June/July 2004

Dear ones,
There is more than enough going on around us to cause us to worry; but all we can do is to stay informed, pray, do our best, and leave the outcomes in the hands of God, who has everything under control. Now, there is much to share.

"BEGOTTEN, NOT MADE"; SURE, BUT SO WHAT?
Most of us can recite John 3:16 from memory; and, to even the completely un-churched, this verse will probably be familiar. And yet, in modern Bible versions and contemporary Christian music, the significance of one vital word in that classic verse seems all but forgotten. That vital, abandoned, word is "begotten."

The modern versions of the Bible substitute "only," "one and only" or "unique" for the word "begotten" (the single exception is the Amplified Bible, which uses "begotten" but with "unique" in parentheses). Popular Christian singer Jaci Velasquez recorded an extremely popular song, "God So Loved," based on John 3:16; but in her lyrics that vital word is omitted; in its place is "one and only."

"So what?" the contemporary Christian world seems to ask--"What's the big deal?"

To begin, there are glaring logical and scientific problems with these emasculated perversions of John 3:16. Jesus is not God's "only" son, or His "one and only" son, for all the redeemed are God's sons and daughters (see Gal. 3:26, Rom. 8:13-17, et al). And as for the substitution adjective, "unique," it is philosophically and scientifically silly; for every human being is unique--absolutely no two of us are identical. Every one of God's hundreds of millions of children is His unique child. Even identical twins have different, thus unique, fingerprints.

But the "big deal" concerning this is something much more important than logic or science. It is so enormously important, so fundamental to our Christian faith, in fact, that the entire worldwide Church met in a council in order to clarify it. In 325 AD the first Council of Nicea was convened to deal with the heresy of a priest named Arius, who denied that Jesus was begotten of God. Rather, Arius taught that Jesus was created by God, as were the angels. What was at stake here? Nothing less than the divinity of Christ and, therefore, His validity as our Redeemer. If Christ is not divine, then He cannot be our Redeemer. As C.S. Lewis summarized it, if Jesus is not God the Son, then He was either a liar or a lunatic, for He declared Himself to be the divine Son of God.

So, it is not splitting theological hairs to defend the importance of this word, "begotten"; it is of fundamental, in fact vital, importance.

Now, perhaps you can see that what is being minimized (or subtly denied) in the modern Bible versions, and in songs such as "God So Loved," is not just theological trivia, but the very heart of God's plan of redemption. And now, perhaps, you will have a better understanding of the emphasis in the ancient and venerable Nicene Creed, where the begotten divinity of Jesus Christ is thrice declared: "only begotten," "begotten of the Father," and then, just to be sure we don't miss the point, "begotten, not made."

Compare This with Islam's Pagan God. Islam emphatically denies that Jesus is the son of God, for the Koran declares that Allah, the pagan god of Islam, has no sons. This point is so important to Muslim theologians that they had it engraved into the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. There, quoting from the Koran, the inscription declares, for all to see, "Allah has no sons. He has begotten none."
Think on this.

"GOODBYE" TO THE NICENE CREED
Concerning the Nicene Creed and the importance of the word "begotten," the Episcopal Church USA made an extremely significant decision in 2003, one that has not been publicized. The bishops in convention voted down a resolution that would have affirmed the historic Episcopal faith, including the Nicene Creed and the primacy of the Bible's teachings. In rejecting the resolution, they quite literally abandoned the Creed. That's right--these latter day apostates made it official, nullifying the Bible as the only rule of faith and practice, and declaring that the Church Fathers at Nicea in 325 AD didn't know what they were talking about. Actually, voting down the resolution had to do with protecting sodomites in the denomination; but in doing so, they necessarily declared against the historic faith and its foundations. If you are a concerned Episcopalian, you can follow such developments at www.virtuosityonline.org. And if you are in Kentucky, you should know that your Bishop Ted Gulick voted against the historic faith and the creed.

ANOTHER DISMAL "FIRST" FOR EPISCOPAL CHURCH USA
After shaking the religious world by confirming the first openly practicing homosexual as a bishop, the Episcopal church USA has done it again. Bishop Otis Charles, former president of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., has publicly "married" one Felipe Sanchez Paris. Bishop Charles had previously divorced his wife of 41 years; Paris has 4 ex-wives. (ANS)

