Worldviews
The Newsletter of the Apologetics Resource Center
November - December 2007
Christmas
All Year
This is the time of year that Christians all over the world
celebrate. Let us not get caught up in the commercial substitutes.
The event – God actually coming into the earth, the
pure and holy into the cesspool of humanity – to reconcile
and redeem. Amazing grace, amazing love – how can it
be?
As He was sent, so He
sends us – everyday. Let us
leave our humanly constructed safety, our crutches, our
excuses and intentionally seek out and redemptively engage
and reconcile
our neighbor, our enemy – in God’s presence,
with His power.
I challenge and encourage
you to begin each day praying Col. 4:2-6 and then walk
with Him being watchful
(“keeping
alert”) for how He will answer.
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News and Views
This issue of Worldviews focuses on the “state
the union” both inside and outside the body of
Christ. These articles are a ministry to you, to increase
your discernment,
and hopefully to stimulate you to better carry
out your calling to be salt and light bearers.
Do make
sure you prayerfully read what ARC is poised
to do and how you can be a part of this strategic
advancement of
God’s Kingdom at the end of this Worldviews.
The ARC has an unusual depth and width of resources
that could accomplish
much with partners like you.
State of the Union
Apologetics is commonly perceived as “defending
the faith,” or answering the objections of doubt
or unbelief. But we embrace a four dimensional definition – know
the truth, defend the truth, advance the truth, and be
the truth.
Advancing the truth
and knowing the truth is for the believer
(so is being the truth) as we sharpen both the discernment
and the activism of believers to engage the world. Because
of the neglect of this vital dimension we have seen the
measured decline in the impact of the Christian Church
in the West.
For example, Barna’s
research (www.barna.org)
found in 2007 that one in three adults are unchurched
(33%) , compared
to 20% unchurched in the early 90’s. That is
73 million unchurched adults in America. Not included
in
that number
are “born-again” Christians who registered
another 16% unchurched. When all unchurched adults
and children are
included, the number rises to about 100 million Americans.
And
according to more 2007 Barna studies, the data indicates
that “compared to recent years, the area undergoing
the most change is what Americans believe.” Five
out of six of our nation’s core theological
beliefs have shifted away from traditional views.
The
idea that an all-knowing, all powerful, perfect
Creator and Sustainer of all, has decreased from
71% to 66%.
Only one-third of Americans believe that Jesus
was sinless and
only 24% believe Satan is an actual spiritual being.
In
2006, 39% were not reluctant to share their faith. This
dropped to 29% in 2007. Only 45% of
Americans
believe the
Bible is “accurate in all the principles
it teaches.” The
data also demonstrates that Americans were less
likely to read the Bible from a decade ago.
The researchers concluded that “most Americans
do not have strong and clear beliefs, largely because
they do not
possess a coherent biblical worldview…The
spiritual profile of American Christianity is
not unlike the lukewarm
church that the Bible warns about.”
The
most significant wake-up call comes from the
stats on the younger generation. A 2006 Barna
study
concluded
that “despite
strong levels of spiritual activity during
the teen years, most twenty-somethings disengage
from active participation
in the Christian faith during their young adult
years.” Sixty-one
percent of twenty-somethings were churched
but are now disengaged. Twenty percent are
still
engaged and 19% were never engaged.
Barna also
noted that this was not just a temporary
phase of testing the boundaries of independence,
but that the
trend tended to go deeper into the 30’s
and 40’s.
In September of 2007,
Barna released a focused study on the attitudes
of 16-29 year olds
towards Christianity
to better
understand their alienation after high
school and college. Barna found that just a decade
ago, the
vast majority
of Americans outside the faith had a favorable
view toward Christians’ role
in society. But now just 16% of non-Christians
in their late teens and twenties said they
have a favorable impression
of Christianity. Only 3% of 16-29 year
old unbelievers have a favorable view of
evangelicals.
When the study got more
specific, the highest
negative perceptions were Christians
are too judgmental
(87%), hypocritical (85%),
old fashioned (78%), and too involved
in politics (75%).
The researchers initially
thought that people’s perceptions
were based on misinformation or liberal
media stereotypes. But when the responders
were probed, most of their perceptions
were rooted in specific stories or
personal encounters with
Christians and in churches.
