”Following the Path of Prayer,”

Mennonite Weekly Review, Oct. 24, 2007).

The Weatherly Heights Baptist Church (Southern

Baptist) in Huntsville, Alabama, has a permanent labyrinth of stones on its grounds. Simpson University in Redding, California, associated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, has a labyrinth. Bethany Mennonite Church, Bridgewater Corners, Vermont, has a labyrinth in its lawn.

Michele Hershberger, chair of the Bible department at Hesston College (Mennonite) uses labyrinths. The latter contacted me and protested that they do not use their labyrinth for any pagan or Roman Catholic purposes, but the fact remains that this is the background of the practice. There is not a hint of support for such a thing in the New Testament Scriptures.

The labyrinth is a circular pattern with a path that winds its way to the center and which is used as a tool for prayer and meditation. Used by pagan religions for thousands of years, the labyrinth was borrowed from paganism and “Christianized” by the Roman Catholic Church as part of its desperate search for spirituality apart from the Bible.

God forbids His people to adopt things from the devil’s program and to associate with pagan things such as pagan meditation practices and labyrinths.

“Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen…” (Jeremiah 10:2).

“And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 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 Cor. 6:15-17).

“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:5).

“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 3:3-4).