"The unbeliever needs to feel the impact of the gospel (good news that Christ loves people)... One major implication is that our presentation of the gospel must adapt itself to a vastly changed target audience... God has good news for the person who needs love and affection, security or esteem... Extensive research reveals that 'people will not listen to the gospel message unless it speaks to felt needs'... Adapt your presentation to his needs..." [Joseph Aldrich, "Life-Style Evangelism" (Multnomah Press, 1981), pp. 83, 85, 88-89, 232; compare to instructions given in "How to Start and Sustain a Light-House" (Houses of Prayer Everywhere, HOPE Ministries of Mission India, Grand Rapids, MI, 1999)]
"The Bible says the Lord saves us from the pit -- the pit of despair, the pit of low self-esteem... the Bible says He redeems your life from the pit." [Luis Palau, "Hope for the Stressed Out," videotaped broadcast on WGN-TV, Chicago, 10/01/93, cited in his entry in the "Biblical Discernment Notebook" edited by Rick Miesel (http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/palau/general.htm).]
Palau, often called "the Billy Graham of South America," is Edgardo Silvoso's brother-in-law and mentor, honorary co-chairman of AD2000 & Beyond, and member of the honorary advisory committee of its US goliath, Mission America. Mission America, looking for a pragmatic strategy to save its flagging "Celebrate Jesus 2000" vision, developed the Lighthouse Movement in conjunction with AD2000 & Beyond, from Ed Silvoso's "successful" evangelization methodology.
Let's not forget that when we read the Jesus Life magazine interview with Edgardo Silvoso (http://www.jesus.org.uk/talking.html), we're reading views on world evangelization by an expert with years of experience in the mission field. We readily accept that his opinions are those of one of the architects of the Argentine revival, which we've been repeatedly told has produced great numbers of "decisions for Christ." But are these opinions consistent with the Scriptures, or even self-consistent?
After reading the first part of the Silvoso interview in our 09/25/99 newsletter, one of our correspondents, Mark Kass, writes:
"First the numbers are a sign of God working..." (Silvoso: Hector Gimenez is a former thief who came to the Lord and began to preach, and his church grew very rapidly. At one point he had 150,000 people with 13 meetings a day, seven days a week.)
"Then a sign of a problem..." (Silvoso: For eleven years I was involved in mass crusades with my brother in law, Luis Palau. I was very encouraged by them but concerned about the lack of incorporation into the church. Out of the thousands that make a decision less than 5 per cent join a church.)
"And when less than 5 percent feel compelled to join a church, what does that say about the numbers? Does the Spirit of God lead them down a different path than the one taught in scripture?"
These are good questions. Mr. Silvoso seems to have concluded that the problem is not with the numbers, but with the Church. Since "telling [the lost] they're going to hell and praying they'll go to heaven... is offensive," a Church ashamed of the gospel would be more to their liking, and aren't numbers more important than anything else for church growth and the successful evangelization of the world?
In Mr. Silvoso and his friends' theology, there just has to be a gospel (or, hey, why not, an assortment of gospels) sufficiently "contextualized" to be acceptable to everyone on the planet. With the world completely christianized and united, Mr. Silvoso and his friends will have peace and safety (plus plenty of money and clout). The best payoff is that Jesus can then come back (either the real Jesus, or, more to their liking, through a sort of incarnation into the Church's elite corps of apostles and prophets, the manifest sons of God). The Holy Spirit will lead people to true repentance and salvation despite the twisted goals of this movement, just as He always has. But perilous times lay ahead.
You may have seen the following unsigned press release, crafted in the finest Madison Avenue style, that's been spreading throughout the Internet for about the last four weeks. The copy we received was sent by Lynne, a new contributor to the Contenders discussion forum. (We hope Lynne will graciously allow us to share with you her important narrative account of her former church's involvement in the Lighthouse program in a later installment of this series.)
