"Be not afraid or dismayed by reason of this great multitude for the battle is not yours but God's" (2nd Chronicles 20v15)

 

Dear praying friends,

 

Let me first update you on some matters that you have been praying about. My niece Heather underwent a scan after her 6 chemo sessions finished and she was told that the cancer is now in remission for which we praise God. She is hoping perhaps to start work early in the New Year [DV]. Her condition will be closely and regularly monitored. Please pray on for her physical AND spiritual needs. For those who received details of the French Court Case involving our brother in Christ, Axel, a verdict is expected in early December [see blue enclosure] – again do please pray on that he will be released back to his family.

 

Again I would earnestly covet your prayers for what is shaping up to be a very busy first 4 months of 2006  [DV]. Please pray that many will attend and be helped by the seminars on Islam [see pages 3-4] and also through the special meetings involving Pastor Gary Gilley [see pages 7-10].

 

Next year [DV] will also herald for me one of those ‘landmark’ birthdays so please do pray that the Lord will graciously enable me to continue “with patience the race that is set before me” [Hebrews 12:1]. Margaret and I thank you for all your love and kindness at this the end of yet another year.

 

Your servant for Christ

CECIL ANDREWS

 

‘Kissing Cousins’ is the name of a recently published book that was reviewed by Kenwyn Pierce in the quarterly magazine ‘Inside Out’ [Issue 45: June- August 2005] issued by the Council for World Mission. On their website the Council for World Mission state –

The author of the book is Bill Musk and he is referred to in the review as ‘a former missionary and evangelical minister’. I want to quote some extracts from the review [the underlines are mine] –

I have read only this review but assuming that it is an accurate reflection of the contents then I would view it as a very dangerous book in that it suggests that Christians and Muslims are somehow in the same ‘family’ – hence the title ‘Kissing Cousins?’ Any faithful ‘retelling of the Jesus story’ and emphasis on ‘Jesus’ work of defeating the works of the Devil’ must centre on and stand on Christ’s atoning death on The Cross and as Muslims emphatically deny the atoning death of Christ at Calvary they simply cannot be in any way spiritually related to Christians and so ‘better relations’ cannot be cultivated in any spiritual sense whatsoever. The next pages detail ‘Seminars on Islam’ to be held in 2006 [DV]. Please pray for the Lord to use them for His glory.

 

 

In a series of 3 lectures, recorded

on DVD, Dave Miller will consider

 

 

Day and Date	Time	Location	Lecture
Tues 31 January	8.00pm	Cookstown Baptist Church	Prophet & Pillars
Wed 1 February	8.00pm	Cookstown Baptist Church	Koran & Inspiration
Thurs 2 February	8.00pm	Cookstown Baptist Church	Doctrinal Differences

 

Day and Date	Time	Location	Lecture
Tues 7 February	8.00pm	Olivet Hall, Mount Merrion Avenue	Prophet & Pillars
Wed 8 February	8.00pm	Olivet Hall, Mount Merrion Avenue	Koran & Inspiration
Thurs 9 February	8.00pm	Olivet Hall,  Mount Merrion Avenue	Doctrinal Differences

 

Day and Date	Time	Location	Lecture
Tues 14 February	8.00pm	Lisburn Independent Methodist	Prophet & Pillars
Wed 15 February	8.00pm	Lisburn Independent Methodist	Koran & Inspiration
Thurs 16 February	8.00pm	Lisburn Independent Methodist	Doctrinal Differences

 

Day and Date	Time	Location	Lecture
Tues 21 February	8.00pm	Warrenpoint Baptist Church	Prophet & Pillars
Wed 22 February	8.00pm	Warrenpoint Baptist Church	Koran & Inspiration
Thurs 23 February	8.00pm	Warrenpoint Baptist Church	Doctrinal Differences

 

Day and Date	Time	Location	Lecture
Tues 28 February	8.00pm	Stonepark Baptist Church	Prophet & Pillars
Wed 1 March	8.00pm	Stonepark  Baptist Church	Koran & Inspiration
Thurs 2 March	8.00pm	Stonepark  Baptist Church	Doctrinal Differences

