Lighthouse Trails, Anti-Christ And The New Age

By Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer


I believe that the Lighthouse Trails Research website is a good site to access to get important information about the two opposing sides of an earth shaking doctrinal controversy occurring in the church today.


Lighthouse Trails has a fundamentalist/traditional Christian belief system, and it is publicly opposing, and warning against, what it believes to be the Biblical prophesied “falling away” of many Christians into doctrinal error prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Lighthouse Trails explains what its site is about, its about, “A belief system (we call it contemplative spirituality or the new spirituality) that has embedded itself into Christianity has a foundation and premise (also called Spiritual Formation by many) that is New Age. This site is our attempt to warn others about it. (ref. http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/starthere.htm)


Brian McLaren is a leader of the New Spirituality movement. In a Lighthouse Trails Research article there is the following statement: In essence, McLaren is saying if you believe the Book of Revelation and Matthew 24 are yet to take place, you are a dangerous psychological misfit and are assumed to have no compassion for the suffering, no concerns for the environment or the world in which we live, and have the potential to blow up the world with “weapons of mass destruction.” If McLaren was talking about big governments and political parties, that would be one thing, but he is clear–he is referring to Christians who believe what the Bible says about the last days. (ref.
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=13330)


Lighthouse Trails fundamentalists believe that Bible scriptures tell the truth about the “last days” and that the scriptures that warn “true Christians” of a “last days falling away” and the coming of the “anti-Christ”, who will lead those who have “fallen away” to help him establish a one world religion, one world economic system and a one world government are not scriptures that some [evil supernatural entity] managed to get put into the Bible, so as to lead fundamentalists Christians astray and into a situation wherein they will be (as they say) arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated, or even (in some cases) executed, by people who are trying to save the Earth’s life supporting ecosystem(s) and also usher in the coming New Age of peace and security.


The following excerpts are from the article No Repentance from Willow Creek – Only a Mystical Paradigm Shift. This article is displayed on the Lighthouse Trails Research website. I believe in, and am promoting, the "mystical paradigm shift" that the author of the article is opposed to.


The excerpts read: It is no new thing that Willow Creek wishes to "transform the planet." They are part of the emerging spirituality that includes Rick Warren and many other major Christian leaders who believe the church will usher in the kingdom of God on earth before Christ returns. This dominionist, kingdom-now theology is literally permeating the lecture halls of many Christian seminaries and churches, and mysticism is the propeller that keeps its momentum.


If Willow Creek hopes to transform the planet, they won't be able to get rid of the focus on the mystical (i.e., contemplative). Their new Fall 2007 Catalog gives a clear picture of where their heart lies, with resources offered by New Age proponent Rob Bell, contemplative author Keri Wyatt Kent, and the Ancient Future Conference with emerging leaders Scot McKnight and Alan Hirsch as well as resources by Ruth Haley Barton and John Ortberg.


Article titles in this Willow issue certainly make a statement that things are going to change: "Seismic Shifts," "Rediscovering Spiritual Formation," "Stemming the Tide," "The Changing Face of Worship," "Shifts in Missional Mindset," and "The Next Great Debate."


In the first article to follow, "Rediscovering Spiritual Formation," meditation promoter Keri Wyatt Kent writes positively about "monastic communities" and "the emergent church."


Kent identifies Scot McKnight as part of this mystical shift. McKnight acknowledges the Catholic connection to contemplative practices, and amazingly, Kent brings into her article Catholic priest Richard Rohr. Why amazing? Rohr's spirituality would be in the same camp as someone like Matthew Fox who believes in pantheism and panentheism. For Willow Creek to include him in Willow speaks volumes about the level of spiritual deception that Willow Creek is now under. If Kent is right that spiritual formation is now mainstream, then this deception is mainstream as well. Incidentally, Richard 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, Christianity) worship the same God. Is this where Willow Creek is heading? (ref. http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=2342)


Reverend Matthew Fox is a leader of the New Spirituality movement. Lighthouse Trails has a link to an article of his on its website. The article by Fox is located at http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/matthewfox.htm. An excerpt from the article is displayed on the Lighthouse Trails Research website.


"Ours is a time of what I call "deep ecumenism": religious pluralism and discovery of one another's spiritual traditions and practices. This development is especially welcome given the ignorance and even arrogance that sometimes drives fundamentalist adherents of one faith to denigrate, convert, or even kill followers of other spiritual paths. An armful of new books examining the contemplative practices of several major spiritual traditions shows us how those practices can help counter that ignorance and sectarian conflict and illuminate the era in which we live."

 

So...whose the antichrist?