The Amazing, True Story of Sowing Gospel Seed
Evangelist Dwight Smith

They tell us the oldest farm in the United States has been operating since 1636 and is located just outside Boston between Rockport and Newburyport, Massachusetts. Its name? Appleton Farms. It is one thousand acres and was originally deeded to Sam Appleton nearly four centuries ago. This is surely a record for our young country, but it doesn’t hold a candle to those who have sown Gospel seed for over two thousand years. These, of course, are Bible-believing Christians, and you might be encouraged to know their story.

Ever since the Lord of the harvest spoke to His disciples, saying, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), they have spread across the globe sowing the good news of Jesus Christ. In Acts 2, while people were visiting Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost from several nations, they heard Peter and the other apostles proclaiming the message of the gospel in their “own language.” Many believed that day, and numbers of them took the life-giving seed of the gospel back to their friends, family, and hometowns.

In Acts 8, when persecution against the church increased, the disciples were driven from their homes in Jerusalem. “Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). Later in that same chapter, Philip was led by the Lord to preach the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, the treasurer in the court of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. The eunuch trusted Christ and introduced the good news of salvation into the continent of Africa for the first time.

Just a chapter later, Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor in previous chapters, was converted and became a flaming preacher of God’s amazing grace! He would take three missionary journeys to Asia Minor, modern day Greece and Turkey, and be transported on a final journey all the way to Rome, Italy, to appeal to Caesar. He preached to those on his journey: to the guards to which he was chained, to the ones who came to visit him, and to anyone who would listen. Finally, his enemies would lop off his head on the Appian Way, but not before much fruit had been produced!

At the same time the Good News was traveling west, Thomas was taking this message to as far away as India. In just seven decades, the gospel had spread to Africa, Asia, and Europe. Truly the gospel is “the power of God to salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

In the late fourth and early fifth centuries, Vigilantes took the gospel to what is now France and Spain. From 1195 to the 1530s, the Waldensians, our Baptist forbearers, proclaimed salvation through Jesus Christ all across Europe. They were incredibly evangelistic. During a six-month period of fervent evangelism under incredible persecution, over 10,000 people in Italy’s northern alps and surrounding areas came to Jesus and were saved. After a while, you could walk from the Italian alps of Italy across Europe and stay in a different home each night of someone who had been led to Jesus by one of these zealous believers.

The Waldensian preachers, called Barbas and meaning Uncle, would train their younger preachers for three to four years. The average age of those trained was thirteen to fifteen. Then they sent them out in twos, an older Barba with a younger Barba. They would travel across Europe on foot as stonecutters or traveling merchantmen, selling their wares. When presenting their merchandise, they would say, “This is a beautiful item, but it is nothing compared to the rare gem I have yet to show you.” As they kept the attention of their audience, they would lead into the message of the cross and the empty tomb and present truly the greatest treasure in the world- the gospel of Jesus Christ! While doing this, these preachers would pass out Scripture portions they had written down on parchment or leather in a language that pre-dated French. Much of this was done at the cost of their freedom and even life. The Waldensian young men who trained at the Barba College in Torre Pellice, Italy, and left to proclaim the gospel, on average, only lived three to five years before they were caught and killed by the Roman Catholic soldiers.

Yet the gospel prevailed and spread widely throughout Europe! The Albigensians of France, the Anabaptists of Germany, the Lollards of England, the Moravians of Hernnhut, and more, were all responsible for, under fierce persecution, sowing the gospel seed. In the 14th century, John Wycliffe wrote Tracts and Treatises that stirred the whole of England with the good news and against the heresy of the Pope. In 1415, thirty-one years after his death, his writings were banned and sought to be confiscated and destroyed. He was such a threat to the evil of the Catholic church that his body was exhumed from its grave and burned! Oh, to be that much of a terror to the Devil! Wycliffe’s enemies would burn his body and attempt to burn his writings, but gospel seeds had already been planted “that even the most vigilant and powerful adversaries could not uproot.”

All the witness prior to 1455 was either spoken or handwritten, but this year brought a complete game changer: moveable type print, perfected by Johannes Gutenberg. In this year, he completed his 42-line Bible, known as the Gutenberg Bible. This would change the world forever and become a major catalyst in the spread of the gospel. Now instead of carefully penning the words of the glorious message, they could be printed, and mass produced! John Fox, of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, declared, “God hath opened up the press to preach.”

The great reformers discovered that when tracts were printed and distributed widely, they were a powerful river through which their ideas could flow to the masses. And flow they did, to the great consternation of the pope and his Roman Church. An adversary of the reformation complained, “The Gospellers of these days do fill the realm with so many of their noisome little books, that they be like to the swarms of locusts which did infest the land of Egypt.”

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, many tract societies were formed for the spread of the gospel. In 1662, King Charles II granted a new charter to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England and Parts Adjacent to America. It was known as the New England Company. Other societies were formed around Europe for the purpose of carrying the gospel to those who had not yet heard.

The First Great Awakening renewed support for tract societies already in existence. The Second Great Awakening, sparking in the early 1800s, spawned the organization of several new efforts to reach the lost in this young country. The “Female Cent Associations” became popular where members gave one cent each week to support the gospel tract effort. Many of these efforts made way for the different Bible Societies that formed to get the Word of God to the general population. They would lead the way for some of the great missionary endeavors like the Haystack Prayer Meetings and the modern missionary movement. In 1799, the Religious Tract Society was formed to get gospel tracts to “women, children, and the poor.” The American Tract Society began in 1825, and continues today, nearly two centuries later.

In 1858, Jeremiah Lanphier, a lay missionary commissioned to reach the masses of people in Manhattan, New York, began a noon day prayer meeting for businessmen. It was sparsely attended the first week, but each week it grew, until they met daily and moved to larger venues. This prayer meeting spread to cities across the north and the south and attracted thousands each day. The impact was so powerful, over 1 million people were saved. This was about 3%-5% of the American population at the time. Less than four years later, the Civil War broke out, and over 600,000 soldiers from both sides stepped into eternity.

