How Calvinism Relates to Evangelism and Apologetics

by Ed Enochs

The Evangelical Debate Society


"He who wins souls is wise."

~ Proverbs 11:30





“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen" (Romans 1:16-25).



"The conversion of a sinner being not owing to a man's self determination, but to God's determination, and eternal election, which is absolute, and depending on the sovereign Will of God, and not on the free will of man; as is evident from what has been said : and it being very evident from the Scriptures, that the eternal election of saints to the faith and holiness, is also an election of them to eternal salvation; hence their appointment to salvation must also be absolute, and not depending on their contingent, self-determining will."

Jonathan Edwards




For the last 21 years I have been on an enthusiastic and insatiable quest, a rigorous quest for truth and the establishment of why Christianity is true and all other religious and ideological options are false in order to effectively and Biblical reach this lost and dying World with the Saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Since repenting of my sins and receiving Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior on the University of Michigan Campus in Ann Arbor during the spring of 1986, I have had an all consuming desire to establish the best apologetical defense of Christianity to an unbelieving World.

For over two decades I have spent thousands of hours and a seemingly equal amount of dollars in taking classes in theology and apologetics at some of American Evangelicalism’s most prominent colleges and seminaries, with one goal in mind: Establishing why Christianity is true and other ideological and religious options are false.

As a teenager living in an East Coast college town, by God’s sovereign and unfathomable grace and gracious providential care, I had the unique privilege of being able to dialog with intellectual students from all over the world and having the million volume undergraduate library of the University of Michigan at my disposal to pour over innumerable books on philosophy, theology and history in an attempt to squelch my voracious appetite to know what is true and what is false.

Later, by God's mercy, as a student at the Moody Bible Institute, Biola University and the Master’s Seminary, I continued this pattern of rigorous study and have come to some conclusions about Apologetics that has taken two decades to develop and fine tune.

As many of you know, I am a committed Calvinist and have been for some time. Now, I am not a Calvinist for some parochial reason as though I want to be part of a fraternity of conservative Evangelicals who have decided that they alone are right and condescendingly look down their noses at anyone with less than a Calvinistic understanding of Christianity. I am a Calvinist simply because, after years of study, I believe the Calvinistic understanding of soteriology (doctrines of salvation) is consistent with the data we find in Holy Scripture.

In recent years, I have begun to see that there is a direct correlation between Soteriology and Epistemology (the theory of knowledge) and apologetics. In other words, I believe one cannot detach his or her understanding of salvation with their understanding of why Christianity is true. That is, if they want to remain faithful to the inspired details of Holy Scripture.

When we look at the Bible, Almighty God’s, exclusively infallible, inerrant, inspired and uniquely authoritative Word, we find that the Holy Scriptures teach that men and women, due to Original Sin, via the Fall of Adam, are born dead in trespasses and sin, spiritually blinded, enslaved to sin, under the power and sway of Satan and in this totally depraved state, we humans, according to the Bible, are rendered absolutely incapable of saving ourselves or cooperating with God’s sovereign grace in the obtainment of salvation.

Romans 3:10-12 says," As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

1 Cor 2:14 says, " The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

John 6:44, 64, 65, Jesus says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. Yet there are some of you who do not believe...." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."

Ephesians 2:1-5 says, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins...Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath....But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.

The Bible teaches that Almighty God chooses an elect people unto Himself for the praise of His glory;

Thessalonians 1:4-5 says, " For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.

1 Peter 1:1-2 Peter says, "An apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect (chosen ones), strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:

1 Pet 2:9 says," But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Ephesians 1:3-5 says, " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."

The Bible teaches that it is Almighty God and God alone that opens a person's heart to believe the Gospel as the following verses richly illustrate:

The conversion of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-20) is an illustration of God changing a man's free will. Saul had no choice in the matter of his salvation or his ministry. He was forcibly converted by God and made into God's apostle to the Gentiles.

Proverbs 21:1, The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.

Acts 13:48, When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

Phil 2:12-13 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

The Bible explicitly teaches that it is God who calls a person to salvation and it is God who preserves a person in his or her faith unto the end.

John 10:27-29, My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all ; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.

John 6:37-39, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.

Matthew 18:12-14 What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.

Phil 1:6 , "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

The Bible clearly teaches that men and women are born totally spiritually blind, dead in trespasses and sin, depraved and without the capability to apprehend the truth of the Gospel and come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ on their own accord. According to the Bible, humanity needs the sovereign grace of God to open dead men's eyes and to be drawn to the redeeming cross of Jesus Christ. Any Evangelistic and Apologetics approach or methodology that does not take into account the Biblical record of humanities ruined and totally depraved sinful state before God is less than adequate and more than unbiblical.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of good news, how abjectly sinful men, women, boys and girls can be freed from the abhorrent state of wretched depravity they find themselves by turning from their sins and responding to the grace of God that the Almighty bestows upon those He elects and calls to salvation.

The sovereignty of God and Biblical Evangelism and Apologetics go hand in hand. In order to do evangelism and defend the historic Christian faith Biblically, we must witness for Christ and defend the faith God's way and on God's terms as found in the Bible.

The diligent and honest student of Scripture will soon see that the Bible places a tremendous emphasis on God's sovereignty and election, these "Doctrines of Grace" must be fully appropriated into ones evangelistic and apologetical outreach.

The Scriptures clearly teach that Almighty God is calling an elect people unto Himself, let us go out into the harvest Field of this lost and dying postmodern world, enslaved to self worship and depravity with the saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ which is the power of God unto salvation.

