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Christianity Today, August (Web-Only), 2008 |

Books

Campus Crusader for Christ

Bill Bright is a compelling, flawed figure in John Turner's historical analysis of postwar evangelicalism.

Review by Collin Hansen | posted 8/07/2008 09:36AM

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"You were either saved," Bright friend Tim LaHaye told Turner, "or a prospect for Bill Bright."

Collin Hansen is a CT editor at large and author of Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists.

Related Elsewhere:

An excerpt from the book on tensions between Campus Crusade and InterVarsity in CCC's early years is also new on our site today.

Bill Bright and Campus Crusade for Christ: The Renewal of Evangelicalism in Postwar America is available from ChristianBook.com and other retailers.

Our previous articles about Bill Bright include:

Weblog: Campus Crusade for Christ Founder Bill Bright Dies at 81 | Former "happy pagan" went on to form one of the largest and most efficient parachurch ministries in the world. (July 1, 2003)

Bill Bright's Benediction | "As long as I have breath, I will praise and serve the Lord," the evangelist wrote earlier this month. (July 1, 2003)

Bill Bright's Wonderful Plan for the World | Evangelicalism's power couple closes in on their radical mission. (July 14, 1997)

Bright Unto the End | In the face of retirement and death, the founder of Campus Crusade says his spirit still soars. (October 1, 2001)

CT Classic: 'I'm Only Doing What God Told Me to Do' | The founder of Campus Crusade for Christ talks about America's moral disintegration, Christians in politics, and his hopes for the "greatest spiritual awakening in the history of the world." (September 24, 1976)

CT Classic: Campus Crusade Into All the World | Bill Bright leads a spiritual revolution. (June 9, 1972)

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Chaplain Mary Murphy

Posted: August 13, 2008 7:04 PM

Help us bring healing for Brother Bill in Heaven - tax-exempt donations to Veterans Village Lakewood Colorado for those Wounded Warriors who request an alternative to incarceration when their felony can be directly traced to untreated PTSD/Traumatic Brain Injuries; learning business ownership as members first www.Veterans Chamber of Commerce.org within a nondualistic 12 Step "Admit we are powerless over alcohol our lives have become unmanageable...Higher Power is restoring us to sanity"; Bill Bright was a member of the Calvary Temple Second Mile Committee who did not check the facts of how Pastor (sic) Charles Blair was again livinig his Hebrews 6:6 Spiritual Adultery. He, like Bill, allowing the powers and principalities to deceive them with their partisan politics; i.e., military might and evangelism - anti-intellectualism - healing waits to bring John l4:12 "Greater works will you do than I for I go to My Father" The War Widows, Veteransjustice@aol.com Lakewood Colorado

Eileen R.

Posted: August 13, 2008 3:26 PM

I thank God for the simple basic message of the 4 Spiritual Laws booklet and the simple basic booklet on How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit. At UND, while in CCC, I grew in faith and began to understand it more fully. I was in an action group that taught the basics of living the Christian life and taught me how to study the Bible. They never claimed to be a church or to be the only way to learn about the Bible. We are told to evangelize the world. I use the way of life evangelism techniques I learned while I was involved in CCC. The concerns about communism were legit. Have you seen what some of our seminaries are producing for pastors? Of all the parachurch organizations that exist, I trust CCC most. If you don't receive salvation, you can't grow in Christ or fully understand theology. CCC never told us to park our brains at the door. The meetings challenged me both intellectually and spiritually.

Norm Luke

Posted: August 11, 2008 6:48 AM


The Four Spiritual Laws is not evangelism, it is salesmanship --- something that you Americans love. It trivializes the Gospel and is simplistic to the point of stupidity. Its like the Jesus bumber stickers, which are advertising, not witness. Witness is not what advertising you have on the car; witness is how you drive the car.

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