Letters

Dear Friends,
We know the Rapture must be near because of all that's going on. But we're told, according to the Bible, not to worry because these things must come to pass. A lot of churches are becoming...social clubs. Pastors are afraid of stepping on people's toes and just preach what they want to hear. The Bible predicts that also, saying the very clergy will fall away in the end times. We'll keep reading TBC and praying for the peace of Jerusalem, which will be when Christ returns. LH (MN)

The Berean Call,
I thank the Lord for your ministry, which changed my life after a colleague gave me your newsletter to read....By then I had been a full and proud charismatic for 10 1⁄2 years. The very day I read the newsletter I became very uncomfortable. I had never been touched by such truths in my Christian life. All along I had thought that I was having it all. What confirmed my ignorance further was when I read Seduction of Christianity. I read it over and over again. I had to go before the Lord and rededicate myself to him. EM (South Africa)

Blessings to you,
This is to say a special thank you for the article on psychology [Oct. '06]. Very helpful to us as many times we feel we stand alone and then we realize there are many others who would agree with us and it's so encouraging to us. KK (WA)

Dear TBC,
I prayed for you today. Many will not understand, but I for one am glad you came out against the errors of Billy Graham. How can he be so double-minded?... Keep challenging us with the truth in love. EW (CA)

Dear Anon (IN), Letters, TBC, 11/06,
When I read your letter in the November issue I felt compelled to write this answer to you. I was a Catholic until I was 30, I attended a Catholic grade school and two years of seminary in high school. I left because I wanted a family and God has richly blessed me there....In Christian love, I want to say this to you: Catholics do pray to Mary. When you hold the rosary and say, "Hail, Mary...," you are calling out to Mary; you are praying directly to her. When you kneel in front of a statue or picture, or put flowers in front of her statue, or light candles, you are worshipping her image. Who am I to say what God accepts as prayer and what He doesn't? Well certainly I can't; but God has spoken clearly and plainly when He said, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth...." May I say that when I was saying the rosary or was in front of a statue, I was nearly always bowed down....Dear Anon, God has stated His position on prayer and worship. Briefly and clearly, He is also on record as saying that He changes not....To me, one of the most fearful things a Christian can do is to practice something that is contrary to what God has said. BO (OK)

Dear Tom,
In your book Showtime for the Sheep? you touch on a vital point of confusion with Roman Catholic Theology. The false concept that physical suffering in and of itself meets the requirements for justification before a holy God. As you point out, Christ in the garden was not experiencing fear of the physical suffering but of becoming sin for us and facing spiritual death and [the] separation from the Father that would come with it. My [Roman Catholic] uncle [once] said the very thing that Mel Gibson said recently, that Christ merely had to prick his finger. This kind of thinking only comes from a mind that has no concept of the true price our dear Lord had to pay for our sins, and the awfulness of our sin in the sight of a holy God. It was only when the Holy Spirit convicted me of my sin, to the point that Catholic rituals would not satisfy my guilt, and when I was presented with the Gospel, I came to a point of true repentance, resting on Christ's finished work for me on the cross, and then found true peace and joy, assurance of salvation, and a hope that will not fade away. MW (NY)