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CHAPTER
ONE
THE
PROBLEM TODAY
Table
of Contents
I. Proof of Corruption.............................. 4
A. The Gospel Persecuted,
Misconduct Rewarded... 4
B. Unionism with ELCA.......................... 4
C. Church Growth Movement....................... 5
D. Denial of the Efficacy of the Word.......... 5
1. Pietism, Enthusiasm, Revivalism........ 5
2. Hidden Doctrines in Neutral Methods....
6
E. Results of Denying the
Efficacy of the Word.. 6
1. Gadarene Swine.........................
6
2.
Clergy Sex Offenders.................... 8
II. Lutherans Have Gone
A-Whoring with the Reformed, Again........................................... 8
A. McGavran and Fuller Seminary................ 8
B. C. Peter Wagner, Pentecostal Faith Healer... 10
C. WELS Sneaks in Fuller and
McGavran Slowly.... 11
D. Ocsar Naumann Promotes TELL.................. 11
E. Valleskey "Spoils the
Egyptians"............. 12
III. Where It Started............................... 12
A. Fuller Seminary.............................. 12
B. Harold Ockenga............................... 13
C. Fuller Attacks Biblical
Inerrancy............ 13
D. Fuller Attacks Salvation
through Christ...... 14
E. Fuller Attacks Pauline
Authorship............ 14
F. Fuller and Pentecostalism.................... 15
1.
C. Peter Wagner.........................
15
2.
John Wimber.............................
15
G. Fuller, Cho, and the
Occult.................. 16
1.
Results of Denying the Means of Grace...
16
2.
No Authority Left to Judge the Spirits..
16
3.
Cho and the Occult......................
16
4.
Cho and Robert Schuller.................
18
5.
Schuller, Napoleon Hill, and the Occult.
19
IV. Fuller and Conservative
Lutherans............... 21
A. "Mark and Avoid"
Becomes "Register and Attend"
21
B. Lawrence Olson Brags about
His Alma Mater.... 21
C. Fuller and WELS.............................. 22
D. Fuller and the Missouri
Synod................ 22
1.
Waldo Werning, Fuller Student...........
22
2.
Kent Hunter, D. Min. (Fuller)...........
24
3.
Stephen Wagner, D. Min. (Fuller)........
25
4.
Elmer Matthias, D. Min (Fuller).........
26
5.
Roger Leenerts..........................
26
E. Selling Pentecostal Books
in
The Northwestern Lutheran............
27
V. False Doctrines from Fuller,
Endorsed by WELS, ELCA, and the LCMS....................................
28
A. Church Growth Defined........................ 28
B. False Doctrine: Conversion through the Word. 29
C. False Doctrine: Management by Objective..... 31
1.
Luther versus MBO and SMART Goals.......
32
2.
Doubt in the Word.......................
34
D. False Doctrine: Church Growth Eyes.......... 34
1.
Luther versus Church Growth Eyes........
36
E. False Doctrine: Soil Testing
and
Receptivity Rating Scales...........
36
F. False Doctrine:
Entertainment
Evangelism, Friendship Sunday,
and
Seeker Services................ 38
G. False Doctrine:
Community
Churches and Adiaphora..........
43
H. False Doctrine:
Lay
Pastors and Cell Groups............
45
I. False Doctrine: Everyone
a Minister........ 47
J. False Doctrine:
Women
Usurping Authority over Men
and
Teaching Men.................. 48
K. False Doctrine: Making Disciples............ 49
L. False Doctrine: Unionism....................
54
I. Proof of Corruption
A. The Gospel Persecuted, Misconduct Rewarded
The district mission board said to the council of
a Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod congregation, "Fire your
pastor!" They said, "Why
should we? We like our
pastor." The board said,
"Make up something or we will cut off your funds." Under pressure, the council fired the
pastor, who had served faithfully many years in the deep South. He was not guilty of sexual misconduct or
false doctrine, but he was critical of the Church Growth Movement. He was denied ministerial status, even when
he appealed.
