I have noticed over the past forty years a problem in our churches when it comes to our kids. We are losing them! When they get old enough to leave, they’re gone. We scratch our heads and try to figure out what went wrong. We have taught them the Bible in Sunday School, MasterClub/Awana/Patch Club, at youth group, and emphasize it at the church.
In all honesty I’ve seen the worst and best case scenarios. Worst case is when SS or Youth group is considered glorified babysitting while the adults do the important stuff. An attitude of, “Really, it’s not that important, is it?” Furthermore, there is no curriculum or even a basic plan as to what should be covered over the year(s). The best case scenario is when there is a SS curriculum in place and it’s followed by gifted, dedicated teachers.
OK, so we’ve done the best we could do. It’s those evil colleges and universities that are destroying our kids faith! Must we therefore stand and speak against higher education? In fact, 25% of those who’ve left have said that “Christianity is anti-science.” Furthermore, our young people who do go to the university may seem like outcasts or apostates. Nearly 25% of the 18- to 29-year-olds interviewed said “Christians demonize everything outside of the church”
It is true that colleges and universities are anti-Christian. “Nearly three-quarters” (72%) of faculty members describe themselves as politically liberal, according to 1999 data from the North American Academic Study Survey (NAASS), up from 39 percent in a 1984 survey by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.”
About 25% of college professors are professing atheists or agnostics (5-7% of the general population is atheistic or agnostic). Only 6% of college professors said the Bible is “the actual word of God”. 51% described it as “an ancient book of fables, legends, history and moral precepts.” 75% believe religion does not belong in public schools.
So the colleges are an influence for evil (true), and many professors are evil (true) so that’s why we lose our kids! (false). Church youth already are “gone” in their hearts and minds in elementary, middle and high school – not in college as many assume. When polled about the importance of religious beliefs and church attendance we find the following:
63% of 13- to 15-year-olds answered “very important,” compared to 52% of 16- to 17-year-olds. Church attendance also drops during the teen and young adult yearsand begins to climb as adults age. Fifty-four percent of teens aged 13 to 15 reported having attended church in the past seven days, as did 51% of 16- to 17- year-old teens. The figure drops [most likely due to the end of parental compelling- mine] to 32% among 18- to 29- year-olds but rises again to 44% among 50- to 64- year-olds and 60% among those aged 75 and older.
So 70%will leave the faith in college. Only 35% eventually return. 52% of college students reported frequent church attendance the year before they entered college but only 29% continued frequent church attendance by their junior year. So they start to drift away while in church and the first chance they get, they’re gone!
Now let’s get to why they are leaving. Far and away it’s the inability to defend the faith.
“In this very early study, Tom Bisset interviewed people and asked them when, why, and how they abandoned their faith. He identified four prominent reasons:
1. They left because they had troubling, unanswered questions about the faith. 2. They left because their faith was not “working” for them. 3. They left because they allowed other things to take priority. 4. They left because they never personally owned their faith.”
In another poll the question was raised, “Why did they fall away from the faith in which they were raised? This was an open-ended question, there were no multiple-choice answers. 32% said they left faith behind because of intellectual skepticism or doubt. (‘It didn’t make any sense anymore.’ ‘Some stuff is too far-fetched for me to believe.’ ‘I think scientifically and there is no real proof.’ ‘Too many questions that can’t be answered.’)”
Pew Research found that about 50% said a “lack of belief led them to move away from religion. This includes many respondents who mention ‘science’ as the reason they do not believe in religious teachings, including one who said ‘I’m a scientist now, and I don’t believe in miracles.’ Others reference ‘common sense,’ ‘logic’ or a ‘lack of evidence’ – or simply say they do not believe in God.”
Creation Ministries International’s research sums it up by saying, “The presence or absence of doubt was found to be the single best predictor of Christian affiliation and spiritual health, compared to several hundred other factors.” They went on to say, “Our interviews show unequivocally that the majority of young people who were not exposed to creation teaching in their youth now embrace evolution and no longer attend church. CMI concludes “it is the intellectual challenges that are not being properly addressed. So, if we want to reach our young people, we need to answer their questions—the very questions they will get during higher education. This will help them to see that the Bible’s history is true, beginning in Genesis, which is the foundational book for the Christian faith itself.”
