"Jars of Clay" At Creation '97. Speakers at this year's Creation 97 "Christian " rock festival include: Tony Campolo, Greg Laurie, and Luis Palau. Music is by Michael W. Smith, Newsboys, Jars of Clay, etc. Jars of Clay, currently the most popular Christian band, has recorded for a new R-rated film that has nudity and 83 obscenities.--CC
Astrologer Jeane Dixon Dies. Psychic astrologer Jeane Dixon, famed for her predictions on the rise and fall of politicians and film stars, died last month at 79. She rightly predicted that President Kennedy would die in office, but many of her forecasts proved untrue. Dr. Noel Smith called her a medium. Alice Braemer, a former Dixon aide and travelling companion, said Oral Roberts was Dixon's friend for many years and that Billy Graham helped give her credibility. We are to "test the spirits" and warn Christians of those who dabble in the occult.--CC
Panic For New Songs. The music industry is doleful, waiting desperately for the next big sound. Teens are buying records -- alternate rock sales are up 12 percent and rap is up 36 percent -- but music bought by adults is down: Country dropped 12 percent; rhythm & blues fell 8 percent; and classical fell 10 percent. A World article (1-25) said: "Christian musicians may find new opportunities. But this will mean more than simply writing Christian lyrics to secular sounds. Those are the sounds that have become used up." CCM today follows secular trends and becomes increasingly worldly and degenerate. --CC
John Hagee Warning. John Hagee boldly denounces sin and the moral decline of our day, much like Jimmy Swaggart used to do. Two Southern Baptist leaders have warned that his "Two Covenant" teaching is heretical. Hagee became pastor of the large charismatic Cornerstone Church in San Antonio following his 1975 divorce. He is popular on Paul Crouch's TBN and received his honorary degree from Oral Roberts University. He is listed in the Charisma as a main speaker again at ORU's International Charismatic Bible Ministries Conference (June). Other speakers include: Benny Hinn, Marilyn Hickey, Oral and Richard Roberts, and Paul Crouch.--CC
WCC Down-Sizing. A story in the liberal Christian Century reported "WCC faces major structural changes." This includes the abolishing of the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches which meets every seven years and the elimination of the seven WCC presidents. Many churches have left the WCC, so this will alleviate the severe financial crunch for a while at least. But it reveals the utter failure of the WCC and ecumenical movement. The New World Order's United Religions (UR), planned to be formed in San Francisco in June, may be the ecumenical wave of the future -- networking with Catholicism, COR, New Age religions, etc. Sadly, the charismatics, new evangelicals, and Promise Keepers seem to be "bridge-building" catalysts for UR world church of Antichrist.--CC
Baptists Call Mercer President's Book Heresy. Mercer University, a Southern Baptist school in Macon, Ga., is embroiled in controversy over a new book by its president R. Kirby Godsey. Baptist Book Stores have pulled the book from their shelves. The Georgia Baptist Convention has chastised Godsey, but Mercer trustees back him. He says the Bible is not infallible, God is not omnipotent, and Jesus is not God. He says Jesus "points us to God," but that Christian faith is about "following Jesus, not worshipping Him." A former Ga. Convention president calls the book "theological pornography and Biblical heresy." O Timothy editor David Cloud, in a 7-page review of this book, says: "...in this one book Godsey denies, reinterprets, or questions practically every doctrine of the Christian faith."