During the Civil War, a great move of the Holy Spirit happened in both armies. D.L. Moody was involved as a chaplain in some of these efforts to reach men with the gospel and many, many men were saved. One Northern organization alone distributed 30 million tracts and nearly a million Bibles to the troops. They were readily received by the soldiers, many of whom never returned home.

The revivals under the evangelists of the late 1800s and early 1900s ignited a flame that would burn for over 100 years. The Pocket Testament League was founded in 1893 by a teenage girl from England named Helen Cadbury with the intent of winning her classmates to Jesus. Eleven years later, she married Charlie Alexander who led songs for Torrey, Chapman and later, Billy Sunday. The League was officially formed by her husband and J. Wilbur Chapman at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in March of 1908. The Pocket Testament League gave out free, leather-bound New Testaments in exchange for the promise that those receiving it would carry their Testament with them everywhere and read a chapter from it every day. At the close of World War II, missionary work was started in foreign countries and, with the help of the American general, George Marshall, Bibles from the League were distributed among the soldiers of China embroiled in their own Chinese Civil War.

On February 5, 1918, Ford Porter, a young student at Moody Bible Institute, began an early morning prayer meeting on his 25th birthday. He went to the attic in five below zero weather, took a pillow that he could kneel on next to the warm bricks of the chimney, and began to pray. “Oh God, give me a ministry that will reach souls for Christ, encircle the world, and be carried on long after I am gone.” How could he know what God would do in answer to his prayer? About fifteen years later, in 1933, while pastoring the First Baptist Church of Princeton, Indiana, the Lord gave him a tract to write: “God’s Simple Plan of Salvation.” He originally only ordered 2,000, thinking that is all he would need to reach the 1,800 homes in this small Indiana Town. When the printer suggested that he print 5,000 for just a fraction more, Porter refused, thinking he wouldn’t need that many. Well, God had other plans. He began receiving orders through his radio ministry for more and more tracts. He ordered 5,000 then later 10,000. Today in 2022, long after the author’s death, this tract has been translated into 129 languages with over 660 million copies in print.

While General Douglas MacArthur was in Japan following the Second World War, he made a plea for thousands of Christian missionaries to come to this nation so humiliated by defeat and so devastated by the atomic bombs. At this time, they were ripe for the gospel. Evangelist John R. Rice became so burdened by this need that “he arranged for millions of his tract “What Must I Do to be Saved?” to be printed in Japanese. He paid for this by mortgaging his house. The eventual number of Japanese tracts printed was 8,489,000, far more than in any language other than English.”

Today, with the explosion of social media, YouTube, smart phones and more, the gospel is being shared digitally, and thousands are hearing and calling upon Christ for salvation! One young evangelist, while working with a team of likeminded soulwinners, recently developed gospel videos for Instagram and TikTok. The response of people coming to Christ was so overwhelming, they couldn’t keep up with it. So, what have these young preachers done? They are preparing more videos and beginning to flood this ripe harvest field with the gospel. What a blessing!

Truly, the history of gospel tracts is an amazing odyssey! These quiet “preachers” can declare the life-giving message again and again to numbers of hearers as they are passed from one hand to the next. Can you guess how many tracts have been published by Bible-believing ministries and churches in our modern day? Just in the last 100 years at least 7.6 billion tracts have been printed and distributed around the globe! That is a blessing to consider: a big blessing!

As you read these words, a growing effort is underway to spread the gospel far and wide across our land. Fill America (fillamerica.org) began with a couple of preachers in Michigan encouraging their church members to pass out gospel tracts. They started and haven’t looked back. As the result of concerted efforts each month since just February of 2022, at least 280,000 gospel tracts have been distributed and many have come to salvation! What began with just two churches has now spread to scores of churches, numbers of evangelists, and thousands of believers seeking to fill this world with the only news that is good: the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

The first second after death, what will matter more than anything else is whether we believed the gospel. What will matter next is whether we shared the gospel with those around us. Will you join this great cause of spreading the gospel seed today? Get a stack of tracts! Give them to those you meet! Brag on Jesus! Tell how He saved you! Preach the gospel to those who will listen and plead with everyone to accept Jesus Christ today!

The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38).

i www.countryliving.com/life/travel/
ii Acts 2:7
iii Romans 1:16
iv www.lifepress.com/the-surprising-history-of-christian-tracts
v www.en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg
vi www.lifepress.com/the-surprising-history-of-christian-tracts
vii Ibid
viii www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almancs-transcripts-and-maps/missionary-and-bible-tract-societies
ix Ibid
x www.lifepress.com/the-surprising-history-of-christian-tracts
xi Ibid
xii Helen Cadbury Alexander, Charles M. Alexander – A Romance of Song & Soulwinning (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1995), pgs. 94-95
xiii www.en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_Testament_League
xiv Ibid
xv www.jesus-is-savior.com/Great%20Men%20of%20God?pastor_for_porter.htm
xvi www.godssimpleplan.org/about
xvii John Rice Himes, John R. Rice – The Last Revivalist of the 20th Century (Menomonee Falls, WI: Christ Walk Publications, 2021), pg. 183
xviii Compiled from fundamental, Bible-believing ministries over the past 100 years.

When bills are high and funds are low,
When progress seems far too slow;
When you’ve no sum with which to pay.
And you have seen a better day;
When Satan asks but to mislead,
“Will God supply your every need?”
Just Ask the Sparrow.
Just Ask the Sparrow.

He wings his flight from here to there.
Of God’s great bounty, he is heir,
Then falls within our Father’s care.
Just ask the sparrow.
Just ask the sparrow.

When your body’s racked with pain,
And your loss outruns your gain;
When your struggles come like waves,
Then your fears surround like knaves;
When self, in doubt, says, “Look at me,”
Then, with distrust, asks, “Does God see?”
Just ask the sparrow.
Just ask the sparrow.

He stoops down low to eat God’s food,
And, with his song, sings “God is good,”
Then rests beneath majestic woods.
Just ask the sparrow.
Just ask the sparrow.

When loneliness sweeps o’er your heart,
And you feel like you’ll come apart;
When only memories of the past
Remain, but they are fading fast;
When there’s no friend far or near
And you wonder, “Can God hear?”
Just ask the sparrow.
Just ask the sparrow.

