Dr. Robert Sumner passed away in December 2016. The Biblical Evangelist newspaper is no longer being published and the ministry of Biblical Evangelism has ceased operation.

The remaining inventory of his books and gospel tracts was transferred to The Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles and may be ordered here.

Off the Cuff! (Part 1)
Evangelist Robert L. Sumner

In this issue you will find a Bible camp emphasis. The editor has an article on the subject and there are several half-page ads featuring different camps. If you or yours cannot go to one yourself, we urge you to sponsor some who can’t afford it, either in this country or abroad.

One of yesteryear’s great preachers was both pastor and evangelist. We are printing one of the messages of J. Wilbur Chapman in this issue. It deals with what has long been a troublesome text to some, especially “good people” hearing for the first time of their desperate need of redemption. Dr. Chapman’s pastorates included one of the largest churches in the country at the time, Bethany Presbyterian in Philadelphia, with members like John Wannamaker, the department store magnete and Postmaster General in the administration of Benjamin Harrison. We think of him most kindly for giving Billy Sunday his start.

There is also a sermon by one of the most powerful preachers of the last part of the 19^th century and the first half of the 20^th century, Rodney “Gipsy” Smith (1860-1947). Born in a gipsy wagon at Epping Forest near London and led to Christ as a teen by his father after the latter got saved, limited in education, his sweet singing and powerful preaching affected hundreds of thousands in Europe and America. He had tremendous meetings in Glasgow and Edinburgh, South Africa, and other international places.

George W. Truett had him in a crusade at the First Baptist Church of Dallas (TX) and he had great meetings in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Denver, Washington, Nashville, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Winston-Salem and other cities. He was made a member of the Order of the British Empire by King George V in 1917.

A word of explanation: We almost didn’t print this message because of fear some would misunderstand what he said and think he denied “by grace alone, through faith alone,” but in reality he was simply emphasizing the absolute necessity of repentance. It is, as Spurgeon put it, “turn or burn.” While sneered at by some in our day, repentance is absolutely necessary to real salvation. As our Lord put it, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5). Smith’s story about Wilkie, by the way, is a classic.

Then there is a powerful message – yet loving and earnest – on the subject of Hell by Harold Rawlings. It is taken by permission from Dr. Rawlings’ book on key Bible doctrines, Basic Baptist Beliefs, published by 21^st Century Press. He is also the author of Tried By Fire.

In our Bible Study corner we are dealing with a really vital issue: how Christians should dispose of the bodies of their loved ones. James W. Fraser, the author of the book we give a major review there, was a native of the Scottish Highlands. He was converted on July 7, 1918, while reading the Gospel of John. A Plymouth Brethren, he entered the ministry in 1921 and served as a missionary in the Bahamas until 1930, then worked as a pastor in various Canadian cities. He preached the sermon on cremation while serving in Montreal, Quebec. You will be enlightened.

The editor has an additional sermon on biblical preaching which we consider very pertinent at this hour.

Enjoy this issue!

[P.S. Continue to pray for our finances. Writing this on Easter weekend, our last two months show we went into the red nearly $6,000 (to be exact, $5,677.88) during February and March. We were hoping to make it to the end of the year and then go to ‘quarterly’ printing – which would save us two issues a year, but, alas, probably also cut down on our income. No decision has been yet made, but you’ll find out when you get your July-August or Third Quarter issue.]

The editor will be back where he started this month, Pontiac (IL). He’ll be speaking at his first church (now called Calvary Baptist) on May 16 for Homecoming, then staying on for a 3-day conference on evangelism sponsored by C.O.M.E. If you live anywhere in the area, you are invited.

MEMORIALS

We were friends since the late 1940s and I never knew him or called him by anything other than “J. O.” Some reading these lines, who also knew him for years, will be surprised to know that his full, legal name was Jesse Odell Grooms.

After he finished his studies at J. Frank Norris’ Bible school in Fort Worth, he and his wife decided to go to Olney (TX) and plant a church. Several had tried it before without success; in fact, it had been called a graveyard of independent Baptist churches – and for good reason. J. O. started out with earnestness and enthusiasm, knocking on doors and winning souls. Since our church in Graham was the nearest independent Baptist church, he came down and used our baptistery to baptize his converts.

