We have posted three articles here concerning Todd Bentley and the Lakeland Outpouring.  I have added some comments and points of disagreement following this first statement by Dutch Sheets.

Pastor Steve

I disagree with a couple of specific things he wrote.  First, I watched the commissioning ceremony on June 23.  I did not, in any way, see it as an endorsement of Todd or his character, or even his ministry.  I saw it as these men and women publicly acknowledging that this was a legitimate move of God.  That’s what they said it was and I don’t believe it’s proper or correct to tell them it was something else.

Second, Dutch’s statement that the Lakeland Outpouring “has become possibly one of the greatest reproaches” on the Body of Christ is totally untrue.  I was there and he was not.  The intensity of the presence of the Lord was at times overwhelming.  The glory of God was almost tangible.  The miracles were real, as were the salvations.

The Lakeland Outpouring will eventually be viewed by church historians as sparking a nationwide move of the Lord.  In the long run this will be win/win.  A sovereign move of God was birthed and Todd’s problems will eventually lead to some better accountability and integrity which we certainly need.

God bless
Pastor Steve

Todd Bentley’s Personal Problems
I did not hear that Todd was going through a personal crisis until the day before our meeting with him here. When I saw him Wednesday night, he immediately wanted to share with me about his personal problems—especially about his recent separation from his wife. Todd did not share this in a way to try and justify himself, but he wanted me to know what was going on with him to give me an out if I did not think he should minister the next day. I greatly appreciated this.

I still do not know all of the details of his separation, but I did ask him if there had been any immorality on his part, or if he had affections for someone else that was causing this. He assured me that he had never committed adultery, and that there was no “other woman” that caused his separation. Some of his leaders who I talked to also confirmed that Todd had not been in any immoral relationship, though they were all grieving over Todd’s marital problems. < br>
The problems Todd and his wife have had getting along have been public knowledge for several years. I don’t know enough of the details to blame anyone, but I know Todd quite well, and being married to him has got to be like being hand-cuffed to a hurricane. Todd is so intense he makes Mike Bickle and Bob Weiner seem laid back. I think he is very much like the Apostle Peter. What makes him capable of such extraordinary faith also makes him prone to extraordinary blunders. Todd is an extreme manifestation of an emerging extreme generation. His wife may deserve to sit at the right hand of the Lord in the kingdom, and anyone who has worked with him should be up there close somewhere too.

Like it or not, that is often the nature of those who accomplish some of the greatest spiritual exploits—they also make some of the biggest bloopers. Hearing about these problems did not surprise me at all. Since I have now heard about more details, I’m still not shocked. These are problems, and they need to be fixed, which includes repenting and turning around, but if we want the victories and breakthroughs we all hope and pray for, they usually come through people with the same kind of nature. Right after Jesus gave Peter one of the greatest commendations in Scripture for the receiving the greatest of all revelations, that Jesus is the Christ, and then gave him the keys to the kingdom, He had to give Peter one of the greatest rebukes in Scripture by ca lling him Satan! (see Matthew 16:18-23)

However, the Lord did not take the keys back from Peter, even after he later denied the Lord, and even later in his life when the youngest apostle, Paul, had to publicly rebuke him (see Galatians 2:11-15). It seems that most of those who are given these keys to unlock the spiritual doors to the kingdom will also be prone to make major blunders. This type of person is simply not going to do anything small—they will have great victories, and when they have defeats, they will be great too.

When I was in Lakeland a few months ago, I was told that Todd had been making a real effort to patch things up and heal their relationship, but in June she had left and refused any contact. Todd has now lost hope that it will be worked out, especially now that she has made it clear that she will not even see him. Todd is obviously frustrated and just wants to resolve this situation that has been so hard for so long.

In marriage, I have learned there are those who admit they have been through times when they wondered if their marriage would make it, and then there are liars. Relationships are hard, and the closer they are, the harder they can be. I tell everyone that I give premarital counseling to that the Lord has ordained their marriage in order to kill both of them! That is true. It is also worth it! The greatest gift He gave to man was marriage and family. However, to have a marriage that is good,=2 0both will have to die to themselves. If either one does not make the commitment to lay down their life for their mate and their family, then what was meant to be heaven can be hell.

Family is the foundation of society, and the weaker the family is, the weaker that society will be. The weaker the families are in the church, the weaker the church will be. That is why the family life must be strong of those whom the church accepts as leaders, and there are clear biblical standards for them. If we start compromising the clear biblical standards for morality, integrity, and relationships, we will fall, and we will fail at all that the Lord has called us to. Compromising clear biblical standards can never be on the table—for anyone, regardless of how much power they walk in, how great they can preach, or how they can mobilize people.

We are also living in a society where about half of the people have now been divorced. Many more are refusing to get married because of the problems they have witnessed and the pain they suffered when their parents went through a divorce. The children are always the biggest victims of a divorce, and the meltdown in family is one of the great tragedies and great emergencies of our times. It is therefore understandable that some want to make a big deal out of Todd’s marital problems—it is a big deal.

So, should someone who is divorced be disqualified from ministry or from leadership in the church? How20can we disqualify someone from ministry or leadership for something that would disqualify God? In Jeremiah 3, we are told that God gave Israel a certificate of divorce. God is divorced. Nearly half the people in our churches have been divorced. A good many Christians now stay away from the church because they have suffered a divorce, and they feel condemned by the church for it. This is an issue that we need to address for the church, not just Todd.

When God got a divorce, was it His fault? Of course not! He was the most perfect Husband there could ever be, but He had a wayward wife that He finally gave up on. That is what happened, and if you do not believe me, go read it yourself. There is a limit to what even God will put up with and rightly so. There are things that justify divorce. Even so, I think it is because the Lord Himself went through a divorce that He hates divorce so much. Divorce is always a tragedy and usually even more for the children than for the parents.

I am not at all saying this to justify Todd or condemn him. At present, I still do not know enough about his situation to condemn or justify anyone. Unrighteous judges, who are often those who rush to judgment, are also condemned in Scripture. I am writing this to try to keep some from stumbling by jumping to conclusions. We have a brother, a sister, their children, and a ministry that is really hurting right now. I greatly appreciate Todd’s willingness to keep ministering and praying for the healing of those who are afflicted and hurting, but he, his family, and his ministry need much healing right now. One thing that would help them and the body of Christ, possibly more than anything else, is to see some real Christian charity expressed in this situation and some righteous judges stand up, which is the duty of true elders in the church.

It would be one of the great tragedies to the body of Christ in our times to lose a ministry like Todd has. He is called to start much more than the Lakeland Outpouring, and just as the Lord went around destroying the works of the enemy by healing the sick, casting out demons, and demonstrating the power of the kingdom, Todd is doing that. He is taking ground in real power ministry on a level that has not been seen in decades. To lose Todd, and to lose Fresh Fire Ministries, would be a major defeat for the body of Christ. We would survive, and we would still ultimately prevail, but the cost of this defeat would be great.

So what do we do? First, in all things we must keep in mind that “love never fails” (see I Corinthians 13:8). How would the Lord respond to this? How can we see this through His eyes? We already know because He showed us. In II Corinthians 5:14 Paul wrote, “For the love of Christ controls us.” How would we behave if Christ’s love was controlling us? When man kind fell, He did not criticize, gossip about us, or condemn us—He laid down His life for us.

The world will never believe our gospel of redemption and restoration until we learn to redeem and restore. Let’s take a worst case scenario here and say that Todd was guilty of terrible things and is the one at fault in the separation—what should our response be? We are told in Galatians 6:1:

Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted.

