Smoke, Mirrors and Disinformation…

The Compromised Ties of the Apologetics Ministries

 

THE SPIRITUAL COUNTERFEITS PROJECT

 

Part IV

 

 

 

Apologetics Conferences & New Age Dialogue {continued}

 

History of the Fellowship Foundation and Doug Coe

 

Doug Coe and Barbara Marx Hubbard co-hosted the NEW AGE “Bridging Through Christ” Gold Lake Retreat, 1987 as reported by Constance Cumbey above…

 

Billy Graham Center Archives

Records of the Fellowship Foundation - Collection 459

 

Historical Background

~ edited, emphasis added ~

 

Note: The events described in the chronology below, large public meetings, incorporations, etc. provide a framework for the history of Fellowship Foundation (more accurately the prayer group movement) but do not really capture its nature. From its beginning, Abraham Vereide and other leaders were determined that the movement not become a formal organization but carry out its objective through personal, trusting, informal, unpublicized contact between people. Although at times (particularly in the 1960s) tending very close to the kind of organization, boards and structures found in other Christian organizations, the movement has managed to reinvent itself continually to stay true to its original principles.

 

1934 - Abraham Vereide, Methodist conference evangelist and former associate general director of Goodwill Industries, led a month of evangelistic meetings in San Francisco, which included regular breakfast prayer meetings of business leaders at the Pacific Union Club.

 

April 1935 - Vereide pulled together a group of local businessmen to pray about perceived IWW and Socialist subversion and corruption in Seattle, Washington's municipal government. Group began to meet regularly and expanded to include government officials, labor leaders, etc. Other groups developed throughout the state, loosely coordinated by Vereide. Other early leaders in the movement were J. N. Davis, J. G. Kennedy, Carl Christopherson, William Day, and William St. Clair.

 

1937 - Two hundred nine prayer breakfast groups had been organized throughout Seattle.

 

1/19/1945 - First prayer breakfast in Washington, DC, for members of the U. S. Congress

 

January 1947 - Four day conference in Washington, DC resulted in the formation of International Council for Christian Leadership (ICCL). There were representatives from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Hungary, Egypt and China. ICCL was an umbrella group for the various national fellowships. ICCL was formally incorporated as a separate organization in 1953. ICL and ICCL were governed by different board of directors, but there was a coordinating committee consisting of four each from members of ICCL's board and the ICL's executive committee. Eventually Fellowship Foundation was created by the two organizations to maintain Fellowship House in Washington, DC as a spiritual service center.

 

2/5/1953  - First Presidential Prayer Breakfast held in the United States.

 

5/3/1956  - Richard Halverson became associate executive director of ICL. In addition, from 1958 on, Halverson was pastor at the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Washington. He served as chaplain of the United Senate from 1981-1995. Throughout his time in Washington, Halverson, along with Vereide and later Douglas Coe, continued to be one of ICL's most influential leaders, regardless of his title. [see Halverson bio, below]

 

4/1959  - Conference of the European member of ICCL in Strasbourg, France.

 

2/9/1961  - 9th Annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast. Billy Graham was the principal speaker

 

6/1964 - Bi-annual World Conference held in Bad Godesburg, Germany. Forty-seven nations were represented.

 

2/17/1966 - 14th annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast at Shoreham Hotel. Fifteen hundred in attendance. Billy Graham was the principal speaker.

 

6/29-7/3/1966  - International conference in Cambridge England. Three hundred delegates.

 

5/16/1969 - Abraham Vereide died. Douglas Coe from this time on served as coordinator and leader of the movement, in as far as a person can be said to be the leader.

 

2/1/1972 - 20th Annual National Prayer Breakfast.