He spreads his flight on winds above,
And with the robin, lark, and dove,
He knows the goodness of God’s love.
Just ask the sparrow.
Just ask the sparrow.

When storms rage high and billows roll,
And you’ve no respite for your soul;
When clouds sweep o’er your troubled sea,
And there’s no place where you can flee.
When you’ve lost hope and in despair,
You cry out loud, “Does Jesus care?”
Just ask the sparrow.
Just ask the sparrow.

While Jesus preached, he used this bird
To show: Our heartaches, He has heard.
So why not trust our Savior’s Word?
Just ask the sparrow.
Just ask the sparrow.

Copyright – November 7, 2018

Charles “Chuck” Templeton

Chuck Templeton was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1915. He was brought up in church and became a widely heard and greatly used evangelist in his young adult years. Thousands of people would come to hear him under tents and in auditoriums around Canada and the United States.

In post WWII America, there was a general consensus amongst evangelists that America was on the verge of another Great Awakening. Evangelist Oliver B. Greene, and others like him, would set up a tent, and 6,000 people would come to hear the preaching, without one flyer being handed out. This was true in Canada, America, Australia, Japan as well as other countries around the world. Materialism had not yet taken root.

In those days, Torrey Johnson and Bob Cook had begun the Youth for Christ Organization. In this healthy, revival-promoting climate this group experienced rapid growth. Soon it became a movement and spread like wild-fire. Many thousands were being saved and brought into the kingdom. Chuck Templeton preached for the organization, and he eventually recommended that a young evangelist named Billy Graham be the preacher for this evangelistic ministry. Not long afterward, Templeton headed back to Canada to start a church. Under his effective leadership, the church mushroomed only months after it had begun. Hundreds came, then thousands and the young preacher and his team were kept busy with all the new converts.

Shortly into his pastorate, Charles felt the need to further his education. He moved to New Jersey and took up his educational pursuits at the famed Princeton Theological Seminary. There he was schooled in infidelity and unbelief. Though he had led thousands to faith in Christ, he was now awash in doubts and uncertainty. He left the ministry to pursue politics. After a failed political stint in the Canadian Parliament, he made an effort as a broadcaster, inventor, and finally an author. His most famous work? Farewell to God – My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith. As he lay dying in June of 2001, he reflected his regret with these words, “I miss Jesus.”

This tragedy is not new and has been repeated again and again, but never quite so clearly, in modern times, as in the life of Charles Templeton. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (I John 2:19). Templeton, along with Judas Iscariot, teaches us that though a preacher may have crowds flock to hear him, his ministry is meaningless now and for eternity, unless that preacher has placed simple faith in the Word of the One who bore nail prints on his behalf.

Jack Shuler

Jack was born into the home of “Fighting” Bob Shuler in 1918. His father, not to be confused with the liberal minister, Robert Shuller, was a godly fundamentalist preacher and pastor of the largest Methodist church in Los Angeles. He had a faithful testimony of standing for truth, fighting evil and winning souls. He left a godly legacy for his children three of whom followed in his footsteps as preachers. Jack and his younger brother, Phil, became evangelists.

Jack was a powerful preacher and was greatly used of the Lord in the middle of the 20^th century. In fact, at the same time, Billy Graham was having his 1949 L.A. Crusade, Evangelist Jack Shuler had a tent across town at another location. Both preachers were drawing record crowds to the meetings and both were seeing many come to Christ. These were exciting times to say the least! Evangelist Phil Shuler, who had been an advance man for his brother, said that Jack Shuler was used to see at least one million people come to faith in Christ during his preaching.

Jack Shuler had a talented song leader and soloist named Jack Holcomb. He would lead songs and sing so as to ready the hearts of the people for the preaching. But Holcomb was the one who introduced Vodka to Jack to relax him after the evening gospel meetings. It sure did relax the preacher, in more ways than one.

With this sinful choice and duplicity in place, Jack was set up for greater temptation. He divorced his wife of 20 years. He remarried and fathered two sons with his second wife. He left the ministry and eventually died in his mid-40s. A few years before he died, he told his brother, Phil, “I’ll be dead in a few short years because of my choices.” How sad!

Jack’s life and untimely removal, due to sin, leave us with a powerful lesson to weigh. Neither a rich heritage nor the pinnacle of success and usefulness is any guard against the temptations from the Wicked One. Satan hates the gospel and those who preach it, and he will do everything and anything to take us out. The only way to withstand his attacks and emerge victorious is through fervent prayer, much exposure to God’s Word and yielding to the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Billy Graham

1918 brought another preacher into the world. It was Charlotte North Carolina where Billy Graham was born. No one could have known in his younger years, that he would have such an impact upon this world but impact it for God he did.

He was born into a dairy farmer’s home and was raised under conservative religious background. Yet in spite of his church-going upbringing, he was lost. It was in his 16^th year, at least five weeks into a several week campaign of Evangelist Mordecai Hamm that Billy Graham trusted Christ as his Savior.

A few years later, his parents would encourage him to go to a little Bible college in Florida. It was there he would sense the hand of God upon his life to preach, and on a dew-laden golf course, late one night he surrendered to God’s call.

He had been involved in various ministries before the 1949 L.A. crusade. He pastored for a short time. He traveled as the evangelist for Youth for Christ. He was even the president of Northwestern College in Minneapolis, MN. But after the 1949 L.A. Crusade, Billy became widely known around the country.

A month before the crusade, Billy met with his old friend, Chuck Templeton. He had already been to Princeton and was swirling in a sea of doubt. He peppered Graham with questions some of which he could not answer. Billy was shaken. According to his own testimony, he went out into the woods of California, set his Bible on a stump and prayed, “Lord, I don’t understand everything in that Book, and I don’t have all the answers, but I’m just going to believe it, every word of it.” It was a turning point. The ’49 crusade may not have been held, had he not had that conversation. In reality, a great much of Billy’s life may have been different.

He would travel to over 160 countries preaching the gospel to over 200 million people in person and millions more via radio, television and internet. As many as 3 million people placed their faith in Christ through his preaching. He was used to speak to foreign dignitaries, celebrities, and every US president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Donald Trump. Chuck Templeton said of Billy, “There is no feigning with him. He is intensely innocent.”  He maintained moral and financial integrity. He refused to be alone with a woman in an elevator, and he had his ministry audited every year to keep above board. From this we can learn, and for this we can be grateful.

