[ Click here to go back to the main page ]


This essay by Brother Mike has been split into two pages. Please click the page you want to view:

[ Page 1 ] - [ Page 2 ]



To George Wood on His TPE Article

May 7, 2008


Dr. Wood,

As one of your rubber stamp executive presbyters, Dan Betzer, once told me, “I read your article with interest.” The article which I read with interest was the one entitled The Jordan River protest movement. It was featured in the March 9th Pentecostal Evangel.

Frankly, I was always encouraged in the past whenever I read one of your articles in the Evangel. My wife and I would often discuss how rock solid your theology was (I once highly respected Dan Betzer for the same reasons. Worry not, Dan. God willing, you too will get your time under the Sun). And this article, on face value, was no exception. I couldn’t believe my eyes when the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God was writing to us saying that we needed to repent! I couldn’t have written the article better myself.

The more I thought about the article though, the more it bothered me. And the angrier I got. Not because I changed my mind on the theology of the article. Nope. I just reread it this very instant, and I still think the message is dead on scripturally. No, what made me angry was that you were writing to the wrong audience.

This “wrong audience” idea caused a passage of Scripture to come to mind with which you ought to be very familiar. The setting is Nathan the prophet speaking to King David in II Samuel Chapter 12:4-9. Nathan tells a story to David about a rich man and a poor man and it ends like this (emphasis mine):
“And there came a traveler unto the rich man, and he [the rich man] spared to take of his own flock, and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

And Nathan said to David, “Thou are the man!”

“Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to de evil in his sight?”
No, George Wood, the audience for your article should have been you! YOU ARE THE MAN! It is you that must repent on your face before the Holy God. In Luke 12:48, Jesus says, “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.” Here is a rather truncated list of the things for which the office of the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God is responsible and must repent:





1. Creating the vacuum of Scriptural warnings against the deception that has invaded the evangelical church.
By your failure to be the watchman for the A/G, deceptions have invaded our own fellowship. Over and over again, faithful saints have confronted you and your predecessor about the lack of Scriptural guidance being issued from your office. Over and over again, you and your office have stated that you “did not want to do anything that would be controversial.” So, as a minimum, you are guilty of trying to be above your Master. Matthew 10:22 says, “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.” Only two verses later, Jesus says, “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.” In Luke 12:51, Jesus says again, “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.” And is it true that you refused to warn folks about Brokenback Church—I mean Saddleback—pastored by Rick Warren because your son-in-law “made a profession of faith?” James 4:17 says, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” You know that Rick Warren is nothing more than a Southern Baptist version of the Catholic church. That is, he is preaching a “works to get to Heaven” and a hiding-the-Gospel-from-the-sheep (no hymnals and minimal Scripture in his sermons) message. And yet you do and say nothing?

REPENTANCE ACTIONS: 1) replace the popcorn of pop culture now dominating the Pentecostal Evangel with the meat of God’s Word, including warnings against error (just like E.N. Bell and J.R. Flower were primarily motivated to write) and testimonies of His mighty power; and 2) Direct the editors who have been propagating the trash we see each week in the Evangel—no doubt under your orders—to write articles that will keep your pastors and members out of God’s wrath for following “every wind of doctrine.” Make sure they know that you have them covered when their new genre causes the A/G to “be hated for my name’s sake.”





2. Allowing the teachings of Evolution and Moral Relativism in our Assembly of God colleges.
In your own alma mater, Evangel University, you have allowed at least two professors to teach who promote the ideas of evolution in their science classes. I can name them for you if you’d like. However, the responsibility for them being there is yours. And now we have an Evangel graduate touring the country with his wife, speaking to as many audiences as will listen. He relates how, as a young Christian at Evangel, his science professors helped him to see “the light” of evolution. And having believed this lie, he now also endorses universalism. In other words, with the label of being an Evangel alum, he believes that all roads lead to Heaven and is trying to persuade thousands of listeners that this is so. Nice work Dr. Wood! I’d bet Brother Riggs would be rolling over in his grave if he knew how far Evangel has strayed from his original vision of a Pentecostal Christian school teaching young laymen how to be Christian witnesses in the marketplace. We’re not much of a witness when we don’t even believe our own Book and our own God! According to Edith Blumhofer’s “The Assemblies of God: A Popular History,” from pages 69 and 70, our movement wanted A/G colleges so that we would stop the tide of young people losing their faith in secular colleges and universities. What a joke you have made of this Dr. Wood! Now our A/G young people lose their faith right in our own A/G schools! NOTE: even though the original goal A/G higher education schools was noble, the cause for our A/G children losing their faith was never secular schools. The fault lay squarely on the fellowship, its ministers and the students’ parents failing to root and ground their children in the Word BEFORE they left home! And now we’re doing it again by laying the responsibility for rooting and grounding with poorly supervised children’s and youth ministries. Will we never learn? Will you ever guide us, Dr. Wood?

How many more young people are out in the world with their faith having been shattered by unbelieving professors at A/G schools? In addition, your alma mater also has at least two Bible professors who are moral relativists. They ask more questions than they answer. And their answers don’t necessarily come from the Bible. I can name the two professors if you’d like. However, once again, the responsibility for them being there is yours. Evangel is an A/G school, you host meetings on higher education in the Assemblies headquarters on a regular basis, you are fully aware of the costs of accreditation (compromise on Biblically based beliefs), and you are the General Superintendent of the church denomination under which these schools fall.