After learning ministerial lessons the old-fashioned way, he went from Olney to Dallas and I held meetings for him there. We, as with the pastors in all my meetings, went soul winning together. Ever eager to learn, he asked me to do the talking and we had some great experiences, some I still use as illustrations in my preaching and in my Biblical Evangelism In Action.

I think he went to work for a spell with our friend Dr. John Rawlings, who pastored the Landmark Baptist Temple in Cincinnati (OH) at the time, then he came to Lynchburg to help Jerry Falwell in the launching of the Lynchburg Baptist College (now Liberty University); he was the very first teacher of evangelism at the school. The current chancellor, Dr. Jerry Falwell, Jr., was one of his students and he testifies, “… Grooms was one of the cornerstones of the LU faculty in the school’s early days. He taught large evangelism courses that all freshmen were required to take, and he taught them with a passion … He believed fervently that Scripture memorization and soul winning were essential in the Christian life … Rev. Grooms practiced what he preached daily ...”

Liberty’s co-founder, Dr. Elmer Towns, called him “a great asset” in those early years, adding, “The greatest thing about him was not just that he was a good teacher, a thorough teacher, but he communicated the heart and passion for people and soul winning.”

When he left Liberty it was to go as a missionary to India where he labored for several years, planting many churches and building more than sixty orphanages. The sincerity of his ministry and love for Christ is seen in his children, all of whom are in ministry. Son Michael (wife, Edith) is the pastor of Rainbow Forest Baptist Church at Troutville (VA); Son Mark (wife Renee) pastors the Thomas Terrace Baptist Church at Concord (VA); daughter Beverly Riggins (husband, Ronnie) is the wife of a pastor in New Cumberland (PA); daughter Janet Baldis (husband, Charles) and her mate are missionaries in Slovakia; while daughter Lynda Smith lives and works in Tampa (FL).

J. O. is also survived by his wife of 64 years, Albertina; three sisters (Arlene Harris, Joyce Shirley and Brenda Gilmer), 15 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. He is probably best known for his soul winning booklet Treasure Path to Soul Winning (over a million copies in 16 languages), which also became the name of the ministry he founded 41 years ago, in 1969. It operates chiefly in India.

He was 86 when he went to be with Christ, a victim of heart problems. While viewing and burial were in Bonsack (VA) at the time of his decease, the main memorial service was conducted here in Lynchburg on May 1^st at the Thomas Road Baptist Church, under the direction of Pastor Jonathan Falwell.

Memorial gifts may be sent to Treasure Path to Soul Winning, P. O. Box 600, Blue Ridge, VA 24064, designated for “pastors in India.” We concur with the evaluation of Biblical Evangelism Board Member, Dr. Don Ledbetter, “Bro. Grooms was a man of honor, humor, honesty, and had a great big heart for God, His Word, and the souls of the lost.” Amen.

* * * * *

He was a United States Naval Chaplain. He was a missionary. He was a preacher and teacher of the Word of God. He was a family man. And William James Hopewell, Jr., went to be with Christ his Savior in early March at the ripe old age of 90. A Delaware native, he traveled to Illinois to earn his bachelor’s degree at Wheaton College in 1941. Three years later he walked across the platform at Faith Theological Seminary to accept a graduate degree. Later he graduated from the Winona Lake School of Theology and Cedarville University honored him with a doctor of divinity in 1968. The latter was well deserved.

Dr. Hopewell served in the Navy in the Pacific during the closing of World War II and then spent 50 years in missionary ministry in various parts of the world. His last connection was serving with Baptist World Missions.

His wife of 66 years, Ruth (Michener); five children: William, III (wife, Charlotte); Carol Kilian (husband, Roger); Sharon Santamaria (husband, Jaime); Thomas Hopewell (wife, Jane); and Lois Anderson (husband, Walter); 16 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren survive him. He was preceded in death by his sister Dorothy Casner and a granddaughter, Angela Rachelle Hopewell.

