April/May/June 2008
Dear ones,
This newsletter is late in going out, but for a happy reason: the Lord has, I believe, led me to the right publisher for my Civil War book, the true story of an amazing man, of man's inhumanity to man, and of the cost of vengeance. I have a contract with Pelican Press, and have been swallowed up in a complete revision of my manuscript (every publisher has his own policies) and the careful checking of 35 maps, photos, and illustrations. Pelican is not a Christian publisher, but one given to traditional values and valid history (not politically correct, revisionist history). Writing history is hard, exacting work, and each point must be authenticated; and, with hundreds of source citations, it is easy to make internal errors. I don't know when to expect the book to be available, but will let you know when I know.
Meanwhile, I continue to teach the Bible weekly, and to write the final version of my Bible Study Guide. Here, again, the amount of research and authentication is enormous; but I have good help in editing and fact-checking. My Bible class checks me on accuracy as we go (I teach each portion before the final version is written); and I have the very best editing support from Professor Joe Mahoney and his wife (my daughter), Sally. I plan to make the study guide available at cost when finished.
Now, much is happening…
OPRAH'S NEW RELIGION
I cannot understand why Oprah Winfrey is so influential, but without doubt she is one of the most influential people in the nation. I suppose it is because she is basically a nice gal, sensitive, sympathetic, and she has enormous TV exposure, plus her magazine. Perhaps the reason so many people follow her lead is that, by and large, those who watch her on TV and read her magazine are people (mostly women) who do not know the Lord and have a secular world view. They have the problems that we all have, but lack the Biblical knowledge and understanding for dealing with the problems. Lacking this, they are prone to look to a sympathetic figure for comfort and guidance, especially a celebrity. But the problem is that Oprah doesn't know any more than they do, and so the blind leads the blind. One cannot share with others something he does not have, nor can he lead another where he has never been.
But now it is worse – much worse – because Oprah has "found" a new religion, one which she is enthusiastically sharing with her public. It is set forth in a book, "A New Earth," by Oprah's spiritual leader, Eckhart Tolle, and is basically New Age, non-threatening, feel-good religion, blending Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Sufism and Christianity; and, of course, it denies that Jesus and His atonement are the only means of redemption. Since Oprah endorsed the book, it has sold more than 3 1/2 million copies; and, this past Spring, Oprah and Tolle conducted an internet seminar, preaching this confusion to more than half a million seekers in 125 countries. She also preaches the message in a "You Tube" video that has been watched by more than 5 million (mostly young) viewers. It isn't a new phenomenon; rejecting the unchanging Word of God began in the Garden when the serpent asked Eve, "Yea, hath God [really] said?" I believe it was G.K. Chesterton who observed that if one does not believe God, it is not that he will believe in nothing, but that he will believe in anything.
Chuck Norris summed up Oprah's new religion in an article for World Net Daily: "She has her Guru (Tolle), and I have mine (Jesus)." (WND/PWB/et al)
ILLEGAL ALIEN KILLERS VS 11-YEAR-OLD GIRL
In November 2007 two home-invading, illegal alien robber/killers watched until 11-year-old Patricia Harrington's father drove away, and then burst through the door into her home. She was upstairs, and she immediately ran to get her father's 12 gauge shotgun; Patricia has been a skeet shooting champion since she was 9. As Raphael Resindez, 23, bounded up the stairs after her, she crouched and aimed. When he was almost upon her, she fired, wounding Resindez fatally in the abdomen and genitals. As Garza started up the stairs toward her she fired again, hitting him in the shoulder, upon which he staggered out the front door, fell and died. Significantly, Resindez, the first one up the stairs, was armed with a GI .45 semi-automatic pistol, stolen in a previous home invasion in which their victim, a 50-year-old man, was stabbed to death. (Leatherneck.com, WyomingNews.com, drudge.com, et al)
A POINT TO PONDER
Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented immigrant" is like calling a drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist."
A PROFESSORSHIP IN SEXUAL ORIENTATION LAW
UCLA Law School will soon have America’s first endowed academic chair in sexual orientation law. The program was launched by a $1 million gift from a homosexual couple. (PWB/AFNN)
THE BIBLE: DO WORDS MATTER?
