Smoke, Mirrors and Disinformation…
THE NEW AGE TIES OF THE APOLOGETICS MINISTRIES
DIAKRISIS INTERNATIONAL
DISCERNMENT OR DECEPTION?
“Gnosis: the knowledge of the enlightened mind, of one who has learnt to perceive by means of diakrisis which is a participation in divine knowledge and so linked with contemplation.” ~ A History of Monastic Spirituality
“I have long wanted my writings to break outside the purely Christian scene. I believe that this subject [the Illuminati] provides the perfect opportunity. This is the ideal era for ‘cross-over’ work, as there are many people who are not Christians who see very clearly what is developing in the world. It is for this reason that I e-mailed you about the fact that some of us are discussing a pan-European conference on this subject which would involve Christian academics and authors and an open international audience drawn from all religions or none, diverse cultures and walks of life, rather than merely being closed sessions for conspiracy freaks and Christian fundamentalists. Please pray that this will become a reality.” ~ Alan Morrison, Diakrisis Mailing List, Sept. 23, 2001
Diakrisis Institute is an ecumenical apologetics organization in West Germany whose director is Dr. Peter Beyerhaus, a member of the Lausanne Committee on Theology and Education. Diakrisis Institute recommends the following among “Websites to which we would like to gladly refer you”:
Diakrisis International
English-language Website of Rev. Alan Morrison, which takes up similar topics, like Institut Diakrisis
Alan Morrison maintains that Diakrisis International is not affiliated with Diakrisis Institute and that he only learned of Beyerhaus and his organization two years ago:
“In March 2000, I was invited to a meeting with Peter Beyerhaus from the Diakrisis Institute in Germany. I had no prior knowledge of them before they contacted me. I got the impression that they [sic] an academic group who were a little put out to discover that I had already used the same name as them for some years and that I also owned the domain names of Diakrisis (they were thinking of setting up a website at the time). They said that they wanted to talk to me to see if we had any common ground. There was a hint of some funding. I was living in Holland at the time and the journey there was only a drive away. I was curious about this organisation and why they were interested in me. I duly went to the meeting with my wife Catherine. However, we found the entire thing very bizarre. I was deeply disturbed by what happened there, not to mention the fact that Beyerhaus is heavily connected with the ecumenical movement, has fudged numerous issues in dialogue with leading Catholics and is also a member of the shady Knights of Malta. I knew none of this before I went to this meeting. On 11th April 2000, I wrote to those who, at the time, were my sponsors of Diakrisis and reported the following:
“I had a meeting with a board in March, which carried some promise of funding. But nothing could have been further from the truth. I was being sucked (suckered?) into a situation in which Diakrisis would have been dissolved and absorbed into a most unsatisfactory scenario. I can't go into it more here; but suffice it to say that Catherine and I regarded it as a subtle move on the part of the enemy to castrate the ministry of Diakrisis entirely".
“I didn't say what or where the board was, or who it consisted of…” [Why not?]
Alan Morrison claims: “I had no prior knowledge of them before they contacted me” however, in his 1994 book titled The Serpent and the Cross (p. 656), Morrison quoted Prof. Peter Beyerhaus with a precise description of another organization Beyerhaus directs. The same reference to Beyerhaus is found in Morrison’s 1993 book and article, The Trojan Horse in the Temple:
“When the Pope attended the pioneering interfaith gathering at Assisi in 1986, one lone voice protested on that syncretic occasion. A Roman Catholic follower of the traditionalist Archbishop Marcel Lefèbre braved the inevitable accusation of 'being negative' by handing out leaflets in the main square, telling reporters that 'the Pope is trying to make a super-religion with himself at the head'. 111 This was an astute observation. He is not alone in his concern about the ecumenical, interfaith activities of the Vatican. Prof. Peter Beyerhaus, President of the International Conference of Confessing Fellowships — an umbrella organization of conservative evangelicals — wrote to the Pope after the Assisi event telling him of his fear that such meetings could trigger off a ‘crevasse of syncretism’ in many Christian churches.112 In the course of his letter, Prof. Beyerhaus asked the rhetorical question: ‘Is it now official Catholic teaching that the adherents of all religions worship the same God?’.113
Here we see proof that Alan Morrison knew of Peter Beyerhaus at least seven years before his March 2000 meeting with Diakrisis Institute and also commended Beyerhaus to his readers as an outspoken opponent of the ecumenical overtures of the Vatican. Moreover, Alan represented Beyerhaus’ organization as an umbrella over “conservative evangelicals.” Not only was Morrison less than honest about his prior knowledge of Peter Beyerhaus, his book seriously misrepresents both Beyerhaus and his organization to his readers.
The term “conservative evangelical” is speciously applied by neo-evangelical scholars to organizations such as those founded by Billy Graham (Christianity Today) and Harold Ockenga (Fuller Seminary and the National Association of Evangelicals/NAE). The neo-evangelical movement pioneered by Peter Beyerhaus' International Conference of Confessing Fellowships was not conservative in the sense of being 'fundamental' in its doctrine, but rather ecumenical and socio-political in nature.
“After World War II...the evangelistic campaigns of the youthful Billy Graham had a global impact. A party of ‘conservative evangelicals’ emerged in Britain and Evangelikaler in Germany, and their strength was reflected in such developments as the National Evangelical Anglican Congress and the German based Conference of Confessing Fellowships. In the United States the foundation of the National Association of Evangelicals (1942), Fuller Theological Seminary (1947), and Christianity Today (1956) were significant expressions of the ‘new evangelicalism,’ a term coined by Harold J Ockenga in 1947.
