The following is a letter from J. Larry Holly, M.D., a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, to Chad Brand, pastor and professor at Southwestern Theological Seminary. It was first published on SBCnet, a public forum on CompuServe. Max Lucado is a speaker at Promise Keepers conferences.

Chad:

This is the letter which I wrote to Lucado's assistant pastor. It addresses my concerns about our promoting his material and quotes a letter which I wrote to a prominent SBC pastor who was doing so.

Larry

February 12, 1992

Reverend Pat Hile
Oak Hills Church of Christ
8308 Fredericksburg Road
San Antonio, Texas 78229

Dear Reverend Hile:

Your graciousness in speaking with me on the telephone for the second time requires me to put into print for you the concerns which I have in regard to the recommendation by main line evangelicals of the writings of your pastor, Max Lucado. In a recent letter to the leader of a Christian ministry, I said:

"In a recent issue of ________, I read an interview with Max Lucado. I first became aware of this man and his ministry when my daughter read one of his books while she was in Romania. Because Carrie was so taken with him, I decided to find out who he is. His first several books did not identify his church affiliation. That fact alone disturbed me. When I was able to identify who he is, I was alarmed to find that he is a Campbellite, i.e., a minister of the Church of Christ.

"Still, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and so I called his church and his home. I visited with his wife as he was out of town. She was a gracious lady and my spirit witnessed that she is a fellow believer. She indicated that they do not believe what the Church of Christ believes about baptismal regeneration, losing your salvation or that the Holy Spirit does not indwell the believer except as the believer learns the Bible.

"I then talked to Reverend Pat Hile, an assistant minister at the Oak Hills Church of Christ where Max Lucado is senior pastor. Reverend Hile sent me a copy of their "Life Lessons" which is a study course all new members of Oak Hills Church of Christ go through. I am enclosing a copy of the page entitled "Worksheet: The Bridge." You will see that an interesting addition has been made to the way in which Dawson Trotman originally wrote the tract called "The Bridge". That addition is Acts 2:38.

"Reverend Hile agreed with Mrs. Lucado that they are not part of the old line Church of Christ. Yet, they do not have musical instruments and continue to identify themselves as a Church of Christ. The study course "Life Lessons" only has subtle, yet disturbing, overtones of the old line Church of Christ in it.

"_________, my reasons for writing you about this are:

1. Max Lucado is one of the cleverest writers being published today. I believe he is the first ever of the Church of Christ to have a reading audience as broad as his.

2. He is still identified with a group which because of their defective soteriology, I would identify as a cult.

3. When you published an interview with Max Lucado and did not even identify his church affiliation, I believe you spread a snare for the feet of young Christians. And, when you recommend a man's books, no matter how good they are, when he holds and supports doctrinal positions which you would agree are heresy, I believe you compromise your message.

"Take for instance, what if a person gets saved as a result of your ministry? They then begin to receive your magazine. They either live in San Antonio or they move to San Antonio. They think, "God used [ ________ ] to bring me to salvation. ______ endorses Max Lucado, I'll join the Oak Hills Church of Christ." Because of Max Lucado's warm love for the Lord Jesus Christ, his doctrinal aberrations may not be so great, but then that person moves to Houston. Like a Baptist who moves from one town to another, this young Christian now looks for a Church of Christ to join. He finds one, but there is a different spirit. He either is offended and quits going to church or he is seduced and buys into the legalism and works righteousness of the Church of Christ and lives the rest of his life in defeat and depression.

"Worse yet, what if this young Christian becomes a student of the Word and gets into a conflict with his adopted church, The Oak Hills Church of Christ. When he realizes that he must leave that church because of its error, he would then feel obligated to reject the minister who introduced him to the Church of Christ, ______.

"...I told Reverend Hile that if Max Lucado will renounce the errors of the Church of Christ and rename his church, I would love to encourage people to be ministered to by him. Without any such public renouncing of the heresy which the church he embraces stands for, I would be required to warn anyone and everyone I can, that they should avoid Max Lucado, no matter how interesting his work is...."

In part these concerns express some of my problems with Moody Monthly, Multnomah Press, Word, InTouch, Billy Graham, Chuck Swindoll and others encouraging Christians to read and follow the ministry of your pastor.

