I live alone, so I get lonely. I am on the mailing list for the First Baptist Church of Pensacola (FBCP). I admire and like their senior pastor, Dave Snyder, who is originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He became the pastor of FBCP in 2018. I am originally from Chicago, so we're both Midwest boys. Anyway, I received an invitation to attend their Christmas Eve service and I gladly went, just to get out of the house on Christmas Eve. Being alone is no fun.
I had a good time and enjoyed singing Christmas carols. There must have been 1,000 people in attendance. The church was packed, except for some empty extra charis set out in the aisles, one of which I was sitting in. I took several photos below, so you can see what I saw. But first I want to say a word of disappointment. The FBCP used to use the New International Version (NIV), but when Pastor Snyder came in 2018 he changed it to the English Standard Version (ESV). I hate both the NIV and the ESV because they are horribly corrupted.
During tonight's Christmas Eve service, as the Scripture was read, I immediately knew that something was very wrong when I heard what the pastor read from the ESV. This first passage almost made me fall off my chair, which was read from Luke 2:14. ...
ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION (ESV) - Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
I knew that was way wrong. Here is what the inspired King James Bible reads...
KING JAMES BIBLE (KJB) - Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
The Greek word for “good will” is eudokia and means “kindness, delight, satisfaction” toward mankind, unconditionally, regarding the birth of the Savior. This verse DOES NOT mean what the ESV says, that God's good will is conditional upon men pleasing God. Where in the world did the ESV translators get this erroneous idea from? They have completely altered and corrupted the meaning of this verse. The angel announced peace and good will toward man because the Savior was about to be born in a manger. Jesus was God the Father's gift to the world! The ESV is corrupt!
As the service at FBCP continued, I heard the pastor read the following Scripture passage from the ESV, and again I cringed as I heard him read it...
ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION (ESV) - “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
KING JAMES BIBLE (KJB) - John 1:5, “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
The Greek word for “comprehended” is katalambano, which means “to take eagerly,” that is, to seize, possess.” The 54 King James Bible translators wisely understood this to mean that the unsaved man cannot understand the things of God, because they are spiritually discerned (1st Corinthians 2:14-16). For the lost sinner who is destined to perish in the Lake of Fire for eternity, the preaching of the Gospel that can save them is FOOLISHNESS (1st Corinthians 1:18). That is what John 1:5 means when it says that the darkness could not comprehend the light. The whole concept of being “born again” makes no sense to the unsaved man, as evidenced by Jesus' interaction with Nicodemus in John 3:1-7. Nicodemus had a hard time grasping what Jesus was trying to teach him about the necessity of the new birth.
Here again is what the ESV errantly reads...
ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION (ESV) - “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
There is a 180° difference between not being able to comprehend the light of the truth of the Gospel, as versus the darkness not being able to overcome the light. The ESV doesn't even make any sense! Verse 6 tells us that God sent John the Baptist to bear witness to the light, to lead lost sinners to Jesus Christ to be saved. The purpose of John's entire ministry was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, who would bring men true eternal salvation.
I had a bitter/sweet time tonight at the First Baptist Church of Pensacola. I sure wish that they would burn those damnable ESV perversions of God's Word, and go back to using only the King James Bible that the church used 100 years ago. By the way the FBCP was founded in 1848, before the Civil War. The church has a rich heritage to be proud of, but sadly are dishonoring God by using, selling and promoting Satan's corruptible seed. The only inspired Words of God today are in the King James Bible.
Here are several photos that I took tonight during the Christmas Eve service...
Unfortunately, they preach the Devil's lie of Lordship Salvation at FBCP. Sadly, the Gospel was not preached tonight. The service was open to the public. What a missed opportunity to share the Gospel with a thousand people! Pastor Snyder merely said that we must turn from the darkness to the light by trusting in Jesus. That's all he said! Any hellbound Roman Catholic, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Church of Christ, Lutheran or United Methodist infidel wouldn't have had any qualms with Pastor Snyder's weak, watered-down and vague salvation message.
We were all given personal candles, and then lit each other's candles
I was holding a candle in my left hand, taking photos in the right...lol
The church's main sanctuary is humongous!
A close-up zoom from the back where I was sitting
Pastor Dave Snyder is a good man, but messed up doctrinally as a pastor.
Christmas Eve Service 2024
Pastor Snyder never mentioned Jesus' death on the cross for our sins, nor Christ's burial, nor His physical resurrection from the dead three days later. Those three things comprise THE GOSPEL according to 1st Corinthians 15:1-4. And no Gospel presentation would be complete without warning people that we must NOT add any self-righteous works; such as, turning from our sinful behavior, following Christ as the “Lord” of our life, getting water baptized, keeping the Sabbath, keeping sacraments, church membership, or anything else. Sadly, I sincerely doubt if even 5% of the 1,000 people present tonight were born-again believers.
