FUNDAMENTAL BAPTISTS AND MANDISA (Friday Church News Notes, October 28, 2011, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Mandisa is a contemporary Christian artist who was a ninth-place finalist in the fifth season of the very worldly American Idol. She studied Vocal Jazz at American River College in Sacramento, and the jazz influence is reflected in her singing style and musical arrangements. She says that her musical influences “run the gamut from Whitney Houston to Def Leppard” (“Mandisa,” Wikipedia). Two of her favorite musical artists are Beyonce and Steve Wonder, and her personal goal is “to meet and be on Oprah” (“Mandisa,” AmericanIdol.com). She claims that she “loves Jesus” and she talks about Him a lot, but her love for the world and her spiritual carelessness points more to a 2 Timothy 4:3-4 and James 4:4 Christianity than biblical Christianity. Mandisa’s music was featured at Lancaster Baptist Church’s 2011 Leadership Conference, and other independent Baptist churches are following this incredibly unwise and spiritually-dangerous example.

The following is excerpted from the book New Evangelicalism: Its History, Characteristics, and Fruit, which is available in print and eBook formats from Way of Life Literature.

Prior to the 1950s, the terms “evangelical” and “fundamentalist” referred to A STRICT “PROTESTANT” CHRISTIANITY. Generally speaking (and certainly in contrast to the mushy evangelicalism of our day), evangelicals of past generations were militant soldiers for Christ.

The term “evangelical” can be traced to the English revivals of the Wesleys and Whitefield and even to the earliest days of the Protestant Reformation. In either case, Evangelicalism of old was dogmatic and militant. It was old-fashioned Protestantism. Luther was excommunicated by the pope; John Wesley and George Whitefield were barred from Anglican churches for their bold preaching. All of the Protestant denominations once identified Rome as the Revelation 17 whore of Babylon. Those men, though we Baptists don’t see eye to eye with them on many important points, stood militantly for what they believed. This is exactly what the New Evangelical does not do (except, as we will see, on a few issues that are popular within his circles).

John Calvin was no New Evangelical when he said: “Popery is nothing else than a monster formed out of the innumerable deceptions of Satan, and that which they call the Church is more confused than Babylon.” This was typical of the position held by all of the old Protestant leaders.

Heaven Is For Real, a book about a four-year-old boy’s supposed visit to heaven, has sold over 1.5 million copies and is currently the # 6 best seller on Amazon. It has broken Thomas Nelson’s sales records and is popular with Independent Baptists. One pastor told me that it is “circulating around many of our IBaptist camps; many are recommending it.” The book is the true story of Colton Burpo, a Methodist pastor’s son who allegedly visits heaven during emergency surgery. There he meets a dead sister and great grandfather, sees Jesus and God the Father and the Holy Spirit and Satan, and learns things not revealed in Scripture. We don’t doubt that the little boy is convinced that he visited heaven, but we don’t believe for a minute that it actually happened.

First, the book is contrary to the testimony of Scripture that the apostles were the last to see the resurrected Christ. This was one of the evidences of apostleship (Acts 1:22; 1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:7). Paul said that he was the last of the apostles to see Christ, meaning that he saw Christ some time after the other apostles had seen him (1 Cor. 15:8). This occurred on more than one occasion in his life as described in the book of Acts. Paul gave this testimony in the context of giving the eyewitness evidence for Christ’s resurrection. We also know that the apostle John saw Christ on the island of Patmos as described in Revelation 1. All of the evidence we need for our faith is found in the testimony of Scripture and in these particular eyewitnesses.

