SBC AGREES TO WORK WITH CAMPUS CRUSADE

SBC AGREES TO WORK WITH CAMPUS CRUSADE

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January 28, 1998 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) -- 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."

SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION IS ECUMENICAL AND NEW EVANGELICAL

This report of the linking together of the SBC foreign missions board and Campus Crusade is another proof that the Southern Baptist Convention is New Evangelical from top to bottom. Even its strongest men, the "conservatives," refuse to practice biblical separation. They say they are concerned for biblical truth, but they will not separate themselves from those who disobey that truth.

CAMPUS CRUSADE’S RADICAL ECUMENISM

Campus Crusade for Christ is one of the most radically ecumenical groups. As early as 1969, Campus Crusade founder 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."

Bill Bright has been one of the leading organizers of ecumenical meetings 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. Each year since at least 1980, Bill Bright has been a key 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.

Campus Crusade has had Roman Catholics on staff. 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."

In the Dec. 12, 1986, issue of Christianity Today, Bill Bright endorsed the film The Mission, which is about Catholic missionaries. Bright calls the movie "a triumphal film with a life-changing message which will enrich your life for years to come." 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 commands 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 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 reviewed this document in our article "Evangelicals and Catholics Confusing the Gift of Salvation," December 3, 1997. This is in the Evangelical section of the End Times Apostasy Database at the Way of Life web site.

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 men, the man Christ Jesus" (Kurt Linde, "Some Thoughts on the Papacy and the Evangelization of Roman Catholics," Christian News, October 23, 1995, p. 7).

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 Northwest, where we live, we have powerful winds which sweep in off of the Pacific ocean during the winter season. I live on an island and our house is located a mile from the west shore. We have 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.

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

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

See "When Was the Southern Baptist Convention Delivered from Liberalism?"