Revised December 1, 2001 (first published November 10, 2001) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Campus Crusade for Christ is one of the largest and most influential of the international organizations that has spread the New Evangelical philosophy throughout the world during the past 50 years. Bill Bright, Campus Crusade founder, is gravely ill with the deadly pulmonary fibrosis disease and has turned the reigns of the ministry over to Steve Douglass.

In a recent interview with Charisma magazine, Bright repeated the ecumenical philosophy that has been at the heart of Campus Crusade's worldwide ministry. He said: "I just say I have felt that God led me many years ago to build bridges. I'm a Presbyterian . . . and yet I work with everybody who loves Jesus, whether they be charismatic or Catholic, Orthodox or mainliners. I'm a classical Christian. By that I mean I'm a New Testament Christian. I'm not an evangelical. I'm not a fundamentalist. I'm not Orthodox. I'm just a follower of Jesus in the traditional New Testament sense."

This sounds good to many people today, but it is a dangerous and unscriptural philosophy which is helping to pave the way for the end-times one world apostate "church." A true New Testament Christian will obey Jude 3 and earnestly contend for the faith against error. A true follower of Jesus Christ will plainly and unequivocally expose false teachers (Matt. 7:15-17). A true Christian cares deeply about doctrine (1 Tim. 1:3; 2 Tim. 3:16) and marks and avoids those who teach false doctrine (Rom. 16:17). Bill Bright has sacrificially given of himself to preach the gospel to multitudes of people, but he has blatantly refused to obey the "whole counsel of God" and therefore has done as much harm as good through the vast organization that he has built. It was a Campus Crusade leader who was at the forefront of trying to destroy my missionary ministry in the early 1980s because he did not agree with my "negative preaching."

Bill Bright praises the charismatic movement because "they've infiltratedand I'm using that in a good sense--the Catholic and mainline denominations [and] Orthodox." In fact, that is one of the very reasons why Bible believers must reject the charismatic movement. It is not calling people to come out of apostate and heretical denominations but is making them comfortable within apostasy.

In typical ecumenical non-judgmental style, Bill Bright praises extremist charismatic preacher Benny Hinn and refuses to condemn his many unscriptural doctrines and practices, such as "slaying in the Spirit." Bright said he doesn't criticize such things.

The Lord's Apostles did criticize false teaching, though. In practically every epistle that they wrote, they expended time and effort to expose error. And they did not merely condemn false teaching in generalities; they named names. In 1 and 2 Timothy alone, the Apostle Paul named the names of false teachers and compromisers ten times.

Long History of Ecumenical Compromise

As early as 1969, Bill Bright said, "We do not attack the Roman Church. We believe God is doing a mighty work in it and will no doubt use millions of Roman Catholics to help evangelize the world" (The Post & Times Star, Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug. 30, 1969).
At Billy Graham's Amsterdam '86 conference, Bright said, "There was a day when Protestants and Roman Catholics would not have much to do with one another. But today the Spirit of God is doing such a great work in both the Roman Catholic and Protestant fellowships and communions that I feel very much at home wherever Jesus Christ is honored" (Foundation, Jul.-Aug. 1986).

We would ask Mr. Bright how it is possible that Roman Catholics honor Jesus Christ when they deny the sufficiency of His atonement and of the Holy Scriptures, and when they ignore His commands about such things as adding human traditions to the Word of God and calling religious leaders "father," and when they exalt Mary to the position of Advocate and Mediatrix (Vatican Council II, "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church," chap. 8, II, 62, pp. 382-383)?

Campus Crusade Representative Dr. Boyce Van Osdel was the pastor of Oakland First Baptist Church in Oakland, California. On August 16, 1969, Van Osdel invited Catholic Monsignor John S. Cummins to speak in his Baptist pulpit on the subject "Unity's Missing Dimension." Five months later, Van Osdel led his congregation down the street in formal procession to join a Catholic Mass at St. Francis De Sales Cathedral. Dr. Van Osdel said, "What seemed impossible five years ago will now become a milestone of our ecumenical growth" (The Oakland Tribune, January 17, 1970).

By the 1970s Campus Crusade had several Catholics on staff (James Hefley, A Prejudiced Protestant Takes a New Look at the Catholic Church, 1971, p. 122). Hefley testifies: "Marti and I met one of the Catholic staffers at Crusade headquarters in Arrowhead Springs." In an interview with Wittenburg Door, June-July 1978, Richard Quebedeaux noted, "In Ireland, Campus Crusade is registered as a religious order. And they work entirely within the Catholic church there with Catholics because there is nobody else to work with. Campus Crusade has a whole category of ministries that they term experimental. They will tell you about them if you ask specifically, but they will not volunteer because they are afraid of their conservative supporters who, if they knew what they were doing in Ireland with Catholics, for instance, would withdraw their money in a second." As the decades have passed and the churches have weakened, these Evangelical organizations have been able to be increasingly open about their association with Roman Catholicism.

