A Call To Repentance

It is now nearly 500 years since October 31, 1517. We need a new Reformation—this time more biblical and thorough. We are drowning in “political correctness.” Having changed from a president who couldn’t define “is,” we have one who persists in calling Islam “peace” in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary. What the Bible clearly calls sin is whitewashed as “alternate” styles of living. Nothing is wrong, so nothing is right. The church has joined the world, the gospel has been compromised, and we think God doesn’t care. Elijah’s words come across 3,000 years of history to rebuke us as he did Israel:

How long halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. (1 Kings:18:21And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
See All...)

More than 90 percent of Americans claim to believe in God. About 80 percent call themselves Christians. But when asked to define God, the answers range from “Mother Earth” to a “higher power.” Even many who claim to be born again deny that Jesus Christ is the “only way to God.” About 70 percent of Americans, 64 percent who call themselves born again, and 40 percent of self-proclaimed evangelicals reject the idea of absolute truth. And most of those who claim to believe in absolutes have fallen victims to a universal reluctance to speak the truth.

In a prophetic description of our day, God warned: “And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter....And he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him...” (Isa:59:14And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
See All...,15).

Even the church has forgotten that the God of the Bible is “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Ex 3:15,16, and 11 more times). No matter what one thinks of Jews, God chose them as a “special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth” (Deut 7:6), the “apple of His eye” (Deut 32:10; Lam:2:18Their heart cried unto the LORD, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
See All...; Zec:2:8For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
See All...). He gave them the land of Canaan “from the river of Egypt unto...the river Euphrates” (Gen:15:18In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
See All...) to be their “everlasting possession” (Gen:17:7And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
See All...,8;1 Chro:16:16-18 [16] Even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac; [17] And hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, [18] Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance;
See All..., etc.), promising that Israel’s latter end would be better than her beginning (Eze:36:8-38 [8] But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come. [9] For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown: [10] And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded: [11] And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the LORD. [12] Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men. [13] Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they say unto you, Thou land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations; [14] Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord GOD. [15] Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any more, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more, neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord GOD. [16] Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, [17] Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. [18] Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it: [19] And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. [20] And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land. [21] But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. [22] Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. [23] And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. [24] For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. [25] Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. [26] A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. [27] And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. [28] And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. [29] I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. [30] And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. [31] Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. [32] Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. [33] Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. [34] And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. [35] And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. [36] Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. [37] Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. [38] As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
See All...; 37:21-28, etc.), and that she would never cease to be a nation (Jer:31:35Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
See All...,36). He declared that the land of Israel was His land never to be sold (Lev:25:23The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
See All...) and that all nations would be punished for dividing His land (Joel:3:2I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
See All...). This is God’s Word!

World leaders (including professing Christians, President Bush and Condoleezza Rice) have openly defied God by dividing His land, giving most of it to Arabs who fraudulently call themselves “Palestinians,” claiming that Israel is occupying their land. In fact, they have stolen land God gave to Israel. (See Judgment Day.) Forgotten is God’s promise to Abraham: “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen:12:3And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
See All...). Both the world and the church have spurned this promised blessing and are calling God’s curse upon themselves for their treatment of Israel! We call upon Western leaders and Muslims to repent of their atheism, false gods, and rebellion. God might then have mercy on today’s world as He did on Nineveh.

Like politicians, religious leaders, too, defy God. In 2002, D. James Kennedy, R. C. Sproul, and dozens of others declared that Israel has no special title to land in the Middle East, having been replaced by the church. They claimed that all of God’s “land promises specific to Israel in the Old Testament were fulfilled under Joshua.” One trembles at their defiance of God, who has said: “Behold, the days come...that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, the LORD liveth, which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land” (Jer:23:7Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
See All...,8).

The obvious fulfillment of such promises today (not in Joshua’s day) rebukes those who say that the church has replaced Israel! In the last 60 years, Jews have returned by the millions to Israel from more than 100 nations. Those who deny God’s promises to Israel for today need to repent!

It is shocking how many Christian organizations oppose Israel. We have exposed Bob Finley, Christian Aid Mission’s founder, with anti-Semitic revision of history, lies against Israel—even blaming her for Muslim terrorism and exonerating Islamic murderers of Israeli women and children. (See Q&A Jan ’03.) The Mennonite Central Committee, having worked in “Palestine” for more than 50 years, has nothing good to say about Israel, whom it condemns for its “occupation” of Palestine and for its “58-year-old denial of fundamental rights for nearly seven million Palestinian refugees”—a false accusation.

World Vision (WV) is one of the largest Christian relief and development organizations in the world, with a budget of $1 billion. WV helps “Palestinians” but not Israel, for whom it has nothing but criticism. Nearly 3,000 of its 22,500 staff don’t even pretend to be Christians. Many are Muslims. WV says, “They share our values.” What does that mean? Isn’t the gospel of Christ, which alone brings salvation, the greatest blessing WV could bring anywhere? But WV doesn’t share the gospel. How could it? Material aid is given, but neglected is Christ’s warning that to gain the whole world and lose one’s soul is to lose all! World Vision needs to repent or stop pretending to represent Christ.

