We recently became aware of an email sent out by one of your associates entitled “The Muslim Scourge.” We are not entirely sure of the intent of his email, however, as anthropologists who are committed to tolerance and understanding of human differences in thought, word, and deed, and as people who work in a predominantly Muslim country, we cannot support the views expressed in the email. For these reasons, we regret we can no longer do business with Harvest Haven.
Jan
Steve
Hi Jan (and Steve), Victor Hafichuk here,
I must confess that my breath is almost taken away by this reaction on your part. Can you truly be entirely blind to your contradiction?! Here you are, touting yourselves as “anthropologists who are committed to tolerance and understanding of human differences in thought, word, and deed…” and in the same instant, you deny us any tolerance or understanding of our thoughts, words and deeds, and our “human differences.” You will not even try to reason or discuss, or make any attempt to clarify or bridge understandings.
Furthermore, you write off Harvest Haven, a faithful contributor to the local economy and to the good of mankind in general by agricultural, social, environmental and diet disciplines that enhance and sustain all life, as though it is wholly responsible for something one of its “associates” has done, even as you admit that you are not entirely sure of the e-mail’s intent. Are you even familiar with the content of the letter? Have you red all four parts of that series? Are you being fair and honest? Can you show us what you are talking about, specifically, when you accuse us of intolerance?
I would assume that anthropologists study mankind in order to improve it. Otherwise, what is the point, truly?
To give light to the essence and spirit of your reaction, let me draw a simple scenario: If a friend of mine (intimate or casual) offended you with an opinion not directed at you personally, you would automatically write me off because of him or her…no investigation or inquiry, no objective weighing of evidence, no trial, no jury, no defense…slam goes the gavel…condemned! Is that a “commitment to tolerance and understanding”? Even the Inquisition gave more of an appearance of judicial probity!
Let me ask you a question: Are you responsible for all the words and actions of your associates at the university? Would you like it if I held you responsible for anything coming out of that institution, especially if by hearsay, or second-hand? How “tolerant and understanding” would you then judge me to be? Would you not condemn me for the very thing of which you are guilty?
Jan, you and Steve are consummate hypocrites, along with all those who apparently sympathize with your wicked, self-righteous posturing. Anthropologists? What kind, pray tell? Obviously, as those who not only presume to be students but also instructors of the science of understanding mankind, you have an awful lot to learn.
That is because you do not know the Light of all men, the Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom and only by Whom there is true understanding of the nature of man, and Whose sacrifice on the cross you contemn. You are altogether in your sins, you who think to know so much.
The following is but a sample of the religion of which you presume to be tolerant and understanding, while utterly intolerant and contemptuous of our “religion” and us. Do you have any idea of the spirit and content of the “Bible of Islam”? Have you red it? Well, I have. You want “tolerance and understanding”? Here are some of the multitudinous, explicit examples of such in the Koran:
From Ali Sina’s website, www.faithfreedom.org:
“In order for you to appreciate the evilness of Islam, let us choose a few verses of the Quran and switch the words ‘Muslim’ and ‘non-Muslims’ and see how they look:
We will cast terror into the hearts of Muslims. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them. 8:12,
Let not the non-Muslims take for friends or helpers the Muslims. 3:28,
Rouse the non-Muslims to the fight against Muslims. 8:65,
Then fight and slay the Muslims wherever ye find them, 9:5,
Fight the Muslims, and God will punish them by your hands, cover them with shame. 9:14,
O ye the non-Muslims take not for protectors your fathers and your brothers if they love Islam. 9:23,
O ye the non-Muslims! Truly the Muslims are unclean. 9:28,
O ye non-Muslims! fight the Muslims who gird you about, and let them find firmness in you. 9:123,
Therefore, when ye meet the Muslims, smite at their necks. 47:4”
Hide your heads in the sand if you will. You will not escape the consequences of your ignorance and foolishness. Keep your business. We are not here to feed milk and yogurt to those who wish to be as tolerant and understanding as you. We are here to live and to speak the truth. Let the chips fall where they may.