So what
are we to learn? One clear message is the need to recover
apologetics
which
includes discipleship
in a Biblical
worldview. Our focus is for the believer,
starting in high school, to (1) know
the truth; (2)
defend
the
truth;
(3)
advance the truth; (4) be the truth. What is Church Growth?
An estimated 80% of U.S. churches are either in plateau or
decline. But there is a mega-church (or gigachurch) growth
trend. Thirty-six of the top 100 churches have 10,000 plus
members.
The
largest is Joel Osteen’s
Lakewood Church in Houston (if
you call it a “church”)
with 47,000 in attendance. The
new trend is multi-site churches.
Seven of the top 10
are multi-site and 25% of the top 100 churches are multi-site.
But
what are these churches growing?
Does quantity mean
quality? One significant multi-site gigachurch says no!
Willow
Creek in Chicago is one of
the most influential churches
and
church growth models anywhere.
They are
the second largest
church (23,500) and a pioneer of the “Seeker
Sensitive” church
growth model.
To
almost everyone’s surprise,
in October, the story emerged
that Pastor Bill Hybels
and the leadership of Willow
Creek said, “We made a mistake.” They
had undertaken a multiple year qualitative study
of the
effectiveness of
their ministry approaches.
They
had assumed that participation
numbers in their programs and activities would
produce disciples of
Christ-spiritual maturity. They discovered they
were wrong.
Hybels,
speaking at this year’s
Leadership Summit, said, “We
made a mistake. We have put millions
thinking the programs would
help
people grow and develop spiritually,
but it really didn’t.”
Hybels
continued, “What
we should have done when people crossed the
line of faith, we should have
started telling
people and teaching people that they have to
take responsibility to become self-feeders.”
ARC
already had some of our material in print
before this revelation. In our
Journal, “Troublesome
Movements in the 21st Century Church”,
we focused on the problems of the seeker-sensitive
model. The article’s author,
Phil Newton, makes the point, “If growth
takes place in an anemic church, then what
kind of growth is it?” He
goes on, “Let us pray for the church’s
growth, not only by adding genuine believers,
but growth in holiness,
missionary passion, obedience, and faithfulness
to the gospel.”
Church Scandals
I recently completed a contributing chapter
in an upcoming book, Toward Christian Unity.
The editor asked me to comment
on his introductory chapters and to add an apologetics
or discernment ministry’s perspective. This is
because too often in the apologetics ministries there
is too great
a focus on doctrinal differences that cause unnecessary
schisms.
In
my chapter, “Unity and
Purity in the Church,” I
begin, “Apologetics can be a difficult and controversial
task.” But our apologetics ministry is a Biblical
imperative. It has an important function to those both
outside and inside
our Church.
In
addition to responding to unbelievers,
cults, and alien philosophies and their embodied cultural
issues,
we are also
called on to confront serious error in the Church.
Apologetics is valuable for personal
and corporate discernment, correction
and protection.
We
have in the past alerted the
Church to the harmful and insidious
doctrines of what is called
the
Word-Faith
Movement
(or name-it and claim-it, health and wealth, or prosperity
doctrine). Recently the issues of concern have dramatically
surfaced through the national media.
The
heresies and/or corruptions of
the Word
of Faith (WOF) have borne their
expected fruit in the public
eye. The scandals
of Kenneth Copeland, Earl Paulk, Creflo Dollar,
Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, Richard
Roberts, Eddie Long, Randy
and Paula
White, Paul Crouch, televangelist Juanita Bynum,
and Joel Osteen have surfaced to the public.
One
charismatic leader and editor
of Charisma Magazine, Lee Grady,
has written two significant
editorials/commentaries, “The
Deadly Virus of Celebrity Christianity” and “Fire
in My Bones – It’s Time to Blow the
Whistle on Corruption.” Grady begins pointing
the finger at “big
headed preachers” who “demand rock
star treatment,” surmising
that “if the apostle Paul were around today
he might throw rocks at them.”
Grady
uses strong but accurate words
describing them as “egomaniac
ministers in our midst,” and upon listing
the outrageous requirements of some of these
speakers to come and speak,
he concludes, “God is grieved by all
this shameful carnality.” Grady concludes
in his first article that he doesn’t “know
who to blame more for it: the narcissistic
minister who craves the attention, or the spiritually
naïve crowds who place these arrogant
people on their shaky pedestals.”
