Letter from a supporter.

Hey Bro!

Again, great report! Brought tears to my eyes as I could envision the scene of you at that church. I myself am feeling that I am at a crossroads here in B... I participated in a week-long trainers' training for those of us who will be training our new staff over the next two years. Man, since when do senior staff see their primary role that of developing staff vs. reaching the lost?

One woman, who will be a team co-leader in another city, was told she will not be able to have a personal ministry with students, because she will only have time for her new staff trainees. What's been communicated is that the new staff are expected to develop their personal ministries of evangelism and discipleship, but reading between the lines I see that what's being said is that the direct work with the students is what you do if you don't have anything better to offer this ministry! If you aren't a media specialist, a staff development specialist, a team leader, etc. - then you can contribute by sharing your faith! Sad!

Sometimes I feel I won't be able to hang on much longer here. I just don't have the energy to put into secondary matters when, in the case of our organization, my target audience - students - is on a freight train to hell! What do we think we are doing??!! Back to your experience in York, PA, I find it so refreshing to see a church not only embracing the biblical gospel, but having an active street preaching ministry! That's a dream-come-true! Congrats on your faithfulness to sow the seed, a seed that has grown into a fruitful - in God's eyes, but maybe not in the world's - ministry!

God bless you next week as you minister.

In The Daily Collegian, an editorial was printed on November 21st that was critical of my methodology. Because the editorial was copyrighted, I can not duplicate it here. If you care to read the original editorial, please go to this URL.

I responded and the Collegian printed my response on their web site, with a short description in the paper itself. Here is my response.

Posted on December 4, 2008 4:54 AM

Willard Preacher responds to columnist's argument

Normally I do not respond to columns like Jessica Turnbull's "Preacher's threats distract from message" (Nov. 21), but this one is different. You see, Jessica is trying to claim authority for her column by asserting things that just are not true. Worse than that, she is holding Christianity up as something it is not, nor has ever been.

"The exchange ended with Cope making a threatening remark about being armed. 'If I am insane, you ought to seriously be concerned that I don't pull out my knife and slit your throat,' Cope said."

Apparently Jessica did not take the time to view the video that went along with the article. The remark I made was a rhetorical remark made to point out the fact that Nat Jackson did not believe what he was saying. From the video it is clearly evident that no threat was made. No one who was there nor the administrator quoted in the article thought so. The only one who thought so was Jessica. That is not even close to journalism's ethical standard of objectivity.

"But Jesus spoke a message of love that was difficult to hear," she wrote.

In fact Jesus did not speak of love. His message was primarily about repentance and the consequences of not repenting. His very first message was this: "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand"

In the gospels, He used the word repent or some form of repent in 26 verses, perish in nine verses, condemnation in 10 verses and love in terms of God's love for us in only one verse. And even that one time was more balanced toward condemnation than love.

The only verse where Jesus spoke of God's love is John 3:16-21,35: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

But in this same context, love is mentioned only once but various aspects of condemnation are mentioned more than nine times. Jessica's statement about Jesus speaking a message of love does not agree with what was written.

Her statement isn't even reasonable. A man is not killed for publicly loving the audience. According to Jesus, the reason He was hated was this: "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil."

According the Jesus, He was hated because he testified to the world that they were condemned in their sin. In fact, the secret of the power in His ministry was not based solely on love, but also upon hatred.

Jesus was not killed for standing up and telling people He loved them. He was killed for standing up and telling the people that if they did not repent, they would perish.

"The Willard preachers do not represent every Christian," she wrote.

We don't represent ANY Christians at Willard. We represent Jesus. We are there to defend God against His detractors. In truth, we represent the way Jesus said the Church was SUPPOSED to be viewed. Jesus said His followers would be afflicted, arrested, beaten and persecuted. He said that we would hated by all men. He said that everyone who even wants to live a godly life WILL suffer persecution.

