Fuller Theological Seminary alums: Rob Bell « Churchmouse Campanologist:
Fuller Theological Seminary alums: Rob Bell
November 25, 2010 in Evangelical, Protestant | Tags: emergent church, Evangelical, Fuller Theological Seminary, Protestant, Rob Bell
Rob Bell, 40, is one of Fuller Theological Seminary‘s top alums and a big name in the Emergent Church.
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| The lopsided smile makes us think of Mark and Avoid Jeske, but this is fellow apostate Rob Bell. |
Beginnings
He founded Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a city better known as a centre of Reformed (Calvinist) theology in the United States. His father, Robert Holmes Bell, is a US Federal Judge, first appointed in Ronald Reagan’s second administration in 1987.
Like his father, Rob earned his Bachelor’s degree at Wheaton College in Illinois. Whilst there, he was part of an indie rock band and also met his future wife, Kristen. He got his start in the ministry after volunteering to teach a Christian message to the counsellors at the college’s Honey Rock Camp when no minister was available. At that time, he said, the Holy Spirit gave him a message about ‘rest’. From that point on, he decided to pursue a calling in the church.
That compelled him to earn an M.Div. from Fuller and serve as a youth intern at Lake Avenue Church. After he earned his degree, Bell and his wife returned to Grand Rapids, where he took the Saturday evening service at Calvary Chapel. At the age of 29, he decided to break out on his own by founding the Mars Hill Bible Church. Within a year, the congregation moved to what was a disused anchor store in a local mall.
In addition to his highly successful church ministry, he also makes short films. The series is called NOOMA, the phonetic American pronunciation of pneuma, signifying the Holy Spirit. (Here in the UK, we would say ‘NEWMA‘.) He also tours the country to sell-out crowds. His books include Velvet Elvis, Sex God and Drops Like Stars.
Start with Barth
According to someone who knows and told Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries, Bell was more of a John MacArthur style preacher when he served at Calvary Chapel. Then, he and his wife read one of Brian McLaren’s books, A New Kind of Christian. From that point, he rejected sola Scriptura. He believes that the Bible needs reinterpretation. He also said that the more one studies the Bible, the more questions it raises.
How do the ministers from the Emergent Church come to think that way? Silva puts it down to the influence of Modernism, then Karl Barth. Whilst Barth advocated a neo-orthodoxy, which in some way redressed Modernism, he did reject sola Scriptura and biblical inerrancy. For him, Scripture contained words of God, not the Word of God. Bell, too, rejects the truth of Scripture and loves the confusion his questions bring him. Yet, for many of us, myself included, it was actually believing what the Bible said which brought a sense of relief and deepened our belief.
Divine dirt clods
Bell borrowed a phrase from Marianne Williamson and attributed it to Nelson Mandela. One can imagine that his congregation lapped it up. Ken Silva tells us:
If you’re still tracking with (in English that’s following) me I return your attention now to the supposed ”Mandela” quote where Guru Bell tells us “you may be a dirt clod, but there is greatness and power and glory that resides in every single human being.” Why is that; because ”this divine breath is in every single human being ever.” And what has Bell taught us all along; that “breath” is spirit—it’s the heart of his whole shtick right down to “Nooma” …
… as previously pointed out in Rob Bell and New Age Guru Marianne Williamson those words were actually penned by New Age Priestess Marianne Williamson in her book A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles“.
What about homosexuals?
Scripturally speaking, there is only one way to truthfully respond when asked if a homosexual can continue his liaisons and become a Christian. Yet, Bell obfuscates:
The Bible is very clear that the practice of homosexuality is a sin (see—Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10) and for someone to become a Christian they must repent of [i.e. forsake, turn away from] their sin (see—Mark 1:14-15; Acts 20:21). But unfortunately an honest question to Rob Bell and MHBC on such a crucial issue of our time was met with a mere form letter from a “michelle” …
Then the recipient of this form letter from michelle of “Mars Hill Communications” is told:
We care deeply how Scripture is interpreted and how to discern living the way of Jesus, and in encountering differing viewpoints it is our aim to agree or disagree in love, keeping central a shared desire to know God and serve Jesus Christ. Regarding your comments or questions, we’d like to direct you to our mission http://www.marshill.org/mission, Narrative Theology http://www.marshill.org/believe,
Directions http://www.marshill.org/believe/directions [shared values], and serving focus http://www.marshill.org/serving, available at marshill.org.
You might also find our recent audio teachings http://www.marshill.org/teaching/podcast.php and archived series http://www.marshill.org/teaching/other.php as well as Rob Bell’s recommended reading list http://www.marshill.org/about/rob/recommendedReadingList.php to be beneficial.
After all, I’m constantly told how Jesus-centered and Biblical Bell’s teaching is; well Rob Bell, where do you stand; because Jesus answers the question—No.
