Dear Partner
In Ministry,
It is hard to believe that we are approaching the last quarter
of this year. Most of you reading this are our on-line friends.
We appreciate all of you who keep in touch with us electronically.
Some have expressed an interest in getting more involved.
We have always prayed and trusted that God would bring those
people who are suppose to be involved in our ministry and
keep those away who are not. If you are one who feels led
to help then we welcome you.
If you really want to "dig in" and help our mission,
there are ways of partnering together and learning what our
prayer and financial needs are. I have realized that many
of you need updates on the thousands we are reaching every
day through our mass media outreach efforts. In order to do
that you need to know how we can keep in touch. Below is a
list of ways we can partner together to reach the lost and
encourage Christians to contend for the faith. We are growing
but there is much to keep growing into!
HOW YOU CAN STAY IN TOUCH WITH US:
- You can E-mail us at: contender@aol.com
and tell us your e-mail address so we can send you our newsletter
electronically. This really helps the ministry financially
if you are able to do this.
- You can read our monthly newsletter News, Truths
And Views and The Contender journal
articles anytime (and many other articles) at our website:
www.contender.org.
- You can listen to us on the radio Saturdays at 5:00 PM
on KOLE AM in Beaumont, Texas and into
Louisiana, Saturdays at Noon on WFEN FM 88.3
in Rockford, IL and 103 FM in Madison,
WI.
- You can listen to each one hour Perspective Underground
radio programs for a full year, seven days a week, twenty-four
hours a day, anywhere in the world on the Internet
at Audiocentral.com.
- You can write us at: P.O. Box 5761 Rockford, IL
61265
- You can phone us at: 815-947-CULT (2858)
- You can participate in our Monday Night Meetings
from 7:00 until 9:00 PM at First Evangelical Free Church
or every other Thursday at a house church in Durand, IL.
Remember....
All Gifts To The Institute For Christian Apologetics
And Mount Carmel Outreach Are Tax Deductible.
They Are Greatly Needed And Equally
Appreciated!!!
ISRAEL TOUR
As you may know I have been asked to co-lead a tour to Israel
with my dear friend Dr. David Allen Lewis. We are going to
Israel, Lord willing, on November 14th for an 11 day tour
with extensions available to Petra and Turkey. You can see
the itinerary of the tour at our website www.contender.org/israeltour.htm.
There is also a letter of recommendation from a tour I co-led
in 1998 at www.contender.org/israelrec.htm
David will not be leading a tour during the year 2000 for
the reasons he sent me below. This year is a very good time
to go but next year isn't. If you know anyone who wants to
go please let them know about it. I told Chuck Missler, who
has called Dr. Lewis "a legend in his own time",
about co-leading the tour with him and he said he would love
to be "a fly on the wall" for that tour because
he respects David and knows it would be very interesting.
I was privileged to be a co-leader on his 50th tour back in
1991 and it was first rate all the way!
Below are the reasons David gives for not going in 2000 and
feels people should go now.
Excerpts From Dr. Lewis' Articles On Israel In 2000:
Israel and the Palestinian Authority are planning a joint
operation to prepare for the expected flood of pilgrims at
Christian sites during the millennium year.
Israeli officials are concerned about overcrowding at the
most popular sites, like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
in Jerusalem, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and
the baptismal sites along the Jordan River.
Israeli officials expect some four million tourists next
year. They noted that Jerusalem's 7,000 hotel rooms and Bethlehem's
2,000 are hardly adequate for the 15,000 to 20,000 people
expected to converge on the area daily.
"We don't have enough rooms and there will be great
traffic jams. If we can't coordinate with the Palestinians,
we will be in trouble and the tourists will flee," Dror
said.
REPORT: ISRAEL UNPREPARED FOR Y2K
A report released Tuesday by Israel's State Comptroller's
office revealed that all levels of Israel's government and
most agencies and services are unprepared to face the widespread
chaos expected from computer malfunctions on the transition
date into of the millennium.
State Comptroller Eliezer Goldberg urged Prime Minister Barak
"to put this subject on its agenda urgently, so it can
decide on steps that are still needed" to cope with Y2K
ramifications.