GARBC's Cornerstone, Grand Rapids. Cornerstone College and Grand Rapids Seminary are GARBC-approved schools. Speakers for their Feb.17-21 Bible Conference include: Drs. Jerry Falwell, Warren Wiersbe, and Bill Rudd. Falwell's and Wiersbe's new evangelical credentials have long been established. Rudd is chairman of the GARBC's Council of Eighteen, and has promoted Promise Keepers. Amway's billionaire president Richard DeVos spoke at a luncheon hosted by Cornerstone. Amway denies having occult/New Age links as some accuse them of (based on marketing of books promoting this). Cornerstone again sponsored Project Angel Tree children (a Chuck Colson/Steven Curtis Chapman ministry) during the recent Christmas season. Dino performs at Cornerstone March 23. He for years was pianist for Kathryn Kuhlman, a divorced charismatic preacher.--CC
Barclay A Heretic and Universalist. British theologian and Scottish preacher William Barclay saw Christ as a good man adopted by God as His Son, but denied the deity and miracles of Christ and His substitutionary atonement. The Evangelical Times documented Barclay's denials from his books. It quoted him as saying: "I am a convinced universalist...." and quoted Lloyd-Jones as saying Barclay was "the most dangerous man in Christendom." Barclay said pain and suffering are not the will of God for His children, and thought such a suggestion was blasphemous. He viewed the Bible as a badly flawed document and denied its divine inspiration. Yet his books and commentaries are sold in most Christian bookstores, advertised in new evangelical papers, and he is favorably quoted by many new evangelical leaders of our day.--CC
Liberty To Feature Holyfield, Newsboys. Liberty University this spring will have heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield, a "disciple" and financial supporter of charismatic Benny Hinn, as one of its "distinguished convocation speakers." LU has also booked a concert by the Newsboys. A Charisma article said the Newsboys "speak in a language called rock 'n' roll..." and "are translating the gospel into the language of rock-n-roll for an alienated youth culture."--CC
A Two-Fold Duty. Paul the apostle in Titus 1 reminds preachers of a two-fold ministry: to encourage others by sound doctrine, and to rebuke those who oppose it. Sound doctrine must be proclaimed, but the error of opposers must be exposed. Many fundamentalists of our day increasingly seem to consider the latter duty optional. Toleration is the word. Spurgeon said: "Complicity with error will take from the best of men the power to enter any successful protest against it."--CC
Hybels To Speak For American Baptists. Rev. Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago, is a special speaker for the liberal American Baptist Church's biennial meeting June 24-27 in Indianapolis. ABC president Dr. G. Elaine Smith is also a speaker. Dr. Molly T. Marshall, formerly a controversial liberal professor at SBC's Southern Seminary in Louisville, will lead a Bible study.--CC
Abortion Expert Lied. Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers which represents some 200 independently owned abortion businesses, in a Feb.25 interview said he "lied through his teeth" when he said on Nightline that partial-birth abortions are rare and con fined to serious threats to mother and fetus. He knew at the time that thousands of such abortions are done each year, most on healthy mothers and babies. He now says telling the lies made him "physically ill." He said he lied because he feared the truth would damage the abortion rights cause. President Clinton's veto of a bill to ban partial-birth abortions, the brutal stabbing of a 90%-born baby in the birth canal, was predicated on a lie.--CC
Tobacco and Booze. Tobacco products kill over 400,000 people each year. That's more than the combined deaths due to AIDS, car accidents, alcohol, homicide, illegal drugs, suicide, and fires. Tobacco causes approximately 115,000 "spontaneous abortions" every year. If it doesn't get the fetus in the womb, it may get the baby in the crib. Maternal smoking alone is responsible for an estimated 1,200 to 2,200 deaths each year from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Meanwhile, alcohol is the leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24. They die in alcohol related car crashes, drownings, fires, homicides, and suicides.-- CC
Building Bridges: Christianity and Islam. Fouad Elias Accad, in a new NavPress book by the above title, gives many helpful hints for dialoguing with Muslims. But he starts from a false premise. He says (back cover): "Muslims and Christians worship one God," implying it is the same God. Thus in his passion to build bridges (he died in 1994) and bring the Christian and Muslim communities together, he makes dangerous concessions. He says "beware of the words evangelism, missions, and convert," and says be "careful not to quote John 3:16 unnecessarily." He asks: "Have we done our part" for the salvation of our lives? There is some good advice and insights, but read with care. We are not to build "bridges" between truth and error.--CC
Buddha In a Baptist Church? Rev. Tim McDonald has no problem allowing Buddhists to worship a different divinity in his Baptist church's annex. Konomu Utsumi, a Buddhist monk from Japan, established a small temple with a gold shrine to Buddha in the annex of First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta five years ago. McDonald said: "They worship an idol god, but that god has some of the same principles of love and compassion as our unseen God." He added: "Jesus never called Himself a Christian. That's the label we put on it." It is blasphemous to compare God to an idol.--CC