 

1972 – Name change to Fellowship Foundation

After consultations among leaders of the movement, including Coe, Halverson, Senator Mark Hatfield, and others, the organization was redesigned to be even more low key and to provide a central office where many dozen (one hundred fifty in 1985) of ministries could be administered. Each ministry had a contact person who was the liaison person with the Foundation. The Foundation mainly dealt with seeing that the goals of the ministry were in line with the overall goals of the Foundation and that monies were spent for the purposes for which they were budgeted, without getting involved in personnel and administrative matters of each ministry. In effect, the group adopted an even lower profile, serving as a channel of communication and a catalyst. Its three major interests came to be developing personal relationships between leaders and encouraging them in prayer, Bible study and personal Christian growth, youth work, and service to the poor. The group continued to help set up each year's National Prayer Breakfast, but most of its activities were done with no or very little publicity. This, along with the continual effort to avoid creating any kind of large, hierarchical ministry, grew out of a desire to avoid the rigidity that came with organization, to avoid public controversy, and to be as open as humanly possible to the leading of the Holy Spirit. The behind-the-scenes consultations [SEE Cumbey’s Gold Lake Report––the gathering of Christian and New Age leaders behind the scenes, above], prayer fellowships, and support for programs in line with the objectives of the group were the real ministry of Fellowship Foundation.

 

1/18/1979 - 27th Annual National Prayer Breakfast, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. [Roman Catholic]

 

2/3/94 - 42nd Annual National Prayer Breakfast. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was the speaker.

[See Billy Graham Archives for complete history.]

 

Ed. Notes: Abraham Vereide was also the mentor of Harald Bredesen who, in turn, mentored Pat Robertson; see Project Megiddo. Douglas Coe was mentor to Chuck Colson, who stated in Promise Keepers’ New Man magazine: "I have often wondered what would have happened in my Christian life had I not had a mentor like Doug Coe." (New Man, Sept.-Oct., 1995, p. 54) 

 

About Richard Halverson

Dr. Richard Halverson was one of Henrietta Meares’s "accepted, anointed evangelists" as were Billy Graham, and Bill Bright; all were members of the Fellowship of the Burning Heart. Halverson worked at Meares’s Forest Home Conference Center [CA] in the early 1940s as manager. Meares was an associate of Charles E. Fuller who founded Fuller Theological Seminary with Harold Ockenga, J. Edwin Orr, Armin Gesswein and Meares. Harold Ockenga founded the National Association of Evangelicals [NEA] with J. Edwin Orr in 1942. The NAE then worked with John Stott to revive the defunct U.S. Evangelical Alliance [1846], which became the World Evangelical Fellowship/WEF [1951]; now renamed the World Evangelical Alliance/WEA. Stott was the framer of the ecumenical Lausanne Covenant [1974] and is a Contributing Editor for Christianity Today.

 

About Art Lindsley

– participant at “Bridging Through Christ,” Gold Lake Retreat, 1987 as report by Constance Cumbey above

 

Art Lindlsey ––Spiritual Counterfeits Project Board of Reference & the C. S. Lewis Institute

 

SCP Brochure written circa/after 1981:

 

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

 

Rev. David Brooks ––Chairman of SCP Board of Trustees/Pastor of Evangelical Free Church

Vernon Grounds––Professor Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary

Dr. Ron Enroth––Professor Westmont College

Mr. Bill Lynch––Medical Sciences Associate, USV Laboratories

Dr. Art Lindsley––Staff Specialist, Coalition for Christian Outreach

 
Spiritual Counterfeits Project , NEWSLETTER  July-August 1983 Vol. 9, No. 3

 

~ emphasis added ~

The Changing Face of SCP: An Update
 
Dr Art Lindsley –– New SCP Board Member

 

…frequent speaker at churches and on college campuses. His particular area of expertise is theology with emphasis on how it relates to everyday life. Dr. Lindsley is also an instructor for Prison Fellowship [Chuck Colson, CNP] and conducts inprison [sic]. He has also been with Ligonier Valley Study Center [R.C. Sproul] for the last six years and is currently an associate staff member.

 

 

Ed. Notes: Prison Fellowship International is an NGO of the U.N.

