I was so sorry to hear about your husband getting killed at the prison next door this morning! I know you heart must be breaking now. I will pray for you and your children to stay strong and be drawn to the Lord during this trying time.
I also know that it looks like a simple case of one crazed inmate stabbing your husband over the TV. I wish it were that simple but its not. They will do an investigation now and one man will take the wrap. Actually, Mrs. Johnson, I know who killed your husband. There were many people involved but one primary person must take nearly all of the blame. Please let me explain.
The man with the knife was only the last of a long line of people that caused his death. I’m sure we could go way back and put some of the blame at the feet of Adam and Eve who brought sin, suffering, and death into God’s perfect world by their disobedience, but let’s only go back 50 years. A fraction of the blame goes to his dad who didn’t take him to church or spend time with him like he should have. Dad was more interested in watching sports than training his son. Another bit of blame goes to his older friends on his street that encouraged him to rebel, smoke, and drink. His adult friends just continued the problem and get some blame too.
You may be wondering how I know these things. He told me. You see, I met him 25 years ago when he was working laying carpet in our church. I brought him a Coke and talked with him for 20 minutes.
Then next in this long line to share the blame are the lawmakers who voted to criminalize drugs. There is no scripture that prohibits the possession or use of any substance. I don’t take drugs and never will, but locking a person up for 20 years over a plant is evil beyond words. The lawmakers and the courts share some of the blame for his death. He should never have been in prison to begin with. The courts and the attorneys who seem to get pleasure or promotion points based on how much time they give out must also share in the blame. If he had been given 6 months, or even a year, he would have been here at the camp where there is no violence, rather then being with long timers and surrounded by really stressed out people. The fact of being in prison for long periods creates the stress and causes many to crack under the strain. The courts and layers certainly put heavy burdens on men like your husband (Lk. 11:46) and the one who killed him. Under God’s perfect law (Ps. 19:7) prisons should not exist! God never authorized prison as a punishment for any crime in His Word. Your husband should have been fined or beaten but not locked up away from his family. I don’t know what the man with the knife was in for, but ditto for him.
There are a few BOP staff members who get to share in the blame as well. Not all, but some. They allow the overcrowding to keep the budget numbers up. The Warden has complete authority to send anyone home that he or she wants. The warden could send everyone home right now, but they almost never use this power. It all goes back to money (I Tim. 6:10). If the warden had sent home 20% of the non-violent types like your husband this would never have happened today.
A few of the Corrections Officers (CO’s) must share in the blame for today’s tragedy as well. Some seem to delight in adding little pressures to the inmate’s life. We have one CO here who treats men with respect. She calls them on the PA, “Mr. Smith, please report to the message center.” Another one shows the contrast well. He yells on the PA, “Inmate Jones! Report to the message center NOW!” Some of the CO’s that delighted in adding to his burden and the burden of the man who stabbed him share in the blame for his death today; but they will not be brought to trial – down here, that is.
I don’t know if you must share in the blame or not. You will be the best judge of that. Did you make him have a happy home (I Pt. 3:1-6)? Did you contribute to his drugs in even a slight way? Did you encourage him to go to church, etc? I have no way of answering this one.
I do know that many people must share some of the blame for his murder, but one person gets the lion’s share. That person is me. You see, when I talked with him 25 years ago, I felt the Lord tugging at my heart to share the gospel with him right then. I was tired and did not obey the Lord’s calling. If I had led him to Jesus that day 25 years ago maybe his entire life would have been different. It seems that those who know the Lord have a much higher success rate getting off drugs and staying off. I had the time and opportunity, but did not do it. I’m so sorry, Mrs. Johnson, but I think I’m the one who killed your husband this morning, by my cowardice 25 years ago. Please forgive me.
