June 26, 2007
A Letter to Cornerstone Fans
from Pastor Ralph Ovadal

"To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word,
it is because there is no light in them." —Isaiah 8:20

Last year, Pilgrims Covenant Church received a flyer promoting Cornerstone Festival. After spending considerable time viewing Cornerstone's official web site, I made the decision to take a small group from PCC to minister at the site of the Cornerstone Festival. To communicate our message, we used several signs with Scriptures on them, gave out flyers, and spent time talking one-on-one with Cornerstone fans. We did not come as enemies to those fans but to share the concern we have for their spiritual well-being by giving voice to our conviction that the music and many of the activities of Cornerstone do not honor God or benefit His people. Yet during our brief time at Cornerstone, we were mocked and called names such as fascist and faggot. Cornerstone fans swerved cars at us, threw things at us, and made obscene gestures. We did meet a number of friendly people as well, but a shocking percentage of the fans reacted to us with open contempt, ridicule, and in some cases, rage!

Since that day at Cornerstone, our church has received numerous e-mail messages from Cornerstone fans in which we have been mocked as being "ignorant" and railed at for being "unloving." We have been accused of being responsible for numerous evils. We have been told we are "the reason the world doesn't like Christians" and that we cause sinners to reject Christ and spend eternity in hell! Cornerstone bloggers have misrepresented our church, talked about wanting to punch us, and waxed less than eloquently about how our type makes them sick.

Because we disagree with the music and methods of Cornerstone based on convictions rooted in the Scriptures, we have been typecast as unfeeling hypocrites, as one CS fan put it, "a church that refuses to extend its hand to the people who need it most." This is in spite of the fact that our church is extremely active in public evangelism in the USA, and we support foreign ministry, including several orphanages and medical clinics in Kenya and Zambia. It would seem those Christian rock fans who make such promiscuous use of "judge not" when it comes to our honest convictions have not hesitated to make all manner of unfounded, unrighteous judgments in defense of their rock music culture—or is it their "rock music idol"? It appears not a stone has been left unturned in that effort.

For instance, the main director of "Cornerstone yoU" took his turn at mocking us in a blog for holding, with many other Christians, the belief that God has faithfully preserved His Word in the Masoretic Hebrew Text and the Traditional Greek Text, or Textus Receptus, and that the correct technique for translating the Bible is formal equivalence, also known as verbal equivalence. Currently, in the English language, only the King James Bible meets that standard. Based on that, the director chose to label us "King James Only" and mock the Bible from which we preach as "the King Jimmy."

By the way, he also joined with others and took us to task for our imagined sin of water refusal, writing, "We did attempt to take water to them (which was refused) . . . I know for a fact that our staff took water to the PCC protesters, who were exposed in the hot sun and dust. They rejected the offer of water, unfortunately." Apparently, because our behavior at Cornerstone was befitting the cause of Christ, CS people, desperate to document some sort of shocking, ungodly behavior on our part, have spread the word that we committed the sin of not taking all the water bottles offered to us by some. In reality, though we had plenty of our own water, once we saw the offense caused when we said we had no need of more, we accepted the water. In fact, we took home a stockpile of water. We also accepted granola bars, sunglasses, and would have taken the hot dogs, but we had just eaten a big lunch! Yet in a show of pettiness and an apparent determination to typecast the hard-hearted PCC fundamentalists, the "refused to accept water" charge has been hurled at us repeatedly since that day at Cornerstone.

The CS yoU director also knowingly misrepresented us when he wrote this about PCC in his blog: "[A] few hardy souls also tried a dialogue with them, also to no avail." The fact of the matter is, we talked with CS fans for hours in the hot sun until we were almost unable physically to talk! Another employee of Cornerstone wrote and accused us of leaving litter which he had to pick up. In reality, it was CS fans who threw our tracts on the ground. We carefully picked up all litter in our area, including all the crumpled tracts thrown on the ground and, in some cases, at us by those fans. Perhaps some of our tracts were littered in other areas where we did not see them. But surely, the CS employee must have known we did not crumple up our own literature and throw it around!

The reaction of Cornerstone to our simple, biblical outreach, undertaken out of genuine concern and love for our Lord Jesus, has reminded us of the tactics used and the scorn vented against Christians by those who love darkness rather than light. Is this the fruit of a Christian event? "Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit" (Matthew 7:17).

This year, we are here once more to be a biblical witness against the methods and music which we believe dishonor our Lord, pervert His gospel, and do harm to those, primarily young people, who attend Cornerstone. We are here to present a biblical witness to those whose desire is to truly know and obey the Word of God. Rather than write an in-depth and lengthy paper responding to the various objections raised against us by CS fans, we have with us free CDs which feature two short messages I have preached. In one, I respond to some of the issues raised by Cornerstone fans. The other is a message on Christian rock music. Should we run out of CDs, we will take the addresses of those whose requests we cannot meet today and send CDs to them. As I mentioned earlier, I will also be preaching in the open air at 1:00 P.M.

In closing, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this letter. We are not here because we see you, the Cornerstone fans, as our enemy. We are here to "contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3) and because we have a deep concern for your spiritual well-being, including the eternal well-being of those among you who are not in Christ. With this letter, I have included just a few Scripture verses which I trust the Lord will graciously use to convict the hearts of some of you, even if the "unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16).

Pastor Ralph Ovadal

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."
Psalm 119:105

The Word of God says:

v "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." —Matthew 4:17

v "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." —Romans 10:17

v "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." —Mark 8:38

v "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away." —Luke 21:33

v "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." —1 Corinthians 1:21

v "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." —2 Timothy 4:2

v "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." —1 Corinthians 1:18

v "But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness." —1 Thessalonians 2:4-5

v "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." —1 Corinthians 2:2

v "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." —2 Corinthians 4:1-2

v "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." —Mark 16:15

v v v

The Cornerstone Claim:
If we want to win those in the world for Christ, we must look like the world and be involved in things which appeal to them.

The Word of God says:

v "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." —1 John 2:15-16

v "For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." —Galatians 6:8

v "For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." —Galatians 1:10

v "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." —Colossians 3:2

v "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." —Matthew 5:14

v "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." —2 Corinthians 6:17-18

v v v

The Cornerstone Claim:
God doesn't care what sort of music we use to worship Him. There is nothing wrong with Christian rock.

The Word of God says:

v "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." —Psalm 29:2

v "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him." —Psalm 89:7

v "For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding." —Psalm 47:7

v "What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also." —1 Corinthians 14:15

v "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." —Colossians 3:16

v "Let all things be done decently and in order." —1 Corinthians 14:40

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." —2 Timothy 4:3-4

"Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein." —Jeremiah 6:16