What to do? CMI offers this hope, “every student we spoke to who was equipped with answers as a young person still retains their Christian convictions, in spite of the evolutionary teaching they received in higher education. Better still, every single student we spoke to who affirmed biblical creation still attends church regularly.”
I personally believe that the church needs to lead the way in Scientific Apologetics (creationism) and Historical Apologetics (evidentialism). Since “ the internet factored heavily into their conversion to atheism,” maybe we, as church leaders, need to show our kids websites that are pro-Christianity. Of course, we need to be able to oversee this since I don’t know of many sites that are KJB, so it’ll take some work. Of course, parents continue to be the single greatest influence on their children’s faith., either for keeping them in the faith or being patient and supportive while they await the return of their prodigal.
One closing thought. “Teens want to be challenged; they want their tough questions taken on. We think that they want cake, but they actually want steak and potatoes, and we keep giving them cake. Churches, not just parents, share some of the blame for teens’ religious apathy.…The gospel of niceness can’t teach teens how to confront tragedy. It can’t bear the weight of deeper questions…”
I had the unfortunate opportunity Tuesday night to watch a live stream of the July incident at the opening of AIG’s “Noah’s Ark.” Ken Ham had invited Bill Nye for a tour and almost immediately Nye took control. He wanted the tour to start at the top, not the bottom. He was in attack mode and I guess he thought being on the top floor was most advantageous for him. And so the two hour “debate” went downhill from there (no pun intended). I was, needless to say, disappointed with Bro. Ham once again. The first debate was also disappointing, in my opinion.
I have great appreciation for what Ken Ham has accomplished over the years with Answers In Genesis. I have read his books, visited the museum, and attended special sessions on varying subjects. What was accomplished with the Ark exhibition and the means by which it was accomplished is nothing short of miraculous. Ham has also put together a great supporting staff of scientists, specializing in various subjects relevant to the creation evolution debate. Truly a great ministry!
However, I have a problem. I have a problem with this debate as I did with the first one. With all due respect to Bro. Ham, he is a lamentable debater! There, I said it. Shame on me, but I said it. I had to get that off my chest. I’m tired of yelling at the screen, shouting responses that I would have used if I were debating. Not to worry, Nye would never even think about challenging me. I am just a peon. No, Nye wants a big fish and Ham is on the hook.
Maybe my problem is that I viewed too many debates by Kent Hovind. Hovind was a master at it and would probably wrap Nye around his little finger. It’s unfortunate that he got stupid with the government about taxes. However, his son Eric has continued the battle with Creation Today, his ministry to fight evolution. Of course, there are other apologists out there that could do a great job and handle Nye a little better than he has been previously treated.
Maybe Bro. Ham is naive to the true nature of such a snake as Bill Nye. I would hope not but I seem to sense a credulous approach. Maybe he is simply trying to befriend Nye by using the love of Jesus method. That’s fine and it is his prerogative. But why live stream the event and sell the DVD’s when it is an apparent failure? I’m all for being a nice guy but there is a time to “answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.” (Pro 26:5).
I think what frustrates me the most is what Ham lets Nye get away with. Nye attacked the AIG staff and called them “incompetent!” If other scientists agree with the AIG staff, are these other scientists stupid also? There are lists online of numerous scientists (Christian and non-Christian) that disagree with Darwinian evolution. Are they also stupid? Ham should have been prepared with some names and challenged Nye to call these people stupid on tape (or disk)! By the way, Nye graduated from Cornell with a BS in mechanical engineering. He’s not a scientist! Unfortunately, I had to go online to get that information. I’ve never heard Bro. Ham bring that up to Nye. Maybe I missed that part of the debate(s).
Among the many things Nye said, what really frustrated me the most was his conject-ure of life on Mars. And it was two-fold. One, of the possibility of water on Mars which supposedly means life could exist in some small form. So I guess the Law of Biogenesis is made null and void if there is water? Secondly, he went to say Mars was hit by a comet or asteroid 3 billion years ago. The impact threw out Martian microbes into space, eventually causing some of those microbes to land on Earth. It is believed that those Martian microbes evolved into the living organisms that we are today. So we Earthlings are actually Martians! Ham did respond quite well to that statement, but then let it go the rest of the time. Why?
What I’m saying in this brief diatribe is, I wish and pray that someone on our side who can debate will debate this guy and shut him up. To be more polite and scriptural, let me put it this way. “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.”
