Bouquets and Brickbats

OHIO: I have just read your article in the Nov. Issue of The Grace Proclamator and Promulgator. I feel very much as you do about the Promise Keepers movement.

Somehow I must have missed getting the copies that had prior articles on the subject of Promise Keepers.

I’d really appreciate getting whatever other articles on the subject that I might have missed.

MINNESOTA: Saw your new web page. I had not been able to get into the old pages. Great blessing.

TEXAS: Either I am too anxious to get my next issue of the GP&P or I have fallen out of your mailing list. I and others really are blessed by and instructed by each issue.

MISSOURI: I received a copy of The Grace Proclamator and Promulgator yesterday. Was favorably impressed.

Your article on the Promise Keepers confirmed my impression on the first and only time I have met one, no two, of their number. I listened to their pitch, then I asked them to go get their Bibles and let’s see what we can find in the Bible. At once they had no time and they never came back to visit me again.

MISSISSIPPI: Thanks Wayne for your laboring research and articles concerning Promise Keepers. This is much needed at this very time. As a suggestion, you may wish to put the subject in booklet or brochure form. I will send by mail an offering toward the spread of your work.

WASHINGTON: I would like to receive your paper . . . Also my son would enjoy and benefit from it if you would include him.

I enjoy the articles that you write. God bless you and your loved ones.

GERMANY: I recently received a copy of your Nov 96 issue of The Grace Proclamator & Promulgator.

Needless to say, I really enjoyed it, particularly the article about "The Promise Keepers". It was especially important to me because a dear Christian brother of mine is currently involved in one of their courses. I plan on passing it on to him with the hopes that it may change his views concerning this so called Christian group . . . If possible, I would like you to add me to your mailing list, or e-mail me the TGP&P monthly.

WASHINGTON: I just finished reading the second article on Promise Keepers, I hope that every one who is a part of that group, or contemplating joining it will get an opportunity to read both of your articles.

FLORIDA: Thank you so much for the paper you publish. The articles on "P. K" are very enlightening. Praise God for your diligence in keeping His Word in truth over man’s attempt to distort it. Please include these names in your list, if they are not already on it.

TENNESSEE: Our church enjoyed the fine message you preached. Now that we know you we can pray for you.

I did not receive the November issue of your paper. If you have an extra copy send it to me.

I am sending you a few names of our church people who want your paper. May our Sovereign bless your efforts in the ministry.

LOUISIANA: I received the copy of the information on Promise Keepers. Thanks for sending it to me.

KENTUCKY: Thanks so much for the articles in your paper. I sincerely believe that God's people will want to know the truth and if there is one who is promoting himself as a teacher of God's people and yet he does not conform to "Thus Saith the LORD" then we are to be very wary as to the things that they teach. I saw from some of your responses that the things that you have exposed has angered some but be that as it may we are not to be ignorant of his (Satan’s) devices. Satan did not deceive Eve by bringing in some new thing, and when he came to Christ, he used the very words of God except that he changed only one word. Deception is a game that Satan is very good at and those who are deceived by him are not to be catered to because they "think" that the person telling them the truth is being harsh. The truth is a wonderful thing, it will stand the test of time, it will stand the test of careful and minute scrutinization, it will stand the test of the sleight of men and maliciousness.

One thing I appreciate about your Editorial policy, is that you will print the negative responses as well as the positive ones. This tells me that you are not afraid of "bad press" but that you have the courage and concrete conviction that the things that you print are true to the best of your ability and knowledge of the Scriptures.

I found out this past week that the American Bible Society has been tampering with the KJV that they publish, so I didn't know if you knew about it but if you didn't you might tell your readers about their KJV bibles not being the same as others. I am not a KJV only type but for me as an English speaking person I use the KJV as the closest to the Original Text. When a Bible publisher begins to change a standard and not tell you about it then that is the same deception game that Satan played.

