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"But
if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin,
and are convinced of the law as transgressors." James 2:9
The last four decades has seen an explosion
of evangelical radio and television stations and networks in America. A coadjutant of the Christian radio network boom has been the rise of
seemingly Teflon-coated Christian celebrity personalities. The Apostle
Paul was held accountable to the Scriptures by the Bereans, and rightfully
so; but these Christian radio personalities seem immune to any such
standard. Certainly, we are not to bite and devour one another or be gnat
strainers; but just as certainly, we are to prove all things by the
Scriptures and are not to swallow camels out of partiality for
personalities. We all make some mistakes; but when compromise and error is
weaved throughout the warp and woof of a man's ministry, that man needs to
make things right, or else Christians must not support his ministry or
minister with him, for that matter. However, when it comes to being held
accountable to a scriptural standard, one would be tempted to think that
the conservative Christian celebrities—they cannot rightly be called
fundamentalists—are pushing the envelope to see just how much their
gullible, star-struck audiences will swallow.
Dr. D. James Kennedy is a prime example of
this phenomenon. Kennedy is the pastor of the 10,000-member Coral Ridge
Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He is also the founder and head of Coral Ridge Ministries. Under the
umbrella of that ministry are a number of ministry works. These include
Dr. Kennedy's weekly one-hour television program, his daily half-hour
radio program, and a daily ninety-second Kennedy radio commentary. All of
those programs are heard nationwide. The D. James Kennedy Center for
Christian Statesmanship and the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ
are also divisions of Coral Ridge Ministries but with separate web sites.
Dr. Kennedy is no doubt a very influential,
powerful person, but he is not using his position and stature to
"earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the
saints"—quite the opposite. On the one hand, Kennedy identifies
himself with the heroes of the Reformation, even posting Luther's
Ninety-Five Theses on his Coral Ridge Ministries web site. On the other
hand, Dr. Kennedy has done much to advance the cause of popery among
American evangelicals. Over the years, he has been involved in one
ecumenical effort after another and has presented on his radio and
television programs Catholics as Christians. One can also find quotes from
"Mother" Teresa and the pope and letters from Roman Catholic
fans on the web sites of Kennedy's several ministries. His Reclaiming
America web site features a "gospel" message from Pope Benedict
XVI which begins: "Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we
know what life is." Dr. Kennedy supports many other proudly
ecumenical ministries such as Heartbeat International, a crisis pregnancy
center network. We could make a long list of, not simply questionable
comments or long-past blunders by Kennedy, but blatant promotions of the
Roman Catholic religion in violation of the Word of God. But with space
limits in mind, I will simply list just several recent examples in which
D. James Kennedy has served the cause of the pope while claiming to serve
the Lord Jesus Christ and earnestly contend for the faith of the gospel.
In 2002, Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries
produced and aired on television to a national audience a special titled What
If Jesus Had Never Been Born? This program was hosted by Dr. Kennedy
and was billed by him as an effort to "present the Gospel to the
nation in a most unique and compelling manner." Among featured
speakers whom Kennedy recruited to "present the Gospel" on What
If Jesus Had Never Been Born? was the Catholic theologian
"Father" Francis Martin! The documentary, which was rich with
idolatrous, Romish pictures of "Jesus," also included a glowing
endorsement of "Mother" Many-Ways-to-God Teresa's work in Calcutta.
In 2004, Dr. Kennedy enthusiastically
promoted the Roman Catholic evangelistic film The
Passion of the Christ.
In 2005, Kennedy was a featured speaker at
the Traditional Values Coalition Inauguration Gala which was opened in
prayer by one of his allies in the "cultural wars," Catholic
priest Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life. (See the book More
Than These.) One could hope that Kennedy was caught off
guard by Pavone's appearance, and when the chance presented itself, he at
least drew a sharp line of demarcation between him and the priest; but of
course, that is not the case.
In 2006, Dr. Kennedy responded to the Da
Vinci Code controversy by producing another one of his one-hour
television documentaries and, in his defense of Christianity, included at
least two Roman Catholic speakers.
I am not a listener of Dr. Kennedy's
nationally broadcast radio program, Truths
That Transform; but recently, I did hear an April 23, 2006 edition, "Crimes in the Name of Christianity." In that program,
Dr. Kennedy dealt with charges that Christians have committed atrocities
such as the Crusades and the Inquisition. He began by addressing the
Crusade issue this way: "Oh, you talk about Christianity, but look at
the Crusades. What a horrible spot on the history of mankind. Well, how
shall we answer that question, What about the Crusades? Well, let me make
a suggestion. When they ask you that question, I would recommend that you
simply respond, Which crusade did you have in mind? Are you talking about
the crusade of the Muslims to take over the Holy Land and all of the sacred places of Christianity? Or are you talking about the
later crusade of Christians to take them back? Which one were you
referring to?"
