Matthew 13:13-15, “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”
Sometimes people only hear what they want to hear. I remember a humorous incident many years ago at a former job. I was walking with a co-worker toward the lunch room and a pretty woman passed by walking the other direction. My co-worker said to her, “Hi.” She totally ignored him. So as he walked away he blurted out the “B word” for a female dog. She immediately replied with anger: “What did you say to me?” He responded, “I said 'Hi'.” He was telling the truth, he had said “Hi” to her but she ignored him. She just chose to hear only what she wanted to hear.
Now, although I don't think he should have called her a female dog, it does well illustrate a big problem in churches that I see today. People only hear what they want to hear. Or better said, people only respond to what they choose to act upon. It has been rightly said that the smallest Bible in the world is the one that we live. If you think about that statement it is sadly true! Our biggest problem as fundamentalist Baptist Christians is that we often fail to live what we know. We are often guilty of selective hearing.
I just got a tornado warning on my mobile phone for the Pensacola area. That means a tornado has been spotted in the area. It is 8:45 am. The warning told me to go into a basement, but the hotel doesn't have a basement! What do I do? What do I do? It is amazing how many decisions we make each day without even realizing it. I think I'll just keep writing my blog and take my chances.
Let me make a practical application of the truth I am wanting to convey to you today. I recently met Pastor Jeff Redlin. He is the senior pastor of Campus Church in Pensacola. For those who know me, you know that I don't bite my tongue, I speak my mind. I do mention the names of people. Most preachers avoid naming names so as to not offend people. My humble opinion is that mentioning names gets my point across much more effectively. People tend to sit up and pay attention much more when you use names!
I told pastor Redlin that I had moved 9,000 miles from Guam to Pensacola and am having a hard time. I told him that my neck hurts badly all the time. I told him that my doctor reduced my pain medications by more than half, causing more neck pain. I told him that I was living out of a suitcase in cheap hotel. I also told him that I was divorced and hoping to find a wife at Campus Church. Who could blame a guy for that? Pastor Redlin ignored me for 10 days when I emailed him.
I didn't want to jump to any conclusions so I went to speak with him after the Sunday morning service. When he brushed me off I then knew that he had ignored my email, and it hurt my feelings. So I wrote to him the next day and told him that he “made me feel like garbage.” I was disappointed in him further when he had only heard what he wanted to hear. He never once expressed any sympathy or empathy for my suffering and loss. Pastor Redlin never once offered to pray with me. He never once said a word of encouragement. In a very immature and shallow manner, he berated me for seeking a wife at his church. He was offended that I had said he “made me feel like garbage.”
In hindsight, I am not impressed with Jeff Redlin at all. I do think highly of pastors in general, but I know when someday doesn't care, and Pastor Redlin doesn't care. He is guilty of selectively caring about people. This doesn't surprise me because it has been the greatest sin of the Pensacola Christian College (PCC) camp for generations, staying neutral in the things of God. Pastor Jack Hyles said it best:
“God has a special rebuke, again and again and again in the Bible, toward those people who keep their neutrality in the work of God!” —SOURCE: Dr. Jack Hyles, a quote from the great MP3 sermon, “Where Were You In The Battle?”
I am so sick and tired of fundamentalist Baptists who refuse to fight in the battle today! PCC refuses to fight! Please take a look at the Satanic Calvinist doctrine being preached at Bob Jones University today by their damnable president, Dr. Steve Pettit! That is the Devil's lie of “Lordship” salvation! According to Steve Pettit you cannot just say that you've accepted Christ and “know” that you are eternally secure in God's promise of salvation. Dr. Pettit errantly preaches that you won't know for certain that you have made it to Heaven until you finally get there! That is the lie of Calvinism, aka, the heresy called: The Perseverance Of The Saints.
I believe what Pastor Harry Ironside (1876-1951) believed—in the perseverance of the indwelling Holy Spirit, not the perseverance of the saints. I believe in the PRESERVATION OF THE SAINTS. Amen! Steve Pettit is an unsaved damnable false teacher! Anybody who denies the immediate new birth is a liar! You CAN in fact get saved and write your name, date and place you were born-again in your Bible, and you CAN live like the Devil for the rest of your life and still KNOW that you are going to Heaven as God's redeemed child. That is why eternal life is a free gift (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9). God doesn't want us to continue in sin (Romans 3:31), but when we do sin God's saving grace will abound (Romans 5:20).
Having said that, Pensacola Christian College (PCC) is eerily silent about the wickedness at Bob Jones University that I just shared with you. Unlike Jeff Redlin and the rest of the PCC camp, I am not a coward! It disturbs me that fundamentalist Christians today only see what they want to see. I have been attending the Campus Church. They have about 10,000 members. They have a gigantic magnificent building. They have first-class music. The pulpit sermons are dry at best and lack fiery preaching! Sadly, Campus Church does not stand! They refuse to cry aloud against the false teachers in the Bob Jones University camp!