Please forgive me for my frustrated rant. I’m not mad at Ken Ham. I love him as a brother in Christ. It’s Bill Nye that I can’t stand. Let’s pray that God will work overtime on him, drawing him to Calvary.
As some of you are aware, my family and I go to Memphis, TN every year around the first of May. We go there to participate with a ministry called “Banners Unfurled”, a street preaching ministry headed up by Ken Lansing. Brother Lansing has been ministering on Beale Street (the midwest’s version of Bourbon Street) for over two decades.
Every year he organizes the “Beale Street Blast”, a three day meeting of public ministers from all over the country. One of the unique things about Bro. Lansing is his use of banners. The banners are about six feet by four feet and are suspended on poles. These banners have pictures and verses that give clear messages of Scripture truth.
A few years back, Ken had some legal issues with the city of Memphis concerning the banners. By the grace of God, he met a Christian attorney by the name of Nate Kellum. Brother Kellum now has a ministry called Center for Religious Expression, where he can defend religious freedom. He won the case for Ken and as a result we have incredible freedom and support from the city of Memphis when we march down Beale Street with our banners raised high!
I said all that so that you would have an idea of who Brother Kellum is and what he does. I am posting part of an article that he sent out October 27 of this year because of its relevance to all Christians. I think it’s something to consider in light of the up coming election.
“Noting this tension between religious freedom and the culture, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights − a bipartisan group comprising of eight selected commissioners − looked into this issue over the last three years, and recently came out with a report on their findings.
The results of the report are chilling. Essentially, the Commission concludes that religious freedom is antiquated and should no longer exist.
The Commission described their 306-page document as one intended to “reconcile the conflict which…may exist between those seeking to practice religious faith and those seeking compliance with or protection of nondiscrimination laws and policies.” Called the “Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties,” the Commission identified the Supreme Court decision of Christian Legal Society v. Martinez as its premise, a case compelling Christian organizations on a college campus to recognize any voting member or leader regardless of their views. And from this premise, the Commission drew some harrowing inferences.
The report calls for the elimination of exemptions and accommodations for religious convictions, reckoning that religious liberty “significantly infringes” on the civil rights of those claiming protections on the basis of “race, color, national origin, sex, disability status, sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Commission chairman, Martin Castro, offered that time-honored, constitutionally-backed guarantees, like “religious liberty” and “religious freedom,” are nothing more than code words for “discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia…and Christian supremacy.” Another commissioner, Gail Heriot, added: “People of faith should not allow themselves to become just another special interest that needs to be appeased.”
In other words, any minority group’s beliefs should be tolerated, but Christians do not enjoy the same freedom. The irony, of course, is that it is the Christians in this politically-correct world who are subject to discrimination and intolerance.
Thankfully, the report was not unanimous. Two of the commissioners dissented, with Commissioner Peter Kirsanow observing: “This debate will likely dominate civil-rights discourse for at least a generation. And regardless of the outcome, we may emerge a very different country than the one we have been.”
Scary stuff! When we think about this election, one candidate is pro-constitutional when it comes to Supreme Court justices and opposes activist judges. The other is a globalist. One candidate will work to steer our nation back on the track laid out by the Founders and one will destroy the country as we know it. Please keep this in mind on the first Tuesday after the first Monday.
When President George W. Bush was still in office after the 9/11 attack, I remember hearing him talk about the religion of the perpetrators involved. "I believe that Islam is a great religion that preaches peace," Mr. Bush assured us. Some of us know better! In case you don’t, let me help to enlighten you a little, to broaden your intellectual horizons.
First, let’s look at the religion of peace’s holy book. This is the same book that CAIR (Counsel on American-Islamic Relations), the unindicted co-conspirators in the Hamas funding case are trying to get into the hands of hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens. I’m sure you’ve heard of this organization. CAIR is a past member of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee and/or its organizations. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted or deported after being charged with fraud, embargo violations, or aiding terrorist training. Let’s look at a few verses from this peace loving, (un)holy book. Let me say this first, though, that as ignorant Americans, we need to understand the two “dispensations” of the Quran. There are those who’ll say that the Quran does contain some verses about peace, and may even quote the verse about “no compulsion in religion,” etc. The Quran, though not assembled in chronological order, has definite historical divisions. There are the Meccan suras (chapters) and the Medinan suras. The Meccan verses were written when Mohammed was weak and had few followers. In fact, he was forced to flee for his life to Medina. This is known as the Hijra. In fact, this is the point in which Muslims set their beginning date, the A.H. you see after their years. It’s after this that Mohammed begins to gain power and the nature of the Quran begins to change to a more warlike, hateful book. What about the previous verses of tolerance? They were abrogated, annulled, not for the Medinan dispensation! This one fact needs to be kept in mind when dealing with the Quran.
