Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) preacher Allen Domelle had this to say about a recent creation seminar held at First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana:
There are times my heart breaks, and this is one of those times. This past weekend, November 12, 2023, First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana invited a group of men into their church to teach on creation. Then on Monday, these same men went to Hyles-Anderson College and taught the students. These men were not Baptists and do not claim to be Baptists. In fact, one is a member of a Reformed church, and another claimed from their pulpit that he is a Methodist.
On Sunday evening, I received a text from a pastor with a picture that showed a long haired hippie teaching in the pulpit of FBC Hammond.
Then I received multiple calls from preachers about how they were told that the NIV was used on slides, and indecency in some of the slides.
I am sickened by this as I am not for compromise of any sort. However, it sickens me more because of my love for this church and college. My family history goes back to the 1960’s when my parents were married in this church. My uncle was a deacon and church clerk for fifty years at FBC Hammond. My wife and I were married in this church, and my daughter was born in this church.
I thank God for the heritage of this church, but to see the blatant compromise sickens me, and yes, it angers me. It sickens me because I hate it when any church compromises. It angers me because those in this church know better. Let me simply share a few verses.
First, a long haired hippie teaching in the pulpit is in direct contradiction to Scripture. 1 Corinthians 11:14 says, Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? I don’t know anything about this man, but I do know that to have long hair is a shame. It does not matter what he was going to teach, the fact that he blatantly disobeys God’s Word should have alerted anyone to his spiritual discernment and that he is to be disqualified to teach people.
Second, ecclesiastical separation is still a command in the Scriptures. 2 Corinthians 6:14 says, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? God commands we are not to be unequally yoked. God goes further in verse 17 when He says, Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,…. Not only are we not to be unequally yoked, be we are to separate from them.
My friend, ecclesiastical separation is still in God’s Word. A member of a reformed church has no business teaching in a Baptist pulpit. A self-proclaimed Methodist obviously is doctrinally wrong on baptism, the local church, and likely on salvation. It doesn’t matter if these men are “good” men, they are doctrinally wrong and have no right to speak in a Baptist pulpit.
Third, to allow the NIV to be used in the pulpit is wrong. There is no question that the NIV has removed verses from God’s Word, and has made over 60,000 changes to God’s Word. Revelation 22:18-19 says, For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. If we are not willing to fight over God’s Word, then what will we fight over? Never are we to allow anyone in our pulpits that would use anything else other than God’s Word, the King James Bible.
Fourth, we are to withdraw from brethren who do not practice like us. 2 Thessalonians 3:6 says, Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. At some point, you must be willing to withdraw from people who are disorderly in their doctrine, much less their practice. Not only should these men not have been allowed to teach because of their doctrine, but also because of their practice. We practice dressing with our best for church because God deserves our best. To allow these men to teach in blue jeans and polo shirts as if this is a golf club is simply a total disrespect of God’s Word, His church, and His way.
My friend, I believe in the local church, which means I believe FBC Hammond has a right to do what they want to do in their church. I am completely fine with this. However, they ask churches around the country to send our young people to their college so they can train them for the ministry. The fact that they reach into our churches to ask for our youth is what concerns me. They are influencing our youth, and our youth will look at what happened and think it is fine not to follow the separation that the Scriptures command.
Moreover, one may say they made a mistake, to which I say, HOGWASH! A mistake is dropping something. Scheduling people who don’t believe like you (or maybe they do), and you know they are different is not a mistake, it is a purposeful choice. Let’s give the benefit of the doubt and say it was a mistake. What does that have to say about the discernment of those who allowed this compromise in their pulpit and Bible college. There is a reason God tells us not to put a novice into the ministry because a novice lacks discernment. I do not believe that those who lead these institutions are novices; I do believe they knew exactly what they were doing.
John Wilkerson, pastor of First Baptist, released the following apology:
“Recently, we had a creation seminar hosted here at First Baptist Church of Hammond. With all my heart what I wanted to do is to educate, equip and empower God’s people to face and to give ammunition for the fallacies of evolution and humanism that permeates our society.
