The present campus of Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, CA was first established in 1897 as the Point Loma Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society Homestead – also known as Lomaland – an educational site of the Theosophical Society of America. Subsequent to its foreclosure in 1941, the Point Loma campus has been occupied by Balboa University [1950], California Western College [1952] and the United States International University [1968] – the same university with changed names.
In 1973, the Church of the Nazarene’s Pasadena College sold 38+ acres of land in Pasadena to U.S. Center for World Mission and relocated to the Point Loma campus, becoming the Point Loma Nazarene College and later Point Loma Nazarene University. Although the Theosophical Society’s Lomaland property was foreclosed in 1941 and Pasadena College did not purchase the Point Loma site until 1973, there appear to present connections between Point Loma Nazarene University [PLNU], the Theosophical Society [TS] and Focus on the Family [FOTF]:
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On June 14, 1992 a conference of the Theosophical Society was held at Point Loma Nazarene University [PLNU].
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On June 23, 2000, Shirley Dobson, wife of Dr. James Dobson, was awarded the PLNU Distinguished Award.
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On February 3, 2001, H. B. London, cousin of Dr. James Dobson and an executive of Focus on the Family, was Master of Ceremony for the PLNU Alumni Association “farewell to the [Pasadena] campus” event. H. B. London is also a member of the Steering Committee of Richard Foster's Renovaré and speaker at the [33º Mason] Robert Schuller Institute.
ABOUT DR. DOBSON, H. B. LONDON, F.O.T.F. & THE LIBERAL CATHOLIC CHURCH
Dobson/Focus Dilemma: Flesh vs. Spirit
By Randy Shafer, March 12, 1998
I have in my tape files a copy of James Dobson addressing his key management persons...the board of directors meeting at which time it had been decided likely that he and Chuck Colson would as early as 1997, perhaps even hold meetings calling the nation back to righteousness. Actually, it is an ecumenist move.
He detailed that Focus on the Family, while the staff did not necessarily understand the larger picture, needed to know, had a plan. Then he paused, and then he said – “A global plan”. He went on to explain that this would begin with a meeting of America's larger church pastors and then at a later time, they would meet with smaller church pastors, this perhaps in groups. He didn’t go into much detail of that.
One of the groups that they had hoped to meet with was the Liberal Catholic Church. Now he did not state this, when he was talking to his key personnel, this came out a little later in the letters that were sent. These letters were letters of invitation to pastors in the United States. At least two letters were sent, they were sent, as I earlier mentioned to America's largest church pastors and specifically to representatives of the Liberal Catholic Church.
These letters were sent out by H.B. London, vice president of New Ministry Outreach and Pastoral Ministries for Focus on the Family. London is the cousin of James Dobson. All who attended this one-day meeting, they would come in, they would be put up overnight at Focus’ expense in a hotel or motel and their meals would be furnished. The meetings were to have taken place on Monday August 26th through Tuesday August 27th. It never happened, possibly because the ‘word’ got out.
Focus on the Family went so far as to plead with the representatives of the Liberal Catholic Church to join them for what would be a “memorable event”, and if they couldn’t, please send representatives in their place - two designated representatives - this is the exact quote.
Now I want you to take a look at what the Liberal Catholic Church is, and then I have a question - why was James Dobson trying to involve with leading American pastors, people from the Liberal Catholic Church. Ecumenism, I would say to the “nth” degree.
Let us take a look at the Liberal Catholic Church and what they really are and what they stand for:
Here are some of the publications I think, to begin with. The Goddess Religions, Gnostic Christianity, Eastern Mysticism, Mystical States of Consciousness, Reincarnation in Christianity?, The Feminine Aspect of Divinity. They also have a booklet of course, on meditation.
They say its mystical approach to Christianity represents the position of the Liberal Catholic Church. They also emphasize the commonality of all religions.
Those who wrote received this letter - “Thank you for your interest in the Liberal Catholic Institute for Studies. As an institute, we are dedicated to the teaching of esoteric, mystical traditions of Christianity.”I have a number of documents on this organization, among other things, of course, they teach reincarnation and recognize the validity and unity of all religions - there is your ecumenical approach again - they teach Christianity of the Cosmic Christ and they administer the 7 sacraments in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom - of course. As nearly as I can ascertain from literature, there are approximately 1500 members world-wide in about 130 congregations. Here are some more:
“The winds of change are reaching an ever-increasing velocity and those unwilling to recognize these changes will surely be swept away. If we are going to have faith and be guided by the Holy Spirit in this New Age, we have to be prepared for radical changes alarming revelations.”
