Police threaten an evangelist for preaching on “Hell”

A Rock Island, Il. Evangelist was threatened by police officers for preaching on “Hell” and accused him of cussing. Yet, if this Evangelist was using the term in reference to a particular place, (which he was), then there was no profanity in his speech.

Here is a portion of an article describing the events that surrounded the threats by local police:

 

“A Rock Island, IL, street evangelist has filed complaints after local police have twice threatened him with arrest for preaching about “hell” and informing people that they must die and face judgment. The court also required the man to justify his use of the word “hell,” asking why the alleged cuss word was a necessary part of his message.”

 

 

Read the rest of the article here:

 

 

Nevertheless, Dan Savage was allowed into a public school in order to bully, cuss, and ridicule those who hold to the Christian faith and nothing was done by authorities concerning this matter.

Read about Dan Savage’s rant here.

Those who ridicule the Bible and protest of Christian’s intolerance against homosexuality, murder, abortion, etc… ;are really showing that the shoe is on the other foot. I have yet to encounter someone on this blog who professes to be an atheist, homosexual, etc…; who actually shows tolerance for beliefs that differ with theirs.

So those who claim that Christians are bigots are showing their true colors.

My Two cents on the Death of Whitney Houston

It seems that Christians in America somehow deem the gospel ineffective unless a celebrity in America dies. Then they speak out in ridicule of the celebrity and think they are ministering the gospel to the world. But most do not even blog the gospel any more. For instance, I have many a blog, of which I subscribe to, who never mentions Christ or the Gospel. They constantly blog about every wolf that comes down the pike and every false doctrine that shows its ugly head, but never mention Christ and his gospel. They remind us that we should beware of such movements as New Calvinism, The Emergent Church, The Seeker Sensitive Movement and so forth. These movements should be exposed for what they are, yet these blogs never mention Christ, how to be saved, or that we must be about our Father’s business.

No wonder I can put out a post, as I did two weeks ago, reminding everyone that we must be about our Father’s business and everyone passes it by without even a single ‘like.’ This is because this blog post was not esoteric enough or didn’t have enough theological words in it. It was simple and straight to the point. It reminded everyone that our life was like a vapour, that death was coming, and that we don’t have much time to be doing what we are going to do for Christ and his gospel, so we must be about our Father’s business.

You know why I believe that many do not mention the gospel or alert everyone of the poor conditions that exist among the impoverished around the world? It is because they are sitting around waiting on a celebrity to die. Then when this celebrity dies they want to point everyone to the fact that we ought to be weeping over the unfortunate in this world, instead of weeping over this celebrity. In other words they show more compassion for the unfortunate at that moment, than they do the friends, family, or fans of the one who just passed away.

Does the Bible command us to ridicule or use the deaths of others in order to preach the gospel? Does the Bible command us to make fun of someone’s death in order that the world will hear us? Let me ask you: What if your wife was famous and she died? Would you want people to console you or make fun of your wife? We must remember that the celebrity who died is a husband, brother, son, mother, wife, or daughter of someone else also. We are commanded by Paul the apostle to weep with those who weep Romans 12:15 and commanded by Christ to love our enemies Matthew5:44.

What did Christ do when confronted with the news of those whom Pilate slew and mingled their blood with the sacrifice? Or what did he do when confronted with the news of the eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell? Did Christ use a platform of ridicule in order to preach the gospel? Or did he instead turn the results of the news story back on his hearers by telling them that if they do not repent, then they will also likewise perish?

God has called us to preach the gospel. By doing so we are to be all things to all men. We are to speak the truth in love. We are to be a shoulder of compassion to those who are in this world and have no hope. We are to point the world to Christ.

What I can’t believe is the posts that have gone up the past week over Whitney Houston’s death. There have been people who have posted that one person dies and a hundred million mourns, while millions die and no one mourns. This is a true statement, but is it relevant at the moment? Why is it that American Christians are so busy filling their utility sheds with crap all year if they are worried about the impoverished? Why is that they buy every what-not they can get their hands on, or spend a majority of their free time down at Wally world (Wal Mart), if they are so concerned about those who are hungry?

My next question is going to sting. Are we to preach to the world that Whitney Houston died and therefore men ought to repent? Or Are we to preach that God allowed his Son to die and that he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world, by his Son whom he raised from the dead, and therefore men ought to repent? The gospel is not that Whitney Houston lived and died, but that Christ lived, died, and rose from the dead. A man’s response to this is what will bring either salvation or greater judgment.

What I want to know is why have America’s so-called Christians sat around on their rear ends and allowed prayer to be taken out of schools and abortion to become legal and have remained silent. They remind me of the thousands of ministers who said nothing while Hitler murdered the Jews throughout Europe. The reason they said nothing is because they were afraid that Hitler would take their lives to.

Here in America it is different, however. We are not afraid to say anything because we will lose our lives. O no. We are afraid to say anything and to speak out against injustices because we do not want the western world to fire us from our jobs. You see we are like the Israelites of the ten tribes, who were exiled to Assyria. We don’t want to go back to the land because we are living off the good things of the heathen. In other words we love Assyria or should I say Babylon or should I say Egypt. We love the good things of this world. We do not want to be made uncomfortable. We do not want to be shunned by speaking the truth in love.

So instead we sit around and wait on a celebrity to die and then ridicule their death and think that we are preaching the gospel. Certainly we are to speak out against the injustices done to the poor and impoverished in this world, but there is a time and season to do that. There is a time and season to be compassionate and then a time and season to speak out against the injustices of the impoverished. But it is never appropriate to ridicule or to use as a platform someone’s death in order to make like we are concerned over the poor.

Christ, when he heard of Lazarus’ death, was moved with compassion and wept. When Christ saw the mother weeping, of the son who was being carried out of Nain, he had compassion on her. We also ought to have compassion on those who are distressed. We are not to have our heads so high in the theological clouds that we can’t minister to people with compassion. No, we are to take and mix our theology with compassion and minister to the hurting.

But here in America we are more tore up over the defeat of our favorite football team, than we are over somebody’s death. We are more hurt when our favorite race car driver loses the Sunday race, than we are over those who lost a loved one. Our gladiator games are more important and cause us more agony than seeing a life pass without knowing Christ.

What more can I say? God forgive us all for showing such a pathetic image of you. God forgive us for not being compassionate to the hurting. You have told us to let our light so shine that men might see our good works and glorify you. God forgive us for our failings in not being that light for you. Help us to wake up out of our theological clouds. Help us to mix theology with mercy and compassion in order to minister to the hurting.

 Amen.

 Hershel Lee Harvell Jr.

Concerning Driving out the Devil

The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.

Martin Luther

Concerning Comments

I must say that I love WordPress. I suggest anyone who wants to blog, to use this site. If someone leaves a spam response, tries to ridicule, or just wants to be plain ugly, then I have to approve their response before it can go through. Also it catches all spam and also records the IP Address of those commenting. This is so they can be tracked. Great job WordPress.