God Bless you my Brother,

LOUISIANA: I have been receiving your news letter for quite some time. Being a TULIP Christian, I love the fact that there is a voice teaching the truth of election and God's right to rule. I just caution you brother, you come across as bitter and mean-spirited at times. Perhaps that is a necessary part of tough love. You have the tough part down pat.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I would like to assure all readers that I am not bitter about anything. And, I do not seek to be mean-spirited. I suspect some would have accused Elijah of being mean spirited when he met the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. Or, Jesus when he pronounced his woes on the scribes and Pharisees as recorded in Matthew 23. And what of Peter who referred to false prophets as "brute beasts." There is also Paul’s denunciation of false teachers as "deceitful workers" who are ministers of Satan who have transformed themselves as the apostles of Christ.

I do not agree with a lot that Adrian Rogers, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church here in Memphis, says. But, in a speech this year he said some things with which I agree.

Adrian Rodgers from a talk he made at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention this year:

"It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, than falsehood that comforts and then kills. Let me tell you something, Friend, it is not love and it is not friendship if we fail to declare the whole counsel of God. It is better to be hated for telling the truth, than to be loved for telling a lie. It is impossible to find anyone in the Bible who was a power for God who did not have enemies and was not hated. It's better to stand alone with the truth, than to be wrong with a multitude It is better to ultimately succeed with truth than to temporarily succeed with a lie. There is only one Gospel and Paul said, "If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."

LOUISIANA: Home page is nice. I can only see it in text format through LSU. I may look at it with Netscape through Unisys when I get a chance.

I thought that you ought to number your "Promise Keepers" articles, so that one could tell which one was first and then second without having to click on them and read. Art#1, Art#2, etc. after the heading. Just a thought.

I noticed that a fellow wrote Greg Wilson in Florida about his home page and how that he had to quit the church that he was attending in Eugene, Oregon. Bro. Greg was able to give him the name and address and phone number of a sovereign grace baptist church in Eugene, or rather across the river from Eugene. I thought that was pretty neat. It is truly a small world now! We must be in the last days. Networking is making all the computers of the world as one big computer. We are coming to a day when there is no one mainframe, but the mainframe is becoming the "cloud".

You know "new agers" are into networking, not necessarily computers, but the same idea. I read some books on "new age" and networking is one of their big things. They say God is noting more than all of the consciousness (did I spell that right?) in the universe. Thus they see the need of networking these consciousnesses together. Now all the computers in the world are doing just that, kind of spooky. Well anyway we can still use all of this technology to our advantage.

NEW MEXICO: Just a note to let you know how much I appreciated the article in "The Grace Proclamator and Promulgator" concerning Hicks and Dobson.

FLORIDA: Thanks for the paper.

IOWA: I appreciate the articles on "The Promise Keepers." This movement certainly needs to be exposed for what it is. I am enclosing an example of the Vineyard babble. Keep up the good work for the Master.

OHIO: I am writing in reference to the articles on Promise Keepers you have written in your monthly newspaper. I feel you have been unfair in generalizing or isolating people who have identified with Promise keepers. In a recent issue of New Man, official magazine of Promise Keepers, an article was published on the error and cultic nature of the Mormon religion. There is no "alliance" being formed (page 2 of Vol. XII, No. 12, of your paper). Promise keepers refuse no one into their meetings so that anyone from any background would have access to hearing the true Gospel message, i.e., salvation is by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God the Son.

You mention the endorsement and cooperation of people such as Roy (sic. Robert) Hicks and James Dobson. How unfair to single out some extreme cases and conclude that they represent the entire movement. (These are the only two I had room for last issue. If the reader would have noted, the article is to be continued, and will be. It will include more of those aligned with PKs. Before I am finished with this series, he will know that I have not just singled out two extreme cases. At least he admits that both Robert Hicks and James Dobson are extreme. I would remind this writer of the question of Amos. Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed? When Promise Keepers distributed 50,000 free copies of Hicks book and helped in publishing it and endorsed and defended it, I would say they are walking together with Hicks!). I remember reading about a man named J. R. Graves, who is recognized as a major contributor to the Landmark movement. Mr. Graves had some peculiar views about "middle life," believed in a paper-chain-link succession to supposed true churches (Ed. Note: The correspondent is in error here. Graves did not believe in a "paper-chain-link succession" of churches. He did believe in church perpetuity. And, there is a decided difference.), both of which have proven to be an embarrassment to Landmark Baptists. Yet I do not find people condemning the movement, as a whole because of Mr. Graves’ unusual interpretations.