Christians seem prone to jump on every folly invented by “science” for doomsayers and publicity-seekers. Christian leaders are joining the “global warming” hoax to support Gaia, or Mother Earth. Yet Earth was probably far warmer before the flood, when life flourished as never since; there was a Medieval Warm Period AD 800-1300; Earth has been both colder and warmer than now in the last 100 years; and as recently as 1940-1975, the warnings were all about the coming ice age.

A network of evangelical leaders recently issued an urgent warning about global warming titled, “Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action.” It was signed by more than 20 NAE board members and about 80 other Christian leaders, most of them heads of Christian colleges, denominations, or other organizations (among them Timothy George, Jack Hayford, Duane Litfin, Brian McLaren, David Neff, Ron Sider, Jim Wallis, Rick Warren, and Thomas Wang). It echoes Al Gore’s one-sided film, An Inconvenient Truth, widely refuted by climatologists. Those interested should read the speech delivered by Senator James Inhofe on the Senate floor September 25, 2006 (http://epw.senate.gov/speechitem.cfm?party=rep&id=263759 ).

Paul warned Timothy (and us today) that the faith would be opposed by false “science”: “avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith” (1 Tim:6:20O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
See All...,21). The theories of local flood advocates and theistic evolutionists have invaded our Christian colleges, churches, and media. This is false “science” opposing God’s truth, and it has so much biblical and scientific evidence against it that supporters ought to be ashamed and repent. The Bible states: “the mountains were covered...all in whose nostrils was the breath of life...died....Every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground” (Gen:7:20-23 [20] Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. [21] And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: [22] All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. [23] And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
See All..., etc.); “the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Pet:3:6Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
See All...). Yet John Stott writes, “The flood seems to have been a comparatively local—though widespread—disaster,” and Billy Graham agrees.

Evolution has been thoroughly refuted by true science. (See In Six Days and In the Beginning). Theistic evolution (“Progressive Creationism”) slanders God’s character by having Him use such a cruel, inefficient, and tedious method of “creation.” Yet John R. W. Stott writes, “[M]y acceptance of Adam and Eve as historical is not incompatible with my belief that several forms of pre-Adamic ‘hominid’ seem to have existed for thousands of years previously....It is conceivable that God created Adam out of one of them....”
So Christ’s mother may have been descended from primal slime and soulless brutes as even Graham apparently believes? The Bible declares that death entered the world through Adam’s sin (Rom:5:12Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
See All...), not through “natural selection,” which filled the earth with dead bodies before Adam “evolved.” Those who hold this wicked theory need to repent on their faces before the Creator!

We have previously referred to the Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible, touted as “THE BIBLE AS IT WAS INTENDED TO BE” in a two-thirds-page ad in Christianity Today (Jul ’05), next to the masthead declaring that Billy Graham was the founder and J.I. Packer one of the Executive Editors. In its notes, 50 “biblical scholars” declare that the first 11 chapters of Genesis, foundational to the entire Bible, came from “Near Eastern religious narrative and mythology [and] were reshaped with monotheistic intent”! Yet Jesus and the apostles referred to Adam and Eve, the creation, and the flood as historical (Mat:19:4And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
See All..., 24:38; Mk 10:6; 13:19; Lk 17:26-32; Rom:1:20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
See All..., 5:14; 1 Cor:15:22For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
See All..., 45-47; Col:1:16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
See All...; 1 Tim:2:13For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
See All...; Heb:1:10And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
See All..., 9:4, 11:7; 1 Pet:3:20Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
See All...; 2 Pet:2:5And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
See All...,6; Jude:1:14And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
See All..., etc.).

The Renovaré “scholars” treat Israel as replaced by the church, consider the prophets as poets, deny that the Pentateuch was written by Moses, Isaiah by Isaiah, Daniel by Daniel, etc. But Jesus and the apostles treated all of the Bible as inspired of God (Mat:12:40For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
See All..., 42, 23:35; Lk 24:27, 44,45; Rom:15:4For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
See All...; 2 Tim:3:15-17 [15] And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. [16] All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: [17] That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
See All...; 2 Pet:1:19-21 [19] We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: [20] Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. [21] For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
See All..., etc.). Renovaré downplays the powerful Old Testament prophecies, which are the foundation of the faith and vital to the salvation of mankind—even denying that Isaiah 53 foretells Christ’s sufferings for our sins! The contributors, endorsers, and those who read this “Bible” need to fall on their faces and repent for their mockery of God’s Holy Word!

Christian publishers began to put profits ahead of sound doctrine, made a lot of money by giving readers what they wanted instead of the biblical truth they needed, then sold out to the world monetarily as they already had spiritually. Zondervan is now owned by Fox News and Rupert Murdoch, twice knighted by the past pope and a member of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great. He has consistently made TV shows aimed at destroying the family and pursues his godless ambitions through a vast empire, of which “Christian publishing” has become one part. Murdoch published The Purpose-Driven Life, and Rick Warren has claimed to be his pastor.¹ We don’t have space to name other major “Christian” publishers who have also sold out to the world (see TBC Extra Page Aug ’06) . It is too late to stop this trend now.

