The Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Jerry Kaifetz

Last Friday evening, March 8, 2011  I joined millions of Americans in watching the documentary on ABC revealing the legendary abuses of a number of Independent, Fundamental Baptist Churches.  There was little in that report with which I was able to honestly disagree.  That is a sad statement for me to have to make.  The reason I can make that statement, however, is because I spent a dozen or so years at the heart of that movement and close to the sources of its power.  One of the clips that was shown on the ABC piece was that of a raging preacher demonstrating his misogynism and bullying authoritarianism in plain view again and again in thunderous tones from his pulpit.  That preacher was Jack Schaap, the pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond and successor to his father-in-law, Jack Hyles.  The preacher in the stripped prison suit in Tennessee serving a 175 year sentence for sexually abusing and torturing his adopted daughter was Joe Combs.  Combs was the premier Bible teacher at Hyles-Anderson College, a ministry of First Baptist Church of Hammond.  Sad to say, it is my alma mater.  I graduated from there with two degrees in pastoral theology in 1986 and 1988.  Thank God my education has continued, both formally and informally since then as a conscious decision on my part to try to get my theological hat on straight and to purge my doctrine of the admixture cultish beliefs that were part and parcel of the daily fare at H.A.C. for five years, and proudly reinforced from the pulpit of First Baptist Church of Hammond three times a week, and in the many national  conferences sponsored by the church every year in which I participated and taught.

As I scale the high peaks of knowledge and truth and gratefully and humbly learn more each day of God’s thoughts and what it means to be a Christian, my perspective on the Independent Baptist Movement comes into clearer and clearer focus.  I have always said that I would no more paint the entire movement with the broad brush of criticism deserved by some of its leaders than I would quit eating restaurants for the rest of my life because I ate one meal that made me sick.  That being said, the ABC piece pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Our adversary, Satan, understands that if he can get a Christian to take Christ off the altar, he must provide a suitable and acceptable substitute.  For the dedicated and serious Christian the coarse replacements of sexual sin and riches most often will not do.  What works nicely, however, may at first glance be a surprising choice.  What are many pastors willing to place on the center of the altar instead of Christ? Their church!  This mindset and the strategies, principles, supporting sermons and tactics were honed to perfection by Jack Hyles.  In fact, he was so masterful and bold as to spell it out in detail regularly from the pulpit without fear and yearly before his nationwide “Pastor’s School .”  Hyles  once said on a Sunday evening in my presence, “The entire spiritual fate of this nation rests on these shoulders right here,” pointing to his own.   What Hyles was really saying was, “We have to do everything necessary to secure my future and the future of this church, regardless of what we are accused of doing, or America is spiritually doomed!”   What that turned out to be was sweeping scandal after scandal under the rug, treating victims as willing participants in sin, and running from their obligation as Christians and church leaders to protect the innocent while keeping a convicted child molester on their deacon board and on  the Board of Trustees of their college.

This morning I was reading in the book of Micah and came across this verse:

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Micah 6:8

These words hit me right between the eyes and all I could see was the face of Jack Schaap, the pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond and the heir to the throne of Jack Hyles as the self-appointed leader of the  Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement.  You see, Jack Schaap and I were once best friends.  He was also my business partner.  The first wedding ever performed by Jack Schaap was our own wedding: Schaap married my wife and me on July 20th, 1985 in Azle, Texas.

So when I read that verse in Micah this morning, something powerful and stunningly accurate occurred to me: Jack Schaap and men like him have failed on all three of the requirements given by the prophet Micah to express what God requires of man:

“to do justly:” There was no justice in the little girl’s face across the table from me in that run-down house in Gary, Indiana, as I watched her mother cry after her little girl had been molested by  deacon A.V. Ballenger at  First Baptist Church of Hammond.  Ballenger was subsequently convicted and imprisoned.  There was no justice in the church shunning and ostracizing that family for daring to go public.   There was no justice for one of my good friends who uprooted his life in Southern California to attend Hyles-Anderson College where one of Hyles’ associate pastors committed adultery with his wife and destroyed their marriage, only to have Hyles quietly ship the adulterous preacher off to another church (where he did the same thing).  My friend’s life was shattered and left in ruins and his family of five children is fractured still today,  twenty-five years later.

“to love mercy:” There is no mercy at First Baptist Church of Hammond when it comes to victim advocacy and the thousands of churches who populate their many conferences in an effort to be more like them learn this well.  If the rights of the victim come into conflict with the public image of the church, the church will be in the lives of these abused people an unstoppable juggernaut that will plow them over and leave them not only powerless and cast aside, but for many, the church will add insult to injury by heaping mountains of guilt on their victims, regardless of their age.  Many of these victims never recover.

“to walk humbly:” Men like Schaap and Hyles are riddled through and through with a Napoleonic complex, and for Hyles, I strongly suspect that it was in fact a messianic complex.  These men exhibit narcissism on steroids.  I once counted self references in a Hyles sermon: 305, and only 4 to  God.     I never once heard from Hyles anything about his own human weakness or frailty, or dependence on God.  Hyles began and perpetuated and taught the worst of Independent, Fundamental Baptist preaching: VOLUME!  (If you say it loud enough, it must be so!)

Where was the humility of Job?  Where was the contrition of David?  Where was the self-diminishing expression of John the Baptist?  Where was the self-examination mandated by Christ at the Last Supper? Wherever it was, it was not to be found at 523 Sibley Street in Hammond on any Sunday morning in my seven year tenure there, or in my close relationship with Jack Hyles and Jack Schaap.

Today, Jack Hyles knows better.  He met God on February 6th, 2001.  He now understands that he had for a half-century monumentally underestimated the holiness of God and inexpressibly overestimated his own righteousness in ways impossible to even begin to count or describe.   He now understands the magnitude of that travesty.

Today, Jack Schaap does not understand.  Thank you, ABC for exposing the abuses of the Independent Fundamental Movement.  It is a shame that it did not come from God’s people.   My only regret is that your brush was broader than it needed to be.  However, I believe in my heart that God’s people are to blame,  for this  judgment should have begun at the house of God, not on West End avenue in New York City.  Oh that we had been the ones to to sweep our own church floors!

How A Good Church Becomes A CultHow A Good Church Becomes A Cult

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Most Jews Are Practical Atheists

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Jerry Kaifetz

I have been witnessing to Jews for 27 years about my Christian faith.  I was born & raised in the Jewish faith, Bar Mitzvah’d at age 13, learned Hebrew as a child, had a wonderful man for a rabbi  I  came to believe in and accept Christ as the Jewish Messiah in 1983 at the age of 35.

