The Real Jesus (DVD) completed (really!)

I just got finished doing some edits to the complete and final version of The Real Jesus DVD.

I was happily surprised when I began production on this in 2005 that “The Real Jesus” has become an apologetics buzzword of sorts. Lee Strobel’s The Case for the Real Jesus and Luke Timothy Johnson’s The Real Jesus are two books I highly recommend.

I used Johnson’s book as a reference in the video and I just got Strobel’s book as I was finishing up the video. I was surprised to see that the format of Strobel’s “Six Challenges” and my “Seven Myths of the Higher Critics” were so similar.

The final version is now finished! Really! The total running time with all the extras is now 2 hours and 20 minutes -- up from the hour-long project I announced was almost finished earlier this year.

The DVD just needed a few cosmetic edits (nothing the average viewer would even notice) and we even added seven minutes of a "Bonus Feature" entitled: "Who is Jesus?"

It's the best feature of the DVD and adds a lot of appeal especially as an introduction when it will be show to small groups as a five to ten week seminar. The video is divided into ten parts for this reason.

The final version is available now!

Check out the YouTube clips at TheRealJesus.com website. Then you can order it if you like what you see. The final version has over an hour of additional materials, interviews, a bonus feature and is re-edited with Eric Holberg as the host and narrator.

I've been doing a weekly radio show on Tuseday nights with Pastor Joe Dunn of Metro Praise Church in Chicago. It's a Skype-based web-cam/chat-room/radio-show with two pastors in Chicago and Indiana. A lot of diverse people show up in the chat room -- witches, atheists, nihilists, etc. -- and ask crazy questions.

I sent Joe Dunn an advance copy of The Real Jesus DVD. I was really pleased to hear his comments. He opened the show by holding it up to the web cam and saying, "I just got done watching the best video on Jesus that I've ever seen! This is the greatest thing ever! I've seen all kinds of stuff by Ankerburg and other guys like that and this is by far the best thing I've seen on the topic of The Real Jesus."

He loved the interviews with the experts, the graphics, the music, everything. He said he wished he had 100 to give away, and so on. He said he likes all the "charts" and was going to go back and study them on still mode. That, of course, speaks to me about what is needed in a future study guide, not just text, but the same visuals I used in the video.

This is a good review because I have all kind of ideas about how I want to continue. I have enough script material to do at least two more of these in the next few years. I was thinking that that there are at least 10,000 Joe Dunn's out there, pastors who are training young Christians in their churches how to stand up against postmodernist reinterpretations of Jesus and militant atheist attacks on the Bible. This video is the perfect training tool.

The big question is how to reach these pastors.

Obviously, we need to get about a dozen endorsement quotes from pastors and a few well-known church leaders on The Real Jesus -- then we need to advertise this to thousands of church leaders throughout the world.

The R.C. Sproul -- Alice Cooper -- Van Halen axis

This is another item that belongs in the Johnny Carson “I DID not know THAT!” category.

What do heavy metal rock music and Reformed theology have in common? It turns out that there is an affinity of two of the biggest metal bands of all times to R.C. Sproul.

I don’t know how I first came across this, but the Van Halen III album has in its liner notes a “special thanks to” section. Among the mostly unknown names is R.C. Sproul.

It turns out that in the fall of 1996, after a falling out with vocalist Sammy Hagar and a failed reconciliation with founding vocalist David Lee Roth, arena rock superstars Van Halen found themselves without a singer. They called on Gary Cherone, veteran of the Boston rock scene, for an audition.

Guitarist Eddie Van Halen liked Cherone's work ethic and soon named Cherone as the band's third (and as Van Halen would often comment, "final") vocalist. Van Halen III is their eleventh studio album. It is the only Van Halen album to feature Gary Cherone on lead vocals, and is Van Halen's most unpopular album.

Apparently, Cherone is an R.C. Sproul aficionado as well. He is also an avid pro-life advocate who once wrote an Open Letter to Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam challenging his pro-choice stance.

(No, I am not making any of this up.)

But guess who is R.C. Sproul’s most famous convert?

Shock rocker Alice Cooper.

Although he isn’t the most vocal Christian, Alice has confirmed in interviews that he is in fact born-again. How did his conversion come about? As though being a Christian isn’t oxymoronic enough, it turns out that Alice Cooper is also an avid golf fan. Both he and his wife are preacher’s kids too. Alice Cooper's father is a Reformed missionary to the Navajo Indians. Sheryl Cooper’s father is a Baptist preacher in California and an avid R.C. Sproul fan.

The following is the story found on several message boards:

As it turns out, R.C. Sproul is also an avid golfer. R.C. did a small promo spot on a Golf My Way video on how to improve your game. Sheryl's father had been sending them R.C. Sproul books on a regular basis. However, Alice and Sheryl chucked them in a box, never thinking of them again. Then one day, Alice is watching this Golf My Way video with R.C. doing a promo spot. At that very point, Sheryl walks into the room and says "Hey! That's the guy on those books that Daddy keeps sending us!" Alice's reply was something to the effect "Yeah, sure..." Anyway, they go to the box, and pull out the books and sure enough it's the same guy. They hop on the phone to Sheryl's father to see what this guy is all about. Sheryl's father says to them to register for the upcoming convention in San Diego, and see for themselves what he's all about - So they did.

At the convention, Alice Cooper comes to the registration desk and registers as Vince Cooper, but pays with his VISA card, which says Alice Cooper. The guy on registration recognizes him right away, and lets the rest of the staff know he's there. So, after the day is done, people are starting to realize who this guy is. They're asking question after question and Alice says, "Yeah, I'm trying to see what the Lord wants me to do in life."

