Our Interview With Paul and Jan Crouch

STEVE STRANG

Congratulations to Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) on its 40th anniversary. Paul and Jan Crouch are to be commended for building the world’s largest worldwide broadcasting network. No matter what you may think of the Crouches or TBN, there is no denying the impact—most of it positive—they have had on modern Christianity.

You may remember I had hoped to interview the Crouches a few months ago, but at the last minute, Jan pulled out. That was after I had asked my readers what questions I should ask. If you missed that Strang Report, you can read it here along with the many comments and questions it generated.

We wanted to commemorate the anniversary because it’s significant. I admire Paul and Jan and for many years have considered them friends.

So we dug out of our archives an interview we did 30 years ago for TBN’s 10-year anniversary. In that interview, our writer Dennis Roberts asked them the tough questions people continue to ask, about finances and accountability and why they allow certain people on the air.

Does Athiesm Require Faith?

"The fool has said in his heart that there is no God." - Psalm 14:1

One day, someone caught the comedian W.C. Fields reading the Bible and asked what he was doing. His reply was "just looking for loopholes."* There are a lot of people who read with the same intention of disregarding any evidence.

There are only three options to explain our existence, one is to believe in God, another is agnosticism which states there may be a God but I haven't found proof. The last is atheism where one will state they know God does not exist. Atheism is not just a non-belief in God but a willful denial of his existence. Agnosticism is where one admits that they do not know if God exists.

The Divine Healer

About a dozen years ago, I began to apply Romans 12:1. It urges us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God. The apostle Paul also tells us twice in 1 Corinthians that our bodies are God's temples. He draws two powerful images: living sacrifices and temples.

To me that means God is concerned about us caring for and protecting our bodies. After all, our bodies are the essence of what we work with. Our minds may be more important, but they surely don't function independently. If our bodies aren't important, why would we have a resurrection that promises some form of physical substance? 

Then why do we tend to discount the body or pay too little attention to its care? I've begun to realize the answer-for me, that is. If we acknowledge our responsibility to care for the temple of God, then we're held accountable for how we treat it. And if we misuse our bodies or offer God blemished sacrifices, what does that say about our commitment?

So first off, I acknowledge I'm a temple abuser. I have offered my badly-taken-care-of and less-than-perfect body to God. For years, I was among the sleep-deprived generation. I ate a lot of foods that harmed my body. Until I faced some serious physical problems, I didn't think much about exercise. I allowed stress into my life when I could have found healthy ways to correct it. 

Are we responsible for inborn sin?

This week's reading: Job 25:4 - "How then can a man be righteous before God? How can man born of a woman be pure?

"How can mere mortals prove their innocence before God?" (Job 9:2 ) is probably the most important question in life. The answer is clear: No one can claim personal righteousness equal to God's purity. Paul recognizes that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Ro 3:23).

The problem is, we are born in a sinful condition due to the sin of Adam and Eve (see Ge 3:6-7; Ro 5:12). David described this original sin (as some refer to it): "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Ps 51:5).

Isn't that unfair? How can we be held accountable for something we inherit? The problem with such questions is that we too have sinned. The question instead should be: What do we do with the sinful nature we inherit? Do we indulge it? Or do we trust in the way God has provided to overcome it? Through faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross, God gives us a brand new nature with a righteous standing before him. This is how we take responsibility for our sins.

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