Post by Rev. Jim Cunningham on Jan 9, 2013 9:39:16 GMT -5
Hello brethren,
As you can probably imagine, I receive hate mail from time to time here at GayChristianSurvivors.com. It is always from people claiming to be Christian. I am both fascinated and saddened to see the errors committed in God's name. The attacks are not just aimed at homosexuals but against the Word of God Itself. These are the “Christians” that only like the parts of the Bible that makes them feel good; but they become hostile with the parts of the Bible that don’t support their hate. It has been my custom to share these debates and conversations to keep you informed.
Here's a message from Michael who disagrees with the Strong's Concordance's definition of the Hebrew word "Kadesh" (which literally means "a temple whore"), and who believes that I am demonically possessed for teaching biblical truth about homosexuality. Isn't it interesting that we've gotten to the point where we are accused of being demonically possessed for having even the slightest difference of opinion in even the smallest issues? It isn't as though we're talking about major doctrine, such as the identity of God or the validity of Scripture. The focus of GayChristianSurvivors.com is merely about human marriage, and for this we are accused of being demonically possessed, DESPITE our clear profession of faith on the site. Michael doesn't care that we love Jesus; to him it is only important for us to not love homosexuals. Typically I do not use the author’s real name when they write directly to me, but Michael chose to post his initial comment and his name in our Guest Book (which, of course, was immediately deleted for violation of user terms) for all to see, rather than in the Forum or, as would have been more appropriate, in a direct letter to me. He writes,
"Kadesh" means "sacred" as in a sacred place. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. You seem to believe that eros is true love when it is agape. Repent of your sins and the Jezebel spirit which clings to you and cling to the Lord who can and will cleanse you of all unrighteousness--Jesus Christ. May the Lord Mighty God bless you and keep you in His perfect love (agape, not eros). "
Michael, of course, is gravely incorrect about a number of things in his very bitter-filled statement, and I began to write him a very long letter about it. But half way through it the Lord stopped me and reminded me that He alone bestows salvation and no one can take my salvation away. In that light I scrapped everything that I was going to say to Michael and sent this brief response,
"Michael, the Lord Jesus Christ has given me salvation and all your vicious hatred and astounding ignorance cannot undo that. I do not receive your satanic attack."
Michael's response to this was shocking. I often find that those who instigate a fight often play the victim. It is a new way of thinking, a new form of terrorism, that those who defend themselves against assault are the real criminals rather than the instigator. It reminds me of the musical ‘Les Miserables’, when a woman defends herself against a man's sexual assault, the man goes to the police and says that SHE attacked HIM, and then she is arrested and locked away in prison. Michael has been perverted by that way of thinking, believing that it is his Christian DUTY to (metaphorically) punch a complete stranger in the nose and call it "love". Here is his response:
"Reverend Jim, Hello, again. I hate to be the one to tell you, but your response is clearly not one of the love of Jesus. The Lord Jesus, if you read the book of John especially, explained how we are to love one another. A reverend should be a shining example of the person of Jesus Christ. You have failed to display such love. Is His holy love in you? If you think my words of gentle correction are 'vicious', you have lived a coddled life. Also, to say I am 'astoundingly ignorant', you are displaying your own brand of hatred. Hypocrite much, Reverend?"
So, what Michael is saying is that my demonstration of mercy toward homosexuals means I'm possessed by some "Jezebel spirit" for calling evil good, and that punching me in the face and breaking my nose is a display of God's love and how dare I be offended by his Christian demonstration of "gentle correction". Do you see how much the Word of God is spit upon by those who claim to serve Him? What is this "jezebel spirit"? It's not mentioned in Scripture. He has apparently invented some spirit of lasciviousness and applied the name of the ancient queen of Israel to it; Jezebel was famous for standing against Elijah. She hated God and ordered the death of His priests and prophets. If this fictional jezebel spirit was real, it wouldn't be a spirit of lasciviousness but rather a spirit of hatred against the servants of God. Ironic that Michael should say that I'M the one with the jezebel spirit. I should note that Revelation 2:20 (to which he may be refering) says,
"I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols."
I see an actual woman named Jezebel being spoken of here, but no spirit referred to.
However, and to the point, my question to all of you, my brothers and sisters who have read my website and have followed this ministry for many years, have you EVER heard me condone fornication? Have you ever witnessed me seduce any man or woman to commit fornication? Have I not always spoken out against it? Does not my website even now call fornication a sin and urge everyone to abstain from fornication? Have I not constantly called for sexual purity among us? And have I ever encouraged ANYONE to eat things offered to idols?
