PASTOR SCOTT VOLK RESPONDS TO HATE WITH LOVE

As I mentioned in the last post, a few days ago, an online announcement ran in Q-Notes, the gay newspaper of the Carolinas, calling for a peaceful protest at FIRE Church this Sunday. In part, it read, "Remember we will be peaceful and respectful, something they don't understand. We are going to STAND TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY to show that our love is stronger than their hate."

When Scott Volk, one of the pastors at FIRE Church, saw this announcement, he immediately posted this comment on the Q-Notes site:

"As the pastor of FIRE Church, I just want you to know that you'll be greeted with the same love and compassion as we always endeavor to show anyone - you are more-than-welcome! You make mention of the 'hate' that we show. Yet, in all our years here we've only desired to reach out with love to everyone in the local community here whether they are labeled as gay or straight. Hopefully, you'll see that love demonstrated on Sunday as you protest."

In response, Matthew wrote:

"Do you protest other religions and their gatherings? If not then you are cherry picking the bible. Commandment number one "thou shall have no other Gods before me" Why are you not going after the Buddhists, and the Hindus? You say love is your guiding principle I ask you is it love to impose your religious beliefs upon others? The Muslims in many parts of the world believe they are showing love by imposing sharia law upon their citizens. We can all live together in peace if you begin to view and treat gay people and our gatherings as you view other religions and their gatherings. If you can not do this then there will not be peace because we will not be treated as second class citizens and have your christian sharia imposed upon us."

Apparently Matthew failed to realize that the gay community was protesting our service; we were not protesting their service. But his comment gives us into insight into a mentality that is widespread in the LGBT community today: If we say that marriage should remain the union of a man and woman, then we want to advocate "Christian Sharia" law! (For more on this, see HERE.)

The other responses to Scott's post were also very enlightening (and so sad to read):

David: "Love is the most disfigured mask that hate wears."

Sue: "if what you think is reaching out in love is perceived as hateful attack, perhaps you should reconsider your actions"

David: "You can fool yourself, Mr. Volk. You can fool your parishioners. But you can't fool God. He knows what's in your heart, and it isn't love. It's hate."

Scott's reply: "Lord bless you David - Yes, I'm glad God does know what's in my heart. My only question to you would be, 'How do you know what's in my heart.' You've never met me or spoken to me???"

Tom: "What these fire church people probably don't understand is that spending an eternity ANYWHERE with them is what I would consider a true HELL. They should concern themselves with their own pathetic lives and leave other alone to theirs..."

Scott's reply: "Ouch, Tom!!! Actually, the protestors ended up leaving early today because they said we were nice, loving, and didn't deserve a protest. So, I'm thankful that our love did win out. And, it amazes me that the ONLY people that have ever called me 'hateful' were those from the GLBT community who have NEVER MET ME!So, here is an open invitation to those that wrote a response to my initial not that was posted here: Come and join me and my family for dinner at my home. Spend an evening together with us! And, if you feel that I'm hateful after that time, post whatever you'd like. But, to call someone hateful without ever meeting them, seeing them, or hearing them speak, is an indication of a heart that needs love. I make myself available."

I sincerely hope that folks in the community will take Scott up on his offer!

FIRE CHURCH WELCOMES CHARLOTTE'S LGBT COMMUNITY

According to an announcement posted in Q-Notes, the LGBT newspaper of the Carolinas, there will be a peaceful protest outside of our FIRE Church services this Sunday morning, August 26th. I am presently in Canada and will not be there to greet them, but this is my personal word of welcome on behalf of our entire leadership team and congregation.

On behalf of FIRE Church, I want to extend to you the warmest welcome and let you know that we are thrilled that you are here with us on Sunday. We have been praying for you for a long time!

As always, you will only meet with love, kindness, and respect from the FIRE leadership and congregants, and we proclaim to you once again the amazing grace of God. Jesus died to save us from our sins, heterosexual and homosexual alike, and only in Him can we find forgiveness, redemption, and transformation. Jesus alone is the Healer, Savior, Deliverer, and Transformer.

It has been my personal joy to have shared meals together with the last two editors of Q-Notes as well as to have given an open mic to the past editor of Q-Notes so he could share his own story in our church building. Our doors are open to you, our hearts are open to you, and as Jesus gave Himself for your salvation and wellbeing, we are committed to following in His footsteps. 

Should you ever want to have an open forum for the purpose of mutually respectful discussion on the issues that divide us, we would gladly host that event in our church building or participate in one of yours. Let us know what we can do to help make that happen.

If you are looking for Rev. Flip Benham, as per your announcement, he has an independent ministry in the city and is not affiliated with FIRE. I trust he will be happy to meet you face to face as well.

AN OPEN LETTER TO MARK POTOK, SPOKESMAN FOR THE SPLC

AN OPEN LETTER TO MARK POTOK, SPOKESMAN FOR THE SPLC

August 21, 2012

Dear Mr. Potok,

Because your organization has not responded to my previous attempts to interact and because the SPLC is coming under increasing public scrutiny, I am writing this open letter with the hope that you will respond. You should be familiar with my name, since I am on your list of “30 New Activists Heading Up the Radical Right” and since I was profiled in the Spring 2012 Intelligence Report (more on that shortly).

My desire in writing to you is not to be contentious, nor is it to embarrass you. Rather, it is to pursue peace, to expose falsehood, to confront hateful misinformation, and to call on you and the SPLC to do what is right.
 

To be sure, I am hardly the only one questioning the credibility of the SPLC today. You have, no doubt, read the editorial in the Washington Post by columnist Dana Millbank, who stated, “I disagree with the Family Research Council’s views on gays and lesbians. But it’s absurd to put the group, as the law center does, in the same category as Aryan Nations, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Stormfront and the Westboro Baptist Church.” And Millbank is just one of an increasing number of Americans from diverse backgrounds who are pointing out the absurdity of your recent “hate group” listings.

Do you realize, Mr. Potok, that by placing mainstream, conservative Christian ministries like the American Family Association and the FRC side by side with legitimate hate groups that you call your whole work into question? Do you realize that millions of Americans, hearing about the SPLC for the first time in the wake of the FRC shooting, will now question the veracity of all your listings, thereby empowering genuine, dangerous hate groups?

You placed my name, along with that of a number of other conservative Christian leaders, on your list of “30 New Activists Heading Up the Radical Right.” This list included men like Malik Zulu Shabazz, leader of the New Black Panther Party. One of their recent radio shows featured this audio clip: “We give them [i.e., whites] 24 hours in South Africa to get out of town by sundown. I say, if they don’t get out of town, we kill the men, we kill the women, we kill the children, we kill the babies, we kill the blind, we kill the cripple, we kill the crazy, we kill the fa**ots, we kill the lesbians, I say god da**it we kill them all.”

Contrast those words with my statement in May 2006, addressing the gay and lesbian community of Charlotte: “We recognize that we have sometimes failed to reach out to you with grace and compassion, that we have often been insensitive to your struggles, that we have driven some of you away rather than drawn you in, that we have added to your sense of rejection. For these failings of ours, we ask you to forgive us. By God’s grace, we intend to be models of His love.