Judge not
About online criticism, Bell had this to say:
When a Christian can find nothing better to do with their time [than criticize]…you start realizing that some Christians need to be saved. How a person would have energy to take shots at other Christians is just mind-boggling. You have to be so disconnected from the pain of the world to think that blogging is somehow a redemptive use of your time.
That sort of response doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. I’m delighted that Ken Silva blogged (!) the following:
This would make me one whom Bell called “disconnected” from life because in his fickle fantasy I would only be thinking about how “blogging is somehow a redemptive use” of my time. But instead it looks like Bell’s entered the doghouse yet again feeling he’s just “a little more relevant” because he and his “tribe cares more about the poor” etc., etc. while buying into the myth that those who hold the doctrines of grace like me don’t have any such concerns.
And this is what an Anglican priest pretty much published in a parish newsletter a few weeks ago. Paraphrased: ‘God doesn’t care about your religiosity or your doctrinal belief; He cares about what you do.’ Deeds, not creeds! Oh, we have so much in this world to DO! And you can’t redeem yourself in His sight unless your DOING things in His name. (That is, things which the church approves. Blogging isn’t one of them, because your pastor cannot see what you are doing.) Wrong … it’s about living a life of faith through grace. Our pitiful works alone cannot save us.
Hell defined
Bell is into utopia, always a bad sign. Ken Silva explains:
Bell makes it clear that he is more concerned with “hell on earth” than with what happens after this life: “What’s disturbing then is when people talk more about hell after this life than they do about hell here and now” …
Bell’s teaching that heaven and hell come to earth depending on how we live now simply is not biblical. He says, “As a Christian, I want to do what I can to resist hell coming to earth. Poverty, injustice, suffering – they are all hells on earth, and as Christians we oppose them with all our energies.” [7] But the term for hell, Gehenna, is used 12 times in the New Testament, 11 of them by Jesus. Not once did He use the term to describe something that is now on earth or now coming to earth.
But, then, Bell’s not interested in biblical truths, just a social activist interpretation.
How evangelical is Bell?
Ken Silva observes:
Bell is a hero to the mystical interspiritual set who in their deluded spiritual pride think their neo-Gnostic meditation powwows of Contemplative/Centering Prayer will eventually unite all religions. But this now begs the question: If the so-called crossing of ”traditional boundaries of religious groups to build stronger communities” really was the message of Jesus Christ and His Apostles then why were all of them, save John, murdered? They should have been as revered as Bell is. But you should now be able to understand why we’re experiencing such a diluting of doctrine; you see, if they were to teach in straight Biblical purity it wouldn’t make them very good role models at all for these fickle “faith heroes.”
‘Nothing new under the sun’
Another pastor, the Revd Casey Freswick of Bethany United Reformed Church in Wyoming, Michigan, writes of Bell’s errors:
Ultimately, Rob Bell does not repaint the Christian faith. He paints a picture that is not a picture of the Christian faith or the truth of Christianity. But his new picture of error is not really new at all. It is old error. It is old false teaching. It is the same old errors of the past repainted. Rob Bell forsakes truth. He rejects it. He deceives. He is a false teacher. He repaints the errors of the past…
Rob Bell has embraced these and other errors and merged them into postmodernism, an anti-Christian philosophy teaching the impossibility of absolute truth. Both postmodern 21st century philosophy and 20th century “modern liberalism” have influenced Rob Bell. A more appropriate title for Rob Bell’s painting, his “Velvet Elvis”, is “Postmodern Liberalism” …
One key aspect of liberalism embraced by Rob Bell is the false view of the life of Jesus replacing faith in Jesus. For Bell “Christian” describes those devoted “to living the way of the Messiah, who they believed was Jesus. A person who follows Jesus … A way of life centered around a person who lives.” He writes, “I am far more interested in jumping than I am in arguing about whose trampoline is better.” What we do is essential, not what we believe.
It is hard to fathom someone professing a love for Christ yet rolling around in all that error. I, too, embraced a lot of this before it was loosely codified as the emergent church. You could get it fairly readily by finding out what the clergy read in their spare time, then taking the books out of the local library. At some point, you get to the point where you ask yourself, ‘If I believe the Beatitudes and charity are the way forward, why am I not predisposed towards believing the rest of Scripture?‘ And, at that moment, the real journey begins with Bible reading, solemn reflection and prayer. I am today miles away from where I was then, which was not too far from where Rob Bell is now.
I have spent the past few hours reading through what Rob Bell says. Nowhere was there any mention of the Cross, Christ’s propitiation for our sins, the Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost or St Paul’s exhortations to the churches. Maybe he’s wrestling with himself wondering whether or how they actually happened. If so, that’s very sad, indeed.
Tomorrow: Another Fuller alum and his theology
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| Ichabod was the first to predict Mark Driscoll's war, and his disciples Glende and Ski have followed. |
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GJ - Fuller Seminary began with weak view of inerrancy (inerrant in doctrine, but not necessarily in history, geography, etc). The founder's son studied under Karl Barth, an avowed Marixist, and came back with a new view of the Word of God. Another prominent leader at Fuller had similar training.
