FOLLOW UP:
In issues 2 and 3 (January & April 1997) of Vanguard, we published a two-part article on British Anglican minister, Nicky Gumbel and his now world-famous Alpha course. Gumbel is curate at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) which was the key location for the Toronto/Pensacola Experience when it first `touched down' in the UK in 1994. His numerous books, including Questions of Life and searching Issues, have for the last couple of years dominated the Top 10 Christian bestsellers. The Alpha course, as most readers know, has now been implemented by thousands of churches round the world, and recently in England there has been a £1 million advertising campaign to promote it.
Alpha has plugged an enormous gap. Churches have been flagging in membership and evangelistic zeal, running out of personnel and techniques to bring more people in. Along comes a ready-made Christian basics course which, set in the cringe-free, non-threatening environment of "fun, food and fellowship", is a winner. It's a one-size-fits-all course, avoiding contentious areas such as baptism and the Lord's supper. It has ingeniously made use of the small group setting to put people at their ease, build them up, and give them a forum for asking questions and discussing their needs and concerns.
Churches have flocked to Alpha, and it's won the seal of approval across the board- from New Church charismatic apostles such as Gerald Coates and Roger Forster, through mainstream Anglicans such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, to the Catholic church. The course has even been taking place in schools, prisons, hospitals and many workplaces round the world. There is now an Alpha symbol for sale to rival the ubiquitous Ichthus-fish car sticker.
However, there are always the critics. Alpha enthusiasts have been greatly irritated by some who have opposed the course. This small minority are viewed as carping, picky, lacking in love, Pharisaical, and probably (to crown it all) jealous of Alpha's universal success and acclaim.
We at Vanguard and CETF are among that small minority.
We believe that Alpha is seriously flawed for the following reasons:
1. Alpha assumes that by the fourth week all course members have been converted. "After week three, the attitude becomes an inclusive `Now we are all Christians' approach. It is therefore curious that a course claimed to be an `evangelistic success' actually has very little space devoted to the gospel and to evangelistic reasoning" (Falling Short: the Alpha Course examined by Chris Hand, published by Day One, UK; ISBN: 0 902548 88 3). 2. Alpha emphasises the infilling of the Holy Spirit without adequately making sure that the recipients are actually converted. 3. Alpha has a very scant doctrine of God. It is extremely man-centred, focusing always on our needs and problems, not on the will of the Almighty God who must be obeyed. There is little or no explanation of God as the Creator and the Fall of Man. 4. Alpha stresses love and acceptance and underplays God's holiness and His wrath with our sin. Sin is described more in terms of something that messes our lives up. Hell is not mentioned by name. 5. Alpha does not explain why Jesus had to die, because it does not preach the law of God, or show how angry God is at our breaking of it. Jesus' death is reduced to a great example of self-sacrifice. Though in week one, course members are told that Christ died to "remove our guilt. When our guilt is removed we have a new life" (Questions of Life), they are not told why His death is necessary to remove our guilt. 6. Alpha's official publicity material promotes testimonies of people whose first real experience of spiritual things comes during the Holy Spirit weekend, not whilst hearing the preaching of the Gospel. One man, whose testimony is published in one of Gumbel's books, regarded the sessions about Jesus as unnecessary, and wanted only to get the power of the spirit- "Never mind the weeks of pre-med, I just had to get into the operating theatre...then God came, and oh, the relief" (Telling Others by Nicky Gumbel). The main experience of God for Alpha attendees is the `Holy Spirit experience' which can be anything from bizarre Torontoesque phenomena such as hysterical laughter or unstoppable shaking to feelings of electricity and great heat. These are New Age experiences, and very little to do with hearing the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ, repenting of sin, believing on Him, and being saved.
7. Alpha is fuelled by a strong desire to promote ecumenism in the church, and to force (through imposing a `results-based' mentality) Biblical evangelicals to accept Catholicism and far out Toronto-style churches, simply because `the course works'. Time and time again, the pragmatic appeal of Alpha is put forward as its main virtue; never its faithfulness to the full counsel of Scripture. If we have any concern for truth (and the travesty of truth that is Catholic and neo-charismatic doctrine), we must be disturbed at how readily these heretical movements accept and use Alpha. It does not, say the Catholic authorities, contain anything contrary to Catholic doctrine. If central Catholic doctrine is unscriptural (and it is), and Alpha does not contradict it, how can Alpha be scriptural?
8. Alpha is founded by the church who introduced the Word-Faith Toronto/Pensacola Experience into Britain. HTB have never changed their position on Toronto, and still accept the heretical ministry the Toronto Airport Church and its associates, such as Rodney Howard-Browne.