Those of you who know me well, know that I love the Word of God; and you probably also know that I study, and teach from, the King James Version, and that I have a very low opinion of the modern versions. The reason is simple: the KJV is the only complete version of the Bible, readily available, in English. All the modern versions omit significant portions of Scripture, or make unfortunate word substitutions, or both. The word substitutions, almost invariably, serve to undermine or deny something terribly important, such as the deity of Christ. Something that you should know is that the modern versions reject traditional, word-for-word translation, and substitute "thought-for-thought," which means that they can write it to suit themselves. For example, in Isaiah 43, God is declaring His unique Godhood, and His eternal existence. This is the context of verse 13 which, in the King James Version (KJV) reads, "Yea, before the day was, I am He, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand:" (emphasis mine). This same verse in the New International Version (NIV) reads, "I am from ancient days…" (emphasis mine). In the KJV God declares that He existed before days and time existed, that is, that He lives in eternity. The rendering in the NIV simply states that he has lived a long time, a statement that I could make about myself. Still worse, I think, are some of the renderings in the New Living Translation (NLT), the latest incarnation of the Living Bible paraphrase. For example, in Daniel 7:13 the KJV reads of Christ, "…one like the Son of man [a title Jesus frequently applied to Himself] came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the Ancient of Days…" (emphasis mine). Here, the NLT reduces Christ to "…someone who looked like a man…." Am I nit-picking? I don't think so. Read Psalm 12:6-7, and note that it speaks of the "words" (plural) of God – not the ideas of God.
I believe that words do matter – especially when handling the Word of God. These examples are just one tiny drop in an ocean of evidence, but should give you food for thought. If you would like to have a brief (3 pages in large print) summary of facts about manuscript evidence and the problems with the modern versions, let us know and we will gladly send it as a gift.
ARE YOU A DOG TAG CHRISTIAN?
My friend Bob Boardman was a Marine in World War II, and fought in three Island battles in the Pacific, including two of the most horrific, Pelelieu and Okinawa. In spite of the fact that severe wounds on Okinawa left him unable to speak above a whisper for the rest of his life, he became a missionary after the war – to the Japanese who had taken his voice and the lives of his friends. But first, he had to get past being a "dog tag Christian." As he put it, "My religious preference was stamped on my dog tags, but not on my heart."
Lying in a hospital in Australia, recovering from injuries received in a drunken brawl before the battle for Cape Gloucester, he came to realize that he needed the reality of the Lord in his life. He began to read the Gideon New Testament that he had been given when boarding ship for the Pacific. In its pages, as he made his way through those exhausting, terrifying, heart-breaking months that followed, Bob found his Answer; he passed from death unto life, and Jesus became a living reality within him. I was a dog tag Christian for much of my life; are you a dog tag Christian, or do you have Jesus stamped on your heart?
A POINT TO PONDER
Mohammed's tomb – occupied; Buddha's tomb – occupied; Confucius' tomb – occupied; Zoroaster's tomb – occupied; etc, etc, etc. Jesus' tomb – EMPTY. Why follow a loser? (with thanks to Bob Forrester)
A PARTICULARLY TRAGIC DEATH
Steven Curtis Chapman is an exemplar Christian composer and performer; although hugely successful in his ministry, the Paducah, Ky. native has remained humble and godly. He and his wife, Mary Beth, have been married for 23 years, and have three biological children. They are active supporters of adoption, and have adopted three girls from China; the youngest two, age 5, are twins. On 21 May, their teen age son, in backing the car out of the garage, backed over his little sister, Maria Sue, one of the twins, and killed her. Police found him to be not at fault but, God help him, how unbearably he must be hurting! Please pray for the family, especially him. You may see the photo much better on the web site. (BP, et al)
The Steven Curtis Chapman Family
THE CRUMBLING MYTH OF "GLOBAL WARMING"
The myth of "global warming" has achieved politically correct status, with even the president now bending to the pressure and lending some credibility to it. The establishment media, the public school establishment (NEA, et al), and the radical environmentalist groups have succeeded not only in propagandizing students, from public schools to colleges, but in silencing or persecuting credible scientists who have dared to speak the truth about it. Al Gore has attempted to propagandize the world with his mostly fictitious movie; the establishment rewarded him with a Nobel Peace Prize (about as valid a choice as was arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat, a few years earlier). His preaching to the liberal choir has made him very wealthy. Those whose hearts are truly in this phony movement, though, are the global socialists, who would love to have all things controlled by governments, our personal freedoms (including private property rights) ended, and animals raised to the level of humans (or higher) in terms of their fundamental rights. These people really hate God, hate individual freedom and responsibility, and love governmental control.