What saith the Scripture? Jude 1:3, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Titus 1:13-14, “This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.” How many Christians contend for the faith today? I have rebuked numerous pastors sharply in private, but they were arrogant and some forced me out of their church, as did the ungodly corrupt Harvest Baptist Church on Guam for seven years (2014-2021). It is wickedness!!!
All across the world today, especially the source in the United States, “Lordship” salvation is being taught and preached in churches, Bible colleges and religious organizations. And sadly, among the Bible colleges and churches which don't teach it, they refuse to expose the bad ones that do. Consequently, the heresy of Lordship Salvation has spread like a California wildfire, burning down people's lives and sending them to an eternal doom in the Lake of Fire.
It is a big deal folks! We have no right to only hear what we want to hear. I have been attending the Campus Church for a couple months and haven't heard one word spoken against anything! They don't preach, they give speeches. They don't stand, they go along with the trend. I dare them to prove me wrong!
Pastor Redlin only heard what he wanted to hear when I emailed him. All he focused on was that I told him that he'd “made me feel like garbage,” and he sure did. You'd think he would have apologized and left it at that, but he didn't. He made excuses and rebuked me for seeking a wife at church. Kindly said, Jeff Redlin has a problem and needs to learn how to treat people better.
He didn't want to hear that I was sleeping in my car at Wal-Mart's parking lot when I told him at the 4th of July picnic in 2021. That was my first day at Campus Church. I'll never forget the startled look on his face when I told him I was sleeping in Wal-Mart's parking lot, and how he got away from me as fast as he could, lest he need to help a hurting homeless brother. 1st John 3:17, “But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” How sad. God knows that I wasn't asked for Pastor Redlin's help. At the time I didn't even know who he was. I was simply sharing with him my burden. But Pastor Redlin's response was pathetic. He didn't want to help. First impressions are lasting impressions. That “Oh no, he might want my help, so I better walk away quickly” attitude is exactly what is wrong with the entire PCC camp today!!!
I recently noticed that student's from BJU and PCC compete in intercollege sports. That bothers me folks! BJU's female basketball team “The Bruins” compete against PCC's female team “The Eagles.” These Bible colleges play sports together, hobnob and rub shoulders together in fellowship, while PCC never speaks a word of rebuke against the Lordship Salvation and corrupt Devil's Bible revisions at BJU. I am sick and tired of bad pastors criticizing and dismissing the life's work of Pastor Peter S. Ruckman (1921-2016) because of his two divorces and problematic life.
Having said that, I don't agree one bit with Dr. Ruckman's heresy that Old Testament saints were saved by works. Salvation has always been by faith alone in Christ (Acts 10:43). But Dr. Ruckman has done the Christian world a great service by providing us with a defense of the King James Bible. Pastor Ruckman correctly identified Bob Jones University as the Alexandrian cult. In fact, he called them cult headquarters! Nothing is destroying churches today like the Devil's perverse Bible revisions. Words matter to architects, bankers, lawyers, businessmen, politicians, scientists and in every contract that we sign; yet today's lame brain pastors and Bible college professors would have us to believe that words don't really matter to God. Wake up folks! Wake the hell up! It's time to smell the coffee and get out of your slumber.
We've got a big problem in our churches and religious institutions today. People just don't care anymore about the things they ought to care about. We're all guilty at times of only hearing what we want to hear, instead of paying attention to the little details. Right doctrine matters! People matter! Pastor Jeff Redlin horribly made me feel like garbage as a divorced person. Sadly, he is okay with that and doesn't care. There is something wrong with a pastor who doesn't even bother to comfort a hurting man. Even after I poured out my heart in a lengthy email, telling him kindly about my long battle with neck pain, he didn't care. I even sent him photos of my x-ray, MRI and a thermal scan of my neck, so he could see my suffering.
Do you know that Pastor Jeff Redlin didn't even bother to respond? It is sad but true! He is the senior pastor at Campus Church! The guy could of at least wrote back and said, “We love you at Campus Church David. I'm sorry for your pain and loss. I just prayed for you. God still has a purpose for your life and we hope you will serve the Lord with us here at Campus Church. Lord willing, we look forward to seeing you Sunday.” I would have been happy with that. He just blew me off. I spent two hours composing my e-mail to him. He's probably make some excuse that he is busy. Remember, I already told him a few days earlier that he made me feel like garbage! If somebody told you that you made them feel like garbage, would you ignore them? Yes, you would if you don't care. Today's pastors are pathetic!!!
I see a big problem in our fundamentalist institutions today, which is that professed Christians don't care. Pastors have become mere employees. Bible colleges are merely about academics. All across America we've got Bible college graduates, academic types, who woefully lack compassion for hurting people. I even told Pastor Redlin that sometimes hurting people just want to know that somebody cares, yet he didn't care. I told him that people just want to be loved, but there was no love from him. Perhaps he has no love to give, because he has no true walk with God. The Lord will be his judge, not me.