(The author strongly recommends all readers to get hold of a copy of Falling Short, as mentioned above.)
The response to such criticisms is very rarely to refute them. This is often the way with man-made religion. We have never ever read any serious arguments which deal with the very real concerns we have with Alpha. None of its exponents can ever be bothered to actually answer the questions raised. What they do instead is point out how wrong it is to have a critical spirit (but it's OK to criticise critics), how sad it is when Christians are divisive (but it's OK to divide oneself from the full Biblical Gospel), how we should be all backing this wonderful move of God (perhaps God is moving people to oppose Alpha, though?), how all Christians love Alpha, all the way across the denominations (can people who ignore vital doctrinal contradictions be seen as believing in anything at all except statistics?). It seems to be only a tinpot army of eccentric madmen who are crazy enough to object. We at Vanguard and CETF are the exception that proves the rule: if nobody but oddballs oppose Alpha, then it must be good!
We trust that, by the grace of God, we may be a prophetic minority, speaking truth in love to a greatly troubled church. The true prophets of old were marginalised, ostracised, ridiculed, (Matthew 5: 12) called divisive and "troublers of Israel" (1 Kings 18:17), whilst the false prophets, like the latter day prophets of Alpha, had "all men speak well of them" (Luke 6:26). Popularity has never been a mark of truth.
It may be that we are simply wrong. If so, we call upon all who can answer our deep concerns to do so, so that we may throw our weight behind Alpha. It is sadly true that Alpha has come forward at a time when there are few sound Christian basics courses on offer or taking place.
If you go to <http://www.zem.co.uk/gledhill/alpha.htm> on the Internet, you will find an interesting article by the journalist Ruth Gledhill entitled `The magnet of Alpha'. The title itself begs the question, "What is it about Alpha that attracts so many?" and the further question, "Is it the merits of Jesus Christ alone, or something more, something different?" Please read the article if you have access to the world wide web- it repays close study.
The writer (who is very sympathetic to Alpha) explains how that for the Church of England, "bums on seats" is the aim, and how (to that end) Alpha works. She portrays Alpha's chief function as the saviour of the CofE, rather than the route to the Saviour of Souls. On numerous occasions she uses the verb "works", stressing time and again the pragmatic appeal.
The article then goes on to have a jolly good laugh at the "entertaining critiques" of Alpha, such as the one found on at www.ianpaisley.org, entitled `The Alpha Course: is it Bible-based or Hell-inspired'. This, I think, demonstrates the point I made above. There is no hint of a refutation, just a good old laugh that someone could use such extreme language.
Later on, Gledhill reveals how Gumbel actually brought Vanguard to her attention (well that's one way to spread the truth—via those we seek to expose!!). She rightly points out our concern that Alphanity is distinct from Christianity. On a deeply sinister note, she explains how it has been difficult to find any opposition to Alpha from the `Catholic side'. All the flak has come from `Protestants'. Should this not at least raise half an eyebrow on the faces of all true Bible-believing Christians? That Alpha is more acceptable to the Christ-denying Catholic church than it is to the Christ-exalting evangelical churches? Catholic Alpha courses have one aim in mind: to get people back into the mother Church. They are not interested in exhorting men and women to come to Christ and repent of their sins at the foot of the Cross—they are totally committed to boosting their flagging attendance. The concluding paragraph of the article sends a chill through my bones: "She [Gledhill's friend] had decided she could not go along to the Holy Spirit weekend. Instead, she had chosen to spend the weekend with her husband. `It's not that we don't believe in the Holy Sprit,' she said. `We do. It's just that we never went in for that sort of thing.' I pointed out that even Catholics were doing it now. `Are they?' she brightened. `Well, then, it must be all right, mustn't it?'"
To conclude, let us return to our original question, why is Alpha so appealing?
"Alpha, with its Christian version of group therapy on courses structured round a meal, a talk and a few hymns, offers undeniable salvation of the spirit for such people for whom day-to-day living is a form of hell on earth."
I find this paragraph frightening. It exposes exactly what Alpha does for people—it provides therapy for lonely and troubled people in this life, without ever leading them truly to the source of Eternal Life, our Lord Jesus Christ. Its deliverance is from the hell we make for ourselves on earth, not from the true hell, the lake of fire of everlasting punishment. Please, dear reader, do not sell your non-Christian friends short. What a tragedy it would be if we found that, at the end of it all, Alpha had done nothing except give people a religious tea-and-sympathy before their damnation. Let's preach the full Gospel, and resolve (as the Apostle did), "not to know any thing among them, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" 1 Corinthians 2:1. God bless you richly in your Christian service—His Name be ever praised.
NEIL RICHARDSON
Appeared in Volume 4.3 November/December1998
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