Funeral services were held at the Hardingville Bible Church in Monroeville (NJ) and burial was in Linwood (NJ). Our good friend, Dr. Ralph G. Colas, preached the memorial message. Those wishing to send memorial gifts may do so: Baptist World Missions, P. O. Box 2149, Decatur, AL 35602; or the Baptist Children’s Home, 354 West Street, Suite 1, Valparaiso, IN 46383.

*     *     *     *

A good friend of the editor’s went to Glory in late March. John Henry Pace of Murfreesboro (TN). He had left a special request with Dr. Al Byers that Dr. Ron English and I be notified of his Homegoing when it happened, and Dr. Byers was faithful to his trust.

Brother Pace, who served John R. Rice and The Sword of the Lord for over 30 years, was a special help to me when I left The Sword and started up again The Biblical Evangelist. He helped tremendously in getting the building we purchased to use as a headquarters in shape, building bookshelves and transferring our book stock from the Sword building to our new offices.

A Texas native, he was a veteran of the United States Air Force. To quote in agreement Dr. Byers, “John will be missed by his many, many friends.” He would have been 79 a few weeks after his decease.

MILESTONES

Our good friend, Mark Wagner, has resigned the presidency of Northwest Baptist Seminary at Tacoma, Washington. It will take effect the end of June. He led the school for 17 years and witnessed firsthand the amazing blessing of God. He saw student growth, campus development and wonderful divine intervention in finances, especially for a school that has never experienced wealth. Dr. Wagner, who writes our “Apples of Gold” column – started years ago by his father, Dr. Charles W. Wagner – began after the latter’s death.

Dr. Wagner plans to return to his first love, the pastorate. Pray for God’s leading in his life and for the seminary as it searches for his successor. The seminary was launched in the late 1920s. For many years it was housed in the Calvary Baptist Church of Los Angeles and eventually became both college and seminary. It later moved to the suburbs at Newhall (CA). In 1974 the seminary division was moved to Tacoma (WA) and is housed in the old Weyerhaeuser estate. It is a beautiful campus.

* * * * *

Corban College & Graduate School (originally Western Baptist Bible College) announced through its president, Reno Hoff, it would become Corban University on the 1^st of this month.

* * * * *

Wheaton College, in Wheaton, Illinois, has announced its new president, Philip Graham Ryken, the eighth man to serve in that office.

An alumnus of the school (’88), Dr. Ryken comes to the college from the pastorate of the Tenth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, a historic church led in the past by a number of important Christian leaders.

He had been in that latter post since 1995. 

* * * * *

Readers of advanced years are finding more and familiar leaders in family values stepping down. The founder of American Family Association (AFA), Donald Wildmon, announced he was leaving his post because of health problems. His son, Tim, is taking the day-to-day leadership of the organization. In fact, he already serves as president. The AFA will apparently remain in good hands.

Dr. Wildmon’s health problems began in earnest last summer when he was bitten by a mosquito and developed St. Louis encephalitis. He endured over four months of hospitalization and rehabilitation, then later had surgery for cancer in his left eye.

While he is stepping down from the work he founded a third of a century ago (1977), he is not retiring and will continue to work in the office and on a broader scale with other pro-family ministries. A Bible-believing Methodist preacher, Dr. Wildmon began his work in his parsonage with a typewriter and an offset press. Today AFA has 175 employees, owns and manages 180 radio stations, publishes a monthly magazine with 170,000 subscribers and has a $20 million annual budget.

We join his 2.5 million supporters in wishing him and AFA the very best in the future.

COMMENTATORS ON OBAMACARE

The ObamaCare bill was best summed up by John Tate, president of Campaign for Liberty: “Late Sunday night [March 21], the U.S. House of Representatives abandoned the Constitution, made a mockery of the words of the Founders, and drew a line in the sand as it passed the Senate’s health care bill 219-212.”

