Review of the book: "That the World May Know," by Earl Paulk

That the World May Know is a response to the allegations made in Dave Hunt's The Seduction of Christianity that false teaching, even heresy and sorcery, are entering the church under the guise of practical and profound biblical truths. Believing that Hunt maligned and misrepresented many ministries by being inaccurate, excessive, and unscriptural in his approach, Paulk attempts a balanced and biblical assessment of many of the issues and people discussed by Hunt. Among those defended are Kenneth Copeland, Oral Roberts, Paul Cho, Robert Schuller, and Jim and Tammy Bakker. Although Paulk does not concur with everything these people say and do, he is nonetheless in substantial agreement with them.

Unfortunately, Paulk's answer to Hunt is neither balanced nor biblical. That the World May Know is literally filled with glaring theological and logical mistakes. Half-truths, oversimplifications, failure to understand issues (Paulk beats up many a "strawman"), "loaded" or inflammatory language, false analogies, etc., abound in a work which bills itself as the corrective to excesses in Hunt's book. Furthermore, he misquotes and consistently gives confused and distorted interpretations of Scripture.

A central theme of the book is a supposed scriptural mandate for unity of the church universal throughsubmission to the "fivefold ministry" -- a concept based upon Paulk's (mis)understanding of Ephesians 4:11. This unity of "covenant brothers" can only be achieved as the church submits to the above authority structure. As the church complies, it will experience not only unity, but also new insights and revelations from the Bible, while at the same time being protected from false teaching and counterfeit gifts of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, only through this hierarchy can and should doctrines and ministries be judged, because only those of the fivefold ministry possess the right and ability to correctly interpret Scripture, let alone identify false doctrine. The point then is made that Hunt, not being in the fivefold ministry, has no business passing judgment on the teachings of those who are.

Another major doctrinal issue is Paulk's stand on the deification of man (specifically of the church). Claiming that people have misunderstood and taken out of context such statements as "Just as dogs have puppies and cats have kittens, God has little gods," Paulk tries to clarify and justify this view. In short, he makes a distinction between unbelievers trying to be "like God," that is, being autonomous and rebellious against God, versus believers as little gods who are in complete subjection to the sovereign God (pp.132-40). The former is sinful, he argues, but the latter is scriptural. He fails to comprehend that both of the above views are heretical according to historic orthodox Christianity. (See Robert Bowman's article "Ye Are Gods?" in the previous issue of this journal.)

This book can best be characterized by the word "irony." It purports to be a sound and biblical response, yet it is filled with mangled theology and logic. It accuses Hunt and others of maligning godly ministries, yet Paulk slanders those who disagree with him, even stooping to insinuate that Hunt wrote his book for money and/or other ungodly motives (pp.108-109). It states that Paulk's own views and those of others were misunderstood, yet Paulk misunderstands issue after issue (e.g., he falsely accuses Hunt of denying the perpetuity of spiritual gifts). To the point: everything Paulk accuses Hunt of, he is guilty of himself.

Finally, while the reader may recall that we have some disagreements with Hunt's analysis of certain issues in his previous two books, it needs to be clearly understood that we are in complete agreement with him when he says that the beliefs of Paulk (and those of similar persuasion) are dangerous. The problems withHunt's books pale by comparison! Paulk's book is an insidious work of sophistry, an atrocious treatise.That the World May Know does not vindicate Paulk's theology, but sadly only confirms our suspicions: he is teaching rank heresy and leading his followers into the quicksands of deception.

Column from the Christian Research Journal, Summer 1987, page 30. The Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal is Elliot Miller.