“The new or ‘neo’ evangelicalism took issue with the older fundamentalism. Ockenga argued that it had a wrong attitude (a suspicion of all who did not hold every doctrine and practice that fundamentalists did), a wrong strategy (a separatism that aimed at a totally pure church on the local and denominational levels), and wrong results (it had not turned the tide of liberalism anywhere nor had it penetrated with its theology into the social problems of the day). Edward J Carnell maintained further that fundamentalism was orthodoxy gone cultic because its convictions were not linked with the historic creeds of the church and it was more of a mentality than a movement. Carl F H Henry insisted that fundamentalists did not present Christianity as an overarching world view but concentrated instead on only part of the message. They were too otherworldly, anti intellectual, and unwilling to bring their faith to bear upon culture and social life.” [“Evangelicalism,” Richard V. Pierard, Prof. of History, University of Iowa]
Peter Beyerhaus, past president of the International Conference of Confessing Fellowships, is not some obscure figure in the ecumenical movement. Beyerhaus was and continues to be a respected leader at the highest level of the Lausanne Movement, which is the global movement through which the World Evangelical Fellowship, which represents 160 million Evangelicals worldwide, is drawing Christians into union with Roman Catholicism and, by extension, a One World Religion. [For those unfamiliar with the Lausanne Movement, some information is available in The World Christian Movement, although not the full picture.] In “My Pilgrimage in Mission,” Beyerhaus wrote of his prominent role in the leadership of Lausanne from the very first ICOWE in 1974:
“At the First International Congress on World Evangelization, in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974, I presented a plenary paper on the topic ‘World Evangelization and the Kingdom of God.’ At the Second Lausanne Consultation in Manila (1989), I conducted a seminar entitled ‘Eschatology and World Evangelization.’ As a member of the Lausanne Working Group on Theology, I had attended most of its consultations, including the one in Hong Kong (1988) on conversion.” [Beyerhaus, “My Pilgrimage in Mission,” 10/1/2000]
John Stott, chair of the Drafting Committee of the Lausanne Covenant, felt that Beyerhaus’ influence in the drafting of this historical document at the first International Congress merited honorable mention in his famous ‘Exposition and Commentary’. Noting the input of the various presenters at the consultation, Stott wrote of Beyerhaus’ contribution to the theological perspective of the Covenant:
“A first and fairly short statement was produced two or three months before the Congress and submitted by mail to a number of advisers. Already this document may truly be said to have come out of the Congress (although the Congress had not yet assembled), because it reflected the contributions of the main speakers whose papers had been published in advance…
“Professor Peter Beyerhaus distinguished clearly in his paper on ‘World Evangelization and the Kingdom of God’ between two stages of the kingdom, and argued that evangelization is both ‘inviting into the kingdom of grace’ now and ‘preparing for the kingdom of glory’ to come. Men enter the kingdom of grace today by spiritual regeneration and should become ‘convincing models of social and political involvement.’” [Stott, The Lausanne Covenant: An Exposition and Commentary]
On the Diakrisis Institute website, Beyerhaus’ biography further describes his leadership role in the Lausanne Movement:
“Almost every year since 1971 Beyerhaus has been following invitations to visit various countries including those in North and S. America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. This brought him in vital contact with churches, missions and theological training institutions in all parts of the world. He gave guest lectures, conducted refresher courses for missionaries, addressed student meetings and participated in evangelistic enterprises, including the huge rallies EXPLO '74 and '80 World Evangelization Crusade in Seoul, Korea, which were attended by more than a million people. Beyerhaus was one of the main speakers at the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne 1974. Consequently he was elected member of the Lausanne Committee of World Evangelization. In this capacity he attended also the Consultation on World Evangelization in Pattaya, Thailand 1980 and several missiological consultations. He served also as an advisor of the Theological Commission of World Evangelical Fellowship and of Asia Theological Association. At the International Congress on World Evangelization Lausanne II in Manila in 1989 he conducted a seminar on World Evangelisation and Eschatology.”
The Lausanne Movement did not suddenly materialize out of nothingness, but was the long term project of the World Evangelical Fellowship which was formed in 1952 from the “dying embers” of the Evangelical Alliance which was founded in 1846 in Freemason’s Hall, London. John Stott, the framer of the Lausanne Covenant, oversaw the formation of WEF and formulated its purposes. In essence, Lausanne and indeed the entire ecumenical movement are a Masonic enterprise. The following statement by Peter Beyerhaus displays his unabashed overtures toward the Roman Catholic Church and enthusiasm over the success of Vatican II, another Masonic project:
“The third obstacle to the formation of solid national churches that vigorously applied the Gospel to the needs of the people were the confessional and denominational divisions imported from the Western churches and proliferated by additional schisms and separatist movements, particularly in South Africa. Too much energy was consumed by such frictions! Therefore, I gladly participated in interdenominational enterprises such as student Christian associations and in-staff institutes for theological seminaries that were sponsored by the Theological Education Fund. These vehicles of fellowship brought about a new sense of fraternity across the various institutions, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. The inclusion of Roman Catholics, which would have appeared unthinkable in earlier times, had become possible as a result of the impact of the Second Vatican Council. It also served to broaden my own outlook for an ecumenical vision that combined faithfulness to my confessional heritage with a concern for a reunification of the body of Christ according to his intercession in chapter 17 of the Gospel of John.” [My Pilgrimage in Mission]
This statement, which is representative of many others made by Beyerhaus, presents a rather different picture of this major ecumenicist than Alan Morrison’s favorable reference to him as a leader of “conservative evangelicals” who is “concerned about the ecumenical, interfaith activities of the Vatican.” Beyerhaus’ membership in the Knights of Malta is a key piece of information to understanding the Masonic origins and oversight of the ecumenical movement. However, Alan Morrison inexplicably refrained from informing his financial supporters and other adherents about Beyerhaus and this other Diakrisis with sinister aims and connections, i.e., the connection to Lausanne, the Knights of Malta connection, or that Beyerhaus’ Convention of Confessing Fellowships—whom Alan formerly misrepresented in his book as an anti-ecumenical organization of “conservative Evangelicals”—in fact dialogues with Roman Catholics.
