BOBGAN'S 'COMPETENT TO MINISTER' BOOK—Psychological counseling with its underlying psychologies is still one of the most subtle and dangerous deceptions in the church today. Any person who can be used by the Holy Spirit to lead another to salvation or along the way of sanctification is competent to be used by God to give wise counsel without needing specialized counseling training. God and His Word provide all that is necessary for life and godliness. Counseling centers charge for counseling ("fee for service")--no payment means no counseling. Recycling or modifying bankrupt systems of ungodly and unscientific theories and therapies will not make them biblical. In view of how many Christians have placed their faith in psychology, we ask, "What did the church do for almost 2000 years without the psychological counseling movement?" [The above is from Martin & Deidre Bobgan's new 252-page book, Competent To Minister: The Biblical Care of Souls. Order from: PsychoHeresy Awareness Ministries, 4137 Primavera Rd., Santa Barbara, CA 93110, $11.99 postpaid. Request free newsletter.]

GREEDY VOTERS DANGER TO DEMOCRACY—A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that the democracy collapses over loose fiscal policy...always followed by a dictatorship. [Alexis de Tocqueville, 5/27 N.Amer.]

CREATIONISM IS BASED ON SOUND SCIENCE—Macro-evolution is the issue, and for this there is no proof whatever, or even any good evidence that can't be better explained in terms of the creation model. No true evolution has ever been observed during human history, there are no true transitional structures in the billions of fossil remains from the past, and vertically upward macro-evolution seems flatly impossible in terms of the universal...second law of thermodynamics. Furthermore, these very phenomena are actual "predictions" from the creation model. It seems that creationism is the system that is based on sound science while evolutionism relies solely on faith.[11/96 Acts & Facts]

PLANNED PARENTHOOD: 'PRO-CHOICE' MEANS ABORTION—Planned Parenthood operates abortion clinics which bring death to well over 100,000 babies each year. It is the largest single provider of abortion services in the U.S. (11/4 C.News) Their ads say they are "pro-choice" but the reality is that of all pregnant women who go to Planned Parenthood, 90 percent get an abortion.

POPE EMBRACES EVOLUTION—Pope John Paul II now has indicated from Rome that there may be some basis for evolution. He calls it "compatible with faith, and says "we may descend from monkeys." (11/4 Chr.News). This leaves the door open wide for anti-Christian morality. Cal Thomas says the pope has caught up with the times and has accepted a philosophy that is at the core of communism. If the Bible is wrong on creation, can we trust it on other doctrines?

QUEER HAPPENINGS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES—Propaganda on the "gay" and lesbian lifestyle is being forced on college students on some campuses. Students are forced to watch homosexual pornography in class, and housed in a dormitory where rooms are set aside for homosexuals to gather (11/11 New Amer). A 9/96 Campus Crusade alert letter said: "In the classroom, students are taught and graded by professors who tell them that lesbians make the best parents, that marriage is rape, and dating is prostitution. Professors call this area, 'Queer Studies'." With now over 46 programs in "gay" and lesbian studies, activists claim they will have them in every major university by the decade's end.

SAME-SEX 'MARRIAGES' ON ABC-TV—ABC-TV's "Turning Point" for Nov. 7 featured homosexual hugs, kisses on the mouth, "weddings", and favorable interviews for this hour-long show. We called our local ABC affiliate's manager and told him we were deeply offended by the generally favorable presentation of the perverted lifestyle [sin] of homosexuality. He immediately agreed with us and promised to lodge a protest with ABC in N.Y. To the degree that homosexuality is accepted as "normal" in and by our society, Christians will become rejected as "abnormal".

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER—Another ecumenical day of prayer is set for May 1,1997. Shirley (Mrs. James) Dobson is chairman; Pat Boone and Vonette (Mrs. Bill) Bright are co-chairmen; Charles Colson and E. V. Hill are Advisory committee members; Rabbi Joshua Haberman, Dr. D. James Kennedy, and "Father" Robert Sirico are liaisons. Speakers and prayer leaders at the 1996 NDP included: Hill, Colson, Boone, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, William Cardinal Keeler, and Gary Bauer.