It was all done on the Lord’s Day, ignoring the Constitution’s “Sunday Excepted” clause. Probably the worst thing about it was the hoodlum thuggery used by its sponsors to cram it down the throats of a populace that did not want it. Shenanigans like this have seldom been seen outside of Chicago.  Not one single Republican in the House or Senate voted for it. You and I get to vote on it in November.

Other comments:

Walter E. Williams, economist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University (CA): "If there is anything good to say about Democrat control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, it's that their extraordinarily brazen, heavy-handed acts have aroused a level of constitutional interest among the American people that has been dormant for far too long."

Columnist George Will: "As America's teetering tower of unkeepable promises grows, so does the weight of government, in taxes and mandates that limit investments and discourage job creation. America's dynamism, and hence upward social mobility, will slow, as the economy becomes what the party of government wants it to be – increasingly dependent on government-created demand."

National Review editor Rich Lowry: "On health care, [Obama's] most alluring promises will soon be discredited, as costs, premiums and the number of uninsured (in the near term) remain high. To paraphrase Colin Powell, if you reform it, you own it, and all the discontents with the health-care system will now adhere to Democrats. A more cautious and shrewd leader would avoid making easily falsifiable representations or putting himself on the hook in this way. Not Obama. On health care, he's immoderate in his substance, his risk-taking and his rhetoric. He's all in, and he doesn't care."

Columnist Jonah Goldberg: "Congratulations to President Obama and the Democratic leadership. You won dirty against bipartisan opposition from both Congress and the majority of Americans. You've definitely polarized the country even more, and quite possibly bankrupted us, too. But hey, you won. Bubbly for everyone."

Columnist Cal Thomas: "Pork is the preferred legislative meat for members of Congress, but this weekend they opted for bologna as they tried to convince the public – and themselves – that their so-called 'health care' or health insurance 'reform' monstrosity will be good for us. At least Castor oil was supposed to work even though it tasted awful."

Columnist Doug Patten wrote: “It might surprise you to learn that under this legislation no company can sue the government for price fixing, and that there will be no judicial review against a government monopoly. It may not bother you that government will now be able to dictate the salary of physicians. Did you know that the feds will set the value of a doctor's time, or that all physicians, regardless of specialty, will be paid the same? Did you realize that government will restrict the treatment of ‘special needs people’? Or that government will specify which doctors can write an end-of-life order? Can you say ‘death panels’?”

National Review's Deroy Murdock put it like this: "Obamacare flunks the first test of any potential federal law: It is not constitutional …”

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, noted the opposition by the people, quoting sources:

“Sixty-six percent of Americans think the bill will make things worse or make no difference for themselves and their families (Gallup).

“Forty eight percent of Americans think the plan is a ‘bad idea.’ Only 36 percent think it is a ‘good idea’ (NBC/Wall Street Journal).

“Only 17 percent of Americans think the bill will cause healthcare costs to go down. Nearly double that think their costs would go up (Pew).

“What we saw Sunday night was a pressured, bought, intimidated vote worthy of Hugo Chavez but unworthy of the United States of America.”

And he quoted Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings (he’s the ‘gentleman’ who was impeached as a federal judge and removed from the bench prior to being elected to Congress) as articulating the principles of this machine mentality the day they voted, saying, “There ain't no rules here, we're trying to accomplish something … All this talk about rules … When the deal goes down ... we make 'em up as we go along." So much for the Constitution.

Idaho has already passed a law ordering its Attorney General to take ObamaCare to court. Most of the other Attorneys General are doing the same on their own.

MOSES . . . AND THE BURNING BUSH 

The world – especially the scientists who have a hidden agenda of trying to discredit the Word of God – just love to torpedo biblical miracles. Another salvo was fired the other day when Norwegian researchers announced that there is an area of the Sahara Desert where bushes set themselves on fire. They announced it as "the explanation" for the experience Moses had.

The boys in the white shirts explained that "experts" had gone to the southern parts of the Sahara and found bushes that set themselves on fire. Rather than finding lava under the soil, as they expected, they found a layer of turf on fire, which in turn "fired" the bushes. They even found 1292º Fahrenheit in some of the places. So that's the explanation of the miracle in Exodus 3, right?

