January 6, 1999 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The Council of Religious Leaders of Chicago has demanded that the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) not conduct evangelism in their city this summer. The SBC has been planning for two years to hold its annual convention in Chicago in 2000, and in conjunction with the convention, they are planning for 100,000 Southern Baptists to conduct evangelistic campaigns. The welcome mat is not out by Chicago’s liberal religious leaders, though. The Council represents 40 Christian denominations and Jewish synagogues. Council members include Francis George of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, Paul Rutgers of the Presbyterian Church USA, and Bishop C. Joseph Sprague of the United Methodist Church.

Sprague said that the planned Southern Baptist evangelistic campaign "smacks of a kind of non-Jesus-like tolerance." He said that he is fearful when Christians claim that non-Christians "are outside God’s plan for salvation" (Frank York, WorldNetDaily, "Is Christianity a ‘Hate Crime,'" December 1999). That is absolute nonsense. The Lord Jesus Christ claimed to be the only God and Savior of mankind (John 14:6) and He commanded His followers to preach the gospel to every person in the whole world (Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:44-48; Acts 1:8). The Apostles and early churches did exactly that. They preached boldly to pagan religionists that there is absolutely no salvation apart from faith in Jesus Christ. In Acts 4:12, for example, Peter preached, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." When Paul preached to the philosophers and idolaters on Mars Hill in Athens, he plainly told them that God looked upon their false religions as ignorance and he called them to repentance (Acts 17:30,31). Writing to the church at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul warned that all men outside of Jesus Christ are "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1), "by nature the children of wrath" (Eph. 2:3), "having no hope, and without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12).

The liberal clergymen of Chicago are not only heretics who teach false doctrine and deny the plain teaching of God’s Word, they are arrogant and domineering. Who gave these proud men the authority to forbid God’s people to preach the gospel whenever and wherever God leads? Yet that is exactly what they are attempting to do. United Methodist bishop Sprague stated that it would be fine for the Southern Baptist Convention to visit Chicago "if they’re coming to join with us in acts of mercy and justice on behalf of this community in general, and specifically on behalf of the marginalized and dispossessed," BUT he said further, "We are not interested in their coming to proselytize or to suggest, however well intentioned, that Jews, Hindus, or others are second class." Who gave this heretic bishop such authority? Who gave him the right to determine what other Christians can and cannot do? Jesus Christ has commanded that the gospel be preached to every person in every part of the world, but this bishop and his friends say, "Not in Chicago." Well does God’s Word prophesy of such men in 2 Peter chapter two:

"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not" (2 Peter 2:1-3).

We also note that Catholic leaders are putting their names to the attempt to keep Southern Baptists from preaching the gospel in Chicago. This is not surprising, of course, but it is further evidence of the folly of the Evangelical-Catholic alliance, promoted by men such as Chuck Colson, J.I. Packer, Bill McCartney, James Dobson, Bill Bright, John R. Stott, Jack Van Impe, and Max Lucado. The Roman Catholic Church is not and cannot be the friend of Bible-believing Christians for the simple fact that it believes and preaches a false gospel. It has stood in the way of the preaching of the true gospel throughout its bloodstained history. I have documented this in the book Rome and the Bible.

So far, Southern Baptist leaders have not been cowed by the efforts of Chicago’s Religious Council. Good for them. We pray that many will be saved through the preaching of the gospel in Chicago this summer. Perhaps even some of the members of the Religious Council will be saved.