Crossless- Plagiarism on a Grand Scale

A group of men and I have been dealing with the teaching and advocates of the so-called Crossless gospel. The position is also identified as Redefined Free Grace Theology. You can get some understanding of the Crossless gospel by reading this article, and this article.

In essence this is a position that insists a lost man can be saved without understanding or believing who Jesus is and what he did to provide for salvation. It is a non-saving reductionist message.

The Crossless gospel was originated by Zane Hodges and is aggressively perpetuated by men like Bob Wilkin (Grace Evangelical Society), Steven R. Lewis, John Niemela, Antonio da Rosa and Jim Johnson.

Crossless advocates often refuse to discuss their doctrine, stifle meaningful dialogue, and duck out of discussions that are not favorable for them. These things may seem small, but what follows is not.

Earlier this month, Jim Johnson, who is an Instructor at the pro-Crossless gospel Rocky Mountain Bible College, began publishing a series at his blog, The Gospel of God’s Free Grace. The series is titled, Destroying Free Grace Theology. This series was promoted by Mr. Johnson for weeks prior to its release. It is a series that is supposed to bolster the Crossless gospel and discredit a series titled, The Tragedy of the Crossless Gospel at the Free Grace Journal.

Shortly after Johnson’s series was released men began to review it. Almost immediately concerns were raised that there may be examples of plagiarism in the series. A closer review confirmed the plagiarism. However, the level of plagiarism is so blatant and broad in scope it defies imagination that Johnson thought he could do this and no one would detect it.

Mr. Johnson copied and pasted large sections of other men’s work into his series. Much of his plagiarism was at the expense of articles from Bibliotheca Sacra (Bib Sac). Johnson systematically manipulated the work of other authors for his advantage through, revision, additions and deletions. This plagiarism committed by Johnson is the most expansive example I have ever heard of.

The documentation of Johnson’s copyright infringement and blatant plagiarism has, and is being documented at my blog. For a comprehensive review of the first example of Mr. Johnson’s plagiarism read, Copyright Infringement & Plagiarism: Jim Johnson’s series, “Destroying Free Grace Theology.”

How does Johnson respond: Combativeness, Scoffing and the absurd argument that his plagiarism is okay because the word "plagiarism" is not in Scripture. Thus, he implies we are legalistic for employing an extra-Biblical standard.

A companion article can be read at the Free Grace, Free Speech blog. That article is titled, Johnson Plagiarized on GES Website.


LM

 

In theological/academic circles there is probably nothing more reprehensible than plagiarism. Johnson could not care less, seems his motive out weighs his methods.


LM

 

Second Installment

Dear Brethren:

I have just posted the next installment of the series examining Jim Johnson's Copyright Infringement & Plagiarism, Part 2

Yours faithfully,


LM

 

New Update

UPDATE:

Fellow blogger, Jon Perreault (Free Grace, Free Speech), has posted a new article that examines Jim Johnson’s denials of the obvious plagiarism in his series, Destroying Free Grace Theology.

I urge you to read, Jim Johnson Denies Mass Plagiarism


LM

 

Dear BB Readers:

The amount of verified plagiarism in Jim Johnson's series, Destroying Free Grace Theology is simply staggering. With the new article I posted it reveals another example of mass plagiarism. The page count of stolen material stands at over 30 pages, and there is still more.

Mr. Johnson's plagiarism was not limited to simply copying and pasting select portions of the works by Hawthorne and Cerda. Johnson's abuse of these articles was on a massive scale, with his plagiarizing anywhere from four to over 20 pages at a time.

Furthermore, through revisions, additions and deletions Johnson manipulated the writing of these men to make the plagiarized material conform more closely to his own theological views. If you wrote a theological journal entry and found that a man not only plagiarized it, but also manipulated portions to make it look like you support his position when you do not; what would your reaction be? This is exactly what Johnson did!

This time I review another Bibliotheca Sacra article that was Mr. Johnson's choice for plagiarizing. This time Mr. Johnson chose to plagiarize the very well known commentator: W. H. Griffith Thomas.

For details read Part 3 of Jim Johnson's Plagiarism

Research has confirmed there are no less than four sources Mr. Johnson plagiarized. Two articles from Bib Sac (Hawthorne & Griffith-Thomas), Mario Cerda’s from Bible.org, and a fourth that was discovered over the weekend. That may not be the final count, but after 30+ pages of stolen material IMO it hardly matters any more.

If I were to continue posting more of the plagiarism examples that have been uncovered this series would last through the rest of the month. I am, however, looking at wrapping it up with just one more to bring closure.


LM