Odds and Ends from the Editor: Critics of Way of Life

Odds and Ends from the Editor

By David W. Cloud

O Timothy magazine, Volume 12, Issue 11, 1995

P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org

CRITICS OF WAY OF LIFE LITERATURE

Last month we quoted some of the letters and e-mail we have received from friends of this ministry. This month I have decided to print one of the many letters we have received from those who do not agree with us. The following was an e-mail message from a man who had found the Way of Life Internet site:

"I just wanted to say that I recently came across your WEB page and was very disappointed in the articles written. Disappointed is really not the appropriate word--saddened is. It would seem to me that you could better use your time to preach the Good news as opposed to ripping apart other Christians and in effect, preaching bad news. You rip apart other Christians who have made a difference for God and you rip apart other Christians who sincerely are trying, though they may mess up, to make a difference in this world.

"I'm just feel sorry for you. I honestly do and I honestly feel frustrated because I think your intentions are good--but you're missing the boat. Jesus didn't agree with the theology of many of the people he encountered but he treated them with love. The people he treated harshly were the ones who thought they had all the answers, weren't willing to ask the questions, weren't willing to consider Jesus' answers, and looked down on everyone else for not agreeing with them. It would seem you fall into this category unfortunately.

"I'll keep you and the people you influence in my prayers. It's kind of sad ... it was people like you who several years ago made me consider 'Giving up' in the Christian faith. Luckily, thanks to God, He has shown me what true Life, what a Biblically functioning community can look like."

I gave the following reply to this piece of correspondence.

MY REPLY TO THOSE WHO DO NOT AGREE WITH MY EXPOSURE OF ERROR AND COMPROMISE

I'm glad you took the time to share your concerns with me about this ministry. I was saved 22 years ago by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:16), and for 22 years my chief desire has been to obey the Bible and to please the Lord who saved me by His blood. I don't know that I have done a very good job of it, but this has definitely been my desire.

I realize that many people are displeased with my preaching. I realize that my preaching is more negative than that of the typical ministry today. I also realize that I am not the perfect Christian, and that I have no authority in myself. I often agonize over this. "Lord, who am I to preach to others; I am such a miserable excuse of a Christian myself!" The fact is that I am not preaching myself; I am preaching the Bible. I am sure the prophets of old considered themselves unworthy to proclaim righteousness and truth to others. No man ever has been worthy to preach God's Word. But the fact is that God calls preachers, and He has given them a commission, and I must seek to obey God even if I do it imperfectly and even if I make mistakes. To be honest, I often wish that I could preach popular things and not have to focus on error, something to make men feel good . But the fact is that these late hours are characterized by error, and God works mightily in some men to expose it. Jeremiah's heart burned within him and he found that he could not refrain from speaking God's reproofs. Do you not think there are prophets of God whose hearts are so enflamed today?

God has commanded me to "prove all things" (1 Thess. 5:21), to "try the spirits" (1 John 4:1), to "beware of false prophets" (Matt. 7:15), to "take heed that no man deceive you" (Matt. 24:4), "to "search the scriptures daily, whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11), to "prove what is acceptable unto the Lord" (Eph. 5:10), to "approve things that are excellent" (Phil. 1:10), to "rightly divide the word of truth, But shun profane and vain babblings" (2 Tim. 2:15,16), to "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3).

The Bible commands me to "preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; REPROVE, REBUKE, EXHORT with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (2 Tim. 4:2,3). The Bible very plainly prophesies that the end of this age will be characterized by error and apostasy, not truth and sound New Testament faith.

The Bible says "he that is spiritual judges all things..." (1 Cor. 2:15). It also says, "The simple believeth every word: but THE PRUDENT MAN LOOKETH WELL TO HIS GOING" (Prov. 14:15).

True Biblical New Testament Christianity is not positive only; it involves a lot of "negatives." The Lord Jesus Christ did not overlook theological error. My Bible tells me He rebuked the Pharisees because they had corrupted the Word of God and had made their own religion. That is precisely what a great many Christian leaders have done today with the New Testament Faith. They have perverted it, and God has always called prophets to rebuke this type of apostasy. Did Paul not rebuke Peter for his hypocrisy (Galatians 2:11-14)? Did he not rebuke the Galatian heretics who were perverting the Gospel (Galatians 1:6-9; 3:1; 5:7-12)?

Preachers today who pervert the Gospel, or who yoke together with those who pervert the Gospel, are they above reproach? Do what you will, but I refuse to keep my mouth shut about these things.

The Bible contains a lot of negatives. The true Bible preacher not only affirms truth and righteousness; he REBUKES error and unrighteousness. Be careful that you are following the truth and not some man-made, humanistic, nice-sounding perversion thereof.

DISGRUNTLED BBFI MEN

In October I sent three articles to some e-mail lists which have been given to me from various sources. The articles were on Falwell praising Graham, Luis Palau in Nepal, and Graham's history of compromise. All of e-mail addresses to whom these articles were sent were assumed to be Fundamental Baptists. One list was for the Baptist Bible Fellowship International (BBFI). From the latter I received some very ungracious correspondence. Consider:

"It's pretty obvious to me that you don't have much to say and have plenty of time on your hands to say it. Please take me off your address list, when your name shows up I just delete your messages."

"Please take me off of your 'mailing list' now."

"I feel that you are using the BBFI directory for a use that it was not intended for. Therefore, please remove my name from your on-line directory."

"Please take me off your e-mail list! I did not ask for these messages and do not want to pay the connect costs associated with receiving them!"

"Please do not send me any more messages. If I wanted to read about someone using one-verse theology to attack other Christians, I'd subscribe to a Jehovah's Witness or Mormon listserv."

There were two or three dozen BBFI men like this who bluntly asked me to remove them from my mailing list. (Even after I stated plainly that it was a one-time mailing and that I do not add names to my mailing list without their permission.) Remember that these men claim to be Fundamental Separatist Bible-believing Baptists.Personally, I don't believe it. There are many men affiliated in some way with the BBFI who are true, Fundamental Bible-believing Baptists and who are grieved deeply about the kind of thing Falwell is promoting. I know many of these men. But there are many other BBF men today who are new-evangelical compromisers, pragmatists, and opportunists.

WAY OF LIFE LITERATURE ONLINE CATALOG