I have always said that the vast, vast majority of Jews identify themselves as Jews on the basis of four things:  CULTURE, NATIONALISM, HISTORY & ETHNICITY.  Judaism today is little more than a 5,000 year old religious social club.

But I have recently experienced another level of awakening with regard to my understanding of Jews.  Please understand that I do  not consider myself to be on the outside looking in just because I deviate in my belief system from most Jews only on the subject of Jesus Christ being the Jewish Messiah.  I consider that the evidence from the Jewish Scriptures attesting to this fact is abundant, replete and compelling and that  beyond question.  Add to that the fact that I believe that all religions MUST be defined by their SCRIPTURES (not the peripheral texts, commentaries or the writings and opinions of it’s adherents) and you see why I often say that I can make a pretty good case for my being more Jewish than anyone  in the local synagogue on a Friday night.)

Now here is my recent epiphany: in dealing with Jews, we must most often deal with them simply as practical atheists.  One of my good Jewish friends often says to me that “man created God in his image.”  Add to that the observable fact that Jewish morality is almost often purely subjective and fluid, and you will see why Judaism is becoming more and more synonymous with practical atheism.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have solidly and convincingly and irrefutably painted a Jewish person into a corner in making my case for Christ being the Messiah from Jewish Scripture, only to have them walk right across the wet paint and leave embarrassing footprints of stubbornness and denial that essentially say, “I don’t care what you say, I am not going to worship Jesus.”    Their mind is made up and the foundational teachings of their religion have nothing to do with their beliefs.  I am sorry, but this is the position of ignorance, not intelligence and reason.

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Mercy and Truth

Posted on December 1, 2010 by Jerry Kaifetz

I was asked this question today:

“Jerry, you Baptists teach ETERNAL SECURITY   I’m not sure of your stand on this subject. I remember in one of our phone conversations, you said, God is gracious and merciful,  but He will NOT and CANNOT condone any part of SIN. ”              d.k.

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I wrote this short answer:

Eternal Security has much to do with the born-again, adoptive nature of the regenerative experience:  God chose those terms as pictures of salvation.  Once born into a family, your standing & fellowship may be subject to change, but not your genetic or legal relationship to your father.  That is permanent and eternal.

Christ is described the place where “mercy & truth have kissed each other.”  One can never operate without the other & reflect God.  That is both  the great truth of God’s nature, and the great key to our own Christlikeness.

Most Christians live their lives chronically unbalanced on one side or the other.  Success in balancing truth & mercy (law & grace) is a dynamic life process and not a destination.  It requires daily adjustment, if not often moment by moment adjustments, and nearly constant self-examination and the resulting impetus to prayer.

Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

Posted in Articles, Eternal Security, Forgiveness | Leave a comment

Revivals that Aren’t, and One that Was

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Jerry Kaifetz

One day I drove by a church and saw on their sign in front, “Revival,” along with the dates and times.  I thought about this as I drove to my home, not far away.  I wondered: is there really going to be a revival?  How many of these events bearing that title actually bring genuine revival to churches?  My answers to these questions based on many years of church experience were not encouraging.  Nevertheless, my heart went out to those people at the church that I had driven past because at least they were trying.  They were facing in the right direction and their motives and desires were good ones.

The use of the term “revival” implies the bringing back to life something that once had life but no longer does.  The term is not used literally, of course, but rather concerns itself more with spiritual vitality that has presumably gone on the wane and that churches wish to bring back.  The specialist dedicated to that endeavor is the evangelist.

I overheard a group of evangelists down South once discussing a revival one of them had recently held.  They never once mentioned attendance or the number of decisions made for God in the lives of those who came.  One man asked one question, got a one word answer, and the discussion was over.  That question was telling and brutally pointed, and it told these men everything they needed to know about those meetings.  The question only had four words, and the answer one: “Did it break loose?”  The answer: “no.”

Having been in one revival where there was not a molecule of doubt that the Holy Spirit had convincingly and completely taken over, I knew as soon as I heard that term, “break loose,” that it was the perfect description for what happens when God’s power sweeps through a revival meeting.  This is not a metaphorical expression.  I have seen it happen twice.  I am not the least bit prone to hyperbole or exaggeration, but the closest I have ever come to justly describing this phenomenon is to say that it is like standing under a waterfall.  It is overwhelming to the human capacity and senses and leaves the lives of everyone there permanently and unforgettably transformed.  The effect often lasts for generations.  These events are true miracles of God.

If there is a key  element to true revival, it is that there it is an open  secret as to how they are accomplished.  I would say from my personal and very limited experience at seeing the Spirit of God “break loose” in a church that the common ingredients seems to be sincerity and an uncompromising desire for the presence and revitalizing power of God.

I was in one revival once in a small church in the hills of Kentucky where the  Holy Spirit did not “break loose” until one woman followed her personal directive from God in a very public way.  The preacher said that there was “someone here whom God told to testify,” and made it clear that the meeting would not go on until that person followed God’s prompting.  There was a long silence, and he repeated his words.  Still nothing.  The congregation sang a song and he asked again.  Silence.  Finally a young woman in the far right aisle (there was standing room only) shouted out with every bit of volume and energy that was in her small frame: “ITS ME!  ITS ME!  ITS ME, PREACHER!!!”

She poured her heart out a mile a minute with a riveting account of how God had been working in her life.  Her words  swept every person in that small church along in a river of spiritual emotion and energy that was beyond anything I had witnesses in my twenty five years of church life.  The second she was done, a man on the other side of the church felt emboldened to speak out and gushed forth with a testimony that he too could no longer contain.  Then another, and another, and finally the evangelist had the good sense to understand that the order of service had been taken over by the Holy Spirit.  He extended the invitation without ever preaching a word.  Out of about 350 people there, probably all but three or four came to the altar and poured their hearts out to God for a solid forty-five minutes, including me.This was the real thing.

I’m sure that if anyone in that revival service was ever asked that uniquely important and telling  question, they would all have the same answer.    The question that the knowing Christian understands is all that needs to be asked about any revival to know whether or not it lived up to its name.  It is   still till the only question that matters:  “Did it break loose?’  The answer on that day from that small white church-house in the hills of central Kentucky is as simple as it is joyous: “yes, it did!”

Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

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How to Offend Just About Everyone in Nine Paragraphs

Posted on November 7, 2010 by Jerry Kaifetz

How to Offend Just About Everyone in Nine Paragraphs

Homosexuals: Quit your whining and understand that the Judaeo-Christian ethic has been around for 5,974 years longer than Gay Rights, and condemns your behavior. The Apostle Paul called it “vile affections” & Moses called it “an abomination.” Your tantrums will not change that, neither will calling folks bigots who simply choose to believe the Bible. Homosexuality is an excrement-soiled fist in the face of God.  He is keeping score.  You will one day see that scorecard.

Feminists: You are neither inferior nor superior to men. You are different. You have breasts and estrogen, and since form follows function, you were made for nurturing. Get over it. (Meantime, you might think about the political hypocrisy of maligning strong, successful Conservative women.)

Shrinks: When are you going to stop indefinitely extending the boundaries of mental illness? Sure, some people have brain tumors or other evident pathologies, but most of your patients have just made bad choices, which your excuse-based treatment keeps them from confronting. Freud was dead wrong:  guilt is not neurosis, it is the sign of a conscience trying to be heard. Quit doping it into a fog!  (Never knew one who didn’t need one . . . )

“African-Americans:” You are not African. You weren’t born there, neither were any of your ancestors that you can name. You are Americans. Your forefathers were sold into slavery by African tribal chiefs who had been executing conquered tribes for centuries until the slave traders came and offered them payment for their captives. There is plenty of blame to go around. Grab your share and quit this obvious extortion and race hustling and whining about “reparations,” and get rid of those “social justice” pimps some of you have been conned into calling your leaders.

Church Leaders: Your mandate is not to uphold and defend the church at any cost. Your mandate is to uphold truth and righteousness and let the chips fall where they may. That is called ecclesiastical integrity, and it is in very short supply in the church today. For  an exceedingly high percentage of you, the church has become your idol. There are so many idols on the altars of so many churches that Christ was crowded off long  go.  You need to learn to deal with people who don’t agree with you without feeling threatened.  Your mandate from God is “restore in the spirit of meekness.”  Far too many pastors are all about preserving the church’s status quo.  They will only speak of sin in generalities.  That’s not how Jesus did it.

College Professors: Stop rewriting history the way you think it should have been. Thomas Jefferson should be judged for his slaves by the standards of the 18th century, not the 21st century. You can’t be guilty of a civil or moral awareness before it is understood.  Stop indoctrinating and start educating. A university was once a place of universal knowledge, not a narrow, agenda-driven trade school that stamped drones out of the same cookie cutter to assure that they all  thought exactly alike and had zero tolerance for those who didn’t. Universities have become academically inbred, thanks to you.

Sports Fans: That fact that someone can throw a ball through a hoop, run with pigskin, or hit a ball with stick or club does not make them a great person. Greatness is the expression of character, virtue and selflessness. You want a hero? Look in a faculty lounge, the firehouse, the police station, or on an airplane  full of soldiers coming home from a war. It takes an empty life to make a pop-culture icon your hero. Fill it with something other than all the pre-packaged stuff. Then go out and BUILD something or DO something. It is only then that you will have the right to shout, “I am somebody.” Nobody owes you that right, but if you care enough to find someone who has legitimately earned it through the expression of character, I’d be willing to bet that they will tell you how their achievements came about.  There are few heights in life than you cannot achieve if you are willing to pay the price and work hard.  No point in even starting though, if you still think that the definition of success is measured in dollars.

Parents: Mom & Dad, your greatest responsibility in raising your children is to instill character in them.  Unfortunately, your efforts will fail if they are not backed by example.The most important facet of childrearing is teaching children how to relate to and respect authority.  There is no greater determining factor that will dictate how their lives will turn out.  Ninety nine percent of those in prison have failed principally on that one count.When you trade your responsibility as a parent for your misguided attempt to become your child’s friend, you are a failure as parent.  Sadly, it is your children who will pay the price.

Celebrities: Western culture has a fascination with celebrities.  Based on where Americans put their money, we can properly assume that a man with talent for hitting a ball with a stick offers society a greater contribution than a person who would teach children to read and write, or instill in them moral values.  Jesus Himself pointed out that where one’s heart is, there will his treasure be found.

My belief is that there are some key indicators to success in life, and proficiency in playing children’s games is not on my personal short list; neither is proficiency in another children’s game:  “play acting.”  Actors and athletes derive their craft from the vestigial elements of adolescence:  games and pastimes in which we engaged as children.  Here are some more serious and substantive indicators of real success in the journey we call life:

  • Earning the respect and admiration of our children.
  • Remaining faithful to one’s spouse for life, both in deed and thought.
  • Never running afoul of the law.
  • Having a dynamic relationship with God that is evident in one’s daily life.
  • Maintaining a healthy mental state without the need for anesthetizing effects of drugs or alcohol .
  • Treating others with kindness, compassion and generosity.
  • Instilling character in your children by your example.

When a human being fails on any of these counts, they have failed in life.  To adopt anyone  as a  “hero” because  of their celebrity status in sports or entertainment, while their personal life is characterized by serial adultery is both pathetically shallow and incredibly revealing.  Sadly, that is what Americans do.

The Hollywood agencies, movie and music studios, and publicity agencies who vaunt and market celebrities will never speak to my personal values or reflect my life view.  A few seconds of watching any of the talk shows on constantly as I flip through channels is usually enough to trigger the primary stages of my gag reflex.  I have never had much of a tolerance for self-obsession or narcissism, much these anyone who believes that celebrity status automatically confers executive privilege in areas of personal morality.  They have been foolish enough to believe the hype about them.  In times past they would have been town criers or court jesters.

