CHUCK MISSLER - founder of Koinonia House and "an internationally recognized Biblical authority..."
So sincere, yet so in error. "In the 1970s, Chuck began leading weekly Bible studies at the 30,000-member Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa Pentecostal/charismatic church in southern California. He and (wife) Nancy established Koinonia House in 1973." The Misslers are Wesleyan/Arminian in regard to the doctrine of salvation and thus religious humanists. Like Bill and Vonette Bright, Nancy Missler was adversely influenced by the anti-doctrinal and neo-evangelical Henrietta Mears.
Miles J. Stanford wrote: "The error, the excess, the abject failure of Charismatic Arminianism can be summed up in one reversed principle: "Not Thy will, but mine be done." The Arminian founds his (or her) religion upon the theory of free will, i.e., mankind's will. Thus the cause of the charismatic confusion and chaos is--sovereign man [or woman]!" Let see the "reversed principle" at work.
In 1995, Chuck Missler produced a set of two tapes under the title, THE SOVEREIGNTY OF MAN. The following are quotations from the enclosed Supplemental Notes. For Chuck, predestination and free will is a "perennial paradox" and he follows the common Arminian error of assuming that human responsibility mandates absolute freedom of the will. He paradoxically writes:
"The truth of God's Word appears like a river of truth which flows between two extremes of Calvinism and Arminianism. Both are true and yet both can lead to falsehood." [underline emphasis mine]
Both are not true. To posit they are is dialectic nonsense. While not able to reject those Scriptures that speak of election and predestination, Chuck Missler turns to the Wesleyan error of conditional election based on foreknowledge.
"He [God] knows, and has known from 'eternity past,' who will exercise their free will to accept Him and who will reject Him. The former are 'the elect' and the latter are the 'non-elect'."
"Is this grace, this wooing, this courtship, irresistible? No, we have free will and we can (and do) resist, even to the damnation of our souls, but God does everything short of making us automata (preprogrammed puppets) to draw us into His forever family."
For the religious humanist, there is no middle ground. Man's will must be indeterministic or man is said to be "a puppet." During periodic conference presentations, Chuck Missler will frequently refer to mankind's "sovereign choice". By definition, either God or man must be sovereign--not both.
In the December 1999 edition of The News Journal of Koinonia House, Nancy Missler writes:
"God has given us a free will, much like His own. Our free will is the most important element of our design, because within that will lies the power to choose between life and death, good and evil, faith and fear, darkness and light, God and Satan. Our will is the master of all of our faculties and upon our will everything else depends. It controls our reason, our intelligence, our emotions and our abilities. It directs everything within us and is the "gate" through which all things must pass. [bold emphasis mine]
"The reason our own will is so very important to God is that unless we choose (by an act of our will) to allow God to accomplish His will through us, He is unable to do so."
In contrast to the above, W. E. Best wrote in FREE GRACE VERSUS FREE WILL:
"The three faculties or powers in the human soul are (in this order) understanding [intellect], affection [emotion], and will. The order cannot be reversed. Eve's sin verifies the order of the powers of the soul. She gained knowledge of the forbidden fruit by seeing it. Her affection went out to the fruit of which she had gained knowledge. She then exercised her will by taking the fruit.
"The will, the last faculty of the soul, is determined by preceding things--understanding of the mind and affection of the heart.
"Arminians believe the will determines itself. They make the will sovereign, declaring it to be the determiner and the determined. Hence, their belief makes the will stand apart from the other faculties and places it first in the order of the powers of the human soul."
The serious doctrinal error of both Chuck and Nancy Missler stems from their failure to understand the nature of God and God's will. They both fail to grasp the difference between free will and volition, the difference between immutable and mutable self-determination. See FREE WILL vs. VOLITION and ARMINIUS, TO CALVIN, TO PAUL.
It's been a long time since I've enjoyed reading Biblical/Theological statements on the Internet. I am a long-time Christian and happened on to your site as a result of reading your comments regarding Chuck and Nancy Missler. I worked for a year with Chuck in his early days and greatly respect his intellect and enjoy his insight into current events from a Biblical perspective. Your comments on "Free Will" are some of the best I've ever read on the subject. Your style is loving yet to the point and extremely sound. Thank you for your obedience to God's calling in your life...it's touched me in a wonderful way. May God richly bless you in your ministry.
Thank you,
[signed]
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