If it so happens that you are a non Christian who has read this theological treatise, I would like to invite you to repent of your sins and come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, God of very God, Light of very Light, whom God the Father sent to die upon the cross and rise again from the dead. Repent (turn from your sins) today and believe in Jesus Christ and then you will be saved and escape from the wrath of God which is coming nearer than you think.

"For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Romans 10:13

Crisis in the Episcopal Church

American Episcopalians Being Torn Apart Over Homosexual Issue

Episcopal parishes in Va. break away

By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer

FAIRFAX, Va. - Two of the most prominent and largest Episcopal parishes in Virginia voted overwhelmingly Sunday to leave The Episcopal Church and join fellow Anglican conservatives forming a rival denomination in the U.S.
;
Truro Church in Fairfax and The Falls Church in Falls Church plan to place themselves under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who has called the growing acceptance of gay relationships a "satanic attack" on the church.

Truro rector Martyn Minns was consecrated a bishop by the Church of Nigeria earlier this year to lead Akinola's Convocation of Anglicans in North America.
"This has been our spiritual home, so separating is very hard," Minns said at a news conference announcing the parishes' decision. "There's also the promise of a new day. A burden is being lifted. There are new possibilities breaking through."
Virginia Bishop Peter Lee, a centrist, had won praise even from his critics for his extensive outreach to all sides in the conflict. He said Sunday that the votes "had compromised these discussions and have created Nigerian congregations occupying Episcopal churches."

Four other small Virginia parishes have also left, six more voted to break away Sunday and two more will decide soon whether to follow suit, according to parish leaders.

None is as eminent as Truro and Falls Church, however. The parishes together claim more than 4,000 members, with roots they trace back to Colonial times.
A lengthy and expensive legal fight could erupt over the Truro and Falls Church properties, which are worth millions of dollars.

"We fully intend to assert the church's canonical and legal rights over these properties," Lee said in a news release, calling it a "sad day for the church." Losing all the conservative churches could cost the Virginia diocese around 10 percent of its 90,000 members.

The Episcopal Church, the U.S. wing of the global Anglican Communion, has been under pressure from traditionalists at home and abroad since the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Under Anglican tradition, Akinola's move into Episcopal territory amounts to an invasion, since archbishops agree not to start churches outside the borders of their own region. Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will consult with her advisers on how the denomination should respond, said Bob Williams, the national Episcopal spokesman.

While theological conservatives are a minority within the 2.2 million-member U.S. denomination, their protests have had an impact.

Ninety percent of Falls Church parishioners and 92 percent of Truro members who cast ballots in the last week supported cutting ties with The Episcopal Church, parish leaders said.

"It was a very, very emotional time," said Jim Oakes, Truro's top lay leader, who supported the split. "In some ways it's like a death in the family."
Nationally, Episcopal researchers estimate that at least one-third of the nearly 115,000 people who left the denomination from 2003 to 2005 did so because of parish conflicts over Robinson.

Seven of the 100 U.S. Episcopal dioceses have threatened to break from the denomination, but have so far stayed put. The closest any have come to leaving was a vote earlier this month in the Diocese of San Joaquin, in Fresno, Calif., endorsing a first step toward seceding. But that diocese must take a second vote next year before they can formalize a split.

The feud has been far more damaging to the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.

Most overseas Anglicans believe gay relationships violate Scripture and contend liberal interpretations of the Bible are far outside the bounds of mainstream Christian belief.

Struggling to hold the communion together, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, has said that the communion may have to create a two-tier system of membership, with branches that ordain partnered gays given a lesser status.

Akinola is among the conservatives who aren't waiting for a negotiated solution.
In a statement Friday, Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, said that the archbishop of Canterbury has not "indicated any support" for the mission.
___

The 2003 consecration of the openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire increased the concerns. At the request of the Anglican Communion's Lambeth Commission, ECUSA released To Set Our Hope on Christ on June 21, 2005, which explains "how a person living in a same gender union may be considered eligible to lead the flock of Christ."
The recent election of a woman as Presiding Bishop has been controversial within the church and the wider Anglican Communion. The ordination of women and of non-celibate homosexuals and the practice of blessing same-sex Holy Unions within many dioceses has caused criticism by conservatives within ECUSA and in the greater Anglican Communion. The American Anglican Council formed in 1996, and the Anglican Communion Network, formed in 2004, both resulted from concerns of conservative dioceses and parishes within the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Jefferts Schori voted to confirm Bishop Robinson and has allowed same-sex Holy Unions in her diocese of Nevada. Eight US bishops have rejected Jefferts Schori's authority and have requested alternative pastoral oversight; in one case, the convention of the diocese supports the bishop; the other seven have not yet considered it.

On December 2 2006 the Convention of the Diocese of San Joaquin, one of the most conservative dioceses in the church, passed a series of resolutions which, if confirmed at the convention in 2007, set into motion withdrawal from the Episcopal Church and affiliation with another Anglican Church, "“The diocese shall be a constituent member of the Anglican Communion and in full communion with the See of Canterbury.” This was combined with a resolution which removed the present boundaries of the diocese, theoretically allowing it to absorb other dissident congregations in the United States. The small diocese has 48 parishes and 7,000 members but includes an active caucus which opposes secession

The Dangers of the Emergent Church Movement






“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.”

(2 Timothy 3:1)


Introduction: The Reality of False Teaching in the Last Days


Near the end of his earthly life and ministry, the Apostle Paul told his protégé Timothy that in the last days, before Jesus Christ’s return, “perilous times” would come. The Apostle Paul subsequently imparted to young Timothy what the characteristics of the end times would be. Paul said that in the last days,

“Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power (2 Timothy 3:3-5).