Wrong!

If the scientists are right, how come all the bushes didn't burn when Moses looked? Why was this one not consumed? And if burning bushes were common in the area, how come Moses was so intrigued with this one? The truth of the matter is that only one bush was burning in Moses' day. Too, God spoke from the burning bush in the case of Moses. Are the Norwegian scientists hearing voices from the burning bushes they have discovered?

Not all are impressed with what the Norwegians have reported. Even a liberal bishop, Knut Andresen (probably a Lutheran, nearly everyone is in that nation with a state church), scoffed at the idea. Don't misunderstand, he didn't stand up for the Word of God, but offered his own view that the biblical miracles are not literal, but are merely symbols intended to bring a message to the readers.

By the way, it was in the same area where Moses brought water out of the rock and slaked the thirst of the multitudes. Pretty good, wouldn't you say, bringing water out of ground on fire? How’s that for a miracle that could even top the burning bush?

It was at Horeb where Moses saw the burning bush. That is in the Sinai Peninsula, not the Sahara Desert. But that is a small technicality for the ‘smart’ boys.

SAVED AT CAMP!

It was at a different kind of camp than we are featuring in this issue, but it was still a camp where William Elbert Munsey was converted, back in 1850. He came to Christ at an old-fashioned Methodist camp meeting at the age of seventeen.

He started out teaching school but switched to preaching and when word got out about his powerful sermonizing the multitudes began flocking to his doors. In fact, seats were gone two hours before the scheduled preaching time. Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., learned about him and later requested his friend John R. Rice to publish a book of his sermons, apparently taking them from the only two volumes he ever published. After these spiritual giants, Jones and Rice, made their selections it came out in a Sword book, Eternal Retribution! What a block buster it was!

Yes, Munsey was saved at camp. Yes, it wasn’t our kind of youth camp, but it operated on the same basic principles as our camps today. What a treasure for the church of Jesus Christ has been wrapped up in Christian camps! Take advantage of them today, both the youth and adult variety.

And check out the camps featured in this issue!

Incidentally, someone sent us the story (names, details, etc.) of a girl attending a camp (if memory serves me right it was Camp Patmos), getting saved, and being killed less than a week after arriving home. We wrote it up but gremlins ate it up and we can’t find it now.

ANOTHER YOUTH CAMP REPORT

The Rawlings Foundation has been doing a tremendous job for several years now in many countries. Dr. John Rawlings and his sons – Herbert, Harold and George – have really been practicing the Great Commission – getting folks saved, baptizing them, and seeing them added to local churches. To get this done, they have built camps with beautiful campuses in several countries around the world and report phenomenal results.

By way of example, their recently conducted youth camps in the Philippine Islands. They were 52 camps with 59,268 high school youth (all high school seniors). Out of that number there were 30,570 professions of faith, all of them dealt with from the Bible very carefully by trained personal workers. Of that number, 4,597 of those teens have already followed the Lord in baptism. And 855 of the kids have filled out applications for Bible School this fall.

The Great Commission still works when someone works it!

SON OF HAMAS

Senior Hamas leader Sheik Hassan Yousef publicly disowned his son, Mosab Hassan Yousef, in early March. That was when the latter published his memoir Son of Hamas, documenting his more than a decade association with Shin Bet, Israel’s security service.

Baptist Press, in reporting his story, referenced the AP as quoting him that he was “willing to speak out about Hamas' brutalities and the evils of Islam even if it gets him killed,” adding that he has no fear of dying.

Why not?

He is a born-again Christian who now worships “a God who will never disown him,” even though his earthly father has. Yet he wants it understood that he didn’t just “change religions.” He explains, "I am not a religious person today. I am a Jesus Christ follower ... It's a matter of a relationship."

He describes the god Allah of the Quran as today’s “biggest terrorist” and insists, “… the more closely Muslims follow Allah and Muhammad, the more they become ‘inhuman’ terrorists.” The war on terrorism is a war between Jehovah and Allah. He explained, "People are doing the will of their gods. It's the evil in the Islamic system that forces them to become inhuman."

