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In Part I of our expose on the "Reverend" Fred Phelps, we concentrated on his open hatred of homosexuals. In this particular article, we want to take a closer look into the psyche of someone who apparently doesn't mind letting the world know how he feels about Jews, America's soldiers, and anyone who doesn't adhere to his particular belief system.
A quick perusal of Westboro Baptist's "God Hates Fags" website reveals that neither Phelps nor his followers have a clue about what it means to be "Godly". It is absolutely nauseating to see supposed "Christians" proudly displaying flyers proclaiming: Thank God for ten more dead troops. We wish it were 10,000! or Thank God for Katrina....
How can TRUE believers in Christ possibly want the world to know:
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"It is a sin NOT to rejoice when God executes His wrath and vengeance upon America"...."Pray for more dead bodies floating on the fag-semen-rancid waters of New Orleans"....
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How can anyone in their right mind proclaim:
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"Pray for more American bodies blown to smithereens by cheap home made Iraqi IEDs - like the IED America bombed WBC with August 20, 1995, hoping thereby to terrorize us into silence about America's fag sins."...."America became WBC's terrorist. So, God, in retaliation, became America's Terrorist."
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This "Christian" website also advertises with apparent sadistic glee "Upcoming Pickets" for the Westboro bunch and their followers to visit, such as the funeral of Army Sergeant Jose Gomez which took place on May 10, 2006.
Concerning Phelps' obvious hatred of Jews, please see Westboro Baptist Church proclamation, which includes the following "Biblical proof" that the only "true Jews" are Christians...
...As the Apostle Paul (who himself was a Jew) teaches in this verse (Romans 2:28,29), the only true Jews are Christians. The rest of the people who claim to be Jews aren't, and they are nothing more than typical, impenitent sinners, who have no Lamb. You may have a Jewish heritage, but that doesn't make you a true Jew in the spirit; that only makes you a Jew in the flesh. As evidence of their apostasy, the vast majority of Jews support fags. In fact, it is the official policy of Reformed Jews to support same-sex marriage. Of course, there are Jews who still believe God's law, but most of them have even departed from that. It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile...as long as you believe in Christ.
If you are a Jew in the flesh and not in the spirit, Paul describes you as follows: "The Jews: who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men" I Thessalonians 2:14,15.
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Comment from The Refiner's Fire:
The only true Jews are Christians? News flash, Mr. Phelps! There were no "Christians" during Yeshua's time. And, like Yeshua, all of His Disciples were Torah-observant, Sabbath and feast-keeping, kosher JEWS! Nobody was a "Christian" back then; believers were Messianic Jews, adhering to the Hebraic faith! Christianity evolved from Catholicism, which to this day, is steeped in paganism - including your "fundamentalist Baptist" viewpoint which is missing HALF the Bible!
Like many other "Christians" you have taken the Bible out of context, so let's examine exactly what Romans 2:28-29 says:
Romans 2: 28 For the real Jew (which refers to Romans 2:25) is not merely Jewish outwardly: true circumcison is not only external and physical. 29 On the contrary, the real Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God.
Read the passages before and after Romans 2:25, and you'll realize Paul is explaining that if one doesn't follow TORAH, then he can't call himself a true Jew. Are you a "true Jew", Mr. Phelps? How so? Were you born Jewish? Are you Torah-observant? Do you keep the seventh day Sabbath and the Biblical feasts? If not, then you aren't Jewish in any shape, form, or fashion! Consequently, your perception that Paul said CHRISTIANS are "true Jews", is completely false.
In order to become enlightened to the TRUTH about who is a Jew and how true Jews worship Yahweh, we suggest that Mr. Phelps read everything on our What is Hebraic Faith? page.
The "Jews killed Jesus"? News flash, Mr. Phelps! WHO nailed Him to the cross? It was the ROMANS! Why was He nailed to the cross? Because He offered Himself up as the FINAL SIN SACRIFICE for ALL sinners! If Jesus hadn't died for ALL of us, then Phelps and everyone else would be in the proverbial "deep kimchee".....
People tend to forget that Yeshua HAD to die in order to be able to offer eternal life to the believers of this world. Phelps has obviously forgotten (if he ever even knew) that, if God hadn't scattered the Jews, then nobody on earth, except tiny little Israel would ever have known about Yahweh, our Creator! There certainly wouldn't be any Christians because - had they never heard of Yahweh - they never would have heard about His Son Yeshua who came to die in exchange for our sins....
"As evidence of their apostasy, the vast majority of Jews support fags." Mr. Phelps, you are GUESSING! We suggest you provide some valid statistics to support you claim!
Of course, there are Jews who still believe God's law, but most of them have even departed from that. Ditto the above. It's not nice to ASSUME things, Mr. Phelps....