According to the New Testament, which is the inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative and self-authenticating Word of Almighty God (2 Timothy 3:16-17 and 2 Peter 1:18-21), another conclusive sign of the end times would be the increase and rampant proliferation of false doctrine in and outside of the Christian Church.

The Apostle Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.”

In 1 Timothy 3:1 Paul wrote, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.”

In Acts 20, the Apostle Paul warned the Church at Ephesus ,

“That I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”


The Apostle Peter also warned of the rise of false teachers and false doctrine in the last days when he wrote,


“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber” (2 Peter 2:1-3).

Our Lord Jesus Christ also warned us and gave us definitive signs of the end times and said that in the last days,

“Take heed that no one deceives you For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” (Matthew 24:34-5).


The false teaching that is so characteristic of the end times is the Apostle John warned us in 1 John 4:1,

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”


Thus, we are commanded by God in the Holy Scriptures to be like the nobe Bereans of Acts 17:11, “to search the Scriptures daily to see if these things be so”

We are again, exhorted by the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to “test all things and to hold fast to the good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21) and to “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).



The Rise of the Emergent Church Movement


In our own day and age, at the advent of a New Millennium and the beginning of the 21st Century, false teaching and false teachers are abounding throughout the Christian Church. One such false teaching that is threatening to destroy the American Evangelical Church today, is what many are calling “The Emergent Church Movement” a pernicious and destructive heretical movement that is attempting to redefine historic New Testament Christianity.

The Emergent Church Movement and its leaders are attempting to create a new version of Christianity that is free of doctrinal and moral absolutes and
In our fast paced, technological and entertainment driven superficial Western culture where stylistic sound- bites and digitally enhanced imagery takes precedent over substance and clearly delineated thought, American Evangelicals often do not have time or conscience desire to soberly and critically analyze the secular and ecclesiastical framework in which we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

Yet, make no mistake about it, there are currently ominously powerful sociological and ideological forces at work throughout Western Civilization that are working overtime to shape both the secular culture and Christian Church along postmodern lines and disseminate a secularist worldview that is bent on eviscerating the validity of the Church and is diametrically opposed to the historic Evangelical Christian faith and societal mission of world evangelization.

While most American Evangelicals are busy being lulled to sleep and unwittingly conformed into submission to secularist and Anti-Christian forces by ever improving technology and round the clock entertainment choices that communicate evil and abominable messages that are entirely antithetical to the teachings and Lordship of Jesus Christ, the devil is actively energizing the postmodern and secularist ideological forces to completely subjugate American civilization and suppress the mission of the Evangelical Church.

Bible believing Christians across America are now indulging themselves with the creature comforts of the world and are being lulled asleep by the call of the abjectly materialistic “American Dream” in pursuit of perpetual comfort and domestic ease through the quest for bigger and better material possessions.

The American Church has largely bought into the insidious lie that the essence of human existence is materialism and image and the most important goal in life is to acquire bigger and better things, be it, houses, cars, boats, vacation homes and a litany of other materialistic and entertainment driven venues.

We are told by secular forces that what matters most in life is to look good, to feel good and to live in optimum comfort for the indulgence of the self. American Evangelicals do not know they have actually bought into the philosophy of narcissism, an excessive preoccupation with self indulgence and one’s own personal importance, or with achieving one’s own chosen goals rather than bonding with others, or with associating only with others whom one chooses.


Like the fictious technological parasites known as the Borg, who incessantly and unquestionably assimilate all life-forms into their ominous robotic collective, made famous in the Star Trek: the Next Generation television series, American Evangelicals are being lulled asleep by postmodern relativism, narcissist and entertainment driven self- indulgence and are being unwittingly culturally assimilated and rendered absolutely irrelevant and ineffective agents of Gospel Change by the seductive sirens of secularism.

Contemporarily, many American Evangelicals have currently rejected the traditional Reformation emphasis on the centrality of the Bible, forensic justification and the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ and his Cross and in turn, have adopted grotesquely unbiblical patterns of belief and worship, as the mass Evangelical rush towards the Emergent and Liturgical Church movements conclusively demonstrate.

The emerging church or emergent church is a diverse movement according to a great article on the free encyclopedia, Wikipedia: within the American Christian Church that arose in the late 20th century as a reaction to the influence of modernism in Western Christianity. The movement is usually called a "conversation" by its proponents to emphasize its diffuse nature with contributions from many people and no explicitly defined leadership or direction. The emerging church seeks to deconstruct and reconstruct Christianity as its mainly Western members live in a postmodern culture. While practices and even core doctrine vary, most emergents can be recognized by the following values:
· Missional living - Christians go out into the world to serve God rather than isolate themselves within communities of like-minded individuals.

· Narrative theology - Teaching focuses on narrative presentations of faith and the Bible rather than systematic theology or biblical reductionism

· Christ-likeness - While not neglecting the study of scripture or the love of the church, Christians focus their lives on the worship and emulation of the person of Jesus Christ

· Authenticity - People in the postmodern culture seek real and authentic experiences in preference over scripted or superficial experiences. Emerging churches strive to be relevant to today's culture and daily life, whether it be through worship or service opportunities. The core Christian message is unchanged but emerging churches attempt, as the church has throughout the centuries, to find ways to reach God's people where they are to hear God's message of unconditional love.

Emergent Christians are predominantly found in Western Europe, North America and the South Pacific. Some attend local independent churches that specifically identify themselves as being "emergent", while many others contribute to the conversation from within existing mainline denominations.