But Billy had made some serious compromises in his ministry. In the 50s and beyond he had accepted the endorsements of liberal preachers and even the Catholic church. At times he would cooperate with them in his meetings which led to a spirit of ecumenism and greater compromise. The steps that seemed only pragmatic and innocent at first opened the door to later statements and moves that were embarrassing at best and violated Scripture at worst.

All of us have watched, with interest, the events of the past weeks surrounding his death. We have seen the motorcade of his funeral procession met with hundreds of onlookers. We have heard the President’s encouraging speech as Billy Graham’s body lay in honor in the Nation’s Capitol Rotunda. We have seen the funeral with thousands attending and thousands more watching on television. And we have rejoiced at the opportunity for the gospel to be heard afresh and an invitation extended to come to Christ for salvation.

Billy gives us an incredible lesson to consider. The gospel works just as it is! It doesn’t need updating or revising. The message of the Cross is and always will be effective in any age and generation. But it must never be compromised! Never. Any immediate results that seem to come from compromise will be revealed for what they really are at the Judgment Seat of Christ (Romans 14:10-12; I Corinthians 3:11-15).

John the Baptist

He’s the one who had come and gone before the other three. His birth, a little over 2,000 years ago, happened without much notice or fanfare the world over. Yet in the little town where he was born there was quite a stir.

His birth was prophesied by Isaiah hundreds of years beforehand. He was born to Zachariah and Elizabeth who were “well stricken in years.” He was only one of three in the entire Bible who was under a lifetime Nazarite vow. This fact alone, set him apart as being under a life of sacrifice and discipline. His clothing was camel’s hair and his food was locusts and wild honey.

He wasn’t on the cutting edge of ministry. Truthfully, he wasn’t into any of that at all. His method was as old as Enoch. It was called preaching. Timeless, Transcending, Bible-Preaching. It was fearless preaching. He confronted the religious hierarchy of the day. It was compassionate preaching. He brought people to the solution, the Word of God. It was humble preaching. He pointed people away from himself and to the Savior. He preached on judgment, on Repentance, on Sin, on the Holy Ghost and on Jesus! Oh, how he preached on Jesus! Remember his message, “Behold the Lamb of God?” It was a classic.

You would think that with such an outdated method, he would be a flop, but it was just the opposite. “Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan” (Matthew 3:5). Many were saved and baptized. He had the unique privilege of physically introducing Jesus for the first time to a world in desperate need! After all, John was the one of “He must increase, but I must decrease” fame. Then, as the multitudes flocked from his audience to follow after Christ, he said to his disciples, “…this my joy therefore is fulfilled” (John 3:29).

Then the testing came. After confronting Herod for the sin of adultery…adultery with his brother’s wife, he was captured and thrown in Jail. That is one without cable TV and a workout room. This was not the 20th century, and it certainly was not the land of the free. It was there that John had his own personal crisis. While in prison, he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another” (Matthew 11:3)? It was a momentary lapse in a monumental life. Jesus sent them back to John with an answer of hope, assurance and courage, then he turned toward those present and said, “Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11).

John’s ministry would be better measured in months rather than years. He never wrote a book. He never saw a million saved. His body never lay in honor or in state. Instead he came to the end of his life and they lopped off his head because he would not remain silent about the truth. Yet, after he had died, John was the one Herod thought had resurrected and was preaching around Judaea. In fact, it was Jesus. Let that sink in. John the Baptist was so much like the Lord Jesus, Herod thought Jesus was John the Baptist.

John the Baptist gives us three weighty truths, and they are these. Magnify Christ in your message. Magnify Christ in your Stand. Magnify Christ in your Death.

It is more than interesting to consider the lives, the connections, the messages, the choices, the failures, and the deaths of these four preachers. May every blood-bought child of God, every preacher of the Word, and every servant of the Lord take note and walk in integrity; reject deception and duplicity, stand firmly, and die honorably, so that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ is honored in all!

A quick online glance will reveal that Josh has a positive spirit and a spoken desire to reach many people for Christ. In the past few years, he has revealed a growing desire to influence preachers through his own Idea Day. This is a gathering of men in the ministry, both old and young, who are eager to share new ideas in current day ministry. I applaud his passion for the gospel and his passion to influence folks to be effective ministers.

However, when it comes to his ideas on separation and the view he promotes in this article, he is wrong – Biblically wrong. I do not take issue with him personally. I simply have a problem with some of his ideas. They are inaccurate, unscriptural, and worldly; and silence is no longer an option.

In this article, Josh asked, “Am I wrong?” Our answer is yes! First, this article is factually wrong…several times over. Independent Baptists did not begin as a protest against the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1900s. They trace their history back to men like Adoniram Judson of missionary fame in the 1800s, Shubal Stearns of North Carolina in the 1700s, Roger Williams of Rhode Island, and John Bunyan of England in the 1600s. Then there is Peter Waldo of northern Italy and the Waldensians of the late 1100s through the 1500s, the Albigensians of France, the Lollards of England and the Donatists of Northern Africa. This is just to name a few! This conclusion is based upon an extremely limited understanding of our roots.

Other factual errors include his conclusion that “The Death of John R. Rice” was the beginning of division among Independent Baptists; his assumption that Independent Baptists are a Denomination; his idea that separation is punishment; and his postulation that it is a sin to refuse to unify with those who hold to aberrant and unbiblical doctrines. This list is just a portion of the plain factual errors that exist.

Second, an objective reader of the blog is left to wonder if Josh is enamored with the Southern Baptists as well as other theological compromisers and disdains Independent Baptists while trying to convey the opposite. He leaves this impression via phrases like “the rapid crumbling of the IFB” and his statement that “several vocal leaders within the SBC took exception with the idea of raising 75 million dollars” to reach the world, and his question “why is it a problem for me to have an actual Baptist Calvinist like John Piper preach in my church” and his conclusion “I relate to Criswell more than Norris,” are all indicators of a directional shift away from one position and toward another. No one is stopping him, if that is his desire, but he cannot head one way in action and claim another in word and expect folks to believe him.

