Fundamental
Evangelistic Association
selected
articles from:
©FOUNDATION
A MAGAZINE OF BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM
Dennis W. Costella, Editor; Karel Beyer, Production Manager; Matt
Costella,
Copy Editor
M.H. Reynolds, Jr. (1919-1997), Founding Editor
Urbana® '96 Report
by Pastor Dennis Costella
©FOUNDATION Magazine, Jan - Feb 1997
Urbana 96, the nation's
largest student missions convention, was held in Urbana, Illinois, December 27-31, 1996.
InterVarsity, an interdenominational, worldwide college ministry, has sponsored these
triennial missions conferences since 1946. Although a great deal of the information
provided to the missions-minded students at Urbana 96 was biblical and, therefore,
helpful, several statements and impressions made by Urbana leaders were unscriptural and
therefore harmful to the spiritual well-being of the students. Our desire and prayer is
that there will be some who will consider these dangers before their ministry for their
Lord is shipwrecked by deception.
When asked about the inclusive makeup of Urbana 96, Dan Harrison, the convention
director, responded, "InterVarsity serves the whole church in all of its
diversity." He went on to give an example of this inclusiveness by stating that there
are a "couple of hundred Catholics, a few Adventists, etc." at this conference.
The Urbana 96 leaders meticulously avoided making reference to any denominational
differences or conflicting doctrinal beliefs of the participants or leaders. Not only did
they give the impression that anyone who could "Call Jesus 'Lord'" would be at
home at the Urbana convention, but they never uttered a word of instruction or warning in
the plenary sessions or in any of the seminars we covered regarding errant doctrinal
issues of any kind. "The whole church in all of its diversity" evidently
included just about everyone imaginable.
Steve Hayner, president of InterVarsity, also alluded to the wide spectrum of
participation at Urbana. He said, "This convention is a partnership ...of several
hundred mission agencies, with several thousand churches and the mission committees of
those churches, with various other para-church organizations as well. So in many respects,
this conference ... is a gift to the kingdom in a broader sense than just who we
[InterVarsity] are." From these statements, we conclude that Urbana 96 is, in a real,
practical sense, a youth-oriented ecumenical movement to further "the kingdom."
Nothing we saw or heard deviated from this stated theme.
Urbana 96 leaders stressed the idea that cultural, social, economic and political
involvement in the native land of those being reached was essential for effective
Christian witness. Though faithful, true-to-the-Word missionaries throughout history have
also been concerned about these issues and sensitive to the particular needs and
distinctives of the mission culture, their primary objective was to present the Good News
of Jesus Christ's perfect provision for eternal salvation. Please notice the preceding
article which imparts the challenge of missions that was given at the turn of the century.
Yes, missionaries of long ago were aware of the necessity for peripheral responsibility
and sensitivity, but the driving passion and motivation for their ministry was the
proclamation of the Gospel. It should be the same today.
One major contrast between Urbana 96 and the 1946 conference as noted in the opening
press conference was the inclusion of individuals from other cultures. Early conferences
were extremely uni-cultural. The emphasis upon multi-ethnicity was continually stressed at
Urbana 96 because "that's the way the campus is, and that's the way the world
is," Harrison said. We agree. As Bible-believing, God-honoring Christians today, we
need to be aware of the cultural distinctives of the diverse population within which we
live and minister. We must be sure that a fellow Christian's ethnicity has no bearing upon
whether or not he is accepted and welcomed in our churches, nor should it affect our
witness to those we try to reach with the Gospel in our communities, nation and world.
Biblical fundamentalists must be certain that their attitudes and actions are truly
biblical in this regard.
LEADERSHIP CONCERNS
The leadership of Urbana 96 wanted to be certain that the focus of the meeting was to
challenge young people to be witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever would tend to
detract from this theme was avoided. However, the wide variety of seminar leaders and
mission agencies participating seemed to cause some difficulties for the conference
administrators. Hayner admitted that many seminar leaders were there because of
recommendations by mission agencies rather than by the exclusive selection of the
InterVarsity staff. This was why it was necessary for InterVarsity to announce
"disclaimers" at the beginning of some of the seminar presentations.
