BOB JONES,
JOHN WIMBER AND
THE VINEYARD CHRISTIAN
FELLOWSHIPS

One of the main Christian perpetrators of such phrases as "cleansing action," "purging action," etc. in connection with "taking back the country for Christ" was a "prophet" named Bob Jones. Several years ago, Bob Jones was allied with John Wimber of Vineyard International. Bob Jones and John Wimber have since broken fellowship with one another; the reason given is Jones' alleged immorality; but what's important here is not so much Jones' carnal corruption - as heinous and as hypocritical as that might be - but Jones' sinister and malignant "theology" or eschatology (doctrine of "end times") which pictures the seizure of earthly power by a "New Breed" of Christians - death squad style.

Sadly, Religion in Politics is not aware - as of this writing - that the Vineyard, Wimber or any of Jones' other past associates have disavowed Jones' "prophecies" or theology per se - and that's somewhat chilling.

The artful phraseology here (i.e., "cleansing," "New Breed," etc.) is straight out of the lexicon of the Third Reich. In the absence of some sort of public explanation (as opposed to a "back room clarification"), one can only conclude that the similarities are purposeful.

Words are words - and more often than most people care to admit, they mean exactly what they seem to mean. To say - as some people are prone to do - that such men don't really mean what their words plainly seem to convey, is to bury our heads in the sand like ostriches. It's reminiscent of what moderate thinking Germans were inclined to say about Hitler prior to 1933 - that Hitler didn't really mean what he said about the Jews, and that somehow or other, reason would - in the end - prevail.

Well, Hitler, Himmler, Goering, Roehm, etc. did mean what they said, and reason did not prevail! Why is it so difficult for people to come to grips with the fact that such people really mean what they say? When people make public statements like this, there must be a public accounting! There is no room for privacy in such matters! It's not good enough for those who are associated with the Vineyards to say that they are no longer in fellowship with Bob Jones, and leave it at that. The statements themselves must be denounced publicly, and the failure to do so can only mean that there is agreement.

There simply is no room for vagueness and obfuscation in such matters - and the failure of Christian leaders to hold people like Bob Jones accountable for such statements only reveals their spiritual weakness in the face of pressure from their peers to "speak no evil of their brothers and sisters in Christ." Such thinking is "political," in the worst sense of that word. And the effort here by Christian leaders to hide behind the "comfort" of verses like Matthew 18:15-17 (which have to do with carnal sin, not public pronouncements) is reflective of the feebleness of spirit which today seems to have overtaken so many in Christian leadership - people who should know better. If such thinking had been applied to Luther, there would have been no Reformation - which we suppose is now their point. Unity at any cost - even the cost of Truth? - such reasoning is contemptible and should be a shame to right-thinking Christians everywhere!