Third, the straw men that emerge from this make you think you have come into a zombie scarecrow convention! Josh Teis blows them away in this virtual video game world, all the while presenting them as pictures of how things really are…when they are not. Generalizations with the first-person plural “we” leave the impression that Independent Baptists are collaborating on every decision relating to separation or any other matter. Not so. Other statements like Independent Baptists are “demanding absolute and complete agreement on every matter,” or “a man must separate himself from anyone who doesn’t completely and utterly agree with him,” or “if you happen to disagree with anyone in the family of God, about anything in the universe, you have a right and obligation to separate yourself from them as soon as possible,” or “3^rd degree, 4^th degree separation,” are all off base. Are there some among us who demand perfect agreement on everything? I have been traveling for two decades preaching across the country and around the world in hundreds of Independent Baptist churches. I have found very, very, very few. Do we have strong opinions? Yes. Do we have solid Bible convictions? Yes. Do we have preferences? Of course. Yet one of our tenants as Baptists is Individual Soul Liberty (Romans 14; I Corinthians 8) and Priesthood of the Believer (Hebrews 4:16; Revelation 1:6). Both truths point to the freedom of conscience and immediate access to Heaven’s Throne so that we, individually, from the Bible, can determine what is right on questionable matters. That is the spirit of Independent Baptists I have discovered again and again.

Fourth, there is a disconnect in Josh’s thinking between doctrine and practice. He wants to appeal to the Rodney King in us all: “Why can’t we all just get along?” He mentions the importance of a theological position but undermines the importance of one’s associations. This ignores and violates Scripture. Jehu asked the good king Jehoshaphat after he allied with wicked Ahab, “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD” (II Chronicles 19:2)? Associations. “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed” (Proverbs 13:20). Associations. “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go” (Proverbs 22:24). Associations. Our theological position matters so much that it affects our…associations.

Doctrine also affects our practical living. My understanding that God is holy (Isaiah 57:15) helps me to practice personal holiness (I Peter 1:16). This also impacts how we ought to behave in the house of God (I Timothy 3:15). Could this possibly confront a wrong style of music and promote a right style of music for the “house of God”? Absolutely! Does this have any bearing on pulpit attire? Of course! It will influence my spirit, my attitude, my passion, my preferences, my convictions, my behavior, and more. It also has bearing on my personal desire to be less like the world and more like Jesus Christ!

When the church looks and sounds like a nightclub, when the pastor dresses more like the neighborhood teenager seeking to be the next rock star, when Hollywood movie tickets are passed out to church visitors, when preaching is diminished to a sermonette and vested of its authority by a sermon team’s approval or disapproval of it, when Independent Baptist preachers are sitting at the feet of Rick Warren, Chuck Swindoll, T4G, and the Gospel Coalition instead of the New Testament, and when all of this is done in the name of innovation and new ideas something is dreadfully wrong! (FTR, these practices are espoused and encouraged by Josh Teis). Whatever happened to I Thessalonians 5:22 and a myriad of other Scriptures?!? Teis seems either oblivious or unwilling to make the connection between doctrine and practice.

The most egregious and offensive aspect of the article was his misrepresentation of separation. He equated it with division. Not once but again and again! This reveals a glaring ignorance of the Bible. As early as Genesis 1, God separated light from darkness. He separated his people from the Gentiles. Any high point in Israel’s history was when they were separate and distinct from the world, and any low point was when they mixed in with the world and their wicked practices. The same is true with the church of the Lord Jesus Christ! I John 2:15-17, James 4:1-10, and Romans 12:1-2 are all in order here.

When Josh took issue with Ernest Pickering’s book, Biblical Separation: The Struggle for a Pure Church, he laid all the problems among Independent Baptists squarely at his feet. Huh? It seems he is pointing out a problem of politics, (following men) and division (you’re wrong if you don’t see it my way), then ignoring the real cause (the world, the flesh and the devil) and presenting a solution of…more politics (following him) and division (You’re the problem if you don’t see it my way)! This is silly at best and sinister at worst.

In the end, Josh assured us of his love for Independent Baptists and his desire to see us change and practice Biblical separation. I’m for that! The irony is that he only used two verses in the whole blog post…two…only two, and one was used to mock the biblical idea of separation! Josh, may I present to you a few others? Romans 16:17-18 instructs us to “mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” II Thessalonians 3:6-15 exhort to “withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us…note that man and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.” This is referring to a lazy busybody within the church. I Corinthians 5:9, 11 warn us not to keep company or eat with fornicating, covetous, idolatrous, railing, drunkard, thieving brothers. New Testament separation encourages purity in church endeavors, marriage, personal matters and business. It challenges a purity from sin and worldliness wherever it is found. These Bible passages couldn’t be any clearer. Josh Teis, along with others, has sadly either ignored or misunderstood these passages. A brief study of church history shows, when these truths of separation are ignored, the outcome has never been good. Never.

One of the greatest problems I have with his article is that he makes this whole matter centered around men. Much is made of men who have led us, led us astray or not led us. Little is made about the Bible and the Captain of our Salvation Jesus Christ! If the problem is men, point us to the Bible and Christ. If this was his attempt, he failed. The Independent Baptist position is not men-led or men-driven; it is a fixed point of truth. It will always be. Are there men who rise up as leaders? Yes. Are there those who willingly or inadvertently present themselves as popes? Yes! Yet the solution is not more of the same in an opposite extreme! The solution is not pragmatic philosophy! The solution is not an acceptance of worldliness, ecumenism, and compromise! The proper solution is always the same. Turn back to the Bible and its Author!

There is a new generation of Independent Baptist preachers old and young who are not rising up, that has been part of our problem. They are falling down on their face, asking God to forgive us for our humanistic and worldly practices, steering their people clear of false doctrine and those who practice it, and then stepping into their pulpits and preaching, “Thus saith the Lord!” With these, I cast my lot, not the others who have traded us, are trading us, and will trade us in for another “mess of pottage!”

Evangelist Dwight Smith

Please Pardon my emotions, at least for a moment.  I try, much of the time, to keep them in check, but just now, would you allow me some latitude as they spill over?  You ask the reason for this excess? It is those who compromise the truth.

