Why I No Longer Subscribe to Chick Publications Like I Did with Jesus-is-Savior

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When I was newly saved - nothing felt more compelling than witnessing and spiritual growth. I was guilt-induced many times into thinking Roman Catholics are Christians when they're not. Something was worth researching - it was all about the devices of Satan. One of them was Roman Catholicism - a religion that I tried to reform but failed. I just needed some validation that my thoughts on Rome were not wrong. I found Chick Publications over the Internet and found it fascinating. The story of Alberto Rivera felt amazing but later drove me to paranoia. Then Chick Publications became the reason why I even started reading through Jesus-is-Savior. Both David J. Stewart and the late Jack Chick are conspiracy theorists that should be ignored. Also, please ignore J.D. Hall's Pulpit & Pen which follows a very similar approach. 

Chick Publications had a wide array of entertaining tracts that can convict people. One of the best used is "This Was Your Life" which really convicted people. There were wonderful tracts about Roman Catholicism. However, there was also some problem I have with Chick Publications as to why I no longer use its publications:
  • The tendency to portray Roman Catholics and Muslims as criminals rather than victims of false teaching. I don't deny the existence of the Roman Catholic mafia and Muslim terrorists. However, some Chick tracts tend to do that a lot. It's no different from Now the End Begins. Many of the materials series may say that Catholics are the mission field but they tend to talk more about the Vatican crimes than the Gospel!
  • You can talk about the unreliability of the book "The Two Babylons". I decided to buy the book myself and read it to be full of logical inconsistencies. How can I refute Roman Catholicism with a book that's so inconsistent? Not to mention the legends of Nimrod, Semiramis, and Tammuz have contradicting accounts. Semiramis from what I read was an Assyrian queen. Just thinking about the great inconsistency is jarring. Has David W. Daniels tried to at least write a statement to explain why his book "Babylon Religion" has a different account from Chick's previous accounts of Nimrod and Semiramis? Should I mention that the book was full of artistic licenses such as how Cush became the founder of Babylon instead of Nimrod or how it seems to act like they know what's in Satan's mind? 
  • The Alberto Rivera comic series is another. I was fascinated by its story and dismissed any move to discredit his ministry as simply Jesuit machinery. Unfortunately, even some anti-Catholic ministries such as the late Bartholomew Brewer (who was a real former Catholic priest) have exposed the late Rivera to be a fraud. I even thought the Vatican supposedly invented Islam. Although both Islam and Roman Catholicism are satanic while I find the claim that Muhammad's wife was a Roman Catholic nun questionable. Celibacy wasn't implemented yet at that time. I even heard that Islam came from the Ebionite cult that rejected the deity of Christ - not Roman Catholicism. Then there also goes saying the Jesuits masterminded the Inquisition when it was the Dominicans. While Roman Catholicism is indeed false but you can't refute it with falsehood. 
    • You may also consider that Chick Publications does sell copies of the anti-Catholic video "Catholicism: Crisis of Faith" which features two real former Jesuit priests. I've decided to read the testimonies of Victor Affonso and Bob Bush. Neither one of these real former Jesuit priests gave any testimony as fantastic as Rivera's. Did both Affonso and Bush have evidence that Rivera was a fraud? Maybe that's why Rivera never appeared in the video because their presence may discredit him as a charlatan.
    • The late Bartholomew Brewer of Missions to Catholic International had discovered Rivera to be a fraudster (video here). It's possible that he had interviewed both Affonso and Bush regarding Rivera. Maybe, that's why Rivera was never considered to appear on the same video because it might discredit their cause to win Roman Catholics to Christ with a fraudulent testimony included. A little sinful dirt goes a long way, right? 
  • Not only Rivera but there's also Rebecca Brown and the late John Todd. Both pretended to have been former Satanists. However, Brown's book "He Sets the Captives Free" has some questionable claims like this supposed former Satanist named Elaine "married" Satan. Some of their claims tend to be scenes you see in godless Hollywood films than actual reality. How can we even go against occultism with fabricated stories? 
  • As much as I'm a moderate King James Only Christian - I think the way Chick tries to promote the doctrine can be full of inconsistencies. Sometimes, some of his comics act like he traveled in time to verify his accounts when time travel is scientifically impossible. 
  • Not to mention hyper-Zionism can be another of Chick's most serious flaws. Can we link all disasters to the sin of antisemitism? Sometimes, a cyclone just comes in for a reason even when the place isn't full of antisemites. I don't condone antisemitism but I also find Zionism to be rather just as destructive.
  • Then there's the tendency to be as cheesy and offensive as possible like Stewart of Jesus-is-Savior. It seems to be that Chick's favorite approach to winning the lost is to be as cheesy and offensive as possible. While watering down the message isn't good but getting too offensive isn't helping out people either. 

Instead, here are my alternatives after I decided to stop using Chick Publications a few years ago:
  • Going from Chick Publications to Ray Comfort's Living Water ministries. I think Comfort has a much less offensive approach to preaching the hard truth even if he does use similar communication methods with Chick.
  • If you want to refute Roman Catholicism then I'd recommend using the book "Truth Encounter" by the late Anthony Pezzotta. The book itself simply gets on point with Roman Catholicism. 
  • "Catholicism: Crisis of Faith" is still a good resource in refuting Catholicism without the sensationalism of the Alberto comics.  
  • Maybe a shift towards getting materials from Grace to You Ministries. Although I do am shaky about John F. MacArthur's stance on the mark of the Beast as a forgivable offense - take note that he doesn't teach that it's okay for you to take it. 

This is really a call for Christians discerning about finding soul-winning materials and information about cults. Sure, a broken clock can be right about the time but you can't change the fact that it's not reliable. You definitely want something that's more accurate than less accurate then Chick Publications is just one medium that I'd discourage (after many years of use) due to its unscholarly approach.

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