“We understand, of course, that in your eyes, our biblical convictions constitute hate, and it is hurtful to us that you feel that way. The fact is that we really do love you – more than you realize or understand – and because we love you, we will continue to speak the truth, convinced that it is the truth that sets us free. Love does what is right, even when it is scorned and mocked and ridiculed.”

Does this constitute hate in your book? Is this comparable to the language of the KKK? Neo-Nazis? New Black Panther Party? Yet it is in this spirit that we have carried out our work for the last 8 years, all to find a place on one of your lists.

The SPLC actually acknowledges in the “30 New Activists” article that, “Unlike many other voices on the religious right, Brown generally has avoided the kind of slashing rhetoric that often devolves into rank defamation. His work is heavily footnoted and avoids the blanket pronouncements that have gotten others in trouble.” Yet I am listed side by side with Shabbaz, whom the SPLC cites as saying, “Kill every god**mn Zionist in Israel! God**mn little babies, god**mn old ladies! Blow up Zionist supermarkets!” Surely listing me (and other Christian leaders) alongside of him discredits the SPLC, not me (and the other Christian leaders).

You define a hate group as one which knowingly disseminates false information and demonizing propaganda about other people and groups, yet I have noted where the SPLC is guilty of this very thing. (You will claim that you never do so knowingly; certainly, the Christian groups you are attacking would say the very same thing about themselves.)

Mr. Potok, does it trouble you that your Intelligence Report focusing on NARTH (the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) was so riddled with errors that anyone in possession of a program to the conference would recognize that the report was utterly unreliable, not to mention patently biased? What hope does the average reader have of accurately separating fact from fiction in reports like this?

You claim that the FRC knowingly disseminates false and defamatory information about LGBT people. Why, then, have you refused to have a public dialog with FRC head Tony Perkins in order to demonstrate your points? What if there is support for the statements the FRC has made, or what if their statements have been taken out of context?

My attempts to engage in public dialog with the SPLC have also been met with deafening silence. What is it, sir, that you fear? Why are you so unwilling to bring the issues to light in the public square? To this day, it would be my delight to have civil, constructive, public dialog regarding your “anti-gay” hate group listing. Are you willing?

On December 2, 2011, you partnered with Truth Wins Out, running an ad in a local DC paper that asked, “HAS ANYONE TRIED TO ‘CURE’ YOU OF BEING GAY? SHARE YOUR STORY. Help expose the lies behind the ‘conversion therapy and help other LGBT people who have undergone or are considering ‘therapy’ to ‘cure’ themselves.”

Is this now part of what the SPLC does? And in the interest of fairness and accuracy, have you put out similar ads in other cities asking for the stories of those who have been helped by such therapy? And are you aware of detailed, scientifically sound studies documenting that some are indeed helped and now gladly identify as “ex-gay”? (One of these recent studies has received the highest praise from respected academicians and psychologists.)

And how is it that the SPLC has partnered with Truth Wins Out (TWO), an organization known for vicious, ugly, and mendacious attacks on individuals and groups? In one short article, Wayne Besen, founding executive director of TWO, referred to me as a pathological monster, a slick, sick, cynical, diabolical madman with a messiah complex, also accusing me of trying to incite a bunch of “unstable thugs . . . to engage in a violent physical clash with LGBT people.”

Mr. Potok, is not this defamatory hate speech? Do you approve of a close colleague of the SPLC calling fine Christian moms, dads, kids, and grandparents a bunch of “unstable thugs”? Do you approve of his dangerous and utterly false accusation that I am trying to incite these fine people to violence?

And what do you make of the comments of Dan Savage, perhaps America’s best-known gay activist, with regard to the FRC? He said, “These people won’t be satisfied until they are standing on top of a pile of dead, gay children.” Perhaps the SPLC has contributed to this inflammatory, toxic environment? And perhaps it is no coincidence that the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has confirmed that the FRC shooter was also targeting the Traditional Values Coalition, another “anti-gay” Christian organization on your “hate group” list? Would it trouble you if, in fact, you and the SPLC were part of the potential mass-murderer’s inspiration?

I want to say clearly that I am not writing this letter out of concern for my own safety, nor am I afraid to suffer the consequences of my beliefs. Following Jesus is not meant to be easy or popular, and I have friends and colleagues who were tortured for their faith (have you heard of the late Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, celebrated author of Tortured for Christ?), stoned for preaching the gospel, and even killed. (Recently a young man close to my organization was murdered by Islamic terrorists while doing Christian, humanitarian work in a Muslim country.)

The purpose of this letter is to expose error and to pursue truth, and I am lovingly challenging you and your colleagues to sit down in a room together with the Christian leaders whose names and organizations you have defamed so each side can present their case. (I would also welcome this in a public forum, if preferable. On a personal level, I reaffirm my commitment to have public dialog on the relevant issues with any qualified representative from the SPLC or approved by the SPLC.)

In powerful and concise language, the apostle Paul wrote, “For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth” (2 Cor 13:8). And it was Jesus who said that, “whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God” (John 3:21).

The highest and best thing you could do is recognize the error of your recent listings and remove the leaders and organizations in question, thereby restoring a modicum of credibility. But if you are convinced that your listings are right, then let us have the private convocation of which I speak, and let the truth come forth for all to see.

I ask again: Have you anything to hide or fear? I appeal to you not to respond with a press release but to contact me directly. I am accessible to you and will take your call whenever possible.

Will you move forward and come into the open or will you retrench and retreat? The future of the SPLC could be at stake.

Sincerely,

Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.

Director, Coalition of Conscience

President, FIRE School of Ministry

Host, Line of Fire radio broadcast

A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT FOR A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER

Earlier today, I received an email at our AskDrBrown Facebook page from a man we'll call Sandy, and I replied immediately to him. Here's the exchange, which I believe will speak to many of you:

From Sandy:

Hello Dr. Brown,

As I write this, it is past one in the morning and I cannot sleep because of such a deep burden from the Lord. I feel profoundly called to speak out publicly (on Facebook, etc.) on the issue of gay activism, and feel equipped by the Lord to do so powerfully, compassionately, and effectively, but (I'm ashamed to admit) am fearful that, as a public school teacher and public figure in my community, such boldness would cost me my job and possibly career in education, and possibly compromise my ability to financially provide for my family (I have a wife and three very young children).

I understand that in light of God's providence and protection, my fear is irrational and that I must trust Him for provision and do His work regardless. I still, however, am questioning the wisdom of putting myself and my family at such risk, considering my role as a public school teacher. I have contemplated speaking out in an anonymous blog so as to publish my concerns about gay activism without public repercussion. Even this, I am ashamed to admit as someone who passionately loves Jesus and have been following Him for 17 years.

So to summarize, I think I know the right answer, but I'm humbly requesting of you, my brother in Christ, some encouragement that will help me as I step past my fears and empower me to boldly endure even devastating persecution for the name of Jesus. I suspect that you once wrestled with similar issues before you decided to reach out with compassion and resist with courage. I feel as though once I speak out, my life will never be the same, and there will be no going back. Thank you for listening, and please pray for me as I wrestle through this enormous step.

Your brother in Christ,

Sandy

My reply:

Bless you, Sandy, and I am absolutely standing with you. 