Sincerely,
Kent Hovind
Dr. Kent E. Hovind is currently at the Edgefield Federal Correctional Institution in South Carolina. Please send postcards and letters to:
Kent E. Hovind #06452-017
FPC Edgefield D-2
P.O. BOX 725
Edgefield, SC 29824
Feel free to send Dr. Hovind a letter or postcard. Please understand he is not able to answer every letter he receives, but he certainly appreciates any support and encouragement. He can also receive new books, but only directly from bookstores. And no hardcover books are allowed. No DVDs, CDs, or anything hard or sharp such as staples, etc (no tracts with staples in them). Do not send more than one tract at a time, as all gifts containing more than one tract will not be allowed. Do not put “Dr.” on his name, or it may be discarded by the guards. They do not always return postal items that are not delivered to inmates, so you may want to save a copy before mailing, so that you might try again in the event that he was recently moved for example.
Mrs. Hovind is currently at the Federal Correctional Institution in Marianna, FL. Because of prison regulations, Mrs. Hovind can only receive letters. Please refrain from sending stickers, stamps, books, or media of any kind. If you would like to write her letters of encouragement, please send them to:
Jo D. Hovind #06453-017
FCI Marianna, Satellite Camp
P.O. Box 7006
Marianna, FL 32447
Please write with the understanding that whatever you write could be subject to monitoring by the guards. Please do not write politically-charged or tax-related comments, etc. In the event that Dr. or Mrs. Hovind is moved to another facility, one can always check for current addresses by using the Inmate Locator on the Bureau of Prisons website:
http://www.bop.gov/
From the CSE team,
Thank you for your continued support.
Brother Hovind, that may or may not be true, but God’s grace & mercy doesn’t stop or start with you. God’s mercy is vast!
My parents live in Australia, & they refuse to talk with me about my beliefs. Over the years I’ve written them letters, sent them books & even sent them a copy of your seminar. Most of the time they make no comments about the material I have sent them. Regardless, throughout the past 35 years the LORD has always placed a witness to them among their peers!
*The first ones I heard about was their best friends. After I left home, they got saved through the Salvation Army, & then became missionaries to Africa, last I heard.
*Then the LORD placed another Christian in their lives. For some reason my Dad had a secretary while he was in his last years of being a high school science teacher. She was very much a Baptist!
*After he retired, they moved down to the opal fields, where they still live. Last I heard, the middle man that they sell their opals through is a Christian. They go through him instead of somebody else because he is highly trustworthy!
Once in a while God gives us a glimpse of His awesome faithfulness.
Beloved Brother Kent,
Precious greetings in Jesus mighty name.
Trust the Lord Jesus Christ is keeping you daily.
The joy of the Lord Jesus is our strength.
Mrs Johnson, kindly accept my condolence.
Brother Kent, thanks ever so much for nudging our conscience with respect to our obligation to our fellow men to share the gospel of salvation through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.Jas 5:20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
It is really dangerous for us not to show people the way of salvation as detailed in the scriptures
Eze 33:8 When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Eze 33:9 Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
I pray the Lord will indeed strengthen us all to be bold & to always obey God in sharing the gospel with everyone.
When I read some things on the website of spiritlessons.com on the divine revelations of Heaven & Hell. It makes one feel cruel as a beleiver for not sharing the message of salvation with others. For if one truely beleives that Hell is real & one does not witness to people about the Lord Jesus Christ & His free gift to save from the eternal punishment in Hell (Ro 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Ro 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord); then it feels like real cruelty to fellow mankind. I pray our heavenly father will give us divine grace to preach the gospel of salvation through the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ daily.
For all reading kindly read divine revelations of heaven & Hell by Mary Baxter & 7 youths on http://www.spiritlessons.com
Sade Tennyson
Brother Kent,
the reading of British and American common law can only be made successfully with due regard to the cultural context of the religious circumstances of the day. Interpretations of the bible have undergone change but the fact that the bible was commonly deferred to as the higher authority in the laws of the land cannot be disputed. One did not swear or affirm by the name of the King or President, nor the gods of Jupiter and Venus, one gave ones testimony calling on the God of the Christian Bible to bear witness to the spoken truth. If a criminal was to be executed prayers were said for the saving of the man’s soul, that God should have mercy on them; the order not being carried out with the delusion that man was sufficiently endowed for the execution of divine judgement.