In another Wisconsin Synod district, a pastor was
caught with the wife of a church member.
He was removed from the ministerium but was immediately given a
quasi-pastoral job by a Wisconsin Synod agency in the same state. The adulterous pastor has been known for
years as the ultimate Church Growth pastor in the district. He was always held up as the example for
other pastors to follow.
Pastors and laity in the Wisconsin Synod and
Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod are deeply disturbed by the poor leadership
evidenced by their district and synodical presidents. Money is mismanaged.
Clergy sex abuse is not only tolerated, but rewarded.
The church periodicals, which mulitply like
rabbits, serve as platforms for promoting every kind of false doctrine and
unionistic practice. The official
theological journals offer sly support for the same trends or remain
diplomatically silent.
B. Unionism with ELCA
The Missouri and Wisconsin Synods have become
poor imitations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, laying up for
themselves treasures on earth while the Biblical doctrines entrusted to them
are allowed to rust and decay (Matthew 6:19-20). In fact, the leaders of WELS and the LCMS are only too happy to
work with and under the leadership of ELCA, in evangelism, worship, and many
other areas. The district presidents
and synod presidents of WELS and the LCMS cannot be convinced that their stated
doctrinal positions are true, if they are so glad to ape ELCA in thought, word,
and deed. The mission boards leaders of
all three Lutheran bodies, 99% of all Lutherans in America, all look to Fuller
Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California, for their doctrine. Walther's dream of doctrinal unity among all
Lutherans in America has been turned into a nightmare. WELS and LCMS leaders pretend to oppose the
ordination of women, homosexuals, and lesbians, but they plan joint religious
activities with them, proving their doctrine by default.
C. Church Growth Movement
How can
things be so dreadful, even among the Lutheran church bodies which want to be
called conservative? I began looking at
the problem in Liberalism: Its Cause
and Cure. I was serving a Wisconsin
Synod congregation at the time and learning how to use a computer and
database. Realizing that the database
was the ultimate note card system, I began adding my favorite Lutheran
quotations to IBM's Professional File.
Then, when Rev. Wayne Mueller denied that there was any Church Growth in
WELS, I started adding citations from Church Growth materials from WELS, Fuller
Seminary, the LCMS, and ELCA.[1] There was and still is a great demand for
the comparisons which I continue to assemble from the database of 2200
citations.
The exercise was not academic for me. I wanted to know why supposed Lutherans were
so antagonistic toward the liturgy, Lutheran hymns, the Confessions, and
Luther's doctrine. The Michigan
District of WELS started two congregations, Pilgrim Community Church and
Crossroads Community Church, which tried as much as possible to be
non-Lutheran. The first one flopped
under the leadership of an adulterous pastor.
The second one left Lutheranism with its WELS trained pastor and 50
former WELS Lutherans.
D. Denial of the Efficacy of
the Word
Clearly the LCMS and WELS leaders do not trust in
the Means of Grace, adopting instead the position of the Reformed, as will be
detailed later. Even more importantly,
they deny the doctrine of the efficacy of the Word, which is foundational for
all Lutheran doctrine. There are only
two positions possible about the Holy Spirit.
One is clearly taught in the Bible, the Church Fathers, the Lutheran
Reformation, Lutheran hymns, and the old Synodical Conference: the Spirit never works apart from the Word,
the Word never works apart from the Spirit.
(Isaiah 55:8-11) The other position,
which Lutherans call Enthusiasm, separates the work of the Holy Spirit from the
Word.
1. Pietism, Enthusiasm,
Revivalism
Historically, the denial of the efficacy of the
Word in Lutheranism has one primary starting point - a movement called Lutheran
Pietism, started by Philip Spener and August Francke. It surfaced again in American Lutheranism in the 19th century,
under the name of revivalism or New Measures.
