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Pilgrims
Covenant Church Public Ministry Update
June 20—September 11, 2008
"The
Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are
glad." Psalm 126:3
Dear Friends,
Summer is over, and our PCC camp meeting weekend has come and gone. The Lord has graciously blessed our ministry efforts since I last sent out a newsletter, and He certainly did bless our gathering together over the weekend. I hope next year some of you, who have been so faithful and kind in supporting our public ministry efforts, will be able to join us at the camp meeting. It truly is a time used of the Lord for His glory and the good of His people.
Before I give a brief synopsis of some of our public ministry efforts the last several months, I do want to thank all of you who have supported that work through prayer and, or, with financial gifts. I hope none of the latter mind if I use this newsletter for a thank you note this month and save some postage. Also, I want to remind any of you who would like a receipt of your gift for tax purposes to let us know so that we can accommodate you on that. But, once again, thank you for helping us to continue on in this cause, which we trust is the
Lord's cause, as we publish essential truth in various ways throughout our state.
It is our zealous desire to flood this state, and other places, with the truth of the gospel which makes men free from the wrath of God, the condemnation of the law, and the dominion of sin through
"repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ" (Acts 20:21). And we seek to declare and spread the truth which reproves the lies which support and undergird the ungodly agenda of that roaring lion, our adversary Satan. So that is our desire; that is our strategy; and, I believe, that is our duty.
Over the past several months, we have received many harassing and even threatening phone calls and e-mails. The main culprits have been sodomites and their allies. We have also heard from Cornerstone fans, including an older man who claims to be close to the
"Jesus People USA" who are responsible for that
"Christian" rock event. That man is noising about things such as a warning that I am the next Jim Jones or David Koresh and it is
"just a matter of time" before "someone dies." Such responses are to be expected when we refuse to bow down to the golden calves of the apostates. We have also heard from Roman Catholic people, including clergy. And of course, we have heard from other upset members of other people groups as well. But, that be as it may, we have also been greatly encouraged by the other side of the coin.
For instance, I received a call from a retired Lutheran minister, ELCA. This man, who lives in Illinois, had received through a lit drop our tract
What the Bible Really Says about
Homosexuality. He called to not only thank us but to also ask if he could get a quantity of the tracts to hand out to other ministers, retired and active, in his denomination. The pastor expressed his righteous anger at the corrupting of his denomination by homosexual interests and his desire to fight that evil. Our tract was just the tool for which he had been looking. Of course, we gladly supplied him with the quantity he needed to get the job done.
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Mike Foht preaches to Cornerstone fans. |
We also have received encouragement and, by the grace of God, evidence of fruit borne through our efforts. But whether we hear good reports or bad and whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, we have the peace and joy of going on in the Lord, and we have the great blessing of joining you in serving Him. At the end of this report, I have a list of where PCC lit has been distributed. It is not just members of our church who distribute our tracts. For instance, a brother in Rockford, Illinois recently oversaw the distribution of 4,800 gospel tracts in that city. A brother and his wife who minister in the Milwaukee area have lit dropped 61,000 of our tracts in the last six years.
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Pastor Ovadal preaches to Cornerstone fans. |
In July, our "big events" included a witness at the Cornerstone Festival (July 1); preaching, gospel sign holding, and gospel tract distribution at the
farmers' market in Madison (July 19); and a witness in front of the
"Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine" near La Crosse on the shrine's dedication day (July 31). Prior to our witness at the shrine, we mailed our
An Urgent Plea to Roman Catholics tract along with our
Heaven or Hell? gospel tract to all rural homes in the La Crosse area. Our
farmers' market witness went well, with 600-700 tracts given out and thousands more witnessed to through our signs and open-air preaching. I have included with this newsletter two articles that I wrote and distributed which will fill you in on our witness at Cornerstone and the Guadalupe shrine. I am also glad to report that, as I write this, Pastor Bert Craft, a missionary brother based in Oaxaca, Mexico will soon begin distributing at various Roman Catholic events another 25,000 copies of our
Urgent Plea tract in
Spanish. Pastor Craft will be joined in this effort by his church as well as Mexican pastors in various areas of that country. May God strengthen our
brother's hand in that work and by His own sovereign power bring many Roman Catholic people out of popish darkness, translating them
"into the kingdom of his dear Son" (Colossians 1:13) by grace
alone through faith alone in Christ Jesus alone to the glory of God
alone.
