Nce Upon A Time . . . After Billions Of Years . . . A Frog .

4January 2008we are regenerated and washed clean. “Hesaved us by the washing of regeneration andrenewing of the Holy Ghost.” Peter declares:“Being born again.by the word of God.which by the gospel is preached unto you”(1 Pt 1:23-25).Having been brought into the family ofGod, we address Him as “Father” in prayer.In His high priestly prayer (the true “Lord’sprayer” that Christ prayed), He declared,“And this is life eternal, that they mightknow thee the only true God, and JesusChrist, whom thou hast sent” (Jn 17:3). Sothe new birth involves knowing the onlytrue God—not being “born again” throughbaptism, especially of infants.There are millions of so-called gods andnumerous prayers to each of them in thevarious religions they represent. The Biblecondemns every one in unmistakable terms:For all the gods of the nations are idols: butthe LORD made the heavens.Give unto theLORD the glory due unto his name.[F]earbefore him, all the earth.[H]e cometh tojudge the earth: he shall judge the worldwith righteousness, and the people withhis truth. (Ps 96:5-13)Such language is ridiculed by the “NewAtheists” such as Richard Dawkins, whosays the atheists must “spread the goodnews. Evangelism [to convert the world toatheism] is a moral imperative.” Althoughthe Bible clearly distinguishes Christianityfrom all religions and separates their leaders(Buddha, Muhammad, et al.) from Christ,who is unique, atheists make no such distinction. Consequently, most of their argumentsare irrelevant.The Bible denounces all religions asinstruments of Satan to keep mankind indarkness, shut off from the light of the gospelby which alone one can be saved, for “thegod of this world has blinded the minds ofthem which believe not” (2 Cor 4:4).Atheism is just one of the world’s religions, and Satanic blindness is reflected inits arguments against God and Christianity. Arecent secular article about the New Atheistswas titled, “The Church of the Non-Believers.” And it is a church—a church to whicheveryone must belong, if atheists get theirway. In their religious fervor to destroy “religious faith” and to convert the entire world totheir religion, they are blind to the true faiththat motivates biblical Christians.Dawkins says, “Faith is one of the world’sgreat evils.[It is] belief that isn’t based onevidence [and] the principal vice of any religion.” Francis Collins, however (in charge ofthe Human Genome Project involving 2,300scientists), who turned from unbelief to faithin Christ, says that Dawkins’ definition offaith “certainly does not describe the faith ofTH EBE R E A NCA L Lmost serious believers of history nor of mostof those of my personal acquaintance.”Many famous scientists, Nobel Prize winners, and some of the greatest historians andlegal experts have turned from atheism to faithin the resurrected Christ—not by mysticalor emotional experience but from verifiableevidence. The early pioneers in science, likeKepler, claimed that it was precisely their conviction that there was a creator that inspiredtheir science to ever-greater heights.“Religion is not only wrong; it’s evil,”atheists fume, unaware that biblical Christianity is not a religion but a relationship withGod through Jesus Christ. Leading atheistsharangue against religion, blind to the factthat the Bible is not about religion. In its morethan 1,000 pages, the phrase “religious faith”is not found once, the word “religion” appearsonly five times, all in one verse, and the word“religious” twice in the next verse. All but oneof these seven references is critical of “religion.” Furthermore, in these few times thatit mentions religion, the Bible never meanswhat atheists foolishly denounce.In their war against God, Dawkins andhis fellow crusaders dishonestly equateChristian “fundamentalists” with murderousMuslims. In fact, atheists are themselvesfundamentalists, seeking to impose theirwarped interpretation of the fundamentalsof science on the world.Nor can the New Atheists be ignorantof the fact that the fundamentals of Islam(according to the Qur’an, Hadith, the dogmas and example of Muhammad, and 1,300years of history) teach that Islam must beforced upon the entire world by murderingall who refuse to submit to Allah. Christtaught and lived entirely otherwise. Yet theNew Atheists persist in equating Islam andChristianity simply because each is considered to be a “faith.” Such irresponsibleaccusations permeate their arguments.Yes, some who have called themselvesChristians (Roman Catholic popes, EasternOrthodox leaders, crusaders, numeroustelevangelists, et al.) have been guilty of allmanner of evil. In the process, they haveviolated the teachings and example of Christ.But Muslim terrorists follow both Islamicteaching and the example of Muhammad andhis successors who tortured and slaughteredmillions from France to China for 13 centuries. Today’s terrorism is just a hint of whatIslam would continue to do if it could.The fundamentals of true Christianitypromote love, freedom of choice, and forgiveness, not