Enthusiasm has had its most recent and destructive impact in the Church
Growth Movement, which has been adopted wholesale by the LCMS and WELS, as well
as ELCA. Pietism, revivalism, and the
Church Growth Movement have so much in common because all three deny the same
doctrine of the efficacy of the Word.
2. Hidden Doctrines in Neutral
Methods
All three movements pretend to be non-doctrinal
and therefore pose the greatest danger to Lutheranism. Lutheran doctrine will defeat any false
doctrine, but Lutherans have trouble with a-doctrinal positions. When a false teacher says, "We are only
giving you methods for helping your denomination grow," he is lying. The actual doctrines are deeply hidden and
must be brought to light, just as anaerobic infections need air to be cured. If an anaerobic infection is not cut open
and drained, blood poisoning will soon kill the hapless victim.
Those who claim to promote methods and not
doctrines are secret unionists. Either
they want all denominations in one visible church, or they have no love at all
for pure doctrine. They slip away from
any discussion about doctrine by flattering potential critics. One pastor said about a Church Growth
leader, "It's easier to pick up soap in a shower than it is to find out
what he really thinks." One
unionist, who organized the ELCA/WELS/LCMS evangelism program, simply agrees
with anyone who disagrees, leaving everyone confused.
E. Results of Denying the Efficacy of the Word
1. Gadarene Swine
So many Church Growth pastors have tumbled out of
Lutheranism that they have infringed the copyright of the Gadarene swine (Mark
5:1ff). Pastor Steve Quist (Evangelical
Lutheran Synod) started Seeker Services (see Willow Creek and David Valleskey's
We Believe) in Naples, Florida, and was ousted by ELS President George
Orvick. The visibility of Quist popped
the Church Growth bubble in the ELS.
Pastor Rick Miller, trained at Willow Creek
Community Church, founded Crossroads Community Church as a WELS mission, with
the approval of District President Robert Mueller. Miller left Lutheranism with his members when a few of us
objected to his doctrine and practice.
Pastor Kelly Voigt, WELS, trained mission pastors
for the synod and conducted Seeker Services before he left Lutheranism with his
WELS congregation in Tallahassee, Florida.
The congregation no longer exists.
Voigt was called to Crossroads
to conduct Seeker Services.
Pastor Mark Freier promoted Reformed doctrine as
a member of the WELS Youth Commission and pastor at St. Peter's in Plymouth,
Michigan. The WELS Kingdom Workers
funded a call for him in Coral Gables, Florida, with Pastor Randy Cutter and
Pastor Robert Timmerman. All three
pastors became charismatic and left Lutheranism with their congregation,
leaving the district with a building, a huge debt, and no members. Pastor Freier is now serving at Crossroads
Community Church, a non-Lutheran congregation with three pastors trained in
Church Growth by WELS.
Pastor Dan Kelm organized Seeker Services in
Indianapolis, Indiana, and served as a WELS expert on cell groups. As a missionary to Bulgaria, he began
worshiping with non-Lutherans and was returned to the States. He announced he had a job with Campus
Crusade, but he was called to serve a Missouri Synod congregation one month
after he joined it.
Three WELS pastors and a lay worker serving in
Taiwan feathered out and began speaking in tongues. The Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary faculty said it was permissable,
as long as they did not promote tongue-speaking. The charismatics left Lutheranism anyway, and their fate is not
known. Raising the issue with a
Lutheran leader will drop the room temperature 20 degrees and stop all conversation.
Pastors Richard Stadler, Iver Johnson, and
Michael Albrecht circulated their famous screed "Heirs Together"
(nicknamed "Errorists Together") for years in the WELS. Stadler and Mark Freier were featured
speakers at the WELS international youth rally in Columbus, Ohio. Stadler was also the main speaker at a
national WELS Lutherans For Life meeting.