PCC members also continue a weekly ministry at our local Planned Parenthood, and Mike Foht is a weekly witness at the abortion mill forty-five miles away in Madison.
Thanks again for helping us keep going.
Sincerely,
Pastor Ralph Ovadal
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Preaching at the farmers' market. |
• PCC distributed literature door to door in the following towns during this newsletter period:
• Gospel tracts—Beloit, McFarland, Monroe, Wisconsin; and Freeport, Illinois.
• Bible and
Truth—Beloit, Boscobel, Brookfield, Fond du Lac, Germantown, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Menomonee Falls, Milwaukee, Montello, Oxford, Sturgeon Bay, Two Rivers, Wisconsin; Freeport and Rockford, Illinois.
• Urgent
Plea—Benton and Hazel Green, Wisconsin.
• PCC gave out our brochures on homosexuality at the following schools: Sturgeon Bay High School and Freeport (Illinois) High School.
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Some of our signs at the farmers' market. |
• PCC provided literature at no cost for distribution by brethren in the following places:
Bible: Lancaster, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Escondido, California; and Plano, Illinois.
Truth: Lancaster, Milwaukee, and Viroqua, Wisconsin. Urgent Plea (English): Racine, West Bend, Wisconsin; and Columbia, South Carolina.
Heaven or
Hell?: Rockford, Illinois.
• PCC provided literature at cost for distribution in the following places:
Bible: Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Langhorne, Pennsylvania; and South Ogden, Utah.
Truth: Milwaukee, Palmyra, Wisconsin; Langhorne, Pennsylvania; and South Ogden, Utah.
Urgent Plea (English): Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Langhorne, Pennsylvania; Columbia, South Carolina; and South Ogden, Utah.
Urgent Plea
(Spanish): Columbia, South Carolina and South Ogden, Utah. No
Excuses: Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Milo, Missouri; and South Ogden, Utah.
Heaven or Hell?: Milwaukee, Racine, Viroqua, Wisconsin; and South Ogden, Utah.
July 3, 2008
Cornerstone Report
By Pastor Ralph
Ovadal, Pilgrims Covenant
Church, Monroe, Wisconsin
Tuesday, July 1, several of
us spent the day outside the gates of the Cornerstone
"Christian" music festival near Bushnell, Illinois. A
number of you prayed for that effort and, having returned home from it, I
can testify to you that I am very grateful for that prayer. After setting
up our signs, we spent the rest of our day surrounded by Cornerstone fans
as we contended for the faith once delivered unto the saints and
shared the gospel. I will say with no hesitation whatsoever that the
Cornerstone festival and the "Christian Contemporary Music"
culture are just plain evil. But praise the Lord, amidst all the profane
mocking and subjective, anthropocentric prattle, there were young people
who were, by the grace of God, clearly convicted by what we shared. I
really don't know how, if I am going to keep this short, to come close to
painting a clear picture of what took place Tuesday. I do know that our
experience again confirmed that Christians ought to be at these events,
witnessing against them and for Christ. By the way, there were also
some other Christian brothers and sisters on hand to witness at
Cornerstone. That group consisted of street preachers, and several of
their wives, from a couple of states other than Wisconsin. They had been
out on Monday, were on hand Tuesday, and were planning on being at
Cornerstone also on Wednesday. But I will try to briefly
summarize some of the things which took place Tuesday, relating my own
experience and what I know of the experience of the several others from
our church who were with me. I know the Lord greatly blessed the
witness of others as well, and all of us know that any good that was
accomplished was due to the mercy and grace of God alone.
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A "contemporary Christian musician"
performing on stage at Cornerstone |
*
We no sooner had set up our signs than a rock music fan wearing a red
beret--in his 60s no less--came out to confront me for supposedly calling
a young woman a "bit--" the day before and telling another
woman, "Go to hell." Of course, I was 180 miles away in
Wisconsin the day before; so that particular charge, along with others,
didn't stick. I have become quite an evil legend in Cornerstone circles.