"Jesus' message is about relationships, ones that are personal and respectful," she wrote.

Jesus' message was about only one thing. The only issue that He spoke about ever was whether or not we love God as we ought. If we love God, and love our neighbors as we ought, everything else falls into place. Every other message in His entire ministry is an offshoot of this one issue.

Jesus never showed respect for that which is not worthy of respect. In two instances He called women dogs. He called Herod a fox. He called His own disciples wicked and perverse. He called those who debated with Him fools, blind, snakes, vipers, sons of the Devil, murderers, hypocrites, wicked, adulterous, stupid and blockheads. All one has to do is simply read the encounters that Jesus had with His detractors.

"How can anyone believe a message of love through an angry debate?" she wrote.

There are numerous places in the Bible when Jesus spoke in anger. Here are just a few of the many.

When He drove the moneychangers out of the temple with a whip, was He smiling and speaking in a subdued voice? No, He was angry.

When He rebuked the Pharisees He was angry. Mark 3:5: "And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other."

When He rebuked His own disciples, He was really ticked off. Matthew 17:17: "Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me."

When He debated with the Pharisees, and called them morons, He was angry.

Matthew 23:17: "Ye fools and blind."

The word translated "fools" is the Greek word moros, from which we get the English word moron.

"A personal discussion with a Christian is more representative of Jesus than yelling back and forth. The Willard preachers contribute to the exchange of ideas by standing day after day on the steps. But I don't want the message of Christ to become lost in the angry confrontations that seem to result from the preachers' style of evangelism," she wrote.

I find it hard to believe that Jessica has EVER read the Bible. The Bible says this about Jesus and His (and our) relationship with the world.

Matthew 10:22: "Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake."

Matthew 24:9: "Deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake."

Mark 13:13: "Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake."

Luke 21:17: "Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake."

John 15:18: "Ye know that the world hated me before it hated you."

John 15:19: "Therefore the world hateth you."

John 15:25: "They hated me without a cause."

John 17:14: "The world hath hated them."

I could go on and on. Christianity was NEVER supposed to have a good reputation. Christianity is SUPPOSED to be hated. Your view that Jesus was well liked and loving is not in agreement with what The Bible says about Him. He was despised and killed, not loved and accepted.

"So after decades of shouting at passing students, is this style of debate helping anyone?" she wrote.

Yes. We have posted a sampling of the letters on our Web site, Fruit of the Ministry, for those who are interested in what our ministry produces.

Jessica, what do you want? You say you are a Christian, but apparently you don't want Christianity in the way that Jesus said it was supposed to be. You want it to be acceptable to the world.

Luke 6:26: "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! For so did their fathers to the false prophets."

That is the main fault of most Christians. They want to be loved and accepted by the world. Jesus said that anyone who loves the world more than Him will not make it.

Think of me as the solution to this problem. I am restoring the church to it's destined place of being hated.

Clarence "Bro" Cope is the Penn State Willard Preacher.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2008/12/04/willard_preacher_responds_to_c.aspx

This week, I had to take some time off to tend to some problems on the home front. I mentioned before about the tax problem I was having with South Carolina over a mistake I made on my return. I also had to deal with a Pennsylvania tax agency concerning a corporate tax. Apparently if one does not report any sales for several quarters, they want to cancel the corporation's tax accounts.

In addition, I had to get heat in my house, a task that ultimately wasted 4 days - one day waiting to get a load of coal, a second day waiting to send the coal back, and two more days waiting for delivery of a load of useable coal.

All in all every day wound up in the waste basket. This coming week at Penn State is the last week of classes before the Christmas and New Years holidays. I don't anticipate a whole lot going on. My plans for the moment are to finish preaching at Penn State.

I have a doctor's appointment on the 18th, then to head on out to Missouri on the 19th.

I was not idle during the week though. I got caught up on some writing I wanted to do. Most of what I wrote was posted on The Campus Ministry Bulletin Board.