Another definition of the Emergent Church Movement is as follows,

Emerging Church groups have typically contained some or all of the following elements:
· Highly creative approaches to worship and spiritual reflection, as compared to many American churches in recent years. This can involve everything from the use of contemporary music and films to liturgy, as well as more ancient customs. The goal in this area is generally to make the church more attractive to the unchurched.
· A minimalist and decentralized organizational structure.
· A flexible approach to theology whereby individual differences in belief and morality are accepted within reason.
· A holistic view of the role of the church in society. This can mean anything from greater emphasis on fellowship in the structure of the group to a higher degree of emphasis on social action, community building or Christian outreach.
· A desire to reanalyze the Bible against the context with the goal of revealing a multiplicity of valid perspectives rather than a single valid interpretation
· A continual re-examination of theology.
· A high value placed on creating communities built out of the creativity of those who are a part of each local body.
· A belief in the journey of faith, both as individual and community. Membership is often viewed as participation in the community of faith.



The Emergent Church movement has unwisely and unbiblically adopted the existential and ideological cultural hermeneutic of Postmodernism, the relativistic world-view that postulates that there are no ethical and propositional absolutes and seeks to deconstruct and overthrow traditional Western Christian doctrines and morals.

In the Emergent Church movement the doctrines of Historic Evangelical Christianity are unhealthy and unnecessary relics of a semi-modernist and medieval ethos that has been obliterated by postmodernist and postmodern influenced Biblical Scholarship such as the New Perspective and anti-traditional Evangelical theology proponents such as New Testament scholars as E.P. Sanders, James Dunn and NT Wright.

We are told by proponents of the Emergent Church movement that traditional Evangelical doctrine divides and that the contemporary Evangelical Christian Church movement within Western Civilization must immediately discard and instantaneously jettison the undue perceived dogmas of the Protestant Reformation and embrace traditionally divergent and diametrically opposed ecclesiastical movements such as Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy under the banner of one big relativistic conglomerate/ synthesis and smorgasbord of “Christian spirituality.”

We are told by the postmodern driven Emergent Church proponents that traditional Evangelical doctrine is divisive and dogmatic and hence must be avoided at all costs, to be replaced by a more tolerant and inclusive “Christian spirituality” that embraces all ecclesiastical traditions that have functioned historically under the umbrella of historic Christendom.

Essentially, the Emergent Church movement leaders and ethos are arguing that the Reformation was unnecessary and the quintessential doctrines of the Protestant Reformation such as the doctrine of the authority of the Bible alone and justification by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone is wrong, irrelevant and unnecessarily obstructionist towards the Emerging Church goal of uniting all professing Christians into one united church irrespective of heresy and unbiblical teaching and practices.

The Emergent Church movement is forcefully and openly proclaiming that the traditional doctrinal differences that have historically divided Evangelical Protestants, Roman Catholics and adherents of Eastern Orthodoxy are ill-founded and unnecessary. This is why many Evangelicals are now openly incorporating aspects of Roman Catholic spirituality and teaching into the spiritual disciplines and doctrinal instruction within their respective local churches. Since doctrine no longer matters to most contemporary Evangelicals and historic Reformation teaching is always anathema to many Evangelical Pastors, we are told we should openly embrace the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox teaching and practice into our fellowships.

We are also informed by many Emergent Church leaders that the traditional Evangelical opposition towards female pastors, elders and leadership in the local church are equally archaic and fallacious and that we must openly embrace the overt femmization of Christianity and allow women to lead men in the local Church despite the fact the Bible teaches that women are never to lead men in the context of the local church (1 Timothy 2).

Likewise, many within the Emergent Church movement are calling the Church to embrace homosexuality as viable lifestyle and similarly adopt pluralism, the acceptance of all religions and life-styles as being equally valid as being true.
However, despite this Postmodern and Emergent Church call to discard traditional and conservative Evangelical Doctrine and Practice, I believe this call towards complete assimilation into the postmodern ethos and the embracing of all varieties of spirituality and lifestyle expression is unwarranted and self-defeating since the Postmodern world-view is so easily demonstrated to be illogical and self-refuting.

Just as relativism can be demonstrated to be false and self-defeating based on the fact that this view in denying there are concrete and real absolutes at once, borrows from the traditional Christian absolutist world-view and deems the traditional Evangelical view to be wrong, all the while proclaiming there are no propositional truths, thus operating in a vicious and self-defeating circle of nonsensical language.

Despite the Postmodernist Emergent Church call to disregard and discard the traditional and conservative Evangelical-Protestant doctrinal positions that clearly divided Evangelicalism from divergent forms of Ecclesiastical spirituality, doctrine, practice and engagement with secular culture, Postmodernity and the Emerging Church is self-defeating and offers the Christian Church in Western Civilization absolutely no concrete reason why we should not abandon Christianity altogether.

In counter distinction to this ill-advised and destructive pathway charted out by many Postmodern and Emerging Evangelicals, there is a better and wiser course of action: embracing the doctrines of the Historic Evangelical Church for these teachings are founded on the authority of infallible Scripture and will never fade away.

American Evangelicals must stand for the authority of the Bible alone, and the essential teachings of the Christian faith that has made Conservative Evangelicalism what it is, the most powerful force of Biblical change on the face of the Earth.

American Evangelicals should not abandon the traditions of our Biblical Christianity, to do so would be to go against the clear authority of Holy Scripture and to effect mutiny against Almighty God who sent His Son Jesus Christ to be both Savior and Lord of the earth.

