Persecution and Reflection, Part 8
3/26/09 - 5th Day - After Breakfast. It was just past the middle of October in 2002 and we were in the last few days of our bus tour of the southwest part of Australia. We had been out of Perth for a good long time, and we had relaxed for over a week at Tony's ranch down by Albany on the southern coast of Australia.
On the trip back we visited some national parks, saw some huge trees, and crossed some rivers in the bus on narrow dirt roads that had no bridges.
We had an interesting stop in a small, small town off a very narrow road in the middle of nowhere Australia. I think the town had a population of about 200. It may have been called Dumbleyung, but I may have that mixed up - I really don't remember the name of the town. Anyway, this was a small town that looked like many of the small towns in West Texas. We had the meeting at the football (footie) club. Of course the sport they call footie in Australia is neither American football or soccer. Footie is Australian rules football, which looks to me a lot like rugby though I'm told it is different. It seemed every small town we drove through had a large footie field (or do they call it a "pitch"? I don't know) and next to the field would be a clubhouse - which was more like an American Legion hall or a country club or something, with a bar, etc. Anyway, we had the meeting in this small town in the footie club and I was shocked because it seemed like the whole town plus a few people from out of town showed up. It was standing room only and the people were on fire for the truth.
The local "church" leaders were there too, and they were not as happy. I learned during the first break from a dozen or so of the townspeople that:
a) They had never been taught any semblance of the Doctrines of Grace, though they always wondered why the "church" never spoke about all of the talk of election and sovereign grace in the Bible. Ephesians, and Romans chapters 8 and 9 were never a subject of any teaching there. In fact, I'm pretty sure there wasn't much expository preaching at all.
b) The "church" had recently been pushing a pretty corrupted Bible version on the people and was trying to get all the people to go through a heretical teaching called "The Alpha Course", which basically was an attempt to create a broad ecumenical movement (bringing all the so-called "denominations" together, including Protestants and Catholics) with the added impetus to infiltrate the more conservative denominations with Charismatic influences like tongue-speaking and faith healing.
c) Through the Alpha Course and other teaching there had been a de-emphasis on sin, obedience, and judgment. Instead, the "church" there was emphasizing ecumenism, unity, and more of a secular morality.
After learning this during the first break (I spoke for somewhere around 3 hours), you can probably guess what I preached about for the next 2 hours! I strongly condemned what the so-called "church" was doing there in the town, and I preached vociferously on sin, judgment, and obedience. I identified the apostasy of the age, the importance of rejecting corrupt Bible translations (like the NIV, which was what was being pushed by the Alpha Course apostates), and on the importance of a right view of a sovereign God. I spoke of apostasy and heresy, and then I basically went through the lessons in Swarms of Locusts and how Popery had infiltrated and corrupted the mainline Protestant denominations with Arminianism and other Jesuit teachings. As you can imagine, during the second break, the "church" leadership was first in line to talk to me. They couldn't say much, except that they were confused and hoped they hadn't done any harm with what they were teaching. They said "we'll have to pray about it", which generally means that they had not been convicted and they were probably going to do nothing but wait until Michael Bunker was out of town to start damage control.
The people, however, were of a decidedly different mind. When I finished speaking, they rushed our tour bus and surrounded it. They begged me not to leave. They wanted me to stay and preach to them. They asked me when I was going to return, and they would only leave the tour bus and let us go if I would assure them that I would do whatever I was able to do to return to them some day. I exhorted them to go out and get a good King James Bible and to study and pray that the Lord would give them truth. I asked them to study what the true Church believed throughout history (until the corruptions of Romanism, and eventually the counter-reformation ushered in our modern apostate religion) and to never let the insitutional "church" push new and apostate doctrines on them. I do feel badly that I was never able to return, but I also am convinced that God freed all of those whom He loves and that He will do a mighty work in those whom He calls.
Sorry for that side story, but I thought it was important to include it here, particularly when it can be placed in contrast to how we were received by the religious pharisees of Perth.
We returned to Perth with less than two weeks left on our trip. We still had a major address planned at the University of Western Australia there in Perth, so the fellas and I got to work planning my presentation. We learned through the grapevine that the host "church" and its very, very angry leadership was working to try to make sure no one attended the university talk. We had been exhorting the leadership of that group to sit down with us and talk for several weeks, but they let us know in no uncertain terms that they just wanted me to get on a plane and go back to Texas. When the day of the university talk came, we gamely headed there to set up the lecture hall. We found out on our arrival that someone had cancelled the talk, and there was only an hour or so before the meeting was scheduled to begin. Not only had they cancelled the rental on the lecture hall, but they had gone around campus with professionally produced CANCELLED stickers and had pasted them on the posters that had been posted all over campus. I'm not talking about someone writing cancelled on the posters with a marker... no... they actually had bright red CANCELLED stickers printed up and pasted across the posters announcing the meeting.
