THE CONVERSION OF PROTESTANTS TO CATHOLICISM THROUGH THE EUCHARIST

THE CONVERSION OF PROTESTANTS TO CATHOLICISM THROUGH THE EUCHARIST

BY ROGER OAKLAND

SEE: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2017/newsletter20171208.htm; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

More and more Protestants are testifying they are being drawn to the Catholic Church, especially through the Eucharist. Some say they have encountered the presence of Christ in a new and exciting way. One such person is Presbyterian pastor Steven Muse. Muse is one of the contributing authors of Mary the Mother of All: Protestant Perspectives and Experiences of Medjugorje.

Madonna of Medjugorje (photo: bigstockphoto.com; used with permission)

According to Muse, his visit to Medjugorje was life changing, especially after he encountered the Eucharistic Christ. He states:

The fact remains that never before or since in my life have I had such an encounter with Christ in the Eucharist. I believe this is because I never received the bread and the wine as the Body and Blood of Christ, so what I loved in my heart and believed with my mind were never experienced as real in the here and now of my bodily presence as I encountered him again and again for the entire week. Sometimes this happened twice a day as I received Communion both in the morning at English Mass, and again in the evening at the Croatian Mass, where I did not even understand what they were saying or singing but only prayed the rosary in my own language with the others as if I had been saying “Hail Marys” all my life. What was true was that Father, Son and Holy Spirit were real. And Mary was real.1

While Muse testifies of a real encounter with Christ and then Mary while visiting Medjugorje, Protestant evangelist Benny Hinn made a prediction that Christ will be showing up on stage at his crusades. On March 29, 2000, Hinn made the following statement on his television program:

The Holy Spirit has spoken, He told me He is about to show up. Oh, I gotta tell you this just before we go. I had a word of prophecy from Ruth Heflin, you know who Ruth Heflin is? Ruth prophesied over me back in the seventies. Everything she said has happened. She just sent me a word through my wife and said: The Lord spoke to her audibly and said, that He is going to appear physically in one of our crusades in the next few months. Yeah, She … I’m telling ya she said, the Lord spoke to her audibly and said, tell Benny I’m going to appear physically on the platform in his meetings. Lord, do it in Phoenix, Arizona in the name of Jesus! And in Kenya too, Lord, please, Lord, in fact, do it in every crusade in Jesus’ name.2

For those who have followed the ministry of Benny Hinn, the previous statement should come as no great surprise. Hinn had previously claimed that Jesus materialized to him during a Catholic Mass while he was participating in Communion at a Catholic Church in Amarillo, Texas. Speaking with Paul Crouch on a Trinity Broadcasting Network “Praise the Lord Program” on December 24, 1997, Hinn described this experience:

The next thing I was feeling was actually the form of a body, the shape of a body. And my body … went totally numb.… And God really gave me a revelation that night, that when we partake communion, it’s not just communion, Paul [Crouch]. We are partaking Christ Jesus himself. He did not say, “Take, eat, this represents my body.” He said, “This is my body, broken for you…” When you partake communion, you’re partaking Christ, and that heals your body. When you partake Jesus how can you stay weak? … sick? … And so tonight, as we partake communion, we’re not partaking bread. We’re partaking what He said we would be partaking of: “This is my body.”3

While Benny Hinn would not be considered a Catholic by his followers, the previous statement indicates he has been influenced by the Catholic teaching of the Eucharistic Christ. Hinn’s ministry has had a powerful influence on people all over the world. It will be interesting to see if his acceptance of transubstantiation and the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist will become more and more apparent.
It should be noted, however, that the Catholic Church does not teach that transubstantiation occurs when a Protestant minister does a communion service. On the contrary, the official teaching is that only a Catholic priest has the power to perform this transformation of the bread and wine. So, in Benny Hinn’s case, he cannot perform the sacrament of the Eucharist even if he believes he is doing so. This places Hinn in an incredibly stalemated position, because if our position  is correct, then he is in error to believe in transubstantiation; but if he is right about transubstantiation, then he is wrong according to Catholic teaching to think he can perform it. And even if he were to become Catholic, he still could not perform the Eucharist because only the celibate can become priests.
Peter Kreeft’s Catholic Conversion
Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., a professor of philosophy at Boston College and a regular contributor to several Christian publications, is in wide demand as a speaker at conferences and is the author of over forty books dealing with spirituality, apologetics and philosophy.4 Kreeft, once a Dutch Reformed Protestant, converted to Catholicism and is considered by many to be a leader in the area of Christian apologetics, even by Protestants. One of Kreeft’s books is Ecumenical Jihad. The back cover of this book lists a number of endorsements by well-known evangelical leaders. For example:

Peter Kreeft is one of the premier apologists in America today, witty, incisive and powerful. On the front lines in today’s culture war, Kreeft is one of our most valiant intellectual warriors.5
—Chuck Colson
This racy little book opens up a far-reaching theme. With entertaining insight Kreeft looks into the attitudes, alliances and strategies that today’s state of affairs requires of believers. Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox alike need to ponder Peter Kreeft’s vision of things—preferably in discussion together. What if he is right?6—J. I. Packer

To understand Kreeft’s spiritual journey, it is helpful to examine a number of testimonial statements he made in Ecumenical Jihad.  Regarding the role that the Eucharist played in his conversion to Catholicism, he writes:

In my pilgrimage from Dutch Reformed Calvinism to Roman Catholicism, the one Catholic dogma that most drew me in was the Eucharist.7

Now, as a strong promoter of the Catholic Church, Kreeft believes the teaching of transubstantiation and the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist has potential for winning other Protestants back to the Mother of All Churches. Although he recognizes the Catholic Church’s view on the Sacrament of the Eucharist was instrumental in bringing about division between Protestants and Catholics in the past, he believes the Eucharist has the potential to now be an evangelistic tool in bringing back the separated brethren to Catholicism. As he states in his book:
No Catholic dogma is so distinctive and so apparently anti-ecumenical as the dogma of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Yet this dogma may be the greatest cause of ecumenism and eventual reunion.7
Predicting that future ecumenism will be fostered by the very factors that once brought about division, Kreeft continues:

I found that this doctrine, which seemed to repel and divide, at the same time attracted and united. The same with Mary: she—who is a point of division between Catholics and Protestants—she may bring the churches together again and heal the tears in her Son’s visible body on earth, she, the very one who seems to divide Catholics from Protestants. The most distinctive Catholic doctrines, especially those concerning the Eucharist and Mary, may prove to be the most unifying and attracting ones.9

Kreeft expresses his heartfelt concern for those Protestants who still refuse to accept the Catholic teaching of the Real Presence of Christ in a wafer. He writes:

When I think how much my Protestant brothers and sisters are missing in not having Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist; when I kneel before the Eucharist and realize I am as truly in Christ’s presence as the apostles were but that my Protestant brothers and sisters don’t know that, don’t believe that—I at first feel a terrible gap between myself and them. What a tremendous thing they are missing!10

As there is even now a move by many Protestant/evangelicals toward Catholicism and the Eucharistic adoration, Kreeft’s longing to see them enter in may be fulfilled.
There are countless other testimonies like Kreeft’s who have had an encounter with the Eucharistic Christ. The New Evangelization program presently underway is definitely showing signs of success. Numerous other testimonies could be presented that confirm a mystical addictive spiritual power that seems to be drawing people to the Eucharistic Christ.
In almost every recorded conversion account, there exists a common denominator. Each person who has converted to the Catholic Church has done so based on profound, powerful, and often gratifying experiences. These people were first drawn by a feeling that they were missing some deeper spiritual encounter, while the Eucharistic experience brought a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.
An experience-based Christianity focused on signs and wonders associated with the Eucharistic Christ is clearly influencing many Protestants and evangelicals.
Endnotes:
1. Sharon E. Cheston, Mary the Mother of All: Protestant Perspectives and Experiences of Medjugorje (Chicago, IL: Loyola University Press, 1994), section written by Steven Muse, p. 57, emphasis in the original.
2. Benny Hinn with Steve Brock, This is Your Day (700 Club Studios, Virginia Beach, VA, March 29, 2000), television broadcast.
3. Praise The Lord Show (Trinity Broadcasting Network, December 27, 1994).
4. See http://www.peterkreeft.com/about.htm.
5. Peter Kreeft, Ecumenical Jihad ( San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1996), back cover, endorsement by Chuck Colson
6. Ibid., endorsement by J. I. Packer.
7. Ibid., p. 145.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., p. 158.
10. Ibid., p. 159.
To read about more Protestant conversions to Catholicism, read Another Jesus by Roger Oakland.