In “My Pilgrimage in Mission,” Beyerhaus goes on to point with pride to his participation in interfaith enterprises sponsored by the Fund for Theological Education [FTE] which, following the money trail, leads to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The transformation of Protestant churches to serve the corporate-run world government has been made possible through Rockefeller funding of Protestant seminaries and establishing new accreditation standards through the FTE-affiliated Association of Theological Schools:
“The Fund for Theological Education was established in the early 1950s as a response to a perceived crisis in Protestant theological education. At that time, a group of influential seminary educators, clergy, and interested lay persons had become convinced that the quality of those entering the ministry had declined and that many of the best and brightest students were choosing professional careers outside the ministry. In order to encourage talented college graduates to consider the ministry, an unprecedented initiative was launched in 1954 to attract promising but otherwise undecided candidates to seminary education. Begun in close affiliation with the American Association of Theological Schools, the Fund for Theological Education grew both in scope and size over the next forty years and became a leading force in support of excellence in theological study…
“A new kind of scholarship program for theological education was envisioned in 1953 by two nationally known educators, Nathan Pusey, President of Harvard University, and Henry Pitney Van Dusen, President of Union Theological Seminary, New York…Pusey and Van Dusen were not alone, and they were able to convince the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to support a new initiative that would enable highly qualified college graduates considering but undecided on a ministerial career to enroll in an exploratory year of theological studies. In 1954 an eminent board of directors was established under Pusey's leadership in close cooperation with the American Association of Theological Schools to guide the new program…”
The Fund for Theological Education finances the World Evangelical Fellowship's stranglehold on theological programs worldwide. One Christian researcher discovered this WEF/Rockefeller stronghold in the process of compiling a comprehensive database of organizations and leaders of the global ecumenical movement. Dana Hoard’s entry on WEF’s Commission on Theological Education & the Association of Theological Schools, through which the Rockefeller’s Fund for Theological Education is administered, reveals the control which secular foundations exert over Evangelical schools of theology:
“The World Evangelical Fellowship/WEF’s role in theological education is comprehensive and global, encompassing the planning and development for all theological curriculum and leadership development. WEF’s name has been changed [2001] to World Evangelical Alliance.
“The Association of Theological Schools/ATS serves as the accrediting agency for most post graduate theological study and for most of the seminaries in the U.S. and Canada. ATS plays a pivotal role in the transformation of the church. Consider the fact that ATS accredited schools train the majority of all U.S. pastors and theological professors. Add to this the questionable and extensive partnerships between ATS accredited institutions and the private foundations; through the largesse of the foundations, which are run by powerful corporations, ATS is virtually under their control. But this coexistence is how it was designed to be.”
Harold Fuller, first president of the World Evangelical Fellowship, also documented the wide range of WEF’s interactivity with the World Council of Churches [WCC], Lausanne and the A.D. 2000 Prayer Network. Like the World Council of Churches, WEF is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations. WCC representatives have also attended the Lausanne Consultations:
“Because of its positive, well-defined position, WEF is now recognized by [the World Council of Churches] and other global councils as representing a distinct worldwide constituency. For instance, WEF participates in the annual Conference of Secretaries of World Christian Communities, for purposes of communication. WEF also maintains close ties with other evangelical global organizations. The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism (LCWE, or ‘Lausanne’) and WEF at times have formed joint task forces and copublished reports. The two movements are currently examining a closer relationship, while recognizing their distinctives: WEF derives its authority from ongoing evangelical fellowships, while Lausanne functions through ad hoc committees.(17) Another global evangelistic conglomerate, AD2000, often works through WEF leaders and personnel in national projects… ff. 17. In 1980 WEF actually proposed a merger with LCWE (Fuller, People of the Mandate, p. 68).” [From the Evangelical Alliance to the World Evangelical Fellowship: 150 years of unity with a mission.]
Alan Morrison has written two books and numerous articles on the ecumenical movement which do not so much as allude to the World Evangelical Fellowship—nor, claims Morrison, has he ever seen the Lausanne Covenant, which is the “binding contract” between Evangelicals and the One World Religion. In Morrison’s coverage of the ecumenical movement one finds only a fleeting allusion to the Lausanne Movement; in a brief discussion of Jay Gary's book The Star of 2000 he adds: “...Gary was formerly involved with the Lausanne Movement launched by Billy Graham...” [Saving That Which Is Lost, 1999]
To presume to expose the ecumenical movement without a reasonably broad treatment of the Lausanne Movement—and the World Evangelical Fellowship which is the shadow government to Lausanne—is tantamount to explaining the Christian faith with only a vague reference to Jesus Christ. The ecumenical movement since 1974 “IS” the Lausanne Movement—which networks thousands of international leaders of evangelical Protestantism with leaders of false religions, thereby sweeping whole denominations and ministries into its marathon race to join the United Nations’ United Religions Organization!
Are we to believe that Alan knows none of this, only about the World Council of Churches, and also that he has never heard of Peter Beyerhaus—a major figure in the worldwide ecumenical movement—until two years ago when Beyerhaus invited him to his Diakrisis Institute in Germany to see if perchance there was common ground between two obscure organizations that just happened to have the same name? Morrison’s alibi beggars belief considering that seven years in advance of this meeting he described Beyerhaus and his apostate Conference of Confessing Fellowships with approbation in his book, The Serpent and the Cross.
Consider also that no leader of the Lausanne Movement would “gladly refer” his readers to the Diakrisis International website only to read articles exposing Lausanne! Obviously Peter Beyerhaus believes that Morrison's website is compatible with his own, not having found anything there which would pose a threat to the Lausanne agenda. Peter Beyerhaus’ statement that the “English-language website of Rev. Alan Morrison…takes up similar topics, like Institut Diakrisis” is revealing; in fact, both websites do misrepresent the ecumenical movement. Peter Beyerhaus remonstrates “No One World Religion!” all the while he is working through the Lausanne Movement to achieve the very same. Has Alan also neglected to inform his readers about Lausanne and misrepresented a prominent Lausanne leader due to ignorance OR is he a disinformation agent—someone who deliberately withholds/distorts information so as to mislead?
