Popular neoevangelical terms — What do they really mean?

Here is a little vocabulary exercise for Herescope readers. Read each of these definitions below. Then ask yourself the following questions: Are these terms being used in evangelicalism today? Can you find them in the Bible? Is so, check a good concordance and look up the definitions. If not, where…

Rick Warren & Vision Casting

The use of the term “visioning” and all of its variants is part and parcel of the futurists’ method of operating. They believe that “vision casting” is a way to transform Earth’s future and man’s destiny. Just before his death, Willis Harman (see previous posts) served as co-editor for The…

The Future is Now & Getting Pretty Wacky

The Assemblies of God denomination came out with a “VISION for Transformation” statement recently. It is about the same as every other “vision” statement used by churches these days for “transformation.” The futurists are big on envisioning the future, too. They are evolutionists who believe that mankind can “consciously” create…

Christian leaders go on “expedition” with false prophets: Circa 2000

What has happened since the evangelical door was cracked open to let in a Theosophist 26 years ago? The floodgates have opened. Neoevangelicalism is now openly partying with the Theosophists and planning a new future. In May 2000 Bob Buford’s Leadership Network sponsored a “Exploring Off the Map expedition into…

Ockenga and the new science

Herescope has been examining the significance of a historical moment in 1979 when evangelical leaders opened the door to dialogue with a noted occultist, Willis Harman at a Consultation about the future. Harman had proposed a new psychic science. To put this event in context, it is necessary to go…

Peter Drucker: Early Futurist

Peter Drucker, the business management guru, is one of the earliest futurists to come out with philosophies for the 21st Century. Peter Drucker’s ideas have become so cross-pollinated with modern evangelicalism — particularly in the the Purpose-Driven church, and marketplace ministries — that it becomes important to address his philosophies.…

Evangelicals & The Club of Rome

It seems strange to revisit the Club of Rome reports that were issued during the decade of the 1970s. But in the context of the 1977 Consultation of leading evangelicals, which was discussed yesterday on Herescope as part of an ongoing history lesson on neoevangelical heresy, it becomes necessary. Donald…

Why evangelicals became futurists

“The purpose of the [1977] Consultation was to encourage evangelical leaders to think futuristically and begin long-range planning for the church in the face of possible alternative futures.” [emphasis added] This quotation is from Evangelicals Face the Future, in a Preface written by Donald E. Hoke, identified as the Coordinator…

Willis Harman and Christianity Today

Christianity Today magazine was launched by neo-evangelical leaders in the mid-1950s who needed an organ that would “defend the evangelical faith at the intellectual level.” Billy Graham was instrumental in this endeavor. Harold J. Ockenga, in his Foreward to The Battle for the Bible by Harold Lindsell (Zondervan, 1976) explained…