October 21, 2011 Volume 12, Issue 41
GRAPHICAL PDF VERSION

MORE EVIDENCE OF THE COLLAPSE OF SEPARATISM AMONG FUNDAMENTAL BAPTISTS

The following is excerpted from “Calvary Baptist Seminary to Host Dr. Haddon Robinson, In Defense of the Gospel, Oct. 9, 2011: “In my (Sept. 2010) article on Dave Doran and Kevin Bauder joining Mark Dever on the conference platform at Calvary Baptist Seminary (Lansdale, PA) I included this statement: ‘Anyone believing this cooperative fellowship with Dever is going to be the full extent limited form of fellowship, is mistaken. Dever is just the latest step toward greater compromise of genuine biblical separatism for expanding the boundaries of limited fellowship. ... Compromise is a learned behavior. It typically progresses this way: Crawl, then Walk, then Run. Kevin Bauder and Dave Doran have ... outgrown the crawling stage.’ In less than a year Calvary Baptist Seminary (CBS) under Tim Jordan and Sam Harbin have achieved the running stage of compromise. They are running to open wide the seminary doors to embrace and welcome New Evangelicalism. The following promotional announcement appears at Calvary’s website. ‘Save the date, Monday, March 19, 2012, for the Spring Forum with speaker, Dr. Haddon Robinson, Professor of Preaching at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and author of several books, including Biblical Preaching...” Gordon-Conwell is the Wheaton College of the Northeast! ... It is New Evangelical at its core. Lifestyle choices of students are, of course, not to be confronted. It’s blatantly interdenominational to the point of ecumenical. ... Gordon-Conwell is home of the Harold John Ockenga Institute (est. 1985). ... Robinson’s book Biblical Sermons features one by Nancy Hardin! ... In February 2011 CBS hosted Dr. Mark Dever for their ATC conference. Dever is a SBC pastor; amillenialist, and embraces worldly approaches (RAP, Hip/Hop) for church growth and/or worship. Mark Dever is adjunct faculty at Gordon-Conwell. ... The invitation of Haddon Robinson marks CBS’s nearly complete departure from the principles and practice of authentic biblical separation. Calvary Baptist Seminary would not extend an invitation to New Evangelicals unless its leadership has already become or are determined to move into the New Evangelical realm. The invitation to Haddon Robinson is CBS’s rebirth into what will surely transform the seminary into a full orbed New Evangelical ministry.”

Volume 12, Issue 40
GRAPHICAL PDF VERSION
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this does not imply an endorsement. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.

HAS WEST COAST CHANGED ITS MUSIC STANDARD? (Friday Church News Notes, October 14, 2011, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Recently I received the following question from a pastor: “Did West Coast Baptist College stop using CCM? A pastor here told me that they fired the man responsible and demoted another man. He also stated it all happened because the head of the music department was sick for three months and didn’t know what was happening. Is this true?”
REPLY FROM BROTHER CLOUD: I understand that Lancaster Baptist Church got a new music director but as far as I know no public apology was issued for the way that they have influenced churches in many parts of the world toward the dangerous adaptation of CCM, and they have not pulled the “adapted” CCM that they distribute on their music tapes. It is not true that the problem was limited to one man or that the issue was that someone was sick. Lancaster/West Coast’s use of CCM, soft rock, and the slippery vocal technique is not a new thing and was not something that happened once or twice. The “adaptation” of CCM that resulted in the performance of Darlene Zschech’s “Shout to the Lord” on a Sunday morning at Lancaster is a slide the church has been on for many years. Following are a few other examples of CCM songs that have been used by Lancaster/West Coast:

(David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

On July 24, 2008, I sent out an announcement to the Fundamental Baptist Information Service mailing list asking pastors to share with our readers their troubles and concerns. I said:

“I think it would be very helpful if we could put together a report that describes the problems pastors face. It would help pastors and it would help the people. If you are a pastor of a fundamentalist Baptist or Bible church I urge you to write and share your greatest problems and heartaches. It doesn’t have to be long. Just list them and perhaps give an illustration or two.”

In response we received the following informative statements:

1. Most church members do not attend or come very late to Sunday School.
2. Most church members do not come back for the Sunday afternoon service.
3. Most church members do not attend prayer meeting.
4. One of the greatest heartaches is for young men to promise God to be a pastor upon high school graduation, and then not fulfil it. I paid the tuition fee of one young man for one year (whom I trained singing, song leading, and preaching) because he said, ‘I want to be a pastor.’ But when he graduated, he did not enroll. Now he just stays in their home doing nothing. Another talented young man I supported (by giving allowance) for one year on his first year in Bible College. On his second year, he quit. One more young man gave a testimony of his desire to enroll in Bible school and be a pastor. Our church promised him support. When he graduated high school, he did not enroll Bible school but worked in a computer game station.
5. Although this is no longer the case in our church, one of the ‘greatest’ problems in the fundamental Baptist churches in our area is that pastors seem to be ‘expected’ to be poor and to sacrifice for the church members. Since the pastors are not to be hirelings, the churches don’t give them a salary. So the problem of pastors is how to communicate and educate their church members about this matter of support.