We interviewed Steve Hayner and had the opportunity to ask him about the problems
InterVarsity leadership faced in managing such a large, interdenominational convention.
For example, one problem that arose three years ago at the Urbana 93 convention centered
around a seminar leader who espoused New Aged-styled "imaging." This resulted in
a great deal of negative reaction following the Urbana 93 convention, and it was readily
apparent that the present leadership did not want the same thing to happen at Urbana 96.
Hayner agreed that this was one of his personal "headaches"--how to keep the
hundreds of seminars and agency displays consistent with the objectives and positions of
InterVarsity leadership. "All the seminar leaders and all the exhibitors must be
willing to sign our basis of faith which is the basic five points that most evangelical
conservative types could sign. But, there are pieces of this [doctrinal basis of
InterVarsity] that sometimes some of these folks [would question]--because there are so
many denominations, so many agencies, that InterVarsity itself might feel a little
uncomfortable."
What is the Doctrinal Basis of InterVarsity? Here it is:
• The unique Divine inspiration, entire trustworthiness and authority of the
Bible.
• The Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• The necessity and efficacy of the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for the
redemption of the world, and the historic fact of His bodily resurrection.
• The presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the work of regeneration.
• The expectation of the personal return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It would seem that this doctrinal statement could be construed to mean just about
whatever any particular Christian church or para-church organization would like. If some
of the seminar leaders were there because of the recommendation of mission agencies as
Hayner explained, then there was cause for concern. Yes, we do understand how Hayner was
at times uncomfortable with what was said and done by leaders and exhibitors supplying
thousands of college students with supposedly biblical answers.
Another problem Hayner addressed was the difficulty of knowing exactly what is being
said and done on the campuses of hundreds of InterVarsity college chapters around the
world. These individual chapters often create agendas that conflict with what Hayner would
personally like to see InterVarsity focus upon. For example, Catholic priests have led
InterVarsity campus Bible studies, yet Hayner made it plain that this is frowned upon by
the InterVarsity head office.
The unwillingness of InterVarsity to take a stand on current theological issues was
certainly evident at Urbana 96. One seminar focusing on the power of the Holy Spirit gave
the impression that today's tongues movement is valid. Hayner responded to this
observation by saying, "We're a broad-based movement. We have staff from a wide
variety of denominational backgrounds; we have staff from Pentecostal backgrounds as well
as mainline denominations, and they wouldn't agree doctrinally on a number of these
things.... We don't want to deny this experience--tongues or other manifestations of the
Holy Spirit--or we don't want to deny that this experience exists or is valid for some
believers, but this is not something that we want to make a requirement, either for or
against. So we sort of do a 'require not, forbid not' kind of thing."
The concluding press conference was also significant, for several Urbana leaders
expressed concern over the future of Urbana. How do they see the future of ministries such
as Urbana? Dan Harrison summed it up by saying, "I think there's every prospect that
within the next fifty years the task of world evangelization will be done. That's from a
human standpoint. I think it's quite do-able, and I think this generation is really well
suited to help complete that task. Along with the older generations of folks that are
continuing their fine missionary work in parts of the world, I think it will probably take
some new wine skins to be organized...various kinds of entrepreneurial efforts will take
place that look differently, that will be multi-ethnic, multi-racial. You will have women
leading and men leading and doing virtually everything together."
This opened the way for further discussion concerning whether or not it is necessary
for believers to depart from the traditional concept that the local church is exclusively
responsible for sending missionaries into the world, or whether it is now necessary to
network among agencies and para-church organizations. Lindsay Brown, director of the
International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), said that there would be more of
a need to "focus on teams first of all. Then, second, our focus must be on
partnership, both within these teams and across the divide as it were between different
missionary societies." Hayner said, "The nature of missions internationally is
really changing.... One of the things we really must do is to begin to focus on
partnership across the board. One of the ways that local congregations can work at this is
to begin to partner with churches within their affiliations or outside of that--but
partner with churches in other parts of the world. ... I look for many more inter-church
partnerships around the world."