In
Grady’s
second editorial, he bemoans the sexual abuse
scandals of “Bishop” Earl Paulk
in Atlanta. These scandals involved numerous
affairs in the church and
most recently the revelation that Paulk’s “nephew,” now
senior pastor Donnie Earl Paulk, is actually
the offspring of Earl instead of Earl’s
brother.
Grady
opines that “as repulsive
as Paulk’s scandal
is to us, we should try to imagine how
grieved God is that such blatant immorality
was allowed
to thrive unchallenged
so long in a church that dared to call
itself ‘Spirit-filled.’” He
also added, “We charismatics, who
claim to have the gift of discernment,
should have
smelled this cultic deception
a mile away…Throughout our movement
today, ministries and marriages are imploding
because we built our houses on
the shifting sands of ‘anointing’ rather
than on the solid rock of character and
integrity.”
Grady
concludes after referring to
Paulk, Juanita Bynum and her “bishop” husband,
and to Richard Roberts, that these frequent
and high profile incidents “should
prompt us to cry out to God for a Biblical
reformation that will restore genuine holiness
in a wayward church.”
And Biblically, why have we continued
to speak out on these heresies and corrupt
behavior? Peter warns
of false
prophets
and teachers among us who “will
secretly bring in destructive heresies…and
many will follow their sensuality and
because of them the way of the truth
will be maligned…and
in their greed they will exploit you
with their false words” (2
Pet. 2:1-3).
Paul
explicitly warns against those
who come depraved of mind and
truth,
who
teach that
material prosperity
is the
way of godliness. He goes on, “But
those who want to get rich fall into
temptation, into a snare, into many senseless
and harmful desires that plunge people
into ruin and destruction.
For the love of money is a root of all
kinds of evils” (I
Tim. 6:3-10; see also 2 Tim. 4:1-4).
Pointing These Things Out (1
Tim 4:1-6)
- Don’t Touch the Lord’s
Anointed – Early
in November news broke that Christian
Senator Charles Grassley, ranking
Republican on the Senate Finance
Committee is
investigating
6 prominent televangelist ministries
for possible financial misconduct.
Targeted are Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar,
Kenneth Copeland, Randy and Paula
White, Joyce Meyer,
and Eddie Long.
All six ministries are independent
(no accountability) Word-Faith
heretics.
Grassley is trying to determine whether
the ministries are improperly using
their tax
exempt status
as churches to shield
lavish lifestyles. Religious organizations
are generally exempt from federal
taxes, but are
required to pay
taxes if they engage in for-profit
enterprises.
The law also prohibits leaders
and founders of such ministries
from
dipping into
the organizations accounts
and funneling
them for personal use. Also the
leaders compensation must be “reasonable.” If
an investigation shows that other
business incomes or excess benefit
transactions took
place within the organizations,
they could lose their tax-exempt
status.
Another “no-no” is that if the internal governing boards are stacked
or run by the leader’s families. The tax-exempt organizations’ income
and assets cannot be used to benefit church insiders beyond their normal compensation.
This benefit can include lavish expense accounts and housing allowances. These
self enriching vehicles are evidence of “private inurement” rather
than for the community’s good as non-profits
should.
The evidence alleging these violations come from two
years of investigation of the Trinity Foundation and
Ministry
Watch, two
Christian watchdog
whistleblower organizations.
None of the 6 ministries being investigated are members
of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
A few examples of the Grassley probe are: a request
to Joyce Meyer to explain ministry funds to purchase
a $23,000
toilet,
$30,000
for a conference
table;
a request to the divorcing Whites to account for
expensive homes in California, New York, and Texas,
and the purchase
of a very
expensive Bentley automobile
given to T.D. Jakes; Creflo Dollar to explain the
use of private planes,
excessive compensation, and $2.5 million given
to Kenneth Copeland as a gift; Kenneth
Copeland to explain church assets being transferred
to a for-profit company; Benny Hinn to give details
about
the
purchase of a
second home in California,
a private jet and “layover trips” during
business travel; and Eddie Long to explain his
million dollar salary, his $1.4 million home and
the purchase
and personal use of a $350,000 Bentley.
There are many more specific requests in Grassley’s
letters to the six which can be viewed at http://www.cbn.com/CBNews/264923.aspx.
The ministries under investigation have begun a counter
response. Creflo Dollar wonders why a Senate subcommittee
is investigating
rather than
the IRS. They
accuse Grassley of meddling with and jeopardizing First
Amendment (Separation of Church and State) rights.
