Volume Four, Issue Four
2/00

Dear All,

There are a couple of videos exposing the false teacher Benny Hinn that I recommend that you get for your library.

The Many Faces Of Benny Hinn by The Door Magazine details the history of Benny Hinn and his organization, almost from
the beginning, using TV shows, documentaries, interviews and other video footage.  By the time you get done watching this 3
hour epic you can see clearly what a consistent deceiver Hinn has been and continues to be.

Benny Hinn - Possessed By Devils? by Rev. Joseph Chambers of Paw Creek Ministries is another excellent expose' of
Benny Hinn using recent video from his Denver and Anaheim crusades.  This video is hard to watch if you love the Lord, but I
am glad Chambers has put this together to remind Christians to stay away from this man and warn others as well.

The Signs & Wonders Movement Exposed by Peter Glover is another video available, also in book form, detailing the
deceptive nature of the Third Wave from its inception.  If The Door has not posted this video yet, you can order it by e-mail.

FEATURE ARTICLE

I have plans to do a Bible study series on being "crucified with Christ".  This is a concept that is at the heart of the true Christian
experience.  The cross that is being preached today is often a watered down cross, a cross that does not beckon the Christian
to come and die.  In researching this subject I ran across an old 1946 article by A. W. Tozer called "The Old Cross And The
New".  Though written long ago this article is as timely today as it was then.  All you have to do is look at what is going on in
the apostate Third Wave to see the effects of a compromised teaching on the cross.

In His hands,
Sandy Simpson, missionary

The Old Cross And The New
by A.W. Tozer, 1946
Man: The Dwelling Place Of God, Published 1966

NOTE: This article first appeared in The Alliance Witness in 1946.  It has been printed in virtually every English-speaking
country in the world and has been put into tract form by various publishers, including Christian Publications, Inc.  It still appears
now and then in the religious press.

ALL UNANNOUNCED AND MOSTLY UNDETECTED there has come in modem times a new cross into popular
evangelical circles.  It is like the old cross, but different: the likenesses are superficial; the differences, fundamental.

From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from that new philosophy has come a new
evangelical techniques new type of meeting and a new kind of preaching.  This new evangelism employs the same language as
the old, but its content is not the same and its emphasis not as before.

The old cross would have no truck with the world.  For Adam's proud flesh it meant the end of the journey.  It carried into
effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai.  The new cross is not opposed to the human race; rather, it is a friendly pal
and, if understood aright, it is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent enjoyment.  It lets Adam live without
interference.  His life motivation is unchanged; he still lives for his own pleasure, only now he takes delight in singing choruses
and watching religious movies instead of singing bawdy songs and drinking hard liquor.  The accent is still on enjoyment, though
the fun is now on a higher plane morally if not intellectually.

The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic approach.  The evangelist does not demand abnegation of
the old life before a new life can be received.  He preaches not contrasts but similarities.  He seeks to key into public interest
by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands; rather, it offers the same thing the world does, only on a higher
level.  Whatever the sin-mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the
gospel offers, only the religious product is better.

The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him.  It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his
self-respect.  To the self-assertive it says, "Come and assert yourself for Christ." To the egotist it says, "Come and do your
boasting in the Lord." To the thrillseeker it says, "Come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship." The Christian message is
slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.

The philosophy back of this kind of thing may be sincere but its sincerity does not save it from being false.  It is false because it
is blind.  It misses completely the whole meaning of the cross.

The old cross is a symbol of death.  It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being.  The man in Roman times who took
up his cross and started down the road had already said goodby to his friends.  He was not coming back.  He was going out to
have it ended.  The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the man, completely and for
good.  It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim.  It struck cruel and bard, and when it had finished its work, the man
was no more.

The race of Adam is under death sentence.  There is no commutation and no escape.  God cannot approve any of the fruits of
sin, however innocent they may appear or beautiful to the eyes of men.  God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then
raising him again to newness of life.

That evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the Bible and cruel to
the souls of its bearers.  The faith of Christ does not parallel the world, it intersects it.  In coming to Christ we do not bring our
old life up onto a higher plane; we leave it at the cross.  The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die.

We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and
the world.  We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of
sports or modem education.  We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.

God offers life, but not an improved old life.  The life He offers is life out of death.  It stands always on the far side of the
cross.  Whoever would possess it must pass under the rod.  He must repudiate himself and concur in God's just sentence
against him.

What does this mean to the individual, the condemned man who would find life in Christ Jesus?  How can this theology be
translated into life?  Simply, he must repent and believe.  He must forsake his sins and then go on to forsake himself.  Let him
cover nothing, defend nothing, excuse nothing.  Let him not seek to make terms with God, but let him bow his head before the
stroke of God's stem displeasure and acknowledge himself worthy to die.

Having done this let him gaze with simple trust upon the risen Saviour, and from Him will come life and rebirth and cleansing
and power.  The cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus now puts an end to the sinner; and the power that raised Christ from
the dead now raises him to a new life along with Christ.

To any who may object to this or count it merely a narrow and private view of truth, let me say God has set His hallmark of
approval upon this message from Paul's day to the present.  Whether stated in these exact words or not, this has been the
content of all preaching that has brought life and power to the world through the centuries.  The mystics, the reformers, the
revivalists have put their emphasis here, and signs and wonders and mighty operations of the Holy Ghost gave witness to God's
approval.

Dare we, the heirs of such a legacy of power, tamper with the truth?  Dare we with our stubby pencils erase the lines of the
blueprint or alter the pattern shown us in the Mount?  May God forbid.  Let us preach the old cross and we will know the old
power.