TBN'S 'SPECIAL CATHOLIC PROGRAMS'—Paul Crouch is head of
Trinity
Broadcasting Network. His 2/95 Praise the Lord paper said: "Not
long ago, Paul [and two TBN staffers] had the joy of actually meeting
the
Pope. Pope John Paul II can now see many of the TBN programs, which
also
includes some of the special Catholic programs and guests....The body
of
Christ is coming together as we all move closer to Jesus!" But is it
"closer
to Jesus", or closer to Rome? Crouch is quoted in the Spring '94 Witness
Inc. News as saying: "I just, sometimes I wonder if the whole study
of theology isn't a waste of time."
SANDI PATTY REMARRIES, ADMITS ADULTERY—Popular CCM singer
Sandi Patty remarried in August after a controversial divorce in 1993.
She (age 39) married Don Peslis, a 34-year-old divorced fitness
instructor
who was once a member of a vocal group which toured with her (9/11 C.
Today). She admitted to having an extramarital relationship with
him
during her marriage to John Helvering and that a pattern of dishonesty
about it had emerged. The Gospel Music Association for 11 consecutive
years
named her its Female Vocalist of the Year. She has sung at Billy Graham
crusades and on The Tonight Show. Helvering plans to remarry
later
this year. Patty seeks sole custody of their four children.
IS DEATH PENALTY 'STATE-SANCTIONED MURDER'?—Liberal clergy
and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops have taken a strong
stand
against the death penalty. But Haven Bradford Gow, in the 9/11 Christian
News says: "If, as the foes of capital punishment insist, capital
punishment
is state-sanctioned murder, then state imprisonment of rapists, child
molesters,
drug dealers, burglars and murderers is state-sanctioned kidnapping and
state taxation on consumer goods is state-sanctioned theft...."
G-C WOMAN PASTOR DEFINES BEST/WORST WITNESS—Rev. Donna
Hailson
recently pastored a church in New Hampshire and is currently completing
her Ph.D. at Stirling University in Scotland. She is one of four
Gordon-Conwell
Seminary alumni/ae pastors who debate the church's mandate for
evangelism
in G-C's Winter '95 Contact. She is quoted thusly: "...The best witness
for Christianity is a loving, faithful Christian, and the worst witness
for Christianity is a narrow, fundamental Christian...." [Perhaps one
that
would say a pastor is to be the husband of one wife?] Dr. Robert E.
Cooley,
a Pentecostal, succeeded Harold Ockenga as president of Gordon-Conwell
in 1981. Dr. Billy Graham is chairman of G-C's board of trustees.
Liberals
and radicals are featured as speakers.
THE PC BIBLE—The folks at Oxford University Press have
rewritten
the New Testament and the Psalms to "purge them of their sexism, racism
and social insensitivity." (9/17 HT). In this politically correct
"Bible,"
the Father and Son become the Parent and Child. The "Lord's Prayer"
starts:
"Father-Mother, hallowed be your name, may your dominion come." The
9/11
Christian News says: "Also on the way this publishing season are
a Bible written at a third-grade reading level for those for whom
English
is a second language, a senior's Bible, a Bible for women and a Bible
for
parents."
SHIRLEY DOBSON'S ECUMENICAL 'DAY OF PRAYER'—Shirley (Mrs.
James) Dobson is chairman of the National Day of Prayer. Over 1,000
attended
the Washington May 4 symbolic observance. Dobson said: "Following Rabbi
Yechiel Eckstein's traditional Jewish call to prayer, the day featured
extended times of petition and challenges from Dr. D. James Kennedy
[and
others]." Kennedy, Rabbi Joshua Habermann, and Father Paul D. Lee were
liasons for this ecumenical event.
