Campus Crusade for Christ Founder Bill Bright: Hero or Heretic?

[Prayer_Warrior83]

I was just reading this passage from one of the books by Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ and creator of the 4 Spiritual Laws "style" of evangelism:

"Originally our first law emphasized man's sin, but the Lord impressed
me to emphasize God's love. This change was made just before we went to
press. I had done my final editing and had left Vonette and the girls
to finish the typing. As I had been traveling a great deal and it was
quite late, I had gone upstairs to bed. In fact, I was in bed just at
the point of going to sleep, when suddenly there came clear as a bell
to my conscious mind the fact that there was something wrong about
starting the Four Laws on the negative note of man's sinfulness. ... I
felt that few people would say `No' to Christ if they truly understood
how much He loves them and how great is His concern for them.

"So I got out of bed, went to the head of the stairs and called down to
Vonette and the girls to revise the presentation so that the first law
would be, `God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,'
instead of `You are a sinner and separated from God.' ... Thus the Four
Spiritual Laws started with the positive note of God's love and plan.

"Some time later, one of the girls said to me, `I was so distressed
over your change in the presentation that I wept that night. I was
afraid that you were beginning to dilute the gospel and that you were
no longer faithful to the Lord, because you placed such a strong
emphasis on the love of God rather than on man's sin. Now in
retrospect, I realize of course that this is one of the greatest things
that has ever happened to the Campus Crusade ministry'" (Bill Bright,
Come Help Change the World, Here's Life Publishers, 1985, pgs. 28,29).

In light of the actual 80-90% fall-away rate by backsliders as a result of modern methods such as Bright's that has recently been made aware, it is obvious that Bright's staff member was right when she wept and feared that Campus Crusade was diluting the gospel message. Instead of getting sinners to confront their sins directly from the beginning, the four spiritual laws presented a means by which a person can get a new buzz out of worldly life. Now, while I fully believe that Bright's heart intent was for the Harvest and the Great Commission, the actual Fruits of his methodology actually suggest that he was greatly deceived by a revelation that could not have been from God.

I don't mean to contradict the fact of God's love for sinners and we don't mean to say it's wrong to tell the unsaved of that love. God's love for the lost is exactly what the Gospel is about. But when approaching the unsaved, the great people God used through the ages such as Wesley, Spurgeon, Finney, Luther, the Apostles, Jesus himself and the Prophets emphasized God's holiness and his Just demands on a sinful mankind. They stressed man's sinful nature and the need to repent. This is the right way to approach the unsaved; it may not feel "wonderful" and does not fit in with the popular man-centred gospel Campus Crusade and it's followers promote, but it's God's Word.

The Bible actually doesn't start with God's love only. It starts with His character as Lord and with man's fall. The bible's first two thirds deals with this before we even get to the Gospel message.

Few could deny the sense of negativity of the Old testament, but why should we ignore the fact that the majority of the Bible consists of the Lord teaching and enforcing the standard of his righteousness within His Moral Law, as a means of laying a foundation for the presentation of the Gospel? The Evangelists and others responsible for Revivals within the Church History certainly followed the Bible's pattern in this. So did the Apostles. As did Jesus Christ himself in his 3 year mininstry on Earth.

Who are we to change this?

 

[bobx]

God uses people in different ways and i don't think that bill bright completely deleted the truth about man's sinful nature. He just made emphasis on God's love when he made it first in his four spiritual laws ( and i think it doesn't contradict the scriptures because God is a loving God). The ability of the one sharing the gospel or the method of how he shares will not determine the salvation of the one being shared to because I believe that it is the Spirit that convicts the hearts of men. And about the "falling away", it might have something to do more with the way they were followed up than the way the gospel was shared to them. I'm not in any way related to Bill Bright nor am I a CCC member. But i can see CCC members here in the Philippines and I know that they love God and are on-fire to spread the good news to others.

God bless brother

 

[CurtAwakening]

We are nobody to change this, Bill Bright himself realized that he was in error, in his book in Heaven or Hell, he stated the following.

"In His approximately 42 months of public ministry, there are 33 recorded instances of Jesus speaking about hell. No doubt He warned of hell thousands of times. The Bible refers to hell a total of 167 times. I wonder with what frequency this eternal subject is found in today's pulpits. I confess I have failed in my ministry to declare the reality of hell as often as I have the love of God and the benefits of a personal relationship with Christ. But Jesus spent more of His time warning His listeners of the impending judgment of hell than speaking of the joys of heaven . . . I have never felt the need to focus on telling people about hell. However, as a result of a steady decline in morals and spiritual vitality in today's culture and growing indifference to the afterlife, I have come to realize the need for greater discussion of hell . . . I have thus come to see that silence, or even benign neglect on these subjects, is disobedience on my part. To be silent on the eternal destinations of souls is to be like a sentry failing to warn his fellow soldiers of impending attack"

God may use different people in different ways yet it is all of our jobs to preach the Gospel, the whole Gospel, of how we are all lost, and condemned to Hell,without the merciful grace of Christ throught His death on the Cross. Emphasizing only the loving totality of God, may have the horrible effect of people thinking he will merely absolve them all from their sins without them having to seriously believing in a personal relationship with Christ, Jesus.

That is not God however, He is equally one hundred percent Justice, and His wrath is great. Why do we not tell people this? This is what they are saved from, if people don't realize what they are saved from then this so called faith of theirs is a delusion.