It is scripturally forbidden to continue debating with such a person, so my final comment to him was,
“Michael, are you kidding me?! You send me a letter full of hatred and have the gall to say that I'm the one being unloving by telling you that YOUR evil words will not hurt my salvation? Outrageous! Because you are a servant of evil you will find fault with any answer I give. You are obviously mentally ill or demonically possessed and I do not want to converse with you further. Hate is the god that you have chosen; go serve it and leave me to serve the Lord God of Israel. Goodbye.”
Refusing to end the conversation, Michael instead chose to throw more verses at me:
“I pray that you allow His Word to change you.
Romans 12:2
1 Corinthians 13
May the Lord Jesus display His love for you.”
It was at this point I decided that this needs to be brought into the light, into the view of fellow Christians. That is why I have posted this debate here for you all to see. I also sent a copy of this entire post to Michael and invited him, if he has anything else to say, to bring it here to the forum. My private email is not the place for this kind of discussion. For the record, here is that message to him:
“Michael,
You are not entitled to write to someone whom you do not even know and neglect to even introduce yourself or sign your name, neglect to even address them by name, and begin with an accusation of demon possession and blasphemy (which you absurdly refer to as "gentle correction"). You do not know me, I do not know you or anything about you, and I am not subject to you. It is obvious that you never even read my website, because if you had, you would have read my statement of faith and you would then, if you feared God as a real Christian, not have dared to make such a gross accusation against a minister of the Gospel. You rudely posted your first comment in the Guest Book, violating the site policy which is CLEARLY posted at the beginning of the Guest Book. If you had some issue with the content of the website, a decent human being and a REAL CHRISTIAN would have written a courteous letter to me directly, or even on the Forum. Instead you, claiming yourself a Christian, barged into my ministry and immediately declare your (TOTALLY INCORRECT) definition of “Kadesh” (even though visitors to the Guest Book might have virtually no idea what you are talking about), immediately followed by your implication that I am somehow calling something “good” which is evil with no reference to what you could possibly be referring to, and accusing me of being possessed by a fictional “jezebel spirit”, whatever that it, and then imply that I need cleansing from unrighteousness, and you essentially accuse me of teaching people that fornication is ok (which is obviously what this “jezebel spirit” is referring to) WHICH I HAVE NEVER DONE but ever preach sexual purity. And then you repeatedly fling Scripture verses at me like rocks! How dare you. Just who do you think you are? I have been serving the Lord for many years and the Lord has done many great things in my life BECAUSE I am one of His children, and He has used me through this ministry to save many souls and many lives – even to prevent some of the many suicides that were caused by people like you who preach hatred as the Gospel. And you have the nerve to pretend like you did nothing wrong. You are so consumed with your own self-righteousness and arrogance that you cannot see how OFFENSIVE you are –and what’s more, you don’t even care how offensive you are. All you care about is declaring that you are right that I am wrong. You don’t care who you offend or who you insult. You honestly believe that what you did was GODLY! Slander me and accuse me of whatever sins you want to, just like Satan does. But God knows me, I am His son and He is my Father; He knows my life and my heart and my soul, and none of your condemnations will ever change that. SHAME on whatever minister taught you that your behavior is righteous. If you think that marriage between two people of the same gender is a sin, that is your own sick, perverted mental hang up. If you have actually read my site and you can PROVE BY THE HOLY SCRIPTURES that any of it is false, then do so instead of accusing me of being demonically possessed. You tell me I need to repent, but repent OF WHAT? You never even gave a reason for your accusation. And you pretend you did this IN LOVE? That’s love?! That is what you call love? That may be what SATAN calls love, but that is not the love of God! And incidentally, at this moment I don’t care what you think about my attitude, that you don’t like it that I don’t fit into your cookie cutter mold of what you think a minister is SUPPOSED to be like. You suppose a minister should lay there and let someone like you try to use religion to assault him, but I tell you that the BIBLE says that so long as I do not sin by it, I AM ALLOWED TO BE ANGRY. So far I HAVE been VERY angry with you, but I have not sinned yet. But if I continue to speak to you I assure you that I will sin because I am fed up with phoney religious “Christians” like you who turn people away from God. As Jesus said, “You shut up the Kingdom of God against men; you neither let anyone in nor do you go in yourself.” Why don’t you listen to Jesus and Paul who said to preach the Gospel and MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.
I have shared our interaction with the members of our ministry through our site forum. Here is a copy of it, below, as well as a link to the Forum. If you should have anything else to say, unless it is to apologize to me, I suggest you post it there in the presence of other Christians.”