Pray for him. We imagine the price on his head is above rubies.

OBAMA’S NEW PASTOR!

WorldNetDaily had an article, “Meet Obama’s New Controversial Pastor,” written by Aaron Klein in mid-March, with a subtitle identifying/explaining him, “Champion of communism, socialism called U.S. 'destroyer of human life'.” His name? Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners and editor of the Sojourner’s magazine. He was already on Obama’s Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships council established by executive order 13199 in 2009, and described as “a spiritual adviser to the president … [who] has known the president for years.”

WorldNetDaily noted that while both the AP and Huffington Post said nice things about Wallis, he was in reality “… a socialist activist who has championed communist causes.” In his Agenda for Biblical People, he called the United States, "the great power, the great seducer, the great captor and destroyer of human life, the great master of humanity and history in its totalitarian claims and designs." In fact, Wallis is a socialist who demanded the redistribution of wealth long before Obama had his publicized chat with Joe the Plumber. A decade and a half ago he launched “Call to Renewal” making that very demand.

In short, he talks against America like Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, but without the profanity – which, I guess, might be called a step forward in the right direction.

The week prior to the release of the WND article Wallis was on the stump urging “Christians” to boycott Glenn Beck of Fox News because the latter had spoken out against churches preaching “social justice” – which evangelicals have long called “the social gospel” (which is no gospel at all; see Galatians 1:6-9). I guess he would want you to boycott The Biblical Evangelist as well, since we’ve been saying the same for years. Wallis, on his blog, said Beck’s attack on “social justice” had attacked “the very heart of our Christian faith.” If that is the ‘very heart’ of his faith, it is obvious that Wallis’ gospel is the social gospel and definitely not our gospel.

Wallis, born into a fundamentalist Plymouth Brethren family, rebelled from that as a teen and joined the hippies in protesting the antiwar movement of the ’60s. He has been married twice, the current wife being the Rev. Joy Carroll, one of the first women ordained to the clergy in the Church of England. She authored, Beneath the Cassock: The Real-life Vicar of Dibley.

Note this item about Wallis from our August 1, 1985, “Cuff”:

When the prestigious Wall Street Journal gives a major article to an organization, calling it “A growing and increasingly influential group of evangelicals [with] conservative theology,” it might be time to sit up and take notice. This is exactly what the Journal did for Jim Wallis and his Sojourners recently ...

Sojourners is a religious commune reminiscent of Jim Jones and his “People’s Church” of San Francisco and Guyana back in the 1970s. While Wallis and his supporters would undoubtedly protest the comparison, there are several similarities. For one thing, both have liberally endorsed and promoted radical Marxist political philosophies. Again, with both, one who joins must give everything he owns to the organization, living with the group in a communist-style setup. Wallis and his Sojourners demand disarmament, oppose capital punishment, oppose almost all the United States foreign policies, especially in such places as El Salvador, Nicaragua, Cuba and elsewhere.

The editor of Persuasion at Work, Allan C. Carlson, a Rockford Institute publication, wrote: “Lurking still deeper in Sojourners is an unsettling arrogance, born out of the self-realization that they – virtually alone among Christians – have grasped the true principles of, and apparently already inhabit the Kingdom of God.” This sense of moral and personal superiority, untempered by humble recognition of the sinful nature of human pretensions is itself the source of fanaticism and – implicitly – of violence committed in the name of God. Over the last decade, such rank Christian heresy has glossed over or, indeed, justified the slaughter of missionaries in southern Africa, the support of Marxist terrorists and murderers in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the distortion of economic, political and historic reality.” Last May, when President Reagan imposed the trade embargo on Nicaragua, Wallis and his group responded “by selling Nicaraguan coffee and bananas at federal buildings and rallies across the country.”

The Journal says the Sojourners “draw much of their inspiration from Martin Luther King, Jr. and the black civil rights movement.” And it quotes the conservative watchdog group, Accuracy in Media, as calling them “pro-Soviet,” criticizing in its magazine only the misdeeds of Americans, never Russians – a charge Sojourner’s denies. Yet Wallis frankly insists, “Capitalism and socialism are both failed systems.”

