Kent Hovind Sentenced 10 Years

Kent Hovind was given a 10 year prison sentence last Friday for refusal to pay taxes. This is so sad. This brother is gifted with incredible intellect and oratory skill and has reached thousands with the true gospel message. Alas, if it's not sex, it's money. This is a great shame, and should be a dire warning to us all to protect and guard against covetous thoughts. What is money, anyway, but globs of molecules and atoms?

This is the article from the Pensalcola newspaper of his home city:

[url=http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070120/NEWS01/701200319/1006]Kent Hovind - Pensalcola News[/url]

Greg has some of his creation lectures in the sermon archives.

Very sad indeed. This is not only a serious blemish on young earth creationists(for he was the most popular speaker) but Christian science as a whole. Let us pray for this brother that through repentance he might be used in his situation(though somewhat fallen), to start maybe a prision ministry and share the gospel there.

Aah that sucks. What a loss.

That is sad. :-(

Pray for him.

prayer is good, but in my bible great things happend after people was thrown in jail, or shortley after... so i pray this will be to the glory of God, i pray for his family to recive the strenght to dr hovind shall be a missionary to those inside those walls if thats where it pleases the Lord to keep him, may God use his life or death, freedom or imprisoned for the glory of God

I noticed he has been referred to earlier on SI. There is an article on him on Wikipedia - [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_hovind]Kent Hovind[/url]. This does not show a pretty picture, and there seem to be a lot of unresolved issues going back over many years. The Wiki page does not have anyone arguing that it does not show a neutral point of view. I don't know anything else about the guy, but is he someone we should be commending?

Mike

One of the most arrogant speakers I have ever seen (from a christian perspective that is).

I am sorry for him and feel his jail sentance was excessive.

Just for the record, I didn't post this to evoke gossip or pettiness on behalf of Dr. Hovind. I admire and respect him, and have seen most of his DVD's on creation. I've also watched a few of his publicized debates. That Wikipedia article is totally biased (I think most are, even if they don't put the disclaimer out) and was created with the already tainted mindset that pervades so many of the anti-Hovind websites. You need to understand that Dr. Hovind is an object of perfect hatred. He stands up in the devil's institutions and systematically demolishes the blind spokesmen and propagators of our humanistic, godless education system. If anyone [i]dares[/i] do this, he or she will be likewise castigated and slandered. I'm not saying Hovind did all things well, or was led by the Spirit concerning this "tax" thing, but his steep 10 year sentencing is no mere coincidence. People have served less time for far greater crimes in this country. Not only was he humiliating Satan's brainwashed elite, he was spreading the gospel of grace preceded by the law [i]right in the midst of the system![/i] This is almost the antithesis of what has happened in the church - the enemy freely moving about without restraint. Hell was getting a taste of its own medicine, so to speak. Since the children of darkness are wiser than the children of light, they found away to shut the light down. It's a deplorable thing when we can't shut down darkness in the church as easily as light is shut down in the dark. We have only ourselves to blame for this. I believe the enemy saw a weakness with the money issue, took the ball and ran a touchdown. Some of us make it too easy.

Any contributing thoughts?

Brother Paul

Bro. Paul, amen. And I don't believe for a second this was about the money for him. If you pay attention to what he teaches, you will get an idea of his utter conviction that our government and tax system is completely unscriptural. Whether it is or not I don't know, but sure was/is absolutely convinced, and acted as such. Now, am I agreeing with how he handled it? No. I would have just paid my taxes (and do) because I believe there is biblical precedent for doing as such regardless of how wrong I feel the system is (and I do think income and social security taxes are wrongfor several reasons, but that's beside the point). Todd Friel of Way of the Master Radio knew Dr. Hovind and testified to the fact that this was NOT about the money. According to him, Dr. Hovind and his wife could barely keep up with bills and buy clothes they pumped so much money into ministry. So please brethren and sistren, let's not join the smear campains the way we tend to do whenever a "prominent evangelical" screws up and it hits national news. Oftentimes criticism is warranted (especially in the last couple of years with all the sexual perversion and debauchery), but each case must be looked at individually, carefully, not in haste, comparing with scripture in much grace.

Just read Krispy's reply, and Amen to that too!

Yes, this isn't about money as far as the world is concerned. The money is just a smokescreen hiding a more deep and underlying charge - the publicized exposure of the lie of evolution. You really have no idea how deadly this is until you try to challenge it in a way that allows Jesus Christ to be magnified. This is more dangerous than armed robbery, rape, child porn. This holds eternal consequences and threatens the very bedrock of a deceptive brainwashing mill Satan has been carefully building in the past 100 or so years. Hell sees what Hovind is doing the same way an earthly judge would regard a man who tried to blow up a federal courthouse. If you read the pre trial charges, you would see that Hovind was orginally facing up to 288 years. [i]288 years![/i] That's just ridiculous, and an obvious giveaway that there are unseen principalities at play.

