Tyndale’s Unfinished Revolution

An interesting claim by this scholar. According to Seth Vitrano-Wilson over at Biblical Missiology:

Tyndale believed that the Greek word ekklesia, traditionally translated “church,” should instead be translated by a more general word, fitting its more general meaning and use in the New Testament. In his day, he chose “congregation” for this purpose. This was vehemently attacked by Catholic authorities such as Sir Thomas More, but Tyndale defended his translation of ekklesia as “congregation” rather than “church” based on how the actual Greek word functions in the New Testament: …continue reading article…

Lighting The Way International

(Reader, over the years we have watched as Dwayna Litz has brought the Good News of Christ to various places around the world. Very grateful for her work–and endurance–and for the many Christians who serve with her in this ministry.–TWLF)

From Dwayna’s Newsletter:

Some ministry updates within the last week with photos:

Nashville

Shooting in home of one of our kids in the projects of East Nashville –“Mr. Mike” continues to be out there weekly with these children and teens, teaching them Bible verses that they can say now by memory. It was so sad that the father of one of the boys shot someone in their home last week, and the little boy is obviously having trouble dealing with it all. There were not only other children in the “home” but children living in the unit next door who heard the shooting, too. Mike was out there afterwards to love him, and we pray that he will get the counseling that he needs. Thank you for being part of this very important outreach, as we could not do it without your partnership.

Sarasota

It got warmer, so we are now back out weekly in outreach to underprivileged children in our Kids’ Bible Club . The children love us, and we love them, and they are now reading a new book we have given them all to teach them Bible stories each week that they would have never known otherwise. They are continuing to memorize two-four Bible verses per week. This is a ministry that fills up our hearts as we are seeing these underprivileged kids (some coming from abusive homes) beginning to open up and gain a new confidence they never had before. They look forward to every Saturday at our Kids’ Bible Club we have begun within their trailer park, and we look forward to it, too.

The air at Siesta Key is currently so polluted with red tide that I walked one morning early last week and felt sick for the next 24 hours as a result. I found out afterwards that even the news is telling everyone to stay inside. This is a sign of the times—literally thousands of dead fish on the beach and the stench of harmful bacteria making the air unhealthy to breathe. I took a zeolite heavy-metal detox and felt better, but the table outreach there has had to remain on hold because of this. I now have an app that checks the air quality at Siesta Key before heading out because it has become that chronic of a problem.

Seal Beach, CA

Seal Beach, CA, outreach keeps going strong –with a team of 20 Christians who come to serve the Lord each week, as they are continuing to see people saved through our table outreach of apologetics, live praise and worship music, along with the hymns being sung, and Christians on the team offering prayer and tracts to anyone passing.

NYC

Lighting the Way has been awarded “Best in Manhattan” 5 years in a row now for our work in missions, as God is now using my book for women ‘Happiness No Man Required’ at Crisis Pregnancy Centers and battered women’s shelters affiliated with the Bowery Mission. We hope to set up the table outreach again this spring.

For ongoing updates, visit our ministry blog here and our “Lighting the Way Worldwide” FB page, as well as our gab.com page.

Thank you for your partnership!

Serving the Lord with you,

Dwayna

Lighting the Way

P.O. Box 15686

Sarasota, FL 34277

www.lightingthewayworldwide.org

www.ByGodsGrace.org

www.lightingtheway.blogspot.com

Hearing and Seeing: Whom you listen to matters

Mike Oppenheimer writes:

Paul spoke of the apostles as examples, “ But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness–God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others” (1 Thessalonians 2:4-6)

This is one of the ways to see if someone is genuinely serving God’s people and doing his will, or serving self. What we see all too often is the opposite today in Christianity. These popular ‘unbiblical teachers’ are liked because of how they speak, they are accepted because the listeners ignore the content, they do not examine the substance by the word in Scripture. So they are led astray because of a lack of their own watchfulness. The speaking is to the soul not the spirit, the emotions and not where one can spiritually grow. …Continue reading article…

Further Asbury “Revival” Concerns

Christians can agree that geuine revival is great thing. Revival by definition must include turning from our sins and drawing closer to the biblical Christ. The gospel must be preached.What we have seen the past few years is something far different. Call it “revivalism,” and we have all seen the auditoriums, the celebrity speakers such as Todd White, Mike Bickle, Francis Chan etc.

The Call, The Send, Azusa Now, and on and on.

It is with no joy that I ask you to read this letter to Lighthouse Trails and the accompanying information. Asbury University, as it turns out, is on the Lighthouse Trails contemplative prayer/Spiritual Formation college list. Contemplative prayer can addle and even alter one’s theology. It is foundational to the false church. This is not to say that every person there is contemplative. Of course not. That being said, there are additional facts of which you may not be aware. Nor was I.