During the many years I have known the Lord and have studied His Word, I have observed different ones, both old and young, both close friends and distant acquaintances, hold to a position of truth and then depart.  They have campaigned for the truth.  They have supported the truth.  They have given verbal assent to the truth.  Then for one reason or another they have abandoned their position of truth.  Their previous convictions have been clearly supported from Scripture.  They have been passed from one generation to the next.  They have been vital to the health and well-being of God’s people.  They have been the key to the necessary spread of the gospel.  Yet for whatever reason, they have been discarded by those who, at one time, held to them, stood for them, and championed them.

When I see this kind of departure, be it whole-sale sellout or subtle in nature, I have three emotions that rise to the surface and bubble over.  Please pardon the outburst.  First, I laugh incredulously.  “Is this a joke?”  I ask.  “Seriously?”  I say.  “Not him? Not really?  Not now?” I query.  But, alas, too often it is true.  Those who once took a Bible stand; those who once stood for God’s holiness and Scriptural principle; those who once carried the baton of truth from one generation to the next; those who refused to give in to the winds of detrimental change, suddenly or slowly caved.  They may yield because of family pressure.  It may be because of their private worldly choices.  It may be due to the current of society.  Whatever the case, I laugh, not in joy, but in disbelief.

At a time of such consequence, this is not the moment to follow the example of the twelve at Christ’s crucifixion.  “Then all the disciples forsook him and fled” (Matthew 26:56).  In a day when Biblical doctrine and Scriptural principle must be upheld, we certainly should not be allowing the world’s current to sweep us away as did Demas (II Timothy 4:10).  It may be a joke, but it is not a funny one.  The truth is, I’m not the only one laughing.  The world laughs whenever compromise seduces another of God’s servants.  Can you hear them laughing at Samson as they cut off his hair, bind his hands, gouge out his eyes, and replace the donkey with this former heavyweight champion?  Can you hear them mock him, his people, his principles, and his Maker as they lead his blind frame into their feast? “Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.  And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.  And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson that he may make us sport” (Judges 16:23-25).  What a shame!  What a tragedy!  May it never be said that those reading these words, who know the Lord and are growing in Christ, choose to compromise the Truth of the Scripture and besmirch the name of Jesus.  If you do, and I hear of it, my laughter may spill out, but know this: it is incredulous.  Please pardon my emotions.

Secondly, I am stirred with righteous indignation.  We were on the same team.  We worked for the same goal.  We sought the same end result, and now, it no longer matters? How can this be?  We sought the Lord together.  We were following the same guiding and Biblical principles.  Now they can be discarded like one changes their socks?  How does this honor God?  After the laugh of disbelief, there wells within me a good bit of anger, properly placed I might say.  This anger stems from a sense of betrayal.  It is rooted in righteousness.  It follows the examples of the heroes of faith and the Savior Himself.  Consider the indignation of Moses against idolatry and Aaron’s compromise in Exodus 32:19.  His “anger waxed hot.”  I don’t suppose Samuel was anything but fuming at compromise and its by-product when he “hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal” (I Samuel 15:33).  Have you thought of the anger of Elijah against the worship of Baal?  After the Lord’s victory on the top of Mt. Carmel, Elijah brought the prophets of Baal “down to the brook and slew them there” (I Kings 18:40).  I don’t imagine Paul had a Pollyanna smile on his face when, in Galatians 2:11, he “withstood Peter to the face, because he was to be blamed.”  And what of our matchless Savior who provided an example of righteous indignation by overthrowing “the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of them that sold doves” (Matthew21:12)?  There certainly is Biblical precedent for godly anger against compromise of the truth, weakness of character, and a lack of integrity.  If you should give way to the enemy or give your OK to error, you can expect an explosion against your sin from this corner of the world.  Just consider it a good trait coming from one who is trying to follow the example of his Master and please, if you will, pardon my emotions.

The last evidence of shock I display may be a bit harder to see.  Usually it doesn’t show itself in public.  It is a bit more personal than the others.  When I see the compromise of the truth by ones I know and love, somewhere, after the controversy dies down, I slip away into a quiet place and weep genuine tears!  My heart is grieved when someone departs from the Truth they once claimed to love.  Isn’t this the emotional response we ought all have?

In I Samuel 15:10, when the Lord told Samuel that Saul’s disobedience had ended his ministry, “it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the Lord all night.”  It was David who grieved when those with whom he once worshipped God had betrayed him.  He said, “My heart is sore pained within me” (Psalm 55:4).   What about Jeremiah whose tears had become a river?   He declared, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people” (Jeremiah 9:1)!  Can you hear the tears in his voice, when Paul said, “No man stood with me, but all men forsook me” (II Timothy 4:16)?

I weep over compromise because it violates God’s Word.  I weep because it jeopardizes the mission of the Lord’s church and every Christian.  I weep for souls who will perish, because the truth was compromised and the gospel was lost.  I weep because, instead of spreading the truth, it is sold for a mess of pottage and 30 pieces of silver.  Then the next generation fails to see its import and heed its warning and, before long, they are headed to hell without any concern over their own plight!

I have seen family members compromise the truth of the Bible.  I have watched friends sell out to an easier way.  I have observed fellow preachers yield to the world, the flesh, and the Devil.  I have seen churches, I once was a member of, depart from their moorings, and they remain adrift.  I have seen men of great influence kick out of the trenches and seek a short cut from the high road.  Sometimes the compromise is public and shameless.  Sometimes it is personal and later revealed.  Sometimes the weakness happens gradually over time. Sometimes suddenly someone disavows a Scriptural position.  No matter how it happens, it is always tragic!  It always brings tears to my eyes.  It always grieves the heart of God.

For the sake of the Truth of Scripture, for the sake of the name of Christ, for the sake of the sound proclamation of the gospel, for the sake of future generations, for the sake of your family, and for the sake of everything that is good and decent and right, don’t compromise!  Don’t yield to the enemy!  Don’t give in to Satan’s devices.  If you do, you should know, that somewhere there will be a preacher who, after an incredulous laugh and after an indignant outburst, will be hiding away in the corner of somewhere weeping.  Please pardon my emotions. 

