Paul Williams, The Nihilist

In close proximity to Dr Rogers is a man who has slipped lower than humans can imagine. Perhaps the lowest level of sinfulness would be Nihilism. A doctrine that traditional values are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless. Rom 1:28 He considered the life of his own son so insignificant as to be destroyed for the sake of destruction. A death would have been preferable to the ordeal he put him through. Jesus' suggestion to a man considering doing this to his son was suicide. He even described an act so certain to absolutely destroy oneself. Cast yourself into the sea with a millstone tied around your neck. Some sinful situations, because of the hardness of men's hearts, can't be resolved on earth they are resolved in heaven. I John 5:16; Heb. 10:26


Nihilism drove Friedrich Nietzsche crazy in his dying days. The philosophy he popularized destroyed his soul and warped his mind to insanity. But Paul Williams advocating the same philosophy in practice heard a gospel that helped him maintain a balance between insanity and salvation. He could sodomize his son Saturday night and teach Sunday School the next day!

The semi-pelagian beliefs of Adrian Rogers afforded Paul Williams the meaning that otherwise drove Friedrich Nietzsche crazy. This is a sad commentary to fundamental Christianity. Rather than reveal the secrets of his heart and have Paul Williams fall to his knees and confess "of a truth I perceive that indeed God is with you." Paul Williams' heart was cauterized with the "love worth finding."

Where Is The Outrage?

Murder of gay student sparks outrage, debate - murder of Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming - Christian Century, Oct 28, 1998

OUTRAGE It is the response toward injustice and is the familiar reaction we see on a weekly basis on our globe. Cars overturned, fires set, buildings broken into, looting, people injured and killed. Emotional outburst and speeches by men and women who rise up as leaders against injustices.

Today at work I ask a black lady working beside me, "why is it that a white police officer accidentally shoots a youth who he mistakenly thinks has a pistol and riots erupt. It happens in LA, Detroit, Chicago and NY and yet an ordained SBC minister at Bellevue Baptist sodomizes his own young son for 12-18 months and there is no outrage by the church to speak of?" She said, "that is a shame!"

One poster on a blog wrote: " When Bellevue's Paul Williams resigned from teaching his adult SS class a few months before the story about him molesting his son came out, members of his former class were saying that they'd go to any class he taught -- if he'd just come back. Someone asked them if that wouldn't make them feel bad for the victim, and their response was, "No, Paul's the best there is!"

In the Old Testament when a grievous highhanded crime such as this was committed the man would be led outside the city gates and stoned. The angry crowd would gnash their teeth at him and in riotous manner cast stones at him as if he were a wild animal.No, for us it was a "moral failure" and the blood covers him, he is forgiven. However Heb 10:26 says to me that "no, he isn't forgiven," rather a willful sin for which there is no sacrifice. A fearful awaiting of fiery indignation in the life to come when he faces an angry God.

Arminians Are Made Not Born

Galatians 4:9 (King James Version)
"But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?"

You were not regenerated into an Arminian. You didn't just metamorphose into a "free willer" rather you were supernaturally tranformed into a new creation in Christ by the Holy Spirit. Then you were discipled into an Arminian.

Now Calvinism is a nickname attached to those who follow the doctrines of grace specifically as defined by the Council or Synod of Dort spelled out by the acronym TULIP. It is named after John Calvin however a Calvinist is not necessarily a follower of Calvin.

Like it or not, and I will assume most will not like it, when you were born again you were reborn a Calvinist. That all changed when you were mentored into Arminianism or some variation thereof. Paul addressed this when he said: "O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you."

They became a Christian by the hearing of faith yet other men crept in teaching perfection by the works of the flesh following the law.

To be an Arminian someone will have to explain it to you by logic that God will not make you do anything against your will. You will scratch your head and say, " that sure makes sense to me!" But he/she will not tell you what the Bible says about being dead in sins and our inability to turn to God. You should ask them, "how does a dead man make a decision?"

Adrian Rogers Was The Holy Spirit's Pope

For the Catholics the Pope is the representative of Christ on the earth. He is the vicar of Christ. By extension every priest is the representative of the Pope serving the eucharistic body of Christ to his parish.

When Adrian Rogers says: "the best friend that you have on earth is the Holy Spirit" (p.3 "The Holy Spirit Your Best Friend") he means Christ, who is in you. He confuses the offices of Christ and the Holy Spirit. He does this because he is semi-pelagian, Arminian, and not a Bible believing preacher.