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To help some folks who live in an urban bubble of Liberal thought understand how Middle-America sees the world, I am offering the two perspectives on a number of social and political issues side by side (just in case the article above hasn’t finished the task of pushing some of you “Progressive” types over the edge into the abyss of apoplexia:   (No need to thank me . . . . )

What Common Words & Phrases Really Mean

Conservative terms  follow each Liberal euphemism:

Arsenal of Weapons
Gun Collection

Delicate Wetlands
Swamp

Undocumented Worker
Illegal Alien

Cruelty-Free Materials
Synthetic Fiber

Assault and Battery
Attitude Adjustment

Heavily Armed
Well-protected

Narrow-minded
Morally Principled

Taxes or Your Fair Share
Coerced Socialistic Theft

Commonsense Gun Control
Gun Confiscation Plot

Illegal Hazardous Explosives
Fireworks for Stump Removal

Non-viable Tissue Mass
Unborn  Baby

Equal Access to Opportunity
Socialism

Multicultural Community
High Crime Area

Fairness or Social Progress
Marxism

Upper Class or “The Rich ”
Self-Employed Small Businessman
Progressive, Change
Big Government Scheme

Homeless or Disadvantaged
Bums or Welfare Leeches

Sniper Rifle
Scoped Deer Rifle

Investment For the Future
Higher Punitive Taxes

Healthcare Reform
Socialized Medicine

Extremist, Judgmental, or Hater
Conservative

Truants
Homeschoolers

Victim or Oppressed
Whiner or Leech

High Capacity Magazine
Standard Capacity Magazine

Religious Zealot
Church-going

Reintroduced Wolves
Sheep and Elk Killers

Fair Trade Coffee
Overpriced Yuppie Coffee

Exploiters or “The Rich ”
Employed or Land Owner

The Gun Lobby
NRA Members

Assault Weapon
Semi-Auto (Grandpa’s M1 Carbine)

Fiscal Stimulus
New Taxes and Higher Taxes

Same Sex Marriage
Legalized Perversion

Mandated Eco-Friendly Lighting
Chinese Mercury-Laden Light Bulbs

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When Church Authority is Abused

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Jerry Kaifetz

Solomon came to the conclusion toward the end of his life that there was “nothing new under the sun.”  The French have a famous saying, “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.”  (The more things change, the more they remain the same.)  In studying the history of the church, one cannot help but be struck by remarkable resemblances to the current crises that are being experienced by many Christians in their church.  As we study the Protestant Reformation in particular, the events that led to it, the principle players, the framing of the principle issues and the way the conflict was handled by the church authorities of that day, we find that if we would just change the dates and names, we have a description of power struggles and biblical issues that abound in churches across our land today.  Let us examine the dynamics of the Reformation in terms of its key elements and players with an eye toward modern day counterparts in our culture and our churches.

The first thing that strikes us in church conflict is that there should be no conflict.  Church members in conflict not only have access to the same truth, the Word of God, but are commanded by God to be in harmonious unity on the basis of clear Bible teachings.  (1 Co. 12:25, 14:33)  When conflict does arise, God’s Word gives us a clear delineation of not only the spirit in which the matter should be addressed (1 Co. 13, Gal. 6:1 – “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted”), but the process as well,  (Mt. 18:15-19).  I have only seen this happen once in 30 years of church life.

During the Middle Ages, many churchgoers felt the Roman Catholic Church had established a monopoly on religion.  These people protested the distorting of truth by the Catholic church and the limitations the church placed on its members.  About 1170 Peter Waldo came to the position that Scripture should be the sole authority for Christians.  He had the Bible translated into the common language of the people, giving them access to Scripture which had heretofore been the sole province of the church.  “Trust us,” the church seemed to be saying.  “We will tell you what the Bible says.”

John Wycliffe (1329-1384) continued in this vein, challenging the authority of the Roman church in 14th century England.  He had the entire Bible translated into English.  The Pope called in vain for his arrest.  His books were banned by the pope and he was labeled and harassed for the rest of his life.  The pope later declared that anyone who read the Bible in English could have his “land, cattle, life and goods.” taken from him.  So vindictive and angry was the pope that in 1428 he commanded Wycliffe’s remains to be dug up and burned!  Wycliffe is today  called “The Morning Star of the Reformation.”  True revival characterized the spiritual climate surrounding the life and ministry of John Wycliffe, proving God’s blessings on the man, his position and his work because his emphasis was clearly and entirely on the Bible.

Wycliffe’s battle was founded on Scripture.  He remained ever-willing and perhaps truly hopeful that the church authority whom he was challenging would respond to his challenge to their authority on the basis of Scripture.  Such was not to be the case.  The position of the church was that they were the authority of the church and that any challenge to that authority was tantamount to heresy.  They had in effect made themselves the equals of God.  In their view, to disagree with their positions was to disagree with God, making themselves clearly the equivalent of  God.  Never did the pope come to John Wycliffe with an open Bible with the spirit of restoration commanded by Scripture and say,  “Here, my brother, is where you are wrong; show me where you believe I have erred.”

Today, many churches, though denying it loudly in their church constitutions, still hold to that same papal belief.  The proof is that in these churches, one cannot disagree with the established authority of the church without immediately evoking the very same spirit directed by the Roman popes to such men as John Wycliffe.  The tactic toward church members whose positions, doctrine and authority are brought in question is to immediately label, vilify and condemn the critic or reformer, making it clear by the church’s actions that it is in fact impossible to disagree with the church hierarchy without disagreeing with God.  What conclusion can be drawn by these methods other than to conclude that in the minds of such men, the two are one and the same:  to disagree with them is to them to disagree with God himself.

The story of the Protestant Reformation is the story of individual, courageous and principled men who believed that the authority of the Bible was the only basis for thought and action in the Christian life.  One man in particular stands out in this story;  that man is Martin Luther.  Luther was an educated man, eventually earning his doctorate at Wittenberg University.  This was, then and today, enough to initiate the beginnings of suspicion in some religious circles, the Roman Church certainly being no exception.  On October 31, 1517 Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg.  Here he challenged the church formally, publicly and in writing.  This bold and courageous act officially began the Protestant Reformation.

Luther did not intend to break with the church; he loved his church and only wanted reform on the basis of what he saw clearly presented in Scripture.  Luther had said in a very clear way what many people had been thinking.  This, above anything else, is what made him dangerous to the Church, proving that their principle goal was to retain authority over the church, not to debate truth on a scriptural basis.  Rather than to accommodate Luther’s request, presented by the man in a Christian spirit, Pope Leo X immediately did what all leaders of his stripe do, he labeled Luther: he charged Luther with heresy and contempt of church authority without once facing the issues Luther raised. (Consider the tactic of an manipulative, cunning and adulterous husband when accused by his wife:  “Honey, I can’t believe what you are saying!  You have no idea how crushing it is to hear that you have suspicion in your heart toward me.  Sweetheart, I would rather die than hurt you.  You mean everything to me.  You have obviously been listening to people who are out to hurt me and will stop at nothing.  I am crushed and devastated by your willingness to doubt my love for you, etc., etc.,”, ad nauseum.  Here this ingenious and lying man actually manages to portray himself as the victim and his wife as the perpetrator for crushing his feelings by her insensitive accusations.  In fact, he places a label on her intended to bring her shame and guilt.  Never does he defend himself against the charges, proving them false.  This husband’s methods are the tactics of a guilty man.  The innocent husband says:  “Bring my accuser here immediately and let us turn lights up as bright as they will go.”

