VOL. XXII  NO. 9 & 10  NEWS & VIEWS, NOTES & QUOTES, TO WARN & INFORM   Sept.-Oct. 2005

UN WANTS TO CONTROL WORLD BY INTERNET—Red China's totalitarian internet policies are the most repressive in the world. Anyone who opens an internet account must register it with the police (8/8 New Amer.). Any plan for an internet effectively controlled by the United Nations/China will serve only to blanket the globe in a worldwide web of oppression. In the offing also would be a global tax/army and other dangers for us.

LIBERALS HAVE LONG DOMINATED SCHOOLS—Nearly three-quarters of faculty members of U.S. colleges and universities describe themselves as liberals, and at elite schools, the proportion is 87 percent (7/05 Baptist Watchman). Harvard professor Doris Kearns Goodwin in her biography of LBJ quotes him as saying (p316): “(T)he communists control our three TV networks and the 40 major communication outlets...: It's all in the FBI reports. They prove everything. Not just about the reporters but about the professors too.” FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had earlier said the liberal press has been infiltrated by communists. Business Week in 1981 said over 10,000 Marxist profs were teaching in U.S. colleges and universities. Communism is an evil, anti-God system that Christians must oppose and expose.

SCHULLER'S RECIPE FOR DISASTER—Dr. Robert Schuller was honored by the recent NAE meeting in Colo. Springs. He said, “To be born again means that we must be changed from a negative to a positive self-image….” He said, “There are some things in the Bible I cannot swallow, but you get saved, not by the Book but by the blood.” ACCC Exec. Sec'y Dr. Ralph Colas covers many of these meetings and is able with press credentials to file helpful reports and thus keep us informed. Some of these reports are available from the American Council of Christian Churches, P.O. Box 5455 Bethlehem, PA 18015. Phone: (610) 865-3009.

GOD IS IN CONTROL—In the midst of the present calamity resulting from Hurricane Katrina, we would do well to keep in mind that as God told his “friend” Abraham, “Shall not the Judge of the whole earth do right?” Benjamin Franklin (1787 Constitutional Convention) said: “God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political [re] building no better than the builders of Babel.”

NOTE: We are late with this issue of the CC and are combining the September and October issues due in part to the recent hurricane. God in His mercy saw fit to spare us (North AL) from the devastation that wreaked havoc on southern parts of our state and other states. To contribute to relief efforts, you may do this through FBF: http://www.operationrenewedhope.org/about/index.html . Please pray with me regarding my health situation, and its impact on the future of the CC ministry.

WHITHER SWBF?—The Nationwide Independent Baptist Fellowship [NIBF] will hold its first national meeting, Oct. 4-6, 2005, at the People's Baptist Church in McDonough, GA, with Dr. David McCoy serving as the host pastor. The NIBF was formed basically as a fellowship replacement for the Southwide Baptist Fellowship [SWBF], when the SWBF officially cast aside its Fundamentalist moorings at its 2004 meeting, a direction which it had been gradually going for nearly two decades. [Copied from Aug.-Sep Fundamentalist Digest]

WHY SEPARATION?—The Bible presents a number of reasons for separation. Among them are doctrinal deviation and moral decadence. The purpose of separation is purity, both in belief and behavior (8/5 OBF Visitor). It is interesting that James (3:17) in discussing godly wisdom gives the order in this passage as “first purity, then peace….” Peace and unity are important but not at the expense of holiness and purity.

RICK WARREN'S DEFECTIVE MEGA CHURCH—Rick Warren endorses women for all church positions. He is pro-ecumenical. He endorses unreliable Bible translations. His is the largest SBC church in the world. He says: “I'm Southern Baptist, our church is Southern Baptist, and we cooperate in SBC missions.” One out of every ten churches in America is said to be a SBC church. Warren revealed his allegiance to the left-wing of the SBC when he told the Baptist Press the SBC's 2004 vote to withdraw from the apostate Baptist World Alliance was a major mistake.

YOUR BEST LIFE NOW is the title of a new book by Joel Osteen and reviewed by Mike Harding in the Feb. FrontLline. Osteen dropped out of Oral Roberts University in 1983. He pastors Lakewood Church in Houston (tongues-speaking, charismatic). Osteen accepts prosperity gospel's assumption that a “prosperity mentality” dishonors God…” He has apologized for recent remarks on Larry King Live that were evasive and left dangerous doubts on some of his beliefs. Sword editor Shelton Smith put it this way concerning Osteen: “His 'feel-good-about-yourself,' 'you-can-make-it' philosophy is somewhat akin to Peale's positive thinking and Schuller's possibility thinking.” He sees the Osteen ministry as a very anemic wish-washy version of Christianity.

GRAND RAPIDS PROF SAYS HEAVEN IS A PLACE ON EARTH—Dr. Michael Wittmer of Grand Rapids Theological Seminary has authored a book Heaven is a Place on Earth.” He says everyone who makes it to Heaven has to leave this life to go there. He rejects Heaven as the destination goal of saved believers.

FUNDAMENTALISM VS. EVANGELICALISM—Mike Harding (2/2 FrontLine-adapted) has an incisive review of David Wells' No Place for Truth. Wells does not identify with Fundamentalists, but he admires their spirit to remain a counterculture. “The great sin in Fundamentalism,” says Wells, “is to compromise; the great sin in Evangelicalism is to be narrow.” Naïve voices calling for a “kinder, gentler” Fundamentalism will not carry the day in the hour of battle. Lacking is the militancy necessary to promote truth, expose error, and separate from those promoting error. “We must militantly oppose the New Evangelicalism defined as a conciliatory movement antagonistic to historic, Biblical Fundamentalism accommodating to Neo-Orthodoxy, opposed to Biblical separation, and cooperative with compromise movements such as ecumenical Evangelicalism, sensual Christian music, Evangelical feminism, Charismatic theology, Christian psychology, and Willow Creek/Saddleback pragmatism….”

ACCC 64TH ANNUAL CONVENTION—This is scheduled for Parma, Ohio, Oct. 25-27, 2005. Speakers include: Dr. Bob Jones III (keynote), Rev. David Saxon, Rev. John Ashbrook, Dr. Rolland McCune, E. Allen Griffith, Dr. Frank McClelland, Rev. Jerry Johnson, Rev. Bob Potter, Dr. Richard Bennett, Rev. Michael Rake, and Dr. John McKnight. A panel, headed up by Dr. Ralph Colas, and ably assisted by Dr. Richard Harris, and Dr. McCune will discuss Contemporary Evangelicalism. Host pastor is Rev. Todd S. Nye.

'WORLD CHURCH ADVISES WORLD GOVERNMENT'—In the lead-up to the Sept.14-16 United Nations World Summit, the World Council of Churches (WCC) has shared its views on a planned reform of the UN with UK and China. Historically, the WCC and the UN have shared goals on justice and eradication of poverty, and the promotion of human rights and dignity. A letter from WCC gen. sec'y Rev Dr Samuel Kobia to the two governments called on the UN to hold fast in nine areas of UN work—100 % debt cancellation for poor countries, etc. The basis for moving toward a reformed UN is to empower and strengthen it so that it can address the global challenges facing humanity: wars, conflicts, nuclear arms, environmental degradation, AIDS, extreme poverty, and acts of terror, and a clear understanding that people in unusual peril have a right to protection; and that if their own governments cannot or will not provide such protection, then the international community has the responsibility to try to provide it. Kobia concluded: “On behalf of the WCC, allow me to express my support for your work at the UN and my wishes for wisdom in the very important process of building conditions for the UN to work for a better and safer world for all.”

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