Dear Friend,
I have an urgent message for you today! In just one month there will be an important TV special broadcast to the entire nation that all Christians should watch.
Called "Light the Nation," the TV special will be broadcast live from Madison Square Garden on Saturday morning, October 16th. Light the Nation will be the national television event to launch Lighthouses of Prayer in thousands, possibly even millions, of homes.
Why is this so important?
It takes only a brief review of national and local news to understand that our nation is in decline in many ways. At the same time (but not by coincidence) God has brought national focus to prayer. Denominations, Christian leaders, national ministries and thousands of pastors have all embraced prayer, and more specifically Lighthouses of Prayer, as key to changing the spiritual climate in America and bringing millions more to Christ.
What is a Lighthouse of Prayer?
It's an individual or a family that commits to be a beacon of hope in their neighborhood, school or workplace. They pray for others, care for them by meeting their felt needs, and eventually share the Gospel in an appropriate and loving way. In the words of internationally recognized prayer evangelism author and speaker Rev Ed Silvoso, it's "Telling God about your neighbors BEFORE telling your neighbors about God."
It's simple and it works!
Tell your pastor about Light the Nation. It's a great opportunity for churches to gather together for two hours, listen to inspirational Lighthouse testimonies, hear motivational speakers urge unity, holiness and reconciliation, and receive valuable Lighthouse training. If you've heard about Lighthouses but didn't know quite when or how to start, now's the time!
To find out more about Light the Nation and when and how to tune in, visit www.HarvestEvan.Org and www.LighthouseMovement.com or call 1-800-898-8004.
One last thing -- PLEASE forward this message to everyone in your e-mail address book! Before we blanket the U.S. with prayer, we must blanket it with E-mail messages in order to spread the word!
God Bless You, and God Bless America!
Mark Kass writes, "It works to what end? I am trying to figure out how telling God something God already knows, while we pretend God doesn't know it, serves any function."
You might be wondering who Mark Kass is. Formerly a "spirit slayer" in the Charismatic movement, he now "earnestly contends for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." While he "was in the movement," he says, "I could have cared less about justification for anything I did. It was pragmatic. If I saw results, it was of God. [It d]idn't matter what the [S]cripture[s] said." (All quotations attributed to Kass in this article are from e-mails from him to The Contenders discussion forum.) We believe that Kass has a good grip on new paradigm thinking, having experienced it from both sides of the great divide.
As we readily saw in the last installment, Edgardo Silvoso's "prayer evangelism" is the same thing the late John Wimber called "power evangelism." But doesn't "prayer evangelism" sound so much nicer? In this dark and dying world, what Christian wouldn't want to be a "Lighthouse" to the lost?
Mark Kass continues:
"We are to pray constantly. The function of prayer is to help mold us into the will of God in our life. The Lord's prayer is the paramount example of this, and it would take a much lengthier post to exposit all of the richness that lie therein. Silvoso however, seems to believe that there is something pragmatically functional about the timing of prayer. As if the fact that you tell God about your neighbors before you witness to them will insure the success of your witnessing endeavor. My point is, that God already knows this information, and will do what He wishes with whom he wishes regardless of the timing of our prayer. This is but another example of some magical formula, that has nothing to do with the reason or function of biblical prayer."
As he often has done when confronted with new paradigm thinking, Mark has hit the nail on the head. This is an important point in understanding all projects that come out of the new paradigm, no matter how good they look on the surface. This kind of thinking is common to leading River Revivalists, World Christians, and New Apostolic Reformers.
The thought that immediately comes to mind when trying to understand this thinking is that it looks like these people are, to use Mark's phrase, ignorant of God's omniscience. More than "telling God about your neighbors before telling your neighbors about God" is intended, although the Lighthouse project does consider this a mandatory requirement, with by-the-book instructions that would make the Pope proud. This catchword seems to be, on its face, just a cute way of saying, "Pray for a person before witnessing to him." But the highly rigid Lighthouse program is really saying something very different. There are at least two points about this that are worth exploring.