Alan does Damage Control
Prior to our discovery of Peter Beyerhaus’ referral of Diakrisis International, in the course of researching the apologetics ministries, the abovementioned researcher, Dana Hoard, wrote Alan to express her concern about his recommendation of Spiritual Counterfeits Project due to its direct involvement in the Lausanne Movement. When Rev. Morrison dissembled, she inquired if he was also a member of Lausanne. Here follows the complete and unabridged correspondence between Dana Hoard and Alan Morrison:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dana Hoard"
To: <AM@diakrisis.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2002 2:23 AM
Subject: Diakrisis - request
Hello Alan,
I have some concerns about your LINK to Spiritual Counterfeits Project/SCP.
Please tell me why you recommend it and I am glad to share my concerns.
Dana Hoard
__________________________________________________________________________
From: "Alan Morrison" <AM@diakrisis.org>
Organization: Diakrisis
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 08:58:44 +0100
To: "Dana Hoard"
Subject: Re: Diakrisis - request
Hello, I recommend it because I know Tal Brooke personally.
You are welcome to share your concerns.
Sincerely,
Alan M.
__________________________________________________________________________
----- Original Message -----
From: Dana Hoard
To: AM@diakrisis.org
Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 2:30 AM
Subject: Diakrisis - request
Dear Alan,
Spiritual Counterfeits is linked to Lausanne, John Stott, Christianity Today, Regent College, J.I. Packer and James Houston for a start.
Tal Brook is a close friend of Lindsay Brown of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship* which affirms the Lausanne Covenant and George Verwer who chairs LCWE's Mission Mobilization Track.
Please let me know if this isn't a concern for you too.
Dana Hoard
__________________________________________________________________________
From: "Alan Morrison" <AM@diakrisis.org>
Organization: Diakrisis
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2002 18:37:43 +0200
To: "Dana Hoard"
Subject: Re: Diakrisis - request
Where is the evidence for the statements in your first paragraph?
I await it.
Yrs,
Alan
________________________________________________________________________
From: Dana Hoard
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 20:08:47 -0700
To: Alan Morrison <AM@diakrisis.org>
Subject: Diakrisis - request
Alan,
The evidence is readily available to you.
SPC originated as a Campus Crusade [Bill Bright] project in the late 1960's and it has had considerable backing by many of the Christian ecumenical organizations which are party to the Lausanne Consultations [Billy Graham/ John Stott].
Crossover SCP/Christianity Today staff over the years include Vernon Grounds, William Pannell and Earl Palmer of the ecumenical Regent College.
J. I. Packer has given his endorsement to SCP [found in SCP brochures] and he personally addressed the [very small] SCP staff at a retreat in the 1980s. Packer signed ECT I, co-authored ECT II, is Director of Anglican Studies at Regent College and is the Exec. Editor of Christianity Today [Billy Graham].
Tal's friend Lindsay Brown co-directs IFES/Int'l Fellowship of Evangelical Students with John Stott, who is the framer of the Lausanne Covenant and strategist for the World Evangelical Fellowship/ Evangelical Alliance––the shadow government to Lausanne.
I can find nothing on Diakrisis which warns your readers about the snare of Lausanne; while at the same time you recommend the Lausanne-connected Spiritual Counterfeits as a resource. Many apologetic ministries have signed on to the Lausanne Covenant and are requiring others to do the same. Are you a Lausanne-covenanted member?
Of course it is my hope and prayer that you are not and you will work to expose Lausanne for what it is.
II Timothy 2: 7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
Dana Hoard
____________________________
*Correction: Lindsay Brown is General Secretary of IFES, which is the umbrella to IVCF
Although he had requested evidence of SCP’s connections to Lausanne, Alan Morrison never responded to express his concern about the disturbing facts presented in the last message (which he ought to have known) and which Dana was prepared to document had he requested it. Not until a massive amount of documentation was published in a series of exposes of the apologetics ministries did Alan respond with outrage that Spiritual Counterfeits had been exposed and Diakrisis implicated as part of the Lausanne Movement. Remonstrating against Watch Unto Prayer, Alan excused himself from responding to the final e-mail inquiry because he determined the writer was:
“…a total idiot who wants to go round digging dirt up on other people! That’s all there is to it. I get mails from kontrol freaks like that all the time. Muckrakers. Nit-pickers. Insinuators. Finger-pointers. They’re simply out to nail people and are disinterested in the real Truth, even if it is shown to them. The Christian scene is full of them. They don’t deserve any time wasting on them. The articles to which he has contributed on Aho’s website are confirmation that I was right. I often get mails from people asking me if I am associated with this or that. If I think they have a worthy motive, I answer them. But I can’t be bothered with the nit-picking muckrakers like Hoard and Aho. Besides, I already knew that the guy’s allegations about Tal Brooke and SCP were based on a mixture of innuendo, poor research and nonsense.”
We doubted that a rational person like Alan would arrive at this conclusion after reading Dana’s inquiries and simple statement of facts that are easily verifiable. Naturally, we wondered if he had some other reason for not responding.
In his railings against Watch Unto Prayer, Alan Morrison defended Spiritual Counterfeits Project without addressing the substantial evidence that has been unearthed by this very capable researcher—evidence that inculpates SCP as a New Age front and an active member of the Lausanne Movement. Alan continued:
“Here is what Tal Brooke of Spiritual Counterfeits Project wrote to me on 11th April this month, after I alerted him to the silly e-mail inquiries I was receiving:
“’[Dana Hoard's] allegations are full of lies. We are currently looking into this guy. He is committing slander, gossip, and he is spreading falsehoods. Spiritual Counterfeits Project today is an independent conservative organization. We have no connection with Lausanne and we dislike Christianity Today. We even cancelled our subscription some years ago. We have nothing to do with the World Council of Churches. Before I took over, SCP was heading in a liberal direction, but not anymore’.”
