Sing4Him
April 25th, 2008, 02:03 PM
EFCA (Evangelical Free Church of America) Turns to Contemplative Resources
In March of 2007, Lighthouse Trails reported that the EFCA (Evangelical Free Church of America) was bringing contemplative into the denomination through their American university, Trinity International University. We reported that TIU had partnered with the contemplative based Spiritual Formation Forum.
As is so often the case when an organization heads down the contemplative path, EFCA is now incorporating contemplative authors into their resources. On the national EFCA website, under "Ten Leading Indicator Resources," EFCA includes books by Bill Hull, Dallas Willard, Rick Warren, and Pete Scazzero, all of whom are proponents of contemplative spirituality.
Bill Hull, of Choose the Life Ministries, will also be one of the speakers at this year's EFCA Leadership Conference. Hull promotes both contemplative and emerging. In his book, Choose the Life (foreword by Dallas Willard), he has an endorsement on the back cover by Brian McLaren and tells readers to study the mystics. In Hull's 2006 book, The Complete Book of Discipleship, Hull favorably references and quotes several contemplative/emerging proponents and recommends books by Henri Nouwen, Brian McLaren, Larry Crabb, Ken Boa and Richard Foster. He also points readers to the Desert Fathers and the new monasticism that is currently being tauted by several emerging church leaders.
Pete Scazzero, also on the EFCA list of resources, promotes contemplative/emerging spirituality as well. In his book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (see our report), Scazzero not only favorably points to contemplatives like Nouwen, Foster, and Merton, but he quotes or/and references several New Age style mystics like Meister Eckhart, Daniel Goleman (scientist who studies and promotes Buddhist meditation), M. Scott Peck, Basil Pennington, and Tilden Edwards. All of these resonate with panentheistic (God in all) views.
The book that EFCA is using by Scazzero, The Emotionally Healthy Church, is of the same caliber, pointing to several eastern-style meditation teachers, including Anthony De Mello. Of mantra meditation, De Mello states:
To silence the mind is an extremely difficult task. How hard it is to keep the mind from thinking, thinking, thinking, forever thinking, forever producing thoughts in a never ending stream. Our Hindu masters in India have a saying: one thorn is removed by another. By this they mean that you will be wise to use one thought to rid yourself of all the other thoughts that crowd into your mind. One thought, one image, one phrase or sentence or word that your mind can be made to fasten on.1
Some may wonder why we at Lighthouse Trails are so concerned about contemplative spirituality. After all, some may ask, isn't it bringing people closer to God? We believe the answer to that is no. The mystical states that are achieved through contemplative prayer initiate practitioners into the realm of familiar spirits, and when one repeatedly spends time in this silent state, it does not take too long before he or she begins to adopt panentheistic (believing that God is in all) and pantheistic (believing that all is Divine) affinities. And when these beliefs are embraced, the doctrine of redemption through the Cross is disgarded (see Sue Monk Kidd for a prime example).
If EFCA and other Christian organizations continue down this present path of Spiritual Formation (i.e., contemplative/emerging), then the words of occultist Alice Bailey may come true, when she said:
The prime work of the church is to teach, and teach ceaselessly, preserving the outer appearance in order to reach the many who are accustomed to church usages ... the new religion [will] restore the ancient spiritual landmarks, to eliminate that which is nonessential, and to reorganize the entire religious field--again in preparation for the restoration of the Mysteries. These Mysteries, when restored, will unify all faiths.2
In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul indicates there will be a great falling away before the day of the Lord. He also makes clear what this falling away will be to. He calls it the mystery of iniquity. We at Lighthouse Trails believe that Alice Bailey's "mysteries" and the "mystery of iniquity" are one and the same. In light of this, for those who think our criticisms are too harsh or unfounded, if you grasp the reality of this, you will see what motivates us to take the action we do.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition ... For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. (2 Thessalonians 2: 3,7)
Notes:
1. Ray Yungen, quoting De Mello in A Time of Departing, p. 75 (Anthony de Mello, Sadhana: A Way to God (St. Louis, the Institute of Jesuit Resources, 1978), p. 28).
2. Alice Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarcy (Albany, NY: Fort Orange Press, 1976, 5th printing)
This article or excerpt was posted on April 25, 2008@ 12:11 pm .