THREE-WAY CONTEST FOR POWER IN NEW WORLD ORDER—Catholic
author
Malachi Martin in his The Keys of This Blood book
reveals
the "Struggle for World Dominion Between Pope John Paul II and Mikhail
Gorbachev." In three other books he has traced the steps by which the
Church
of Rome has been infiltrated by Marxism over the past 65 years. Martin
shows how Communism now controls the Vatican and is ready to present it
as the religious wing of its World Order; and how Marxism, through the
Vatican, is involved in multiple pressure tactics to bring Israel "into
global line." Wilson Ewin (our source for the above), after Israel's
plea
to Pope John Paul II and the Vatican for help in solving the Middle
East
crisis, has written a manuscript to warn Jewish people. You may get
this
from him at: PO Box 180, Norton, VT 05907. Martin's book also reveals
the
Vatican's role in the collapse of the Iron Curtain, and Pope John Paul
II's far-reaching assessment of the three-way struggle now unfolding
among
the global powers--the Soviets, the West, and the Pope's universal
Roman
Church--a winner-take-all race to control the first one-world
government.
10,000 PRIESTS HOMOSEXUALS?—Various surveys show that some
10,000 Roman Catholic priests in the U.S. may be homosexuals (9/11 Chr.News).
Some bishops say that 40 percent of U.S. priests may be homosexually
active.
Up to 3,000 may be pedophiles. There are about 57,000 priests in the
U.S.
A 25-year study estimated that up to half do not uphold their vows of
celibacy.
ED DOBSON SENIOR EDITOR OF CHRISTIANITY TODAY—Former
Falwell
associate Dr. Edward G. Dobson is Senior Pastor of Calvary Church in
Grand
Rapids, Mich., a megachurch founded in 1929 by Dr. M. R. DeHaan (who
also
founded Radio Bible Class). We now see Dobson listed as a "Senior
Editor"
of the mainline new-evangelical Christianity Today magazine.
Billy
Graham is Chairman of the Board. Roman Catholics and liberal denom
leaders
are Advisory Editors. Dobson (and Falwell) over a decade ago called for
Fundamentalists and [New] Evangelicals to unite. Dobson said those who
declare "the Papacy is of anti-Christ" are "extremists". In a 1993
book,
Dobson says he uses rock music in his church, and says rock is "the
musical
style that I love and listen to." (See 4/15/94 CC). His church hosted
the
1988 IFCA convention, and he was named 1993 "Pastor of the Year" by
Moody
Bible Institute.
EVANGELICALS NOW LESS CONCERNED FOR DOCTRINE—In the August
14 Christianity Today, Managing Editor Michael G. Maudlin said: "As a
movement,
[evangelicals] are in a new place. God has blessed us with many
churches,
colleges, seminaries, publishing houses, and ministries. Pre-serving
the
fundamental doctrines of the faith is no longer the anxious concern it
was a generation ago; now the issue is maturing along with our
success..."
Billy Graham is founder and chairman of the board of Christianity
Today,
the mainline new-evangelical magazine. Ed Dobson is a new Senior Editor
of CT. MBI-President Joseph Stowell and Warren Wiersbe are listed with
Roman Catholics and liberal denom leaders as "Advisory Editors" of CT.
Wiersbe was the featured speaker for the GARBC's 6/95 annual meeting,
and
earlier this year joined the staff of GARBC-related Grand Rapids
Seminary.
CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTIONISM, DOMINION THEOLOGY—Reconstructionists
believe that Christians are mandated by God to bring all social and
political
institutions under the authority of God's law, to secure dominion over
the world, thus setting up the kingdom of God on earth in readiness for
Christ's return.[Pastor Tom Coffman's 5-page analysis in the 9/95 OBF Visitor
is our source for this article- 10 copies $3, 3865 N. High St.,
Columbus,
OH 43214]. Under reconstructionism, the death sentence would apply to
murder,
striking/cursing parents, unchastity, homosexuality, rape, apostasy,
idolatry,
unfulfilled prophesying, disobedience of a court order, and a host of
other
offenses. Reconstructionist Gary North advocates biblical
stone-throwing
as the divinely instituted method of execution. But in John 8, our Lord
does not want the woman taken in adultery to be stoned to death.
Neither
does Paul advocate stoning for the Corinthian sinner (1 Cor. 5). Some
laws
applied only to the nation of Israel. The moral laws are our
"schoolmaster,"
but where in the New Testament do we find the death sentence upheld for
a rebellious son, a homosexual or a medium?