I've heard Redlin speak of God's love from the pulpit, and emphasize the importance that all of God's children love others, even those people who dress talk and think differently than we do. I couldn't agree more! Yet, why didn't he apply his preaching to himself when it came to me? Why wouldn't he show me God's love? Why didn't he care about me as a hurting human being? Pastor Redlin said that someone sent him my ministry websites. He had nothing good to say about my life's work, not one kind or encouraging word! That speaks volumes about his phoniness as a pastor. All he had to say was a word of criticism. He said that him and his clergy associates noticed that I find “weaknesses in pastors.” I replied that what he calls “weakness” is actually hardcore damnable heresy and wickedness. Pastor John MacArthur does not have a “weakness” in teaching “Lordship” Salvation, he is a damnable false teacher who needs to be exposed. The PCC camp refuses to stand. That is not a “weakness,” it is WICKEDNESS!!!
PCC is like a man who knows that his neighbour is committing a crime, but looks the other way. They don't want to get involved. They don't want to make enemies or become controversial. That is why PCC is growing massively today in popularity, because it is all good and no bad. They want to serve God and mind their own business. The problem is that no man is an island to himself. Everything that we say and do in some manner affects other people. PCC allows their students to compete in sports with apostate institutions like Bob Jones University (BLU), but they refuse to expose their false teaching. In so doing they are guilty of being partakers of their evil deeds at Bob Jones. 2nd John 1:11, “For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”
What really irritates me is that the pastors of Campus Church look down their Pharisaical noses on my website ministry. Pastor Redlin had nothing good to say about my 19 years of hard work. That tells me that the ungodly PCC attitude of isolationism causes them to resent and even condemn faithful preachers like me who STAND. Shame on the pastors of Campus Church and the entire PCC camp! Truth matters! Right doctrine matters! Ironically they would be the first people to agree with those exclamatory statements. Yet, their actions deny their words, because if truth really mattered then today's pastors would cry aloud against the false teachings which are prevalent in churches and Bible colleges today.
Please understand that I am not saying the PCC camp hasn't been a blessing, it has. Millions of people have been saved, lives changed and churches built by their faithful work. But they need to do much better! What about the millions of people who are dying in their sins and going to Hell, because Pastor John MacArthur and the Harvest Baptist Church on Guam lied to them? Ladies and gentlemen, we've got multiple plans of salvation circulating in our churches and Bible colleges today. I am rebuking them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, just as Titus 1:13 commands me to do! Sadly, my preaching has fallen on deaf ears! The Bob Jones University crowd are full of hubris and arrogance, subverted of themselves.
I once watched a very interesting 12-hour documentary by historian film producer, Ken Burns, on 'The American Civil War.' It is heartbreaking history! I just heard a quote in the film by President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) that caught my attention:“In great contests [battles], each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God—both may be, but one must be, wrong—God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time!” —President Abraham Lincoln
The Free Grace crowd (Harry Ironside, Jack Hyles, Curtis Hutson, Max Younce, Ralph Yankee Arnold, Steven Anderson, myself, et cetera) believe that you can be eternally saved without giving up any sins; but the Lordship Salvation crowd (John MacArthur, Bob Jones University, Steve Pettit, Marty Herron, Billy Graham, Harvest Baptist Church on Guam, John Piper, Adrian Rogers, Ray Comfort, Paul Washer, et cetera) teach that you cannot be saved unless you repent by turn away from your sinning. For example: here is what Ray Comfort preaches...
“So if the plane goes down, you'd end up in Hell! There are two things you have to do to be saved. Do you remember what they are? I told you what they are—You've got to repent and trust the Savior! ... God's offering you everlasting life upon your repentance and faith in Christ. Who in his right mind wouldn't say, 'Whoa! That's a good offer!' (The curious woman asks what it means to “repent”?)... Have you ever said you're sorry to someone you did something wrong to? That's all repentance is—You've sinned against God; it's a matter of saying, 'God, I'm sorry,' and then LIVING A LIFESTYLE that proves the reality of your repentance. That's what repentance is, it's a continual thing! God, 'I'm sorry, but I'm not going going to lie or steal or blaspheme Your name ever again. It has that attitude! And the second thing—trust in Jesus!” [emphasis added] SOURCE
That is also what Dr. Steve Pettit (president of Bob Jones University since 2014) perversely teaches to their 2,600 students at BJU. It is wickedness!!! Why doesn't the PCC camp expose them? Why don't they care? Why do they allow their students to play sports together? Do you see friend how messed up our churches and Bible colleges are today? We say that truth matters, but our behavior says they we really don't believe that! If truth mattered, then PCC would rebuke the Bob Jones crowd and have nothing to do with them. It is apostasy!
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