Letters

Dear Dave,

As a long-time subscriber to TBC, I appreciate your zeal, insight, and the care with which you edit your newsletter. That’s why I was surprised to see a simple logic mistake in your March [’03] newsletter. It’s in your response to the question about whether evangelicals should discourage Jews from returning to Israel:

Moreover, since two-thirds of all Jews on earth will be killed, and only about 40 percent live in Israel, more will be killed outside of Israel than within. Thus, Israel is probably the safest place for a Jew.

The error is obvious. If two-thirds of Jews will be killed regardless of location, then no place is safer than any other. Taken to its conclusion, your logic would imply that a Muslim country that holds three Jews will be a remarkably safe place because in that country only two Jews will die, a tiny number. BC (WA)

Hello Dave,

In reading the Q&A section of the latest The Berean Call, I note your response to the question about the 483-year prophecy in Daniel. I suspect that your admission of error may be premature and perhaps unwarranted. The 483-year prophecy was based on a 360-day “prophetic year,” and the Jewish festival (or feast) calendar was based on a 354-day year with the insertion of the month of Veadar seven times in every 19 years. Thus, “exactly 483 (prophetic years) to the day” from Nisan 1, 445 B.C.would not necessarily coincide with Nisan 1, 32 A.D. because...the prophetic years are out of sync with the festival years. It may very well have coincided with Nisan 10, 32 A.D. The issue is complicated further because we do not know where in the 10-year cycle Nisan 1, 445 B.C. was and when Veadar would have been inserted next. WG (WI)

Dear BC,

[TBC’s] articles are uniformly pithy, concise and thoughtful….I’m glad you don’t mind naming names and stepping on toes—I’m sure your candor has cost you a subscriber or two, but speaking the truth will always anger somebody. I have to keep reminding myself that these folks who write you in a harsh and critical spirit are not the enemy but are victims of the enemy—blind and deceived. JB (SC)

Dear Berean Brethren,

Your most recent newsletter about per-secution under Islam was compelling, but please do not be offended by my questioning your recommended strategy. The people that you listed for petitioning…know about Islam—and they apparently don’t care! The politicians don’t want to insult our Arab “friends” in the Middle East….Isn’t your strategy tantamount to asking Bill Clinton to lead a moral reform movement?…Isn’t a broad stand against Islam—as opposed to personal evangelism—merely a case of fighting against the inevitable (2 Thess. 2:11,12)? BZ (MD)

Dear Berean Call Team:

Our Christian landlady…cannot “stand Dave Hunt!” I quizzed her on why she feels so outraged when one tells the truth and “calls a spade a spade.” She claims he causes division in the body of Christ, and it is not God’s will that anyone put down other people’s beliefs….yet she enthusiastically endorses Hinn, Copeland and others….My wife and I find ourselves using your letter as a litmus test to see where people are at, not that you guys are on a pedestal, but when people get funny in their response to your work, we know that we need to be on guard when they speak.  MN (CO)

Dear Dave,

I write to thank you very much for your writings which have opened a new door in my Christian life. I now look more critically at every publication and also at doctrines, teachings and the ecumenical movement. I thank God for giving you...His Spirit which …is reflected in the depth of wisdom in your writings. MA (Ghana)

Dear folks at The Berean Call,

A friend gave me your January 1999 issue because of a Y2K article in it. It supported me when all around me were going crazy trying to prepare their physical needs for Y2K....When my daughter was given The Prayer of Jabez I told her that I wasn’t sure the book was a good one. Then I read an article that you wrote which supported my concerns….My son brought home a booklet [that was] Calvinist to the extreme….Your next issue had a good article explaining why [Calvinism] wasn’t biblical….Thanks for being there and telling people to read the whole Bible and to become Bereans. Our schools and society are teaching people to be sheep and to go with the flow…. NH (KS)