George Verwer, founder and international coordinator of Operation Mobilization,
believes "grace killers and legalists" are two of the greatest hindrances to
future missions work. Foundation reporter Matt Costella asked Verwer what he meant by
these terms, and he answered, "Well, Charles Swindoll's book Grace Awakening
describes these terms. Basically, it's a legalistic person, a judgmental person who is a
specialist in putting cold water on new ideas or wanting to do something
differently." He went on to identify these grace killers: "Churches are
traditional. Let us be honest. And with tradition comes grace-killing, judgmentalism,
Phariseeism, legalism and all the rest of the garbage. Personally, I feel so strongly
about it that unless the church throws that off, we are basically doomed." Whether or
not one is open to accepting something new is not the issue here. Believers should judge
everything "new" according to God's Word and warn about it if it contradicts His
Word.
Hayner approached the issue differently and said universalism had taken the heart out
of local church missions. He said of the American church, "Universalism [all will
eventually be saved; there is no real need for evangelization] becomes almost the default
theological setting. The idea of saying that there is an absolute truth or talking about
'Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life' is universally thought to be intolerant,
narrow, bigoted and so forth.... it's not any great surprise that Evangelical
Quarterly or anybody doing a survey like that would see a lot of that among young
people and certainly in the church today."
Harrison added that the students at Urbana come "mostly from evangelical churches,
and the North American evangelical church is becoming--leaning more and more-- toward
universalism. They are quiet universalists. They are not preaching it. It's by
default." Harrison went on to say that the answer to this heresy of universalism is
to make it "abundantly clear" that "people [are] dying and going to hell
without Jesus." That is absolutely true! However, Harrison was the only one we heard
at Urbana 96 who even mentioned hell, and that was at a closing press conference that was
off-limits to the student participants. Why was hell not mentioned in the plenary
sessions, in the seminars (as far as we were able to determine), and in recommended
resource materials? Could it be because evangelical leaders that were praised at Urbana,
men such as Billy Graham and John Stott, are themselves terribly weak on what the Bible
says about the reality of eternal torment for those who reject Christ? No doubt the
leaders of Urbana who believe in a literal hell as Harrison does are faced with certain
opposition from within their own evangelical ranks if they should use the reality of hell
as a motivation for missions. Surely the previous generations of world-changing
missionaries were thus motivated, but the current X-generation is not so blessed. This is
sad indeed.
PLENARY SESSIONS
Several speakers at Urbana 96 presented biblical, Christ-honoring challenges to the
college youth. These speakers set wonderful examples before the young people of faithful,
old-fashioned missionaries who had given their lives in service for their Lord: Libby
Little in a war-torn eastern country, and Elisabeth Elliot, wife of Jim Elliot slain in
1956 in Ecuador. A plenary address by Evangelist T. V. Thomas also forcefully expounded
the dangers of pluralism and relativism in the current theological world context.
Nevertheless, there was also much at Urbana 96 that was not biblical, even confusing and
contradicting the stated aims of InterVarsity.