Alan Morrison avoided addressing the issues that were raised about Spiritual Counterfeits Project because they are hard to defend; Tal Brooke’s claim to have reoriented Spiritual Counterfeits seems a mere image adjustment considering the appalling realities presented in “Smoke, Mirrors & Disinformation.”
Tal Brooke protests that Spiritual Counterfeits Project is now a “conservative organization”, yet on the Staff of SCP we still find former president, Brooks Alexander, functioning as Research Director. Alexander is Tal’s “long time close personal friend” who participated in the 1980 Lausanne Consultation in Pattaya Thailand, one of 17 study groups or mini-consultations that carried on “the real work of Lausanne” after l974. Brooks Alexander of SCP and Peter Beyerhaus of Diakrisis Institute worked in the same sub-group which supposedly “dealt with the problems and prospects of evangelism directed toward the particular people group” of “Mystics and Cultists.”
On the Spiritual Counterfeits Board of Reference during Brooks Alexander’s term as president was William Pannell, Corresponding Editor for Christianity Today. Pannell, a Fuller Theological Seminary faculty member and advisor to Fuller’s president Richard Mouw, had formerly been with World Vision, an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the UN. In 1978, one of the years he was listed on the SPC Board of Reference, William Pannell participated in Lausanne’s Willowbank Conference on Gospel and Culture—one of the meetings of Lausanne’s Theology and Education Group—with John Stott, who oversaw the formation of WEF and formulated its purposes, Peter Beyerhaus, director of the European Convention of Confessing Fellowships who later founded Diakrisis Institute, and others. Willowbank 1978 included representation from the World Council of Churches, United Bible Societies and Wycliffe Hall of Oxford University as well.
Out of the 1980 Lausanne Consultation in Thailand emerged Evangelical Ministries to Cultists [EMTC], founded by Gordon Lewis and Vernon Grounds. EMTC was renamed Evangelical Ministries to New Religions [EMNR] in 1984. In 1987, during Brooks Alexander term as SCP president, SCP and EMNR sponsored a conference at the Gold Lake Retreat in Boulder, CO with New Agers David Spangler and Barbara Marx Hubbard, who was co-chair of this secret gathering with Doug Coe of Fellowship Foundation, founder of the Washington Prayer Breakfasts. See Constance Cumbey’s expose of the Gold Lake Retreat. Since then, it has become apparent that EMNR’s mission is not evangelizing but “mainstreaming” the cults. Carrying on the work of Lausanne, EMNR is now directing a PR campaign to mainstream Mormonism. See: Smoke, Mirrors & Disinformation: EMNR
Also on the staff of the new, improved and now “conservative” Spiritual Counterfeits Project is Frank Ordaz, “the SCP Art Director …who has worked in the past for George Lucas at LucasFilm's Industrial Light and Magic Team, producing background mattes for movies such as ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars… He is currently weighing an offer to return to work at LucasFilm to work on the new Star Wars.”
The ecumenical orientation of Spiritual Counterfeits Project is also exhibited on their website for those who have eyes to see. Staff member, Rich Hagler, “one of Tal's closest friends, and for several years our Business Manager and Letters Editor, is about to leave us and head to the mission fields! Rich and his new wife Kimberly have been accepted by OC International.”
OCI is an associate member of the World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF). Both Luis Palau (International Director of A.D. 2000 & Beyond) and Clyde Cook (now President of Biola) have been presidents of OCI, formerly Overseas Crusades. James Montgomery worked with OC before founding DAWN (Discipling a Whole Nation), which was inspired by Donald McGavran who was founding dean of the School of World Mission, Fuller Theological Seminary (1965-71), Director of the Lilly Endowment Research into Church Growth in Latin America (1965-67) and active in many organizations, such as OC Ministries (OCI) and the U.S. Center for World Mission (Ralph Winter). DAWN has a working agreement/contract with WEF as the WEF evangelization program.
Illustrating Spiritual Counterfeits Project’s ecumenical orientation is a photo of Tal Brook with more good friends—Lindsay Brown and George Verwer. [Reflections on a Trip to Cambridge] Lindsay Brown is General Secretary of IFES/International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, which affirms the Lausanne Covenant. George Verwer is the founder and director of Operation Mobilization UK and a frequent speaker for IVCF’s Urbana student mission conventions; Verwer also chairs the Lausanne Consultation on World Evangelization’s Mission Mobilization Track.
Another “close friend and ally” of Tal Brooke—according to a 1998 Spiritual Counterfeits Journal—and considered by Tal to be “among the most gifted literary lights to come on the scene” is Dr. Gene Edward Veith, a Salvatori Fellow of the Heritage Foundation and Senior Fellow of the Heritage-related Capital Research Center. Heritage Foundation is the right-wing think tank founded by Paul Weyrich [CNP] and funded by private corporations which has served as a shadow government to Republican administrations since Ronald Reagan. [See: The Heritage Foundation] On the Advisory and Trustee Boards of Capital Research Center are representatives from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and its many fronts. Gene Veith is also on the faculty of Concordia University—the related Lutheran Concordia Seminary is a member of the Rockefeller-funded Association of Theological Schools (ATS). Veith is also on the faculty of World Magazine’s World Journalism Institute, which is in a partnership with the Templeton Foundation through its membership in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. CCCU wields considerable influence over Christian institutions of higher education. [See: Smoke, Mirrors & Disinformation: SCP Part II]
How is it that Alan Morrison vociferously defends the very compromised Spiritual Counterfeits Project and out of the other side of his mouth remonstrates about the perils of ecumenism and globalism? Do Christians have a right to be apprised of such double talk or do leaders of apologetics ministries merit special status as being *above suspicion*? Are discernment and apologetics ministries alone exempt from answering questions when concerns about them arise? And when these ministry leaders dissemble in their responses to inquiries—or refuse to respond at all—do concerned Christians have the right, and indeed an obligation, to publish their findings for the benefit of their fellow Christians?
