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.

Incidents and Illustrations - Part 2
Evangelist Robert L. Sumner

READ THIS CAREFULLY. It was written by one of the most highly respected economists of the time in his “Business and Financial Outlook.” He warned:

“We are gradually headed for a one party system and finally a dictatorship. The Republicans will sometimes win with the slogan: ‘Had Enough!’ but their reign will be short-lived.

“Too many are following the pernicious doctrine of asking for higher wages and shorter hours, speculating in stocks and goods, growing rich on paper, voting Democratic for selfish reasons and letting the country go to the dogs, war or no war.”

The writer was Roger Babson and the time was the start of the second half of the twentieth century when we were at war with the Republic of Korea. Babson founded three colleges (in MA, FL and KS; two still exist) but was best known for his economic predictions (in 1904 he founded Babson’s Statistical Organization which still operates today as Babson-United, Inc.). He wrote over 40 books, the two most popular being Business Barometers (eight editions) and Business Barometers for Profits, Security, Income (ten editions).

Interestingly, he gave a speech on September 5, 1929, saying, "Sooner or later a crash is coming, and it may be terrific." Later the same day the stock market declined by about 3% (becoming known as the "Babson Break"). On its heels were the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.

What we quoted above was his outlook for 1951, over 60 years ago. It reads like something written for this hour, doesn’t it?

DO YOU REMEMBER "DOC" JAMES PENDERGRAFT? He is the rascal that had his medical license suspended four times in Florida where he operated five abortion clinics and is currently on a requested one year "leave of absence" from that state. We’ve ‘honored’ him a time or two in this magazine. Well, he has surfaced again in the Washington (D.C.) area where he has opened a "clinic" to perform late-term abortions.

His web describes his "life termination" for unborn babies as a procedure where he injects poison (or air) into a baby's heart. The murder only takes two to four minutes. He then releases the "wouldn't be mother" and she goes elsewhere for the induction and removal of her dead child.

C. Ben Mitchell, professor of moral philosophy at Union University in Jackson (TN) and a consultant to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the SBC, declared: "How macabre! This is not medicine; it's the stuff of a B-grade horror movie." He added, "The fact that authorities allow James Pendergraft to continue practicing anywhere is an indictment on an abortion industry spinning out of control. James Pendergraft should be in jail."

Amen to that!

Perhaps he gets his jollies in forcing pro-life medical folks to complete his abortions in order to protect the lives of the patients.

The doctor (forgive me for using that expression about this wicked destroyer of human life) warns on his web: "The problem is if you do not go into labor for a few days, not only can the patient's blood become severely infected, but this can lead to a clotting disorder where the patient's blood does not clot, severe low blood pressure, bleeding constantly from needle sticks, internal bleeding, multiple organ failure which can lead to maternal death. This is nothing that should be taken lightly. Therefore once the intra-cardiac injection is complete, there is no turning back."

The "courageous" murderer does not list an address, only a telephone number. According to Operation Rescue, "Pendergraft does not have a medical license in the District of Columbia or the surrounding states, Maryland and Virginia."

A VIEW FROM THE LEFT: Hollywood actor Richard Dreyfuss – one of that profession’s elite liberals who still wants the Bush administration tried for “high crimes” – was interviewed recently by a reporter from Human Events. At that time he charged that the United States’ first Medal of Honor winner in World War II was awarded to an American version of a kamikaze pilot. He said, “His name is Colin Kelly and he put his plane into an aircraft carrier.” 

Is that so? Not exactly.

In the first place, Capt. Colin P. Kelly never received the Medal of Honor, although he would have certainly been deserving of it. After his aircraft was hit and disabled by Japanese artillery he struggled with the controls as he ordered his entire crew to exit through the various escape hatches and parachute to safety. After the last one jumped the plane exploded with Kelly still at the controls. For that he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Nor was he a suicide bomber.

During the interview the speech of Dreyfuss was somewhat slurred, leading to the suggestion by some that he might have been “under the influence” of something! One thing is for sure: he wasn’t under the influence of truth!