I wonder if they mean “extra-Biblical”? And even demands to reinterpret our own faith, the prime task of those in Christian ministry today is to help people evolve. The cultural Christians have to evolve along with the universe or perish.
“If the Cosmic Christ is saying anything to us today, it is “evolve or perish” They go on to say that every man is a potential “Christ”.
“One more thing I want to mention. This is their statement “it is neither the Roman Catholic or Protestant, but Catholic” And when they use the phrase “but Catholic” - it is spelt with a capital “C”. Basically, they are saying they are not Protestant, they are not Roman Catholic, but C-a-t-h-o-l-i-c. They are THE representatives of God on earth. This is clearly an occultic, new age group and James Dobson went out of his way, or at least his organisation did, and I am sure with his knowledge, because he was going to be one of the speakers, went out of his way to invite representatives from this group to meet with leading ministers of the United States at Focus on the Family campus.”
LIBERAL CATHOLIC CHURCH & THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
In the early twentieth century, Jiddu Krishnamurti was the much vaunted but failed candidate of the Theosophical Society for World Savior. Krishnamurti was discovered and mentored by the notorious homosexual theosophist, Charles Leadbeater, co-president with Annie Besant of the Theosophical Society following Madame H. P. Blavatsky. Leadbeater was also ordained a Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church. A brief history of the Liberal Catholic Church from The Occult Underground documents the source of this Gnostic cult as the Theosophical Society:
“Particularly in its later phases as a millenarian movement, [Theosophy]
attracted the same sort of recruit which such movements have always attracted.
Norman Cohn tells us that in the Middle Ages the prophet of the Millennium came
mainly from 'the lower strata of the intelligentsia. They included many members
of the lower clergy, priests who had lost their parishes, monks who had fled
from their monasteries, clerks in minor orders...’ Of those immediately
surrounding Krishnamurti, Leadbeater, and his fellow-Bishop and superior in the
Liberal Catholic Church, James Wedgwood, were frustrated clergymen...
“From the Masters to the Messiah was a
considerable journey. Madame Blavatsky’s Theosophy was after all to prove the
more lasting. Her intimations of occult secrets might have had even more effect
if she had not become concerned with Masters and 'phenomena.' Mrs. Besant, on
the other hand, abandoned the most original part of the Theosophic credo in
favor of the Millennium proclaimed by her World-Teacher. In this she merely
followed an example which by the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was
well-established...
“[I]n the Roman Church it is held that a bishop
cannot be deprived of his episcopal powers even if he is excommunicated for some
major offense. It follows that he can still consecrate other bishops whose
orders will be technically valid; hence that he can indeed start up his private
branches of the Church at will. The result has been the emergence of a sort of
'Catholic Protestantism' in which schismatics can make nonsense of canon law.
“In this way, when in 1813 the majority of the
Dutch clergy refused to acknowledge a papal bull condemning Jansenism and
consequently left the Catholic Church, their orders remained valid. They formed
the ‘Old Catholic Church’ and it was Gerart Gul, the Old Catholic Archbishop of
Utrect, who in 1908 consecrated Arnold Mathew. Mathew was an entertaining
character who had once been a Dominican; but he renounced Rome in favor of the
more attractive standing of ‘Count Provoleri di Vicenza, De Jur Earl of Llandaff,’
which title he coupled to the Old Catholic Bishopric of England. Among his
exploits was an attempt to set up a zoo at Brighton. It was through Mathew that
Leadbeater of the Theosophical Society obtained his Bishopric. For Mathew’s tiny
church soon seceded from the Dutch Old Catholics, and by the beginning of the
First World War had become seriously infected with
Theosophy.” [James
Webb, The Occult Underground, Open Court Press, 1976, pp. 100, 106, 130.]
The following Timelines show the interactivity between the Theosophical Society, Point Loma Nazarene University [PLNU] and Focus on the Family.
PLNU Affiliation with Church of the Nazarene [which has an association with Oxford University]
History of Theosophical Society
Combined Chronology showing interaction between PLNU and TS
1895 - Dr. Phineas F. Bresee, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Dr. J.P. Widney, a Methodist layman and former President of the University of Southern California, founded the Church of the Nazarene in Los Angeles. [Shirley and James Dobson graduated from USC]
1902 - Dr. Bresee founded Pacific Bible College in Los Angeles, California to train ministerial and lay leadership for the new denomination. Pacific Bible College is the predecessor of Point Loma Nazarene University.
