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Apr 15, 2013

Dave Hunt: The Last Effective Apologists

The Christian world lost a true giant of the faith with the passing of Dave Hunt. He was the founder of Berean Call, a ministry that was formed for the simple purpose of encouraging spiritual discernment among Christians. Dave exhorted believers to get back into the Word of God instead of being “carried about by every wind of doctrine.”

Dave wrote a host of books that sold over 4 million copies. They include: The Cult Explosion, The God Makers, The New Spirituality, The Seduction of Christianity, Global Peace and the Rise of Antichrist, Occult Invasion, A Cup of Trembling, In Defense of the Faith, An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith , and, Countdown to the Second Coming.

As an apologist, he specialized in warning the church against Eastern religion, psychological and selfish philosophies, ecumenism, and other unbiblical teachings. He is best known for The Seduction of Christianity, which exposes false teachings in the church and dares to identify the names of the ones behind the deception.

What I remember the most about the 1985 release of Seduction of Christianity was how it scared all the groups it targeted. The Word of Faith folks acted like cockroaches when someone shines a bright light on them. People like Kenneth Copeland, Frederick Price, Charles Capps, and Robert Tilton were all put on the defensive by Hunt exposing the details of their financial schemes and the "we are a god" teaching that dominated the prosperity movement.

Most of these men went into the damage-control mode because they feared that Hunt's book could destroy their ministries. They said Dave misquoted them or took their words out of context. A group of them even came to meet with Hunt to explain their views.

Another example of the one-time power that apologists had came after Benny Hinn published the book, Good Morning, Holy Spirit. After the book became a huge hit in 1990, men like Dave Hunt pointed out numerous examples where Hinn's writers conflicted with the Bible. Nowhere in Scripture does it teach the possibility of Jesus Christ sinning, but this is what Hinn taught. After Hinn was exposed, he totally recanted the book, removing all references to it from his ministry catalog. He also went on several Christian programs to ask forgiveness. Hinn's repentant heart didn't last long. A few years later, he did a 180 and reinstated his book on his resume. In 2004, Good Morning, Holy Spirit was expanded and republished.

Dave Hunt was not the last of the apologists. We still have men like John MacArthur, William Lane Craig, Lee Strobel, and Josh McDowell who contend for the faith. Since Rapture Ready has an extensive library of "defending the faith" articles, it qualifies as an apologetic site. What makes Hunt's passing noteworthy is that he was the last person who was effective on a national scale in this field. Today, ‘apologetics’ has become a dirty word. Few Christian leaders want to be the bad guys. They would rather make friends with the enemies so they won't lose out on financial opportunities that come with these alliances.

Terry and I heard the news of Dave's death while we were at the Tulsa prophecy conference. During one of the breaks, they ran a presentation that Dave gave in 1995, and the general reaction was that there is no one who preaches like that today. This is a true statement, but our problems have gone beyond the lack of good leaders. If we had a time machine that could go back and grab a young and vibrant Dave Hunt, we would still be at a disadvantage. Unless you have a church that cares about the values of sound doctrine, it wouldn't matter if we had John the Baptist.

We are so far into apostasy, I don't think the enemies of Dave Hunt even care to dance on his grave. They won the battle of supremacy years ago. The lack of watchmen is probably their greatest threat. One possible reason God has been calling so many of His key saints home lately is because we are about to transform from a time of warning to a time of judgment.

"For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way" (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

“For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11).

--Todd

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Satan’s Mindset Prevailing

Last week I presented in this Nearing Midnight column the essay entitled “The Jesus Haters.” Jesus’ own words foretold that such hatred for Him and for His followers would grow intensively down through the generations as time progresses toward the climax of human history and Christ’s return at Armageddon.

Paul, as prophet, gave the characteristics of end-times man in his perilous times enumeration as recorded in 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Paul, as Christ’s faithful apostle, gave parallel analysis of that prophetic end-times generation as recorded in Romans, listing what will be the results of evil men and seducers growing worse and worse while writing God out of their cultures and societies:

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” (Romans 1: 28-32)

How many times have you heard–or have you said yourself: “This world has gone crazy,” or something similar? Paul was predicting that the people of the world would indeed go crazy as the end of the dispensation of grace nears. People would be allowed to have the reprobate mindset –the satanic mindset—they desired. They would, in the final rush to throw off the shackles of God’s restraining influence (Psalms 2: 2-3), exchange in their thinking processes good for evil and evil for good (Isaiah 5:20).

The satanic mindset is upon us, with evil these days being called good and good being called evil. There is but one good, and His Name is Jesus. He is the only person who has been born in human flesh who has not sinned. That is why God, His Heavenly Father, offered Jesus–His only begotten (sired by Him Personally) Son—as the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world.

It is the perfection of Jesus Christ that God accepts as the only payment for the sins of mankind. The righteousness of Christ provides the only way to Heaven. As I mentioned in last week’s Nearing Midnight article, this is why Jesus –why we who are called by His Holy Name— are hated. It is the satanic mindset that infects the fallen minds of the world and enlists them to come against the only good there is in the world.

Now, lest the enemies of Christ take that previous statement and proclaim that I’m saying Christians are without sin, thus better than those who aren’t Christians –as human beings— I will endeavor to explain. Christians are fallen creatures just like all of humanity. But they have been redeemed by Jesus Christ, the sinless Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

Because believers in Christ are born again into the family of God (John 3:3), the Heavenly Father sees them as pure and righteous –through the prism of His Son Jesus, who died on Calvary for them. They have chosen the only way to God the Father and Heaven for eternity (John 14:6).

This “only way” to Heaven–to God— enrages the satanic mindset. Such satanic rage was made obvious in a news item this past week, in my opinion.

The U.S. military have been told in a training briefing that evangelical Christians are the No. 1 extremist threat to America – ahead of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, KKK, Nation of Islam, al-Qaida, Hamas and others… The briefing, which was given to an Army reserve unit in Pennsylvania, came from a U.S. Army Reserve Equal Opportunity training brief titled “Extremism an extremist organization.” A slide titled “Religious Extremism” lists multiple organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida, Hamas, the Nation of Islam, the Ku Klux Klan and the Christian Identity movement as examples of extremist groups…However, the first group on the list is evangelical Christianity. (Jack Minor, "Christians Targeted ahead of Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaida, KKK," WND, RR News, 4/9/13).

Again, Jesus forewarned about the satanic mindset and how it would act to impact His followers –Christians of the last days. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. (John 15:21-24)

The only thing the Lord Jesus has done to “offend” the world –the satanic mindset—is to love the world of sinners so much that He died for each and every one of us, individually. He is the only being who has ever lived who can offer the world the peace that has been so desperately sought throughout the millennia.

Despite the satanic mindset that opposes at every turn, we who are Christians are to serve with all our might as royal ambassadors to present God’s peace offering to mankind.

--Terry



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Zechariah 12:3,9:
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.


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