7: History of the IFB Part 4 - The Growth of the IFB

This is the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring to light the legalism and abuse in the independent fundamental Baptist movement, and to encourage believers to grow in grace through the scriptures. Now, here's your host, John Holyfield. Welcome back, everybody, to the For Freedom Podcast. I am your host, John Holyfield. It's good to be back, and we're going to be continuing today into our series on the history of the IFB. We had a great time last time with Matthew Lyon and his take on John R. Rice. Quite honestly, Matthew could have sat there. We could have discussed the old topic. We could have talked about Norris. I could have him on just basically discussing this whole subject. And I think I'm going to try to get him back whenever I'm going to do some episodes on maybe not more than one. I'd like to just keep it to one on the whole idea that is taught in the IFB movement. It's not completely held by the IFB movement, but the majority of this teaching is in the IFB movement. And that is the idea of Baptist successionism. It's mainly pushed out there by the Trail of Blood booklet. But most IFB churches and colleges teach that the Baptist church is the only church that's ever existed since the apostles. They're not Protestants. They didn't break off of the Catholic church and all that kind of stuff. And so it's a very erroneous viewpoint and very, very bad history done on that. I'm going to examine that. I may have Matthew back for doing that episode because he's got some great comments and insights into that section. But I'm going to continue on doing the history of the IFB. And so we started off with Norris, taking it from the 20s, the fundamentalist movement, and then sort of connected that with Rice, taking that through the 30s, 40s. Norris dies in 52. And then you get to John R. Rice and his ministry blossoms. Now, Matthew and I took the episode to John R. Rice's death and then talked a little bit about his impact. John R. Rice dies in 1980. And I'm going to come back to that. But what I want to cover today is really getting into where the IFB sort of starts to become its own, expand in around the late 50s, mainly the 60s, 70s. I want to get up to the 80s. And then I want to do another episode basically just covering Jack Hiles. And I'll explain why in a little bit. Justin Taylor is a writer for the Gospel Coalition. And he wrote on, has an article on their website if you want to look it up, on fundamentalism. He said this, For example, Bob Jones Jr. and Sr. needed only to speak a word of condemnation toward an individual or movement. And their hordes of preacher boys would immediately place such movements on their localized blacklist. And anybody that has spent considerable time in the IFB movement, especially around IFB colleges, will understand the truth to that statement. And that really took place. And so a lot of the separation and the hyper-separation, the third, second degree, first degree separation schisms that happened within the independent fundamental Baptist movement was largely because of this. Matthew, I think, alluded to this in the last episode. But at this point, the movement really becomes personality-driven. And megachurches start popping up. Now, I did a little study on churches a couple years ago and did some research on the largest churches in the country. And I think that the place that I was looking at, they categorize a megachurch on if the congregation or the membership is at about 2,000 or more. And literally, around the 60s and 70s, quite honestly, the IFB churches were becoming, it doesn't mean that they were the only megachurches, they were the only large churches, but for the most part, the IFB churches were the megachurches in the country. John R. Rice was going full steam ahead with his sword conferences. And also, you had what came together as this called the South Wide Baptist Fellowship that was sort of put on and promoted by Lee Roberson. Very few people read the Bible through. I got on quiz them sometimes. I mean, even people who go to church all of their lives and read the Bible every day, but they've never read it through. Jen, a revelation. And I recommend that you read the Bible through. If you're here tonight and you've never done so, then begin when you go home tonight and read four or five chapters and keep it up every day until you read your Bible completely through. The Word of God. Now, know your Bible and give thanks for the Word of God. Holy Bible, book divine. And read your Bible. Read it through, all of it. Now, what is your favorite chapter in the Bible? In your heart, you Bible students and teachers and preachers, you have one. And think of that. But maybe you don't have one. Well, you don't have to have one, but it's good if you do have. Rice worked with him, but Roberson and some others really came together with the Southwide Baptist Fellowship. Lee Roberson was the