So let’s look at some verses (and these are just the tip of the tip of the iceberg):
Sura (8:55) - Surely the vilest of animals in Allah's sight are
those who disbelieve.
Sura (48:29) - Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And
those with him are hard (ruthless) against the disbelievers and
merciful among themselves.
Sura (9:30) - And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah, and
the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah... Allah
(Himself) fights against them. How perverse are they!
Sura (8:12) - I will cast terror into the hearts of those who
disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every
fingertip of them.
Sura (9:123) - O you who believe! Fight those of the
unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you
hardness.
Sura (5:33) - The punishment of those who wage war against
Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the
land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or
their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides
or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for
them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a
grievous chastisement.
Maybe we are just “misunderstanders of Islam” and are terribly wrong about this loving religion. I guess the best way to learn is to watch the actions of the followers of Mohammed. Jesus said, “For every tree is known by his own fruit..” (Lk. 6: 44). Let’s start with just this December. I’ll give the date, country, incident, and those killed (K) and injured (I).
12/10/2009 (Thailand) Three Buddhist women are torn to shreds by a remote-
controlled bomb planted on a motorcycle outside a restaurant. 3 K/8 I
12/09/2009 (Iraq) Two streetsweepers are among four Iraqis murdered by Islamic bombers in attacks on a library and minibus. 4 K/11 I
12/09/2009 (Thailand) A civilian is shot to death in his car by Muslim militants. 1 K
12/09/2009 Thailand) A series of bombs rocks several neighborhoods. A bomb disposal technician is killed. 1 K/17 I
12/08/2009 (Iraq) Five car bombs, one outside a fine arts center, leave at least one-hundred and twenty Iraqis dead and nearly five hundred more in agony. 127 K/448 I
12/07/2009 (Pakistan) A Shia leader is shot to death by Sunni rivals. 1 K (Their version of a church split, I guess!)
12/07/2009 (Thailand) A Buddhist man and woman are murdered by Muslim bombers at a busy market. 2 K/11 I
12/07/2009 (Iraq) Seven children are among eight dead when Sunni radicals bomb a Shia school. 8 K/40 I
12/07/2009 (Pakistan) At least fifty people are incinerated by twin bombings at a crowded marketplace. 50 K/150 I
12/07/2009 (Pakistan) Eleven people at a courthouse are blown to bits by a Fedayeen suicide bomber. 11 K/45 I
12/07/2009 (India) Muslim terrorists gun down a political worker outside his home. 1 K
12/07/2009 (Iraq) Six Iraqis are gunned down by al-Qaeda. Two more bodies are discovered in Kirkuk. 8 K.
12/06/2009 (Pakistan) The Taliban murder two tribesmen outside a mosque. 2 K/2 I
12/04/2009 (Pakistan) Mujahideen bombers take out six members of a wedding party traveling in a mini-bus. 6 K/13 I
Are we getting it yet? Are they all “misunderstanders of Islam”? This list is not all-inclusive (see http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/index.html#Attacks for a complete list) yet it covers just a week! The week of 11/28/2009 - 12/04/2009 resulted in 144 K/ 295 I. There have been over 14,000 terrorist attacks since 9/11! These acts were done by Muslims following the Mullas and Imams, being taught out of the Quran! Are they all “misunderstanders of Islam”? Consider this, “More civilians were killed by Muslim extremists in two hours on September 11th than in the 36 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland... Islamic terrorists murder more people every day than the Ku Klux Klan has in the last 50 years,” (http://www.thereligionofpeace.com.)
Are we getting it yet? Do we understand what really happened at Ft. Hood? Do we have a good idea now what’s in store for Rifqa Bary? Are we following how our senators and congressmen are treating Islam? Have we been watching the Islamization of Europe? Oh, well! Back to the game. First and ten at the eighteen yard line, two minutes....