Alan Morrison claims to work alone and to have no affiliations, yet he networks with evangelical apologists who have direct affiliations with the worldwide Lausanne Movement. Alan will no doubt trivialize these associations with the silly "someone knew someone else who was seen with somebody else" parody. However, the apologetics network you are about to encounter in this report is not a loose association of organizations which all just happen to a common interest in the scholarly discipline of apologetics; rather it is a coalition that was created by the World Evangelical Fellowship through the Lausanne Consultations for the express purpose of redefining the Gospel.
The 1980 Lausanne Consultation included Evangelical leaders involved in some capacity with Spiritual Counterfeits Project (which Alan Morrison recommends and defends), SCP-related apologetics organizations and Peter Beyerhaus:
The Thailand Report on New Religious Movements
Report of the Consultation on World Evangelization
Mini-Consultation on Reaching Mystics and Cultists
Brooks Alexander (Director, Spiritual Counterfeits Project)
Dr. Peter Beyerhaus (President, Convention of Confessing Evangelicals and its publication, Diakrisis [1980]; later founder/director of Diakrisis Institute [1997])
Dr. Gordon Lewis (Contributing Editor, Christian Research Institute Journal [1992-2002]; founder of EMNR [1982])
Caryl Williams [Matrisciana]
Note: Caryl Williams would later become Caryl Matrisciana, the wife of Pat Matrisciana who had set up the Christian World Liberation Front/CWLF [circa 1970] with Jack Sparks. The Christian World Liberation Front would be renamed the Berkeley Christian Coalition and finally the Spiritual Counterfeits Project.
Peter Savage, chair (Latin American International Fellowship of Evangelical Students [IFES])
Notes: Tal Brooke of SCP is close personal friend of Gen. Secretary of IFES, Lindsay Brown. Peter Beyerhaus also “gladly participated in interdenominational enterprises such as ‘student Christian associations’...that were sponsored by the Theological Education Fund.”
Out of the Lausanne Consultation in Thailand would emerge Evangelical Ministry to Cultists [EMTC], an organization to oversee Christian apologetics ministries, presumably to guarantee that all were on the same page as Lausanne since members are required to sign the Lausanne Covenant. Gordon Lewis, honorary Evangelical Ministries to New Religions [EMNR] board member with Vernon Grounds [Christianity Today staff] worked with Brooks Alexander of Spiritual Counterfeits Project and Peter Beyerhaus in the Lausanne study group on evangelizing "Cultists and Mystics." Lewis would then co-found EMTC in 1982 with Ronald Enroth, also of Spiritual Counterfeits Project, and Walter Martin, founder and director of the Christian Research Institute.
“Following Dr. Lewis’ involvement with Lausanne, he along with other participants at the Santa Barbara conference [1982], voted to organize a ministry known as Evangelical Ministry to Cultists (EMTC). The organization held on to this name until 1984. Charter board members of this organization included Dr. Gordon Lewis, the late Walter Martin, James Bjornstad, and Ronald Enroth. EMTC was originally promoted as an organization affiliated with Lausanne…
“In 1984 the founders of EMTC voted to change the name of the organization to Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR), a name it has kept to the present time. [“EMNR’s Paradigm for Viability in an Age of Religious Pluralism,” A Brief History of EMNR by John W. Morehead, President of EMNR]
The Lausanne Consultations not only produced EMNR, but an apologetics network of international proportions, whose 'mandate' appears to be redefining the gospel in the name of defending it. The new missiological paradigm of this network, under the mandates of the Lausanne Covenant, is changing the face of classical apologetics. The new breed of apologists are no longer occupied with defending the Christian faith, which they attack, but rather defend the false religions. Inserting their new paradigm into the modern missions movement, which is bound to the Lausanne Covenant, these ‘Christian apologists’, falsely so-called, function as facilitators of the transition from Biblical evangelism to Lausanne-style "evangelization" — the propagation of another gospel which has been "contextualized" or adapted to various cultures in order to assimilate entire people groups into a global Church without spiritual regeneration.
EMNR: Structured in Accordance with Lausanne
EMNR was established as an oversight organization to smaller apologetics orgs. EMNR addresses its strict adherence to Lausanne Covenant mandates. There will be no “needless duplication”:
“Evangelical Ministries to New Religions adheres to the doctrinal standards and practices as set forth in the Lausanne Covenant the Manila Manifesto and the Amsterdam Affirmations
(…)
We confess that our testimony has sometimes been marred by sinful individualism and needless duplication…
A similar statement is found in the Manila Manifesto:
The Manila Manifesto
(…)
We affirm the urgent need for churches, mission agencies and other Christian organizations to cooperate in evangelism and social action, repudiating competition and avoiding duplication…”
It becomes EMNR’s call as to which apologetics organizations will be deemed “needless” while at the same time EMNR’s closely-linked Apologia [Rich Poll, Ron Rhodes and Paul Carden] with ties to Campus Crusade’s Leadership University is moved to center stage.
William Lane Craig, who is the chief administrator for Campus Crusade’s Leadership U., is touted by the European Apologetics Network [EAN] as “one of the leading apologists in the world.” Craig was the main speaker for Hope for Europe’s apologetics conference in April 2002. According to his Curriculum Vitae at Leadership U., William Lane Craig received the Exemplary Papers Award from the Templeton Foundation in 1996 and 1997.
EAN director Stefan Gustavsson sees the need for a “fresh presentation of the Christian faith… The formation of a network for apologists in Europe is therefore crucial for the future of the church. The European Apologetics Network is the strategic initiative many of us has been praying and waiting for."