The common law was man attempting to codify universally applicable principles. The commonwealth was to be built on a common truth. That the bible shaped common law is something of an understatement.
The success or failure of society and the common law has always probably been as much linked to the success for failure of a priesthood in kind to defend, explain, and promulgate the biblical truth.
The above not withstanding, Noah was probably not a bad apologist of divine order, nor was Lot probably hapless at explaining the creation. While neither of them drew crowds it probably was a testimony that stood against their generation. Brother Johnson knew where your church was. He knew how to get there. He probably knew when it would meet again. He was aware of what and who you stood for.
Pursuant to this “common law” a lawyer in this place accused you of stealing from the “public trust”. That notion of a public trust developed around things like rainfall, sunshine, the coastline, sea shores, river banks – funny how they had more trouble grappling with the land issue? Nevertheless any “trust” contains three essential elements: the stated intentions of a Settlor, the responsibilities of a Trustee, and the nomination of Beneficiaries. Presumably in a public trust “everyone” is the beneficiary. Presumably in a public trust the trustees are either “everyone” or “elected officials/ responsible persons”, but then comes the thorny issue of the Settlor.
You see without a Settlor there is no trust. If the Settlor’s name or title is God they have a problem, because God has left a will and a testament. If the Settlor is not God then they have a problem as well because he or she should be able to be identified and testify if necessary, or to have left very specific instructions.
If money really belongs to everyone then it belongs to no-one in particular and there is something of a fraud taking place with its dissemination. If its distribution is to be exactly controlled by trustees then how was it you came to be stealing the stuff, without any thought or intention of doing so? How did responsible trustees allow you to get a hold of this public trust asset anyhow?
If the Settlor is God, they are stuffed. If the Settlor is a man or men they are stuffed.
With or without a knife in them, they are stuffed.
as for defending the bible. the same England that gave the world Horatio Nelson and George Mueller also gave it Samphire. there are ebbs and flows to the tide of history.
Jesus is Lord and He has given us a new commandment by which to be distinguished.
Hi Kent,
It is a blessing for me to be able to say something encouraging to you. I will comment on this blog. You are right,sadly. Sadly I have done the same thing out of fear to witness or misplaced priorities. The bible says the Lord will require it at the Judgement Seat of Christ. 20 or so years ago this happened and it made me reevaluate my non-submissiveness to Christ, leading me to be a faithful christian as well as a leader to my wife.My wife met a young man visiting our church on a Wednesday night after the service who claimed he was the Devil. Her conversatation did not go further. She later told me about this person. I immediately asked about the young man’s appearance. I was in a store earlier that day,and overheard a young man asking the clerk for where he could find makeup to make him look dead. Right when I heard him say that,the Holy Spirit tried to get me to witness to him. I walked away. I got about 50′ away and I knew I had to try and witness to him. I went back to talk with him,but he was gone. Later that night,Wednesday night, I gave the description of the young man to my wife. She told me at the service that I had missed on purpose that this was none other than a description of the young man that told her he was the Devil.
Very soon after that My Pastor H.D. Van Wye challenged me in a message to live according to God’s Word. He said in so many words,”what have you got to lose, you’ve tried everything else”.And indeed I had. He was right.I was saved but I never thought I needed to live according to God’s Word.I was a terrible husband looking to get high or drunk almost all the time while trying to be a credible witness for the Lord and believing that the drugs and alcohol and lifestyle might kill me but I knew I was going to Heaven anyway. At this moment in my life I realized I had been looking to be satisfied with what gave my flesh pleasure and the world pleasure instead of living for the Lord. Then the Lord ,over time showed me in His Word what I had not known or experienced that would fullfill my reason to continue this life.”The just shall live by faith”. I have been serving the Lord with my time,talent and treasure since that time. I drew nigh to Him.I have never turned back because I already know what it is like to be without the Lord and His Word. I would rather go to be with Him than live my life without Him. Without the Lord-”eat and drink ,for tomrrow you die”.