Templeton Prize Goes To Hindu New-Ager. The $1 million Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion was awarded last month to Pandurang Shastri Athavale, the founder of a spiritual movement that has reached nearly 100,000 villages in India with the message that God is greater than class or religious divisions and is present in all people. He leads a self-knowledge movement based on Hinduism's Bhagavad Gita and urges people to recognize the present of God within themselves and their neighbors, and that all persons are divine brothers and sisters in the family of God. Previous winners of this prize include Bill Bright, Billy Graham, Chuck Colson, and Mother Teresa.--CC
Mother Teresa's Successor Chosen. Catholic nun Mother Teresa, 86, is stepping down from leading the Missionaries of Charity. It has over 4,000 nuns and runs 517 orphanages, homes for poor, AIDS hospices, etc. Her successor is Sister Nirmala, a Hindu convert to Catholicism. It is feared she won't have the fundraising savvy and close ties to the Pope of Mother Teresa. Chuck Colson praises Mother Teresa, calls her a great Christian, and his sister in Christ. But others say she is a universalist who tells dying people to "pray to whatever god you feel comfortable with." O Timothy editor David Cloud has interviewed her co-workers and says she is "anything but an evangelical Christian." He says she is a self-sacrificing woman who is following a false religion.--CC
Chavis Joins Nation of Islam. Benjamin Chavis announced in Feb. that he has joined Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam and has changed his name to Chavis Muhammad. He recently served as executive director of the NAACP. Christian News for years has exposed the anti-Christian and radical views of Chavis, an immoral United Church of Christ clergyman who denied historic Christianity.--CC
Anglican Priest Says Okay to Steal from Giant Retailing Corporations. Church of England priest Rev. John Papworth suggested last month it was no sin to shoplift -- as long as the victim is a big supermarket. But the commandment, "Thou shalt not steal" is an absolute one and makes no exceptions for giant corporations that "have run little stores out of business," as Papworth says.--CC
Bill Hybels' Willow Creek Ministry. Bill Hybels has monthly meetings with President Clinton. Sword of the Lord editor Dr. Shelton Smith comments on Hybels' mega-church, seeker-sensitive ministry near Chicago: "It is one of the main sources of a philosophy of church growth which we strongly oppose. It is ministry based on giving the community what they want when they come to church, instead of setting strong, biblical standards. It is an anemic and flawed philosophy. Success must be built on the Scripture, or else we cannot be pleased with the success..." We must not violate scriptural principles to draw crowds.--CC
Fuller's Theology of Pluralism Seminar. A recent conference co-sponsored by Fuller Seminary and the American Jewish Committee focused on how evangelicals and Jews view one another and the dynamic interplay between religion and politics in a diverse America. Rabbi A. James Rudin, Harvard Divinity School dean Ronald F. Thiemann, and Fuller president Richard J. Mouw explored the possibility of developing a "theology of pluralism" within Christian and Jewish traditions. Pluralism teaches that no one religion contains all the truth for everyone everywhere. Thiemann is on the clergy roster of the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and has been a strong defender of Peter J. Gomes, the homosexual chaplain of Harvard.
35,000 Expected At YFC's DC/LA Meetings. Every three years Youth for Christ holds the DC/LA Super Conferences. This year it's DC in July, LA in June. Over 35,000 students are expected at DC/LA '97 -- the largest crowd ever. Speakers include: Josh McDowell, Ron Luce, and Buster Soaries. Music is by: Michael W. Smith, Jars of Clay, Newsboys, and Steven Curtis Chapman. The list of Christian schools involved include Fuller, Wheaton, Oral Roberts, Moody, Western (GARBC), and Christian Heritage (David Jeremiah, president).--CC
Church of Rome Now A Marxist Church? A new book by Wilson Ewin, "The Chilling Significance of Pope John Paul's Oct.22 Address," says: "The Church of Rome is now a Marxist Church. Before many, it still proclaims there is a God; before others, however, it is building a close association with global atheists." This 32-page booklet discusses evolution, the pillar of atheism, and the one world church. Send $2.50 plus postage to: Ewin Publications, P.O. Box 180, Norton, VT 05907.--CC
Mary Has Role In Salvation? Pope John Paul stated to his general audience (12-18): "Mary intensely and mysteriously unites her life with Christ's sorrowful mission: She was to become her Son's faithful co-worker for the salvation of the human race."--CC
UCC Apostasy. The United Church of Christ tolerates virtually all kinds of denials of Christian doctrines. It was the first major denomination officially to approve of the ordination of homosexuals and lesbians. It has endorsed abortion, and euthanasia and suicide in some situations. It allows its clergy to pastor Unitarian churches.--CC
SBC-SDA Ecumenical Services. A church choir from a predominately black Seventh-day Adventist church and from two predominately white Southern Baptist churches (Huntsville, AL) will "break down racial and denominational walls" that separate them to join for three performances (one in each church) of the musical cantata "Make Us One," March 22-24. The SDA is still a cult (Dr. John Whitcomb lists six reasons for classifying it as such in the March-April BDM Letter.) The article is available for $1 from: BDM, P.O. Box 679, Bedford, IN 47421. Apostasy is still rampant in the SBC.--CC