Each year since at least 1980, Bill Bright has been an organizer and sponsor of the "Washington for Jesus" celebrations, which have included Catholic priests, Seventh-day Adventists, those who deny the Trinity (the United Pentecostal Church), and other unscriptural ecumenists. The first "Washington for Jesus" convention in April 1980, featured Modernist Robert Schuller; Charismatics Jim Bakker, Demos Shakarian and Pat Robertson; as well as Catholic priests John Bertolucci, John Randall, and Michael Scanlon.

Bill Bright has been one of the leading organizers of ecumenical crusades such as Key '73 and has been involved in the decisions to invite Catholic participation in these conferences. Bright's "Here's Life America" crusade in 1976 had Catholic participation. In the Dec. 12, 1986, issue of Christianity Today, Bill Bright endorsed The Mission, a film about Catholic missionaries. Bright calls the movie "a triumphal film with a life-changing message which will enrich your life for years to come." He fails to warn the viewers that the Catholics depicted in the movie preached a false sacramental gospel that led people to eternal Hell.

Bright participated in the publication of a series of books on evangelism co-sponsored by Tyndale House and the Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association. The first book in the series, What Christians Can Learn from One Another About Evangelizing Adults, included articles by Bill Bright, Pope John Paul II, Archbishop Joseph Bernardin, and others.

Bill Bright was one of the signers of the unscriptural "Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium" (ECT) statement in March 1994. Some asked Bright to recant his position on ECT but he refused, saying, "There are tens of millions of true believers among the Catholics...." Calvary Contender editor Jerry Huffman wisely noted that "true believers will separate from the false Roman Catholic religion." In the statement distributed by Campus Crusade for Christ in defense of Bright's signing of ECT he said: "In my world travels of many years, I have discovered that there are both believers and nonbelievers in Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox communities. I have sought to build bridges of love with all true believers in all communions." The Bible requires that God's people mark and avoid those who teach contrary to the doctrine taught by the Apostles (Romans 16:17), but today's popular Evangelical leaders ignore this command and fellowship with practically anyone who names the name of Christ, regardless of what doctrine or gospel they hold.
In November 1997, Bill Bright signed the even more deceptive "Evangelicals and Catholics II" document, which was grossly misnamed "The Gift of Salvation." We review this document in Part XI of this book, "Evangelicals and Catholics Confusing the Gift of Salvation."

On October 7, 1995, Bill Bright was one of the Protestant leaders who joined an interfaith delegation that met with Pope John Paul II during his trip to the United States. Other members of the delegation included Chuck Colson, Pat Robertson, National Association of Evangelicals president Don Argue, and National Council of Churches general secretary Joan Campbell. Pat Robertson said of the meeting, "There was a real sense of harmony. We all admire the Holy Father tremendously. We all want to build bridges with the Catholic Church." Bright and Robertson also attended the papal Mass that evening.

One discerning writer described the awful compromise involved with such an action:
"The Mass is still a terrible ritual. It shouts out by Romish word and Romish sacrament that Christ's death on the cross was not enough to save mankind. It was a partial redemption which must be supplemented by the other Romish sacraments, penance, purgatory, priestly absolution, and good works. Further, the whole Romish system of salvation invests its priests with the superhuman power, which no one else has, to transubstantiate bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ. Biblically speaking, in Roman Catholicism, we find a fake priesthood performing a fake ritual producing a fake sacrament with the jingling of bells and the adoration of the faithful gullible producing no saving faith and receiving no true forgiveness of sins. The whole system requires you to use a mediator to approach the one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus" (Kurt Linde, "Some Thoughts on the Papacy and the Evangelization of Roman Catholics," Christian News, October 23, 1995, p. 7).

In early November 1997, the Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board signed an agreement to work together with Campus Crusade for Christ on evangelistic causes. According to the Baptist Press, Jerry Rankin, president of the SBC mission board, said the agreement was "one of the most significant evangelistic developments in recent years." The Religious News Service reported that the SBC mission board already has cooperated with Campus Crusade in using the "Jesus" film. "Now, they also will combine forces to enhance Baptist church movements in foreign cities where Campus Crusade has a presence at colleges."

Riving Flowing Toward Rome

The last days apostasy is like a river flowing toward Rome. Those who do not resist the flow and paddle up stream will be swept away at a rapid pace.

The apostasy is also like a strong wind. In the Pacific Northwestern part of the United States, where we lived for many years, there are powerful winds which sweep in off of the Pacific ocean during the winter season. We lived on an island and our house was located only a mile from the west shore. We learned that unless you stake a newly planted tree, it will be bent by the winds and will remain bent and crooked. That is similar to what happens today if a Christian does not actively resist and separate from the spirit of error.

Behold Billy Graham, Chuck Colson, Bill Bright, Jack Van Impe, James Robison, Pat Robertson, and a myriad of other so-called evangelical leaders who have played footsie with Romanism through ecumenical activities and have become sympathetic with Rome and blinded to the horror of its blasphemous errors. They admit that Roman Catholicism teaches error, but they do not have heartfelt convictions about the blasphemous character of those errors.

Beware of ecumenical compromise!

"Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners" (1 Corinthians 15:33).

"A little leaven leaventh the whole lump" (Galatians 5:9).