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The Christian Sentinel Report
July 2001 Update: a shift in focus for Eastern Christian OutreachBy Bill AlnorPosted July 2, 2001, revised Aug. 7, 2002 IMPORTANT NOTE: In June 2002, The Alnors moved to southeast Texas, where Bill accepted a professorship with Texas A&M University in Kingsville. Accordingly, since the Alnors no longer live in the Eastern U.S., the name Eastern Christian Outreach seems redundant. Therefore, the Alnors will likely be closing the corporation known as Eastern Christian Outreach and will be continuing their efforts contained in this mission and doctrinal statement under the name The Christian Sentinel. Stay tuned for further changes!
If you have been familiar with the work and ministry of Bill and Jackie Alnor and Eastern Christian Outreach, you may have detected a slight change of focus with some of our new articles on line here at cultlink.com in July 2001. And for sure we trust you have noticed our new redesigned web site with a new, colorful home page. The shift of focus is real and permanent. In fact we have added three major points to our mission statement that indicate we will be more involved than ever with exposing hypocrisy and corruption in religion. Because there is so much of this going on, part of the direction we are going in is creating a type of informal "Christian Better Business Bureau" in these pages (or call it a "better Ministries Bureau"). We will be tracking and cataloguing the scandals within the church as a part of an important worldwide service. We also envision eventually posting some of our research files on line, including supporting documents, financial data and affidavits concerning three matters we brought up this month in the Christian Sentinel Report. (1) Philosophically we believe that so much wrongdoing within Christianity is here for a reason. Part of it is due to a great worldwide apostasy prophesied many years ago in the Bible (2 Thess. 2) of a falling away of the visible Christian church in the latter times. These types of scandals help the skeptics and unspiritual discredit Christianity so that all the nations of the world will be in a post Christian era where things of God are not taken seriously due to what they see as Christ's corrupt visible representatives on earth. We know that although some will applaud us for it, others will attack us for it and call us unchristian. Some will say we are gossiping. Just tonight, for example, as I was putting this update to bed I received an attack E-mail from Bob and Gretchen Passantino's representative solely because I wanted to ask them some questions. We know we'll lose some friends and perhaps some support, but that's O.K. with us; we'd rather obey God than man in fulfilling our mission. (Acts 4:19) We also know this new expanded role is biblical because we are dealing with public sin, not private sin. If these religious leaders we expose were personally sinning against us, then we should go to them privately as it states in Matthew 18. Paul said in Ephesians 5:11 to have nothing to do with the works of unrighteousness, but to expose them. Paul named names publicly when public sin came to his attention. Some might also say that we should not touch God's anointed and they mean to not attack anyone claiming to be from God. However, those we will be criticizing are not God's anointed -- He didn't choose them, they put themselves in positions of authority and are falsely claiming to be God's teachers when they are actually liars and frauds. Second, the "touch not God's anointed" passages have to do with physical harm. David, who used this passage in 2 Samuel 1:14, would not kill Saul with the sword because God did originally anoint Saul. But David rebuked Saul before his entire army for his sin. Further, this web site and magazine will be rebuking even professing Christians, not trying to bring physical harm to them. There is a verse that states that those in sin should be "rebuked before all so that all may fear" (1 Tim. 5:20). We are also committed evangelicals in the mainstream of Protestant Christianity, and we believe that by our taking a stand against excesses in our own camp, it sends a message to an on looking world that there are at least some Christians concerned about sin and integrity. We also want you to know that although we engage in some activities that some might consider to be "muckraking," we don’t mean anything personally by it. It is also true that the famous "muckrakers" of the early part of the 20th Century like Ida Tarbell and others did their reforming work because they believe God wanted them to. Like those muckrakers, we desire to build up to change things for the better. We especially want everyone in this process to, as Paul said, "comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height -- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:18-19). We have begun a series of articles this month spotlighting how the Passantinos, self-styled researchers who were once respected by many Christian leaders, have twisted facts and have embellished their credentials over the years. We are going to continue looking at this story over the long haul. In the future we're also going to be looking at the issue of phony college degrees and phony doctorates. It turns out that many Christian leaders have them (and even some apologists who regularly defend Christianity) have them, and that shouldn't be so. We are also deeply concerned over the state of the Christian media today, and by media I am referring to Christian television, radio, films and video, Internet, as well as the printed word. It turns out that much false information is being passed on to a gullible public. We will challenge them, and we will continue to write articles on them and issue the types of statements we have just released in our new writings in July 2001. But we are even more interested in building up rather than tearing down. We are increasingly adding devotional messages to this site that are meant to edify, comfort and encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Narrow Way. We are also increasingly beginning to produce articles and editorials designed to give scriptural guidance to those struggling with the tough issues of the day in our secular society. Why not take a look at my latest one that tackles the subject of alcohol and ministry? Part of this came out of my experiences in planting and pastoring a church (associated with the Calvary Chapel movement) in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania from 1996 to 2000. This experience has caused me to view ministry in a different way. We have learned to have "fellowship in the sufferings" of the saints, as the Bible states, and for that we are thankful. Although I enjoyed performing weddings, baptisms and teaching God’s Word each Sunday, much of ministry is about bearing one another’s burdens and with counseling people in God’s Word as they go through trials and temptations in a fallen world. We need to be serious in these perilous times. These new devotionals and editorials on Christian living here on cultlink.com come directly from our hearts. Jackie, too, is going to be sharing her heart in these pages. She has had an awful lot of wisdom with the things of life. We believe that God, through His Holy Spirit, will show us the issues we need to be outspoken about. We want to build up the church. I taught at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania from Aug. 2001 to May 2002, and now I have joined the faculty at Texas A&M University - Kingsville (Aug. 2002). We plan on staying in south Texas. Here we believe our best days are ahead of us, and we are looking forward to resuming publishing the Christian Sentinel Magazine. Make sure to note our new address: The Christian Sentinel, PO Box 3, Bishop, TX 78343. May God richly bless you and strengthen you in His strong grip. Footnotes: 1. These include, but are not limited to, documents concerning the ongoing scandal at the Christian Research Institute, those supporting Dr. Enroth in the dispute concerning Jesus People USA, and data concerning recklessness, ethical problems and faulty fact-gathering by Southern California journalists Bob and Gretchen Passantino.
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