Updated April 24 (first published April 22, 2000) (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Pastor Jack Hyles of First Baptist Church, Hammond, Indiana, is the king of "quick prayerism." He has baptized 15,000 people per year for the last two years, though there are fewer in attendance at his church, in the main auditorium, than in past years. He claims that his church saw more people saved on May 3, 1998, than were saved and baptized on the day of Pentecost. Hyles estimates that around 15,000 people were saved and 5,112 were baptized on that day. Through his books, annual Pastors’ Schools, and frequent speaking engagements in large independent Baptist forums, Pastor Hyles has promoted the "hurry to get the people to pray a sinner’s prayer and proclaim them saved and report the big numbers regardless of whether they demonstrate regeneration" evangelism philosophy far and wide. This unscriptural program, which has pandered more to the pride of man than the glory of God, has permeated many fundamental Baptist circles and has created an incredibly shallow type of churchianity. Considering the carnal foundation of all of this, it is not surprising that the large churches (and small ones, as well) which are built upon the Hyles plan have frequently self destructed in a manner that has brought great reproach to the cause of Christ.

A few years ago Dr. Hyles even redefined the doctrine of repentance in an obvious effort to justify his unscriptural methodology. He redefined repentance to mean merely "a change from unbelief to belief." This was stated in his book The Enemies of Soul Winning. We exposed the error of this in the articles "Pentecost vs. Hylescost," "Does Salvation Make a Difference," "Easy Prayerism or Bible Evangelism," "Unscriptural Presentations of the Gospel," "Fundamental Baptists and Quick Prayerism," and others. [See the Evangelism section of the End Times Apostasy Database at the Way of Life web site -- http://www.wayoflife.org/.] All of this material and much more was included in the book Repentance Is More Than a Sinner’s Prayer, which we published last year.

Dr. Hyles has gotten a lot of heat about these matters. In fact, thankfully, his following has grown smaller in recent years. Now, though, he is preaching on repentance and warning about shallow evangelism! Has he changed his mind and direction? The confusing answer to this is that no, he has not changed anything nor has he repented of anything!

At the National Bus Conference in January of this year, Hyles preached on "The Goodness of God Leadeth Thee to Repentance." Note the following excerpt from a tape of this message:

"You hear me and hear me well. Nobody will ever get to heaven until he realizes that he is a sinner. I’M AFRAID OUR SOUL WINNING HAS BECOME A LITTLE SHALLOW. ‘Would you let Jesus come into your heart?’ ‘Yes, I will.’ O.K., mark it up. That’s not enough. Nobody--listen--nobody will ever walk the streets of gold, nobody will ever fellowship with angels, nobody will see the face of Christ unless he has realized he is a sinner, unless he has realized he is under the condemnation of a holy and righteous God, unless he sees God as He is and sees himself as he is, and he falls to his face and says woe is me, I am a sinner! I say let’s let them know they are sinners because no man can go to heaven unless he knows what he is to be saved from. No one will ever be in heaven unless he comes into the presence of the holiness of Almighty God. Maybe--and don’t be upset with me now; if you are, I’m going to say it anyhow--MAYBE WE OUGHT TO WITHDRAW FROM SOME OF THE BAPTISM CONTESTS. I have a right to say that because we have averaged 15,000 baptisms a year for the last two years. I have a right to say it. I’M NOT INTERESTED IN HOW MANY FOLKS GET BAPTIZED; I’M INTERESTED IN HOW MANY PEOPLE GET BORN AGAIN because they realized they were sinners under the condemnation of God, and that God became flesh and came and lived a perfect life and went to Calvary and paid the penalty for our sin. Ladies and gentlemen, SOMEHOW WE’VE GOT TO GET BACK TO THE DEPRAVITY OF MAN AND THE HOLINESS OF GOD OR WE’RE GONNA HAVE A SHALLOW KIND OF CHRISTIANITY" (Jack Hyles, "The Goodness of God Leadeth Thee to Repentance" National Bus Conference, Walkertown, North Carolina, January 2000).

This is a good message that needs to be spoken widely today, but Jack Hyles is a strange and confusing spokesman for it. Note the following observations:

1. HYLES WARNS ABOUT THE VERY THINGS HE HAS POPULARIZED, YET HE NOWHERE ADMITS THAT HE IS ONE OF THE MEN MOST GUILTY OF THESE ERRORS!

This would be like James Dobson warning against self esteemism or Billy Graham warning about ecumenism without changing anything about their ministries and without admitting that they have been guilty of promoting the same. Hyles says it is not enough merely to ask people to let Jesus come into their hearts and then mark it up when they acquiesce, but that is precisely what his people have been doing for decades. They have filled Hammond and parts of Chicago with empty professions, have confused the minds of people about what genuine biblical salvation is, and have almost inoculated multitudes of people to true salvation by giving them assurance that they have eternal life simply because they have prayed a little prayer. When one tries to talk with such people about salvation, they reply, "I’m O.K. I’ve done that" even though their everyday lives testify that they know Pokemon better than Jesus Christ. Hyles suggests we ought to withdraw from some of the baptism contests, but amazingly he does not at the same time confess that he is the potentate and chief guru of the soul winning contests which have turned the holy house of God into a carnival and have produced untold confusion through the empty professions they have engendered.

