ASBURY UNIVERSITY:

THE BURDEN OF THE WORD OF THE LORD

October 18, 2012, Asbury University,

     A.U. is a liberal arts institution in Wilmore, KY, founded in 1890. It was grounded in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. A stature of Francis Asbury, founder of American Methodism, graces the entrance of the university.

     Cindy cried out, "The word of the Lord to Asbury students is in the form of a question. Can you read? 'Every page in the Bible includes a command to holiness and righteous.   And every page gives a promise of freedom and deliverance from sin. (Walking in the Spirit, Jed Smock).' So why is there so much sin on this Christian campus?"

At first some Asbury students and faculty listened to Sis. Cindy from a distance.  The bald administrator later came down and tried to break up the crowd.

     As students stopped Cindy asked, "Has anyone read 1 John? What was the author's purpose for writing it?" Of course, none of them had a clue to John's purpose and few had read 1 John. Then Cindy began to read from John, 'These things I write unto that you sin not.' Next she began to call out secret sins, pornography, lust, cheating, backbiting, gossip, dishonoring parents, etc. She repeatedly asked, "Is anyone here living holy? Is anyone free from lust?" One blond boy with big earrings said that he was living holy; he had just repented the night before. There was a group who refused to say they were living holy.   They had already judged that they did not like the preaching. They were angry claiming that Cindy falsely accused them of being whore-mongers. One boy, who was particularly offended, later confessed that he had conspired with others to not raise their hands that they were free from lust. They were setting up Cindy to falsely accuse them of being whore-mongers. These boys were not even able to reach the level of the OT saint, Job, who said, "I have made a covenant with my eyes. How can I look upon a woman to lust?"

Local pastor and Bible study leader claimed that Bro. Jed's preaching would lead the students to despair and suicide.

     Meanwhile, about 50 students had gathered, some were staying off at a distance. They were dumbfounded by Cindy's preaching. I am sure none of them had heard anything like this in their life. A group who appeared to be faculty or administrators stood on the steps of Fletcher Hall. One of them eventually moved through the crowd ordering students to leave.   Some obeyed; others walked away and stood off at distance. Cindy rebuked the official, "You are a hypocrite discouraging the students from listening to the Word of God; you are an enemy of holiness." He ignored Cindy; there was a group of administrators who tried to get the police to remove us, suggesting that Cindy be charged with disorderly conduct. One of the policeman said that we were not breaking any laws and he would be laughed out of court if he arrested us.

How many of you have read the whole Bible?

     I took over about 11:30 and continued to remind the students of their holiness heritage. Few of them believed that a Christian could live above sin. Several times I asked with a show of hands how many had read the whole Bible.   Only a few responded positively.   Even when I limited my question to the NT, few had read all of it. A local pastor and seminary student from across the street came out of the crowd to personally challenge me. He objected to me judging the students for not having read the Bible and for not preaching God grace. I said, "Let's talk about 'the grace of God that brings salvation from Titus chapter 2; it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live righteously, soberly and godly in this present world . . ."

The administrators had tried to get the police to arrest Sis. Cindy for disorderly conduct but one policeman sided with us warning the others that they would be laughed out of court.

 

  Shortly after our confrontation he exhorted the crowd to follow him to the cafeteria where he would talk about the love of God. Many followed him but I continued preaching. Soon the crowd built up again. For most of the afternoon we had 50-65 listening.   Later the Pastor-Seminarian told Pastor Billy we were pushing students to commit suicide.

 

The girl on the left was a "Tag" leader and she was very upset when Pastor Billy told the students to make sure that their spiritual leaders were living holy.

     Of course, the pastor later returned, evidently his talk on love was not as exciting and interesting as our message to "Flee from the wrath to come," which was Wesley's signature text in his open-air meetings. When Cindy saw him, she said, "This pastor thinks we are driving you students to suicide. How many here are contemplating suicide?" One boy raided his hand and Cindy exhorted him, "Repent! Suicide is a sin! If you do it you will go to Hell." A man approached him and said, "I am a police officer. I need to talk to you. I will have to detain you for 72 hours if you are contemplating suicide." Fearfully, the boy promised the officer that he would not commit suicide.   The officer pressed him to say again that he would not do it.

