Online Christian Bookstores Continue to Promote Yoga and the New Age Movement

The following News Update if from Bud Press.
_________________

Online Christian Bookstores Continue to Promote Yoga and the New Age Movement
They continue to do it, despite the Biblical warnings against it

"...any Christian leader who promotes, teaches, practices, or endorses any type of 'Christian spirituality' that mixes yoga and these other influences into it is a leader that has been seriously misled and is misleading others...Because when one opens the door to yoga, mysticism, the New Age and occultism, the kingdom of darkness is more than willing to come flooding through" (Chris Lawson, "Defining Deception: What is Yoga, Mysticism, New Age and the Occult?" Complete article at http://tinyurl.com/yrkdvk ).

To the Reader:

The following online Christian bookstores contain authors and materials that promote Yoga and the New Age Movement. For further articles and information on why Christians should avoid all forms of Yoga, go to http://www.christianresearchservice.com/ChristianYoga.htm .

American Family Association's Family Resource Center:
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon. AFA's bookstore provider is Innovative, Inc. of North Carolina.

Berean Christian Stores:
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon

Biblepal.com:
Promotes at least 31 items on Yoga (too numerous to list). For verification, go to http://www.biblepal.com/ and type-in the word Yoga in the search window.

Books For Christians:
Promotes 12 items on Yoga (too numerous to list). For verification, go to http://www.booksforchristians.com/ and type-in the word Yoga in the search window.

Christianbook.com:
Promotes at least 12 items on Yoga (too numerous to list). Go to http://www.christianbook.com/ and type-in the word Yoga in the search window.

Christian Book Network:
This website promotes Yoga and accessories pertaining to Yoga such as books, DVDs, Yoga mats, mood music, and clothing (too numerous to list). For verification, go to http://shop.christianbooknet.com/ and type-in the word Yoga in the search window.

Christian Heritage Books:
This website contains authors and books promoting and pertaining to Yoga and the New Age Movement (stopped counting at 1000). For verification, go to
www.christianheritagebooks.com/ and type-in the word Yoga in the search window.

Cokesbury.com-Resources for the Christian Journey:
This website promotes hundreds of authors and books pertaining to Yoga and the New Age Movement (too numerous to list). For verification, go to http://www.cokesbury.com/ and type-in Yoga in the search window.

Dalton's Christian Bookstore:
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon

Koorong.com (Australia):
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon

Kregel Christian Books & Resources:
Kregel uses Parable Christian Stores for its online books and materials, where
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher is promoted.

Lemstone:
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon. Lemstone's bookstore provider is Innovative, Inc. of North Carolina.

Lighthouse Christian Stores (not affiliated with Lighthouse Trails Publishing or Lighthouse Trails Research Project):
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon

Northwestern Book Stores:
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon

Parable Christian Stores:
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher

Word of Life Christian Bookstores:
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon

Researched & Compiled by:
Bud Press
January 23, 2007

CHRISTIAN YOGA EXPOSED Tract and Resources From Living Lamb Ministries

Dear friends, here are some great discernment resources and links EXPOSING CHRISTIAN YOGA. These can be found at Jonna Sutherland's Living Lamb Ministries website in the articles section.

Chris Lawson, SRN

Living Lamb Ministries

Discernment Resources
(Jonna Sutherlands Website)

What is Christian Yoga? (pdf Tri-fold brochure)

- Write Living Lamb Ministries for free copies

Christian Yoga and Hindu Gods by Jonna Sutherland

Christian Yoga: Rooted in Hindu Occultism by Chris Lawson

You Shall Not Worship the LORD Your God in That Way by Brian Flynn

Note: For the below mp3 files, you may want to save the files to your hard drive for easier playing. To do this: Right-click on the link, choose "Save Target As," and download the file to your hard drive.

Christianity and Yoga Don't Mix?
Dr. Ron Carlson Part 1 Part 2 - MP3 files

Just How Biblical is Labyrinth Spirituality?

Many church leaders today think that offering Labyrinths to Christians is a good method of spirituality.

This just isn’t so. The following articles shed some Biblical light on the artful deception of the Labyrinth.

Enter the Labyrinth - Mike Oppenheimer, Let Us Reason

Commentary of Dan Kimball's Article: A-maze-ing Prayer - Jane Whiting, PDF file

Labyrinth: The Occult Has Truly Gone Mainstream - Cephas Ministry

The Labyrinth Journey: Walking the Path to Fulfillment? - Carl Teichrib

Ancient Labyrinths Are Re-emerging - Bible Guidance

AFA Removes "Mysticism" Category But Authors Remain

AFA Removes "Mysticism" Category But Authors Remain
Jan 11, 2007

[This article is from the Lighthouse Trails Research Database]

This is a follow up of last week's story, American Family Association Includes Contemplative/Mystical Categories in Bookstore

American Family Association has removed the "Mysticism" category from their Resource Center; however, the same authors who appeared under "Mysticism" have remained available to buyers and can be found in other categories on the store. Some of these authors like Evelyn Underhill and Jean-Pierre De Caussade can be found under the category Spirituality (in the Spiritual Growth section). Others can be found throughout the Resource Center bookstore.

Evelyn Underhill was a mystic who believed that mysticism was the vehicle in which all religions could come into contact with the "Absolute" (God) however one perceived him to be.