From: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com
In March of 2007, Lighthouse Trails reported that the EFCA (Evangelical Free Church of America) was bringing contemplative into the denomination through their American university, Trinity International University. We reported that TIU had partnered with the contemplative based Spiritual Formation Forum.
As is so often the case when an organization heads down the contemplative path, EFCA is now incorporating contemplative authors into their resources. On the national EFCA website, under "Ten Leading Indicator Resources," EFCA includes books by Bill Hull, Dallas Willard, Rick Warren, and Pete Scazzero, all of whom are proponents of contemplative spirituality.
Bill Hull, of Choose the Life Ministries, will also be one of the speakers at this year's EFCA Leadership Conference. Hull promotes both contemplative and emerging. In his book, Choose the Life (foreword by Dallas Willard), he has an endorsement on the back cover by Brian McLaren and tells readers to study the mystics. In Hull's 2006 book, The Complete Book of Discipleship, Hull favorably references and quotes several contemplative/emerging proponents and recommends books by Henri Nouwen, Brian McLaren, Larry Crabb, Ken Boa and Richard Foster. He also points readers to the Desert Fathers and the new monasticism that is currently being tauted by several emerging church leaders.
Pete Scazzero, also on the EFCA list of resources, promotes contemplative/emerging spirituality as well. In his book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (see our report), Scazzero not only favorably points to contemplatives like Nouwen, Foster, and Merton, but he quotes or/and references several New Age style mystics like Meister Eckhart, Daniel Goleman (scientist who studies and promotes Buddhist meditation), M. Scott Peck, Basil Pennington, and Tilden Edwards. All of these resonate with panentheistic (God in all) views.
The book that EFCA is using by Scazzero, The Emotionally Healthy Church, is of the same caliber, pointing to several eastern-style meditation teachers, including Anthony De Mello. Of mantra meditation, De Mello states:
To silence the mind is an extremely difficult task. How hard it is to keep the mind from thinking, thinking, thinking, forever thinking, forever producing thoughts in a never ending stream. Our Hindu masters in India have a saying: one thorn is removed by another. By this they mean that you will be wise to use one thought to rid yourself of all the other thoughts that crowd into your mind. One thought, one image, one phrase or sentence or word that your mind can be made to fasten on.1
Some may wonder why we at Lighthouse Trails are so concerned about contemplative spirituality. After all, some may ask, isn't it bringing people closer to God? We believe the answer to that is no. The mystical states that are achieved through contemplative prayer initiate practitioners into the realm of familiar spirits, and when one repeatedly spends time in this silent state, it does not take too long before he or she begins to adopt panentheistic (believing that God is in all) and pantheistic (believing that all is Divine) affinities. And when these beliefs are embraced, the doctrine of redemption through the Cross is disgarded (see Sue Monk Kidd for a prime example).
If EFCA and other Christian organizations continue down this present path of Spiritual Formation (i.e., contemplative/emerging), then the words of occultist Alice Bailey may come true, when she said:
The prime work of the church is to teach, and teach ceaselessly, preserving the outer appearance in order to reach the many who are accustomed to church usages ... the new religion [will] restore the ancient spiritual landmarks, to eliminate that which is nonessential, and to reorganize the entire religious field--again in preparation for the restoration of the Mysteries. These Mysteries, when restored, will unify all faiths.2
In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul indicates there will be a great falling away before the day of the Lord. He also makes clear what this falling away will be to. He calls it the mystery of iniquity. We at Lighthouse Trails believe that Alice Bailey's "mysteries" and the "mystery of iniquity" are one and the same. In light of this, for those who think our criticisms are too harsh or unfounded, if you grasp the reality of this, you will see what motivates us to take the action we do.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition ... For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. (2 Thessalonians 2: 3,7)
Notes:
1. Ray Yungen, quoting De Mello in A Time of Departing, p. 75 (Anthony de Mello, Sadhana: A Way to God (St. Louis, the Institute of Jesuit Resources, 1978), p. 28).
2. Alice Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarcy (Albany, NY: Fort Orange Press, 1976, 5th printing)
This article or excerpt was posted on April 25, 2008@ 12:11 pm .
From: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com