So, if anyone has been “caught in any trespass,” those who are “spiritual” must restore them. Those who are truly spiritual approach every situation with that goal—redemption and restoration. This is more than just forgiving them—it is getting them back to the place they were. The next verse says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

Already there is some gloating over this situation. Some are trying to use it to promote themselves. Every situation like this is a test for everyone. Some will pass and some will fail, and the nature of everyone will be=2 0exposed. Those who truly walk in the Spirit of Christ will be obvious. The Holy Spirit is the Helper, and those who truly walk by the Spirit will be trying to help, because they love Todd, his wife, the church, and most of all, the Lord who already laid down His life for them.

This is a real opportunity for the church to show some maturity and Christian love. This does not mean compromise, but it does mean addressing this situation in an almost opposite way that we have tended to do in the past. We will all reap what we sow, and if we want to reap grace, we must learn to sow grace every chance we get. If we want to receive mercy, we need to learn to sow mercy every chance we get. Here’s a good chance!

So what does this mean for the Lakeland Outpouring? I will address that in a bit more depth in the next Bulletin, but for now, it can continue and it can get even stronger. A well has been opened there that does not have to be shut again. However, it does depend on a lot of decisions made by the church there. We should be praying for them and asking how we can help them because they were used to release something very important to the worldwide body of Christ. Todd had already decided to turn the Lakeland meetings over to Stephen Strader and to only take a couple of other meetings over the next few months to rest and sort out his life.

What will be happening at MorningStar? I will address that in a bit more depth also, but we received a new commission on 8/8/08, and we are going higher, deeper, and further. We are close to the birth of something we were created for, that we believe will begin this fall, around September 21. We have been given that date like we were 8/8/08 and it is not a coincidence that this date is exactly six months after the Honoring the Father’s Conference we hosted with WhiteDove Ministries. Because of this, we moved our Harvest Conference to begin on September 18, and the Worship & Warfare Conference to begin on September 22, so September 21 will be the Sunday in-between. Come to either or both of these if you can, and you may be a part of history.

From: Doris M. Wagner
Subject: My Take on the Lakeland Happenings

C. PETER WAGNER - President  / DORIS M. WAGNER - Executive Vice President
CHUCK D. PIERCE - Harvest Watchman

A Message from Doris

My Take on the Lakeland Happenings

August 15, 2008
This past Tuesday, August 12, started out like any other tough travel day.  Peter was out of the house by 4 a.m. heading to the airport for a grueling 24 plus hour trip to San Francisco, Tokyo, and finally to Singapore where he would arrive midnight the next day after crossing the International Date Line. He called me from San Francisco with his usual cheerful:  “Hi, did you wake up?”  He hadn’t awakened me to say goodbye since I had major surgery on my foot on August 1 and it is sometimes tough to sleep well with the cast on my foot and lower leg.

Did I wake up?  Man, the computer was filled with correspondence about Todd Bentley’s announcement that he was separating from his wife.  This was not quite a complete surprise since late the evening before the rumor of marital strife had been dropped in our ears, but it was just a rumor.  Of course we had hoped it wasn’t true.   But there it was.

Since Peter doesn’t do his own email, I had to read the Lakeland Ledger newspaper article to him.  He then called Chuck Pierce, who immediately wrote the following letter to Peter and e-mailed it to me and wanted to fax it to Peter in the United Airline lounge in San Francisco where he had a little layover.  After some detective work (I couldn’t call him directly, his phone was busy and his battery was fading fast from overuse), I located him in the International Lounge and procured that fax number from the kind receptionist.  She found him and positioned him at the fax machine where this letter from Chuck arrived:

August 12, 2008

Dear Peter:

When I got up this morning and prayed about the move of God in Lakeland and Todd Bentley, this is what God showed me:  First of all, I felt a compassion to pray for Todd.  The anointing of this move has stirred up a hunger in the Body, and the scrutiny of Todd’s life has probably taken its toll on him.  So when I began to pray for Todd this morning (since I usually set aside Tuesdays to pray), I saw several things.  The Spirit of God is beginning to move greatly.  Also, I feel that your call to set some sort of apostolic authority in place was warranted because of potential problems moving into this move of God.  The order you set in place in Lakeland establishes a structure and boundary for Todd’s problems to be addressed.  Before that, there were no boundaries, and Lakeland had been going on for almost three months.

The thing we must remember is that God chose to use Todd to stir up the hunger in the Body of Christ.  Therefore, as I prayed, the Lord took me to the life of Samson.   He is a mystery.  He had a Nazarite vow on his life, yet he had many character flaws.  His character flaws did not stop God from using him.  I think this is the biggest misunderstanding that the Body has when it comes to the anointing.  That is why you see anointed men and women being used so mightily by the Lord, and then falling into sexual sin or monetary impropriety.

Because you have set an order for his life now, for the first time he has a shot at being fully accountable and breaking spiritual forces that could destroy his future.  What he needs to do now is submit to apostolic authority over the next nine months.  Ministry should not to be his goal.  Instead, the restoration of covenant alignments must occur in his life.   He and his wife might not be able to withstand the pressure of ministry together in the future, but during these nine months Todd’s choice would be to submit to the authority structure that God has established in his life publicly.  If he does that, he might have a ministry in the future.  If this had not been set in place, this would have been much more serious.  I’m sure others would say you should not have been involved at all.

Since Stephen Strader requested your help and he is in ICA, you did respond to his Macedonian call.  Yes, you would have looked like a hero if you had waited and gotten involved now.  But just as you wrote recently, you chose to establish the order first and then any spiritual discipline could be brought.  That makes you look like a father.

Again, Todd’s ministry allowed us all to see the hunger in the Body of Christ for miracles, healing and just a touch from God.  Todd had flaws going into the time in which God chose to initiate his call and had not dealt with some of his problems.  But God still chose to use him.  Not only did his ministry reveal this hunger, but many have gotten saved.  Now, hopefully, Todd will enter in the phase of being disciplined and establish his life in a new way so he can be qualified for use in the future.

Have a good flight to Asia.

Blessings, Chuck

To that, Peter added the following letter the “Lakeland Outpouring Apostolic Team”, Skyped it to our assistant and grabbed his plane for Tokyo and Singapore.

To:             Lakeland Outpouring Apostolic Team
From:         C. Peter Wagner
Date:          August 12, 2008
Subject:      Todd Bentley’s Character Crisis

Most of you would be aware that the Lakeland Ledger broke the news publicly that Todd and Shona have decided to terminate their marriage.  In Canada this requires a nine-month “separation” before official divorce proceedings can go into effect.  I am quite upset by this development, and I know you will be also.  I am now receiving a large amount of “I told you so!” email and I must say that my friends have a point.  This has taken the lid off of a number of related character accusations against Todd that are now coming in which I might have dismissed previously, but no longer can do so off hand.

Let’s take some time to process this.  Todd was officially, publicly aligned with the Revival Alliance, so the three of you should definitely make some kind of statement, probably sending it to Steve Strang.  Let’s not sweep this under the rug with a “touch not God’s anointed” as has been done with so many similar issues in our morally soft charismatic environment.

Meanwhile, I called Chuck Pierce for help, and he sent me the letter I am attaching with this.  Chuck has some very encouraging insights for us.

