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This is a picture of Bellevue Baptist in Memphis in 1926. Lee Auditorium had been built in 1924. During the 1970’s our youth choir practice was held there and the Sunday School Classes I was part of was in the building on the left on the third floor.
R.G.Lee, Ramsey Pollard and Adrian Rogers in 1972 in front of Bellevue Baptist in Memphis.
Dr. Robert Greene Lee was born in a log cabin on November 11, 1886.[5] The son of a South Carolina sharecropper, he worked his way through school, ultimately graduating with a doctorate in international law from Chicago Law School in 1919.[5] Lee preached the sermon Pay-Day Someday more than 1,200 times at Bible conferences, in state capitol buildings, churches, universities, youth camps, and ballparks across the nation and around the world.[4] At the time of his death on July 20, 1978, an estimated 3 million people had heard him preach Pay-Day Someday.[4] Presiding at the 1951 meeting in San Francisco, he introduced a young Billy Graham to the SBC.[7] Years later, Graham paid tribute to Lee at his death calling him “one of the towering giants of the 20th century”.[7]
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November 11, 2015
Hugh Hefner
Playboy Mansion
10236 Charing Cross Road
Los Angeles, CA 90024-1815
Dear Mr. Hefner,
This is the sixth letter I have written you. Each letter has a response to your statements in the past. Like today some of those letters have referenced a sermon called “THE PLAYBOY’S PAYDAY,” by Adrian Rogers (1931-2005) and today I am going to tell you where Rogers got that title from. HUGH, YOU WERE BORN IN 1926 and since then there have been only four pastors at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee where I grew up (R.G. Lee till 1959, Ramsey Pollard till 1972, Adrian Rogers till 2004 and Steve Gaines presently). Robert G. Lee’s famous sermon preached over 1200 times was about King Ahab and his wife Queen Jezebel and it was called PAYDAY SOME DAY and that is where Rogers got the idea for his sermon title.
In 2003 in an interview with FOX NEWS you noted:
Well, I think I’ve lived long enough to see the world change…I was the guy that tried to give sex a good name. Everybody talked about sex, but I was trying to give it a good name.
Hef, those who follow the plan of marriage put out in the Bible are able to enjoy sex. It seems that you have been a proponent of sex outside of marriage. In fact, in the first letter I just responded to your views of premarital sex. The harlot is condemned in the Bible and the fifth chapter of Proverbs does a great job of describing her. Proverbs notes that her kind has brought death prematurely to so many young men through the ages (and vice versa because Solomon was writing Proverbs as advice to his son so the same advice could be given to daughters about men).
Today I also want to talk to you about Queen Jezebel who was married to the evil King Ahab of Israel in the Old Testament and the archaeological evidence that has been found that indicates she was a real person.
In 1984 Adrian Rogers said in sermon, “Playboy’s Payday,” these words:
Proverbs 5 v 1 My son, give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding; 2 That you may observe discretion And your lips may reserve knowledge. 3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey And smoother than oil is her speech; 4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death, Her steps take hold of Sheol. 6 She does not ponder the path of life…
Look if you will in verse 23. “He shall die without instruction:and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.” To die without instruction, to die without knowledge, is to die in a sin. It is to die and go to Hell! Death! Death! Death! That’s the Playboy’s Payday. And this is a message that needs to be heard across America today. I mean, across America! Young people today are getting information from everyplace except the Word of God.
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ADRIAN ROGERS PICTURED AT WHITE HOUSE AFTER BEING ELECTED PRESIDENT OF SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
Since I am from Arkansas I have had the opportunity to be around Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their children on several occasions. Over the years we have watched their show“19 Kids and Counting” and we have been amazed at how many of their children have Biblical names that start with the letter “J.” However, I have to make the observation that they skipped the name JEZEBEL!!!!
Robert G. Lee has described Jezebel well:
I introduce to you Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, King of Tyre (I Kings 16:31), and wife of Ahab, the King of Israel — a king’s daughter and a king’s wife, the evil genius at once of her dynasty and of her country. Infinitely more daring and reckless was she in her wickedness than was her wicked husband. Masterful, indomitable, implacable, a devout worshiper of Baal, she hated anyone and everyone who spoke against or refused to worship her pagan god. As blunt in her wickedness and as brazen in her lewdness was she as Cleopatra, fair sorceress of the Nile. She had all the subtle and successful scheming of Lady Macbeth, all the adulterous desire and treachery of Potiphar’s wife (Gen. 39:7-20), all the boldness of Mary Queen of Scots, all the cruelty and whimsical imperiousness of Katherine of Russia, all the devilish infamy of a Madame Pompadour, and, doubtless, all the fascination of personality of a Josephine of France. Most of that which is bad in all evil women found expression through this painted viper of Israel. She had that rich endowment of nature which a good woman ought always to dedicate to the service of her day and generation. But, alas! This idolatrous daughter of an idolatrous king of an idolatrous people engaging with her maidens in worship unto Ashtoreth — the personification of the most forbidding obscenity, uncleanness, and sensuality — became the evil genius who wrought wreck, brought blight and devised death. She was the beautiful and malicious adder coiled upon the throne of the nation.