The tenor of the report and the finger pointing that has
ensued in its wake hint that Israel is past the point of fixing
the problem and needs to be concentrating resources on contingency
plan development in the event of system failures.
The report covers most aspects of the Israeli public domain
including health care, hospitals, phone system, Israel Electrical
Corporation, police and municipal government.
The report finds only the top three cities - Jerusalem, Tel
Aviv and Haifa - have undertaken to take action to fix both
their databases and computerized systems. Municipal governments
control services such as traffic lights and water supply (including
sewage), to name a few.
Bezeq, Israel's national telephone carrier, said it was unable
to carry out tests of the system, for fear of paralyzing the
country's telecommunication network. Half of the total time
and expenditures required in any Y2K compliance project are
needed during the testing phase alone. In light of this, the
report calls on Bezeq to make emergency contingency plans
immediately.
The Israel Electric Company is being accused of claiming
to be vigorously tackling the problem while doing little actual
work towards its resolution.
Although it was supposed to begin its remediation efforts
in 1996, it was not until the latter half of 1998 that work
seriously began. In 1995 it ordered a $15 million computerized
system for managing production and distribution of electricity.
It is scheduled to be operational this year.
Disconcertingly, the equipment's specifications make no mention
of Y2K compatibility.
The Health Ministry is classified as being inept, to a degree
of negligence. The report accuses that "Apart from sending
a few letters, little has been done to spur the hospitals
to carry out the directives of the ministry. Considering the
critical nature of the services... we take a grave view of
this incompetence."
Not only have the police failed to update their computer
systems (of late iit actually assigned employees within the
department to attempt to fix its computer systems), but they
have neglected to begin making contingency plans for maintaining
public order in the event critical systems fail.
A HA'ARETZ editorial put it succinctly: "The most worrisome
section in the comptroller's report is not the one dealing
with computers. It is quite alarming to realize how few preparations
have been made in Israel for handling emergency situations
and overall systemic breakdowns..."
I hope that those who want to go to Israel in the near term
will go now as it looks as though next year is going to be
problematic all the way around. We are living in exciting
times and the tour will reflect on those prophetic issues.
David always has interesting speakers and an emphasis on extracting
as much from truly Biblical sites while ignoring the mere
cenotaphs unless they are worth seeing for their fame or historical
importance.
If you wish to go you need to send a deposit. You may contact
us for a brochure and timing/pricing information. A $300.00
deposit needs to be sent to Dr. David Allen Lewis (ASAP).
You may call his office for details at 1-800-772-5687 and
be sure to tell him you heard about the tour through us.
From The Mail Bag
<< Hi Folks,
Great work you are doing, and love your audio messages.
But ...I have some audio for you that has shaken me more
than
I have ever been before the Lord. I leave it to you to decide
if this
is legitimate. I know I do because of having followed closely,
but
please check out the new audio messages at the Prophecy Club
by Pastor Daniel Rodes. His actual interview is on files
# 4 - # 7.
http://209.155.112.102/pclub/html/latest2.htm
I am utterly convinced that getting out the Gospel and getting
right
before the Lord is imperative....be interested in your views.....
Pass the word if you think right....
Thanks,
God Bless ya'll
Joe Hamaday
Tuscaloosa, Alabama>>
Our Response:
Dear Joe,
Thank you for all your encouragement, we really need it.
All of us must seek to get primary encouragement from the
Lord but there are people who fill the role of Barnabus (a
son of encouragement) to us and we are very grateful for them.
Their encouragement allows our ministry to become their ministry
as well.
I listened to the two interviews and quite a bit of the other
messages. Truly we can't know with one hundred percent certainty
about another man's visons, but the general thrust of what
I see in the word of God that matches why he thinks America
will be judged seems to be there for the most part.
When Bill Clinton was to be elected the first time back in
'92 I read a newspaper article that said, according to a poll,
the majority of Americans for the first time didn't care about
adultery, support for normalization of homosexuality and abortion
but cared only about financial considerations. I was going
to preach a certain sermon that Sunday at a Church but changed
my topic to "When God Judges A Nation!" I told them
like Amos "I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet,
and I work for a not-for-profit corporation, but if I am reading
the Bible and newspaper correctly the United States will be
facing natural disasters that the old insurance policies had
right when they called them "acts of God." Shortly
after that the first of the huge hurricanes hit and then there
were a record number of Federal disasters declared for a twelve
month period.