Jesus plainly warned in John 3:3b that “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The new birth is not optional. I don't care if you have been a faithful member of a Baptist church for 50 years, that won't get you to Heaven. I was so disappointed with Pastor Snyder this evening. No doubt there were many unsaved people present tonight who will never come back. Some will die of old age or disease. Others will move away. Some just won't come back. To tell someone vaguely to “trust Jesus” says so little. The Apostle Paul's defines the Gospel in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4...
1st Corinthians 15:1-4, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”
Telling a bunch of lost sinners to “trust Jesus” is not enough to get them saved. They must first forsake their trust in religion, They must forsake their trust in the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic cult. They must repent (change their mind) to stop trusting in their own human effort to reform, clean up their life of sin and live a holy life to get to Heaven, et cetera. Getting saved requires ceasing from all else and resting only in Christ (Hebrews 4:10-11).
A preacher's goal should never be not to offend the audience; but rather, to warn them about the coming judgment of God in the fires of Hell for unrepentant sinners, and the free gift of God which is available through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. Some people may accuse me of splitting hairs and being picky, but I humbly think not. I just believe that in any public service, a clear Gospel presentation should always be given to the audience. To merely tell an audience to leave the darkness and trust in the light of Jesus is lame at best.
Let's face it, people are confused nowadays about the Bible, salvation and God. They have been taught all kinds of lies by religious false prophets, greedy television evangelists, who are all dangerous wolves in sheep's clothing. I find that most pastors today are afraid of offending anyone, so they intentionally speak with vague words to coddle the crowd. We need old fashioned preachers once again, like Billy Sunday, who spoke the truth without apology.
If I had the opportunity and privilege to speak to 1,000 people (and I do by God's grace through my blogs), I would tell them that adding anything to faith alone in Jesus negates faith. Partial faith in Christ plus something more cannot produce the necessary new birth. Trusting in Christ plus water baptism is mere dead religion, and cannot produce the new birth. Faith in Christ plus being willing to turn away from your sinful bad habits, cannot produce the required birth. Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do!
The only reason that I am going to Heaven is because at the age of 13 I realized that I was a guilty sinner in God's sight. I trusted in the name of Jesus as my personal Savior, believing that He died for my sins on the cross. He was buried. Then, three days later Jesus resurrected from the dead and went to Heaven. I am only trusting in Jesus because of what He did through Calvary's cross to pay for my debt of sin, to get me to Heaven.
The life that I choose to live has absolutely NOTHING to do with God's free gift of eternal life. If I chose tomorrow to go out and live like the Devil, it wouldn't affect my salvation one iota. I might lose some rewards in Heaven, and lose God's hand of blessing upon my life, but my gift of eternal life would not be in jeopardy. That is what the Bible means in Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”
Pastor M.R. DeHaan (1891-1965) said it very well...
"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness." —Pastor M.R. DeHaan, “Hebrews”; Zondervan Publishing House; 1959 (p. 117)
I love this quote from my ministry friend, Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold...
“There is power in this Gospel message. Most people just don't know how to present it... The clarity of the Gospel is what makes it easy for them to believe.”—Pastor Yankee Arnold, “WHY GRACE CAN SAVE THE WORST MAN!”
Pastors are guilty of not making God's simple plan of salvation crystal clear to lost sinners. To merely tell someone to “trust Jesus” leaves them in the dark. They also need to acknowledge that they are a guilty sinner (Romans 3:19-20; 1st John 1:8-10). They also need to acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the only begotten Son of God (John 20:31). They also need to acknowledge that Jesus died on a cross for their sins, was buried and resurrected three days later (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). They need to cease from all works (Hebrews 6:1).
I guarantee you that if you ask any hellbound Roman Catholic if they are trusting Jesus, they will immediately say, “Yes.” So will any hellbound Mormon. You get the picture. The hardest part about getting people saved is first getting them lost. Most religious people mistakenly think they are going to Heaven (as evidenced by Luke 13:23-24 and Matthew 7:21-23). Jesus said in Luke 13:24, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” From listening to the shallow, lame, empty and devoid salvation invitations given by today's compromised pastors, I can see why Jesus said that.
