Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Walter Martin's "last appearance" on TBN

As the program was about to end, Walter Martin thanked Trinity Broadcasting Network president Paul Crouch and his wife Jan for having the courage for letting the concerns be discussed; he also conveyed his hope that the dialogue will continue. Yet when host Doug Clark announced that there is a scheduled replay of the program, he expressed his doubt if it will ever be replayed. Indeed, TBN did not replay it and Martin was never invited again.

Dr. Martin pulled no punches. On air, he specifically mentioned the names of Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland and Oral Roberts as  purveyors of cultic doctrines within our camp.

I thought of giving a detailed review of this program, but I think there is no need for it. I'll just embed the entire program below. I will comment on one point. The host asked Martin three questions regarding the men he's criticizing:

"Do you believe they are Christian?"
"Born-again?"
"Love the Lord?"

In all the above questions, Martin answered "YES". Yet there is also evidence that after this appearance, the original Bible Answer Man changed his mind, at least regarding Kenneth Copeland.

"For ten years I have warned- And I'm on tape and in print on this- that we were heading into the Kingdom of the Cults with the faith teachers. You are no longer heading there, baby, you are there."
~Walter Martin
Kenneth Copeland's False Prophecy
an audiotape cited in Hank Hanegraaff's Christianity in Crisis

By the way, Martin was a staunch Charismatic.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

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Buy a copy of Walter Martin's The Kingdom of the Cults 

4 comments:

  1. As a conservative Reformed Christian and Post-Millenialist who favors the Dutch Radical and Clarkian Presuppositionalist methodology I am always pleasantly surprised how often I agree with Dr. Martin.

    His ability to explain and argue against heretical and non-Christian doctrines WITHOUT caricaturing them (as so many Evangelicals unfortunately do) was even more astounding than his sheer erudition.

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  2. I've only recently discovered Dr. Martin, but he's right on in everything I've heard. He talks about these things the way Eisenhauer talked about the Axis- not in theoretical terms only, but also in terms of concrete causes and effects, and what we believers ought to do about it.

    A great loss to the kingdom his death was. Such a young man too.

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  3. Probably the greatest apologist in the late 20th century. Some of his answers were a bit one dimensional on this program, but he was almost always spot on theologically. Used to listen to him every day on radio til the day he died. It was he, who gave me the peace in my faith, by his lectures on the security of the true believer. A shame he wasn't withus longer, but he knew he had health problems, but refused to address them wisely. Even though there were times he rubbed me the wrong way on certain issues, I can say he was a true man of God who was a great asset to my personal faith.

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