AN OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA

Sir,

I was watching Jewish Life TV last night and they were showing you making some remarks.  You were calling attention to Americans saying that they wanted Syrian Refugees vetted and that we only wanted the Christians to be let in.  You said that offended you.  From that same report it became clear that Americans are seen as villains in the world’s opinion because we do not want to welcome all those refugees due to the threat of radical Islam in the light of the recent terror attack in Paris.

First of all, as far as being disparaged for our concerns about national security, we are in good company.  Israel is being unjustly denigrated in world opinion because they want to survive as a nation.  As far as I am concerned, that disqualifies the world as having any influence on our position on Syrian refugees.  The international community has not had to live in this country for the past 6 years with you pretending to be our president, when you are actually someone who hates and wants to destroy our country.

 

You said that our wanting to receive only Christian refugees offended you.  To be honest with you, Sir, I really don’t care that you are offended.  Do you know how many times YOU have offended the American people?  How about early in your so-called presidency when you did an interview with Al-Arabiya in which you said that part of your duties as President of the United States was to apologize to the Muslim world for the evilness of America.  That was NOT part of your job description when you decided to run for POTUS (President of the United States) and it offended any and every American who loves their country.

On another occasion you were quoted as saying, “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”   If someone is not allowed to say anything against Mohammed, that means our right to freedom of speech is being infringed and that offends me.  It further offends me as a Christian that while people are prohibited from criticizing Mohammed, it’s perfectly okay if they make an art exhibit of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ on the cross in a jar of urine.

You made sure you attended every Ramadan celebration.  How did you represent Christian Americans? You blew off every National Day of Prayer except for the one last year that you attended so that you could criticize Christians.  That offended me and other Christians who believe the President is supposed to represent all Americans and particularly Christians since our nation was founded on Christian principals and because of persecution of Christians.

What about your speech in which you mocked the Bible? You indicated that Christians should read it because of the passages you referred to that they surely weren’t familiar with that you made fun of by taking them out of context. That was very offensive.

There are many other examples I could list where you didn’t care if you offended Christians.

 

I keep hearing all this rhetoric about how Islam is a religion of peace.  Anyone who believes that must not read the Quran.  It has 109 instances where it calls Muslim adherents to violence against non-believers.  Muslims who do not wish to participate in murdering infidels are told that Allah will send them to hell if they neglect this part of their religion.  And the context of these verses indicates that following them is not limited to any historical period, but is an ongoing theology. So that tells me that it’s not the violent Muslims themselves who are off the beam, it’s the religion they are following.  If you aren’t out to behead infidels, you aren’t obeying the Quran.

On the other hand, the Bible teaches love.  It tells those who follow it to walk in love.  The nonbeliever is invited to have a personal relationship with the one who died for them, the Lord Jesus Christ. If there are Christians who are acting in unloving ways, it isn’t because they are following Bible teaching, but because they are not obeying God. At your National Day of Prayer appearance you mentioned Christian participation in the Crusades as if the Crusades were totally unmotivated acts of extreme persecution against Muslims.  In reality, the Crusades were provoked by years and years of Muslims pillaging Christian villages, raping women, killing the men, and enslaving the women and children. It got to the point to where something had to be done.  It was a question of survival for the Christians and non-Muslims at that time.  It was a war.  The way I understand it, the Muslims were trying to establish a Caliphate back then and they had to be stopped. Today they are still trying to establish a Caliphate which would require us to deny our faith in Jesus Christ, and go back to living in a pre-Industrial civilization, where women are considered to be no more than property, homosexuals are stoned, honor killings are rampant --------- in other words Sharia Law. Sir, that offends me!

Sincerely,

A Patriotic Christian American

Calling All Fruit Inspectors!

Calling All Fruit Inspectors

I was on Facebook recently and noticed a post that had a picture of TV minister, and his wife, in their private plane.  The caption to the picture made a derogatory reference to people supporting someone’s ministry who has an expensive home and owns a private airplane.

Now I want to say right up front that I have only caught bits and pieces of that particular minister’s program here and there and I have never sent any money to his ministry. I don’t agree with everything he has said, but I’ll bet that many of the people that criticize him don’t even know what he preaches. They have heard rumors that he said, this, or he said that. That being said, I find it disturbing that there are so many people that are down on this man and judging his character without any real facts to back it up. I got the idea from reading between the lines on some of the comments made that many of the people commenting have never watched his program, or read one of his books. Yet, they are calling him a scammer, a liar, a money grubber, a fraud, and casting aspersions on his character in general.  Most of this seems to be stirred up because of his wealth. The idea of him having a mansion, and a private plane and at the same time being a preacher apparently is unacceptable to these folks.  They believe that television ministers should not ask for money. They believe that Jesus was poor, therefore all preachers should be poor. They think that since these preachers are wealthy, they are therefore robbing the people who send them offerings and that they are taking the ministry funds and using them to live a flamboyant lifestyle.

I would like to address this issue about TV ministers and bring up some ideas that maybe these people have not thought of.