CALVINISM V. ARMINIANISM. Late last year the Barna Group released a report about the “new Calvinism,” also called “Reformed” (we know of some “Reformed Baptist” churches, an oxymoron if we ever heard one – which the dictionary illustrates by “cruel kindness” or “laborious idleness”). It said approximately 3 of every 10 Protestant pastors identify their church as reformed (31%). A decade ago it was basically the same (32%), so the trend does not seem to be growing – if anything, slightly decreasing in popularity.

On the other hand, 32% identify their church as Wesleyan or Arminian. Is it wrong to assume the other 37% don’t want to be tagged with any human name? The editor fits that mold, calling himself a Biblicist.

Over that decade Barna said the Calvinist churches grew about 13% and the Arminian about 18%, indicating soul winning and evangelism still pays. Both groups saw a drop in pastors claiming their position, with the Arminians seeing the largest loss. On the other hand, the younger pastors seemed to be more Wesley/Arminian the pollster group said.

COVERING UP FOR A KILLER! Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist at Fort Hood, suddenly started shouting, “Allahu Akbar!" as he opened fire on his fellow Americans, killing 12 of his soldier comrades, a civilian employee, and wounding 32 others. Since Hasan was a devout Muslim President Obama warned of judging till the facts were in (a policy he rarely follows himself).

They are now in! It is a giant cover-up for Islam. Every branch of the military issued a report, but not a one mentioned his Islamic connections.

Dorothy Rabinowitz, a member of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board and a prominent author, had a few well-timed comments however. She spoke about the multiculturalism that drove “army and medical school superiors to smooth [his] rocky way through training, promote him, and, despite blatant evidence of his unfitness, raise not a single concern.”

She notes the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs report called him “A Ticking Time Bomb,” and while it went into detail of all “the glowing misrepresentations of Dr. Hasan's skills and character, which his superiors poured into their evaluations of him,” there is no mention “of Hasan's well-documented jihadist sympathies.” Instead it treated the whole act as something like workplace environment when an employee didn’t get a raise or a position he felt he deserved.

Rabinowitz wrote: “A resident who didn’t represent the diversity value that Hasan did as a Muslim would have faced serious consequences had he behaved half as disturbingly. Here was a world in which Hasan was untouchable, in which all that was grim and disturbing in him was transformed. He was a consistently mediocre performer, ranking in the lowest 25% of his class, but to his evaluators, he was an officer of unique talents.”

She summed it up: “He was a star not simply because he was a Muslim, but because he was a special kind—the sort who posed, in his flaunting of jihadist sympathies, the most extreme test of liberal toleration. Exactly the kind the progressive heart finds irresistible.”

Pathetic, isn’t it?

UNIVERSALISM IS “HERESY” NO MATTER WHO PREACHES IT! While I never heard of him before (his HarperOne publisher calls him “… the most vibrant, central religious leader of the millennial generation,” so for me not to know about him doesn’t say much for me, does it?), I understand now that Rob Bell is pastor of a large church (Mars Hill Bible Church) in Grand Rapids (MI) running 10,000, a man who has been quite popular in conferences in the mega-church orbit. I understand he is also an emergent church leader. He has a new book (not available as I write, but to be published soon), Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived (published by HarperOne). As an educated guess might conclude, according to those who have seen advance parts, it argues eventual universalism.

I do know that Bell is an acknowledged player in the Emerging Church movement, which we do not endorse. On his web he has a “Theology” section where he sums up Scripture from creation to the new creation (much of which is pretty good), but at the conclusion he says:

We believe the day is coming when Jesus will return to judge the world, bringing an end to injustice and restoring all things to God’s original intent. God will reclaim this world and rule forever. The earth’s groaning will cease and God will dwell with us here in a restored creation. On that day we will beat swords into tools for cultivating the earth, the wolf will lie down with the lamb, there will be no more death, and God will wipe away all our tears. Our relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation will be whole. All will flourish as God intends. This is what we long for. This is what we hope for. And we are giving our lives to living out that future reality now.

And that is The End. While what he says here is good, it is what he doesn’t say that bothers me. Notice that where most speak of everlasting bliss for the redeemed and everlasting torment for the lost, he is silent.