pastor of Highland Park Baptist Church there in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And then they started an IFB college, the Tennessee Temple University. Now, the Tennessee Temple University to this day has closed its doors. It's nonexistent. It's shut down. But Lee Roberson and John R. Rice, really John R. Rice is the leader of the movement during the 60s and 70s. Lee Roberson is becoming either right on par with him. He's a big leader. But through these major meetings, they begin to platform the pastors of many of these IFB megachurches that are popping up. So you've got these churches that are experiencing rapid growth. And because they're experiencing rapid growth, they begin to get a name for themselves. And guys like Roberson or Rice doing their conferences want to promote these guys. So they have them come speak at the conferences. And so then you have the traveling circuit of preachers. And I think the last episode, Matthew talked about in the 20s and 30s and 40s, the main medium for somebody to get their message out, the main thing that what you did was you had a paper. You had a periodical. And like the Sword of the Lord or the Searchlight, we talked about that. Well, at this time, 50s, 60s, 70s, during this time, that avenue shifted from the paper to radio. And so many of these guys also made a name for themselves through radio broadcast, hour-long radio broadcast. And so I want to talk about some of these guys as they began to make a name for themselves and became the names of the IFB as it grew. And so then it became sort of sectionalized across the country. You had, and they also, another thing they began doing was they started many Bible colleges. So each church, as it grew to a certain size, then began a Bible college. So the hubs then become also the Bible colleges. One of the guys that became a prominent name in the 50s, late 50s, early 60s, and was a colorful figure was Lester Roloff. And I tell you, though sometimes the butcher who sees it as it is seems to be a gloom peddler and almost sometimes a doom peddler, I'd have to still say I'm seeing less stirring among God's people than I've ever seen in my life. I'm going in and out of more unstirred churches than I've ever gone in and out among them. If I were to take you to my city of Corpus Christi without seeking to be critical but just using my hometown of 200,000 souls, I'd have to say that so far as I know in all of my absences and leavings, but I go and come, I do not know of one stir in Corpus for God. Not a one. Now, Lester Roloff was a bombastic preacher out of Corpus Christi, Texas. He pastored a couple of churches, bounced around, pastored a couple of churches, and the churches saw tremendous growth, actually. So he got known and started getting his name started to become more of something that people wanted to hear, got attention, his churches were growing. Then he started a radio program. So he was on the radio. He was also known for singing on the radio. Not sure that he had that great of a singing voice, but he sang. And he really started a movement within the movement. So Roloff begins what we know today as girls' and boys' homes. And he starts the first mission house in 1954. Now, that ends up blossoming, and then finally this culminates to him beginning the first girls' home in 1960. Now, like I said just a minute ago, this ends up becoming a movement within a movement, because within 30 years of this, you have boys' and girls' homes that are started by different people across the country. And it really becomes a pandemic in itself within the movement. And you can just listen to Eric Swarczynski's Preacher Boys podcast and some of the recent episodes he's had to see what kind of atrocities took place in these homes. And I'll just be honest with you. I'm getting this from Wikipedia. But in December 2001, Texas Monthly reported on the Rebecca Home for Girls, which Lester Roloff had started. And I'm going to read you this, because this is interesting. Discipline at the Rebecca Home was rooted in a verse from Proverbs, Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. The dictum was liberally applied. Local authorities first investigated the possible abuse of the Rebecca Home in 1973, when parents who were visiting their daughter reported seeing a girl being whipped. When welfare workers attempted to inspect the home, Roloff refused them entry on the grounds that it would infringe on the separation between church and state. This started a war between Lester Roloff and the government. Attorney General John Hill promptly filed a lawsuit against the Roloff Evangelistic Enterprises. And Roloff fought them. He was in and out of court. Roloff defended his methods as good old-fashioned discipline, silently supported by Scripture, and denied that any treatment at Rebecca constituted abuse. During an evidentiary hearing, he made his position clear by declaring, Better a pink bottom than a black soul. And the