HOW I PREACHED MYSELF OUT OF THE MINISTRY

Sometimes I feel like I've preached myself out of the ministry completely. Used to be, that pastors would call me up and ask me to come preach for them. But now they avoid me like the plague. Why? What evil have I done? Well, I haven't fallen into any sexual sins. Nor do I drink, smoke, cuss, chew, fornicate, or anything like that. And I've not fallen into any heresies. As a matter of fact, I'm no different today then I was right after I was saved, except for the fact that I know a lot more Bible now then I did then.

I wish I could say that what God has taught me over my 18 years as a Christian and what I've seen in Christianity has been joyous and uplifting, but oftentimes the truth is it's left me very sorrowful and despondent, as I see so much Christian apathy to the things of God, so much apostasy in Fundamentalist ranks, and so much autocrasy in Chrisitan circles it makes me sick.

Ecclesiastes 1:18 says it best: "For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow."

As I serve the Lord, I've seen too many things that don't sit well with me, and so I decided to speak up and speak out against those things that are anti-biblical that I see gaining ground in apostate fundamentalist circles. I've simply tried to do what Isa 58:1 says, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins."

Because of this I've found I'm not a very popular guy. And it seems nobody likes me. (Except Jesus, and that's good enough for me!).

When I finished Bible school and started deputation for the field of Honduras, I was told by many other missionaries, "You need to say less and only tell people what you have to in order to get their financial support. Don't rock the boat, and don't say any more than you absolutely have to! And don't preach so hard that you offend anyone!"

That always sat wrong with me, and was nothing short of devious COMPROMISE! Thus, I chose instead to preach as hard as I could against SIN in every pulpit I could. This lead to me taking three years to get the support I needed to go to Honduras, while most other Missionaries got theirs in only a year or two. But I thought this way, (and it turns out I was exactly right), "Why get support from people who don't really know you and what you believe and preach? For what if they start to support you and then find out later you don't agree with them? Wouldn't they drop your support while you are on the field, and then you'll be in a pickle as you are in a foreign country with very little money and then forced to return home?"

That's exactly what happens to many missionaries with the "say as little as possible" mentality. They come back every four or five years on "furlough" and have to raise more support because they lost a lot of church's monthly support during that time and have to do deputation all over (which then takes them another year or more). This leads to everything they've started on the field being destroyed, or else greatly hindered, and when they return, they find they have to start all over again from scratch! Why didn't they just find people who believed exactly like they do in the first place, and then be able to stay on the field without having to come back so often?

In my case it was a lot different. I was able to stay on the field for 7 years (I only came back a few times, and it was only for a few weeks each time). And I saw God use me there in Honduras in a mighty way! It was all because I chose not to compromise.

But, I also chose not to shut up! This, I was told was not a good thing. Again, missionaries told me never to say too much, especially in my prayer letter. They said I should only be "positive" and never "negative" and I should only tell about good things, and never talk about the bad. I chose not to follow this advice either, and oftentimes wrote in my prayer letter about the apostasy I saw not only in ravaged third world nations full of cults, but also within my own denomination. I chose to say what others wouldn't. And because of this, I've been told by more than a few people, "I love reading your prayer letter because you aren't afraid to say what others are thinking but don't have the guts to expose!" (I only wish it was Pastors who told me this! Instead it was usually just church members).

I also further made myself unlikeable because I asked questions about the Spanish Bible Issue. (For those of you who know the Independent Baptist Movement, you aren't supposed to "question" anything. You are just supposed to do!)

When I started on deputation as a missionary, I had to make a choice which Spanish Bible to use. From the get go, I realized that the Spanish Bible the vast majority of missionaries within my own denomination used (Independent Baptist) was corrupt, vile, and modernistic. (They all used the 1960 Spanish Bible). I realized right then that I could make things easy or hard. I could just use the corrupt version everyone else did and not say anything in order to get along with other men of God, or I could search out the issue and speak up about what I found. I chose to do the later, and I've been ridiculed, preached against, and even lamblasted from pulpits ever since. But I just wanted to take the pure words of God to the people God called me to, and not a perversion of it!