The first point is that this is part of a pattern with, it seems to us, overtones that are more occultic and magickal than scriptural. This pattern is very similar to the teachings of Yonggi Cho and others who promote a pagan-Christian mixture as if it were true Christianity. We know that God always answers our prayers, but that He does so on His terms, that is to say, in His own way, according to His will, and His timetable. That is why we Christians say it does little good to pray outside His will.
This common magickal pattern presents an understanding of prayer that cannot be found in the Bible. It requires you to do things that would never otherwise occur to you, which include:
[1] Describing what you ask for in as much detail as possible.
[2] Clearly identifying the "targets" of your prayer (names and addresses are best).
[3] Placing yourself in close spatial proximity to your "targets" (prayerwalking), or using as detailed a map as possible (spiritual mapping). In a "quick list... of current extra-biblical teachings" we received in today's post, we note that some professing Christians are one-upping this by practicing "Astral Projection in order to go in the Spirit to a far away country to pray on site." [Dr. Orrel Steinkamp, "Revelation by Filling in the Blanks" (The Plumbline, April-May 1999)]
[4] Praying the exact same thing simultaneously with as many people as humanly possible. (This seems to be the new definition of intercessory prayer. The largest number claimed to date that we remember seeing is the 50,000,000 people praying in unison this month under the direction of Dr. C. Peter Wagner. New Agers call this synchronous prayer.) ["Praying Through The 10/40 Window IV: A Message From Peter Wagner" (http://www.ad2000.org/ptw4wag.htm, posted 07/21/99)]
[5] Praying in opposition to the fallen angels (it helps to identify them and command them by name), claiming specific territory (it helps to be physically there, or at least have a detailed map or 15-foot slowly spinning globe), and asking for a "window" or "gate" to be opened. (This seems to be the new definition of spiritual warfare).
[6] Praying from high places (hills, prayer towers, the roofs of tall buildings, mountains -- Yonggi Cho has his own Prayer Mountain).
[7] Praying from the geographic center (or the four corners, that is, the furthermost cardinal compass points) of municipalities, states or provinces, nations, and continents.
[8] Arranging with others to pray the same thing around the clock.
[9] Claiming the answer you want, before seeing any results.
[10] Maintaining a detailed written record of your prayers, including your neighbors' names, addresses, personal problems, "felt needs" and current belief-systems. E-mailing, faxing, or mailing a copy of this record, on a regular basis, to the World Prayer Center in Colorado Springs, or, when all 120 global World Prayer Centers are up and running, to your assigned Center. The Centers will be operated by Apostles-in-residence.
I would further point out that, if you join a Lighthouse program, you agree to "tell God about your neighbors" for three months to fifteen weeks "before telling your neighbors about God," although affiliated Lighthouses (that's you) are to continue prayerwalking and sending in those detailed reports mentioned above. (You can buy a pocket journal to use while prayerwalking.) Linda has accessed various sets of Lighthouse instructions that warn participants, once you finally reach the point of "telling your neighbors about God," not to use certain words -- words like gospel, born-again, saved, sin, conviction, or salvation! The Lighthouse handbook cited above suggests (after 15 weeks) only that you invite your neighbors "to events like worship services, crusades, Promise Keepers meetings, and Women's Club luncheons, where they will hear the gospel."
Crusades? Promise Keepers? Women's Club luncheons? Does this sound like an improvement over pre-Lighthouse methods of sharing your faith?
The second point is more speculative. Perhaps it has already occurred to you. None of the ten "prayer" techniques listed above seem like they would be of the slightest use to our omniscient God. He knows our hearts, our innermost thoughts, and everything else to boot. I don't need to drive by the fortunetellers in my town to pray for them. You don't need to walk through your neighborhood to pray for your neighbors. We don't need a detailed map to pray for the unsaved people of the world. God is not hearing-impaired.