1)    I’m speaking to Christians now. Are we really supposed to condemn a person when we don’t know the facts? How do we know that a minister is doing anything dishonest just because he lives well? We don’t know how he got this airplane or his mansion. It’s very possible that he was blessed with these items because of the favor of God upon his life.  Someone may have given them to him.  Does anyone have any evidence that he is taking money from the ministry for these things? Also, many TV preachers write books and I’ve been told by one of these preacher’s church members that the proceeds from book sales and speaking appearances is what is used for the family’s living expenses.  They do not even take a salary from the church they pastor.

2) Those who have TV ministries whether they like it or not, are celebrities.  They are on television. Millions of people see their program.  Someone in that position would find it impossible to live in your average house in your average subdivision.  They would be vulnerable to any kook or nut that could easily find out where they live and they would be in constant danger.  Safety issues aside, they would never be able to have a normal family life. Someone would be knocking on their door all the time, night and day. Being a celebrity necessitates a high level of security which could involve a gated estate, a security alarm system, etc.  Do they really need a private plane? A speaker who makes lots of public appearances around the country could find it difficult to be where they need to be if they had to depend on commercial airlines. Why shouldn’t they have a plane if they aren’t hurting anyone else, or stealing in order to have it?

3)   Where in the Bible does God say that prosperity is a sin? Prosperity encompasses much more than money. Prosperity is success in life. In 3 John 2, the Apostle John wrote, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”  What about money? Contrary to what some people may believe it’s not money that is the root of all evil. It’s the LOVE of money that is the root of all evil. (I Timothy 6:10) In other words, it’s okay if you have possessions, as long as the possessions don’t have YOU.  I don’t know about all TV ministers, but I do know of some that are wealthy that are givers. One TV minister in particular gives away nice, hard bound books, and lots of other materials that he otherwise could and does make money from and doesn’t even charge postage to send them to you. This is regardless of whether or not you send him money on a regular basis.  Also he gives to people in need and has a team that helps people that are caught in natural disasters.

4)Folks seem to have this idea that Jesus was poor. Compared to what he left in heaven to come to this earth to die for you and me, he was poor.  But by this world’s standards I don’t believe he was poor. Yes, I know that Jesus made the comment that he had no place to lay his head, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he was poor. He traveled a lot on foot, which was customary in those days and there wasn’t always an inn in which he and the disciples could spend the night. Hence, he had no place to lay his head.  Also in John 19:24 the scriptures tell us that the soldiers cast lots for Jesus’ garments. They would not have cast lots for the clothes of a poor person.  Another example is that Judas served as treasurer for the disciples. That means the group had a treasury.  If you have to have someone to take care of the money, there has to be money.  In John 12:6 we are told that Judas was stealing from the money box. There must have been enough money in it that the disciples didn’t realize he was stealing it or else they would have kicked up quite a fuss about it.  The disciples that were called “the sons of thunder” would have had a lot to say about that.

5)  Then there’s this idea that TV ministers shouldn’t ask for money. Now I am not in favor of these preachers that go into long begging speeches at the end of their programs. They tell you that if you don’t send them money they are going off the air and try to make you feel guilty if you don’t send them an offering. It doesn’t show much faith in God’s provision if you think you have to beg and plead and manipulate viewers so that you can do what God has called you to do. If God called you to do it, it would be to his advantage to give you what you need to fulfill that calling.  I like the TV preachers that offer partnerships in their ministry, but they don’t beg. Or there are those that ask you to pray and ask the Lord if He would have you to give something and if so, how much you should give. I don’t see anything wrong with that.  These same preachers with a relaxed way of fundraising, also tell you that you should first tithe and give offerings to your local church before you send them an offering. I have never watched one that said that in order to be saved I had to send them money.  Someone made that comment on this post I have been writing about and I have never seen this with any TV minister. However, if they didn’t have financial support they couldn’t be on TV.  TV time is not free, and it is, in fact, very expensive.  This is a tool that the Lord uses to get the gospel into all the world and many people come to Christ because of it.

5)  Now I'd like to address the scripture in Matthew 7: 15-20 that talks about false prophets that come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. That scripture passage ends with “Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”  Well, what fruits do we see from a particular TV ministry? How many souls has this ministry led to the Lord? I’m thinking about a particular TV preacher who was involved in a scandal and there were Christians that said some very ugly things about him. He isn’t someone that ministers to me personally, but I respect him because he has led countless numbers of people to the Lord. Just because he fell into sin, doesn’t mean he hasn’t been used by God, and I will not say anything against him for that very reason. One person who commented on that post said that one TV preacher tells people they must follow him in order to be saved. One of this person’s programs that I caught the end of had him leading people in the sinner’s prayer and I never heard him say anything about people having to follow him in order to be saved. He led them in the regular sinner’s prayer according to Romans 10:9-10.  So, I think the individual who brought this up in the comments on the post, was going by rumors he had heard.

 

6) Again, I am speaking to Christians when I say that I would remind us all of I Corinthians 13 in which says that love thinks no evil. How can we as Christians judge someone and condemn them when we don’t even have the facts?  God is the only one who is qualified to judge such a person. In 1 Samuel 16:7 God told Samuel that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. We can’t know for sure what’s in a person’s heart.

In closing, I would suggest that if you don’t feel led of the Lord to support someone’s ministry, or watch their TV program and maybe you don’t have a good feeling about them ------ pass them by, pray for them, but we shouldn’t be accusing them of things when we don’t have verified facts.  If they are actually doing wrong, God will deal with them and it will come out.