She states:
[T]hose who use the term "Mysticism" are bound in self-defense to explain what they mean by it. Broadly speaking, I understand it to be the expression of the innate tendency of the human spirit towards complete harmony with the transcendental order; whatever be the theological formula under which that order is understood. Whether that end be called the God of Christianity, the World-soul of Pantheism, the Absolute of Philosophy, the desire to attain it and the movement towards it-so long as this is a genuine life process and not an intellectual speculation-is the proper subject of mysticism. I believe this movement to represent the true line of development of the highest form of human consciousness.

— Evelyn Underhill, from Mysticism: A Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual
Consciousness

Click here to read entire article at the Lighthouse Trails Blog - This article is from the Lighthouse Trails Research Database


For More Information:
Research Site
AFA Database
News and Articles
Lighthouse Trails Publishing

Christian Yoga: Rooted in Hindu Occultism

Dear All,
Wishing you and yours a blessed New Year!

The main article in this months SRN newsletter is Christian Yoga: Rooted in Hindu Occultism by Chris Lawson, 1/5/2007.

For those who are unaware, yoga and "Christian Yoga" are being practiced by many people who have no idea what yoga is really all about. Yoga has for thousands of years been utilized as a means to achieve Hindu occult enlightenment – ‘Self-Realization’. According to many, yoga even predates Hinduism. Yoga is a spiritual practice utilized in such belief systems as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and other occult and mysticism based religions. All true yoga teachers (yogis/yoginis) and countless thousands of pages of yoga literature declare that yoga has as its source of power, Kundalini - the Serpent Power.

Is yoga a philosophy and theory? Yes. And it is also a consciousness and worldview altering religious practice too. Simply stated, yoga from the East has been watered down and commercialised for undiscerning Westerners. Even professing Christian leaders have relabelled and integrated it into their Christianity as "Christ-Centered Yoga", "Holy Yoga", "Yahweh Yoga", "Yoga for Christians", “health”, “fitness”, “exercise”, etc. Occultism relabelled is still occultism!

Something a lot of people don’t know is that this mass Western-world-embracing of Eastern spirituality was planned out long ago by a very powerful fallen angel named Lucifer. Lucifer’s (Satan) literature, stratagems and spokes people have revealed this. One such instance is through William Walker Atkinson, an American writer who was influential in turn-of-the-century (1890s-1900s) spiritual/philosophical movements such as 'New Thought' (a precursor to today's New Age movement) and Theosophy. Atkinson as Ramacharaka was a well recognized Western convert to occultism.

In 1903, Atkinson, otherwise known as Yogi Ramacharaka, wrote his Hindu Yogi occult primer titled The Hindu-Yogi Science of Breath. In it he stated:

“The theory of the East, wedded to the practice of the West, will produce worthy offspring.”

This is exactly the case with Westerners today embracing all manner of Eastern spirituality. Ramacharaka’s words were and are in direct reference to the yogic philosophy of breath control (pranayama), also called “The Science of Breath”. Also, Ramacharaka and many other occultists in the past and present state very clearly that yoga poses (asanas) are rooted and grounded in yogic philosophy. The philosophy, practice, methods and ideology of yoga are one package. For the yogi guru (teacher) the worshipful poses and breath control techniques are inextricably linked – the theory is inseparable from practice. In other words, it is impossible to disentangle or untie the two from each other. To do so is committing ‘yogacide’.

In the ever emerging global spirituality of today, Hindu, Buddhist, New Age and Theosophical evangelists, as well as many other practitioners of occult and mysticism based belief systems are watching their dream come true with the forming of a global universal spirituality. Sadly, undiscerning Christians, false followers of Christ, and masses of unbelieving people are being played like pawns in a cosmic chess game – all jumping on the yoga bandwagon. “Universal Consciousness”, Eucharistic adoration”, “Mother Earth”, “Gaia”, “meditation”, “energy work”, “reiki”, “yoga”, “mantras”, “channelling”, “Tantra”, “drumming”, shamanism” and a myriad of other forms of occultism and mysticism are part of this forming one world religion.

The underlying theme that is connecting this global universal spirituality is pantheism (All is God, God is All) and panentheism (All in God – the universe [you and me too] is part of God). Unbiblical and antichrist to the core, they too are the foundations of yoga. And so it is just as Ramacharaka and his Theosophical Society colleagues foresaw, a panentheistic occult oriented universal spirituality - the theory of the East, is being [HAS BEEN] married to the west. Through the Contemplative Spiritual Formation movement and the Emerging Church movement – “Christian Yoga” has arrived in the Christian Church. Another massive Trojan horse has come. My friends this ought not to be. Through the framework of Eastern spirituality being relabelled as “deeper spirituality” for Christians, people are being deceived.

It is every Christian’s duty to “Test all things, hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil”
(1 Thess. 5:21-22). It is my hope that this article, Christian Yoga: Rooted in Hindu Occultism will persuade you from following those who are caught up in the deceptions of this last hour.

'If any man teaches otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing ... from such withdraw thyself' (I Timothy 6:3)

American Family Association Includes Contemplative/Mystical Categories in Bookstore

The following article is from Lighthouse Trails Research Project

----

American Family Association Includes Contemplative/Mystical Categories in Bookstore

This story is a follow up to our previous AFA articles that you may view here.
American Family Association's Resource Center is now including categories in their Spiritual Growth section (*see note below) titled: "Mysticism," "Contemplative Life," and "Spiritual Formation." As we have reported in the past, AFA has been aware that many of the books they sell on their site promote panentheism, altered states of consciousness (i.e., the silence), Eastern mysticism, etc. Emails to numerous customers from AFA staff, as well as AFA president Tim Wildmon, indicated that these books were removed. On the contrary, AFA now has categories specifically for these titles.

