As I write this article, it is the 18^th of April, 2001. I am reading the strangest article in the Tribune on the strangest of days. When I went out this morning I noticed how hazy it was. For the first time in a long time, I could not make out the Superstition Mountains to the east. It was just too hazy. Then I pick up the newspaper and find that it is not us at all that makes all the smoke – it is the communist Chinese!

Sure enough, in the paper there is a satellite image of the Korean peninsula, Japan and its Sea, and the eastern quarter of China. A huge swath of yellow cloud lies diagonally across the picture from the upper right to the lower left corner. That cloud, according to the article is as Japan itself. The article states that the cloud contains dust and sand from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and is mixed with the industrial pollution of China and Japan. It has blown all the way across the ocean, and it has effected North America from Alberta to Arizona.

Not only has the trans-Pacific dust storm clouded the sky, but particulate levels across the effected areas of North America have been spiked to 4 times what they were last weekend. We are reassured by Al Brown, Maricopa County Environmental Services director, "I don’t believe it’s a health threat to our citizens." Meteorologist Doug Green said, "It’s amazing how things that are happening 10,000-plus miles away can have an influence on us." If we lose any highway funds now because pollution levels are too high, I’m going to sue the Chinese government.

We live in a wonderful world. We can travel anywhere in the world now in a matter of hours, and email can be sent instantaneously over the internet. In many ways the shrinking of the world has made it a better place, but in some ways, it has not.

Arizona used to be sort of isolated, as far as the church is concerned. Christians didn’t worry about a lot of the things that go on elsewhere. It was none of our business, we thought, and besides, those folks are on the other side of the country, and we are here. We don’t need to worry.

But the world is smaller now, and whatever infects the brethren elsewhere will eventually endanger us – if we do not follow the teaching of Paul. He said, "I charge thee in the sight of God, and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching" ( 2 Tim. 4:1-2 ). Though we may not see all the potholes in the road, we know they are there, because others who have hit them have warned us.

It is mystifying to many how the problems a small college as far away as Florida could effect us in Arizona to the point of dividing churches and brethren. But we are lining up, folks, it will soon be them against us – all over how we view Florida College. Maybe there won’t be the huge doctrinal rift that we saw when the brethren divided over ACU taking money from the church budgets, maybe there won’t be the total breaking off of all fellowship like there was then. But there already is the polite nod, replacing the hug and handshake of happy and trusting fellowship. And all of this is over something on the other side of the world for most of us.

One should ask the question before he lines up with somebody: "Is there something going on at Florida College that we ought to know about?" Indeed, what is wrong at FC? I will offer a list of complaints and with it sources to go to so that you may investigate yourself.

Most of the readers know that I have been a supporter of FC all of my adult life. I believed in the principles upon which it was founded. The advertisements of the college assured us that FC was a superior choice in higher education because "credits will transfer" and you won’t have to worry about your children being indoctrinated in the errors of the institutional brethren’s schools or the modernism of the public universities. Florida College has not been faithful to its promise. Here are some of the things wrong at Florida College.

For years, administrators and faculty have claimed faithfulness to the teaching of the Bible on divorce and remarriage. But that has not been the case. One of the premier draws to the college was Homer Hailey. First let me say, I have known and loved brother Hailey all of my life. I recognize his ability as a teacher and scholar, and happily admit to the benefit I had to sit at his feet. But brother Hailey taught error on the marriage question when he was Abilene, and they knew that at FC when they hired him. There were other problems that I had with brother Hailey’s beliefs and practices, and these were no secret to those who knew him.

Wisely brother Hailey declined an invitation a few years back to be included on the lecture program because of the controversy his presence might cause. Prior to that, men like Ed Harrel and Bob Owen (former president of FC) disowned Hailey’s positions on divorce and remarriage, but embraced him as an abused brother. An attack was made on faithful brethren by these men, as they distorted the teaching on Romans 14 to justify tolerance of error in matters of doctrinal import. They may deny their teaching is similar to Ed Fudge’s and Ketcherside’s teaching on "unity in diversity," but they know better. The difference is that they make the same points on Romans 14, but they make applications only to the marriage question, and, as it turns out, to the "non-fundamentalist" view of Genesis.

Where does FC enter this controversy? They have provided the teachers of error a platform from which to teach their error, and a place from which to ambush those who call this heresy what it is – an attack on the fundamental principle of the Restoration Movement.

At the lectures in February, Donnie Rader, a faithful brother from Tennessee, was asked to preach on the issue of marriage, divorce, and remarriage. Brother Rader referred to the problems of fellowship created by the false teaching done by Harrel and Owen as they defended fellowship with Hailey, and for the first time in the history of the lectures, they allowed a rebuttal from one of those mentioned. It was not like Rader surprised them. He had a dialogue with Farrell Jenkins, who is in charge at the lectures, about the text of his speech, which he had sent in before the fall term began. If they didn’t want Donnie to talk about those things they could have told him not to or not to come. But instead, they took an unprecedented step to discredit him by allowing Owen to speak, and handing out printed rebuttals to his speech during the lectures.

Somebody might ask, "So what? It’s only fair that those who are accused have an opportunity to answer charges in the forum in which they are presented." Okay, I’ll concede to that. But in providing such where they have not ever before, tells us where those who administer at FC stand on the question of Romans 14 and "open fellowship."

For documentation see this website: <http://truthmagazine.com/lecture.html>

Are there other problems at FC? Yes. We dealt with some previously, but to list them again:

1. Shane Scott’s teaching on Genesis 1, the claim that it cannot be literal, and using him as a freshman Bible teacher. An endorsement of the teachings of Hill Roberts and his material which contains what they acknowledge to be false by having him participate in their lecture program.

2. What Connie Adams called "stonewalling" on this question in a recent issue of Truth Magazine. Refusing to be held accountable by those they ask support from in the form of money, and shabby treatment in general of those who oppose them.

3. The behavior of representatives of the college as they travel about the country advertising the school tends toward the elevation of "emotionalism" as a legitimate teaching tool for young people.

Friends, I recognize the college is an institution. It has no conscience, it does not believe or practice anything. But those men who are in charge at FC are accountable to God, they should also recognize their accountability to those from whom they ask support. They don’t, and so, I cannot have my name associated with them.

So we have blowing from the west a cloud of pollution and dust which obstructs our view and threatens our health, ever so slightly. From the east we have a cloud of doubt and division that people on this end of the country would be better off never having heard of it.

http://truthmagazine.com/cc.html

http://www.watchmanmag.com/0204indx.htm

http://www.watchmanmag.com/0309indx.htm

These websites provide some insight to the controversy.