Truth Magazine

By Dudley Ross Spears

Making Jesus Become A King

The millennialists have a great weakness in their theory. It is a fundamental premise of their doctrine that lets them down. That premise is that the Jews’ rejection of Christ caused the timetable God had decreed to be altered. He set aside His plans to establish that kingdom and substituted the church in its place. But that premise cannot be true in the light of John 6:15. That passage says, “Jesus therefore perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force, to make him king, withdrew again into the mountain himself alone.”

The people were ready then to take Jesus by force into Jerusalem and there, at the Passover feast, make Him their king. But Jesus rejected them. The millennialists have it turned around. But if their idea is even remotely true, why did Jesus reject this opportunity? A companion text tells us that Jesus had been speaking about the “kingdom of God” (Luke 9:11). The evident reason He rejected the pressure of these Jews is because He did not intend to reign over some literal, earthly kingdom in Jerusalem. (Read John 18:36).

What kind of a king did those Jews intend to make out of Christ? Exactly the same kind the premillennialists think Christ will be. The next time you hear some premillennialists say that Jesus would not set up His kingdom because the Jews rejected Him, remember that these Jews would have done the very thing premillennialists say will happen in the future. Don’t be misled.

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 6, p. 204
April 7, 1983

By Larry Ray Hafey

Our Lord calls men to obey and serve Him (1 Thess. 2:12; Acts 2:39). His calling card is the word “Whereunto he called you by our gospel” (2 Thess. 2:14). When one receives the divine summons, he ought to believe it (Eph. 1:13). “Access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18), or “access by faith into this grace” (Rom. 5:2), is “by the gospel” (Eph. 3:6). “By one Spirit” is equal to “by the gospel” in the texts above. One enters, that is, has “access by faith into this grace.”

“The Call To Preach”

That the apostles were called and commissioned to preach no Bible believer doubts or denies (Jn. 17:18; Matt. 28:18-20; Rom. 10:15). However, denominational clergymen, “Pastors,” become such, they say, when they “receive the call to preach.” But does God call these men? Does the God and the Christ who sent His Spirit to tell believers to repent and be baptized “for the remission of sins” send a Baptist preacher to tell them they are saved “at the point of faith, before and without water baptism?” Does the Lord, who sent Philip and the eunuch “down both into the water,” send a Methodist bishop to a chalice or tea cup to do the same job? If He does, why does He send a Baptist and tell him not to sprinkle for baptism? The Baptist says God called him, too, but that God told him it was wrong to sprinkle.

Did Jesus authorize Paul to tell certain brethren in Galatia, “Ye are fallen from grace” (Gal. 5:4), and send Baptist preachers to tell people today that such a thing is impossible? If He does, why does the same Lord send Methodists and Pentecostals to preach that one may fall from grace? Then does the Lord “call” the Pentecostal to preach that speaking in tongues is the “initial evidence of Holy Ghost baptism” which is for all believers today? With as much proof for his calling as any other denominational preacher, the Pentecostal assures us that it is true. But did the same Lord send Paul to contradict the Pentecostal’s claim (1 Cor. 13:8-13)? He sent Paul; did He send the Pentecostal? If so, did He also send the Missionary Baptist preacher to refute and rebuke what He sent the Pentecostal to preach?

Who is the author of all this confusion and delusion? It is not the God of The Bible. The apostles did not contradict and contravene one another in such a fashion as denominational preachers do (1 Cor. 15:11). The examples and questions set forth above cannot be laughed and shrugged off as the rantings of a wild-eyed, narrowminded, legalist Campbellite. They demand an answer. They cannot be answered with your best grin. Those who are desirous of receiving denominational “Pastors” as called and sent of God need to be first in the line of response.

What The Bible Makes

The word of God, the New Testament, the gospel never made a man a Lutheran, a Baptist, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, a Mormon, or a Pentecostal. Lutherans claim that they love the Bible, but it has not made them Baptists. Baptists stake as much claim on the Bible and they will tell you that it has not made them Lutherans. Methodists have the same love for the same Bible, but it has not made them Baptists. Presbyterians believe the same Bible as the Methodists who claim it made them Methodists, but it has not made the Presbyterians into Methodists.

If you show me a canary and tell me you got it by breeding elephants and that by breeding canaries you produced hyenas, then you will have a parallel to the breeding of the word of God and denominationalism.

Preachers called and sent of God produced disciples, brethren, Christians. These people constituted the church; they were translated into the kingdom. They were both of and in one faith. Why should we compromise and improvise and tell men that is any different today?