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Phelps has done his level best to make the Jews his enemy, as can be seen in an expose on the Anti-Defamation League website which presents many of Phelps' anti-Semitic quotes including the following:
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"Whatever righteous cause the Jewish victims of the 1930s-40s Nazi Holocaust had, (probably miniscule, compared to the Jewish Holocausts against Middle Passage Blacks, African Americans and Christians -- including the bloody persecution of Westboro Baptist Church by Topeka Jews in the 1990s), has been drowned in sodomite semen. American taxpayers are financing this unholy monument to Jewish mendacity and greed and to filthy fag lust...Homosexuals and Jews dominated Nazi Germany...just as they now dominate this doomed U.S.A....The Jews now wander the earth despised, smitten with moral and spiritual blindness by a divine judicial stroke...And god has smitten Jews with a certain unique madness, whereby they are an astonishment of heart, a proverb, and a byword (the butt of jokes and ridicule) among all peoples whither the Lord has driven and scattered them...Jews, thus perverted, out of all proportion to their numbers energize the militant sodomite agenda...The American Jews are the real Nazis (misusers and abusers of governmental power) who hate God and the rule of law." -- "WBC to picket Holocaust Memorial Sodomite Museum in D.C. Jan. 20," WBC "News Release," December 26, 1996
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Comment from The Refiner's Fire:
Funny, isn't it, how - no matter what the topic, Phelps always brings it around to homosexuals. Makes one wonder why....
Concerning the above tirade, The Refiner's Fire would like to remind the "Reverend" Phelps that it's not nice to be mean to the Jews. Anyone who truly knows his Bible, knows that the Jews are God's "Chosen People" - and that anyone who goes up against them in any way will eventually suffer His wrath:
Genesis 12: 3 "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
No one in this world - including the infamous Westboro Baptist Church - has EVER experienced as much persecution as the Jews! Why? Because God called them His "Chosen". As such, they've had to endure hardship after hardship, persecution after persecution. They've been harassed, ridiculed, hated, expelled from various countries, and nearly annihilated into extinction - but God kept His promise to protect them, and they are STILL here - whether the Fred Phelpses of this world like it, or not! It's because of the Jews that the world has a Savior!
Rather than to concentrate his efforts on hating the Jews (which is a SIN, Mr. Phelps!), he should be down on his knees, thanking God for them!
Presbyterian minister Francis Schaeffer said: How odd of God to choose the Jew. But not as odd as those who chose the Jewish God and hate the Jew!
Deuteronomy 7: 6 For you are a people set apart as holy for ADONAI your God. ADONAI your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his own unique treasure. 7 ADONAI didn't set his heart on you or choose you because you numbered more than any other people - on the contrary, you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 Rather, it was because ADONAI loved you, and because he wanted to keep the oath which he had sworn to your ancestors, that ADONAI brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from a life of slavery under the hand of Pharoah king of Egypt.
Jews have been persecuted since the very beginning! As just one example, hatred of the Jews began to take root in 1469 when the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile established a state church that fostered hatred toward Jews. During that time Isabella, vowing to rid her land of unbelievers, established the Spanish Inquisition during which Heretics and Jews were rounded up, interrogated, and tortured without mercy. When the Inquisition failed to forcibly convert Jews, Isabella and her husband decided to expel them from Spain, altogether. This edict, signed on March 31, 1492, stripped 150,000 Jews of their homes and possessions, forcing them to leave the land that had been their home for nearly 1,500 years. And that was only a foreshadowing of what was to come during Hitler's Holocaust....
Since Phelps the Christian thinks he's a "real Jew", then he shouldn't have minded the "the bloody persecution of Westboro Baptist Church by Topeka Jews in the 1990s", for it was nothing compared to the Holocaust! Phelps can make fun of the Holocaust whenever he experiences the terror of being forced to give up his home and possessions in order to live in a cage where breakfast, lunch and dinner consist of thin soup and regular beatings....
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So - is it true that everyone besides Phelps and his ilk are headed for hell?
Let's briefly examine the beliefs of Westboro Baptist whose Manifesto proclaims:
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We are a TULIP Baptist Church! We believe -- and vigorously preach -- the 5 Points of Calvinism! Anyone preaching otherwise is a Hell-bound false prophet, a messenger of Satan, to whom we say, Anathema Maranatha! and, Let him be accursed of God!....To every lover of Arminian lies -- believing and preaching that God loves every individual of mankind -- we say, You are going to Hell! Period! End of discussion! God's decree sending you to Hell is irreversible! Hypocrites! How can ye escape the damnation of Hell?!
