ANIMUS AGAINST CHRISTIANS 
PERMEATE ADVOCATE REPORT

By Rev. Max Solbrekken, D.D.

     When you compare  the hostile treatment given to St. Paul at the hands of the Roman Empire, the biased and totally unfair report carried by the Athabasca Advocate on the recent Big Tent Revival, is only a minor distraction.

     In fact, it is a blessing and a 'Wake-up Call' to Bible believing Christians in Alberta and our nation of an insidious campaign that has already begun against freedom of speech and religious liberty in Canada. 

    When I saw the headline, 'LGBT community concerned by Big Tent Revival', I was shocked. I thought, “Has FAKE NEWS pervaded a small Alberta town newspaper?” I was raised near a small village in Saskatchewan and we trusted the local newspaper to be truthful and respectful. 'Why not a headline like: 'Love, Compassion and Healing at Big Revival Tent!

    We enjoyed the amazing F.I.R.E. Band of 15 highly trained young Aboriginal singers and musicians, David and Gloria Seabrook Family Worship, Alfred Anderson, Eleanor Whittaker and Terry Ford from the Black Community and the powerful preaching of Rev. Earnest Mountain and Rev. John Okemow, both who were converted from alcohol and a life of sin years ago through our ministry. 

                    THAT WASN'T NEWSWORTHY! 

     I had come to Athabasca to dispense the Good News about the Saviour who took upon Himself our sins, sicknesses, pains and sorrow. Not one word was spoken or one piece of literature given out to disparage anyone wanting to change their sex.

    When the Advocate reporter spoke to a few men at the tent, he didn't ask rational questions like, “Why did a Minister who has preached to multitudes across the world accept an invitation to preach in Athabasca?” or “Does God still answer prayer?” or “Can anyone attend the crusade?”

    An unbiased reporter with no hidden agenda would have at least read our Mission Statement which was printed on the advertisement in the Advocate. It states: 

    "All people of all races, faiths and religions are welcome to these Gospel Services where Jesus Christ will be proclaimed as the Saviour of the world and the Great Physician Who heals hurting people. Through His vicarious death  on the Cross, He paid for the forgiveness of the sins of mankind. His resurrection from the dead has purchased our justification.”

    The Reporter's burning question apparently articulated his agenda. He asked, 'What are your beliefs about LGBT?

    We are preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My call and duty is to share God's love and blessing toward everyone! Imagine, if in our Crusades in Spain someone asked, "Are we allowing the gypsies to attend? Don't you know they steal." I would have said, "All are welcome." 

     Or preaching in the Ukraine directly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, someone would have said, "Should we allow the Russians to attend? You know how they mistreated us for 70 years! " I would have said, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. They are welcome"

     And in 1966, when  arrangements were made for me to preach in Eli, a headhunter village north of Tabuk in Kalingo Apio, Northern Luzon, people in Manila shockingly said, "The Manila Times have reported that two men and a boy working on a road detail were beheaded.” I answered, “If they will have me, I will go to them.” And I won the tribe to Christ.

      The headhunters had a belief that if a woman had twins, the devil must be the father of one of them and not knowing which one was fathered by the devil, they left the babies in the forest for animals to devour. We opened an orphanage in the area and took all the twins being born to those tribes. That Orphanage is still operating today!

     In 1984, God directed me to call Mr. Agostini with an offer of writing a weekly column for the Edmonton Sun to help bring respectability to that newspaper. He agreed and I wrote more than 300 columns from 1984 to 1990. When I returned to Edmonton, Graham Hicks wrote this report on Thursday, September 19, 1996 on Hicks ON SIX:

                                 PREACHING TO THE MAX

    After six years of preaching the Gospel in Eastern Europe and Africa, Pastor Max Solbrekken's come back home. “I stepped down from the People's Church pulpit,” says Max, who thanks to his column in The Sun, from 1984 to 1990, was the most visible preacher in town during the '80s, “The Lord called me to Eastern Europe.”