I then learned that every missionary, pastor, evangelist, Sunday School teacher, etc. all sooner or later come to that same crossroads in their ministry, where they have to make a choice, STAND FOR WHAT THEY KNOW IS RIGHT, or just compromise to get along with others and not rock the boat. I made my choice, and it lead to a loss of friendship, loss of monetary gain, and loss of pulpits to preach in. I didn't care. All I wanted was to speak the truth, even though it wasn't popular, and stand before God at the judgment with a clean conscience, knowing I didn't compromise just to get along with others.

This was the beginning of "preaching myself out of the ministry" because I soon learned later that modern fundamentalist are going apostate (if they aren't already). Those same missionaries who claimed to be KJV in English were using an equivalent of the RSV in Spanish, something dogmatically preached against in English, but adamantly defended in Spanish. That made no sense. But I soon learned it was because they did so for monetary gain, fame, and opportunites to preach for other pastors in their pulpits. (It was a political move, in order for them to look good and prosper in their movement, instead of stand for truth in their ministries).

As time went by, I learned that to stand for truth will not only cause you pain and suffering, but it will also draw many attacks from other Christians.

As I stood for the truth and pointed out the fact that most missionaries use a perverted Spanish Bible, I found myself not only spoken against, but adamantly hated and attacked by other Independent Baptists. One even put me on his website list as "The Number One Attacker of the 1960 Spanish Bible." This lead to even more preachers turning against me.

I also kept a daily journal of my time in Honduras and posted it on my website. I did so because I wanted people to see I actually did something for the Lord, and I wasn't on vacation like many other missionaries I met. But instead of people reading it and seeing how God worked with me and through me, they accused me of just "trying to make a name for myself," and called my journal "a ploy to try to make myself famous."

The attacks kept coming, and more and more I realized that I had to separate myself from many pastors, preachers, and ministers because they were heading in a direction I could not go. Many of them changed their positions from what they used to preach and went directly into apostasy. (I could show you letters, books, tapes, etc. of many a pastor who preached it right in the old days, but now is saying the exact opposite of what they used to!)

I learned that on the three most important doctrines: 1. Salvation, 2. Sanctification, and 3. The Scriptures, many a pastor had changed his position in order to get along with the crowd. And, I knew I couldn't go with them, so I preached harder against it.

Eventually, God blessed me with a wife, and I came back to the states to marry her. We went back to Honduras a few weeks later, and had a wonderful time together. That is until about a year or two later, when she woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me, "Honey, I just got saved tonight! All my life I THOUGHT I was saved, but tonight God dealt with me and showed me I was lost because I was trusting in my own righteousness and not in Jesus Christ's alone!"

This was wonderful, and being not afraid to speak up, I wrote about it in my prayer letter. I even had her type up her testimony (You can read it yourself at my website http://www.rrb3.com/), and we sent it out to people, expecting many pastors to be happy about it! (I mean, come on, wouldn't they love to hear the news that someone is no longer going to Hell!)

But what we found was the exact opposite. Many a pastor became angry, irate, and livid. They immediately began attacking my wife and I, saying things like, "You deceived your wife and talked her out of her salvation!" One pastor even called her a "retread" and branded me a "retreader." (Whatever that is!)

And as we went through the attacks, it became quite obvious that the only reason a person would get angry with someone getting saved, is because they most likely doubted they were saved as well! And it made me wonder if many pastors in our own movement were even born again, for they certainly didn't practice or show forth the fruits of the Spirit, rather they manifested the works of the flesh!

This made me want to preach the Gospel harder, and speak out even more against the rampant Shallow Evangelism we see today in Fundamentalist circles. For my wife was even in an Independent Baptist Church before we were married, and we both have personally seen many a shallow presentation of the Gospel, many times in those churches.

The harder I preached on salvation by FAITH alone in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the more angry pastors became and the more I was spoken against. One pastor even said, "Your new-fangled Gospel [of preaching faith in the blood] is a modernistic perversion." He then claimed a person was saved by their PRAYER pronounced with their LIPS, and not by faith at all!

It was like an episode of the Twilight Zone! Many of the pastors I knew and thought preached right were preaching something different, whether it was the anti-biblical "1,2,3, Pray after Me," or "Just ask Jesus into your Heart" Gospels. But they all had one thing in common, they all preached a BLOODLESS GOSPEL!

