Head of World’s Largest IFB Church & College Apologizes for THIS Scandalous, Inexcusable Sin
Pastor John Wilkerson, the chancellor of Hyles-Anderson College and the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, has torn his garments, heaped ashes on his forehead, and issued a heartfelt apology for allowing a speaker with moderately long hair to reference the NIV during a presentation on Creation at a college and church event.
No stranger to controversy, FBC Hammond is the biggest and most prominent Independent Fundamentalist Baptist church in the country that also operates Hyles-Anderson, the biggest and most prominent Independent Fundamentalist Baptist college in the country.
The decision to invite folk from the Creation Evidence Expo was blasted as an unadulterated and inexcusable “compromise” in an Old Paths Journal feature, where the author reveals both his “heartbreak” at learning that one of the presenters was a member of a Reformed church and that they would dare engage in such morally decrepit and sinful behavior:
“I received a text from a pastor with a picture that showed a long haired hippie (David Litty) 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.”
The horror.
Armed with an inability to exegete his way out of a paper bag, the thoroughly disgusted author insists that “ecclesiastical separation is still a command in the Scriptures” and cites 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?” as a proof text for why “a member of a reformed church has no business teaching in a Baptist pulpit.”
He also quotes 2 Thessalonians 3:6 “withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us” and opines “the 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.”
This ‘scandal’ has reached the furthest echelons of IFB church and college quarters, with President and Pastor Wilkerson offering some public ‘mea-culpas’ in a recorded video posted to social media:
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 and 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 set or shown in some ways, and I think I hurt many people.
I grieve that I embarrassed the First Baptist Church family for 136 years have been serving Christ and (staying?) by the stuff. 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…
and
And I would like to just say, please forgive me, but also, I want to say ‘thank you’, for the many folks who have loved us and stayed faithful to pray that God would give us wisdom and help and strength to keep going. I plead with you: pray that God will help me make good decisions…
How very pitiful, pathetic and sad.
About Author
The long hair IS a turn-off; but the real question is, why would a reformed guy want to speak there? As a reformed, former “IFB” (never heard it called by initials until a few years ago) person, there are just too many weird things to address here.
Pretty certain that God cares more about our hearts than our wardrobe, and the hair thing is simply idiotic. Religion sucks.
Was there an apology for Peter Ruckman buried in there that I missed ?
That would be encouraging 😏
It was buried in a salad. No wonder you missed it.
Proverbs 23:2
Hyles and Hammond are the gifts that keep on giving.
Pastor Wilkerson is a wonderful Christian man who loves the Lord. Long hair is about gender distinction, the NIV is about corrupting the word of God, and to Mr. Alex, “Hyles and Hammand are gifts that keep on giving”, it was at that church in 1994 that I trusted Christ as my Saviour, it changed my life. I am very thankful that God used the church to reach me with the gospel and I am thankful that I still am a Bible-Believing Baptist.