The Promise Keepers' Objective

Introduction

Promise Keepers (PK) is the new religious movement that is sweeping the nation like wildfire. But there are a number of facts you should know about this organization.

"Dallas author and radio pastor Tony Evans gave his best Burgess Meredith impersonation, 'Get up, you bum! Get up, you bum!' in mimicking the key scene from Rocky V in which the trainer Mick convinces his boxer to pull himself together and defeat a seemingly unassailable foe. "As Evans' words echoed down the National Mall in Washington, D.C., an epic roar issued from the throng of men, who deeply responded to the parallel between Rocky and the American evangelical male. Evans likened 'Get up, you bum!' to the cry of Christ for men to live for God. The crowd rose and let loose a deafening shout." Christianity Today. November 17, 1997.

On March 20,1990, University of Colorado head football coach. Bill McCartney, and his friend, Dave Wardell, were on a three-hour car ride to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting in Pueblo, CO. when the idea of filling a stadium with Christian men first came up. Later that year, 72 men began laying plans for such a project.

In 1991, 4,200 men gathered at the University of Colorado Events Center. In 1992, 22,000 men met at Colorado University's Folsom Stadium. In 1993, 50,000 filled Folsom Stadium to capacity. In 1994, seven sites nationwide totaled 278,600 men in attendance. In 1995, 13 gatherings were held with 750,000 in attendance. Each year since then has brought millions of men together to make Promise Keepers commitments. Huge rallies for both pastors and church members have occurred.

In six years, rally attendance has grown from 4,200 a year to 1.1 million a year. Last year's (1996) revenue reached $87 million.

Unfortunately, with the passing of time, the objectives of Promise Keepers have become clearer. What kind of commitments are being made at these meetings? Where is Promise Keepers taking those men? What is the instruction being given? How does this religious movement relate to concepts outlined in Great Controversy?

Here are several problems we find in Promise Keepers:

 Advocacy of an un-Scriptural religious unity at the expense of sound doctrine and practice.

Acceptance and promotion of un-Biblical Charismatic teachings.

Approval and use of psychological techniques and approaches.

Use and promotion of corrupted modern versions of the Bible.

Misapplying, twisting, and misinterpreting key passages of Scripture.

Evangelism at the expense of maintaining the purity of the faith.

Ecumenical inroads into a remarkably broad number of denominations and churches.

We will expand on several of these points later in this report.

The book, Seven Promises of a Promise Keeper, was published in 1994 by Focus on the Family, with articles by leading Protestant Ecumenical preachers (including Bill Bright, James Dobson. Tony Evans, Gary Smalley, and Luis Palau). The subtitle is "seven solid promises that will change a man's life forever."

An example of what will be found in it is Jack Hayford's comment on page 19 of the first chapter (which discusses Promise One: "A man and his God: A Promise Keeper is committed to honoring Jesus Christ through worship, prayer, and obedience to God's Word in the power of the Holy Spirit):

"Redeeming worship centers on the Lord's Table. Whether your tradition celebrates it as Communion, Eucharist, the Mass, or the Lord's Supper, we are all called to this centerpiece of Christian worship."

Is there any difference between the Lord's Supper and the Roman Catholic sacrifice of the Mass? Indeed, there is an incredible difference! How could anyone promise to obey God's Word, and yet stoop to such a compromise?

Promise Keepers teaches those who attend it that all men are going to be saved, regardless of what church they belong to.

Here is how Coach Bill McCartney, founder of PK, described it on pages 160-161 of the same book:

"Now, I don't mean to suggest that all cultural differences and denominational distinctives are going to disappear. But what I know is that God wants to bring Christian men together regardless of their ethnic origin, denominational background, or style of worship.

"There's only one criterion for this kind of unity: to love Jesus and be born of the Spirit of God. Can we look one another in the eye-black, red, brown, yellow, Baptist, Presbyterian, Assemblies of God, Catholic, and so on-and get together on this common ground: 'We believe in salvation though Christ alone, and we have made Him the Lord of our lives'?

"Is that not the central, unifying reality of our existence? And if it is, can we not focus on that and call each other brothers instead of always emphasizing our differences? Men, we have to get together on this!"

Although several other denominations question the rise of Promise Keepers, ironically, only the fundamentalist Baptists and other lesser-known denominations, such as the Mennonites, are deeply upset about the doctrinal void that it urges. Nearly all the other denominations --including our own -see this as a great opportunity for strengthening the ranks of their own members.

We will let the Baptists explain the problem to us:

In 1996 and 1997, the Southwide Baptist Fellowship, the Fundamentalist Baptist Fellowship, and General Association of Regular Baptists enacted resolutions warning their member churches against attending Promise Keepers' meetings or having anything to do with them. Here is one of them:

"Whereas the para-church organization known as Promise Keepers advocates an unscriptural religious unity at the expense of sound doctrine and practice, accepts. and promotes unscriptural charismatic teachings and the inclusion of Roman Catholicism, approves and uses psychological approaches that mix truth and error, uses unholy music and highly questionable speakers, and whereas they are aggressive in the pursuit of new members, a definite threat to Bible-believing Baptist churches who hold to doctrinal purity; therefore, be it resolved that the Southwide Baptist Fellowship stands firmly against it and its ecumenical bent." Southwide Baptist Fellowship, meeting at Trinity Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Florida, October 7-9, 1996.