Church Growth - so dearly loved by Missouri, WELS, the Little Sect, and some parts of ELCA, had its beginning after Fuller repudiated inerrancy. Joel Gerlach, David Valleskey, F. Bivens, Lawrence Otto Olson, First VP Huebner, and Paul Calvin Kelm all studied CG at Fuller.
Some Quotations
"The crudest extravagances of revivalism (Methodism, Pentecostalism, Holy Rollerism) have their root in this specifically Reformed doctrine of the immediate working of the Holy Spirit." [Fuller Seminary is known for its Pentecostal extremism, including C. Peter Wagner's "Signs and Wonders" course.] "Grace, Means of," The Concordia Cyclopedia, L. Fuerbringer, Th. Engelder, P. E. Kretzmann, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1927, p. 299.
"I know these questions are real because I was asking them myself when I first came, during my second missionary furlough from Bolivia, to study at Fuller under McGavran. Frankly, I entered his program in 1967 as a skeptic. But I emerged an enlightened person." C. Peter Wagner (study questions by Rev. John Wimber), Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: G/L Regal Books, 1976, p. 35.
Professional church growth consultant: "A pioneer in this field is Pastor John Wimber of Yorba Linda Friends Church in Orange Country, California. Wimber has recently resigned his pastorate to head up the newly-created Department of Church Growth of the Fuller Evangelistic Association." C. Peter Wagner (study questions by Rev. John Wimber), Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: G/L Regal Books 1976, p. 20.
"The basic responsibility for the seminar is mine, but I am also assisted by Donald McGavran, Win Arn and John Wimber of the Fuller Evangelistic Association." [Two week Doctor of Ministry seminar every winter at Fuller School of Theology, on church growth] C. Peter Wagner (study questions by Rev. John Wimber), Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: G/L Regal Books, 1976, p. 15.
"Church growth consultation began at the Charles E. Fuller Institute in 1975, when it was still called Fuller Evangelistic Association, under C. Peter Wagner and John Wimber. I took over from Wimber in 1978." C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Chapter: "Church Growth Consultation," by Carl F. George, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 159.
"In January of 1982, he [Wimber] taught a course at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he is an adjunct professor, called 'Signs, Wonders, and Church Growth.' Wimber taught this course for four years and it became one of the most popular courses at Fuller." C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 275.
"Stephen A. Wagner is senior pastor at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Carrollton, Texas. In addition he serves as chairman of the Church Growth Task Force of the Texas District, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod...He is the author of Heart to Heart: Sharing Christ with a Friend (Corunna, Indiana: Church Growth Center). He is also a contributing author to the Church Planting Manual (North American Missions Department of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, 1985), and he has written articles for denominational publications. Currently he is a candidate for the Doctor of Ministry degree in church growth from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California." C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 274.
"Wagner was instrumental in the organization of the North American Society for Church Growth, and became its founding president in 1984. In the same year he was honored by Fuller Seminary with the Donald A. McGavran Chair of Church Growth." C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 273.
"Recognizing the need for professional church growth consultation, in 1975 he [C. Peter Wagner] invited John Wimber to become the founding director of what is now the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth. Wimber got the Institute off to an excellent start, then left to become the founding pastor of Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Anaheim and Vineyard Ministries Internation... Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow (Regal, 1979) is approaching the 100,000 mark... Church Growth and the Whole Gospel (Harper and Row, 1981) is a scholarly discussion of criticisms of the Church Growth Movement from the viewpoint of social ethics, in which Wagner did his doctoral work." C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 271f.
"C. Peter Wagner is the Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church Growth at the Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Missions in Pasadena, California. The School of World Mission became a part of Fuller Seminary in 1965 when Donald McGavran, father of the Church Growth Movement, moved his nonacademinc Institute of Church Growth to Pasadena from Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Oregon. Since that time, Fuller Seminary has been the institutional base for the Church Growth Movement, first in its global expression and later in its North American expression." C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 271.
"C. Peter Wagner is the Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church Growth at the Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Missions in Pasadena, California. The School of World Mission became a part of Fuller Seminary in 1965 when Donald McGavran, father of the Church Growth Movement, moved his nonacademinc Institute of Church Growth to Pasadena from Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Oregon. Since that time, Fuller Seminary has been the institutional base for the Church Growth Movement, first in its global expression and later in its North American expression." C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 271.
"Elmer Matthias is associate professor of practical theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, an institution of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod...While serving the parish [Zion, Anaheim, California] he enrolled in the Doctor of Ministry program in church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary, receiving his degree in 1977. At Concordia Seminary he became the first trained church growth seminary instructor in Lutheran circles, teaching church growth, evangelism, and parish administration." C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 250.