Some of our supporters were able to contact the university and get our lecture hall unlocked, so we set up for the meeting expecting that no one would actually show up. Unhappily for our attackers, we had a very, very good showing. The most boisterous and supportive of the groups that attended the meeting were representatives from the Underground Church in China. They were a group that smuggled Bibles and materials into China from Australia by boat. One of the most touching and emotional moments of the trip happened when this group of Chinese radicals came up to me after the talk. They had a sandwich bag of American dollar bills and coins. It was money they had raised to donate to my ministry. I was stunned. These people didn't have any money, and what they did have was spent on travel and expenses to get smugglers into China, but they had taken an offering among themselves to give me a donation. Of course I tried to refuse it, but they would not hear of it, and I was informed by others that I would offend them greatly if I did not receive the gift. That gesture was one of the most humbling things that happened to me on the whole trip.
Back to the excitement. When the talk was over, I was busy talking to people and answering questions for quite a while. The guys were breaking down all the equipment as most of the audience was filing out. Not too long after that, one of our supporters came to me and said, "They broke out all the windows of the cars in the parking lot!" I shook my head, "What? Who broke out the windows". He said, "Apparently whomever it was who didn't want you to speak here tonight". We were finished packing up, so we all headed out to the parking lot. There were just a few cars left in the lot, but there was glass all over the ground. The two cars other than the one we came in (we came in Adrian's) had broken windows. I was stunned. We were very sorrowful that someone had sunk to such depths as to damage property in order to threaten people who were preaching the Gospel. I wrote a letter which appeared on my website that listed all that we had gone through in Australia, and it seemed that people everywhere were appalled. What I had taught all along was proven. The basics behind persecution never change. Sometimes, as many great Christian historians have taught, our enemies may not be enabled by law to kill us. Sometimes, due to conditions and political realities out of their control, our enemies may not be able to crucify us, burn us, or pull us usunder; but never, ever think that they would not do so if they could. If it were lawful and acceptable for our enemies to take our lives, they certainly would, and we have ample proofs of that. Their intentions and their crimes are no less heinous and wicked just because they happen to live during a time when they are restrained by God from doing that which they would do if they were free to act. The day is coming, and it may come in your lifetime, when your enemies will kill you for what you believe. But they will only kill you if you really believe it, and they will only know you really believe it if you live it. Most modern "christians" are persecution proof because they do not live what they say they believe. Most modern professors are Alpha Course "christians" whose lives and worldviews threaten no one. They do not shine as lights in darkness, rather they blend in with darkness and defend it as evangelism.
After that, we had several meetings in Adrian's back yard, and each meeting got bigger and bigger. The last sermon I did in Perth (entitled ELECTION) was a standing room only affair. People were walking up and down the neighborhood borrowing chairs from neighbors. Many people had to park blocks away just to get to the house.
A day or so before we were to leave Perth, Adrian received a call from his former Pastor. He wanted to meet with me before I headed back to Texas. Adrian put him on hold and came to me and asked me what I thought. I smiled at Adrian. I said "He wants to meet with me, meaning just the Pastor?" Adrian asked him and he said "Yes, he would be coming alone". I said, "Ok, I'll be glad to meet with the Pastor, and since he said he would be coming alone, I will expect him to be alone". Adrian passed on the message and then hung up. As soon as he hung up the phone, I looked at Adrian and Craig and I said, "He'll show up here with the whole 'church' leadership, and he'll probably have your Pope of Perth (Steve the exorcist) with him. Adrian said, "Nah, if he said he'll come alone - he'll come alone".
Right...
In the next part... The Kangaroo Court and Steve tries to cast a demon out of me.
To be continued...
Michael Bunker
On the trip back we visited some national parks, saw some huge trees, and crossed some rivers in the bus on narrow dirt roads that had no bridges.