Johnson served on the WELS commission which created the feminist Christian
Worship hymnal. Albrecht is an
editor of the feminist, pro-homosexual Lutheran Forum Letter (ELCA/LCMS)
and an editor of the somewhat conservative Logia journal. They were all ousted from the Wisconsin
Synod. They took their congregation out
of WELS, and instituted open women's suffrage in place of the covert suffrage
of the past. Stadler was known for his
support of Church Growth and women's ordination.
Dorothy Sonntag was not the first woman editor
serving a Lutheran denominational magazine.
The Lutheran (LCA and then ELCA) had women on the staff, but
women did not write editorials for ELCA, as Sonntag did for WELS before
quitting and joining the ELCA and serving as a minister of sorts. Because feminist causes, especially women's
ordination, are so important to Fuller Seminary and Church Growth, Sonntag's
case is worth noting.
2. Clergy Sex Offenders
Many Church
Growth pastors, WELS and LCMS, have been caught with their pants down,
sometimes with the same sex. Clergy
sexual abuse is not limited to Church Growth advocates, but they seem
over-represented on the list. One WELS
district president is serving time in prison for molesting little girls in his
congregation over a span of decades.
The pastors with the best people skills are able to blame their adultery
on their wives and remain in the ministry, even in the same congregation, with
a new victim as a spouse. Infidelity to
the Word is the fuse which ignites marital infidelity, as Luther pointed out:
No work is so evil that it can damn a man,
and no work is so good that it can save a man; but faith alone saves us, and
unbelief damns us. The fact that
someone falls into adultery does not damn him.
Rather the adultery indicates that he has fallen from faith. This damns him; otherwise adultery would be
impossible for him. So, then, nothing
makes a good tree except faith."
Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An
Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, I, p. 475. Matthew 7:15‑23.
II. Lutherans Have Gone
A-Whoring with the Reformed, Again
A. McGavran and Fuller Seminary
The Church Growth Movement is so intimately
connected with Fuller Theological Seminary and Donald McGavran that one cannot
understand the collapse of Lutheranism today without considering the toxic
influence of the man and the school.
Donald McGaran is dead, but he rules American
Lutheranism from the grave through his disciples in the Missouri Synod,
Wisconsin Synod, and ELCA. He was a
missionary in India for the Disciples of Christ, a large, ecumenical, liberal
denomination which opposes infant baptism.
McGavran worked with the ultra-liberal denomination and with the
radical leftist World Council of Churches all his life.
Donald C. McGavran died at home home in
Altadena, California, on July 10, 1990.
He was 92 years old. Dr.
McGavran is widely recognized as the founder of the church growth movement, a
movement which has sought to put the social sciences at the service of theology
in order to foster the growth of the church.
In August of 1989 I borrowed a bicycle and pedaled several miles uphill
up from Pasadena to Altadena. I found
Dr. McGavran in his front yard with a hose in hand, watering flowers.
Prof. Lawrence O. Olson, (D. Min.,
Fuller),
"See How It Grows: Perspectives on
Growth and the Church," EVANGELISM, February, 1991, Professor, Martin Luther College (WELS), p.
1.[2]
An Enthusiast to the core, McGavran was informed
by God that he was not concerned enough about numbers when he was a missionary
in India.
I was thinking some hard thoughts about my
Presbyterian friends when the Lord said to me, "Donald, you sat on the
executive committee of the Indian Mission of the Disciples of Christ for twenty‑five
years, didn't you?" I said,
"Yes, Sir." He said,
"How much time did you spend describing the growth or nongrowth of your
church?"
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C.
Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 65.
Unfortunately, McGavran's liberal theological
training was worsened when he earned a Ph.D. in education at Columbia
University in New York. The guiding
light of education at Columbia was John Dewey, an atheist who signed the
Humanist Manifesto. McGavran was
heavily influenced by statistical analysis, which secular authorities claim can
predict the future and diagnose current problems. Unlike peering at sheep entrails, statistical analysis requires
hours of tedious work, inspiring awe rather than ridicule.