LYNNE HYBELS OF WILLOW CREEK MEGA-CHURCH: MYSTICISM TAKES THE PLACE OF CHRISTIANITY~HOSTILITY AGAINST BELIEVERS WILL GROW

LYNNE HYBELS OF WILLOW CREEK MEGA-CHURCH: MYSTICISM TAKES THE PLACE OF CHRISTIANITY~HOSTILITY AGAINST BELIEVERS WILL GROW

SEE: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2017/newsletter20171208.htm; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

This week, two items on the Internet were brought to our attention, both of which may seem to be unrelated to each other but in actuality have a connection that we find to be an eerie reminder of the days in which we live.
The first item is a Tweet written earlier this week by Lynne Hybels (wife of the mega church founder of Willow Creek, Bill Hybels). The Tweet stated (posted in accordance with the US Fair Use Act):

 

Lynne Hybels (photo taken from http://www.evangelicalsforsocialaction.org/reconciliation-and-dialogue/beyond-balance-taking-sides-with-palestinian-and-israeli-peacemakers/)

As many of you may know, Lynne Hybels is part of the emergent church and someone who has proven herself to be against the nation of Israel. If someone were to ask us what are two of the main characteristics of the emerging church, we would say mysticism and an anti-Israel sentiment. It is interesting to note that Hybels says she lost the Christianity of her youth 25 years ago – that would mean she left her old Christianity around 1991, about 16 years after her husband started Willow Creek Church. What did she exchange Christianity for?—Contemplative mysticism, a spirituality that has its roots in panentheism and interspirituality. While Lynne Hybels speaks of being affected by the brokenness of the world, she doesn’t understand that the very spirituality she has embraced is actually a New Age spirituality that rejects Christ as Savior and whose “God” is not a compassionate god that cares for “the brokenness of the world.” This New Age god believes that Hitler did the Jews a favor by killing them as you can see in the quotes below taken from Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations With God:

The real issue is whether Hitler’s actions were “wrong.” Yet I have said over and over again that there is no “right” or “wrong” in the universe. A thing is not intrinsically right or wrong. A thing simply is.
Now your thought that Hitler was a monster is based on the fact that he ordered the killing of millions of people, correct? . . . Yet what if I told you that what you call “death” is the greatest thing that could happen to anyone—what then?
So the first thing you have to understand—as I’ve already explained to you—is that Hitler didn’t hurt anyone. In a sense, he didn’t inflict suffering, he ended it.
The mistakes Hitler made did no harm or damage to those whose deaths he caused. Those souls were released from their earthly bondage, like butterflies emerging from a cocoon. (These quotes are extracted from one of Warren B. Smith’s booklets where you can get the original sources.)

The New Age god also says that those who oppose this interspiritual New Age, mystical belief system are like a cancer that needs to be excised out of the Earth. The following excerpt from an article one of our editors wrote in 2015 explains:

[A] chapter in Revelation . . . says, “And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” (Revelation 18:24). May I point out once again that mysticism (or occultism) connects one with a spirit world inhabited by demons posing to be angels of light. The occultist Alice Bailey, under the influence of her spirit guides, predicted that while New Age style meditation will be promoted and propelled by the apostate Christian church, Christians who will not forsake the fundamentals of the faith will be seen as being in the way of bringing in this Age of enlightenment–an age of peace where everyone sees his or her own divinity and oneness with all things. New Age leader Barbara Marx Hubbard suggests that these resisters of the new world/new reformation will be like a cancer that needs to be excised out of the earth. She calls this elimination the “Selection Process.”1 Now I ask, what can be more hypocritical and diabolical than to think that the annihilation of godly people will bring about peace?

This brings us to the second item that was brought to our attention this week—a review written on the Lighthouse Trails Facebook page. The review was written a couple months ago, but we did not see it until this week. The review states:

From what I’ve read you [Lighthouse Trails] twist what people of faith say and believe! You also do what many others do and that is take the scriptures and make them say what you believe or want them to say to back up your presuppositions! I believe you are dangerous to the gospel and will severely weaken anyone who listens to you! When I think of you I think that freedom of speech for you and yours should be revoked for the safety of the people! I cannot bid you farewell because I believe with everything in me that you are a new disease that needs to be wiped out! Thank God you’re in America the land of the free! (Michael)

We find the connection in these two different posts (Hybels and Michael) lies in the hostility toward Christians that is represented in both. In Hybel’s Twitter post, she is trying to show a distinction between traditional Christianity (what she grew up with) and what she considers a better more advanced and compassionate belief system that she now embraces. In other words, the old Christianity had nothing to offer her and in fact, had no compassion. Our reviewer, Michael, has taken his anger toward Lighthouse Trails (representing traditional, biblical Christianity) to the point of saying we are a disease (cancer?) that should be wiped out.
If you are a Bible-believing, born again Christian, then you will understand that there has been hostility toward believers since the inception of the church. All but one of the disciples were murdered for their faith as have been countless other believers over the last two thousand years. What is it that the world hates about true Christians? What is our crime against humanity? We love the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe He died for the sins of mankind and offers salvation for those who put their trust in Him, we believe He gave us the Bible as His Word to us, and we truly care about the souls of men and where they will spend eternity. And yet, the world rejects us, and the hostility toward us will only increase. And the fast-growing use of mystical practices will expedite those hostilities because the source of those practices is against Christ and His people.
Related Information:
The Unacknowledged War and the Wearing Down of the Saints
How to Prepare for Hard Times and Persecution
Unity in an Anti-Christian World?
Brian McLaren Wants End Time Believing Christians Robustly Confronted
(2006) Purpose Driven Resisters – Must Leave or Die