Jorge Atiencia, the regional training secretary with IFES, brought a series of studies
in the morning plenary sessions from the book of Acts. He had some extremely helpful
things to say but also misapplied God's Word in several instances. He said that Joel's
prophecy regarding the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. This
is the same errant interpretation that fuels the tongues movement today. In Acts 2, the
apostle Peter was directing the attention of the Jews gathered in Jerusalem for the feast
of Pentecost to the ministry of the Holy Spirit responsible for the manifestations in the
chapter, not the literal fulfillment of the prophesied events in Joel 2 that will take
place in the latter days of Israel after the church has been raptured. Atiencia also
presented the teaching that water baptism is a necessary step in obtaining God's
salvation. The Bible version he used and the comments made concerning Acts 2:38 regarding
the conversion and subsequent baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch clearly implied that baptism
was an integral part of the Gospel. In response to the question raised concerning God's
formula for salvation, Atiencia said, "Peter's response to the question paves the way
for their salvation: repent, be baptized, receive forgiveness and the Spirit, and move
out...." The perverted NRSV Bible that he and all participants were using promoted
this dangerous error, for the Ethiopian eunuch's confession of faith in Christ prior to
Philip baptizing him (Acts 8:37) was simply not in the NRSV text. That is an extremely
serious matter. It is no wonder that an announcement was excitedly made from the podium by
the conference director a couple of days later that "there was a baptism at the
Howard Johnson's swimming pool last night--two were baptized!" The questions we must
ask are "Why?"; "For what purpose?"; "By what authority?"
The same is true of the concluding night's "Communion Service." Are not these
ordinances to be scripturally administered by the local church?
SEMINARS
The more-than 200 seminars at Urbana 96 provided students with some helpful, biblical
truths and some harmful ideas and teachings that are contrary to God's Word. Dr. Alex Gee,
pastor of Union Tabernacle Ministries in Madison, Wisconsin, conducted a seminar on the
ministry of the Holy Spirit. Generally speaking, it was an excellent presentation of the
basic biblical truths concerning the need for the Holy Spirit to work within and through
the believer if he is to be a vibrant witness for Christ. The downside came, however, when
a few college students asked some questions concerning the "gifts" of the
Spirit. Dr. Gee, a Pentecostal minister, answered in the way that was consistent with his
beliefs--"the gifts are for today, and don't let anyone, including pastors who try to
explain away tongues as being for today, take your experience away from you." Again,
much that was said in the seminar was good, but the audience that left the meeting went
away with the false notion that the charismatic tongues experience is something to be
discovered if they had not already done so. What a dangerous teaching for young people
coming from churches where false charismatic teachings are rightfully repudiated by a
faithful, Bible-teaching pastor.
Another seminar dealt with homosexuality and lesbianism. The moderator, Mario Bergner,
was a former homosexual himself who gave an excellent, well-documented presentation of the
falsehood of saying that homosexuality is genetic or environmentally determined. Bergner
forcefully destroyed the politically correct but scientifically unsound theories that are
so popular today. He emphasized that the only way to properly deal with homosexuality and
lesbianism is to treat it as a learned, sinful behavior. It is then necessary to repent of
that sin and receive God's healing and enabling to live as the Lord has intended mankind
to live. Bergner said God created mankind as male or female, with no crossing or mixing of
the two.
Nevertheless, there was a problem with the leader's questionable theological position
(Episcopal, baptismal regeneration) and his testimony of having a personal conversation
with Christ in his hospital room that resulted in Jesus' telling him to place his own
hands on himself for healing. Much of the seminar was good and helpful, yet mixed with the
good was a personal testimony that went against some of the important biblical issues that
must be addressed by young people today. It does matter if we go to a good
Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church. It does matter if we believe visions or
extra-biblical revelations are for today or if our final authority and the basis for our
every experience is to be anchored to the completed revelation of the written Word of God.
A seminar on how prayer is used to break down the barriers to unity in witness and
ministry was led by MacKenzie Pier, the New York City director of the influential
"Concerts of Prayer" ministry headed up by David Bryant. Pier had three members
of minority communities (Korean, African-American, and Puerto Rican) present a number of
ways how the understanding of their respective cultures helps to break down prejudice and
clear the way for cooperation in inner-city ministry. Without doubt, there certainly is a
need for every believer to be sensitive to the cultural and minority distinctives of
others. There is no question that even Bible-believing, doctrinally sound "white
churches" have hindered what the Holy Spirit desires to do in bringing believers from
every nation and kindred and tribe together into the body of Christ for common testimony
and ministry. If any Christian pushes any other Christian away due to his economic status
or skin tone, then shame on him. He and the church he attends need to get right with God
and get on track with what the Bible says should be our common mission here on earth.
