Status: Strange News
Earlier this month the Secret Service raided the offices of the
Great News Network (a Texas ministry) and seized 8300 inspirational tracts. The problem with the tracts?
They were printed on million-dollar bills. I would say fake million-dollar bills, but since there's no such thing as real million-dollar bills, there can't exactly be fake ones either. However, the Secret Service felt they looked a little bit too much like real currency for comfort. Reportedly someone had tried to deposit one at a bank. Meanwhile, the Great News Network isn't happy and is threatening to sue the government. But they should realize the government has an extremely low tolerance for any kind of fake currency. Witness the case of
J.S.G. Boggs (whom I write about in
Hippo Eats Dwarf). He's an artist who creates counterfeit currency as art, though his bills are single-sided, so they're not likely to be mistaken for actual money. Nevertheless, the Secret Service raided his studio back in 1992 and seized thousands of his works, and haven't returned them to this day.
Incidentally, here's the tract that was written on the million-dollar bills. (You can try to purchase the bills
here):
The million dollar question: Will you go to Heaven? Here's a quick test. Have you ever told a lie, stolen anything, or used God's name in vain? Jesus said, "Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already with her in his heart." Have you looked with lust? Will you be guilty on Judgment Day? If you have done those things God sees you as a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer at heart. The Bible warns that if you are guilty you will end up in Hell. That's not God's will. He sent His Son to suffer and die on the cross for you. Jesus took your punishment upon Himself -"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Then He rose from the dead and defeated death. Please, repent (turn from sin) today and trust in Jesus, and God will grant you everlasting life. Then read your Bible daily and obey it.
(Thanks to Joe for the link)
Comments
You don't know anything about my life, or anything I do for my Aunt, so you trying to make me feel guilty about it doesn't really phase me. I haven't really seen anything in your previous posts that show that you would save them from a burning house first. In fact, isn't your whole argument that it's more important to save someone's spiritual soul than their physical body? You say you feed people and help them, and that's all well and good...but you also use false advertising by packaging tracts as money. As you can see from a previous post, that tactic DID actually hurt someone, so there may be more out there who are hurt. And whatever you say about it, it's just a cheap, dirty trick that doesn't really help anyone. It creates litter, kills trees, and may lower to morale of someone who is already suffering. They do more harm than good.
You sound as if you are full of bitterness towards the followers of Christ. Maybe because you are angry at God. You may blame God for hurts in your life. Maybe you need to look into the mirror and blame the right person. One we humble ourselves and call out unto Christ, He is there to save us.
You make satement after statement that these people who give out these tracts are doing nothing but that. But like I and others mentioned before, Christians have given more to feed the hungry, clothed the naked and house the homeless than any other organization on earth. So you have lost your argument that all Christians care about is a person's soul.
Yet, Christians do not stop at meeting the physacle needs of a person, but more importantly, the persons spiratual needs.
But your eyes are blind to this, because of your anger. Jesus fed the hungry, but He preached about salvation more. These people are not doing this to get anything out of it, they do it out of pure love. Many have laid down their lives to get the message of salvation. Go to gfa.com (Gospel For Asia Ministries), these people have been burned at the stake for witnessing to others. Millions have been killed throughout the ages for witnessing to others the message of salvation.
I would rather starve than loose my salvation. Because I have EXPERIENCED JESUS. I just want others to experience HIM also. Without anyone witnessing about salvation to anyone, no one would believe. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the WORD of God. How can anyone believe if they do not hear the Word. And how can one hear unless someone goes out witnessing?
I really would love to see you come to understand this. Not for my benifit, but yours. I do pray for you guys. I know you may get angry at this, I would hope not, I do not mean any harm. I hope only good to come to you.
I do apolagize. Correction: The link is http://www.gfa.org
I sponsor missionaries here, the biggest part of their ministry is handing out tracks. Please check it out. Request their free book, Revolution in World Missions
And please excuse my bad spelling
I believe it is important to live by example. What better example to follow than Jesus Christ. Let's go back to the Bible. Jesus made it his mission to help the needy out. But he didn't just give them food and not worry about their soul. He taught those he came in contact with of their need for a saviour and he paid attention to their physical needs as well.
It looks to me that from his example if we aren't doing both we aren't truly as Christ-like as we could be.
Take the man with the withered hand. Christ was teaching in the Synagogue (Taking care of the man's spiritual needs). He could have just stopped there but he didn't. There were people watching who were against helping this man out but Jesus didn't pay any attention to them he healed the mans hand (Taking care of the man's physical needs).
