ARTICLES ON THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL AND HOME SCHOOL
Theology and the Philosophy of Baptist Christian Education
Dan Silverman On Vision Forum
Pastor Beller,
My name is Dan Silverman and my family and I are missionaries to Israel, though we are currently back in the USA for the next two years as I pursue my Masters degree. We are hoping to return to Israel to help found a Bible institution there to help train men into the ministry.
Since we have been back in the USA we have had several occasions to speak in churches. While doing so a dear friend of mine handed me a copy of your book, The Coming Destruction of the Baptist People. I had not really looked into these topics in the past (to my shame) though one of the reasons I am pursuing my degree is because God has recently given me a deep desire to learn more about church history. As a result, I found your book both fascinating and eye opening. I read it through twice in one week and am making my way through it again for a variety of reasons. I have also been testing your ideas by speaking to many dear brothers in the Lord to see how they would react. In virtually all cases this was the first time that they had really heard any of this and they wanted to know more. In all cases these were Baptists.
The main reason I am writing this email to you is that I had been intending to attend a conference that was offered by an organization called Vision Forum (http://www.visionforum.com). The event was called the History of the World Mega Conference and it was marketed as one of the biggest and most important conferences on history ever presented (and from a Christian perspective at that!). Because of my intense desire to learn church history I dearly wanted to attend, but finances would not permit it and so the conference came and went.
After returning from several speaking engagements I received an email from Vision Forum speaking of the success of the conference. Within the email was a list of the men that were the key speakers for the conference. By the time I had received this email I had already read your book twice through. I decided to take a look at each of these men to see if I could discern anything about what might have been taught at the conference. Vision Forum was offering DVDs and such for the entire conference Here are the names of the men that taught the seminar:
• Dr. Joe Morecraft
• Col. John Eidsmoe
• Dr. Paul Jehle
• Geoff Botkin
• Dr. Marshall Foster
I decided to do a bit of research on each man to see what I would come up with and I thought you might be interested in the results. We will start with Dr. Morecraft.
The first thing I noted is that Dr. Morecraft is the pastor of Chalcedon Presbyterian Church and, by many, he is considered to be a theonomist. According to a part of the definition of what a theonomist believes (from a theonomist web site) the following was stated:
The system of government resulting from theonomy is called a theocracy: literally, "God's government." When we speak of a theocracy, it should be clear that we are not talking about a state run by a national church, or an ecclessiocracy, such as the Holy Roman Empire, or the totalitarian military dictatorships in Muslim fundamentalist states. In a true theocracy, the state does not control the church, nor the church the state, but both spheres of society are under the government of God. There is implied a decentralization of power or a "Christian Republican" form of government.
This quote (and others) can be found at the following web site: http://forerunner.com/theofaq.html
According to the same web site it is stated that they are “covenantal” in their views and opposed to dispensational theology. Therefore, we can assume already that Dr. Morecraft is theocratic and covenantal in his views. Of course, this can be further substantiated by his association with Presbyterianism.
I also found Dr. Morecraft's name affixed to a document known as A Manifesto for the Christian Church. Many Christian leaders gathered together, formed this document and then signed their names to it. Dr. Morecraft was one of the signers. I also noticed that both R. J. Rushdoony and Gary North were signers of this same document. Very interesting. While most of the document seems benign and even quite good, there are certain things scattered throughout that need to be brought to the surface. Some of the statements of this document may seem benign when taken by themselves, but when combined with other statements within they are quite revealing.
The document is basically a list of confessions and, as a result, a list of promised agreed upon by the signers to attempt to amend for these shortcomings. Here are some of the statements:
7. We have neglected our God-ordained duties to be the world's salt, light, teacher, and example; as a result, the world is in desperate trouble and western civilization stands on the brink of self-destruction;
13. We have allowed our churches to become irrelevant, powerless ghettos while those who hate or neglect God and His righteous standards for society have stolen the America of our founding fathers out from under our slumbering eyes;
20. We foolishly have allowed Satan to divide us from other members of His Body through pride, jealousy, and competition, through a lack of humble serving of one another, and by concentrating on divisive minor issues rather than he clear Biblical articles of faith upon which we agree;
(Note: This last quote has to do with “denominationalism” and there for is dealing with a “let's all get together” attitude. The Christian leaders that signed this document were from a variety of doctrinal and belief systems including Anabaptist, Arminian, Lutheran, Calvinist and Wesleyan.)