See BDM expose of R.C. Sproul

 

C.S. Lewis Institute—Art Lindsley, Scholar-in-Residence

 

About CSLI’s founder Dr. James Houston

 

CSL Institute Senior Fellow

Dr. James Houston is Professor of Spiritual Theology at Regent College, Vancouver B.C. and Senior Fellow at the C.S. Lewis Institute in Annandale, VA.  He founded Regent College, an international graduate school with over 1000 students annually and a world-class faculty, including J.I. Packer, Eugene Peterson, Gordon Fee, Bruce Waltke and others. Dr. Houston is recognized around the world as a leading figure in educating the laity for effective ministry and in helping to restore spirituality to evangelicalism. Along with James Hiskey, Dr. Houston was a co-founder of the C.S. Lewis Institute in 1976.

 

Ed. Note: According to SCP newsletter Vol. 13, No. 1, 1988, Houston was “a personal friend of C.S. Lewis.”  Considering the statement above, “Dr. Houston is…helping to restore spirituality to Evangelicalism”, we wrote “About C.S. Lewis” below, to make known Lewis’ brand of spirituality which Houston promotes through the institutions he founded, C.S. Lewis Institute and Regent College.

 

C.S. Lewis Institute Home Page 

March, 2002

 

Speakers offered through the C.S. Lewis Institute:

Biographical info added:

 

J.I Packer—faculty Regent College

Ravi Zacharias—associate member of the World Evangelical Alliance

Francis Collins—See below

Art Lindsley

 

Past Speakers have included:

 

John Stott –– Incomparable Christ March 2001

Os Guiness––former fellow at the Brookings Institution

Alister McGrath––principal, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University

David Aickman––Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center/EPPC

[EPPC President, Elliot Abrams is a member of the globalist CFR]

Dr. Myron S. Augsburger––President Emeritus of Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities;

CCCU works in partnership with the Templeton Foundation

Rev. Dr. Jeremy Begbie––Vice Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, England; Director of “Theology Through the Arts” at the Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies; Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge

Dr. Tony Campolo––– Director of the Urban Studies Program, Eastern College,

Chuck Colson––Wilberforce Forum; Christianity Today, Contributing Editor

Dr. Samuel Escobar––Professor of Missiology, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Former Associate General Secretary, IFES/International Fellowship of Evangelical Students; Christianity Today, Corresponding Editor

 

C.S. Lewis Institute’s First Wednesdays 2002

[featuring visiting speakers]

 

APRIL 3

"Can a Geneticist be a Christian?"

Dr. Francis Collins [PHOTO]

Director, National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH

 

Article by Francis Collins and how Christians must be about the work of Genome Research…

The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity

 

Reflections from the Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute

Francis S. Collins

…Given the complex concerns raised by genetic research, some have asked why we are doing this at all. The New Testament book of Matthew serves as a powerful reminder of how much time Christ spent healing people in His very short time on this earth: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness” (Matthew 9:35). Perhaps because they are called to be Christ-like, Christians feel a particular responsibility for reaching out and healing the sick. That is one of the reasons why studying this aspect of our biology and trying to apply it medically is not merely a good idea, but a moral necessity. It is an ethical requirement of us. If we can develop the ability to heal, if genetic research holds out hope and promise and can prevent suffering in our fellow human beings, then we have to do it. However, we must also shoulder the responsibility of making sure that these powerful tools are used for good purposes and not for unethical ones.  - Published in Dignity a publication of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity/CBHD - Summer, 2001

 

Note: For the truth about the HGP, see Robert Lederman’s: The Human Genome Project and Eugenics

 

“The Human Genome Project is headquartered at the Cold Springs Harbor laboratory on Long Island, NY-the exact site of the notorious Eugenics Research Office started in 1910 by the Harriman family. The Human Genome Project is thus a direct continuation of the Eugenics movement begun in the early part of the 20th century.

“Throughout its history the Eugenics movement has advanced an agenda that if fully recognized and understood for what it is would shock most people living in our current society of relative tolerance and diversity. Prominent advocates of Eugenics in the US, including the Rockefellers, Henry Ford and Margaret Sanger, wanted the government to decide who could reproduce and how many offspring they could have; which ethnic groups should be excluded from immigrating to the U.S. based on their alleged inferiority; and which medical and psychological conditions should qualify one for sterilization or euthanasia.”

 

About the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity

 

“…exists to help individuals and organizations address the pressing bioethical challenges of our day, including managed care, end-of-life treatment, genetic intervention, euthanasia and suicide, and reproductive technologies.  The Center has tax-exempt, not-for-profit status and is supported by gifts and grants from individuals, corporations, and foundations [undisclosed]

 

In mid-1993, more than a dozen leading Christian bioethicists gathered to assess the noticeable lack of explicit Christian engagement in the crucial bioethics arena. This group sponsored a major conference in May 1994, The Christian Stake in Bioethics, and concurrently launched The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity/CBHD,

 

The Center has initiated a variety of projects, and has ongoing collaborative relationships* with many U.S. groups, including the Christian Medical and Dental Society, Nurses Christian Fellowship, and the Christian Legal Society, as well as non-U.S. institutions such as the Centre for Bioethics and Public Policy in London, England [director Nigel M. de S. Cameron, Christianity Today, Contributing Editor], the Linacre Center, London, England, the Lindeboom Instituut for Medical Ethics in Ede, Holland, and the Ustav Medicinskej Etiky a Bioetiky, in Bratislava, Slovakia.

 

Ed. Note: Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity/CBHD Advisory Board Chair, Nigel M. de S. Cameron is a Contributing Editor for Christianity Today and also dean of the Wilberforce Forum with Chuck Colson [CNP]. The Wilberforce Forum, affiliated with Prison Fellowship, works in partnership with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities/CCCU. CCCU works in a partnership with the Templeton Foundation.

 

Michael Novak who serves on the Wilberforce Forum Board of Reference is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations/CFR.]

 

See: Templeton Foundation––Officers, Trustees & Advisors

 

 

Oxford University West

The C.S. Lewis Institute in parntership with Wycliffe Hall , Oxford University

C. S. Lewis Institute ~ Celebrating 25 Years of Ministry

Articulating, Defending and Living Faith in Christ through Personal and Public Life.

 

Oxford Studies  <<< scroll to bottom of page       

 

C. S. Lewis Institute Oxford Study Program

During the summer of 2001, the INSTITUTE in conjunction with Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University, offered the first Oxford Study Program. From June 21 through July 6, more than 30 participants learned from  Dr. J.I. Packer, Dr. Alister McGrath, Dr. Eugene Peterson, Trevor Hart, and Dr. Art Lindsley. During 2002 the Institute is sponsoring an Israel Study Tour.  Call the INSTITUTE office for more information: 703 / 914-5602.

 

Oxford Lecture Series

Since many world leaders have been educated at Oxford University, the Institute has initiated the Oxford Lecture Series, cosponsored with Wycliffe Hall, in an effort to reach tomorrow's leaders today. In May 2000, Dr. Armand Nicholi of Harvard University Medical School presented the inaugural lectures entitled The Conflicting Worldviews of C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud.

 

C. S. Lewis Institute Celebrating 25 Years of Ministry

Articulating, Defending and Living Faith in Christ through Personal and Public Life.

 

C. S. Lewis Fellows

A Year-Long Discipleship Program for Men & Women

 

    In September 1999, the C.S. Lewis Institute launched the C.S. Lewis Fellows Program, bringing together a group of professional men who desired to grow in their knowledge and love of God while sharpening their ability to articulate, defend and live out their faith in public and private life.  The program combines spiritual formation and mentoring with instruction in theology, apologetics and cultural analysis.  During the first year, Fellows received teaching from Dr. Art Lindsley and the Rev. Tom Tarrants along with regular prayer and fellowship.  Special sessions with noted teachers included Dr. Alister McGrath and Dr. J.I. Packer.

 

OXFORD UNIVERSITY GAZETTE 22 June 2001

 

WYCLIFFE HALL

Free public lectures   June ~ July

The following lectures, arranged in association with Regent College, Vancouver, will be held at 7.30 p.m. on the days shown in the University Church. The lectures are free of charge and open to the public.

 

J.I. PACKER

Tue. 26 June: ‘The Puritan ideal in today's church.’

 

ALISTER MCGRATH

Thur. 28 June: ‘The origins, development, and significance of the King James Bible.’

 

R.J. (SAM) BERRY

Tue. 3 July: ‘Christ, creation, and disorder.’