We had an interesting stop in a small, small town off a very narrow road in the middle of nowhere Australia. I think the town had a population of about 200. It may have been called Dumbleyung, but I may have that mixed up - I really don't remember the name of the town. Anyway, this was a small town that looked like many of the small towns in West Texas. We had the meeting at the football (footie) club. Of course the sport they call footie in Australia is neither American football or soccer. Footie is Australian rules football, which looks to me a lot like rugby though I'm told it is different. It seemed every small town we drove through had a large footie field (or do they call it a "pitch"? I don't know) and next to the field would be a clubhouse - which was more like an American Legion hall or a country club or something, with a bar, etc. Anyway, we had the meeting in this small town in the footie club and I was shocked because it seemed like the whole town plus a few people from out of town showed up. It was standing room only and the people were on fire for the truth.
The local "church" leaders were there too, and they were not as happy. I learned during the first break from a dozen or so of the townspeople that:
a) They had never been taught any semblance of the Doctrines of Grace, though they always wondered why the "church" never spoke about all of the talk of election and sovereign grace in the Bible. Ephesians, and Romans chapters 8 and 9 were never a subject of any teaching there. In fact, I'm pretty sure there wasn't much expository preaching at all.
b) The "church" had recently been pushing a pretty corrupted Bible version on the people and was trying to get all the people to go through a heretical teaching called "The Alpha Course", which basically was an attempt to create a broad ecumenical movement (bringing all the so-called "denominations" together, including Protestants and Catholics) with the added impetus to infiltrate the more conservative denominations with Charismatic influences like tongue-speaking and faith healing.
c) Through the Alpha Course and other teaching there had been a de-emphasis on sin, obedience, and judgment. Instead, the "church" there was emphasizing ecumenism, unity, and more of a secular morality.
After learning this during the first break (I spoke for somewhere around 3 hours), you can probably guess what I preached about for the next 2 hours! I strongly condemned what the so-called "church" was doing there in the town, and I preached vociferously on sin, judgment, and obedience. I identified the apostasy of the age, the importance of rejecting corrupt Bible translations (like the NIV, which was what was being pushed by the Alpha Course apostates), and on the importance of a right view of a sovereign God. I spoke of apostasy and heresy, and then I basically went through the lessons in Swarms of Locusts and how Popery had infiltrated and corrupted the mainline Protestant denominations with Arminianism and other Jesuit teachings. As you can imagine, during the second break, the "church" leadership was first in line to talk to me. They couldn't say much, except that they were confused and hoped they hadn't done any harm with what they were teaching. They said "we'll have to pray about it", which generally means that they had not been convicted and they were probably going to do nothing but wait until Michael Bunker was out of town to start damage control.
The people, however, were of a decidedly different mind. When I finished speaking, they rushed our tour bus and surrounded it. They begged me not to leave. They wanted me to stay and preach to them. They asked me when I was going to return, and they would only leave the tour bus and let us go if I would assure them that I would do whatever I was able to do to return to them some day. I exhorted them to go out and get a good King James Bible and to study and pray that the Lord would give them truth. I asked them to study what the true Church believed throughout history (until the corruptions of Romanism, and eventually the counter-reformation ushered in our modern apostate religion) and to never let the insitutional "church" push new and apostate doctrines on them. I do feel badly that I was never able to return, but I also am convinced that God freed all of those whom He loves and that He will do a mighty work in those whom He calls.
Sorry for that side story, but I thought it was important to include it here, particularly when it can be placed in contrast to how we were received by the religious pharisees of Perth.
We returned to Perth with less than two weeks left on our trip. We still had a major address planned at the University of Western Australia there in Perth, so the fellas and I got to work planning my presentation. We learned through the grapevine that the host "church" and its very, very angry leadership was working to try to make sure no one attended the university talk. We had been exhorting the leadership of that group to sit down with us and talk for several weeks, but they let us know in no uncertain terms that they just wanted me to get on a plane and go back to Texas. When the day of the university talk came, we gamely headed there to set up the lecture hall. We found out on our arrival that someone had cancelled the talk, and there was only an hour or so before the meeting was scheduled to begin. Not only had they cancelled the rental on the lecture hall, but they had gone around campus with professionally produced CANCELLED stickers and had pasted them on the posters that had been posted all over campus. I'm not talking about someone writing cancelled on the posters with a marker... no... they actually had bright red CANCELLED stickers printed up and pasted across the posters announcing the meeting.
