Smoke, Mirrors and Disinformation…

THE NEW AGE TIES OF THE APOLOGETICS MINISTRIES

 

 

 

DIAKRISIS INTERNATIONAL

 

DISCERNMENT OR DECEPTION?

 

 

“Gnosis: the knowledge of the enlightened mind, of one who has learnt to perceive by means of diakrisis which is a participation in divine knowledge and so linked with contemplation.” ~ A History of Monastic Spirituality

 

“I have long wanted my writings to break outside the purely Christian scene.  I believe that this subject [the Illuminati] provides the perfect opportunity.  This is the ideal era for ‘cross-over’ work, as there are many people who are not Christians who see very clearly what is developing in the world.  It is for this reason that I e-mailed you about the fact that some of us are discussing a pan-European conference on this subject which would involve Christian academics and authors and an open international audience drawn from all religions or none, diverse cultures and walks of life, rather than merely being closed sessions for conspiracy freaks and Christian fundamentalists.  Please pray that this will become a reality.” ~ Alan Morrison, Diakrisis Mailing List, Sept. 23, 2001

 

 

Diakrisis Institute is an ecumenical apologetics organization in West Germany whose director is Dr. Peter Beyerhaus, a member of the Lausanne Committee on Theology and Education.  Diakrisis Institute recommends the following among “Websites to which we would like to gladly refer you”:

 

Diakrisis International
English-language Website of Rev. Alan Morrison, which takes up similar topics, like Institut Diakrisis

 

Alan Morrison maintains that Diakrisis International is not affiliated with Diakrisis Institute and that he only learned of Beyerhaus and his organization two years ago:

 

      “In March 2000, I was invited to a meeting with Peter Beyerhaus from the Diakrisis Institute in Germany.  I had no prior knowledge of them before they contacted me.  I got the impression that they [sic] an academic group who were a little put out to discover that I had already used the same name as them for some years and that I also owned the domain names of Diakrisis (they were thinking of setting up a website at the time).  They said that they wanted to talk to me to see if we had any common ground.  There was a hint of some funding.  I was living in Holland at the time and the journey there was only a drive away.  I was curious about this organisation and why they were interested in me.  I duly went to the meeting with my wife Catherine.  However, we found the entire thing very bizarre.  I was deeply disturbed by what happened there, not to mention the fact that Beyerhaus is heavily connected with the ecumenical movement, has fudged numerous issues in dialogue with leading Catholics and is also a member of the shady Knights of Malta.  I knew none of this before I went to this meeting.  On 11th April 2000, I wrote to those who, at the time, were my sponsors of Diakrisis and reported the following:

 

     “I had a meeting with a board in March, which carried some promise of funding. But nothing could have been further from the truth. I was being sucked (suckered?) into a situation in which Diakrisis would have been dissolved and absorbed into a most unsatisfactory scenario. I can't go into it more here; but suffice it to say that Catherine and I regarded it as a subtle move on the part of the enemy to castrate the ministry of Diakrisis entirely".

 

     “I didn't say what or where the board was, or who it consisted of…”  [Why not?]

 

Alan Morrison claims: “I had no prior knowledge of them before they contacted me” however, in his 1994 book titled The Serpent and the Cross (p. 656), Morrison quoted Prof. Peter Beyerhaus with a precise description of another organization Beyerhaus directs. The same reference to Beyerhaus is found in Morrison’s 1993 book and article, The Trojan Horse in the Temple:

 

“When the Pope attended the pioneering interfaith gathering at Assisi in 1986, one lone voice protested on that syncretic occasion. A Roman Catholic follower of the traditionalist Archbishop Marcel Lefèbre braved the inevitable accusation of 'being negative' by handing out leaflets in the main square, telling reporters that 'the Pope is trying to make a super-religion with himself at the head'. ¹¹¹ This was an astute observation. He is not alone in his concern about the ecumenical, interfaith activities of the Vatican. Prof. Peter Beyerhaus, President of the International Conference of Confessing Fellowships — an umbrella organization of conservative evangelicals — wrote to the Pope after the Assisi event telling him of his fear that such meetings could trigger off a ‘crevasse of syncretism’ in many Christian churches.¹¹² In the course of his letter, Prof. Beyerhaus asked the rhetorical question: ‘Is it now official Catholic teaching that the adherents of all religions worship the same God?’.¹¹³

 

Here we see proof that Alan Morrison knew of Peter Beyerhaus at least seven years before his March 2000 meeting with Diakrisis Institute and also commended Beyerhaus to his readers as an outspoken opponent of the ecumenical overtures of the Vatican.  Moreover, Alan represented Beyerhaus’ organization as an umbrella over “conservative evangelicals.”  Not only was Morrison less than honest about his prior knowledge of Peter Beyerhaus, his book seriously misrepresents both Beyerhaus and his organization to his readers. 

 

The term “conservative evangelical” is speciously applied by neo-evangelical scholars to organizations such as those founded by Billy Graham (Christianity Today) and Harold Ockenga (Fuller Seminary and the National Association of Evangelicals/NAE). The neo-evangelical movement pioneered by Peter Beyerhaus' International Conference of Confessing Fellowships was not conservative in the sense of being 'fundamental' in its doctrine, but rather ecumenical and socio-political in nature. 

 

     “After World War II...the evangelistic campaigns of the youthful Billy Graham had a global impact. A party of ‘conservative evangelicals’ emerged in Britain and Evangelikaler in Germany, and their strength was reflected in such developments as the National Evangelical Anglican Congress and the German based Conference of Confessing Fellowships. In the United States the foundation of the National Association of Evangelicals (1942), Fuller Theological Seminary (1947), and Christianity Today (1956) were significant expressions of the ‘new evangelicalism,’ a term coined by Harold J Ockenga in 1947.

     “The new or ‘neo’ evangelicalism took issue with the older fundamentalism. Ockenga argued that it had a wrong attitude (a suspicion of all who did not hold every doctrine and practice that fundamentalists did), a wrong strategy (a separatism that aimed at a totally pure church on the local and denominational levels), and wrong results (it had not turned the tide of liberalism anywhere nor had it penetrated with its theology into the social problems of the day). Edward J Carnell maintained further that fundamentalism was orthodoxy gone cultic because its convictions were not linked with the historic creeds of the church and it was more of a mentality than a movement. Carl F H Henry insisted that fundamentalists did not present Christianity as an overarching world view but concentrated instead on only part of the message. They were too otherworldly, anti intellectual, and unwilling to bring their faith to bear upon culture and social life.” [“Evangelicalism,” Richard V. Pierard, Prof. of History, University of Iowa]

 

Peter Beyerhaus, past president of the International Conference of Confessing Fellowships, is not some obscure figure in the ecumenical movement.  Beyerhaus was and continues to be a respected leader at the highest level of the Lausanne Movement, which is the global movement through which the World Evangelical Fellowship, which represents 160 million Evangelicals worldwide, is drawing Christians into union with Roman Catholicism and, by extension, a One World Religion. [For those unfamiliar with the Lausanne Movement, some information is available in The World Christian Movement, although not the full picture.]  In “My Pilgrimage in Mission,” Beyerhaus wrote of his prominent role in the leadership of Lausanne from the very first ICOWE in 1974:

 

“At the First International Congress on World Evangelization, in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974, I presented a plenary paper on the topic ‘World Evangelization and the Kingdom of God.’ At the Second Lausanne Consultation in Manila (1989), I conducted a seminar entitled ‘Eschatology and World Evangelization.’ As a member of the Lausanne Working Group on Theology, I had attended most of its consultations, including the one in Hong Kong (1988) on conversion.” [Beyerhaus, “My Pilgrimage in Mission,” 10/1/2000]

 

John Stott, chair of the Drafting Committee of the Lausanne Covenant, felt that Beyerhaus’ influence in the drafting of this historical document at the first International Congress merited honorable mention in his famous ‘Exposition and Commentary’. Noting the input of the various presenters at the consultation, Stott wrote of Beyerhaus’ contribution to the theological perspective of the Covenant:

 

“A first and fairly short statement was produced two or three months before the Congress and submitted by mail to a number of advisers. Already this document may truly be said to have come out of the Congress (although the Congress had not yet assembled), because it reflected the contributions of the main speakers whose papers had been published in advance…

 

“Professor Peter Beyerhaus distinguished clearly in his paper on ‘World Evangelization and the Kingdom of God’ between two stages of the kingdom, and argued that evangelization is both ‘inviting into the kingdom of grace’ now and ‘preparing for the kingdom of glory’ to come. Men enter the kingdom of grace today by spiritual regeneration and should become ‘convincing models of social and political involvement.’” [Stott, The Lausanne Covenant: An Exposition and Commentary]

 

On the Diakrisis Institute website, Beyerhaus’ biography further describes his leadership role in the Lausanne Movement:

 

“Almost every year since 1971 Beyerhaus has been following invitations to visit various countries including those in North and S. America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. This brought him in vital contact with churches, missions and theological training institutions in all parts of the world. He gave guest lectures, conducted refresher courses for missionaries, addressed student meetings and participated in evangelistic enterprises, including the huge rallies EXPLO '74 and '80 World Evangelization Crusade in Seoul, Korea, which were attended by more than a million people. Beyerhaus was one of the main speakers at the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne 1974. Consequently he was elected member of the Lausanne Committee of World Evangelization. In this capacity he attended also the Consultation on World Evangelization in Pattaya, Thailand 1980 and several missiological consultations. He served also as an advisor of the Theological Commission of World Evangelical Fellowship and of Asia Theological Association. At the International Congress on World Evangelization Lausanne II in Manila in 1989 he conducted a seminar on World Evangelisation and Eschatology.”

 

The Lausanne Movement did not suddenly materialize out of nothingness, but was the long term project of the World Evangelical Fellowship which was formed in 1952 from the “dying embers” of the Evangelical Alliance which was founded in 1846 in Freemason’s Hall, London.  John Stott, the framer of the Lausanne Covenant, oversaw the formation of WEF and formulated its purposes.  In essence, Lausanne and indeed the entire ecumenical movement are a Masonic enterprise. The following statement by Peter Beyerhaus displays his unabashed overtures toward the Roman Catholic Church and enthusiasm over the success of Vatican II, another Masonic project:

 

“The third obstacle to the formation of solid national churches that vigorously applied the Gospel to the needs of the people were the confessional and denominational divisions imported from the Western churches and proliferated by additional schisms and separatist movements, particularly in South Africa. Too much energy was consumed by such frictions! Therefore, I gladly participated in interdenominational enterprises such as student Christian associations and in-staff institutes for theological seminaries that were sponsored by the Theological Education Fund. These vehicles of fellowship brought about a new sense of fraternity across the various institutions, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. The inclusion of Roman Catholics, which would have appeared unthinkable in earlier times, had become possible as a result of the impact of the Second Vatican Council. It also served to broaden my own outlook for an ecumenical vision that combined faithfulness to my confessional heritage with a concern for a reunification of the body of Christ according to his intercession in chapter 17 of the Gospel of John.” [My Pilgrimage in Mission]

 

This statement, which is representative of many others made by Beyerhaus, presents a rather different picture of this major ecumenicist than Alan Morrison’s favorable reference to him as a leader of “conservative evangelicals” who is “concerned about the ecumenical, interfaith activities of the Vatican.”  Beyerhaus’ membership in the Knights of Malta is a key piece of information to understanding the Masonic origins and oversight of the ecumenical movement.  However, Alan Morrison inexplicably refrained from informing his financial supporters and other adherents about Beyerhaus and this other Diakrisis with sinister aims and connections, i.e., the connection to Lausanne, the Knights of Malta connection, or that Beyerhaus’ Convention of Confessing Fellowships—whom Alan formerly misrepresented in his book as an anti-ecumenical organization of “conservative Evangelicals”—in fact dialogues with Roman Catholics.

 

In “My Pilgrimage in Mission,” Beyerhaus goes on to point with pride to his participation in interfaith enterprises sponsored by the Fund for Theological Education [FTE] which, following the money trail, leads to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.  The transformation of Protestant churches to serve the corporate-run world government has been made possible through Rockefeller funding of Protestant seminaries and establishing new accreditation standards through the FTE-affiliated Association of Theological Schools:

 

“The Fund for Theological Education was established in the early 1950s as a response to a perceived crisis in Protestant theological education. At that time, a group of influential seminary educators, clergy, and interested lay persons had become convinced that the quality of those entering the ministry had declined and that many of the best and brightest students were choosing professional careers outside the ministry. In order to encourage talented college graduates to consider the ministry, an unprecedented initiative was launched in 1954 to attract promising but otherwise undecided candidates to seminary education. Begun in close affiliation with the American Association of Theological Schools, the Fund for Theological Education grew both in scope and size over the next forty years and became a leading force in support of excellence in theological study…  

“A new kind of scholarship program for theological education was envisioned in 1953 by two nationally known educators, Nathan Pusey, President of Harvard University, and Henry Pitney Van Dusen, President of Union Theological Seminary, New York…Pusey and Van Dusen were not alone, and they were able to convince the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to support a new initiative that would enable highly qualified college graduates considering but undecided on a ministerial career to enroll in an exploratory year of theological studies. In 1954 an eminent board of directors was established under Pusey's leadership in close cooperation with the American Association of Theological Schools to guide the new program…”

 

The Fund for Theological Education finances the World Evangelical Fellowship's stranglehold on theological programs worldwide. One Christian researcher discovered this WEF/Rockefeller stronghold in the process of compiling a comprehensive database of organizations and leaders of the global ecumenical movement. Dana Hoard’s entry on WEF’s Commission on Theological Education & the Association of Theological Schools, through which the Rockefeller’s Fund for Theological Education is administered, reveals the control which secular foundations exert over Evangelical schools of theology:

 

“The World Evangelical Fellowship/WEF’s role in theological education is comprehensive and global, encompassing the planning and development for all theological curriculum and leadership development. WEF’s name has been changed [2001] to World Evangelical Alliance.

“The Association of Theological Schools/ATS serves as the accrediting agency for most post graduate theological study and for most of the seminaries in the U.S. and Canada.  ATS plays a pivotal role in the transformation of the church.  Consider the fact that ATS accredited schools train the majority of all U.S. pastors and theological professors. Add to this the questionable and extensive partnerships between ATS accredited institutions and the private foundations; through the largesse of the foundations, which are run by powerful corporations, ATS is virtually under their control. But this coexistence is how it was designed to be.”