Every Evangelical believer and Pastor in America should be careful to avoid the teachings of the Emergent Church movement and stand fast to the Word of God and the essential teachings of the Evangelical Christian Faith

“The grass withers, the flower fades away, but the Word of God endures forever” (Isaiah 43:10).


References on the Emergent Church Movement
Burke, Spencer, et. al. "Our Response to Critics of Emergent" Emergent-US: The Blog, June 2, 2005; Gibbs, Eddie & Ryan Bolger. Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures (Manuscript). Grand Rapids : Baker Books, 2005. Grenz, Stanley. A Primer On Postmodernism. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996. Heaton, Terry. "10 Questions for Brian McLaren." [1] last accessed July 5, 2003. Ward, Peter. Liquid Church . Hendrickson Publishers, 2002. Jones, Andrew. "New Media Fluency." TallSkinnyKiwi.com: The Blog, April 15, 2005. O'Keefe, John. "The Postmodern Narrator" Eddie & Ryan Bolger. Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures (Manuscript). Jones, Andrew. "Are We a Movement?" TallSkinnyKiwi.com: The Blog, June 8, 2005, quoting an email to Ryan Bolger, Ph.D. from Dr. Paul Pierson on behalf of Jones. Bainbridge, William S. The Sociology of Religious Movements. New York , NY : Routledge, 1997, 3. Jones, Andrew. "What is Emergent?" TallSkinnyKiwi.com: The Blog, January 4, 2005. Hunsberger, George R., and Craig Van Gelder. The Church between Gospel and Culture: The Emerging Mission in North America . Grand Rapids : Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1996, 1. Guder, Missional Church , 89, quoting Norman Perrin, Rediscovering the Teaching of Jesus. New York : Harper & Row, 1967, 54. Clapp, Rodney. A Peculiar People: The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society. Downers Grove , Ill. : InterVarsity Press, 1996, 75-83. Seay, Chris. "Is Pomo Nomo?" Christianity Today, February 20, 2003. Guder, Missional Church, 77-83. O'Keefe, John. "Quantum Servanthood: knowing how to lead in chaos" Kimball, Dan Emerging Worship (emergentYS: 2004). Tomlinson, Dave The Post-evangelical

Learning to Avoid the Metrosexual Evangelical


When Being a Nice Guy in Women's Jeans is Not Enough




"...Earnestly contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints."

Jude 3



by Ed Enochs


Since becoming a Christian over twenty years ago, I have seen a lot of things come and go in the Evangelical Church here in Southern California. As a very young man, the thing we had to deal with in the late 1980's and early 1990's was the backlash against Evangelicalism due to the Jim and Tammy Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandals that rocked America during that era. Almost every conversation I had with non Christians during that time period was directed back to the scandals of one too many big time electronic media pastors who gut busted fleecing their flocks or with one illicit affair or another.

Yet, as I recall that era of American Evangelicalism, things were much different back then, truth was truth and most conservative Evangelicals had a conception of what was true and what was unbiblical. We knew that Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Roman Catholics were unbiblical and many of us attempted to demonstrate from the Bible that these things were so.

But we have reached darker times in American Evangelicalism...

In our postmodern day and age, things have changed big time. Very few Evangelicals know the essential truths of the Christian faith and almost no Christian will take a stand for the truth if it will make him or her unpopular.

In our pragmatic times, most Christians avoid controversy and confrontation as though it were worst than the AIDS virus. Most Christians I know these days have no convictions and tolerate the most wretched heresies and lifestyles to occur right under their noses. Most Christians I meet these days have very little doctrinal conviction and even less ability to defend their faith if they should encounter a false teaching.

As I survey the current milieu and culture of American Evangelicalism here in Southern California, I have seen many Evangelical Christians fall away into Eastern Orthodoxy and other false teachings because they were not grounded in the essential truths of the Christian faith and very few Christians around them would take a stand against these false teachings when it mattered.

Evangelical Churches and colleges are now moving away from Biblical verse by verse preaching to being proponents and Representatives of seeker sensitive, pragmatic and Emergent Church religion filled with sentimental falsehood. Formerly staunch Evangelical Churches and educational institutions have become bastions of Postmodern relativism where very few Christians know the truth let alone stand for the truth.

In Southern California Christianity today, the type of man that is admired is the nice likable guy, the metro-sexual Evangelical, the good guy with the frosted hair, tight black t shirt and the tight faded jeans who is whimsical conversationalist and attempts to tolerate every-ones beliefs and lifestyle irrespective of how contrary to the Bible those beliefs and practices are.

Today's Church is filled with what I would like to christen the "Metro-Sexual" Evangelical. This is the type of Evangelical male who places more emphasis on his personal grooming and appearance than what the Bible teaches. The Metro-Sexual Evangelical is the rock star wannabe, the smooth operator with all the lady friends who tolerates everything and anything in the Christian Church because he does not the know the first thing about what Biblical Christianity is.

The Metro-Sexual Evangelical has risen to popularity and prominence in most Evangelical churches and colleges in Southern California because a generation of American Evangelicals have become pragmatic compromisers and distanced themselves from any semblance of authentic Biblical Christianity.

The real man and woman of God who cares about what is happening with American Christianity will learn what the Bible teaches and what is authentic and historic Evangelicalism is and will avoid the "Metro-Sexual Evangelical" who is destroying the Church with his compromised lifestyle and lack of Biblical knowledge and discernment.

The question is, are there any Biblical men left in American Christianity?