"When the roster of pioneers of church growth in North America is drawn up, three individuals will deserve a prominent place on it: One is Win C. Arn, one of the students in the first Fuller Seminary course in American Church Growth...Another pioneer is Paul Benjamin, who in 1974 left his position as Professor of New Testament and Church Growth at Lincoln Christian Seminary to establish the National Church Growth Research Center in Washington, D.C." C. Peter Wagner, Study Questions by John Wimber, Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: Regal Books, 1976, p. 17.
"We resent unnecessary distractions; we resist unbiblical diversions.. Can anyone believe that all other activities should be suspended until all evangelicals agree on precise doctrinal statements? We certainly cannot." David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, 91182
"Scripture is an essential part and trustworthy record of divine self-disclosure All the books of the Old and New Testaments, givine by divine inspiration, are the written Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. They are to be interpreted according to their context and purpose and in reverent obedience to the Lord who speaks through them in living power." David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, 91182
"The current "Statement" approved by our trustees and faculty in 1972 is our attempt to hear and obey the Scriptures as they teach us their basic truths. Any changes made had as their intent a more - not less - biblical expression of Christian truth. We see this move not as a shift but as a corrective." David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, 91182
"Where inerrancy refers to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches through the biblical writers, we support its use. Where the focus switches to an undue emphasis on matters like chronological details, the precise sequence of events, and numerical allusions, we would consider the term misleading and inappropriate. Its dangers, when improperly defined, are: 1) that it implies a precision alien to the minds of the Bible writers and their own use of Scriptures; 2) that it diverts attention from the message of salvation and the instruction in righteousness which are the Bible's key themes;...5) that too often it has undermined our confidence in the Bible we have... 6)that it prompts us to an inordinate defensiveness of Scripture which seems out of keeping with the bold confidence with which the prophets, the apostles and our Lord proclaimed it." David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1-800-235-2222 Pasadena, CA, 91182
"Were we to distinguish our position from that of some of our brothers and sisters who perceive their view of Scripture as more orthodox than ours, several points could be made: 1) we would stress the need to be aware of the historical and literary process by which God brought the Word to us...4) we would urge that the emphasis be placed where the Bible itself places it - on its message of salvation and its instruction for living, not on its details of geography or science, though we acknowledge the wonderful reliability of the Bible as a historical source book; 5) we would strive to develop our doctrine of Scripture by hearing all that the Bible says, rather than by imposing on the Bible a philosophical judgment of our own as to how God ought to have inspired the Word." David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1-800-235-2222 Pasadena, CA, 91182
"A second example of this homogenization is Waldo J. Werning's Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, published by Moody Press in 1977." [Ed. note: The foreword is by C. Peter Wagner. Werning studied at Fuller.]
"Werning is a Missouri Synod Lutheran executive. Although Werning's denominational publishing house did not publish his book, it is nevertheless an attempt by Werning to create an instrument for church growth among Missouri Synod Lutherans. If you read Werning, you can readily see that he is exceedingly eclectic, drawing from everywhere, including his own tradition." Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 33f. [McGavran became a professor of missions in Indianapolis in 1957, at the College of Missions, where he got his M.A. in 1923. He began teaching at Northwest Christian College in Oregon in 1961. McGavran was invited to move his Institute of Church Growth to Fuller and become the founding dean of Fuller's School of World Mission.] Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 10f.
"To acquire more expertise in Church Growth thinking, I visited the School of World Mission and Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary. When I inquired concering resources and materials for American Church Growth, I found that Dr. Donald McGavran and C. Peter Wagner were team-teaching a course applying world principles of Church Growth to the American scene. I immediately became a part of that group. As I listened and learned, I realized here was the effective approach to evangelism for which I had been searching. In those hours, I experienced my third birth--'conversion' to Church Growth thinking." [Winfield C. Arn] Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 12.
"In the words of C. Peter Wagner, Professor of Missions at the Fuller School of World Missions, Jesus at Bangkok was the 'prototype of an ideal social attitude,' the 'man for others' whose resurrection and lordship meant no more than that others should be inspired by His example." Ernst H. Wendland, "Missiology--and the Two Billion," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, January, 1974 71, p. 11f.
[Fuller's new statement on Scripture] "Scripture is an essential part and trustworthy record of this divine disclosure. All the books of the Old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, are the written Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice." [Lindsell writes]: "It is where the word infallible is placed that makes the difference. Had the statement said that the Books of the Old and New Testaments 'are the infallible Word of God, the only rule of faith and practice,' it would have repeated in different words what the first statement of faith had said. But what the new statement does is this: it limits infallibility to matters of faith and practice. And this is the view espoused by Daniel Fuller in his address on Warfield." Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 116.
[Paper by Daniel Fuller, Evangelical Theological Society, Toronto, 1967] "Daniel Fuller then said he wished to make a slight corrective to Warfield and his view of an inerrant Scripture. He argued that there are two kinds of Scripture: revelational and nonrevelational. Revelational Scripture is wholly without error; nonrevelational Scripture is not." Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 113.