ACCC MEETS THIS MONTH—The 54th Annual Convention of the
American
Council of Christian Churches will be held in St. Louis (Overland),
Mo.,
Oct. 24-26. Speakers include ACCC Exec. Sec'y Dr. Ralph Colas, Pres.
Dr.
E. Allen Griffith, V-P Dr. Richard Harris, WCBC Chairman Dr. Jim
Fields,
Clearwater Christian College President Dr. George Youstra, Dr. Robert
Mayer,
and Dr. Robert Anderson. Also on the agenda is a panel discussion of
Promise
Keepers and other current issues of our day. Dr. Russ Carnagey
(Lackland
Road Bapt. Church) is host pastor. For more info, call Debbie Racz or
Dr.
Colas at 610/566-8154.
CATHOLIC CHARISMATICS—Missions researcher David Barrett
says
the Pentecostal/charismatic movement adds 54,800 adherents a day. It
comprises
25% of the world's Christians, 460 million people, including 100
million
Catholic charismatics (9/95 Berean Call). About half of the
participants
at the recent Congress on the Holy Spirit and World Evangelization in
Orlando
were Catholics. Speakers included a Catholic priest, Benny Hinn, Jack
Hayford,
Pat Robertson and Paul Crouch. Hayford said relationships can form
without
a "meltdown of ideologies," and that the Holy Spirit can blend and bond
without sacrificing uniqueness and individuality. The charismatic
movement
is an ecumenical vehicle for building the anti-Christ one-world church.
BIBLICAL INTOLERANCE—All false teaching is to be hated,
exposed,
and opposed. Our Lord denounced evil and engaged in very negative
name-calling
regarding false teachers (see Matt. 23). Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said
(4/95
Aust. Beacon): "There can be little doubt that the Church is as she is
today because we do not follow New Testament teaching and its
exhortations,
and confine ourselves to the positive and the so-called 'simple
Gospel,'
and fail to stress the negatives and the criticisms. The result is that
people do not recognize error when they meet it...[and] often help
propagate
false teaching because they see nothing wrong in it...."
BARNHOUSE & S.D.A.—Donald Grey Barnhouse pastored
Tenth
Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, for over three decades. He was an
outstanding
orator and author. But in typical new-evangelical fashion, he
compromised
with liberals in his later years. He called neo-orthodox Karl Barth
"perhaps
the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century." (9/30/83
Bib. Ev.). Barnhouse and charismatic Walter Martin
entered
into "sweet fellowship," as they put it, with leaders of Seventh-Day
Adventism.
Miles Stanford lists some SDA heresies: 1) The Sanctuary-investigative
judgment; 2) Christ's assumption of a sinful nature; 3)
Sabbath-keeping;
4) OT dietary restrictions; 5) Partial atonement at Calvary; 6)
Conditional
immortality; 7) Soul sleep; and 8) Annihilation of the lost.
MODERN 'CHURCHES'—The No. Heartland Community Church in
Platte
Woods, Mo. "is...for people who think they don't like church. [It has]
no hymns, no Scripture readings and no chance this would be mistaken
for
a traditional Sunday service." *** Donald G. Barnhouse's Tenth
Presbyterian
Church in Philadelphia, now pastored by James M. Boice, is using
disarming
ads "to attract professionals". One ad said: "Jesus Hated Church, Too.
It's boring. The people are phony. The politics are less than
righteous.
Jesus hated the same things. But he never used it as an excuse not to
worship.
Maybe he knew something you don't. Find out this Sunday." Eph. 5:25
says
Jesus LOVED the church and died for it. How can a so-called evangelical
church use such irreverent nonsense, even if with good intentions?
CHRISTIAN NEWS STILL A BARGAIN—It is a 24-page
weekly
(exc. Aug.) independent Lutheran paper, chock-full of news. It is one
of
this editor's main information sources for news about Promise Keepers,
Catholicism, and other current topics. The editor is Herman Otten. At
$25/yr.,
even if you only read or agree with half the material, it is still a
bargain
for those who wish to stay informed. A huge Chr. News Encyclopedia
of past articles is also available. The address: 3277 Boeuf Lutheran
Road,
New Haven, MO 63068.
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