Read through the Bible there are countless situations in which Christ took care of both the physical and the spiritual needs of others. To call yourself a true Christ follower you have to be willing to do both.
I thought it was interesting that Sakano mentioned in his post that it is prideful and judgmental to decide what is good for another adult. You know that no one can make your choices for you. A tract gives just that a chance for the person who reads it to make an educated decision. In college they taught us to look at both sides of an argument and make a decison based on knowledge from both sides of the issue. A tract may reach someone who otherwise wouldn't know that there was a choice to make about eternity.
If a person finds a tract they can make the choice to read it or throw it away. They can choose to believe what it says or not. The choice is theirs whether to use the contact information to find out more or not. Sure we all make mistakes but just remember not making a choice... IS really making a choice.
Street preachers don't bother me, because at least then the person knows what they're getting and I feel they work better. As long as the people spreading the word aren't manipulative or deceptive or downright stupid, I have no problem with it.
Of course, now I feel lazy about it. 😉
I believe there is more to your bitterness towards God than you admit. Otherwise you would not attack the workers of God. Jesus said : John 15:18, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you."
I don't guess I have to prove it to you, but just to mention, I still carry the tract in my BIBLE. It was actually 2 tracts. It was CHICK TRACTS. I hate to think what you feel about that Sakano.
I might share the story in my next post on how the tracts were given to me. I believe it was an actual miracle. Very so ordained of God I say anyway.
But it's ok to call me a liar Sakano, they done worse to my LORD. I need to try and take pleasure in persecution. But that does not cause me to stray from my love towards you guys. It only makes me want to pray more for you.
Luke 23:34, "Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots."
Thanks Charybdis! I'm afraid I'm starting to lose patience myself, so I don't think you're lazy. You fought a good fight! 😜
Instead of putting down the way God may get His WORD out, by these tracts, and HE uses many different avenues, you should be a participate in the proclaimation.
Even if Jesus Christ would stand before you guys, you still would not hear Him. You have made up your minds how God must do things, and because of that you will miss out on His Mercy and Grace.
Only one who has been broken from their old ways can see the workings of God. Even HIM using tracts to reach to those who are heading towards eternal damnation. Humble yourselves, and know God and His workings.
I am not a very smart man, but I do know my GOD.
John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth."
Sakano, you sound just like me before I came to know Christ as my personal Savior. I was religious; actually I was Roman Catholic. I even thought of going into the priesthood. I looked at my own religious works as my way to God Ephesians 2:8-9..
The Bible to me was just a religious book with stories of the past in it. I never studied it during that time I was a catholic. So it really did not have an impact on my life. Not until the Holy Spirit began to draw me to Christ. It started as friends of mine began to point out certain teachings of the Bible. I began to read and study the Bible and ask The Lord to show me TRUTH in it. As I began to study it, The Lord began to speak to me through it. I finally humbled myself and admitted to God I was far from Him with my sins and I turned from my sins, asked Christ for forgiveness, asked Him to be my Lord and Savior. I began to follow Him (The Word of God). And forsook my religion. It actually kept me further away from God. It was a humbling experience.
The tracts that are given out has the WORD of GOD on them and is JESUS HIMSELF. By accepting The Word of God we have in the Bible, we accept Jesus in our lives. You say you are a Christian, I don
At the risk of getting back to the topic, you still haven't explained how it's moral to prey upon a person's needs. Do the ends actually justify the means in your beliefs?
I'll refrain from the second part of my comment until after I see your response, Earl.
Guy, you're crossing the boundary into incoherence.
Also, personal attacks are NOT appropriate around here.
You have been warned.
-Moderator
Maybe we should let this topic die. The argument's been going on for long enough. At least I'm going to bow out. I've wasted enough time and rolled my eyes enough for one topic, I think. :lol:
They were purchased at http://www.livingwaters.com
I have been purchasing tracts from them for years now. Also http://www.chick.com has some Gospel tracts that are interesting.
Like I stated before, The Lord used a tract years agoe to get my attention, so I feel they are affective. Only the Holy Spirit can draw men, but He can use what He so desires to do so. Even if it is a talking donkey.
And don't even get started on chick tracts. They're nothing more than a source of almost pure hatred, paranoia, and fear.
The topic is about tracts printed on fake money, not people in a community center finding Jesus.
There I was, several years ago.. I was utterly broke, homeless and hungry. Things were pretty bleak.