[Inerrancy advocates left Fuller: Charles Woodbridge in 1957, Wilbur Smith in 1963, Harold Lindsell in 1964, and Gleason Archer in 1965.] "The departure of all four was directly related to the question of biblical inerrancy." Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 111f.
[After the December, 1962 faculty-trustee retreat, the Fuller catalog backed away from the claims that the faculty agreed about doctrine without any mental reservation, that they signed the statement of faith each year, and that faculty members in disagreement withdraw from the seminary.] Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 111. [December, 1962, faculty-trustee retreat]
"Edward Johnson, president of Financial Federation and a member of the board, focused the issue when he used the term benchmark in the discussions. He insisted that once the benchmark (a term used by surveyors having to do with the point from which they take all of their measurements) was changed, the institution would lose its bearing and depart from orthodoxy in other ways. The failure of the board to stand firm on the original commitment of the seminary led Johnson to resign within a month...." Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 110.
"The second decision related to the selection of a new president for the seminary. David A. Hubbard was Charles Fuller's candidate and Daniel Fuller's as well. He had the support of C. Davis Weyerhauser, too...The syllabus [he co-authored at another seminary] contained teachings that were opposed to historic evangelical understanding. They included matters like the non historicity of Adam and Eve., the Wellhausen approach to the Pentateuch, the late dating of Daniel, and other points. The offensive parts were written by Laurin who, in turn, was defended by Hubbard as an outstanding evangelical." Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 109.
"It soon became known that Daniel Fuller indeed had changed his viewpoint [on inerrancy]. This was pinpointed in two major decisions that were made. The first one had to do with the appointment of Calvin Schoonhoven to the faculty. He was a Fuller Seminary graduate who also had gone to Basel, and was a close friend of Daniel Fuller. When Schoonhoven was examined for a faculty appointment, he admitted that he did not believe in an inerrant Scripture. Other faculty members and I opposed his appointment. We got nowhere." Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 109.
"A third indication of the coming crisis involved the son of the founder, Daniel Payton Fuller...After he had been there [on the faculty at Fuller] several years, he went to Basel, Switzerland, to work for another doctorate under men like Karl Barth. While Fuller was at Basel, rumors began coming back to America that he had shifted his position on the Scriptures. I personally talked to Charles E. Fuller about this on a number of occasions. In every instance he assured me that there was no truth to the rumors that his son had changed his position. He was wrong, as subsequent events demonstrated." Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 108f.
"A second indication of the coming crisis occurred at a faculty meeting when one member of the teaching staff declared that what he was about to say might cost him his job. He said it, but it didn't cost him his job. He made it apparent that he believed the Bible was not wholly free from error. He was joined in this by at least one other faculty member at that meeting. Neither the administration nor the board moved to censure and remove those who could no longer affirm the doctrinal statement of the seminary, at least at the point of inerrancy. The situation was allowed to drift." Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 108.
[In or about 1962] "One of the key board members, who was later to become chairman and whose wealth helped to underwrite the annual operating budget, was C. Davis Wyerhauser. As the situation developed, he was to play a key role in the final outcome. He was clear in his own conviction that the Bible had errors in it. Nor did he hesitate to make his position plain. But he neither chose to resign from the institution nor was forced to resign by other board members." Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 108. [Faculty member Bela Vasady could not sign the original statement on inerrancy and left Fuller by mutual agreement.] Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 108.
[Original statement on Scripture] "The books which form the canon of the Old and New Testaments as originally given are plenarily inspired and free from all error in the whole and in the part. These books constitute the written Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice." Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 107. "From the beginning it was declared that one of the chief purposes of the founding of the seminary was that it should be an apologetic institution...It was agreed from the inception of the school that through the seminary curriculum the faculty would provide the finest theological defense of biblical infallibility or inerrancy. It was agreed in addition that the faculty would publish joint works that would present to the world the best of evangelical scholarship on inerrancy at a time when there was a dearth of such scholarship and when there were few learned works promoting biblical inerrancy." Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 106f.
"Fuller Theological Seminary was founded in 1947. It was brought into being through the efforts of Charles E. Fuller of the 'Old Fashioned Revival Hour.' He secured the services of Harold John Ockenga, then minister of the Park Street Church in Boston, as president of the fledgling institution. The school opened its door with four faculty members: Wilbur Moorehead Smith, Everett F. Harrison, Carl F. H. Henry, and myself." Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 106.
"Despite these strident affirmations of biblical infallibility, responses from Fuller demonstrate a serious inconsistency in distinguishing evangelicalism from neo-orthodoxy." [Gerald T. Sheppard, Fuller graduate, assistant professor at Union] Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Gerald T. Sheppard, "Biblical Hermaneutics..." Union Sem Q R, 1977 Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 237.