The goal of the European Apologetics Network is to train “the next generation of Christian Persuaders…to learn to communicate the Gospel with power and conviction... in helping teach, encourage and develop European Apologists.” To this end, EAN will sponsor European Apologetic Network approved:
• Lecturers
• Apologetic Training
• Apologists
The Hope for Europe Organizational Chart illustrates a most-carefully designed interlocking organization—global to local—which interfaces with all facets of the European culture. Under the umbrella of WEF, Lausanne and AD 2000, Hope for Europe even includes “pan-European tracks.” [See right-hand side of the chart.] In adherence to the Lausanne Covenant, Hope for Europe/HfE [now merged with the European Evangelical Alliance and member to the World Evangelical Alliance/WEA] will eliminate all "needless duplication"—meaning ministries which are not in partnership with HfE and the global WEA. All apologetics organizations/conferences will be European Apologetic Network approved.
So when Alan Morrison waxes ecstatic over the prospect of holding "a pan-European conference...which would involve Christian academics and authors and an open international audience drawn from all religions or none, diverse cultures and walks of life," the reader can safely assume that he is referring to academics and authors approved by the European Apologetics Network who have direct connections to the World Evangelical Alliance, Lausanne, the AD2000 & Beyond Movement, the National Association of Evangelicals, and by extension their handlers and paymasters—the Rockefeller Foundation, Templeton Foundation, Roman Catholic Church, World Council of Churches, International Freemasonry and countless other globalist organizations.
The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
Alan Morrison works with another Evangelical apologist with affiliations with the worldwide Lausanne Movement. Morrison has held conferences with Dr. Peter Jones, whom he also recommends to his readers as a speaker for their fellowships as well as recommending Jones’ books and web site as valuable resources:
"Diakrisis Mailing List"
December 09, 1999
Urgent Message for your Prayerful Consideration
“One of my primary contacts in this possible venture is Dr. Peter Jones, who is professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary (West) in Escondido, near San Diego, California in the U.S.A. I would like to commend Peter's ministry to you here. He has published three important books in the last few years: "The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back", "Spirit Wars" and "Gospel Truth -- Pagan Lies". When we first met in 1995, we realised that we had a great deal in common in terms of ministry, and we felt our respective books complemented one another. Since then, he has invited me to speak at a conference he organised in California in 1997; and I invited him to speak at the Diakrisis Conference in June 1998. To stick his neck out on these issues has been costly for Peter on more than one level. Whereas I have little to lose by sticking my neck out on New Spirituality/New World Order issues, it is often far more difficult for Peter as his work is based in conservative academic circles. Many conservative theologians and ministers, although having their hearts in the right place, view him with some suspicion because he has spoken out about things which they do not really understand, and of which they do not realise the vital pastoral and theological importance. More liberal neo-evangelical theologians and ministers regard him considerably more acerbically because he dares to link homosexuality with pagan spirituality and Gnosticism, and because he is not afraid to overturn politically correct taboos in the areas of homosexuality, abortion, feminism, etc. So I invite you not only to pray for Peter and his gifted wife Rebecca, but also to check out his website at http://www.spirit-wars.com/. There you will also be able to purchase his books online. Please do all you can to publicise his books in your church, e-mail letters or journals. You can also invite him to speak at your fellowship, if you live in the U.S.”
Peter Jones has been a Contributing Editor of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project Journal. According to his Spirit-Wars’ profile, Meet Peter Jones, “Peter and his gifted wife Rebecca” also serve on the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which was formed for the purpose of “Helping the Church Deal Biblically with Gender Issues.” Also on the CBMW is a large representation from the Masonic-controlled Southern Baptist Convention and Westminster Theological Seminary, plus assorted Catholics and Council for National Policy [CNP] members. CNP members, Beverly LaHaye and Connaught Marshner, a Roman Catholic formerly on the CNP Governing Board, were CBMW members in 1997. As a senior director of Paul Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation, Connaught Marshner’s Family Policy Division had the following policy on sex education:
“…Paul Weyrich and Connaught C. Marshner - the Director of the Family Policy Division of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, and Editor of its organ Family Protection Report - are also…members of the Board of Governors of the CNP. Strange as it may seem, when Connaught Marshner's ‘Family Policy Division’ was asked about their policy on ‘sex education’, the reply was that there was NO POLICY!” [“The Politics of Transformation,” Ron Miller, Distant Drums, May 1983]
Stu Weber is presently on the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which promotes Weber’s Promise Keepers’-recommended book, Tender Warrior. CBMW sells another book by Weber, Four Pillars of a Man's Heart: Bringing Strength Into Balance. The CBMW promo reads: “Stu Weber expands on the four pillars of manhood (king, warrior, mentor, friend) and describes in insightful detail what it takes to make them a central part of your life…”
CBMW also promotes on its homepage a similar book, Raising a Modern Day Knight, authored by Robert Lewis and published by Focus on the Family. This publication appeals to the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table to recommend that Christian fathers return to the wisdom of medieval paganism for the training of their sons. The following excerpt from a chapter titled “The Knight and His Round Table” encourages male bonding through the mystical power of ceremony:
“In the Middle Ages, pages and squires became knights because they were part of a masculine community. At an early age, the page left home and entered into a mentoring relationship with an older man, usually a cousin or an uncle… Boys become men in the community of men. There is no substitute for this vital component. Dad, if your boy is to become a man, you must enlist the community...the community of men expands a son’s spiritual and moral resources... Bonded through the mystical power of ceremony, [they] become mentors to these young men...If you are serious about moving your son to manhood, begin asking the Lord to lead you to a small community of men...” (Robert Lewis, Raising a Modern-Day Knight, Focus on the Family Pub., 1997, pp. 150-51.)