Please read Asbury “Revival”–Letter to the Editor Raises Concerns About Possible Pre-Planned Exploits

Mike Bickle encourages people to learn teachings of Catholic mystics–“the experts on contemplative prayer”

According to IHOP founder Mike Bickle:

When I was in my 20s I was asked to pastor a church and I never officially went back to the Catholic Church, but I also don’t feel like I intentionally left it either. At the House of Prayer, I encourage people to learn the teachings of the Catholic saints, as the experts on contemplative prayer, such as Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. (Source)

Click here to continue reading…

IHOP-KC’s Mike Bickle: “There’s no biblical definition for contemplative prayer”

Years ago Bill Johnson/Bethel Redding and Mike Bickle/International House of Prayer seemed like twin juggernauts of deception. Many young people were lured into strange teachings. Bickle spread contemplative prayer like mayonnaise on a sandwich. A number of years ago Bickle and IHOP pulled back. They no longer sought to be high profile (unlike Bethel Redding). But the false teaching continued. Contemplative prayer continues to spread.

And now back to our blast from the past featured article:

The Word Like Fire

“It has been with great dismay that I have watched one Christian leader after another succumb to the appeal of contemplative spirituality,” states Ray Yungen in A Time of Departing. (pg.184)

Some, like IHOP leader Mike Bickle, have been involved with contemplative prayer for decades. During the Passionate Pursuit Conference in 2001, Bickle gave his sermon, Contemplative Prayer: Journey Into Fullness. In this teaching, he revealed a truth about contemplative prayer. He stated, “There’s no biblical definition for contemplative prayer.” [1]

Bickle is correct. There is no biblical definition whatsoever. The counterfeit church will engage in this practice wholeheartedly, will have wonderfully deceptive spiritual experiences, and will follow the false, contemplative “Christs” that come to them in the silence of this meditative state.

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many…

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What Exactly is Meditation? by Ray Yungen

[Reader, as preparation for an upcoming book review of Tyler Staton’s Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, the following is excerpted from Ray Yungen’s great book, A Time of Departing. (pg. 15-16)]

According to Ray Yungen:

The meditation most of us are familiar with involves a deep, continuous thinking about something. But New Age meditation entails just the opposite. It involves ridding oneself of all thoughts in order to still the mind by putting it in the equivalent of pause or neutral. A comparison would be that of turning a fast-moving stream into a still pond. When meditation is employed, stopping the free flow of thinking, it holds back active thought and causes a shift in consciousness. This condition is not to be confused with daydreaming, where the mind dwells on a subject. New Age meditation works as a holding mechanism until the mind becomes thoughtless, empty, and void. (pg. 15)

[Reader, Ray Yungen then proceeds to explain breathing exercises and/or the mantra as part of the meditation process.]

Ray Yungen writes:

The two most common methods used to induce the thoughtless state are breathing exercises, where attention is focused on the breath, and mantras, which are repeated words or phrases. The basic process is to focus and maintain concentration without thinking about what you are focusing on. Repetition on the focused object is what triggers the blank mind. (pg. 15)

Since mantras are central to this type of meditation, it is important to understand the proper definition of the word. The translation from Sanskrit is man, meaning to “think”, and tra, meaning “to be liberated from.”[1] (pg 15)

Thus, the word literally means to escape from thought. By repeating the mantra, either aloud or silently, the word or phrase begins to lose any meaning it once had. The conscious thinking process is gradually tuned out until an altered state of consciousness is achieved. (pg. 15-16)

Source Notes:

1. Swama Rama, Freedom From the Bondage of Karma, pg. 66

[All writing is Yungen’s except for this brief Swami Rama quote.]

For those who would like to read A Time of Departing in entirety: Online Bookstore

Alcoholics Anonymous “bible” contradicts the Word of God

Why is the visible church so weak? A primary reason is because we decided to accept an any-and-all gods religion, and now we cannot rid ourselves of it. A syncretism has taken place. Millions of Christians attend A.A.. Many churches have Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Indeed, most of us are fine with 12 Step spirituality, even if the Bible is clealy forbids this.

“And those who bow down on the housetops to the host of heaven,
And those who bow down and swear to the LORD and yet swear by Milcom.

And those who have turned back from following the LORD,
And those who have not sought the LORD or inquired of Him.” (Zephaniah 1:5-6)

The Word Like Fire

For decades this 12 Step spirituality has been seeping into the church. Not anymore–now it’s a flood. Contrast the following from the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book–the AA “bible”–with the Word of God.

Let’s start with the AA “bible”:

To us, the Realm of Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding to those who earnestly seek. (AA Big Book, We Agnostics, pg. 46)

We feel we are on the Broad Highway, walking hand in hand with the Spirit of the Universe. (AA Big Book, Into Action, pg. 75)

If our testimony helps sweep away prejudice, enables you to think honestly, encourages you to search diligently within yourself, then, if you wish, you can join us on the Broad Highway. (AA Big Book, We Agnostics, pg. 55)

The Bible is very clear about this:

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad

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Jesus, The Soul Shepherd

An incredible video by an archaeologist raised in Israel. Think of the times where the Bible speaks of our Shepherd and His sheep. As we know from the Bible, where there are sheep there are often wolves. Watch the video.

Thanks once again to Lora, our cattle woman friend.

Bethel Redding removes New Age book, “The Physics of Heaven” from online bookstore

“More damage control from Bethel…never true repentance, never stepping down from ministry – as every single leader/pastor at Bethel should do with immediate effect, never a message recanting their false teachings…just damage control, that’s what wolves do.” — Rick Becker, Famine In The Land FB