I didn't learn everything about Jack in the first three days
I worked with him, but it sure was a crash-course.
You have to realize how incredible it feels
to be trusted with so much information.
Jack shared his personal life experiences
with me.
And over time Jack watched me
as I researched about what he told me.
I'd go and find whatever I could to see if there were evidence
of what Jack told me from other sources.
In fact, my first job title was Research Consultant.
He used to say, "David, thank God
you're not my enemy."
Which is ironic, because I used to be his enemy.
I had been a Chick tract reading,
King James Bible trusting Christian.
But by my second semester in Bible college
in the Fall of 1981, I had become
a New American Standard reader, who quickly became
suspicious of all things Chick.
You know how that happened?
I trusted men.
Psalm 118:8-9 says 8 "It is better to trust in the LORD
than to put confidence in man.
9 It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes."
And do you know the thing that turned me
into an anti-Chick zealot?
It was an article in Christianity Today by Gary Metz
against a man named Alberto Rivera, who claimed to be
a former Jesuit priest.
I photocopied the Christianity Today version
of the article and carried it around with me
for years in my backpack, showing it to people,
telling them how bad Chick was.
From a guy saved by a Chick tract
and who returned to the Lord with Chick tracts,
I had become an enemy of Jack Chick.
Jack was vilified in the press.
He was made out to be a fire-breathing villain,
as if he hated everyone and everything
that wasn't exactly like him.
But that wasn't Jack at all.
In the 16 years I've worked here
I've learned what kind of Christian Jack was
and how consistent Jack stayed.
And that consistent Christianity was witnessed
for over 48 years, according to his own friends,
friends that I know.
And the real Jack Chick was part of what turned me
back into a soul winner who uses Chick tracts every day
to reach others for Christ.
Want to learn more about the real Jack Chick?
Hi, I'm David Daniels from Chick Publications.
Those of you who know me or have watched my vlogs,
know that I care a lot about fruit.
Jesus said, in Matthew 7:16-20,
20 "Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit;
but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit,
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit
is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."
So when I believed the anti-Chick,
anti-Alberto articles, I became Jack's enemy.
First, I photocopied that Christianity Today article.
Then I started showing that article to anyone and everyone.
Never mind that the article had no actual documentation,
nor has it ever shown a single proven charge
against Alberto, from 1981 to 2016.
Never mind that Metz claimed he had proof
and promised to produce it, but never did.
Christianity Today was a trusted magazine.
So I trusted the article and a guy no one had ever heard of
before.
And as a result, I stopped handing out Chick tracts.
Completely.
Plus, my professors criticized the gospel message
at the back.
Oh, and I believed my professors, too.
In fact, I stopped handing out
any tracts at all.
Where I could have passed out thousands
of Chick gospel tracts to unsaved people,
from 1981 through 1998, 17 years,
I stopped passing tracts.
Because of a hit piece in a big Christian magazine,
I stopped passing tracts.
And Brothers and Sisters, that is the goal
of the Ecumenical Movement.
"Don't you dare try to evangelize our
brother and sister Catholics.
We're all one big, happy family!"
That's the Ecumenical Movement in a nutshell.
Now, one day I was in the office
here at Chick Publications.
I was researching something on a totally different topic for Jack.
Then I found an article where someone denied
that some Jesuit was connected to CRI,
the Christian Research Institute, started by the late Dr. Walter Martin.
That got my attention.
You see, one of the things Jack had told me,
was that Alberto had said something
about a Jesuit he recognized connected with CRI,
so I was intrigued.
The man was a Jesuit priest named Mitchell Pacwa SJ.
So I searched online and found a book published by CRI.
Here it is.
The Cult of the Virgin: Catholic Mariology
and the Apparitions of Mary, by Elliot Miller
and Kenneth R. Samples.
It came out in 1992.
It has a Foreword written by Norman Geisler.
You see?
Right there, written by Norman Geisler,
who got his PhD. from the Jesuit Loyola University of Chicago.
But look at the end of the book.
Appendix B is a Response to the book
by Jesuit Mitchell Pacwa.
It turns out that he was a professor of Theology at--
Loyola University of Chicago, the same place
where Norman Geisler got his PhD back in the late 1960s!
Let me read to you what the authors wrote
about Jesuit priest Mitchell Pacwa and the purpose
of their 1992 book on Mary.
Listen from page 161.
"As was stated in the introduction, the underlying purpose of this book
is ultimately ecumenical rather than antiecumenical:
to promote open dialogue and understanding
among Catholics and Protestants about an issue that
continues to separate them.
"To better serve this purpose we asked
Father Mitchell Pacwa, S.J., a Scripture scholar
from Loyola University at Chicago, if we might include
his thoughts and criticisms regarding our book
within its pages.