"The paradox that Barth, Brunner, Cullmann, and Eichrodt provide more attractive models at Fuller for an 'evangelical' approach to Scripture than do the fundamentalist and that they are at the same time major representatives of 'neo-orthodoxy' has yet to find resolution." [Sheppard, Fuller graduate and professor at Union] Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Gerald T. Sheppard, "Biblical Hermaneutics..." Union Sem Q R, 1977 Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 237.
"The graduates of an institution usually give full proof of the teaching they received from the school in which they studied. According to Dr. LaSor's observations the leaven was present when David Hubbard, Daniel Fuller, and Ray Anderson were students. They went from Fuller to graduate study overseas and were promptly converted to the neoorthodoxy and liberalism of their professors. They returned to Fuller Seminary having moved farther to the left than any of their teachers at Fuller. And now their students in turn begin to reflect their views." Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 236.
"Ralph P. Martin is Professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary...Professor Martin engages in guess work and patch-quilt organization to explain away the Pauline authorship of the Pastorals." Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 228.
"Dr. Kraft is a professor in the School of World Mission at Fuller Seminary. Two illustrations will suffice to show the continuing Fuller drift away from the authority of Scripture. Dr. Kraft has been deeply involved in anthropological and sociological studies in relation to missions...His [Dr. J. Robertson McQuilkin's] burden included demonstrating that in some cases people who profess to be evangelical place the behavioral sciences over Scripture rather than under Scripture, with the result they undermine the Word of God. He made specific reference to Professor Kraft...." Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 226.
"The Fuller Evangelistic Association has a doctrinal statement. It is the statement which was adopted by Fuller Theological Seminary some time ago. It does not differ from their early statement and has never yet been changed, that I know of. This statement explicitly affirms that the Bible is free from all error in the whole and in the part. Both Dr. Hubbard and Dr. Fuller are part of that organization. This means they are signing two different doctrinal statements, one of which affirms inerrancy and one which does not. We also know that Dr. Hubbard frankly disavows inerrancy and even declares this view to be 'unbiblical.' Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 220.
"Lest anyone think this is a harsh indictment, let me add that nowhere since the publication of The Battle for the Bible has Dr. Hubbard or the Fuller Seminary ever said that it still believes that the Bible is free from all error. They say opposite." Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 213.
"The real question is whether inerrancy or the view represented by Dr. Hubbard and Fuller Seminary leads to the dismal results he forecasts." I think it can be established that the view of Fuller Seminary will result in the very disasters he posited as the outcome for those who believe in inerrancy." Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 209.
"In the new statement, Fuller Seminary no longer says that the Bible 'is the infallible Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.' It simply says the Bible is the word (lower-cased) of God, and then adds that infallibility is limited to matters of faith and practice. Thus whatever does not constitute a matter of faith and practice can contain error. I alleged that Fuller has given up its cherished belief in an inerrant or infallible Scripture." Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 184.
"The situation of the Fuller Theological Seminary has worsened since the publication of The Battle for the Bible. Prior to and since the publication of the book, Fuller Seminary has waged a vigorous campaign to offset its impact." Harold Lindsell, The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 183.
"Of all the articles in the special issue of Theology, News and Notes, none is more important than those pertaining to Dr. Jewett...In it, the reader will find the full confirmation of my second allegation: that Fuller Seminary has breached its new statement of faith in the case of Paul King Jewett who denies the infallibility of Scripture in regard to a matter of faith and practice. The seminary itself has now borne testimony to this fact. Dr. Jewett has said that in Ephesians 5 the apostle Paul tells us that which is not true." Harold Lindsell. The Bible in the Balance, News and Notes, Fuller Seminary, 1976 Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 193.
"The Fuller people claim that I am disenchanted with the school because I was not chosen to become president. This canard has been repeated many times. It is interesting, in view of the fact that I have been offered five presidencies in the course of my career and turned all of them down." Harold Lindsell. The Bible in the Balance, footnote 12 Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 242.
"Given the state of theological education in most of the major denominational seminaries, Fuller still looks outwardly to be conservative." Harold Lindsell. The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 241.
"I have now updated the case I made in 1976 in which I asserted that Fuller Seminary has departed from its original commitment to biblical inerrancy. ...If Fuller Seminary were to return to the original foundation on which it was begun it would necessitate the dismissal of a large number of faculty members. It would require the reorganization of the school of theology, the school of mission [home of the Church Growth Movement], and the school of psychology. Dr. Quebedeaux's observations happen to be true [The Worldly Evangelicals, 1978]. All three divisions of the seminary are now involved in the departure from orthodoxy." Harold Lindsell. The Bible in the Balance, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 240.