I agree that any activity involving human beings will be flawed because of our sin nature. And, true, error must be exposed, but whatever happened to Ephesians 4:15? . . . Critiques can be very profitable but please be accurate with your information.

OHIO: I just finished reading your article on Promise Keepers in your paper and there are a few things that trouble me. You mention that in your studies that you found most of the references to promises were from God to man and I and I am sure the leaders of Promise Keepers would agree with you. I also believe that they would agree that a child of God needs to be very careful about making promises that he does not intend to try to keep and I know that they teach that we cannot keep any promises without the help of the Holy Spirit. We as God’s children are time and time again told to be Christ-like and to keep his commandments and if you took as much time to see what the promises are that these people are asking men to keep as you do in attacking these men you would see that these promises are taught all through the Bible. What ever happened to man’s responsibility to be holy and keep God’s commandments? I am sorry to say that too many churches are teaching that once you make a profession of faith obey some rules that they have made up that they will make it to heaven. I fear that there are going to be a lot of surprised people when it is too late.

Another thing that bothers me is the hatred that I read in this article and in the letters that are in your paper. This hatred is not directed towards sin as that is the only place our hatred is to be directed but it is directed towards men. If these men are lost then my responsibility is to lovingly give them the gospel with the hope that they Spirit will open their eyes and that they will be saved and if they are already saved but in sin then my responsibility is to lovingly point out their sin and help them get right with God.

Finally I must comment on your condemnation of peoples worship practices and ways they serve God. The bible is very clear on how we are to treat our brothers in Christ and for one to say their practices are satanic and demonic is grossly in error. My God looks on the heart and He doesn’t need any of us to tell Him what He should accept or reject. There are a lot of people out there who don’t worship the same as you and who serve God in ways that you don’t that are doing a lot more to further the kingdom of God than you are. I suspect that your are going to tell me that I don’t know what I am talking about but I assure you that I do since my wife and I spent many years in a church that believes as you. We thank God often that he showed us that there are many more of His children in the world and that we can and should have fellowship with them. For many years we condemned the practices of others and we now see that it was because if they were really serving God it made us look bad and they are and we did.

There is much more that I could write but I fear that what I have written will be ignored. I can only pray that God will draw others out and put them in places where they can actively worship and serve Him.

EDITORS NOTE: I assure this writer his letter has not been ignored. If he has a copy of his letter on file and will check it he will see that I have printed it here in full. The only changes I made was to correct some misspelled words and some grammatical errors.

It is ludicrous for him to suggest that men are free to worship God in just any way they want and teach whatever they wish and that their error should not be called to their attention. It is also interesting to me that any time one writes against error, those who are in sympathy always want to accuse us of hatred.

Let me ask, "Since when is the hatred of error a sin?" This writer accused me of hatred of those individuals whose false way I am seeking to expose. The writer of this letter accuses me of hating James Dobson and Robert Hicks, whose error I partially exposed in the last issue of the paper. David wrote, Psalm 119:104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. Psalm 119:128 Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way. Commenting on this Thomas Manton wrote, "Falsehood is either in point of opinion or practice. If you take it in the first sense, for falsehood in opinion or error in judgment, or false doctrine, or false worship, this sentence holds good. Those that get understanding by the word are established against error, and not only established against error, or against the embracing or possession of it, but they hate it."

From these words of David, it is evident that one who gets understanding from a study of the word of God will develop a holy hatred of every way that is contrary to that holy word. It is also evident that the more highly we esteem the word of God, the more we will hate the error of those who teach contrary to that word.

The wise man Solomon taught that one who fears the Lord will hate evil, whether it is pride, arrogancy, a froward mouth, or the evil way. Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. It is apparent from Scripture that doctrinal error is a very evil thing. Isaiah 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

We are admonished in the word of God to hate evil. Psalm 97:10 Ye that love the LORD, hate evil. David followed his inspired admonition for the wrote, "I hate the work of them that turn aside." (Psalm 101:3).

