New Age Sympathizer Leonard Sweet To Speak at Pastor Skip Heitzig’s Calvary Chapel Church

New Age Sympathizer Leonard Sweet to Speak

at Pastor Skip Heitzig’s Calvary Chapel Church

Lighthouse Trails
Research 

Posted April 26, 2010 (Written March 26,
2010)

INDEX of previous
reports from Lighthouse-Trails

Emphasis added

 Home

From Warren B. Smith’s book, A “Wonderful” Deception:

“If we want to possess a
magical crystal for our
New Age work, we need
look no further than our
own bodies and the cells
that make them up.”1 —David
Spangler 1991

“I am grateful to David
Spangler for his help in
formulating this ‘new
cell’ understanding of
New Light leadership.”2—Leonard
Sweet 1991

Leonard Sweet, in
acknowledging [New Age
leaders] Willis Harman,
Matthew Fox,
M. Scott Peck,
and the others he refers to
as “New Light leaders” in
Quantum Spirituality,
states: 

“I believe these are
among the most creative
religious leaders in
America today. These are
the ones carving out
channels for new ideas
to flow. In a way this
book was written to
guide myself through
their channels and chart
their progress. The
book’s best ideas come
from them.”3

Speaking of spiritual
“channels,” Sweet expresses
his personal gratitude in
Quantum Spirituality to
channeler and veteran New
Age leader, David Spangler.
. . .  A pioneering
spokesperson for the New
Age, Spangler has written
numerous books over the
years that include
Emergence: The Rebirth of
the Sacred, Revelation: The
Birth of a New Age, and
Reimagination of the
World: A Critique of the New
Age, Science, and Popular
Culture. His book
Revelation: The Birth of a
New Age is a compilation
of channeled transmissions
he received from his
disembodied spirit-guide
“John.” At one point in
Revelation, Spangler
documents what “John”
prophesied about “the
energies of the Cosmic
Christ” and “Oneness”:

“As the energies of the
Cosmic Christ become
increasingly manifest
within the etheric life
of Earth, many
individuals will begin
to respond with the
realization that the
Christ dwells within
them. They will feel his
presence moving within
and through them and
will begin to awaken to
their heritage of
Christhood and Oneness
with God, the Beloved.”4

Unbelievably, in a
modern-day consultation that
bears more than a casual
resemblance to King Saul’s
consultation with the witch
of Endor (1 Samuel 28:7),
Leonard Sweet acknowledges
in Quantum Spirituality
that he was privately
corresponding with channeler
David Spangler.5
In Quantum Spirituality,
Sweet writes about what he
calls his “new cell”
understanding of

New Light leadership,
then closes his book by
thanking  Spangler for “his
help in formulating this
‘new cell’ understanding of
New Light Leadership.” Sweet
writes:

I am grateful to David
Spangler for his help in
formulating this “new
cell” understanding of
New Light leadership.6

---

LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS REPORT:
This coming June, Calvary
Chapel Albuquerque (a
veteran Calvary Chapel
church pastored by Skip
Heitzig) will host the

National Worship Leader
Conference in Albuquerque,
New Mexico and will feature
New Age sympathizer and
emerging church leader,
Leonard Sweet. The NWLC
event will take place in

three different U.S.
locations with Sweet
participating in two of
them.

The worship conference is
presented by Worship Leader
magazine, whose

chief editor is Chuck Fromm
(Chuck Smith, Sr.’s nephew).
On the conference website, a
banner promotion by Greg
Laurie, (another veteran
Calvary Chapel pastor) sits
in a prominent spot. Laurie
states: “In Worship Leader
magazine, you hear from the
leading thinkers, artists,
and pastors on how we can
more effectively worship
God.”7

With general promotion of
Worship Leader magazine by
someone as popular as Greg
Laurie, and with the
conference taking place at
one of the larger Calvary
Chapel churches,
undoubtedly, the event will
be accepted by many
Christians as a credible,
trustworthy conference. But
Leonard Sweet’s
involvement should cause
serious concern for
believers.

Leonard Sweet has been a
leading figure in bringing
the “new” spirituality into
the evangelical church for
more than a decade and a
half. From his book,
Quantum Spirituality
(which without question
shows his unswerving
affinity toward major New
Age leaders and the New Age
philosophy that God is IN
all things) to his audio
series,

The Tides of Change,
with Rick Warren in 1995, to
his book he co-authored with
atonement denier

Brian McLaren, A is
for Abductive: the Language
of the Emerging Church,
to a number of other books
he has written that continue
to show his New Age
propensities, Sweet has
consistently proven himself
to be a New Age
sympathizer.  And for him to
be included in a conference
at a Calvary Chapel church
(after the founder of the
movement denounced the
emerging spirituality a few
years ago) speaks volumes
about the slide into
deception that the
evangelical church is
making.

Warren Smith, in his
cutting-edge book A
“Wonderful” Deception (an
expose on Rick Warren,
Leonard Sweet, and the “new”
emerging Christianity),
wrote two strong documented
chapters specifically on the
New Age views of Leonard
Sweet. Perhaps one of the
most troubling things Smith
reveals about Sweet is
Sweet’s statement about “the
father of the New Age
movement,”8

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Sweet
calls the late panentheist Chardin
“Twentieth-century
Christianity’s major voice.”9

But Chardin does not
represent biblical
Christianity -– on the
contrary, he falls in a
spiritual camp that embraces
the “cosmic Christ,” which
is the “I AM God” in every
creature. Even though this
christ-consciousness-in-all-people
belief rejects the true
Gospel of Jesus Christ,
Sweet has openly aligned
himself with Chardin. In
Sweet’s book, Aqua Church,
he favorably quotes Chardin
arrogantly saying: “Christ
is in the Church in the same
way as the sun is before our
eyes. We see the same sun as
our fathers saw, and yet we
understand it in a much more
magnificent way.”10 Sweet’s
alignment with Chardin’s New
Age views is nothing short
of heresy.