2. HYLES CLAIMS HE IS NOT INTERESTED IN BAPTISMS BUT SOLELY IN PEOPLE GETTING BORN AGAIN, BUT HE KNOWS VERY WELL THAT THE VAST MAJORITY OF THOSE HE BAPTIZES DEMONSTRATE NO BIBLICAL EVIDENCE OF THE SAME.

A pastor acquaintance of mine followed up on 1,000 of the decision cards from Hyles’ bus ministry some years ago and could not find even one person who was really interested in Jesus Christ. I know many preachers who have followed up on the "salvations" reported by churches that use the Hyles plan of soul winning, the Phoster Club, etc., and to a man they testify that only a very tiny percentage of the "decisions" evidence genuine salvation. My wife and I followed up on the results of the Phoster Club ministry in one church and our experience was the same. They Phoster Club workers reported many salvations, but they weren’t real. I know that some people do get saved through Pastor Hyles’ ministry in Hammond, but the number is incredibly small compared to the truly massive numbers of salvations reported. If thousands of people are truly being saved each year through the ministry of First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, it would change the very moral climate of that part of America, but this is not happening. There is no change, for the simple reason that there is no biblical reality behind most of the numbers. Hyles is the king of the very thing he preached against--shallow soul winning. What confusion.

3. THOUGH HYLES USES THE TERM REPENTANCE AND GIVES HIS HEARERS THE IMPRESSION THAT HE BELIEVES IN IT, HE DOES NOT DEFINE REPENTANCE BIBLICALLY AND DOES NOT RETRACT HIS FALSE DEFINITION OF IT.

The Apostle Paul preached repentance and taught that repentance has to do with a changed life. "But showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and TURN TO GOD, and DO WORKS MEET FOR REPENTANCE" (Acts 26:20). It is passages like this which have caused men of God through the centuries to define repentance as "a divinely wrought change of mind which results in a change of life." This is what John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ preached. It is what Peter preached. It is not what Jack Hyles preaches, though. In other contexts he has argued that repentance does not even have to be preached "because it is not in the gospel of John." That is the way false teachers misuse the Bible, basing their doctrine on isolated passages, taking things out of one part of Scripture while ignore the rest of Scripture. The fact is that every preacher we see in the New Testament preached and demanded repentance, and if a man today does not preach repentance he is not a New Testament preacher. All of the right-sounding human reasoning in the world cannot take away the plain testimony and example of Scripture. Hyles says repentance is merely "to change to belief from unbelief," but none of the Bible preachers said anything like that about repentance. They always said that repentance has to do with turning to God. That is what the word means as it is defined in its biblical context.

4. HYLES WARNS THAT WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A SHALLOW TYPE OF CHRISTIANITY IF WE DON’T GET BACK TO THE DEPRAVITY OF MAN AND THE HOLINESS OF GOD, BUT HE DOES NOT ADMIT THAT THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT HE HAS GIVEN US.

My friends, the great need among independent fundamental Baptists is to base our Christianity strictly and truly upon the Bible rather than upon the human philosophies of the egotistical gurus which we have allowed to exalt themselves among us. It’s time to get back to the Bible. I fear that the average fundamental Baptist preacher is far more a follower of some man than he is a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and the blessed Scriptures. That is why so many of the brethren can sit under the self-centered preaching of men like Jack Hyles and shout and holler "amen, glory to God" even when he is speaking error and lies. It reminds me of the carnal Corinthians of old, who "suffered fools gladly." "For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face" (2 Cor. 11:20). When Hyles got up to preach at the National Bus Convention, he was given an uproarious standing ovation, in reaction to which he stated: "There is only one thing I hate worse than standing ovations, and that is not to receive a standing ovation." It reminds you of something the Apostle Paul would say, doesn’t it? I am being facetious, of course.

Remember this, preacher friend, it is God to whom you will give an account of your ministry. It is well enough to have the comfort of being accepted by the big shots and being in the company of what might appear to be the majority in this world, but it will not do in the next. It is not the great preacher heroes who will judge us; it is Jesus Christ. Most of them will have enough problems in that day with their own standing to find occasion to put in a good word for you. The church is His house and the congregation is His flock, and He has shown us that He is very jealous for it and will not countenance men who exalt themselves and who replace Bible truth with human tradition, who, through their manmade methodology debilitate the holy character of the Church of God.

Christian friends, there is only One who is worthy to be our Hero, who is due our unqualified loyalty, and that is the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. The preachers who are commended in the Scriptures did not exalt themselves, report on their great achievements, or accept the praise of man. I can state upon the authority of the Word of God that those who do so are not going to be great in the kingdom of God. "And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted" (Matthew 23:12).