The following is from Wikipedia.com

Alice has avoided "celebrity Christianity" because, as he states: "It's really easy to focus on Alice Cooper and not on Christ. I'm a rock singer. I'm nothing more than that. I'm not a philosopher. I consider myself low on the totem pole of knowledgeable Christians. So, don't look for answers from me.”

When asked by the British Sunday Times Magazine in 2001 how a rebellious shock-rocker could be a Christian, Alice is credited with providing this response "Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that's a tough call. That's real rebellion!"

After conquering his alcoholism, Cooper became a noted golf enthusiast beginning in Winnipeg MB and has since participated in several Pro-Am competitions (This was detailed in his book, Alice Cooper: Golf Monster). He has appeared in commercials for Callaway Golf equipment. He reportedly has a 5 handicap and plays 6 days a week. Since 1997, he has hosted an annual golf competition, the Alice Cooper Celebrity AM Golf Tournament. All proceeds from the event go to Cooper's charity, the Solid Rock Foundation. In August 2006, he participated in the Northern Rock All Stars Cup event - a celebrity version of the Ryder Cup, for charity.

Cooper even penned a brief foreword to the Gary McCord book, Golf for Dummies.

Mike Huckabee and the rapist "pardon"

A college professor asked me last month if I was to denounce Mike Huckabee due to his pardon of a violent rapist who later raped and killed after his pardon. In 1988, The Forerunner printed an article about Mike Dukakis' pardon of Willie Horton. So I did some quick Internet "research" and I initially was taken in about with the blogosphere buzz about this.

But it turns out now I have to eat crow.

The "rapist pardon" story is a complete distortion. The story about the rape pardon is completely false. Huckabee's opponents quoted one part of a letter to a prisoner who committed rape, "My desire is that you be released from prison." They did not quote the end of the letter in which Huckabee recommended that his sentence not be commuted. Huckabee did not issue a pardon. The parole decision was the parole board's decision, not the governor's.

The rapist's commutation was given by Jim Guy Tucker when Bill Clinton was governor back in 1992. Tucker gave the commutation in part because the rapist had been castrated by a group of vigilantes while he was awaiting trial.

Huckabee later reviewed the commutation and said that the rapist met the criteria for parole as the law stood, but denied his commutation. The state board then granted the parole. But Huckabee didn’t parole him. Governors in Arkansas don’t parole people, nor can they stop a parole.

C.S. Lewis on the Liberal Higher Criticism of the Bible

"These men ask me to believe they can read between the lines of old texts; the evidence is their obvious inability to read (in any sense worth discussing) the lines themselves. They claim to see fern-seed and can't see an elephant ten yards away in broad daylight."

C. S. Lewis, "Modern Thought and Biblical Criticism," Christian Reflection, ed. Walter Hooper (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1967), p. 157.

State refuses to restore abortionist James Scott Pendergraft's medical license

This is good news from yesterday.

Pass this along to all who will be blessed (or maybe not) by hearing about this.

- JCR
______________________________

Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:17:12
Subject: State refuses to restore abortionist James Scott Pendergraft's medical license
From: Scott & Patte Smith

Praise the Lord! A good report!

Mary Jo & Marian were at the Orlando Women's Center killing place this afternoon when Chuck Green from Channel 9 (WFTV) came by because of the state's ruling against Pendergraft. The suspension of Pendergraft's license will remain for another year.

Together for Life & Eternity,
Patte Smith
Sanctuary Ministries

See WFTV's story here:

http://www.wftv.com/news/14740280/detail.html

There's a video of the newscast here too. It took a litttle while to load on my brwser, but it's well worth the wait and look. It's very even handed and perhaps tells mainly our side.

There is a GREAT quote by Mary Jo Gardner, one of the young sidewalk counselors in Orlando, in the video!

(BTW: If you subscribe to Mary Jo's blog, you can get a lot of updates from the effort in Orlando.)

http://benotconformed.wordpress.com/

Abortion Doctor's License Suspended For Another Year
POSTED: 4:41 pm EST November 30, 2007

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Opponents call a local abortion doctor a butcher and only Channel 9 was there Friday as the State Medical Board ordered Dr. James Pendergraft not to perform abortions for another year.

The doctor claims it is all political. Opponents said he performed a third trimester abortion at an Orlando clinic. That's illegal in Florida unless the mother's life is in danger and it's performed in a hospital.

Pendergraft owns five Florida abortion clinics. They can do up to 375 abortions a month, but two years ago he charged a woman $12,000 to terminate her pregnancy in the 28th week. Friday, he was disciplined by the State Medical Board.

Pendergraft's license had been suspended 16 months during the investigation. Friday, it was extended another year. He was also fined $10,000 and ordered to pay more than $80,000 to cover the states legal fees

Pendergraft's attorney tried to fight the fines and failed. After the hearing, Pendergraft slipped out a side door and avoided questions.

Protesters outside of his office had plenty to say.

"He's been killing children through nine months of pregnancy here for a number of years. I have personally met women who have been as far along as eight months and I think he should be thrown in jail," said Mary Jo Gardner.

Medical malpractice attorney Mark Morsch agrees.

"What would be right is for Dr. Pendergraft to never have a medical license in the state of Florida," he said.

Morsch is worried about what could happen a year from now when Dr. Pendergraft's suspension ends.

"Based on his track record, there is going to be more young women in the future who are victims of his incompetence," Morsch said.

The State Department of Health received a complaint that Dr. Pendergraft was performing abortions while his license was suspended. They did not find any evidence to support that claim.

Pendergraft's supporters say it's all political and it's an attempt to outlaw abortion in Florida.