The time has come to leave the women's jeans and Metro-Sexual Evangelical behind and return to the historic Evangelical Christian faith based on the authority of the Bible alone, that teaches that there is still truth and falsehood in the world today, that teaches that Evangelical doctrine matters, that teaches that Jesus Christ is still God the Son, that teaches that the Trinity is still true, that teaches that the Bible is still the inerrant Word of Almighty God, that teaches that men and women are justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Evangelical man and woman of God, let's leave the Metro-Sexual Evangelical behind and take a stand for Jesus Christ in our generation. Let's know our God and know our Bibles and stand for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints even if its not the popular thing to do.

What Is Calvinism?

by Benjamin B. Warfield

It is very odd how difficult it seems for some persons to understand just what Calvinism is. And yet the matter itself presents no difficulty whatever. It is capable of being put into a single sentence; and that, on level to every religious man's comprehension. For Calvinism is just religion in its purity. We have only, therefore, to conceive of religion in its purity, and that is Calvinism.

In what attitude of mind and heart does religion come most fully to its rights? Is it not in the attitude of prayer? When we kneel before God, not with the body merely, but with the mind and heart, we have assumed the attitude which above all others deserves the name of religious. And this religious attitude by way of eminence is obviously just the attitude of utter dependence and humble trust. He who comes to God in prayer, comes not in a spirit of self-assertion, but in a spirit of trustful dependence. No one ever addressed God in prayer thus: "0 God, thou knowest that I am the architect of my own fortunes and the determiner of my own destiny. Thou mayest indeed do something to help me in the securing of my purposes after I have determined upon them. But my heart is my own, and thou canst not intrude into it; my will is my own, and thou canst not bend it. When I wish thy aid, I will call on thee for it. Meanwhile, thou must await my pleasure." Men may reason somewhat like this; but that is not the way they pray. There did, indeed, once two men go up into the temple to pray. And one stood and prayed thus to himself (can it be that this "to himself" has a deeper significance than appears on the surface?), "God, I thank thee that I am not as the rest of men." While the other smote his breast, and said, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Even the former acknowledged a certain dependence on God; for he thanked God for his virtues. But we are not left in doubt in which one the religious mood was most purely exhibited. There is One who has told us that with clearness and emphasis.

All men assume the religious attitude, then, when they pray. But many men box up, as it were, this attitude in their prayer, and shutting it off from their lives with the Amen, rise from their knees to assume a totally different attitude, if not of heart, then at least of mind. They pray as if they were dependent on God's mercy alone; they reason -- perhaps they even live -- as if God, in some of his activities at least, were dependent on them. The Calvinist is the man who is determined to preserve the attitude he takes in prayer in all his thinking, in all his feeling, in all his doing. That is to say, he is the man who is determined that religion in its purity shall come to its full rights in his thinking, and feeling, and living. This is the ground of his special mode of thought, by reason of which he is called a Calvinist; and as well of his special mode of acting in the world, by reason of which he has become the greatest regenerating force in the world. Other men are Calvinists on their knees; the Calvinist is the man who is determined that his intellect, and heart, and will shall remain on their knees continually, and only from this attitude think, and feel, and act. Calvinism is, therefore, that type of thought in which there comes to its rights the truly religious attitude of utter dependence on God and humble trust in his mercy alone for salvation.

There are at bottom but two types of religious thought in the world -- if we may improperly use the term "religious" for both of them. There is the religion of faith; there is the "religion" of works. Calvinism is the pure embodiment of the former of these; what is known in Church History as Pelagianism is the pure embodiment of the latter of them. All other forms of "religious" teaching which have been known in Christendom are but unstable attempts at compromise between the two. At the opening of the fifth century, the two fundamental types came into direct conflict in remarkably pure form as embodied in the two persons of Augustine and Pelagius. Both were expending themselves in seeking to better the lives of men. But Pelagius in his exhortations threw men back on themselves; they were able, he declared, to do all that God demanded of them -- otherwise God would not have demanded it. Augustine on the contrary pointed them in their weakness to God; "He himself," he said, in his pregnant speech, "He himself is our power." The one is the "religion" of proud self-dependence; the other is the religion of dependence on God. The one is the "religion" of works; the other is the religion of faith. The one is not "religion" at all -- it is mere moralism; the other is all that is in the world that deserves to be called religion. Just in proportion as this attitude of faith is present in our thought, feeling, life, are we religious. When it becomes regnant in our thought, feeling, life, then are we truly religious. Calvinism is that type of thinking in which it has become regnant.

"There is a state of mind," says Professor William James in his lectures on "The Varieties of Religious Experience," known to religious men, but to no others, in which the will to assert ourselves and hold our own has been displaced by a willingness to close our mouths and be as nothing in the floods and waterspouts of God." He is describing what he looks upon as the truly religious mood as over against what he calls "mere moralism." "The moralist," he tells us, "must hold his breath and keep his muscles tense"; and things go well with him only when he can do so. The religious man, on the contrary, finds his consolation in his very powerlessness; his trust is not in himself, but in his God; and "the hour of his moral death turns into his spiritual birthday." The psychological analyst has caught the exact distinction between moralism and religion. It is the distinction between trust in ourselves and trust in God. And when trust in ourselves is driven entirely out, and trust in God comes in, in its purity, we have Calvinism. Under the name of religion at its height, what Professor James has really described is therefore just Calvinism.