“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt.24: 37
“The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence... And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them...” Gen. 6: 11, 13
“Pence Visits Mosque, Declares Indonesia’s Moderate Islam ‘an Inspiration to the World.’”
I believe Mike Pence is a genuine Christian. I say that based on a statement Bro. Chuck Harding made while preaching at our church prior to the election. Many of you know Bro. Harding and appreciate his ministry, Awake America, along with the annual Capitol Connection trek to Washington, D.C. I remember him talking about meeting the VP when he was a governor, visiting him in his office. He verified that Pence has a good testimony of salvation. The thing I remember most is Harding talking about the Bible on Pence’s desk. He glanced at it in their meeting and noticed the marks, notes, and highlights we’d expect of a serious Christians’ Bible!
That’s why it saddens me when I see a report of him in Indonesia making such a ludicrous statement. Indonesia’s “moderate Islam” is anything but moderate, as I’ll prove in the body of this article. Why he would say such a thing one can only speculate. Was he ignorant of what is really happening there? Is he playing politician? Who knows? But don’t be fooled! Islam’s sharia law is very strong in Indonesia.
I’ll now list some of the things going on in Indonesia. Is this really an inspiration to the world?
Indonesia: Sharia vigilantes beat gay couple, then turn them over to religious police.
Sharia Indonesia: Woman gets 100 lashes for sex outside marriage.
“Moderate” Indonesia gives “messiah” five years in prison for “blasphemy”.
Indonesia’s Aceh province lashes 339 people with cane in 2016 for violations of Sharia.
Indonesia: Christmas ornament found bearing word “Allah,” Muslims outraged, hotel shut down.
Indonesia: Police escort Islam Defenders Front in shopping mall raids over employees wearing Santa hats.
Indonesia: Tearful Jakarta governor denies insulting Quran as thousands of Muslims call for his imprisonment.
Indonesia: 150,000 Muslims demand arrest of Christian governor for “blasphemy”.
Indonesia: Muslims firebomb church, injure four children.
Sharia in Indonesia: Woman savagely beaten for standing too close to her boyfriend.
Indonesia: Muslims attack 200 Christians at church, harass priest for reading Bible.
Indonesia: Muslim with ISIS flag stabs priest, tries to blow up church during mass, police search for motive.
Ramadan in Indonesia: 4 Muslims jailed for plot to blow up Buddhist temple.
Sharia Indonesia: 60-year-old woman caned for selling alcohol in Aceh.
Indonesia: Muslims call for closure of churches in Sharia province.
Muslims leaving Indonesia for Islamic State daily: “too many to count”.
Indonesia: Muslim mobs attack churches, one dead, four wounded.
Indonesia: Police open fire on church, kill 15-year-old boy.
All of these events are documented (see jihadwatch.org). Let me close this article with these words from Bro. Pence:
“In your nation, as in mine, religion unifies — it doesn’t divide. It gives us hope for a brighter future, and we are all grateful for the great inspiration that Indonesia provides for the world…” Really?
January 22, 1973 marked the Supreme Court decision to decriminalize abortion in the now famous, or infamous, Roe v. Wade case. For the first time in the 44 year history of this decision, Mike Pence, our standing vice-president, addressed the annual pro-life rally in Washington, DC. His most significant statement in his address, I believe, was when he said “America is choosing life again.”
Okay, if you are a Bible-believer, you get the issue about abortion. From the statement to “choose life” in Deut. 30:19 to John the Baptist leaping in the womb of Elisabeth at the sound of Mary’s voice to the definition of the word “babe” in scripture, we get it.
The secular argument is also quite clear and logical. It goes like this. No one doubts the humanity of a child immediately after their birth. So what was it the day before it was born? Just “fetal material?” And what was it the day before that? and the day before that? and the day before that? How far do we go back before it’s not a human being? The day before conception? The only reasonable answer is, it’s a human being from the point of conception and we get that!
