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:
EMNR
PO Box 241171
Bartlett, TN 38184-1171
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
Director of Church Relations
Worldwide Church of God
626-304-6090
Ron.Kelly@wcg.org
Jim Valentine
Christian Apologetics Research and Information Service
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
2jimval@sbcglobal.net
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