 

Day and Date	Time	Location	Lecture
Tues 7 March	8.00pm	Ballyclare Baptist Church	Prophet & Pillars
Wed 8 March	8.00pm	Ballyclare Baptist Church	Koran & Inspiration
Thurs 9 March	8.00pm	Ballyclare  Baptist Church	Doctrinal Differences

As further evidence that there appears to be a deliberate attempt to convince Evangelical Christians that Mormons are their brothers and sisters in Christ [June 2005: News From The Front: ‘After ECT will there be an EMT?’] one only has to read these extracts from a planned conference [‘Joseph Smith at 200’: 24-28 October 2005] that was organised by ‘The Religious Studies Department at Centenary College of Louisiana, in association with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Shreveport Louisiana Stake’. December 2005 marks the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism. Here are details of some of the lectures and speakers involved in the conference:

The Tuesday [October 25] lecture was given by Dr Jan Shipps and from the conference website we read this about Dr Shipps – ‘Jan Shipps is a Professor Emerita of History and Religious Studies at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis.  A graduate of Utah State University, she received the M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado.  [She is] The premier non-Mormon scholar of LDS history and a member of the United Methodist Church’.

The Thursday [October 26] talk and dialogue involved Robert Millet and Greg Johnston, both of whom featured in my June 2005 article. The details for them on the conference website read as follows –

‘Robert L. Millet is Richard L. Evans Professor of Religious Understanding and Professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University.  He received the B.S. and M.S. in Psychology from Brigham Young University and the Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Florida State University.  He is the author of numerous books and articles, including A Different Jesus?’ and

‘Gregory Johnson is an ordained Conservative Baptist minister.  He graduated from Westmont College with the B.A. in Social Science and received the Master of Divinity degree from Denver Theological Seminary. He is President of Standing Together Ministries, a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of cooperation and mutual understanding among Christian groups in Utah.’

I think we must ‘watch this space’ on this ever-growing deception.

In the wake of my article speculating on a possible future ‘Evangelicals and Mormons Together’ agreement [June 2005: News From The Front: ‘After ECT will there be an EMT?’] it is clear that the BBC will have no problem accommodating such a concept and indeed in many respects they appear already to be ‘ahead of the pack’. During their supposedly Christian ‘Songs of Praise’, broadcast from Blackpool on 4^th September 2005, one of those interviewed, not only about his singing career, but also about his ‘faith’ was Jimmy Osmond, one member of the high-profile Mormon Osmond family. It was therefore very refreshing, from a Biblical Christian standpoint, to read the following statement issued by Dr John MacArthur on the subject of Mormonism

 

 

When Tony Blair and ‘New Labour’ swept to power they ‘purposed’ to reform many aspects of British life – The Health Service, Education, Prisons and so on. However it is reported that on one occasion, when Alistair Campbell was in ‘full spin’, he apparently said about Mr Blair and The Labour Government ‘we don’t do God’ – in other words it was not their ‘purpose’ to reform ‘church life’. However over recent decades others have arisen and their aim has indeed been to ‘do God’ – in other words they have ‘purposed’ to totally reform ‘church life’ and this ‘purpose’ – to radically reform ‘church life’ – has in particular gathered steam over the last 4-5years although it has been very much on the go since about the mid 1970’s.

 

The best known Ministers and Churches in the Vanguard of this new ‘EMERGING CHRISTIANITY’ would probably be BILL HYBELS of WILLOW CREEK [1975], ROBERT SCHULLER of the CRYSTAL CATHEDRAL [1980], RICK WARREN of SADDLEBACK CHURCH [1980] and another ‘emerging’ name would be BRIAN McCLAREN who is identified with this group known as THE EMERGING CHURCH – on a church level he pastors Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, Maryland. This whole concept of reforming church life has had various names given to it such as ‘seeker sensitive’, ‘user friendly’, ‘purposeful’ and ‘emerging’.