I have been to other services at the FBCP, but I rarely go because of their position on Lordship Salvation. I attended their 10:45 am Traditional Service one Sunday (they also have a Contemporary Service at 8:15 am). I cringed when I heard Pastor Snyder preach the Devil's lie of Lordship Salvation. He foolishly taught that to get to Heaven, you must follow Jesus as your “Lord,” and turn away from your sinful ways. This is NOT the Gospel found in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4. He didn't preach Lordship Salvation tonight, but he didn't preach the Gospel either. It was so vague tonight that no one could have been converted from darkness to light by the lame message he gave. I guarantee you that many of the people who attended the church this evening, wrongly have been taught elsewhere that works are required to be saved. I felt like crying as I listened to his wishy-washy words.
The FBCP Is An Ecumenical Disgrace
I went tonight because they announced that we would all be singing Christmas carols. Sadly, they had a guy on stage playing a guitar with a woman next to him, singing Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) that annoyed me. The old-time religion is dead folks! The FBCP is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). They pay an annual membership fee of $50,000. That money sure could feed a lot of local homeless people on the street at Christmas. Did you know that the average salary paid to SBC employees is $38 an hour. That is sickening when the average American is fortunate if they earn $19 an hour (half). I detest the ungodly Southern Baptist Convention with their ecumenism, misunderstood repentance (aka, 'turn from your sins' to be saved garbage), Lordship Salvation, CCM, Satanic perverted Bible revisions and worldliness. It's a crying shame how pathetic churches have become.
Only two of the Christmas hymns that we sang tonight were sang as written from the hymnal, the others were modified to include CCM, which ruined the evening in my humble opinion. The younger fella with the guitar and the woman singing along with him, kept going off on a tangent singing something contemporary. Each time they did that, I heard the people around me stop singing, and no one new the melodies to follow along with. It was terrible! I hate CCM. I love the old hymns as written. I dread today's 7/11 music (i.e., 7 words repeated 11 times).
It breaks my heart to see the old big church in downtown Pensacola so ecumenical—full of dead CCM, wrong on repentance, preaching another gospel of Lordship Salvation, hobnobbing with apostates like SBC president J.D. Greear, going through the motions of playing church—worse than the lukewarm church of Laodicea. Did you know that J.D. Greear advocates for homosexual rights? The FBCP shamefully supports this by being a member of the SBC! The FBCP took in $4,900,000 of donations in 2023. Wow!
I thank God that I was saved in an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church—where only the King James Bible was used, and only a free grace Gospel was preached (or I wouldn't have been born age at age 13), and we only sang the old timeless hymns of the faith (none of this modern contemporary crap), and a public invitation was given to receive Christ at the end of the service. Every time I visit the FBCH, I feel so sorry for all those misguided people. They are being led by an ecumenical fool for a pastor, who doesn't know what he is doing.
To make matters worse, they must have had some serious trouble in the past at FBCP, because they always have a strong police presence. They had an armed cop at the entrance door, scrutinizing everyone who entered the church, with two squad cars outside the church. That is creepy if you ask me. This is a typical occurrence every Sunday at their church. It is a crying shame that you have to have multiple police officers with guns standing watch at church services these days. Truly, apostasy has set in like rigor mortis across the United States of America. For all the aforementioned reasons, I only attended the FBCP about once or twice a year, just to visit and say hello to a few casual friends I have made over there.
They're not bad people at the FBCP, but their pastors have been deceived by the Devil. Lordship Salvation is a perversion of God's grace; it is not the Gospel. Repentance simply means a change of mind; it doesn't mandate a change of behavior to get to Heaven. Dear friend, you must be absolutely as righteous as Jesus Christ Himself to enter into Heaven. Obviously that is impossible for anyone. That is why Jesus took your place when He died on the cross. Jesus paid your debt of sin (and mine) with His precious blood.
All God requires for you to be saved is that you come as a needy sinner by faith (taking God at His written Word). Simply receive Christ's sacrifice on the cross as full payment for your sins, believing that died, was buried and physically resurrected from the dead these days later. You get saved by simply believing that Jesus did it all for you. When you believe these truths, God who can read your mind, saves you instantly, irrevocably and eternally.
At the moment of faith, God transfers all your sins to Jesus, and transfers all of His righteousness to you, so that forevermore your POSITION in Christ is settled. You now appear in the sight of God the Father as righteous as His only begotten Son. This is God's imputed righteousness (Romans 4:5-7, 10:3-4; Philippians 3:9). No one can go to Heaven without God's imputed righteousness. By the way, don't bother looking for the word “impute” in the English Standard Version (ESV), because you won't find it. This is just another reason why you should only use the inspired King James Bible. You will find the word “impute” mentioned 8 times in the New Testament of a King James Bible, but not once in an ESV New Testament.
Thank you for reading my blog dear friend and God bless.
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