In 1975 at Bellevue Baptist Church I had the honor to hear Dr. Robert G. Lee preach his famous sermon PAYDAY SOME DAY and I wanted to share another portion of it with you from this article by Jon Akin which was posted on December 19, 2009 in his article, “SBC Heroes: RG Lee – Part 3 (Payday Someday).
Payday is a narrative sermon. Lee masterfully tells the story of Naboth, Ahab, Jezebel, and Elijah (from 1 Kings 21 & 2 Kings 9) as a theater tragedy with eight scenes: the real-estate request, the pouting potentate, the wicked wife, the message meaning murder, the fatal fast, the visit to the vineyard, the alarming appearance, and payday itself.
Ahab and Jezebel cheat Naboth out of his vineyard, and Jezebel signs a letter ordering his assassination. It looks as though evil will triumph and go unnoticed by God. Lee erupts, “Where is God? Where is God? Is He blind and He cannot see? Is He deaf and He cannot hear? Is He dumb and He cannot speak? Is He paralyzed and He cannot move? Where is God?” Then, Lee assures his audience, “Wait just a minute, and we shall find out.” As a result, Elijah announces God’s judgment sentence upon Ahab and Jezebel, “Ahab, as the Lord God liveth before whom I stand, God sent me here to tell you that someday, someday, where the dogs licked Naboth’s blood will the dogs lick thy blood, even thine. And Ahab God sent me here to tell you that someday, here, by the walls of Jezreel the dogs will eat Jezebel.” All happens according to God’s word. The sermon is about God’s judgment. God must and will judge sin. He may not punish today or tomorrow, but He will punish eventually.
Lee pauses the story after Elijah passes God’s judgment sentence and begins to drive home application. He tells his audience that “Payday Someday” is written “in the constitution of God’s universe.” God has revealed the reality of judgment in His Word, and it cannot be sidestepped or avoided. Sin will be repaid. It may not be today, but it will happen “Someday.” Lee lists certain sins and the payday God promises for them, “Oh, you can take God’s name in vain, if you will, if you’re indecent enough to be a profane swearer, but I have a book that tells us about the cursers payday, ‘God will not hold him guiltless who taketh His name in vain.’ You can tell lies, if you will, forgetting that lying lips are an abomination unto God… Here’s the payday, ‘All liars,’ says this book, ‘shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.’…You can live to flesh and sex, if you will, like thousands do, but I have book that tells us about the payday for that, ‘the works of the flesh are these: adultery, fornication, uncleaness…’ Well, what’s the payday? God says that, ‘He who soweth to his flesh will of his flesh reap rotten flesh, corruption, carrion, which buzzards love.’”
Lee presses play on the story and describes how God’s payday came on Ahab and Jezebel. An arrow kills Ahab. He is stood up on the chariot while the bottom fills with his blood. Then, the dogs leap up in the chariot and lick his blood, “according to the word of God spoken by Elijah the Tishbite… God said it, and it was done. ‘The wicked shall be turned into Hell with all the nations that forget God.’ God says that, and it shall be done!” Lee’s point is that just as God’s promised payday came upon Ahab, so God’s promised payday will come upon all sinners. God’s payday continues to come to bear as Jehu, the newly anointed king of Israel, is told to blot out the house of Ahab. Jehu kills Jehoram, son of Ahab and Jezebel, and soldiers place his body in the vineyard Jehoram’s parents stole from Naboth. Lee points out the irony, “Listen, the vineyard they got by shedding Naboth’s blood is now stained with their own blood as it flowed in the veins of their son Jehoram. God’s payday train is coming into station, and all the powers of men and hell can’t put on the brakes…” Finally, Jehu commands eunuchs to throw Jezebel down from a palace window. They do, and the dogs eat her, leaving her head, feet, and hands. Lee pleads with his listeners to escape the sinner’s payday for the Christian’s payday though Jesus Christ saying, ““The only way I know for any man or woman on earth to escape the sinner’s payday on earth and the sinner’s hell beyond – making sure of the Christian’s payday – is through Christ Jesus, who took the sinner’s place on the cross, becoming for all sinners all that God must judge, that sinners through faith in Christ Jesus might become all that God cannot judge.”
