NOTED PROFESSOR REFUTES THE MINDBENDERS
The following letters written by Christians meeting with the local churches refute the evil lies propagated by Jack Sparks in his book, The Mindbenders. Mr. Sparks, obviously a man who has given up the use of his conscience, has charged that Christians meeting with the local churches are irrational, mindless and have forfeited “all normal use of the human mind” (page 226). What an evil lie! Yet there are some on this campus, including some who are so called Christian leaders, who are active in promoting this book. There is also a Christian bookstore in this town selling this wicked book. We hope they are willing to read and consider these articles which definitely prove that the slanderous accusations made in this book concerning the local churches are a lie and without Biblical foundation.
I am a university professor who has been a Christian for twenty-five years whom the Lord has given a heart to love Him and a desire to know and experience His Word. For seven years I have richly enjoyed fellowship with fellow believers in what Mr. Sparks in his book, The Mindbenders, refers to as the local churches. My experience is diametrically opposed to the slanderous allegations made in this book.
Formerly I fellowshipped for ten years with believers in what is commonly called the Plymouth Brethren and also for four years with the Reformed Presbyterians. In spite of maintaining a consistent daily time in the Word with the Lord and being active in the affairs of these groups of believers, I recognized that my heart was growing colder toward the Lord.
The Bible was so clear and confident of the ability of Christ’s life within us to be our sufficiency and simultaneously produce a testimony to Him on the earth! Just as God’s purpose in the Old Testament was to have a physical temple testifying to His oneness that would be filled with His glory, so today He desires “His Body, the Church” to testify to His oneness and be filled with His glory. The book of Ephesians makes it clear that God’s purpose has not changed in the New Testament.
However my experience and observation was that Christians relied considerably more on natural gifts, eloquence and organizational ability that upon Christ’s life. There was little heed to the Lord’s words, “without me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). In fact, there was a prevailing attitude that quite a lot could be accomplished through the efforts of the natural man. Rarely was the status quo questioned. Rarely was there the realization that what was being done in Christ’s name could be an abomination to the Lord (Matthew 7:21-23).
Rarely was there the thought that all of the warnings in the epistles—written to believers—could be specifically directed at the thoughts and activities of evangelical believers such as ourselves. The many warnings in Galatians and Hebrews, especially, were ignored as if they were spoken to non-Christians.
There was to me an abnormal preoccupation with the “once saved, always saved” doctrine and with what Paul describes as the elementary things of Christ (Hebrews 6:1). Little concern was devoted to the whole counsel of God as revealed in the New Testament. Where was His Headship expressed? Where was the Spirit’s refreshing water in the Word being enjoyed (John 4:14; 7:39; Ephesians 5:26)? Where was the Bride being prepared (Revelation 19:7)?
I am still perplexed at how much emphasis was placed upon “going to heaven” while the Bible actually emphasizes that God has destined us to be His sons and that therefore His purpose is that “Christ be formed in us” in our daily living (Romans 8:29; Galatians 4:19).
In my experience with evangelical groups, I encountered numbers of believers who were clear about the need to be saved, yet had no understanding of God’s purpose in saving them. How few seemed to realize that now they had another life to live by! How could so many believers operate under the assumption that their natural man, inherently at enmity with God, was now acceptable as the source of their daily living (I Cor. 2:14)? Did anyone really believe that in God’s eyes nothing is acceptable except Christ’s life? Flesh begets flesh, but only the Spirit begets spirit (John 3:6; Rom. 7:18).
Eventually I came to the point of confessing, “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” No matter if the whole evangelical Christian establishment and all my friends rose up to dissuade me, I could no longer identify with the lack of Christ’ Headship of His Body. Inconsistencies of practice and doctrine in denominational Christianity led me to the conclusion that “in the beginning it was not so (Matthew 19:8).
As a contrast, my experience since I have come in to the church life has confirmed that not only does the Bible reveal that the Body should be characterized by a God-given oneness, and absoluteness of consecration to Christ and a daily supply of nourishment from the Word, but that it is indeed possible and practical here on the earth.
I am for Christ, His Word, His Church and His Kingdom. I prefer to experience the Lord’s “shaking” now in order”, that what cannot be shaken may remain (Heb. 12:26-28). I care not if this “shaking” takes the form of ridicule or slander from fellow believers, for such allegations can only result in making me turn to the Lord in a more desperate way that He be my life. Even if rumors and allegations may cause me to be despised by my brothers, I choose not to compromise my inward desire to know and experience the reality in Christ.
Gamaliel prophesied that “if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” (Acts 5:34-39). Irrational opposition confirms my conviction that churches standing for Christ’s Headship and oneness of believers within a locality are the move of God on the earth today. Every move of God, without exception, has been opposed by the religious establishment of the time.