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Very interesting - especially since Phelps seems to think that, as a Christian he's a "real Jew". That being the case, he should be made aware of the fact that he needs to follow the example of Jesus and be Torah observant. Phelps' Who are you, what do you do, and why do you do it? page clearly reveals that he is neither a Jew nor Torah-observant:
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Question posed to Westboro Baptist: "How can you call yourself a Christian?"
Phelps/Westboro Baptist Church response: Because Christ died for our sins, and we faithfully uphold His Word. Most "Christians" today are Christians by name only, and should be ashamed of themselves. They are cowardly, lukewarm, and ashamed of Christ's Word. They have substituted their own pathetic ideas for God's clear commandments.
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Comment from The Refiner's Fire:
So has Phelps! And HE'S the one who should be ashamed of himself because he is deliberately sinning against God via his public anger, wrath, malice, and obvious and open hatred of many people groups (Matthew 5:22). As someone who is a supposed Christian, he should be doing his best to lead people to the Lord, not provoke them into thinking all Christians are weirdos and hypocrites!
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Question posed to Westboro Baptist: "Didn't Jesus die for everyone?"
Phelps/Westboro Baptist Church response: No. Jesus died only for His sheep (John 10). His church (Ephesians 5:25). His elect (I Peter 1:2). If He died for everyone, everyone would go to heaven. All sins of all people would be forgiven. But obviously, all sins aren't forgiven, because people are burning in hell.
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Comment from The Refiner's Fire:
1 John 2: 1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. Mark 16: 15 Then he said to them, "As you go throughout the world, proclaim the Good News to all creation. 16 Whoever trusts and is immersed will be saved; whoever does not trust will be condemned."
See also Isaiah 53:5-12 and Isaiah 49:6.
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Question posed to Westboro Baptist: "Do you follow ALL of the laws in the Mosaic Code, or do you just pick and choose those that denounce homosexuals, while ignoring the others?"
Phelps/Westboro Baptist Church response: The Mosaic Code consists of two types of laws: moral and ceremonial. (Analagous to modern law's mala in se and mala prohibitum, respectively). Moral laws are included in the Mosaic Code because they are in and of themselves wrong (e.g., murder, adultery, human sacrifice, sodomy, etc.). Ceremonial laws are included in the Mosaic Code because they were shadows of things to come. They were ceremonies that represented something (e.g., not eating certain types of animals, not wearing clothing of mixed fibers, etc.). These ceremonial laws foreshadowed Christ, and certain other eternal concepts. These ceremonial laws were done away with when Christ came. See Colossians 2:13-23. The moral laws, however, always have been and always will be in effect. We are supposed to follow the moral laws.
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Comment from The Refiner's Fire:
Phelps and his church are obviously picking and choosing what they want to believe of the Bible because they are definitely not Torah observant! Like most Christians, they've decided that Jesus "abolished the law". They've forgotten that Jesus was the final SIN Sacrifice; He did not come to abolish His own, original teachings! When did Jesus ever say that Torah was abolished? When did He say that man could change God's seventh day Sabbath to Sunday? When did He say to ignore the Biblical feasts? He never said ANY of those things!
The demands of a blood covenant in Torah were not taken away by Yeshua's death - which means, the Law of the former Covenant was not "done away with". In order to read the writings of Paul IN CONTEXT, we suggest Phelps read a commentary about the Book of Romans and also try to answer the questions we pose at our article discussing that Jesus was not a "Christian"....
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Question posed to Westboro Baptist: "What are you trying to accomplish?"
Phelps/Westboro Baptist Church response: First, our goal is to preach the Word of God to this crooked and perverse generation. By our words, some will repent. By our words, some will be condemned. Whether they hear, or whether they forbear, they will know a prophet has been among them. It is the solemn job of a believing Christian to preach the Gospel to every creature, and warn them to flee from the wrath to come. "For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" I Corinthians 9:16. Second, our goal is to glorify God by declaring His whole counsel to everyone. Third, we hope that by our preaching some will be saved. As Jude said, on some have compassion, making a difference, but others save with fear.
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Comment from The Refiner's Fire:
Reverend Phelps obviously needs to be reminded that all his deeds are being looked upon by the Almighty as "filthy rags":
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
By deliberately sinning against God via his angry tirades, filthy language, and persecution of God's Chosen, he is no better than the homosexuals performing their sexual sins; he is no better than the traditional Jews who refuse to believe in Jesus; and, basically, he is no better than ANY other human being who purposely sins against God. Therefore, we urge him to repent, get into the Bible, and re-examine HIS OWN behavior! Christians are the only Army who shoot their own wounded. Phelps doesn't just "shoot the wounded"; he tortures, desecrates, and then annihilates them....
Yeshua said, according to Luke 12:47-48: "And that servant who knew his master's will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating. But he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating".
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