Some of our supporters were able to contact the university and get our lecture hall unlocked, so we set up for the meeting expecting that no one would actually show up. Unhappily for our attackers, we had a very, very good showing. The most boisterous and supportive of the groups that attended the meeting were representatives from the Underground Church in China. They were a group that smuggled Bibles and materials into China from Australia by boat. One of the most touching and emotional moments of the trip happened when this group of Chinese radicals came up to me after the talk. They had a sandwich bag of American dollar bills and coins. It was money they had raised to donate to my ministry. I was stunned. These people didn't have any money, and what they did have was spent on travel and expenses to get smugglers into China, but they had taken an offering among themselves to give me a donation. Of course I tried to refuse it, but they would not hear of it, and I was informed by others that I would offend them greatly if I did not receive the gift. That gesture was one of the most humbling things that happened to me on the whole trip.
Back to the excitement. When the talk was over, I was busy talking to people and answering questions for quite a while. The guys were breaking down all the equipment as most of the audience was filing out. Not too long after that, one of our supporters came to me and said, "They broke out all the windows of the cars in the parking lot!" I shook my head, "What? Who broke out the windows". He said, "Apparently whomever it was who didn't want you to speak here tonight". We were finished packing up, so we all headed out to the parking lot. There were just a few cars left in the lot, but there was glass all over the ground. The two cars other than the one we came in (we came in Adrian's) had broken windows. I was stunned. We were very sorrowful that someone had sunk to such depths as to damage property in order to threaten people who were preaching the Gospel. I wrote a letter which appeared on my website that listed all that we had gone through in Australia, and it seemed that people everywhere were appalled. What I had taught all along was proven. The basics behind persecution never change. Sometimes, as many great Christian historians have taught, our enemies may not be enabled by law to kill us. Sometimes, due to conditions and political realities out of their control, our enemies may not be able to crucify us, burn us, or pull us usunder; but never, ever think that they would not do so if they could. If it were lawful and acceptable for our enemies to take our lives, they certainly would, and we have ample proofs of that. Their intentions and their crimes are no less heinous and wicked just because they happen to live during a time when they are restrained by God from doing that which they would do if they were free to act. The day is coming, and it may come in your lifetime, when your enemies will kill you for what you believe. But they will only kill you if you really believe it, and they will only know you really believe it if you live it. Most modern "christians" are persecution proof because they do not live what they say they believe. Most modern professors are Alpha Course "christians" whose lives and worldviews threaten no one. They do not shine as lights in darkness, rather they blend in with darkness and defend it as evangelism.
After that, we had several meetings in Adrian's back yard, and each meeting got bigger and bigger. The last sermon I did in Perth (entitled ELECTION) was a standing room only affair. People were walking up and down the neighborhood borrowing chairs from neighbors. Many people had to park blocks away just to get to the house.
A day or so before we were to leave Perth, Adrian received a call from his former Pastor. He wanted to meet with me before I headed back to Texas. Adrian put him on hold and came to me and asked me what I thought. I smiled at Adrian. I said "He wants to meet with me, meaning just the Pastor?" Adrian asked him and he said "Yes, he would be coming alone". I said, "Ok, I'll be glad to meet with the Pastor, and since he said he would be coming alone, I will expect him to be alone". Adrian passed on the message and then hung up. As soon as he hung up the phone, I looked at Adrian and Craig and I said, "He'll show up here with the whole 'church' leadership, and he'll probably have your Pope of Perth (Steve the exorcist) with him. Adrian said, "Nah, if he said he'll come alone - he'll come alone".
Right...
In the next part... The Kangaroo Court and Steve tries to cast a demon out of me.
To be continued...
Michael Bunker
posted by Michael Bunker at 3/26/2009 07:12:00 AM
5 Comments:
"Sorry for that side story, but I thought it was important to include it here,"
No need to apologize Michael! I thought that was maybe the best part of the most interesting/inspiring part of this series to date.
You're getting into stuff now that I definitely have not heard, or heard in such detail....can't wait for this great story to continue!
BB
Oh, the anticipation! I'm too old for this! ;)
I keep getting the impression that this is back in the first century, and Paul or Peter is giving the narrative here. To someone who has lived most of his life blinded within the bounds of an institutional American "church", this sounds almost impossible. I believe it, but it blows my mind.
RP
I ordered one of your books after reading this biographical sketch. I've been a lurker for a while. May our Father in Heaven raise up an army of Michael Bunker like warriors!
What's with Biblical Agrarianism lately? This is the link that led me to you. Is it still active? I tried signing up for participation, without success.
Kathleen,
BiblicalAgrarianism.com should be working fine. If you are having problems, please email David:
david ( at ) biblicalagrarianism (dot) com
and he should be able to help you.
Thanks!
Michael
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