Under Mysticism, authors include mystics Jean-Pierre De Caussade, St. John of the Cross, Evelyn Underhill, Calvin Miller, and many, many others with panentheistic persuasions. In Miller's book, Into the Depths of God, he states:
Centering is the merger of two "selves" - ours and his [God's]. Centering is union with Christ. It is not a union that eradicates either self but one that heightens both." (A Time of Departing, p. 185)

On AFA's category Contemplative Life, they sell books by Phyllis Tickle (who recently said Brian McLaren was like another Luther), panentheist William Shannon (Thomas Merton's biography and author of Silence on Fire),Brother Roger of Taize, and titles such as The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, Silence and Stillness in Every Season by John Main, and the list is lengthy.

On the Spiritual Formation category, AFA lists emerging church leaders and writers like Rob Bell and Don Miller as well as C. Peter Wagner, Dallas Willard, Richard Rohr, Jim Wallis, and over 700 other titles in this category.

Other authors the AFA store includes are Henri Nouwen, Larry Crabb, Brian McLaren, Ruth Haley Barton, Brennan Manning, Thomas Merton, Rick Warren and countless others who promote contemplative spirituality.

AFA has made a bold statement by adding these categories. And just what does this statement tell us? Three things. First, AFA misled people, and quite frankly they seem indifferent to the consequences of that. Secondly, AFA is absolutely promoting heretical books and authors, and it doesn't look like they are going to stop. Thirdly, this illustrates very well that the concerns, which compel Lighthouse Trails and its authors, are not something obscure, on the fringe, or faddish. Christendom is without a doubt immersed in contemplative spirituality so much so that those who oppose it are standing on the outside of this mystical, contemplative church and being labeled divisive, false converts, resisters, leaders from hell and just plain old—standing in the way of progress. With that in mind, each of us must decide to which church we belong ... a church where the biblical Jesus Christ is the head or a mystical contemplative church that ultimately denies the Cross and replaces it with a panentheistic universal spirituality.

*Note: To find these categories on AFA Resource Center site,

1. Go to AFA main website.

2. Scroll down to bottom of left column and under AFA Support, click on AFA Products

3. Then at top of page, click on Resource Center

4. Then at top left of page, click on BOOKS.

5. Then see right hand column, Browse by Category, and scroll down to "Spiritual Growth," then open up "+" sign.)

Lighthouse Trails Research Project

P.O. Box 958

Silverton, Oregon

97381

Phone: 503/873-9092

Fax: 503/873-3879

editors@lighthousetrails.com

www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com

Related News

American Family Association Misleads Supporters

Lifeway Stores Says OK to New Age Sympathizing Authors

THE CHRISTIAN BOOKSTORE INDUSTRY Deception in the Databases

Master List of Heretical New Age Books in Christian Bookstores

Purpose Driven Resisters: Must Leave or Die!

Can Contemplative Spirituality Be Dangerous?

Called emerging, emergent church movement, and emerging church spirituality, this post-modern way of doing church is causing people to question the validity of its teachings. Simply put, many emerging church teachings are rooted in Contemplative Spirituality, which comes from the East.

But just what is Contemplative Spirituality and can Contemplative Spirituality be dangerous? This we seek to examine, not in a spirit of contention, but grace, humility and love. (1 Thess.5:21; Phil.1:8-11)

We recommend the following research sites for a closer look at emerging, emergent church movement, and emerging church spirituality.

At these sites you can also find info about contemplative spirituality, spiritual formation movement, contemplative teachers and teachings, contemplative movements, etc.

Emerging Church - Discernment Research Archives
Apprising Ministries Archive
Critical Issues Commentary Archive
Deception In The Church Archive
Herescope
Kjos Ministries Archive
Let Us Reason Archive
Lighthouse Trails Archive
Lighthouse Trails Topical
One Truth Ministries
Understand The Times Archive

Resources
Books, DVD's, Glossary, etc.
Revival or Return To Darkness DVD
Books and Authors: Buyer Be-a-ware!!!
Critical Issues Commentary - Bob DeWaay
Discernment Tool Kit at Deception In The Church
Discernment POWER Search

We exhort you to examine contemplative and emerging church spirituality and test it in the light of the Word of God. Researching the real foundations of contemplative emerging church spirituality may shock you. We have spent many hours examining the teachings and practices in this movement and have found that they ultimately lead to what we call Contemplative Emerging Church Deception.

Obey Jesus and "let no man deceive you."

Do what the Bible says,

"Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Abstain from every form of evil. "
1 Thes.5:21

Apostasy Continues To Exponentiate!

Greetings once again!

We hope and pray our readers are reading their Bibles too. Because apostasy in these last days continues to exponentiate!

Amidst working through more emails, we have received some very encouraging letters and also some very sad ones too. Periodically people will share their own stories about how their churches are embracing contemplative spirituallity, New Age mystical techniques, yoga, etc.