Dr. Kennedy then went on to defend the
Crusades without mentioning that they were the popes' crusades; they were
not "Christian" crusades and certainly were not conducted in a
Christian fashion. He finished the crusade segment with this comment:
"So, what about the Crusades? Well, which crusade did you have in
mind? The Muslim crusade that took the Holy Land and the holy places away from the Christians or the later Christian
crusade that endeavored to take them back?" A better answer by Dr.
Kennedy would have been, "Well, which crusade do you have in mind?
The popes' bloody, ungodly crusades in the Middle East or the popes' bloody, ungodly crusades against the Lord's people in Europe, such as the Waldenses? As a Christian minister, I abhor the Crusades
along with every other abominable crime committed by the antichrist papacy
in the name of Christ."
Kennedy's "sacred places of
Christianity" and "holy places" comments show that the
yeast of Romanism has been working in his mind and heart. The Lord has not
seen fit to preserve for us such places as the tomb of Jesus, much less
His burial shroud or relics from His cross, no matter what the Romanists
claim, since many would worship the things and the place instead of the
Person. The true "holy place" is New Zion, the Church of Jesus
Christ. Our "sacred places" are the sites where the blood of
Christian martyrs was shed in times past, usually by Romanists.
By the way, under "About Our
Logo" on Dr. Kennedy's Center for Christian Statesmanship web site,
we find this: "At the crest's foundation is a crusader's shield, rich
in heritage and ancient significance."
In the same Truths
That Transform program, Dr. Kennedy spent seven minutes telling
Christians how to explain the Inquisition to unbelievers. It was, he
explained, the work of "nominal Christians," not true believers.
Not once did Kennedy utter any such words as pope,
Roman Catholic, papacy,
Romanism, or Rome. Not once did he give any inkling whatsoever that the Inquisition was
directed by the pope and carried out by his priests!
Dr. D. James Kennedy, held by many American
evangelicals to be a great Christian statesman and one of the foremost
defenders of the Christian faith, clearly is a double-minded man whose
thinking and ministry have been leavened by his ecumenical efforts with
Roman Catholics. Those who insist that they are able to indulge in
ministry relationships forbidden by God and still not be polluted with
error—yea, even begin to promote error themselves—ought to take heed
to the tragic example of Dr. D. James Kennedy. The man has been
cross-pollinated with Romanism due to his reliance on Roman Catholic help
in his ministry efforts.
In the example of Dr. Kennedy, we have a
vivid warning of even the personal dangers inherent in yoking with
unbelievers and communing with darkness. The man who would "reclaim America for Christ" apparently has lost so much discernment that he is
willing to assist Rome's attack upon the essential doctrine of justification. Let me explain
briefly what I mean. Coral Ridge Ministries sells the GOD'S
WORD bible. Amazingly, the producers of this translation arrogantly
claim a registered trademark on its name, GOD'S
WORD. Dr. Kennedy's endorsement of the GOD'S
WORD translation appears on his own ministry web site and on the web
site of Green Key Books, which markets the translation.
A lengthy paper could be written on this
translation; but to keep this article from becoming too lengthy, I will
simply point out that the translation team of the "bible" about
which we are speaking and which Dr. Kennedy promotes has replaced justification
and justified with approval
and approved. In other words,
even though it is a nonsensical translation of the Greek, Christians and
the unsaved are taught by that corrupt translation that sinners must seek
to gain God's "approval" in order to enter the kingdom of heaven
when in reality it is Christ's righteousness that they must have imputed
to them in order to be declared just by God and adopted as His child. Thus
the critical doctrine of justification is tossed in the trash bin on the
whims of a few men who apparently have no fear of God and certainly do not
tremble before His Word. The absolute need of sinners to be declared just
by God based on the merits of Christ is forgotten in favor of sinners
simply seeking God's "approval." Clearly, anything which weakens
the doctrine of justification, not to mention the authority of the
Scriptures themselves, is useful to the cause of Rome. Nevertheless, D. James Kennedy, who would have us believe that he is a
descendant of the Reformers, endorses and markets a bible which grossly
and openly attacks the doctrine of justification. Of course, he also
markets other perversions of the Bible, including the NIV and the NLT.
It is difficult to believe how deeply into
error Dr. D. James Kennedy has sunk. But it is even more difficult to
believe what license conservative and even some fundamentalist Christians
have given Kennedy by being willing to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to
his error, apparently based on Dr. Kennedy's conservative Christian
credentials and celebrity status. The noble Bereans would not give even
the Apostle Paul a free pass. American evangelicals as a whole are clearly
far from noble and getting further from Scripture every day.
Related articles
Reclaiming America for Whom?
The
Bride Betrayed
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