 

ART LINDSLEY

Thur. 5 July: ‘C.S. Lewis and the Christian imagination.’

 

Conference: Follow the Leader

EUGENE PETERSON, author of The Message, will conduct a conference on this subject on Friday, 29 June, 7.30 a.m.–9 p.m., and Saturday, 30 June, 9 a.m.–12.30 p.m., in St Aldate's Church. The conference is held in association with Regent College, Vancouver. The cost is £20. Further information may be obtained from Wycliffe Hall (telephone: Oxford (2)74762, e-mail: summer.school@wycliffe.ox.ac.uk).

 

Ed. Note: J. I. Packer, Alister McGrath and Eugene Peterson are all on the staff of Christianity Today. Packer and Peterson are on the Regent College faculty.  See expose of Eugene Peterson’s bible: The Message: The Mystical Bible

 

Regent College Anglican Studies Program

 

Regent has partnered with Wycliffe Hall, a permanent private hall of Oxford University, in an exchange program. Regent students who meet the Oxford entrance requirements are able to do two terms of their Master of Divinity degree in Oxford and Wycliffe students are able to come to study at Regent College.

 

As part of our program, daily Anglican worship is held at the College on weekdays during the academic terms. Anglican ordinands are mentored by the Rev. Dr. Harry S.D. Robinson, who serves as Anglican chaplain. The Rev. Dr. J.I. Packer is the director of the program.

 

Editor’s Note: J.I. Packer is a signer of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together Documents I, co-author of ECT II and “Resolutions for Roman Catholic and Evangelical Dialogue”; a signer of the Evangelical Declaration on Care of Creation [Interfaith/Earth Summit]; a member of the Board of Reference of Renovaré, a mystical movement founded and directed by Quaker psychologist, Richard Foster. Packer teaches courses at Regent College on Evangelical-Catholic and Evangelical-Orthodox Dialogue. See: SCP and J.I. Packer, Part I

 

See exposes: Dr. James I. Packer-Rediscovering Holiness [Miles Stanford]

J.I. Packer: General Teachings/Activities [Biblical Discernment Ministries]

 

 


 

About C.S. Lewis, (Clive Staples), 1898-1963.

 

According to the British Library, C.S. Lewis’ works were conduits of the Celtic Holy Grail lore:

 

“The legend of the Holy Grail is one of the most enduring in Western European literature and art. The Grail was said to be the cup of the Last Supper and at the Crucifixion to have received blood flowing from Christ's side. It was brought to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea, where it lay hidden for centuries. The search for the vessel became the principal quest of the knights of King Arthur. It was believed to be kept in a mysterious castle surrounded by a wasteland and guarded by a custodian called the Fisher King, who suffered from a wound that would not heal. His recovery and the renewal of the blighted lands depended upon the successful completion of the quest. Equally, the self-realisation of the questing knight was assured by finding the Grail. The magical properties attributed to the Holy Grail have been plausibly traced to the magic vessels of Celtic myth that satisfied the tastes and needs of all who ate and drank from them. The symbol of the Grail as a mysterious object of search and as the source of the ultimate mystical, or even physical, experience has persisted into the present century in the novels of Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis...”

 

Note: The phrase “a wound that would not heal” is a veiled reference to the head wound of Dagobert, the last Merovingian king: “Dagobert is said to have gone hunting... Toward midday...he lay down to rest... While he slept, one of his servants...pierced him with a lance through the eye.” (Holy Blood, Holy Grail, p. 252) 

 

Cf. Revelation 13:1-3, 14: “…and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy… And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast… And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth… And he…causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed… And he deceiveth them that dwell upon the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by the sword, and did live.” 

 

The Merovingian dynasty is ‘the beast rising out of the sea’ to assume world domination [Rev. 13:1]. See: The Rosicrucian Connection

 

See also a detailed expose: C.S. Lewis: The Devil’s Wisest Fool by Mary Van Nattan

 

C.S. Lewis on Jesus Christ…

 

"Say what you like," we shall be told, "the apocalyptic beliefs of the first Christians have been proved to be false. It is clear from the New Testament that they all expected the Second Coming in their own lifetime. And, worse still, they had a reason, and one which you will find very embarassing. Their Master had told them so. He shared, and indeed created, their delusion. He said in so many words, 'this generation shall not pass till all these things be done.' And he was wrong. He clearly knew no more about the end of the world than anyone else."