Mrs. Fuller was converted by the efficacious Word
"Mrs. Barnhill looked at me and said, with such a loving look in her gray eyes, 'Oh, Grace, Christ said, 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,' and, my dear, you have no way of approach to a holy God unless you come through Christ, His Son, as your Saviour.' "The Scripture which she quoted," Mrs. Fuller continues, "was the Sword of the Spirit, and at that moment Unitarianism was killed forever in my heart. I saw the light like a flash and believed at that moment, though I said nothing. She had quoted God's Word, the Spirit had used it, and, believing, I instantly became a new creation in Christ Jesus. She might have talked and even argued with me about it, but instead she just used the Word." [conversion of Mrs. Grace Fuller, wife of Charles Fuller, Old Fashioned Revival Hour broadcast, founder of Fuller Seminary] J. Elwin Wright, The Old Fashioned Revival Hour and the Broadcasters, Boston: The Fellowship Press, 1940, p. 54.
"To the best of my knowledge, only three WELS pastors have ever taken classes at Fuller Seminary: Reuel Schulz in the 1970s, and Robert Koester and I in the 1980s." Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "A Response to Gregory L. Jackson, Ph.D.," Christian News, 3-28-94, p. 23.
"You may reply that by 'Fuller-trained' you mean anyone who has attended a workshop presented by the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth, an agency which is independent of the Seminary. If that is the case, your attribution of 'Fuller-trained' is still simply not true. It would surprise me if even half of the two dozen people on your 'WELS/ELS Who's Who' list have attended a Fuller workshop; I personally know of only five who have." Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "A Response to Gregory L. Jackson, Ph.D.," Christian News, 3-28-94, p. 23.
"Please stop exaggerating the amount of study that I have done at Fuller. After four years of study at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, which involved sixty-two different courses and a year of vicarage, I graduated in 1983. From 1987 to 1989 I took four courses where I was in a classroom with a Fuller instructor. That is the extent of my Fuller coursework...In addition, I have taken two courses at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and one at the University of Wisconsin--Madison. Because of Fuller's liberal (would you expect anything else?) policy on transfer of credit, and because of two independent studies I undertook, I could complete the degree by simply writing a dissertation." Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "A Response to Gregory L. Jackson, Ph.D.," Christian News, 3-28-94, p. 23
"The church growth movement has made inroads into nearly every denomination in America. Once considered only the turf of conservative evangelicals, you will now find church growth practitioners in the United Methodist Church, in the Presbyterian Church in the USA, and among the Episcopalians. The LCMS has more pastors enrolled in the Doctor of Ministry program at Fuller Theological Seminary, the seedbed of the movement, than are enrolled in the graduate programs at their Fort Wayne and St. Louis seminaries combined, and most of them include church growth as part of their studies." Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "See How It Grows: Perspectives on Growth and the Church," EVANGELISM, February, 1991, Parish Consultant for the WELS Board of Parish Services and his district's Coordinator of Evangelism. p. 1.
"When Frederick Horn faced that situation, the Holy Spirit moved him to accept the call, and for the last few years he has served as the [lay] Minister of Discipleship for Grace Lutheran in downtown Milwaukee." (Pastor James Huebner Fuller alumnus) Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary,, "Another Kind of Minister, There's a lot to do in a church, and a staff minister can do a lot of it," The Northwestern Lutheran, March, 1994, p. 9. Olson is director of staff ministry at MLC.
"David Hubbard, president Fuller Seminary: 'Not all of us have the gift of evangelism. I admire people who can lead others to Jesus Christ right on the spot...." Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A p. 52. "In an article on the small group movement, J. A. Gorman notes that 'both the Church Growth Institute of Fuller Seminary and the American Institute of Church Growth became centers for influencing the use of this means for evangelizing." (Christian Education, Moody Press, 1991, pp. 509, 510) Prof. David Kuske, "Home Bible Study Groups in the 1990s," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1994. p. 126.
"In late 1976, 80 district mission and evangelism executives and board members attended special Fuller Seminary sessions and by the late 1970s, courses on Church Growth principles were taught at both LCMS seminaries." [Toward a Theological Basis, Understanding and Use of Church Growth Principles in the LCMS. 1991. p. 1] Rev. Curtis Peterson, former WELS World Mission Board, "A Second and Third Look at Church Growth Principles," Metro South Pastors Conference Mishicot, Wisconsin, February 3, 1993 p. 10.
"Incidentally, during my mission counselor days in California during the 80's, I did take a course at Fuller from Carl George and Peter Wagner. I am grateful for the opportunity to have done so because it helped me to see through the lousy theology espoused by David Luecke in "Evangelical Style and Lutheran Substance" a book, by the way, which has been roundly criticized in WELS circles as your own columns have noted." Rev. Joel C. Gerlach (WELS) to Pastor Herman Otten, no date. [Gerlach taught at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary]
"I did attend a Pasadena forum on Church Growth featuring Win Arn and others. That this does not imply 'studying' and thus absorbing and advocating CG philosophy or theology is borne out by the stated objective of my attendance in my role as home mission administrator, to be personally informed as to this popular 'home-mission' related movement. During my attendance I publicly challenged the theological basis of some of the CG principles. That I found some pertinent non-theological observations does not imply any acceptance of the Reformed theology involved. None of my writings re mission methods or stewardship principles deviate from the Law/Gospel Lutheran approach to justification and sanctification. Please check them honestly!" Rev. Norman W. Berg, former DP and Home Mission Exec, WELS Letter to Gregory L. Jackson, 3-27-96.