He is a pseudo-trinitarian traveling down the crooked path toward unitarianism. In time he would have caught up with the Jehovah's Witnesses!

He believes the main purpose of the Spirit's job is to provide the 'itty bitty' miracle of pre-conversion enablement (transubstantiation) granting a sufficient temporary/permanent modification of total depravity in order for the dead to act freely in choosing Christ.

When the Spirit's work is finished, Rogers elbows himself in to proclaim, "come to Jesus" . He is now the vicar of the Father issuing the call.

Obviously, all this is silly! Inspite of Rogers' faulty theology the Holy Spirit actually regenerates fully the dead sinner, gives him the call and the sanctified saint goes down the isle to the altar calling on the name of the Lord. The Lord does the saving and Rogers gets the glory. Everyone leaves church thankful for a preacher like Dr Rogers! (including the unregenerate who responded to Rogers' call. Apparently this is a large number of people. Oh well, this is the price you pay for Arminian evangelism)

Strangely all that has changed since Steve Gaines is now at Bellevue. Steve ain't no Pope, sorry.

The Cry Of Sodom

Christa Brown cried out on her blog that she was struggling with her faith. She said: "Lately, I’ve been pondering that painting again. It makes me think about my own struggle with faith.I often think it would be so much easier if I could just walk away from faith. I yearn to let go of it. I pray to be free from it.Most of the pure, raw hatefulness I’ve encountered is linked in with my faith. So in my neural networks, faith-related things are tethered to nightmares.I envy people who find comfort in their faith. What a luxury. For me, faith is something I endure.Faith is a constant, endless struggle. It’s not a source of solace.I’ve tried so many times to let go of it. Wouldn’t that make more sense? If I was actually paying attention to Southern Baptist leaders, I would certainly think so. After all, what possible meaning can any faith group hold when its leaders become so wrapped up in themselves and their power that the safety of children is secondary?"

Does God hear her cry? Absolutely! Will God avenge the injustice done to her by a SBC minister? Absolutely! Do we hear her cry? She doesn't think so. Well, do we?

Did anyone hear the stifled cries of Chris Williams as his father's hand covered his son's mouth to keep from waking Chris' mother? God did! Did God hide from Dr Rogers that awful thing that Reverend Williams did to his son? Yes! Why? Because he was an Arminian. Seriously, his semi-pelagianism had so corrupted Dr Rogers theology that it was futile to tell him anything about the sinful condition of his own staff.

Was it futile for God to tell Abraham about the sinful condition of Sodom? Was it futile to tell him there were cries for help that were reaching the throne of Heaven? Just my opinion but I think so. Was Abraham the intercessor we make him out to be? Do we care today that children are being raped by sodomizers? Will we sit back and ignore the sinfulness of the world we live in?

Will God tell anyone in American fundamentalism about the cries? Has semi-pelagianism so corrupted our core spiritually that we really don't care? Abraham and his wife had just doubted the promises of God for themselves. It seems that his pleading for righteous men in Sodom was a cry for him and his wife. They themselves were depraved and if he could plead for some in Sodom then unconsciously he might find redemption for himself. Afterall, his wife had just laughed at God and then when confronted she denied it. They insulted the sovereignty of God.
"Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

God withheld the information from Adrian Rogers because He knew that he would repeat the error of Abraham. Abraham's plea was an attempt to alter for himself the nature of God. "God you are not a God of wrath but a God of mercy and love." He would atempt to redefine depravity, "everyone in Sodom is surely not worthy of destruction." "They do have a small portion of redeemable value and can decide for themselves their own destiny."

Rogers would argue that while they are totally corrupt, "surely God can grant them some divine pre wrath enablement to escape for themselves."

Oh well, should I keep rambling? It is just speculation of one person early in the morning.
Paul Williams and his wife have resumed a normal life in Fayette County having fled Cordova from accusing fingers. They have settled into a local church and he is seen at young people's basketball games. His only worry is jail not hell. Meanwhile every where he goes he spreads a little hell. His wife, son and grandchildren will not be able to trust him even if they say they do. The church will not trust him even if they say he is forgiven. They will increase the budget for nursery security. Every worker will be screened and new locks will be added to doors that never had locks. Everywhere he goes the cries of Sodom will be heard by God.

Now Rogers hears these cries from heaven and he too cries tears of intercession. Will we hear? Probably not! We will insist on being hospitable, struggle with our comfort and insist that we all just get along and not fuss. It is a love worth finding.