Some of Pastor Billy's students were working the crowd.  They could be on campus but we had to stay on the sidewalk.

     Billy and some of his students from Asbury were working the crowd undercover. Other of his disciples mainly listened. I finally asked Pastor Billy if he wanted to speak or remain undercover. Billy accepted the challenge to speak. Billy had been working on a five point sermon for Asbury all week.   What we heard next was the Burden of the Word of the Lord to Asbury by Pastor Billy Henderson,

1. Students demonstrate a terrible misunderstanding of the doctrines on which Asbury was founded. (holiness)

2. Way too many students do not attend church.

3. Students should not allow university appointed students (tag leaders) to disciple them if the appointee is not walking holy.

4. Too many divorces occur from Asbury weddings. Students should not seek mates out of their own hurt and need. They should marry to glorify Christ.

5. Quit blaming your parents and do what the Bible says, honor them. 

     You may listen to most of the sermon by clicking on the videos above.

     This sermon was inspired by 38 years of ministering to Asbury students and faculty. One student appointee was very offended at the third point falsely accusing Billy of calling all the tag leaders hypocrites. Billy strongly denied this, but said he had counseled with several tag leaders over the years that were in bondage to pornography. One boy objected, "That does not mean that they cannot teach us and lead us in other areas in which they are living right."

     Cindy was brought to tears by Pastor Billy's message. We carry a heavy burden for institutions like Asbury and Oberlin which have such a godly heritage, but are either departing from their heritage like Asbury or have completely rejected it, like Oberlin.  

     A few times someone in crowd would said, "Hey, they are right!"   Then several students would jump the bold one to convince him that we were wrong. Pray for the Asbury students in Billy's church as they are likely to be persecuted in the aftermath of our visit. Pray that the Lord will use them to press in the sword of conviction more deeply. We concluded at the end of the day that Asbury students seem more hard hearted than UK students.

     A middle-aged man with a long goatee and earrings interrupted me to tell the crowd, "These preachers talk about sex but Jesus spent a lot more time talking about money than sex." Billy stepped up and sarcastically said, "Alright, let's take up an offering for Brother Jed."

Goat man claimed that he had pastored a church full of people in Texas who had been hurt by preachers like Bro. Jed.

   The goat continued speaking telling the students, "Your time would be more valuable spent taking 20 minutes to read the Sermon on the Mount than listening to these preachers for hours." I reminded him about what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mt. concerning lusting in your heart. He walked away but Billy and some of his disciples surrounded the goat. He told Billy, "I pastored a congregation in Texas for nine years made up of people who had been wounded by ministers like you guys."        

     Things had slowed down considerably by 3:45 PM with groups standing around talking about issues we had raised. It looked like the meeting was over; I decided to go to the seminary bookstore. When I returned, Sister Pat had gathered another crowd.

Sister Pat closed the meeting with over and hour of question/teaching as only she can do.

      We had started at 10:40. We started earlier because there are no classes scheduled from 10:40 until 12:30. Sister Pat asked when arrived on campus, "How will we get a crowd if there no class breaks?"

     Cindy replied, "We will make a crowd!" It wasn't easy, but Cindy did it with just a few passing.   And some in the administration wanted her arrested for disorderly conduct! All the while a few students were pretending (we supposed they were acting) to be homosexuals to the delight of their classmates. One boy said he financed his education by a web porn sight. We supposed he was saying that to spite us. Two couples kissed passionately to further mock. Several flipped us the bird. As Proverbs 14:9 says, "Fools make a mock of sin." We did note to Asbury's credit that there was no cursing.   Also, a few students apologized for the behavior of their fellow students. We left campus at 5 PM.

   I did have a short conversation with the Director of Student Development who was pleasant and asked me, "Have our students been respectful?"   I answered, "They have been agitated." I gave him a copy of my book, "Walking in the Spirit." 

   Please read the article below that appeared in the Asbury newspaper:

Preaching the Truth??

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