1910 - Pacific Bible College purchased the Hugus Ranch property in Pasadena, California, and moved the campus to the Pasadena site. The school included liberal arts and grew as Pasadena College.
1973 - Pasadena College was relocated on the historic Point Loma peninsula in San Diego where it thrived for ten years as Point Loma College: An Institution of the Church of the Nazarene.
1983 - Pasadena College was changed to Point Loma Nazarene College.
1998 - Point Loma Nazarene College was changed to Point Loma Nazarene University.
PLNU AFFILIATION WITH CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE
Point Loma Nazarene University is the official University of the Southwest Educational Region of the Church of the Nazarene.
The relationship of the University and the Church of the Nazarene is characterized by a mutual commitment to the doctrine and mission.
The Church of the Nazarene is an international Protestant denomination in the holiness tradition. The Church is firmly Wesleyan in doctrine and evangelical in mission. Its polity is representative. Emphasis is given to the conversion of sinners, the entire sanctification of believers, and the spreading of the gospel to every person. The Church is a member of the Christian Holiness Association and the National Association of Evangelicals.
[NOTE: No Statement of Faith could be found on the Church of the Nazarene website, however...
The Church of the Nazarene: http://www.nazarene.org/methodistcouncil1.html
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September 30, 1999 - Church of the Nazarene Joins the World Methodist Council
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Many World Methodist Council activities are undertaken through auxiliaries, such as the Oxford Institute...
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Nazarenes have been involved in several of these auxiliaries for many years. Nazarenes have participated in the Oxford Institute since 1976, for instance, and Dr. Maxine Walker, head of the Wesleyan Center for 21st Century Studies at Point Loma Nazarene University, serves currently on the Oxford Institute's planning committee.
The Oxford Institute is the Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies at Oxford University in England. Oxford University was founded by the Ancient Order of Druids, was the center of the Counter-Reformation, training center for the Rhodes Scholars and is an international hub for Evangelical theological education. See: Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. ]
The present Point Loma campus of approximately 90 acres was first established as an educational site [Lomaland – see 1900] by the Theosophical Society of America and has been occupied since by Balboa University, California Western College, and United States International University [same university with changed names].
HISTORY OF THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
1896 - Katherine Tingley was recognized successor to Willaim Q. Judge, Vice President of the TS and General Secretary of its American Section, with international headquarters at first in New York City.
1900 - Tingley moved the international headquarters to Point Loma, California, where she established the Raja-Yoga School, Academy and College; Theosophical University; and the School for the Revival of the Lost Mysteries of Antiquity.
1909 - group spearheaded by Robert Crosbie formed another major theosophical association, the United Lodge of Theosophists, based in Los Angeles, California.
1919 - Tingley founded aforesaid Theosophical University. Tingley died in 1929.
1945 - Colonel Arthur L. Conger was recognized as leader of the Society. He concentrated on expanding the publishing program and restarting the work in Europe after W.W.II. He closed the Esoteric Section of the Society and moved the International Headquarters of the Society to Pasadena, California. http://theosociety.org/pasadena/conger/alconger.htm
COMBINED THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY / POINT LOMA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY TIMELINE
1895 - Dr. Phineas F. Bresee, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Dr. J.P. Widney, a Methodist layman and former President of the University of Southern California, founded the Church of the Nazarene in Los Angeles.
1896 - Katherine Tingley was recognized successor to Willaim Q. Judge, Vice President of the TS and General Secretary of its American Section, with international headquarters at first in New York City.
1897 - Tingley established Point Loma Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society Homestead, popularly known as Lomaland, in San Diego. http://sandiegohistory.org/journal/97winter/theosophical.htm
1899 - Andrew Carnegie donated $60,000 to build San Diego Public Library.
1900 - Tingley moved the international headquarters to Point Loma, California, where she established the Raja-Yoga School, Academy and College; Theosophical University; and the School for the Revival of the Lost Mysteries of Antiquity.
1902 - Dr. Bresee founded Pacific Bible College in Los Angeles, California to train ministerial and lay leadership for the new denomination. Pacific Bible College is the predecessor of Point Loma Nazarene University.