Martin Luther wrote a series of tracts, and thanks to the invention of moveable type by Gutenberg in 1440, these spread throughout Germany and Europe, adding great momentum to Luther’s challenge and making him a more dangerous enemy to the pope than ever before.  Luther was only stating what the people knew to be obvious:  1) popes and churches are not infallible; 2)the church of Rome has no authority over other churches; 3) The Bible is the only authority for Christians.  The church falsely blamed its problems on Luther.  In fact, Luther twisted no one’s arm for support, but put into clear written form what had been obvious to many and had not been addressed by the church for centuries.

The pope called Luther “a wild boar, ” because as previous labels fail to condemn, their severity must increase.  (I have been called “a church destroying demon”)  The Pope condemned his writings and  burned his books.  Luther did the same to the pope’s writings.  In 1521 the pope excommunicated Luther and tried to have him silenced by civil authorities. (A pastor once went to court to get a restraining order against me to prevent me from e-mailing him, saying that my e-mails had caused him “emotional distress!”)  That same year Luther was officially declared a heretic. (The pastor who sought the restraining order against me  was the one who labeled me “a church destroying demon.”)   Luther’s biblical positions had still not been addressed! (Neither was mine.)  The pope’s tactic was only to obscure Luther behind larger and more daunting labels, hoping to keep others from hearing the clear truths of Scripture he was presenting to anyone who would listen.  Luther had lit a flame that would not be extinguished, making it clear both then and for the rest of Christian history that those who were opposing his views were in fact opposing the views of God, for the source of his doctrines were Scripture.  The source of his opposition was church hierarchy and tradition.

People left the Catholic Church in droves.  (The pastor who labelled me and called me “a church destroying demon” has seen his church go from 350 to 40.)

Rather than going after the lost sheep as shepherds are commanded (Mt. 18:12), the church labeled them all heretics, the penalty being torture and often death.  The torture devices of the Inquisition included the “Iron maiden,”  the “Breast Ripper,” “The Rack” and other devices of human suffering whose function and purpose make the gas chambers of Nazi Germany literally look humane.  Most of the condemned considered themselves fortunate to be burned at the stake, the conventional sentence for “heretics,” rather than face torture at the hands of church inquisitors, the Jesuits,  ordained by the “Holy Office” for that purpose under the authority of the popes from 1450 to 1789.

The church had a core following of loyalists called The Society of Jesus, or Jesuits founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1540.  The goal of the Jesuits was complete, unquestioned loyalty to the pope.  Loyola’s famous saying was, “If the church shall have defined anything to be black which to our eyes appears to be white, we ought in like manner to pronounce it to be black.” “The end justifies the means” became the hallmark of Jesuit philosophy.  All this helped set the stage for the devastating wars of religion that were to plague Europe in the 17th century.  A great wave of anti-Semitism ultimately sprang from this philosophy and saw many Jews exiled from Europe, which fostered notable economic decline in countries such as Spain.

Labeling

In Stephen Arterburn’s and Jack Felton’s book Toxic Faith on unbalanced and unhealthy relationships with churches,  they list the ten characteristics of a toxic faith system.  Characteristic number ten is the inevitable and predictable element of “Labeling.”  The following passage is taken from page 184 of their book:

Toxic Characteristic #10:  The technique of labeling is used to discount a person who opposes the beliefs….

Labeling attempts to dehumanize persons so that dismissing them or their opinions is much easier.  Choosing not to address someone individually who has doubted the toxic faith…places a blanket negative label on all who would agree with his or her personal habits.  Rather than say that John Smith as made a negative statement, [they] proclaim that there are “detractors,” “traitors,” or “malcontents” who would destroy the ministry or organization.  The labels become rallying points under which other followers can be moved to action to squelch a revolt.  Once the label is in place, it becomes more difficult to see the person as a human with real needs and the potential for good judgement.”

Often, when a sincere church member expresses concern, or even worse, voices a disagreement with the established policy of the church’s leadership, that person is viewed as a clear threat by the pastor.  The clear signal here is that they system cannot tolerate difference.  The liberty to express that difference is squelched under a predictable assault on the motives of the dissenter.  The lack of security on the part of leadership leads them to use this labeling technique to persuade others that the dissent could not possibly be legitimate, but stems rather from a devious and occasionally even a satanic motivation.  The purpose of labeling is to separate and divide, not to mention to create a climate that everyone knows does not tolerate dissent and exacts a very high price for it.

In reading the history of the Reformation, we ask ourselves what was the motivation of Pope Leo X.  Did he act as a man that saw himself as the shepherd of the Lord’s flock, or did he act as if his goal was to maintain his authority at any cost?  Did he display respect for the liberty of Marin Luther or did he move to destroy Luther under a barrage of labels and accusations?

Questions that often need to be asked:

–Have we seen any resemblance in our church-going experiences as Bible-believing Christians between Pope Leo X and pastors we have known with whom well-meaning church members have disagreed?

–Have those dissenters been accorded the liberty to disagree?  (II Co. 3:17)

–Have they been approached in the spirit of humility with the goal of restoration, or has the church policy been primarily one of “damage control” and self preservation at any cost?

–Has the Bible been the focal point of the discussion, or has it been “church policy?”

–Has the dissenter been forced out of the church by an inhospitable climate (An Inquisition)?

–Has the Matthew 18 principle been followed by the church, going to the dissenter Bible in hand with restoration as the goal?

–Has the “preservation of the ministry” been the goal over the pursuit of biblical righteousness?

–Are there a group of “loyalists” (Jesuits) who cannot see past their loyalty to church leadership and who can only view dissent as  “an attack on the pastor?”

–Has history repeated itself in your church?

Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

Posted in Abuses of Church Authority, Church, Fundamentalism And Church Cults | Leave a comment

My Skiing Biography

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Jerry Kaifetz


I was born in Paris France.  I was educated in both French and American public schools.  French is my native language, but I learned English before I can remember and grew up speaking both languages.   My American upbringing was near Lake Placid on the shores of Lake Champlain, and twenty miles from the Canadian border.

Alpine skiing dominated my life from my grade-school years on.  There was a little ski area about ten miles from town called Beartown.  It was there that my dad first took me to ski as a child.  I was hooked after the first day.  After that I went back to ski most every night for night skiing.  Though as humble as a ski area gets, Beartown produced a number of world-class skiers, including a world champion.   It was not long before I could be regularly seen skiing the slopes of Whiteface, site of the Alpine events in the 1932 and 1980 Olympics.  A season ticket was a foregone conclusion for me and my skiing friends winter after winter.