So I wrote a book entitled, "The 'Heresy' of the Sinner's Prayer." And posted it on my website, in hopes that others out there like my wife who were trusting in their REPEATING A PRAYER instead of in REPENTNG and TRUSTING THE BLOOD OF JESUS would see their lost condition and get saved. I was immediately branded a "heretic" and spoken against time and again. But I didn't let that stop me. I wrote another book entitled, "The Importance of the Blood," and then another: "What the Bible Says about Calling Upon the Lord." All of which were just plain Bible doctrine on the simple plan of salvation and the importance of trusting the blood atonement alone for salvation. (These can be read on my website: http://www.rrb3.com/).

Some people have read these books and said they are great! Others have read them and attacked them and me. And still others are undecided, trying to make sense of all this, not wanting to "rock the boat" or cause waves in their denominations. But one thing is for sure. I'm a very unpopular preacher, and people hate to even think that there could be lost people out there that are "religious'' but "lost" within their own churches.

But even the Apostle Paul said to the church of Corinth: "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Cor 13:5)

Now, if you preach this, then you are usually accused by many pastors as "Trying to talk someone out of their salvation." But is that even possible? If a guy is truly saved, wouldn't he know it??? Like one preacher years ago said, "If you can talk a guy out of his salvation, I've got to wonder if he was even saved to begin with!"

Many Fundamentalists preachers are now actually saying ridiculous things like, "A guy doesn't have to know anything to be saved!" What? He has to know he's lost! He has to know only Jesus can save Him! And, he has to know that unless he trusts the FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST (i.e. His SHED BLOOD), he'll never know the forgiveness of sins!

Others have even said, "Just come to Jesus the BEST WAY YOU KNOW HOW!" But this isn't biblical. What if a sinner comes to God the only way he knows how, but the way he knows is the WRONG WAY? Wouldn't he then still be lost and on his way to Hell!?

So there you have it. My entire ministry, I've just tried to "tarry by the stuff" and preach the Gospel plainly and simply so anyone can understand it. I've separated myself from those going apostate and chosen to stand for truth no matter what the cost. But it appears I've preached myself right out of the ministry, because very few others who claim to be "Fundamentalist Christians" desire to support me. Instead of at least praying for me, they would rather attack, ridicule, and lamblast me and put me down. But what evil have I done? Is it a crime to preach the BLOOD, the BOOK, and the BLESSED HOPE? It is in the eyes of many a modern Fundamentalist who desire fame, recognition, and the praise of his fellow man. That's why so many have chose to follow man-made METHODS and church PROGRAMS, instead of just rearing back and preaching the devil out of sinners and pointing them to Christ Crucified.

To me, the modern Fundamentalist movement has become a "political" body of "groupies" who desire to follow MEN instead of THE MAN Christ Jesus. Far too many have their fingers in the air to see which way the wind is moving, so they can join others who are headed in that direction. But what's wrong with just PREACHING the truth?! The problem with that is, you'll end up preaching yourself out of the ministry, just like I did. You won't have very many friends, you won't be asked to preach in very many pulpits, and you won't get much support. It's because you are viewed as a "Maverick" and a "Renegade" because you not are doing things the way everyone else within Modern Fundamentalist is doing it. So you must be bad.

But the question needs to be asked, "Is everything that modern Fundamentalism is doing right and biblical?" Because I'm not the only one who sees them headed the wrong way. I've met others like myself who choose TRUTH over TRADITION, because they are seeing the same thing my wife and I are seeing. They see how quickly modern Fundamentalists are apt to ATTACK, but are very seldom APT TO TEACH. And they too wonder why they are choosing to depart from sound biblical doctrine to go along with what everyone else is doing.

Are you a Fundamentalist, or a Funny-mentalist? Are you standing for truth no matter what the cost, or have you compromised in your ministry just to get along with others and fellowship with them? And, do you realize that that's just what the Pharisees of Old did? They chose position, power, and the praise of man over the truths of the scriptures. They became dictators over the people and kept them in check with the threat of excommunication. They ruled the people with their own set of rules instead of with the word of God.

Well, so ends my small treatise on why I preached myself out of the minstry. I chose TRUTH over TRADITION, SPEAKING OUT over SHUTTING UP, and SUFFERING over political STATION. If I had it all to do over would I do it any differently? Not on your life!!! In fact, I would have preached harder! And, I would have spoken up and cried out against apostasy much sooner then I did. And that's what I'll continue to do.