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 6, p. 204
April 7, 1983

By Tom Moody

Anita Bryant Is Upset By Photo Of Her At Disco

Singer Anita Bryant was “rather upset” when a photograph of her dancing with a minister was distributed, the minister said.

“It was the first time Anita has ever gone to a disco, and she was exploited in it,” said the Rev. Russ McCraw of Montgomery, Ala., a close friend. “She’d like to have her privacy like anyone.”

Miss Bryant, 42, who opposed gay rights in Florida, was visiting friends in Atlanta when she and McCraw went dancing.

McCraw, who serves homosexuals, said he and Miss Bryant were “just having a good time” when they stopped briefly at the night spot. Louisville Times 6-29-82

In view of the fact that many religious people, including some Christians, try to defend dancing, this news clipping raises an interesting question: Why was it “newsworthy” that Anita Bryant was seen dancing?

A few years ago, Anita Bryant was receiving national attention (and often, ridicule) for some of the forthright moral stands she was taking. She made no secret of her religious and moral beliefs. Her career was probably severely damaged by her stand. She was recognized by many as a symbol of morality and decency.

Now, even though she has discontinued her crusade, and apparently compromised some of her former principles, it was still considered an oddity and a news event when Anita Bryant went dancing. It was not preachers, elders, or other “super-righteous prudes” who saw this as news, but the wire service and the newspaper editors. Could it be that people of the world see dancing as a contradiction in the life of someone who claims to be upright and pure in thoughts and actions? (Even though some members of the church seem not to realize this.)

Would it have made the news if Anita Bryant had been seen eating dinner with someone? What if she had been seen playing putt-putt golf, or going -to a Walt Disney movie or riding a bicycle? Would these activities have been reported to the nation? But she went dancing. This was news, because it seems unusual for someone who is supposed to be of high moral character.

The definitions of “lasciviousness” include: “indecent bodily movements” and “unchaste handling of males and females” (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon, pp. 79-80). Who can deny that this describes modern dancing? Lasciviousness is condemned in the word of God as a “work of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19) and is closely associated with fornication and uncleanness (Mark 7:21-22; 2 Corinthians 12:21).

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 6, p. 203
April 7, 1983

By Wayne S. Walker

Not long ago I was at a shopping center in a nearby town when my attention was caught by a flyer posted on the window of one of the store. It was printed by “The Way Ministry” of Brunswick, Ohio, and the headline read, “The Way Is Jesus Christ (John 14:6). ” A note near the bottom said, “We of The Way are a Biblical Research (Acts 17:11), Teaching (2 Cor. 5:17-21) and Fellowship (Heb. 10:25) Ministry. You, too can be a true follower of The Way… Jesus Christ.”(1)

What caught my attention was the use of Scripture. Most religious organizations today make no appeal to the Bible for their beliefs, teachings, or practices whatsoever any more. The flyer claimed, “As Jesus Christ responded when tempted by the devil, so The Way, today, responds with `It is written.”‘ There ensued five concepts, each followed by Scripture citations, four with which, if I understood them correctly, my study of the Bible forced me to disagree.

So far as I could remember, I had no knowledge of this group before I saw the flyer. So I wrote the address included with the advertisement seeking clarification of the points made. I received a telephone call from a gentleman who suggested we set up a meeting. So we met at a convenient restaurant. Although we did discuss some of our differences, my purpose was not to “argue” but merely to seek information. He explained the flyer, talked about his involvement in the movement, and gave me some more literature. I responded by giving him some tracts as well.

Seeking still further information, I found several interesting facts. “The Way,” which takes its name from Acts 9:2, et. al, originated between 1942 and 1953 when Victor Paul Wierwille, a former United Church of Christ (Evangelical and Reformed) minister, began teaching his Power for Abundant Living class, a thirteen-week course which cost $45 in 1971, $85 in 1975, and $200 in 1981.(2) It should be noted that Jesus and His apostles never charged a single penny for any of their services. Wierwille studied at Mission House College, University of Chicago Divinity School, and Moody Bible Institute, has a master’s degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, and received an honorary doctorate from Pike’s Peak Bible Seminary, a reputed degree mill.(3)

In 1957, Wierwille resigned his VanWert, Ohio, pulpit to launch an independent ministry. The Power for Abundant Living course spread to other areas, but “The Way” was largely confined to a few adults in Ohio until 1968 when two former drug users from the Jesus movement, Steve Heefner in New York, and Jim Doop in California, joined Wierwille to take “The Way” to both coasts. Soon the movement gained a conservatively estimated 20,000 adherents, distributed among all fifty states and thirty-three foreign countries, say its leaders.(4) By 1980, the followers were numbered at 40,000.