However, the cultural totalitarians in the world just don’t get it. Two cases in point, one in France and one in Kentucky. Let’s look at France first. One of the alleged “reasons” for abortion is when it is known that the child will suffer from Down Syndrome. In 2014, in conjunction with the March 21st World Down Syndrome Day, the Global Down Syndrome Federation produced a two-minute video called “Dear Future Mom.” The gist of the video is the fears of a mother in which she says “I’m scared; what kind of life will my child have?” The video then has numerous Down syndrome kids from different nations tell the woman that her child will hug her, speak to her, go to school, tell her he loves her, and “can be happy, just like I am-and you’ll be happy, too.” This video can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju-q4OnBtNU. It’s really a great video!
So what did France think of this well done two-minute clip? The French Broadcasting Council banned it! And why did they ban it? The court said that the depiction of happy Down syndrome children is “likely to disturb the conscience of women who had lawfully made different personal life choices.” Translation - it offended those who had murdered their babies!
George Will puts it this way. “This is why the video giving facts about Down syndrome people is so subversive of the flaccid consensus among those who say aborting a baby is of no more moral significance than removing a tumor from a stomach. Pictures persuade. Today’s improved prenatal sonograms make graphic the fact that the moving fingers and beating heart are not mere “fetal material.” They are a baby.
What’s going on in Kentucky? They have a law that simply requires a woman seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound. The ACLU has stepped in and are attempting to block the law. They are “suing to keep politicians out of the exam room.” How noble! In reality, the murderers don’t want to face their victims. Pictures persuade. To quote Liberty Counsel attorney Mat Staver, the ACLU is trying to “keep women in the dark and hide the gruesome truth about abortion!”
Cultural totalitarians march on. They must be stood up to and opposed. Some are standing up. Utah Republican Congresswoman Mia Love, of Haitian descent, gave a powerful speech at the 44th annual March for Life in Washington D.C. on Friday. She told the story of how her parents came to America 41 years ago from Haiti. Here is a portion of her speech:
“Because both had to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Some would say it would have been easier for them to have an abortion but this couple had to make a difficult choice to protect the life of their child or always wonder what might have been…
Forty-one years ago, that couple from Haiti could have made the choice to abort, but they didn’t. They chose life. They didn’t choose what might have been, they chose what is to come. They went and followed and fostered that life and the future and the dreams that baby would bring. I’m certain that this couple would never have thought that this child would become the first black female Republican EVER elected to Congress!”
One final thought. If you are a Christian, conservative Republican don’t let anyone accuse you of being a racist. We are not responsible for the deaths of 14 million black babies. It’s not our ideology that believes in and condones the killing of the unborn. That’s the ideology of the liberal Democrats. That’s their legacy.
On December 11, 1945, during the 17th day of the Nuremberg Trials, the documentary film, TheNazi Plan, was screened. The film was presented as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials against Hermann Göring and twenty other Nazi leaders. The film brings out the fact that on April 1st, 1933, the Nazi anti-semitism campaign began. The emphasis of the campaign was a boycott of all Jewish businesses. (BDS?)
The Nazi war trial brought about the horror of Jew hatred. From the concentration camps to the nightmarish practices of the SS and Gestapo, everyone at the hearings was thoroughly shocked and outraged at the injustice practiced by the Germans against the Jewish people. No one ever believed such atrocities would ever happen again.
Some of the statements that came out during the trial are worth noting. Adolf Hitler once stated in a speech in 1939, “Today I will once more be a prophet: If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!” He also stated, “Nature is cruel; therefore we are also entitled to be cruel. When I send the flower of German youth into the steel hail of the next war without feeling the slightest regret over the precious German blood that is being spilled, should I not also have the right to eliminate millions of an inferior race that multiplies like vermin?”
SS Reichsfuhrer Himmler once stated, “We have - I would say, as very consistent National Socialists, taken the question of blood as our starting point…by problem of blood, we of course do not mean antisemitism. Antisemitism is exactly the same as delousing. Getting rid of lice is not a question of ideology. It is a matter of cleanliness.”
Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, wrote in his diary, “Beginning with Lublin, the Jews in the General Government [Nazi occupied Poland] are now being evacuated eastward. The procedure is a pretty barbaric one and not to be described here more definitely. Not much will remain of the Jews. On the whole it can be said that about 60 percent of them will have to be liquidated whereas only 40 percent can be used for forced labor.”
A memorandom from Gestapo Headquarters, 1944, said “In amending my directive of June 20 1944, I request that those people subject to special treatment be sent to a crematorium to be cremated if possible.”