First, you have no choice in the matter: You either step out and obey or live your life in shame and retreat. You have too much of Jesus inside of you to do that! 

Second, I believe you should operate with real wisdom, as if every comment you make will be read around the world -- in other words, careful and compassionate and clear in your communication -- and then be ready to be used as a test case by the Lord in the event that your school district comes against you. They would have no legal right to do so, and there are Christian attorneys who will stand with you in a heartbeat. Are you willing to take that stand? 

Third, remember that one day you will meet common men, women, and children who were tortured and martyred rather than deny Jesus. What will you say to them? 

Fourth, listen to this radio program with your wife: "Washing the Feet of  a Martyr's Widow" -- then write back to me.

Forward in Jesus' name! 

Dr. Brown

WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT “BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION”?

In his book Pure Grace, Pastor Clark Whitten makes a number of strong statements against what he calls “behavior modification,” and I find much important truth in what he has to say:

Christians are way too conscious of sin and way too unconscious of God’s grace. Listen, Jesus did not die to modify your behavior! He could have achieved behavior modification in any number of ways that wouldn’t have cost Him His life. Jesus went to the cross taking the sins of the world upon Himself 

Religion— not real Christianity— is and always has been in the behavior modification and sin management business. It is so lucrative and so firmly entrenched in the Church that it will take a second Great Reformation and a revelation of no less importance than Luther’s to correct this great and spiritually murderous lie.

This Good News reveals the “excellencies” of Christ and is much more attractive than the gospel of behavior modification that legalists proclaim.

If behavior modification is the goal, and it is with all legalists, then repentance is viewed as the primary method of accomplishing it.

I am convinced most pastors and leaders do not have evil intentions nor impure motives toward their people; however, they are deceived and have believed the lie of the enemy that behavior modification is the goal God has set before them in ministry.

The legalistic behavior modification gurus say to those who have failed to keep the rules, “go and sin no more and we won’t condemn you.” Jesus says, “I don’t condemn you, go and sin no more.” He knew the power of love and its ability to transform a human heart!

Without a doubt, many of God’s people live their whole lives with very little understanding of the Father’s incredible love, very little understanding of the message of grace, very little understanding of the power of the blood of Jesus, and very little understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, they live under a cloud of condemnation and frustration, always feeling that they are falling short and never feeling fully accepted by God. How they need a life-transforming revelation of the love and grace and goodness of the Lord! How they need to take hold of their standing as sons and daughters of God!

Unfortunately, there are some statements that Pastor Whitten has made that are easily misunderstood (or, worse still, actually overstated or even wrong),* and now many believers are throwing out whole portions of New Testament Scripture because of the so-called new grace reformation. It has gotten to the point that the moment you share a biblical exhortation with them, they cry out, “I’m not into behavior modification!” I’m encountering this more and more every day, and the tone of the “grace” people is becoming more shrill and harsh by the hour.

SOME EYE-OPENING INTERACTION WITH AN "ANTI-HOMOPHOBIA" MINISTER

This interaction took place on my AskDrBrown Facebook page over the weekend of July 7-8, 2012. Rev-Gerald posted the comment that began our interaction.


Rev-Gerald: Dr. Brown what is your motivation for the work you do?

MLB: Love for God and love for people; a burning call from the Lord; the clear mandate of Scripture -- just for starters.

Rev-Gerald:  I am sorry but I don't see the love for people. Is that love for all people or just straight? Love does no harm.

MLB: Rev-Gerald, wow, you seem to be judging me without knowing me, and that doesn't sound like love at all. Of course I love all people. Jesus does! And I constantly hear from students at our ministry school and folks who listen to my radio show that they now have a tremendous love for LGBT people, a love that they never had before, and we have had many times of prayer, often with tears of compassion, for the LGBT community. Love does no harm because love tells the truth and then love says, "I'm here to give my life to help you know God and walk with Him." By His grace, that's what we do. So, dear brother, where is the love in your statement towards me? And aren't you guilty of violating Matt 7:1? If you really want to hear my heart and you're not just here to post judgmental statements, please watch this.

Rev-Gerald:  Dr. Brown I am very aware of your work and very aware of your words and deeds toward the lgbt community. You are not on SPLC's radar for love in truth.

MLB: Rev-Gerald, tell me about our missionaries serving in more than 20 nations around the world, sir. Tell me about our outreach to the lost sheep of the house of Israel for more than 40 years. Tell me about our message to the Church of America to return to its first love, and the list goes on and on. You obviously have no idea who I am and I wonder if you even took the time to watch the link I sent you. As for the SPLC, please, Gerald. They have disqualified themselves from being taken seriously for a long time now, and even the quotes of mine they use have not a syllable of hate in them. So, I ask you three simple questions: 1) Did you watch the link I sent? 2) Are you demonstrating the kind of love that "does no harm" in your accusations against me? 3) Is the Bible your final authority on how we should live? I look forward to your answers and I do hope that you will not avoid these simple and direct questions. And may you truly be touched by the radical, life-transforming love of Jesus!

Rev-Gerald: ‎1. I watched the link and kudos to Harry Knox. I didn't miss you brag about the same thing you bragged about here (support of missionary work). Again, it is not what we say but what we do to back up what we say. You do double talk. You say what would Jesus do but yet you self publish "A Queer Thing” which is full of misinformation and has been used by some in the anti-gay crowd to hurt the gay community. You say no to homophobia and yet your work is used to fuel homophobia.

2. Why play the victim card? My accusations are not pulled out of thin air sir. They are not without substance. You call out the so-called gay activists and agenda for what you consider to be their wrongs, I and others do the same to you. Repent from your false and misinformation about the lgbt community. Your work in this area, divides families. You may have the best of intentions but the product is a tool of harm. You are seen by some as an expert on the issue of sexual orientation, sexuality and the Bible. Your words are taken as gold and used to verify and excuse hate. There is no room to argue that your words on this issue are misused by others, your words and information on this issue are twisted and skewed from the start.

3. The final authority of how we should live our lives is the Holy Spirit. The Bible as we see in many cases has been used to oppress others. Does that mean to throw it out? No. That means we need to examine ourselves. That is why I asked my question about what motivates you to do this work. If one is motivated by love the end product would be love. When it comes to the LGBT community, especially the transgender community, love is not seen.

I don't know you personally, and do not have a heaven or hell to put you in. What I do have is grave concern for the damage that you are causing in the lives of many.

A REALLY WONDERFUL TESTIMONY

This email was sent to me via the AskDrBrown page on Facebook with encouragement to share it with others as long as I didn't mention the writer's name. So here it is! Be encouraged as you see how the truth of the Word of the Lord can really transform someone's life. Praise God! I inserted hyperlinks within the text to direct you the messages he was speaking about.