LUIS PALAU'S SON TEAMS UP WITH RICHARD FOSTER'S RENOVARE

 

 

 
Luis Palau’s Son (President of the Luis Palau Association) Teams Up With Richard Foster’s Renovare 

SEE: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2017/newsletter20171208.htm; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Richard Foster’s founding contemplative organization, Renovare, has announced their upcoming (June 2018) celebration of the 40th anniversary of Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline. Kevin Palau, son of the world-wide known evangelist Luis Palau and president of the Luis Palau Association, is listed on the Renovare website as one of the speakers for the June 2018 event.
One question arises in seeing Renovare’s invitation of Palau (given the staunch stand that Renovare takes toward all things contemplative)—what is it about Palau that interests Foster and Renovare enough to include him in a big anniversary celebration of contemplative prayer? We believe it can be only one of two things: either, they want him because he resonates with them and can “enhance” their event with similar beliefs, or, they want him because including someone from a highly respected ministry will lend credibility to Renovare (after all, if people trust Luis Palau, as tens of thousands do, then they can trust his son, they reason, and therefore can trust anyone his son teams up with). And, of course, the answer to that question could be both of those elements.
Perhaps we do not know exactly why Renovare has been drawn to Kevin Palau, but we do have some facts that certainly would help explain why Kevin Palau would fit in with a Renovare conference.
 

Luis Palau (photo used in accordanc with the US Fair Use Act)

For instance, in our 2016 article titled “Dress Rehearsal for a False Revival? – Evangelical, Charismatic, Emerging Leaders, & Pope Francis Unite for ‘Together 2016’ in Washington, DC,” we pointed out that Luis Palau joined several other popular evangelical leaders at an event in Washington, DC called Together 2016 wherein Pope Francis was also one of the speakers. In 2013, in our article “Evangelical Leaders Luis Palau and Rick Warren Salute Pope Francis – What Are the Implications?,” we quoted Palau as saying, in reference to the then newly elected pope, “I think that’s the emphasis he [Pope Francis] is going to bring to the papacy: That the Gospel is primary, that we must emphasize it and especially with youth.”  Such a statement makes it clear that Luis Palau does not understand what the “Catholic” gospel is about, that it is not a gospel of biblical salvation. One journalist in our article stated: “Evangelist Luis Palau, who knows and has prayed together with Pope Francis on several occasions, called the new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics a friend of evangelicals who is respectful of all sides of Christianity.” A 2010 article titled “TRAVESTY at LIFEST – PARENTS: Don’t Send Your Kids – Radical-Emergent/Liberal Jim Wallis to Speak at Lifest (What is Luis Palau Doing There?),” shows yet another  example of Luis Palau’s sharing platforms with unbiblical figures (see article on Jim Wallis).
Pointing out these affinities and associations of Kevin Palau’s father may not tell us where Kevin P. stands, but it does show us that his father has shown poor discernment in the past, and at the very least has passed on the habit of associating with biblically unscrupulous teachers to his son.
What can show us something of Kevin Palau’s propensities is his 2015 book Unlikely. The book is riddled with the emergent ideas of “ecumenism,” “unity” and “common ground” and a  foreword written by Portland, Oregon’s emergent pastor from Imago Dei Community. Palau makes it clear in his book that his view of biblical Christianity includes the Catholic Church and that to think any other way is anti-biblical. That is, to not be ecumenical and emphasize unity and common ground is unloving and un-Christ-like.
While the evangelistic ministries of Billy Graham and Luis Palau have undoubtedly helped to lead countless people to Christ, their ecumenical view toward the Catholic Church has helped to lead to our present state where most Christians cannot even see that the Catholic view of salvation is not the biblical view of salvation, and the two cannot be reconciled (see article on the two views).
The point of this article is not to discredit any fruit Luis Palau has had in the past in bringing people to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. But rather it is to warn that an organization with a significant international platform could lead tens of thousands right into the arms of full apostasy if it is going to enjoin itself with the likes of Renovare. The contemplative prayer movement (the signature belief system of Renovare) bypasses the Cross and brings practitioners into a mystical panentheistic spirituality, and we doubt Luis Palau wants that for the legacy he leaves behind when he is gone.