IS FALWELL A SOUTHERN BAPTIST?—Southern Baptist papers say he is, but he sort of says he's not. He was apparently unaware that contributions to Virginia SBC conservatives would make his church eligible to send delegates to the SBC. In a press release, he now says he has no interest in these and other SBC "privileges." The SBC has no official "membership" available to any church, but contributing churches are considered to be in "friendly cooperation" with the SBC. Falwell plans to keep contributing. Virginia SBC conservatives say that 50 percent of contributions to them goes to the Southern Baptist Convention. The Indiana SBC paper, in an article headlined "Falwell Joins Ranks With SBC," says: "Jerry Falwell has confirmed that a monthly financial contribution to [Virginia state convention conservatives], has, in essence, made him a Southern Baptist." The Calif. Southern Baptist paper quotes Falwell as saying "we fully intend to take our permanent stand with the national and Virginia Bible-believing conservatives..." The Falwell release said Thomas Road Baptist Church will continue to be independent and autonomous, and: "If contributing to Bible-believing churches and their Great Commission initiatives means TRBC is in voluntary cooperation with the BBF, the SBC or any other entity, then we proudly accept that status."

SBC UPDATE—Houston pastor Dan Vestal succeeds Cecil Sherman as coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the moderate/liberal SBC-breakaway faction. *** SBC Home Mission Board president Larry Lewis is resigning and will work with Mission America's "Celebrate Jesus 2000" evangelism effort headed by Paul Cedar. *** Senior associate pastor Dwight "Ike" Reighard has resigned from Charles Stanley's First Baptist Church, Atlanta, claiming he was promised a vote to promote him as copastor.

ECUMENICAL SPIRIT OF GRAHAM, VAN IMPE, FALWELL—O Timothy Editor David Cloud says: "The last-days ecumenical spirit is like a broad river running swiftly toward Rome....Consider Billy Graham, who once preached the Word of God boldly, and stood against Romanism and Communism and Modernism and other isms which are leading men to eternal Hell, but today he is an ecumenical pacifist who seeks the Pope's counsel and turns converts over to the Roman Catholic Church. Consider Jack Van Impe, who once preached boldly against sin and error and apostasy, but today he publishes videos praising the Pope and describing him as a hero of the faith. Consider Jerry Falwell, who once was a bold preacher of the Word of God, a separatist, a Fundamental Bible-believing Baptist, but today he yokes together with the most radical charismatics and with Romanists and with others who disobey the Word of God and who lead souls astray with their false teaching."

BILL HYBELS & WILLOW CREEK—From the seeds of a high-school ministry, Bill Hybels birthed a mega-church and the seeker-sensitive movement. To deepen the faith of his Willow Creek Community Church's baby boomers, he brought in John Ortberg, a psychologist, church planter, writer, Fuller Seminary board member, and disciple of contemplative spirituality.(11/11 CT) Dieter Zander, using rock hymns, is bringing "baby busters" to the church. Hybels is again on the faculty of liberal Robert Schuller's Institute for Successful Church Leadership. The 10/96 directory of the Willow Creek Association lists over 1500 churches, many of which are linked with liberal denoms, and some with cults.

CEF & CHARISMATICS—In response to a charge that Child Evangelism Fellowship has been infiltrated by charismatics, etc., a CEF leader said: "CEF's published position on the charismatic movement [in its policy publication, "CEF Inc. and the Charismatic Movement"] is one of the strongest of any national Bible believing ministry." We think it's one of the weakest! It only proscribes tongues-speaking. It says nothing about the "signs and wonders" movement, being "slain in the spirit," healing, exorcism, extra-biblical revelations ("prophecies"), or other prominent characteristics of the modern-day Charismatic Movement. The 11/11 Christianity Today says "speaking in tongues has gradually diminished in importance in many larger Pentecostal churches", and says leading spokespersons hardly mention it at all. If CEF is non-charismatic, just stating opposition to tongues-speaking is hardly any PROOF at all.

CHARISMATIC PHILOSOPHY—Dr. M. H. Reynolds (Foundation) says: "...Charismatic leaders not only refuse to warn believers about the false gospel still being preached by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, but they advocate full cooperation with these abominable false churches. Likewise, there is no warning at all about the apostate ecumenical movement but rather a willingness to join it. God's Word commands that walls be built to separate truth from error, but the charismatic philosophy teaches that bridges must be built between the two..."