   “Max kept his home here but spent most of his time on his Norway based Europe for Christ movement. Max has been evangelizing in Poland, Romania, Ukraine and other parts of what was the former Soviet Union. “We won Mikhail Gorbachev's sister Galena to Christ,” he says proudly. Now, says Max, the Lord's brought him back to Canada.

  “Canada's almost a non-Christian country,” he says sorrowfully. Canada's been so good to me, but it's going down the tubes morally.” Always a master marketer of His Master's Word, Max has a radio and TV show on the go, and is preaching among Canada's Natives. He'll be guest preaching at People's Church a week from Sunday, at 6:30 pm.

     “Locally, a big picture of Jesus Christ has appeared in about 50 bus stop ads with the “Max Solbrekken World Mission” name across the bottom, and a phone number. “I just wanted to give Jesus a boost,” says Max. Welcome back, Max. We do need our voices of conscience. - From the Edmonton Sun

    Referring to an article I wrote 15 years ago when 'same sex marriage' was being hotly debated, your reporter printed only a part what was in that piece. I wrote: “The fallout from same-sex marriages would create a community of dysfunctional people with enormous emotional and psychological difficulties, requiring our help for years to come! 

    We must all be prepared to love them unconditionally and share with them the saving, healing and redeeming grace of Jesus Christ our Lord. God loves everyone and isn't willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,"

     When I visited Chernobyl in 1992, a leading journalist seeing God's power in our meeting in Truskavets invited me to Chernigov where I preached to an overcrowded Summer Palace with 5,000 people. I was taken to the large Media Centre surrounded by TV, radio, Newspaper, Magazine, Print buildings.

     After being introduced, I shared a little about what I had seen in Chernobyl and my visit to the Hospital to pray for more than 100 babies with blood disorders. I was prepared to answer their questions, but they had none. They wanted me preach to them.

    They said, “We are now free and there are no KGB agents here. Please speak to us from the Bible.” Out of about 275 journalists, TV and Radio operators, truck drivers, print men and janitors, 176 answered the altar call to receive Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.

    I was invited to preach to about 300 High School students in Chernigov. When my interpreter and I had delivered the message 'How to be Born Again', the entire class rose to their feet and prayed the sinner's prayer inviting Jesus Christ into their hearts.             The Principal asked me into her office and said, “Dr. Max, when you invited the students to receive Jesus Christ personally into their lives, I thought that perhaps six people would respond. And yet, the entire class followed you in the prayer for salvation. Why.”

     I answered, “I'll let you tell me the reason.” She answered, “Because they were empty!” I said, “That is a very good answer. How about you? Are you also empty inside? Will you also pray that same prayer?” She said, “Yes.” And we prayed together and another soul was added to the Kingdom of God.

                    WITH RAY TORGRUD AT CKY!

   For years, I was interviewed by that great gentleman, Ray Torgrud at CKY TV in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Once near the end of his show he asked me, “Pastor Max, did you know that I am an atheist? At that moment, the Holy Spirit came upon me and I said,     “Ray, When you were a little boy you believed in Jesus but something happened to turn you away, but before it's all over you will come back to Him.” He asked, “Do you really believe that.” I answered, “Yes.”

    By that time, we had almost lost track of where we were. He sat up erect and looking into the TV camera said, “This has been the most illuminating and interesting time I have had in thirty years on television, and Pastor Max you are welcome on my show whenever you visit Winnipeg.” 

    About 10 years ago, as I spoke to my old friend by telephone he shared with me that he had returned to Christ, after a life time of atheism. He is now in the presence of Jesus in Heaven. Thank God. 

    In B.C. 1,000 the Babylonian Talmud stated: "The only time in history that men were given in marriage to men and women were given in marriage to women was during the time of Noah." Jesus said: "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also be in the days of the Son of Man." (Luke 17: 26). Amen.