A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

There are three major issues that are dividing the Independent Baptist movement. First is the issue of which Bible is the Word of God. Second is the issue of marriage and divorce and third is the issue of standards.

All three of these issues are the results of preachers being the authority instead of the Bible. Preachers go off to college and the college becomes the authority thereby teaching the preachers that they should be the authority when they graduate. After the college steals the Bible from the preachers it is natural for them to become the authority. Seeing he has no authority he cannot prove which Bible is the Word of God. Then the temptation is to go with the versions that are popular. These preachers criticize the KJV only preachers as being church splitters, trouble makers and

even “KJV only” cult leaders. Now this division has divided the Independent Baptist and rightly so seeing the KJV is the Word of God. I will not deal with this issue any further seeing men like Dr. Ruckman, the late Dr. David Reagan, Dr. William Grady and many others have great works on this subject.

We come to the marriage, divorce and remarriage issue and we find that both KJV believers and these who do not accept the KJV as the Word of God are on both sides of this issue. The group who says there are no grounds for divorce and remarriage have come to that opinion because of the brethren or due to a hatred of Dr. Ruckman. They will lie and twist the scripture to prove their point (see the work on Ronnie Simpson's book on this website). A friend of mine was talking to one who believes this doctrine, he told him if Jesus Christ stood before him and told him he was wrong, he would say Jesus was wrong and he said, “ That is right.” To show the hypocrisy of this crowd, one of their top preachers who has a large campmeeting in Georgia went and preached a revival for Jack Wood even though he would not call on Bro. Jack to preach in his campmeeting. He knew he would receive a good offering. Was this his motive? The best book on this subject is, “Divorce And Remarriage” by Guy Duty.

The third division, standards, is probably the one that will finish the Independent movement off. The churches that are straight on all three issues are starting to refer to themselves not as Independent, but as Bible Believers. This third one is the one I want to deal with in this article.

In order to keep a crowd, preachers have compromised on standards knowing that is not what the people want to hear. II Timothy 4:3 To lower their compromise they attacked the few who are preaching Bible standards. The following is from an article taken from the Rapture Report called Tali ban Baptist: “A preacher who attended (BBF) Fellowship meeting, in Salem, New Hampshire, he observed that many of the speakers mentioned 'new winds' that are blowing among Fundamental Baptist. They warned of those who worry about such things as women's dress, long hair on men, rock music and contemporary praise. Those who still preach against such things (and they are few indeed) we called Tali ban Baptist.” I heard of a preacher who said that anyone who preached on women wearing pants more than once a year was perverted. I say if they don't, they like to see the shape of the women's bodies and especially the buttocks and crouch area.

In order to cover their compromise, there are preachers who say that it is their job to get people saved and the Holy Spirit's job to clean them up. I would like to say that if that be true, the Holy Spirit is a failure. When I hear a preacher say it is the job of the Holy Spirit to clean a person up, I think to myself, that is the most stupid statement on the work of the Holy Spirit I have ever heard. Now for you that disagree with me, prove it from the scriptures and I will put it on this website. Why don't you admit that you are spineless and more concerned about your pay check, parsonage, pulpit, popularity, prestige, noses and nickels.

Everybody has standards. The problem is how those standards are arrived at. Any way but by the Word of God is personal opinion and I could care less what that is. To further your study, please listen to the message “Everybody Has Standards”  and also read the booklet Deuteronomy 22:5 online or order the booklet from Bible Believer's Baptist Church.

Considering the way the Independent Baptist are compromising, count me in with the KJV Bible Believers!