The truth is, however, that the ice caps are not melting, the polar bears are not dying, and New York is not going to be submerged under the sea. Although such statements of fact have been effectively silenced until very recently, more and more credible scientists are speaking the truth about this and, as their numbers grow, they are beginning to be heard. In May the Petition Project, a group of more than 31,000 accredited scientists, announced its opposition to the myth of global warming. The group, which includes more than 9,000 PhDs in the fields of atmospheric science, climatology, environment and earth science alone (this figure does not include those in physics, chemistry, astronomy, etc) grows daily, and has 15 times the number of PhDs as does the UN's campaign to promote global warming hysteria. This huge, and growing, group of scientists completely and emphatically reject the "global warming" danger, and call Al Gore's movie a fraud. (WND/Fox News)
AN INTERESTING VIEW OF THE UN BUILDING
I personally think that the UN is an anti-Christ, anti-American, global socialist abomination, and would be happy if some terrorist would (without injury to innocent people) blow the Rockefellers' ugly building off the face of our blood-bought Land. Interestingly, famed architect, Frank Lloyd Wright had pretty much the same opinion as I, and made a memorable observation concerning the building. He called it, "a super-crate, for shipping a fiasco to Hell."
BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA TROUBLES ME
The more I see and learn of Barak Hussein Obama, the more he troubles me. What troubles me about him goes far beyond his being a social and cultural liberal, and beyond his public promises to use his power as president to further homosexual causes. I am seeing things far more troubling about him, and will pursue this topic in the next issue.
A POINT TO PONDER
Daylight saving time is like cutting 18 inches off the foot of your blanket, and sewing it onto the upper end, in order to make it longer. (T.C. McK)
OUR CHRISTIAN HERITAGE
“The Bible carries with it the history of the creation, the fall and redemption of man, and discloses to him, in the infant born in Bethlehem, the Legislator and Savior of the world.” (Pres. John Quincy Adams 1844)
A POINT TO PONDER
If the death penalty is not a deterrent to capitol crimes, why is it that killers routinely make plea bargains in order to escape the death penalty?
MILESTONES
Married 24 May - Heather Verran and Steven Torrance, in Milan, Tenn. Steve, a stalwart in ministry to youth at our retreats, is a longtime member of the Retreat Board.
Died 24 Jan - Gary Faulk, after a long illness, in Wichita, Kans. Gary and his wife, Jenifer, were fixtures for many years at Believers' Retreats, praising God, and always on the front row. In recent years they have been in ministry to pastors, in many places.
17 March - Dr. Tom Roe, brother of my dear friend, Dr. Jere Roe, and father of longtime Christian friends Vance Roe, Mary Ann Roe Avery, and Ellen Roe Petrie.
11 May - Dottie Rambo, Christian music legend, in the crash of her tour bus. She was 74, and had written 2,500 songs, including such classics as "I Go to the Rock," "We Shall Behold Him," "He Looked Beyond My Faults and Saw My Needs," and "Holy Spirit Thou Art Welcome in This Place."
Died 13 May - Gladys Beasley, long time Christian friend and wife of Rev. Herbert Beasley, with whom I have ministered and shared many times over the years, after a very long illness, in Brookhaven, Miss.
17 May - Hank Lero, long time Christian friend, after a long struggle with a debilitating illness, in Gulfport, Miss.
A FINAL WORD
Treasure and use each day as if it were your last, and never give up hope; God has a limitless supply of new beginnings, and He makes beautiful things out of broken pieces.
You are precious,
(Sources: AFRN-American Family Radio News; AP-Associated Press; BAR-Biblical Archeology Review;BBC-British Broadcasting Corp.; BP-Baptist Press; C-Charisma; CBN-Christian Broadcasting Network; CR-Congressional Record; CSN-Calvary Satellite Network; EP-Evangelical Press; Fox (Fox News); FOF-Focus on the Family; FRC-Family Research Council; GN-Good News Magazine; HC-History Channel; IMG-Israel My Glory; JP-Jerusalem Post; LAT-L.A. Times; Mil-Military Magazine; NR-National Review; NM NewsMax.com; NW-Newsweek; NYP-New York Post; NYT-New York Times; ONN-OneNewsNow; PBS-Public Broadcast System; PWB-Pastors' Weekly Briefing; RTLB-Right to Life Education Foundation Bulletin; RTLGC-Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati; USAT-USA Today; USNWR-U.S. News and World Report; VOM-Voice of Martyrs; W-World Magazine; WP-Wikipedia; WND-World Net Daily; WT-Washington Times; WW-Washington Watch.)