Here is a second:

"We express our opposition to the inclusive character of Promise Keepers, which minimizes doctrine and denominational distinctions in an attempt to achieve unity and fellowship. We voice our concern over the practice of using some speakers who are identified with denominations that are apostate or charismatic."-General Association of Regular Baptists, June 25, 1997.

And here is a third:

"The FBF [Fundamentalist Baptist Fellowship] continues to oppose the burgeoning movement known as Promise Keepers, and see in this 'grassroots ecumenism' one of the gravest dangers to the cause of true Biblical separation in this generation. A recent example of this ecumenism occurred at the 1996 Clergy Conference for Men held in Atlanta, Georgia, February 13-15, where Bill McCartney, leader of Promise Keepers, said:

" 'It is exciting to see the denominational barriers come down as we have Protestants and Roman Catholics together. The purpose of this meeting is to have the unity of the church.'

"While giving lip service to Jesus Christ, Promise Keepers, in its attempt to break down denominational walls, sends out a confusing message concerning doctrinal walls that God sets up in His Word as essential to Biblical Christianity." -Fundamentalist Baptist Fellowship, meeting at Bethel Baptist Church, Schaumburg, Illinois, June 11-13.

At its annual conference on June 20-22, 1995, the Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America passed a lengthy statement about Promise Keepers. of which this is a portion:

"Promise Keepers' official sounding Doctrinal Statement is crafted so those with theological and ecclesiastical persuasions of belief and nonbelief including Catholic, Mormon, Charismatic and New Evangelical may and do participate. . One of Promise Keepers' goals is to have representative involvement in local churches throughout North America. . Promise Keepers' leaders, speakers and participants hold a multitude of unbiblical doctrines such as sign gifts, psycho-Heresy, and participants are strongly encouraged to ignore Bible doctrine and propound methods that undermine church autonomy and pastoral authority. We therefore resolve and do hereby encourage pastors and laymen to take a clear stand and reject any participation with Promise Keepers lest God's command against compromise be dishonored and churches succumb to ecumenism. . [and we should] teach our congregations the lessons of Scripture and experience which clearly warn against cooperation in spiritual efforts, though noble-sounding, which such are undertaken in ways which conflict with God's Word." -Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America, June 20-22, 1995.

A fifth Baptist association, in its June 21- 25, 1997, annual meeting, has gone on record against participation in Promise Keepers:

"[We are) urging our people and our churches to avoid Promise Keepers and instructing denominational departments and employees not to promote nor participate in the movement." General Association of Regular Baptists, June 25, 1997.

Here is a partial list of other religious groups, organizations, religious publications, and schools which have taken a stand against Promise Keepers:

American Council of Christian Churches. Fundamental Evangelistic Association. Baptist World Mission, Oblo Bible Fellowship, Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America, Mission to Catholics, Media Spotlight, PsychoHeresy Awareness Ministries, Bob Jones University, The Berean Call Ministry.

In addition, all black denominational headquarters, as well as Reformed Church leaders, have refused to approve it. There are reasons. Most are given in this report.

Several books have been written on the subject, including, Promise Keepers: Beware! Vols. 1-2, by D. W. Cloud and Mike Betancourt. Promise Keepers in the Light of Scripture, by Douglas Comin; Beyond Promises: A Biblical Challenge to Promise Keepers, by Douglas Wilson and David Hagopian; and Promise Keepers: Another Trojan Horse, by Phillip Arms.

Such prominent church speakers as John MacArthur Jr.; John Armstrong; RC. Sproul, Jr.; and Don Matzat have spoken against participating in Promise Keepers' meetings.

Our readers have been reading our ongoing tract series entitled The Concordia Crisis. We are happy to report that the current president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has spoken out publicly against contacts with Promise Keepers. Such a statement as the following one indicates that over 20 years after the crisis at Concordia Seminary, which shook that denomination, it is still fairly conservative:

"I have watched the Promise Keepers' movement develop. The background of the movement is important for us to understand. It traces its theological roots to the Pentecostal movement. For instance, the magazine of the Promise Keepers' movement features many advertisements from charismatic and Pentecostal organizations. The magazine itself is published by individuals who have been associated with a popular charismatic magazine called Charisma. So, we need to be cautious as we hear the Promise Keepers movement's doctrinal assertions.

"The Promise Keepers' movement very purposefully de-emphasizes the importance of complete faithfulness to the Word of God. They tend to overlook differences between denominations as not all that important. The Holy Scriptures, time and again, urges us to be completely faithful to all that Jesus has given us . .

"The Promise Keepers' movement tends to view specific doctrinal points of disagreement as non-essential, unimportant and thus able to be overlooked. This would explain why the Promise Keepers' movement offered Holy Communion to a very diverse crowd of people at the Promise Keepers' clergy conference recently held in Atlanta [February 1996]. Differences must be ignored in order to facilitate this sort of ecumenical gathering, which we would describe as unionistic.