attorney replied to him, It wasn't pink bottoms he objected to, but ones that were blue, black, and bloody. Still refusing to submit his youth homes to state oversight, Roloff met with Hill, and with the Honeybee Quartet in tow, he prayed and wept for the salvation of Hill's soul. Unmoved, Hill pressed his case, and in 1974, a state district judge found Roloff in contempt of court and sentenced the preacher to five days behind bars. Roloff headed off to jail as he would two more times during the state's long-running case against him, wearing a smile and his well-worn Bible tucked under his arm. And quite honestly, he really became a martyr within the IFB movement. So you did not hear anything negative being said about Lester Roloff during his time around the IFB movement. Even 20 years later, I remember when I went to Bible college in 2005, Lester Roloff was still held as sort of a hero and a martyr because they attacked him. And, um, in 1979, an incident known as the Christian Alamo, Roloff urged churches and pastors across America who supported his ministry to come to Corpus Christi and form a human chain around the church to prevent the Texas Department of Human Resources from removing children from the homes. And, uh, again, this, these issues with the girls' homes is fostered so much abuse. And, uh, it is quite sad what happened there. Another guy that, uh, gained, uh, popularity during this time was, uh, a preacher by the name of Tom Malone. He said, don't rejoice because it looks like the people of God are down because they will arise. You can't keep God's people, God's man, God's woman, you can't keep them down. I like that kind of a person. I like the kind of a person that I feel like is always trusting the Lord for victory. I like the person that's on top. That's what God is talking about. When I shall fall, don't rejoice, my enemy, because I shall arise again. Tom Malone was actually a graduate from Bob Jones University. He pastored the Emanuel Baptist Church in Pontiac, Michigan, and started the Midwestern Baptist College in 1954. So here you have an IFB church. It becomes a mega church in the IFB. And he starts a Bible college. And so this is where you start to see the first implants of the southern fundamentalist movement really start to take roots in the north. And that is with Tom Malone. Next guy that, uh, that is really, uh, a name for himself is a guy that was basically known for his radio ministry. And that is Oliver B. Green. You're supposed to preach a tender, loving gospel and persuade him through love and tenderness. You should never say thou shalt not. Now in 2 Corinthians 6.14, the Bible distinctly says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Now I believe that has many angles. I mean by that, I don't believe a child of God should marry an unsaved person. I don't. I don't believe a born-again girl should marry a sinner boy. I don't believe a born-again boy should marry a sinner girl. I do not. I believe we who are fundamental Bible-believing gospel Christians. And I mean by that, we believe in the shed blood. We believe in the virgin birth. We believe in the blood atonement. We believe in salvation by grace through faith. We believe in consecration, dedication, surrender. I don't believe God wants us linked up and hooked up and united with a bunch of modernist and blood-denying men and women, preachers and religious leaders. I do not. Oliver B. Green had the Gospel Hour radio program that he started in 1956. And it actually was a quite popular radio program during these years. And of course, it's credited. They say that he is responsible for over 200,000 people coming to Christ. Green was also known for commentaries and other books. He has tons of books, which were really just his sermons transcribed and put into a book. Not really much editing done to make them more readable. Then you have one mega church pastor that came onto the scene that then gets, I mean, he's preaching at the sword conferences all the time. And has his own Bible college, which I'm going to get to that when I get to the 70s, was Bob Gray. Now, I'm not talking about when you say Bob Gray nowadays, everybody thinks Bob Gray Sr. from Longview, Texas. Now, long before that Bob Gray ever had a name for himself, there was the Bob Gray, the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida. Now, I could spend some time on here because, personally, he was the mega church pastor that I had heard his name all my life. My parents actually went to Gray's college. And my mom graduated from the Bible college. My dad was a few hours short from graduating. But that's where they met. I was born in Jacksonville, Florida. And we moved to North Carolina shortly after that. But I am very familiar with Gray's ministry. He had large bus ministry. In fact, the bus ministry really took off by one of his guys, Wally Beebe, who wrote books on the bus ministry. Hiles took that and really expanded the bus ministry. But