About the time that I began junior high school, my friends and I joined U.S.E.A.S.A. (United States Eastern Amateur Ski Association) and began to ply the mountain roads of the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains of Vermont every weekend traveling to sanctioned races and earning F.I.S. (Federation Internationale de Ski) points.  The challenge was daunting at first, but the adrenaline of the starter’s cadence in the starting gate proved to be highly addicting, and my career as a ski racer was launched.

I raced every weekend most all of my school years.  After high school, I came to Syracuse University and made the varsity ski team there as a freshman.  The only problem for me was that I soon learned that I was expected to compete in Nordic as well as Alpine events.  I enjoyed the jumping tremendously, as “getting air” was always a big part of my skiing, but Nordic cross-country never was my cup of tea.  It was while at Syracuse that my success in racing led me to the coveted title of “A’  racer.  My F.I.S.  points dropped below 50, giving me a respectable national as well as international ranking for the first time.

My first job skiing professionally was at the Arizona Snow Bowl.  I became an E.M.T. & worked there on Pro Ski Patrol. The following  year  I was hired by Club Med.  The combination of my skiing background and the ability to speak fluent Parisian French catapulted me ahead of the 1,500 applicants lining up for every job they offered.  I  fit in in the summer doing water ski shows in the Carribean, and then would wait for my winter destination to be announced in early Fall.  As a  Master SCUBA diver I did some great diving throughout the Caribbean while waiting for the snow to fly in the Alps.

I finally made my way to the little town of Tignes, just on the other side of the mountain from Val D’Isere in the French Alps.  It was there that I became indoctrinated and certified into the prestigious E.S.F.  (École de Ski Francaise).  Their system was very natural to me; in fact, it was a perfect fit.  I had for many years adapted the elements of competitive ski racing to a style of recreational skiing.  Chief among these was the carved turn, which was the mainstay of the French Ski School.  I was one of  only two American among 700 candidates at the E.S.F. camp.  We finished one and two in our point totals for the skiing portion of the final testing and passed all of the written exams.  We also trained on the mammoth glacier at Tignes alongside about a dozen World Cup teams on what turned out to be the fastest downhill course in the world.  (My favorite course at Whiteface had radar-timed racers at the Olympic trials at 94 m.p.h., and the Tignes course was most assuredly in that range or faster.) That winter I also trained a little with Henri Duvilard and the Dynastar Pro Team.

I was sent to S.E. Switzerland near Davos & St. Moritz where I lived and taught in the E.S.F. and raced every Sunday against a very talented international field of local ski racers with World Cup backgrounds.  This was a new and welcome level of competition for me, though daunting at first.  Each week I raced against skiers with national team experience.  Slalom was never my best event. These European races were all  regulation F.I.S. slalom courses, a far cry from the wide open, pro style dual courses I had been used to in the U.S..  After a year of racing in these events, I managed a top ten finish or two.  This was a monumental personal achievement for me.

The E.S.F. became an extraordinarily good fit for me.  I had not only skied most of my life, but I had made a study of many years of the physics of the sport as well.  When I was a kid, a local coach named Warren Witherell wrote  the now famous book, “How the Racers Ski.”  A friend of mine was an assistant ski coach for  Witherell at Norhwood Prep School in Lake Placid.  We  had skied together for years and I soaked up that booked and lived in it almost daily.  Witherell was putting more racers on the U.S. National team than any coach in the country.  Those years gave me what the French Ski School prized more highly than anything: an instructor who could spot a flaw in technique and effectively communicate to the student exactly what it was and how to replace it by understanding the dynamics of  correct technique.   I was later awarded the highest level of achievement by the E.S.F. : the gold “Chamois.”

Soon, I became a sought after instructor with the French.  My specialty was helping skiers break the intermediate barrier.  I had identified precisely what it was that condemned the vast majority of recreational skiers to intermediate status, and I developed a three point plan of attack to break that barrier wide open: 1.) Proper equipment well maintained daily;  2.)  Mastery of the carved turn; 3.) Developing the mental confidence to negotiate any slope one turn at a time.  This program worked wonders.  There were no exceptions that I can recall among the hundreds of intermediate skiers who came to my E.S.F. classes from all over the world.  They all left us after a week in the Swiss Alps literally beaming confidence and counting the days before they could return to challenge “the steep and the deep” once again.  (I once took a class of complete beginners for the week.  On the last day, I took them to the top of the Rothorn (Lenzerheide – Valbella) and brought them down from 11,000 ft. on a a 7.5 mile trail with relative ease  – a feat unheard of in our ski school.)

I am a registered E.M.T. with experience in professional ski patrol, mountain rescue and avalanche control.  I worked with the very best in avalanche control, the Swiss.  This helped me in skiing the back country above tree lines, in that an understanding of snowpack stability and cohesion is vital to safety, if not survival in that environment.  As skiers who finally learn  how to ski powder often develop a serious predilection for the “deep stuff,” I have always thought it important to understand the dynamics  of snowpack stability and cohesion in order to make skiing above the tree line as safe as possible.  This holds true especially in Europe where the tree line is found several thousand feet lower than in the United States.

I have been become convinced over a lifetime of skiing that skiing is a mental challenge as well as a physical sport.  As such, I believe that the French Ski School has a decided advantage over their American counterparts.  (I have taught in both.)  The French ski school class is typically together for one week.  In addition, their social evenings are usually spent together as well.  I have always taken advantage of this opportunity to help students understand the physics of proper technique.  One cannot make one’s skis do anything by merely imitating a movement.  What the skis do is always the result of the forces applied to them.  When you begin to understand how this all works together, then proper technique can begin to blossom through economy of motion, which is just another term for gracefulness.  The seed must be planted in the mind first.    This is especially challenging to accomplish with young people, but . . . it can be done!  The key is to demonstrate the results before their eyes, and then convey unequivocally to them that there are no shortcuts and that the benefits are as exhilarating as they are liberating!  The essential element lacking in most all younger ski instructors, no matter how talented, is the ability to communicate.  I have written eight  books and have the ability to communicate what skiers need to know with clarity and precision.

The incredible technical changes in equipment now put the carved turn, and the resulting expert status within the reach of more skiers, and with far less effort.  This especially good new for older skiers, It is a wonderful experience to one day make gravity your friend instead of your constant foe.  With the high-speed lifts now common in so many ski areas, it is hard for me to express how much more important the correct technique that brings true economy of motion has become.  Today’s equipment puts that within the grasp of anyone willing to learn.

