CONVERGE WORLDWIDE–flirting with demons?

In 1852, a group of Bible believing Swedish immigrants to the USA founded a Christian denomination known as the Baptist General Conference.  It’s fortunate that people don’t really “roll over in their graves”–for it that were true there would be a lot of underground rolling going on today!

The Baptist General Conference has changed it’s name to CONVERGE WORLDWIDE.  The name change–as ”New World Order-ish” as it may sound–is insignificant alongside changes in theology and practice now embraced by this once doctrinally straight Christian denomination.

We had documentation of accelerating foolishness and error in the Baptist General Conference a few years ago, with the growing popularity of former Bethel College professor Dr. Greg Boyd and his heresy of Open Theism–the idea that the future is partly open and that the world is engulfed in a cosmic war between God and Satan.

Open Theism infers that God has limited foreknowledge, and it denies the irreversible, inerrant plan of God throughout all of history–past, present, and future.  Open Theism is a Star Wars kind of concept, which undermines all of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.

Many Baptist General Conference leaders have effectively addressed the theories of the controversial Dr. Boyd, and he alone would not be reason enough to believe that the entire BGC-now CONVERGE WORLDWIDE is going down the primrose path to Emergent, Purpose-Driven apostasy. 

But if the denomination’s magazine, CONVERGE POINT (formerly BGC WORLD) is an indicator of a once-venerable organization’s defection, any discerning reader can see that there is trouble in the newly restructured CONVERGE WORLDWIDE.

The February/March 2009 issue of CONVERGE POINT contains a number of red flares to the present day “Berean” who runs everything he or she reads through the Word of God.

1)  An article titled “How to start a fire in your church”, by Steve Welling uses Acts 2:42-47 as a springboard for consideration.  This passage of Scripture starts out by saying, “And they continued stedfast in doctrine . . . .”

Yet author Steve Welling makes a disturbing statement, denying the relevance for today’s church in that passage.  According to the Welling:  ” . . . in the North American church there has never been more and better Bible teaching available.”

Then Mr. Welling goes on to give a couple of examples of people whom he considers to be good Bible teachers.  He never mentions the widespread contemporary lack of genuine, exegetical, dispensational Bible teaching. 

The idea that we have “more and better teaching” in our churches today is a downright fantasy which only a Biblically untaught and uniformed generation will believe!

In his article, Steve Welling goes on to infer that church growth is a positive goal in our current culture.  Most of us realize that many of today’s large churches are not great at all, but rather places to be avoided–sites where watered-down teaching prevails, cultural compromise reigns, and corporate America marketing practices abound.

To give due credit to Steve Welling, he states:  “One of the things we have missed in the American church is the idea of risk and suffering, of putting our lives on the line.”  Here I agree 100%! 

But today’s untaught church (consisting of millions of believers who have never heard of the end times apostasy, the salvation of the Jews, the restoration of Israel, and Christ’s ultimate return to reign in Jerusalem) will never be prepared for risk and suffering when it comes. 

All Steve Welling can offer, by eschewing thorough Bible teaching and preaching, is to witness without the power of Scripture:  a kind of “get cozy with Jesus and see how He can change your life” theology which is man-focused rather than God-centered. 

Yes, Jesus does change lives, but that fact is only a part of God’s plan.  The complete Bible includes God’s program for the ages, His plan to bring ultimate glory to Himself. 

Without knowing the whole Bible, we are helpless and ignorant–and man-centered enough to think that Christianity begins and ends with “What Jesus can do for me and you” or “How we can hold hands and feed the world”.

2)  The February/March 2009 issue of CONVERGE POINT gets worse!  On page 10, we find an article titled:  “Q & A with a hard-charging spiritual mystic,” featuring questions for and answers by Gary Rohrmayer, the director of CONVERGE WORLDWIDE’s church planting ministry in the USA.

In this Q & A session, Mr. Rohrmayer mixes truth with a tincture of error and the reader is reminded that a few drops of poison now and then will eventually kill.

Granted, meditation on Scripture is mandated for every believer.  The author of this article name drops, using as examples people whom we know to have been faithful servants of God’s Word–i.e. Hudson Taylor, George Mueller, etc. –as well as names of mystics with a questionable Biblical focus. 

I certainly believe in reading, and I constantly read non-fiction and fiction by Christian and non-Christian authors–especially the time-honored classics.  I read for inspiration, encouragement, fresh insights, challenge, information, entertainment, and for the exhilerating exercise of separating truth from error.

But Rohrmayer promotes the study of writings by Christians–subjective mystics as well as Bible oriented individuals–as a means of “centering our hearts on Him (God)” with the goal of gaining “spiritual authority to lead a flock, to touch a town, to impact a region.”

There’s confusion here!  Of course we are to “center our hearts on Him”, but by meditating on GOD’S WORD–and not on what humans, mystic or otherwise, say about God’s Word and the Christian life. 

All power and authority belong to God.  Everything we need for spiritual growth and the deeper Christian life is imbedded in God’s Word.  When we immerse ourselves in Scripture, the Word of God dwells in us richly.  This is how we “experience God” and nurture intimacy with our Lord.  As helpful as the insights of our fellow humans may be, their writings are subjective–whereas God’s Word is solid, unchanging, and objective.

3)  The worst is yet to come.  Turn to page 12 and 13 of the February/March issue of CONVERGE POINT, and you will see an article which takes the proverbial cake:  “DREAMING THEIR WAY TO CHRIST”, by Dennis Danylak.

This piece is so outlandish, so reprehensibly anti-Scriptural, as to defy description.  The author justifies his topic by quoting dreams and visions from the Old Testament, those messages which God gave his faithful people and prophets in times when Divine Revelation was disclosed by dreams and visions–dispensations when God spoke not only in dreams and visions, but through burning bushes and donkeys as well.

In the Church Age, the Bible and the Bible alone is the voice of God.  If I were to presume that God was speaking to me through a dream, then I’d be open to believing He could reach me through a rose bush or via my Pembroke Welsh corgi!

God’s Word tells us that the human heart and mind are deceitful.  Even as saved individuals we cannot rely on anything from our minds, hearts, dreams, bushes, donkeys, or dogs, for spiritual leading.  We are to rely only on the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah God in the flesh, as revealed in the Bible from Genesis through Revelation.

Failure to rely on Scripture and Scripture alone is the gross apostasy operating in many of our nation’s “Christian” churches today.  This failure is becoming increasingly operative in the leadership mentality of the former Baptist General Conference as evidenced in their magazine, CONVERGE POINT.   

Some individual pastors in the denomination are holding on to God’s truth–continuing to preach a complete, unadulterated Bible.  I’m thankful for these courageous pastors and teachers, and I pray they will be allowed to continue their ministries.

Meanwhile, I’m thankful that those 19th century Swedish immigrants can’t really roll in their graves!

Margaret L. Been