1909 - group spearheaded by Robert Crosbie formed another major theosophical association, the United Lodge of Theosophists, based in Los Angeles, California.
1910 - Pacific Bible College purchased the Hugus Ranch property in Pasadena, California, and moved the campus to the Pasadena site. The school included liberal arts and grew as Pasadena College.
1919 - Katherine Tingley founded the Theosophical University at the International TS Headquarters at Point Loma, CA.
1929 - Death of Katherine Tingley, who was succeeded by Dr. Gottfried de Purucker who changed name to Theosophical Society.
1932 - Colonel Arthur L. Conger elected president of American Section of Theosophical Society.
1941 - Lomaland property was foreclosed due to declining population. http://sandiegohistory.org/journal/97winter/theosophical.htm
1941/1942 – International TS Headquarters relocated from Point Loma to Los Angeles County near Covina.
1945 - Colonel Arthur L. Conger recognized as leader of the Theosophical Society. He moved the International Headquarters of the Society to Pasadena, CA.
1950-52 - Point Loma site of the Theosophical Society became Balboa University. http://sandiegohistory.org/timeline/timeline.htm
1952 - California Western University is founded at site of Tingley's Theosophical Society on Point Loma. [Balboa U. name change]
NOTE: DISCREPANCY BETWEEN SAN DIEGO HISTORY AND CALIFORNIA WESTERN SCHOOL OF LAW DATES
Early 1960s - California Western moved to Rohr Hall on the Point Loma campus (currently the location of Point Loma Nazarene University). http://cwsl.edu/overview/o_hist.html
1968 - California Western University's name was changed to United States International University (USIU), but the law school retained its name as California Western.
1973 - Pasadena College [Church of the Nazarene] was relocated on the historic Point Loma peninsula in San Diego where it thrived for ten years as Point Loma College: An Institution of the Church of the Nazarene. [The site had been home to Balboa University from 1950-1952, which became California Western University, then United States International University [USIU]. (San Diego History)]
Pasadena College [Point Loma Nazarene College] sold 38+ acres of land in Pasadena to U.S. Center for World Mission.
1983 - Name of Pasadena College was changed to Point Loma Nazarene College.
1992 - Theosophical History Conference at the Point Loma Nazarene College
Subject of one presentation was “a general outline of Colonel Conger’s life” and "'dismissals' from the headquarters staff at Covina [CA]." "Under Col. Conger, the Point Loma group had its night of the long knives in which a number of prominent members were expelled. In an unpublished paper, given only in part at the Theosophical History Conference at the Point Loma Nazarene College, June 14, 1992, Dr. Gregory Tillett commented:…" [gives names of dissidents]
[NOTE: Following paragraph: “Another example is found in Appendix IV of the Point Loma Publications edition (1975) of Charles J. Ryan's book, H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement, and reprinted in The Eclectic Theosophist, No. 29, July 15, 1975,...” The Theosophical Society vacated the Point Loma campus as of 1941, and headquarters now in Pasadena, but this TS publisher is still located in San Diego. There is another TS publishing house in Pasadena called Theosophical Press.]
1998 - Point Loma Nazarene College was changed to Point Loma Nazarene University.
2000 - PLNU Distinguished Award Recipient - Shirley Dobson
2001 - On February 3 will be the Pasadena/Point Loma Alumni Association “farewell to the campus” event. Pasadena satellite campus of Point Loma Nazarene University will be relocating to Arcadia, CA. The Master of Ceremony will be PLNU alumnus, trustee and D.D., H.B. London -- who is also the cousin of James Dobson, FOTF executive, member of the Steering Committee of Richard Foster's Renovaré, and speaker at the Robert Schuller Institute.
H.B. London (’59) PLNU Alumni Director at Large
H. B London, Jr. is Vice President of Ministry Outreach/Pastoral Ministries for Focus on the Family. A fourth generation minister, Rev. London was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is a graduate of Pasadena College. Rev. London was ordained in 1962 and in 1990 was conferred by PLNU the Doctor of Divinity degree.
Rev. London pastored for 31 years, most recently the 3200-member congregation of Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene (1985-1991). He has served as a trustee at Nazarene Bible College, Point Loma Nazarene College and Nazarene Theological Seminary. He hosted a daily radio program "Lifeline to Truth" for 14 years in Salem, Oregon, and for 6 years in the Los Angeles area. He also had a weekly television program, "A New Way to Live" in Portland, Oregon.