Then, one afternoon, I see a neatly-folded $20 in the bushes outside a small restraunt. I could not beleive my luck! This meant enough food that I could stave off starvation for another week, and possibly treat myself to a bit of Real Food for a change..
Then my heart fell a bit.. Surely someone would miss having dropped a twenty. Even as desperate as I was, it wouldn't be right. I looked around a little, trying to see if anyone was nearby who might have dropped it.. but nobody else was near, so my heart lifted again.. I walked towards the local grocery store with a spring in my step, visions of a decent dinner floating in my head..
Halfway there, I noticed the bill was a bit odd.. too stiff and slick.. I unfolded it, and my heart fell.. The tract was designed so that, when folded into quarters, it exactly resembled a $20, but when unfolded, chided the bearer for their greed and promised a 'treasure greater than money' at the local church.
I collapsed on a bench and nearly cried that someone would come up with something so *cruel*.. that in my hour of greatest need, I'd had that which I needed most dangled before me, then cruelly yanked away..
Posted by Robin Bobcat on Tue Jun 13, 2006 at 05:43 PM
That doesn't sound like a "what-if" to me.
My argument is that you're preying on the needy. These are people who think they see money on the ground, then discover they're fake bills designed to teach them about God.
I'm sorry, but that is so immoral that it just disgusts me. Once again - the ends do not justify the means, even if you're a Christian.
Because I've been on this site for quite some time. http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/forums/member/13/ That's my profile. Unless Charybdis knew he was going to be getting into a religious argument on a topic about tracts, I don't see why he would have any need for a ghostnic. While I'm not a "regular" on this site and don't talk in the forums very much, I leave comments all the time. Which is more than I can say for Guy and Earl...who only post in this topic, and who have a similar writing style.
Robin Bobcat is a member on the message boards and she talks on them a lot. You can check out her profile here: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/forums/member/1647/ She joined way before this argument started.
I like you, I really do. I know you might consider this inapropriate, but can I ask your age? And are you married and/ or have children?
I am just trying to understand why you come against this so much. I assure you I do not mean any disrespect. I would give any information you ask of me.
I hope you don't get offended at me asking.
Believe this or not, but I and Earl are not the same person. He seems to be more Intelligent than I am through his comments, and I am sure he probably is better looking than I am and seems to be more patient than I.
Guy, these tracts are made to deceive, at least initially. Are you deceiving out of love? Isn't that wrong? Why wouldn't you just use a normal piece of paper? It has to be cheaper.
It's not because you're using bait to lure them in, is it?
It is $1,000,000 bill, there is no such currency as this, how could it be deceiving? The tract begans on the back as "The million dollar question". Why not use a regular piece of paper? We do at times, and other times we use something that is eye catching. These 1,000,000 bills are attractive to some people, not becasue they believe it is real currency, just because they are attractive.
Attention getters, look everywhere in advertizing, there everywhere to grab the attention of the person. Look at telivision advertisements, newspaper advertisements, magazine advertisements and so forth, they are everywhere to get the attention of the person. Many different ways to grab the attention to people.
Where I work, I must do marketing almost daily, we must go to different businesses and put out flyers, each month is a different theme to get the attention of the people to stop and take a look at what we offer. Many people wear T-Shirts with colorful sayings to get their point across.
The $1,000,000 is just an attention getter to get ones attention for a moment to at lease hear what the gospel is. Faith comes by hearing.
I'm well aware it's an attention getter. I still think it's immoral. Using deceit to spread the word of God just seems wrong to me, but I'm sure you've rationalized it to the point that you're not committing a sin.
Definition of Advertise
Ad`ver`tise
Exactly what these tracts do.
I have gone through the site reading many of your posts. I have seen you have attacked religion in particular. Christianity, The Roman Catholic Church, and others of some faith. And you judge me stating that I am sinning because I use $1,000,000 tracts. What moral law do you live by Charybdis, where you can judge what sin is and not ? You have made very nasty, immoral comments on God, Jesus Christ, Christians and the Bible.
As for you Guy, I'm not answering your questions. Whether I'm married and how old I am has nothing to do with the argument.
I'm using your own religion to judge this a sin, or is preying on the needy not a sin?
James 2:15-17 15If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
As for the billion dollar bills, they certainly are attention getters and a means to start a conversation with someone. God said His word will NEVER return unto him void, but will go out and accomplish whereunto it is sent. So all you christians out there, keep up that living water.
sucks its a fake