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Homosexuality

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Jerry Kaifetz


I would like to take this opportunity to address some of the myths concerning homosexuality that are daily force fed to the public by a disproportionally vocal homosexual minority and a cooperative media.  Of course, this will earn one a label somewhere between “Hitlerian” and “Homophobe. ”  (By the way, the true original meaning of Homophobe in the clinical literature is one who fears becoming a homosexual.)

I challenge any homosexual to provide me with any scientific data substantiating a genetic or biological basis for homosexuality.  In all of the scientific literature, there is none.  Men and women continue to look for same-sex attachment and bonding with their mothers and fathers through others.  The problem is, sex never will fulfill the unmet needs of childhood.  The American Psychiatric Association saw this clearly for decades and until 1973 classified homosexuality as a pathological disorder.  Dr. Robert Spitzer of Columbia university was the man most instrumental in this change.  He now recognizes that it was made in the absence of true scientific data, yet his efforts to address the issue are being ignored by the American Psychiatric Association.  Is this what science has come to in American academia?

Now we are being told via the introduction of “Hate Crime Legislation” that there are elements of American society that cannot be legally criticized.  This is thought-control, plain and simple!  It says that you will be punished not only for what you do, but for what you were thinking when you did it!  It creates divisions of Americans into categories more or less worthy of protection under the law based on their beliefs, even if that belief is a purely religious one.  This is the position a Christian finds himself in following the dictates of both Scripture and conscience in speaking against the perversion of homosexuality.  (We would do well to bear in mind that the dictionary definition of “perversion” is to “use something for other than its intended purpose.”)

Fortunately, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Pennsylvania  came down in favor of free speech in a 3-0 vote on this issue, perhaps establishing a long-overdue precedent.  Activist homosexuals were soundly defeated.  The court ruled that a college anti-harassment policy was a violation of the free speech of Christians speaking out against homosexuality.  Homosexuals have worked tirelessly to criminalize any legitimate criticism of their behavior as a health risk and a perversion of normal and natural sexual behavior.

Perhaps America is now on its way to a day when Christians and others espousing traditional and family values will not have to check their civil rights and guarantees of free speech at the schoolhouse and other public doors.  Maybe the day will even someday arrive when homosexuals will be able to face their critics without feeling the need to vilify  them.   If one desires an identity based on the act of sodomy, that is their right.  It is also my right to identify that lifestyle as immoral and perverse based on the clear teachings of my religion.  The two principal authors of the defining text of the Judaeo-Christian faith, Moses and the Apostle Paul,  have described homosexuality respectively as “an abomination” and “vile affections.”

Civil rights is a two way street in America, a fact that the courts have thankfully begun to understand.  I will not cede my civil rights as a Christian and an American to a vocal, oppressive, hateful and intolerant homosexual minority.  Those who speak out against homosexuality are routinely branded as “hateful.”  No, I am just expressing 6,000 year old, traditional religious beliefs and the dictates of my conscience.  A “lifestyle” based on two men engaging in anal sex is anything but “gay” to me.  This is repulsive and abhorent to most Americans.  It is like a cake with a beautifully decorated layer of frosting and other adornments, but whose content was scooped out of a broken garbage disposal.  Homosexuality cannot be made palatable to the American people, so it has been presented for forty years as something far different from what it is: an aberration of foundational Judaeo-Christian morality dishonestly presented to the world as a morally and socially valid alternative lifestyle.  Homosexuality is a sick and perverted choice daily destroying and condemning souls precious to God whose redemption awaits them if they would but turn to God.

Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

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Online Christian Dating

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Jerry Kaifetz

Online dating has become very popular these last few years.  Twenty million Internet users visit dating sites at least occasionally.  Over 30%  of the population either uses online dating services or at least knows people who are using them.  In 2008, 120,000 marriages that took place were attributed to online dating services. In  2009, around 350 million dollars were spent in marketing the online dating services.  Among all the Internet services, online dating remained at the top. Its growth estimate is 10% yearly.

We see in the advertisements for these services people who have found their true love, or “soul mates.”  Of course these accounts are anecdotal and not at all statistical.  2009 also saw a rise in number of bogus accounts and scams. Free-to-subscribe dating sites were mainly responsible for these problems. Out of the total accounts created this year, 10% of them were bogus.  Out of the total number of singles who seek online dating services, only 33% manage to get into a relationship. Out of the remaining 66% people, 33% lose hope and quit while other 33% of keep on searching for the right partner.  (Source: Buzzle.com)

But the question arises if you are a Christian single person, is online dating a good thing?  Like all of the important questions of life, I believe that in some way, shape or form, the answer lies in the Bible.  Now you may well react quizzically and ask, “Where does the Bible speak of online dating?”  Of course, it does not.  The Bible does, however, have a richness of principle, social patterns and religious traditions from which I think we can learn a great deal on the subject of dating.

First of all, the ancients were very keen in understanding the impact of human nature on the societal dynamics that impacted their culture.   As a result, the interval between physical maturity and marriage was kept to an absolute minimum.  You could almost say it was close to zero.  In our society, it is approximately ten years.

Secondly, they understood in those times that there was a serious pitfall in expecting a person to make the most important decision of their  lives apart from salvation at a time when they were the least equipped to do so.  As such, that decision was heavily influenced by those who were arguably better equipped to do so: family.   Today, Christian families often do not have much influence in the marital decisions of their children.  Much of the fault here obviously rests on the shoulders of the parents.  The principle job of parenting is to teach their children how to properly relate to authority.  Far too many families never get there.

So what is a Christian single person to do with respect to deciding for or against online dating?  My answer is this: put some of the same safeguards in place that were foundational in relationship development in the biblical societies.  Rely on the wisdom, validation, counsel, and opinions of people who can help you navigate the often turbulent and hazardous waters of online dating: family, church, and the right friends.

In Bible times, societies were based on well defined social building blocks: family, extended family, tribe, and nation.  What this did for the young woman seeking a husband, is that it virtually eliminated the possibly of gross deception in courtship.  If a boy was from another town or village, the social or cultural network was quick to find out if a thumbs up or a thumbs down was appropriate.  Add to this the respect and veneration for elders inherent in that culture, and you have a tremendously solid basis for courtship.  Look at the trouble that Abraham went to  find a bride for his son, Isaac.  That is a perfect illustration of this ancient marriage protocol and is found in the 24th chapter of Genesis.

