Beware of Wolves

For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.” (Acts 20:29)

In the Old Testament, over and over again we find that many “shepherds” (leaders) led the people astray. And in the New Testament, we read of many examples of religious leaders who were teaching things that were in error, leading people away from the truth of God’s Word. The apostle Paul mentioned many of them by name.

We are also warned in the New Testament that there would be people in the church whose teachings would undermine the authority of God’s Word.

In our modern church today, there are many leaders who have compromised with the pagan religion of the day (i.e., evolution and millions of years—indeed, this really is today’s pagan religion to explain life without God). Sadly, many Christian leaders have been teaching generations in the church to accept this secular worldview and re-write God’s Word (particularly in Genesis) to fit with it.

Yes, as harsh as it might sound, today there are shepherds in the church who are also “wolves”—they have infiltrated the church with their destructive teaching. Now, I am not saying these wolves are not Christians—I suppose the term can fit Christians as well as non-Christians.

One such example is seen clearly in the writings of Dr. Karl Giberson. Until recently, he was a physics professor at Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts—probably leading many students astray about the Bible’s authority with his compromised teaching. He has been involved with the theologically liberal BioLogos Foundation and recently co-authored a book (The Anointed, published by a division of Harvard University Press) with Eastern Nazarene College history professor, Dr. Randall Stephens. (By the way, Dr. Darrel Falk, a Nazarene professor in biology at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, has also similarly written against AiG and the literal creation position.)

AiG scientist Dr. Georgia Purdom (who holds a PhD in molecular genetics from Ohio State) and AiG’s CCO Mark Looy have written a critique on aspects of The Anointed, particularly its introduction and first chapter. In these sections, there is a personal attack on my credibility, especially as a writer and speaker on apologetics (and other people are attacked as well). That attack plus the several outright mistakes we found in the book exhibited the poor scholarship seen in The Anointed. It’s hardly what one would expect from a publication associated with such a prestigious secular university as Harvard.

Before you read our web critique of The Anointed (which is the lead article on our website today), I encourage you to discover more about Dr. Giberson’s thinking by reading an article he wrote that appeared on the “FrumForum” website yesterday. Read the following excerpts, and I will offer some comment:

By the time we were in college our generation of evangelicals had been educated into a profoundly different worldview than that of the secular, anti-Christian, Satan-following Ivy League elites we had been taught to fear. We understood the world to be a spiritual battleground with forces of good pitted against forces of evil. Real angels and real demons hovered about us as we prepared to wage these wars. We sang songs like “Onward Christian Soldiers” in our churches. At summer camps and vacation Bible schools we stamped our feet, and waved our arms as we sang with good Christian gusto “I’m in the Lord’s Army.” We knew which side we were on. . . .

Many evangelicals, myself included, were fortunate enough to study under Christian scholars, like my professors at Eastern Nazarene College in the 1970’s or my colleagues today at Gordon College, who see through the nonsensical claims of people like James Dobson, David Barton, Francis Schaeffer, and Ken Ham—who runs the preposterous Creation Museum in Kentucky. Even as a college student I recall Schaeffer being examined rather critically and young earth creationism dismissed out of hand.

Comment: What happened to Dr. Giberson is the result of teaching by compromising college professors, and this is now occurring in Christian colleges across this nation, affecting generations of Christian students. That is why we published the book Already Compromised earlier this year; I urge every parent and student considering a Christian college to read this book and find out about the horrible destructive compromise that is so rife in many Christian colleges.

Historian Randall Stephens and I have been interested in this alternative knowledge world for years. We grew up in it and emerged from it unscathed—as near as we can tell—but many of our evangelical students over the years have arrived at college with “truths” from this alternative knowledge world written on their hearts. Harvard University Press has just published our sympathetic insiders’ analysis of the parallel culture of American evangelicalism. Titled The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age, we look at how evangelical knowledge structures are exploited by media savvy authorities like those mentioned above.

Comment: Think about what he is saying here. There are students who go to a Christian college who might have a conservative view of Scripture—believing as we would at Answers in Genesis, for instance. However, the job of some professors like Giberson and Stephens is to educate them not to believe the Bible at face value and to reinterpret it to fit in with modern secular ideas. No wonder we are losing two thirds of young people from the church (please read our book Already Gone, which documents the youth exodus from the church).

You may read this entire sad article on the “FrumForum” website.

Now I urge you to read the lead article on the AiG website today, which is titled “Exposing The Anointed.”

I trust that after having read both these articles, you will realize the enormous problem we have with wolves in today’s church and also see the terrible devastation wreaked on our young people and their view of the Bible as a result of attending certain Christian colleges.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken