Southern Baptists and “conservative evangelicals” demonstrated their great compromise and spiritual blindness by praising Chuck Colson unequivocally following his death last week. He was praised by Al Mohler, Richard Land, Bryant Wright (SBC president), Frank Page, David Dockery, and Ed Stetzer, among others, all of whom are known as conservatives (“SBC Leaders Say Colson Was Evangelical Giant,” Baptist Press, April 23, 2012; Al Mohler’s The Briefing, April 23; Ed Stetzer’s blog, April 21). None of these “conservative evangelical” leaders mentioned the fact that Colson was one of the most effective builders of the apostate one-world church, wielding nearly as much influence in this wretched business as that other prominent Southern Baptist, Billy Graham. Colson was ecumenical from the time of his conversion in 1973 and grew ever more radical in this heretical philosophy through the years. In his forward to the deceptively-titled 1990 book Evangelical Catholics, by Roman Catholic author Keith Fournier, Colson said, “... it’s time that all of us who are Christians come together regardless of the difference of our confessions and our traditions.” In his 1993 book The Body, Colson said, “The body of Christ, in all its diversity, is created with Baptist feet, Charismatic hands, and Catholic ears--all with their eyes on Jesus.” Colson was one of the authors of the 1994 Evangelicals and Catholics Together statement, falsely claiming that Catholics, Protestants, and Baptists agree on “core beliefs.” After his meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1995, Colson proclaimed that the pope was a great defender of “Christian orthodoxy.” In his speech at the Promise Keepers conference in Memphis in 1996, Colson called division a sin and said that when Christians aren’t one they are working against God. In 1998 Roman Catholic Michael Timmis was named chairman of Colson’s Prison Fellowship, and the next year it was report more than 70 percent of Prison Fellowship chaplains were Roman Catholic (Calvary Contender, Nov. 15, 1999). In his 2003 book Being the Body, Colson expressed thanksgiving that “fresh winds are blowing everywhere among Catholics and Protestants” (p. 86). Colson’s ecumenical principle was in open rebellion to God’s commands to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, to beware of false teachers, false gospels, and doctrines of devils, and to separate from heresy (e.g., Matthew 7:15; Romans 16:17; 2 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 4:14; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 3:10-11; 2 Peter 2:1-2; Jude 3). The “conservative” evangelicals that many independent Baptists are flirting around with are bridges to the treacherous waters of modern evangelicalism, with all of its ancient and end-time heresies. (See The Treacherous Waters of the Southern Baptist Convention, a free eBook available from Way of Life Literature.) 

(Friday Church News Notes, April 27, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)