But the problem comes when the issue of barriers coming down centers on theological
differences. A personal interview with Pier at the close of the seminar indicated that
prayer was instrumental in bringing together all "Christians" who could say
"salvation is by grace" and "Jesus is Lord." We interject this
question: "Do you know of any group that calls itself 'Christian' that does not
assent to those two tenets?" In other words, Pier was insinuating that anyone,
regardless of their denominational distinctives, can and should come together in an
ecumenical spirit. He said that there was the need for "unity at any cost."
We asked Pier how prayer is used to "cross denominational boundaries." He
said, "What unites us is greater than what divides us. I feel like there's two
primary doctrines. The primary doctrines are salvation by faith in Christ alone and the
other is the unity of the body of Christ. Everything else is important but secondary. We
will not allow secondary doctrines to violate primary doctrines. We will not allow
it." If ever there was a self-serving definition of practical ecumenism, this is it!
It is understandable that Pier's comments concerning Roman Catholic involvement in
ecumenical prayer endeavors are so open-ended. We asked Pier how this policy could work
when Roman Catholics refuse to accept the biblical fact that salvation is by faith alone
in the Lord Jesus Christ. His answer reveals how biblical truth can be twisted to
accommodate a false religious system for the sake of unity: "I think if you sit down
and talk to Catholic leaders, they would not give you a uniform answer to that. Look at
someone like Mother Teresa as classic example to me, read her book A Simple Path
(as I did last year). She made some statements in there that sound very universalistic.
Well, I talked to an Indian leader who's evangelical, and he said that she's the best
evangelical in India. The evangelicals recognize it--and so you have this seeming
contradiction. ... If you took a group of people and divided them in half, then you gave
one group John 3 and Ephesians 2 and you gave the other group Matthew 25, and you asked
them to give the way of salvation, you would come up with two very different answers. If
you just go to Matthew 25 where Jesus says this is the criteria for getting into heaven,
Catholics are light years ahead of the Protestant community."
PRAYER
The emphasis of prayer at Urbana 96 was also evident in the plenary sessions, but
again, the prayer techniques employed were often borrowed from other ministries or
movements of our day that use prayer to further their particular agenda. For example, the
conference prayer leader, Daniel Oh, incorporated the popular technique of corporate
repentance for the sins of the fathers. He led the congregation in responding to quotes
that were flashed on the huge arena monitors in order to supposedly confess and repent of
sins of racism, social insensitivity and political indifference to the numerous needs of
the world's underprivileged. It was moving, yes, but not necessarily biblical. The World
Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches have been using this strategy and
liturgy for decades. Now, the evangelicals are finding it to be helpful in making a
politically correct public statement. However, the question remains: Do the individual
participants really understand their personal responsibility and accountability before God
regarding each of these far-reaching national sins and what their biblical obligation is
with respect to each one? Probably not.
Another popular movement that has swept through many college campuses lately is the
public confessing of personal sins. The supposed prayer-wrought revival at Wheaton College
was featured at Urbana 96. One student leader from Wheaton told how the public confession
at their chapel went late into the night and lasted for days. This was clearly
orchestrated by a student group that came from a southern Bible college who traveled to
Wheaton to introduce the "revival" there. However, this public confession was
presented to the young people at Urbana as a biblical, viable way to bring life and
meaning to the prayer meeting. Emotionalism and calculated responses are predictable when
microphones are strategically placed in a Bible college chapel with lines forming in the
rear. Microphones were not used in the main auditorium at Urbana, but later reports of
prayer and public confession indicated that it went on in sub-sessions at Urbana. Harrison
even mentioned in the final press conference that "one of the awakenings that has
taken place here is an awareness of the power of prayer. ... and the revival kind of
emphasis [referring to the Wheaton experience presented at a plenary session]. There were
a couple thousand people we estimate that skipped lunch and stayed on after Nathaniel's
presentation to do confession. Then a thousand voluntarily came back again later in the
day, and it continued on, spilled over into the small group system."