Whether a soldier wins or loses in the midst of battle largely depends upon his focus.  A right focus involves a proper knowledge of the facts and diligent concentration.  If these two elements are missing the soldier is sure to lose in the struggle against his opponent.  In I Samuel 14, there is a tremendous example of a warrior who had a proper focus.  He was not distracted by the overwhelming odds that faced him, but instead placed all of his attention upon the One who was fighting for him.

The Philistines and the Israelites were fighting between Michmash and Gibeah.  The only swords or spears found among the Israelites were in the hands of King Saul and his son Jonathan, giving the enemy a tremendous advantage.  This in no way dampened the spirits of Jonathan, for in a moment of opportunity, he and his armor bearer crept away from the Israelites unto a garrison of the Philistine army.  When they came to a place out of sight of the enemy, they devised a plan.  “Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised:  it may be that the LORD will work for us:  for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few” (I Samuel 14:6).  The man who bare his armor agreed to go with him, and they proceeded onward to defeat the Philistines.  The victory that the LORD gave them that day still remains as a wonderful example of what happens when a child of God keeps his focus upon his Captain.

During the past quarter of a century, a philosophy has wormed its way into the minds of many Christians.  It is the idea which places quantity over quality and says that bigger is better.  This unbiblical vein of thought has left many of God’s people discouraged and led many others to accept pragmatism, (the end justifies the means).  Thus, the focus of many Bible-believers has been diverted off of God and onto self.  This leads nowhere but to despair.

It is important to note that Jonathan’s focus was not upon the strength of his numbers, of which the grand total was two.  Instead he placed all of his attention upon God.  It would solve many of our problems if we would follow Jonathan’s example.  This does not mean that one should ever be satisfied with the number of souls that he has won to Christ, nor does it imply that he should ever use his “faithfulness” as a cover for his negligence.  However, it should never be assumed that strength or weakness is judged by great numbers or lack thereof.

God has absolutely no restraints!  He used a band of three hundred, under the leadership of Gideon, to defeat an army that lay in the valley “like grasshoppers for a multitude” (Judges 7:12-25).  The LORD provide many days of food for the widow and her household with just a little bit meal, some oil, and her obedience (I Kings 17:8-16).  It was just five loaves and two fishes that were brought to the Savior, when He divided them and fed five thousand people (Luke 9:12-17).  The examples could easily continue showing that God is able to do anything but fail.  Thus, it behooves every Christian to concentrate his focus upon the Almighty and continue onward to victory.

“Little is much when God is in it, l

Labor not for wealth or fame.

There’s a crown and you can win it,

If you go in Jesus name.”

The year was 1950, when a local church pastor, named Daniel Breen, became burdened for an area in northern Minnesota.  He knew of an evangelist who traveled extensively preaching the gospel and asked him if he would be willing to come and hold tent meetings in a town called Pengilly near Swan Lake.  The evangelist agreed to come and the pastor decided to support the meeting in its entirety.

Believers were made aware of the crusade, a group of prayer warriors was organized, flyers were printed and distributed, a tent was set up, the gospel musicians came to sing, and the preacher began to preach.  All of this energy was put forth with the hope and prayer that lives would be touched with the power of the gospel.

Art Smith, a resident of Pengilly, stopped by the little country store of his town on his way home from work and noticed a flyer announcing these meetings.  Something peaked his interest and he came home, told his wife, Helen and his two sons, Don and Dave, to get ready and brought them to the first night of the meeting.  They enjoyed the friendly atmosphere.  The gospel songs were appealing, and the plain, Bible preaching was unlike any they had ever heard before.  So, they returned each night of the meeting.  Art and his family were members at an area church but it was liberal, and the leadership had turned their backs on the Bible long ago.  In fact, this area-wide tent meeting was the first place they had ever heard God’s way to heaven.

The last night came and went and neither Art nor his family had trusted Christ.  However, the Spirit of God had begun to work, and He wasn’t finished yet.  Later, the youngest son, David, went to a summer Christian camp and was saved.  Then, through the clear witness of a children’s Evangelist, the oldest son, Don, believed the gospel.  Then Mrs. Helen Smith was born again.  All of these obvious conversions brought deep conviction to Art, and finally, He trusted Christ in the furnace room of their tiny basement.

Later, Art and Helen’s boys trained for the ministry in an area Bible-Institute.  They both married Christian ladies and became preachers of the gospel.  Art had eight grandchildren, all of whom have placed their faith in Jesus for salvation.  Each of the grandchildren married Christian spouses and are teaching and training their families in the things of God.  One of Art’s granddaughters married a preacher, and one of Art’s grandsons became an evangelist.  Art & Helen and their youngest son are in Heaven now with a clearer view of all of these blessings! Art has several great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren most of whom are in church and learning about Jesus, about how to get to heaven and about how to live for eternity.  In short, two and three generations from Art Smith, folks are still getting saved and called to preach in the Smith family!

How did it all begin, someone obeyed God and came to Pengilly, MN with the gospel, someone interceded, someone invested money, someone pitched a gospel tent, someone sang, someone preached, someone put up a flyer, someone brought a friend, and someone believed God.  Maybe someone wondered if it was worth it.  I, for one, can say it was.  Art Smith was my grandfather.  Don Smith is my dad.  I am the grandson who answered God’s call to be an evangelist.  Someday, in Heaven, I’m going to look up the someones who invested into that area-wide meeting and tell them it was worth every sacrifice they made!   “Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9).

Before the “Infallible” Pope Francis comes to the United States of America and lectures us on matters of which he and his religion know nothing about, Religious Freedom, and issues that are nothing but absolute fantasy, “climate-change”, he would do well to return home and tend to the mote in his own religious eye.  The pontiffs of days gone by and the general leadership of the Roman Catholic Church are anti-Bible, corrupt to the core, and will someday answer to the only one who can be rightly called “Holy” and “Father.”  Consider the following:

Pope Paul’s Predecessors

By Evangelist Robert Sumner

 Comments by the Author: In the early 1960s I prepared an article with the above title for the The Sword of the Lord.  Later it was printed in the Temple Baptist Church paper, The Baptist Bible Broadcaster, when I pastored at Portsmouth, OH.  Eventually, because of all the requests we had for it, I reprinted it in The Biblical Evangelist, adding some helpful documentation.  While Pope Paul VI has been long gone, the facts of the article remain. 