People also share about how their church leadership frowns upon them as they ask why the church is not teaching the Bible, but instead Rick Warren's book. We have recently posted more articles regarding these dangers of these things at our SRN Blog and our Contemplative Emerging Church deception Blog. These two articles help shed a bit of light on what Bible believers are up against nowadays

• pseudodidaskaloi' - The Cut & Paste Hermeneutics Of Rick Warren and The Gnostic by Jacob Prasch, Moriel Ministries, 12/14/06

BIBLE BUTCHERY - How To Make God’s Word Say Whatever You Like And Ignore What God Said It Actually Says - The Cut & Paste Hermeneutics Of Rick Warren and The Gnostic Interpretation Of The Parables By Brian Maclaren & Peter Tsukahira
www.moriel.org/articles/discernment/church_issues/pseudodidaskaloi.htm emerging church

• How to Know When the Emerging Church Shows Signs of Emerging in Your Church http://www.understandthetimes.org/commentary/c54.shtml

I have also received correspondence from a Christian who got into alternative therapies, new age healing, and Kundalini [yoga] arousal. Although he is a Christian, his life has been dramatically affected by occult influences. This ought not to be.

Sadly, many leaders in churches nowadays think it is a New way of doing church to integrate Gnostic mysticism and ancient rituals into church services, including chanting, praying with crystals, centering prayer, visiaulizing Jesus, incense, candles, venerating images and icons, walking labyrinths, etc.

A simple reading of Jeremaih chapter 7 and 8 reveals what our Holy God thinks about mixing pagan religious practices with the worship of the One true God - Jehovah - Jesus Christ!

Beware friends, New Age Gnosticicm and Ancient Mysticism re-labeled for Christians is not of the God of Holy Scripture! We understand that post-modern leaders want to reach out to poeple, but this is Christian chicanery - artful subterfuge, Trojan Horsism, masquerading as "true worship".

Can One Christianize Eastern Religious Practices?

Can one Christianize Eastern religious practices?
By Brian Flynn

"You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way."

Over the past few years, I have received hundreds of emails regarding my opposition to Yoga and other mystical practices being used within the body of Christ. The excuses for continuing the practices range from, it makes me feel closer to God, it is just a form of exercise, or my intention is to worship our Lord only. Unfortunately, none of those explanations holds much water when weighed against the Word of God...

Read entire article on Can one Christianize Eastern religious practices?
at One Truth Ministries

What a Hindu Professor Tells Lighthouse Trails About Yoga

From the Lighthouse Trails Research Project Blog
-----
What a Hindu Professor Tells Lighthouse Trails About Yoga

Recently, after finishing as a guest on a radio talk show (Drew Marshall show - Listen), a listener called in and said she was a former Hindu. She was very upset at Lighthouse Trails and said that Hinduism had stolen mantra meditation from Christianity, and now (through contemplative) we were just taking it back.

As we have watched in dismay and shock as one Christian leader after the next succumbs to promoting contemplative, and as more and more churches, seminaries and organizations incorporate icons, candles, yoga, labryinths and mantric chanting, we have wondered why Christian leaders aren't shouting a warning from the rooftops.

A couple weeks ago, I read an article by a Hindu professor (of Hindu University of America) titled Yoga Renamed is Still Hindu. In the article, Professor Subhas Tiwari stated:

The simple, immutable fact is that yoga originated from the Vedic or Hindu culture. Its techniques were not adopted by Hinduism, but originated from it.... Efforts to separate yoga from its spiritual center reveal ignorance of the goal of yoga.... If this attempt to co-opt yoga into their (Christians) own tradition continues, in several decades of incessantly spinning the untruth as truth through re-labelings such as "Christian yoga," who will know that yoga is--or was--part of Hindu culture? ...
Read Entire Article...
http://www.fromthelighthouse.com/blog/index.php?p=36&more=1&c=1

Emergent Tony Campolo and Christian Camping and Conference Association

Emergent Tony Campolo and Christian Camping and Conference Association
~ A Warning to Christian Camp Directors

by Scott MacIntyre

Emergent proponent, author, and speaker Tony Campolo is one of the keynote speakers at this year's Christian Camping and Conference Association Convention (CCCA).

Formerly called Christian Camping International, CCCA is the largest representative organization for Christian camps in the United States. They are hosting their annual convention in Philadelphia, PA November 27-30 of this year. According to convention promotion on the CCCA web site, this year's theme is titled, "Rebirth of a Notion", an obvious play on the Philadelphia convention site as the birth place of our nation. In reading further, we discover the 'devil' in the details,

"The theme, "Rebirth of a Notion," will be the basis for exploring how Christian camp leaders can benefit from returning to the philosophical roots of camping, while discovering how to retool for the future."

It is uncertain what "philosophical roots" these may be, but many Christians of discernment will recognize the 'Rick Warren-like' approach of claiming an old message with a new method of communicating. It sounds like the basic, "our message must never change, but our methods must" approach. I'm afraid the message does get changed. With Campolo as a keynote speaker, it's hard to imagine him encouraging hundreds of camp directors and leaders to return to teaching the Bible in their camps....

Read More about...
Emergent Tony Campolo and Christian Camping and Conference Association

at...Wood and Steel Website
http://www.woodandsteel.net/campolo-ccca.htm

Rob Bell's films and teachings need to be carefully examined before presenting them to teens.

Greetings,

the following was a News Release from Lighhthouse Trails Research Project. We want to encourage you to research a bit into this and see just how strange Rob Bell's teachings are.

See also Lighthouse Trails Research Project http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/index.html

—Chris Lawson

_____________________

NOTICE TO PARENTS!
Christian Schools Introducing Teens to Mysticism Proponent

Rob Bell's films and teachings need to be carefully examined before presenting them to teens.

