[The following material is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 12, Issue 5, 1995. David W. Cloud, Editor. This material cannot be stored on BBS or Internet sites without permission from the author. Any articles which are redistributed by e-mail or print must be left intact and nothing must be removed or changed, including these informational headers. 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. The Way of Life web site is located at http://www.wayoflife.org/]

FALWELL AND CO-WORKERS COMMITTED TO A NEW EVANGELICAL PATH

By David W. Cloud

Jerry Falwell's National Liberty Journal is a new voice for compromise and confusion among Independent Baptists. The February and March 1995 issues feature several fearful things.

The cover story deals with the upcoming Promise Keepers meeting to be held at Falwell's university. Promise Keepers, of course, is radically ecumenical. One of the seven promises men are urged to keep is to promote interdenominational unity. There is no concern for doctrinal purity. Though Evangelicals and Charismatics of various stripes make up the majority of participants in Promise Keepers, Roman Catholics and Modernists are welcomed. John Wimber's radical Vineyard movement had a close hand in forming Promise Keepers. It is absolutely unconscionable for supposed Fundamental Baptist to participate in this. Does someone argue that our men need help to become better husbands and fathers? True enough. But we have the Bible and we have the New Testament church. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth, not some ecumenical, interdenominational movement. The Bible is sufficient to make the man of God "perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. 3:16-17). If our homes and lives are spiritually weak, it is only because we are not using the resources that God has given to us. The answer for our spiritual needs is to seek revival in our own hearts and churches.

The March 1995 National Liberty Journal also contained a report on James Combs becoming the Editor-in-Chief of Falwell's new magazine. From 1982 to 1995 Combs was the editor of the Baptist Bible Tribune, the voice of the Baptist Bible Fellowship of Springfield, Missouri. (The Tribune has a circulation of 27,000.) He was present when the BBF was formed in 1950 and has been a BBF church planter and leader ever since. It is sad to see this BBF leader join hands 100% with Falwell's compromise. Will any of the current BBF leaders warn the preachers and churches about this confusion? I know many of the BBF pastors are disgusted with this type of thing. I trust that many will lift their voices and reaffirm the BBF position against ecumenical compromise of every sort, including the Falwell sort. The hour cries out for plain speaking.

The March 1995 National Liberty Journal also contained a sympathetic report on Billy Graham's Global Mission evangelistic campaign. Dr. Graham is the key representative of the New Evangelical movement which has broken down the barriers between truth and error in our generation. He has sent thousands of "converts" back into the Roman Catholic Church. He has sent thousands more into the spiritually poisoned atmosphere of the Modernistic congregations associated with the World Council of Churches. For a supposed Fundamental Baptist publication to advertise a Graham crusade without a word of warning is utter confusion.

The February 1995 National Liberty Journal featured the announcement that Dr. John Rawlings, whom the article called "Mr. Baptist Bible Fellowship," has joined Falwell. After 43 years as pastor of Landmark Baptist Temple, Cincinnati, Ohio, and as one of the key leaders in the BBF, the 80-year-old Rawlings resigned and moved to Lynchburg to assume the position as Associate Pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church and Assistant to the Chancellor and Executive Director of the Center for Ministry Training at Liberty University. Rawlings served five terms as president of the Baptist Bible Fellowship International.

In his testimony in the National Liberty Journal Dr. Rawlings noted that he has been a close friend of Falwell since 1952. Dr. Rawlings caricatured and slandered those who have opposed Falwell's unscriptural directions. Rawlings said, "Sometimes this criticism is caused by pure old jealously. Sometimes it is caused by fear, resentment, or a total lack of understanding of Jerry's motives." He forgot to mention another motive for criticizing Falwell: Love for the Truth! Could it not be, Dr. Rawlings, that many of those who have opposed Falwell have done it because they have the same heart that David expressed in Psalm 119:128--"Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way"? Dr. Rawlings said that one of his goals for his remaining days is to "lift a standard against his [Jerry Falwell's] enemies on the left and on the right who, for whatever unholy reasons, attempt to do harm to God's man." This is a sad end to a fruitful life. The crying need of the hour is to lift a standard against the enemies of the truth.

The March 1995 National Liberty Journal contained an editorial by Jerry Falwell titled "Liberty University: the original vision." He detailed the vision he has had for the school from its origin. "The original vision for Liberty University, when its doors opened in 1971 to 154 students, was to build a distinctively evangelical Christian liberal arts university which would be, for evangelical students, a world-class institution comparing favorably, in every way, with Notre Dame and Brigham Young in what they provide for Catholic and Mormon young people."

This is not a scriptural vision. It is not a Fundamental Baptist vision. What in the world are Fundamental Baptists doing supporting this vision? Fundamental Baptists are not mere "evangelicals." The Fundamentalist is militant and separatistic, whereas the Evangelical is neutral. The Baptist is committed to the New Testament pattern for the church, whereas the Evangelical believes ecclesiology is a "non-essential" area of doctrine. We have printed an article in O Timothy several times entitled "Limited Fellowship or Limited Message." It describes the fact that if a man is committed to being 100% faithful to the Word of God and to all of the Truth contained therein, he will of necessity be limited in his fellowship. On the other hand, if a man aims to be unlimited in his fellowship he will of necessity compromise and narrow his message. The old-line Fundamental Baptist refuses to limit his message in any way whatsoever. Like Paul, he determines to preach the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27). Thus he cannot be merely an Evangelical.

Falwell works closely with the Southern Baptist Convention. That is as it should be. Conservative Southern Baptists are Evangelicals. They are likeminded with Graham and Falwell. But Independent Baptists historically are something different from this. Preachers, beware. These are evil days.