Battle Cry - Jack Chick Publications

attle Cry is a newsletter produced by Chick Publications, the publisher of those clever little cartoon tracts that have been so widely circulated among believers. Jack Chick, the writer-cartoonist behind it all, has commonly avoided scrutiny of the theological views posed in his tracts due to the relatively shallow nature of the materials.

Salvation tracts are one thing, and in recent years it seems as though Chick has sought to downplay his Rapture Cult posture, but the man has now had decades to correct the Jewish supremacism that is inherent in the cult. Unfortunately, Jack Chick is a bit too busy bashing Roman Catholicism to find the time to tell his readers the truth.

In fact, Battle Cry has a sub-title which gives us a clue as to the agenda inherent in his constant droning about the evils of the Vatican. It reads "Serving the Bible-believing Protestants of the World." Granted, during the historical period known as the Reformation, there was a time to be identified as a Protestant in that the Papacy had become a monstrous evil that threatened to decimate any and all rivals.

However, the so-called "Protestant" churches supposedly "served" by Jack Chick's literary output are every bit as reprobate as the Catholic hierarchy he so ardently attacks. Indeed, over the years, we've learned the single-issue crusader role routinely masks a superficiality of content in the doctrine of the would-be reformer. Nowhere is this more true, than in Jack Chick's narrowly construed version of Christian fidelity.

Every issue of Battle Cry not only points out the apostate behaviour of Catholicism, it commonly seeks to demonstrate how people are using Chick tracts to teach people the "truth" about the false religion that is Romanism. Outside of a somewhat two-dimensional portrayal of sinners repenting, accepting Christ, and then settling in for the long haul as new believers, we rarely see the doctrinal "truth" that underlies the superficial presentations that are endemic to tracts.

The truth is, Jack Chick is a 'died in the wool' advocate of the false gospel of Dispensationalism, and he is long overdue to be addressed as the purveyor of the racist dogma that he helps to perpetrate.

For instance, in a recent edition of Battle Cry, the comic king printed an essay entitled Who Really Owns Jerusalem?  In this revealing article he wrote

"Islam teaches that any land that Muslims conquer belongs to Allah forever. Jews stand on the promises of God in the Old Testament that Palestine was given to Abraham and his seed forever. The pope, who claims to be Christ's vice president (vicar) in charge of earth, also wants control of Jerusalem." (Battle Cry, Who Really Owns Jerusalem, Nov/Dec 2004).

While these statements are essentially true, the way Jack Chick slants the debate is setting up his desired conclusion. Bible believing Christians reading the piece recognize Allah is a false deity. They also recognize the very real fact that the papacy greatly desires to take jurisdiction over Jerusalem. That leaves the seemingly reasonable statement that the Jewish people have a legitimate claim based upon God's "promises" : language that is guaranteed to evoke a theological knee-jerk reaction.

Note how the paragraph says "Muslims conquer" even as "The pope...wants control" ... all emotion laden terms. In contrast to this, we see that "Jews stand" ... a seemingly heroic phrase as Chick plainly shows his preference for the claims of the Jewish people on Jerusalem.

Having set up his straw man argument, Battle Cry then sets out to demonize what would appear to be any "Christian" perspective that disagrees with the Jews. The stilted newsletter writes how the pope's

"...claims are based on what is called 'replacement theology,'  that teaches that God is finished with Israel because they rejected their Messiah. Those who follow the pope are now the 'people of God,' replacing Israel as God's chosen people." (Battle Cry, Who Really Owns Jerusalem, Nov/Dec 2004, page 1).

In this diabolical paradigm, Jack Chick subtly implies that anyone that opposes the Jewish claim on Jerusalem must be a papist and an adherent of "replacement theology." This is a despicable tactic, and it is a classic theme that runs through many Rapture Cult rehearsals of the matter. The simple truth is, in Chick's three fold statement concerning the claims of Moslems, Jews, and Catholics to Jerusalem, not one of them is valid.

But Chick isn't yet through twisting the perspective to make it fit his Jewish supremacist mindset. In the process of pitching a new tract on the subject, he repeats his propagandistic approach to the problem. He states how his new tract, cleverly entitled Squatters,  

"...lays out in simple form, how God promised the land of Israel to Abraham, how Islam and Catholicism conspired to own it and how Jesus will soon come back to defend it against the armies of the world." (ibid, page 5). 

Similar to the prior spin, Islam and Catholicism "conspired" to take it, but God will "defend it" - apparently on behalf of the Jews as "Israel" received it because "God promised the land" to Abraham. Once again, these are emotionally charged terms that manipulate and persuade in subtle shades.

Most readers don't stop to notice that the only reference to the superiority of the Jewish claim is the reference to the "Jews [that] stand on the promises of God in the Old testament that Palestine was given to Abraham and his seed forever."

Jack Chick doesn't bother to document who that "seed" of Abraham is, because it doesn't fit his brazenly deceptive presentation of the "facts." The New Testament flatly states that "if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29). Since the Moslems are not in Christ, they are not Abraham's seed and have no right to the land. Since the Catholics are not in Christ, they also are not Abraham's seed, and since the Jews are not in Christ, how is it that Jack Chick teaches the obvious falsehood that they are Abraham's seed? 

Even Jesus Christ directly addressed this issue as He encountered the Jewish leadership. John tells us "They answered him, We be Abraham's seed..." The LORD pointedly rebuked them and said "Ye are of your father the devil..." (John 8:44). The Apostle Paul told us this "promise" to the "seed" of Abraham was not through the authority of any Old Testament claim as Jack Chick has erroneously written, but it is "through the righteousness of faith." (Romans 4:13).

Since this "righteousness of faith" is plainly taught to be faith in Jesus, how can the Jewish people claim to be the heirs of the reward of righteousness (the land), when they have zero faith in Jesus Christ? Paul went on to remove any ambiguity whatsoever when he wrote "they which are the children of the flesh [the Jews], these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." (Romans 9:8).

The irony is, in the process of deploring the power of the papacy on a regular basis, Jack Chick and his Battle Cry newsletter have jumped out of the proverbial frying pan of the pope, and landed in the fire of the false claims of the Pharisees.

The answer is apparently in the newsletter itself where we're treated to a photo of this creep in a suit and tie clutching his corrupt "Bible." Since Hawkins sees himself as one of the witnesses, maybe he just changed that verse so he won't have to wear any uncomfortable sackcloth in order to convince the suckers that buy into his particular brand of bovine scatology (II Timothy 3:5).

See Also

The Rapture Cult

Lying In Laodicea

Invisible Scripture