McGavran's first effort at combining mission work
and statistical analysis resulted in The Bridges of God, 1955. His second work, Understanding Church
Growth, became the Bible of the Church Growth Movement, very much like the
Book of Mormon, often mentioned and seldom read, due to its extraordinary
dullness. McGavran's genius was not in
writing books, but in promoting his cause through thousands of letters. He was ready to give up completely (mark
this well) when someone wrote him a letter encouraging him to stay the course.[3] Letters written to faithful Lutheran pastors
can have the same effect.
McGavran labored in obscurity for years at
Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Oregon, until he was hired in 1965 to
head the School of World Mission at Fuller Seminary, where he moved his
portable Institute of Church Growth.
McGavran's maiden speech to assembled bigwigs and potential donors was
larded with statistical analysis, alarming the master of ceremonies so much
that he broke the spell by urging an impromptu group rendition of "Beautiful
Sunshine."
The leverage of the Church Growth Movement in
Lutheranism can best be understood by the clever way it was introduced to all
denominations, from the top down.
The conscious attempt to apply church
growth philosophy to America was stimulated in the fall of 1972 by Pastor
Charles Miller, then a staff member of Pasadena's Lake Avenue Congregational
Church. At Miller's urging, I organized
and asked McGavran to team‑teach with me a pilot course in church growth
designed specifically for American church leaders. We did it only as an
experiment, but the results were remarkable: One of the students, Win Arn, left
his position with the Evangelical Covenant Church and founded the influential Institute
for American Church Growth.
C. Peter Wagner (study questions by
Rev. John Wimber), Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: G/L Regal Books 1976, p. 15.
B. C. Peter Wagner, Pentecostal
Faith Healer
C. Peter Wagner, a Pentecostal Baptist, studied
under McGavran in 1967 and became the Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church
Growth at Fuller Seminary in 1984, the same year he founded the North American
Academy for Church Growth. Wagner and
McGavran converted Win Arn, as portrayed movingly by Arn himself:
To acquire more expertise in Church Growth
thinking, I visited the School of World Mission and Church Growth at Fuller
Theological Seminary. When I inquired
concering resources and materials for American Church Growth, I found that Dr.
Donald McGavran and C. Peter Wagner were team‑teaching a course applying
world principles of Church Growth to the American scene. I immediately became a part of that
group. As I listened and learned, I
realized here was the effective approach to evangelism for which I had been
searching. In those hours, I
experienced my third birth‑‑"conversion" to Church Growth
thinking. [Winfield C. Arn]
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C.
Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 12.
C. WELS Sneaks in Fuller and McGavran Slowly
There is no doubt that McGavran, Wagner, and Arn
successfully recruited the world mission executives in the LCA, ALC, LCMS, and
WELS first, then converted the American mission and evangelism board
members. They have left a paper trail
which cannot be erased. The world
missions professor at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary was already taking note of
McGavran and Church Growth in 1974.
Dr. Donald McGavran, Dean Emeritus and
Senior Professor of Mission at the Institute of Church Growth, Pasadena,
California, is very much concerned about the Two Billion. He severely censures the leaders of the World
Council of Churches as having 'betrayed the Two Billion.'
Ernst H. Wendland, "Missiology‑‑and
the Two
Billion," Wisconsin Lutheran
Quarterly, January, 1974, vol. 71,
p. 9.
D. Ocsar Naumann Promotes TELL
By 1977, Church Growth was being promoted
uncritically in WELS through an official newsletter, TELL, from WELS
headquarters, the first issue featuring a cover article by Synod President
Oscar Naumann.
