Critics are as varied as people and their personalities and agendas. We are only concerned here with divisive critics whose interest is to destroy rather than edify and who are willing to use dishonest methods to achieve their aims. They can sometimes be psychologically disturbed persons with spiritual issues. We have divided these critics into two categories, 'atheists' and 'Christians', each of which we treat a little differently.
1. Christian Critics
Our purpose here is usually to defend our doctrinal beliefs as for the most part Christian antagonists are not out to defame our character but to 'expose' our false beliefs and practices, as they see them. We have had many critics from the Body of Christ who have been vigorously opposed to our stance on such subjects as tongues, the pre-trib rapture, etc., who have acted with integrity in the true Spirit of Christ. These honourable Christians do not appear on this page. We have nothing against those who are sincere in their beliefs and feel obliged to defend them. These we respect. The 'Christians' who appear in this register are those who have misrepresented or maligned us and refuse to follow biblical proceedures in resolving differences and whose agendas are not usually honest or honourable. They invariably have unresolved spiritual issues. We try to reach and minister to these as best we can and for the most part if they will dialogue with us. Over the years there have been many of these, most of whom we have ignored, because redemptive criticism is not their agenda. The page only reports those who have an online presence with materials that do not tell the truth and who have refused to pursue dialogue and reconcilliation in Christ. Our purpose is to correct such misrepresentations and allow readers to make their own minds up. Our agenda is simply to defend the Gospel and let the truth speak for itself.
2. Atheist Critics
Atheists have a completely different agenda to dishonest Christians with whom they sometimes makes common cause, thus revealing the spirit in which these false Christians operate. Atheists are usually either out to riddicule (to them, having some 'harmless fun') or to destroy. The latter we call 'fundamentalist atheists' or 'evangelical atheists' because they are missionaries for their cause. Some prefer to stay anonymous. Many of them (like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens) are out to make religion (as they see it) illegal and make religious people look like unscientific morons (forgetting that many of us are scientists too). The former we pay no attention to but the latter, who have malicious intentions, sometimes need answering. In either case, dialogue is usually futile because there is little common ground unless they are persons of integrity and are willing to live alongside believers in mutual respect. Part of the problem here is that many of these critics speak one thing out of one side of their mouths and something else out of the other. Some even occasionally pretend to be Christians to curry support from believers. As with the 'Christian Critics' category, the purpose of this page is not to defend the Gospel against atheism (which is done elsewhere on this site) but to expose those atheists who have malicious agendas against this ministry. We're not here to wage war against atheists. We recognise and accept that we must live alongside them. Finally, we are not here to defend our own characters when they are assassinated - that's up to others who know us to do that if they feel led to do so.
As no one from other religions has publically attacked us, we have not (to date) introduced a category for them. We have the occasional skirmish with fundamentalist Muslims and devil-worshippers but nothing worthy of inclusion on this page.
Finally, as ministers of the Gospel seriously engaged in spreading the word of salvation to a dying and desperate world, we have little time or desire to answer the many enemies of the Gospel that the Enemy sends against us. We fully expect them to increase in numbers and possibly vehemence over time. We accept that as a consequence of telling the truth to a world that doesn't want to hear it. What we do not intend to do is get bogged down in useless wrangling. We believe that the mature know how to state their beliefs and then move on without feeling the need to start a war. We'll happly discuss our beliefs with critics who have an honest agenda to discover the truth - what we are not interested in, and refuse to respond to, is those who just want to pick a fight or, worse, are so full of hate that all they can think about is destroying other people. These we hand over to Yahweh to do with as He sees fit, praying that they will repent and discover true freedom in Christ.