Dr. Brown,         

I want to say first of all that I rarely ever use a computer except to learn more about God, and I do not have any kind of social media account. This is through my wife’s account. I am writing you this letter to encourage you; and hopefully others to give to your ministry. I want to also share a little about how God has used your work in radio and preaching to draw me closer to Him and open my eyes wider to the true spiritual war we are in. I have given to your ministry before but have not become a torch bearer yet; even though my wife and I have felt led to become one. When I heard your plea to listeners to help keep God’s work going through your ministry on radio, I knew this was a call for action on our part, (the listeners, and all who have been blessed by any part of your work- past or present). I truly believe that you are on the front lines of the battle against persecution of Jesus and Christians, and moral insanity. I will be giving $1,000 to help your ministry stay on the front lines. I will also become a torch bearer. As soon as I said to myself “I will give” God immediately laid this amount on my heart. This is a lot of money for me to be giving but I know God will provide and increase its value.

God saved me out of drug and alcohol addiction in 1998 on Fathers Day. I became a new person. I, like many, still had struggles though. Staying in church and growing in knowledge. My biggest struggle was pornography. It had been a part of my life for a long time. I was exposed to it at an early age, around 10 to 12 years old. I would fall into this sin and get back up, fall and get back up. Even in the months that I would be victorious in this area, I could not overcome condemnation or believe that I would ever really be freed from this chain of bondage around my neck. I was not given over to it but I just could not get total victory, without having another failure take place and I would be in broken fellowship with God *AGAIN*. I began thinking this would just be something God’s grace would have to see me through. * NOT TRUE* , THAT WAS THE DEVIL’S LIE! God does not want sin to rule the lives of His own. As I have learned from your teaching, Jesus came to save us from our sins not in our sins. He can deliver all who are in bondage to sin. One day during a conversation with my wife about this area of sin in someones life, she asked me if I had viewed pornography. I had determined when I married her that I would be honest with her so I confessed to my wife the failures; and after one counseling session with a Christian counselor and friend, she (my wife) was on my team, praying for me with the understanding that this is the spiritual warfare the bible tells us about. Now I am nearly 3 years free from the bondage of that sin. Your ministry has been a BIG part of the victory. I have “Go and Sin No More” as well as some of your other messages on my iPod. Your messages on Holiness vs Legalism, Overcoming Condemnation, How to Stay on Fire for God, and much more. OH! And every one should hear your “Aharith” message. I listen to your preaching over and over again and it strengthens me and my faith. Your practical teaching about holiness is truly what “The Church” needs to hear today. Let me say that I am a member of a great Southern Baptist church that is definitely standing for what is right, however “the true church is not bound by any denomination anyway.” I believe that without people like you and the light that you are shining, true revival will not come here in this nation. I want to plead with everyone to get on board with your ministry. I, like you, believe that revival is possible if we would do all we can to stand with those who are leading the charge. I listen to you on 1030 am Truth Radio in Raleigh.   

By the way you should know it took me 3 hours to type this letter. I hardly ever use the computer.  

With many thanks,

B---

WHEN "CHRISTIANS" REJECT THE WORDS OF JESUS: A REMARKABLE DIALOGUE ON FACEBOOK

This interaction took place on the Facebook page for A Queer Thing Happened to America from about 2:00 AM until 4:30 AM, Tuesday morning, June 26, 2012. My posts here are identified as "MLB." Aside from removing an unrelated comment or two, as well as the comment of a colleague, this is the exact dialog as it unfolded. I post it here in its entirety, not to shame those I was reaching out to -- in fact, your hearts will break for them as you read -- but because it is one of the clearest examples of spiritual deception you will ever see. Take the time to read it through, and you will be amazed.

The original post was from a man named Nathan who said he would be watching what Facebook did carefully in terms of censoring pages that carried Christian perspectives about homosexuality. This is what followed. (One further note to the reader: I had interacted with Will many times before and he had actually been banned from all our other pages because of the nature of his posts, but I wanted to reach out to him again.)

Will: MANY of us are watching, Nathan .. like hawks. God is watching, as well.

MLB: Will, yes God is watching and reaching out to you, calling you to Himself and calling you to repentance and salvation and new life.

Will: Mike, if you talked with people instead of at them ... and if you honored Paul's words from Romans 14:1-4 ... God would, at least in part, be honored. ONLY you and satan would say what you just said. God and I know better.

Will: Fr. Martin Laird has reminded us that when satan, the prince of darkness, comes against us with his lying vanities as he did to Jesus in the wilderness .. the proper response is the truth of God's Word. He is our defender against every lying accusation from the pit of hell. Even against those things uttered by tongues whose entire agenda is self promotion and using God's beloved for financial gain. As I said earlier ... even more importantly than those of us who watch with vigilance .. God is watching, as well.

MLB: Will, how utterly, terribly tragic that you mistake God's offer of repentance, forgiveness, and new life for the voice of Satan! As for Paul's words, he was speaking about issues like observance of different holy days or eating of certain foods, not sexual sin. On this, he was 100% clear: 1 Cor 5:1-13. If you came here saying, "I want to follow and honor the Lord but I struggle terribly with same-sex attraction and can't see how God would consign me to a life of loneliness and celibacy," I and others would reach out to you and help you any way we knew how, crying with you and praying for you and encouraging you. But when you mock God's truth, falsely accuse me and others of all kinds of foul things, and then call the Father's voice the voice of Satan, you make it very difficult to help you. Nonetheless, I will pray for you, knowing that God can have mercy on us in the midst of our ignorance.

Will: Michael, I utterly reject the bastardized perversion of Christianity that is Fundamentalism ... and I live by faith according to the promises and faithfulness of Christ .. not any sort of Jewish Law that is based on the knowledge of good and evil. There is little sense in discussing anything with you .. so I will leave it, once again, at my original statement. GOD IS WATCHING, Michael. Be certain of it.

Will: You do NOT speak the word of God, Michael ... you speak "the knowledge of good and evil" which is the voice of satan that destroyed the union God intended with Adam in the first place. It is you, sir, that is confused and taking God's name in vain .. not me. You have nothing whatsoever with which to help me. Your relationship is with religious dogma, not with the Spirit of life in Christ, and it is very apparent. Now, let's not waste each other's time .... GOD IS WATCHING, Michael .. be certain of it.

MLB: Will, I base every word of what I wrote here on the God-breathed, life-giving truths of the New Testament. You can accuse all you like, but what you are shouting aloud is that you will reject and twist God's beautiful standards and holy Word based on your sexuality rather than submit to the liberating lordship of Jesus. As for me, I am blessed and thrilled and encouraged by the fact that God watches over me. My Father is wonderful beyond description, and what I do, I do out of love for Him.

Will: For my response ... see above.

JERRY SANDUSKY, GAY ACTIVISTS, AND “CONSENSUAL” PEDERASTY

Every gay and straight person I know deplores the terribly abusive acts of convicted pederast Jerry Sandusky, since he used his position of power to sexually abuse boys and young teenagers. But would gay activists condemn Sandusky if the acts had somehow been consensual?

Consider the example of Harvey Milk, the pioneer gay politician who is celebrated in many schools on Harvey Milk Day and who was memorialized in the Academy Award winning film “Milk.”

According to the acclaimed gay journalist Randy Shilts, at age 11, Milk began attending performances of the New York Metropolitan Opera where he met with “wandering hands” and soon was engaged in “brief trysts [with grown men] after the performances.” While still in junior high, he “dove headfirst into the newly discovered subculture,” and by the age of 14, Milk was “leading an active homosexual life.”