Rev. Jim Cunningham
King James Bible Ministries
GayChristianSurvivors.com
As you can probably imagine, I receive hate mail from time to time here at GayChristianSurvivors.com. It is always from people claiming to be Christian. I am both fascinated and saddened to see the errors committed in God's name. The attacks are not just aimed at homosexuals but against the Word of God Itself. These are the “Christians” that only like the parts of the Bible that makes them feel good; but they become hostile with the parts of the Bible that don’t support their hate. It has been my custom to share these debates and conversations to keep you informed.
Here's a message from Michael who disagrees with the Strong's Concordance's definition of the Hebrew word "Kadesh" (which literally means "a temple whore"), and who believes that I am demonically possessed for teaching biblical truth about homosexuality. Isn't it interesting that we've gotten to the point where we are accused of being demonically possessed for having even the slightest difference of opinion in even the smallest issues? It isn't as though we're talking about major doctrine, such as the identity of God or the validity of Scripture. The focus of GayChristianSurvivors.com is merely about human marriage, and for this we are accused of being demonically possessed, DESPITE our clear profession of faith on the site. Michael doesn't care that we love Jesus; to him it is only important for us to not love homosexuals. Typically I do not use the author’s real name when they write directly to me, but Michael chose to post his initial comment and his name in our Guest Book (which, of course, was immediately deleted for violation of user terms) for all to see, rather than in the Forum or, as would have been more appropriate, in a direct letter to me. He writes,
"Kadesh" means "sacred" as in a sacred place. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. You seem to believe that eros is true love when it is agape. Repent of your sins and the Jezebel spirit which clings to you and cling to the Lord who can and will cleanse you of all unrighteousness--Jesus Christ. May the Lord Mighty God bless you and keep you in His perfect love (agape, not eros). "
Michael, of course, is gravely incorrect about a number of things in his very bitter-filled statement, and I began to write him a very long letter about it. But half way through it the Lord stopped me and reminded me that He alone bestows salvation and no one can take my salvation away. In that light I scrapped everything that I was going to say to Michael and sent this brief response,
"Michael, the Lord Jesus Christ has given me salvation and all your vicious hatred and astounding ignorance cannot undo that. I do not receive your satanic attack."
Michael's response to this was shocking. I often find that those who instigate a fight often play the victim. It is a new way of thinking, a new form of terrorism, that those who defend themselves against assault are the real criminals rather than the instigator. It reminds me of the musical ‘Les Miserables’, when a woman defends herself against a man's sexual assault, the man goes to the police and says that SHE attacked HIM, and then she is arrested and locked away in prison. Michael has been perverted by that way of thinking, believing that it is his Christian DUTY to (metaphorically) punch a complete stranger in the nose and call it "love". Here is his response:
"Reverend Jim, Hello, again. I hate to be the one to tell you, but your response is clearly not one of the love of Jesus. The Lord Jesus, if you read the book of John especially, explained how we are to love one another. A reverend should be a shining example of the person of Jesus Christ. You have failed to display such love. Is His holy love in you? If you think my words of gentle correction are 'vicious', you have lived a coddled life. Also, to say I am 'astoundingly ignorant', you are displaying your own brand of hatred. Hypocrite much, Reverend?"
So, what Michael is saying is that my demonstration of mercy toward homosexuals means I'm possessed by some "Jezebel spirit" for calling evil good, and that punching me in the face and breaking my nose is a display of God's love and how dare I be offended by his Christian demonstration of "gentle correction". Do you see how much the Word of God is spit upon by those who claim to serve Him? What is this "jezebel spirit"? It's not mentioned in Scripture. He has apparently invented some spirit of lasciviousness and applied the name of the ancient queen of Israel to it; Jezebel was famous for standing against Elijah. She hated God and ordered the death of His priests and prophets. If this fictional jezebel spirit was real, it wouldn't be a spirit of lasciviousness but rather a spirit of hatred against the servants of God. Ironic that Michael should say that I'M the one with the jezebel spirit. I should note that Revelation 2:20 (to which he may be refering) says,
"I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols."
I see an actual woman named Jezebel being spoken of here, but no spirit referred to.
However, and to the point, my question to all of you, my brothers and sisters who have read my website and have followed this ministry for many years, have you EVER heard me condone fornication? Have you ever witnessed me seduce any man or woman to commit fornication? Have I not always spoken out against it? Does not my website even now call fornication a sin and urge everyone to abstain from fornication? Have I not constantly called for sexual purity among us? And have I ever encouraged ANYONE to eat things offered to idols?