We may take Professor James' testimony, therefore, as testimonty that religion at its height is just Calvinism. There are many forms of religious teaching in the world which are not Calvinism. Because, teaching even in religion often (ordinarily even) offers us only "broken lights." There is no true religion in the world, however, which is not Calvinistic, Calvinistic in its essence, Calvinistic in its implications. When these implications are soundly drawn out and stated, and the essence thus comes to its rights, we obtain just Calvinism. In proportion as we are religious, in that proportion, then, are we Calvinistic; and when religion comes fully to its rights in our thinking, and feeling, and doing, then shall we be truly Calvinistic. This is why those who have caught a glimpse of these things, love with passion what men call "Calvinism," sometimes with an air of contempt; and why they cling to it with enthusiasm. It is not merely the hope of true religion in the world: it is true religion in the world -- as far as true religion is in the world at all.

From Selected Shorter Writings of Benjamin B. Warfield, vol. 1, Edited by John E. Meeter, published by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1970. originally from The Presbyterian, Mar. 2, 1904, pp. 6-7.

Michigan Football, the BCS' Big Mistake and the Sovereignty of God

"...God works all things after the counsel of His will."

(Ephesians 1:11)

Yes, I am greatly disappointed that Michigan was left out of the BCS NCAA Football championship game. Yes, I believe that there should be a complete overhaul of the way the college game chooses its champions. I think there should be playoff format that allows the championship each year to be decided on the Field. I am disappointed that Michigan got left out of this years championship and the Florida got in instead. But in the end, Michigan ended up in this position because they did not take care of business on the Field. If Michigan beat Ohio State in its final game, it would not be left crying about being left out of the BCS game in Glendale Arizona. Ultimately God is sovereign and did not allow Michigan to be in the game for His own sovereign purposes. I'll let God be God and save my tears for something more important. I wish Michigan would have one, but they didn't, and I am OK with that within the overall scheme of God's sovereign control of the universe. Soon we will be either in heaven or hell for eternity, so we have more important things to be concerned about in the eternal perspective.

Is Eastern Orthodoxy the One True Church?


A Letter to the Greek Orthodox Converts

by Ed Enochs




"Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them."

(Romans 16:17).




I was recently forwarded an e-mail and subsequent attachment of an article on the subject of how the Eastern Orthodox are to view professing Christians outside of the Church by Peter Barnes entitled, "The Non-Orthodox: The Orthodox Teaching on Christians Outside of the Church."

I am well aware that my Eastern Orthodox opponents view me as a Fundamentalist extremist, filled with hatred and with little knowledge of what Eastern Orthodoxy really is. I have heard these criticisms over the years and regret some of the violent reaction I have had over the Eastern Orthodox issue at Biola and at my former church Calvary Chapel Saving Grace.

I personally want to apologize to my Eastern Orthodox opponents for my conduct at times. Like Martin Luther, my hero, I can often display obnoxious behavior and I readily admit this and ask your forgiveness. If I had to do it all over again, I would have taken more of a serious approach to this matter, instead of a tongue in cheek, Rush Limbaugh style. Having said this, I do not apologize or repent of the fact that I still believe with every fabric of my being that the Eastern Orthodox Church is unbiblical and is to be rejected as a viable ecclesiastical entity.

I actually want to thank my Eastern Orthodox opponents for helping me return to the Reformed Faith and for helping me leave the Calvary Chapel movement. I recently had a startling theological Epiphany, that has brought me to the conclusion that I have no business rebuffing the advance of Eastern Orthodoxy in Southern California if I attend and align myself with a Church that is semi Pelagian like the Calvary Chapel Movement.

I have known for a long time that I probably should not attend a Calvary Chapel and defend the Augustinian and Reformation- Calvinist soteriological position against Eastern Orthodoxy. I have attended a Calvary Chapel out of comfort and familiarity and not because of fidelity to the truth as revealed in Holy Scripture.

I love the Calvary Chapel Movement with all of my heart, but I am a Calvinist and there is no room right now in the Calvary movement for Calvinism, so I have returned to the Reformed Faith.

So, I want to thank you Eastern Orthodox Converts from Biola and Calvary Chapel for forcing my hand, and compelling my conscience for me to align myself with the historic Reformed Faith.

But, for the present time, my beef is not with Calvary Chapel, but with this subject of the advancement and proliferation of Eastern Orthodoxy in certain segments of Evangelicalism here in Southern California.

While it is not a huge problem through the Evangelical Church here in the Southland, it has made enough converts from Calvary Chapel , the Vineyard, and Biola for some Evangelicals to take notice.

I am well aware that many of the Eastern Orthodox members in this area, regard us Evangelicals of incapable of understanding the true nature of what Eastern Orthodoxy is. I have often heard these types of slogans made to Evangelicals by the Eastern Orthodox, "You are from the West, you just don't understand the Eastern mindset" and, "The Eastern Orthodox Church has existed for 4,000 years, so we are the true Church."

In reviewing these criticisms leveled against Evangelicals made by Eastern Orthodox converts in the Southern California area, I want to remind these converts that Eastern Orthodoxy that they do find themselves in the West, yet Eastern Orthodoxy itself does not claim to be a Gnostic religion whose teachings are unobtainable to the non-initiated and enlightened. The issues that Eastern Orthodoxy brings to the table are pretty straight forward and clearly understandable.

Eastern Orthodoxy claims to be the one true apostolic Church that Christ instituted. The Eastern Orthodox Church claims that it has existed unbroken for 4,000 years. Eastern Orthodoxy makes the claim that it is the Church that Christ vested His authority in. As I told an Eastern Orthodox friend recently,'

Time after time over the years in dealing with this Old World, Byzantine ecclesiastical tradition, I have heard adherents of Eastern Orthodoxy say without any shred of Biblical and exegetical evidence that the Eastern Orthodox Church is the “true church” since it was the original church founded by the Apostles. Earnest adherents of Eastern Orthodoxy often get worked up in making this point that since in their own minds, Eastern Orthodoxy has existed the longest and has directly descended from Christ and His Apostles

Ultimately this is a Chronological Fallacy in that you postulate that since your church has existed the longest (a point that I would argue against) this, then necessarily makes it the true church. This is reverse chronological snobbery in that you are arguing that any ecclesiastical entity of a more recent vintage is somehow inherently inferior to your romanticized understanding of the pristine origins of Eastern Orthodoxy.