Were the men who were sexually involved with Harvey Milk any better than Jerry Sandusky? And can an 11-year-old give truly informed consent to such acts?

As Milk grew older, the pattern reversed itself to the point that, at age 33, Milk hooked up with a 16-year-old named Jack McKinley, one of a number of younger men with whom he was intimate. Does this not tarnish his legacy?

The school lessons supplied by GLSEN (which in practice stands for the Gay and Lesbian Sexual Education Network) contain tools like “North American History Game Cards,” where children learn that famous Americans like Allen Ginsberg and Walt Whitman were gay. What the children don’t learn is that if Whitman was, in fact, a homosexual, he was also a pederast while Ginsberg was a defender of NAMBLA, the notorious North American Man Boy Love Association, of which he infamously said, “Attacks on NAMBLA stink of politics, witchhunting for profit, humorlessness, vanity, anger and ignorance. . . . I’m a member of NAMBLA because I love boys too — everybody does, who has a little humanity.”

An even more celebrated gay icon, Harry Hay, considered to be the founder of America’s gay liberation movement, was also a friend of NAMBLA. When a gay pride parade in Los Angeles banned NAMBLA from participating, Hay decided to march with a sign that said, “NAMBLA walks with me.”

From 2001-2006, Yale University’s LGBT program was greatly helped by the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies, named after the famous gay activist and author. In a 2004 speech in New York City, he spoke of a “sweet young boy who didn’t know anything and was in awe of me. I was the first man who f----d him. I think I murdered him [meaning, by infecting him with AIDS].” Where is the gay outcry over this?

During a radio interview last year on the Rick Amato Show, Jimmy LaSalvia of GOProud stated, “I happen to think that a good school teacher, when they’re teaching literature, would mention that Oscar Wilde, when they’re teaching his work, would mention that Oscar Wilde was locked in an asylum because he was gay.” Would they also mention that he was a boy lover and that he wrote about his passionate sexual encounters with young teens no older than some of the boys molested by Sandusky?

As noted by Jim Kepner, formerly curator of the International Gay and Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles, “If we reject the boylovers in our midst today we’d better stop waving the banner of the Ancient Greeks, of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, [and others]. We’d better stop claiming them as part of our heritage unless we are broadening our concept of what it means to be gay today.” (There is, of course, dispute about the sexual orientation of some of the men on this list, but if, in fact, they were homosexuals, they were also pederasts.)

And where is the world condemnation of David Norris, the Irish gay activist, Senator, and presidential hopeful? While stating that he abhors child abuse and that offenders should be fully prosecuted by the law, he has also declared, “I don’t believe in an age of consent.” Norris told the magazine Magill, “There’s a lot of nonsense about pedophilia. . . . I think there is a complete and utter hysteria about this subject.” He insisted that children were capable of giving informed consent to sex, saying, “The law should take into account consent rather than age.”

Lifesite News also reports that in a September 2011 letter in which he clarified his views, Norris confirmed his support for consensual pederasty, “saying that from his own experience as a young gay man in Dublin, he would have preferred to have engaged in such a relationship as his ‘introduction to sexuality.’”

This is reminiscent of a statement made by Larry Kramer and proudly quoted by NAMBLA: “In those cases where children do have sex with their homosexual elders . . . I submit that often, very often, the child desires the activity, and perhaps even solicits it, either because of a natural curiosity . . . or because he or she is homosexual and innately knows it.” He even claimed that, “. . . unlike girls or women forced into rape or traumatized, most gay men have warm memories of their earliest and early sexual encounters; when we share these stories with each other, they are invariably positive ones.”

Tell that to the victims of Jerry Sandusky.


(For an earlier version of this article, see HERE.)

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR MY NEW E-BOOK

For those interested, here's the complete Table of Contents for my new e-book, In the Line of Fire: 70 Articles from the Front Lines of the Culture Wars. Each article is linked to its original source of publication online so you can also join in the comments section there if you like. Enjoy!

Preface

1) Gay Is Good or Bullying Is Bad? A Teachable Moment

            October 25, 2010

2) The Southern Poverty Law Center Debunks Itself

            November 29, 2010

3) From Chastity to Chaz: Thou Shalt Not Criticize

            May 19, 2011

4) Are We on the Wrong Side of History Again?

June 13, 2011

5) A Right Wing, Fundamentalist Christian Mass Murderer?

            July 25, 2011

6) Leftists Beware: The Christian Revolutionaries Are Coming Your Way

July 28, 2011

7) It’s the Morality, Stupid!

August 08, 2011

8) Please Stop Sexualizing Our Children (Part 1)

            August 14, 2011

9) Please Stop Sexualizing Our Children (Part 2)

August 16, 2011

10) Why Are We Surprised With the Push for “Pedophile Rights”?

            August 26, 2011

11) Bad Reporting, Bias, or Both at the Charlotte Observer

            August 30, 2011

12) CNN, the Seminary Grad, and Errors Galore

            September 1, 2011

13) Must a President Be Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

            September 01, 2011

14) The Most Important Quality You’re Looking For In a President

September 07, 2011

15) Did Gay Activism Play a Role in the Murder of Lawrence King?

            September 9, 2011

16) Are We As Devoted As the 9/11 Terrorists

            September 14, 2011

17) Why Have Some People Called Me a “Heartless Monster”?

            September 15, 2011

18) The Man Who Married the Goat (And Reflections on the Meaning of Marriage)

            September 19, 2011

19) When a Gay Jewish Liberal Tries to Redefine Christianity

            September 28, 2011

20) Don’t Put Your Trust in a Political Savior

            September 29, 2011

HELP ME STAND AS A VOICE OF RESISTANCE!

I just received news that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has put me on their watch list of "30 New Activists Heading Up the Radical Right." Also on the list are White Supremacists, Neo-Nazis, the leader of the New Black Panthers, and some fine Christian leaders and friends. Jesus said, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:11-12) What an honor to be ridiculed for righteousness!

And what exactly is my crime according to the SPLC? The article states that "Brown has now ventured beyond seminary walls to take on a new, activist anti-LGBT project, selling himself as an expert speaker on the issue of 'cultural revolution.' . . . 'Speak now,' he says frequently when discussing homosexuality, 'or forever hold your peace.'" 

I confess that I am guilty as charged! (Interestingly, even in a hit piece article, the SPLC notes that, "Unlike many other voices on the religious right, Brown generally has avoided the kind of slashing rhetoric that often devolves into rank defamation. His work is heavily footnoted and avoids the blanket pronouncements that have gotten others in trouble.") Perhaps the SPLC is also not happy that I have exposed errors and hypocrisy in their so-called "intelligence reports"?

Earlier this year, GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) put me on their list of 36 commentators that the media should avoid. I have also confronted them on their hypocrisy, which probably helped earn me a spot on their list. Yes, I consider this an honor!

Yale law professor Stephen Carter said that Christian believers must form "communities of resistance that are crucial if we are going to have a chance to transform the nation," and it is my calling to serve as a voice of resistance -- going against the grain, swimming against the tide, and standing for righteousness and truth before God and man.