Most people believed this nightmare was over with the defeat of Germany at the end of WW2. None of us ever imagined that it could happen again, especially in the US. But it is! It is happening right under our noses on our college campuses!
Judith Butler is the Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature at theUniversity of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). She endorses a “afull boycott of Israel, both academic and economic.” (Sound familiar?) She also considers Hamas and Hezbollah as “social movements.”
Mohammed Hamideh attended Buffalo State. Hamideh’s social media activity reveals a violent hatred of Jews. I can’t list his quotes here due to the vulgarity of his tweets.
Jumana El-Ammori is an account manager at A-1 Telecom. She graduated from Indiana University at South Bend in 2015. She’s joked about how she “would kill a yahoodi [Jew] before I kill a bug. I don’t mess with bugs. That’s what brothers are for.”
Shaden Hamdulla is a freshman member of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). She posts on Twitter, “Contemplating if we should get another hitler to put you in concentration camps and wipe you all out” and “Y5rib bat el yahood.[May Allah destroy the Jews].”
Peshang Osman is a student at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). He has tweeted such things as “Voting for Hitler” and “shut up, Jew stupid” and “Stupid Jews.”
Mhesa Khalil is a member of the Muslim Students Union (MSU) at UC Irvine. Khalil shared a Facebook post which reads “I WILL GIVE MY LIFE TO END ZIONISM BEFORE IT ENDS HUMANKIND” and “Zionist are modern day Nazis!!” She also posted in support of senior Islamic Jihad militant Khader Adnan.
J. Kehaulani Kauanui is the current Chair of the American Studies Department at Wesleyan University and often tours North American campuses to promote BDS. Kualani has suggested that Palestinians have the unfettered right to take up arms against Israel. She is currently co-editing a book on Israeli “redwashing” with anti-Israel Professor Steven Salaita. The book claims that Israel promotes “Indigenous Peoples of the Americas as a deliberate strategy to conceal the continuing violations of the Palestinian people.”
And I bet you’ll never guess what religion is behind all this modern day antisemitism.17% of the Medinan Quran is anti-Jew whereas only 9% of Mein Kampf is antisemitic. But that 9% led to six million dead Jews and Islam is almost twice as bad!
As our world gets increasingly smaller due to technology, we are encountering many different things including religions. Every belief system has its own set of exclusivities, those things that make their constituents right and others wrong. So there are people raised in particular belief systems that are completely satisfied with their religion, or should I say have no interest in examining its veracity. However, there are those who may be questioning that system and are looking for genuine evidence. Evidence that either supports their beliefs or the lack therefore that makes them open to change. But where does one begin to look?
I remember a few years back I was part of a one-day missions excursion to Niagara Falls, Canada. A group of us decided to do some street preaching and not being familiar with Canadian free speech laws we used the hit-and-run tactic. That is, we preached for a very short time at one spot, and then moved to a different location before the authorities could catch up with us. What I did experience was seeing many different people of many different nationalities and religions everywhere. My thoughts whirled around in my head. Where do I begin with people who have no Judeo-Christian background? Why am I different than the Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims, etc.? How can I present Jesus Christ as more than just a cultural or ethnic supposition?
In the world we live in today, where it seems to many that one religion is no better than the other, that the “whatever works for you” pragmatism is all we need, Christians need to set the context. By setting the context I mean that we need to look at the whole picture, to set every religion and belief system side by side and through contrast and comparison, see if any of them stand out as credible. Therefore, we must be ready and competent to put Jesus Christ into the arena with Buddha, Confucius, Krishna, Joe Smith, Richard Dawkins, and the rest. I think the outcome will not be surprising, all bias excluded.
Why the Jewish claims are significant.
When we look at the claims of the various leaders of religious groups, it should be noted that the source of Jesus Christ was not Christianity. The source of Christ is Judaism. So when we begin to examine the claims of Christ, it’s to the sacred writings of the Jews we have to look. Hence, our primary source document will be the Old Testament and the miraculous prophecies found in the Old Testament.
“The Old Testament contains a complete ID kit so that the people of Israel can recognize the Messiah and put their faith in Him. Even the Sages admitted: ‘All the prophets prophesied only towards the Messianic era’” Tractate Sanhedrin 99a quoted by Dr. Eitan Bar1
What is the ID kit? Well for one thing, Messiah can be traced from Adam to Noah to Shem to Abraham to Judah to David to Mary and Joseph to Jesus Christ. There is no question as far as Messiah’s genealogical record is concerned.
