EMNR Press Releases and Statements |
EMNR has new address, phone number, director EMNR now has a new executive director. We value and appreciate the efforts of outgoing executive director Bob Waldrep, who served EMNR without payment for the past ten years. The Interim Executive Director is L. L. "Don" Veinot, Jr. (who is also president of EMNR’s board of directors), while the day-to-day operations will be managed by Steve Hogel, who currently has the title of Assistant Executive Director. Steve will be answering the mail, including memberships, newsletters, and conference registration, at the new business address of EMNR in Bartlett, Tennessee:
Until further notice, EMNR’s new phone number is (901) 371-8431. EMNR expresses grateful appreciation to Watchman Fellowship, particularly the Birmingham, Alabana, office, for providing us with technical, material, and business assistance for well over a decade. Posted April 17, 2008 Statement regarding Conference presentation by Cynthia Kunsman Several people have contacted us regarding a presentation on "Christian Patriarchy" by Cynthia Kunsman at EMNR’s national conference, held at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in March 2008. After reviewing her presentation, the board of EMNR and the administration of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary concur that Mrs. Kunsman made unwarranted and misinformed accusations against Christian teachers and ministries, including the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and agencies within the Southern Baptist Convention. While several aspects of the "Christian Patriarchy" movement (exemplified by Vision Forum) merit study and correction, in this instance the speaker’s criticism of alleged "influences" on this movement was faulty. Posted April 17, 2008 REVIEW: A Different Jesus? The Christ of the Latter-Day Saints In 2005, the controversial book A Different Jesus? The Christ of the Latter-Day Saints by Mormon apologist Robert L. Millet was published. What made the book controversial was not so much its content but its marketing. The first controversy centered on its publisher, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., long known as a Christian publishing house. Because of their trust in the Eerdmans’ imprint, some Christian bookstores ordered the book without realizing it was actually a defense of the Mormon view of Jesus. The book’s title perhaps also was misleading in that it could easily be interpreted as a book by a Christian apologist pointing out that the Christ of the Latter-day Saints is, indeed, a different Jesus. The controversy was further fueled, at least among some in the apologetics field, because several Christian leaders and academicians wrote blurbs that were used on the back cover. This controversy led to both healthy and unhealthy dialogue among Christians regarding whether these blurbs constituted an endorsement of the book or helped to promote Mormonism to the unwary reader. Some people argued that readers unfamiliar with the beliefs of the Latter-day Saints might be led to Mormonism by these blurbs. With this in mind, we asked EMNR member and expert on Mormonism, Bill McKeever of Mormonism Research Ministry, to take on this issue and provide a no-holds-barred review of the book and the blurbs. What follows is Mr. McKeever’s insightful review, including his thoughts on those "controversial" blurbs on the back cover. We believe this essay will prove beneficial to general readers of Millet's book and particularly helpful to EMNR members in framing the discussion of the varied levels of apologetics being offered in modern society. Though we find great variety of methodology, let us strive to ensure that we all hold in common our motivation to advance the one true Kingdom—the Kingdom established by Jesus Christ. Click HERE to read Bill McKeever's review. Posted January 2006 Press Release Concerning the Tragedy in Milwaukee The citizens of Milwaukee and the United States were stunned by the unprecedented shooting of 11 members of the Living Church of God during their regularly scheduled sabbath worship services on March 12, 2005, at the Sheraton Hotel in Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The gunman, Terry Ratzmann, was a member of the church facing unemployment and other stresses. Without speaking a word, he killed 7 people, including the pastor and his son, and wounded four others. Ratzmann emptied nearly two clips of a 9mm handgun, apparently shooting at random, and then committed suicide with the remaining bullet. The Living Church of God, founded by Roderick C. Meredith, is a nontrinitarian, sabbatarian sect based on the teachings of the late Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God. When the Worldwide Church of God adopted evangelical beliefs in the 1990s, Meredith left to form a church that would continue in Armstrong's original teachings. The story of the metamorphosis of the Worldwide Church of God from a nontrinitarian sect to an evangelical church is given by current Worldwide Church of God president Joseph Tkach, Jr., in his book Transformed by Truth (Multnomah, 1997), and by J. Michael Feazell, executive editor of The Plain Truth magazine, in The Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God (Zondervan, 2003). A documentary of the changes brought to the church by the discovery of God's grace can be found in the 74-minuted video Called to Be Free (Living Hope Ministries, 2004). The Worldwide Church of God now belongs to the National Association of Evangelicals and its president, Joseph Tkach, Jr., currently holds membership in EMNR. Although the teachings and practices of the Living Church of God place them as one of the New Religions with which EMNR is concerned, we join with them in mourning this cruel and senseless tragedy. Evangelicals everywhere should be dismayed and grieved at this event, and we urge EMNR members and others to offer prayer, intercession, as well as sending flowers and other appropriate forms of emotional support to the victims of this tragedy. For additional information contact: Ronald Kelly Jim Valentine |
Evangelical Ministries to New Religions
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