The following quotes from
Chardin underscore his New
Age worldview and belief in
a universal New Age Christ.
He writes:

“[T]he Cross still
stands. . . .

“But this is on one
condition, and one only:
that it expand itself to
the dimensions of a new
age, and cease to
present itself to us as
primarily (or even
exclusively) the sign of
a victory over sin.”11

“A general convergence
of religions upon a
universal Christ who
fundamentally satisfies
them all: that seems to
me the only possible
conversion of the world,
and the only form in
which a religion of the
future can be
conceived.”12 

“I believe that the
Messiah whom we await,
whom we all without any
doubt await, is the
universal Christ; that
is to say, the Christ of
evolution.”13 (emphasis
added)

As the world moves further
toward major spiritual
darkness, how can Christian
leaders be so willing to
embrace those who say they
represent Christianity but
in essence are helping to
bring in a false gospel and
a false universal New Age
christ, one that will
eventually deceive the whole
world (Revelation 12:9)?  

By what is shaping up,
it appears it may not be too
long before the spirituality
of Leonard Sweet, Rick
Warren, and some Calvary
Chapel pastors will all bear
the same shade of the
new spirituality, one which
occultist

Alice Bailey said would
usher in the New Age/New
Spirituality cosmic
“Christ.” And with
the throttle pulled all the
way back on contemplative
mysticism* (the vehicle 
that will convince the
masses to embrace this
“Christ”), it’s just a
matter of time until Leonard
Sweet and Rick Warren’s
tides of change will become
a reality, and the stage
will be set for the great
falling away the Bible
speaks of: “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.” II Thessalonians
2:3

For those who may be
skeptical about what we are
saying here about the role
that mysticism will play in
this great deception,
consider the words of
Leonard Sweet:

Mysticism, once cast to
the sidelines of the
Christian tradition, is
now situated in
postmodernist culture
near the center.… In the
words of one of the
greatest theologians of
the twentieth century,
Jesuit philosopher of
religion/dogmatist Karl
Rahner, “The Christian
of tomorrow will be a
mystic, one who has
experienced something,
or he will be
nothing.”14

The question must be
asked, what is Skip Heitzig thinking
by giving Leonard Sweet a
platform at his Calvary
Chapel church? If Calvary
Chapel goes in the direction
of Leonard Sweet, Rick
Warren, and others, Calvary
Chapel could end
up embracing the same New
Age/New
Spirituality teachings of
Teilhard de Chardin, David
Spangler, and Karl Rahner.

In Warren Smith’s 10th and
11th chapters of

A “Wonderful” Deception,
Smith succinctly describes
the New Age/New Spirituality
of Leonard Sweet. We hope
you will read this vital
information (which we have
provided in the links below)
and see for yourselves the
serious predicament
the Christian church is
presently in. Let us warn
our friends, families, and
the body of Christ about
what is going on and
encourage them to “earnestly
contend for the faith which
was once delivered unto the
saints (Jude 1:3).

---

Notes:
1. David Spangler and
William Irwin Thompson,
Reimagination of the World:
A Critique of the New Age,
Science, and Popular Culture
(Sante Fe, NM: Bear &
Company Publishing, 1991),
p. 62.
2. Leonard Sweet, Quantum
Spirituality (Dayton, OH:
Whaleprints for Spirit
Venture Ministries, 1991,
1994), p. 312.
3. Ibid., ix.
4. David Spangler, The
Revelation: Birth of a New
Age (Elgin, IL: Lorian
Press, 1976 ), p. 177.
5. Leonard Sweet, Quantum
Spirituality, op. cit., p.
338, #42.
6. Ibid., p. 312.
7.

http://www.nationalworshipleaderconference.com/
8.

Mike Oppenheimer, “A NEW
Anointing-Pentecost” (Let Us
Reason Ministries, http://www.letusreason.org/Current66.htm).
9.  Leonard Sweet, Quantum
Spirituality, op. cit., p.
106.
10. Leonard Sweet, Aqua
Church, p. 39. 
11. Teilhard de Chardin,
Christianity and Evolution,
pp. 219-220.
12. Ibid., p. 130.
13. Ibid., p. 95.
14. Leonard Sweet, Quantum
Spirituality, p. 76, quoted
by Ray Yungen in A Time of
Departing, p. 160.

Related Articles:

2009 National Worship
Conference Brings
Contemplatives, Laurie, and
Sweet Together

Rick Warren’s Small Group
Conference Speaker [Sweet]
Says

Rick Warren, Leonard Sweet,
and Sweet’s “New Light”
Leaders

Chief Saddleback Apologist
Defends New Age Sympathizer
Leonard Sweet

* To understand the
spiritual formation (i.e.,
contemplative prayer)
movement and its impact on
countless Christians today,
also read Ray Yungen’s book,

A Time of Departing
(which includes sections on
Rick Warren and Leonard
Sweet).

---

Source page:

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=4240