 

It will be totally impossible to do justice to such a vast subject in this article so I plan just to examine through headings and brief explanations some of the traits associated with what have been dubbed ‘The New Paradigm Churches’. Pastor Gary Gilley of Southern View Chapel [USA] wrote an article entitled ‘The Market-Driven Church’ and in it he stated that ‘New Paradigm Churches…are identified by a philosophy of ministry intentionally designed to effect numerical growth. In their church growth, more attention is paid to market strategy, business techniques and demographics [population studies] than to New Testament instruction.

 

Further light was shed on the strategy and aims of today’s ‘emerging’ Christian leaders when a number of them assembled to speak at the Baptist World Alliance congress held in Birmingham [England] in July 2005. In a press interview, one newspaper reported as follows - ‘Urging Christians to pursue “a new reformation” in the 21st century, Rick Warren told delegates to the Baptist World Centenary Congress, “The first Reformation was about belief. This one needs to be about behaviour.” 

 

In the earlier quote by Gary Gilley he wrote of how people would pay more attention to an assortment of matters in preference to ‘New Testament instruction’. This was amply demonstrated in the following report of a statement by Rick Warren - “I see absolutely zero reason in separating my fellowship from anybody”…Noting he has theological differences with many of the diverse denominations that invite him to speak, Warren added, “That doesn’t stop me from fellowshipping with them.” I believe that God’s Word in for example 2 Thessalonians 3:6&14 teaches something quite different.

 

On May 23, 2005 Rick Warren was a guest speaker at The Pew and Religion Forum and there he expressed some views on one of those other ‘denominations’, namely Roman Catholicism – ‘I would encourage you to look at this evolving alliance between evangelical Protestants and Catholics, particularly in the evangelical wing of Catholicism. Now when you get 25 percent of America, which is basically Catholic, and you get 28 to 29 percent of America, which is evangelical, together, that's called a majority. And it is a very powerful bloc, if they happen to stay together on particular issues.’

 

Little wonder then that when in England in July, Rick Warren not only spoke at the BWA Congress, where his fellow speakers, linked to the ‘emerging’ church, included Tony Campolo and Steve Chalke but he also spoke at a C S Lewis Institute gathering in Oxford and Cambridge and amongst his fellow speakers there were Charles Colson [joint architect of ‘Evangelicals and Catholics Together’ (1994)] and Peter Kreeft [Roman Catholic author of the book ‘Ecumenical Jihad’ that states on page 164 ‘The power that will reunite the Church and win the world is Eucharistic Adoration’. – A book that carried favourable endorsements on its back cover by Charles Colson and J I Packer].

 

Earlier I wrote ‘I plan just to examine through headings and brief explanations some of the traits associated’ and the following table contains these ‘headings and brief explanations’.

 

THE THINKING	Don’t offend
THE TACTICS	Discover needs
THE TREND	Discard tradition
THE TWISTING	Distort scriptures
THE TREACHERY	Ditch objectors
THE TRICK	Delight everyone
THE TRAGEDY	Dubious ‘conversions’
THE TEACHERS	Deceived and Deceiving

 

 

One of the reasons I haven’t gone very deeply in this article into all the matters associated with this subject of the ‘emerging’ church is that I have invited Pastor Gary Gilley to come to the Province and speak on this challenging topic. His talks will be entitled as per this article namely – “Today’s Church Is ‘Changing’: What On Earth Is ‘Emerging’?” Earlier this year Pastor Gilley had a series of articles published in Evangelical Times called ‘Modern Christian Mysticism’.

 

With our next newsletter [March 2006 (DV)] I shall include the leaflet giving the full schedule of where Gary Gilley will be speaking but meantime the details follow this article and I do covet your prayers, especially for Gary, as he would be putting together the talk to be given.

 

 

 

 

 

Day and Date	Time	Location
Sunday 19 March	7.00pm	Warrenpoint Baptist
Monday 20 March	8.00pm	Bethel Free Presby. Enniskillen
Tuesday 21 March	7.45pm	Newtownards Baptist
Wednesday 22 March	8.00pm	Ballynahinch Congregational
Thursday 23 March	8.00pm	Kilkeel Baptist
Friday 24 March	10.00am	Belfast City Mission
Saturday 25 March	8.00pm	WORD Mission near Moira
Sunday 26 March	11.30am