Bob Gray was a—he was known in the IFB movement as a pulpiteer. Everybody loved his preaching. He was very particular about his preaching. But during all this time, the guy was a serial child molester to a disgusting degree. And somewhere in the 90s, I think it started to come to a head. And he agreed to resign the church. They swept this under the rug. They covered it up for this. And I'm doing air quotes here. For the sake of the ministry. And I absolutely despise that term. So in the 90s, he resigned from the church to go to the mission field. And that was the agreement that was made to cover this up to keep it quiet. Basically, in 2007, he comes off the mission field from Germany to come back to the States. And some of those that were involved with the abuse that he had done. What happens is, is when Gray comes back in 2007, he starts doing this preaching tour. And of course, all the IFB institutions at the time want this quote-unquote stalwart of the faith to come and come to their place and talk about the great years that he had. I mean, he was like a living legend to them. But it's not too long in the middle of this preaching tour that those that were abused come out and say, no, no, no, no. He was arrested while awaiting trial. He ended up dying. But that was Bob Gray. Jerry Falwell was another name. A prepared place. And immediately, they were having converse relationship with other people. Remember, this happened before the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord. It is not a parable. It is a true happening. It deals with actual people named Lazarus. And a certain rich man. The name of Abraham is mentioned and that of Moses. And so this is not a parable. But this is an actual event. Two men died. A saved man died and was carried by the angels into a place called Abraham's bosom. Jerry Falwell was a fundamentalist. He was an independent fundamental Baptist. Now, he didn't stay that way. Because whenever you think Jerry Falwell, most probably don't think IFB. They probably think American nationalism. They probably think a patriotic type of church. The Richard Jeffress of his era. You know, Liberty University. Definitely not IFB. But when it started, Falwell was very close in line with John R. Rice. And Falwell would preach regularly at the sword conferences. Jerry Falwell pastored the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Then there is a guy by the name of Harold B. Seitler. And I want to speak tonight on the power of God. And how you can have the power of God. And what is the power of God. I don't know that I have all the answers. I'm going to make a stab at it. I'm going to try to say some things about the power of God. And what I fail to say, I pray God will make up the slack. And you can find your way from that point. I don't know that I can say what I feel. And what I'd like to say about the power of God. But it's good to have been here. And I just sincerely appreciate the invitation from Brother Curtis Hudson. And also the great Hospitality of Harlem Park Baptist Church. And Tennessee Temple University. I respect and admire both Dr. Faulkner and Dr. Robinson. And have for many long years and always shall. And I appreciate their lives and their leadership among independent Baptists. So glad to hear this young preacher from Greenville, Tennessee. Isn't that great? To have been delivered from pedo-baptism. And it's been a long time since I've ever met this preacher and baptized in people. That's great. And pedo-baptism is not baptizing. Not New Testament baptizing. Harold B. Seitler in the 50s started to make a name for himself. Again, with the radio program. The Bright Spot Hour radio program out of Greenville, South Carolina. And H.P. Seitler was sort of a strong, can't-meeting-style preacher. And he began to pastor the Tabernacle Baptist Church. And eventually that ministry grew into a mega-church ministry. They started schools. They started all kinds of different ministries, including a Bible college. Tabernacle Baptist College. And Harold B. Seitler stayed at that church for years and years and years. I believe he died in 95. Now, in the 60s, you have the rise of another individual. And I want to talk about him for a few minutes. Sorry, my papers are going everywhere! All right, so I want to talk about this guy who got started his ministry that then became known. And his name began to be known around the IFB world. And that guy's name is Peter Ruttman. So we have a book on manuscript evidence. It's called The Christian Handbook of Biblical Scholarship. And deals with all the scholars. All of them. Not just Nestles and Westcott and Horton, Tregellis and Tischendorf and Alfred and Von Zoden, the rest of them. But with would-be scholars like John R. Rice and Curtis Hudson and Bob Jones III and Sumner Wendt and Robert Sumner and Harold Wilmington, the faculty and staffs of Liberty Baptist University, Pensacola Christian College, Tennessee Temple, Baptist Bible