Biblical Separation Defended - Far Eastern Bible College

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONDr. Ferm’s Interpretation ErrsDr. Ferm’s volume, Cooperative Evangelism: Is Billy Graham Rightor Wrong? defends the inclusivist policy on the grounds of the Bible andthe ministries of the successful evangelists of the last two and one-halfcenturies. The defense of his views based on the ministry of the Lordwas the only area analyzed in this thesis, but the same arguments may beseen to pervade all of Dr. Ferm’s biblical interpretation, and if hisarguments based on the Savior’s ministry are sound, the case will nodoubt also carry in his other biblically based sections; however, if thereasoning and conclusions here are spurious, the same verdict will haveto be rendered over his other thrusts. This is true because Dr. Ferm isarguing over a trend in Scripture which concerns the treatment of agroup of God’s enemies—those who claim to be prophets of Jehovah,but who reject the Jehovah of the Prophets, i.e., the modernists.The verdict of this study in view of our analysis of Dr. Ferm’s bookin the light of the Bible, is that he has erred in interpreting the basicattitude of Christ toward God’s enemies. Thus his conclusions andreasonings, although sincerely made in an effort to serve God, areincorrect. It is the opinion of the writer that Dr. Ferm’s key assertion,“Jesus himself affords us the best example of cooperation [i.e., witherrorists],” 1 has not been established in his book. Such a view cannot besustained on the basis of the New Testament, and cannot be rightlyapplied to cooperative evangelists in order to justify their cooperationwith liberal elements. In fact, it is the conclusion of this study that theLord’s ministry argues for the exact opposite of cooperative evangelismby virtue of Christ’s unceasing acrimonious struggle with theunbelieving false religious leaders of His day whom He continually91