I hope to meet you soon, Kent.You and your work and your families work for the Lord has been such a blessing that only God will be able to reward you all properly.Only God knows how many people I have lead to the Lord for salvation or faithful service with all the things I have learned from you.I call you, Kent, because it seems I read somewhere that I can’t call you doctor. Chris Proverb-stupid people say and do stupid things. Kent Hovind Proverb-stupid is forever. I got to go to visit the museam with my wife this summer.It was “wonderful great”. I met Luke,and I believe Jacob,who both did a fabulous job. I am looking foward to another visit someday. May the Lord bless you and your family always,
Sincerely your friend in Christ, Chris
Kent,
In 25 years of time, I’m sure God gave this man more than one single opportunity to know who He is. We have no excuse for not knowing Him, and ultimately, he made a choice.
Brother, there is no condemnation in those that are Christ’s. You cannot take the blame for what happened in this man’s life. God is so full of mercy and long suffering, he gives us chances upon chances upon chances to make things right.
It is not up to you alone to convert every lost person to Christ. It is of course an admirable goal we all should aim for…
I feel you are putting a heavy burden on yourself that God has not asked you to carry. We lay those burdens at his feet.
Thanks for all your seminars! My fiance as them all on DVD and they are really going to be a big help to me in a few days when I start my Astronomy class at Berea College.
I’m sending you a letter tomorrow, and I was wondering if you’d like me to help you learn to read Hebrew.
Looking forward to a response if it is possible. If not, I will see you soon in the New Kingdom.
In Yeshua,
Loren Adams
Dr. Hovind,
It is quite a burden to carry when we don’t share the gospel to someone God has told us to. Unfortunately, I think we’ve all probably been guilty of this at some time. I think that’s probably why God tells us three times in His word that He personally will wipe the tears from our eyes when we get to heaven (Isaiah 25:8, Rev. 7:17, & Rev. 21:4). I believe He will have to do it because we will all have some share of the blame as to why some people are in hell, & we wouldn’t be able to remove that knowledge and sadness from ourselves unless God supernaturally did it for us. May we all serve more faithfully!
As a word of encouragement, I’d just like to say that I’ve been praying for you to have strength during your prison stay. Four years ago, my husband and I were married and moved so that we were in a new town and had to find a new church. We thankfully found a solid Bible-preaching Independent Baptist church with a faithful preacher. The preacher was talking to us one day and said that if we ever had any questions, doctrinal or otherwise, he’d be happy to answer them. Right there, I answered, as a matter of fact, I would like to talk to you sometime about where dinosaurs fit into creation. See, I knew that the Bible was the truth, but I didn’t understand how dinosaurs could have been part of a literal 6 day creation if they apparently lived millions of years before man. I had asked numerous people growing up, but no one had an answer for me–at least no one had an answer that upheld the inerrancy of the Bible. So, this was always going to be my one question when I got to heaven–where do dinosaurs fit in? Thankfully, my pastor answered me so I don’t have to wait until then. He said that they were created at the same time as the other animals and would have existed along with man. This simple answer blew my mind! It seemed so obvious once I heard it, but I had just never had heard before that dinosaurs even could have existed the same time as man! He then lent us a copy of the first video in your creation series.