Old Testament prophecy.
Alfred Edersheim2, a Jewish convert to Christianity, listed 456 specific prophecies of Christ’s first coming. Peter Stoner’s research into these prophecies is of significant interest.
Peter Stoner’s work3 Who was Peter Stoner? His credentials are somewhat impressive. He was the Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College until 1953; Chairman of the science division, Westmont College, 1953-57; Professor Emeritus of Science, Westmont College and Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Astronomy, Pasadena City College.
The students carefully weighed all the factors, discussed each prophecy at length, and examined the various circumstances which might indicate that men had conspired together to fulfill a particular prophecy. They made their estimates conservative enough so that there was finally unanimous agreement even among the most skeptical students. However, Professor Stoner then took their estimates and made them even more conservative. He also encouraged other skeptics or scientists to make their own estimates to see if his conclusions were more than fair. He submitted his figures for review to a committee of the American Scientific Affiliation. Upon examination, they verified that his calculations were dependable and accurate in regard to the scientific material presented. What did Dr. Stoner’s research find? That for eight specific prophecies to be fulfilled the odds were 1 x 1017. That’s 1 x 1,000,000,000,000,000,000! Those odds have been described in this way: If the state of Texas was covered with silver dollars three feet thick with one colored black, the odds of a person blindfolded finding that black silver dollar the first attempt are the same odds!
It even gets more inconceivable when the forty-eight prophecies were calculated. The odds are 1 x 10 157! Instead of the silver dollar example, we have to use electrons. The odds of taking all the 1 x 10157 amount of electrons, marking one black, blindfolding a man, and hoping he can find that one marked electron the first try would be the same odds! Needless to say, I don’t have the time or space in this brief treatise to go over many of the messianic prophecies. For a more in-depth look at them, I recommend Josh McDowell’s Evidence That Demands A Verdict or go to Eitan Bar’s website oneforisrael.org.
However, let’s look at a couple of them. We’ve already looked at Messiah’s genealogy and he clearly fits the bill there. But what about where he would be born? Is there a prophecy about that? That is a great question because the world is a pretty big place and if one could narrow down his birth location as prophesied, that would carry considerable weight. And we do have that!
Predicted in Micah 5:2 “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
Furthermore, we have the time of His death. Dan. 9:25-27 gives us the time down to the year, some have even calculated it to the day! Although these verses need to be “unpacked”, suffice it to say that the weeks are prophetic weeks of years and when calculated correctly there are 483 years. These years equal 173,880 days and when these days are made into solar years there are 476 years. Now it’s simply a matter of counting the years starting at the year the command was given to rebuild Jerusalem, c. 445 BC. Add the 476 years and the year is AD 31! Now, who could fit the role of Messiah who died in Jerusalem around AD 31?3
So what conclusions can one draw from this? I think it’s quite evident that Jesus Christ is already “ahead of the pack.” Way ahead! I challenge anyone to show me another religious leader whose birthplace was predicted 759 years before it happened. I challenge anyone to show me another religious leader whose death was predicted 568 years before it happened! Furthermore, which religious leader can trace their genealogy back to the first man and woman on earth? (See Lk. 3:23-38).
There are two more prophecies about Christ that are startling and yet corroborative. In the prophecy of Isaiah 53, the Messiah would be rejected by his own people. Not because of the lack of credibility but due to the “politics” among the Jewish leadership.
Yet in another prophecy in Isaiah, chapter 42, verses 1-6, there is the remarkable statement that Messiah would have a global Gentile following.
Once more, which religious leader had 456 specific prophecies concerning his coming, including the location of his birth and time of his death, was rejected by his own people, and now finds himself with a global Gentile following? No one was other than Jesus Christ!
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
1 Dr. Eitan Bar, a native Jewish-Israeli, was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel. Eitan currently serves as One For Israel's Director of Evangelism & Apologetics.
2 Jewish convert to Christianity and a Biblical scholar recognized especially for his book The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1883).
3Science Speaks, Peter Stoner
4 For further discussion see Evidence That Demand A Verdict by McDowell or Daniel’s Seventy Weeks by Chuck Missler.
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