Our experience raises the issue that perhaps at least some of the
rumors and charges could well be coming from the people who run Cornerstone,
the "Jesus People USA" themselves.
* During the course of our
ministry at Cornerstone, we were often mocked and cursed at, were the
target of obscene gestures, had things thrown at us, and had our tracts
ripped up and thrown in the air. More than once we heard the
"f" word. My daughter Joy had a glass of fruit juice thrown on
her. The twelve-year-old daughter of one of the street preachers had her
hand grabbed and her wrist purposely and sharply twisted by a CS fan when
she offered him a tract. Remember, the perpetrators of such ungodly
behavior were "Christians" attending a "Christian"
festival named "Cornerstone."
* One young man, surrounded
by his friends, said to me, "I have the gift of mercy, but you are
really pushing it." He ended up saying nice things such as "f---
you" and making an obscene gesture.
* I spent quite a long time
contending for the faith with the very arrogant "Christian"
lead singer of one of the CS bands. A number of young people listened to
our exchange. Of course, along with many others, this young man was
angered by our stand against his idolatry and his contempt for the gospel.
As with many others, his mocking arguments were man-centered nonsense, the
type of poisonous bile which has been fed to a generation of young people
by an army of wolves in sheep's clothing. The singer called a number of
passages in the Word of God "foolish" and
"silly," saying Christians have no need to respect them. When I
confronted him for mocking the Word of God and, of course, then mocking
the Author of the Scriptures as well, he laughed and said, "Sure, I
mock the Word of God, so what?" In the increasingly intense exchange
that followed, the same young man, in front of his adoring fans, took the
Lord's name in vain. Specifically, he said, "G-- da--." But of
course, he insisted there was nothing wrong with doing that and that
"vain" can have many different definitions anyway. As you might
expect, the singer and his entourage heard plenty of preaching before they
moved on, and several of the young fans were quite shaken and clearly
under conviction by that time.
* I, and others, also had
spirited discussions with several "youth pastors." One of
those pastors actually was a very clean cut, reasonable man, although
thoroughly polluted with neo-evangelicalism and "culturally relevant
evangelism." I spent quite some time with him discussing the Word of
God, and he ended up telling me he was very troubled by much of what was
going on in Cornerstone. He said, "Nights are especially bad."
Again, others were listening to that conversation/debate.
* I also had an opportunity
to talk to a Baptist pastor who had dropped his daughter and her friend
off at Cornerstone. He was already uncertain about the music. When I told
him more about that issue and then also about such Cornerstone staples as
the labyrinth, Emerging Church seminars, "Christian" feminism
teachings, etc., the pastor was really shaken. He took our handout which
answered Cornerstone claims with multiple Scripture verses. Before long,
the pastor was back in his van, sitting in line in front of the gate
waiting to get back in to Cornerstone. I had only a brief moment with
him, but in that time, he said, "I read those verses you gave me and
have been thinking about them." I believe he was on the way in to get
his daughter out of harm's way.
* One of the street
preachers related to us that the day before they had been preaching to a
group of CS fans, including a sixteen-year-old girl who revealed she
was "traveling with one of the bands." It seemed very clear
to the preachers that the girl was in an immoral situation. Under the
preaching of the Word of God, she began weeping. At that moment, the
devil, in the form of one of the band members with whom the girl is
traveling, came and led her away.
* In one case, a clean-cut
young man who was part of a group I had been witnessing to, and whom PCC's
Mike Foht had witnessed to earlier, lingered behind when his friends left
and asked if he could talk to me. Although he had done some mocking as I
was preaching and contending for the faith with his friends, he now was
shaken up. He told me that as he listened to me, he changed inside. He
said that he deeply wants to honor and serve the Lord, including being a
pastor one day. He related that his conscience has been troubled by
Cornerstone, saying, "It is getting worse in there every year."
