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.
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