Bruce, Do You Think Ken Ham is Sincere?

Leave a reply

A commenter asked this question in the comment section of my latest post on Ken Ham.

It would make things easier if Ken Ham was a money-grubbing Elmer Gantry.  We could then dismiss him as a con-artist and shake our head at those who are conned by him.  However, I don’t think Ken Ham is a 21st century Gantry-like con-artist.

I have no doubt that Ken Ham is a sincere, devoted follower of Jesus Christ. I am sure that we would have been friends if we had known each other in my Fundamentalist days. Everything I have read written by Ham is consistent with his Fundamentalist belief system.

Now, we may rightly think Ham’s beliefs are ignorant and superstitious, but millions of people hold to similar beliefs, and, we should at least acknowledge that they are sincere believers.

Before we we can understand Ken Ham we must first understand his belief system. A lot of atheists and evolutionists fail to do this, and, instead, attack Ken Ham the person rather than Ken Ham’s beliefs.

Ken Ham is a true-blue Fundamentalist and part of his religious DNA is the belief that the world will become more evil the closer we get to the Rapture and that there are Satanic forces at work trying to destroy ‘”Biblical” Christianity. Anyone who has been a part of the Evangelical church for any length of time knows how this kind of thinking permeates Evangelicalism.

Atheism is on the rise in the West and Ham sees this as Satan attacking “Biblical” Christianity.  He fears that if he, along with his followers, don’t fight the atheist horde, that America will be destroyed.  I have no doubt he sincerely believes these things.

Everything Ham does is an attempt to promote “Biblical” Christianity and turn back the unrelenting attack of Satan. Yes, Ham makes a good living off his work and his efforts to promote Young Earth Creationism and “Biblical” Christianity attract millions of dollars in fees and donations. But, I suspect that Ham would still be an Evangelist for Young Earth Creationism and “Biblical Christianity” even if he wasn’t financially remunerated.

I remember when I used to think like Ken Ham. It was never about the money. My goal was to preach the good news of the gospel to as many people as possible. I was willing to do without and live in poverty if necessary to accomplish this goal. It was all about being obedient to Christ and being a faithful messenger to a lost and dying world.

When we attack Ken Ham the person we only make ourselves look bad. We need to focus on his beliefs and we need to challenge his assertions.  When going head-to-head with an adversary we owe them our respect. I may hate what Ken Ham believes and I may think those beliefs promote ignorance, but, if my objective is to counter his beliefs, I must focus on his beliefs rather than his person. (even when it is very hard to do so) I must, as an atheist, be a better man than many of the Fundamentalist Christians who personally attack me in the comment section of this blog and in the local newspaper.

To put it in religious parlance, I must be a good witness and I must always remember that people are going to judge me by the words I say and write. If I personally attack someone, I know that some readers will not hear what I have to say. And, I don’t blame them. (and yes, I am aware of the many Christians who confuse a critique of their beliefs with a personal attack.)

Kerry left a comment on my latest Ken Ham post that I think sums up well what I am trying to say:

Name calling does nothing to advance the understanding between world views. I didn’t do it as a believer and I don’t do it as a non-believer in Christianity. I do, from time to time, rework the pithy little sayings so many Christians use, such as; “Love the sinner but hate the sin” which I change to “Love the believer but hate the belief.” For the various beatitudes that get quoted, I usually quote from Confucius or Buddha which sound the same but are a little bit different. They of course do not notice until I point it out to them and educate them on the fact that these sayings are some 600 years before God gave them to the Jews. There are ways to make the point about the facts we as atheists have embraced without doing it in a manner that closes off all minds and debate.

Thou Shalt Not Lie Evidently Does Not Apply to Ray Comfort

1 Reply

If you are not familiar with Ray Comfort, Comfort is a street preaching Fundamentalist Evangelist who is considered by many Evangelicals to be an expert in evangelism. Comfort’s Bio page on the Living Waters website states:

Ray Comfort is the Founder/President/CEO of Living Waters Publications. After relocating from New Zealand to Southern California in the late 1980s, Ray introduced a long line of pastors and churches to a biblical teaching which he called Hell’s Best Kept Secret. The positive and enthusiastic response that followed took Ray’s Living Waters Publications ministry to a whole new level. From humble beginnings, LWP has become an internationally recognized ministry, reaching the lost and equipping Christians with every necessary resource to fulfill the great commission.