Blessings,
Peter

C. Peter Wagner
President, Global Harvest Ministries
Chancellor, Wagner Leadership Institute
719-262-9922

Then, during all of Tuesday, until after 1 a.m. Wednesday, all of my time was spent at the computer with e-mails and they all fell into two categories:  the PROS and the CONS, roughly pretty equally divided.   Wednesday and Thursday, all of my waking hours have been spent answering this type of mail.

The Cons are pretty nasty.  One even said:  “Let me be the first to say ‘I told you so.’”  These individuals asked Peter not to get involved in the “Lakeland Thing” from the onset.  Some of them are probably rejoicing over Todd’s problems.  Several are demanding a public apology from all who were on the platform on June 23rd, along with God TV.  Many are disrespectful, seemingly calling names and slinging mud.  They come across to me as jubilant in victory.  I question the godliness of this attitude.  Along the way we have lost friends who have ceased to trust us, pulled out of our organizations and separated from us.  That’s o.k.  They say we have been guilty of poor decisions and actions.

The Pros have seen things differently.   They have agreed with our actions.  Let me reflect a little on these actions as I see it.  If I seem defensive, forgive me.  Peter is such a kind and gentle person that he would never defend himself.  I am a deliverance minister, and can become abrasive when I see Religious Spirits, Pharisaical Spirits, Spirits of jealousy, envy and even hatred become exposed.  The fattest of all is the Accuser of the Brethren very much at work in the current situation.  Whenever Peter is falsely accused in print, he usually just smiles and says “Did they spell my name right?”  If things get really bad with false accusations, by a John Doe, he will serenely say “John Doe is not the enemy-we know who the enemy really is.”  This ability to handle the negative really bugs some folks and they dislike him even more.  Believe me, my pillow has been next to his for 58 years and I have seen this played out.  There doesn’t seem to be a wide neutral zone, either he is liked or disliked.  That’s just the way it is.

Peter is a man of the highest integrity. He’s a man of his word, as honest as the day is long.  He has kept his wedding vows-no need to renew them, the old ones are still perfectly good!  He has been total fun to live with and to raise our children together.  He has treated me as a colleague with great respect.  He is brilliant and godly. As we have been working on his memoirs, I have been amazed at what we have accomplished together, and we have worked side by side all of our married lives.  Of all women, I consider myself to be highly blessed.  Enough of that.

Peter did not jump into the “Lakeland Thing” lightly.  He thought about it, prayed about it and we talked it over.  Did “the outpouring” or Todd have some imperfections?  Absolutely.  Peter was asked to help out to set things in order and to investigate what some folks thought might be doctrinally “iffy.” He was asked to do this by Lakeland’s host, Stephen Strader, a colleague in the International Coalition of Apostles, which Peter leads.  It was a “Macedonian Call” for help.  That is Peter’s job.  Many of the Con people mentioned above thought Peter should have said no to this plea.   After serious thought, prayer and consultation, particularly with our most closely related prophet, Chuck Pierce, we decided to move forward.

We felt as though there was a legitimate anointing on Todd’s life.  We knew he was an imperfect person but our honest desire was to sort out and save the good.  The other charge against us is that we stupidly could not recognize that these miracles were being done under the power of a satanic spirit and that we were totally lacking in discernment.  My answer to that is, there probably was some of the flesh at work on some occasions, and people operating with a higher level of discernment may have picked up on some things we could not.  I seriously question whether a satanic spirit got away with all of the good. My conclusion is that it was mixed and we wanted to help sort out the good.  The Apostolic Team of 11 apostles which Peter put together is still in the process of sorting all of that out, and time is needed to do that.

The most serious charge against us is that the alignment meeting of June 23 was absolutely wrong (implying that at best we were misled, at worst committed a grave sin in so doing).  Our thought was to bring alignment to Todd, thereby gaining the right to speak into his life and ministry as he accepted the apostolic oversight of Che Ahn, Bill Johnson and John Arnott.  This was accomplished.  Please reread Peter’s paper sent out to our entire mailing list a few days ago.  Peter did not “ordain” Todd, as some journalists keep saying over and over wanting it to become truth.  He blessed him, yes!  Isn’t it strange that all the negative things surfaced so soon after alignment took place and Todd agreed to oversight?

I see all of this as God’s great mercy and love.  Lots of critics just plain don’t like Todd’s looks.  He’s tattooed and pierced and dresses down on the platform. I wouldn’t want my son to look like that, but to throw it all out at the cost of throwing out the anointing needs to be carefully considered.  But then the world didn’t think much of John the Baptist who probably wore smelly camel pelts and ate bugs.  Jesus had other thoughts about John, however.  As I work in the field of deliverance we start with what wants help and go from there.  To see some major transformation in a person’s life is a miracle often witnessed.  We work with some raunchy raw material at times and our only prerequisite is that they want to be helped.  It’s enough.  Man, indeed, looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.  Let’s look at hearts and the hand of God, and bless what He is blessing.

Todd is in a perfect spot for help.  The night of June 23 when we were there, Todd gave a long testimony.  He has been wounded, and has wounded others along the way.  He is still a young man, rescued from the streets and a biker society.  He is not highly schooled or terribly polished.  He does not fit the scholarly, seminary finishing school mold. He has not had the advantage of a solid steady home environment.   But then again God has this habit of not choosing the things that we would choose.  I could easily see that Todd needs deep inner healing and professional-level deliverance he has not yet had the opportunity to receive.  One of our critics said that we got it backwards and should have taken him into a back room and ministered to him before the ceremony.  We had the luxury of a few minutes with Todd before the evening meeting.  We had never met the man before.  Was I to say  “Hey, Todd, you’re a mess and need help in the next five minutes”?

The prescribed protocol is to put things in proper alignment first, then be in a position to speak into his life.  That opportunity is presenting itself now.  Todd now has the opportunity to address some character flaws and get them healed and corrected in order to carry the anointing God has given him.  We in deliverance and inner healing minister to these things daily-they are nothing to be ashamed of.  Not to deal with them out of pride or denial is where the shame can take hold.  I worked with dairy cows as a kid and picked up some of their lice once.  My mom told me as she treated my head with some smelly remedy “The shame is not in getting lice, the shame is in keeping them.”  I never had lice again!

Be assured that Todd’s overseers, Che, John and Bill along with Peter are hard at work.  Please give us some time.  Peter is in Singapore and goes on to Indonesia for a few days and will not be back until next week.  Che is ministering in Korea.  Bill and John have killer schedules all summer long.  We are working as best and as fast as we can, but there are constraints that slow us a little.  Things like thousands of miles and schedules that cannot be changed, and when it is day here it is night in Asia.

I am very optimistic.  I see a door of opportunity swung wide open.  I see a wonderful, merciful God reaching out.  What many are calling a rotten mess I see as a splendid chance for one of the church’s finest hours.  The mess was there festering for a while anyway, now let’s fix it.  Is Todd’s situation a strange thing?  The breakup of the family is one of the most common societal problems we face today.  How many other couples contemplating family breakup could be encouraged to get help if this is a successful rehabilitation?

Todd now has some fathers by his side to help in time of need and to avoid shipwreck if  he chooses to accept that help.  He now has some authority in his life, and parameters are comforting to kids.  He is deeply loved by many who are in a position to help spiritually, emotionally and mentally.  He is a place of protection he did not have the luxury of before June 23.

Let me close by asking and a few questions:

Might it be that there is a hunger for revival as never before in our country?  I think so.

Might it be that God wants to send us that revival and is anxious to do so but needs the right persons and proper government in His church to look after it? I think so.

