I finished reading Herb Evans' vitrolic attack against Brother O'Neal's book on Brider Boo Boos. I will answer it as time permits.
In the first paragraph Bitter Herb calls Brother O'Neal CONCEITED;. I was unaware that Evans knew Brother O'Neal well enough to make such a character assessment. Then again, Herb calls him"Mike" throughout the article, so I assume they must be intimate friends. Either that, or Evans is making judgments and taking liberties that he has no business taking.
A number of times in the article, Brother Evans suggests that the determining factors of what constitutes a true (Baptist) church is the DOCTRINE, but he never specifies what doctrines they are. Anyone claiming that ONLY certain churches, believing certain doctrines are TRUE churches, and that ONLY they will go up in the Rapture (which Herb accepted as a defining characteristic of Briders), had better be able to state precisely what those doctrines are or shut their ignorant mouth.
If the church is the Bride of Christ, which church is it? The Baptist church? Which Baptist church? All of them? Do they have to be called 'Baptist', or do they have to believe like a Baptist? How much like a Baptist? What doctrines must they agree upon? Which doctrines can they disagree on? If you can't answer those questions, you have no business telling anybody they're not part of the Bride.
The church at Corinth spoke in tongues and violated every rule in the book (literally) in that practice. They resembled modern Charismatics more than Baptists, yet God called them a church and a body. If the bride is the church, they are in it.
How about the churches at Galatia? Some of them were Judaizers who believed in circumcision to keep their salvation. Yet, God called them churches. If the church is the bride, they qualify.
The church at Ephesus lost their first love. Satan had a seat in the church at Pergamos, and they followed the doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans. The church at Thyatira had a woman teacher. The church at Sardis was dead. The church at Laodicea was lukewarm and kept Jesus on the outside knocking to get in.
Were they part of the bride of Christ? God called them churches, if the church is the bride, they make it.
Apparently God doesn't make the bride of Christ as exclusive as Baptist Briders do.
Bitter Herb contradicts himself by first complimenting Brother O'Neal for correctly defining what a Baptist Brider really is , then later chastening him for the same words local church only. Then he later again commends him for using those words. Bitter Herb is so engulfed in contention that he is resorting to arguing with himself (I must admit that if nobody else will argue, I do the same thing :-).
Herb also verifies time and time again that he lacks spiritual discernment, by being totally unable to separate the spiritual from the physical. He repeatedly refers to the gathering of saints in Heaven as future, when the Bible tells us in:
Ephesians 2:6 "And HATH RAISED us up TOGETHER, and MADE us SIT TOGETHER in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:"
The entire verse is in PRESENT tense, not future. The thing is, it's spiritual, we are not there physically yet - THAT is future. The Psychic Friends Network can distinguish present from future better than Bitter Herb does in this article.
He also confuses spiritual baptism with physical, contending that the baptisms in Galatians 3, Romans 6, and Ephesians 4 are all water.
The baptisms of Galatians and Romans both put a believer INTO CHRIST; and the one in Ephesians is to keep the unity of the SPIRIT. That is some powerful sewage system they must have in Portersville, Pennsylvania!
Evans tries to skirt the passages by claiming that they symbolically put one into Christ. One minor detail he overlooked is that they verse do not say they do it symbolically, but that they put a believer INTO CHRIST. If it's not spiritual baptism, it's baptismal regeneration! Furthermore, the passage in Romans indicates that IF you have that baptism you'll be resurrected. It can't be water.
Herb shows a number of times that he can't even divide the Old Testament from the New. He ignored -
Hebrews 9:16-17 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
- which clearly shows that the New Testament began with the DEATH of Christ.
Herb finally mentioned that passage by saying he would cover it later. Later never came in this article, I asume it will be in the next issue. He also never explained why the disciples had to be baptized again if John's baptism was valid New Testament baptism.
That's enough. Brother O'Neal can take care of himself. I just couldn't remain silent after reading Bitter Herb's diatribe.
To contact the writer of this article, Teno Groppi Click HERE - tdg@vbe.com
Visit Brother Teno's God & Country Page: http://www.vbe.com/~tdg/
Back to the "Bible Believing Fundamentalist" Home Page