Grassley responds by saying “Churches are not any different from any
other non-profit organization in that they have to abide by the same tax laws…This
is not a fishing expedition. It’s based on
real issues that were brought forward.”
Paul Crouch Jr., of TBN, blasts Lee Grady, editor
of Charisma Magazine, who has written editorials
bemoaning
the lavish
lifestyles of the
televangelists, and who notes that he hopes those
under investigation can prove they
have done
nothing wrong, but if God wants to use Grassley
to make churches clean up their act, then “lets have a new reformation.” Crouch blasts back, “We
must keep the government OUT of the Church…we are dealing with spiritual
warfare here, and we must fight back! None of these ministries are required
by law to do anything in response to the Grassley’s investigation and
I hope they don’t.
My view is that if you have nothing to hide, what
are you so worried about? Christians especially
leaders,
must be “above reproach.”
-
Local Example - There is a particular
Word of Faith church here in
Birmingham whose pastor is a
clone of Kenneth Copeland.
The Lord has brought former staff, former board members,
and leaders in the church to our ministry to investigate
and expose any of the same types of financial inurement or
fraud as the Grassley Six.
At the top of these potential issues, a member of that
church, who is a police officer, filed a police report
accusing the
pastor’s son, who was the youth pastor, of sexual molestation
of a minor. The pastor, when he learned of the crime two
weeks before the report, did not report it but sent his son
and his family out to another independent charismatic, “prophet” church
in California. He then went to the girl and her parents
pleading with them not to come forward about this as it
would destroy
the church.
The son put his house on the market. It is listed at $965,000,
6 bedroom, 8 bathroom home with a swimming pool on three
acres of land.
The non-profit “ministries” are run by the
pastor and his wife and we suspect many violations of tax
law and
inurement
Pray with us that the light of truth will expose those
things hidden in the dark and we can effectively minister
to the
deceived church members. Again, no accountability, and
narcissistic personality generated by the lie of the prosperity “gospel.”
- Richard
and Lindsay Roberts – Richard
Roberts is the son of Oral Roberts, founder and former
president of
Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. Lindsay is his wife and
executive vice-president of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic
Association.
I say former president as on Nov. 24th, he resigned. Why?
It appears that yet another example of a narcissistic leader
without real accountability has gotten exposed.
At the beginning of October, three former ORU professors
filed a lawsuit against Roberts and ORU accusing Roberts
of illegal involvement in a local political campaign, lavish
spending at donors expense (involvement) including eleven
home remodelings in 14 years, the use of the university
jet to take his daughter and friends on a senior trip to
the
Bahamas and the trips cost of $29,411 billed to the ministry
as an “evangelistic function of the president.” Also
listed in the suit is the charge that Lindsay Roberts spent
more that $39,000 at Chicos in addition to other extravagant
accounts in Texas and California, she was given a white Lexus
SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by ministry donors, ORU
financed a stable of horses for exclusive use by Roberts’ children,
and that Lindsay Roberts frequently had cell phone bills
of more than $800 per month with hundreds of text messages
sent between 1 am – 3 am to underage males (as well
as being photographed in her car late at night 29 times
with an underage male.
There are additional charges of inurement. The three professors
filing the suit were fired by Roberts after bringing these
concerns to the ORU Board of Regents.
Roberts took a temporary “leave of absence.” He
denied any wrongdoing saying that the lawsuit amounted to “intimidation,
blackmail, and extortion.” Oral Roberts returned
to ORU after 3 years of absence and claimed that all this
scandal
was of the devil and, were all false charges, and that
this son would be back as president.
The outing of Roberts apparently empowered others as a
former member of the ORU Board of Regents, Harry McNevin
came out
saying the reason he quit was that it became clear that
Roberts were dipping into the school’s endorsement
fund.
A former nanny for the Roberts reported that their several
home compound had a 2000 sq ft. closet which contained 454
neckties, 18 pairs of golf shoes, 100 pairs of dress shoes,
160 suits, two long rows of dresses and an entire wall of
shoe racks with 275 pairs on it.
Richard Roberts’ first wife revealed that “we
lived like characters in a novel or a made-for-TV movie about
the beautiful people and I reveled in it.” She said
she had made an “uneasy truce with my conscience” on
the source of their wealth.