 

Harold Fuller, first president of the World Evangelical Fellowship, also documented the wide range of WEF’s interactivity with the World Council of Churches [WCC], Lausanne and the A.D. 2000 Prayer Network. Like the World Council of Churches, WEF is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations. WCC representatives have also attended the Lausanne Consultations:

 

“Because of its positive, well-defined position, WEF is now recognized by [the World Council of Churches] and other global councils as representing a distinct worldwide constituency. For instance, WEF participates in the annual Conference of Secretaries of World Christian Communities, for purposes of communication. WEF also maintains close ties with other evangelical global organizations. The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism (LCWE, or ‘Lausanne’) and WEF at times have formed joint task forces and copublished reports. The two movements are currently examining a closer relationship, while recognizing their distinctives: WEF derives its authority from ongoing evangelical fellowships, while Lausanne functions through ad hoc committees.(17) Another global evangelistic conglomerate, AD2000, often works through WEF leaders and personnel in national projects… ff. 17. In 1980 WEF actually proposed a merger with LCWE (Fuller, People of the Mandate, p. 68).” [From the Evangelical Alliance to the World Evangelical Fellowship: 150 years of unity with a mission.]

 

Alan Morrison has written two books and numerous articles on the ecumenical movement which do not so much as allude to the World Evangelical Fellowship—nor, claims Morrison, has he ever seen the Lausanne Covenant, which is the “binding contract” between Evangelicals and the One World Religion. In Morrison’s coverage of the ecumenical movement one finds only a fleeting allusion to the Lausanne Movement; in a brief discussion of Jay Gary's book The Star of 2000 he adds: “...Gary was formerly involved with the Lausanne Movement launched by Billy Graham...” [Saving That Which Is Lost, 1999]

 

To presume to expose the ecumenical movement without a reasonably broad treatment of the Lausanne Movement—and the World Evangelical Fellowship which is the shadow government to Lausanne—is tantamount to explaining the Christian faith with only a vague reference to Jesus Christ. The ecumenical movement since 1974 “IS” the Lausanne Movement—which networks thousands of international leaders of evangelical Protestantism with leaders of false religions, thereby sweeping whole denominations and ministries into its marathon race to join the United Nations’ United Religions Organization!   

 

Are we to believe that Alan knows none of this, only about the World Council of Churches, and also that he has never heard of Peter Beyerhaus—a major figure in the worldwide ecumenical movement—until two years ago when Beyerhaus invited him to his Diakrisis Institute in Germany to see if perchance there was common ground between two obscure organizations that just happened to have the same name?  Morrison’s alibi beggars belief considering that seven years in advance of this meeting he described Beyerhaus and his apostate Conference of Confessing Fellowships with approbation in his book, The Serpent and the Cross.

 

Consider also that no leader of the Lausanne Movement would “gladly refer” his readers to the Diakrisis International website only to read articles exposing Lausanne!  Obviously Peter Beyerhaus believes that Morrison's website is compatible with his own, not having found anything there which would pose a threat to the Lausanne agenda.  Peter Beyerhaus’ statement that the “English-language website of Rev. Alan Morrison…takes up similar topics, like Institut Diakrisis” is revealing; in fact, both websites do misrepresent the ecumenical movement.  Peter Beyerhaus remonstrates “No One World Religion!” all the while he is working through the Lausanne Movement to achieve the very same.  Has Alan also neglected to inform his readers about Lausanne and misrepresented a prominent Lausanne leader due to ignorance OR is he a disinformation agent—someone who deliberately withholds/distorts information so as to mislead?

 

Alan does Damage Control

 

Prior to our discovery of Peter Beyerhaus’ referral of Diakrisis International, in the course of researching the apologetics ministries, the abovementioned researcher, Dana Hoard, wrote Alan to express her concern about his recommendation of Spiritual Counterfeits Project due to its direct involvement in the Lausanne Movement.  When Rev. Morrison dissembled, she inquired if he was also a member of Lausanne.  Here follows the complete and unabridged correspondence between Dana Hoard and Alan Morrison:

 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Dana Hoard"

To: <AM@diakrisis.org>

Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2002 2:23 AM

Subject: Diakrisis - request

 

Hello Alan,

 

I have some concerns about your LINK to Spiritual Counterfeits Project/SCP.

 

Please tell me why you recommend it and I am glad to share my concerns.

 

Dana Hoard

__________________________________________________________________________

 

From: "Alan Morrison" <AM@diakrisis.org>

Organization: Diakrisis

Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 08:58:44 +0100

To: "Dana Hoard"

Subject: Re: Diakrisis - request

 

Hello, I recommend it because I know Tal Brooke personally.

 

You are welcome to share your concerns.

 

Sincerely,

 

Alan M.

__________________________________________________________________________

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Dana Hoard

To: AM@diakrisis.org

Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 2:30 AM

Subject: Diakrisis - request

 

Dear Alan,

 

Spiritual Counterfeits is linked to Lausanne, John Stott, Christianity Today, Regent College, J.I. Packer and James Houston for a start.

 

Tal Brook is a close friend of Lindsay Brown of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship* which affirms the Lausanne Covenant and George Verwer who chairs LCWE's Mission Mobilization Track.

 

Please let me know if this isn't a concern for you too.

 

Dana Hoard

__________________________________________________________________________

 

From: "Alan Morrison" <AM@diakrisis.org>

Organization: Diakrisis

Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2002 18:37:43 +0200

To: "Dana Hoard"

Subject: Re: Diakrisis - request

 

Where is the evidence for the statements in your first paragraph?

 

I await it.

 

Yrs,

 

Alan

________________________________________________________________________

 

From: Dana Hoard

Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 20:08:47 -0700

To: Alan Morrison <AM@diakrisis.org>

Subject: Diakrisis - request

 

Alan,

 

The evidence is readily available to you.

 

SPC originated as a Campus Crusade [Bill Bright] project in the late 1960's and it has had considerable backing by many of the Christian ecumenical organizations which are party to the Lausanne Consultations [Billy Graham/ John Stott].

 

Crossover SCP/Christianity Today staff over the years include Vernon Grounds, William Pannell and Earl Palmer of the ecumenical Regent College.

 

J. I. Packer has given his endorsement to SCP [found in SCP brochures] and he personally addressed the [very small] SCP staff at a retreat in the 1980s.  Packer signed ECT I, co-authored ECT II, is Director of Anglican Studies at Regent College and is the Exec. Editor of Christianity Today [Billy Graham]. 

 

Tal's friend Lindsay Brown co-directs IFES/Int'l Fellowship of Evangelical Students with John Stott, who is the framer of the Lausanne Covenant and strategist for the World Evangelical Fellowship/ Evangelical Alliance––the shadow government to Lausanne. 

 

I can find nothing on Diakrisis which warns your readers about the snare of Lausanne; while at the same time you recommend the Lausanne-connected Spiritual Counterfeits as a resource. Many apologetic ministries have signed on to the Lausanne Covenant and are requiring others to do the same. Are you a Lausanne-covenanted member?

 

Of course it is my hope and prayer that you are not and you will work to expose Lausanne for what it is.

 

II Timothy 2: 7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

 

Dana Hoard

____________________________

*Correction: Lindsay Brown is General Secretary of IFES, which is the umbrella to IVCF

 

Although he had requested evidence of SCP’s connections to Lausanne, Alan Morrison never responded to express his concern about the disturbing facts presented in the last message (which he ought to have known) and which Dana was prepared to document had he requested it.  Not until a massive amount of documentation was published in a series of exposes of the apologetics ministries did Alan respond with outrage that Spiritual Counterfeits had been exposed and Diakrisis implicated as part of the Lausanne Movement.  Remonstrating against Watch Unto Prayer, Alan excused himself from responding to the final e-mail inquiry because he determined the writer was:

 

“…a total idiot who wants to go round digging dirt up on other people!  That’s all there is to it.  I get mails from kontrol freaks like that all the time.  Muckrakers.  Nit-pickers.  Insinuators.  Finger-pointers.  They’re simply out to nail people and are disinterested in the real Truth, even if it is shown to them.  The Christian scene is full of them.  They don’t deserve any time wasting on them.  The articles to which he has contributed on Aho’s website are confirmation that I was right.  I often get mails from people asking me if I am associated with this or that.  If I think they have a worthy motive, I answer them.  But I can’t be bothered with the nit-picking muckrakers like Hoard and Aho.  Besides, I already knew that the guy’s allegations about Tal Brooke and SCP were based on a mixture of innuendo, poor research and nonsense.”

 

We doubted that a rational person like Alan would arrive at this conclusion after reading Dana’s inquiries and simple statement of facts that are easily verifiable. Naturally, we wondered if he had some other reason for not responding. 

 

In his railings against Watch Unto Prayer, Alan Morrison defended Spiritual Counterfeits Project without addressing the substantial evidence that has been unearthed by this very capable researcher—evidence that inculpates SCP as a New Age front and an active member of the Lausanne Movement.  Alan continued:

 

“Here is what Tal Brooke of Spiritual Counterfeits Project wrote to me on 11th April this month, after I alerted him to the silly e-mail inquiries I was receiving:

 

“’[Dana Hoard's] allegations are full of lies.  We are currently looking into this guy.  He is committing slander, gossip, and he is spreading falsehoods.  Spiritual Counterfeits Project today is an independent conservative organization. We have no connection with Lausanne and we dislike Christianity Today. We even cancelled our subscription some years ago. We have nothing to do with the World Council of Churches. Before I took over, SCP was heading in a liberal direction, but not anymore’.”

 

Alan Morrison avoided addressing the issues that were raised about Spiritual Counterfeits Project because they are hard to defend; Tal Brooke’s claim to have reoriented Spiritual Counterfeits seems a mere image adjustment considering the appalling realities presented in “Smoke, Mirrors & Disinformation.” 

 

Tal Brooke protests that Spiritual Counterfeits Project is now a “conservative organization”, yet on the Staff of SCP we still find former president, Brooks Alexander, functioning as Research Director.  Alexander is Tal’s “long time close personal friend” who participated in the 1980 Lausanne Consultation in Pattaya Thailand, one of 17 study groups or mini-consultations that carried on “the real work of Lausanne” after l974.  Brooks Alexander of SCP and Peter Beyerhaus of Diakrisis Institute worked in the same sub-group which supposedly “dealt with the problems and prospects of evangelism directed toward the particular people group” of “Mystics and Cultists.”

 

On the Spiritual Counterfeits Board of Reference during Brooks Alexander’s term as president was William Pannell, Corresponding Editor for Christianity Today. Pannell, a Fuller Theological Seminary faculty member and advisor to Fuller’s president Richard Mouw, had formerly been with World Vision, an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the UN. In 1978, one of the years he was listed on the SPC Board of Reference, William Pannell participated in Lausanne’s Willowbank Conference on Gospel and Culture—one of the meetings of Lausanne’s Theology and Education Group—with John Stott, who oversaw the formation of WEF and formulated its purposes, Peter Beyerhaus, director of the European Convention of Confessing Fellowships who later founded Diakrisis Institute, and others. Willowbank 1978 included representation from the World Council of Churches, United Bible Societies and Wycliffe Hall of Oxford University as well. 

 

Out of the 1980 Lausanne Consultation in Thailand emerged Evangelical Ministries to Cultists [EMTC], founded by Gordon Lewis and Vernon Grounds. EMTC was renamed Evangelical Ministries to New Religions [EMNR] in 1984. In 1987, during Brooks Alexander term as SCP president, SCP and EMNR sponsored a conference at the Gold Lake Retreat in Boulder, CO with New Agers David Spangler and Barbara Marx Hubbard, who was co-chair of this secret gathering with Doug Coe of Fellowship Foundation, founder of the Washington Prayer Breakfasts.  See Constance Cumbey’s expose of the Gold Lake Retreat.  Since then, it has become apparent that EMNR’s mission is not evangelizing but “mainstreaming” the cults. Carrying on the work of Lausanne, EMNR is now directing a PR campaign to mainstream Mormonism. See: Smoke, Mirrors & Disinformation: EMNR 

 

Also on the staff of the new, improved and now “conservative” Spiritual Counterfeits Project is Frank Ordaz, “the SCP Art Director …who has worked in the past for George Lucas at LucasFilm's Industrial Light and Magic Team, producing background mattes for movies such as ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars… He is currently weighing an offer to return to work at LucasFilm to work on the new Star Wars.”

 

The ecumenical orientation of Spiritual Counterfeits Project is also exhibited on their website for those who have eyes to see. Staff member, Rich Hagler, “one of Tal's closest friends, and for several years our Business Manager and Letters Editor, is about to leave us and head to the mission fields! Rich and his new wife Kimberly have been accepted by OC International.” 

 

OCI is an associate member of the World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF). Both Luis Palau (International Director of A.D. 2000 & Beyond) and Clyde Cook (now President of Biola) have been presidents of OCI, formerly Overseas Crusades. James Montgomery worked with OC before founding DAWN (Discipling a Whole Nation), which was inspired by Donald McGavran who was founding dean of the School of World Mission, Fuller Theological Seminary (1965-71), Director of the Lilly Endowment Research into Church Growth in Latin America (1965-67) and active in many organizations, such as OC Ministries (OCI) and the U.S. Center for World Mission (Ralph Winter).  DAWN has a working agreement/contract with WEF as the WEF evangelization program.

 

Illustrating Spiritual Counterfeits Project’s ecumenical orientation is a photo of Tal Brook with more good friends—Lindsay Brown and George Verwer. [Reflections on a Trip to Cambridge]  Lindsay Brown is General Secretary of IFES/International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, which affirms the Lausanne Covenant. George Verwer is the founder and director of Operation Mobilization UK and a frequent speaker for IVCF’s Urbana student mission conventions; Verwer also chairs the Lausanne Consultation on World Evangelization’s Mission Mobilization Track.

 

Another “close friend and ally” of Tal Brooke—according to a 1998 Spiritual Counterfeits Journal—and considered by Tal to be “among the most gifted literary lights to come on the scene” is Dr. Gene Edward Veith, a Salvatori Fellow of the Heritage Foundation and Senior Fellow of the Heritage-related Capital Research Center. Heritage Foundation is the right-wing think tank founded by Paul Weyrich [CNP] and funded by private corporations which has served as a shadow government to Republican administrations since Ronald Reagan. [See: The Heritage Foundation] On the Advisory and Trustee Boards of Capital Research Center are representatives from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and its many fronts. Gene Veith is also on the faculty of Concordia University—the related Lutheran Concordia Seminary is a member of the Rockefeller-funded Association of Theological Schools (ATS). Veith is also on the faculty of World Magazine’s World Journalism Institute, which is in a partnership with the Templeton Foundation through its membership in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. CCCU wields considerable influence over Christian institutions of higher education.  [See: Smoke, Mirrors & Disinformation: SCP Part II]

 

How is it that Alan Morrison vociferously defends the very compromised Spiritual Counterfeits Project and out of the other side of his mouth remonstrates about the perils of ecumenism and globalism?  Do Christians have a right to be apprised of such double talk or do leaders of apologetics ministries merit special status as being *above suspicion*? Are discernment and apologetics ministries alone exempt from answering questions when concerns about them arise?  And when these ministry leaders dissemble in their responses to inquiries—or refuse to respond at all—do concerned Christians have the right, and indeed an obligation, to publish their findings for the benefit of their fellow Christians?