Charles Finney And Adrian Rogers

FINNEY wrote: "In a revival, the Christian's heart is liable to get crusted over, and lose its relish for divine things; his unction and prevalence in prayer abate, and then he must be renewed again. It is impossible to keep him in such a state as not to do injury to the work, unless he passes through such a process every few days. I have never labored in revivals in company with any one who would keep in the work and be fit to manage revival continually, who did not pass through this process of breaking down as often as once in every two or three weeks" (E.E. Shelhamer, Finney On Revival, p. 63).

JAMES BOYLE -- As a co-worker with Finney, Boyle wrote on December 25th, 1834: "Dear brother Finney, let us look over the fields where you and others have labored as revival ministers, and what is now their moral state? What was their condition within three months after we left them? I have visited and revisited many of these fields, and groaned in spirit to see the sad, frigid, carnal, contentious state into which the churches have fallen--and fallen very soon after our first departure from them" (B.B. Warfield, Perfectionism, p. 26).

Adrian Rogers wrote in "Authentic Christianity" p. 3 "My heart is burdened today over a carefully hidden sin that is affecting our World, our nation, and our cities. It is called superficial Christianity. I hate to say it, but even our churches are plagued with this problem."

He adds: "I thank God For those who attend worship services, but the problem in america on sunday morning is that our churches are full of empty people - people without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior."

"Oh, they have religion. The Bible speaks of those who have a form of godliness, but deny its power. They have been infected with a mild form of Christianity and have never caught the real disease. It is not that they are not religious."

Rogers and Finney share a theological view called semi-pelagianism. Rogers copied many of the evangelistic styles of Finney and publically praised Finney. Finney's pelagianism was probaly more radical than Rogers. Rogers followed the evangelistic fervor of Finney, Moody and Billy Sunday. In one sermon I heard him extol the rich heritage these men left us for today.

Finney and Rogers were both fervent and eager. They had charismatic personalities and were destined to be successful at whatever they attempted. They were humble and had some degree of spiritual discernment. They worshipped Jesus as Lord and Savior. They were interested in spiritual things and their lives embodied holiness and purity.

Both left a rich legacy of sermons and models of evangelistic outreaches. However both left a dissappointed outlook of authentic Christianity. Finney eventually abandoned his evangelism for a pastorate in which he stroved to teach perfectionism. He realized his evangelism was shallow and in the long run not effective.

Rogers never came to that realization and died short of the understanding of the extent of his shallow ministry. Months after his death his legacy dissolved with the report of an associate who was a pedophile. His successor had to resolve the situation and the ensuing actions by Dr Rogers' followers displayed the shallowness of a once apparent respected church.

What is the theological problem of these ministries? Pages could and should be written addressing these issues. Rogers always makes the mistake in saying that one's view of the character of God is the foundational reason for understanding the gospel. The real reason is the embracing of pelagian variations of depravity. Man is totally depraved. His depravity is insurmountable.

Self-determination is a part of Finney and Rogers gospel and both have a mix of grace and human effort that obscures justification and sanctification. God's sovereignty is weaken in both presentations.

Calvinist Are Born Not Made

A Calvinist is born a navicular disciple and the Holy Spirit is his navigator. Even our superior and all sufficient Savior would not interfere with our navigation. "If I navigate you will not be able to bear it!" He departed this earth to make way for the Navigator, himself, "He will teach you."

You were not born an Arminian. You were navigated into that port. Free floating on a vast sea with only a window heavenward you looked out on the horizon and saw a lighthouse.

Before you were saved you followed the course of this world's prince robotically, without free choice. But on the high seas with the Holy Spirit as your Navigator you have perfect freed will.
You can so easily and quickly defer to a lighthouse on the horizon. Believing that it is easier to follow a horizontal indicator rather than trust the stars you head toward the lighthouse. The puzzeling aspect of this is that it can happen so fast. You were born a Calvinist and now you are in a strange port. The Holy Spirit just sits there silent, absenting himself purposefully, like Paul in the hull of the ship tossed by the Euroclydon. He had previously tried to reason with the "experienced" seasoned sea captain to wait out the storm. The captain seeking to please others sought to expedite matters by rushing ahead.

This port of Arminian strongholds denies the fact of total depravity which "alone gives grace its occasion and opportunity". You free floated on the high seas, led by the Spirit through the hearing of faith. Now you are anchored in another gospel. Denver is your headquarters not Heaven. Carnality reigns supreme not victory in Christ. Adrian Rogers was one of this ports famous preachers and he and all others like him are "under the anathema of God." Gal 1:9 -quotes are from Scofield's notes -Gal 1:6