Richard Roberts was paid $228,000 as president of ORU,
and Oral Roberts as “chancellor” was paid $72,500
(2004) for 5 hours a week. Lindsay Roberts was executive
vice-president of the connected Oral Roberts Evangelistic
Association and was paid $77,018 in 2005, and $119,800 by
its for-profit subsidiary, Traco Advertising. Richard also
served as chief Executive Officer and received $105,617.
Oral received $83,505 for 10 hours a week. But the real problem
was the use of donor money for extravagant “expenses,” and
housing allowance.
The “investigation” was taken over by the Board
of Regents upon Roberts leave of absence. They hired a Washington
law firm to handle the independent audit of the allegations,
promising they would not sweep anything under the rug. One
of the problems though is that some of the prominent Board
members are prosperity teachers under investigation by the
Senate finance committee described earlier – Benny
Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, and Creflo Dollar.
A significant turn of events occurred when the ORU faculty
met and voted on Nov. 13th and submitted to the regents a
vote of no confidence on Roberts to remain as president.
Two days later the executive vice-president of academic affairs
and provost offered his resignation to the regents if Roberts
remained president.
Then senior accountant for ORU filed a lawsuit on Nov.
21st, claiming that he was ordered by Richard Roberts and
his wife
to “cook the books” by hiding financial wrongdoing
from authorities and the public.
Roberts had previously repeatedly stated that he would
not step down as “it would appear that he was guilty of
wrongdoing.” Yet on Nov. 24th, Richard Roberts resigned
from his position, effective immediately.
- Joel
Osteen – Pastor of one
of America’s
largest churches, Lakewood Church in Houston, has just
published his second best-selling
book, Becoming a Better You:
7 Keys
to Improving Your Life Every Day. His first book was, Your
Best Life Now.
As you can probably tell from the titles, these are classic
examples of the new “Christian” narcissism. Osteen
is a reincarnation of Norman Vincent Peale and his Power
of Positive Thinking. In his repeated posture of universalism,
Osteen continuously addresses all of his readers, with no
distinction between Christian and non-Christians, as “a
child of the Most High God.”
Osteen’s universalism and narcissistic feel good theology
was made very public during his Larry King Live interview
last year. When King asked Osteen if Jews and Muslims go
to heaven without accepting Christ, Osteen replied, “I
don’t know.” Pressing the point, King asked another
way – “if you believe you have to believe in
Christ – they’re wrong aren’t they?” Osteen
replied, “Well, I don’t know if I believe they’re
wrong…I spent a lot of time in India with my father.
I don’t know all about their religion but I know they
love God. I don’t know. I’ve seen their sincerity.
So I don’t know.”
Asked about Jews, Osteen replied, “I can’t judge
anybody’s heart…I don’t know.” King
even asked him about addressing issues like abortion and
same-sex marriage in his church. Osteen replied, “You
know what Larry, I don’t go there.” King asked
him if he even called anyone a sinner. Osteen replied, “I
don’t. I don’t use it (the word sinner). I never
thought about it but I probably don’t.”
In his newest book, Osteen repeatedly refers to any reader,
all humans as having “the DNA of Almighty God” and
can all receive His blessings by following God’s (Osteen’s)
principles. “You are all programmed for victory.”
Redemption is understood as freedom from pain, illness,
poverty and wellness as generational curses such as bad
or negative
habits from our parents or grandparents.”
There are repeated statements such as “your faithfulness
is noted in heaven. You are like storing up equity for yourself
and generations to come.” Osteen is a strange mixture
of legalism/moralism, universalism, and power of positive
thinking.
Even though Osteen is a pastor, he says he is “not
called to explain every minute facet of Scripture or to expound
on deep theological doctrines.” That is because he
doesn’t know what the Bible really teaches.
Here is another example of the gap between true knowledge
of the Bible and the Word-Faith illusion. Joel Osteen inherited
Lakewood from his father John’s ministry. John Osteen,
also a Word-Faith teacher, died of several medical conditions
just after his congregation “confessed” his healing.
Joel’s mother survived cancer, not by claiming it
by faith, but by medical procedures.
Joyce Meyer received a mastectomy for breast cancer. TBN’s,
Jan Crouch, was recently “healed” of cancer
in her colon and lymph nodes (through surgery and prayer.)
For a thorough understanding of the origins, history and
heresy of the Word-Faith Movement, order our two journals “Wolves
Among the Sheep” and “Healthy, Wealthy and
Wise?