Could it be that there was true anointing in an imperfect vessel and a merciful God wanted to set up circumstances to bring healing to Todd?  I think so.

Could it be that when one apostle asked another for help in separating truth from error in a situation of mixture, that error began to surface so quickly?  Isn’t the church better off when error is exposed and corrected?  I think so.

Could it be that God brought alignment, authority and order into the Lakeland situation and once that order was established Todd was in a safe place to be ministered to?  If a wounded soul gets help and is rehabilitated, isn’t that good?  Isn’t it wonderful to have a restoration process in place to help a brother back to useful service and full use of his gifts and anointing? If he decides not to be helped, we have done our job in making that help available, and his overseers have charge of his care.

Isn’t this what the church is supposed to look like?  I think so.  If we fail, at least we will have tried. Not to have tried would have been failure to do what God required of us at this point in time.

Now here is where you come in.  PLEASE PRAY.  Ask God to so minister to Todd to soften his heart and to reach out for help, and to be fully healed.  Ask God to help him to be willing to submit to the apostolic oversight that has been put in place.  Ask God to heal his marriage and protect and bless his wife and three children.

This episode has the potential of being one of the finest hours the church has seen in recent years.  I implore you to pray.  Because this has all been so public it is all of our business and we must act on our knees.  We have a real enemy capable of infiltrating the church to truncate this process.  Let’s fight for victory!

Sincerely, in Christ,

Doris

A Vietnam veteran told me some of the horrors of his service tour. One memory involved the children in Vietnam. My friend said it was common for young boys nine or ten years old to learn a few words of English and befriend the American soldiers.

He said those same boys might walk into the middle of a huddle of soldiers after gaining their trust and drop a grenade.

Using children as instruments of war is nothing new, especially for communists. During the Sandinista conflict in Nicaragua, the average age of soldiers was 14. Most were enlisted against their will, others fought to gain respect or just to get something to eat.

But there are very few stories in history of armies killing their own children. Presumably, armies fight to preserve the future of their civilization and children are that future.

On November 18, a group of American soldiers were handing out toys and sports equipment to children in a Baghdad neighborhood. Our troops have been doing this sort of thing for years in Iraq in an effort to show the children and adults that our intentions are to bless the Iraqi people, not harm them.

An Al Qaeda suicide bomber chose this event to detonate his explosive vest. He purposely killed Iraqi children (three died and seven were wounded). He also killed three American soldiers and himself.

A new line has been crossed. The Muslim holy war has been killing other Muslim adults in Iraq since the war began. These insurgents, as our military calls them, are mostly suicidal fighters from other countries; primarily Libya and Saudi Arabia. But the war has now expanded to include the murder of innocent children.

What will it take to convince Americans of the inherent evil of Islam? This religion is so horrid it now condones the sacrifice of its own children to advance a so called Holy War. Meanwhile, Muslims in America continue a successful campaign of propaganda to convince an eagerly naïve public that theirs is a “religion of peace.”

Here in Oklahoma, that PR campaign included the distribution of complimentary copies of the Koran to Oklahoma legislators. Many wisely refused to accept. Those legislators who now possess a shiny new copy of the Koran should turn to Book 8 verses 56-61 and read these chilling words: Surely, the worst of beasts in the sight of ALLAH are the disbelievers, who will not believe. So, if thou overcomest them in war, then thereby strike fear in those that are behind them, that they may be mindful. And make ready…whereby you may frighten the enemy of ALLAH,

The 20th century was the bloodiest century in the history of the world. Communists murdered well over 100 million people in Russia, China, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cuba and elsewhere. Even secular political prognosticators are now wakening to the reality of radical Islam.

What will the history books record of the 21st century? That largely depends on the will of the United States at the dawn of this century.

Pastor Steven G. Dyer

I admire Pat Robertson. When the history of Christianity of the 20^th century is written, he will be remembered as one of the leading figures. Beginning with a low power UHF television station in the late 1960s, Robertson built it into a Christian broadcasting empire that now includes a graduate university and five star conference center hotel.

As a student at Regent University, the school Robertson founded, I heard him speak in chapel many times. I was inspired by his faith. His faith was contagious.

I did not attend Regent because of Pat Robertson. Like most of the students there, my choice of the school was based upon the quality of education offered. Regent University prided itself on being a Christian version of Harvard with similar academic regiments.

The great voices of Christianity in our time passed through the school in the years I was a student. Listening to German evangelist Reinhart Bonke and the eminent theologian Carl Henry will always remain thrilling memories for me.

Pat Robertson’s faith and insistence upon excellence in all things will leave a lasting mark on Christianity for many decades to come.

That said, I must now respond to Robertson’s recent endorsement of Rudy Giuliani for President of the United States.

“What were you smoking? Have you lost your ever loving mind?!!!”

It is unconscionable that any Christian, much less a high profile leader would endorse or even consider voting for Giuliani. The man is a covenant breaker. Not only is he divorced twice, his current wife was once his press secretary with whom he was having an affair while mayor of New York.

It is the height of hypocrisy for us to criticize Bill Clinton while embracing Rudy Giuliani. Eternal binding covenants stand at the heart of our Christian faith. Those covenants are sealed by oaths. Marriage is a blood covenant containing oaths to forsake all others and be true to only your spouse.

Rudy Giuliani has lied to two wives and broken his solemn oaths to them. If he will lie to his wife and betray her, he will lie to us.

All public officials in America begin their service with an oath. The oath recognizes the sacred duty of public servants to selflessly serve. Oaths are based upon Biblical teachings of covenant that carry eternal damnation as punishment for violating them.

No Christian should ever consider endorsing a covenant breaker for public office. The irony of this is that I learned the importance of public oaths while studying public policy at the university Pat Robertson founded.

So who should we Christians vote for in next year’s presidential election? Someone else.

Something new is happening in Hollywood these days. For most of its nearly 100 years of existence, the movie capital of the world was dominated by a few large studios. The handful of executives who ran them had almost god-like control over the content of what the world watched in movies.

In the past four decades, those executives have presided over a steady decline in the moral content and message of the movies. There have been a few notable exceptions such as Chariots of Fire in 1982, but they were just that; exceptions.

But the past decade has seen the rise of independent films bursting into the mainstream. There have always been independent films, but they were rarely shown in theatres. Since there was little money to be made, very little money could be spent on making independent films.

But home video and now the internet have dramatically changed access to films and other forms of art produced outside the mainstream Hollywood studios. And theaters have discovered there is money to be made by showing independent films.

Some of them have been very low budget productions that produced huge profits such as The Blair Witch Project and Napoleon Dynamite. But the biggest independent film of them all was Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

Gibson is a Hollywood insider but he couldn’t get any of the major studios to invest in his dramatization of the last hours of Christ’s life. The Hollywood moguls either didn’t think it would make money or they didn’t like the message, maybe both.

Mel Gibson financed the movie from his own personal fortune and not only proved them wrong, but opened the door for many new independent film makers and directors to begin churning out stories with redemptive themes rather than destructive themes.

Even the major studios are now seeing that positive messages can make great movies. One of my personal favorites is Freedom Writers produced by Paramount Pictures. It’s based on the true story of a teacher in inner city Los Angeles. It’s not a Christian film in the sense that it preaches the gospel. In fact, the only mention of God is through curse words. But the theme of the movie is redemption. Young gang members who have no hope see that they really can break out of their destructive lifestyles.