WOMEN PASTORS IN SBC PULPITS IS 'HERESY'—All six Southern Baptist seminaries accept, train and graduate women. The SBC admits women to its seminaries and recognizes their ordinations, but it opposes women as senior congregational pastors (10/20 HT). It has hundreds of women clergy, but less than 50 are senior pastors. Midwestern Seminary president Mark Coppenger says appointing women to lead congregations is one of the "raging heresies and confusions of the day." Billy Graham's daughter Anne Graham Lotz is regularly invited to preach at seminaries, pastor's conferences, and universities across the U.S. and over the world (O Timothy).

PINNOCK BRIDGES PENTECOSTAL-EVANGELICAL GAP—A reviewer of Clark Pinnock's new book, FLAME OF LOVE: A Theology of the Holy Spirit, says Pinnock extends the category of divine revelation beyond the bounds of the written Word (11/11 Chr.Today). Pinnock says: "Revelation is not a closed system of propositional truths but a divine self-disclosure that continues to open up and challenge." Pentecostal reviewer & Bethel College Prof. Roger Olson, says Pinnock fails to include tongues-speaking among gifts the church needs to recover: prophecy, healing, and exorcism. "...Pinnock denies universalism and affirms the uniqueness and finality of Jesus Christ [but] it seems at times that he desperately wishes God be an equal opportunity savior." Olson says only wishful thinking can lead Pinnock to claim that "God is a serious lover who does not allow persons to perish without any opportunity to respond to his love."

FUNDAMENTALISM is distinguished by that Scriptural spirit of jealousy for God which finds its greatest expression in the militant defense of the faith through the consistent exposure of and separation from any contrary spirit.... Its distinctive practice is its refusal of any form of fellowship to the professing believer who walks in a pattern of Scriptural disobedience. (Bob Dalton, 11/1 Bapt. Vision).

WARNING TO FUNDAMENTALISTS—There is a movement among fundamentalists to redefine fundamentalism in order to accommodate neo-evangelicals and liberals. Their writings are not written for the average believer, but are so worded as to appeal to the so-called intellectuals. This has the appearance of intellectualism. The next step is to compromise truth to gain recognition by neo-evangelicals and liberals. Therefore, it becomes easier to compromise the faith. To aspire to be recognized as an intellectual is missing the mark as a servant of Christ. Scholarship does not grant authority to anyone to compromise or change the fundamentals of the faith. A lack of scholarship does not qualify one to be a fundamentalist, but intellectualism is a curse to the ministry of fundamentalists. [Dr. James B. Williams]

ROME'S PERSECUTION OF JEWS—Wilson Ewin has ministered to Catholics for 46 years, and has written books/booklets warning of Rome's role in ecumenism, the new world order, etc. A recent work reveals Jewish evangelism's failure to expose Rome as a deadly cult and fraud it really is. He says Catholicism has persecuted and massacred Jews for the past 1000 years. Write: Ewin Publications, P.O. Box 180, Norton, VT 05907.

MODERN MOVEMENTS—George Zeller has a very helpful newly-revised 28-page booklet which surveys/defines about 28 modern trends and positions. Order from: Middletown Bible Church, 349 East St., Middletown, CT 06457, $1 postpaid.

SAY NO TO TOLERATION AND COMPROMISE—"There is a toleration which is treachery. There is a peace which issues in paralysis. There are hours when the Church must say NO to those who should ask communion with her, in the doing of her work, upon the basis of compromise. Such standing aloof may produce ostracism and persecution; but it will maintain power and influence....The reason why men do not look to the Church today is that she has destroyed her own influence by compromise." (G. Campbell Morgan).

MacARTHUR & IFCA—The Independent Fundamental Churches of America promotes John MacArthur in its Voice magazine, and held its 1990 convention at his church. He has signed the IFCA doctrinal statement that says Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God even though he believes Christ's Sonship began at His incarnation (see 11/15/95 CC). MacArthur speaks on Southern Baptist and other new-evangelical platforms.

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