The Roman Catholic Church has been in apostasy for 1,300 years while persecuting and killing true Christians. It has never repented of this evil. Though it proclaims a false gospel of indulgences, Christ being sacrificed in a wafer over and over, and prayers to Mary and the “saints” for salvation, it is now enjoying the support of leading evangelicals in a way that would have shocked true Christians only 50 years ago. Those involved in this seduction of lost souls need to repent in deep sorrow.

Nearly 50 years ago, Billy Graham declared, “Anyone who makes a decision at our meetings is...referred to a local clergyman—Protestant, Catholic or Jewish.”² For more than 50 years, Billy has affirmed Roman Catholicism as the true gospel and has sent Roman Catholics who come forward at his crusades back to the Catholic churches they had left. Billy praised John Paul II as a preacher of the true gospel³ and declared that he and the Pope agreed on almost everything. Yet John Paul II (as does his Church), looked to Mary instead of Christ for salvation. In his Last Will and Testament of March 6, 1979, he entrusted “that decisive moment [of death] to the Mother of Christ and of the Church [and] of my hope....” His Apostolic Letter of October 16, 2002, ended thus:

O Blessed Rosary of Mary...our comfort in the hour of death: yours our final kiss as life ebbs away...the last word from our lips will be your sweet name...O Refuge of Sinners....

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, praised John Paul II’s “staunch defense of traditional Christian faith....”⁴ Pat Robertson enthused, “Pope John Paul II stands like a rock...in his clear enunciation of the foundational principles of the Christian faith.”⁵ Jack Van Impe hailed the Pope as a staunch defender of the faith and calls the Catechism of the Catholic Church biblical.

Billy Graham has praised Bishop Fulton Sheen as the “greatest communicator of the 20th century,”⁶ Though Sheen preached a false gospel, and his hope of heaven was that Mary would let him in because of his 40 pilgrimages to Marian shrines at Fatima and Lourdes,⁷

Graham expressed his gratitude to Sheen “for his ministry and his focus on Christ.”⁸ When Sheen died, Billy said, “I...look forward to our reunion in heaven.”⁹

J. I. Packer, a signatory to “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” who called John Paul II “a fine Christian man,”¹⁰ had already many years ago declared, “Catholics are among the most loyal and virile brothers evangelicals can find these days.”¹¹ As early as 1992, in The Body, Chuck Colson called for ecumenical union with Rome. Likewise John Stott has said, “Evangelicals should join...in working toward full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.”¹² These men and many others need to repent for endorsing a false gospel that has led multitudes to hell.

There are so many false prophets on radio and TV (most of them on TBN) that we couldn’t begin to name them all. The most popular today is Benny Hinn, praised by evangelical leaders (including Jerry Falwell). Hinn’s false prophecies are too many to recite. One is enough: on December 31, 1989, claiming that he was in the very throne room of God, Hinn declared: “The Lord also tells me...about ’94 or ’95, no later than that, God will destroy the homosexual community of America...by fire....”¹³ It didn’t happen. Yet the more false prophecies he utters, the larger Hinn’s following grows and the louder do Paul Crouch and his TBN dupes praise him.

Robert Schuller said that if all of his descendants became Muslims, it would not bother him. Multitudes who call themselves Christians and are not have heaped to themselves false teachers who tell them what they want to hear.

Some of the worst heretics and practitioners of the occult, while claiming to be Christians, have gotten together in what they call the Chrysostom Society. It began with Richard Foster, Calvin Miller, and Karen Mains, joined later by Eugene Peterson. “They felt it was really important to just get together, write together, and believe in each other as practitioners of a craft to the glory of God.”¹⁴ It is a “craft,” all right.

Truth has been assassinated by political correctness, the gospel has fallen victim to “we must not offend other religions,” God is being mocked, and eternal souls are being robbed of the salvation that is only in Jesus Christ. That tragedy prevails in nearly all churches. Let us weep and repent for the church, for our country, for ourselves, and speak the truth in love. TBC

Endnotes

1. Marc Gunther, Fortune Magazine, October 31, 2005.
2. San Francisco News, November 11, 1957.
3. Saturday Evening Post, January/February 1980.
4. Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service, April 11, 2005.
5. Pat Robertson, The Turning Tide (Word, 1993), 279.
6. Ad for Sheen Gems: The Best of Fulton J. Sheen video, vol 1-2, quoting Billy Graham.
7. The Woman I Love video (Clifton, NJ: Keep the Faith).
8. Billy Graham, Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham (HarperSanFrancisco/Zondervan, 1997), 692-93.
9. Nashua Telegram, December 10, 1979.
10.  Take Heed Ministries, Belfast Northern Ireland, March 1999.
11. Christianity Today, May 17, 1985.
12. Arthur Johnston, Battle for World Evangelism (Tyndale House Publishers, 1978), 328.
13. G. Richard Fisher and M. Kurt Goedelman, The Confusing World of Benny Hinn (St. Louis, MO: Personal Freedom Outreach, 2002), 199-200.
14. Mars Hill Review, 1995, “A Conversation with Eugene Peterson.”