Oct 11, 2006
THIS IS A SPECIAL ALERT:The following Audio clip is a sermon by Rob Bell. In this audio, Bell leads the audience through a meditation exercise and talks about various aspects of contemplative spirituality. Please use caution when listening to this audio file (not suitable for children). Click here for audio file - then scroll to bottom of page.

Lighthouse Trails has been contacted by several concerned parents and grandparents whose teens are being introduced to the teachings and films of emerging church leader, Rob Bell (a strong proponent of mysticism, i.e., contemplative).Bell, the creator of the Nooma films, is pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church and the author of Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. Christian schools and youth groups are presenting the Nooma films to their youth, and many of these groups are having teens read Velvet Elvis. Because Bell promotes and teaches New Age mystical practices in a Christian context, young people may accept these teachings as biblical Christianity. And when trusted teachers are presenting this material, both teens and parents alike may be caught off guard. In our recent article "Will the Next Billy Graham Be a Mystic? " we documented important information regarding Bell's spiritual affinities. Here is a small portion of that article:

On March 19th 2006 Bell ... invited a Dominican sister from the Dominican Center at Marywood in Michigan to speak at a church service at Mars Hill. The Dominican Center is a "Spirituality center," which offers a wide variety of contemplative opportunities, including Reiki [an occult-based, i.e., chakra, healing technique], a Spiritual Formation program, a Spiritual Director program, labyrinths, Celtic Spirituality, enneagrams and more.

Zondervan Publishing will be releasing Bell's new book, Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality, next spring.

For further information: Our research on Rob Bell

Will the Next Billy Graham Be a Mystic?

Breath Prayers

A Time of Departing

"We're rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion, as a way of life."- Rob Bell, from "The Emergent Mystique"

Note: In order to protect the privacy of the families who have contacted us, we are not able to list the names of these high schools. In most cases, the parents who called have very little support from other parents and teachers. If your teen's Christian school is using the materials mentioned in this article, please contact your school and share your concerns.

Lighthouse Trails Research Project
Editors - Lighthouse Trails Publishing
editor@lighthousetrails.com
503/873-9092

Contemplating Contemplative Prayer: Is It Really Prayer? by Marcia Montenegro

Dear friends, the following article is written by Marcia Montenegro, the director of CANA - Christian Answers for the New Age.

Marcia was a professional astrologer who spent many years in the New Age movement. She is now a Christian who is reaching out to people and sharing the real Jesus, not the New Age Jesus.
Below is some more information about Marcia and her ministry as well as a very insightful article about Contemplative Prayer, which is not really prayer at all but a form of Eastern mysticism.

~ Chris at SRN

~~~~~

Contemplating Contemplative Prayer: Is It Really Prayer?
by Marcia Montenegro

[First published in Midwest Christian Outreach Journal, February, 2005; this version has been modified with additional information]

"God's first language is silence." 1

"Progress in intimacy with God means progress toward silence." 2

"The important thing is that we are relaxed and our back is straight so that the vitalizing energies can flow freely." 3

Contemplation is "a pure and a virginal knowledge, poor in concepts, poorer still in reasoning, but able, by its very poverty and purity, to follow the Word 'wherever He may go.'" 4

Contemplative Prayer, also called Centering Prayer or Listening Prayer, has been taught by Roman Catholic monks Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, and Basil Pennington, as well as by Quaker Richard Foster, and is being advocated by many others. There is no one authority on this method, nor is there necessarily a consistent teaching on it, though most of the founding teachers quote medieval mystics, Hindu, and Buddhist spiritual teachers.

According to www.contemplativeoutreach.org, "Centering Prayer is drawn from ancient prayer practices of the Christian contemplative heritage, notably the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert, Lectio Divina, (praying the scriptures), The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. It was distilled into a simple method of prayer in the 1970's by three Trappist monks, Fr. William Meninger, Fr. Basil Pennington and Abbot Thomas Keating at the Trappist Abbey, St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts." It should be added, "During the twenty years (1961-1981) when Keating was abbot, St. Joseph's held dialogues with Buddhist and Hindu representatives, and a Zen master gave a week-long retreat to the monks. A former Trappist monk who had become a Transcendental Meditation teacher also gave a session to the monks." 5

The influence of Buddhism and Hinduism on Contemplative Prayer (hereafter referred to as CP) is apparent. Words such as "detachment," "transformation," "emptiness," "enlightenment" and "awakening" swim in and out of the waters of these books. The use of such terms certainly mandates a closer inspection of what is being taught, despite the fact that contemplative prayer is presented as Christian practice.

Read Page 1 of Article...
Read Page 2 of Article...
Read Page 3 of Article...

Willow Creek "Leadership Summit" - Featured Speaker Promotes Eastern Meditation and the New Age

The News Alert posted below is from the Special Report From Lighthouse Trails Research Project.

It is a sad day indeed when Christian Church Leader Conferences - in this case the Willow Creek "Leadership Summit" - have speakers who are biblically undiscerning and who endorse anti-biblical methods of spirituality.

This is a very interesting News Alert and it shows just how undiscerning the Willow Creek movement has become.

~Chris Lawson
Spiritual Research Network

~~~~~~

Willow Creek "Leadership Summit" Starts Today
Featured Speaker Promotes Eastern Meditation and the New Age
Aug 10, 2006 -

"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."
(from The Highest Goal, Michael Ray, foreword by Jim Collins, p. 28, 2005)

Jim Collins, who wrote the foreword for The Highest Goal will be one of the featured speakers at this year's Leadership Summit, hosted by Willow Creek. The conference will be attended by more than 70,000 Christian leaders, in over 130 locations.

