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Way of Life Literature Online Catalog

OPEN LETTER TO THE SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER

[Distributed by Way of Life Literatureâs Fundamental Baptist Information Service. These articles cannot be stored on BBS or Internet sites or sold or placed by themselves or with other material in any electronic format for sale, but may be distributed for free by e-mail or by print. They must be left intact and nothing removed or changed, including these informational headers. This is a listing for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Our goal in this particular aspect of our ministry is not devotional but is TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR. If you desire to receive this type of material on a regular basis, e-mail us, give us your name, address, and the name of the church you are a member of, and request to be placed on the list. Please note that this is not a free service. We take up a quarterly offering to fund this ministry, and each subscriber is expected to participate. To unsubscribe or to submit a change of address, send your name and the request to fbns@wayoflife.org. This is not an automated list. Changes in the database can require two to four days to activate. Some of these articles are from O Timothy magazine. O Timothy is a monthly magazine in its 18th year of publication. Way of Life publishes many helpful books. The catalog is located at the web site: http://www.wayoflife.org/. Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368. 866-295-4143 (toll free), 519-652-2619 (voice), fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail)]

December 20, 2000 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The Simon Wiesenthal Center exists to ãfight antisemitism and bigotry around the world.ä We support their effort to expose and resist genuine hate groups such as neo-nazis and other white supremacy organizations. Not content with this, though, the Wiesenthal Center has expanded its definition of ãhateä to include those who preach against false doctrine and expose false teachers. They have compiled a list of some 2,800 ãproblematic web sitesä which until recently was maintained at their web site, but now is available only via a CD-ROM which can be purchased. The ãproblematic web sitesä are organized under seven categories, one of which is ãreligious extremism.ä This category is listed together with such things as ãmayhem, anarchy, bombsä! I learned recently that Way of Life Literature has been included in this list, and I have sent them the following open letter:

ãHello. Someone told me that my ministry, Way of Life Literature, was included on your list of hate sites. I see that you have removed the list from the Internet but you are selling it on a CD. There is nothing hateful about my Christian ministry. Though I do warn about men who preach what we believe is false doctrine, we do so in obedience to direct biblical commands, such as 2 Timothy 4:2. ãPreach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.ä Christian ministers have done this since the days of the Apostles. The Apostle Paul named the names of compromisers and false teachers 10 times in the small books of 1 and 2 Timothy alone, but he did not hate them. He loved them, but he loved the people they were misleading even more. The Lord Jesus Christ preached publicly against the Pharisees and warned about their error (Matthew 23), but He did not hate them. In fact, He died on the cross for their sins and many of them were born again after His resurrection. It was a Pharisee (Nicodemus) who came to Jesus by night and inquired about the truth (John 3), and it was this same Pharisee who took Jesusâ body down off the cross and placed him in a borrowed tomb (John 19:39). 

ãLike our Lord, we do not hate anyone and we do not promote hate against anyone. We love the Jewish people, the black people, the Hispanic people, the Asian people, all people for whom Christ died. There is no racial aspect to our ministry, for we believe all men are created the same; all have the same sinful nature; and all have the same need of the Savior. My wife and I were Gospel missionaries to Asia for 10 years and established a Baptist church among Asian people, a church which was attended by people representing many cultures and races.

ãTo list an old-fashioned Baptist preaching ministry on a list of hate sites is slanderous. Just because we are not tolerant of false doctrine does not mean that we are a hate group. You need to be very careful about this type of thing. You will stir up animosity falsely against innocent Bible ministries by people who trust your judgment. In this, you are the ones who are doing the dividing and being intolerant of views that vary from yours.

ãSincerely, David Cloudä

CONCLUDING NOTE FROM BROTHER CLOUD:

The Simon Wiesenthal Center web site is as follows: http://www.wiesenthal.com/feature/digitalhatecd.html 

Their e-mail address is webmaster@wiesenthal.com.

We urge our readers to send them a note explaining that you do not support their inclusion of Bible preaching ministries among hate groups.