October 7, 2011 Volume 12, Issue 39

The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this does not imply an endorsement. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.
GRAPHICAL PDF VERSIONRICK WARREN RECOMMENDS WORDLESS CONTEMPLATION (Friday Church News Notes, October 7, 2011, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Saddleback Church recommends a wide range of books on contemplative mysticism at its web site. Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Calhoun, for example, has been listed under the “Spiritual Growth” section for at least the past two years. Rick Warren, senior pastor at Saddleback, pretends that contemplative prayer is merely getting alone in a quiet place to meditate on God’s Word, but it goes far beyond that. Warren says that contemplative prayer is nothing like yoga, but as a former member of a Hindu meditation society, I can testify that practices such as centering prayer are definitely yoga-like. Adele Calhoun recommends Roman Catholic monastic practices which were, in turn, borrowed from paganism, as we have demonstrated in our book Contemplative Mysticism. Calhoun lists Roman Catholics as “spiritual tutors,” including M. Basil Pennington, Henri Nouwen, Peter Kreeft, William Meninger, Francis de Sales, Richard Rohr, William Johnson, Teresa of Avila, Thomas Keating, John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, Tilden Edwards, Ignatius Loyola, St. Benedict, Thomas Merton, John Henry Newman, Julian of Norwich. Not only are these deeply misguided individuals laden down with Catholic heresies, but many were led by their mystical practices to universalism, panentheism, and even rank idolatry. (For example, Thomas Merton worshipped Buddhist idols.) Calhoun recommends following the Roman Catholic church calendar, seeking spiritual direction from Catholic orders, and visiting Catholic retreat centers. She describes a pilgrimage she took with 30 women in her “covenant group” to visit the sites of Catholic mystics and to study their practices. She recommends a whole slew of unscriptural contemplative practices, including the Jesus prayer (vain repetition), palms up palms down (psychological visualization), lectio divina, imagination prayer, centering prayer, breath prayer, practicing the presence, silence, and spiritual direction. She recommends the use of single words as a mantra to drive away conscious thoughts. “Choose a simple word ... Let this word guard your attention. ... When your thoughts wander let them drop to the bottom of your mind. Don’t go after them. ... Imagine your distracting thoughts are part of the debris floating in the current of a river. Don’t try to capture these thoughts; release them and let the river of God’s life carry them away.” In describing her mysticism she quotes Richard Rohr, “Prayer is not primarily saying words or thinking thoughts. It is, rather, a stance. It’s a way of living in the Presence.” This is not biblical contemplation; it is blind mysticism. Even when it comes to devotional reading of the Bible, Calhoun discourages “mentally critiquing or exegeting the text.” Rather, the Bible is to be used as a launching pad for mysticism as the practitioner refuses to “analyze” it but merely “listens and waits.” It is impossible to exaggerate the danger inherent in contemplative mysticism, and it is impossible to warn too loudly and plainly of the spiritual blindness of those “evangelical” leaders who are promoting it.

At a conference in Bavaria in September 1984, this view was put forth as one of the possible paths of bird evolution. The textbook Understanding Biology through Evolution by Bruce Olsen calls crocodiles and birds “cousins” and claims that both evolved through the archosaur (“ruling lizard”).

Though attempts have been made to describe how a crocodile could become a bird, even the most ardent evolutionists have to admit that they “cannot as yet offer any plausible explanation for the origin of the unique shaft, barbs, and barbules without which modern feathers would have neither aerodynamic nor insulatory function” (Regal, The Quarterly Review of Biology, 1975, p. 35).

That could be the mother of all understatements!

A 2007 study shows that Calvinism is on the rise in the Southern Baptist Convention and is especially prominent among recent seminary graduates. Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, says that nearly 30% of recent graduates now serving as pastors are Calvinists (“Calvinism on the Rise,” Christian Post, Nov. 29, 2007). Roughly 10% of SBC pastors at large define themselves as Calvinists, but that includes only those who hold to all five points of TULIP theology and not those who hold to sovereign or unconditional election but not necessarily to all other points of Calvinism. LifeWay Research limits their surveys to a very narrow definition of Calvinism, and I suspect it might not want to know the true influence of Calvinism in the convention.

A report in Christianity Today for September 2006 was entitled “Young, Restless, Reformed: Calvinism Is Making a Comeback--And Shaking up the Church.” It documents the rapid spread of Calvinism in Evangelical circles, and I am seeing the same thing among Fundamentalists.