Perhaps you think that by your sympathies with Muslims, you will be spared, not aware that the passionate thrust and essence of the Koran is to subjugate all peoples of earth, giving them but three choices: become a Muslim under strict sharia law, become a slave or at least a second-class citizen paying extra taxes and suffering the loss of basic, common privileges that Muslim citizens would retain for themselves, or lose your head. (I am not being dramatic or sensational here.) And they will not stop until those as tolerant and understanding of them as you appear to be will be included in that arrangement. Only those who can speak up against such evil will be spared by the Savior of all men, the Lord Jesus Christ, Whom the Muslims flatteringly call a “prophet,” yet deny all the crucial things He did, taught, and claimed. In essence, they call Him a liar while upholding Him as a prophet, inferior to Mohammed, who taught this way of thinking. And you remain in ignorance of it all, severing yourselves from those who would speak the truth at their cost, such as losing business.
If not for the sacrifices of many who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ over the past centuries and millennia, you would not be living in a free country and have the luxury of a tolerant environment wherein you could study other cultures and peoples. How many Iranians does the present regime of repressive mullahs allow to come here for similar studies? Of those who do come to Canada, many are sent as agents of sabotage, to bring extreme and violent intolerance to your way of life. But you are tolerant of their culture! How noble, how kind, how stupid!
Praise God for that little price we have to pay for speaking up. Truth and doing the will of God are far more precious than having a thousand Jans and Steves buying millions of dollars worth of groceries, because when it is all over, God shall destroy both belly and meats, and only He will remain and keep those who are faithful to Him.
By the way, your words indicate that you do not know the connection between the author of the article and Harvest Haven, and that makes your contradiction so much greater, not that you would have any excuse if you did know. Now I will inform you: I am no mere associate but owner of Harvest Haven.
Contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, and thankful to suffer the minor consequences for the glory that is laid up for the faithful,
Victor Hafichuk
Those, like Jan and Steve, who think we are speaking against Muslims have missed the whole point of The Muslim Scourge. The Muslims are not the issue. The issue is the wickedness of the West, which, despite the abundant blessings of God, has given itself over to hypocritical religious posturing in all its many manifestations, and to wanton self-indulgence and abuse of all good things given to us by our Creator. Not one of His gifts has escaped exploitation and pollution, whether it is the land, the air, the water, the airwaves, our freedom of speech, or the human body, mind, soul, and spirit. (Though I say this, and explain it plainly, I also know that those such as Jan and Steve will not see it, because their eyes are blinded by their sins.)
The people of the West have lived selfishly, and have become inured to the blessings of God. Instead of appreciation, there is an entitlement mentality, accompanied by disdain, complaint, arrogance and, above all, pride. Pride goes before a fall. These attitudes have brought the wrath of God on the West in a way not seen before. Now appear the religious fanatics of Islam, who, following their demonic and deluded leaders, embrace a form of suicide death that inflicts pain and destruction on their assumed enemies, which includes all peoples of the West. They seek nothing less than the removal of western civilization from the face of the earth, and western civilization, as it stands (and falls), greatly deserves this fate.
In The Issues of Life, we often address those who are Christian in name but who deny Christ by their ways, which ways we point out to them. There are some, who, like Jan and Steve, have not taken offense at these criticisms, but now, when they perceive that we speak against Muslims, they are mightily offended. They, or their inciters, were not offended with our letters exposing the sins and fallacies of the Mormons, Catholics, Seventh Day Adventists, JWs, Buddhists, New Agers and others. Why is that? Why do they not take offense when we speak of the sins of the West, and the false religion in the Name of Christ that is everywhere, for which things the Muslim scourge is sent by God to deal with the West? I will tell you why. It is because they are also in their sins and do not care in the least about what is right in the sight of God. Now that they were told we wrote something about Muslims, they assumed we were condemning Muslims per se (which is not the case), and decide to cut off business with anyone associated with those who wrote the article.
Rather than admit to, and repent of, their contradictions, they take the high ground as hypocritical moralists of the first order, protecting the “rights” of others to come and destroy them. They not only criticize us, but primarily take a hostile stand against the substance and vital essence of free speech, that which lays down the life to battle against tyrannical and false religion. They despise and reject the very thing that brought them the freedom to speak out without fear of persecution in the first place! In this they have more in common with suicidal maniacs than they do with those who laid down their lives to bring them the privilege and freedoms they exercise while hating the truth. Are they not saying, in essence, to the Muslims, “Yes, you should be free to practice your homicidal religion. Please, kill me too!”?