While I have appreciated your openness each time we have talked, two things which you mentioned in our telephone conversation of February 11, 1992 concern me:

1. The identification of your church on your radio broadcast in San Antonio. You said that one week it is identified as Oak Hills Church and the next week it is identified as the Oak Hills Church of Christ. As I indicated to you, I would have more respect for you if you made up your mind. Either you are a Church of Christ which denies the blood atonement and believes that baptism and good works are required for salvation or you don't. Until you clarify for yourself and then for others your position on that critical and central doctrine of the Bible, you will continue to find many of us who appreciate your spirit, rejecting your fellowship.

2. You indicated that the problems with the Churches of Christ only began twenty years ago with the false doctrines attributed to that church, i.e., baptismal regeneration, losing your salvation, the Holy Spirit not indwelling the believer except as he learns the Bible, etc. You then corrected that when you related these problems to the 1920's (that was seventy years ago). You then stated that you were very comfortable with being identified with the origins of the Churches of Christ, i.e., with the Campbell brothers whom you indicated did not share the doctrinal aberrations later identified with the Churches of Christ. This was at least part of your reason for having no motivation for changing the name of your church.

3. You will remember that I challenged that view. All of the errors associated with the Church of Christ have been present since its formulation. The Campbell brothers were heretics, as is the church which they founded. There is some charm to the idea that there is only one church in each community and that that church should maintain the simplicity of the name, The Church of Christ. Yet, the elimination of the name of a "denomination" does not avoid the error of the same and does not bring greater honor to Christ, particularly when His Atoning work is denigrated by doctrine held by the Churches of Christ and when the name which is chosen to avoid the error of a denominational name becomes in itself the name of a denomination.

Reverend Hile, you indicated that your objection to the "hard-line doctrines" of the Churches of Christ is like the differences among Baptist churches. As you object to the position of some Churches of Christ, you said, I would object to the position of some Baptist churches. While there is an element of truth to that statement, it ignores one critical point. There are no Baptist churches which hold positions which I would consider to be heresy, the embracing of which could result in their damnation.

The Church of Christ, which does hold positions which are heretical, runs the danger, if its people trust in the church and/or in their good works rather than in the Blood of Jesus Christ, of seeing people damned who embrace its errors. Your continued identification with that church by name and by your being comfortable with that tradition exposes the people you influence to this danger. I am not willing, for the sake of inspirational writing, to risk exposing people for whom I am responsible to that message, either in name or in reality.

What do I think you should do? While this may sound presumptuous, it cannot hurt you for me to detail what I believe you must do if you are going to minister to a larger audience than those who embrace the Churches of Christ and/or those who find Max Lucado's writing sufficiently interesting to ignore the doctrinal problems with the church with which he is identified. I believe you should:

1. Examine very carefully what you and your church believe about salvation and about baptism. You should state it unequivocally. An unambiguous statement on baptism would be critical, particularly if you choose not to change your name.

2. Publish your doctrinal position on the issues of salvation, security of the believer, baptismal regeneration and the indwelling Person of the Holy Spirit.

3. Provide to Reverend Lucado's publishers a copy of this statement and insist that they publish an abbreviated form of it on the fly leaf of each of his books and in the credits section of each of his articles.

4. Resolve the conflict over your name. You either are or you aren't a Church of Christ. If you believe strongly that you want to be known only by the name of Jesus Christ, you could name yourself, The Oak Hills Church, a church of Jesus Christ.

Whether you use musical instruments or not is a local church issue. Whether you embrace the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ is an issue for the Body of Christ at large to address. This will and should be addressed, not by a synod, a council or an inquisition, but by influence and challenge of error when and where we find it.

What you do, Reverend Hile, is very obviously your decision. I genuinely wish you well and hope that you can resolve these problems in such a way that all of us can fellowship together in the Person and the Passion of Jesus Christ.

God bless you, Reverend Hile. According to II John 9-11, if I believe that you and Reverend [Lucado] do not have the "doctrine of Christ", this greeting would be inappropriate. I do not wish to patronize you or to be gratuitous, I do wish to affirm you as I challenge you. God may have great things in store for you and for the Oak Hills Church. It is His responsibility as to how extensively you will be used; it is your responsibility to clarify your message.

In Christ's love and service,
Larry Holly, M.D.
Proverbs 22:17-21