hatred and violence. The latterare the trademark of fundamentalist Islam.To equate the fundamentals of Islam withthose of Christianity is reprehensible.Atheists also perversely equate Christianity with the fanaticism and violence of theCrusades and Inquisition. Yet the crusaderswere not biblical Christians; they violatedeverything Christ taught and slaughtered Hisbrethren, the Jews, everywhere they went. Itis gross dishonesty to attribute the crusaders’misconduct to biblical Christianity.From the days of Christ, multitudes ofChristians have never given allegiance toRome but to the Bible and to Christ alone.They were martyred by the millions by thechurch of Rome for centuries before the birthof Luther. From the 16th-century Reformation onward, millions of Roman Catholicsembraced faith in the Bible and Christalone and were martyred by the hundredsof thousands by the popes and their armies.To fail to distinguish between martyrs andtheir murderers is unconscionable.The New Atheists, led by Dawkins, callthemselves “the brights” and look upontheists as dimwits. Nobel laureate StevenWeinberg recently said, “The world needsto wake up from the long nightmare ofreligion.Anything we scientists can do toweaken the hold of religion should be done,and may in fact be our greatest contributionto civilization.” Richard Dawkins says: “Iam utterly fed up with the respect we havebeen brainwashed into bestowing on religion.” Religion? As we’ve seen, atheists aretilting at windmills.In their fervor to convert the world totheir religion, atheists betray their complete ignorance of biblical Christianity. TheBible is not a religious book and does notpromote “religion.”Many Christians try to be “scientific” byadopting theistic evolution as compatiblewith Christianity. Their compromise doesnot impress atheists. Unashamedly, Dawkinsdeclares that “evolution must lead to atheism” and “the atheist movement has.amoral imperative.to aggressively spreadthe good news.”Dawkins declares, “Should [theists] befree to impose their beliefs on their children?Is there something to be said for societystepping in?” This is dangerous totalitariantalk that makes one fear for parents andchildren alike.James Perloff put it well: “But remember;‘The princess kissed the frog, and he turnedinto a handsome prince.’ We call that a fairytale. Evolution says frogs turn into princes,and we call it science.Is that science? Or isit, like the fraud of Piltdown Man, the forgeries of Haeckel’s embryos, the misrepresentations of Inherit the Wind, and the coercionsof the Supreme Court, merely part of a longeffort to deny God?”Atheists who end up in hell cannot blamethe God they hate for excluding them fromheaven. We need to rescue as many as wecan from atheism’s lies.TBC

TQuotableAnd now I would ask you.who is themost powerful prelate in all England? Hesurpasses all the rest in his diligence. I cantell you. For I know him well.it is theDevil. He is the most diligent preacher ofall others; he is never out of his diocese.call for him when you will, he is alwaysavailable.But alas! The devil by the helpof that Italian bishop yonder [the pope],his chaplain, has labored by all means thathe might frustrate the death of Christ andthe merits of his passion.Hugh Latimer, most fruitful evangelistin England at the time, preaching tomore than 1,000 sitting on the grass atWhitehall, residence of King EdwardVI, the “British Josiah.” Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer were among severalhundred protestants burned at the stakeby Edward’s half-sister, “Bloody Mary,”who stole the kingdom after his death andturned England back to Catholicism.Q&AQUESTION: I recently read “A CommonWord Between Us and You,” signed by 138Muslim scholars, clerics, and intellectualsfrom all over the world. They claim common ground shared by Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The statement was wellreceived by scholars at the Yale Center forFaith and Culture. Moved by the “Muslim hand of conviviality and cooperationextended to Christians worldwide,” theyextended their “own Christian hand inreturn, so that we may live in peace andjustice, loving God and neighbors.”Yale’s scholars claim that Christianssinned against Muslims in the Crusades,and still do so by our “excesses in thewar on terror.” They say that if we couldachieve religious peace with Muslims,world peace would likely follow.The “common ground” between us issupposedly “love of God and neighbor.”Muslims say their God is “The InfinitelyGood and All-Merciful.” Yale scholarsagree that the Bible tells us “God is love”in 1 John 4:8. The “open letter” quotesMuhammad: “None of you has faith untilyou love for your neighbor what you lovefor yourself.” The Yale Center comparesthis to 1 John 4:8 and 20.The Yale scholars also state that when“freedom to worship God accordingto one’s conscience is curtailed, Godis dishonored.and neither God norneighbor is loved.” Haven’t you beena bit rough on those trying to establishpeaceful cooperation between ChristiansH EBE R E A NCA L Land Muslims? Romans 12:18 