As for the Muslims, we do not persecute them. We speak the truth about their religion to alert them, and Westerners who are asleep, to the diabolical nature of it. If there is criticism being leveled, it is, firstly, at those in the West (and wherever else) who are doing wickedly in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Muslims are not the focus. They are the rebuke of God, an enemy He has raised against the moral depravity and hypocrisy of the West. Yet the Muslims, as with all, are being told the truth, which is the only hope that they, or anyone else, have as a way out of the intractable problems facing the world, starting with the individual world of each person.
Why is there free speech in the West, but not in Islam, which we find ignorant Westerners defending, while they would be denied the right to defend Christianity should they be living in Muslim lands? Here is a brief His-story.
Two thousand years ago a Man came and spoke freely, not seeking His own gain through courting the favor of His listeners but declaring the truth of God, that His ways might be known and honored by all, to the benefit of all. This was something that the religious authorities of His day could not tolerate, so they had Him crucified. They, having been given the privilege and safeguard of the Name of God and His Word, could brook no threat to their authority in the eyes of men, not because they cherished God’s Name or truth, but because they loved the power and preeminence of their position that His Name conferred on them in this world. When this Man exposed their disloyalty to God, and their hypocrisy in claiming to do His will, they did not repent of their ways, as God would have it, but instead raged with indignation and sought His death. They intended to put an end to His free speech.
Because they could not “legally” have Him killed, they did a peculiar thing. They had an alien government, which occupied their country and knew nothing of God, do their dirty work for them, and convinced those who knew no better that killing this Man was in their best interests, too.
The religious authorities that had instigated the putting away of this Man were soon surprised to find that His followers, who first fled at His being taken to a cruel death, were now out doing the same thing that this Man had done, freely speaking the truth to whomever, and wherever, including to themselves in their own religious halls! Now, instead of One, there were many speaking the truth. From the perspective of these authorities, it did not get better; it got worse! Yet rather than believing the liberating truth that this Man represented, and continued to speak through His followers who had received His Spirit after His resurrection and ascension to Heaven, these religious authorities continued their persecution of Him, which only caused His influence to spread and grow more! Even some of the authorities believed on Him.
But it was only a remnant that believed. This nation, which we know was ancient Israel, otherwise tried to snuff out the free speech of the Son of God, and thereby came to its end within a generation, in 70 A.D. during the Roman siege of Jerusalem. Denying the Holy One of Israel, the Holy One of Israel denied them. After the city fell, the Jewish people were scattered to the four winds (yet we see Israel resurrected after almost 2,000 years, as part of the unsearchable judgments of God and His work of mercy with mankind).
Jesus had wept over Jerusalem, because of their hardness of heart towards God. It was destined by God that they would not recognize the day of their visitation, and that the good news of Jesus Christ, Who came to save all men, would thereby be brought to other nations, by the power of God through the exercise of the free and unencumbered speech of those that were His, speaking on His behalf, which literally cost them their lives, just as it had cost Him. All of the twelve apostles sent out by Him after His ascension, except one, were also killed for their testimony of God. And that was just the beginning.
Not long after the first apostles were gone, men who did not believe came into the midst of the believers, according to Paul’s warning. These men were exercised in the deceitfulness of the human heart, by which they gained acceptance through speech and appearance, though their hearts were far from God. They were there solely for themselves, to better their own positions in this world. Yet they looked and spoke as believers. Jesus also warned this would happen (all things are by the predetermined will of God):
“Another parable He set before them, saying: The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man sowing good seed in his field. But while the men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away” (Matthew 13:24-25 EMTV).
These false ones began setting up their own works in the Name of Christ, such as the Catholic Church. They gathered power to themselves, and, being of the same mind and spirit as the world and its rulers, formed a union with the governing powers, bestowing, supposedly, the sanction and blessing of Heaven on their rule and actions. After murdering the Son of God, the counterfeit religious now co-opted His Name to further their own ends on earth. They followed the adage, “If you cannot beat them, join them!”
Since both the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church were after power on earth, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement to exercise total domination over the world for selfish gain. Thus the “Holy” Roman Empire was born.
