PER:Christian Information Bureau April 1988  by Dave Hunt

   Dear Praying Friends;

   Last month's letter was written just a few days before the
shattering Jimmy Swaggart revelatins. I still have difficulty believing
that nightmare has happened. Your heart, I'm sure, like mine, has been
broken - not only for brother Swaggart, but for Christ and His church.
A man of God has fallen and the enemies of God have been made to
rejoice. It should be a time of humbling and repentance for all of us,
confessing that "But for the grace of God, there go I." It is a timely
lesson not to look to men, no matter how great, but to have our
confidence only in our Lord.

   The cause of Christ has suffered a much heavier blow than through
the Bakker affair, because Swaggart was so outspoken in favor of sound
doctrine, holiness and against sin. Not only has Christianity become
even more an object of derision than ever before, but standing for
sound doctrine and preaching against evil will now be even more
unpopular and much more difficult for God's servants. While his
willingness to bear the humiliation of public confession was
commendable, if Swaggart is to be greatly used of God again his
restoration must be brought about by God Himself in His own time. Any
attempt to engineer or rush that process will only result in greater
disaster. I do not know what or how long it may take to restore
credibility in the eyes of the secular world, not only to Jimmy
Swaggart but to Evangelical Christianity in general.

   Some Christian psychologists have been gloating publicly, declaring
that Jimmy's stand against psychological counseling prevented from
obtaining victory over sin. Presumably that must also have been why
David fell, and Eve as well, while Joseph and Daniel and Paul, who
stood so firm, must have somehow gotten a special revelation ahead of
time of what was later revealed to Freud, Jung and the other godless
anti-Christians who have given us the "new truth" upon which Christian
psychology is founded.

   At least Christian psychologists have left no doubt about what they
really believe: that repentance, prayer, being crucified with Christ
and filled with His Spirit, are not sufficient to enable brother
Swaggart or the rest of us to live godly lives. Psychology, they now
insist with renewed boldness, is an essential supplement to God's Word,
which does not contain all we need "for life and godliness" after all,
even though it makes that claim. If that is true, then the apostles and
prophets and Christ Himself have lied in offering a remedy that really
doen't life up to its promises. One or the other is true; we cannot
have it both ways. I still choose to believe in the sufficiency of God
and His Word. Certainly history bears witness that with the advent of
psychology things have gotten worse, not better, both for the world and
the church.

   I do not know what further shocking blows lie ahead, but the
apostasy has gotten an unexpected boost and the great falling away will
continue to gather momentum. At the same time, I believe, the Word of
God tells us that there will be a great "last days" reaping of souls,
as the Lord empowers His servants to hastily gather in from the
"streets and lanes of the city" and from "the highways and hedges" the
"poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind" that His house may
be full (Luke 14:16-24). Could it be that this scripture has reference
to the drug addicts, AIDS victums, homosexuals, those in prisons and
other cast-offs of society - and, yes, the New Agers, occultists, and
practitioners of yoga, TM, and other forms of Eastern mysticism who
have been deceived but are crying out for the truth? Such are coming to
Christ, and I believe their conversions will dramatically increase in
the days ahead.

   By God's grace and through your prayers T.A. McMahon and I have just
finished America: The Sorcerer's New Apprentice. Harvest House is doing
a fantastic job, and the book is scheduled to come off the press in
record time on April 20. It has been written for the secular world and
many Christians may not like it for that very reason. We have tried to
meet non-Christians on their own merits and explaining what it
happening and the extreme inherent dangers - not in the usual Christian
manner with a barrage of Bible quotations that too often turns off
non-Christians, but strickly on the testimony of those involved.

   We think the book willprove to be a devastating revelation to many
New Agers, as well as to the secular world in general. The
documentation we give demonstrates conclusively that Americans by the
tens of millions are literally being trained to turn their lives over
to seducing spirits. This process involves the entire public education
system, from the average kindergarten to the graduate schools of such
universities as Harvard and Stanford. In fact what is happening at
Stanford, for example, now recognized as the top American university
academically, is staggering.

   Some of the critics of The Seduction of Christianity faulted our
definition of sorcery. We now give them an entire book on that subject,
which should open the eyes of many who considered Seduction to be
exaggerated or extreme. We think the secular world is going to have to
take this book seriously. In fact, it may be as much a shock to the
secular world as Seduction was to the church. We hope and pray that
will be so.

   America is a book you can give or loan to your non-Christian
friends, be they business executives or auto mechanics, New Agers or
not, atheists or religious types, and know that it will not turn them
off with Christian jargon but will merit their serious attention. We
think that Christians will also find its analysis of the relation of
science to religion, of naturalism vs. supernaturalism, the existence
of God, evolution, reincarnation, psychic phenomena, demonic possesion
and other important topics to be of great help and interest. We simply
want this book to accomplish what God has purposed for it, no more and
no less. Your prayers to that end will be much appreciated.

   Do not be discouraged no matter what has happened or may yet occur.
The promise of Christ still stands: "All authority is given unto me in
heaven and earth...go therefore...and I am with you at all times, even
unto the end of the age." May the joy of the Lord be your strength and
may His good hand of blessing be upon all you seek to be and say and do
to His glory.


   In Christ's love, Dave Hunt

   This has been put up on the board by the kind permission of the
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   Christian Information Bureau

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