I, for one, am very thankful for the work LTR has done. God bless each and every one of them for being a much needed voice and blessing to the Body of Christ in these last days!
By the Editors at Lighthouse Trails
For over 11 years, Lighthouse Trails has been issuing a
warning about a mystical spirituality, known as contemplative prayer,
which is coming through the conduit of the
Spiritual Formation movement.
It has not been an easy road to travel on, but through the Word of
God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we saw this paradigm shift,
which was affecting a large segment of the evangelical and Protestant
church and lining up with biblical prophecy of a day coming when there
will be great deception and many would fall away from the faith. We
also became completely convinced that the roots of contemplative
spirituality were based in panentheism (God in all), interspirituality
(all paths lead to God), and universalism (everyone is united with
God in spite of belief).
Once we saw this, we simply could not quit the work we had
been called to do. Today, those convictions are stronger than ever,
but the opposition or indifference we have encountered from the ranks
of those widely known as leaders of the evangelical church has been
stunning and sometimes unbelievable, especially in light of the fact
that our only desire is to protect the message of the Cross from an
opposite message that carries no hope of salvation or a relationship
with Jesus Christ.
Looking back, it is hard for us not to see ourselves as a
kind of David in his battle with Goliath. Lighthouse Trails is not a
big ministry, at least as far as staff and resources go. If someone
had told us 11 years ago that one day most major Christian ministries
would know who we were and would resent, despise, or even hate us, we
would not have believed it. You see, when we first began, we were
under the impression that our warning was going to be welcomed by
Christian leaders, and in fact, we thought that our own ministry could
be short lived because once they were given the information and
documentation about this great spiritual deception, they would take up
the banner and run with it, and we would be able to go back to our
lives before Lighthouse Trails began. After all, they were the ones
who had the money, audience, credentials, and popularity to really
make a difference. We had none of these things.
It wasn’t too long before we learned that the Christian leaders were not going to be receiving our message.
Opposition didn’t start right away. But then, that would
make sense as we started at ground zero, with virtually no publishing
experience and no readership. We had to take online college courses to
learn how to build websites and design books. We sent out free copies
of
A Time of Departing
(our launching book) to Christian radio stations, organizations,
ministries, and pastors. One of these copies went to Rick Warren.
Another to John MacArthur. One to Jerry Falwell, another to Focus on the
Family, and on and on. From 2002 to 2006, we gave away over
three thousand copies of
A Time of Departing. We heard back
from several men and women, many of whom had Masters and Doctorate
degrees who told us the book was right on the mark.
Dr. Jim Diehl,
for example, former General Superintendent of the Church of the
Nazarene, called one day and praised the book as “excellent” and
“vital.” Chuck Smith spoke with one of our editors and said that our
work was meaningful and important. John MacArthur told a staff member,
who told us by phone, that he greatly appreciated the work we were
doing. Rick Warren wrote us a personal note to tell us the book is a
“hot topic” and has a place on his library bookshelf.
But then in 2005, we wrote a special report titled
”Rick Warren Teams Up With New-Age Sympathizer Ken Blanchard!” It
didn’t take too long after that report came out for us to know that we
had crossed a line, and life was never going to be the same again. You
can read more about those early years in two articles we wrote: one, “
How Lighthouse Trails Began – Part One: “It was a dark and stormy night,” and two, “
Lighthouse Trails, the Early Years – Part 2 – “A Hot Topic” That Just Wouldn’t Go Away.” Warren B. Smith also documented some of the events in an entire chapter in his book
A “Wonderful” Deception
(chapter 5). Some of the things that took place were like elements
out of a B-rated mystery novel like phone lines suddenly “out of
order,” e-mails apparently being intercepted, being told by Saddleback
that federal agents were investigating us because they thought we had
broken into the Saddleback server, and so forth. We wondered what we
had gotten ourselves into.
Over the course of the years, there have been many terrible
and unkind things said about us in public venues. We’ll give you
a brief rundown of some of these things that have been said. Prepare
yourself - none of them have anything to do directly with our actual
work. In fact, the one thing we have yet to see is any solid and
biblical refutation of our work. It’s as if it’s always avoided.
Everything is said, but no solid challenge is given.