Though that was my goal, I grieve to tell you that I probably did not make the best decisions in many arenas. I failed to screen properly what was going to be said or shown in some ways. And I think I hurt many people. I grieve that I embarrassed the First Baptist Church family. I think for the Hyles-Anderson College students and the men and women who have sent their students here, if I sent an uncertain sound, I apologize and I sincerely ask your forgiveness. I don’t want to cause a distraction. And I certainly don’t want to be divisive.
Think about all the horrific things going on in the world. Yet, all these IFB preachers are worried about is long hair on men, pants on women, ecclesiastical separation, and using the wrong Bible translation.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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He ought to be embarrased about the adulterous and criminal behavior not just of Jack and David Hyles, and Jack Schaap, but it appears many former staff members of First Baptist. Sadly there is shame of all the wrong things for all the wrong reasons. John Wilkerson’s big sin was that he tarnished the brand. And that apparently is unforgiveable.
Was he outraged when Jack Hyles allowed Gail Riplinger to do a session on the King James Bible in a General Session of Pastors School?? (Asking for a friend…) After all, women are not allowed to speak in the pulpit…
How sad, the harangue of this zealot, more than happy to disparage even fellow Christians for their hair or their Bible translation, forcing contrition from fellow pastors. But he sounds just like the apostle Paul, whose lack of empathy he emulates. And if the NIV has changed the Bible 60,000 ways, so has the KJV. The “original” text of “Revelation 22:18-19” goes something like this:
Μαρτυρῶ ἐγὼ παντὶ τῷ ἀκούοντι τοὺς λόγους τῆς προφητείας τοῦ βιβλίου τούτου· ἐάν τιςἐπιθῇ ἐπ’ αὐτά, ἐπιθήσει ὁ θεὸς ἐπ’ αὐτὸν τὰς πληγὰς τὰς γεγραμμένας ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τούτῳ· καὶ ἐάν τις ἀφέλῃ ἀπὸ τῶν λόγων τοῦ βιβλίου τῆς προφητείας ταύτης, ἀφελεῖ ὁ θεὸς τὸμέρος αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς καὶ ἐκ τῆς πόλεως τῆς ἁγίας, τῶν γεγραμμένων ἐν τῷβιβλίῳ τούτῳ.
I don’t see any King’s English there, so all of that has been “added,” every word, hopelessly corrupting the message of the original by forcing it into the strait-jacket of English. And doesn’t “τοῦ βιβλίου τούτου” ‘this scroll/book,’ refer to the scroll that the author himself wrote, not the centuries-later assembled “Bible”? Bad exegesis. Honestly, if you really believed that every single word in the Bible is straight from the Almighty, wouldn’t you be under obligations of conscience to make Koine Greek and ancient Hebrew and Aramaic your first languages? No, it’s fine to translate. But never change hairstyles! It’s all a house of cards, so arbitrary and petty. What a cosmic waste.
“ My friend, I believe in the local church, which means I believe FBC Hammond has a right to do what they want to do in their church. I am completely fine with this. “
He just completed a four part diatribe saying he was not fine with this. And now he is fine with this? What happened to not compromising??
But we all know he is already compromising. He shows it in his pick-a-commandment when he pulls out the old “god says long hair is evil “ verse. What about all of the other commandments and rules and guidelines and suggestions the Bible has to offer? If he can pick and choose, then why can’t someone else? In reality, You cannot believe things written in that religious book without compromising in some form.
“ I think for the Hyles-Anderson College students and the men and women who have sent their students here, if I sent an uncertain sound, I apologize and I sincerely ask your forgiveness. I don’t want to cause a distraction. And I certainly don’t want to be divisive.”
Ok I have to give this guy credit for an apology that is well crafted. He covered it all. It’s a very good job of apologizing for absolutely nothing!
