Newsletter

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Newsletter - February and March 2004

A Happy Note From Ed

I am so excited to be back in the office! At least for a few hours most days. Thank you for all the prayers, kind notes and cards of encouragement you have sent to me as I have been recovering from my stroke. And Jason has been such a blessing to me during this time of recovery. Bless Him!

I want you to know that prayer does work and I am almost back to full strength again. Elders from my home church and my family were at the hospital, Eisenhower Medical center near Palm Springs, within hours of my admittance. They acted, in faith, on the scripture that says:

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. James 5:13-16 NKJV

I have been pushing through the rehab program and have lost almost 20 pounds, exercising every day, eating properly and feeling so much. It is a far step from the day I went to the ER and couldn’t remember Carol’s or my own name. It wasn’t until mid-January that I could walk without a walker and now I am walking over a mile each day. For a long while, my eyesight was affected and I was unable to read or watch TV more than a little bit at a time.

God is so good! Even though I know that the Lord can handle the Mormons and Masons without me, I still want to be in the middle of reaching the lost, whom I love in Christ. I am a zealot for the Lord and when I was unable to be in the midst of the ministry, I was still able pray fervently for so many of your needs and those of the ministry.

We Need Your help!

Friends, my long absence has caused a deep drop in the finances of Saints Alive and we truly need some miracle gifts to get us back and running full power again. We are already about $8,000 short of meeting our expenses for the year to date. Please, for the sake of the ministry, pray about this and will you send in a special gift today?

You can mail a check to us at the address below or give online by clicking here.

Your brother in Christ,

Ed Decker

The
God Makers
DVD is Here!

Although we have had some problems getting the God Makers DVD finished and in production, we now have it in stock.

Click Here to Order!

Please Note: The Temple of the God Makers and The Mormon Dilemma DVDs will be in stock April 30.

The Passion of The Christ

In all the years since I became a Christian in 1975, I have never seen a nation so transfixed on a single Christian issue as It continues to be drawn to the movie, The Passion of The Christ. Every edition of every newspaper I have checked out and every news broadcast on every station has been salivating over the good, the bad and the ugly issues they have brought forth.

At first, the media was convinced that the film would create a strong anti-Jewish reaction and cause great harm to the Jewish community in ways only the very politically correct, talking-heads could conjure up. When that didn’t happen, they have focused on the violence. Mel Gibson responded to that charge during one interview and said that it was unfortunate but the crucifixion was violent. The price of our sins was not cheap.

Our home church, along with so many others, rented out several Seattle area theatres and had a number of pre-release showings. We were unable to attend but heard from many how they were driven deep into their faith and realization that, in their own minds, the Cross had been cleaned from the blood and re-placed by an antiseptic Jesus. Our daughter, Jennifer called to say how moved she was in her own faith. “Dad, I will never take communion again without seeing and feeling the love He had for me to endure what He did on the Cross."

Carol and I were able to go two days after it was released. We wept quietly as we endured the pain He bore for our sins that day. The theatre was packed at a mid afternoon showing. Everyone was so quiet. People bowed their heads to close out the pain. Some jumped from their seats and ran out in tears. Others wept openly. When the film ended, it was so silent there. People slowly began to stand and with eyes to the floor, work their way from their seats.

I pray we never recover from it. The American Christian Church has forgotten the immensity of what took place there. We have this “Jesus of Love and sweetness” and have forgotten what really happened on that day the whole world changed as The Word that had become flesh died for the sins of world he came to redeem. Go see the film! Yes, it is hard to watch, but you need to see it. Please, write me a note and let me hear your thoughts on it!

Mixing Water and Oil

Hello, my name is Marty and I have some friends in my church and at Work who are by all indi-cations Christians, yet they are Masons. I have tried to speak to them about it and share my belief that it is wrong but they insist that the Masonic lodge simply helps to make them better and stronger Christians. How can I reach them without offending them? I love the Lord and it really hurts me to see his people being drawn in to a lie. One of my friends is even a Baptist preacher and yet he is a Mason. Please help if you can. I have a real burden for these people.

Marty, you need to fortify yourself with prayer, prayer, prayer. In matters like this, we always need to seek God's guidance and direction. You need to show them why the tenets and teachings of Freemasonry are incompatible with their Christian faith.

There is a very sad phenomena within the Southern Baptist Convention, and that is the simple fact that they have taken the position that SBC doctrine is secondary to each individual Baptist's personal feelings. In the 1993 SBC Report on Freemasonry, this was made quite clear in the Home Mission Board's conclusionary statement which was overwhelmingly adopted:

"In light of the fact that many tenets and teachings of Freemasonry are not compatible with Christianity and Southern Baptist doctrine, while others are compatible with Christianity and Southern Baptist doctrine, we therefore recommend that consistent with our denomination's deep convictions, regarding the priesthood of the believer and the autonomy of the local church, membership in a Masonic Order be a matter of personal conscience."

And this denigrating of the SBC's only doctrinal statement has spilled over as a poisoning influence among many of its members. It was the SBC itself that opened up Pandora's Box when they said the doctrine of the church is secondary to each individual's personal feelings and quirks regarding Freemasonry.

We don't know if this pastor you have mentioned is Southern Baptist or of another Baptist group, but he cannot, in all honesty, reconcile the tenets and teachings of Freemasonry to his own church's doctrinal statements concerning God and Salvation. It is like trying to mix oil and water, because it is trying to blend heresy with church doctrine. [Duane Washum answered this for me]