tells us,“If it is possible, as much as depends onyou, live peaceably with all men.” ManyMuslims want peace. Can’t we accept theolive branch they offer? Many Christianleaders have signed this agreement.RESPONSE: Common ground.olive branch.religious peace? Islam says Allah is theonly true God. Sixteen times the Qur’ansays Allah is not a father and has no son.But the very foundation of Christianity isthat “God so loved the world that he gavehis only begotten Son.the Father sent theSon to be the Savior of the world.” (Jn 3:16;1 Jn 4:14, etc., etc.) The Qur’an says Christ isnot the Son of God, did not die for our sinson the cross—someone died in His place, soHe did not rise from the dead, and anyonewho believes in the Trinity goes to hell.What common ground is there with thosewho reject every Christian distinctive?Muhammad teaches love for neighbor?His career included murders of hundredsof innocent people (all “neighbors” byChrist’s definition) during scores of unprovoked attacks upon villages and caravansinvolving robbery and murder. This horrorhas been multiplied thousands of times bysincere Muslims following the Qur’an andMuhammad’s example, slaughtering andtorturing untold millions from France toChina for 1,300 years.This unequaled mayhem and murder isstill justified by Muslim historians and clerics as true “Islam, Allah be praised!” Whenthe twin towers came down, hundreds ofthousands of Muslims around the worlddanced in the streets shouting, “AllahuAkbar!” [Allah is the greatest!]. The samecry rang in the streets during the Muslimriots in Paris, the Muslim riots over the Danish cartoons, and when two Israelis made awrong turn into Ramallah and were literallytorn apart by a frenzied mob, etc. Mobs,during binge after binge of destruction ofproperty and innocent lives, always screampraise to Allah. And Allah is the “commonground” for peace?!Christians mistreated Muslims in the Crusades? The crusaders were not Christians butRoman Catholics to whom (to match Islam’spromise of paradise for Muslims dying injihad) Pope Urban II promised escape frompurgatory to heaven for dying in the fight torecover the “Holy Land” (not for Israel butfor the Church!). They disobeyed Christ infighting for an earthly kingdom and killedevery Jew they encountered. Christ andChristianity cannot be blamed for what thesedeceived pawns of Rome did!Muslims had attacked and capturedNorth Africa, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, et al.,400 years earlier and had been torturing,January 20085enslaving, and slaughtering innocent andpeaceful civilians for centuries before thecrusaders finally struck back. Yale can’t beignorant of history! These “scholars” aresuppressing the truth to promote a lie!Excesses in the war on terror? At leastthe British and Americans follow the rulesof warfare and punish their own troopsif they misbehave. Compare that withvehicles loaded with explosives detonatedin markets, suicide bombers in mosques,every devilishly clever deception possibleto kill and maim, torturing and beheadingprisoners—and we are guilty of excesses?!Anyone who thinks we are in Afghanistanand Iraq for anything other than “as muchas possible” to find some means of livingpeacefully with these morally blind monsters is wrong.Freedom to worship God according to thedictates of one’s conscience?! Yale scholarsand evangelical signatories suggest we arepreventing this? We give Muslims full religious freedom in the West. We let them buildmosques by the thousands, though in manythey hide terrorists and plot our destruction.How do Muslims respond? Everywhere theygain control, all non-Islamic religions aresuppressed and often prohibited, Christiansare killed and churches destroyed by thethousands from Nigeria to Indonesia to Pakistan. In Saudi Arabia you can’t carry a Bibleon the street, cannot build a non-Muslimplace of worship, or even worship the Godof the Bible in the privacy of your home. Youmust be a Muslim to be a citizen! There is nofreedom of the press, of speech, of religion,of worship. Any Muslim who converts to anyother religion is beheaded in public.Whereis the extended olive branch?!Islam’s Allah is “The Infinitely Goodand All-Merciful”? Tell that to the manymillions enslaved, tortured, and slaughteredin his name! Muslims killed more just inIndia than Hitler killed in all of East andWest Europe and North Africa! Muhammadclaimed, “Allah has commanded me to fightagainst all people until all people confessthere is no god but Allah and Muhammadis his prophet.” Terrorists today are not“extremists” but true Muslims, obedient to Allah and following Muhammad’sexample. “Peace” is for those who submitto Allah! Some olive branch!I am shocked by the leaders who joinedMuslims in signing this document, whichbetrays Christ and the gospel for a phonypromise of “peace” from the enemies ofGod and Israel! Sadly, here are some ofthem: Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, GeorgeVerwer, Robert Schuller, John Stott, BrianD. McClaren, David Neff, Richard Mouw,Richard Cizik, David Yonggi Cho, et al.