So today, it is in my view foolish in the extreme to not use the same resources in validating a dating or a marriage candidate.  If you ask him or her, “I’d like to talk to your pastor about you,” and the reaction to that request is not a quick and positive one, if not even enthusiastic, then that should signal the time to move on.

The Bible teaches us that “In His favor is life,” speaking of God.  If you are seeking God’s favor in your life, bearing in mind that He is not only the source of all love, but He in fact is the very essence of love, then you should understand that this can never happen without a committed Christian partner for whom God’s principles are demonstrably the roadmap and footprints of his or her life.

Anyone can be anything or anybody given the anonymity of Internet dating.  It is unwise to accept anyone’s presentation of themselves in this venue at face value before thoroughly validating that they are whom  and what they portray themselves to be.  This is not the time to put one’s heart behind the wheel.  That is the role of the brain at this stage of the game.  Beware of anyone who would suggest otherwise.

Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

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Confronting Satan on a Chicago Street

Posted on October 30, 2010 by Jerry Kaifetz


Several years ago I parked my car in a residential area in Chicago. As I got out, my eyes glanced across the street. The homes on that street were two-story dwellings, the bottom floor being a partial basement. The entrance to the lower floor was under the front porch of the top floor.

My eyes fell upon three young men under the front porch of one of the homes, standing in front of the doorway to the lower residence. I was locking my car door when I felt that God  conveyed to me a very specific and unmistakable directive: “Go tell to those young men about my Son.”

I had learned by that point in my Christian life that to ignore such a clear prompting of God as this would make for the kind of unrest that wold take away for some time the peace and closeness with God that I had come to enjoy so greatly.   I crossed the street and began walking toward them.

As I approached them, I could tell that they were in their early to mid twenties. They all had long hair and were all dressed in similar fashion: blue jeans and denim jackets. They also seemed to share another distinction in their appearance: their clothing was covered with unusual emblems, hand-drawn with a black marker, along with some insignias and buttons that I did not recognize.

Not knowing how else to begin, I simply introduced myself and told them why I was there. I said to them, that “as I got out of my car across the street just now, God  impressed upon me to come over here and share my faith with you guys.”

That was when they all broke into a slight grin and began to exchange knowing glances with one another. I had the distinct feeling that something was amiss. I also knew that it would be best to deal with this now. I asked them directly, but politely: “Alright now. I see that you all have this we-know-something-you-don’t-know look; does anybody want to tell me what that’s all about?”

As their smirks grew to modest grins and they looked at one another as if to decide which of them should spit it out, the one to my right looked at me and gave me the answer: “We worship Satan!”

I could tell that they fully expected their startling confession to end our encounter, perhaps sending me running back to my car with arms flailing. In fact, it had the opposite effect: I
became very determined to tell them about Jesus Christ. Here is how our conversation went:

Calmly and and in a quiet tone, I spoke: “So you fellas worship Satan. Well, I worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me tell you why. I worship Him because of His great love for me. Have any of you ever been truly loved? Jesus loved me so much that He was willing to bleed to death and die a death of torture and anguish on a wooden cross to pay for my sins when it was fully in His power to avoid the cross and be in Heaven. He loves me so much that He has prepared a place for me in Heaven that is so beautiful as to defy description by any human language. If I had been the only person on earth, He would have given His life for me just the same. And you know, He loved me this much when I was pretty unlovable. He had no illusions about me. Not only that, but He has given me a life of inner peace and blessings right here on earth.”

“Now if I may, let me ask each of you an important question: what kind of deal does Satan have for you? Is he motivated by love for you, or are your lives just fuel for his rage against God? I think everyone knows where Satan winds up. He winds up in the fires of Hell as a prisoner himself, doesn’t he? And guess what? He wants your company there. Does that sound like a good deal to you?”

The three young men fell silent. The smirks were gone. They were no longer looking at each other, or at me. They all looked down. Quietly, I again began to speak.

“One day I prayed a prayer to God–a very important prayer.  I reached out to Him from my heart and asked Him to come into my life,” I told them. “I’d like to pray that prayer with the three of you again right here, right now. If you want, you can pray along with me in your heart. That is 100% up to you. Only you and God will know, and I won’t ask you after. If what I am going to pray expresses what is in your heart, then pray. If it doesn’t, then don’t. Is that fair?” Something had changed in their demeanor.  The cockiness was gone as all three just shook their heads in agreement.  I began to pray aloud.

“Dear Lord, I thank you that you cared enough for these three young men to send me over here to express your love for them. I sure do thank you that You offered this love to me one day in April in 1983. We all know that we are sinners and that we have fallen fall short of pleasing You. For this we are truly sorry and ask your forgiveness. We want to turn our lives around today and accept not only your love for us, but also the payment You made with your own blood on the cross for our sins. If there is anyone here serious about trusting You to save their souls from the eternal fires of Hell, I pray that You would take them in right now and accept them to be one of yours for all eternity, just as you did me. Amen.”

After that prayer, the atmosphere under that porch was transformed. The young man on my right was visibly moved.   Not a word was said for probably over a minute. This young man then related to me the following story, which I will do my best to recount in his own words.

He began by telling me of an experience he had had the very night before: “Last night I went to a Black Mass at midnight [a Satanic ritual and worship service]. It was my first one. The priest gave me a cross. It was made out of wood. He wanted me to break the arms off it [a symbolic expression of being anti-Christ]. Everybody there was looking at me and waiting. But there was something saying to me,  ‘don’t do it.’ Everybody there waited and waited . . . but I couldn’t do it. I didn’t think I was going to have any problem breaking the cross, but when they put it in my hands and I looked down at it, I was shaking and I couldn’t do it. I have been up all night with my friends and we talked about it, and that I should try again at the next Black Mass. I didn’t know why I couldn’t break it.”

Then the young man looked toward me, although not directly at me as he spoke a few short words that I have never forgotten: “Now I know why. I just asked Jesus to save me when we prayed.”

The other two men never spoke. As I had promised, I didn’t ask them anything. I prayed for all three of them regularly after that, especially the one I knew had put his faith in Christ, but I never saw them again.

As I look back on that experience now, I am struck by not just the beauty  of God’s grace, but by its power. God’s grace reached into a Satanic Black Mass and touched the heart of a young man on the edge of a dark and eternal abyss. God pulled him back from the edge, and within  hours sent a divinely commissioned messenger to bring him into the heavenly fold.

We serve a wonderful and gracious God.

Jerry Kaifetz

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