Jack D. Hook's Testimony

Before I became an atheist back in the 60's, my parents taught me what they knew about the God of Israel, his son Jesus Christ, and the importance of living a life that was pleasing to God. From an early age, my mother trotted me off to Sunday School every week, where I learned the American version of the Christian faith. But, as I grew older, I rebelled against the church and my mother. The rebellion only intensified as I became a young man during the time the Vietnam War was in full bloom. So off to the Army and war I went with all the other young men of my generation. It was at this time in my life when I decided to toss my faith in God out the window. I didn't know until later that my mother, who was raised in the church, was at the same time realizing she wasn't really a Christian, that she never had been born again. Her church was like most; they only had part of the truth, and outer form, with no convicting power to convert anyone. They were all erroneously led to think baptism as infants was the beginning of their salvation.

For over ten years I wandered around in the darkness of atheism. I lived a life that seemed to come naturally. At the time it didn't seem to be darkness, for I enjoyed the pleasures of this life. The pursuit and love of money and the things it can buy was very rewarding. After all, I was living the American dream. The desire for sexual pleasures in those days had no boundaries. Pornography came easily and naturally, especially in Vietnam. I shamefully admit this because there are multitudes who are today trapped in this Satanic pleasure and delusion. It is not the unpardonable sin; there is forgiveness and hope, but only through the Lord Jesus Christ. Sadly, there are many in Christendom who look down on or condemn those who are bound by pornography. They sit in their church pews and think how holy they are because they don't watch dirty movies, and yet every Saturday night go to the local theaters and watch the latest PG-13 or R rated Hollywood production. In their self-righteousness, they fail to understand that pornography is just the deep end of the same cesspool of movies they watch. I have learned this truth the hard way and I still struggle at times with worldly entertainment, trying somehow to justify it in my mind. Honestly, I think we should all be very careful what we watch. For most of what comes out of Hollywood is designed by demonic forces who manipulate the writers and producers of films.

During my years as an atheist, I was filled with self-love and arrogance, and enjoyed mocking people who believed in God. I had a great self-image and loved no one more than me, especially not any supreme being. There was no need in my life for the psychologist's couch to improve my self-esteem and image. I thought most Christians were a bunch of weak hypocrites who needed some God as a crutch. I could care less what they thought of my way of life. They were the ones in need of the couch, not me.

As this lifestyle went on for years, I had no idea that my newly born again mother was praying for me all this time. The God of Israel heard my mother's prayers; he saw her crying for her lost son. The real Jesus of the Bible came after me; he confronted me with my sin head on. My atheism had made me a fool and an idiot. I had become my own god. The psycho-babble of self-image and self-esteem had taken its toll on my mind and heart. In my mind, I saw myself nailing Jesus to the cross. Oh what sadness and shame filled my heart. Was Jesus truly alive and coming back in power and judgment any day as I was now reading in the Bible? A fear of God and the threat of an eternal Hell filled my mind and heart. Was my mother right; was there a God in Heaven? My life of pleasures coming from money, sex, and pride began crumbling around me. These things were just not as fulfilling anymore, no matter how much I tried. I had a choice to make deep in my heart and it was astonishingly simple; acknowledge and confess my sin, turn to the God of Israel and his son Jesus, or die and go to Hell! I was now convinced that Jesus loved me and provided the only way of escape from the horror of an eternal Hell. He gave his life for me, a wretched self-absorbed sinner, who deserved nothing but his wrath.

Read carefully Hebrews 11:24-26. "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward."

As Jesus confronted me personally then, the God of Israel is now confronting the entire world. And he will ultimately bring everyone to their knees, whether they want to or not. Even Satan will bend his knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. God the father is also hearing the tearful broken-hearted prayers of fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers for their lost children. Like Moses, everyone on Earth is now faced with a clear choice: The pleasures of sin that Satan is dangling in front of us, via the American New World Order, cleverly disguised in the language of, "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness;" or we can choose to suffer with the people of God, who love the living resurrected Jesus and his return.