He said what I had shared from the Word of God had answered the questions
that were in his mind and that he felt that he would have to separate from
Cornerstone, even though at that very time his father, a pastor, was in
Cornerstone. And then he finally told me he was in a band himself,
although a much more mellow band that at least had Christian lyrics and
tried to be clean-cut. But he said that he was now thinking seriously
about leaving the CCM scene altogether. This young man, who unlike many of
the other males at CS, looked like a man, talked like a man, and I believe
may well be greatly used of the Lord--which all goes to show, the Lord
blesses the defense of our gospel faith. Though thousands may have
rejected our witness, still that one man may yet be a mighty champion
of truth and win many to Christ. I do not doubt that the Lord
did a work in other hearts Tuesday as well, including, we hope, through an
interview I did on site with National Public Radio. We certainly praise the
Lord for being our ever present help and richly blessing our labors.
I could share so much more,
but the length of this report is already an incentive not to read it!
Suffice it to say, our knowledge of the Word of God had a good test
Tuesday. Thanks again to those who prayed.
August
8, 2008
This Silence
Is Shameful.
By
Pastor Ralph Ovadal, Pilgrims Covenant Church, Monroe, Wisconsin
I begin
this article by posing a "what if" scenario to my fellow
Christians. What if a powerful, international sodomite organization
purchased over one hundred acres of land near La Crosse, Wisconsin and
spent multi-millions constructing a lavish building complex on that
land? What if this complex was to be a mecca for up to 200,000
sodomites a year who would come from around the world to commit perverted
acts there? Finally, what if a grand dedication day for the sodomite
shrine, attended by high-profile sodomite leaders and celebrities, was
highly publicized in the mainstream media?
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Archbishop Raymond Burke,
former bishop of the diocese of
La Crosse, prays during the
deposition of the relics portion of
the Mass of Dedication for the
Shrine Church of Our Lady of
Guadalupe. —La Crosse Tribune |
Thankfully,
it is clear what would happen. Christian radio talk show hosts in our
state, and region, would fill the airwaves with denunciations of such an
abomination and call for a Christian witness against it. Christian
pastors would preach, including to the world, what the Scriptures teach
about such evil. Leaders of various Christian ministries as well as
some pastors would organize to protest and preach in front of the sodomite
complex. Press releases and letters to the editor would join the
public protests and preaching in warning the public and the church against
the dangerous evil which had set down its roots in La Crosse. I
praise the Lord that this no doubt would be the response to the "what
if" scenario I have presented.
But allow
me to briefly tell you readers about a real life situation which
has unfolded in the beautiful countryside just outside of La Crosse. What
I am about to describe is a greater evil than even my imaginary scenario
because it was, and is, a gross spiritual perversion, an orgy of paganism
and idolatry masquerading as Christian before a gullible, ignorant world. It
was, and continues to be, nothing less than an open assault upon the very
person, work, and word of our Lord Jesus Christ--and yet an assault
carried out in His own precious name by a church held by billions to be
Christian!
Thursday,
July 31, 2008, was Dedication Day for the 103-acre "Shrine of Our
Lady of Guadalupe" in La Crosse, Wisconsin. No expense has been
spared, and in fact, materials have been brought in from around the world to
erect the extravagant church, rosary walk, friars' residence, Memorial to
the Unborn, outside Stations of the Cross, various shrines to saints,
outdoor plazas, Mother of Good Counsel Votive Candle Chapel, many graven
images, and so on which have been reared up on the Guadalupe shrine
grounds. On Dedication Day, in addition to a large number of
"pilgrims," two hundred Roman Catholic priests, including
bishops, cardinals, and the Vatican's "Prefect of the Apostolic
Signature," drove through the gates to "Our Lady of
Guadalupe's" shrine. The vast majority of the pope's men, along
with a large contingent of nuns and some monks as well, arrived in luxury
cars and limousines. I know because I was at the front gate of the
shrine, along with a small group from our church, as a Christian witness
with our signs, tracts and with our voices as the Lord gave opportunities. As
I stood in front of the grounds of the lavish Guadalupe complex, watching
luxury cars full of priests arriving, I could not help but recall that the
Roman Catholic Church vigorously, relentlessly lobbies our state and
federal legislators for ever more tax-funded programs for the poor! But
what better way to endear the poor to the pope et al. than to use
the strong arm of the civil power to extract money from the working man to
fund unbiblical entitlement schemes? Such a strategy is all gain and
no pain--for the Vatican, that is, which has a long history of using the
civil power to advance and strengthen popish power.