Yes, prayer was emphasized, but was the prayer biblically based? No. The kind of prayer
impressed to the young people at Urbana was the stylized forms of prayer that replicated
the popular prayer movements of our day--Confession "revivals," ecumenically
based "Concerts of Prayer," Charismatic forms of prayer, and prayers of
confession for the "sins of former generations." Traditional, reverential,
Bible-obeying and Bible-centered prayer did not gain the limelight.
BIBLES
Bible study was emphasized at Urbana, but every student who came away from this
convention was armed with a defective Sword. InterVarsity provided every participant with
a New Revised Standard Bible. The preface of these Bibles contained incredibly errant and
deceptive propaganda stating that the only Bible that they should stay away from was the
Authorized King James Version since it contains "serious defects." What a shame!
How sad that Urbana 96 and the American Bible Society collaborated in providing polluted
Bibles to nineteen thousand missionary-minded youth.
Many dear people of God who began supporting the American Bible Society with gifts or
legacies years ago because they agreed with the American Bible Society's stated purposes
may not yet realize that in recent years the ABS has been promoting and distributing
polluted Bible versions. At Urbana 96, every participant was given a free copy of The New
Revised Standard Version. The following explanation is given exactly as it appeared:
"We at the American Bible Society are happy to join hands with InterVarsity
Christian Fellowship of the United States of America and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
of Canada to provide you with this Bible. This edition is being funded by the generous
gifts of donors who support the ABS Mission. The purpose of the American Bible Society is
to provide the Holy Scriptures to every man, woman, and child in a language and form each
can easily understand, and at a price each can easily afford. This purpose, undertaken
without doctrinal note or comment, and without profit, is a cause which all Christians and
all churches are urged to support."
The New Revised Standard Version is an ecumenical Bible prepared by the apostate
National Council of Churches that holds the copyright and profits from the sale of each
NRSV Bible. The special edition given at Urbana contains the following explanation which
demonstrates the instability of its translators and levels a direct attack upon the KJV
Bible. We quote:
"The publication of our revision is yet another step in the long, continual
process of making the Bible available in the form of the English language that is most
widely current in our day. To summarize in a single sentence: the New Revised Standard
Version of the Bible is an authorized revision of the Revised Standard Version, published
in 1952, which was a revision of the American Standard Version, published in 1901, which,
in turn, embodied earlier revisions of the King James Version, published in 1611. In the
course of time, the King James Version came to be regarded as 'the Authorized Version.'
With good reason it has been termed 'the noblest monument of English prose,' and it has
entered, as no other book has, into the making of the personal character and the public
institutions of the English-speaking peoples. We owe it an incalculable debt. Yet the King
James Version has serious defects. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the
development of biblical studies and the discovery of many biblical manuscripts more
ancient than those on which the King James Version was based made it apparent that these
defects were so many as to call for revision."
EXHIBITORS
Over 250 Christian mission agencies and theological institutions were represented
either by exhibits or workshops at Urbana 96. All were considered to be evangelical in
doctrine but actually represented a great variety of theological viewpoints including
those that are a part of the unscriptural ecumenical and charismatic movements.
Among the ecumenical exhibitors listed were these: AD 2000 & Beyond Movement,
American Baptist International, Presbyterian Church (USA), and the United Methodist
Church. It was the latter two denominations which, in 1993, were involved in the planning
and financing of the iniquitous ecumenical women's conference with the theme:
"Re-imagining God ... the Community and the Church." Filled with attacks upon
Jesus Christ and the Bible while promoting heathenistic goddess worship and the advocacy
of homosexuality and lesbianism, this conference was denounced even by the evangelicals
who are part of these two apostate churches.
However, Urbana 96 leaders either ignored or were unaware of these facts since they
permitted exhibits from both denominations. In fact, Urbana Today, the official
Urbana 96 daily newspaper, contained a large advertisement which read, "Meet The
Presbyterian Church (USA)...providing exciting opportunities for young people to serve
through our Young Adult Volunteer Program. Come visit us in Huff Hall at our exhibit booth
#36 and 'Explore God's Call To You In Mission Service.'" Urbana 96 leaders should
have realized the need to warn young people about the dangers of ecumenism instead of
encouraging Christian youth to have fellowship with error.
