Pearson and Inclusionism

Have you heard of Carlton Pearson? If you live in Tulsa, OK or have been involved what has been tagged as the Word of Faith movement you probably have heard of Pearson. In the early 1990’s I frequently visited the then Higher Dimensions Church. At that time it was a growing mega-Church in Tulsa that clearly embraced Caucasian and Black Americans in a healthy Church setting.

I first heard of Pearson’s deviation from orthodox Christian concepts when he attempted a political career, running for Mayor in the city of Tulsa. Pearson ran a Conservative Christian Right campaign attempting to entice traditionally Black Democratic Party voters to his Republican campaign. This is when I began to first hear of the so-called “Gospel of Inclusion.”

Pearson’s Republican campaign lost horribly. That is when information began to flow in about Pearson’s new message. I became horrified that the Gospel of Inclusion is actually a theology that proclaims that humanity does need the Redemption of Christ to enter Heaven. All people regardless of faith, lack of faith, or the practice of good and evil; will be included in the Kingdom of God. It is like Joseph Smith creating a new religion and tagging as a higher vision of Christianity. Carlton Pearson’s “Gospel of Inclusion” is a warped Universalist religion. I say warped only because it is Pearson discrediting Christ to those who followed Christ under his Ministry. It is no more Christian than Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses that deny the union of God in Christ.

J. Lee Grady of Charisma Magazine has branded Carlton Pearson’s theology as heresy. I actually tend to agree with Grady; however heresy is a strong term. Many Main Line Christian Denominations consider the Word of Faith, Renewal, Charismatics and so on; as heretics.

I think it is good that Grady exposes Pearson’s change of orthodoxy so that people are aware and are not duped. On the other hand, Grady and many people need to use the “heresy” word as a term of alienation. What goes around comes around or whatever is sown is also reaped. Expose Pearson to draw him is the attitude should be portrayed, not an attitude of strife and derision.

That is my two cents, below is Grady’s article on Pearson’s disturbing agenda:
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Heresy in the Cathedral
Carlton Pearson’s ‘gospel of inclusion’ is now headed to a prominent pulpit in Atlanta
By J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma Magazine
Visionary Advancement Strategies InJesus Group

Since he became a Universalist in the late 1990s, Carlton Pearson has lost almost all the support he once enjoyed among charismatics and Pentecostals in this country. His 5,000-member church in Tulsa, Okla., has shrunk to a few hundred, forcing his building into foreclosure. But that hasn’t stopped the discredited preacher from spreading his quirky “everybody is saved” doctrine on secular television programs, including National Public Radio, Fox News and the National Geographic Channel.

And now Pearson has announced that his next major theological summit—called Inclusion 2006—will be held in October at Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, a charismatic church founded by Bishop Earl Paulk in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur.

Pearson believes he is on a mission to convert us all to his beliefs. “Within the next five years, everyone will be preaching inclusionism,” he said in one recent interview.
“Inclusionism,” in case the term is new to you, is the idea that God does not exclude anyone from heaven. It is ultimate extreme in liberal heresy. If Jesus died for all, then all automatically receive eternal life. No matter how people choose to live their lives on Earth, or whether they respond to Christ through repentance and faith, they get free admission into a glorious afterlife.

In other words, you can live any way you want to. There is no hell. The worst sinners—and maybe even the devil himself—will wind up in heaven.

Pearson actually believes the concept of hell is rooted in pagan beliefs. “My ministry will be inclusive, not exclusive. I’m no longer preaching and living under that fear-based gospel,” Pearson told the Dallas Morning News in March.

On his Web site, Pearson announces that he is releasing his most important book this year, God Is Not a Christian .. He also tells his Web site visitors to prepare for an international theological reformation based on his “revelation.”

“Don’t miss out on the newest shift in religious sensibility!” Pearson’s Web site announces.

It was one thing for Pearson to preach his heresies to a small and dwindling crowd at his Higher Dimensions Family Church in Tulsa, which meets in a borrowed Episcopal sanctuary. It is another thing for him to take his message on the road and preach it at Paulk’s church, which was at one time the most prominent charismatic congregation in the Southeast.

Today most of the Cathedral’s seats are empty. The congregation has been losing members steadily, especially in the last year after former church employees Bobby and Mona Brewer filed a lawsuit alleging that Paulk lured Mona into an ongoing adulterous affair.

Why is Paulk allowing Pearson in his pulpit? Why is he going so far as to host this heretical gathering in his neo-Gothic cathedral?

It’s no secret that Pearson has already preached in the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at least twice since he was officially labeled a heretic by a group of African-American bishops in 2004. It appears that Paulk has thrown his hat in the ring with his Universalist friend. Deception has spread its web.

You might be tempted to say, “Paulk and Pearson have just gone off the deep end. No one is going to listen to them.” I’m not expecting long lines at the Inclusion 2006 event, but don’t underestimate the spiritual forces behind this deception. There are lots of people in the ranks of charismatic churches today who are dangerously close to embracing the idea of a God who can’t or won’t send an unrepentant sinner to hell.

One of Pearson’s supporters, in showing his support for inclusionism, writes on Pearson’s Web site: “Any God who would cast away the majority of mankind, as your critics insist, is not deserving of anyone’s worship or praise.”

In other words: We don’t like the God of the Bible. We want to fashion a new god in our own image.

What a sad day for our movement. I’m originally from Atlanta, and I remember the glory days in the mid-1970s when crowds discovered lively worship and spiritual renewal at Paulk’s church—then known as Chapel Hill Harvester. Today, after a long series of public scandals, the crowds have vanished, many staff members have fled and hundreds of once-dedicated church members are disillusioned and hurt. A church that was once known for spreading the message of the Holy Spirit’s power is now aligning itself with the most blatant form of blasphemy. Let’s pray that the infection will be contained rather than spreading to other parts of the body of Christ.