by Bill Ward:
Notice to end my sponsorship:
After 20+ years of sponsoring children through Compassion International, I am saddened to say that I am at the brink of withdrawing my support. We’ve already withdrawn our support from World Vision which has drifted so far from the true gospel into a left leaning one-world agenda that even their Christmas cards no longer speak about Jesus. They speak in politically correct phrases and are hesitant to proclaim the message of Christ.
The latest issue of Compassion Magazine featured an advertisement for live58; that, for me, is a huge red flag that Compassion has taken a big step in the same direction. I’ve read Isaiah 58 many times and it has little to do with anything that this collective of organizations is pretending to do. I say “pretending” because the very statement “ending extreme poverty” is a populace, left wing, pseudo-Christian marketing fantasy that simply will never happen.
This is and never has been the focus of Isaiah 58, nor of the Bible, nor of the ministry of Jesus Christ. Have you never read Mark 14:7 “the poor you have with you always” - I guess Jesus himself wasn't hip enough with the program of live58. It seems clear, that from the very mouth of Jesus, the dream of ending extreme poverty is a religious, hopeful fantasy; that indicates a distorted theology about why Jesus came to the world, as well as the very nature of man and his relationship to the world.
In the Bible, the word “world” is rarely used in a positive sense, but rather in the negative, to distinguish the unsaved from the saved, the people of God from the people of the “world”; the wheat from the tares. And yet, in this leftist “Christian” view, there is “World Vision” and “World Relief”; a “Christian Reformed World Relief Committee” and global initiatives everywhere. The language of the left is everywhere throughout live58. No longer do they seek to save lost souls from the world, they now seek to redeem the world itself and thus, have become part of the world, and are spreading the propaganda of the world. This is the very program of anti-christ.
The organizations you’re partnering with are worldly focused, left-leaning groups. They do not share the “commitment to Christ” that you claim on your website as that which makes you distinct. They use the name of Christ as a symbolic caricature in order to advance precepts which are foreign to the teachings of Christ, rather than making Christ Himself the very end and purpose for their existence. Christ did not come to earth to end poverty and injustice, for if he did, he died and departed this world a complete failure. Truth be told, this is what Judas Iscariot thought Christ’s purpose was, and it became his stumbling stone. He could not comprehend Christ’s words, “...but you will not always have Me”. Christ is indeed a King, but not the king of this world.
Let’s review these groups:
There is “Plant with Purpose” whose mission is to support the left’s fraudulent green agenda. They adhere to the over-hyped environmentalist notion of “deforestation” as being the cause of poverty. This is the religion of the planting of trees, a type of earth worship, as if trees don’t know how to plant themselves.
Then there is the Micah Challenge’s a “global (a more leftist term than “world”) coalition (“collective”) of Christians (dubious) holding governments accountable (the same tyrannical governments that are the very root of the poverty) for their promise (a fantasy promise that was never made and will never be kept because it won’t be, and can’t be) to halve extreme poverty”. -This is all what leftist religious people call “hope and change” and what real Christians and honest people know as false hope and lies; the propaganda of Anti-christ. It will never happen, it can’t happen, not until Christ returns and judges this world and establishes a new heaven and new earth.
Then there’s the International Justice Mission which is another way of saying “social justice” (another way of saying Marxism). They’re interested in “human rights” (another left wing concept that cannot be found in the Bible that you claim to revere).
Then there’s ECHO’s statement “In a time of rising food prices, more women, children and men are facing hunger and malnutrition. The need for sustainable solutions has never been greater.” -So the need has “never been greater” but I read that poverty and hunger have been reduced by half in only the last 20 years according to the fraudulent claim of live58. So which lie is the real lie and which is the half lie? What I do know is that for the two decades that I’ve been supporting Compassion, along with thousands of others, the selling of this false hope never ceases and the cry for more aid is forever increasing.
Then there’s HOPE that “believes that micro-finance (whatever that is) can be a powerful force in changing (Christ did not come to change the world, -this is what Judas thought; but He came to save individuals out of the world) the world (again, the theme is the world) for the better and that loving people as Christ loved others means caring for both physical and spiritual needs.” And what would those “spiritual needs” be? Maybe they need to be saved, perhaps? Christ loved the world (meaning the ungodly) by laying down his life; not by “caring for both physical and spiritual needs” -this is the language of guidance counselors, not the Bible.
Then there is Living Water International (LWI) which “implements sustainable (a leftist word taken from the green movement) water”. Jesus made a clear distinction between this ordinary water, which He states is, in fact, not sustainable, with the true “Living Water” which quenches fully; and yet this organization is concerned, not with the true living water, but rather with the ordinary water, and then, calling it “Living Water” -for marketing purposes I suppose. Other than this, Living Water International (LWI) has a fairly biblical mission statement.
Then there is World Relief which has a mission statement that is so riddled with leftist “one world”, and “transformational” gobbledygook it makes one's stomach turn.
All of this is, truly, the gospel according to Judas, which is leftist social evolution. It is entirely focused on the needs of this world; on perfecting this world rather than proclaiming the kingdom of heaven. The King of Kings spoke of Himself as indeed a King but not as a king of this world. But Judas and the people always sought to make him a king of this world who would end sickness and starvation and grant peace to the nations. This thinking is in direct contradiction with the true gospel, and the true meaning of the Bible and even Isaiah 58. Jesus made it quite clear that He did not come to bring world peace but rather a sword of division. (Matt 10:34)
I could go on and on stating endless examples of anti-christian, leftist, and wrong-headedness that could literally fill a book. Compassion has seemingly lost its way and gradually slipped from its calling to where it has succumbed to the gospel of social evolution. So ingrained is this false gospel in much of the contemporary church that Compassion is probably unaware of how far from the true gospel it has strayed. Evangelicalism has been superseded by a new ecumenicalism which has adopted the collectivist mission, and then mouths the propaganda of the cultural left. To this end, Compassion has become a puppet, forever enslaved by the world to the Sisyphean task of eradicating world hunger and poverty; and thus, in the long run, doing more harm than good.
I hope you will discern the nature of the groups you are partnering with and separate yourself from them. Return to your original commission: “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Unless you plan on breaking your ties with these left -wing organizations and return to simply saving souls and preaching the true gospel, I feel compelled to ask you to please end my sponsorship immediately. Please send me confirmation of this.
Sincerely, and with a heavy heart,
Bill Ward