 

APOLOGETICS, LAUSANNE-STYLE

 

Alan Morrison claims to work alone and to have no affiliations, yet he networks with evangelical apologists who have direct affiliations with the worldwide Lausanne Movement.  Alan will no doubt trivialize these associations with the silly "someone knew someone else who was seen with somebody else" parody.  However, the apologetics network you are about to encounter in this report is not a loose association of organizations which all just happen to a common interest in the scholarly discipline of apologetics; rather it is a coalition that was created by the World Evangelical Fellowship through the Lausanne Consultations for the express purpose of redefining the Gospel.

 

The 1980 Lausanne Consultation included Evangelical leaders involved in some capacity with Spiritual Counterfeits Project (which Alan Morrison recommends and defends), SCP-related apologetics organizations and Peter Beyerhaus:

 

The Thailand Report on New Religious Movements

Report of the Consultation on World Evangelization

Mini-Consultation on Reaching Mystics and Cultists

 

Brooks Alexander (Director, Spiritual Counterfeits Project)

 

Dr. Peter Beyerhaus (President, Convention of Confessing Evangelicals and its publication, Diakrisis [1980]; later founder/director of Diakrisis Institute [1997])

 

Dr. Gordon Lewis (Contributing Editor, Christian Research Institute Journal [1992-2002]; founder of EMNR [1982])

 

Caryl Williams [Matrisciana]

Note: Caryl Williams would later become Caryl Matrisciana, the wife of Pat Matrisciana who had set up the Christian World Liberation Front/CWLF [circa 1970] with Jack Sparks. The Christian World Liberation Front would be renamed the Berkeley Christian Coalition and finally the Spiritual Counterfeits Project.

 

Peter Savage, chair (Latin American International Fellowship of Evangelical Students [IFES])

Notes: Tal Brooke of SCP is close personal friend of Gen. Secretary of IFES, Lindsay Brown. Peter Beyerhaus also “gladly participated in interdenominational enterprises such as ‘student Christian associations’...that were sponsored by the Theological Education Fund.” 

 

Out of the Lausanne Consultation in Thailand would emerge Evangelical Ministry to Cultists [EMTC], an organization to oversee Christian apologetics ministries, presumably to guarantee that all were on the same page as Lausanne since members are required to sign the Lausanne Covenant. Gordon Lewis, honorary Evangelical Ministries to New Religions [EMNR] board member with Vernon Grounds [Christianity Today staff] worked with Brooks Alexander of Spiritual Counterfeits Project and Peter Beyerhaus in the Lausanne study group on evangelizing "Cultists and Mystics." Lewis would then co-found EMTC in 1982 with Ronald Enroth, also of Spiritual Counterfeits Project, and Walter Martin, founder and director of the Christian Research Institute.

 

“Following Dr. Lewis’ involvement with Lausanne, he along with other participants at the Santa Barbara conference [1982], voted to organize a ministry known as Evangelical Ministry to Cultists (EMTC). The organization held on to this name until 1984. Charter board members of this organization included Dr. Gordon Lewis, the late Walter Martin, James Bjornstad, and Ronald Enroth. EMTC was originally promoted as an organization affiliated with Lausanne…

“In 1984 the founders of EMTC voted to change the name of the organization to Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR), a name it has kept to the present time. [“EMNR’s Paradigm for Viability in an Age of Religious Pluralism,” A Brief History of EMNR by John W. Morehead, President of EMNR]

 

The Lausanne Consultations not only produced EMNR, but an apologetics network of international proportions, whose 'mandate' appears to be redefining the gospel in the name of defending it. The new missiological paradigm of this network, under the mandates of the Lausanne Covenant, is changing the face of classical apologetics. The new breed of apologists are no longer occupied with defending the Christian faith, which they attack, but rather defend the false religions. Inserting their new paradigm into the modern missions movement, which is bound to the Lausanne Covenant, these ‘Christian apologists’, falsely so-called, function as facilitators of the transition from Biblical evangelism to Lausanne-style "evangelization" — the propagation of another gospel which has been "contextualized" or adapted to various cultures in order to assimilate entire people groups into a global Church without spiritual regeneration.

 

EMNR: Structured in Accordance with Lausanne

 

EMNR was established as an oversight organization to smaller apologetics orgs. EMNR addresses its strict adherence to Lausanne Covenant mandates. There will be no “needless duplication”:

 

“Evangelical Ministries to New Religions adheres to the doctrinal standards and practices as set forth in the Lausanne Covenant the Manila Manifesto and the Amsterdam Affirmations

 

The Lausanne Covenant

(…)

We confess that our testimony has sometimes been marred by sinful individualism and needless duplication…

 

A similar statement is found in the Manila Manifesto:

 

The Manila Manifesto

(…)

We affirm the urgent need for churches, mission agencies and other Christian organizations to cooperate in evangelism and social action, repudiating competition and avoiding duplication…”

 

It becomes EMNR’s call as to which apologetics organizations will be deemed “needless” while at the same time EMNR’s closely-linked Apologia [Rich Poll, Ron Rhodes and Paul Carden] with ties to Campus Crusade’s Leadership University is moved to center stage.  

 

William Lane Craig, who is the chief administrator for Campus Crusade’s Leadership U., is touted by the European Apologetics Network [EAN] as “one of the leading apologists in the world.” Craig was the main speaker for Hope for Europe’s apologetics conference in April 2002. According to his Curriculum Vitae at Leadership U., William Lane Craig received the Exemplary Papers Award from the Templeton Foundation in 1996 and 1997.

 

EAN director Stefan Gustavsson sees the need for a “fresh presentation of the Christian faith… The formation of a network for apologists in Europe is therefore crucial for the future of the church. The European Apologetics Network is the strategic initiative many of us has been praying and waiting for."

 

The goal of the European Apologetics Network is to train “the next generation of Christian Persuaders…to learn to communicate the Gospel with power and conviction... in helping teach, encourage and develop European Apologists.” To this end, EAN will sponsor European Apologetic Network approved:

 

• Lecturers

• Apologetic Training

• Apologists

 

The Hope for Europe Organizational Chart illustrates a most-carefully designed interlocking organization—global to local—which interfaces with all facets of the European culture. Under the umbrella of WEF, Lausanne and AD 2000, Hope for Europe even includes “pan-European tracks.” [See right-hand side of the chart.] In adherence to the Lausanne Covenant, Hope for Europe/HfE [now merged with the European Evangelical Alliance and member to the World Evangelical Alliance/WEA] will eliminate all "needless duplication"—meaning ministries which are not in partnership with HfE and the global WEA. All apologetics organizations/conferences will be European Apologetic Network approved.

 

So when Alan Morrison waxes ecstatic over the prospect of holding "a pan-European conference...which would involve Christian academics and authors and an open international audience drawn from all religions or none, diverse cultures and walks of life," the reader can safely assume that he is referring to academics and authors approved by the European Apologetics Network who have direct connections to the World Evangelical Alliance, Lausanne, the AD2000 & Beyond Movement, the National Association of Evangelicals, and by extension their handlers and paymasters—the Rockefeller Foundation, Templeton Foundation, Roman Catholic Church, World Council of Churches, International Freemasonry and countless other globalist organizations.

 

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals   

 

Alan Morrison works with another Evangelical apologist with affiliations with the worldwide Lausanne Movement. Morrison has held conferences with Dr. Peter Jones, whom he also recommends to his readers as a speaker for their fellowships as well as recommending Jones’ books and web site as valuable resources:

 

"Diakrisis Mailing List"
December 09, 1999
Urgent Message for your Prayerful Consideration

 

“One of my primary contacts in this possible venture is Dr. Peter Jones, who is professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary (West) in Escondido, near San Diego, California in the U.S.A. I would like to commend Peter's ministry to you here.  He has published three important books in the last few years: "The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back", "Spirit Wars" and "Gospel Truth -- Pagan Lies".  When we first met in 1995, we realised that we had a great deal in common in terms of ministry, and we felt our respective books complemented one another. Since then, he has invited me to speak at a conference he organised in California in 1997; and I invited him to speak at the Diakrisis Conference in June 1998.  To stick his neck out on these issues has been costly for Peter on more than one level.  Whereas I have little to lose by sticking my neck out on New Spirituality/New World Order issues, it is often far more difficult for Peter as his work is based in conservative academic circles.  Many conservative theologians and ministers, although having their hearts in the right place, view him with some suspicion because he has spoken out about things which they do not really understand, and of which they do not realise the vital pastoral and theological importance.  More liberal neo-evangelical theologians and ministers regard him considerably more acerbically because he dares to link homosexuality with pagan spirituality and Gnosticism, and because he is not afraid to overturn politically correct taboos in the areas of homosexuality, abortion, feminism, etc.  So I invite you not only to pray for Peter and his gifted wife Rebecca, but also to check out his website at http://www.spirit-wars.com/.  There you will also be able to purchase his books online.  Please do all you can to publicise his books in your church, e-mail letters or journals.  You can also invite him to speak at your fellowship, if you live in the U.S.”

 

Peter Jones has been a Contributing Editor of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project Journal. According to his Spirit-Wars’ profile, Meet Peter Jones, “Peter and his gifted wife Rebecca” also serve on the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which was formed for the purpose of “Helping the Church Deal Biblically with Gender Issues.” Also on the CBMW is a large representation from the Masonic-controlled Southern Baptist Convention and Westminster Theological Seminary, plus assorted Catholics and Council for National Policy [CNP] members.  CNP members, Beverly LaHaye and Connaught Marshner, a Roman Catholic formerly on the CNP Governing Board, were CBMW members in 1997.  As a senior director of Paul Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation, Connaught Marshner’s Family Policy Division had the following policy on sex education:

 

“…Paul Weyrich and Connaught C. Marshner - the Director of the Family Policy Division of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, and Editor of its organ Family Protection Report - are also…members of the Board of Governors of the CNP. Strange as it may seem, when Connaught Marshner's ‘Family Policy Division’ was asked about their policy on ‘sex education’, the reply was that there was NO POLICY!” [“The Politics of Transformation,” Ron Miller, Distant Drums, May 1983]

 

Stu Weber is presently on the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which promotes Weber’s Promise Keepers’-recommended book, Tender Warrior. CBMW sells another book by Weber, Four Pillars of a Man's Heart: Bringing Strength Into Balance. The CBMW promo reads: “Stu Weber expands on the four pillars of manhood (king, warrior, mentor, friend) and describes in insightful detail what it takes to make them a central part of your life…”

 

CBMW also promotes on its homepage a similar book, Raising a Modern Day Knight, authored by Robert Lewis and published by Focus on the Family. This publication appeals to the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table to recommend that Christian fathers return to the wisdom of medieval paganism for the training of their sons. The following excerpt from a chapter titled “The Knight and His Round Table” encourages male bonding through the mystical power of ceremony:

 

“In the Middle Ages, pages and squires became knights because they were part of a masculine community. At an early age, the page left home and entered into a mentoring relationship with an older man, usually a cousin or an uncle… Boys become men in the community of men. There is no substitute for this vital component. Dad, if your boy is to become a man, you must enlist the community...the community of men expands a son’s spiritual and moral resources... Bonded through the mystical power of ceremony, [they] become mentors to these young men...If you are serious about moving your son to manhood, begin asking the Lord to lead you to a small community of men...” (Robert Lewis, Raising a Modern-Day Knight, Focus on the Family Pub., 1997, pp. 150-51.)

 

The concept of manhood and womanhood encouraged by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, of which Alan Morrison’s colleague Peter Jones is a member, is identical to Promise Keepers.  The CBMW Board of Reference might explain the reason for the  unorthodox offerings of this organization which poses as a Scriptural authority on gender issues:

 

Gleason Archer – Trinity Evangelical Divinity School [TEDS] of Trinity International University [Rockefeller-affiliated ATS member]; Previously professor and acting dean at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Hudson T. Armerding - President Emeritus of Wheaton College; received J. Elwin Wright Award for promoting evangelical cooperation through international and national efforts; teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA); served as President of Gordon College, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), and World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF); Board of Directors of Covenant Theological Seminary [Rockefeller-affiliated ATS member]

Tal Brooke – Spiritual Counterfeits Project, President [See: Smoke Mirrors & Disinformation: SCP]

Harold O. J. Brown – Christianity Today, Contributing Editor; Christian Research Institute Journal, Contributing Editor since 1995; World Congress of Families [NGO/UN affiliated]

Edmund Clowney – Former President of Westminster Theological Seminary [PA]; father-in-law of Peter Jones

Nancy Leigh DeMoss - Revival of the Heart Ministries sponsored by Life Action Ministries, Back to the Bible [NAE] and FamilyLife Today [Campus Crusade/NAE]. DeMoss promotes a Covenant Marriage document.

Jerry Falwell – CNP member; founder and pres. Liberty University; received $5 million bail-out from Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Carl F. H. Henry – former Editor, Christianity Today; World Journalism Institute faculty [Templeton $$$]; co-sponsor with Billy Graham of Berlin 1966 World Congress on Evangelism, faculty of Trinity Evangelical Theological School [TEDS/Rockefeller-affiliated ATS member] see TEDS info below, Harold O.J. Brown

David M. Howard – President-elect of the Evangelical Theological Society [ETS], member of the Society for Biblical Literature [SBL]; son of David M. Howard, Sr. - former chief executive of Latin America Mission and the World Evangelical Fellowship, director of mission for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship-USA, and director of the 1980 Consultation on World Evangelization.