College, and all that junk will be taken care of in there. That is The Christian Handbook of Biblical Scholarship. Peter Ruttman. Let me talk a little bit about Peter Ruttman. Peter Ruttman, even today, he died a few years ago. He lived a long, long age. I mean, he was in his 90s. Peter Ruttman, his followers are incredibly loyal. In fact, even in the 80s, it became a joke in the IFB to call anybody that likes Peter Ruttman a Ruttmanite. So those that followed Peter Ruttman were coined the term Ruttmanites. But those that did not follow him within the IFB could not stand him. But he was an independent fundamental Baptist. Let me talk a little bit about him. He was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1921. He was... It does go against my skin like sandpaper to say he was a brilliant man. He was very intelligent. He graduated the State Agricultural College and the University of Alabama before he entered the Army. He went into the Army in 1944. He met a girl and they were married. They had a baby. Then he went off to officer candidate school. When the war ended, instead of going home to his family, he decided to volunteer to go to Japan and then to the Philippines. And he got... When it was there, he got into Buddhism and Hinduism and all kinds of Eastern philosophies and psychology and that kind of stuff. When he came back from Japan, he wanted to stay in the Army. But he had gone AWOL when he was in Hawaii and they wouldn't let him back. So, he ended up going to Pensacola. He got fired from a job while he was there at Pensacola. Worked in the radio station. Found another job working as a disc jockey and then playing drums for a band at night. It was at this point he was on the verge of suicide that Ruckman began to hear a series of voices. He himself... He himself... And this is his own words. A lot of this information was taken from... Given by his own personal testimony. So, he himself interprets the voices as being the voice of God. He thinks that he learned to distinguish the voice of God from the voice of demons through yoga. Some time passes. He begins to start studying. Maybe to become a Catholic priest. Then, one night, he hears a voice. And he thought it was the voice of God when he got back to his room. The voice said, If you don't get saved tonight, you're going to hell. Now, it's unclear whether Ruckman still believed afterwards that that was the voice of God. But, if it was the voice of God, I guess that makes God a liar. Because, he didn't die that night. And, he didn't find himself wound up in hell that evening. So, it's probably safe to say that wasn't God. About this time, Ruckman ended up... Him and his wife were separated. They got back together. An evangelist ended up coming into the radio station. And, Ruckman ended up having a conversation with this evangelist. And, was really interested in what this guy was saying. And, according to Peter Ruckman, the evangelist led Peter Ruckman in a brief prayer. He asked Ruckman if he was saved after the prayer. Ruckman stated that he was saved. But, later he said, I felt like I was lying when I said it. Strange. But, okay. That was around March 14th, 1949. Then, Ruckman ends up going to Bob Jones University. He earns his PhD at Bob Jones. After... Now, going back to his relationship with his wife. After several separations, he finally divorces his wife in 1959. He remarries again in 1972. He would eventually divorce his second wife and remarry again in 1989. But, going back. Peter Ruckman then becomes the pastor of the Bible Baptist Church in the early 60s. And, in 1965, he founded the Pensacola Bible Institute. So, this is where his ministry begins. And, he starts to have an influence on many young people. And, by the way, the PBI, the Pensacola Bible Institute, is still around today. Now, this brings us to the 70s. So, Peter Ruckman is starting his influence. He begins to start... He starts writing things, putting things out there. He becomes... His big area of focus is the King James Version of the Bible. Now, I'm going to focus... I am going to focus a little bit more on this because I'm going to... I've planned to do a series of episodes getting into the translation issue with the King James Onlyism. And, Ruckman is an important part of that. So, this brings us to the 1970s. So, a lot of things happens in the 70s that causes the IFB movement to really blossom. And, that is the beginning of several colleges and several institutions. Okay? So, in 1971, Jerry Falwell begins the Liberty Baptist College, which is now known as Liberty University. In 1972, a wealthy businessman named Russell Anderson gets together with Jack Hiles, and they begin Hiles Anderson College in Hammond, Indiana. In 1974, Bob Gray starts the Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, Florida. And so, you have all these ministries popping up. So, now you have... You have... This is what... You have these big conferences going on as the SWORD