Lighthouse Trails Research Journal
16
A BEREAN EXERCISE—CHRISTIAN MAGAZINES AND
AN EXAMPLE OF LACKING DISCERNMENT
BY T. A. MCMAHON
staff member at The Berean Call
handed me a couple of the latest
magazine issues we received in order to
review them. They were Christianity To-
day (CT ) and Charisma Magazine (CM).
We subscribe to them in order to keep up
to date regarding teachings that are being
disseminated throughout Christendom.
In general, they are representative of seem-
ingly diverse Christian theological posi-
tions. CT was founded by Billy Graham
and has been described as “a mainstream
evangelical magazine.” Its beginnings were
conservative, doctrinally, and Graham was
considered an icon of fundamentalism.
Not too long afterward, however, he began
praising modernists (Christian liberals of
that day) and involving them in his cru-
sades. His later crusades included Roman
Catholic priests and nuns as counselors
who were to direct those Catholics who
responded to Graham’s message back to
their Catholic churches. Those seeds have
produced the Christianity Today of our
day. The magazine is unabashedly liberal
and pro-Catholic, which underscores its
ongoing disregard of biblical Christianity.
Charisma Magazine has been described
as “the main magazine of the charismatic
movement.” Unlike CT, Charisma hasn’t
grown from the seeds of doctrinal changes.
Its errors of hyper-charismatic beliefs were
in place from the beginning of its publish-
ing in the mid-1970s. They proudly pro-
claim, “We introduced many now-famous
leaders to the charismatic community, from
Benny Hinn to T.D. Jakes to Mike Bickle
to Jonathan Cahn, and, in recent months,
new up-and-comers.” 1 Critiques of their
false teachings can be found throughout
TBC’s archives.
The objective of this article is to illustrate
the critical need for biblical discernment
when reading (or, for that matter, watching
A
Volume 7—No. 5
or listening to) anything that claims to be
Christian. In the cases of CT and CM, there
is rarely a monthly issue that doesn’t exhibit
serious doctrinal errors and practices. The
following is just one example from the
May 2019 Christianity Today issue, which
crossed my desk. In a future article, I will
give an example from Charisma.
In the May issue, one of Christian-
ity Today’s feature articles is titled “Small
Groups Anonymous,” subtitled, “Why the
best church small groups might take their
cues from the Twelve Steps [of Alcoholics
Anonymous].” At first glance, the idea that
“church small groups” should look to AA
meetings for edification might seem a bit
off track, but it’s much worse than that,
as you will see. Furthermore, that concept
is hardly new to Christianity Today, which
has been an endorser of the psychological
way of counseling for decades. Alcoholics
Anonymous and its 12-Steps programs actu-
ally utilize a psycho-spiritual methodology.
This means that it’s a mixture of two belief
systems—psychotherapy and spiritism.
The May CT article, “Small Groups
Anonymous,” written by Kent Dunning-
ton, a professor who teaches a class on
addictions at Biola University, begins with,
“I am not an alcoholic. Alcohol just doesn’t
do it for me. But Alcoholics Anonymous
does. I attended an AA group while writ-
ing a book called Addiction and Virtue, and
I’ve missed it ever since.” 2 Dunnington’s
students at Biola are required to attend AA
meetings. He notes CT’s support of his
subject when he states that “This magazine,
too, has featured an ongoing conversation
about the spiritual power of AA.” 3
He’s confident in the AA approach:
[G]enerally speaking—and
amazingly—AA works. It has a
theory of how people change and a
set of practices designed to change
real human beings. In this respect,
AA has what the contemporary
church, or at least a large portion
of the contemporary evangelical
church, seems to lack: a clear theory
of personal transformation codified
in practices and traditions that are
easily accessible to those who would
like to be transformed. 4
He reveals a higher regard for the false
methods of men than for the full counsel
of God given throughout the Scriptures.
For example, he praises the anonymity of
the Roman Catholic confessional as needful
in the church:
Roman Catholics, with their
practice of private confession, have
known this for a long time, as has
AA. Anonymity provides a haven
in which we may speak about the
incoherence of our lives. For the
same reason [that] we are more
likely to tell our darkest secrets to
a stranger on a plane than to our
friends, AA is a place of greater
honesty than the small group can
probably ever be. 5
As I mentioned, CT’s affinity for AA and
things psychological is not new. In July 22,
1991, CT’s then-senior writer Tim Stafford
wrote the featured article, “The Hidden
Gospel of the 12 Steps.” He declares:
The 12 Steps are Christian . . . We
ought to use them gladly. They
belong to us originally. They are
doing tremendous good.” 6
He further assures CT’s readers:
The 12 Steps are a package of
Christian practices, and nothing is
compromised in using them. 7
Before I evaluate some of what Dunning-
ton and Stafford have written, it might be
Continues on next page
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019