D. James Kennedy – CNP member, founder Knox Theological Seminary [Rockefeller-affiliated ATS member]

Beverly LaHaye – CNP member, founder, pres. Concerned Women For America [CWA]; speaker for 1996 Sun Myung Moon Conference/ Family Federation for World Peace and Unification International

Gordon R. Lewis – Founder, director Evangelical Ministries to New Religions [EMNR affirms the Lausanne Covenant]

Erwin Lutzer – Moody Bible Institute; Moody Broadcasting was represented in the NAE by George Sweeting as NRB­­ Class of 2000

John MacArthur – Founder and President of The Masters Seminary [Church Growth org]

Connie Marshner – CNP member, Roman Catholic

J. I. Packer – Director of Anglican Studies at Regent College, Vancouver, BC; teaches courses on Evangelical-Catholic and Evangelical-Orthodox Dialogue; signer ECT I, coauthor of ECT II and other ecumenical documents, Spiritual Counterfeits Project speaker

Paige Patterson – CNP member, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; speaker at the 1995 EMNR conference [EMNR affirms the Lausanne Covenant]

Pat Robertson – CNP member, leader, founder and president of Christian Broadcasting Network [CBN]

Adrian and Joyce Rogers – former president, Southern Baptist Convention [see Watch Unto Prayer expose of Masonic SBC]

R. C. Sproul – Director of Ligonier Ministries; Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary and Knox Theological Seminary [D. James Kennedy/CNP; Rockefeller-affiliated ATS member]; Council of Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals [ACE]; Coalition On Revival’s International Council on Biblical Inerrancy [See also: Biblical Discernment Ministries: R.C. Sproul]

Joseph M. Stowell, III – President, Moody Bible Institute; Moody Broadcasting was represented in the NAE by George Sweeting as NRB­­Class of 2000

 

The Diakrisis website mentions that the venue of the U.S. conference organized by Peter Jones’ where Alan Morrison gave his presentation was Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California:

 

DISCERNING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES - A Four-Part Exposition of the New Spirituality:

Part 1: "Spirit of Babel: The New Spirituality in Redemptive History"

 

      “In 1997 and 1998, Alan Morrison gave a series of talks on what is known as the "New Spirituality"—also known as the "New Consciousness" or "New Age Movement".  In particular, these talks were designed to demonstrate that this New Spirituality was not some new, faddish, middle-class indulgence but a global realisation of the "satanic initiation" into which our first parents, Adam and Eve, were seduced, and also a natural outworking of the subsequent "spirit of antichrist" which became a leading force in the development of world religion.
     “These talks were first given at the "Conference on Cults" at Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California in September 1997, and were then expanded with more material at the Diakrisis Conference in the U.K. in 1998…”

 

Peter Jones is Chairman of the Department of Biblical Studies and Professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary.  Edmund Clowney, Jones’ father-in-law, is former president of Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia; Peter’s wife, Rebecca Jones, taught at Westminster CA and their four elder children attended Westminster Seminary.

 

“Since coming back to the United States, I have been teaching New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary in California. Rebecca taught a writing course there for four years, and my four oldest children have attended the seminary. I am glad to think that some of them will be taking over where we left off, working abroad for the church. Our oldest daughter, Eowyn, married David Stoddard last year and they have a son, Jesse Alexander. The Stoddards will be going to Germany as Mission to the World (PCA) missionaries, after David spends a year as assistant pastor at New Life Presbyterian Church in Escondido.”

 

Dr. Jones is also associate pastor at New Life Presbyterian Church in Escondido, CA, which is a member of the Presbyterian Church of America. The PCA’s Mission to the World is an associate member of the World Evangelical Alliance. PCA is also a member of the National Association of Evangelicals [NAE] and over the years, PCA leaders have served on the boards of the NAE and WEF.  The Pastor Emeritus of First Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Schenectady NY, Michael Alford, was on the NAE Board of Directors until his retirement in 2002.  A report on a 1997 NAE meeting presents the credentials of Hudson Armerding. Armerding, who serves with Peter Jones on the board of the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and, like Jones, Armerding is an elder in the PCA, is past president of both the NAE and WEF:

 

“Dr. Hudson Taylor Armerding, President Emeritus of Wheaton College, received the J. Elwin Wright Award for promoting evangelical cooperation through international and national efforts. A teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), Armerding has also served as President of Gordon College, the NAE, and World Evangelical Fellowship. He is presently on the Board of Directors of Covenant Theological Seminary.”

 

As noted, Hudson Armerding is a director of Covenant Theological Seminary, which is the seminary for the PCA denomination. Covenant Seminary is a member of the Association of Theological Schools, which is funded by many secular foundations. PCA’s Covenant Seminary “was recently awarded a sizable grant from the Lilly Endowment to start the Youth In Ministry Institute, a program designed to train Covenant students in youth ministry and to reach out to high school students through a variety of programs.” 

 

Westminster Theological Seminary, where Peter Jones is on the faculty, is also a member of the Rockefeller-affiliated Association of Theological Schools. The ATS, which sets accreditation requirements for its members, is financed not only by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, but by other secular foundations including the Lilly Endowment [Eli Lilly manufactures Prozac], the Henry Luce Foundation, William Randolph Hearst Foundations, the General Mills Foundation and Pew Charitable Trusts, which also funds the Council on Foreign Relations [CFR].  The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is housed at the Henry Luce Center; Henry Luce was a member of the Skull & Bones [1920].

 

An old adage states that whoever pays the piper calls the tunes. We have already heard some of the worldly tunes produced by the theological schools whose paymasters are Rockefeller, Pew, Lilly, Luce and the Hearst Foundation, which launched Billy Graham’s career.  Westminster Theological Seminary is another very compromised theological institution under the direction of a consortium of secular foundations and corporations.  Using the pretext of apologetics, scholars on the faculties of seminaries such as Westminster are being paid to redefine the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

 

The President of Westminster Theological Seminary is Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, who served as Coordinator for the 1988 [Lausanne] "Consultation on Conversion" in Hong Kong. Godfrey was a member of the Theology Working Group of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism [LCWE]—the same Lausanne Theology committee of which Peter Beyerhaus has long been a member—and has been a speaker at conferences sponsored by the LCWE.  On the Visiting Faculty of Westminster Seminary is Fred Klett, the North American Consultant for the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism [LCJE], a sub-group of the LCWE which formed out of the 1980 Pattaya, Thailand Lausanne Consultation.

 

Dr. Michael Horton, an Associate Professor of Apologetics and Historical Theology at Westminster Seminary, is also President and Chairman of the Council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. ACE was founded by Donald Grey Barnhouse, a close associate of Walter Martin who founded the Christian Research Institute. [See Watch Unto Prayer expose of CRI] Donald Barnhouse was the first president of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals followed by James Montgomery Boice.  Boice was associate editor at Christianity Today [1967], Editor of Eternity magazine and served as Chairman of the Coalition on Revival’s International Council on Biblical Inerrancy from its founding by Jay Grimstead (president of COR) in 1977 to its completion in 1988.

 

Dr. Boice was also Pastor of the historic Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA for more than 30 years, having followed the pastorate of Dr. Barnhouse.  When the Presbyterian denomination succumbed to Liberalism, Boice’s Eternity Magazine reported favorably concerning the momentous compromise of Donald Barnhouse and Walter Martin with Liberalism—choosing to remain within the apostate Presbyterian denomination rather than to separate—and their subsequent embrace of Pentecostalism and Seventh-Day Adventism.  Miles Stanford has chronicled the tragedy of Donald Grey Barnhouse’s capitulation to Rockefeller’s takeover of Protestantism early in the twentieth century:

 

1920s -- Dr. Barnhouse graduated from Princeton Seminary, and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister.  In the late 20s he was installed as pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church, in Philadelphia.  By that time Liberalism had taken over the Denomination, which Dr. Barnhouse forcefully attacked from the inside.

 

Dr. J. Gresham Machen, as president of Princeton Seminary, along with a number of students, fought Liberalism both in the Seminary and Denomination.  As a result, they left the school in 1929, while remaining in the Denomination.

 

1936 -- But the Presbytery finally took the initiative, and brought these dissenters to trial: Drs. Machen, Macartney, MacIntire, Ockenga, Woodbridge, Woolley, and others.  They were summarily defrocked and dismissed from the Denomination.  Despite his blistering remonstrance against Presbyterian Liberalism, Dr. Barnhouse was not brought to trial, and he chose not to follow his now deposed friends and colleagues.

 

Actually, Liberalism didn't mind the Barnhouse rhetoric--they had the man!  He was put to good use as their Exhibit A, their conservative front man.  Despite all that he said and wrote to the contrary, his ordination yoke with the Liberals was a distinct service to their cause for over 25 years--while constituting a distinct disservice to the cause of conservative Christianity. [Miles Stanford: An Open Letter to Howard Hendricks]

 

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals was built on a foundation of compromise with the world and over the years ACE has served the Rockefeller interests well as a facilitator of Evangelical compromise, all the while posing as a defender of the faith. Notwithstanding the ACE’s record of compromise, articles by Peter Jones have appeared in the ACE journal, Modern Reformation. The current president of ACE reveals his own seriously compromised credentials in his ACE profile:

 

“Dr. Horton is Associate Professor of Apologetics and Historical Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in California. In addition to his work at the seminary, Dr. Horton is the President and Chairman of the Council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Dr. Horton also co-hosts the White Horse Inn, a nationally syndicated, weekly radio talk-show exploring issues of reformational theology in American Christianity. He received his Ph.D. from Wycliff Hall, Oxford and the University of Coventry. He has also completed a Research Fellowship at Yale University Divinity School.

“Dr. Horton is the author/editor of fourteen books. His latest is A Confessing Theology For Postmodern Times (Crossway). Two others yet to be released are Theater of Grace: Worship as Divine Drama (Baker) and Divine Drama: Eschatology as Prolegomenon (Westminster/John Knox). He has written articles for Modern Reformation, Pro Ecclesia, Christianity Today, The International Journal of Systematic Theology and Books and Culture. He is a member of the Oxford University Union Society, the Royal Institute of Philosophy, the American Academy of Religion, the American Theological Society, and the Calvin Studies Society.”

 

The Principal of Wycliffe Hall at Oxford University, where Horton earned a Ph.D., is Biochemist and Reformation Historian Dr. Alister McGrath. Dr. McGrath is also Consulting Editor for Christianity Today and project co-director for John Templeton Oxford Seminars on Science and Christianity (JTOSSC). Sir John Templeton typically funds programs for the merger of science and religion and it is frequently the case that apologetics organizations are funded by Templeton to contend that the Bible supports the prevailing theories of the scientific community.  Hence many apologetics ministries and Reformed denominations, such as Westminster Seminary and the Presbyterian Church of America, promote the progressive creation theory—a denial of the literal six-day creation account in Genesis 1.  

 

Horton is also a member of the Royal Institute of Philosophy (RIP), which was founded in 1925 by Bertrand Russell, Arthur Balfour and others of like mind at Cambridge University. The first president of RIP was Lord Balfour, who in 1917 had issued the Balfour Declaration a statement addressed to Lord Rothschild promising Britain's support for House of Rothschild's takeover of the Holy Land. (See: Heeding Bible Prophecy: New Israel) Plans for world government were the preoccupation of other Cambridge societies; Balfour’s leading role in these secret societies is detailed in The 19^th Century Occult Revival.   
 
The American Academy of Religion (AAR) of which Michael Horton is also a member is located at the Henry Luce Center at Emory University, Atlanta GA, which also houses the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for Theological Education—the same Rockefeller Brothers Fund which controls many theological schools in the U.S., including Westminster Seminary—the same Rockefeller Brothers Fund which Peter Beyerhaus of Diakrisis Institute proudly identifies as the source of funding for “interdenominational enterprises” in which he gladly participated, “such as student Christian associations and in-staff institutes for theological seminaries” that as “vehicles of fellowship brought about a new sense of fraternity across the various institutions, both Protestant and Roman Catholic.” 

 

This funding may explain Michael Horton’s quasi-Catholic belief system. In his analysis of Revivalism & Promise Keepers, Horton objected to revivals outside the purview of the local churches because God’s grace is administered to believers through the sacraments:

 

“Historic Christianity teaches that the Spirit works through Word and sacrament, and these are offered by the church. But revivalism tends to suggest that the Spirit works directly with the individual heart and doesn't need these so-called ‘man-made’ obstructions. Why is this dangerous? For instance, if by God's grace we were to see a second Reformation, it would not be measured by how many people showed up in stadiums, but how many churches were preaching the Word and offering the sacraments.”

 

Prior to becoming president of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Michael Horton was founder and president of Christians United for Reformation (CURE). In 1994 CURE merged with the Philadelphia-based Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals (ACE).  J. I. Packer was on the board of CURE in 1994, the year he also signed the Evangelicals and Catholics Together Document.  Michael Horton, as president of ACE/CURE, defended Packer’s signing of the ECT Accord and proceeded to whitewash this ecumenical affair by drawing up yet another document with Packer—Resolutions for Roman Catholic & Evangelical Dialogue—which obfuscated the doctrinal issues at stake so as to encourage further dialogue between Catholics and Evangelicals.  According to Biblical Discernment Ministries’ expose of Michael Horton:

 

Announced at a press conference on March 29, 1994, was an ecumenical declaration titled "Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium" (ECT). The negotiations toward the declaration were initiated in September of 1992 by Chuck Colson and Richard Neuhaus (former liberal Lutheran clergyman [ELCA] turned Catholic priest) under the auspices of the ecumenical and theologically liberal Institute on Religion and Public Life (headed by Neuhaus). The declaration starts with "We are Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics who have been led through prayer, study, and discussion to common convictions about Christian faith and mission." It goes downhill from there. The coalition specifically called for an end to aggressive proselytizing of each other's flocks (in effect, a mutual non-aggression pact). The signers of the Accord also confessed their past sins against Catholic/Protestant unity.

The declaration said: "All who accept Christ as Lord and Savior are brothers and sisters in Christ." This conveniently ignores the fact that Catholics espouse a works-salvation false gospel! In a revealing admission of what brought these groups together, some signers said it was the experiences of worshiping together in the charismatic movement and working together in political causes such as anti-abortion [Moral Majority for example]. In fact, one writer correctly assessed that the declaration "amounts to a truce on theological issues so that the parties can continue to cooperate on political issues."

Forty people signed or endorsed the document (20 Catholics and 20 so-called evangelicals), including Protestants J.I. Packer, Pat Robertson, Bill Bright, Os Guinness, and Mark Noll (a historian at Wheaton College who said, "Evangelicals can no longer consider Catholics as ogres or anti-Christs"). Catholic endorsers included six priests, three bishops, one Archbishop, and one Cardinal. By joint declaration, then, J.I. Packer and friends have, in effect, declared the Protestant Reformation a tragic mistake!

Michael Horton has written articles and spoken out on his radio programs against the ECT; yet J.I. Packer is on the Board of CURE and Horton defends Packer's signing of the Accord! In late-1994, due to the criticism Packer was receiving for signing the ECT, Horton drafted a document titled "Resolutions for Roman Catholic & Evangelical Dialogue"; the final product was revised by J.I. Packer and copyrighted by CURE/ACE ("Resolutions for Roman Catholic & Evangelical Dialogue," Drafted by Michael Horton; revised by J. I. Packer 1994 CURE/ACE; ACE/CURE Internet Web Site -- 6/97).

"Resolutions for Roman Catholic & Evangelical Dialogue" (RC&E Dialogue)

The RC&E Dialogue was written and "offered as material for dialogue between Roman Catholics and Evangelicals, following from the recent document, Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium, drafted by Richard John Neuhaus and Charles Colson, with others ... in a spirit of irenic debate on issues arising from that important joint statement. As that document was crafted to encourage cooperation on the basis of a consensus deemed sufficient for the purpose, though confessionally incomplete, so the following statements seek to identify issues of concern to evangelical Protestants that the thrust of the document raises. What follows is intended to encourage further discussion of the possibilities and problems of acting together."

The RC&E Dialogue goes on to postulate areas of disagreement between Roman Catholics and Evangelicals so that, despite these "problems of acting together," dialogue might continue amicably and not disturb the ecumenical efforts desired. What are these problems attested to by Horton and Packer?

