Exactly what "errors" he has repented of? Any who seek after Christ would not be able to tell based on a plain reading of the (not publically available) Jan. 1997 "repentance" letter "From the Desk of James Ryle" which only "humbly" acknowledges that "certain remarks ... proved to be at best immature, and at worst blasphemous."
If Mr Ryle was keenly interested in widely publicizing his alledged repentance, as early as "1991" (a year before John MacArthur publically exposed this in his book, Charismatic Chaos) even, explain to me why the FAX on the official Pk Web page, written in 1996, seen by thousands of members of the Body of Christ, does not even hint in the slightest that Ryle ever "repented" nor would have anything to "repent" of - I would think that Mr. Ryle, on the Board of Directors of PK, would have a close enough relationship with Steve Chavis (whose ultimate boss is also pastored by Ryle, Bill McCartney) to have at least touched base on the issue in order to avoid the present scandal. Actually, Ryle particularly recommended this PK FAX to an inquirer in 1996.
Mr. Ryle has come a long way with his annual revisions of his "repentance" letter, but has a long way to go. For instance, in January of 1996, Ryle wrote another "repentance letter" that was sent to an inquirer in Canada that did not mention any "certain remarks ... proved to be at best immature, and at worst blasphemous." Rather, he stated that he "regretted" that he had made statements that "have become so controversial" and then spent the rest of the letter finding fault with his critics and justifying all of his 1990 remarks, claiming that they had since been "twisted by knaves", and then referring the reader to the PK FAX for further information. Ryle claims there is a record "as early as 1991" of him correcting his reckless remarks, but that record has never been presented. All I have is a claim on my desk from his Executive Assistant, Cindy Janecke, in a letter dated March 7, 1997, that in 1991 Ryle acknowledged his "poor choice of words" - I would have expected better than Bill Clinton-style baloney from a man in Mr. Ryle's position, wouldn't you?
I have never seen any repentance letter officially published in public for all to see that acknowledged specifically what "certain remarks" Ryle has repented of to make sure that no one is being led astray any longer by his false prophesies, as a repenting, concerned-for-other-Christians Christian would have done.
What Ryle has done via this "repentance letter" is cook up another piece of poppycock to equip his apologists with to silence his critics in order to help the Vineyard and PK in the PR department (Ryle: "I regret that some individuals have taken my remarks and used them to call into question the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in general, and Promise Keepers specifically, because of my deep involvement within these two ministries. My comments concerning The Beatles do not in any way reflect the doctrinal beliefs of either organization. The error is mine alone.") Ryle can say one thing in public and another in private as long as he wants, but I'm not going to be duped by such juvenile behavior nor participate in his sin.
Please keep in mind that the piece published in The Christian Conscience which I authored was about the PK FAX's extremely dishonest portrayal of James Ryle's comments on the Beatles in 1990 - Annual letters issued "From the desk of James Ryle" are logically irrelivant to this. I made comments about a hypothetical Ryle "repentance" at the conclusion of my piece to show that such an occurance would be inconsistent with the content of the PK FAX.
All Mr. Ryle has to do is get specific as to what exactly he is repenting of, and make the document publically accessible on the Internet (on his TruthWorks.org Web page), so that the document can been seen by Ryle's many victums. At that point I would be happy to author an "update on the PK FAX Scandal" and submit it to the editor of the Christian Conscience, acknowledgeing that Mr. Ryle has indeed repented, and giving the reader the URL of the official repentance letter.
I hope you realize the sticky situation Mr. Ryle and his cohort, Steve Chavis, are in. For if he does publically repent the way he should, specifically acknowledging exactly what "errors" he made, if the truth becomes more important to him than Steve Chavis, whoever else knew what and when, and the PR situation at Promise Keepers in general, Ryle is providing the clinching piece of evidence (eliminating any remaining claim of, "it was open to interpretation") that Steve Chavis, the National Spokesman for Promise Keepers, "Men of Integrity", has cooked up an amazingly scandalous document, brazenly lying to thousands of Christians both in print and on the radio, keeping that FAQ on the PK Web Page ~2.5 years after the Christian Conscience brought the facts to the forefront and Phil Arms then published the facts in a now widely circulated book exposing PK.
This is why Mr. Ryle will go no further than he has if the truth is not his number one priority. All he can do at this point is hope it all goes away.
What Ryle has to say in private to me is irrelivant to what he said to his victums in 1990. It is not a sin for a Christian to publically expose the false prophesies of James Ryle, which spiritually harm Christians, before privately hearing from Ryle in a corner that he's real sorry he made "certain remarks." If Mr. Ryle doesn't like to be publically disciplined via public exposure for his false prophesies that spiritually molested many Christians, if he doesn't like hurting PK in the PR department, and having to write papers for the AVC Web Page about how to deal with being "slandered", and putting Steve Chavis in a place where he feels like he has to lie to a Christian caller on a Colorado radio station about what James Ryle said in 1990, perhaps he should refrain from such false prophesies in the future. If on the other hand he wants to continue to avoid publically acknowldeging the details and rather falsely find fault with Christians who are more concerned with the spiritual well-being of other Christians than with James Ryle's and PK's good name, the situation will continue to fester unresolved.
Eph 4:25 Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor," for we are members of one another.