SHOULD WE LAUGH, OR CRY?
While Baptist, Pentecostal and other Bible-based churches continue to grow, liberal, "mainline" denominations continue to lose members and close the doors on their empty churches. But they still don't get the message. Instead of repenting of their apostasy and preaching the life-changing Word of God, they continue to try increasingly "user-friendly" programs and gimmicks to attract people. Some are now offering drive-through communion for those who don't want to be bothered with getting out of their cars. Others are welcoming pets (yes, dogs, cats, etc) into the flock as a remedy for non-attendance, conducting special animal worship services, and making home visits for sick pets. But St. Francis Episcopal Church in Stamford, Connecticut seems now to be out ahead of the rest. There, at St. Francis, your animal pets can take Holy Communion; as I write this, it is not known whether or not the wine is taken from a common cup. (PWB)

MAINLINE DENOMINATIONS SUPPORT MARCH FOR DEATH
What do the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Episcopal Church USA, Planned Parenthood of America, the Presbyterian Church USA, the National Organization for Women (NOW), homosexual activist groups, "stop George Bush" organizations, Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass), Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, the IMF/World Bank, the NEA teachers' union, environmentalist groups, and the United Methodist Church's Board of Church and Society have in common? The answer is that they all endorsed, organized for and/or participated in the pro-abortion "March for Women's Lives" in Washington, DC on 25 April. Incidentally, of the 68 members of the U.S. House and Senate who co-sponsored the march for death, only one was a Republican: Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. (ANS/Planned Parenthood on line)

A SAD REPORT FROM STEVE AND PAM IN GUATEMALA
In late December two small children, brother and sister, were taken from the ministry home of Steve and Pam English (see The Good Word Apr/May). Little Jorge and his sister Elisabeth were taken from Steve and Pam by a judge and returned to the custody of their ungodly grandmother. Now the grandmother has murdered little Elisabeth (age 3) in a particularly horrible way, and Jorge is missing, probably dead.

A VICTORY FOR MARRIAGE IN KENTUCKY
A victory for traditional marriage between one man and one woman was won in Kentucky in April; and it was a hard-fought victory. Kentucky already has a Defense of Marriage law; but once enacted as an amendment to the Kentucky Constitution, there will be much less chance of circumvention by activist judges. A constitutional amendment was introduced in the Republican-held Senate by Sen. Vernie McGaha (R) and was expedited through committee in early March; two days later it passed the entire Senate by a bipartisan vote of 33-4-1.

It was in the Democrat held House that the trouble began. The House Democrat Caucus made up of 64 of the 100 house members held a private meeting and secret vote. 33 liberal democrats, following the lead of the "gay-friendly" national Democratic party, opposed the amendment, holding the Legislature and the people of Kentucky captive. The House Republicans attempted various maneuvers to get the bill to the House floor for a vote; all failed, and time was running out.

But then the people began to speak. Following the leadership of Kent Ostrander and the Family Foundation of Kentucky, thousands of people began to call, write and e-mail their representatives to demand that a vote be allowed in the House…and they called again and again. Prayer vigils and other mass demonstrations were held on the steps of the Capitol Building, and people turned out as never before. Democrat Representative Rob Wilkey said, "I've gotten 500 to 600 messages on this." On Monday, 12 April, when the House met for the closing sessions, thousands of phone calls and emails awaited them. At 8:00 PM, the Democrats met for two hours behind closed doors and then reconvened the House late at night. By 11:15 PM, the original language was restored and the bill passed 85-11-4. It was a near thing, but the people of Kentucky persevered and now Kentucky has the clearest and cleanest Constitutional Amendment proposal of any state in the union to protect marriage from redefinition.

On a national level, the proposed Constitutional Amendment is going nowhere because those in Congress say that their constituents are not contacting them about it. Follow the lead of Kentucky: contact your Senators and Representatives for a Federal Constitutional Amendment to be enacted. Contact them again and again and again until action is taken. A web site for more information is: http://www.formarriage.org/community.

A TOUGH SOLDIER AND A GOOD COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
On 9 January, Staff Sergeant Mike McNaughton of Denham Springs, Louisiana, had his right leg, part of his right hand, and part of his left leg blown off by a mine in Afghanistan. Back in the US, President Bush visited Mike at the hospital; he told Mike that when he could run a mile, to let him know and they would go for a run together. True to his word, the president called Mike monthly to check on his progress. In April, when Mike was ready with his new prosthetic leg, he spent the day with the president, they worked out together in the White House weight room, and then went for a mile run together. Have you noticed that this story hasn't made the establishment media?