The Bible exposes the deceitful pleasures of sin. The polluted, twisted desires for sex, money, and the arrogance of self love are described by the Apostle John as the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life, 1 John 2:16. Because of our fallen Adamic natures, the original desires for love and pleasure given by God to the human race have been perverted and distorted. This explains why it's hard for men to give up sinning because...some sins just feel good. This is why Jesus said we must be born again. Only Jesus can cut away the sinful nature from our hearts or spirits that we are all born with. Only Jesus can give us a new nature that restores the original love and desires given by God to Adam and Eve. Only Jesus in our hearts, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, can overcome the sinful impulses yet remaining in our bodies. The daily battleground between our new hearts and our old bodies of sin is in our minds. When Jesus returns he will then change our sinful bodies and make them like unto his own, which is one of the reasons I long for his coming.

As I listen and watch America's so-called Christian political leaders struggle with the complexities of the religious holy war unfolding in Israel, which is enflaming all the world, I don't hear them proclaiming the only message that can bring the peace they're seeking. Why aren't President Bush and his "Christian" cabinet boldly, and from a broken heart, crying out to the Moslems, Hindus, and Jews, the true gospel of Jesus Christ and his return in power and glory to take back the government of the nations? Are they ashamed of him? Do they believe what Jesus said to all men..."Ye must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God?" Do they believe that only repentance and faith in the shed blood of Jesus can bring peace and security to mankind? Allied with America's church leaders, have they together become the wolves dressed in sheepskin suits that Jesus warned us about?

America's Christian leaders, from President Bush on down, and from George Washington until today, have been deceived by the pleasures of sin. Keep in mind that one does not have to sink to the level of my depravity to enjoy sin's reward. Many have fooled themselves by comparing their self-righteous lifestyles with men like me, who had degenerated to the lowest levels of immorality and ungodliness. They have cast aside Jesus, the Lamb of God, and replaced him with another Jesus, another gospel. It is the prosperity, patriotic, and psychology gospel of Laodicea they are following, Revelation 3:16-17. They are walking in the footsteps of the Christian militarism of Emperor Constantine, who seduced most of Christendom in the fourth century. They have bit into the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They were all born that way, as we all were, and just plain enjoy the taste of the deadly fruit. But the pleasure of sin is only for a season. This Laodicean perversion within Christendom, which will produce the Antichrist, is one of the greatest signs that this season of sin is about to come to an end. Putting that together with the return of the nation of Israel in 1948, and the violent uproar as to who controls Jerusalem, clearly indicates the climactic end of this evil generation is near. Discouragement, despair, destruction and death always follow the pleasures of sin, so beware.

Many people have angrily responded to my online book and articles stating that Christian politicians must do their civil jobs by separating their faith from their public work. They tell me, "Mr. Bush was elected to be President, not an evangelist." Listen carefully, if a politician publicly announces that he is a Christian, it becomes the business of the body of Christ, not only to love and pray for him, but also to warn him when his words and deeds are contrary to the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christian men who want to be civil leaders can't leave the prophecies, principles, and person of Jesus Christ at home while they go off to work. The Apostle Paul said that whatever we do in word or deed, to do it all in the name of Jesus Christ, Colossians 3:17. Honestly, I can't imagine how a true follower of Jesus could get elected in any nation, let alone to the Presidency, the most powerful office in Satan's world system. Think about it for a moment. Jesus said of his followers that the world system would hate them because they first hated him. He said that people hated him because he testified that their works were evil.

To my critics, who say I shouldn't say such things as this about the President and his men, I am fully aware of the biblical admonition to love, pray, respect, and honor the civil authorities, which by the way, America's founding fathers conveniently ignored or forgot to do in 1776, as they made war against England. As followers of Jesus we are to obey and never violently resist or overthrow the leaders of any nation, no matter how evil they may be. That judgment is reserved for Jesus. God is allowing the Gentiles to rule this world system, under Satan's control, until that day when Jesus sets up his kingdom from Jerusalem. However, we are to warn them of the wrath of God to come and to be saved from sin and Hell by the blood of Jesus. America's polluted Christian system will reap the whirlwind of God's judgment for cherry picking the teachings of Jesus and tossing out or changing doctrines they don't like. I plead with them all to reconsider their ways before it is too late.