In 1982, Collins took Michael Ray's course, Creativity in Business. The course (and the book named after the course) "takes much of its inspiration from Eastern philosophy, mysticism and meditation techniques" (from the book). In one section of the book it talks about "your wisdom-keeper or spirit guide-an inner person who can be with you in life.... We meditate to unfold our inner being." The book also presents Tarot cards.

Collins was so inspired by Ray's course in 1982 that he wrote the foreword for Ray's 2004 book, The Highest Goal: The Secret That Sustains You in Every Minute. Collins says the book is "the distillation of years of accumulated wisdom from a great teacher." Collins says he discovered "the path to my highest goal" by reading the book. What is this highest goal that Michael Ray speaks of? Realizing the divinity within. And how is this realization obtained? Through meditation. In the book, Ray tells readers to "[p]ractice emptying your mind," "[e]xperience not thinking" and to "[m]editate regularly." Other quotes in the book include those of Eastern religion gurus such as Ram Dass, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and Swami Shantananda.

For Willow Creek to include a speaker at the Leadership Summit who agrees with Michael Ray's Eastern/New Age philosophies on spirituality to the point of actually writing the foreword to this book, is almost unbelievable! Over 70,000 Christian leaders, in churches and auditoriums across North America, will be introduced to Collins at a conference that is advertised as offering "you and every leader on your team a place to rededicate yourselves to God's life-changing work." If the spirituality that Jim Collins promotes is a part of this " life-changing work," we fear it will not be God's work but rather that of deceptive doctrines of demons, and Michael Ray's "spirit-guide[s] " that take place.

Special Note: This news about Jim Collins connection with Willow Creek (named recently as the most influential evangelical church) may be as significant as the news last year that New Age sympathizer Ken Blanchard (with strong ties to the Hoffman Institute) signed on with Rick Warren to help implement the global P.E.A.C.E. Plan. And incidentally, both Collins and Blanchard have spoken with Mikhail Gorbachev and former President Bill Clinton in international leadership conferences. Their influence world-wide is tremendous. How is it that the two most influential evangelical pastors have each linked up with someone who is a promoter of Eastern style meditation and the New Age? Lighthouse Trails is confident that the facts speak for themselves, and we encourage you to check this out for yourself.

See below for further documentation:

Living Leadership

Living Leadership 2004

Defense Acquisition University

Create One

Earth-Friendly Vision


Lighthouse Trails Research Project
Editors - Lighthouse Trails Publishing
Please feel free to distribute this special report.

Recommended Reading: Articles by Brian Flynn at One Truth Ministires

Dear friends,

In line with posting relevant articles on this blog, I periodically recommend balanced authors and discernment research websites.

Please do take a look at the following articles by Brian Flynn from One Truth Ministries. Brian has an amazing story as the LORD led him out of the occult and into the Body of Christ. By God's grace Brian is serving the Lord and speaking out against the contemplative mystical practices in the church. His ministry glorifies our LORD Jesus Christ and we are blessed to be able to pass on the info about another solid discernment ministry.

Below are some of Brian's articles at One Truth Ministries.

~ Chris Lawson at SRN
http://www.spiritual-research-network.com/index.htm

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Christian Should Dump Contemplative Prayer by Brian Flynn

Be Still and Know...that you are being deceived by Brian Flynn

Mystics Misuse of Scripture - Why contemplative prayer has no biblical support by Brian Flynn

Lectio Divina-Sacred Divination by Brian Flynn

Christian Yoga - Oxymoron by Brian Flynn

Are Psychics Real? by Doug Trouten [About Brian Flynn's testimony]

Spirit Guides or Demons? by Brian Flynn

Can one Christianize a pagan ritual? by Brian Flynn

"You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way."

Can one Christianize a pagan ritual?

by Brian Flynn

Over the past few years, I have received hundreds of emails regarding my opposition to Yoga and other mystical practices being used within the body of Christ. The excuses for continuing the practices range from, it makes me feel closer to God, it is just a form of exercise, or my intention is to worship our Lord only. Unfortunately, none of those explanations holds much water when weighed against the Word of God.

On the plains of Moab, Moses shared God’s decrees and laws that the Israelites were to follow before they could enter the Promised Land:

These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall carefully observe in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. You shall not act like this toward the Lord your God… Deuteronomy 12:1-4

By setting these rules, God was guiding His people as to how they should worship Him only and according to His ways. God was also testing His people that they might prove their allegiance to Him. The warning was to avoid being ensnared in the practices of the pagans who lived there. This warning is as relevant today as it was at the time of Moses.

Unfortunately, like the Israelites of old, the warning has gone unheeded.
Read Entire Article...

Visit Brian Flynn's Website at One Truth Ministries

Yoga: Posture of Apostasy: Can yogic practices be integrated with the Christian faith?

In the USA, approximately 15 million people who professing Christians are practicing Yoga. This is not just a little problem.

Furthermore, the Christian Yoga teachers are not telling Christians about the hazards of yoga. If they were there would not be such a huge growth of yoga classes within the church.