Brother Paul

Everyone keeps saying 'give unti caesar.'
You know, I just read that in one day he withdrew 75,000$, half in cash.

I work for a Christian organization that's a member of ECFA. This certainly isn't something you see an average Christian organization memeber doing, even one with $50,000,000 or greater worth or revenue.

The verse that came to my mind and heart was altogether different. 'The love of money is the root of all evil.'

This is just as bad as the whole Ted Hargard situation, except that this one was even more out in the open.

I can't imagine that people around him didn't notice the kind of money that he had and was using, maybe he just spent time around prosperity gospel people, because having $37,500 in cash Just isn't an every day thing around here.

Maybe he was planning on making a cash downpayment on a car or a plane or something... I don't know, but I fear that the reason that he avoided taxes was not as a protest, but because of greed! His heart has a second master, and this is one of the most common sins in the church!

We should preach as strongly against this kind of sin as we do against homosexuality!

GIVE ME A BREAK!!! brother before the ECFA my brother and sisters in the faith have been accoutable to GOD for centuries, if the withdraw a million dollars that they are stewards over whether you approve or not.

I would still donate a $100 to his ministry even after hearing that, because he is welding the sword in such a way the great KING is honored.

& by the way I would pay ministry servants like missionaries too.

I think you need to mature a little before you assume to imply wrong doing on your elders bro

Good fruit doesn't grow on thistles... and similarly, good stewards of the money provided by God don't avoid taxes, knowingly.

Sure there's give unto Caeser what is Caesers, but this goes beyond that -there is only one legitimate reason one would knowingly avoid paying taxes, and that is to keep the money for one's self.

No matter how desperate a ministry is, it doesn't need to break the rules to be used by Gods. What this man did was no better than STEALING from the government.

This wasn't just a one time occurance, the 40 plus charges leveled against both him and his wife independently show an ongoing and brazen history of thievery.

If this was a sexual sin, if he was sleeping with other men fourty times, or children for that matter, we'd be screaming for him to be thrown out of the ministry.

I really don't understand how we can even find ground to defend this act. There is nothing noble in stealing from the government, we're not in the days of robin hood alright. Sure some of those tax dollars could have been going to fund the Iraq war, but others could have been going to put body armor on our troops, and school lunches for underprivilaged children in the inner city.

Honestly, I'd rather see all our children fed than a 'Creationist' science taught in our public schools. (I am aware of the flack I will take for this comment).

First and formost we need to get greed and dishonesty out of the church, it is a blight on the bride of Christ. [b]Jesus isn't going to come for a bride with crooked teeth, he certainly isn't coming for a church with crooked ministers![/b]

And as soon as we rid ourselves of these greedy money makers and thieves, we should put ourself to the task of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.

As soon as we have sufficiently taken care of the clearcut ministries of the church, then we can squable about public school curriculum.

In the meantime you can send your children to a Christian school if you insist on them learning about creationism!

As for ECFA, the reason we even need a accountability organization is because there is rampant corruption among Christian ministries and organizations. We wouldn't need it if a good share of the ministries out there weren't acting like ananias and saphira.

PaulWest wrote:
If you read the pre trial charges, you would see that Hovind was orginally facing up to 288 years. [i]288 years![/i] That's just ridiculous, and an obvious giveaway that there are unseen principalities at play.

Do you think the government wants tax payers in prison, especially one's making as much money as Kent? Of course not, if they go to prison the government has to pay to look after them. If they are out earning money, they can continue to pay taxes to the government. A win-win, if the tax payer cooperates!

I think you are mixing up two different things. Kent refused to pay taxes, he is going to prison for that. If he had paid taxes like everyone else has to (and we seem to have clear scriptural evidence to support doing so), he would be free today to continue his ministry. Whatever, one thinks of his ministry, he has only himself to blame for not being able to continue it, today!!

Can't we call sin sin, and not muddy the situation, by claiming the man's message was more important than his behaviour? There are too many people in history that have claimed the same and used it as an excuse to cover a many, many terrible sins.

Mike

Mike and Bartle,

I don't think you understand me. I'm not condoning Hovind. He broke the law, he refused to pay taxes, he should go to jail. He is in rebellion to scripture. I have no idea how my posts were miscontrued other than you not thoughtfully reading them. This happens so much in these forums. I myself am guilty of the same. What is it about man that he is so impetuous to jump ship and thrust a personal response. I say again: Kent Hovind should be in jail for failure to pay federal taxes. All I was alluding to was that taxes alone may not be the [i]only[/i]factor influencing the sentencing. Willie Nelson owed much more, I believe, and I know he was allowed to give a charity concert back in the 80's to make ammends.

I say yet again: Kent Hovind deserves jail time, and I would not counsel a Christian to avoid paying taxes. On the contrary - a rebuke would be in order, and if persisted, exclusion from the fellowship and delivery unto Satan for chastisement.

I hope this clears the air!

Much love and respect in Christ Jesus,

Brother Paul