Check it ou! See here

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J. B. Atken
John Knox PCA
Layman, M.A. student at Louisiana College

My favorite part.

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Joseph Ringling
Husband to Juanita, Father to Joey, Jenna, and Timothy
Grace Reformed Baptist Church
Rockford, Illinois

He's a heretic. On Bill O'Reilley a while back he and his buddy were backed into a corner by Bill and they basically admitted that anyone who doesn't hear the gospel or know of Jesus isn't responsible to repent and believe in the gospel and they'll get a second chance.

I originally posted this as a joke but upon further reflection I found out that it is not funny. Maybe funny in a sick, sad sort of way.

I interpret the Bible figuratively! For example, when Revelation says these things must soon take place, I believe they took place soon after it was written. Oh wait, that's interpreting the Bible literally. My bad!

Calling them heretics is a little over the top, friend. As one who was raised in a dispensational system, however, I can say that they DO overstate ( and misstate) their position regarding "literalness." To their credit, they do have a very high view of scripture.

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Rev. R. Kevin Carroll
Macon Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Macon, MS

No, it isn't. He had a chance to defend the gospel on international television and he curled up, compromised (or not, maybe he really believes this deeply) and embraced universalism.

Yeah...and I guess Peter was a heretic too when given the opportunity to identify with Christ, yet he denied Him. People can misspeak. It may be different if they consistently stated such a position.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Attending CCRPC, Member of TRBC
Reformers & Puritans -lllll- Puritan Pub
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Universalism isn't heresy?

Denying Christ, as Peter did, is BIG-TIME heresy, if the person persists and doesn't repent.

BTW, if you'd had the misfortune to read any of the Left Behind books, you'd know he isn't a universalist, whatever other faults he has.

[Edited on 6-4-2005 by turmeric]

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The man who is disposed to think of his sin as a great calamity, rather than as a heinous crime, is not likely either to reverence God or to respect His law. - John Kennedy, 1873
Meg
Blog
Member, Intown Presbyterian Church,PCA, Portland, OR

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I gladly welcome and await his repentance and recanting for his grievous error.

If he did think that those who haven't heard the gospel preached have a chance at salvation through some other way, I don't think that could really be called universalism, could it? Isn't that more like inclusivism?

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Evie B.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Attending Park Street Church, Boston

"Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." --Isaiah 43:18-19 (ESV)

It sure is. Man is also fallen and can insert foot in mouth.

Let's hold off on the universalism charges at the moment. There is something else that he is guilty of: He has crippled the American church. If half as many people have read his books as he claims (understanding that some have read the books only to make fun of him), then quite a few Americans have a defeatist mind-set. I literally cry when people come up to me and say that it can only get worse.

Exactly - you beat me to it. Universalism claims that no one will perish. Inclusivism claims that people can attain salvation through Christ apart from ever hearing the Gospel or the name of Christ in their lifetimes. Gabe, from how you initially describes LaHaye's interview with O'Reilley, it sounds like what Evie noted above is accurate. So while LaHaye's message at large to the American people is sad as illustrated by the BeliefNet interview, we don't exactly have grounds for claiming heresy on his part.

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Chris


A passion to know and reflect Christ by living and demonstrating the truth and richness of the historic Reformed faith

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Christopher Blum
Member of Trinity Presbyterian Church of Northern Kentucky (PCA) in Burlington, KY

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I, for one, am not calling him a heretic, but why not return the compliment? Check the back cover of that great theological tome, What Love is This, and Bro Lahaye is calling Calvinism the greatest error to ever plague the church.

As apologetes we are called to wage war with divine weapons (2 Cor. 10:5) not only against non-Christian worldviews, but also against compromising Christian worldviews.

Fully agreed. He even said that Hunt's book against Calvinism may well "be the most important book written in the 21st century for all evangelical Christians to read."

Continuing discussion about the BeliefNet interview, when asked, "In Luke's gospel, Jesus predicts catastrophic events, but says they will happen 'before this generation passes away.' Some say that means he was talking about and to the Jews in the first century. How do you explain that verse?" LaHaye began his response by saying, "The question is how to decide what generation he's talking about--the disciples or the one seeing the signs?" That is ridiculous, since it would make the prophecy in Luke a meaningless babble. In essence, with LaHaye's interpretation, Jesus would have been saying, "These events will happen before the generation that is to witness them passes away." It's kind of like saying, "If this couple will get married, it will happen before one of them dies."

He is also using the argument elsewhere that a whole of people believe his stuff, ergo, true. Kind of like, 1 million frenchmen can't be wrong.

We don't determine truth by counting noses.

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Bobby Gawthrop, V.D.M.
licensed, ordained SBC, licensed PCA
Ph.D. student (Whitefield Theological Seminary)
"Every minister in those days had a V.D.M. degree: Verbum Dei Minister. When, therefore, I became a teacher of apologetics it was natural for me to think, not only of my Th.M. and my Ph.D., but above all of my V.D.M. The former degrees were but means whereby I might be true to the latter degree." Cornelius Van Til

Good thing my math is bad

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Nathan Olaf Brandal
First Baptist Church of Kirkland

"Man is nothing: he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven, till God worketh in him to will and to do his good pleasure"
GEORGE WHITEFIELD TO JOHN WESLEY

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I have no problem with calling Tim Lahaye a heretic, but not for being a dispensationalist. He is a heretic because of his hatred for the doctrines of grace, and his avid support and teaching of Arminianism.

Arthur Pink was a dispensationalist for a while before his Calvinism turned him from it.

That being said, I do not find any good in this HUGE emphasis being placed on the end times, and rapture theories when a person does not have a grasp of the true gospel.

How can one get Revelation down before he has Romans and Galatians?

Inclusivism is also VERY dangerous (I think that everyone would agree). It does border on universalism in many cases. If you are like Billy Graham, a person can be saved without ever hearing the name Christ. Why preach the gospel then?

Rom 10:14 But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

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Jeff Bartel
Mechanical Engineer
Member - Trinity Reformed Church - RPCNA

"To believe in the power of man in the work of regeneration is the great heresy of Rome, and from that error has come the ruin of the Church. Conversion proceeds from the grace of God alone, and the system which ascribes it partly to man and partly to God is worse than Pelagianism" (The Reformation in England (London, 1962), Vol. 1, p. 98)

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I think a Spurgeon quote is in order!

A man once came to Charles Spurgeon and said, "œIf I believed like you, Mr. SpurÂ*geon, that God saved some and passed by others, I would give up preaching."� To this Spurgeon replied, "œGod has called me to preach his word and if I knew that all the elect had a yellow stripe painted down their backs, then I would give up preaching the gospel and go lift up shirt tails!"�

Arminianism is heresy. Inclusivism/Universalism is a false gospel message. He is a heretic until he proves otherwise, in my book. I'm sorry if that "offends" anyone here, but the gospel and God's glory are serious matters.