PAT TILLMAN: AN EXEMPLAR OF LOYALTY AND SACRIFICE
Pat Tillman, outstanding safety for the NFL's Arizona Cardinals, was a man who gave his all in everything he did. A 7th round draft pick in the 1998 draft, Pat worked his way into a starting position with Arizona. After the Rams won the Super Bowl they offered him a $9 million contract to come to St. Louis; he turned it down out of loyalty to the Cardinals. After 4 seasons with the Cardinals, and newly married, Pat decided to give his country 3 years of military service; he walked away from a $3.8 million contract, enlisted, and volunteered for the Rangers. Why? He believed he owed it to his country. Pat Tillman intended to return to the Cardinals after his 3 years of Army service. In April, he was killed in action in Afghanistan.

A POINT TO PONDER
Every abortion results, at best, in two casualties: one dead and one wounded. Sometimes the result is two dead.

THE TRUE CAUSE OF THE MALTREATMENT OF THE IRAQI PRISONERS
Are you sick of hearing about irresponsible, immoral young reservists and naked Iraqis? I think we all are, yet the liberal media and other political enemies of the Bush administration continue to beat this drum, wringing out of the story every rancid drop, while turning a deaf ear to the acts of heroism and selfless nobility by our warriors in Iraq. What I hope to accomplish here is not to repeat the sordid story, but to explain it.

According to the Army's official investigation, the bizarre treatment of Iraqi prisoners was the result of their being poorly trained, and the leadership failure of the officers and non-commissioned officers, from the female brigadier general who commanded them, down to the last corporal. The perpetrators were immature, poorly trained, and obviously unsupervised; add to these factors the authority they were given, and you have a formula for assured disaster. Then add to this deadly mixture the fact that they all seemed to have the morals of alley cats, shamelessly engaging in a kind of "musical chairs" group sexual activity, taking turns while the others watched and photographed them, and the mind boggles at the destructive possibilities.

One root cause is the idiotic deployment and billeting of men and women together, a bit of "progress" forced on the armed forces by the Clinton administration; only the Marine Corps refused to do this. One need not be a prophet nor a military genius to know the deadly error of this, for it is simple: young men and women in close association distract one another and create internal conflicts. And, in the end, familiarity doesn't always breed contempt; sometimes it just breeds. But, put a mixed unit of men and women in charge of a prison of men, especially Arab men, and you have a bomb with the fuse already burning. In our civilian prisons, even in this politically correct day, we don't assign female guards to control male prisoners! And in the Arab psyche, where male pride is a compelling force, and where women are seen as subordinate property, and definitely not human equals, it is hard to imagine anything more offensive than to be not only guarded by women, but debased and humiliated by them. Yet, that is what was deliberately done.

Still, we must ask, how could such things have been done by young Americans? What about the fundamental values and noble virtues of Western Civilization? And that brings us to the point, to the root cause of the incidents. Those irresponsible, immoral, shameless young soldiers are not aberrational; they are the very natural product of our coarsening culture. This generation of kids, with the exception of those reared in genuine Christian, or otherwise religious and moral homes, is the predictable product of our sick, secular culture. They have been reared on the cultural poison of MTV, rap music, the Playboy Channel, BET and other depraved cable TV fare, and the increasingly pathogenic message of movies and network television. The message of all these is the pursuit of hedonistic, self-centered pleasure without consequences, along with a heavy dose of the glorification of violence, sexual slavery, and cruelty.

In spite of all this, one would like to believe that the classical virtues of Christian civilization would prevail, that in the final analysis our young men and women would be moral, noble and responsible. But that cannot be, for what we sow, we will ultimately reap.

When we face the situation honestly, we are forced to see that what those immature, poorly led, reservist prison guards did was predictable. First, it was one very natural result of the stupid, feminist concept, forced on our Armed Forces, that a woman can, and should, do anything a man can do. But, additionally and more fundamentally, it was a very natural and predictable manifestation of the coarsening of our decaying culture. Yes, as awful as it is to think it, those irresponsible, immoral, insensitive and cruel kids, and what they did in the Abu Graib prison, are the very natural result of what we as a culture are rapidly becoming. (W, et al)

MARTY'S CORNER
At the same time that courageous Iraqi Christians are touching thousands in their nation for the Lord, the usual American "peace at any price" politicians pontificate on getting out of Iraq. You don't hear or read about it in the secular media, but, with freedom realized because of America, Iraqi Christians have been given a window of opportunity to witness. Sometimes teaming up with American Christians, the Iraqis are sharing their faith with thankful locals in Baghdad, Mosul (Ninevah),Tikrit and other towns. They go out into the highways and byways with literature and their testimony, which is often about how Jesus helped them survive during brutal imprisonment and persecution under Saddam Hussein's reign of terror. They had had walls of stone confining them. Our walls are different; ours are self-made. An evangelist described "monasteries without walls" as any Christian who leaves his church on Sunday, goes home, says nothing and does nothing for Christ, then returns to church on Sunday to discuss new programs, books and to "rejoice in the Lord." We are exhorted to break out of our monasteries and become world changers using the power of Jesus and our testimony about His saving grace. Let not your testimony be like most of the world that preached "peace and tranquility" while hiding in their monasteries during the reigns of Hitler, Stalin and Mao. The truth is that there is no worldly peace. Jesus said, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)