Would you stand with me in this critical hour in American history? It is a time when Newsweek magazine called Barack Obama "the first gay president," when Marvel comic books announced that one of its popular superheroes will soon come out as gay, when California is poised to pass a bill that would make it illegal for someone under 18 years-old to receive professional counseling for help with unwanted same-sex attraction, even with parental consent.  This really is a critical hour!

There are two resources that I would love to get into your hands, and they are yours for your gift of any size, postage paid. The first is a message I preached in March at Nyack College in New York City entitled, The Spineless Gospel of Tolerance and Acceptance. The second is my mini-book, The Jesus Manifesto: A Call to Revolution, written at the turn of the millennium, but more relevant today than ever. You will be enriched and informed and ignited as you listen and you read.

Once again, a donor is multiplying all your gifts by 50%, so every $10 becomes $15, every $100 becomes $150, and every $1,000 becomes $1,500 -- and every dime of it will go toward our Line of Fire broadcast which is touching countless thousands of lives, all by God's grace and to the glory and honor of the name of Jesus-Yeshua. 

To make a one-time contribution, click HERE; to become a monthly Torchbearer, click HERE, and it will be my joy to send you the audio CD and the mini-book to help spark your own hearts and lives in the Lord. It really is time!

Thank you once more for standing with me with your intercession, your encouragement, your solidarity, and your financial support. Together we are making a difference!

Here's the article I just wrote about this for Townhall. Read it and rejoice with me. 

SHAME ON THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

Appearing embittered and embarrassed by the overwhelming passage of Amendment One on May 8th, the Charlotte Observer posted a sharply worded editorial within minutes of the announcement that the amendment had passed. Abandoning any pretense of impartiality and with very little restraint, the editors of the Observer blasted the good people of North Carolina who voted 61-39% in favor of the marriage amendment.

The editorial was entitled, “Same-sex marriage amendment vote is just wrong,” and it began with this indictment: “On Tuesday, North Carolina foolishly and shamefully joined 30 states with constitutional bans on same-sex marriages.” The end of the editorial was no less biting: “The [voting] result doesn’t show love. It’s wrong and disgraceful.”

In reality, it is the Observer which has acted “foolishly and shamefully” and it is the Observer’s editorial that “doesn’t show love” and is “wrong and disgraceful.” But the Observer not only indicted its own home state; it indicted every other state that has had the opportunity to vote on a constitutional same-sex “marriage” amendment – meaning 30 additional states – for their alleged foolish, shameful, wrong, and disgraceful actions.

Are the editors of the Observer so prescient and morally superior that they can make such harsh judgments against most of the nation?

The Observer claims that the language of the amendment “casts a cloud of uncertainty over the rights and benefits of unmarried couples – both gay and straight – and over domestic violence laws, child custody and visitation rights and end-of-life arrangements.”  

Not only is this disputed by a number of prominent law professors and law enforcement officials in North Carolina, but the constitutional amendments passed in at least 12 other states contain similar wording, and yet this ominous “cloud of uncertainty” has hardly been cast over the “the rights and benefits of unmarried couples” in these states. Otherwise, there would have been hundreds if not thousands of lawsuits flooding the courts in multiple states, not to mention a steady stream of horror stories making their way to the media.

Even the Observer admits that “Legal experts are divided on the possible effects,” yet it cannot seem to fathom that people of good conscience, wanting to ensure that activist judges would not redefine marriage in North Carolina (as happened in Iowa) would vote for the Amendment, convinced that the ominous worst-case scenario would not unfold.

The editors of the Observer express their hope that “there is a challenge to this misguided amendment,” claiming that it “unwisely writes discrimination into the state constitution.” Yes, according to the Observer, “The state is on the wrong side of history on this matter,” claiming that “Most Americans are increasingly rejecting this type of prejudice against gays and lesbians.”

The Observer’s editors thus makes the utterly specious claim that everyone who understands marriage to be what it has been throughout recorded human history (until the last 11 years in a handful of locations) is somehow guilty of discrimination. The Observer claims that it is prejudiced to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman (rather than being genderless), that it is discriminatory to say that kids deserve a mom and a dad, that it is bigoted to make a distinction between heterosexual unions and homosexual unions.

As for allegedly being “on the wrong side of history,” the accusation implicitly compares gay rights with civil rights, as if gay was the new black. In reality, it is a complete canard to compare skin color to romantic attractions and sexual behavior. (I discussed this at length in A Queer Thing Happened to America.)

Skin color is innate and immutable, while there is no reputable science that demonstrates that anyone is born gay (no matter how deeply rooted a person’s sexual feelings might be), and there are countless testimonies of those who have experienced a modification, if not a radical change, in their sexual and romantic desires. And no one is advocating for “gay only” drinking fountains or for gays to sit at the back of the bus, nor have gays been carried over to America as slaves, notwithstanding the very real rejection and bullying many gay Americans have endured.

As for American opinion, other polls have indicated that a majority of Americans still oppose redefining marriage. But even if those numbers are wrong, it is only fair to ask how much Americans have been influenced by the pro-gay media bombardment, as Vice President Joe Biden recently stated, “I think ‘Will and Grace’ probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody’s ever done so far.” And we are supposed to celebrate this as a great moral advance?

The truth be told, multiplied millions of Americans are concerned about the relentless encroachment of gay activism on their freedoms of speech, conscience, and religious expression, and they are grieved over the gay activist indoctrination of their children in the school system, from kindergarten to college. (There is actually a pre-school in Charlotte where teachers cannot address the four-year-olds as “boys and girls,” since that would be making a gender distinction.)

It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who wrote that, “The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children,” and the vote for the marriage amendment was an act to decelerate the moral deterioration of our society. It was, therefore, an act of love.

History will ultimately vindicate the courageous people of North Carolina who voted for the marriage amendment, while the Observer’s editorial will contribute to a legacy of shame.

DOES BILLY GRAHAM ADVOCATE “CHRISTIAN SHARIA”?

Of all the attacks that have come against Rev. Billy Graham in his decades of ministry, a recent attack from gay activist Wayne Besen may be the most ridiculous yet. It was all because Graham took out a full-page ad in 14 North Carolina newspapers supporting the now-passed Marriage Amendment. How dare he!

The ad featured a large picture of Graham with these words: “At 93, I never thought we would have to debate the definition of marriage. The Bible is clear — God’s definition of marriage is between a man and a woman. I want to urge my fellow North Carolinians to vote FOR the marriage amendment on Tuesday, May 8. God bless you as you vote.”

That’s it. A simple statement by the most respected Christian leader in America in the 20^th century reaffirming what was never disputed until recent years, despite the presence of homosexual relationships in various societies for countless centuries: Marriage is between a man and a woman, and, for those who care to know, there’s not a syllable in the Scriptures that gives the slightest hint that marriage is intended to be anything other than the union of a man and a woman.

How did Besen respond to the ad? He called Graham a “onetime anti-Semite,” referred to him as “this fraud,” grouped him with other “totalitarian preachers,” and claimed that “Graham is now trying to jam his own church’s rules and doctrine down my throat” and that “he thinks I should be forced against my will to live by its rules.”

