These are a number of the authors we are seeing more and more of in our bookstores, churches and (for the most part, unfortunately) in our Christianity. There are others I could mention that are more obvious, but I thought I would draw attention to some of the lesser-known teachers, or, rather, the teachers whose wrong teachings are not as well-known.

MAX LUCADO
What bookstore in our country does -not- have a book by Lucado? He is a minister of Oak Hills Church of Christ in San Antonio, just a few hours west of here. But he is better known as an lecture and author. As author of "No Wonder They Call Him the Savior" he wrote this about Christ:

"Look closely through the shadowy foliage. See that person? See that solitary figure? What's he doing? Flat on the ground. Face stained with dirt and tears. Fists pounding on the hard earth. Eyes wide with a stupor of fear."

Is that the Jesus that you have come to have faith in? "Eyes wide with a stupor of fear?" It is one thing to say that his sweat was like great drops of blood and that he felt the greatest baptism of suffering, pain and alienation at Gethsemane and the cross. It is another altogether to zero in on the merely human side of Christ, as Lucado does in this book.

As a Church of Christ preacher, he also believes that baptism is required for salvation, that baptism comes first and then forgiveness. This is works salvation, of course:

"As we confess Christ as our Lord and are baptized by immersion, God meets us, forgives our sins and gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit that empowers each of us."

He also believes that we shouldn't point out errors in other Christians, but just let each find his own way. It is convenient for the wolf in sheep's clothing to say that we mustn't cry, "Wolf!"

BILL HYBELS
This pastor of the mega-church at Willow Creek started out his ministry by running a poll asking the unchurched why they did not go anymore to any place of worship. These were the main answers, in order of frequency (quoting Hybels). They...

1. didn't like being bugged for money;
2. found church boring, predictable, and routine;
3. didn't think that the church was relevant to their lives; and
4. always left church feeling guilty (the Christian message was too negative with 'sin,' etc.).'

So he went ahead and tailored a positive seeker-friendly church around their needs. No threats. No discomfort. Lots of people.... No Gospel.

TONY CAMPOLO
In his book "Partly Right", Campolo disclosed:

"We affirm our divinity by doing what is worthy of gods, and we affirm our humanity by taking risks only available to mortals. God had to become one of us before He could become heroic ... Robert Schuller affirms our divinity, yet does not deny our humanity ... isn't that what the gospel is? Isn't God's message to sinful humanity that He sees in each of us a divine nature of such worth that He sacrificed His own Son so that our divine potentialities might be realized?"

This quote will be sufficient in itself to show him for what he is - or isn't, rather. It is not orthodox Christianity to say that we have inside of us a "divine nature of such worth that He sacrificed His own Son".

Nevertheless, I will add these from his "A Reasonable Faith":

"We want to convince the whole human race that there is a God who established the infinite value of every person, who mystically dwells in each person ..." (page. 59).

"I do not mean that others represent Jesus for us. I mean that Jesus actually is present in each other person" (page 192)

NORMAN GEISLER
I will admit that I am no fan of Geisler ever since I had read sections of his unfair treatment of Calvinism in his recent book "Chosen but Free". But this is more than that. Being a believer in human free-will is one thing, but saying the following (from his book) is another:

"Irresistible force used by God on his free creatures would be a violation of both the charity of God and the dignity of humans. God is love. True love never forces itself on anyone. Forced love is rape, and God is not a divine rapist!"

By doing this, Geisler has actually blasphemed God in order to stay with his chosen brand of Arminian determinism. This is the reverse of "Let God be true and every man a liar". Also, like Billy Graham, Chuck Colson, J.I. Packer and others, Geisler is willing to overlook doctrinal differences between the Roman Catholic Church and evangelicals. For Geisler, the leap is not as far, since he was first trained in a Roman Catholic school. In his (and Ralph MacKenzie's) "Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences" he expressed the conviction that a "cooperative effort between Roman Catholics and evangelicals could be the greatest social force for good in America".

I believe that we have an obligation to point out these teachings and compare them with Scripture. Some times this "Bereanizing" means that we have to distance ourselves from our favorite authors, lest we lose our Biblical acuity.