 

It is certainly the most embarassing verse in the Bible. Yet how teasing, also, that within fourteen words of it should come the statement "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." The one exhibition of error and the one confession of ignorance grow side by side....

 

The facts, then, are these: that Jesus professed himself (in some sense) ignorant, and within a moment showed that he really was so. To believe in the Incarnation, to believe that he is God, makes it hard to understand how he could be ignorant; but also makes it certain that, if he said he could be ignorant, then ignorant he could really be. For a God who can be ignorant is less baffling than a God who falsely professes ignorance. The answer of theologians is that the God-Man was omniscient as God, and ignorant as Man. This, no doubt, is true, though it cannot be imagined." (Essay "The World's Last Night" (1960), found in The Essential C.S. Lewis, p. 385) Source: The Preterist Archive]

 

Ed. Note: Many of the evangelical leaders which endorse SCP are Preterists [Amillennialists], i.e. they teach that the Book of Revelation and other end-time prophecies were fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. See: Diakrisis: Discernment or Deception? and Heretical Precedents for info on heretical origins of Amillennialism.

 

 

More SCP speaking engagements…

 

SCP newsletter Vol. 13, No. 1, 1988

 
PROUD OF OUR PAST –– EXCITED ABOUT OUR FUTURE!

Ministry update

 

ON THE TUBE

The John Ankerberg Show recently aired a five part series on the New Age movement featuring SCP’s Brooke Alexander, Tal Brooke and Dave Hunt

 

IN PRINT

Brooks Alexander’s article on spiritism. “Theology from the Twilight Zone, “ appeared in Christianity Today (Sept. 18, ’88). InterVarsity Press [editor is SCP James Sire] intends to publish it as a booklet.

 

 

Found elsewhere…

 

Ankerberg Theological Research Institute

 

Videos for Only $29.25 

The New Age: An Emerging World View In Society

The New Age Movement represents a subtle but dangerous threat to historic Christianity. Our guests help define this threat by pointing out some of the major theological tenets of New Age thought as they relate to modern society and refute them from Scripture. Guests: Brooks Alexander, Dave Hunt and Tal Brooke.

 

The New Age Movement and the Church

A continuation of the above. Our guests point out New Age thought and theology that threatens to deceive the very elect. Guests: Brooks Alexander, Dave Hunt and Tal Brooke.

 

 

SCP Newsletter Vol. 14, no. 1 1988 [no month given]

SCP Ministry Update

 

We are moving past the first quarter of 1989 and have much to report and much to be thankful for. SCP continues to function as a valuable resource for the Christian community and continues to fulfill its role of developing discernment in the body of Christ.

 

So far this year, requests for speaking engagements have been brisk, and they have taken us for from our Berkeley offices. In February, Ron Enroth, Dave Sheffel and Robert Burrows were in Dallas, Texas presenting a conference on New Religions and the New age movement which was sponsored by SCP…

 

 

Spiritual Counterfeits Project  NEWSLETTER  Vol. 15: 2 1990

 

FLEEING THE FORCES––VALIUM, STRAITJACKETS, & GUNS

 

SCP Advisory Committee:

 

Rabi Maharaj (Hindu Convert/Author)

Douglas Groothuis (author)

Hank Hanegraaff  (President, CRI)

 

Back cover SCP conference AD…

CHALLENGES OF THE 90’S

 

Featuring…

Rabi Maharaj

Douglas Groothuis

Hank Hanegraaff

Mark Mueller, PhD––Recipient of a Doctorate from Cambridge University in England in Neo-Kantian epistemology…

Tal Brooke––…has been a frequent speaker at numerous universities, including Berkeley, Princeton, as well as Oxford and Cambridge in England.

