Ichabod Scoops Lighthouse Trails - LCMS & Len Sweet
September 8, 2010
Dear carol,
Dear carol,
There will be no online e-newsletter this week. However, we want to let you know about a special CrossTalk radio program that will be taking place on Thursday, September 9th between Ingrid Schlueter and Sandy Simpson (Deception in the Church ministries). Below is our posting today, announcing the program.
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LTRP Note: In relation to the article below by Ingrid Schlueter and her upcoming radio program on Thursday, September 9th on CrossTalk, it is worth noting that on the same day, Leadership Network (the launchers of the 1990s emerging church movement) is presenting an online, digital “conference” calledThe Nines featuring 100 evangelical pastors and leaders, some of whom areRick Warren, Dan Kimball, Francis Chan, Wayne Cordeiro, Andy Crouch (Christianity Today), Bill Easum, Jonathan Falwell, Miles McPherson, Larry Osborne, Ed Stetzer, Thom Rainer (LifeWay Books),and Leonard Sweet.
Thursday’s Crosstalk will be addressing the increasingly popular teachings of Leonard Sweet. Tune in live at 2pm Central or listen to the archived show later.
Leonard Sweet is making his way into otherwise conservative evangelical churches, schools, colleges and organizations by speaking on things like postmodern culture and theology or “education in the age of Google.” But why would pastors and teachers from churches and institutions that are supposedly faithful to biblical Christianity promote and listen to a panentheist and New Age teacher like Leonard Sweet? Guest Sandy Simpson will explain what Leonard believes and teaches. It’s shocking. We will also be offering Warren Smith’s excellent book, A Wonderful Deception, which contains an entire chapter on Sweet and his “Quantum Spirituality.”
(cw-Ichabod caught this Sweet item 10-9-2010 first, see:
The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is one supposedly biblical denomination that has increasingly brought Leonard Sweet in for teachers conferences, convocations and educational seminars as keynote speaker. The South Wisconsin District of the LCMS is bringing Sweet in for a full DAY seminar at Lake Country Lutheran High School. (October 9, 2010) But why? Why would those who claim to believe in the authority of Scripture and the true Gospel of Jesus Christ bring in someone who thanks occultist David Spangler for his spiritual influence? (See below.) As preparation for the broadcast, please see this excerpt below from former New Ager Warren Smith’s book chapter on Leonard Sweet and his Quantum Spirituality. It’s a warning about how hereticaloccult teachings are no longer viewed as such in many churches. Unless God’s people learn to biblically discern these things, they are easy targets for deception.
Here’s the excerpt:
Leonard Sweet, in acknowledging Willis Harman, Matthew Fox, M. Scott Peck,and the others he refers to as “New Light leaders” in [his book] 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.
Speaking of spiritual “channels,” Sweet expresses his personal gratitude in [his book] Quantum Spirituality to channeler and veteran New Age leader, David Spangler. Spangler, in attempting to cast off the negative stereotype of a New Age channeler, would now more likely describe himself as a conscious intuitive.
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 spiritguide “John.”