 

(1) There is not agreement on the "essential elements" of the Gospel;...

(3) Evangelicals "radically" disagree with "the teaching of the Second Vatican Council that unbelievers may be saved by their good works, apart from faith in Christ";...
 

Adding insult to the injury inflicted upon Evangelical Christians through ECT, in the same year Horton’s CURE published a book to which Packer contributed as an authority on the Gospel!!  After a brief mention of this book in his 1995 analysis of Promise Keepers, Horton proceeded to feign disapproval of the inclusion of Roman Catholics in PK:

 

“In 1994, CURE and Moody Press released a book titled Power Religion. Its contributors included Charles Colson, J. I. Packer, R. C. Sproul, Alister McGrath and a number of others. Its focus was the subversion of the Gospel through the passion for power in various forms: Power politics, Vineyard-style power evangelism, the spiritual power of pop-psychology and the power of numbers in the church growth movement. All of these influences reflect the fact that the church is drowning in a sea of modernity--or, what the Bible calls ‘worldliness.’ If that is true of these movements, then Promise Keepers represents what may be the reservoir for all of these tributaries of worldliness in one organization….

 

“Our most important objection to Promise Keepers is its tendency to bury the Gospel in therapeutic moralism… No wonder Roman Catholic and Mormon leaders are encouraging their people to get involved. These two religious groups have a history of denying the gospel of God's free justification in Christ, but now a bland moralism and emotional hype are sufficient for many evangelicals as the foundation for a new spiritual unity.”

 

We must not miss the hypocrisy, or rather the calculated deceit in Horton’s dialectic—which models the strategy of the new apologetics movement.  It is the modus operandi of many such ministries to claim to be “reformed” when in practice they advance the counter-reformation.  What makes a front organization successful is giving it a label that is the far extreme of what that organization actually does.  Hence we find “cult watch” and “anti-cult” organizations fronting for the cults, “Reformed” denominations which have J.I. Packer as their head theologian, “discernment ministries” which posture as being opposed to the New Age/New World Order with which they are in bed, “apologetics ministries” that redefine the Gospel under the pretext of defending it, and so on and so forth.

 

Also on the Board of the ACE is R.C. Sproul, director of Ligonier Ministries and Professor of Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary and Knox Theological Seminary in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, whose founder/director is CNP member D. James Kennedy. Sproul was also on the Coalition On Revival’s International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. In 1999, Sproul, Kennedy, Michael Horton and Moody’s Joe Stowell [CBMW board, above] collaborated with signers of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together documents such as J.I. Packer to produce another yet another ecumenical document:

 

“Sproul also signed an agreement drafted in 6/95 by J.I. Packer and Michael Horton titled, ‘Resolutions for Roman Catholic and Evangelical Dialogue.’ This document encouraged Catholics and Evangelicals to join together when ‘Christian values and behavioral patterns are at stake,’ but the union is not to be regarded as agreement in doctrine! The document also accepted as fact that the Roman Catholic Church contains many believers.” [Biblical Discernment Ministries: R.C. Sproul]

 

R.C. Sproul also endorsed Michael Horton’s book, in which he expounds the Roman Catholic doctrine of baptismal regeneration:

 

It is clear that Sproul and the CURE/ACE organization see themselves as the protectors/defenders of Reformed theology and true Christian worship in the evangelical church. However, as stated above, Sproul has no intention of letting the Biblical doctrine of separation get in the way of the perverted view that doctrinal strength comes through ecumenical unity.

 

Michael Horton is the president of CURE/ACE. In his earlier works, Horton often hinted at his baptismal regeneration views, but it was always somewhat unclear as to where he was coming from. However, in his book In The Face of God, Horton leaves no doubt as to his views on how one receives Christ. R.C. Sproul has endorsed this book. Note the following quotes: (Emphases added.)

 

(a) It is one thing for an evangelical to believe that the Word is a means of grace. It is quite another to add that the sacraments are a further means of grace. Even the word "sacrament" sounds "Catholic" to many evangelical ears. In fact, it is a biblical concept. ... (p. 139).

(b) The sacraments serve the same purpose as the Word itself, not only offering or exhibiting God's promise, but actually conferring His saving grace by linking us, through faith, to Christ and His benefits (p. 141).

(c) The Roman Church undermined the importance of God's ordained sacraments by adding sacraments of their own. The Anabaptist enthusiasts undermined them by reducing the efficacy of the two sacraments [Baptism and the Lord's Supper] Christ instituted (p. 142).

(d) Furthermore, a sacrament not only reveals; it confers. Through Word and sacrament, God actually gives that which he promises in his gospel -- forgiveness of sins, freedom from the tyranny of sin and eternal life. The sacraments not only testify to or signify divine activity in salvation, but are part of that divine redemptive activity (p. 219).

   (e) Nothing other than the Word, baptism, and the Lord's Supper are given this place by God as a means of grace (p. 219).

 

In saying that baptism is a means of grace, Horton (and Sproul by his endorsement) confuses God's Grace and human works. Grace is defined Biblically as the demonstration of love/favor that is unearned, undeserved, and unrepayable; God imputes merit where none previously existed and declares no debt to be where one had been before. Grace is not dispensed on the basis of good works, including the good work of baptism. [emphasis added]

 

R.C. Sproul’s Ligonier Valley Study Centers were actually founded by James Houston, the Oxford Ph.D. who also founded Regent College in Vancouver, Canada where J. I. Packer is Director of Anglican Studies. At Regent, Packer has taught courses on Evangelical-Catholic Dialogue as well as Evangelical-Orthodox Dialogue. For details, please see: Smoke Mirrors & Disinformation: SCP & Packer.

 

Constance Cumbey's New Age Monitor of July 1988 disclosed that the C. S. Lewis Institute, founded by James Houston in addition to Ligonier Ministries and Regent College, may have been the organizer behind the secret SCP/EMNR meeting with New Agers, Barbara Marx Hubbard, David Spangler and others at the Gold Lake Retreat:

 

Another Fellowship Foundation source gave an account that Lindsley of the C.S. Lewis Institute was behind the whole thing and that the C. S. Lewis Institute with its accompanying seminars came out of Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. She said Jim Houston started Regent College. Houston is an Oxford Ph. D. and also founded the Ligionier Valley Study Centers – another Regent College offshoot.

 

Spiritual Counterfeits Projects has participated in Ligonier Valley events. In late 1983 and early 1984 SCP prayer bulletins, recipients were asked to pray for success at a forth coming Ligonier Valley Conferences [sic] to be held from February 5-11, 1984. Brooks Alexander was one of those scheduled to participate...

 

The following entry regarding Houston is found in the C. S. Lewis Institute materials:

 

Dr. Jim Houston is Professor of Spiritual Theology, former Chancellor and Founder of Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia; and Fellow Hertford College and Lecturer in the University of Oxford, England. B.Sc., M.A., D.Phil., Oxford, M.A. University of Edinburgh. Author of “I Believe in the Creator” and Editor of “Classics of Faith and Devotion.”

SOURCE: 1988 Spring Inst. Arlington, Virginia: The C.S. Lewis Institute. Pre-Registration Form application brochure, ANNOTATION: C. S. Lewis Institute, 1904 N. Adams Street, Arlington, VA 22201. (703) 522-0266.

 

Also on the Board of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is Gene Edward Veith, Tal Brooke’s “close friend and ally” who is “among the most gifted literary lights to come on the scene”—a Salvatori Fellow of the Heritage Foundation, Senior Fellow of the Heritage-related Capital Research Center [CFR front], faculty member of the Rockefeller-funded ATS-member Concordia University and World Magazine’s World Journalism Institute which is in a partnership with the Templeton Foundation through its membership in the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities [CCCU]. [See: SCP & Gene Veith]

 

CURE/ACE and the U.N. Human Rights Seminar in Strasbourg, FRANCE

 

Christians United for Reformation [CURE/ACE], of which Michael Horton is president, is named as a sponsor of the Annual European Seminar of the International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism & Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. 

 

Sponsors of the Human Rights Seminar in Strasbourg, France

 

Canadian Institute for Law, Theology and Public Policy

Christian Apologetics Program, Biola University

Christians United for Reformation (CURE) / now merged with Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals/ACE

Evangelical Apologetics Societies of New Zealand and Australia

Rockford Institute for Religion & Society, Rockford, IL, USA

The Wittenberg Society

Trinity College & Theological Seminary IN, USA

 

At this annual summer seminar, students from Christian universities are taught by apologists who were trained by human rights experts from the UN at the Council of Europe's International Institute of Human Rights.  For example, Craig Hazen, a member of the Faculty and Advisory Board of the International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism, and Human Rights and also on the Board of Directors of EMNR "has studied at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France." The U.S. Director of the IAAEHR, Craig Parton, informed us: “Mike Horton and Rod Rosenbladt [ACE]… have taught for us in Strasbourg at the International Academy of Apologetics.”  

 

The founder and director of the International Academy is John Warwick Montgomery. According to various profiles, “John Warwick Montgomery is one of only six persons to have received the Diploma of the International Institute of Human Rights cum laude, and was the Institute's Director of Studies from 1979 to 1981.” According to the International Institute of Human Rights website, the IIHR was founded in 1969 by Nobel Prize winner, René Cassin, who was the French Delegate to the League of Nations from 1924 to 1938, vice-president of the United Nations Human Rights Commission from 1946 to 1955 and its president from 1955 to 1957.  In addition to contributing to the creation of UNESCO, Cassin “was the principal instigator of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and played an essential role in the elaboration of the European human rights convention.  From 1965 to 1968, he presided the European court of human rights.”  “During its 30 years of existence, the International Institute of Human Rights has cooperated with many intergovernmental organizations also working for the defense and promotion of human rights (UNO, UNESCO, BIT, Council of Europe).”  The International Institute of Human Rights, located at 2 allée René Cassin, was formerly occupied by the Council of Europe which arranged for its relocation and reconstruction to house the IIHR. 
 

The TIU School of Law, which has offered the IHHR Strasbourg seminar since the late 1970s, was originally the Simon Greenleaf School of Law School of Christian Apologetics.  Simon Greanleaf was founded by Christian Research Institute's Walter Martin and James Warwick Montgomery in 1980, and incorporated as part of TIU/Trinity School of Law in 1998. [See: Smoke, Mirrors & Disinformation: CRI]  Dr. Montgomery served as Dean of the Simon Greenleaf School of Law until 1988.  According to the TIU School of Law, “Today Trinity proudly continues the original mission of Simon Greenleaf University.”  Simon Greenleaf offered its annual School of Apologetics at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.  The TIU School of Law states that the year 2003 will be the 24th annual Strasbourg seminar and that representatives from the United Nations will teach the students.  The International Institute of Human Rights is located near the University of Strasbourg where the TIU Law School Seminar is held and within minutes of the International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism and Human Rights, which Dr. Montgomery directs.

 

According to the Marquis Who's Who in America (2002), John Warwick Montgomery is a member of the "Ordre des chevaliers du Saint-Sepulchres Byzantin (commandeur)" — in other words, Dr. Montgomery is a Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher, which is the Greek-Orthodox/ Byzantine Rite of the Knights Templar!  Among the Institutional Aims of this ancient chivalric order are ecumenical/interfaith initiatives:

“Ecumenism is promoted in a variety of ways for the fulfilment of the Order's institutional aims, which include the unification of all faiths.

“The Ecclesiastical Authorities of the Order participate in international Congresses on Ecumenism and maintain contact with international bodies operating at all levels, for the affirmation of Ecumenism world wide.”

 

Diakrisis’ other recommendations…

 

Alan Morrison claims to work alone, but interfaces with many prominent figures in the Lausanne-affiliated apologetics network.  Morrison recommends other resources besides Peter Jones, whose apologetics network has been described above.  On the Diakrisis website are several book reviews. Among Rev. Morrison’s favorable reviews is Harold O.J. Brown’s HERESIES: The Image of Christ in the Mirror of Heresy and Orthodoxy from the Apostles to the Present. 

“Written by the former journalist and now Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and coming with a commendatory preface by Harvard Professor G.H. Williams, ‘Heresies’ is a very well executed production – as would have to be the case with such a vast subject.”

Of interest, Peter Beyerhaus received an honorary doctorate in 1995 from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School [TEDS], where Harold O.J. Brown is Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology.  TEDS is an affiliated school of Trinity International University [TIU] which sponsors the International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism & Human Rights in Strasbourg, FRANCE. Like Westminster Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School is a member of the Rockefeller-funded ATS, the Association of Theological Schools. TEDS is also affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America whose former president is Mission America director, Paul Cedar. Mission America was formerly the U.S. Lausanne Committee. The EFCA is an associate member of the World Evangelical Fellowship. See also Biblical Discernment Ministries’ exposé: Evangelical Free Church of America: a Smorgasbord of Heresy.

 

Harold O.J. Brown has appeared on the Christian Research Institute’s CRI JOURNAL masthead since 1995 as Contributing Editor, is a Consulting Editor for Christianity Today, serves on the Board of Reference of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and on the Faculty and Advisory Board of the International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism & Human Rights in Strasbourg. Brown is also on the faculty of World Magazine’s World Journalism Institute [WJI] which, as previously stated, has connections to the Templeton Foundation. Brown is also on the advisory board of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity [CBHD] which is an affiliate of TIU. [The World Journalism Institute/Templeton connections and Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity are covered in our Spiritual Counterfeits Project expose, Smoke, Mirrors & Disinformation: SCP.]

 

About the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity [of which “Heresies” author Harold O.J. Brown is advisory member]

 

“…exists to help individuals and organizations address the pressing bioethical challenges of our day, including managed care, end-of-life treatment, genetic intervention, euthanasia and suicide, and reproductive technologies.  The Center has tax-exempt, not-for-profit status and is supported by gifts and grants from individuals, corporations, and foundations [undisclosed]…”

 

The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity Advisory Board Chair, Nigel M. de S. Cameron is a Contributing Editor for Christianity Today and also dean of the Wilberforce Forum with Chuck Colson [CNP]. The Wilberforce Forum, which is affiliated with Prison Fellowship International [an NGO of the UN], works in partnership with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, which, in turn, also works in a partnership with the Templeton Foundation. Michael Novak who serves on the Wilberforce Forum Board of Reference is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations [CFR].