As for political beliefs, Wallis and his Sojourners are entitled to believe anything they wish ...

We offer just one illustration now to repudiate any claim of evangelicalism for Wallis and his Sojourners. Three years ago, in the Easter issue of Sojourner’s, was an article by William Stringfellow, “On Grief and the Meaning of Resurrection.” Stringfellow is in a class, theologically, with such radicals as Harry Emerson Fosdick, G. Bromley Oxnam, George A. Buttrick, Nels F. S. Ferré and Temp Sparkman. In fact, he was a friend of the late radical Episcopalian bishop, James Pike.

[For you younger readers, Fosdick said he didn’t believe the virgin birth and didn’t know any intelligent minister who did; Oxnam called God “a dirty bully” with reference to Hell; Buttrick ridiculed inspiration, calling it “a fortress impossible to defend” and risking a trip to the insane asylum; Ferré suggested Jesus might have been the fruit of Mary and a blond German soldier; Sparkman was the Southern Baptist professor who wrote that terrible commentary on Genesis; and Pike seemingly sought to outdo them all! – Editor]

In his Easter article, Stringfellow wrote: “The most radical confusion about afterdeath has to do with the transliteration of the resurrection as some idea of immortality. This is an interpolation frequently attributed to preachers, and it is categorically false. Anyone who has read some of my work will be familiar with the significance I attach to distinguishing resurrection from immortality. In my view, immortality is essentially no more than an elaborate synonym for remembrance of the dead, though they are attached to its multifarious nations of spiritual and/or material survival of death. Resurrection, however, refers to the transcendent of the power of death, and of the fear or thrall of the power of death, here and now, in this life, in this world. Resurrection, thus, has to do with life, and indeed, the fulfillment of life, before death” (emphasis added).

Stringfellow emphasized his agnosticism about the matter, adding: “For all I know there may be, in some sense, a personal survival after death, but that is not what the resurrection is, in esse, concerned with.” That is blatant, total heresy.

Jim Wallis and his Sojourners are entitled to their political beliefs, but they are not entitled to call themselves evangelicals!

While Sojourners has a religious IRS exemption – Section 501 (c)(3) – it seems more like a political action committee (PAC). If it has ever given one thin dime to any poor person, we haven’t been able to find it in its financial statements, although the latter shows Sojourners to be worth millions. Rather, they march in the streets carrying signs “Vote Out Poverty,” or put up billboards, “Love God? End Poverty” (Contra: OT, Deuteronomy 15:11; NT, John 12:8). I would say none of its leaders are biblically qualified to be on a “faith-based” council, at the White House or anywhere else. They promote the government taking over the support of the poor (socialism).

Klein also quoted “Discover the Networks” as saying Wallis the student “founded an anti-capitalism magazine called the Post-American, which identified wealth redistribution and government-managed economies as the keys to achieving ‘social justice,’” renaming it Sojourner’s in 1971. “Post,” of course, means “after” or “past”).

Its mission statement is: “Our mission is to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.” It is, remember, an ‘approved’ religious organization, but there is nothing there about getting saved, growing in grace, or even a “how to go to Heaven” link.

Klein also noted that its official statement of faith is to "refuse to accept [capitalist] structures and assumptions that normalize poverty and segregate the world by class" and it “has published a slew of radicals, including socialist activist Cornel West and James Cone, considered the founder of Black Liberation Theology, which spawned the likes of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor of nearly 20 years [and] actively lobbied for communist regimes that seized power in Latin America in the late 1970s, including the Sandinista dictatorship in Nicaragua. Sojourners in the 1980s was a fierce opponent of the U.S. nuclear buildup, claiming the policy was ‘an intolerable evil’ irreconcilably at odds with Christianity.”

So now it is “Pastor” Wallis, according to WorldNetDaily.

And to the above we add Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson’s observation, “By all means, be charitable. But don't mix charity with compulsion. Jesus never did.”