REPENTENCE ACTIONS: 1) seek out and dismiss the professors in all A/G schools, including our bible colleges, that don’t teach with 100% adherence to the Bible; 2) administer a loyalty-to-the-Bible oath to every employee of all of our schools [with the idea that failure to obey the oath means automatic dismissal]; 3) if accreditation won’t allow the teaching the fact of Creation over the theory of evolution, or the teaching of moral absolutes, then forego accreditation and advertise the school based on strict adherence to biblical teachings; and 4) apologize to the fellowship in the Evangel for failing to take these steps until now.





3. Allowing New Age professors and those who are soft on sin--as defined in the Bible--to teach in our A/G Theological Seminary.
It is absolutely amazing to me that our theological seminary—only 35 years old this year—is already reprobate in its teachings! And you were either the Assistant Superintendent or the Superintendent during most of its young life! Why did we have an unbeliever as the head of our “doctor of divinity” department at AGTS? I refer to Earl Creps. And I hear he is not unique in his made-up beliefs. That there are more Earl Crepses over at our dearly beloved seminary.

REPENTENCE ACTIONS: 1) Dismiss the current president of the seminary who allowed this man to be employed at AGTS, 2) install the same loyalty oath to the Bible as listed in #2 above [with the same consequences for failure to comply], 3) apologize to the fellowship for allowing AGTS to corrupt generations of ministers that have graduated from its polluted halls; and 4) write a letter apologizing to all AGTS graduates and outlining the error of any professors—including Earl Creps—under which these graduates sat; 5) seek out and fire any other professors who teach concepts not found in the Bible; and 6) Direct the new president to eliminate all heretical texts such as those taught by Earl Creps (e.g., texts by Leonard Sweet and Brian MacLaren).





4. Promoting the termination of the A/G’s only national Bible college in favor of it becoming a religion department at a now expanded A/G university.
It was commonly reported during my stay at CBC that you were the actual driving force behind the Evangel-CBC merger idea. Is this true? Even if it is not, you were part of the unanimous vote by the A/G Board of Administration to pursue the merger. I ask you now, as I asked myself then, “WHY would a supposedly Pentecostal minister be in favor of doing away with a church denomination’s only national bible college? Killing the bedrock anchor school of the fellowship seemed to be denominational suicide to me. I can understand businessmen making such a stupid decision. They are always thinking of money (even that didn’t apply since CBC was operating in the black and had the lowest debt ratio of Evangel, AGTS and CBC; and #2 wasn’t even close!).

Since that time, my question remains unanswered. When I asked your predecessor, he hid like a coward behind the Executive Presbyters saying the merger decision was their decision. He said this to me face to face. Do you hide behind them as well? If so, why aren’t they the Superintendent instead of you? Since you are all very well versed in passive endorsement or blame passing or responsibility avoidance (where did you all learn this from?), I must take a guess as to why ministers of the Bible would want to kill their own bible college. I think you and your senior A/G leader friends no longer believe the Bible! To illustrate, I saw a quote from Dan Betzer the other day that was taken direct from the title of a book by Dan Kimball. Mr. Kimball is a non-Christian, New Age nut. And Dan Betzer, one of our highly esteemed EPs, was quoting him as if he had anything worthwhile to say!

REPENTENCE ACTIONS: 1) Apologize to the Fellowship via the Evangel for even thinking about merging CBC under Evangel, and 2) Reassure every A/G member that the consideration of this idea will never happen again in the Assemblies of God. Explain to them that you personally will ensure that this is put in writing in our national constitution and bylaws.





5. Allowing sinful alliances with organizations or spiritual celebrities who are against God’s laws.
Why is the Assemblies of God still a member of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE)? I hear that the current president, Leith Anderson, bragged at a recent meeting of the Michigan District of the Assemblies of God that he had homosexuals in his congregation and regularly attended mass with his Catholic priest friends. If this is true, then why was Bill Leach, the District Superintendent of the Michigan District, hosting an apostate at his district ministers’ meeting? And why did Bill Leach not stop Mr. Anderson right in his tracks when he was speaking heresy? Does Bill subscribe to these heresies?

And why are we members of the World Pentecostal Conference? This conference includes Catholics and apostate “Pentecostals” such as Brian Houston of Australia. I believe the answer to both questions is found in our A/G heritage of always wanting to prove that we aren’t from the “wrong side of the tracks.” We want to prove that our polyester suits and big hairdos are a thing of the past. And we want to show that we aren’t against everything (as the world used to describe us).

And why have you not warned churches about joining Rick Warren’s email list or Bill Hybels’ Willow Creek Association or buying Joel Osteen’s latest best-selling book? These men are apostate and diluting the Gospel of Jesus Christ to put it nicely. And yet you have been silent.

I refer once again to the Bible verses above where Jesus told us that we cannot be above Him and that the world hated him. And James 4:17. Who do we think we are? This seems to be nothing more than the adult version of the junior high kid that wants to be liked and popular. So, he does anything to be liked including drinking alcohol underage and taking illegal drugs.

REPENTANCE ACTIONS: 1) Remove the Assemblies of God from all these entangling alliances, 2) Warn your ministers to remove themselves from association with mega-wrong, mega-church pastors, and 3) Apologize in the Evangel for not warning the flock about these issues in the past.


This essay by Brother Mike has been split into two pages. Please click the page you want to view:

[ Page 1 ] - [ Page 2 ]





[ Click here to go back to the main page ]

 Counter