I shudder to think what may yet befall us as a nation as
God increases the pressure. I take some comfort in the miracle
of Ninevah in the Old Testament. God is a miracle working
God, especially in the area of mercy and Grace. We must not
give up or become despondent because of opposition in getting
out the Gospel but, as you know, must redouble our efforts!
Thanks again for staying in touch!
Kevin
<< Kevin,
My sister was just pleading for answers and scripture on
the subject of the age of accountability. I emailed her some
references before Mt Carmel last night, and then you brought
up a verse during your talk on demons. I think it supported
the view that we were not spiritually dead at birth. What
was the reference for that verse?<<
Our Response: It was Romans 7:9. It seems that Paul was alive
at some point in his life and that sin took advantage of the
law's commandments to urge him to break them and then he died
spiritually. Of course, it can be argued that he was referring
to himself being in Adam when Adam sinned and consequently
died spiritually. True, all of us were in Adam and Adam's
consequence of physical death affects everyone, including
babies. Dr. Walter R. Martin argued that there was a difference
between children who had a suspended sentence of eternal death
while still suffering the consequences of the fall of their
progenitors and those who actualized it by consciously choosing
to sin personally. He believed that the blood of Christ covered
the eternal consequences of the babies being born into Adam's
race without repealing the physical consequences of the temporal
curse on all of creation that won't go away until the day
of redemption (Romans 8:22). This would also help to explain
otherwise somewhat enigmatic statements about children's angels
always beholding the face of the Father (Matthew 18:10) and
that judgment falls harshly on someone who leads one of these
little ones astray (Luke 17:2). These verses indicate a special
place in the economy of God for children. Jesus said the Kingdom
of Heaven is filled with those who are childlike (if not children
themselves)"...suffer the little children to come unto
me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven"
(Mark 10:14).
>>Right now, I know of three views on this, but I think
that the idea that God would elect some babies based on how
they would have voted IF they had lived seems to be illogical.
Then God would also elect everyone based on His foreknowledge
of their acceptance of Him if they could live forever. But
it is hardto argue with omniscience and eternity.<<
Our Response: The argument lies not with
Omniscience but with the idea of Grace versus Law. The idea
that He chooses only those who would choose Him means they
have merited His choice by their conjectured action of choosing
Him and therefore are under Law salvation. Of course there
is no salvation offered by any law (Galatians 3:21). I believe
we choose, but also that His choice is more profound and apriori
in the matter of our salvation. He loved us first (1 John
4:19) and it is not of him who runs or wills (read chooses)
but of God Who shows mercy (Romans 9:16). After all, we were
chosen before we were even a Zygote (Ephesians 1:4).
>> My only trouble with "all babies go to Heaven"
is that this would also include all fetus', embryos, and zygotes.
20 % of Heaven's population may have only seen this planet
through the walls of a test tube! To me, this borders on what
you call an infinite thought. Most couples would have babies
they never knew about...
maybe dozens! Thanks, Dan >>
Our Response: I think it would be wonderful
to meet all of those children, perhaps millions of our race,
who have a very special background. God won't run out of room
in Heaven. He has abundant (infinite is a better word) resources
to take care of their physical/emotional/intellectual maturing
processes and education. There may be angelic sons of God
who have never left Heaven, but I am sure we will be able
to have intelligent and meaningful dialogue with them. This
is especially so as we have the most important Person, and
therefore personal experience, in common!
-Kevin
Please Click Here For Prayer Requests
We hope that you are able to glean out of these newsletters
things that are of help to your own walk with the Lord. We
appreciate all of your help and prayers. Remember, we couldn't
do this ministry without your help!!
In His Service Gladly,
Rev. Kevin S. Johnson
President
Mount Carmel Outreach
All donations to The Institute For Christian
Apologetics are
tax-deductible, greatly needed and equally appreciated!
Make your checks out to:
The Institute For Christian Apologetics
Send them to P.O. Box 5761 Rockford, IL 61125
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