Why Did God Do It?

I have three overlapping reasons why Ruckmanism spread so strongly among independent Baptists. God deprived their leaders of wisdom and He wanted to break the power that editors of their publications had over them. The third reason is going to take a while to explain.

During their heyday in the 1960's, independent Baptist leaders cautiously reached out to fellow Christians whom they disagreed with. They invited soul-winning, fundamentalist preachers from the Southern Baptist Convention, Assemblies of God, and others, to be friends. They printed their sermons, let them speak in independent Baptist churches, and spoke at Christian conferences with them.

Godly, soul-winning men had few problems with this. It was frightened, angry denominational leaders who fought this kind of Biblical fellowship. As a result, this unity was fragile and carefully-balanced.

All it would take was one key man, in a key position, saying the key words at the key time, to shatter this unity.

To be continued...

Why Did God Do It? Part 2

Ruckmanism spread rapidly among independent Baptists, causing them to have a major decline. God caused it to happen, by depriving their leaders of wisdom. Why?

Independent Baptists are not supposed to have any human leaders higher than a local pastor. But over time, various publications emerged, usually controlled by Godly men, and independent Baptist churches urged their members to subscribe. The editors of these publications gained power that the churches never meant them to have.

Decades later, these publications had turned Ruckmanite, and large churches and their pastors found themselves being attacked in these publications if they would not obey the editors. Pastors who wanted to depart from man-made rules found their people reading publications attacking anyone who departed from the rules. Conferences and radio broadcasts played a smaller part, and overall, independent Baptists were steadily being put under the authority of leaders whom they did not elect, who ruled through the authority of unscriptural offices.

These publications kept up active spy networks, accusing various preachers who associated with Christians who would not obey the editors. Pastors who wanted to learn and grow from unapproved Christians had to do so secretly, or avoid doing so altogether.

Sick of the fighting, many churches joined the Southern Baptist Convention, many individuals left for other churches, and many independent Baptist churches avoided the title "Baptist" in order to get away from these editors. Keeping the Word of God without the man-made rules, they are generally doing well, while Ruckmanites continue to separate into steadily smaller, hostile groups.

Why Did God Do It?

Why did independent fundamentalist Baptists turn so heavily against the Word of God and become disciples of a false prophet so quickly? Because God did it.

Isaiah 15:13 Therefore the Lord said: " Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,
14 Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work Among this people, A marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden."

Because independent Baptist leaders had replaced Biblical holiness with man-made rules, God deprived them of wisdom. Working to bring independent fundamentalist Baptists closer to Him, God let their leaders become disciples of a wife-stealing enemy of Godly men.

Why did God do such a thing?

Why Did God Allow This to Happen?

The spread of Ruckmanism among independent Baptists churches contributed heavily to their downfall and lessened their soul-winning influence. Why did God allow this to happen?

Surprisingly, the results indicate that God did not merely "allow" this to happen. He did it deliberately. Independent fundamentalist Baptist churches continue to dominate the list of America's greatest mega-churches, but they are calling themselves "Community," "Bible," "Fellowship," "Neighborhood," and other names. Yet their statements of faith clearly show that they are independent fundamental Baptist churches.

So the question becomes "Why did God do this?" I can give three overlapping reasons. One is from the Bible, and two are only based on observation, but the simple answer is "Because it worked."

When Man-Made Rules Prevail

After the largest independent Baptist church in the world turned Ruckmanite, attendance went into a two decades long plunge. No longer the world's largest Sunday School, it eventually reached the point that it wasn't even Indiana's largest Sunday School. While their other man-made rules hadn't actually violated specific Scriptures, Ruckmanism did.

And a series of sex scandals started striking other independent Baptist churches as well. Believing that obedience to their rules was proof of holiness, they had a tendency to trust anyone who obeyed those rules, no matter how ungodly the person was in other areas. Many of them then turned to Ruckmanism, but the amount of scandals in Ruckmanite churches continued to be higher than in other groups. Regarding themselves as superior due to their man-made rules, they isolated themselves from other Christians who tried to warn them of what was going on.

It was the Word of God, not the rules, that had made independent Baptists America's greatest soul-winning group. And when they rejected the Word of God and kept the rules, their massive decline began.

The current pastor of First Baptist is a Godly man who has moderated their Ruckmanite position, bringing the attendance up to about 15,000, and causing many Ruckmanite preachers to turn against him. Hopefully, he will continue on the path he is on.

Refusing to Face The Truth

During the 1960's and 1970's, Jack Hyles pastored the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, which was the world's largest Sunday School. I graduated from their college, and they were running 40,000 in Sunday School when I left.

His son David had an extremely large and successful youth ministry, but reports kept coming in of Dave's wide-spread immorality. Looking at David's strict obedience to the church's lengthy list of man-made rules, Jack didn't believe the charges. When he finally accepted that they were true, he tried to cover things up while he worked on getting David to repent. Finally, everything blew up in his face, and the scandal became public.

And then Jack preached one of the most important sermons in Christian history: "Logic Demands the King James Bible." A strict fundamentalist who had cracked under the strain of his son's wickedness, Jack rejected God's Word in favor of a man-made translation, but he did keep the man-made rules.

Did it work?

What Does God Bless? His Word, or Our Rules?

Independent Baptists hit their heyday during the 1960's and 1970's. At one time, the largest church in 17 states was independent Baptist, and in another 17 states, the largest non-Catholic church was independent Baptist. They had a fast-growing number of Christian schools. Through their bus ministries they were reaching more new lost people than every other Christian church in the US combined. Meanwhile, the Southern Baptist Convention, representing over half of America's Baptists, declined steadily.

The independent Baptists offered two explanations for why God was blessing them more than the Convention: their loyalty to God's Word, and their obedience to man-made rules. And, to put it bluntly, they had the numbers to back up their claims.

Today, only one of those 17 independent Baptist churches is the largest in its state. Most of their schools have closed or merged, and their bus ministries have dropped heavily. Many of their churches have joined the Southern Baptist Convention, which has shown good growth since the "fundamentalist take-over," when Christians managed to oust most non-Christians from leadership.

What went wrong?