Author Archive

Posted on May 18, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

Televangelism

With a looming major validation event and a couple of publication deadlines this month, I’ve not beeen a very good blogger of late. Apologies for that. That said, one of the things I’ve been asked to write for a forthcoming dictionary-type academic publication on Pentecostalism was a short essay on televangelism, which I just finished. I thought this might be of interest, so I’m posting the pre-edited version below. Hope you find it useful.

Televangelism, by Calvin L. Smith

While not an exclusively Pentecostal phenomenon (for example, the Catholic priest Charles Coughlin’s weekly radio broadcasts in the 1930s reached audiences of millions, while more recently Jerry Falwell and Robert Schuller are firmly outside the movement), nonetheless from the outset Pentecostal preachers were quick to recognise the opportunities religious broadcasting offered. Clearly, there are doctrinal reasons for this. Already strongly conversionist by virtue of its revivalist roots, early classical Pentecostalism’s eschatological interpretation of its pneumatology and pneumapraxis, associating the movement’s inauguration with the ‘last days’, contributed considerably to a sense of evangelistic urgency. Thus, it was a logical step for revivalist Pentecostal preachers such as Oral Roberts and Aimee Semple McPherson to exploit radio in order to reach wider audiences than could be accommodated in buildings or tent meetings. Likewise, with the arrival of television Pentecostals quickly embraced the new medium, so that even by the early 1950s Rex Humbard, one of the pioneers of televangelism (a term coined by Jeffrey Hadden and Charles Swann, 1981), was broadcasting church services weekly, while just a few years later Oral Roberts had developed the infrastructure necessary to reach most of the U.S. television audience. (more…)

Posted on March 2, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

The Church and Israel Teaching Day

I’ll be doing an all-day seminar exploring various aspects of the relationship between the Church and Israel on Saturday 17 July (11 am – 4 pm) in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, organised by King’s Evangelical Divinity School. Further details later, but we’ve hired a suitable church hall and places are limited, so if you plan on attending you should express your interest as soon as possible by emailing the college office at office(a)kingsdivinity.org.

Posted on February 15, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

This Kind of Language is Unhelpful

An Anglican priest who recently attended a Palestine conference organised by the Federation of Islamic Student Societies today blogs of his participation in the conference. Revd Stephen Sizer also refers to the Jerusalem Declaration, a document he helped draft and which he says “repudiates Christian Zionism as a deviant heresy”.

This is strong language indeed. Of course, it is no secret Revd Sizer has widely publicised his intense dislike of Christian Zionism, which he has every right to do. But surely labelling millions of fellow Evangelical Christians deviant heretics goes too far. There is a time to speak out against genuine, grave heresy, and those destructive false teachers repudiated in the New Testament usually have a major trait in common. Whether the Galatian heresy which denies the power of Christ’s salvific work through the cross, the Colossian heresy, incipient Gnostic dualism in the Johannine writings, or the heretics Jude warns against who “deny our master the Lord Jesus Christ”, the heresies roundly condemned in the New Testament tend to deny the person and work of Jesus Christ. In short, they Christologically defective. Thus, it is quite one thing to challenge particular doctrines and teachings one may disagree with (including Christian Zionism or for that matter supercessionism), but quite another to label millions of fellow Christians who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal saviour are deviant heretics, a label generally reserved for those whose teachings and beliefs in some way deny the person of Christ. (more…)

Posted on January 19, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

Poll on Israel (8 days left)

I have a new poll over at www.calvinlsmith.com (see top right of page) on Christian responses to Israel. So far responses are a little thin, though better than several previous polls. Just eight days left of voting to go, and hoping to analyse and comment on results if enough people vote, so visit the site and get your mates to vote too. I want as wide and varied a set of results as possible.

Posted on January 17, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

The Ecclesiological Debate Raging Within Messianic Judaism

I’ve mentioned previously the wide-ranging and intense theological debate raging on within Messianic Judaism (MJ) concerning MJ identity, its relationship with the Church and the extent to which Messianic believers ought to be integrated into a church or Torah-observant MJ synagogue. Richard Harvey’s book mentioned in that post has gone some way to mapping out the various expressions of MJ.

For those of you seeking to understand this volatile debate on ecclesiology and how it has fragmented the MJ movement, the Rosh Pina Project is a website where issues such as this, of immense importance to MJ, are debated. There, a post recently sought to highlight a possible link between Mark Kinzer and Jesuit spirituality. Mark Kinzer is author of Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism, a book which has caused considerable debate within the movement concerning its ecclesiology, and who belongs to the Torah-observant wing of MJ. Within this branch of the movement are some who not only declare Messianic believers must fully observe the Mosaic Law, but also the ideal for them is to congregate in a wholly Jewish setting in order to retain their Jewish identity, rather than attend Evangelical congregations where their Jewish identity as believers in Yeshua threatens to be diluted. Many Evangelical believers, both Gentile and Jewish, are uneasy with the ramifications of such a bilateral ecclesiology.

The link to the post on Mark Kinzer and Jesuit spirituality can be found here. But what I found particularly interesting was the debate carried on in the comments section afterwards. It becomes immediately clear how intense and passionate the current debate concerning ecclesiology and identity within MJ actually is.

Update. This post was originally published on my personal blog at www.calvinlsmith.com. Interestingly, in the last paragraph above I point out the intensity of the debate within MJ, but since posting this short piece the debate has continued over at my site on the comments section. Feel free to contribute there. Oh, and take my poll on Christian responses to the State of Israel (see top-right of that page). Only 9 days left to vote.

Posted on January 7, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

Should a Christian Appear on Press TV?

Since its launch in 2007 a number of Christians have appeared on Press TV, including one I chatted with some time later who appeared a little embarrassed for having done so. Why, exactly? Well, especially since the Iranian elections there has been a flurry of allegations by various commentators in the media and elsewhere concerning the channel’s agenda and methods, while it seems a number of politicians, analysts and experts wishing to be taken seriously are increasingly doubtful about the wisdom of appearing on Press TV. Thus, in light of these perceptions of the channel and what it represents, the question of whether or not a Christian should appear on Press TV is an important one for believers contemplating how best to engage with the public square.

But first some background on Press TV, which is a 24-hour, English-language, Iranian news and current affairs channel set up by Tehran with the express aim of promoting the regime’s perspective. As such, accusations of bias, selective reporting, even misrepresentation, abound. In its broadcasting Press TV has little time for the US and Western governments, though much of its vitriol is especially reserved for Tehran’s nemesis, Israel and international Zionism (whatever that is), while the channel has also been accused of anti-Semitism. Moreover, several of its presenters include British politicians on the hard left, for example, George Galloway and Jeremy Corbyn, who are deeply critical of Western governments and Israel. Further comment on Press TV can be found in a piece by The Times and The Independent columnist Dominic Lawson, who publishes a comment on the channel in the The Times newspaper here, while Jeremy Paxman on the BBC’s Newsnight interviews a Press spokesman here (the bit I enjoyed the most is about 5 minutes in, when the Press TV guy challenges a fellow guest to provide him examples of propaganda on the channel, whereupon the other guest, much to the chagrin of the channel’s representative who somehow thought he had caught out his opponent, begins to list example after example in a staccato monotone). (more…)