He graciously agreed to do so."
Wow.
So already they are ecumenical.
They want Catholic and Protestants together.
So I guess they didn't try to get this Jesuit priest saved.
Let me go on.
"Pacwa is an able scholar and apologist
whose manner of life evidences" (get this)
"a strong personal relationship with Christ."
Really?
Which Christ?
"We have enjoyed with him the kind of relationship
we advocate between Bible-believing Catholics
and Protestants: honest and respectful
discussion of our differences, but also
positive fellowship in Christ and cooperative efforts
in the common cause of Christ's kingdom."
So Jesuit, call-no-man-father Mitchell Pacwa,
is a "Bible-believing Catholic," with a "strong personal relationship
with Christ"?
And Pacwa is a "scripture scholar"?
Could I have been wrong?
Is the Ecumenical Movement actually good?
Was Alberto in error?
Was he just a rabble rouser?
Or, was Alberto actually right?
I had to find out more about Jesuit priest Mitchell Pacwa.
I found a book Pacwa wrote, just four years after the CRI book,
entitled, Father, Forgive Me, for I Am Frustrated:
Growing in Faith When You Don't Find It Easy
Being Catholic.
Listen to this from page 34.
"For example, the consequence of sin
is a central theme of St. Ignatius of Loyola's
Spiritual Exercises, a classic manual
for directing retreats, which has been
a powerful means of conversion or four hundred years."
So Jesuit priest Mitchell Pacwa isn't interested in dialogue.
He's interested in making people Roman Catholic.
And how have the Jesuits been making people Catholic
for over 400 years?
"Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises."
So maybe the Ecumenical Movement is really about
getting Christians to drop their guard so the Catholics can "dialogue" --
that's a Jesuit code word for getting others
to compromise with Rome.
And does it stop there?
No.
They use spiritual retreats to actually try
to turn Christians into Catholics!
One of my first classes at Fuller Seminary
in the fall of 1984 was called Spiritual Formation
and Discipleship.
It was led by a famous Presbyterian minister.
And one of the things he told us was that the Jesuits
had made a special arrangement for Fuller seminary students
to go for I think it was up to a month to a Jesuit retreat
and learn contemplative Christianity with the monks as guides,
using something called the Spiritual Exercises.
Do any Fuller grads out there remember that class?
Fall of 1984.
But if the Jesuits were guides, we aren't giving them
the Gospel of Jesus Christ that frees them
from Mary, the pope,
the saints, the angels,
the idolatry and their bondage to Rome.
No, instead, the Jesuits
are using the Spiritual Exercises to make Catholics out of Christians!
And way back in 1980 Jack Chick took a stand
against the Ecumenical Movement, and never ever changed his stance.
Do you see why?
The Roman Catholics are trying to create a one world religion --
a one-world Catholic religion.
Jack wasn't against the Ecumenical Movement
because he hated people.
Jack was against the Ecumenical Movement
because he was desperate for souls to be saved.
But the Ecumenical Movement STOPS evangelism
of the precious Roman Catholics, and others,
as they expand their movement.
And don't be fooled.
The Ecumenical Movement does not stop by telling Christians
not to evangelize Catholics.
It's actually about Catholics trying to turn Christians
into Catholics, or to allow
others to become Catholics without warning them
of the eternal consequences.
Look in the news right now.
I can guarantee you that the pope and Protestants
and even Baptists are talking about
"ecumenical fellowship."
How about this, from the Catholic Herald
just two days ago, November 1st, 2016?
Pope Francis just offered to add 6 new Beatitudes
to Jesus' list in the Sermon on the Mount.
Here are numbers 3 and 6.
3) "Blessed are those who see God in every person
and strive to make others also discover him."
Nope.
God is not in every person.
Romans 8:9 says "... Now if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
Only saved people get to have the Spirit of Christ.
And pope Francis' Beatitude number 6,
"Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion
between Christians."
That really means Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, Baptists,
and maybe even Mormons, all under one roof.
But Jack for 56 years kept his eyes on one goal:
winning as many people as possible to salvation by faith
in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God,
with nothing added and nothing taken away.
Proverbs 11:30 is absolutely true:
"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life;
and he that winneth souls is wise."
Chick Publications has had its eyes on that one goal.
The fruit of winning souls.
Every other thing we do helps us get to that goal.
Working with Jack was like getting on
a soul-winning train.
I could get on with him and start winning souls,
or he would go on without me.
Thank God I got on the train with him.
I hope I can make up for the years of not
passing out tracts.
Maybe as you become more confident,
you will too.
To get to know Jack, you don't just get
to know a soul winner.
You get the opportunity
to become a soul winner.
And Chick Publications is here to help you do just that.
God bless you, and have a wonderful day.