Mr. Sparks has tried to discredit the local churches by making a sweeping accusation that believers in this fellowship of oneness under Christ’s Headship do not function mentally in a normal way. Such a statement is simplistic and naïve, to say the least. Moreover it ignores the basic issue: the discrepancy between the Word of God and the situation in modern Christianity. Anyone can attack fellow believers, but who is addressing the deep symptoms of the illness within Christ’s Body? A. W. Tozer was not meeting with the local churches but he voiced a deep and eloquent protest against this discrepancy. In “The Waning Authority of Christ in the Church,” a chapter in his book, God Tells The Man Who Cares, he gave a true diagnosis of an ill whose healing is now being attacked.
Please excuse the personal reference, but in the seven years since I have been in daily fellowship with believers in local churches, my mind has certainly not been impaired nor have I forfeited “all normal use of the mind” as Sparks accuses. During these years I have functioned normally as a professor, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses and advising doctoral students whose research has subsequently been published. During this period of time I have been appointed to a chaired professorship having a $1,000,000.00 endowment and have given five papers at international conferences in Australia, Amsterdam, London, Stockholm and Toronto. Each of these papers had to be screened by five international referees to be accepted on the programs. In 1978 I was selected as the “Distinguished Lecturer from North America” by the American Association of Environmental Engineering Professors and gave lectures at Stanford, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, and the state universities of Washington, Oregon, Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois. This year I have been invited to give a keynote address at the VI International Fermentation Congress and in 1979 I gave a lecture at the N.A.T.O. Advanced Study Institute. I have recently consulted for U. S. governmental agencies and for companies in Japan, Sweden, Canada and the U.S. During these years I have been awarded $750,000 in research contracts and privately have been granted three U. S. patents and two foreign patents.
Again I say it is unjust and preposterous to allege that believers meeting in local churches have forfeited the normal functioning of their mind. On the contrary, I would judge that since my coming to experience Christ as my life in this living fellowship in Him, I would judge my own mind to be functioning in a more healthy manner than ever before.
R. E. Speece
Betz Chair Professor of
Environmental Engineering, Drexel University,
Philadelphia. M.E.: Yale, 1958 Ph. D.: M.I.T. 1961
Jack Sparks, in his book The Mindbenders has falsely accused that the local churches do not encourage the study of the Bible but rather come to God’s Word in a mindless way. I want to give my personal testimony as a response to this charge.
I have been in the church for three and a half years. During this period of time I have attended (along with thousands of others from the churches from many parts of the world) numerous different training meetings in which the Word of God was richly ministered. Six of these covered ten days each. One was six days long. For not less than six hours per day we studied and examined the Scriptures in an intensive, thorough way.
In addition, I was present for eight conferences which lasted from two to four days each, consisting of two meetings per day, two hours per meeting. Without exception every conference I have attended has consisted of further exposure to and examination of the Bible.
For three and a half years I have attended not less than three church meetings per week in which messages from Scripture were the center of approximately two hours of fellowship and enjoyment.
These items do not include countless hours spent in the Bible in informal fellowship, morning watch, and personal study.
I can truthfully say in the three and a half years I have been in the church, I have learned more about the real meaning of the Bible than I did four years in three Christian Colleges, three and a half years in a theological seminary, twenty-four years in a denomination, one and a half years as a pastor, and fourteen and a half years as an evangelist.
The charge that the local churches do not study the Bible, but rather deal with the Bible in an irrational way, is utterly and absolutely false. We love God’s Word. We love to study the Scripture and thereby come to know our Lord Jesus in a deeper way.
Jerry Reimer
B. A. Oklahoma Baptist University
M. Div., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southern Baptist Evangelist – 14 ½ years
We would ask the Christian public to decide whether these letters were written by mindless and irrational people, as Jack Sparks claims. How could anyone with a Christian conscience promote such a book which has been proven to be full of lies? Do those promoting this book seek the truth or do they merely seek to slander other born-again Christians for their own purpose? We are still waiting and again challenge those persons who are shamefully propagating this evil book to show us our error from God’s Word alone.
THE BIBLICAL REVELATION OF THE CHURCH VS. THE MINDBENDERS
Jack Sparks, author of The Mindbenders, who claims to be a Christian, has chosen to malign and slander genuine believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are mystified. Why would a person choose to lie about other Christians? What is this man’s motive for including in his book on cults a chapter concerning born-again believers who meet with the local churches, those who are standing for the Lord’s testimony of oneness in each locality (see The Normal Christian Church Life by Watchman Nee)? Why has he found it necessary not only to misrepresent the local churches, but even to tell blatant lies? Does Jack Sparks have a Christian conscience?
Although we do not like to respond in such a public way, we are compelled to strongly refute the evil lies being spread about the Christians who fellowship in the churches. Silence, we fear, would indicate consent, which our conscience cannot tolerate. Not only are we seeking to stop the mouths of those persons on this campus, who for their own purposes are propagating this evil book—but we feel compelled to speak the truth as God’s Word reveals it. This indeed is contrary to men such as Jack Sparks who seek to distort it.