My husband and I watched it with great interest-him even more than I b/c he’s a science guy, currently getting his PhD in developmental molecular biology. We then bought the whole series and watched every film–now it’s been many times over. Thank you so much for your teaching!! It increased our faith and gave us an answer to skeptics. My husband bought some books and kept studying up on it so much so that he was able to do a 4 part series in our large adult Sunday School class at church. I was able to use the knowledge to answer questions of first graders that I taught in the public school. Now, I’ve had a son & am a stay at home mom. I love that I’m going to get to teach my son the truth–but before you can teach the truth, you have to know what the truth is and now I know the truth!! Thank you! I also teach a Wednesday night children’s class for kiddos aged 4-7. I now make sure that I ground these little ones in the truth of God’s creation and they just love learning about the dinosaurs in Job. It just tickles them to think of big brachiosauruses walking around at the same time as humans!
In closing, I just want to say that you may feel discouraged because of where you are, who you can’t be with, what you can’t do or eat, and for past failures. But just know, God has used you teach the truth to many people. You glorify his Word when you uphold it’s truths, and since God holds his Word above His name, I know that glorifying his Word is no small matter with Him. May you be richly blessed for your service in His ministry. Keep your chin up & hold the fort!!
A Sister in Christ,
Crystal
And here are some more thoughts to go with the above…
I’ve watched Schindler’s list twice. The part that comes back to haunt me the most is the very end when he suddenly takes stock of what he has just done & then starts thinking about how he could have saved more Jews. Nevertheless, God is sovereign.
Brother Hovind, most of us who read this blog are eternally grateful that you’ve taken the information out there concerning Creation Science & put it in a format that we can all understand & share with our acquaintances. Most of the other extremely important Creation Science material out there generally appeals to intellectuals & leaves the rest of the population in the dust. Brother Hovind, please don’t ever loose sight of that. You can’t do everything, but there are some things that God has given you the ability to do extremely well. And most of the things accomplished in God’s Kingdom are done by teams of people with various gifts all working together as one. Some sow seeds, some water, & some reap. But Christ is the head over all & controls the whole thing. His faithfulness is awesome!
Having had a taste of the system myself, I fully agree that they need to revamp it. Someone I know went through this and we found that everyone got their shot in. It reminded me of the scene in the movie “Airplane” where there is a line of people waiting to slap the lady out of her hysteria. That is how I felt about my friend. Everyone (lawyers, judge, probation, officers…and it goes on) got their shot in. And so much of it is not quantifiable. Like, the sentencing was on the record and could be shown in writing what the “punishment” was, however the bad treatment by the officers and probation officers is not. My friend felt the sting of everyone involved however. I fully agree that prison is not a good form of punishment for non-violent offenses. Why do family and friends of the person have to suffer with the punishment. Yea they may not like seeing them whipped or beaten, but how about financially? If I went to jail right now, my wife and son would suffer greatly because I am the sole provider of income. Should they suffer if I want to drive drunk or do something stupid?
God bless Hovind and family. Does he see these posts? I wrote him a letter and am planning on writing another one to him and his wife. Please consider doing this yourself as well. You all owe it to them for the many blessings that he has brought to us.
I’ve often thought that drugs should be legal simply because of all the crime committed because it’s not. Dr. Hovind’s pointing out the lack of scriptural precedence to illegalize a plant makes a very strong argument. It leads me to wonder though what he might think about the drinking age? The same arguments can said for getting rid of it.
As for the point of the post – witnessing when the Lord leads us to do so or simply making the most of every opportunity. If the unsaved person hears the gospel and accepts the Lord as his savior then that’s awesome. If the unsaved person rejects the Lord at that time then the believer still reaps some benefit simply from being obedient.
Not being obedient wounds the believer more than the unbeliever, IMO. In Esther 4:14 Mordecai tells her essentially that if she doesn’t speak out then the blessing and salvation would come from elsewhere. The same is true of witnessing. God will not be restrained by my lack of obedience. He will use another person for the witness. I would lose the blessing and they would gain it.
It is to our benefit to witness and to beat yourself up over the lack of witnessing 25 years ago is to give into the guilt that Satan would use as an accusation against you. Regret? Yes. Responsible for the physical death of a man 25 years later. I think not.