I might interject
that there was one priest who arrived on the shrine scene on foot, having
walked fifty miles because, as shrine coordinator Susan Swanke said in a
television interview, "It's very fitting that he would walk because
there is a little bit of suffering in a pilgrimage as well." I
suppose the well-publicized priest thought I was adding to his
suffering when I joined his walk sixty yards or so from the
shrine gates in order to confront him with truth from the Word of God.
By the way,
the Romanists in charge of the shrine acted in the finest tradition of
popery in trying their best to convince the police on hand to sweep clean
our witness from the public property in front of the shrine's gates. Spearheading
that task was an intense nun in full uniform, or habit if you will, who
looked as though she would have preferred a flaming pyre
for us rather than a simple expulsion. Due to the lawfulness of the fine
police on hand, she got neither. But she, and those with her, did get
a dose of unwanted truth from us. It might interest you to know that a
police officer also offered the nun a tract which we had given him, in
order, he said, that she might read what we were handing out. The dutiful
daughter of Rome curtly refused the tract, adding, "Do you think I'm
crazy?"
But as much
as I would like to share more on our ministry efforts, for the sake of
space, I must not. Suffice it to say, I am convinced the Lord richly
blessed our labor as we contended for the faith once delivered unto the
saints and shared truth with Romish priests and pilgrims as well as police
and media personnel.
Estimates
by local tourism officials are that the shrine will soon enough be
bringing in up to 200,000 pilgrims per year, resulting in up to 10
million dollars being pumped into the economy of La Crosse. Perhaps
that is why the press, especially in the La Crosse region, gave the shrine
dedication such extensive coverage. On the other hand, I can only
speculate as to why the editor of the Rochester, Minnesota Post-Bulletin
newspaper called our church's witness there "religious
intolerance." But that same editor, apparently to showcase our
bigotry, also posted our entire press release on the newspaper's blog, and
his newspaper ran a story in which they quoted me calling what takes place
at Guadalupe's shrine "gross idolatry"! It is not just the
heart of kings that is in the Lord's hand. He also is well able to
turn the heart of a newspaper editor "whithersoever he will."
Another
editor--this one of the Houston County News (La Crescent,
Minnesota)--wrote to inform me, "I feel sorry for you and the ugly
heart your church has." Meanwhile, the largest paper in the La
Crosse region, the La Crosse Tribune, carried this quote from me
in their otherwise very favorable account of Dedication Day: "The
things they're saying about their lady of Guadalupe are completely
unbiblical. They give her attributes and power and authority that
belong only to God." A local television station also did an
in-depth interview with me in front of the shrine gates.
We thank
God for such opportunities to reveal truth to a public deceived into
thinking that the darkness of Romanism is the Christian faith. I
share these things only to show how valuable and essential it is to raise
a public voice against the sort of dark deceptions which were showcased as
"Christian" in La Crosse last week. But this brings me back
to the main purpose of this article.
The
idolatrous, blasphemous orgy which recently took place in La Crosse was
not done in the dark. The Guadalupe shrine had been covered by the
media, off and on, since the project began in 1999. In the weeks
leading up to Dedication Week, the media in the La Crosse region were
saturated with shrine coverage. Stories also appeared in the media
statewide, including such newspapers as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
and in the nearby Minnesota media. Due to this, the Christian media
also knew full well what was happening in La Crosse. Yet, search as
we may, we have yet to find one instance in which a Christian media source
exposed and reproved that pagan spectacle in La Crosse. On
Dedication Day, the Roman Catholic Eternal Word Television Network
broadcast live from the shrine to 140 nations, while Relevant Radio, also
Roman Catholic, went live nationwide. Meanwhile, Christian radio
was shamefully silent. And while I am certain far from all pastors in
our state were aware that the largest shrine to "Our Lady of
Guadalupe" in North America was having its "grand opening"
last week, in part thanks to the Christian media blackout, surely some
were aware of that statewide and virtually all in the La Crosse
region. I will not presume to self-righteously pass judgment on every
pastor in this matter, but one would think a good number, at least in the
La Crosse region and a few from elsewhere in the state, should have taken
up the cause of Christ against such an onslaught by Antichrist! Yet,
for all our efforts, we cannot find one instance in which another
pastor has uttered a public word concerning that monstrous abomination.