TELL has served the church
faithfully for 15 years. Three editors
have served; Ronald Roth (1977‑84), Paul Kelm (1985‑88), and the
undersigned since 1989...The lead article in the first issue of TELL was
titled 'Church Growth ‑ Worthwhile for WELS.'...The author of this
article in April 1988 issue of TELL concludes, 'It's obvious by now that
I believe we in WELS can profit greatly from the writings of the church‑growth
leaders.' ... TELL as a separate publication ends with this issue. Nevertheless, the focus of The Evangelism
Life Line will continue for years to come as an integral part of the new
Board for Parish Services journal ‑ PARISH LEADERSHIP.
Rev. Robert Hartman, TELL (WELS
Evangelism) Summer, 1992.
The interlocking nature of world missions,
American missions, and evangelism can be seen in Wendland's favorable mention
of TELL.
The publication TELL ("The
Evangelism Life Line") has been inaugurated to promote the cause of church
growth.
Ernst H. Wendland, "Church Growth
Theology," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, April, 1981, vol. 78, p.
105.
Professor Wendland also wondered whether WELS
should adopt Church Growth principles.
In the light of church growth principles as
they are promulgated in many mission schools these days, the question naturally
arises as to whether or not our approach to world mission work is in need of
reassessment or improvement.
Ernst H. Wendland, "Church Growth
Theology," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, April, 1981, vol. 78, p.
108.
E. Valleskey "Spoils the Egyptians"
Professor David Valleskey, who attended a Win Arn
seminar at Fuller, left no doubt about the answer to Wendland's question.
He was already teaching Church Growth in his
evangelism course at the seminary and at the 1986 summer school for pastors.
There is a fourth option, which is the
choice of this writer. It is the same
kind of approach Lawrence Crabb, a Christian counselor, advocates over against
the use of secular counseling resources.
He calls it "spoiling the Egyptians" (Exodus 12:36, KJV),
after the action of Israel at the time they left Egypt, when they took from the
Egyptians what would stand them in good stead on their journey...Yet this
writer is confident we won't go astray in adopting a "spoiling the
Egyptians" approach to the various Church Growth Movement sociological
principles and the research that produced them.
David J. Valleskey, "The Church
Growth Movement: An Evaluation," Wisconsin
Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1991 88, p. 115f. Holidaysburg, Pa, 10‑15‑90. [Larry Crab is a favorite author of the
Church Growth Movement.]
In Valleskey's new book, We Believe, Therefore
We Speak, all the major themes of Enthusiasm and the Church Growth Movement
are endorsed, including the anti-confessional, anti-Lutheran, anti-Christian
Seeker Service from Willow Creek Community Church. All the pastors who have tumbled out of Lutheranism were trained
by Valleskey to "spoil the Egyptians" at Fuller Seminary.
III. Where It Started
A. Fuller Seminary
Fuller Seminary was founded in 1947 by Charles
Fuller of "The Old Fashioned Revival Hour." Fuller was an orange grower who studied at a Bible institute and
was ordained. His radio broadcast was
quite the sensation of its time, and he seemed to be quite unlike the priapic
televangelists of our day, men who invent doctrines as strange as their lives. Fuller was a Fundamentalist, so he began a
school which would teach the inerrancy of the Bible.
Fuller Theological Seminary was founded in
1947. It was brought into being through
the efforts of Charles E. Fuller of the "Old Fashioned Revival
Hour." He secured the services of
Harold John Ockenga, then minister of the Park Street Church in Boston, as
president of the fledgling institution.
The school opened its door with four faculty members: Wilbur Moorehead Smith, Everett F. Harrison,
Carl F. H. Henry, and myself.
Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the
Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1976, p. 106.
From the beginning it was declared that one
of the chief purposes of the founding of the seminary was that it should be an
apologetic institution...It was agreed from the inception of the school that
through the seminary curriculum the faculty would provide the finest theological
defense of biblical infallibility or inerrancy. It was agreed in addition that the faculty would publish joint
works that would present to the world the best of evangelical scholarship on
inerrancy at a time when there was a dearth of such scholarship and when there
were few learned works promoting biblical inerrancy.
Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the
Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1976, p. 106f.
B. Harold Ockenga
Rev. Harold Ockenga took pride in not talking
about doctrinal differences. The
institutions he was most indentified with in his lifetime, the Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association, Christianity Today, and Fuller Seminary,
turned liberal with amazing speed.
Fuller Seminary gave up its doctrinal position only 15 years after it
was founded. Charles Fuller's son,
Daniel, who studied under the adulterous Swiss theologian Karl Barth, was
instrumental in turning Fuller away from its original position on
inerrancy. The conservative faculty
members left (Charles Woodbridge in 1957, Wilbur Smith in 1963, Harold Lindsell
in 1964, and Gleason Archer in 1965), making Fuller even more vulnerable to
the winds of false doctrine.
C. Fuller Attacks Biblical Inerrancy
David Hubbard became Fuller's president with the
support of Charles Fuller and his son Daniel.
Charles, like Eli, refused to see his son's error. (1 Samuel 2:12) Hubbard also studied in Switzerland and adopted the liberal view
of the Bible as "containing God's Word," a vague and self-serving
concept. Daniel Fuller and David
Hubbard succeeded in turning Fuller into an anti-inerrancy school in a few
years. Note the hostility in Hubbard's
own tract:
Where inerrancy refers to what the Holy
Spirit is saying to the churches through the biblical writers, we support its
use. Where the focus switches to an
undue emphasis on matters like chronological details, the precise sequence of
events, and numerical allusions, we would consider the term misleading and
inappropriate. Its dangers, when
improperly defined, are: 1) that it implies a precision alien to the minds of
the Bible writers and their own use of Scriptures; 2) that it diverts attention
from the message of salvation and the instruction in righteousness which are
the Bible's key themes;...5) that too often it has undermined our confidence in
the Bible we have... 6) that it prompts us to an inordinate defensiveness of
Scripture which seems out of keeping with the bold confidence with which the
prophets, the apostles and our Lord proclaimed it.
We resent unnecessary distractions; we
resist unbiblical diversions.. Can anyone believe that all other activities
should be susupended until all evangelicals agree on precise doctrinal
statements? We certainly cannot.
David Allan Hubbard, "What We
Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California:
Fuller Theological Seminary, 1‑800‑235‑2222, Pasadena,
CA, 91182.
D. Fuller Attacks Salvation through Christ
Even if Fuller continued to teach the inerrancy
of the Scriptures, the school would still be staffed by false teachers who deny
the Means of Grace, the Holy Spirit working through the Word and Sacraments to
bring us forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
But the departure of sincere Biblical professors and their replacement
by slippery followers of Karl Barth meant that Fuller's fall from truth
accelerated. Charles Kraft, a Fuller
professor of world missions, denied openly that Christ was the only way of
salvation. How delicious, to travel
around the world for Fuller, denying the message one is called by God to
deliver for the salvation of souls.
Similarly, he [the Muslim] doesn't have to
be convinced of the death of Christ. He
simply has to pledge allegiance and faith to God who worked out the details to
make it possible for his faith response to take the place of a righteousness
requirement. He may not, in fact, be
able to believe in the death of Christ...." [Dr. Charles Kraft,
consultation in Marseilles, France]
Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the
Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1979, p. 226.
E. Fuller Attacks Pauline Authorship
As I have stated above, the Church Growth
advocates in WELS and the LCMS are often lobbyists for women's ordination. Their professors at Fuller were women, which
is no problem for someone who denies the inspiration of the Pastoral
Epistles. "But I suffer not a
woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence (1
Timothy 2:12)."
Ralph P. Martin is Professor of New
Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary...Professor Martin engages in guess
work and patch‑quilt organization to explain away the Pauline authorship
of the Pastorals.
Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the
Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1979, p. 228.
F. Fuller and Pentecostalism
1. C. Peter Wagner