Baptist Press noted that in 2007 when Bell was asked about sodomy, he "danced around the issue, refusing to take a historical biblical stand.” The same source noted that Zondervan (now owned by ABC), Bell’s regular publisher, apparently refused to handle Love Wins. That should tell us something.

BP also said: “Most evangelical leaders, though, say the exclusivity of the Gospel and a literal Heaven and Hell are at the heart of Christianity. Yet in Love Wins, Bell redefines all three. He says the Gospel is exclusive – but also inclusive in that people worldwide will be saved even if they have not professed Christ. He affirms Heaven – but says that Scripture sometimes defines it as the present day. He says he believes in Hell – but then says it's not a literal place but simply a synonym for suffering in the modern world.”

Rustin J. Umstattd, an assistant professor of theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, called Bell's views "nothing more than a slickly packaged, well scripted rehash of Protestant liberalism."

Time magazine, not exactly a Sunday School handout paper, said Bell “has achieved rock star status in the Christian world,” but whether that is so or not I cannot say. And, since the book hasn’t been published yet, I can only go by how others – honest, good men – have evaluated it. If the reports are accurate, Bell is indeed, just as his critics claim, proclaiming heresy, a false gospel that is not a gospel.

One reviewer gives this as an exact quote from the book: “God has inaugurated a movement in Jesus' resurrection to renew, restore, and reconcile everything.”

Mega star Rick Warren, who doesn’t go around claiming to be a Fundamentalist or criticizing others, said in obvious reference to the book, “I believe in Hell because Jesus says it's real and He knows more about it than anyone." Amen to that!

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, concluded his comments: "The Emerging Church movement is known for its slick and sophisticated presentation. It wears irony and condescension as normal attire. Regardless of how Rob Bell's book turns out, its promotion is the sad equivalent of a theological striptease. The Gospel is too precious and important to be commodified in this manner. The questions he asks are too important to leave so tantalizingly unanswered. Universalism is a heresy, not a lure to use in order to sell books."

The first Christian leader, apparently, to break the story about Bell was Justin Taylor, who earns bread for his family at the editorial department of Crossway, an evangelical publishing concern in the Chicago area. We have reviewed favorably a number of its titles in the past. Taylor called the book, “full-blown hell-is-empty-everyone-gets-saved universalism.”

As for Bell, maybe he went to the wrong schools. He is a graduate of Wheaton College (an institution that left its fundamentalist roots years ago and now promotes theistic evolution), then to Fuller Seminary (which never was fundamental). In fact, Fuller was founded as a Neo-Evangelical school in open opposition to fundamentalism. Since Bell’s church is totally independent and nondenominational, he answers to no earthly authority.

You may remember the controversy we reported when one of Oral Roberts’ boys, “Bishop” Carlton Pearson, began touting the same error. Our opinion, founded on The Book of God, has not changed since then. As “Bishop” Pearson noted about Bell, "A large denomination would take his credentials and excommunicate him like they did me.”

By the way, the latter complained that even his own members quit him when he fell into heresy: "If you denounce hell, it's like you are denouncing God … I thought my people loved me and would walk through the valley of the shadow of death with me, but they didn’t.”

Just perhaps, Carlton – just perhaps – they loved God and His Word more! Some people do, you know.

Our circulation manager, Dr. Ron English, got into the act by writing on the web where the controversy was boiling, “A man's words have meaning. Rob Bell has spoken. Editor John R. Rice used to say of writers, ‘You should write so clearly that you can't long be misunderstood.’ Rob Bell is a great communicator. He said what he meant and meant what he said. No woman was ever just a little bit pregnant – she either is or is not. Titus 3:10 says, ‘A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject.’ Some of you brethren who know Rob Bell and have had good fellowship with him must go to him. If he holds to this unscriptural position then he must be rejected by all who hold and love the true Christian faith. You who have had him speak on the big conference programs probably should go first to him."

Some young man pursuing a M.Div. degree got into the act with several silly statements that misrepresented both Baptists and the Bible. He summed it up, “… none of us really knows whether or not Hell exists …” Maybe he doesn’t, but some of us who believe Jesus and the Bible do!