Conference, the Southwide Baptist Fellowship. You have many of these pastors around the country coming to these conferences, bringing young men, or young people. They then turn... get exposure to Bible colleges like Midwestern Baptist College in Michigan, Howells Anderson College in Indiana, Tabernacle Baptist College in South Carolina, Bob Jones University in South Carolina, Pensacola Christian College starts somewhere in the 70s, You got Liberty Baptist College in Virginia that's represented, and Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, Florida. And then you have this... And Ruckman begins to make enemies within the IFB movement and really starts to separate himself. And so, with this... So, these colleges now start training young men. These young men then go out from the college and either plant their churches, find themselves working in churches, and so then it starts to multiply. The movement begins to grow and grow and grow. And this sort of is the format of the movement for the next several decades. But an interesting thing happens within the movement from this way that it grows, and that is a loyalty to those institutions that these people are growing out of. And you have almost sort of like a... My dad always called it... They get their orders from headquarters type of thing. Okay? So, this person sort of graduates from Hiles Anderson. They go out and pastor a church. They support Hiles Anderson. They support Hiles. Their church becomes sort of like a... They learn to do ministry from that place, so they emulate and they implement the way that they saw ministry done at the college. And so, you have a reproduction of what the church or the college was like. And then you have a loyalty to it. And so, while there's association around with other colleges, other preachers, other celebrity pastors, if you will, in the IFB movement, wherever they graduated from is where they're loyalty to. Now, when we get to the 80s, you see a change. And I think, quite honestly, the biggest reason for the divisions that start to happen is the absence of John R. Rice. I really do believe that John R. Rice was almost a peacemaker and kept things together. But then, once the 80s happens, you have a change. And... So, what I want to do in the next episode... So, next week, what I want to do is I really want to... We're going to get to what happens in 80 after Rice dies. And I want to spend the majority of the time and do a focus on Jack Hiles. And Israel, please take the baby out. Whoever has the baby, somebody help take the baby out quickly if you would, please. Real quick, like, I want to get right into the message and we have nurseries for the babies. I hope somebody's helping me back there. All right. I'll start again. Verse 10. Little college wife, you don't have to be a Jezebel if you don't choose to be. Ma'am, I'll do the preaching here and you'll be quiet while I'm preaching. Now, you listen to me carefully. I mean, here's poor old God. Well, God isn't old, but poor young God. No, God isn't young. Poor middle-aged God. Poor 63-year-old God. Poor God. I mean, he's getting praises from one side and gripes from the other side about the same thing. I'll guarantee you, those little couples that stay here and take it and sacrifice, those little wives that do without, I'll guarantee you, the day is going to come. Ma'am, I won't ask you to leave now if you don't quit talking while I'm preaching. The day is going to come when you're going to look back on these college days and you will say they're the sweetest days of our lives. Because, like it or not, whether you agree with this or not, I believe the truth of the matter is is that the leader of the independent fundamental Baptist movement after 1980, and you could probably go a little bit before then if you wanted to, becomes Jack Hiles. You may not like that, but it's true. His influence over the movement as a whole is undeniable. Now, does that mean that every single person within the IFB and every IFB pastor in the country followed Hiles and did what Hiles wanted them to do and that kind of thing? No. But his influence and the scope of it and the vastness of it I think is undeniable that he becomes the forefront leader of the movement. And so, for that reason, the next episode, I want to really sort of focus in and do an examination of Jack Hiles' life and ministry. So, I think we'll stop right there. Thanks for listening today. I appreciate the kindness for the podcast that's been receiving lately. I've been seeing a lot of you that's been doing that, some sharing of the podcast, and I really, really do appreciate it. If you have enjoyed it, please, again, share it on social media. Give it a rating, a review on the podcast platform. You can follow the podcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And, until next time, guys, to God, not the pastor, be the glory. God bless you. God bless you.

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