Del,
I said...
> In a previous post I said that Henry Morris
> had "voted" against the acceptance of
> OEC/TE/EC as acceptable Christian doctrine.
And you caught my mistatement...
> But what you had actually said was that
> Morris voted against the position "that a
> Christian *could* believe OEC and still be
> considered Christian".
> Those are two *very* different positions.
Sorry, I did not mean to talk out of both sides of my mouth. I believe
the correct view of this is that ICR would say that you can be Christian
and believe OEC/TE/EC, but churches should not allow you to express
those views.
You are right that they are two different positions. And as the quote
from Dr. Ross' book shows, Morris was working on the OEC belief as
opposed to those who believe it. I do believe that the intent of Morris
appears to be that he not only wants to exclude certain ideas, but also
wants to exclude certain people--at least from positions of leadership
in the church.
It is the stated position of ICR that although a Christian might have an
OEC/TE/EC belief, he should not be excluded from church membership;
nevertheless, no one with such views should ever be allowed to be a
Pastor, Deacon, Teacher, etc. in a Christian church. (This can also be
found in the Ross' _Creation and Time.)
The conclusion that I draw from this is that the OEC view is considered
by ICR to be heresy *and* that persons who persist in the view should be
treated as heretics (i.e. don't exclude them from the church because we
can teach them the truth, but never let them have a say in the body of
believers.)
In the above mentioned book, Dr. Ross relates an incident that occurred
in which he and a YEC (who was *I believe* connected with ICR) had been
invited to discuss their opposing views on a two day Focus on the Family
radio program. Dr. Ross describes in the book how the man (not Henry
Morris, but I don't remember the name) was very discourteous and gave
him no opportunity to give his opposing view. It's almost as if the man
considered the James Dobson program to be his *home field* and that he
was entitled to press an advantage and prevent the other view from even
being advanced. I did not hear that program (which aired in 1992), but
I do plan on ordering the tape of it.
What I think is germane to this whole discussion is the attitude of the
ICR folks and the tactics they often use to combat what they consider to
be *heresy*. Incidentally, they never use that term because it could
have a negative backlash on themselves, but I conclude that that is what
they really mean to say.
In retrospect, however, I believe I probably overstated the position of
Henry Morris and ICR with respect to whether an OEC *could* be a
Christian. I do not, however, overstate their view on whether OEC's
should be allowed leadership positions in the church from which they
could propogate their "heresy".
Russ
Russell T. Cannon
rcannon@usa.net