The youngster added, “While we have different answers, we share the same questions. So, let us question together, and in doing so, respect God's image in one another. It is the Baptist way. It is also the way of Jesus.” Ah, fancy prose, but not very biblical – then I noted he is “pursuing his degree at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology!” That makes his bad views plain as day. As for me, I’m too old to spend my days questioning the Bible.

While this is not a subject for humor, we’ll inject some anyway. The story goes that before W. C. Fields died a friend visited him in the hospital and found him reading the Bible. “What?” exclaimed the friend, “Fields reading the Bible?” And the comedian answered, “I’m looking for loopholes.” Maybe Bell has joined Fields in looking for loopholes!

As for “love” compelling all to come to redemption, which seems to be Bell’s book theme, John Greenleaf Whittier, a humble and dedicated Christian, in his The Answer, wrote graphically and tellingly,

Though God be good and free be Heaven,

    No force divine can love compel;

And though the song of sins forgiven

    May sound through lowest Hell,

The sweet persuasion of His voice

    Respects the sanctity of will.

He giveth day: thou hast thy choice

    To walk in darkness still.

[For a careful review of Bell’s Love Wins, see the editor’s on page one!]

HOW THE LEFT TREATS AMERICAN HEROES! Ex-Army staff Sgt. Anthony Mascheck, a freshman at Columbia University, went to the mike to speak at a campus town hall meeting. An Iraqi veteran who earned a Purple Heart (he was shot 11 times, suffered both legs broken, and sustained injures to abdomen, arm and chest). He was confined at our Walter Reed Hospital for two years recovering, where he suffered the amputation of one of his broken legs, which has confined him since to a wheelchair.

Did Tony receive a standing ovation? Not exactly!

Some hissed and booed while others shouted “Racist!” As one columnist noted, Iran's kooky, nutty Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received better treatment from students when he spoke there three years ago. The town hall meeting where Maschek received the shameful meeting was called to discuss overturning the university’s 42-year-old ban of an on-campus ROTC program.

Columbia, you may remember, is where Barack Obama claims to have earned a degree, although no one there at the time in the classes he would have been in ever recalls meeting him – even one time!

COURT OKAYS INSULTING DEAD WAR HEROES! Well, the Supremes finally ruled in the case of Fred Phelps and his hatemongers at Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. The father of marine Matthew Snyder lost and Phelps and his obnoxious yelpers won. It was not altogether a surprise since the Constitution clearly declares free speech for all citizens. The vote was 8-1.

The dissenter was Justice Samuel Alito, an independent thinker who noted it wasn’t necessary for the protesters to go to a funeral, they “could have gone to the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon or the Supreme Court” rather than disrupting a family’s private funeral. That makes sense to me.

While he agreed with his peers in freedom of speech, he added, “… but it most certainly does not protect violent criminal conduct, even if engaged in for expressive purposes.”

He also wrote in his dissent, "It does not follow … that they may intentionally inflict severe emotional injury on private persons at a time of intense emotional sensitivity by launching vicious verbal attacks that make no contribution to public debate."

Alito added, “Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case."

We agree!

The Westboro “church” – we stutter when we try to use that word about them – said the ruling will cause them to hold even more of their obnoxious rallies.

COMING TO AMERICA? Don’t be religious over much in England. Its high court recently ruled that Owen and Eunice Johns – who have cared for over 15 children in their home over the years – could no longer do so because their biblical beliefs about sodomy conflicted with Great Britain’s “sexual equality” laws. The Johns are forever banned from caring for children in England’s social system.

The issue came up when the Johns refused to tell a small child sodomy was a good thing. The court said the rights of Sodomites “should take precedence” over the rights of Christians to exercise their faith (how’s that for adding insult to injury).

Lord Justices James Munby and Jack Beeston were the brilliant jurists making the ruling.

The glory of Sodomites is more important to them than giving little children what Sodomites could never provide: both a father and a mother who loves and cares for them and their wellbeing.

One British follower and lover of the Bible noted, "Christianity isn't dying [in England] … It's being eradicated."