I must pray that everyone who reads this message will preach the whole Gospel and nothing but the whole Gospel. To do anything else...would not please the Almighty Lord.
(warn people about judgment day, then tell them about what Christ did)

 

[FranklinNoble]

I don't care for Bill Bright's methods, or his "Four Spiritual Laws" tracts. Too much man-made copyrighted clutter, not enough scripture.

 

[live-4-christ]

same, with such a high rate of backsliding, it is really doing Christianity a disservice. Our Church has been successfully witnessing in the streets using the Law of God to bring people to repentance first, giving them a no-nonsense answer about where they are currently headed and THEN giving them the solution through Jesus Christ.

(some out there may recognise this analogy )
If you were a doctor, would it make sense to say to your patient "take this, this will make your life better" . Most people would be... ahhhhh no thanks But if the doctor explains for an hour that the person has cancer, the patient at the end of it will be quite happy to take ANYTHING for their disease.

No one will come to repentance until they recognise that they are sinners.

 

[learn what faith is]

The Error of Bill Bright


William R. “Bill” Bright, founder of the world’s largest Christian ministry and known around the globe as one of the most vigorous Christian evangelists leading 26,000 staff members and 225,000 volunteers working in 191 countries. head of the world’s largest Christian ministry embrace the scriptural command to “go and make disciples of all the nations” Matthew 28:19. His Four Spiritual Laws written in 1956 on how to establish a personal relationship with Jesus—has been printed in some 200 languages. has become what is considered to be the most widely-disseminated religious booklet in history, with more than 2.5 billion booklets distributed to date. In 1979 The JESUS film, has been seen by more than 5.1 billion people in 225 countries more than 1,400 languages). In 1972, he organized a week-long stadium event in Dallas for 85,000 youths, officially known as EXPLO 72, EXPLO 74 almost 3 million attended the Here's Life Korea World Evangelism Crusade. www.globalpastorsnetwork.org, designed to equip pastors and ministers worldwide. One of his reasons for starting Campus Crusade for Christ was to combat Communist influence in US universities.
Bill Bright himself realized that he was in error, “...I confess I have failed in my ministry to declare the reality of hell as often as I have the love of God and the benefits of a personal relationship with Christ….”

I was with CCC, I thought they had the best approach to share the gospel at the College and University level. It took me 40 years to see some errors. They moved from using the KJV to using the NIV, I call it the Never Inspired Version. I was reading both in context to see the differences. How would you change the four laws to be more Biblical? Did you know the so in “God so loved the world” is more like in this way than in so much feeling? Their laws push: “as an act of your faith, choose Jesus”. The way cults and how people fall away from the faith is by not having the faith that saves, by not keeping the Biblical definition of the word faith, letting it fall to a street faith definition. Cults use the same word but have different definitions of that word and so people are mislead by preachers that do not know what they are talking about. There are 2 faiths: our faith and His faith. We are men of little faith, we need His faith that kept Him above the water. Faith is a work 1 Thess. 1:3 It means to bring to belief. We know we are not saved by our work but by His work of faith He demonstrated on the cross. You can believe what you want, it does not matter. What counts is Him applying His faith that will cause you to believe. Rom 3:3 “For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?” When He applies faith it will work in you to cause you to believe for salvation and not with a make-believe believing that unsaved religious people have. Because faith is a work it will give people a religious feelings as they work their religious faith. Is the church just pushing religious activity to give you religious feelings? You can tell a church is dead because God is not saving people in the church. Salvation is all His work and all His glory. For us to try to add to His perfect work is to discount it “under foot”. The popular man-centered gospel with their modern methods have an 80-90% fall-away rate. You would think preachers would know: Jesus knows something about the salvation and how to present it?

Jesus drawing us in. He is so positive!

Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that ask receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.

Think Big! It is the greatest promise only God could have made it. C. S. Lewis said it like this, “Our desires are not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” Dreams do come true, you need to have the right dream. The greatest gift is for your greatest need. He does not tell you what the “it” is, you need help to find the greatest gift God could give you. You need help to expect the best from God, not second best. Look there is love!

9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

He will not give you second best that would hurt you. Also you need to see the value in the gift. You do not give precious things to children to destroy it.

11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?(To them that are ready for it and knows it’s worth.)

He is waiting for you to ask for the best gift for your greats need you have. Therefore this is how to find it.

12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

We all are born at a very early age and self is all we know. So how do we get out of being a self center psychopath? People that thinks significance comes from controlling others? How do some people think they can use the poor to feel good? They give and do religious things to feel religious but that is not salvation. Many people are deceived by loud mind control music or the psychology of the preacher. Doing what He(Jesus) says to do is not to get you to feel religious but to see your need. The law is not to help us live life but to show we need more of His life so we can live. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity says, “1. We know what we should do. 2. We fail to do it.” God enjoys being good. The Good Samaritan is about God’s lavish love. Luke 10:25- showing mercy. This is our greatest need is for His love to work through us to cause Him joy like the Perfect Son does. Mat 5:3 John 1:12 says: “But as many as received Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Only to those born again by His will. He has showed us the Father in the perfect devotion of a Perfect Son. We need the Sons’ heart with true motivation and He can give it to whom so ever He will. We can’t take His gift by the force of our self will. John 3:27 “John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.” It is hard work to face yourself and think. But Jesus gave us hope: Mat 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit for there is the kingdom of heaven.” They also mourn because it is hard work to be honest and see we cannot save ourselves by our works.

13 “Enter ye in at the strait gate…” see your need first.