This year, an investment company, The Stanford Financial Group, financed an independent film entitled The Ultimate Gift. It’s the story of a young “trust fund baby” whose wise grandfather teaches him the really true gifts in this life. Though the film did poorly at the box office, I loved it and it’s especially good for young people.

The newest independent film offering is Bella. Mpower Films uses a no name cast to tell a powerful pro-life story. The message is redemptive and highlights the value of life.

For most of the mid-twentieth century, believers did not consider a film “Christian” unless it contained a clear presentation of the gospel. The problem with that standard is that people don’t go to the movies to hear a sermon, they go to the movies to watch a story being told.

We Christians need to learn to look for redemption in the stories and use them as discussion starters with our friends to then tell them the ultimate story of redemption.

He was obviously in the military though he was not wearing a uniform. The young man in front of me in the security line at the airport was carrying a military backpack with US stamped on it. He also had the standard issue military haircut and stood very erect, as if at attention, when facing the airport security agents.

I was returning from a recent missions trip to a communist country. I had spent time with fellow Christians who have criminal records. One lady told me of her imprisonment for ten months, convicted of the crime of “propagating a foreign religion:” that commu-speak for sharing her faith in Christ.

As the young soldier and I sat side by side in the airport replacing our shoes, I looked over at him and confirmed that he was active duty military. “Yes sir” was his crisp reply. I briefly told him I was returning from a communist country where people have very little personal freedom. I looked him in the eye and simply thanked him for his service. “Thank you sir, thank you” was his reply.

Few Americans today seem to understand the biblical underpinnings of military service. Some naively quote the sixth commandment “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13), as if it universally applies to soldiers defending their country. Even a cursory reading of scripture will reveal that many of God’s heroes were soldiers and, under certain circumstances, God not only condoned the killing of the enemy but even ordered it.

The great theologian Thomas Aquinas in his classic Summa Theologica put the discussion of just war in the chapter on charity. According to Aquinas, the willingness to sacrifice on the behalf of others is why serving in the military is considered a high calling.

Christian reformer John Calvin called the soldier an “agent of God’s love” because “restraining evil out of love for neighbor is an imitation of God’s restraining evil out of love for His creatures.”

I am sickened by some of the recent treatment of our military personnel and leaders by politicians and the mainstream media. Navy SEAL Lt. Michael P. Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by the President of the United States. In a White House ceremony, the medal was presented to his parents. The Medal of Honor is the highest award given to soldiers and it was the first such award handed out during the Iraq/Afghanistan War. The New York Times buried the story on page 863. That’s the same newspaper that ran numerous front page stories about the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal.
It was also the New York Times that chose to run an ad (at a discounted rate) calling our leading military general “General Betray Us.” This type of treatment toward those who defend our freedoms is shameful.
Risking and sacrificing your life to defend the freedom of others is the highest form of love. Jesus said it this way; “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).”

We Christians have an uneasy relationship with Halloween. Most of us have fond memories of Trick or Treating as children. Then about 30 years ago, many pastors and parents began to back away from the observance of the holiday.

That reaction against Halloween came as Satanism and Wicca became more popular. Rock groups in the 70’s and 80’s began openly worshipping Satan and the demonic element of Halloween suddenly seemed too much for Christians to participate in.

This same period gave rise to Rock and Roll seminars as evangelists traveled from church to church playing records backwards and warning against the subliminal demonic messages in the songs. (By way of personal observation, contemporary rap music played forward is far more destructive than anything Zed Zeppelin ever produced backward or forward.)

For Christian parents, the retreat from Halloween was a Catch 22 guilt trip. If we allowed our children to Trick or Treat, we feared we were desensitizing them to evil ideas and entities. If we didn’t allow them to participate, we felt we were depriving them of fun that all of their friends were enjoying and they would thus develop a complex and rebel.

While most Christian parents are aware of their ambivalent guilt feelings, most are not aware of the true history of Halloween. Here’s a short version: The early days of Christianity saw thousands of believers martyred for their faith. They were thrown to the lions in the Roman Coliseum. They were burned at the stake, tortured, crucified, and even forced to freeze to death on frozen lakes.

In 610 A.D., the church designated a holiday to honor these brave Christians. It was called All Saints Day. All Saint’s Day was also called All Hallows Day. The night before was supposed to be a time of cleansing, prayer, and preparation for the holiday. All Hallows Eve eventually was pronounced Halloween.

Originally the day was May 13, but in the eighth century it was moved to November 1 to compete with a pagan ceremony of the Druids and Celts called Samhain. Samhain was the celebration of the dead.

In the succeeding 12 centuries, the holy and pagan roots of Halloween have been alternately emphasized. At times it seemed the pagans had taken it over, at other times, it seemed the church had stamped out the demonic element of the celebration.

My point is that Christians do not need to be the least bit apologetic about celebrating Halloween. Certainly we should refrain from dark costumes and symbols that celebrate the dead, but there are countless ways to make the holiday fun for children and adults alike.

One such example is Cornerstone Church’s Hallelujah Party at the Grove Civic Center. For 20 years, Cornerstone has offered a safe and fun alternative for children of all ages. Pastor Bill Lay and his congregation have done a wonderful job serving our community in this way.

If you’d like more information on this topic, I recommend a Focus On The Family book entitled Redeeming Halloween, Celebrating Without Selling Out.

Victimization has been a growing movement in America for decades. It probably began with Freud and Jung in the 19th century but the idea has now caught on and gone main stream.

The number one song in country music right now is a victim song entitled Because of You. In part, the lyrics say, “because of you I never strayed too far from the sidewalk, because of you I find it hard to trust not only me but everyone around me, because of you.”

The message is clear; all of my problems are someone else’s fault. All of my failures and sins would not exist had I not been victimized by someone else.

But when the message of victimization is actually understood, the glaring fallacy is clear; no one is ultimately responsible for anything. The person who abused me was himself, or herself, abused. So my abuser is really not responsible for his actions. The person who abused him was also abused and so forth. Once the blame game begins, it has no end.

The result of a victimized society is no one taking responsibility for his actions and the morality of right and wrong is blurred until it hardly exists at all.

It has become almost required today that every criminal convicted of a crime parades his abused childhood before the judge and jury as justification for his evil actions. Drug addicts blame their behavior on others and the cycle never stops.

All of us have been abused. Every single living being on this planet has been taken advantage of, or mistreated in some way. It’s part of living in this sinful world. Sinners sin and we should not be surprised. So yes, it’s true, we are all victims.

But is that an excuse to justify our shortcomings, sins, inadequacies, and weak character? God’s answer is no.

The Bible clearly teaches that each of us is responsible for our own actions. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10).”

None of us will be able to play the blame game when we stand before the One who knows all things.

Hope for the victimized is not found in playing the blame game. That’s a downward spiral that ends only in disillusionment and misery. Hope for the victim is found in the good news that “the old has gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17)!”

All of us need to leave the past behind. All of us need to embrace regeneration that only Christ can provide. All of us need to say no to victimization and yes to new life in Christ.

I guess I’m supposed to care, but I don’t. If the news coverage is any indication of the interests of Americans, I am supposed to care how late Brittney Spears stayed out bar-hopping last night; but I don’t care.
According to the news coverage, I’m supposed to care that someone stole O.J.’s football jersey and he threatened the guy to get it back. I’m supposed to care that Tom Cruise’s newest girlfriend (or wife, I can’t remember) might be pregnant. I’m supposed to care what Anna Nicole Smith had in her refrigerator when she died.
I’m supposed to care who won the best actress nomination or who sold the most records last year and which rap star is on his way to prison. No matter how hard I try, I just don’t seem to care.