Besen asked, “Do we now make our civil laws based upon Christian Sharia? Do we all have to follow his version of the Bible or be punished by government? And if this is the case, are we really a free country? Are we really much different than Iran, or is it only by a matter of degrees or a matter of time until these so-called ‘Christian Supremacists’ get their paws on all of our laws?” (Yes, this is meant to be taken seriously.)

Besen continued: “I’m not sure who Billy Graham thinks he is. But it seems like he believes he is superior and his followers have a mandate to hijack civil law and decide for the rest of us how we live.” As for what the Bible says about marriage, Besen stated that Graham is “dead wrong about the Bible being clear.”

John Becker, a colleague of Besen, wrote, “It says a lot about the man’s true character that he selected for what may be his final public gesture an act of malice, divisiveness, and discrimination.” (Yes, you read that correctly: reaffirming natural, organic marriage is “an act of malice, divisiveness, and discrimination.”)

According to actor Michael Varrati, implicit in the “First Amendment is the separation of church and state, a basic principle that was championed by Thomas Jefferson to ensure that you could celebrate your faith peaceably without cr--ping all over someone else’s rights or beliefs.”

How do we respond to this? It’s certainly tempting simply to ignore these charges, but since there are many who actually believe them to be true, here’s a brief response:

1) Reaffirming marriage as the union of a man and a woman (the only thing the human race has known throughout recorded history until the last 11 years) is as far from Sharia law as Billy Graham is from Wayne Besen. And this has nothing to do with actions of “Christian Supremacists,” a derogatory term used by Besen but one that is totally foreign to the people themselves. (Using Besen’s own criteria, would he qualify as a “Gay Supremacist”?) This simply has to do with American citizens saying, “We really don’t want an activist judge to redefine marriage in our state, so we’re going to secure that in our constitution.” For many of these citizens, this has nothing to do with the Bible.

2) To encourage Christians to vote based on their religious and moral convictions is not hijacking civil law or trying to jam church rules or doctrines down anyone’s throat. It’s called democracy in action. Ironically, when gay activists want to push their agenda or goals or religious convictions on everyone else, it’s called America at her best, a great example of equality and freedom.

3) This has nothing to do with someone’s “version of the Bible.” Every Bible in every language says the same thing regarding God’s intent about marriage. Read the words of Jesus himself in Matthew 19:4-6 if you have any doubt. Read them in any translation or in the Greek. They all say the same thing.

4) The “separation of Church and state” which Jefferson championed was meant to keep the state out of the church’s business, not to keep the church out of the state’s business. Once again, though, it is ironic that those who want to keep conservative Christians from being a political force – in the name of the separation of Church and state – strongly encourage liberal Christians to influence politics and government based on their interpretation of the Bible. Besen himself called for a “spirit of rebellion” that “should begin with mainstream Christians who should be absolutely livid and incensed.”

The bottom line is this: It would be one thing if conservative Christians in America wanted to pass laws that called for the hanging of gays or the beheading of adulterers (as still takes place in countries like Iran or Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia). It’s another thing entirely when they say, “We don’t believe God intended a man to marry a man, and we will vote accordingly.” To call that Christian Sharia is to admit that you have nothing of substance to say. 

SO, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE "JESUS REVOLUTION"?

On September 2, 2000, I stood before several hundred thousand believers who had gathered at the Mall in Washington, DC for the first-ever Call event and said, “Let the White House know, let the media know, let Hollywood know, let the world know that we are here to start a Jesus revolution!”

That same day, we gave away more than 70,000 copies of my just-published book Revolution! The Call to Holy War, and in the crowd that day, as well as standing on the platform behind me, were more than 700 students from our school, the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry. They had traveled by bus more than 20 hours to attend the Call event, and they were the largest group from anywhere in America that day.

It really was quite an event. Twelve hours of prayer, worship, repentance, and preaching; the largest gathering of Christian young people in American history; the supernatural writing, publishing, and free distribution of my book (more than $1 million in retail value); the massive support from our student body in Pensacola (another amazing story). All this was euphoric and deeply moving, and the event itself exceeded even the expectations of Che Ahn and Lou Engle, the organizers and visionaries behind it.

But did a Jesus Revolution begin at that time? Or has it begun since then and has it continued until now?

When the Lord saved me at the end of 1971, I had no idea that my salvation was part of a worldwide move of the Spirit that became known as the Jesus People Movement or the Jesus Revolution. It began around 1967 and lasted into the mid-1970s, and it probably reached its apex in the early 70s, to the point that the cover story of Time Magazine June 21, 1971 was devoted to “The Jesus Revolution.”

But from my perspective, not to mention the perspective of thousands of pastors around the country, there was no understanding that this larger, supernatural move that was taking place.

Is that the case with today’s Jesus Revolution (which I/we always understood to be something very different from what happened in the late 60s and early 70s)? Or are we just putting our own interpretation on a phrase in order to make something out of nothing?

Here are my candid reflections: 1) There has been a new Jesus Revolution moving and growing in America and the nations for the last decade or more. 2) It is nowhere near what I expect it to be and something supernatural must happen for my expectations (and the expectations of many others) to be realized. In that sense, it is still in its early stages. 3) The door is wide open for anyone with a willing heart to dive in and live out the calling to be a Jesus revolutionary (another name for a New Testament disciple!) – and I mean right here and now.

Let me break this down into five categories, and when you’re done reading, I welcome your honest, prayerful response. Please share this others too as you feel it’s appropriate, especially those who had a history with BRSM or its successor FIRE School of Ministry (or, more broadly, with the Brownsville Revival or FIRE Church or any other group that carried or carries this same vision).

1) AN UNGODLY REVOLUTION. In my book Revolution! (which, again, came out in 2000), I wrote, “Only the life-changing power of the gospel will ultimately change a society for good. Only new hearts will bring forth the new life that the oppressed so long for and desire. Only the Spirit of God will truly liberate captives! But if we do not rise up and act, Satan will. The dissatisfaction is rising. The discontent is growing thick. Revolution is near – either heaven-sent or hell-bent – and only we have the truth that will set slaves free.”

I emphasize these last sentences here to say that, without a doubt, there has been a hell-bent, destructive revolution that has been sweeping America this millennium. To give just two examples, there has been an all-out assault on religion and faith by the so-called new atheists (with quite a few of their books being influential, national bestsellers) and there has been an unprecedented cultural shift due to homosexual activism, resulting in the redefining of marriage, the indoctrination of our children, and a growing threat to freedoms of religion, conscience, and speech.

So, there’s no question that, on a national level, we have taken several steps back, and in my opinion, that points to the failings of the Church, since the greatest problem in America today is not so much the presence of darkness as it is the absence of light.

What’s the point in mentioning this? It is simply to say that when other leaders and I spoke in past years about America being shaken and we said that we were living in revolutionary times, those statements have proven true.

2) LOOK AT WHAT GOD HAS DONE. Over the last 10+ years, a number of significant ministries have been birthed, most of them coming together on a grass-roots level, most of them involving (or being led by) young people, and most of them carrying the message and mindset of Jesus revolution: radically changed people going after God with heart and soul, then stepping out in obedience to change the world.