IS THE STORY OF JEZEBEL JUST A FABLE ABOUT A MADE UP PERSON? I believe that God created the universe and reached out to humankind with the Bible. Below is a piece of that evidence given by Francis Schaeffer and Dr. C. Everett Koop in their book WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE? Chapter 5 concerning the accuracy of the Bible and the existence of the Queen Jezebel:
We now take a jump back in time to the middle of the ninth century before Christ, that is, about 850 B.C. Most people have heard of Jezebel. She was the wife of Ahab, the king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Her wickedness has become so proverbial that we talk about someone as a “Jezebel.” She urged her husband to have Naboth killed, simply because Ahab had expressed his liking for a piece of land owned by Naboth, who would not sell it. The Bible tells us also that she introduced into Israel the worship of her homeland, the Baal worship of Tyre. This led to the opposition of Elijah the Prophet and to the famous conflict on Mount Carmel between Elijah and the priests of Baal.
Here again one finds archaeological confirmations of what the Bible says. Take for example: “As for the other events of Ahab’s reign, including all he did, the palace he built and inlaid with ivory, and the cities he fortified, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?” (I Kings 22:39).
This is a very brief reference in the Bible to events which must have taken a long time: building projects which probably spanned decades. Archaeological excavations at the site of Samaria, the capital, reveal something of the former splendor of the royal citadel. Remnants of the “ivory house” were found and attracted special attention (Palestinian Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem). This appears to have been a treasure pavilion in which the walls and furnishings had been adorned with colored ivory work set with inlays giving a brilliant too, with the denunciations revealed by the prophet Amos:
“I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house; the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished,” declares the Lord. (Amos 3:15)
Other archaeological confirmation exists for the time of Ahab. Excavations at Hazor and Megiddo have given evidence of the extent of fortifications carried out by Ahab. At Megiddo, in particular, Ahab’s works were very extensive including a large series of stables formerly assigned to Solomon’s time.
On the political front, Ahab had to contend with danger from the Aramacaus king of Syria who besieged Samaria, Ahab’s capital. Ben-hadad’s existence is attested by a stela (a column with writing on it) which has been discovered with his name written on it (Melquart Stela, Aleppo Museum, Syria). Again, a detail of history given in the Bible is shown to be correct.
The seal bears four letters (YZBL) interspersed around the images. Although scholars have long recognized the similarity of the inscription to the name Jezebel, they have usually refrained from making a connection to the infamous Queen Jezebel, Phoenician wife of the Israelite king Ahab. With the reconstruction of two additional letters (L’) in the damaged area at the top, however, author Marjo Korpel argues that the inscription originally read L’YZBL, or “(belonging) to Jezebel” and was in fact the personal seal of the Biblical queen.
© The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
MIRROR IMAGE. Because most seals were pressed into wet pottery or into small blobs of clay used to secure scrolls— serving much like a signature— symbols and letters were often carved in reverse. When stamped into the clay, the seal images and inscription would appear correctly. This photo of the Jezebel seal and its impression, or bulla, show the seal in reverse and in proper stance.
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Thank you again for your time and I know how busy you are.
Everette Hatcher, everettehatcher@gmail.com, http://www.thedailyhatch.org, cell ph 501-920-5733, Box 23416, LittleRock, AR 72221
PS: I plan to write you again and will be responding to your past statements like I did today. Be honest Hef, you never really thought Queen Jezebel was a historical person until today did you?
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Featured artist is Gülsün Karamustafa
Gülsün Karamustafa was born in 1946 in Ankara, Turkey. She lives and works in Istanbul. Including painting, sculpture, video, and installation, Karamustafa’s work deals with gender, migration, identity, and history.
Often described as one of Turkey’s most courageous and outspoken artists, Karamustafa has long been driven by her political ideals. Following political imprisonment in the 1970s, the artist painted a series of portraits of incarcerated women. Describing herself as a chronographer of Turkey’s modern history, Karamustafa is interested both in the stories that are glossed over as well as the ways in which history can be reinterpreted. In the late 1980s, her practice evolved from figurative painting to incorporate multimedia practices
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