[The following material is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 12, Issue 9, 1995. David W. Cloud, Editor. These articles cannot be stored on BBS or Internet sites without permission from the author. Any articles which are redistributed by e-mail or print must be left intact and nothing must be removed or changed, including these informational headers. All rights are reserved. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian. Send to Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E 1V0. The Way of Life Literature web site is located at http://www.wayoflife.org/]

PROMISE KEEPERS DOES NOT STRENGTHEN FUNDAMENTAL CHURCHES

The following is from a message we received August 1 from Miguel Betancourt, Associate Pastor, Ferndale Baptist Church, 4830 Piedmont Ave., N. Charleston, South Carolina. We printed Betancourt's report on Promise Keepers in an earlier issue of O Timothy.

"We have three men in our church (avg. Sun. AM attendance is 200-250) who have been `hoodwinked by PK.' One man is responsible for getting the other two involved and has been pushing PK amongst others in the congregation. [Even though he has angered several laymen for his persistence in promoting PK when the church and its leadership will not officially support it, I am the one accused of being divisive and stirring up trouble!] In addition to conversations that I have had with him, our pastor has also spoken to him about PK (its ecumenism, etc.). I don't believe the talking has done any good, much less any of the info. that has been presented to him. He travels from church to church promoting the PK program (by invitation of course) and has very close ties with PK staff members in Atlanta. Presently he is in Florida on official PK business.

As far as helping you to understand the rationale behind all this, the observation you mentioned in a previous note (8/2) to me may very well be true:

`I don't believe the fidelity to pastoral authority runs very deep in men influenced by PK, though. Consider this scenario: A group of men in a supposedly Bible-believing church get involved in PK and come to their pastor and tell him that they are going to support him in every way possible. I'm just guessing, but I have a strong feeling based on experience in this type of thing that if that same pastor were to speak plainly to his men about the apostasy and deep compromise of the PK leaders and if he were to plainly instruct them in biblical separation and warn them to avoid such men and movements, those same men would oppose him. I believe that when PK philosophy would run counter to the pastor's philosophy, the men would tend to support PK' (David Cloud).

"Although this man vocalizes his total support and submission to our pastor, and is faithful (when able) to attend church services and Sunday 8:30 am men's prayer meeting, yet by his activity and heavy involvement in the planning of PK rallies and conferences, he shows his unwillingness to give any serious consideration to what his shepherd has been saying.

Perhaps your "strong feeling" is a correct assessment as to the reason why loyalty to PK ultimately seems to supersede loyalty to the scriptural admonitions given to him.

"I know of other fundamental churches who have been informed and warned about PK yet some of their men have participated in it. One rather large, influential fundamental Baptist church in the upstate had around thirty men travel to the PK conference in Atlanta. In Michigan, a couple of pastors have informed me that in spite of the warnings given, they had a few men attend the PK rally in the Silverdome" (Miguel Betancourt, Ferndale Baptist Church, North Charleston, South Carolina, August 4, 1995).

[From "Digging in the Walls," O Timothy magazine, Volume 12, Issue 9, 1995. Editor, David W. Cloud. O Timothy is a monthly magazine which is available by subscription from Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org. Subscription price is $20.]