{"id":1403,"date":"2009-08-01T22:35:56","date_gmt":"2009-08-02T06:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2009\/08\/01\/but\/"},"modified":"2009-08-02T07:16:30","modified_gmt":"2009-08-02T15:16:30","slug":"but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2009\/08\/01\/but\/","title":{"rendered":"but…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isn\u2019t this exactly what some fundamentalists are doing with evangelicals they admire for one reason or another?<\/p>\n

It is not helpful when fundamentalists try to discredit the evangelistic fruitfulness of Graham\u2019s ministry or when evangelicals use that fruitfulness to justify all of Graham\u2019s associations and actions. Both attempts are rooted in the same false assumption\u2014God can only use those who are perfectly obedient (or close to it). \u2026 The evangelical, coming from the opposite angle but with the same assumption, feels compelled to argue that since God used Graham, what Graham was doing can\u2019t be wrong (or, at least, not that bad).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dave is giving some good analysis in his series of articles<\/a>, but this paragraph seems to describe precisely the problem I have with the way some fundamentalists talk about their evangelical \u2018faves\u2019.<\/p>\n

And I have one other point where I want to make a mild objection.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here it is:<\/p>\n

Also, it is important to recognize that some evangelicals disagree with the ecumenical practices of Graham, yet still see him as someone whom God used to spread the gospel to millions around the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Isn\u2019t it more supportive than that? Don\u2019t most evangelicals think what Graham and Henry and Ockenga et al did was right? Necessary? A benefit to the church? A proper \u2018toning down\u2019 of the craziness that was fundamentalism?<\/p>\n

You see, what I hear the evangelicals saying is something like this: \u201cWell, we don\u2019t like the ecumenicalism and the problems it brings, but we sure do appreciate the New Evangelicals marginalizing the fundamentalists like they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave sees some evangelicals as \u2018developing\u2019 separatists. I don\u2019t actually see that. I hope I\u2019m wrong.<\/p>\n

As for Dave\u2019s \u2018way forward\u2019, I agree with all of that. I have no problem acknowledging that Billy Graham\u2019s ministry actually brought many into the kingdom. At least one member of our church is the fruit of Graham\u2019s ministry (by watching him on television, no less). I don\u2019t think much is gained by cursing Graham, but we have to constantly teach about his great error and its consequences.<\/p>\n

I hope evangelicals will come to see the New Evangelical error for what it is and completely repudiate it.<\/p>\n

By the way, I think it is important to keep the New Evangelical term alive in this context. New Evangelicalism is still alive and well in the minds of many, that is why they can\u2019t bring themselves to completely repudiate Graham. They think he did a service. They think New Evangelicalism was a good thing. I think they mostly think the problems came after<\/em> the ministry of Graham et al \u2013 others took things too far. Until they see New Evangelicalism as the problem, there will be no common ground with Fundamentalists.<\/p>\n

\"don_sig2\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isn\u2019t this exactly what some fundamentalists are doing with evangelicals they admire for one reason or another? It is not helpful when fundamentalists try to discredit the evangelistic fruitfulness of Graham\u2019s ministry or when evangelicals use that fruitfulness to justify all of Graham\u2019s associations and actions. Both attempts are rooted in the same false assumption\u2014God […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[105,37,83,71,77,68],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2fYWj-but","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1403"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1406,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions\/1406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}