It is scripturally forbidden to continue debating with such a person, so my final comment to him was,
“Michael, are you kidding me?! You send me a letter full of hatred and have the gall to say that I'm the one being unloving by telling you that YOUR evil words will not hurt my salvation? Outrageous! Because you are a servant of evil you will find fault with any answer I give. You are obviously mentally ill or demonically possessed and I do not want to converse with you further. Hate is the god that you have chosen; go serve it and leave me to serve the Lord God of Israel. Goodbye.”
Refusing to end the conversation, Michael instead chose to throw more verses at me:
“I pray that you allow His Word to change you.
Romans 12:2
1 Corinthians 13
May the Lord Jesus display His love for you.”
It was at this point I decided that this needs to be brought into the light, into the view of fellow Christians. That is why I have posted this debate here for you all to see. I also sent a copy of this entire post to Michael and invited him, if he has anything else to say, to bring it here to the forum. My private email is not the place for this kind of discussion. For the record, here is that message to him:
“Michael,
You are not entitled to write to someone whom you do not even know and neglect to even introduce yourself or sign your name, neglect to even address them by name, and begin with an accusation of demon possession and blasphemy (which you absurdly refer to as "gentle correction"). You do not know me, I do not know you or anything about you, and I am not subject to you. It is obvious that you never even read my website, because if you had, you would have read my statement of faith and you would then, if you feared God as a real Christian, not have dared to make such a gross accusation against a minister of the Gospel. You rudely posted your first comment in the Guest Book, violating the site policy which is CLEARLY posted at the beginning of the Guest Book. If you had some issue with the content of the website, a decent human being and a REAL CHRISTIAN would have written a courteous letter to me directly, or even on the Forum. Instead you, claiming yourself a Christian, barged into my ministry and immediately declare your (TOTALLY INCORRECT) definition of “Kadesh” (even though visitors to the Guest Book might have virtually no idea what you are talking about), immediately followed by your implication that I am somehow calling something “good” which is evil with no reference to what you could possibly be referring to, and accusing me of being possessed by a fictional “jezebel spirit”, whatever that it, and then imply that I need cleansing from unrighteousness, and you essentially accuse me of teaching people that fornication is ok (which is obviously what this “jezebel spirit” is referring to) WHICH I HAVE NEVER DONE but ever preach sexual purity. And then you repeatedly fling Scripture verses at me like rocks! How dare you. Just who do you think you are? I have been serving the Lord for many years and the Lord has done many great things in my life BECAUSE I am one of His children, and He has used me through this ministry to save many souls and many lives – even to prevent some of the many suicides that were caused by people like you who preach hatred as the Gospel. And you have the nerve to pretend like you did nothing wrong. You are so consumed with your own self-righteousness and arrogance that you cannot see how OFFENSIVE you are –and what’s more, you don’t even care how offensive you are. All you care about is declaring that you are right that I am wrong. You don’t care who you offend or who you insult. You honestly believe that what you did was GODLY! Slander me and accuse me of whatever sins you want to, just like Satan does. But God knows me, I am His son and He is my Father; He knows my life and my heart and my soul, and none of your condemnations will ever change that. SHAME on whatever minister taught you that your behavior is righteous. If you think that marriage between two people of the same gender is a sin, that is your own sick, perverted mental hang up. If you have actually read my site and you can PROVE BY THE HOLY SCRIPTURES that any of it is false, then do so instead of accusing me of being demonically possessed. You tell me I need to repent, but repent OF WHAT? You never even gave a reason for your accusation. And you pretend you did this IN LOVE? That’s love?! That is what you call love? That may be what SATAN calls love, but that is not the love of God! And incidentally, at this moment I don’t care what you think about my attitude, that you don’t like it that I don’t fit into your cookie cutter mold of what you think a minister is SUPPOSED to be like. You suppose a minister should lay there and let someone like you try to use religion to assault him, but I tell you that the BIBLE says that so long as I do not sin by it, I AM ALLOWED TO BE ANGRY. So far I HAVE been VERY angry with you, but I have not sinned yet. But if I continue to speak to you I assure you that I will sin because I am fed up with phoney religious “Christians” like you who turn people away from God. As Jesus said, “You shut up the Kingdom of God against men; you neither let anyone in nor do you go in yourself.” Why don’t you listen to Jesus and Paul who said to preach the Gospel and MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.
I have shared our interaction with the members of our ministry through our site forum. Here is a copy of it, below, as well as a link to the Forum. If you should have anything else to say, unless it is to apologize to me, I suggest you post it there in the presence of other Christians.”
Rev. Jim Cunningham
King James Bible Ministries
GayChristianSurvivors.com