For the record, our church is 160 miles distant from La Crosse.
Meanwhile,
what did the world hear and read about in press reports concerning the
"Christian" ceremonies that took place at the Guadalupe shrine
last week? What did they learn from the lips of Roman Catholic
leaders and clergy? Well, the unwary and the ignorant were informed that
"Our Lady of Guadalupe," the "Mother of America"
and "Patroness of the Unborn," "is known to be a powerful
intercessor. Being the mother of God, when Jesus' mother asks him to do
something, it's known that Jesus generally will do what his mother
asks."
They were
taught that "the mother of God desired that a chapel be built, to
which she could invite her children to come on pilgrimage." They
were assured that the shrine and its rituals are God's will. They
were catechized concerning the "miraculous appearances" of the
Roman Catholic goddess and given desensitizing, perhaps initiating,
insight into Romish rituals, including the blasphemous mass.
In fact, the
public was treated to in-depth secular media coverage, including pictures,
of the dedication mass and the mass procession. The latter spectacle, we
were breathlessly informed, was led by white-robed Knights of the
Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, which dates back
to the pope's Crusades. Another well-covered event was the blessing of the
statue of "Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha," a Mohawk woman whose
"relics"--more simply put, pieces of her dead bones--were
carried into the dedication mass to be venerated and put inside the
altar, along with a piece of bone from "Blessed Father Miguel Agustín
Pro." On hand for that statue blessing, and honored by
Archbishop Burke, was Sister Kateri Mitchell. The sister comes
from the same Turtle Clan of the Mohawk Nation as "Blessed Tekakwitha,"
who is destined to become a "saint." Nun Mitchell was good
enough to authoritatively teach the public, via the media, that one can
walk a "holistic path" and that both the turtle and the
Christian cross, which she called the "tree of life," are
"sacred." The utterances of the "Christian" nun
in the mainstream press coverage of the relic ritual included this: "The
spirituality of the turtle is one of sacredness and closeness to the
Earth. The Earth is the center of our lives physically, but
spiritually it's a real center for me." This is the sort of
hellish indoctrination the gullible world heard from "Christian"
leaders of the Roman Catholic Church.
By the way,
the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel coverage of the Tekakwitha statue
blessing contained this: "'Two young eagles began circling, cavorting
in the air, dipping down toward the statue and loudly calling out,' said
Jack Socha, a shrine spokesman. 'It only happened during the blessing.
They were not seen afterward. To Native Americans, this is significant. It
was a very moving moment.'" Eagles are sacred to many American
Indian tribes. It has always been the Romish way to blend local
heathen superstition with the Roman Catholic brand of
"Christian" worship and doctrine--the better to grow the pope's
empire.
When Paul
saw the city of Athens filled with idolatry, "his spirit was stirred
in him" and he zealously took up a witness for the one true God. Last
week in Wisconsin, the church of Antichrist boldly paraded before the
world the brand of raw idolatry which I have only briefly described here.
In fact, the various media were literally filled not just with the sort of
"teaching" of which I have given samples but also with pictures
of Romish idols and popish high priests. This was put forth as the
true religion of Jesus Christ. If Paul's spirit was stirred in him by
the idolatry of the heathen Athenian philosophers who in no wise claimed
to be Christians, how much more should the spirits of Christian
pastors be stirred to action by such an idolatrous mockery
of the faith of the gospel by priests claiming to be ministers of the Lord
Jesus Christ? But where was the true church of Jesus Christ last week? Where
were those pastors whose spirits ought to have been stirred within them to
contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints as Romish clergy
preached their perverted religion while posing as ambassadors for Christ?
Where were those who truly love the souls of the Roman Catholic people
held in bondage by the devil and the pope? And where were the
"conservative" Christian media? These are crucial questions
that demand answers. But thanks to an ignorance of history, shallow
doctrine, and ecumenical corruption, most Christians don't even see the
need for the questions, let alone the answers.
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