Click here to read more about the Hazards of Yoga at the Spiritual Research Network

~ SRN

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Yoga: Posture of Apostasy
Can yogic practices be integrated with the Christian faith?

by Larry De Bruyn

"Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet . . ." Rudyard Kipling's words accent the difference between eastern and western spirituality, between Hinduism and Christianity. But the two, "the twain" as it were, are now meeting via yogic practices being promoted in various places of worship and activities of spirituality. Take for example, one Jewish synagogue. The weekly Shabbat services of Congregation Beth-El Zedek have included such activities as "Torah Yoga," which asks congregants to "stretch and take deep breaths" as the Torah is read, or when as worshippers enter the synagogue, they are "welcomed by Torah meditations set to drums and chanting."[1] But Jews are not alone in adopting yogic postures and practices.

"Christian yoga" is also gaining popularity. Thomas Nelson, a Christian publisher, recently released a book titled, Yoga for Christians, by Susan Bordenkircher.[2] In an interview with the Denver Post, the author, a fitness instructor, explained, "What we are attempting to do with a Christ-centered practice is fill the heart and mind with God, becoming 'single-minded' as Scripture calls it." Unapologetic for promoting so called "Christian yoga", she explains that "Christ-centered yoga is definitely not just a repackaging of . . . yoga. The difference, she says, lies in the intention: shifting the focus from self to God with yogic postures ('breathing in' the Holy Spirit, for instance), integrating health as critical to effective godly service, and slowing down enough 'from our fast-paced lives to actually hear God's voice.'"[3] Wow . . . "breathing in the Holy spirit . . . slowing down . . . to actually hear the voice of God."

The instructor's words betray an ominous and foreboding ignorance of Christian truth. Believers do not breathe in the Holy Spirit. When by faith people are justified (i.e., saved), in a millisecond of time they are regenerated (Jn. 3:3, 5-7) and instantly indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. Corporately and individually believers are the "temple" of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). As Paul wrote to the Roman believers, "However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him" (Rom. 8:9). There are only two types of persons in the world: saints and "ain'ts"--those in whom the Holy Spirit lives, and those in whom He does not. Given the Spirit's abiding presence in the life of the believer, how can He then be inhaled into the soul via yogic practice? Answer: He can't, because at salvation the Holy Spirit makes the justified believer's soul His sanctuary! Hopefully this yoga instructor isn't suggesting that regeneration takes place by a sort of yogic "inbreathing" of the Holy Spirit. If she really is, then by adding a human mechanism (i.e., "breathing in"), her version of spirituality stands in blatant contradiction to the salvation that comes "by grace . . . through faith" (Eph. 2:8-9). Her spirituality formula also opposes Jesus' testimony that like the wind, the Sovereign Spirit blows when and where He "wishes" (Jn. 3:8). The Sovereign Spirit will not be manipulated or controlled by yogic "inbreathing."..


Read full article...
http://www.frbaptist.org/bin/view/Ptp/PtpTopic20060522141106

Also check these out:

Ankerberg Theological Research Institute:

• Yoga Pt.1: Description, Claims,Occult Potential, Dangers
• Yoga Pt.2: Yoga and Children - Purpose of Yoga
• Yoga Theory and Practice: Separable? - Part 1
• Yoga Theory and Practice: Separable? - Part 2
• Yoga: Kundalini Yoga
• Yoga: The Occult
• Innocent Yoga? Altering Consciousness in an Occult Direction

Christians Find Connection To God Through Yoga

This is simply unbelievable, Christians connecting to God through Yoga (Hinduism)?

One would do well to remember that yoda in Star Wars was an occult yogi with a message from Hinduism...and that yoga for Westerner's goes along the same lines as Yoda's... "look within...the force is withing you." Yoga for Westerner's is a hodge-podge of worshipful poses - now called exercise - based on occult philosophy.

The article below was originally posted in May, 2006.
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Christians find connection to God through yoga
Saturday, May 27, 2006
By Juanita Westaby
The Grand Rapids Press

Flipping the remote, looking for a new way to exercise, Karen Palaszek came across a televised yoga class eight years ago.

"When I finished, I remember feeling like, 'Whoa, this feels pretty good.' Quiet. Centered," she said. "It gave me an opportunity to quiet my mind."

At the time, she had no idea she was launching into a new career as well as a new way to pray.

Palaszek has a yoga innovations company called Quiet Mountain and operates Yoga Force, a yoga services company that gives corporate yoga classes. She remains a committed Christian, however.

"When I'm in yoga, it's my chance to (connect) with my own personal relationship with Jesus," she said. Yoga "is about making the open spaces for God to come in."

There are 15 million people in the U.S. practicing yoga, according to Yoga Journal. Many of them are coming from the Christian faith; some are trying find a way to reformulate it.

As the number of Christians practicing yoga rises, so do the voices that condemn it.

"As Christians, you are instructed to 'be transformed by the renewing of your mind' (Romans 12:2), not the emptying of your mind," writes Laurette Willis, on her Web site, PraiseMoves. "Many believe that the transformation process occurs as we meditate and feed on the Word of God -- renewing our minds by filling them with God's thoughts, not emptying them or filling them with the prideful thoughts of man."

That's not the way Christians practicing yoga see it.

"So many Christians are fearful of yoga because they associate it with Hinduism or Buddhism. But it can be a wonderful adjunct to a Christian faith," said Jennifer Byrne, who teaches yoga at Trinity Lutheran Church.

"I try not to call it a Christian yoga class," Byrne said. "It's a yoga class for Christians."

Byrne laughed as she described herself as a "multitasking, distracted person" whose mind and heart were stilled by her four years of practicing yoga.

