Closer Examination of Walter Martin’s Chronology 1987
Constance Cumbey’s Luncheon with Walter Martin
Constance Cumbey’sNEW AGE MONITOR
Pointe Publishers, Inc. Mark Spaulding, President P.O. Box 3078 CenterLine, Michigan 48015-0078 Copyright © 1991 by Constance Cumbey. All Rights Reserved
May 1991
Dear Reader:
Pointe Publishers has new capable leadership in the form of Marks Spaudling and Raymond Delaforce who have promised to take the administrative load off my back so that I can concentrate on my dual and heavy responsibilities of managing my ever growing law practice and keeping you informed of the New Age Movement and related developments at the same time. I have come back reluctantly – realizing the need for information and at the same time feeling – not without justification – that if people don’t know about the New Age Movement, it is not my fault. At the same time, there is more disinformation circulating through the Christian community and I know I can no longer remain silent. It is hard to tell you all that ranged through my mind the past two years. In June, 1989, I was ready to release a newsletter that frankly tackled the subject of Walter Martin and his deliberate campaign of disinformation to conceal the true facts of the New age Movement from the Christian public. I had prepared the newsletter. I was in Seattle debating a demonic channeled entity calling itself “Mafu” together with New Age leader, Marcel Vogel. I went to Vancouver for a talk and on the way we stopped at a bookstore in Bellingham, Washington. There I spotted the book, The New Age Cult by Walter Martin. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Whole paragraphs were obviously plagiarized from The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow. He spoke to Jim Jones and claimed that no previous book critical of the New Age Movement had brought out the occult connections of Jim Jones and his People’s Temple.
Since Walter Martin and many of his protégées had publicly criticized me for saying that Jim Jones was connected with the New Age I found this most surprising. Indeed it was a lie. Jim Jones’ occult connections were most certainly mentioned in my book – pages 16-17 of my Preface and more extensively on pages 59 and 60 of The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow.
“My Lunch with Walter Martin”
I had lunch with Walter Martin in Tacoma, Washington in 1987. The luncheon was arranged by his secretary Joni. [Tells how the meeting was set up] According to Dr. Martin, I was “paranoid” and “seeing New Agers everywhere.”
“But I was in the New Age Movement and was saved after I read The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow!” said his secretary. According to [the person who would later set up the Cumbey-Martin meeting], Dr. Martin, then nearly broke down, and said” I know there’s a rift between Constance Cumbey and myself and I don’t know how to heal it. I was so busy researching the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses that I didn’t have time to investigate the New Age Movement. I had to take the word of my staff which told me there was no New Age Movement,” said Walter.
Joni, evidently believing Dr. Martin to be sincere took upon herself the role of peace maker. She heard that Walter Martin and myself were both scheduled to be in the Seattle area and she arranged a luncheon. I decided not to go alone and that proved to be wise decision. Dr. Martin was accompanied by two men – one with a reputation for deep anti-Semitism. His approach to me was a total mocking one. He was obviously playing what was called ‘mind games’ in the era of the 60’s and 70’s. He kept cupping his hands over his eyes and demanding “Connie, Connie – look at me Connie.” (I was far from being on a nickname basis with him!) Then he would mockingly say, “What’s the matter Connie? Are you afraid I am going to hypnotize you, Connie?” Contrarily to what Joni told me, Walter Martin wanted to hear nothing of the New Age Movement. Nor did he repudiate the work of his staff.
I finally confronted him with an item from page 14 of an earlier edition of Kingdom of the Cults where he wrote that Jesus came to show us that there was such a thing as “divine humanity.” I was sure he would say that I had taken him out of context – that he was referring to Jesus and nobody but Jesus. No! He was referring, he said, “to the glory that would be revealed in us at the manifestation of the Sons of God.” I could not resist it, “Walter, with all due respect, I don’t think that Joseph Smith could have said it much better than that!”
I asked him too about his claims, quoted in James McKeever’s books that he was the first “unimpeachable source to witness and photograph a UFO.” There was no serious answer to this either – only rude flippancy. At this point, I said, “Walter, if I saw a UFO, I wouldn’t have time to take a picture!” At that point, he mockingly said, “Do you want to see my rainbow? Do you want to see my unicorn pin?” We terminated the meeting. It brought to mind the New Age Movie, My Dinner with Andre. I was so tempted to write the script for a Christian equivalent. My Luncheon with Walter Martin. I finally decided to write about the entire campaign he had staged from 1982 until 1989 to keep people from learning the true facts about the New Age Movement. I prepared a newsletter and advertised it as being the content of the next issue. That next issue was prepared dealing with “Walter Martin’s Deliberate Disinformation Campaign.” I was in Seattle debating New Ager Marcel Vogel and Mafu (Penny Torres) on June 19, 1989. I stayed a week. As I was waiting for a delayed flight to Detroit in the Seattle SeaTac airport, I was paged. Answering the page, and returning the requested call. I was told that Walter Martin had died.
I was faced with a personal dilemma. I have a personal ethic that one should not kick a corpse. I have several reasons for this. I don’t know if the Bible mandates it, but when one dies, there are grieving relatives. I believe it is frankly “tacky” to go on the attack at such a time, even if one is justified! I scrapped my copy, even though not surprisingly the corpse continues to vigorously kick me. The book Witch Hunt by John [Bob] and Gretchen Passantino* contains a posthumous introduction by Walter Martin! During his lifetime Walter Martin vigorously defended hypnosis (what he called “Christian hypnosis”); UFO sightings; acupuncture (he claimed it had nothing to do with the Chinese theories of Yin and Yang!) and said on one classic tape in my collection, ‘The New Age is a figment of Constance Cumbey’s imagination!”
It is hard for me to watch Walter Martin’s book The New Age Cult be given such credibility, when I know that we got the word out about the New Age Movement absolutely no thanks to Walter Martin. If he had given accurate information, I still don’t think I would have been as concerned – “for whatever motive they are preaching the gospel, still the gospel is being preached.” But basically the book incorporated my information and said, “so what” and told people to go back to sleep!
*Found:
Apologetics Index [Anton Hein], RE: Gretchen Passantino, editor of
Walter Martin's Kingdom of the Cults
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