I’m thinking of pro-life movements like Bound4Life, pro-adoption movements like The Zoe Foundation, and college-focused, church-planting movements like Campus Church Networks, just to name a few. And all of these are directly related to the original leaders of The Call, which has also birthed a Nazarite movement devoted to prayer, fasting, and radical commitment.) And when I consider what has been birthed out of the revival and carried on through FIRE, I’m honestly blown away. To repeat: Look at what God has done!

Do you realize the scope of what our FIRE team is doing in the Philippines? Talk about articulating what a Jesus Revolution is all about! How about our teams in sensitive parts of the world that we can’t even mention publicly? Their testimonies literally bring tears to my eyes and make me examine my own life.

How about missionaries like Melody, married to her Indian husband Syam, doing incredible things in Hyderabad? Add to that our frontline soldiers in Mexico and in Thailand and in many other nations – I’m just mentioning a few here; please forgive me for not mentioning everyone – along with some of our grads here in the States who are going into the some of the poorest, roughest communities and giving themselves to rehabilitate both individuals and neighborhoods, and I can only say that this is the kind of fruit we envisioned when we spoke of the Jesus Revolution. And most all of them are doing things in unconventional, not “church as usual” ways.

These grads have exemplified the “by life or by death” attitude that is at the very foundation of our devotion to Jesus and a dying world, and if we could look at a world map from a spiritual perspective and see the impact these various ministries and groups are having – and this is just a small portion of what has been birthed – I think all of us would be very encouraged and would recognize that, indeed, something new and revolutionary is afoot.

3) THE BATTLE FOR OUR CULTURE. The battle for the heart and soul of America – the battle for our culture – has never been a political battle to me (although I recognize the rightful role played by politics) and, in all honesty, I have a personal revulsion when it comes to putting my trust in the political system or a political party. (I was totally baffled to read a post by a BRSM grad who spoke of my shift towards a political emphasis when – and since – I wrote Revolution!. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This is a kingdom issue to me – not even a patriotic issue – and a kingdom issue alone. It is all about Jesus and His righteousness to me, about us being salt and light, about us being prophetic voices of justice and compassion.)

For me, the revolution message is very simple: Jesus changes us and we go and change our world. Or, to paraphrase the Great Commission, Jesus says to His disciples, “Come, let’s change the world together.” As a speaker once said at a Call event, “Jesus transforms people, and people transform society.”

Today, we are in the thick of a hellacious battle for our culture, with the ongoing deterioration of marriage (less and less couples are getting married; more and more women are having babies out of wedlock; the very institution of marriage is being redefined), the continual attack on our children (41% of pregnancies in NYC end in abortion, including 60% of African American pregnancies in New York City; the mandatory homosexual indoctrination of kids from K-12 in states like California), and growing problems like gang violence, racial division, and more.

Those of us called to stand on the front lines of the so-called culture wars find ourselves in revolutionary activity virtually every single day, and I am personally living out many of the things I spoke about and wrote about over the last 20+ years. And we need help! A few months ago I met with a grad who, with a gracious spirit, asked me where the revolution was that we talked about. I told him we were in the thick of it right here in Charlotte and we needed his help.

4) A SPECIAL PRAYER FOCUS. When God began to burden me deeply concerning homosexual issues, speaking to me in early 2005 to “reach out and resist,” I began to sense that He was going to pour out His Spirit in the LGBT community, much as He did with the hippie community when I got saved. Over the years, I began to share this publicly, stating that I was praying and believing for this.

When I shared this with Che Ahn at The Call Sacramento, he told me he was prophesying this and believing for it for years now. Then I learned that a prophetic leader had prophesied quite a few years back that 100,000 gays and lesbians would be dramatically saved by the Lord, with many healed of AIDS as well. Then I spoke at a house of prayer in Virginia, given to 18 hours of prayer and worship daily, and when I shared the “reach out and resist message” with them, one of their leaders was blown away and said, “That’s the very commission we received from the Lord when we birthed this house of prayer!” (I was shocked to hear it too; the wording and emphasis was amazingly similar.) I’ve also been part of special gatherings of prayer and fasting devoted to seeing this miraculous harvest come to pass, and I often challenge FIRE church and other churches asking, “Are we ready for this harvest?”

To be clear, this harvest has not yet happened in any significant measure, but it seems clear the Lord has birthed this in our hearts to pray it into existence as part of the Jesus revolution.

5) WHAT HAS NOT YET HAPPENED. Without question, only a small part of what we are believing for has come to pass so far (although I understand many of us could say that about our own spiritual lives in light of God’s Word and promises). On the one hand, we dare not stop here and think that we have arrived (absolutely not!), but on the other hand, we dare not lose heart. God has done much already, many of the visions and dreams he has put into our hearts are coming to pass, and we ought to encourage ourselves with what the Lord has done while we recognize the many, large things that have not come to pass.

In too many of our circles, we’re still experiencing or practicing “church as usual”; there is still no evidence of any kind of supernatural, large harvest in America; the culture is getting worse not better; there are only pockets of spiritual outpouring worth noting; young people continue to fall away or become compromised at an alarming rate – but I am more confident than ever than ever that God will finish what He started, that a Jesus Revolution is underway (although, to repeat, it remains in its early stages), and that the time is more ripe than I can remember for each of us to give ourselves unconditionally to the purposes of God.

Why not you? Why not now? Is God unwilling or unable to help and assist and back and direct?

* * *

Over the course of my 40+ years in the Lord, He has spoken some things to me of great importance – I mean major, prophetic words that I cannot shake – and the pattern of fulfillment has often been the same: first, the supernatural deposit – meaning, specific things that were part of the larger vision coming to pass in a dramatic and undeniable way – followed by years of spiritual agony, crying out to God, asking Him to fulfill the rest of His promises, longing and yearning for His power and righteousness to be revealed, interspersed with seasons of questioning (“Will it ever happen? Did I really hear God? Did I disqualify myself by falling short?) and seasons of great blessing, followed by the fulfillment.

This is what happened to me with the promise of revival, as I began to share with my friends beginning in 1983 that God spoke to me that I would be part of a revival that touched the world, and this is what is happening with the promise of revolution. The Call DC event and the distribution of the Revolution! books was a divine deposit of sorts (to this day, I hear from people who received the book at The Call DC, had their world rocked, and have never been the same); there have been years of intense crying out for God to act since then, along with seasons of questioning and seasons of great blessing, and I now feel that the revolution is rising day by day. (It may be meaningful for you to know that over these years, God clearly spoke to me – as part of the vision for Jesus Revolution – that He would give me a national platform on Christian talk radio and would call me to write cutting-edge, kingdom-based articles on major political websites. The fact that both of these are now happening encourages me that the rest will also come to pass. And please hear this in the spirit in which I say it: This has nothing to do with me; it has to do with the larger purposes of God.)

What is coming next? How soon will things really shake? I honestly have no idea, but something is rising, much is happening, and rather than focusing on what hasn’t taken place we should be stirred and encouraged by the many wonderful testimonies of what is taking place (and has taken place), strengthening our faith for today and tomorrow. (This message, “Write Down the Vision,” preached recently at FIRE, should encourage you too.)

Your thoughts and comments are welcome!