"I've found so much more stillness and focus and awareness that has enhanced my faith," Byrne said. "It seems like I have a deeper connection to God, because I have a deeper sense of connectedness to who I am in God."

In her class at Trinity, Byrne might play instrumental Christian music softly in the background. Her class might meditate on a Scripture passage as part of their intent, or use a holy word as a mantra.


Eyes are open

But most know what they're getting into when they come to class, she said.

"They're already coming for the spiritual benefits because they're coming to a sacred space," she said. "They're coming for that sense of relaxation, that calming down."

When Kat Heagberg ends one of her yoga classes at the downtown YMCA, she has her own ritual.

"Exhale, pouring water," she tells her class, taking her arms up over her head and bringing them down in a prayer position. She does that twice and the third time, she touches her forehead, her lips and her heart.

It's a gesture familiar to Catholics, who perform the same ritual just before the reading of the gospel at Mass. It's a reminder that God's word "be on my mind, my lips and my heart."

"I grew up Catholic and I thought of the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit," when she first saw it, she explained. The ritual has no basis in yoga -- Heagberg picked it up from a Pilates instructor --- but she uses the gesture without apology or explanation to her classes.

Now a member of Monroe Community Church, Heagberg has taught yoga through her church as well. She started yoga as a form of exercise, but she soon picked up on its spiritual benefits.

"For me, personally, I would begin to feel the Holy Spirit and feel God's peace come over me," in yoga, she said. "You can be more open to hearing that still, small voice. You're rid of all that old clutter. You can just hear God's voice and pay attention to that."

Mary Vaccaro, the pastoral associate at the Catholic Information Center, Chapel of St. Paul, practices yoga at the Y and at home with video tapes.

"I might do 20 minutes of yoga and then sit quietly and pray," Vaccaro said.

It's an easy jump from savasana to centering prayer or lectio divina, two contemplative forms of prayer, since yoga tends to quiet the mind and still the body.

Just don't call it Christian yoga.

"I don't like that term because it's not respectful to the Hindu tradition. It's like saying the Hindu rosary or the Hindu Mass. For Hindus, this is part of how they pray."


No deceptions

Still, Vaccaro doesn't worry that yoga deceptively leads people away from the faith.

"Vatican II rejects nothing that is true in other religions," Vaccaro said. "Truth is bigger than any religion."

Palaszek sharply disagrees that yoga represents a religion.

"People assume yoga is a religion. It is not a religion," she said. "Yoga provides a beautiful framework that you can bring any intention to. That's where you make it your own.

"If you want a rockin' bod, you can get that with yoga. If you want to connect with God, you can use the framework of yoga as well. You pick," Palaszek said. "But whatever you do, there should be no judgment" of others.

In her new book, "Yoga for Christians," author Susan Bordenkircher reasons that Christian hymns were sometimes adapted from bar songs that were popular in their times, and Christian rock has its roots in rock 'n' roll.

"The common thread in these creative ways that God reaches and uses us is intent," she writes.

There are Web sites devoted to Christian alternatives to yoga, because some hard-line Christians believe the openness of yoga, the emptying of the mind, allows room for Satan and deception to come in.

Palaszek has a much simpler, less sinister, explanation of what happens in yoga.

"For some people that quiet is appealing and attractive," she said. "But some people find that very scary. Things start to bubble up."

Palaszek said those unpleasant things appearing can be part of the path of yoga.

"Purusa," a term loosely translated as "clarity of spirit," and "avidya," which means a sort of "cloudiness of spirit," often are at work in yoga practice.

The goal is "not just clarity," Palaszek said, "but it's compassion for self and others. Maybe you become less reactive. You begin to notice things. The more you practice yoga the more you notice things."

Christian Yoga-Oxymoron

Brian Flynn has done en excellent job at telling the truth like it is. Brian has an excellent website and he speaks at churches and conferences exposing the deception of New Age and Contemplative spirituality in the church.

See Brian Flynn's website: One truth Ministries

Learn more about Brian Flynn's book Running Against The Wind: The Transformation of a New Age Medium and His Warning to the Church

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Christian Yoga-Oxymoron
by Brian Flynn at One Truth Ministries


- Why is there such a thing as Christian Yoga? It certainly has no scriptural or biblical basis in support of it. I have repeated many times in my book, my writings and in radio interviews that Yoga is an eastern spiritual practice and has no place in the church. Do you think that Hindus who practice yoga are doing it to attain rock hard abs? The answer is clearly no. The purpose is spiritual. It is not just the meditations; but many of the postures used are a form of sun worship. Does that sound Christian to you? If you do not believe me than this newspaper article called "Is Yoga Debased by Secular Practice" should prove it. After you have read the article please click the link at the bottom of the page to return for my comments.

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The description of Yoga is contradictory with Christianity, "Its practice strives to unite the individual soul with the "greater soul" of the universe..." The response from Christians who practice Yoga state that they do not use the meditations normally associated with Yoga. However, the meditations are not the only problem. "It is a whole series of ritual appreciations to the sun, being thankful for that source of energy." To think of it as a mere physical movement is tantamount to "saying that baptism is just an underwater exercise..." Can't Christians find another form of exercise to use then one that is clearly connected to eastern religions? Even the Hindus in the linked article are stating that it is a Hindu religious practice and to stop pretending that it isn't a Hindu religious practice! They seem a bit upset don't they?...

Read entire article at Brian Flynn's One Truth Ministries website...