So what are these terrible things said publically about
Lighthouse Trails? Here’s an incomplete sampling: One pastor, on a
popular blog, said we were “like fleas on the back of a dog.” Then
there was the time, on stage at
a Calvary Chapel event with
thousands of young people, where we were called “the haters.” Rick
Warren’s former chief apologist said in an article that has been
sitting on a high traffic Christian website for years that if we had the
legal means we would torture and murder people. One well-known
apologist coined the term “discernment divas” and first used it
referring to one of the women writers at Lighthouse Trails in 2006.
Then there were the generic name-calling terms like witch-hunters,
freaks, fanatics, militant fundamentalists, and so forth. After a few
years of this, we couldn’t help wonder why these highly qualified men
(and sometimes women) had nothing qualified to say about our work.
We want to make one thing clear here. By telling our
readers these things, we are not trying to gain sympathy. We don’t
feel sorry for ourselves. We understand that in doing this kind of
ministry, there is inevitably going to be strong reaction and defense
tactics. No one wants to be criticized or challenged, especially
leaders who have become accustomed to being followed, not being
corrected.
What’s been frustrating about the name calling, however, is
that we’ve been very open to receiving solid biblical refutation of
the message we are proclaiming. In fact, we said from the very
beginning of our ministry that all we really wanted was for the
contemplative issue to come to the table, to be discussed, challenged,
and considered. Eleven years ago, if one Googled the term
“contemplative prayer,” virtually nothing came up on the first few pages
of search results that was from a critiquing point of view. Mystical
spirituality in the Christian church was being largely unchallenged.
As we learned of all the men who had great educational and
theological credentials, we thought there would be some scholarly
response and a taking hold of the torch, so to speak. We didn’t expect
name calling, innuendos, sometimes downright lies (like
the rumors that
we often hear), and ad hominem and straw men arguments. That took us
by surprise. And we began to wonder why this was happening. Was it
possible, we asked ourselves, that some of these educated leaders
couldn’t see the big picture of this deception? We just wanted some
proof that we were wrong, some good solid biblical evidence that our
conclusions were way off.
We got used to the name calling and over time, found some
of it humorous (in a way); at least, we found it meaningless. It was
the other accusations that got to us though, because we knew they were
without merit (or evidence). One of the most common accusations
against the research at Lighthouse Trails is that we take quotes out
of context. And yet, and this is the truth, in all these years, we
have not had one person actually give us an example of where we have
done this. As a case in point, about 5 years ago, two educated men,
both with doctorates from a higher learning institution in Canada,
said that
A Time of Departing was faulty because it took
quotes out of context. We wrote to them in an amiable manner and asked
if they could provide just one or two examples so that we could see
where we went wrong. They did not produce one example. Lighthouse
Trails has been meticulous about checking and double checking every
quote in a book or article we publish to make sure that the intent of
any particular author is not misconstrued or taken out of context. If
someone did produce a legitimate example, we would speedily correct
that. You see, it is not our intention to falsely accuse or villainize
anyone. Taking quotes out of context is an accusation we take very
seriously, and we take great efforts not to do that. And yet, we hear
this often from our critics. But we are still waiting for an example.
The second most common accusation against us is that we use
faulty and loose guilt by association reasoning. We have addressed
this in many past articles, but we will say it again here: there is a
difference between loose guilt by association and guilt by promotion
or by proxy. What’s more, there is a legitimate guilt by association.
The way our critics would have it, there is no such thing and it
doesn’t matter
who a person is associated with. But you won’t
find backup in Scripture on that. On the contrary, consider all the
verses that tell God-fearing people to keep good company, avoid standing
with heretics or unruly people, keep oneself unspotted from the
world, avoid the appearance of evil, and so forth.
One of the big issues that continuously surfaces is related
to guilt by association. Those who accuse us of using guilt by
association say that we call people contemplative or emerging
proponents because they have been “associated” with a contemplative
person. But, we have never done that. For instance, often we will
challenge a big name leader for sharing a platform with contemplative
and emergent figures. But we have never said that person was now a
contemplative or emergent himself just for sharing the platform with
one. An example of this is when we challenged
Joel Rosenberg and
Kay Arthur for
attending Canada’s Breakforth contemplative-promoting conference and
sharing the platform with emergents like Leonard Sweet and Tony
Campolo. We never once said that now this makes Rosenberg and Arthur
contemplatives or emergents themselves. No. The challenge we gave was
that reputable, Bible-believing leaders should not give credibility to
false teachers by standing on the same platforms or being at the same
conferences.