Roman Catholics and Mormons, it must be noted, make this same appeal to historical authenticity and succession in that Roman Catholicism and Mormonism both argue that they are the true church since they descend from Apostolic times (Romans Catholics say there has been unbroken apostolic authority vested in Papal succession and Mormons say they are the restored Church of Christ that fell away, but whose divinely mandated practices were those practiced by Christ and His Apostles). The point being, innumerable groups, sects and cults have made this same claim to apostolic succession and being the original church of Christ with dubious Biblical authenticity.

Mormons, Catholics and many other religious groups argue that they are the true and original church of Christ, adhering to the traditions of the Apostles. Yet mere antiquity of an organization and mere assertion does not necessitate the Biblical legitimacy and authenticity of ones religious truth claims.

The claims of Apostolic authority and unbroken succession made by Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox breaks down for example, in the case of Honorius I (died October 12, 638) was pope from 625 to 638.

Honorius in his lifetime favored the formula on the nature of Christ proposed by the emperor Heraclius with the design of bringing about a reconciliation between the Monophysites and the Catholics, which bore that Christ had accomplished His work of redemption by one manifestation of his will as the God-man. For this he was, more than forty years after his death, anathematized by name along with the Monothelite heretics by the Council of Constantinople (First Trullan) in 680. The anathema read, after mentioning the Monothelites, “and with them Honorius, who was Prelate of Rome, as having followed them in all things”. This condemnation was subsequently confirmed by Leo II (a fact disputed by such persons as Baronius and Bellarmine, but which has since become commonly accepted) in the form, “and also Honorius, who did not attempt to sanctify this Apostolic Church with the teaching of Apostolic tradition, but by profane treachery permitted its purity to be polluted”

Pope Honorious’ Apostasy demonstrates that there was not an unbroken succession of truth in the Catholic Church of which the Eastern Orthodox existed in until 1054. How can I trust a church that had an apostate leader? Did apostolic succession stop with Honorious?

What matters is if ones claims to apostolic succession and overall ecclesiastical veracity can be proven from an infallible and unchanging authoritative source, namely the Bible which is the inspired and inerrant Word of God (2 Timothy 3:15-17).

Following the line of argumentation made by Calvin, Luther and the other magisterial Reformers, the ultimate authority of a believer in Christ is not vested in the often contradictory teachings of ecclesiastical tradition and the writings of the Ante Nicene and Post Nicene Patristic Fathers, but rather in the self authenticating nature and perspicuity of Holy Scripture. Ultimately a Christian’s authority comes from the Bible and the illuminating light of the Holy Spirit in understanding Scripture accurately and not in the fallible counsel of contradictory ecclesiastical tradition, irrespective of antiquity of these traditions.

I am well aware that the Eastern Orthodox Church argues for the seven ecumenical counsels and some canons of Church tradition as being on the same authoritative level as the Bible, yet it can be conclusively demonstrated that Church tradition and the Patristic Fathers often contradict each other and are by no means a sure source of legitimate apostolic authority and Eastern Orthodoxy’s claim of historical antiquity and apostolic succession does not preclude the possibility that the Orthodoxy has absorbed over the passage of time, unbiblical teachings and traditions that are in diametrical opposition to Biblical teaching.

Ultimately it comes down to this, Eastern Orthodoxy argues for the authoritative nature of extra Biblical Church tradition and Protestants believe that God has vested His authority in the Bible alone and has given us the ability to understand the Scriptures in the way He intended with the promise of the Holy Spirit (John 14:26, 15:26 and 1 Corinthians 2).

While it is true that there are many different Protestant Churches with differing theological perspectives, this does not preclude them from agreeing on the essentials of the Christian faith, namely the Trinity and Justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Eastern Orthodoxy is old, this is a given, but I want to go back to an even older and sure guide of Biblical authority, namely the Bible itself, therein rests the Authority of Jesus Christ and His Apostles. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of God endures forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

The arguments made by the Greek Orthodox that is the true Church that has existed for thousands of years is unconvincing. The Bible clearly teaches that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone (Romans 3:20, Galatians 2:16, Titus 3:5-6), Eastern Orthodoxy denies this, thus, irrespective of its antiquity, it does not possess the Gospel of Christ and thus cannot be considered a true Church at all. Church tradition and longevity does not constitute Scriptural authenticity. Thus, for me, I will side with the Evangelicals and the Bible alone. Church tradition often contradicts itself and I need a more sure foundation to base my faith.


Sincerely in Jesus Christ,

Lee Edward Enochs

Pope Prays with Muslim Leader in Turkey

Sign of the end times and rise of a one world government? The Pope met and prayed with a top Muslim cleric in Turkey today. For the whole story please click on to:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061130/ap_on_re_mi_ea/pope_turkey

Rick Warren of SaddleBack Allows Pro-Abortion Democratic Senator to Speak at Church

WASHINGTON - Famed pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren on Wednesday defended his invitation to Sen. Barack Obama to speak at his church despite objections from some evangelicals who oppose the Democrat's support for abortion rights.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061130/ap_on_go_co/democrats_obama