- Paul
Crouch – Three
years ago, a homosexual employee revealed to the Press
that Crouch paid him $425,000 to be
quiet about their perverse relationship.
- Televangelist
Juanita Bynum is seeking a
divorce from husband “Bishop” Thomas
Weeks, who was charged for felony aggravated assault,
terroristic threats and battery
in connection with an alleged attack on Bynum. She claimed
that he beat, kicked, choked, and threatened to kill her
in the parking lot of a hotel.
Bynum is losing her $4.5 million, 30 acre lake view estate,
headquarters of the Juanita Bynum Ministries and Spa.
- Mega
Church pastors Randy and Paula
White are divorcing too. This
is the second
divorce
for both of them. They co-pastored
the 22,000 member Without Walls International Church in
Tampa, Florida. Paula is
a frequent “celebrity” on
the mostly heretical TBN
network.
They gave no reason for the divorce but the incredible
thing is that Randy White will continue as pastor of the
church “focusing
on being a great pastor and great dad.” Paula will
continue to preach there also as invited, and she will
continue to run the Paula White Ministries.
This is incredible that they can get away with this as they
either have Biblical grounds for divorce which disqualifies
them from pastoring or ministry, or they have no grounds
which means they are in unrepentant sin and are disqualified
for ministry.
These independent Word-Faith propagators have no accountability
and their followers, having no Biblical discernment, have
bought into their hedonistic “theology.” Divorce
is not the “unpardonable sin” but it is a serious
sin for the one at fault (adultery or desertion), which
disqualifies one as an elder or pastor.
The Golden Compass
The newest challenge for the Christian is the anticipated
popularity of British atheist Phillip Pullman’s movie
and book trilogy series called His Dark Materials. The
first offering is the movie The Golden Compass (published
as Northern Lights in the UK).
The
award winning book series are titled
Northern Lights (1995), the Subtle
Knife (1997),
and The Amber Spyglass (2000)
and its companion volume Lyra’s Oxford (2003).
Pullman
who hates C.S. Lewis, and has unbridled contempt for
Christianity, nevertheless uses fantasy
which will
piggy back on the success of Harry Potter, Chronicles
of Narnia,
and Lord of the Rings. The Golden Compass has been edited
to minimize the objectionable material toward Christians
but the concern is the promotion of the books and how
the later movies may offend.
Many
Christian parents are like the “frog
in the kettle” in
their apathy and lack of discernment, which feeds the
growing departure of the youth from
the faith. Order our free information
packet on the Pullman series (The Golden Compass) so
you
may utilize this phenomena as a teaching movement for
our children and as an apologetic
with one neighbor. Please Help
ARC is a faith ministry. We exist and can grow only through
the partnership of the Body of Christ. As you read our
inserted letter you can see we are poised to really make
a difference.
But
we need your serious help now.
Prayerfully consider a generous
gift before the end of the
year,
becoming a monthly
supporter in 2008, or to designate a special gift for us
to build the 5000 sq ft. Apologetics Resource Study Center. Letters
On behalf of the Chaplain’s office I would like to
earnestly request assistance from your ministry. There’s
a big following here with the word-faith movement and it
seems that people just don’t understand the destructive
teachings they are submitting themselves to. The “feel-good” teachings
of Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Benny Hinn, and others
are blinding them from the Biblical gospel. Hamilton Correctional
Institution, Jasper, FL
Our library has been receiving Worldviews, which we appreciate
very much having available to our faculty and students. Is
this periodical still being published? If so, would it be
possible to get a copy of each issue we have missed? Baptist
Bible College, PA
We have been thinking and speaking about you and wondered
how you are. Your presence, not to speak about the seminars,
were such a blessing, you are always welcome to come back
anytime. Personally I was so blessed with all the new knowledge,
God also uses that to give you extra spiritual antennae to
pick up on things that look ok but is in actual fact not. Berlin, Germany
Thank you so much for the resources you have sent me. I
assure you I was blessed by them and the Lord used them to
minister to others as well. The Areopagus Journal with the
two budda's on the cover has been read by many and in fact
is being read right now by an inmate in another dorm. I have
loaned it to other fellas and was surprised one day to be
asked by a fella who is involved in African new age religion
if he could read it. The other night in church I noticed
that a fella had copied an outline out of the Journal onto
a blank page in his Bible. Any resources you send my way
will be circulated in an environment full of need. Washington
State Prison (top) |