DEATH OF A TINY WARRIOR
Our old and dear friend, Mrs. Helen Watson of Marion, Kentucky died 20 May; she was 90. Helen was an unforgettable inspiration to my family and to me. She was maybe 4 feet 9 inches tall, and weighed about 75 pounds, but oh, what a fearless warrior she was in serving her Lord, and in declaring His Word. One example will suffice. Many years ago, the pastor of her church brought in a prominent, learned evangelist; he was eloquent, persuasive, and a liberal theologian. We were supposed to be impressed. He was smooth, but he really didn't believe much. While all in the church were supposedly listening to the man in enraptured awe, he "explained" that Jesus could not have been born of a virgin. Helen stood up, open Bible in hand, and interrupted him. All eyes were immediately turned to her. Trembling with anger, she drew herself up to her full 4 feet 9 and faced the man with fire in her eyes; she was not the least bit intimidated by his position or his degrees. Repeatedly thumping her forefinger onto the passage, she read to that "expert": "It says right here, 'Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.' And, here, it says, 'And he knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son.' " The learned big shot from out of town gulped, mumbled some appropriate words, and Helen sat down, still glaring at him. I don't remember what happened during the rest of the service, for none of it mattered. That tiny little woman's fearless, unambiguous defense of the faith was definitely the main event that night. It was beautiful. We will miss her--but only until we see her again in Heaven.

"THEY LOVED NOT THEIR LIVES UNTO THE DEATH"
As Christians argue over the timing for the Great Tribulation and the Rapture of the Church (and, in some cases divide permanently over it), we need to be reminded that in many parts of the World there is great tribulation going on right now. In the mountains of Vietnam and Laos, many hundreds of Christians are being tortured and slain for their faith by Communist Vietnamese soldiers. The same is happening in places like Sudan, Indonesia, India, and Turkistan, where many hundreds are being butchered by Muslims. Although we hear little about such things in South America, it is happening there also; in Columbia, 140 Protestant pastors and 80 Roman Catholic priests have been murdered since 2000. Freedom isn't free, and being a Christian is not risk-free. (VOM)

EASTER SLAUGHTER OF CHRISTIANS IN VIETNAM
There has been a great move of the Spirit among the Hmong, Degar and other Montagnard (mountaineer) people of the border area between Laos and Vietnam; and the revival there has been accompanied by increasing persecution. Communist Vietnamese soldiers and police routinely beat, torture and kill the Christians there to force them to renounce Jesus; many have been driven from their lands. Entire village populations have been tortured with chemical injections. At Easter this year, during peaceful demonstrations in the form of prayer vigils, the Christians were attacked with new levels of violence, and hundreds were killed. In an unusual turn, criminals were temporarily released, armed with machetes, and ordered to attack the Christians and cut off their heads. They did. Some of the bodies were dumped into wells, making them unusable. In spite of ongoing complaints, UN officials look the other way; and, in the U.S. Senate, bills that would pressure the Communists to stop the persecution have been deliberately blocked by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass). (VOM, WND, et al)

MILESTONES
Born
27 Feb. - Benjamin Paul Evans at 9.5 lbs., to Allison (nee Mick) and Chris Evans, Marion, Ky. Chris and Allison are editors/publishers of The Crittenden Press, which prints this newsletter.

Married
24 Apr. - Kristine Leigh Lipford and Nathan Morris Hayes in Jackson, Tenn. Nathan is the son of Bob and Cathy Hayes, longtime Christian friends.

Died
2 May - Eileen Brown, wife of W. Tynan Brown, in South Glastonbury, Conn., after a long struggle with cancer. Ty and Eileen have been strong supporters of the persecuted Hmong Christians on the Vietnam/Laos border, and our abandoned POWs in Southeast Asia.

19 May - Bob Jennings, of Barlowe, Ky., longtime Christian friend, of Lou Gehrig's Disease.

20 May - Helen Watson, mother of Christian friend, Buddy Watson, in Marion, Ky.

22 May - Clarice Cuevas, longtime Christian friend of Long Beach, Miss., after a very long struggle with multiple health problems.

23 May - Mrs. Rita Barbera Pollard, mother of Pastor Mike Barbera, Church of the Good Shepherd, Pass Christian, Miss., in Philadelphia, Pa.

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,