FOCUS ON THE FAMILY MAGNIFIES THE POPE
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[The following material is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 9, Issue 3, 1992. David W. Cloud, Editor. All rights are reserved. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian. Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E 1V0. The Way of Life web site is http://www.wayoflife.org/]
We have had articles in O Timothy warning of James Dobson and his Focus on the Family. There are two major problems we see with that ministry. First, it is strictly new-evangelical and refuses to deal with the apostasy which is destroying so many churches and Christians today. Second, it is an unholy blend of psychology and Bible Christianity. Dobson's teaching might be good psychology, but it is not good Christianity.
The January 1990 issue of Focus on the Family Citizen contains an illustration of the danger of this ministry. Executive editor Tom Minnery wrote an editorial entitled "The Triumph of Good Ideas," in which he claimed that moral values ultimately triumphs over immoral values. He listed several current events which he believes illustrates his hypothesis.
The shocker was his closing illustration:
"The most remarkable new trend of all is typified by a meeting Nov. 30 in Vatican City between the leader of the world's most powerful atheist nation, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the most eminent religious leader who names the name of Jesus Christ, Pope John Paul II. The Soviet leader visited the Pope in recognition of the fact that after 70 years of ruthlessly stamping out Christianity, the religion had not only survived, but flourished in secret. Now, Gorbachev says openly that his country needs Christianity to help it survive the moral decay -- the product of atheism -- that is rampant in the Soviet Union."
A picture of Gorbachev shaking hands with the pope accompanied the article.
My friends, there is no excuse for a supposed Bible-believing Christian to call the pope "the world's most eminent religious leader to name the name of Christ." Minnery, Dobson, and Focus for the Family should know that the pope is an evil beast, a deceiver, a heretic, a wicked man, an antichrist. If they don't know this, they should not be in the Christian ministry. If they do know this and refuse to say it publicly, they are cowards and will answer to God for the multitudes of people they are leading astray by their positive attitude toward Rome.
Further, to use the pope and Romanism as an illustration of the "Christianity" that Russia needs is wickedness. The Focus on the Family magazine quotes Gorbachev as saying that his country needs Christianity to help it survive the moral decay caused by atheism. But what can the pope do to help stem the tide of moral decay? Do we see Romanism creating morality among its benighted multitudes? Are Catholic nations known for high moral standards? Of course not. Consider Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Northern Ireland. Romanism creates spiritual blindness and moral weakness.
Beware of Focus on the Family and of its new evangelical philosophy. It is a positive, worldly Christianity - which is NOT Bible Christianity.
For more on Focus on the Family see--
"James Dobson and Romanism"
"Focus on the Family Dodges the Hard Questions"
"Focus on the Family Didn't Like My Letter"
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