Attempt to Discredit Contenders of the Faith

 

LTRP Note: As the organized Christian church
and church leaders continue in their plunge toward apostasy,
turning their heads and ignoring the truth, all the while
attempting to discredit those who are trying to warn, more and
more people are being pulled into this tidal wave of deception.
When Lighthouse Trails

wrote a press release in 2005 showing that Rick Warren was
planning on using New Age sympathizer Ken Blanchard to help
implement his Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan and train leaders, attempts
were made to

discredit Lighthouse Trails.

Now, five years later, as various Christian organizations,
denominations, and movements have spun out of control and
hastened toward major spiritual deception through contemplative
mysticism, kingdom-now (heaven on earth) theology, and emerging
spirituality (all part of Satan’s Great Lie that started in the
Garden of Eden), others have joined in attempting to discredit
Lighthouse Trails and other concerned ministries.

In response to some of these attempts, Lighthouse Trails
author Ray Yungen wrote an article in 2009 titled

Is Lighthouse Trails haters? This stemmed from a Calvary
Chapel event in 2009 called Movement 2009, in which a Calvary
Chapel leader told thousands of youth that the haters tried
to stop us but they didn’t. This was in reference to

Lighthouse Trails previous reporting that Calvary Chapel was
going to use emerging church author Mike Erre to address these
youth at the Movement event. Erre’s book, Death by Church,
is a primer on the “new” emerging spirituality.

As we witness the lacking of Christian leaders to warn
against last days apostasy IN the church (not just secular
deceptions in the world), we soberly continue to report on what
is taking place. If your pastors and leaders are telling you NOT
to listen to Lighthouse Trails and others who are critical of
the evangelical church’s move toward a “new” Christianity, a
paradigm shift they say, please do your own research before you
take their word for it.

To illustrate just how far Christian leaders have slipped in
contending for the faith and courageously standing against those
who are bringing in dangerous false doctrines, in the summer of
2009, at a Greg Laurie Harvest Crusade, Calvary Chapel founder

Chuck Smith introduced Rick Warren as his “good friend.”
Warren, who was sharing the platform with Smith and Laurie that
day, then addressed the crowd. Just a few years earlier,

Calvary Chapel had publicly denounced the Purpose Driven
teachings, saying: “The teaching and positions of Rick Warren
have come into conflict with us at Calvary Chapel. Pastor Chuck
has directed us to discontinue this product [Rick Warren’s book,
The Purpose Driven Life] effective immediately.”1

Today, as another illustration, a film called Riptide is
about to be released by

Solomon Productions.The film is hosted by Calvary Chapel
pastor, Skip Heitzig, and features a number of Christian
leaders, including contemplative proponents such as Rick Warren
and Mark Driscoll. The film is about the 1970s Jesus Movement
and the present and future of Christianity. Another example of
more ground being furrowed for a further blending of truth and
error.

Because of these things, it is becoming increasingly
difficult for believers to identify and flee from deception.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as
a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” I
Peter 5:8

In 2009, Warren B. Smith wrote a book titled A
“Wonderful” Deception: The Further New Age Implications of the
Emerging Purpose Driven Movement. In this book, Smith tells
the story of what happened after Lighthouse Trails wrote that
2005 press release on Rick Warren and Ken Blanchard. Today, we
are presenting this section of the book in its entirety because
we think people need to know what is going on behind the scenes
and know that things are not always as they seem.

From chapters 4 & 5 of A “Wonderful” Deception
by

Warren B. Smith

In a May 31, 2005 midnight e-mail to Lighthouse Trails
Publishing, Rick Warren made it clear that he was not happy
with George Mair [author of A Life with Purpose] or
with Lighthouse Trails regarding the subject of Ken
Blanchard. With an apparent effort to take the spotlight off
Blanchard’s New Age affinities, Warren attempted to place it
on George Mair and Lighthouse Trails instead.–Warren Smith

In April 2005, a new book was published about Rick Warren. It
was titled A Life With Purpose: Reverend Rick Warren: The
Most Inspiring Pastor of Our Time. The book was an
extremely favorable presentation of Warren and the Purpose
Driven movement. Author George Mair genuinely liked and
respected Warren as he described the Saddleback pastor’s life
and ministry. Mair’s book was carried in major bookstores around
the country—including Christian bookstores. The author’s high
regard for Warren was evident throughout A Life With Purpose.
Early on in his book, Mair writes:

I knew one thing for sure about Rick Warren: his is a
fascinating story. A humble man with humble beginnings, he
is changing America—and the world—“one soul at a time.”2

After hearing him preach and experiencing Saddleback
Church, I understand why millions are listening to this man,
and knew that the story behind the movement deserves to be
told.3

His demeanor as the founder and pastor of one of the
largest churches in the world reflects a man whose focus is
on his mission to serve the Lord by bringing in the
unchurched souls—the lost sheep—to embrace and celebrate the
saving Grace of Jesus Christ.4

A Life With Purpose is filled with continuous praise
for Rick Warren and his Purpose Driven ministry. Nothing George
Mair said could be considered negative or critical about Warren.
In fact, the rare comment of a critic is usually offset by the
author himself. For example, Mair states:

Another thing those critics fail to take into account is
the role that Rick himself plays in the phenomenal growth of
his church. Rick Warren is a truly charismatic spiritual
leader. It’s clear to anyone who experiences one of his
Saddleback services that he truly loves what he does. He
relishes standing up at the podium, looking out at the
smiling crowd, and sharing the Good News of Jesus.5

There is no question that A Life With Purpose is an
overwhelmingly positive account of Rick Warren and the Purpose
Driven movement. However, at one point George Mair—in an almost
naive and non-judgmental way—talks about Norman Vincent Peale
and the New Age influence Peale had exerted on the Church Growth
movement. Mair frames his remarks about Peale by writing:

The numbers speak for themselves. The Church Growth
Movement has been wildly successful in Southern California .
. . as well as in the rest of the country. Which prompts us
to ask: what are the roots of this powerful movement? Rick
Warren may be the foremost figure in the CGM today, but he’s
only a piece—albeit an important one—of a greater
development in the Christian Church. Who and what gave birth
to this movement in which Rick would play such a vital
role?6

Mair answers his own question by stating what other writers
have known and also set forth—that it was Norman Vincent Peale
who really provided the spiritual foundation of today’s Church
Growth movement. In a sub-section titled “Laying the Groundwork:
New Age Preacher Norman Vincent Peale,” Mair writes:

Reverend Norman Vincent Peale is, to many, the most
prophetic and moving New Age preacher of the twentieth
century. He is also the father of the self-help movement
that formed the groundwork for the Church Growth Movement.
Peale formed perhaps the most dramatic and meaningful link
between religion and psychology of any religious leader in
history. It is this same approachable, therapeutic brand of
religion that many mega churches, including Saddleback, put
forward today. It is this kind of religion that is so
appealing to the masses of unchurched men and women that
Rick Warren hopes to reach.7

George Mair goes on to state that Saddleback Church
“distinctly bears the stamp of Norman Vincent Peale”:

Peale’s ministry was the first to raise the question that
still faces mega churches today: is it spiritual compromise
if a pastor simplifies his message in order to make it
appealing to a huge number of seekers?8

His biographer, [Carol R.] George, says, “Norman Vincent
Peale is undoubtedly one of the most controversial figures in
modern American Christianity.” But no matter what people think
about his theories, they have to acknowledge Peale’s remarkable
unification of psychology and theology. Without that
unification, mega churches wouldn’t exist today. . . . In that
sense, Saddleback distinctly bears the stamp of Reverend Norman
Vincent Peale.9

While Mair explains that it was Peale who laid the New Age
“groundwork” for today’s Church Growth movement, he notes that
it was Robert Schuller who helped to create the effectiveness of
the megachurch movement on a national scale:

But it’s hard to argue that Schuller was not the first
person to be effective on a national scale. He was
unquestionably a pioneer in the Church Growth Movement and a
major influence on Rick Warren.10

In his book, George Mair notes that Rick Warren had attended
the Robert H. Schuller Institute for Successful Church
Leadership.11 Then, after describing some of the various church
growth leaders up to and including the 1980s, Mair writes:

But in the 1990s, following in the footsteps of Peale and
Schuller, the leader of the next generation of Church Growth
Movement pastors emerged. That man was none other than Rick
Warren.12

In researching his book, George Mair had discovered the same
Lutheran Quarterly article sent to me the month before by the
Indiana pastor. Citing the article, Mair wrote how Norman
Vincent Peale had been accused of plagiarizing material from an
occult source:

Some of Peale’s former colleagues and another minister
went so far as to accuse him of plagiarism. Writing in the
Lutheran Quarterly, Reverend John Gregory Tweed of Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, and Reverend George D. Exoo of
Pittsburgh wrote that many of Peale’s uplifting affirmations
originated with an “obscure teacher of occult science” named
Florence Scovel Shinn. They based this charge on their
comparison of words in Peale’s writings and those of Shinn’s
book, The Game of Life and How to Play It, in which they
found some identical phrases.13

In A Life With Purpose, George Mair also reveals
that Norman Vincent Peale had been accused of using unattributed
material from occult/New Age author Florence Scovel Shinn. From
my own research that had been spurred by that same Lutheran
Quarterly article, I learned that Peale had much more interest
and involvement in the occult than I realized. He had openly
endorsed the works of key New Age figures like Ernest Holmes,
Eric Butterworth, and Bernie Siegel. Because questions had
already arisen regarding Rick Warren’s undiscerning reference to
Siegel and Warren’s use of unaccredited material from Robert
Schuller in the The Purpose Driven Life, the very last
thing Warren needed was a book—no matter how much it praised
him—intimating a New Age link running from Peale to Schuller to
Warren himself. In short, Warren did not need any more New Age
implications arising that would cast further doubt upon his
Purpose Driven movement. But ironically—at least on the
surface—it wasn’t Mair’s remarks about Peale that stirred up
concern at Saddleback Church but rather an offhand remark Mair
had made in his book about author and businessman Ken
Blanchard….

It was not until the release of George Mair’s book in 2005
that some people learned that Rick Warren had announced back in
2003 that Ken Blanchard would be working with him on the
P.E.A.C.E. Plan. When Lighthouse Trails Publishing learned about
Blanchard’s involvement with Warren, they were concerned. One of
their authors, Ray Yungen, had been researching the New Age for
many years and often came across Blanchard, who had been
consistently endorsing and writing the forewords to New Age
books and organizations. On April 19, 2005, Lighthouse Trails
issued a press release, quoting George Mair’s book that Warren
had “hired” Blanchard to work with him on the P.E.A.C.E. Plan.19
Lighthouse Trails warned of the serious New Age implications of
allowing someone as undiscerning as Blanchard to teach
Christians around the world how to “lead like Jesus.”The press
release documented many of Blanchard’s New Age endorsements
including Deepak Chopra’s book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of
Success and a book titled What Would Buddha Do at Work?
for which Blanchard wrote the foreword. (To read all of chapter
4 and 5 of A “Wonderful” Deception and for endnotes,

click here)

---

(from


A Time of Departing
by Ray Yungen, excerpted from
Chapter 6)

Notes:

1. John Davis and Naomi Rice, Messiah and
the Second Coming, p. 150

2. Alice Bailey, The Externalization of
the Heirarchy, p. 510

Source:

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=725&more=1&c=1