Breaking News: Professional Pearl-Clutcher has issue with church purity. Has issue with length of speaker’s hair, version of translated mythological text used, and ecclesiastical affiliation. These are Major Issues Worth Mentioning, and obviously Litmus Tests for Truth.
“But Saint Peter, why won’t you let me into heaven?”
“Sorry son, your sideburns were a quarter inch to long.”
That should’ve read “quarter inch TOO long.”
Got a bad habit of not editing enough before publishing.
Anybody know what “indecency in some of the slides” refers to? I’m assuming it was an Adam & Eve pic that wasn’t obscured enough
Basically, in a nutshell, it seems as if he’s upset that the guest preacher’s Bible read “walks” and not “walketh,” I take it– kind of dumb, if you ask me.
I cannot help but be reminded of the old joke about St. Peter giving some newcomers a tour of Heaven. He stops and whispers to them to walk very softly and not to say a word until he says it’s safe to do so. When people look alarmed, he gestures toward the enclave fenced off from the road, and explains, “They’re all Baptists over there. They think they’re the only ones here.”
‘Long Haired Hippie”? LOLOLOL who even says that now? What a rube.
Hey pastor-the ‘60’s called- they want their outrage back.
Domelle says: “I am not for compromise of any sort”. We can see that. He fits the mold perfectly. Its his way or the highway. His is the mindset beneath so many societal problems; anal-retentive rigid intolerance.
IFB feels strongly about appearance-women should wear dresses, men should have short hair. I think it would be very interesting if they decided to get disturbed about fatness.
That preacher could say how shocked he was that the speaker was overweight! That would really throw a wrench into things!
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector.” –Ernest Hemingway
If church members looked themselves in the mirror and employed Hemingway’s suggestion, they would free themselves from fear, churches would close, and preachers would have to get real jobs.
I’m late to this party, so Rand has already said the first thing that came to my mind, and Emersonian the second. Since words are symbolic representations, any time we write or speak, we are adding words to whatever we’re trying to express. So how can any version of the Bible–even the ones with the “original” texts, much less any translation–claim to be the direct words of God–if indeed God exists (which I don’t believe). Oh, and I haven’t heard “long-haired hippie” since, oh, about 1973.
Dutch Guy–That’s pretty much the definition of fundamentalism, as best as I can tell. That “anal-retentive rigid intolerance” comes from absolute certainty that one’s way is the only way.
My Evangelical Niece answered the question how any version of scripture can be valid considering all the complications and versions and writers who wrote many years after Christ lived. To me it’s all hearsay. Niece said those writings are “inspired” by God. Well there you have it. The answer to every question about scriptures, Christianity, and probably all religious dogma of whatever faith is: God inspired it. It won’t survive a hearsay objection but inspiration trumps rules of evidence and overrules all human knowledge and dead-ends all debate with them.
I can see why he was upset, after all, we know that Jesus and all his disciples had a barber on retainer. He traveled with them and made sure their hair was all gawd-approved. Can you imagine how embarrassing it would have been if Jesus had long hair????
So, like Naaman, the guy in the Old Testament who had to keep worshipping with his boss because the price to do otherwise was too great, I attended our church with family. Lots of Christmas carols (which bring back warm memories from childhood), but mostly the ear-splitting New Apostolic Reformation, Emerging Church nonsense. No matter. I’m used to going through the motions, looking as if I’m into it, just to keep from paying a high family / social price. Like I said, call me Naaman.
But the most disgusting and easy to see through, was “Pastor sew-and-sew” who bounced onto the stage, yelling like a gameshow host for us to give it up for Jesus. More than anything else, it was obvious that he was aiming for two things: keeping the money coming in, and growing the membership to expand his empire. Everybody clapped and praised god for him. Especially Mrs. Bellows, the stranger beside me who didn’t exactly sing but rather screamed the worship songs. When she saw me standing there with crossed arms, she elbowed me and said, “Get WITH it!”
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