However, as a Christian, there are some very important things I do care deeply about. I care about millions of lost souls who will die without a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. I care about 14 million AIDS orphans in Africa who have no parents.
I care very deeply about Christian pastors in China who are being arrested and tortured every day because they refuse to stop preaching Christ. I care about my friends in Cuba who are daily harassed by the communists and have their churches randomly closed based on trumped up charges.

I care about the daily abuse and murder of Christians in North Korea and Sudan .
I also care about 1.4 million babies who are murdered in their mother’s wombs each year in America . I care about children being abused right here in Oklahoma in our very communities. I care about the moral collapse of American culture and the precipitous decline of faith in America .

I care about nearly 200,000 brave American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan placing themselves in harm’s way so I and my children can live free.

I care about the kind of world my grandchildren will grow up in and the legacy that I am leaving them. I care about the education of our children and the future of our communities.
I care about the future of the church in America and pray we will be able to remain relevant in a society that is changing at the speed of light.

So I guess the list of things I truly care about is quite long and this is just a sampling. But I don’t care who wins American Idol and I certainly don’t care who gets kicked off the island on Survivor.

Here’s a quiz? What are the three countries in the world with the largest number of professing Christians?

Yes, the United States is still number one. Number two is Brazil and number three is China. Yes, China.

The number of Chinese Christians is now in excess of 100 million. The church there is growing so rapidly that China will probably be number one within 20 years.

We Americans don’t usually think of Christianity as being anything other than a white man’s religion. But the new reality is that Caucasians are now a minority. 60% of Christians live in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Since North America is the only continent in the world where Christianity is not growing, it’s easy to see that the future of our faith is multi-colored and multi-cultural.

The Asia Times columnist “Spengler” recently wrote that China may soon occupy the role that the United States has occupied for the past 200 years: “the natural ground for mass evangelization.” He adds that “if this occurs, the world will change beyond our capacity to recognize it.”

The most ambitious Chinese Christians have now formulated what they call the Back To Jerusalem Movement. This group is training thousands of Chinese believers to take the gospel of Christ to the Muslim world following the path of the ancient Silk Road. They believe God has uniquely gifted and prepared them for this task.

South Korea is now the number two missionary sending nation in the world, just behind the United States. The recent capture of a group of South Korean missionaries in Afghanistan brought Korean Christians into the spotlight for a few weeks. But in the past couple of decades, these dedicated believers have quietly penetrated some of the most far flung places in the globe.

In Europe, traditional cathedrals stand empty while thousands of house churches and storefronts ring with the eclectic sounds of tattooed and pierced young people worshipping God with distortion guitars and a radical form of faith.

Many of these churches are led by African Christians who have migrated to Europe in search of jobs but succeeded in re-establishing true Christianity in many areas where it had all but disappeared.

As American Christians, we can either resist the flow of what God is obviously doing around the world, or we can embrace this new reality and seek to help it flourish.

The most striking movement to come to American Christianity in recent decades is the phenomenon of ordinary believers traveling to foreign countries to assist in the growth of God’s work. Every year, hundreds of thousands of American Christians fan out around the globe teaching children’s classes, digging wells in remote villages, building schools and churches and preaching the gospel in places where it is needed the most.

The role of American Christianity is rapidly shifting from leading to helping and supporting. We should gladly accept this new role. It bodes well for the future of our faith.

“Millions of Americans who in times of personal crisis and emotional and mental anguish once turned to priests, ministers, and rabbis for keys to the heavenly kingdom, now go to physicians and psychiatrists, who hold the keys to the kingdom of pharmaceutical relief, or to drug dealers and liquor stores as chemicals and alcohol replace the confessional as a source of solace and forgiveness.”

That’s a quote from Joseph Califano’s new book entitled High Society.  Have chemicals become the new religion for millions of Americans?  The numbers are truly staggering.  Americans make up only four percent of the world’s population but we consume two-thirds of the world’s illegal drugs.  We have 61 million chronic smokers, 16 million alcoholics, and every day 100 million Americans are popping anti-depressants, tranquilizers or painkillers.

There can hardly be a person in this country that has not been affected by addiction.  Every one of the millions of addicts and alcoholics has families and neighbors.  As a pastor, I have spent countless hours counseling and praying with people suffering from various types of addictions.

One of our biggest struggles as a church and as a society is to know whether we should deal with addicts as offenders or victims.  For the most part, our society has chosen to see them as victims.  We have told them alcoholism is a disease and therefore they can’t help themselves.  That resonates well with a person who already feels controlled by the urges of the addiction.  But victimization rarely produces freedom.  It typically produces more bondage which leads to increased guilt and helplessness.

Dealing with alcoholics and drug addicts as offenders makes a little more sense because addiction is the primary contributor to most criminal behavior.  Any corrections officer will acknowledge that most inmates are in prison because of drugs or alcohol.  Indeed, getting tough on drug pushers and manufacturers has produced severe overcrowding in our prisons.

The Bible actually describes the problem in totally spiritual terms.  God calls this behavior sin.  Specifically, the Bible says drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:10).  That sounds pretty harsh unless we look at it in light of the First Commandment which warns all of us not to have any other god before the true God.  When a person runs to a chemical for solace and comfort, it is idolatry.

From countless hours of counseling with addicts I have seen a few success stories.  They all follow this pattern.  First the addict admits he (or she) is a sinner and is totally controlled by his sin.  Next he asks Jesus Christ to come into his life and commits to serve Christ rather than self.  Finally, the addict submits himself to an accountability structure of other people who have permission to speak into his life.

Anything less than this kind of radical repentance and obedience ends in failure.  Chemical church doesn’t work.  The church that Jesus founded does work.

Christy Freeman is charged with murder after the remains of four pre-mature babies were found in her house in Ocean City, Maryland.

Two years ago, Christy Freeman could not have been charged with a crime. Like many other states, Maryland recently passed a viable fetus law that makes it a crime to kill a child that could live outside the womb. This law, and others like it around the country, have only come in recent years as states have reasserted their rights to legislate abortion issues.

Grisly events like this highlight the hypocrisy of those who want to kill babies with impunity. Planned Parenthood, The National Abortion Rights Action League, The National Organization for Women, and those they represent continue to maintain that “unwanted” children should not be allowed to be born. Their convoluted reasoning boasts that the right of a woman to live as she pleases completely trumps the right of a baby to live at all.
When some disturbed person like Christy Freeman carries this philosophy to its logical conclusion, we as a society then wonder what could have motivated her to kill her own children.

Millions of mothers do it every year and our society accepts it. The only difference is that Christy Freeman did not go to an abortion clinic and contribute to the extremely lucrative abortion industry.

The bottom line of this philosophical and legal disconnect is personhood. Is an unborn child a person or simply unwanted tissue? It’s the same debate our country struggled with over slavery. As long as Negroes were considered chattel (or property), as the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision decreed in 1858, it was legitimate to keep them in bondage.
But Abraham Lincoln was elected President by campaigning that the Dred Scott decision was wrong, and if elected President, he would do everything in his power to recognize the personhood of the Negro race. It took the bloodiest war in our history to finally settle the issue. But today, no one disputes anyone else’s personhood based upon their race.

However, we continue to do it to those whom we cannot see; the unborn.