Doug Groothuis––SCP advisory committee

Brooks Alexander––Founder of SCP & recognized as one of the preeminent experts in the field of the New Age, mysticism, and the occult…

Bill Kellogg [see notes RE: Bill Kellogg, below]

 

 

 

No conspiracy theories at SCP…

 

Christianity Today ~ January 15, 1990

PARACHURCH

 

Major Shift at Spiritual Counterfeits Project

 

There was a time when journalists or church leaders in search of a thoughtful critique of up-and–coming religious movements turned to the Berkeley, California-based Spiritual Counterfeits Project (SCP). When Time Magazine ran an article on actress Shirley MacLaine’s spiritual views, it quoted an SCP spokesperson for an evangelical response.

 

But today the organization is only a pale reflection of what it once was. According to several people close to SCP, part of it demise is attributable to a defamation lawsuit in the early 1980s that cost it $400,000 and sent it into bankruptcy.

 

Ed. Note: Lee v. Duddy, 1985––Witness Lee of the Local Church vs. Neil Duddy of Spiritual Counterfeits Project. Mentioned elsewhere in this report.

 

In the ensuing years, the group has been hampered by internal conflicts, including differing concepts of what the organization should be. William Kellogg said he was warned before becoming a SCP board member last year that it was at times a “traumatized organization.”

 
Troubled Times

 

Last fall the turmoil grew especially intense between two camps with differing visions for the group’s future. By the time the dispute had ended, all three of the ministry’s top staff members had departed, as had two board members. No remaining leader has been with the organization officially as two years.

 

The stage was set for turmoil early in 1988 when the ministry’s entire board of directors stepped down. In their place came new board members, including Westmont college professor Ronald Enroth, who had served an earlier stint on SCP’s board; and author Tal Brooke, who had played a major role in bringing others to the SCP board in the summer of 1988…

 
Ideological Concerns

 

After the staff left last fall (1989) through dismissal or by mutual agreement, Enroth and another board member stepped down. In late November Enroth warned friends by letter of an “unsettling” ideological shift on the board. He cited an October 9, 1989 interview of [Tal] Brooke in the New American, a periodical of the John Birch Society… [See Watch Unto Prayer report on CFR-front, The John Birch Society]

 

Brooke and Kellogg are working together to run the operation until it can afford to hire a director. Both strongly disputed the idea of injecting ideology into the organization. “The conspiracy theory is not going to be brought into the SCP Journal,” said Brooke in response to questions about the New American interview. “I’m willing to take a lump for that, but that doesn’t represent SCP at all.”…

 

Kellogg, a Baptist pastor who writes a devotional for a publication of Christian Reconstructionist R.J. Rushdooney’s* Chalcedon Foundation, said he will push to allow two writers to present the pros and cons of any controversial topic touching on culture or the church…CT, Robert Digitale

 

 

Notes:

R.J. Rushdooney [deceased] was a member of the secret Council for National Policy/CNP and a member of the Coalition on Revival [which had/has the goal of worldwide revival].

 

Karen Hoyt of Spiritual Counterfeits was with COR before coming to SCP.

 

More on Bill Kellogg…

 

SCP NEWSLETTER 1990 VOL.15: 1

COMPROMISE & VULNERABILITY; Influences of the New Age Church

 

May we introduce you to…new people on SCP staff including…

 

Bill Kellogg

 

In August of 1989 Bill Kellogg joined the SCP board of directors. Bill is not new to SCP. As he has been a faithful reader of SCP literature from its earliest years. Bill, a native of California, was involved in Campus Crusade for Christ [Founder-president Bill Bright; member of the secret Council for National Policy] at Cal State Sacramento, and had a number of friends in CWLF [Christian World Liberation Front­­, 1969––founders Jack Sparks and Pat Matrisciana] out of which SCP was born in the early 1970s… In 1972 Bill Kellogg traveled to Europe and spent four months studying with Os Guiness [signer of Evangelicals and Catholics Together Document] at L’ABRI. [L’Abri was founded by the late Francis Schaeffer.]

 

 

 

 

More Smoke, Mirrors and Disinformation…

The Compromised Ties of the Apologetics Ministries

Evangelical Ministries to New Religions – Part 1