The concept of manhood and womanhood encouraged by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, of which Alan Morrison’s colleague Peter Jones is a member, is identical to Promise Keepers. The CBMW Board of Reference might explain the reason for the unorthodox offerings of this organization which poses as a Scriptural authority on gender issues:
Gleason Archer – Trinity Evangelical Divinity School [TEDS] of Trinity International University [Rockefeller-affiliated ATS member]; Previously professor and acting dean at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Hudson T. Armerding - President Emeritus of Wheaton College; received J. Elwin Wright Award for promoting evangelical cooperation through international and national efforts; teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA); served as President of Gordon College, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), and World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF); Board of Directors of Covenant Theological Seminary [Rockefeller-affiliated ATS member]
Tal Brooke – Spiritual Counterfeits Project, President [See: Smoke Mirrors & Disinformation: SCP]
Harold O. J. Brown – Christianity Today, Contributing Editor; Christian Research Institute Journal, Contributing Editor since 1995; World Congress of Families [NGO/UN affiliated]
Edmund Clowney – Former President of Westminster Theological Seminary [PA]; father-in-law of Peter Jones
Nancy Leigh DeMoss - Revival of the Heart Ministries sponsored by Life Action Ministries, Back to the Bible [NAE] and FamilyLife Today [Campus Crusade/NAE]. DeMoss promotes a Covenant Marriage document.
Jerry Falwell – CNP member; founder and pres. Liberty University; received $5 million bail-out from Rev. Sun Myung Moon
Carl F. H. Henry – former Editor, Christianity Today; World Journalism Institute faculty [Templeton $$$]; co-sponsor with Billy Graham of Berlin 1966 World Congress on Evangelism, faculty of Trinity Evangelical Theological School [TEDS/Rockefeller-affiliated ATS member] see TEDS info below, Harold O.J. Brown
David M. Howard – President-elect of the Evangelical Theological Society [ETS], member of the Society for Biblical Literature [SBL]; son of David M. Howard, Sr. - former chief executive of Latin America Mission and the World Evangelical Fellowship, director of mission for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship-USA, and director of the 1980 Consultation on World Evangelization.
D. James Kennedy – CNP member, founder Knox Theological Seminary [Rockefeller-affiliated ATS member]
Beverly LaHaye – CNP member, founder, pres. Concerned Women For America [CWA]; speaker for 1996 Sun Myung Moon Conference/ Family Federation for World Peace and Unification International
Gordon R. Lewis – Founder, director Evangelical Ministries to New Religions [EMNR affirms the Lausanne Covenant]
Erwin Lutzer – Moody Bible Institute; Moody Broadcasting was represented in the NAE by George Sweeting as NRB Class of 2000
John MacArthur – Founder and President of The Masters Seminary [Church Growth org]
Connie Marshner – CNP member, Roman Catholic
J. I. Packer – Director of Anglican Studies at Regent College, Vancouver, BC; teaches courses on Evangelical-Catholic and Evangelical-Orthodox Dialogue; signer ECT I, coauthor of ECT II and other ecumenical documents, Spiritual Counterfeits Project speaker
Paige Patterson – CNP member, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; speaker at the 1995 EMNR conference [EMNR affirms the Lausanne Covenant]
Pat Robertson – CNP member, leader, founder and president of Christian Broadcasting Network [CBN]
Adrian and Joyce Rogers – former president, Southern Baptist Convention [see Watch Unto Prayer expose of Masonic SBC]
R. C. Sproul – Director of Ligonier Ministries; Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary and Knox Theological Seminary [D. James Kennedy/CNP; Rockefeller-affiliated ATS member]; Council of Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals [ACE]; Coalition On Revival’s International Council on Biblical Inerrancy [See also: Biblical Discernment Ministries: R.C. Sproul]
Joseph M. Stowell, III – President, Moody Bible Institute; Moody Broadcasting was represented in the NAE by George Sweeting as NRBClass of 2000
The Diakrisis website mentions that the venue of the U.S. conference organized by Peter Jones’ where Alan Morrison gave his presentation was Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California:
DISCERNING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES - A Four-Part Exposition of the New Spirituality:
Part 1: "Spirit of Babel: The New Spirituality in Redemptive History"
“In 1997 and 1998, Alan Morrison gave a series of talks on what is known as the "New Spirituality"—also known as the "New Consciousness" or "New Age Movement". In particular, these talks were designed to demonstrate that this New Spirituality was not some new, faddish, middle-class indulgence but a global realisation of the "satanic initiation" into which our first parents, Adam and Eve, were seduced, and also a natural outworking of the subsequent "spirit of antichrist" which became a leading force in the development of world religion.
“These talks were first given at the "Conference on Cults" at Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California in September 1997, and were then expanded with more material at the Diakrisis Conference in the U.K. in 1998…”
Peter Jones is Chairman of the Department of Biblical Studies and Professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary. Edmund Clowney, Jones’ father-in-law, is former president of Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia; Peter’s wife, Rebecca Jones, taught at Westminster CA and their four elder children attended Westminster Seminary.
“Since coming back to the United States, I have been teaching New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary in California. Rebecca taught a writing course there for four years, and my four oldest children have attended the seminary. I am glad to think that some of them will be taking over where we left off, working abroad for the church. Our oldest daughter, Eowyn, married David Stoddard last year and they have a son, Jesse Alexander. The Stoddards will be going to Germany as Mission to the World (PCA) missionaries, after David spends a year as assistant pastor at New Life Presbyterian Church in Escondido.”
Dr. Jones is also associate pastor at New Life Presbyterian Church in Escondido, CA, which is a member of the Presbyterian Church of America. The PCA’s Mission to the World is an associate member of the World Evangelical Alliance. PCA is also a member of the National Association of Evangelicals [NAE] and over the years, PCA leaders have served on the boards of the NAE and WEF. The Pastor Emeritus of First Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Schenectady NY, Michael Alford, was on the NAE Board of Directors until his retirement in 2002. A report on a 1997 NAE meeting presents the credentials of Hudson Armerding. Armerding, who serves with Peter Jones on the board of the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and, like Jones, Armerding is an elder in the PCA, is past president of both the NAE and WEF:
“Dr. Hudson Taylor Armerding, President Emeritus of Wheaton College, received the J. Elwin Wright Award for promoting evangelical cooperation through international and national efforts. A teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), Armerding has also served as President of Gordon College, the NAE, and World Evangelical Fellowship. He is presently on the Board of Directors of Covenant Theological Seminary.”
As noted, Hudson Armerding is a director of Covenant Theological Seminary