Jack Sparks, by his own admission (and to his shame) is a man attempting to evaluate what is of God according to a standard other than God’s Word alone. In his section on the local churches he refers to God’s Word only once to refute what he calls doctrinal error. Rather than using God’s Word as the standard for truth, Sparks refers thirty-five times to the councils and “standard” of historic Christendom. Why is this man unable to refute what he calls error by using God’s Word alone? Perhaps he is unacquainted with the Bible. Are we not told in II Timothy 3:16-17 that the Word of God is “profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction . . .” Jack Sparks cannot use God’s Word to support his deceitful misrepresentation and twisting because the Word of God exposes his natural, corrupted and darkened concepts. Mr. Sparks has made a choice—a choice to reject the pure church creeds and councils (which things are absolutely not the Word of God). Jack Sparks and all of Christendom may so choose, but we will never accept the darkened theology of man—we believe and hold to every Word of God as revealed in the Bible—and nothing else! Since Mr. Sparks attacks the local churches based upon a “yardstick” other than God’s Word, we wish to briefly look at the Biblical revelation of what the church really is.
Other times when we preach the gospel to unbelievers they argue that what we say about Jesus Christ as God’s unique way of salvation is “too narrow,” “out of date,” or “not practical for today’s more complex world situation.” Exercising their darkened mentality (Eph. 4:18) they reason against God’s revealed way of salvation—Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). We often respond, “The Bible says…” or “it is written in God’s Word…” Concerning salvation, most genuine believers have had such an experience while sharing with unbelievers—the fallen concepts of man versus the Word of God. It is most regrettable, however, that among God’s children the same respect for and close adherence to God’s Word cannot be found concerning the truth of the church. When we speak of the church we rarely hear such refreshing words as “The Bible says…” or “It is written in God’s Word…” Rather, we hear such comments as, “That’s too idealistic;” “That could never work today;” or “We’ve always done it this way.” When we hear these words we are grieved and recall the words of the Lord Jesus to the Pharisees in Matthew 19:8, “It was not so in the beginning.”
What is the church? We do not mean the poor situation of today’s Christendom, but rather, what is God’s revelation concerning His church? First of all, let us make this point very clear. We have no respect nor any regard for the councils and creeds of the so called “historic Christian church”. Our unique yardstick and standard for what the church is and must be is God’s Word alone.
It is common to hear Christians way, “What body do you meet with,” or “I meet with such and such ‘body’.” Ridiculous! According to God’s Word “there is one body” (Eph. 4:4; Col. 3:15). This is “the church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18, 24). Not too long ago a pastor, a man who had received his doctorate, said this, “Don’t say the church is the body of Christ; say the church is like the body of Christ.” What heresy! Although many may not vocalize this thought, the fact is that most Christians today hold such a fallen concept. The Bible, however, does not say the church is like his body, but “the church which is his body.” What are the implications involved if we are truly to take God at His Word? Why are men like Jack Sparks seeking to twist the Word of God to fit their natural, fallen and organizational concept? Because if, as the Bible says, the church really is the Body of Christ, there is no room, nor place, nor need for man’s natural ability and organization.
On the day of Pentecost the church came into being, but we must ask how it came into being. Was there a council establishing the criteria for membership, electing a pastor, voting on members and establishing committees? NO! The church came into being by birth, by Christ being born into his chosen ones (John 1:13; 3:6-7; II Cor. 13:5; Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19; Col. 1:27, 9:4; I Pet. 3:23; II Pet. 1:4; I John 3:3, 9; 5:12). Watchman Nee, a man respected throughout the world among born-again Christians for his living knowledge of the Word, oints out in his book, The Glorious Church, that the relationship between Christ and the church is typified by the relationship between Adam and Eve (as the Apostle Paul alludes to in Ephesians 5:25-33). Watchman Nee says that the church is likened to Eve who was taken out of Adam and therefore was the constituent of Adam—“bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23; Eph. 5:30), He goes on to say that, “This means that the church comes out of Christ. Only that which is out of Christ can be the church. All that is not of Christ is not the church” (p. 29). In his book, What Shall This Man Do, Watchman Nee in referring to the relationship between Christ and His Church (as typified by the fact that Even’s very life and essence was derived from Adam) says, “speaking reverently, the Church is Christ” (p. 92). Brother Nee, of course, does not mean the church is Christ in deity to be worshipped; but rather, in life and nature. It is because the church is organically united, not in title but in life, to the Lord Jesus that Paul in Ephesians 5:32 alls the relationship between Christ and His Church “a great mystery.” Concerning this oneness between the Lord Jesus and his believers, which men like Jack Sparks belittle, the Apostle Paul was so bold even to say “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (I Cor. 6:17). In Hebrews 2:10 the Lord Jesus states clearly that he and his believers, the members of His body, are actually from one source. He says “both He who is sanctifying and those who are being sanctified are all of One.” It is because we, his members who are being sanctified, and He, our Head who is sanctifying, are all from one source—God the Father—that He is not ashamed to call us brothers.