The Bible clearly teaches that life begins at conception. The Psalmist David wrote of God’s view of the unborn. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (Psalms 139:13-16).”

We are now only one conservative Supreme Court Justice away from overturning Roe vs. Wade. (By the way, if you’ve never read the Roe decision you should. You will find its logic incomprehensible and its conclusions irrational.) When the next court opening appears, the pro-abortion forces will unleash a virulent battle the likes of which we have not seen.

1925 was a difficult year for Christianity.  Prohibition was going badly.  Al Capone had become the bad boy hero, ruthlessly providing liquor to speakeasies and clubs in violation of the law.  Enforcement was half-hearted, at best, and this reflected badly upon those who had promoted Prohibition and claimed it would bring tranquility and an end to suffering in our country.

But the real news of the summer was the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton , Tennessee .  A substitute science teacher, John Scopes, was on trial for teaching evolution, a crime in that state.  It became America ’s first media circus trial.  Clarence Darrow was the most famous attorney in America .  He had gained that status by getting an acquittal for two wealthy Chicago teenagers who had murdered a boy just for fun.

Darrow volunteered to defend Scopes, hoping to make a mockery of Christians, whom he considered narrow minded buffoons.  The prosecution was led by an even more famous personality, William Jennings Bryan.  Bryan had been the Democratic nominee for President three times (which means he holds the record for losing presidential elections).  Bryan was a committed Christian and was known for his oratorical skills.

Rounding out the main players was secular humanist newspaper mogul H.L. Menken.  Though he did not appear in the drama itself, Menken used his newspapers to ensure that Bryan and the Christians looked bad while Darrow and Scopes were portrayed as valiant and intelligent.

Most Americans know of the trial only from the play and movie Inherit the Wind.  The movie, even more than the contemporary news coverage, was a fictionalized parable of what really happened.  Even the title was taken from a biblical proverb that Clarence Darrow supposedly quoted.  All of it was fabricated.  Most Americans don’t even know that Scopes was actually convicted. 

One other very important movement was flourishing in 1925; it was called the Social Gospel.  Though it contained some very good motives to help the poor, they were wrapped in a flawed theology that taught universalism.  Universalism is the unbiblical teaching that everyone will go to heaven. 

True Christians reacted against the liberal theology of the Social Gospel.  The most notable defense was a book called The Fundamentals which laid out the fundamental beliefs of Christianity and sparked the modern Fundamentalist movement.

So 1925 was a difficult year for Christianity in America .  Unfortunately, most pastors and believers reacted to the public humiliation by retreating into the church buildings and criticizing the evil world outside.  It’s an understandable response. 

But we are still living with the repercussions of that response nearly a century later.  For most of the 20^th century, Christians no longer led the culture.  We had clearly been the moral and philosophical leaders in the 17^th and 18^th centuries in America .  But our retreat left the leadership roles vacant.  They were filled with a hodgepodge of philosophies and moral relativism.

Now, at the dawn of the 21^st century, Christians are emerging from the church buildings and attempting to reassert leadership in our culture.  While we were hiding, we lost our voice.  Education, the judicial system, much of the legislative system and even business were captured while we were gone.

When Christians began to re-surface in the 1980’s, the reaction from those in power was virulent.  But many of us have persevered and settled in for a long struggle.  It’s a struggle, once again, to inject a biblically based moral voice into the decision making processes of our nation.  Occasionally, we have a good year.

Suppose you had an idea that you thought was true. It was a revolutionary idea that would change the very fabric of societal beliefs and moral foundations.

You very much want this idea to be accepted by the general population because you desperately desire to see the changes in society that this idea will bring. You begin of course with a book. The book is a best seller. It’s more than a best seller; it is hailed around the world as the most important book written since the Bible.

Wow! Everyone is talking about your idea. Newspapers and magazines are buzzing with the possible implications to society if your idea is adopted. But now what? Even though your book is a best seller, it still has impacted only a small percentage of society. In order for your idea to have the desired effect, that is societal transformation, it has to be embraced by virtually everyone.

Then the ultimate strategy is hatched. It’s a strategy that cannot fail. Require every public school to teach your idea to every student. It can’t miss. How long will it take to indoctrinate enough people to reach the desired result? Perhaps a generation or two at the most will work. Certainly within 50 years every politician, judge, educator and even clergy will have been taught your idea.

Now fast forward 100 years. Four generations of school children have been taught your idea. Furthermore, opposing ideas have been banned from the public schools. Any teacher or student who even hints at an alternative theory is ridiculed and immediately silenced.

But wait. It hasn’t worked! How could it not work? You have forced every child in the western world to learn your idea. Every university teaches your idea and violently silences any opposition. But how is possible that most of the people still do not believe it?

This scenario is not a Grimm’s Fairy Tale or even a parable. It’s the true story of the Theory of Evolution. A USA Today/Gallup Pole last week found that 66% of Americans believe it is definitely or probably true that God created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years.

How can it be that 100 years of indoctrination at every level of our society have failed to convince most of the people that evolution is true?

Perhaps it is the complete absence of transitional fossils. In his blockbuster book The Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin admitted that evidence for evolutionary transition was totally lacking. But from his vantage point in 1865, he was confident that scientists would unearth such evidence in the future. But they haven’t.

Perhaps it’s the complexity of creation at every level. In order to believe in evolution, one must believe in a series of outlandish coincidences strung together.

Or perhaps recent scientific discoveries such as DNA, the building blocks of all life, have revealed complexities of existence that make a belief in blind chance a totally outlandish thought.

But ultimately the answer is faith and instinct. Man instinctively knows he is more than an animal. Man feels a sense of destiny and purpose. Man has an inner drive to change this world and make a difference. He instinctively knows that drive comes from being made in the image of God, not the image of Bonzo the chimp. That’s why the greatest indoctrination campaign in history will never succeed.

Christianity is rarely a simple, easy way of life. It really wasn’t designed to be easy but most of us long for it nonetheless.

Being a Christian in America in the 21st century is becoming increasingly complex. A hundred years ago, the primary battlefronts of faith were prohibition and poverty. Life was simpler, but that doesn’t mean it was easier.

Today our lives are physically easier due to modern technology, but the emotional and spiritual pressures have become much more pronounced.

The increased complexity of life has also caused many new battlegrounds that our grandparents would have never thought about. Just today I’ve read news articles about genetic engineering, casino gambling, intelligent design and international AIDS work. Christians today must speak intelligently into these, and many other challenging issues of modern life that were mostly unknown a century ago.

Meanwhile, the breakdown of the nuclear family has increased the demands upon individuals, churches, schools and government to step in and help remedy the growing myriad of social problems. Many Christians are now raising grandchildren because the
parents simply won’t do it. Churches and schools are scrambling to meet the needs of children who are growing up without parental love or guidance.

Add to that the daily barrage of messages from political groups, benevolent organizations, religious organizations, lobbying groups, citizen groups, and community activists. We sift through piles of junk mail, pornographic emails (unsolicited), telemarketing calls and cable news anchors yelling about Paris Hilton’s jail sentence.

In the midst of all of this, we are expected to be godly, calm, peaceful, wise and holy.
Consider this; we Christians cannot possibly know the answers to every complex issue. But we do know THE ANSWER to every complex issue. That answer is the same answer Christianity has been offering to the world for 2000 years. Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, came to the world with a message. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).”

Dig past the rhetoric of every complex political and social issue and you will find sin at its root. For example, the root of the debate over sex selective abortions is the pride and selfishness of prospective parents. The root of the debate over gay marriage is lust. The root of the problem of gambling is greed.