The Catholic friends David went to high school with were taught to cross themselves when passing by the local synagogue. I don't think that we need to draw the obvious parallels with pagan religions, various formulations of magick, and New Age rituals. Readers should already have noted these parallels.
The Bible does not tell us that Satan can read our minds, although, if we fail to resist him with the whole armor of God, he can influence our thinking. He is neither omniscient nor omnipresent, but the god of this world (he is "of" it, but does not own it) has a large, but finite, army of fallen angels loyal to him. The overall pattern of prayer techniques listed above seems designed to make it possible for him to access an almost infinite amount of information about people, their felt-needs, and their current belief-systems.
Since answered prayer of the Cho or "word-faith" variety, and signs 'n' wonders of the "revival" variety, are insufficient, in the absence of true repentance, to bring people to salvation, the evil one should be eager to provide both types of manifestations, given the right set of circumstances. We imagine he is quite amused and pleased that so many professing Christians are inadvertently willing to help him create just the set of circumstances he wants.
Combine this with the World Christian Movement concepts of "corporate salvation" and "world evangelization" (as opposed to individual salvation, which they have for many years belittled as inefficient "extraction" evangelism), and you begin to see a deadly combination of church growth techniques at work.
True repentance and true faith are gifts of God, and all we bring to the salvation "exchange" is our desperate need, the need that makes itself plain to us when we truly encounter God and despise our sin-nature. Our part as Christians in evangelism really boils down, as David McAllister, the outspoken "Belfast Berean" (http://come.to/thebelfastberean) so rightly points out, not to gimmicks and tricks designed to "get decisions" that may be meaningless, but this: "to win someone to the true Jesus Christ we need only the scriptures to preach the gospel!" [E-mail to The Contenders 10/02/99, on file.]
Prayer, evangelism, missions -- don't most of us feel we are not doing as much of these three as we could be? Aren't we a little afraid to question any new program that comes along claiming to encourage more and more-effective prayer, more and more-effective evangelism, more and more-effective missions? A little hesitant to scratch the surface, to examine the new program in the light of God's word, to test everything with the scriptures as our guide? A little wary lest we miss what might just be a new move of the Holy Spirit?
Isn't this the best place for Satan to try to pull the wool over our eyes? (If you don't believe that Satan places snares in our paths, please give us a better explanation for the existence of Pokemon and the Harry Potter novels.)
The written Word tells us who our battle is really against:
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12).
But it also tells us how we are to conduct that battle:
"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil... Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (Eph. 6:11, Jam. 4:7).
Should we just toss our Bibles and throw in our lot with the River Revivalists, the World Christians, and the New Apostolic Reformers? What's that, you say? This is not the River Revival, not the World Christian Movement, not the New Apostolic Reformation -- this is the Lighthouse Movement! It's not a program, it's a grass-roots movement to win America and the world for Christ!
If that is what you believe, haven't they done their job well?
We don't expect you to make up your mind now, but we think we've raised a few valid questions. We need to examine the source of this project, review its methodology in light of the scriptures (noting also how they twist those scriptures), and consider what its underlying agenda will spread throughout the church.
Subject: RES IPSA LOQUITUR ("The Thing Speaks for Itself")
From: Constance E. Cumbey
Date: Mon, Oct 4, 1999, 8:41 PM
Dear Gang and Correspondents:
I had an inquiry last week on The Lighthouse Movement. I have done considerable research of my own since then and am convinced it is a "point of light" designed to give a warm welcome to the antichrist. It is interesting to read about it from a Moonie's perspective. Therefore, visit the following web site.* I have copied its content to this emailing as well.
Sincerely in Jesus the one and only Christ,
CONSTANCE E. CUMBEY
Attorney at Law
[*"Pandora's Box" will be continued in the next issue of Delusion & Apostasy Watch News.]
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David and Linda Liben
Delusion & Apostasy Watch News
"Let no man deceive you by any means:
for that day will not come, except there
come a falling away first..." 2 Thes. 2:3NEXT