As the Catholic Church consolidated its power over time, it ruthlessly stamped out the free speech of true Christians, and whoever else spoke contrary to their rule or against their blasphemous usurpation of the Name of Christ. Yet no matter how strong the persecution, God has always kept a remnant in the earth to lay down their lives for His sake, the Truth, and to exercise the free speech that He has granted to speak His Word that brings life to the world. And indeed, by the blood of the saints offered up to God, the testimony went out even more, spreading over the whole world.
Meanwhile, the societies in those parts of the world dominated by the Catholic Church were plunged into what is now called the “Dark Ages,” because of the intolerance and oppression of this beastly organization. Around this time there arose another beast, Islam, which came as a rebuke to the idolatrous pagan deities being honored, worshipped, and celebrated in the Name of Christ by the Catholic Church. With the advent of Islam, the Catholic oppressors of truth and mankind were beset by a new and potent, hostile religion, which came on the scene “out of the blue,” to chastise and trim back their ambition for world domination, competing both by sword and doctrine for the souls of the “unconverted heathen.”
Just as Catholicism demanded fealty to the pope and the church’s alleged authority, so Islam demanded allegiance to Mohammed above all others, and their interpretation of his perverse scriptures. Neither entity allowed free speech, if they had any say in the matter. If any speech contravened the tenets of their respective religions, denying them their position and authority, it was punishable by death. Except you were willing to pay for your freedom with your life, you could not exercise free speech.
This is the nature of all man-made religion. If not visibly demonstrated, the spirit is there nevertheless.
Sixteen centuries after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, cracks in the oppressive entombment of the West by the Catholic Church began to break open. That is because God ordained it was time for this to happen. Several prominent men were raised up nearly simultaneously, hazarding their lives to speak the truth, which went against this outrageously domineering and oppressive, self-proclaimed, counterfeit representation of God on earth. Men stepped forward to translate, print, and spread the written Word of God (which the Church had forbidden the people to have). All of these men paid the price of laying down their lives, whether figuratively or literally, to freely publish and speak, and to allow others the freedom to not have to conform to the dictates of religious institutions against their own consciences.
The reason we have free speech in the West is because Jesus Christ has enabled men to withstand and overcome the powerful tyrants of this world, who wielded a physical sword but could not overcome the Sword of His Spirit, the Word of God. The reason Muslims do not have a comparable situation is because they are taught not to believe in Jesus Christ, His ways and teachings. Mohammed is dead, and never did have the right stuff to begin with. He represented the physical sword, not the spiritual. He was another oppressor, not the Liberator.
Though not put away at the time of the “Reformation,” the Catholic Church was greatly subdued and curtailed in the power that she exercised over kings and kingdoms in temporal matters. While keeping her pomp and maintaining her claim to celestial rule, she metastasized into many fragments, all claiming to be God’s representative body on earth, though with none holding absolute sway over the western democratic governments that began to emerge in time.
(An important aside on the tenet of separation of church and state, which arose at this time as well: The reason for putting this principle into action was not to deny God or the Lord Jesus Christ, Who bought us with His blood, and has given us all good things, but to deny grubby men from taking His Name and using it to wield power over others and the affairs of this world.)
While men were willing to protest the ungodly practices and exercise of power by the Catholic Church, they still retained the form, to various degrees, and built their own versions (Protestantism) of what they deemed to be the proper religion on the corrupt platform of Catholicism. They were not ruthless to put away all the leaven. As Jesus said, a little leaven raises the whole lump. Today, we have Catholicism under many names, including “Episcopalian,” “Lutheran,” “Presbyterian,” “Methodist,” “Baptist,” “Pentecostal,” “Seventh Day Adventist,” “Jehovah’s Witness,” “Mormon,” “Non-denominational,” and many, many more. Read The True Marks of a Cult.
Collectively, the Catholic Church and her many daughters wield great power over the souls of men to this day, keeping them in bondage to pagan customs and deities in the Name of Christ. They serve as did those we mentioned in the beginning of His-story, who resisted Christ:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven before men; for you do not enter, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:14 EMTV).
Nonetheless, because of those who stood up to the tyrannical Catholic Church, and paid the cost of doing so with their lives, many of us in the West have great freedoms compared to those of our forefathers, and compared to those living under repressive Islamic regimes, where to name the Name of Christ is to put your life in jeopardy. And most people here, not knowing any better or differently, have taken these privileges for granted. It has been forgotten that, but a short while ago, relatively speaking, one could not speak openly without fear of having his or her goods confiscated, or being put in jail, or being burned at the stake.