So no matter how complex our world becomes, the root cause will always be man’s sin nature and the answer to those problems will always be found in repentance and forgiveness.
One of my friends led a young man to receive Christ as his savior yesterday. This young man grew up in Oklahoma and is now on his way to boot camp in the military. My friend asked him to read a few chapters in the Bible and then told him how he could be forgiven of his sins and find fulfillment through faith in Christ. The young man had never heard this before. He was so excited he couldn’t wait to tell his family about what had just happened to him!

It is likely that the complexity of American life will continue to increase. But the simplicity of faith in Christ will remain.

Saying “I told you so,” is generally considered arrogant and self-indulgent in our society.  Therefore, most of us avoid using the phrase.  But, I told you so.

For three years I have been writing that attempts to establish a democracy in Iraq are futile.  We have now reached the place that even the most optimistic supporters of the idea are looking for ways to save face.

This is not a commentary on the war against terrorism or even the war in Iraq .  Failure to build a democratic government in Iraq is not due to our lack of military might or expertise.  This attempt has failed because President Bush did not understand Islam. 

From a distance Islam appears to have commonality with Christianity.   Both believe in a Supreme Being who created the world.  Both believe in rewards for the faithful and eternal punishment for the disobedient.  Christianity and Islam share the basic world view of a transcendent God who watches over His creation from heaven. 

All of this leads many to assume that Christian values and ideas can be found in Islam. 

But in reality, the basic tenets of Islam are diametrically opposed to Christianity.  Christianity is based upon a benevolent loving God who offers salvation to those who choose to believe in His Son Jesus Christ.  Islam is based upon an angry vengeful God who demands complete submission from the faithful and immediate death to the rebellious.

Christianity’s founding tenet is man made in the image of God with a free will to choose right and wrong.  Islam, on the other hand, teaches that everything that happens is the will of God.  It is extreme predestination.  Islamic theology has no place for a right of self-determination. 

Christianity teaches us to love our neighbor as our self.  Islam teaches that true Muslims are required to kill all who do not convert.

Westerners are searching frantically for a moderate version of Islam to politically embrace.  We want to get along with Muslims.  But since we do not understand Islam’s foundational teachings, we also fail to understand that a moderate version of Islam is an anomaly that true Muslims are duty bound to destroy.  That’s why our attempts to build such a government in Iran have been met with extreme violence.  What we are attempting to do is considered blasphemy by Muslims.

Modern democracy came into being in the crucible of protestant Christianity.  America ’s Founding Fathers understood that this form of government, granting personal freedom, could only work in a society where man’s sin nature and free will were understood and balanced.

President John Adams stated very clearly that, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.”

When President Adams wrote “moral and religious” he was referring to Christianity.  Just any moral structure won’t work. 

So by expecting Muslims to adopt democracy, we are actually expecting them to adopt Christian values.  It will never work. 

This is not to say that our War on Terror will not succeed.  Nor is it meant as a criticism of our president whom I pray for and support.  But it is obviously time to re-evaluate the goals in Iraq .  I told you so.

Pastor Steven G. Dyer

I never really thought about the impact Jerry Falwell had upon my life until he passed away recently. He was the kind of man you either loved or hated. His plain spoken manner and in-your-face style made him a lightening rod for controversy. I always suspected he liked it that way.

I came to faith in Christ in April 1979. Though I had been raised in church, it was not until my sophomore year in college that I truly encountered God and began to serve Him. One of my earliest memories of those days was listening to Jerry Falwell on The Old Time Gospel Hour.

His message resonated within me. He talked of patriotism and Christianity almost interchangeably. It was not until many years later that I realized how unusual it was for a member of the fundamentalist wing of our faith to be leading the charge into politics.

Everything Jerry Falwell said made sense to me in those early days. I watched as the Moral Majority was formed and saw it influence the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. That led directly to the presidential bid of Pat Robertson in 1988.

As it happened, that was the same year I moved to Virginia Beach to attend graduate school at Regent University , founded by Pat Robertson. At Regent, there was a bit of a love-hate relationship with Jerry Falwell and Liberty University .

We agreed politically on most issues and I recall at least one classmate who graduated from Liberty and came to Regent for post-graduate work. But Regent University was part of the charismatic arm of Christianity, thus Dr. Falwell and Dr. Robertson had to agree to disagree on some areas of theology. Jerry Falwell wasn’t very good at disagreeing agreeably, but it seemed things had improved in recent years.

The Moral Majority was officially disbanded in 1989 and replaced by Pat Robertson’s organization the Christian Coalition. As it happened, the state leaders of the Christian Coalition were the subject of my master’s thesis in 1992. During the course of the thesis research, I talked personally with several dozen of the leaders of that group. One of my discoveries from those interviews was that many of them had been involved with conservative Christian causes in the 1980s. By inference, they too had been influenced and led by Jerry Falwell.

Though I admire Dr. Falwell and agreed with most of his public stands on the issues, I found his rhetoric and some of his statements difficult to swallow. His very public battle with Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler magazine was never a good thing. And when he accused the Teletubbies cartoon characters of promoting a gay agenda I wished he had just stayed in bed that day.

As I watched the cable news interviews the day of Dr. Falwell’s death, one theme emerged. Those who admired him and those who opposed him all saw him as a man of integrity. They said he fought for what he believed and was always honest.

That’s a great eulogy for all of us to strive toward.

Nearly 200 people packed the Grove Community Center last week for the organizational meeting of No Casino In Grove. This is a newly formed citizens group opposed to the Seneca Cayuga Tribe’s plan to build a large gambling facility within the city limits.The most dramatic part of the evening was a courageous lady wearing sunglasses who testified of the destruction casino gambling had brought to her and her family. She spoke of gambling with the rent and food money in the belief that she would “win big” and be able to pay her bills with the winnings. But the big win never came and she lost everything.

Someone else told of a seven year old boy riding his bicycle to the casino looking for his mother.

One of the speakers pointed out that gambling is just as addictive as drugs or pornography. Almost everyone knows someone whose life has been damaged or destroyed by gambling addiction.

The proposal to build a huge casino in Grove, similar in size and scope to the Cherokee Casino near Catoosa, would forever change the atmosphere of our city. For decades Grove has been known as a family-oriented recreation and retirement community. For many years we have been listed as one of the most desirable communities in America in which to retire.

All of that will dramatically change if this casino is allowed to be built. Many people have the mistaken belief that Indian tribes in America can do whatever they want. But that’s not true. Everything they do is regulated and controlled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Every casino proposal must go through a highly regulated process that includes Environmental Impact Studies, Army Corp of Engineers approval, economic impact studies and host of other requirements. The proposal must be submitted to the regional BIA office, and if approved is then submitted to the Secretary of the Interior for final approval. If approved by the secretary, the tribe must then sign a contract with the governor of the state.

This casino could be stopped at any of these stages in the process. At the meeting last week, attendees were asked to write letters to U.S. Senators Inhofe and Coburn requesting their help in this matter. Letters have also been written to Governor Brad Henry asking him to instruct the attorney general to investigate potential violations of the state gaming laws.

The Seneca Cayuga Tribe has been mired in a similar fight in New York for years. A well organized citizens group in Oregon has successfully stopped an Indian casino from being built in the Columbia River Gorge. We can say no!

Information on writing our U.S. Senators and links to other citizens groups fighting gambling expansion can be found on the new website; www.nogrovecasino.com.