When I pastored Our Father’s House in West Unity Ohio, I showed the church congregation Comfort’s multipart series on Evangelism. I am quite familiar with Comfort’s methodology and Fundamentalist beliefs.

The video clip that follows is a blurb from a typical Ray Comfort street preaching session. What I want you to pay attention to is how Comfort reedits the video to make it seem like the men in the video are saying something different from what they originally said.

Video Link

Wolf Blitzer Schooled by an Atheist After Tornado

3 Replies

I am not sure if CNN host Wolf Blitzer thinks everyone is Oklahoma is a Christian, but he learned very quickly that there is at least one atheist in Oklahoma. What follows is a video clip of an interview Blitzer did with a survivor of the recent devastation in Oklahoma. Atheists should pay attention to how nice the woman is as she answers Blitzer’s ignorant notion that everyone affected by the tornado is thanking the Lord for their survival.

Video Link

My apologies for messing up the link

When the Power Goes Out

5 Replies

silence

The Cincinnati Reds are playing the New York Mets.  The Reds have soundly thrashed the Mets the first two games of the series. The game features two tough pitchers, Matt Latos for the Reds and Matt Harvey for the Mets. It’s the eighth inning now and the score is tied. I sit here hoping the Reds will pull out an exciting ninth inning win.

It’s raining out. We need the rain. The garden is planted and Polly has flower seeds planted here and there in the yard. Without rain nothing grows, so the rain is a needed and welcome friend. I can feel the air cool as the temperature drops. I need a blanket.

And then it happens.

Pop. Blink.  Silence. The power is off.

Dammit, I thought, Now I won’t know if the Reds won the game.

Silence.

I can’t hear the freezer or the refrigerator humming and the satellite DVR has ceased its constant clicking. All of a sudden, the house is eerily quiet.  The noise of our electrified home is silenced by a line-dropping car accident, power surge, or blown transformer.  It looks like all the homes in the one stoplight town of Ney have lost their power. Silence pervades the hundred homes that surround me.

As my ears begin to adjust to the silence, I notice voices I had not heard while the power was on, voices that are drowned out by the noise of modernity.

Birds. I hear numerous varying chirps and tweets.  A mourning dove calls out with her haunting voice.

My neighbor is talking on his cellphone. I can hear every word he says and in the distance I hear children playing loudly.  I hear car doors slam shut and I  hear the tires of passing cars as they slosh through the water that covers the pavement.

The silence reminds me of what I lose when the television or sound system is blaring. Sometimes I think I fear silence. I don’t want to be left alone with my thoughts, with the sound of blood being pumped by my heart. Silence forces me to confront my mortality and my place in a culture that can not bear a moment of silence.

Click. Pop. The power is back on. I can hear the refrigerator and the freezer doing their work cooling and freezing our food. In a few minutes, the satellite DVR will finish its start-up process and I will be able to see if the Reds beat the Mets.

Yet, I find myself thinking, maybe the power needs to go off more often…so my ears and my mind can reset; so I can once again hear the tunes of the world I live in.  I find myself thinking that silence is a catharsis we moderns need. As long as we have noise to entertain and occupy us, we need not think about what goes on outside our home. We need not think of our own mortality.

The Reds won 7-4.

What Ken Ham THINKS the Atheist Agenda is

13 Replies

ken_ham

Based on a recent YouTube video of a few atheists talking about creationism, home school and Ken Ham, Ham has concluded:

A recent video of an atheist chat session on the internet is a must watch for all Christians! Every pastor, Christian leader, homeschooler, teenager, Christian parent, and, in fact, all Christians need to see this video chat featuring a number of very intolerant atheists (and some are hateful and angry). In fact, watch it at your Bible study, youth group meeting, home group, home, and so on—you will hear for yourself some of the best practical illustrations of many passages of Scripture come to life, including Romans 1, 2 Peter 3, and many other passages of Scripture that refer to people who oppose Christians. This can be an excellent practical Bible study for you.

The atheist video is one of the best I’ve seen to illustrate atheists exhibiting the following traits:

  • Intolerance and arrogance
  • Hatred of biblical Christians
  • Hatred of the Bible
  • Ignorance
  • Wanting to control education and capture your kids’ hearts and minds
  • Extremism
  • Fighting against freedom of religion
  • Wanting to close down or limit biblical, Christian homeschooling
  • Seeking to control what private organizations teach
  • Desiring to control what you teach at home
  • Claim Christians are scientifically ignorant but are themselves scientifically inept
  • Sanctimoniously determining morality for themselves
  • Attempting to shape the culture according to their anti-God beliefs

First, let me say I wish atheists/humanists/secularists would STOP putting out videos like the one mentioned by Ham.  The video is poorly done, quite embarrassing, and certainly should not be taken as representative of how all atheists/humanists/secularists think.

Second, Ham is an expert at ginning-up support for his conspiratorial ideas about atheists/humanists/secularists. It is NOT in our best interest to give him things that he can easily manipulate to gain his desired objective.

Now to Ham’s delineation of what he thinks the atheist agenda is. My response is indented and in italics.

Intolerance and arrogance

Intolerance and arrogance are human traits and not specific to any group. There are lots of intolerant, arrogant Christians, Ham included.

Besides, intolerance has its place, We should be intolerant of beliefs that deliberately promote ignorance, beliefs like the earth is 6,014 years old.

Hatred of biblical Christians

I am sure there are atheists who hate Christians. However, most atheists do not hate Christians. They hate their beliefs. They hate their attempts to promote ignorance. They hate their attempt to hijack the U.S. government and turn our secular state into a theocracy.

Hatred of the Bible

Hate the Bible? Really?  Who in their right mind hates a book, an inanimate object? I HATE you, Moby Dick!  This is a silly statement.

What we DO hate is what Christians DO with the Bible and that’s try to force everyone to worship their God and obey its commands.

Ignorance

Ignorance of what? The Bible? Not a chance. I may be ignorant of many things, but ignorance of the Bible is not one of them.  Ham mistakes disagreement for ignorance. He is also oblivious of the fact that many of us were raised in church and know the Bible inside and out.  We are anything BUT ignorant.

Wanting to control education and capture your kids’ hearts and minds

If Ham is talking about the Public Schools then the answer is Yes.  People like Ham, with his ignorant, unscientific beliefs, have no business being anywhere near the Public Schools.

Extremism

What’s extremism? In Ken Ham’s world, extremism is anything that differs with his beliefs.

Besides, whose beliefs are extreme? Those who follow the path of science or those who get their science and history from an ancient text written by unknown authors thousands of years ago?

Fighting against freedom of religion

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.

We are fighting those who want to establish a theocracy. We are fighting against those who say the separation of Church and State is a myth.

Wanting to close down or limit biblical, Christian homeschooling

Limit, yes. Close down, no.

Home school teachers should be competent and society has a right to expect that every child receives a quality, comprehensive education. If home schoolers are willing to do this, I have no problem with home schooling.

A number of states need to improve their home schooling and non-chartered private school laws. As it stands now, there is way too much latitude for parents and schools to give their children a poor, substandard education.

See my recent post on this subject.

Seeking to control what private organizations teach

Again, we all have a vested interest in what children our taught. Our future depends on them receiving a quality, comprehensive education.

If he is talking about the Home School Convention, Answers in Genesis, or the Creation Museum, then, yes, they should be free to teach whatever they want, as long as tax money is not being used to support these “teaching” endeavors.

Desiring to control what you teach at home

See above. Ham has repeated this point three times.

Claim Christians are scientifically ignorant but are themselves scientifically inept

No, we don’t say Christians are scientifically ignorant. We DO say that Young Earth Creationists are scientifically ignorant.

Oh wait, Ham says Young Earth Creationism is NOT an article of faith, BUT, he questions the “faith” of Christians who embrace evolution. There’s the intolerant and arrogant Ken we all love.

Sanctimoniously determining morality for themselves

Duh, who else is going to determine what my morals are but me?

Ham wants everyone to have his morals because he got his morals directly from God.

If Christians all get their morals from God, why is it so many of them have differing moral views?

Attempting to shape the culture according to their anti-God beliefs

Guilty as charged with one caveat. I am trying to shape our culture with my humanistic beliefs not my one point atheist belief.

You can check out the video in question here.

Al Mohler’s Dance Around God’s Culpability

17 Replies
Severe Weather

The Christian God’s Handiwork in Moore, Oklahoma

In a post today on his blog, Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a five-star member of the John Calvin club, tries to explain how God is absolutely sovereign and decrees everything BUT he must never be blamed for evil or the bad things that happen in the world.

Mohler writes:

Every thoughtful person must deal with the problem of evil. Evil acts and tragic events come to us all in this vale of tears known as human life. The problem of evil and suffering is undoubtedly the greatest theological challenge we face.

Most persons face this issue only in a time of crisis. A senseless accident, a wasting disease, or an awful crime demands some explanation. Yesterday, evil showed its face again as a giant tornado brought death and destruction to Moore, Oklahoma.

For the atheist, this is no great problem. Life is a cosmic accident, morality is an arbitrary game by which we order our lives, and meaning is non-existent. As Oxford University’s Professor Richard Dawkins explains, human life is nothing more than a way for selfish genes to multiply and reproduce. There is no meaning or dignity to humanity…

…Natural evil comes without a moral agent. A tower falls, an earthquake shakes, a tornado destroys, a hurricane ravages, a spider bites, a disease debilitates and kills. The world is filled with wonders mixed with dangers. Gravity can save you or gravity can kill you. When a tower falls, it kills.

People all over the world are demanding an answer to the question of evil. It comes only to those who claim that God is mighty and that God is good. How could a good God allow these things to happen? How can a God of love allow killers to kill, terrorists to terrorize, and the wicked to escape without a trace?…

…First, the Bible reveals that God is omnipotent and omniscient. These are unconditional and categorical attributes. The sovereignty of God is the bedrock affirmation of biblical theism. The Creator rules over all creation. Not even a sparrow falls without His knowledge. He knows the number of hairs upon our heads. God rules and reigns over all nations and principalities. Not one atom or molecule of the universe is outside His active rule…

…Rabbi Harold Kushner argues that God is doing the best He can under the circumstances, but He lacks the power to either kill or cure. The openness theists argue that God is always ready with Plan B when Plan A fails. He is infinitely resourceful, they stress, just not really sovereign.

These are roads we dare not take, for the God of the Bible causes the rising and falling of nations and empires, and His rule is active and universal. Limited sovereignty is no sovereignty at all.

The second great error is to ascribe evil to God. But the Bible does not allow this argument. God is absolute righteousness, love, goodness, and justice. Most errors related to this issue occur because of our human tendency to impose an external standard–a human construction of goodness–upon God. But good does not so much define God as God defines good.

How then do we speak of God’s rule and reconcile this with the reality of evil? Between these two errors the Bible points us to the radical affirmation of God’s sovereignty as the ground of our salvation and the assurance of our own good. We cannot explain why God has allowed sin, but we understand that God’s glory is more perfectly demonstrated through the victory of Christ over sin. We cannot understand why God would allow sickness and suffering, but we must affirm that even these realities are rooted in sin and its cosmic effects.

How does God exercise His rule? Does He order all events by decree, or does He allow some evil acts by His mere permission? This much we know–we cannot speak of God’s decree in a way that would imply Him to be the author of evil, and we cannot fall back to speak of His mere permission, as if this allows a denial of His sovereignty and active will.

A venerable confession of faith states it rightly: “God from eternity, decrees or permits all things that come to pass, and perpetually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and all events; yet so as not in any way to be the author or approver of sin nor to destroy the free will and responsibility of intelligent creatures.”

I really don’t have much to say about what Mohler has written here.  I will say that I find it interesting that he says that natural evil has no moral cause and then turns right around and says God decrees EVERYTHING. Surely, natural evil would be included in EVERYTHING.

Mohler does his best to avoid charging God with being the power and force behind evil, but, if God decrees EVERYTHING, then God most certainly is the creator and perpetrator of evil. At least some Calvinists understand the logical inconsistency of Mohler’s view, and admit that God is the creator and perpetrator of evil.

Of course they then say, God thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and way and we cannot understand them. Paraphrasing the Apostle Paul, shut the hell up. Who are you to question what God is doing? (Romans 9)

All of you are aware of the horrible devastation of Moore, Oklahoma from a tornado. If God decrees everything…tell us Dr. Mohler…whose to blame for the death and destruction in Moore?

It seems every time a horrific event like this happens, up pops Al Mohler or John Piper to let us know that we shouldn’t blame God. Again, if God has the world in the palm of his hand, and not one thing happens contrary to his Sovereign , decretive will, I ask, who else should we blame?

Let me close out this post with a long quote from a post I wrote in April 2011:

If you are a Christian and you believe the Bible is truth then the answer is an emphatic YES. The people recently killed by tornadoes? God’s doing. The people killed by Hurricane Katrina? God’s doing.

The Bible is clear:

And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt. Exodus 10:19

And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. Numbers 11:31

For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure. When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: Job 28:24-26

But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Jonah 1:4

But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.  Jonah 4:7,8

He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.  Psalm 78:26

These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.  Psalm 107:24,25

He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries. Psalm 135:7

And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him! Matthew 8:25-27

Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. Exodus 9:18

And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. Exodus 9:22

Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. Isaiah 29:6

And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.Genesis 6:17

Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers. The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Psalm 74:16

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; 2 Peter 2:4-6

For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. Genesis 7:4

And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. Deuteronomy 11:13-15

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:45

For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.  Job 37:6

There is no doubt about who is in control of the weather. The Bible makes it clear that God controls the weather. ( and everything else for that matter)  If God controls the weather then HE is responsible for the devastation and death that comes when bad weather comes our way.

Not happenstance.

Not Mother Nature.

God.

Around the Yard, May 21 2013

2 Replies

Here are a few pictures I snapped today as I took a s-l-o-w, halting tour through the yard.

dandelion 2013

A dandelion getting ready to further the dandelion species
with its seeds.

flaming azalea 2013-001

An old flaming azalea that we pruned back in hopes of spurring
growth. It looks like it worked. Every year, people stop at our
house and say, what’s that?

iris 2013

Iris, the day before it fully blooms.

montana blue

Montana blue, Polly says. Whatever it is, it is pretty,

japananese iris 2013-001

Japanese Iris

Chives, A Look at Polly’s Herb Garden

5 Replies

When we bought our home in 2007, it came with a deep, cavernous well pit in the backyard. The well pit had been abandoned many years ago when the village of Ney put in a water system.

The well pit was a concern because we had visions of one of our grandchildren figuring out how to get the metal lid off the well pit and then, with great curiosity, climbing down into the well pit.

We filled the well pit in with construction debris, laughing…that hundreds of years from now an archeologist will be digging in our back yard and stumble on the building remains in the well pit.  We are funny like that. When we remodeled our home, we taped newspapers inside the walls and wrote our names and the date.  This is our way of saying, we were here.

Once we filled the well pit with debris, we covered it with a lot of dirt and Polly turned it into a herb garden. This Spring we had to add some more dirt because the sparrows had taken to dusting themselves in the herb garden and had worn down the dirt in spots all the way to the metal well pit lid.

The Chives are in full bloom this week. I took a few pictures. I hope you enjoy them. I hope you notice the little helper that helps to make so much of what we have in our yard possible.

chives 2013-003

chives 2013-004

chives 2013-002

chives 2013-001

chives 2013

For the camera geeks. I shot these pictures with my Sony A77 DSLR and a Sony DT 2.8/30 Macro Lens. Due to the wind today, I had to bump the shutter speed up to 1/500 sec.  The minimum focus distance is 5.1 inches. This lens is quite affordable.

Raiders of the Lost Suet

Leave a reply

The Starlings have arrived in full-force today. This happens every year. For a short period of time, the Starlings eat everything they can get their beak into, especially the suet.  Here are a few pictures I took today of what I like call the suet raiders.

starlings 2013-001

starlings 2013-004

starlings 2013-002

starlings 2013-003

My apologies for the odd pictures sizes. I forgot I had turned off the aspect constraint the other day when I needed to do some manual cropping.

World Missions and the IFB Church

22 Replies

go_to_all_world

If you were raised in the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church (IFB), you know how seriously they take world missions. IFB churches think their beliefs are the only truth and their practices are the only way to function as a church and live as a Christian. All other Christians sects are looked upon as “doubtful”  and non-Christian sects are considered tools of Satan used to deceive the masses and lead  them to a Christless hell.

Members of an IFB church hear missionary speakers quite often. Some churches have letters from the missionaries read from the pulpit, and most of them, somewhere in the church building, have a board where all the letters from the missionaries are posted.

In the IFB church, everything revolves around numbers. Attendance. Souls saved. People baptized. Offering size. How many preachers boys called into the ministry. How many men and single women called to the mission field. And…how many missionaries are supported by the church.

All of these numbers matter in the IFB church movement. Success is determined by the size of these numbers. I have often said, size matters, and what plays out in IFB churches is quite similar to men with their my dick is bigger obsession. Men with small dicks say nothing, as do pastors who pastor small churches and do not have the numbers the “successful” pastor’s have.

IFB churches like to support lots of missionaries. They may only give the missionary 25.00 a month, but, if they support fifty missionaries at 25,00 a month, they can brag at the next Preacher’s Meeting that they support FIFTY missionaries.  Remember SIZE is everything!

Many churches have Missionary Conferences. These conferences are focused times when hotshot preachers come and preach about missions. Rarely do missionaries preach. They might give a report to the congregation or share their calling to ____________ country, but most preachers know, if you want to raise money for missions, NEVER allow the missionaries to preach.

Why? Many missionaries can’t preach a lick. They are often their own worst enemy.  They may have a passion for winning souls but they often lack good communication skills. An IFB adage goes like this…preachers who can preach do, those who can’t go to the mission field.

So the hotshot preachers preach, and through their manipulative preaching and stories of lost people in need of IFB salvation, they make church people feel guilty over not giving enough money to the missions fund. If they are real good, they might successfully guilt a few church members into leaving the secular world and joining the preacher/missionary fraternity.

Countless young men and women, and quite a few older married couples, have abandoned all their hopes and dreams to chase after their “call” to be a  missionary. Many of them NEVER make it to the field and quietly return home and fade back into the fabric of the IFB church.

They are failures. They weren’t willing to sell-out and follow Jesus. They are looked down on because they said God was calling them to the mission field and they didn’t follow through.  Surely, there is something wrong with them, right?

Perhaps there is another scenario. Perhaps what really happened is that they were emotionally and mentally manipulated by a hotshot preacher who was an expert at getting people to think that his voice was the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Once a person says, God is calling me…it is almost impossible to undo what has been set in motion. The pastor brags about Bro, Mike being called to Canada. (yes, IFB churches send missionaries to Canada)  The church is excited. Bro Mike, remember little Mickey? He is going to Canada to win the heathen Canucks to Jesus.

And so, off to Bible College Bro. Mike  goes. He is trained in the IFB way of doing things. He graduates and starts on  deputation. He travels from church to church BEGGING them to give him money so he can win heathen Canucks to Jesus.

He has a table display of items that show why the Canucks really, really need Jesus. Most likely he has a slide presentation or a multimedia presentation that he shows to churches in hopes of getting them to see that Canada is a vast wasteland with millions of people in need of the IFB gospel and Jesus.

If he is lucky, after his presentation, the church will commit to supporting him. If they don’t, he moves on to the next church. Maybe the next church will “see” the need and support him.

Prospective IFB missionaries will often spend years trying to get enough money together to get to the field. Many will never make it. Imagine the humiliation of having to go back to their home church and admit they aren’t going to the mission field.

Some of them will try to redeem themselves by coming up with a new calling. Instead of going to another country, they now think God is calling them to be a missionary in the U.S.

In this new scenario, they can work a secular job (tent making like the Apostle Paul) and still be a missionary. Their home church will kick a few bucks their way every months, and they will then be able to say they are still a missionary.

I have met countless missionaries who are missionaries to things like public schools, nursing homes, the streets of X major city, etc.  Anything is better than being labeled a failure, a quitter.

Do you have a missions story to tell? Were you called at one time to be a missionary? Please share your story in the comment section.

Notes:

Let you doubt they actually send missionaries to Canada and the U.S. check here, here, and here.

My wife’s cousin’s husband, Jamie Overton was recently called to be a missionary to India. They are working through a Fundamentalist mission agency called, World View Ministries. Their sending church is my wife’s uncle’s church, the Newark Baptist Temple in Heath, Ohio.