Urbana Today ran another advertisement in the December 31 issue glorifying the
use of contemporary music as a means of evangelization. The half-page advertisement read,
"Christian music smashes cold war barrier. Celebrant singers, an international music
and missions organization, joined with Christians throughout Cuba to reach their nation
during a missions outreach November 19--December 3, 1996. From Santiago de Cuba in the
east to Pinar del Rio in the west--even in the Cathedral in Havana--the Good News of Jesus
was proclaimed in song, personal testimonies and the preaching of the Word ... The Cuban
government approved our visas because to them it's little more than a cultural event. But
doors to the cathedrals were thrown open, the music poured into the streets and the people
came to listen ... The gospel was shared through our songs and personal testimonies, and
many people came to know Christ. During their two week tour, Celebrants shared in Baptist,
Methodist and Roman Catholic churches. Following the service at the cathedral in Havana,
Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino was so pleased that he invited Celebrants to return in
1997 for concerts in the national stadium, the Karl Marx Theater and perhaps even for the
Pope during his visit to Cuba." The Celebrant Singers' advertisement asked: "Are
you looking for Music & Missions Opportunities? ...We're looking for you!" The
questions which must be asked are, "What gospel is being given? What Bible is being
preached? Can music unite apostate Baptists, Methodists and Roman Catholics preaching a
false gospel?"
Charismatic leaders are teaching and promoting several dangerous, unscriptural
doctrines, yet it is the fastest growing movement within the church today. However, at
Urbana 96, no warnings were given concerning it. In fact, although there was no open
advocacy of Pentecostal/charismatic error, a major force in the charismatic movement, the
Vineyard Churches, had an exhibit at Urbana 96 and the following advertisement appeared in
the December 28 Urbana Today: "Association Of Vineyard Churches. Come and
visit the Vineyard booth in the Armory building. How Will You Change Your World? Come and
see how you can! Pick up information about the following: Vineyard Bible Institute,
Missions, Health Care, International Development, Church Planting, Worship, Leadership,
Internship, Various Schools." The December 29 Urbana Today carried a large
Vineyard advertisement inviting students to attend a workshop where Steve Nicholson would
speak on "Power Encounters In Cross Cultural Missions" and in which he would
"share some of his signs and wonders stories from around the world." Are the
Urbana 96 leaders unaware of the origin and dangers of this movement? Are they unaware
that John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Fellowship, has changed some of his theological
positions several times, and that some of the churches he helped to establish have
separated themselves from him because of his vacillation? Did not the students at Urbana
96 deserve a warning rather than an invitation to be deceived?
Fuller Theological Seminary had an exhibit at Urbana 96 and ran a half-page
advertisement in the December 28 issue of Urbana Today which read, "Study
with faculty and students from around the world! Faculty--on cutting edge, all experienced
in global mission. Students--national leaders on campus from 80 countries and 125
denominations." Fuller Theological Seminary was founded by the late Dr. Charles E.
Fuller who was dissatisfied with the liberalism that had overtaken most institutions of
higher education. His desire was to establish an evangelical seminary, not just another
ecumenical one. Sadly, Fuller Seminary no longer deserves its evangelical title. It now
indoctrinates its students with a mixture of evangelical language, ecumenical fellowships,
charismatic heresies and the false philosophies of psychology.
The continued compromises of Urbana leaders and other evangelical leaders, groups and
institutions have moved believers away from the sure foundation of God's Word to the
shifting sands of human philosophies. We trust these words of warning may be used of God
to help in some way to deliver many true believers from the growing trend of compromise
and apostasy. Speaking the truth in love is necessary to counter spiritual blindness and
lack of biblical discernment. Ephesians 4:14, 15; Romans 16:17.