(This is not to say that one will not be ostracized for speaking the truth. Speaking the truth in Christ has always meant ostracism in this world, whether by physical punishment, or social and economic means, such as Jan and Steve employ. It will cost you to follow God. It is meant to be this way. No cost, no value.)
What has the West done with the great privilege of the freedoms won for her people? The people have rebelled and spoken against the One Who granted them their freedoms, God. They have said to Him, “Do not tell us that we are wrong, or what we should be doing. We are our own masters, and we will do whatever we want. We know better than You. Others can speak freely here, but not You. We will continue to protect the right of others to talk about whatever they want, be it blasphemous, foolish, stupid, ignorant, vapid, inane, pornographic, idle gossip, silly entertainment, or scientific lies and nonsense. We allow them that right because we also wish to retain our right to believe and do the same. We are even willing to go so far as to side with the murderous rather than with You. Anything but having You telling us what to do.”
So God complies. He says, “You want those things? You have them all, even the murderers you choose for yourselves. I will send you the Muslims, those for whom you speak up, whose Koran teaches them to kill you and gives them justification in doing so. For you they have been raised up, to meet your need, even your stated desire. You have preferred to protect and encourage them in their blasphemous lies rather than hear My Words, which I send to deliver you from your own lies in order that you might live. Have it your way.”
That is what is happening. Men have become totally corrupted, and if not doing the evils themselves, are winking at and supporting those who do, because they will not step up to the plate and be identified with the One Who laid down His life for them. It is true. Jesus said:
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters” (Matthew 12:30 EMTV).
Paul, who laid down his life because he freely spoke the truth, said:
“Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar, just as it is written: ‘That You may be justified in Your words, and You may overcome when You are judged'” (Romans 3:4 EMTV).
Today, we have Jan and Steve, representing the ungrateful West, saying, “Let God be a liar, but every man is true.” Every man is doing what is right in his own eyes. Everyone knows better than God. Those who shed their blood for the sake of God, or conscience, are trampled on as stupid saps, yet those who do the trampling are not worthy to untie the trampled’s shoes. Because men have despised the goodness of God, so He will not listen or save them when the destruction they have craved comes on them:
Proverbs 1:20-33 GNB
(20) Listen! Wisdom is calling out in the streets and marketplaces,
(21) calling loudly at the city gates and wherever people come together:
(22) “Foolish people! How long do you want to be foolish? How long will you enjoy making fun of knowledge? Will you never learn?
(23) Listen when I reprimand you; I will give you good advice and share my knowledge with you.
(24) I have been calling you, inviting you to come, but you would not listen. You paid no attention to me.
(25) You have ignored all my advice and have not been willing to let me correct you.
(26) So when you get into trouble, I will laugh at you. I will make fun of you when terror strikes—
(27) when it comes on you like a storm, bringing fierce winds of trouble, and you are in pain and misery.
(28) Then you will call for wisdom, but I will not answer. You may look for me everywhere, but you will not find me.
(29) You have never had any use for knowledge and have always refused to obey the LORD.
(30) You have never wanted my advice or paid any attention when I corrected you.
(31) So then, you will get what you deserve, and your own actions will make you sick.
(32) Inexperienced people die because they reject wisdom. Stupid people are destroyed by their own lack of concern.
(33) But whoever listens to me will have security. He will be safe, with no reason to be afraid.”
All you religious, do not think for a moment that these words do not apply to you. Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, and then we will know that you are approved of God. Consider these words:
“But God says to wicked people, How dare you quote My decrees and mouth My promises! You hate discipline. You toss My words behind you. When you see a thief, you want to make friends with him. You keep company with people who commit adultery. You let your mouth say anything evil. Your tongue plans deceit. You sit and talk against your own brother. You slander your own mother’s son. When you did these things, I remained silent. That made you think I was like you. I will argue My point with you and lay it all out for you to see. Consider this, you people who forget God. Otherwise, I will tear you to pieces, and there will be no one left to rescue you” (Psalms 50:16-22 GW).
Where are His people, for whom He laid down His life, that they might also die to this world and be alive in Him? Who is willing to step up to the plate, and to be identified with Him, come what may?
As it is written:
“For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life on account of Me shall find it” (Matthew 16:25 EMTV).
Paul