6January 2008QUESTION [Excerpt of letter from leaderof large Messianic congregation]: Are youforbidding Gentile believers to celebrateJesus, our Passover Lamb, in a Passoversetting [Q&A 6/07;10/07]? It is one of the mostbeautiful things, and most prophetic, thatthe end-time church is rediscovering itsheritage in Israel.In the Millennium allnations, both Jew and Gentile, will haveto celebrate the Hebrew Feast of Sukkot(Tabernacles–Zechariah 14:16-21). Arewe not free to keep or not keep one dayabove the rest?RESPONSE: You are saying that for Gentilesto keep the Jewish Passover is a truth lostto the church and now being restored in this“end-time.” Yet the “Last Supper” was notthe annual Jewish Passover in remembranceof Israel’s deliverance but a new “Passover”feast for the church to keep “on the first dayof the week” (Acts 20:7), in remembrance ofthe death, burial, and resurrection of “Christour passover” (Lk 22:19; 1 Cor 5:7).Exodus 12:14 commands ethnic Jews tokeep the Passover “a feast by an ordinanceforever.” The fact that Jews alone keep thePassover is the great proof that they arethe chosen people to whom the PromisedLand was given for an everlasting possession: “When your children shall say.whatmean ye by this service?.[Y]e shall say,It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s passover.when he smote the Egyptians and deliveredour houses” (vv. 26,27). No Gentile couldsay that to his children—reason enough forGentiles not to keep this Jewish feast withits special meaning! This is specificallyfor the physical descendants of Abraham,Isaac, and Jacob, and for no one else. Sosays the Bible.Moreover, for Gentiles to keep this feastweakens its intended proof. Christians(whether Jews or Gentiles) celebrate “Christour Passover” in the breaking of bread “onthe first day of the week” (Acts 20:7), as did theearly church. The Jewish believers also keptthe Passover once a year as commanded.The fact that all nations will be forcedto keep Sukkot during the Millennium doesnot justify Gentiles keeping the Passover.Nor does it illustrate freedom to keep or notto keep one day above the rest. Nor doesRomans 14 refer to the Passover.QUESTION: I love your newsletter andradio program but I have to take exception to your statement [Dec ’07 article] thatfor Christ to taste “death for every manwould have to include the experience ofthe ‘lake of fire’ [which is] the seconddeath.” Jesus suffered physical death onthe cross and went immediately to theAbraham’s bosom/Paradise side of Sheol/Hades. As He said to the thief on the cross,TH EBE R E A NCA L L“Today you will be with me in Paradise,”not hell/gehenna/lake of fire. Yes, Goddid turn his back on Jesus—hence hiswords, “My God, my God, why hast thouforsaken me?” but Jesus did not actuallyexperience the “lake of fire,” which wasnot opened for business yet. The firstpersons to go there will be the Antichristand the False Prophet (Revelation 19:20).Your statement came too close to the falseteaching of Kenneth Copeland.RESPONSE: No, I was as far from Copeland’sheresy as the East is from the West. Copeland actually says, “Satan and every demontortured Christ in the depths of hell”—not“lake of fire.” But Satan is not the proprietorof either place and will be tormenting noone; he himself will be tormented continuosly forever in the Lake of Fire (R

Godʼs Pursuit of Man Tozer—Although written two years after the publication of The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer’s God’s Pursuit of Man sets forth the biblical truth that before man can pursue God, God must first pursue man. A “prequel” of sorts, God’s Pursuit of Man speaks fervently of God’s desire for man to be saved and the