Dr Steven Lawson is one of the featured speakers at Steven Lee’s SermonAudio Conference entitled “The Foundations Conference”, to be held at Bob Jones University in December. Other speakers include Dr Joel Beeke. Todd Friel, and most surprisingly, Dr Clarence Sexton , Dr Paul Washer, and Rev Armen Thomassian of Faith Free Presbyterian Church, Greenville SC, USA.
Rev Stephen Hamilton of Allentown Free Presbyterian Church, Pennsylvania, USA, makes the following comments on one of the leading speakers in this conference.
Dr Steven Lawson is hailed by many evangelicals today. He is a gifted preacher, no question. He has positioned himself as a defender of Biblical Truth, even at times referencing the Protestant Reformation. However, he is also a man who tends to speak out of both sides of his mouth.
For instance, witness the fawning admiration for Dr Billy Graham uttered by Dr Lawson at the time of Graham’s passing. The article he wrote entitled “Three lessons from the extraordinary life of Billy Graham” includes a reference to an apparent aberration in Graham’s ministry, when he claimed the heathen were not necessarily lost if they had not heard of Jesus. Lawson put this down to possible senility, claiming it was a one-off comment. In fact Graham uttered similar sentiments multiple times publicly. The saddest aspect of Dr Lawson’s virtually uncritical piece was his utter failure to even mention – let alone condemn – the Ecumenical Evangelism of Billy Graham over many decades. Graham consistently compromised with infidels and Roman Catholic Clergy in order to garner their co-operation in conducting his crusades. The examples of R.C. endorsement of Graham’s crusades are many. But I am particularly interested to know why Dr Steven Lawson was involved personally in such wicked compromise.
In his article concerning Graham’s legacy, Dr Lawson made the following statement: “In 1989 I was pastoring The Bible Church of Little Rock when our city hosted a week-long Billy Graham crusade. The call went out for local pastors to participate as volunteers, and I was asked to be the chairman of counselling and follow-up. In this role I oversaw the training of 3,000 counsellors, and then was responsible for the follow-up after the crusade for those who committed their lives to Jesus Christ… So began my partnership with the Billy Graham organization. At their next American crusade in New York, they asked if I would do there what I did in Little Rock… For the next ten years I did this at every Billy Graham crusade in North America.” I did some research on the Arkansas Crusade of 1989. I discovered that not only was the Roman Catholic Church supportive of the Billy Graham Crusade, but actively involved in it at an organizational level. The following report from “The Arkansas Catholic”, in the second article from the top, details the R. C. excitement at the prospect of Roman Catholics having their faith renewed, and being restored to full participation in the life of the Church.
Placing poor benighted souls into the hands of spiritual wolves is a grievous sin. My question is this: Will Dr Steven Lawson acknowledge his shocking compromise, and repent of his sin in the matter?
I am not obliged to deal with this matter privately, since it involves a public sin. However in fact I have contacted him about the issue previously and received NO reply.