22. We have failed to conduct our lives or manage our affairs in the conscious certainty that God's eternal standards for personal and social righteousness are unchanging and inexorable in their absolute cause-and-effect relationships, this dishonoring God and playing the fool in our personal lives and social policies;
The signers of this manifesto also covenanted to do the following:
to do all we can, in the lives of our fellow humans and in the societies in which we live, to see God's will done on earth as it is in heaven, insofar as that is possible between now and the physical return of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Whereas, we believe that we, the sleeping, uncaring, uncourageous, and unholy members of the Body of Christ bear much of the blame for the fact that our own society and Western civilization are on the brink of self destruction;
We therefore declare:
That a broad acceptance by the Bible-believing Church of the basic biblical affirmations stated herein should be considered essential, primary, foundational, and non-negotiable by all Christians who wish to work and pray toward the revival of the Church and the reformation of society;
It is…, to the great benefit of all mankind, Christian and non-Christian alike, to bring every society's judicial and legal systems into as close an approximation to the laws and commandments of the Bible as its citizens will allow.
Dr. Morecraft is a theonomist with a desire for a Christian political platform to be developed. In other words, these people desire a return to the Augustinian principles. I find it equally interesting that Dr. Morecraft's presentation at the History of the World Mega Conference was entitled:
How Augustine Changed the World: Part I and II
As to the other speakers, it is interesting to note a few things about them.
Col. John Eidsmoe is considered the “defender of the Decalogue” and was a principle advisor to former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. He was a speaker at the Faith and Action Winter Conference (not sure of the date) in which the following topics where addressed by him:
The Ten Commandments:
1. The Moral Foundation of Law, 2) The First Amendment: What it Says, What it Doesn't Say, 3) Defiance in Montgomery: Lawlessness or Justified Interposition? and 4) The Courage to Stand.”
It is equally interesting to note that Col. Eidsmoe is an ordained pastor of the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations and a Adjunct Professor at Birmingham Theological Seminary. He also served on the Ten Commandments Legal Defense Team.
Dr. Paul Jehle is the Senior pastor of the New Testament Church. Here is what their web site says about their church:
1. A Reformed Charismatic theology
2. A Biblical world and life view
3. A Kingdom purpose
4. Living by Biblical principles and methodology
5. A multi-generational vision through Christian education and discipleship
6. Covenant membership: discipleship and accountability
7. Holiness in word and deed
8. Church government (Theocratic Republic)
9. Networking with other churches
10. Planting churches
Therefore, according to their words, this church is both Reformed and Charismatic. Not only this, they make it a point to state that they have a Kingdom purpose.
I did not find much out about Geoff Botkin other than he is a Christian film maker. However, I found it strange that he had a part in the History of the World Mega Conference.
The last person mentioned was Dr. Marshall Foster. Dr. Marshall is the founder of the Mayflower Institute. Here is a brief mission statement for their organization from their web site:
The mission of the Mayflower Institute is to proclaim the untold story of America's history, to prepare individuals and families to defend their Judeo-Christian heritage in all spheres of culture, and to inspire a new generation to rise up and restore America to "One Nation Under God".
They also state the following: For almost four decades the Mayflower Institute has been dedicated to providing inspiration and resources for the building of biblically based civilizations, beginning with America's foundations.
As we can see from these bold declarations, the Mayflower Institute and its founder, desire to prepare families and individuals to, among other things, found “biblically based civilizations”. Is it not obvious that a civilization is based upon its mode of government?
I find it interesting to note that not a one of these speakers was a Baptist.
In any case, I hope that you do not mind this lengthy document. I just wanted to (possibly) help affirm your findings in your book by sharing with you some of my findings. I am very glad I did not attend the conference (our God is indeed sovereign in all things!) and that He has permitted me to look deeper into what is really going on.
Thank you for your book. I look forward to reading a few of your others as well.
Shalom b'shem Yeshua (Peace in the name of Jesus),
Dan Silverman
Isaiah 62