"Because God commands us to be faithful to the whole counsel of His Word it is both dishonest and insincere for us to pretend that differences do not 'matter' or are 'insignificant' and thus join in fellowship with those who do not accept the teachings of the Word or whatever the subject might be, the sacraments or the doctrine of regeneration, or justification, faith, sanctification, and all the rest.

"The Promise Keepers' movement downplays differences in these key areas and tries to reduce everything to a very simplistic formulaic approach to the Faith. The Promise Keepers' movement tends to accept the notion that there is a 'generic' sort of Christianity to which the various denominations add their particular emphases, sort of like a 'base' of paint to which various colors are added to give the paint the particular color desired. .

"Overlooking differences is not an option for the faithful of God. Recognizing them and realizing that in this life we may have to separate over them is a responsible choice, as opposed to simply 'agreeing to disagree' and then neglecting these divisive issues." -A.L. Barry. president, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Christian News, June 10,1996.

In the summer of 1996, a well-known fundamentalist editor and writer. Shelton Smith, made the following comments in a question and answer interview. Can you imagine the editor of Sword of the Lord magazine having more common Biblical sense than many of our own people?

"Question: Promise Keepers is a new phenomenon on the scene today. What can you tell us about it?

"Answer: It's the latest major attempt to ecumenize the face of Christianity in America. Ecumenism is an attempt to 'homogenize' the religious scene so everyone will walk the same, talk the same, do the same-and in the same place at the same time-without attention to distinctions or details. . The distlnctives of the Bible must never be diluted, compromised or set aside. If you hold the Bible precious to your soul, lf the Bible is the Word of God, then certain distinctives will be held. . The Promise Keepers' success reflects gullibility, and lots of it. There is so much ignorance of the Bible today; it's tragic. People are grasping in their desperation at all kinds of straws. So many do not check it out by the standards of the Bible; they just grab it and go with it.

"Question: But Promise Keepers has its own distinctives, doesn't it? . Answer: Yes, they do! Their first distinctive is to require you to set aside your distinctives.

"Question: What are you saying?

Answer: The Promise Keepers have their own agenda, and a part of their stated objective requires you to submit to their pre-set program. Specifically, you can't talk about things like eternal security at Promise Keepers. It's forbidden. Of course they wouldn't want you to say anything about standards for music, since they have chosen to use the rock culture, charismatic style of music for their rallies. An observer at the rally for clergy in Atlanta [February 1996] said, "The big-beat contemporary music brought the ministers to their feet, followed by giving a 'high five' to all those around them. .

"Question: Do you not find some good things which you can commend with Promise Keepers?

Answer: That's not the issue! You can usually find a few good things in almost anything. But when they are violations of clear Bible commands (which are not only ignored but encouraged) in order to achieve the goals, it's time to say no. When there are too many flies in the soup, you don't eat the soup.

"Question: But it's all voluntary participation, is it not?

Answer: I'm hearing stories about people being pressured pretty hard. The football couch [Promise Keepers' Bill McCartney] made a significantly disrespectful statement toward pastors who weren't lining up: McCartney said. 'Our clergy are divided. . There is no unity of command . . There is tremendous division in our clergy. . If a guy [a pastor] says that he doesn't want to go [to the Promise Keepers' Clergy Conference held in Atlanta], he needs to be able to tell us why. . We've got to have one leadership, one leadership only.' This incredible summons is way out of line; it's off-base. Pastors who cave in to the Promise Keepers' 'leadership' are going to be hearing more such demands made upon them. I think his statement is reflective of what may be expected from Promise Keepers. They want everybody-Baptists, Catholics, everybody-to do the Promise Keepers' thing, no matter what. That's untenable, uncomfortable, unwarranted, totally unacceptable. .

"Steer clear of Promise Keepers! Do not get into Promise Keepers. Give your loyalty to Bible truth, not a superficial unity. Follow Christ based on Bible truths. Don't get ensnared by this newest ecumenical craze called Promise Keepers." "Dr. Smith Talks about the Promise Keepers, " Sword of the Lord. May 31, 1996.

Individuals who have attended Promise Keepers' meetings are convinced that that high-tech psychology is used to sway the vast crowd into accepting concepts they would not otherwise consider.

"If men are to come together as men, they would do well to follow what the Bible says rather than Freudian fables, Jungian myths, and other self-serving, man-made psychologies. And they would do well to gather together in the place where they are meant to grow -in the local church -not in huge rallies with 'mob psychology' or in groups using encounter group techniques and undermining important doctrinal distinctives."-Martin and Deidre Bobgan, Promise Keepers and Psycho-Heresy.

"There are in the ministry men who gain apparent success by swaying minds through human influence. They play upon the feelings at will, making their hearers weep, and in a few minutes laugh. Under labor of this kind, many are moved by impulse to profess Christ, and there is thought to be a wonderful revival; but when the test comes, the work does not endure. Feelings are stirred, and many are borne along by the tide that seems to be setting heavenward; but in the strong current of temptation they quickly float back as driftwood. " - Gospel Workers, 382
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