“The Way” has no official membership. Most participants are young people, although some parents have joined also. The organization is carefully structured, according to Allan Wallerstedt in a book, Victor Paul Wierwille and the Way. The trunk is the international headquarters at New Knoxville, Ohio, near Lima. The limbs are statewide organizations of which there are about twenty. The branches are city areas. Twigs are home or campus meetings of which there are over fifteen hundred. And leaves are individual members.(5)

Although chapel is conducted each Sunday night at the world headquarters, there are no formal worship services, just home Bible fellowship meetings. Other institutions associated with the movement are The Way Magazine (which increased in circulation from twenty-five hundred to ten thousand in just three and a half years), the American Christian Press publishing house, The Way College in Emporia, Kansas, and a national convention in Ohio called the “Rock of Ages Christian Music Festival,” plus a training center in Rome City, Indiana.(6)

The doctrine of the group is based on instruction Wierwille claims the Lord revealed to him directly in 1942.(7) According to Ellen Whiteside in a book, The Way, published by the organization in 1972, Wierwille reported, “I was praying . . . And that’s when he spoke to me audibly, just like I’m talking to you now. He said he would teach me the Word as it had not been known since the first century if I would teach it to others.” One of his converts is quoted as saying, “I see Dr. Wierwille as the next man of God to rise up after Paul’s death.”(8)

This doctrine is a blend of many different ideas. It includes typical denominationalism – salvation entirely by grace; Calvinism – once saved, always saved; dispensationalism – the church began with Paul’s epistles; Pentecostalism -tongue and healing are stressed; Unitarianism – the trinity doctrine is contrary to Scripture; and materialism – human beings do not have immortal souls.(9) Members believe in God, the Bible, Jesus Christ, salvation, and eternal life, but define these terms differently from the way we would. For this reason, James Bjornstad, executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Christianity in Oakland, New Jersey, said, “Probably the closest counterfeit to orthodox Christianity we have today is The Way International.”(10)

According to a publicity folder, “The Way” is “not a church, nor is it a denomination or a religious sect of any sort.” Yet the organization’s fifty ordained clergy (as of 1975), five of whom are women (cf. 1 Tim. 2:11-14), are authorized to perform marriages. A strong missionary effort is emphasized. In 1974, one thousand thirty-three “Word over the World” ambassadors were commissioned to herald the news about “The Way” in the United States, and two-thousand seventy-seven more in 1975 in both the United States and foreign countries, plus one-hundred four “minute men” or seasoned troops. The group began to grow appreciably when they began foraging for leaders among Jesus-movement converts.(11)

Shirl Short has written in the Moody Monthly, “The individual who has some religious or biblical background but no strong church ties or convictions is easy prey of The Way. So is the person who is down and out, feels rejected by his family, doesn’t have a good self identity, or lacks love. He is very likely to find appealing the loving, positive approach of The Way.(12) Wierwille also convinces some with his claim of scholarship. He often makes a point of saying, “Now in the Sanskrit it says . . . .” There are no Sanskrit manuscripts, but he uses that language to prove his unique interpretations. To anyone who has no scholastic background, it sounds plausible.

The group is often accused by critics of mind control of its recruits, who are usually young, white, and with “Christian” backgrounds. It is suggested that members be approached in the same manner they were approached by “The Way” – in love. It is best to begin with the Scriptures and the deity of Christ. If it can be demonstrated that Christ truly is God and the passages shown that reveal it, Wierwille’s theology crumbles. It is also helpful to show that his scholarship is faulty and how the Bible refutes “The Way’s” doctrines. These will be studied in the next article.

Endnotes

1. Flyer published by The Way Ministry, 660 East Dr., Brunswick, Ohio.

2. From articles in Christianity Today (3/26/71, 12/20/74, 9/26/75, and 9/19/80).

3. Christianity Today (12/20/74), p. 312.

4. Christianity Today (3/26/71), pp. 618-619.

5. Moody Monthly (7/8/77), pp. 27-31.

6. Ibid.

7. Christianity Today (12/20/74), p. 312.

8. Christianity Today (9/26/75), pp. 1232-1234.

9. Ibid.

10. Moody Monthly, op. cit.

11. Christianity Today (9/26/75), pp. 1232-1234.

12. Moody Monthly, op. cit.

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 6, pp. 202-203
April 7, 1983