 

The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, to which Harold O.J. Brown is an advisor, is another one of those fronts whose name belies its true purpose.  Posing as the protector of human life and dignity, CBHD in fact works to advance the Human Genome Project. The following article, which is authored by Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project and posted on the CBHD web site, appeals to the Bible to support the media propaganda that the Human Genome Project is necessary for the cure of diseases:

 

Article by Francis Collins and how Christians must be about the work of Genome Research…

The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity

 

Reflections from the Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute

Francis S. Collins

…Given the complex concerns raised by genetic research, some have asked why we are doing this at all. The New Testament book of Matthew serves as a powerful reminder of how much time Christ spent healing people in His very short time on this earth: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness” (Matthew 9:35). Perhaps because they are called to be Christ-like, Christians feel a particular responsibility for reaching out and healing the sick. That is one of the reasons why studying this aspect of our biology and trying to apply it medically is not merely a good idea, but a moral necessity. It is an ethical requirement of us. If we can develop the ability to heal, if genetic research holds out hope and promise and can prevent suffering in our fellow human beings, then we have to do it. However, we must also shoulder the responsibility of making sure that these powerful tools are used for good purposes and not for unethical ones.  - Published in Dignity [a publication of the CBHD] - Summer, 2001

 

The truth about the Human Genome Project is more available outside of the “bioethics” associations, which function as the PR agency of the biotechnology industry. Bioethicists are simply "death for hire" agents to reshape public opinion to serve the ends of biotech research and the global elites who have a special interest in funding eugenics projects.  Robert Lederman explains in The Human Genome Project and Eugenics that mapping the human genome is not about the cure of disease, but for the purpose of genetically engineering the world’s population so as to eliminate the inferior and create a new breed of supermen.

 

“The Human Genome Project is headquartered at the Cold Springs Harbor laboratory on Long Island, NY-the exact site of the notorious Eugenics Research Office started in 1910 by the Harriman family. The Human Genome Project is thus a direct continuation of the Eugenics movement begun in the early part of the 20th century.

“Throughout its history the Eugenics movement has advanced an agenda that if fully recognized and understood for what it is would shock most people living in our current society of relative tolerance and diversity. Prominent advocates of Eugenics in the US, including the Rockefellers, Henry Ford and Margaret Sanger, wanted the government to decide who could reproduce and how many offspring they could have; which ethnic groups should be excluded from immigrating to the U.S. based on their alleged inferiority; and which medical and psychological conditions should qualify one for sterilization or euthanasia…

     “After WWII, many top officials involved in creating and administering…Nazi policies were brought to the U.S. by our own government and placed in universities, in the military and in scientific institutions and think tanks where their ideas have exerted a tremendous but seldom recognized influence. The CIA, which was started right after WWII, was deeply involved in importing these Nazi officials-supposedly for the purpose of fighting Communism.

     “The expertise and ideas of these former Nazis have been behind many of the most controversial U.S. government policies during the ensuing decades. The business dynasties which have dominated American foreign and domestic policy for a century and which were avid supporters of Hitler, among them the Rockefeller and Bush families, have continued to promote the exact same goals of Eugenics that were pursued in previous decades.”

 

Returning to Alan Morrison’s recommended author of “Heresies”, Harold O.J. Brown also serves as a representative/ spokesman for the Howard Center/World Congress of Families with Herbert I. London the President/ trustee of Hudson Institute. The Howard Center’s project is the World Congress of Families [WCF] which works with the Mormon Church and the World Family Policy Center, an NGO of the United Nations. Hudson Institute is a CFR-related organization and many of the Hudson Trustees are members of the Council on Foreign Relations. The CRI JOURNAL, Spring 1996 carries a book review by Harold O.J. Brown, whose listed credentials are: Professor of Ethics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School/TEDS and Director of the Rockford Institute Center on Religion and Society.

 

The Rockford Institute is a sponsor, along with CURE, of the aforementioned U.N. Human Rights Seminar in Strasbourg, France. The founder of the Rockford Institute and president for ten years was John Addison Howard.  Harold O.J. Brown and John A. Howard are on the Speakers’ Bureau of the Howard  Center along with Herbert I. London of the Hudson Institute.  John A. Howard’s profile mentions an honorary degree from Brigham Young University. An earlier bio mentioned his membership in the Bohemian Club. [See: Character Education & the Eugenics Internationale: The Bohemian Club]

 

The second World Congress of Families was held in Geneva under the auspices of the Howard Center and the World Family Policy Center which functions as an NGO of the United Nations to implement its standards around the globe:

 

Geneva 1999:  Convening Organizations

 

The Howard Center…

 

The World Family Policy Center

NGO Family Voice/WFPC

 

The David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies and the J. Reuben Clark School of Law, in partnership with the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University, have established World Family Policy Center to provide world-wide democratic input and effectively educate the United Nations on pro-family and other value-based issues. World Family Policy Center facilitates international democratic debate by serving as an exchange point for the discussion and evaluation of emerging international legal norms and as active participants in the debate, adoption, and implementation of UN norms. World Family Policy Center pursues these objectives by various means, including a site on the World Wide Web, consistent attendance and participation in major UN Conferences, and the sponsorship of significant world-wide conferences on family policy. Dr. Richard G. Wilkins is the director of World Family Policy Center.

 

The World Family Policy Center (formerly known as NGO Family Voice) at Brigham Young University is devoted to providing world-wide democratic input on pro-family and other value-based issues within the United Nations System. The WFPC facilitates international democratic debate by serving :

1.   as an exchange point for the discussion and evaluation of emerging international legal norms and

2.   as an active participant in the debate, adoption and implementation of UN norms.

 

One of the main offices for the WCF is based at Brigham Young University, which is Mormon.  Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family is on the World Congress of Families Planning Committee, as is William Mattox of Focus’s Washington, D.C. political affiliate of Family Research Council. Focus on the Family’s Shirley Dobson, wife of James Dobson [CNP member], is the official Chair of the National Day of Prayer, which is a project of the Lausanne Consultation’s Mission America. The National Day of Prayer encourages the joining together of people of “all faiths.”

 

One of the World Congress of Families gatherings was held at the headquarters of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs [followed by several planning committee meetings] in 2001. In a letter written prior to the event, Brian Cooper, a FOTF employee and director of an independent ministry to Mormons, Freedom Quest, challenged James Dobson on Scriptural grounds about the wisdom of such a gathering––Christians, Mormons Muslims and Hindus together. Brian was fired from Focus on the Family, after which he organized a small group to picket the event and alert other FOTF employees.  See: Brian Cooper's meeting with Tom Minnery.

 

Besides Harold O.J. Brown’s book on “Heresies”, Alan Morrison also recommends Tal Brooke’s book, The Conspiracy to Silence the Son of God, which includes articles by Peter Jones, Ron Rhodes and Brooks Alexander.  Dr. Ron Rhodes, the founder of Reasoning From The Scriptures, is a Regular Visiting Faculty member of the Christian Apologetics Program of Biola University, another sponsor of TIU's Human Rights Seminar in Strasbourg, France.  Rhodes is also on the Board of Directors of Apologia, which is a member of Lausanne’s Evangelical Ministries to New Religions.  Through its membership in EMNR, Apologia has agreed to implement the ecumenical, dominionist and socio-political mandates of the Lausanne Covenant.  So when Apologia claims to “equip the body of Christ for spiritual discernment” by providing information in the field of Christian apologetics, let the reader beware—the educational materials of this apologetics organization are permeated with Lausanne’s aberrant theology:

 

“Apologia's mission is primarily educational, to equip the body of Christ for spiritual discernment. It does this by providing timely, accurate religious research information within the field of Christian ‘apologetics,’ the area of theology that deals specifically with the defense of the Christian faith.” [Apologia’s Mission]

 

Apologists for Roman Catholicism

 

Not all of Alan Morrison’s book reviews are as favorable as those merited by Harold O.J. Brown and Tal Brooke. Dishonorable mention is reserved for Gail Riplinger’s New Age Bible Versions which Morrison argues is fatally flawed without a single reference to B.F. Westcott and Fenton John Antony Hort, the Anglican clergymen who compiled a New Greek Text based on Gnostic manuscripts and who are the central characters of Riplinger’s tome.  The author of this review appears to be someone who never read the book, else why would he neglect the subject of Westcott and Hort and their New Testament scheme? Morrison obfuscates this issue through a literary sleight of hand, deftly changing the subject to well-known Theosophists, Charles Leadbeater, Annie Besant and Alice Bailey, rather than the closet Theosophists, Westcott and Hort.  At all costs, the New Age must keep Westcott and Hort in the proverbial closet. 

 

Alan Morrison also denigrates the dispensational view of Scripture, since his view of eschatology is more in line with John Calvin, who derived his theology from St. Augustine:

 

“Spanning nearly 700 pages and containing a great many comparative tables, "New Age Bible Versions" is scornful of both amillennialists and postmillennialists, whose eschatology she regards as being supportive to the New Age; there are derogatory comments about both Augustine of Hippo and Calvin (especially because of their promotion of the Church as being the new Israel), and she appears to regard Calvinism as a heresy.”

 

Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.), referred to by Morrison as “the great North African theologian”, was the Catholic monk who is regarded as "The Father of Roman Catholicism." In his famous work, The City of God, Augustine dismissed the literal interpretation of Bible prophecy and formulated a non-literal interpretation subsequently called Amillennialism. Basically, Augustine propounded that (1) there will be no literal millennium or thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, (2) Christ bound Satan at the Cross (3) all prophecies concerning the kingdom were being fulfilled in the Church.

 

Prior to Augustine, the Church Fathers had taught the literal interpretation of Bible prophecy, which supported a dispensational view of Scripture. For example, the literal, dispensational view was propounded in the famous treatise of Irenaeus (120-202 A.D.) titled, Against Heresies: Detection and Overthrow of the Gnosis Falsely So-Called.  It is commonly accepted by most scholars that it was Augustine of Hippo who rendered the non-literal interpretation of prophecy theologically respectable.  John F. Walvoord states this explicitly in The Millennial Jesus in Modern Theology:

 

“The importance of Augustine to the history of amillennialism is derived from two reasons. First, there are no acceptable exponents of amillennialism before Augustine… Prior to Augustine, amillennialism was associated with the heresies produced by the allegorizing and spiritualizing school of theology of Alexandria, which not only opposed premillennialism but subverted any literal exegesis of Scripture whatever… The second reason for the importance of Augustinian amillennialism is that his viewpoint became the prevailing doctrine of the Roman Church, and it was adopted with variations by most of the Protestant Reformers along with many other teachings of Augustine. The writings of Augustine, in fact, occasioned the shelving of premillennialism by most of the organized church.” (pp. 420-421)

 

Dwight Pentecost wrote similarly in Things to Come: “With the contribution of Augustine to theological thinking amillennialism came into prominence. While Origen laid the foundation in establishing the non-literal method of interpretation, it was Augustine who systematized the non-literal view of the millennium into what is now known as amillennialism… In his famous work, The City of God, Augustine set forth the idea that the church visible was the Kingdom of God on earth." (p. 331)

 

With the rise to power of the Roman Catholic Church, Augustine’s City of God became the official interpretation of Bible prophecy. To facilitate the transition from dispensational truth to Augustine’s private interpretation, the prophetic chapters of Irenaeus’ treatise were duly suppressed.  The Pursuit of the Millennium by Norman Cohn attributes Augustine’s teaching to the gnostic tradition propagated by Origen, a student of Clement in the gnostic School at Alexandria, Egypt. It was also during this period that the gnostic manuscripts of Origen were used by Eusebius to produce the ecumenical Bible that Constantine had commissioned to facilitate the merger of paganism and Christianity:

 

“The third century saw the first attempt to discredit millenarianism, when Origen, perhaps the most influential of all the theologians of the ancient Church, began to present the Kingdom as an event which would take place not in space or time but only in the souls of believers. For a collective, millenarian eschatology Origen substituted an eschatology of the individual soul. What stirred his profoundly Hellenic imagination was the prospect of spiritual progress begun in this world and continued in the next; and to this theme theologians were henceforth to give increasing attention. Such a shift in interest was indeed admirably suited to what was now an organized Church, enjoying almost uninterrupted peace and acknowledged position in the world. When in the fourth century Christianity attained a position of supremacy in the Mediterranean world and became the official religion of the Empire, ecclesiastical disapproval of millenarianism became emphatic. The Catholic Church was now a powerful and prosperous institution, functioning according to a well-established routine; and the men responsible for governing it had no wish to see Christians clinging to out-dated and inappropriate dreams of a new earthly Paradise. Early in the fifth century St Augustine propounded the doctrine which the new conditions demanded. According to The City of God the Book of Revelation was to be understood as a spiritual allegory; as for the Millennium, that had begun with the birth of Christianity and was fully realized in the Church. This at once became orthodox doctrine. Now the very fact that the eminently respectable Irenaeus could have regarded such a belief as an indispensable part of orthodoxy was felt to be intolerable. Determined efforts were made to suppress the millenarian chapters of his treatise Against Heresies, and to such good effect that it was only in 1575 that they were rediscovered in a manuscript which the expurgators happened to have overlooked.” (Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages, NY: Oxford University Press, 1961, p. 30.)

 

Let us now consider a few paragraphs from Book V of Irenaeus’ Against Heresies, whose dispensational view of prophecy the Roman Church was so anxious to suppress. Here we see that, in the second century A.D., Irenaeus taught there would be a six thousand year period of history at the conclusion of which the Church will be caught up immediately preceding a tribulation period which will be followed by the Lord Jesus Christ’s return to restore Israel and His thousand year kingdom reign on the earth.

 

"For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years shall it be concluded. And for this reason the Scripture says: 'Thus the heaven and the earth were finished, and all their adornment. And God brought to a conclusion upon the sixth day the works that He had made; and God rested upon the seventh day from all His works.'  This is an account of the things formerly created, as also it is a prophecy of what is to come. For the day of the Lord is as a thousand years; and in six days created things were completed: it is evident, therefore, that they will come to an end at the sixth thousand year…

 

"...Those nations however, who did not of themselves raise up their eyes unto heaven, nor returned thanks to their Maker, nor wished to behold the light of truth, but who were like blind mice concealed in the depths of ignorance, the word justly reckons ‘as waste water from a sink, and as the turning-weight of a balance--in fact, as nothing;’ so far useful and serviceable to the just, as stubble conduces towards the growth of the wheat, and its straw, by means of combustion, serves for working gold. And therefore, when in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it is said, ‘There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be.’ For this is the last contest of the righteous, in which, when they overcome they are crowned with incorruption…

 

"...But when this Antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world, he will reign for three years and six months, and sit in the temple at Jerusalem; and then the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds, in the glory of the Father, sending this man and those who follow him into the lake of fire; but bringing in for the righteous the times of the kingdom, that is, the rest, the hallowed seventh day; and restoring to Abraham the promised inheritance, in which kingdom the Lord declared, that ‘many coming from the east and from the west should sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’”

 

Although the early Church Fathers had rightly divided Scripture, seeking above all to understand the plain sense of God’s Word, Augustine employed the methods which the Gnostics traditionally used to pervert the meaning of God’s Word.  There is a reason for this—according to many authoritative sources, Augustine’s theology was a hybrid of Christianity and Neo-Platonism.  The Dictionary of Bible and Religion states:

 

“In North Africa, Augustine and his friends lived in monastic community devoted to meditation and contemplation… Augustine’s theology is a combination of the earlier teachings of the church with Neo-Platonism… From Neo-Platonism Augustine derived his doctrine of God, whom he conceived in terms of the Neo-Platonic ‘ineffable One’, as well as his theory of the incorporeity of the soul.” (Gentz, William H., Ed. The Dictionary of Bible and Religion, Abingdon Press, 1986, p. 91.)