"Non-Christians usually become good prospects for personal reasons or as I like to say: 'They come for sociological reasons and stay for theological reasons.'" [Note: this is the felt needs approach of Fuller, also endorsed by Pastor Forrest Bivens, now a professor at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary: "I went to Fuller Seminary and I happen to believe we can use sociological methods to bring people to church so we can apply the Means of Grace." Midland circuit get together, attended by Pastor - now DP - John Seifert.] Rev. Paul Kelm, "How to Make Sound Doctrine Sound Good to Mission Prospects," p. 4.
"Then there is the church growth movement, which has made more devastating headway in LCMS than in ELCA (although it is evident enough in the latter). Today, it is said, Missouri has three seminaries-- St. Louis, Ft Wayne, and Fuller Seminary in California, the hothouse of church growth enthusiasms. The synodical and district mission offices are frequently controlled by church growth technocrats...But the idea that Word and Sacrament ministry is somehow validated by calculable results is utterly alien to the Lutheran Reformation...The triumph of style over substance, however, is all too evident in LCMS congregations that look like Baptists with vestments. As we have noted before, second-rate Lutherans make fourth-rate Baptists." Rev. Richard Neuhaus, (ELCA at the time), Forum Letter, 338 E 19th Street New York, NY 10003 November 26, 1989 p. 2.
"...and in the process we got a look at the inside of his study. [WELS pastor David Reichel, Mandan, ND] He's got all the standard reference works you'd expect to find in a confessional Lutheran pastor's office. But the handiest shelf, right at chest level, was reserved for a long row of binders from annual seminars at Fuller." Source: Pastor Paul Naumann, CLC. April 1, 1996, e-mail.
"Waldo Werning has made an outstanding contribution to the church growth movement in America with Vision and Strategy for Church Growth...Working out of the models established by Donald McGavran and the School of World Mission at Fuller Seminary, Waldo Werning breaks new ground in developing ways that church growth principles can be applied directly to American churches." [Foreword by C. Peter Wagner] Waldo J. Werning, Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, Second Edition, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, p. 5.
[Ockenga accomplishments since 1947: 1. The National Association of Evangelicals; 2. World Evangelical Fellowship; 3. New apologetic literature from the great publishers; 4. Fuller and other seminaries; 5. Christianity Today; 6. Billy Graham, spokesman of the New Evangelicalism.] 12-8-57 news release by Harold Ockenga William E. Ashbrook, Evangelicalism, The New Neutralism, Columbus: Calvary Bible Church, 1963, p. 8.
"The New Evangelicalism has changed its strategy from one of separation to one of infiltration. Instead of static fron battles the new theological war is one of movement. Instead of attack upon error, the New Evangelicals proclaim the great historic doctrines of Christianity." Harold J. Ockenga, news release, 12-8-57 William E. Ashbrook, Evangelicalism, The New Neutralism, Columbus: Calvary Bible Church, 1963, p. 7.
"The New Evangelicalism has changed its strategy from one of separation to one of infiltration. Instead of static from battles the new theological war is one of movement. Instead of attack upon error, the New Evangelicals proclaim the great historic doctrines of Christianity." Harold J. Ockenga, news release, 12-8-57 William E. Ashbrook, Evangelicalism, The New Neutralism, Columbus: Calvary Bible Church, 1963, p. 7.
"The New Evangelicalism is the latest dress of orthodoxy as Neo-Orthodoxy is the latest expression of theological liberalism. The New Evangelicalism differs from Fundamentalism in its willingness to handle the social problems which Fundamentalism evaded. There need be no dichotomy between the personal gospel and the social gospel. The true Christian faith is a supernatural personal experience of salvation and a social philosophy. Doctrine and ethics are Christian disciplines. Fundamentalism abdicated leadership and responsibility in the societal realm and thus became impotent to change society or to solve social problems." Dr. Harold John Ockenga, pastor of Park Street Church, Boston, first president of Fuller Seminary, 12-8-57 news release. William E. Ashbrook, Evangelicalism, The New Neutralism, Columbus: Calvary Bible Church, 1963, p. 7.
"Christianity according to Fundamentalism is one religion. Christianity according to Modernism is another religion. Which is the true religion is the question that is to be settled in all probability by our generation for further generations. There is a clash here as profound and as grim as between Christianity and Confucianism. Amiable words cannot hide the differences. 'Blest be the Tie' may be sung til doomsday but it cannot bind these worlds together." [Editorial, Christian Century, January 3, 1924] William E. Ashbrook, Evangelicalism, The New Neutralism, Columbus: Calvary Bible Church, 1963, p. 6.