If the reader will go back and read the articles on Promise Keepers, he will see that I have attacked the error of this movement, not the men themselves. Dr. Dobson teaches theistic evolution. This is in direct contradiction to God’s account of the creation found in Genesis. I am not simply sorry he teaches that, I hate that teaching for it denies a fundamental, foundational truth of the word of God. Dr. Dobson is a Nazarene, and unless he is a hypocrite to his own church, he denies the doctrine of Total Hereditary Depravity. This is a foundational, fundamental doctrine of the word of God and I hate the doctrine of the alleged innate, intrinsic, congenital goodness of man. David said, Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Again he wrote, Psalm 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Dr. Dobson teaches the psychological concepts of self-esteem and self-love which are not taught in the Word of God. If I write bluntly about these heresies and those who teach them, I do so because I hate false doctrine.

I will not spend the time in going over all the errors of Robert Hicks. His book was published with the assistance of Promise Keepers. Fifty thousand copies of his blasphemous book was distributed by Promise Keepers. PKs continue to endorse and promote his book. In that book he advocates the fallibility of my Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He even advocates the blasphemous lie that Jesus actually entertained thoughts of committing adultery and sodomy. If what he writes about Jesus Christ is true, this correspondent has no salvation for a fallible Christ could not save one sinner. When one launches such heresy about the person and character of the Lord Jesus Christ, I admit I have a real hatred for his heresy for he has besmirched the character of the One on whom I have staked my eternal destiny.

The writer suggests we should hate sin. Heretical doctrine is sin of the worst sort. Any child of God who studies his Bible and is true to that Bible will hate heretical doctrine. I harbor no hatred of James Dobson nor of Robert Hicks, nor of any other man. But, yes, I do hate every false way, and given the grace and the opportunity, I will continue to expose error on the pages of this paper.

This paper is called The Grace Proclamator and Promulgator. Both James Dobson and Robert Hicks are enemies of God’s sovereign grace and their false teaching is an offense against God’s holy word which he has exalted even above his own name. Psalm 138:2 Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. An offense against the word of God is an offense against God himself.

My Dear Readers and Correspondents, I am set for the defense of truth as well as the positive declaration of truth. If my defense of requires the exposure of error, I am ready to do that also. If that is perceived as hatred, so be it. "Knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. (Phil. 1:17)

ARKANSAS: Thank you for your faithfulness in sending The Grace P&P. The love gift is to be used wherever the need is greatest—your church or you Newsletter. We young believers need all the spiritual material we can get our hands on, and TGP&P has certainly blessed me over and over again.

CALIFORNIA: Please send me any back issues you may have from October, 1996, and back.

TENNESSEE: I am a way behind in giving an offering four your church paper. I am sending you a $50 love offering. Pray for us as we do for you.

West Virginia: In following your timely and much needed critique on the anti-scriptural aspects of the Promise Keepers burgeoning movement, I have taken note that on several of the occasions you have made mention of one James Dobson of Focus on the Family, one of the premier exponents of Christian (so-called) psychology.

I personally know a minister, who, unless he has seen the light of late, is one of Dobson’s staunch admirers, even to the extent of enclosing his, Dobson’s little brochure messages into the Sunday bulletin of _______ Baptist Assembly.

Besides Dobson’s holding strongly to self-esteem and to "loving one’s self" before you can properly love your fellowman (something which encouraged said minister to preach an entire sermon in support of such reasoning) he, Dobson, also advised his readers never to refer to a homosexual as anything except Gay. You see, we may so offend those who even my New Webster’s Dictionary calls perverts and queers . . . .

FLORIDA: Glad I found you. I can’t tell you how excited I am to see a church like PHBC on the Internet. There are so few churches that teach sound Baptist doctrines as you do anyway, so to see it on the net is great. I pray that God will bless your efforts to the world over the Internet . . . I would also like to receive The Grace Proclamator and Promulgator.

May God bless all those at PHBC and TGP&P.

USA: Love and prayers for a New Year in the Lord. The GP&P is such a blessing—we devour it each month—so glad to see awful heresy exposed. Looking forward to January 1, 1997, The GP&P.

MISSISSIPPI: We greet you in His name, praying all is well with you and yours. Give our love to all the congregation there.

Send mail to rwcamp@gpp-5grace.com

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