 

Mircea Eliade expressed Augustine’s lifelong affinity for Neo-Platonism in The Encyclopedia of Religion:

 

“Later in his life, Augustine transformed Plato into a near-Christian, combining the Logos doctrine with Platonic idealism, the Gospel of John with the writings of Plotinus—in short reconciling Greek wisdom with Hebrew-Christian faith. A Platonic metaphysics was the result: the absolute Good as center of all reality, transcending thought and concrete being” (Eliade, Mircea. The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. I, NY: McMillan, 1995, p. 521)

 

Augustine’s influence on the Roman Catholic Church was profound, laying a foundation for the future development of monastic orders.  To render his Christianized Neo-Platonic philosophy practical, Augustine founded numerous monasteries and convents throughout Africa and expounded in letters what became known as Augustine’s Rule—a rigorous asceticism which the monks were required to observe.  Chastity, poverty and obedience to superiors were the paramount requirements and communal sharing was strictly enforced in the monasteries.  For example, Augustine wrote to the monasteries under his oversight:

 

“11. If anyone goes so far in evil-doing as to receive letters or small presents secretly; if he confesses it, pardon him and pray for him. But if he is caught and proved guilty, he should be severely punished according to the judgment of the priest or the superior.” [A History of Monastic Spirituality: Augustine]

 

In one of his many complimentary references to Augustine of Hippo, Alan Morrison defends this Roman Catholic monk as being doctrinally orthodox but misunderstood and misrepresented as a Gnostic:

 

“Augustine of Hippo has often been claimed to be the Father of Roman Catholic mysticism, but there is no real evidence for this. As with all the Church Fathers, there is an ambiguity of language in certain areas which is open to misinterpretation, but he certainly never spoke of a direct, personal, essential union between a believer and God in this life.” [The Development of Catholic Mysticism]

 

However, Augustine’s writings do promote a concept of believers, not just as the “body of Christ” but as “the soul of Christ”, which sounds ominously to be “an essential union between a believer and God in this life”:

 

2. Letter 243:4.

 

Your soul does not belong to you alone, but to all the brothers whose souls also belong to you; or rather, their souls and yours are not many souls, but a single soul, the one soul of Christ.

 

6. The Greek word monos means ‘one’; not just ‘one’ in any sense, for even in a crowd a man is ‘one’, but ‘one’ among many; it can be said that he is ‘one’, but not that he is monos, that is alone, for monos is 'one' who is ‘alone’. Those then who live together so as to become one man so that what is written is really true: ‘One soul and one heart’, are many bodies but not many souls, many bodies but not many hearts; they are truly called monos, that is ‘one alone’.

 

A glossary at the Conclusion of the above cited History of Monastic Spirituality includes this disturbing entry:

 

Gnosis: the knowledge of the enlightened mind, of one who has learnt to perceive by means of diakrisis which is a participation in divine knowledge and so linked with contemplation.

 

Apparently the word “diakrisis”, which means ‘discernment’ in Greek, is an important gnostic term referring to the meditation technique used to achieve gnosis—the forbidden knowledge of the deep things of Satan.  Why would Alan Morrison, a former New Ager with an encyclopedic knowledge of the Gnostic heresy, its terminology and practice, as evidenced in his book, The Serpent and The Cross, choose for the name of his ministry a term which has a dual meaning and is fraught with esoteric connotations?  We can readily understand why Peter Beyerhaus, a Knight of Malta and leader of the Masonic Lausanne Movement, would choose to call his ecumenical organization *Diakrisis* Institute. 

 

Beyerhaus’ International Convention of Confessing Fellowships gave its publication the name of Diakrisis in 1980. Morrison speaks of Beyerhaus and his Conference of Confessing Fellowships with some degree of familiarity in his 1993 book, The Trojan Horse in the Church. In spite of his hollow denials, it is probable that Alan Morrison knew of Beyerhaus and his organization before he founded Diakrisis International in 1990. Considering that Morrison had knowledge of Beyerhaus and his Diakrisis magazine well before he cares to admit, serious questions arise about the name he chose for Diakrisis International.

 

Returning to St. Augustine of Hippo, who is held in high esteem by the apologetics network in general.  Besides Diakrisis, Peter Beyerhaus is co-editor of another magazine titled Confessio Augustana, i.e., Confessions of Augustine. The Alliance for Confessing Evangelicals classifies Augustine of Hippo under “Great Preachers and Theologians” with a link to an Augustinian web site. ACE Recommended Reading includes:

 

“AUGUSTINE (354-430), a) Anti-Pelagian Writings, b) The City of God, c) On The Trinity. Very important early Christian theologian. Protestants look to Augustine primarily for his views of grace and predestination, but his views of church/state relations are also very relevant for contemporary thought and reflection.”

 

In the ACE magazine, Modern Reformation, Michael Horton pays tribute to Augustine’s great legacy—the Holy Roman Empire:

 

“In short, the outcome was both positive and negative, but on the whole, the barbarian invasions provided for the most explosive missionary expansion to that date and without it, Christianity would be a footnote in history books on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Happily, Augustine pointed the way beyond this-worldly attachments to the most amazing advances of Christ's kingdom. In 497, the last Roman Emperor ruled and the pagan rulers now assumed the Roman titles. The Holy Roman Empire of medieval Christendom itself was the product of this barbarian invasion and conversion.” [Augustine & Jerome]

 

That such an article would appear in a journal titled “Modern Reformation” is revealing.  Just what do the modern apologists envision at the end of their ‘modern Reformation’? Another Holy Roman Empire with monasteries and convents such as Augustine planted and nurtured throughout Africa? Of course, Horton denies that Augustine advocated monastic life, but such is the nature of the new Lausanne-style apologetics!

 

Another famous medieval monk, Joachim of Fiore (1145-1202), in fact prophesied a future age when the entire world would become "one vast monastery"!  Joachim's prophesied 'Age of the Spirit' was the Gnostic counterfeit of the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

"The Age of the Spirit was to be a sabbath or resting-time of mankind. Then the world would be one vast monastery, in which all men would be contemplative monks rapt in mystical ecstasy and united in singing the praises of God. And this new version of the Kingdom of the Saints would endure until the Last Judgement... [T]his was to be achieved by a new order of monks who would preach the new gospel throughout the world... During the three and a half years immediately preceding the fulfillment of the third dispensation Antichrist would have his reign. He would be a secular king who would chastise the corrupt and worldly Church until in its present form it was utterly destroyed. After the overthrow of this Antichrist the Age of the Spirit would come in its fulness." [Norman Cohn, Pursuit of the Millennium, Oxford University Press, 1957, pp. 108-10].

A return to monasticism may not be as far-fetched as it seems. Plans to this end appear to be underway under the auspices of the United Nations:

"In June of 1980, the directors of the Temple of Understanding voted unanimously to sponsor the formation of a World Monastic Council. Its purpose—to be an international network of monks, nuns, scholars, theologians and laity from diverse religious traditions, both East and West, who would work together to create new forms of community for the global society of the future—to work for the awakening of spiritual consciousness (godhood)." [Brenda Scott and Samantha Smith, The Trojan Horse, Lafayette, LA; Huntington House Publishers, 1993, p. 83]

As previously mentioned, Michael Horton and Rod Rosenbladt of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals teach at the ACE/CURE-sponsored annual Strasbourg Seminar on Human Rights, which also features presenters from the United Nations. Since 1990, ACE/CURE has also sponsored a radio program, The White Horse Inn, hosted by Horton, Rosenblatt, Dr. Kim Riddlebarger and Rev. Ken Jones.  Kim Riddlebarger, a graduate of Fuller Seminary, is Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Seminary CA, has served as executive vice president of CURE and is the pastor of Christ Reformed Church. 

 

The Director of Education at Christ Reformed Church is Kenneth Samples, founder and president of the Augustine Fellowship Study Center. Samples, a former Contributing Editor to the Christian Research Institute (1987-94), also serves on the editorial and communication staff at Reasons to Believe, a Progressive Creationist ministry founded and directed by Hugh Ross. Biblical Discernment Ministries’ expose of Hugh Ross itemizes Ross’s points of departure from the Creation account in Genesis 1, revealing that Ross is first and foremost an apologist for the reconciliation of the Bible and science:

 

“Dr. Ross is a professing Christian currently in full-time, non-denominational ministry dealing with apologetics, especially Bible and science issues. Ross is perhaps the most visible spokesman for Progressive Creationism, a belief which opposes both atheistic evolutionism and historic Christianity's understanding of Biblical creationism. At best, then, Ross is a theistic evolutionist. He has become increasingly well-known as he has appeared on many ‘Christian’ radio and television programs and spoken before numerous audiences (see list at end of this report). Ross packages his beliefs in a way that appears Biblically conservative and evangelical; thus, Ross prominently displays endorsements of his books from many respected evangelicals (so-called).”

 

The merger of science and religion is the magnificent obsession of Sir John Templeton, who funds projects which advance scientific theories at the expense of Bible truth. The Fingerprint of God by “theistic evolutionist” Hugh Ross shows up on the Templeton Foundation web site as “Suggested Reading” along with Theilhard de Chardin, Jewish Kabbalist, Daniel Matt and others of like false belief. The occasion is a competition for a new Templeton prize — Expanding Humanity’s Vision of God, subtitled: “Can we have a more comprehensive, more exploratory, more humble theology?” 

 

Reasons to Believe features a video of a debate on the John Ankerberg Show in which Hugh Ross presents his false teaching. Ankerberg’s Theological Research Institute features twenty-one (21) articles on debates between Hugh Ross and Kent Hovind—facing off on the scientific vs. the Biblical account of Creation.  As previously mentioned, Westminster Theological Seminary (Peter Jones) and the Presbyterian Church of America (Peter Jones) embrace the same false teaching on Creation as Hugh Ross. Not surprisingly, Peter Jones and the ACE are listed as Co-Laborers with Hugh Ross’s staff-worker, Kenneth Samples, on the Christ Reformed Church web site.

 

It is for good reason that Kenneth Samples of Reasons to Believe (Hugh Ross) also directs the Augustine Fellowship Study Center.  Like Hugh Ross, Augustine of Hippo rejected the literal interpretation of Genesis 1, preferring his own private interpretation.  This departure from Scripture Samples defends even though he finds it to be consistent with the modern “big bang” theory:

 

“He devoted the latter part of the work to an exegetical analysis of the early chapters of Genesis (the created world being the cosmic setting for the soul’s journey to God). Written in the form of a prayer to God (similar to the Psalms), the work also serves as thought-provoking devotional literature… Certain points of Augustine’s fifth-century cosmological thinking are amazingly consistent with modern-day big bang cosmology.”

 

Samples wrote two articles of a three-part series in the Christian Research Institute Journal on the subject of why Roman Catholicism is not a cult. When Samples left CRI, the series was finished by Norman Geisler and Ralph MacKenzie.  A few excerpts from Part I show where Samples is going with this issue: more ecumenical unity!

 

What Think Ye of Rome?

 

“Counter Reformation: A period of reform and revival in the Roman Catholic church following the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. The goal was to stem the tide of Protestantism by genuinely reforming the Catholic church. This reform included among other things the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and the establishment of The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1540.”

 

    “There is certainly much common ground between the two traditions, but seldom is this carefully and reflectively considered. Most discussions concentrate almost exclusively on the differences between the two camps, which are unquestionably quite significant, as we shall see in detail in future installments of this series. But, the areas of common commitment are also quite significant. We should not gloss over these areas of agreement simply because there remain serious differences.

    “Further areas of agreement are also apparent. For example, a number of Catholic scholars who would otherwise be considered traditionalist Catholics (strong in their defense of the Catholic views on authority, the nature of the church, the sacraments, etc.), nevertheless set forth the gospel in very evangelical-sounding terms. Catholic philosopher and apologist Peter Kreeft fits this category.”

 

“Even with the significant areas of agreement that I have discussed above, a notable number of evangelicals remain utterly convinced that the Roman Catholic church is a non-Christian cult. They frequently charge that ‘Romanism’ is: (1) an apostate religious system, (2) an invalid expression of Christianity, and (3) the largest and most influential non-Christian cult in the world. In Part Two I will demonstrate just why Catholicism should not be classified as a cult.”

 

Returning to St. Augustine, Alan Morrison argues for a literal 6-day creation period while claiming that Augustine was not a creation-evolutionist. An article on his Diakrisis web site by David C.C. Watson, formerly of Wheaton College [Billy Graham], justifies Augustine’s false teaching just as Kenneth Samples does on the ground that he was praying or meditating rather than expounding doctrine.  Watson further opines that Augustine allegorized Genesis 1 because he was “discovering esoteric meanings that (perhaps) no one else ever thought of.”  Perhaps “discovering esoteric meanings” of Scripture is the fruit of “diakrisis, which is a participation in divine knowledge and so linked with contemplation,” per the History of Monastic Spirituality Glossary!  Samples, however, identified Augustine’s treatment of Genesis as “exegetical analysis”--in other words, an interpretation.

 

The following Table and analysis of Augustine’s view of creation is found in David Watson’s article on the Diakrisis web site. Note the outrageous license Augustine took in rendering the plain sense of Scripture as typological and figurative language.  This mass of ignorance is applied in similar fashion to the interpretation of Bible prophecy in most “Reformed” denominations to this day!

 

HOW MANY YEARS IN A DAY?

III. ORIGINS OF THE NON-LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS

 

In his Confessions (Bks.XI, XII and XIII, where Augustine deals with Genesis 1, he is not arguing with anyone. Rather, he is meditating; in fact the whole passage is an extended prayer to God. In no sense is he setting out his own view as opposed to someone else's. Nor does the word 'structure' or the phrase 'literary device' appear. What he does is allegorize the chapter, discovering esoteric meanings that (perhaps) no one else ever thought of.

 

Consider the following equations: 

 

Object	Allegory
firmament	Angels
clouds	Preachers
sea	Unbelievers
dry land	Believers
bringing forth fruit	works of mercy
stars	saints (in various grades of light!)
fishes	Sacraments
whales	Miracles

 

Luther comments, concerning this allegorising, "Augustine resorts to extraordinary trifling in his treatment of the six days".  Also Augustine knew hardly a word of Hebrew and was no Greek scholar.  As anchorman in the non-literal team, he is hopelessly lightweight.

 

St. Augustine of Hippo may have been a theological lightweight, but no scholar denies his enormous influence on the development of Roman Catholic theology and practice during the Middle Ages and to the present day.

 

DIAKRISIS: Discernment or Gnosticism?