Another case in point just occurred. We
challenged John MacArthur for
using a sermon for many years till present where he favorably quotes
the late major contemplative pioneer Dallas Willard. The accusations
started pouring in that we were calling MacArthur a contemplative
proponent. But we never did. Our challenge was and is that by highly
influential leaders favorably quoting false teachers, they
inadvertently are giving credibility to that teacher and thereby
lessening resistance from the Christian community at large to their
message.
One last accusation that we want to address in this article
is an accusation that comes primarily from a few popular
public figures in the Calvinist/Reformed camp, and that is that all or
most of the writing done at Lighthouse Trails is done by one woman
(or a “discernment diva” as they say – incidentally a diva is
typically a self-centered, egotistical, arrogant woman (often a
performer) who is domineering and rude to those around her. If you
read our articles you’ll see this is not an accurate description of
what we are trying to do that springs from a heart-felt love for
people, which is the opposite of diva behavior). Three things on this
issue: first, calling women who are believers in Christ “divas” is a
derogatory and ungodly remark – period! Second, it isn’t true that
most of the writing at Lighthouse Trails comes from just one
person. Take a look at any of our e-newsletters, our blog, or our
printed journals, and you will see the names of many writers, both
men and women. As you can see on our
authors’ page,
we currently use the writings of 11 women and 19 men. For anyone to
say that our material is written by just one person appears to be a
dishonest effort to minimize the value in the work of these 30 some
writers.
Relating to the issue of women, as far as the accusation
that women shouldn’t be in a ministry of this kind at all – all we can
say to that is that if God can use a donkey, surely He can use a
woman (Numbers 22:21-38). It is interesting to note that in the case
of Balaam’s donkey, God used the donkey to warn and save Balaam’s
life. Is it so unthinkable that God would use women to warn of
impending spiritual danger? To cry out to their brothers, of whom many
have fallen asleep on the watch? Of all those labeled ”discernment
divas” whom we know, each of them is a loving mother, wife, and in
some cases grandmother who has, not by her own choice, but by God’s
apparent choice, accepted the role much like Balaam’s donkey. And
remember, that donkey was struck several times by Balaam before God
finally intervened – then Balaam’s eyes were opened, and he saw that
the donkey’s efforts to warn him were legitimate.
All of this that we have said in this article leads us to
ask the question to Christian leaders, where have we gone wrong?
Please tell us. Not by name calling or accusations without proof. If
we have taken something out of context, please show us some examples
of that. If have wrongly called someone a contemplative advocate or
sympathizer, please tell us how. But all we ask is you present us with
the documentation, the evidence. We only ask for the same standard to
be applied to us that we have tried to use ourselves: honesty,
accuracy, and Christian charity.
While we know we are all fallible, and as humans we don’t
have a full understanding of the things of God according to Scripture,
we, like others in the body of Christ, are attempting to walk a life
that is honoring to God. We know we fail at that at times, and we are
totally dependent on Him to lead us and strengthen us. We have
attempted to report to Christians information that is pertinent to the
health of the Christian church. If we have erred in our deductions
and conclusions, then we want to be corrected. If we can be shown that
our warning and work is faulty and against Scripture, we will apologize
and even step down from this work.
We do not see ourselves as better than anyone else, and
certainly we know we do not have the “qualifications” (from a human
point of view) that would entitle us to be in any kind of authority
over another (we do not even desire such authority). We have
endeavored to stand beside our brothers and sisters, not above, not
below. But because we believe so strongly that we are living in the
days the Bible predicts will occur before the return of Christ where
there will be a great falling away (of faith), we are gravely
concerned that most of the Christian leaders seem to be either
ignoring or going along with this major paradigm shift in the church
at large. And while Lighthouse Trails is just a small ministry which
could end at any time (as God sees fit) and certainly we have not come
to the church with the splendor, finesse, support, or backing that
most of the major Christian leaders have, we beseech these leaders to
consider that God often uses the foolish things and weak things to
speak His message (like Balaam’s donkey).
And so, if we are wrong, rather than using name calling,
which is unprofitable, show us where we are wrong. If you, dear
Christian leader, are on the side of truth, then consider our
warning. Maybe you don’t like our delivery, but if there is no solid
evidence to prove us wrong, wouldn’t it be wise to humble yourselves
and listen?
We have written this article, not as a means to defend ourselves but more so to defend our work.
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