Pope Paul VI is now the duly elected supreme head of over a half-billion devout Roman Catholics around the world.  Francis Cardinal Spellman, an American who helped in his exaltation, had a word to say to the press when he arrived home on good old USA soil.

Said he: “I think he’s terrific…I think he’ll follow very closely in Pope John’s footsteps as well as those of his 261 predecessors!”

Let’s hope not!

Methinks the good Cardinal got momentarily carried away with his enthusiasm and said what he would not have dared to say apart from the white-heat of passionate emotion.  More serious reflection would have caused the prelate to have simply predicted Pope Paul VI would follow closely the footsteps of the late Pope John XXIII. But to include the entire list of 261 predecessors…never!

                For example, does Mr. Spellman want Pope Paul VI to follow closely the footsteps of Pope Honorius, whom the Ecumenical Church in 680 anathematized as “the Heritic?”

Would he have him “follow very closely” the footsteps of Pope John VIII, who ruled from 854 – 857, then was discovered to be a female when “he” gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, then was stoned to death by an angry mob?

Or would he have him follow the admitted sex maniac, Pope John XII, who raised the ire of the people for turning the Lateran Palace into a “public whore house,” and who was described by the Liber Pontificalis with the words: “He spent his entire life in adultery”?

                How about following “very closely” Pope John XV, who split the church’s finances among his kinfolk and earned for himself the reputation of being “covetous of filthy lucre and corrupt in all his acts” (emphasis added)?

Should he follow “very closely” Pope Boniface VII who murdered, by strangling, Pope Benedict VI? This is the pope that Pope Sylvester II called “a horrid monster surpassing all other mortals in wickedness.”  Yet it might not even be wise for Pope Paul VI to follow “very closely” in the footsteps of the indignant Sylvester, since the Catholic Encyclopedia says of him:  “The common people regarded him as a magician in league with the devil.”

                 Would the next Boniface, VIII, be a good one to follow “very closely”? Hardly!  He called Christ a “hypocrite, “ professed to be an atheist, denied life after death, was a murderer, a sex pervert and is officially recorded as having said, “to enjoy oneself and to lie carnally with women or with boys is no more a sin than rubbing one’s hands together.” The immoral profane Boniface, by the way, was the author of the infamous Bull “Unam Sanctam” which declared the Roman Catholic Church to be the one and only “true” church!  That utterance would be hard to support, wouldn’t you say?

Actually, how could Cardinal Spellman have Pope Paul VI follow “very closely” in the footsteps of the “first” Pope John XXXIII [the one who recently died was the second to bear the same title]? If that John’s personal biographer, Theodoric a Niem, is any authority, he “raped” 200 women.  The official Vatican records offer this “light” on his immoral reign:

“His Lordship, Pope John, committed perversity with the wife of his brother,

incest with Holy Nuns, intercourse with Virgins, adultery with the married,

and all sorts of sex crimes…wholly given to sleep and other carnal desires,

totally adverse to the lie and teachings of Christ…among the faithful of Christ,

who knew his life and character, he was publicly called the DEVIL INCARNATE.”

Should Pope Paul VI follow Pope Alexander VI, who had five illegitimate children and who conducted the sex orgy in the Vatican on October 31, 1501, the equal of which for sheer horror has never been duplicated – to say nothing of surpassed – in the annals of human history?

Should he follow “very closely” Pope Julias II, who had three known illegitimate children; Pope Alexander VI, who had six known illegitimate children; or Pope Sixtus IV, who lived with his mistress Thersia and made his two illegitimate children Cardinals?

Or should he foolow closely Pope John XI, who was the illegitimate offspring of Pope Sergius and the “whore” Marozia with whom he lived?

Should he follow Pope Innocent III, who not so innocently murdered in excess of one million “heretics” during his regime?

Actually, how could Cardinal Spellman suggest that Pope Paul VI even follow “very closely” the footsteps of his fellow “Pauls” in the Roman hierocracy? Even pro-Catholic Life magazine frankly stated:

“In choosing the name of Paul, the new Pope took on the name of the Pauline

                Popes of an era when worldliness, violence and nepotism were not considered inconsistent

                with holiness.

                                Paul I (757-767) succeeded his own brother as Pope.  Paul II (1464-1471),

Pietro Barbo, is remembered for extravagant carnivals, horse races, public games and

lavish banquets… Paul III (1534-1539). Alessandro Farnesse…as a cardinal fathered

three sons and a daughter and on the very day of his papal coronation celebrated

the baptism of his two great-grandchildren.  He made cardinals of two nephews, aged

14 and 16, sponsored festivals with singers, dancers and jesters, sought advice of

astrologers.  Paul IV (1555-1559), Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, was a fanatic inquisitor who

sent hundreds of clergy, including a cardinal, to prison or gallows for heresy.  At his death

mobs rioted in celebration…”

Do you see what I mean when I say that undoubtedly Mr. Spellman “got momentarily carried away with his enthusiasm” when he volunteered the hopeful opinion that Pope Paul VI would “follow very closely” in the footsteps “of his 261 predecessors”?

Again I say, “Let’s hope not!”

_____

Truly, Pope Francis, as well as every Roman Catholic, along with each person reading this post, needs to turn from their unbelief and “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” for salvation.  For there is “none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Evangelist Dwight Smith

Dear Faithful Prayer Warriors,

Our God has once again shown us His power and provision over the past several days! Two weeks ago, we had a tremendous opening revival with Alton Beal and Ambassador Baptist College! At the beginning part of the week, we were a bit concerned that perhaps the first portion might be cancelled. Well, though classes were cancelled, chapel was not. I am so thankful for the emphasis Brother Beal and Ambassador Baptist College place on preaching. The first day began with Evangelist Jim Cook preaching on temptation. I followed up in the afternoon with a message on soulwinning. The Lord blessed throughout the week with several tremendous altar calls and an overall tenderness of the ABC family to God’s Word. Thank you so much for praying for us during this week.