 

Alan Morrison’s Diakrisis International web site is notable, not only for the material it presents, which conceals many hidden agendas, but for its subtle distortions of the facts and glaring omissions of large tracts of essential information.  The combination of distortion/omission of essential information amounts to disinformation—inexcusable for a ‘discernment’ ministry but to be expected of a front for the New Age.

 

What might seem to be an insignificant example of the selective information found on the Diakrisis web site is Morrison’s treatment of Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory.  Morrison attributes Darwin's assault on the Bible to the death of his young daughter, but conveniently omits to mention that Charles Darwin was prominent in the British eugenics movement. A native of Great Britain would be well aware of this powerful movement that dominated England, Germany and the United States in the first half of the 20th century. Also, he would know that Charles Darwin was the cousin of Sir Francis Galton, who first trumpeted the case for elimination of inferior races and coined the word ‘eugenics’.  And that the Galton Institute in England was the forerunner of the Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, New York, which today houses the Human Genome Project.

 

In fact, the cause of eugenics was Darwin’s sole motivation for writing On the Origin of the Species By Means of Natural Selection which was subtitled: The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life (1859). Darwin’s sons were leaders of the British Eugenics society — a powerful voice in the international eugenics movement — which encompassed the secret societies of Westcott, Hort and Balfour.

 

“In 1912 the First International Congress of Eugenics is held at the University of London. The president of the Congress is Major Leonard Darwin, son of Charles Darwin; one of the first English vice presidents is First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, later Prime Minister. American vice-presidents included Charles William Eliot, president emeritus of Harvard, and Alexander Graham Bell… At the inaugural dinner, chaired by Charles Darwin's son Leonard, the keynote address was given by [the British prime minister] Arthur Balfour.” [The Timeline]

 

This formidable movement, which precipitated and funded the Nazi Holocaust, is never mentioned on the Diakrisis website. Even more significant is the omission of any information whatsoever on the Evangelical Alliance, which evolved into the present-day World Evangelical Fellowship, now the World Evangelical Alliance—the coalition of ecumenical organizations that launched the Lausanne Movement under the direction of Billy Graham. The first president of the World Evangelical Fellowship, Harold W. Fuller, wrote of the singular importance of one ecumenical body in any serious history of the Evangelical movement:

 

“Evangelicals have since looked upon WEF as the organizational fulfillment, on an international basis, of the original vision of 1846 - a global umbrella for national alliances. As church historian Mark Ellingsen notes, ‘No history of the Evangelical Movement can ignore the founding of an international organization in 1846, the Evangelical Alliance (the predecessor body of the present-day World Evangelical Fellowship).’” [From the Evangelical Alliance to the World Evangelical Fellowship: 150 years of unity with a mission.]

 

Can the reason for suppression of information about the EA/WEF by the ‘discernment’ ministries be that some enterprising researcher might discover, as Dana Hoard did, that the Evangelical Alliance was founded in Freemason Hall, London, which is the home of the United Grand Lodge of England and headquarters of International Freemasonry?  In his various papers on Evangelicalism, the Ecumenical Movement and Freemasonry, Alan Morrison never connects these seemingly disparate movements by informing his readers of the monumental fact that they are really ONE MOVEMENT.  Yet Morrison presumes to ridicule the Watch Unto Prayer website which presents a massive amount of detailed information and analysis of the Masonic infiltration and control of the Evangelical movement.

 

Of course, the absence of critical data about the EA, WEF and Lausanne gives Alan the freedom to promote a host of Lausanne-connected apologists, such as Peter Beyerhaus who, in turn, refer their deluded followers to Morrison's site without fear of exposure. Now we learn that Alan Morrison—who has withheld information that would educate his subscribers and supporters on the true nature of the One World Religion/New World Order conspiracy—is planning to invite them to an ecumenical “pan-European conference” along with a great multitude of non-Christians!

 

   “This is to inform you that I have conflated the last three articles on the work of the Illuminati and placed them on the Diakrisis website (http://www.diakrisis.org) on the "Articles & Analysis" page under the conglomerate title "The Shape of Things to Come: Global Conspiracy & the World Trade Center".  It is just over 8000 words long…

   “This has been a most interesting couple of weeks.  I have received e-mails and set up communication with people from all over the world and from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds.  Rather than being confined to Protestant circles, it has been most interesting to interface on these issues with Muslims, Roman Catholics and New Agers.  Many folks are far more clued in than one may imagine.  I have long wanted my writings to break outside the purely Christian scene.  I believe that this subject provides the perfect opportunity.  This is the ideal era for ‘cross-over’ work, as there are many people who are not Christians who see very clearly what is developing in the world.  It is for this reason that I e-mailed you about the fact that some of us are discussing a pan-European conference on this subject which would involve Christian academics and authors and an open international audience drawn from all religions or none, diverse cultures and walks of life, rather than merely being closed sessions for conspiracy freaks and Christian fundamentalists.  Please pray that this will become a reality.”  [Diakrisis Mailing List: ‘New Article on Website,” Sept. 23, 2001]

 

This incredible proposal ought to give discerning Christians serious reservations about the agenda of Diakrisis International. Morrison’s plan is to bring Christians together with “…an open international audience drawn from all religions or none, diverse cultures and walks of life” to confer on the subject of world developments under the tutelage of “Christian academics and authors”!  Is Alan referring to academics and authors such as Peter Jones, Michael Horton, Harold O.J. Brown, J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul and other spiritual cross-dressers at the Alliance for Confessing Evangelicals? Who knows where the line will be drawn—perhaps conferences with New Agers such as the Gold Lake Retreat sponsored by Spiritual Counterfeits Project and EMNR?!  Alan makes one perceptive observation: “This is the ideal era for ‘cross-over’ work…” How very true! We are living in the last days when even the elect are deceived!

 

Like Alan Morrison’s Diakrisis International in France, Peter Beyerhaus’ Diakrisis Institute is an apologetics ministry in West Germany. Beyerhaus’ apologetics career shows him interfacing with the apologetics ministries in the U.S.—Evangelical Ministries to New Religions, Christian Research Institute and Spiritual Counterfeits Project, with which Alan Morrison of Diakrisis International interacts.  The evidence of an association between Diakrisis Institute and Diakrisis International seemed compelling enough for us to venture that there is an affiliation. Although there is no definitive proof of an affiliation available to us—and the parties concerned have every reason to conceal such evidence—we suspect that Diakrisis International, which interfaces with the Alliance for Confessing Evangelicals in the United States, is a parallel operation to Diakrisis Institute in Germany, which interlocks with the European Convention of Confessing Fellowships and the European Apologetics Network [EAN].

 

Peter Beyerhaus envisions a future time when the Confessing Movement from the Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches—those who have separated from their respective traditions—will unite as the “three main confessions within Christianity” to resist the coming Antichrist.  

 

“At a recent meeting of evangelical Lutheran and Roman Catholic traditionalists, Bishop Graber (the RC Bishop of Regensberg) drew our attention to the famous ecumenical vision of the Russian Orthodox philosopher Wladimir Solowjew, who in 1899 - shortly before his sudden death - wrote his remarkable ‘Short Narrative of the Antichrist’. Ever since then I have heard confessing Christians from different churches refer to the same vision when confronted with the vexing problem of uniting the three main confessions within Christianity: The Roman Catholic, the Orthodox and the Protestant churches. Solowjew in his narrative tells us in a blending of prophetic and poetic style about the coming appearance of that ominous biblical figure – ironically enough at a final ecumenical council in Jerusalem – who by his fascinating offer to restore the three historic confessions to their former glory will cause both the final polarization within Christianity and its re-unification at the same time, a re-unification in a contradictory way: There will be majority groups from each of the three confessions who enthusiastically hail this religious world ruler as the true Saviour of Christianity, and who by accepting his offer find their corporate unity in their loyalty to Him as their sole protector. At the same time there will be three minority groups within those confessional blocks - each one represented by a symbolical reincarnation of the three Apostles Peter, John and Paul - who by spiritual discernment realize the fraud of his offer and recognize Him as the predicted Antichrist. In the moment, when the wrath of him turns against them, they also realize their basic oneness amongst themselves that consists in the unfainting loyalty to the biblical Christ, who is the eternal Son of God incarnate in the Son of Mary. Thus the utter persecution of Christianity will be the fiery test by which the genuineness of faith in its threefold confessional expression will be revealed and realized in the unification of the true flock of Christ.” [What the Spirit is Saying to the Churches]

 

Beyerhaus’ article appeared in the December 1996 issue of New Directions, the publication of Forward in Faith, “a worldwide association of Anglicans who are unable in conscience to accept the ordination of women as priests or as bishops.”  New Directions is the FiF publication in the UK "serving Evangelicals and Catholics seeking to renew the Church in the historic faith. It offers detailed news analysis and commentary from the UK.” In the very same issue of New Directions that featured Beyerhaus article there is another article by Gerald Bray, Anglican Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, who is a member of the Council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.  Bray’s article laments that the Church does not give more honor to the Virgin Mary as the mother of Christ: “Sadly all too often there is as little room for her now in Church as there was in the inn at Bethlehem so many centuries ago.” 

 

The scenario which Peter Beyerhaus envisions—when the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant confessing movements “realize their basic oneness amongst themselves”—would not represent the crowning achievement of the Protestant separatists, but rather their great apostasy from the faith of Jesus Christ.  Astonishingly, two years later Alan Morrison parroted Beyerhaus’ ecumenical end-time vision in a 1998 Diakrisis Journal editorial titled “Evangelical Unity: Possibility or Fantasy?”

 

The True Ecumenism

 

“It would seem that alongside the apostate ecumenical structures of the false church, and the futile dreams of the New Evangelicalism, there is a realignment of genuine Christians taking place today which transcends manmade denominations and secondary belief systems. It is, if you will, the true ecumenism. This realignment of the Church embraces those who may not previously have fellowshipped together precisely because of the sectarianism of denominational structures and the division occasioned by superficial beliefs, but who are now prepared to do so on the basis of the great foundations of Holy Scripture and a common desire unequivocally to denounce heresy. And surely that is what the Church is really all about — a people of the Book, a little flock sheltering under the Cross, sitting at the feet of Jesus, who may differ superficially but who know what must stand lest the entire structure falls.

Prepared for the Coming Tribulation

 

“It has been the same throughout the whole of Church history: While true doctrine is continually hammered out on the dark anvil of heresy, so true fellowship is discovered through the inevitable exposing of false brethren (1Cor.11:19; 1Jn.2:19). For the Lord, through a dramatic sifting process, is presently gathering His children — not into cosy ecumenical committees, organisations and camaraderie-based steering groups, but into powerful and meaningful spiritual alliances. Only through such organisms can true unity come. How else will we withstand the time of severe tribulation which is surely close at hand, and through which we are Divinely called to be unflinching witnesses.”

 

The persecution endured by the poor souls trapped in these new “spiritual alliances” may be the result of their trust in false prophets and teachers such as Alan Morrison and Peter Beyerhaus. The Lord Jesus gave us fair warning of their type: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Matt. 7:15)  Do you, dear Christians, suppose that Alan Morrison is collecting your names, addresses and photographs for his scrapbook?

 

From: Alan Morrison

Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2001 12:25 PM

To: Diakrisis Mailing List

Subject: Where are they?

 

Dear Friends:

 

    Well we've only received 5 photos out of a possible 1128 subscribers (at least it was 2 more than the number of people who responded to my recent Anniversary appeal!).  Are you all too shy?  Or paranoid?  You can't possibly be any uglier than I am!  So let's see what you look like.  I am genuinely interested.  It was lovely to put a name to the 5 faces which arrived.  One lady even sent her very romantic wedding photos!  That really warmed my heart.

    You can see our photos any time you like (press the "About Diakrisis" button on the left frame of the website).  Now let's be seeing yours...

 

Your servant, in Christ Jesus,

 

ALAN MORRISON

Diakrisis International

 

It is a fact that Alan Morrison and Peter Beyerhaus are well-connected to the greater Lausanne network that is pro-actively databasing Christians. The Pentagon of the Lausanne Movement, Fuller Seminary (where Beyerhaus has lectured on “missiology”) and its offshoot, the U.S. Center for World Missions, have been spiritually mapping the world for decades.  According to the author of Filling the Blanks with Fuller, “world evangelization” is their pretext for the databases, however, “eugenics” is their plan for the Christians:

 

    "Ethnic cleansing is at the root of this monster, and is part of a highly kept secret doctrine to eradicate many of those they happily 'embrace' at the moment. Millions of Christian workers are being utilized to bring about their own destruction, all in the name of evangelizing the world...

    "They have effectively data-based the entire globe in the door to door canvassing that has been going on for the past fifteen years under the guise of reaching the 'unreached' and 'hidden people groups' of the world. A thinly veiled desire to take over the world and implement biblical theocracy is pervading the entire AD2000 agenda, and they are ready to implement their next stage which is to 'cleanse the land' and unseat heavenly principalities and powers in high places that resist their efforts to take over. This is a political movement of the highest order and must not be confused with anything even remotely resembling Christianity. This is where George Otis Jr. and the Generals of Intercession come in! By 'spiritually mapping' every square inch of the globe in huge databases, they use a cell 'grid' to mark every pocket or person of 'resistance' to the move of the 'Holy Spirit'. This is where the database is effectively targeting each and every believer who resists the takeover. The spiritual mapping database was developed at, you guessed it, the US Center for World Mission!"

 

Much more could be said about Diakrisis International, however only so much information is needed to realize that the consortium of apologists and apologetics organizations with which Alan Morrison networks is under the all-seeing eye of the World Evangelical Fellowship whose agenda is administered by the invisible hand of Lausanne.  Morrison’s Diakrisis International and Beyerhaus’ Diakrisis Institute perform a critical operation within the Lausanne Movement—drawing into WEF’s global net Evangelical Protestants who have fled their apostate churches, trusting that discernment and apologetics ministries such as Diakrisis are a safe haven from the ecumenical movement.  One day (hopefully not too late) these refugees from the churches will wake up to discover they are being ushered into the One World Religion via the back door.

 

A Final Word

 

The global network of “apologists” and “scholars” unleashed upon us by Lausanne shamelessly flaunt their prestigious credentials and talents in order to intimidate the humble believer who may be less educated and culturally refined. In this hour of unprecedented deception, Christians must refuse to be impressed by the vain show of this new caste of intellectual elites.  Paul tells us that the Lord has not called “many wise after the flesh, many mighty, nor many noble” but hath chosen the foolish and the weak to confound the wise. (I Cor. 1:26-29) The early Christians were taught to discern the Lord’s servants by looking to Jesus Christ as the pattern:

 

"Many spirits are abroad in the world and the church, and the credentials they display are splendid gifts of eloquence and ability. Christian, look carefully. Ask for the print of the nails." ~ Justin Martyr

 

 

Barbara Aho

May 19, 2002

SMOKE, MIRRORS & DISINFORMATION

The New Age Ties of the Apologetics Ministries