Sunday, September 17, 2023

Greetings Bill!

How have you been? It has been a long time since I have read about you and your situation. And it has been a long while since I have written but you are in your 80s and I know that time is brief. I don’t know if you still get out to the seminars or other affairs.

I first learned of you in about 1972 or 1973, when friends of mine went to one of your seminars. I went the next year. Since that time I went to Philadelphia multiple times, but also Hershey, Pa., and Detroit, Michigan and also another place locally—in Fort Worth or Dallas (I was there with my wife and even took a photo with you and she was there). And then I also went to a “Pastor’s Seminar” in Hurst, Texas, or thereabouts. It was there that I met your father and had a talk with him. I was edified in all of these and learned much from you.

I realize that you have been criticized over the years and even recently. You, along with a few others, have been ridiculed and critiqued. Some of them are gone (and for good reasons, I assume you will agree), but others have been rejected because they accepted and defended you.

Yet I was blessed with what you taught and the positions that you held. I refer to worldly [secular] music, clothing and modesty, entertainment, TV, movies, worldly education, and the like. I definitely appreciate that you hold to the inspiration and authority of Scripture—which I also hold to. This is so vital and we must always promote this.

I don’t know exactly where you are and what you believe at this point. The internet (and I looked at a couple places) says that you are “retired” (how can it be?) and also drive the older car (which I especially admire)—a Ford Taurus. I also remember that you refused marriage, saying that you had other things to occupy your attention and marriage was a distraction to you and your work (see 1 Corinthians 7 for explanation).

At the same time, I must offer my counsel at this time. According to the internet, you have many riches. And this must be wrong—totally wrong (see Mark 10:23-25; Matthew 19:23-24; Luke 18:24-25; etc.). I suppose that some of this comes from your book authorship, your video presentations, your seminar involvements, and much more. All of this adds up.

What more can I say? You teach a “Sinner’s Prayer” theology and are Baptist in your views—see, for example, the place of baptism in conversion (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16; 15-16; Acts 2:36-41; 22:16; Romans 6:3-6). According to what I read in Scripture, riches are a trap and to be avoided—and rejected. Also, the “Sinner’s Prayer” must be evil and unscriptural, and the Baptist denomination is also unscriptural.

Further, all of the theological machinery and jargon and such things as the degrees from the university and the institutions of all kinds that you are involved in, are wrong, as you must know. The whole institutionalism that you are involved in must be renounced too (including IBLP). In other words, so many aspects of your life and “ministry” are wrong and should be renounced.

Of course, the extreme Calvinism that you espouse should also be renounced (the whole Bible would say this). And coming to Christ should be changed (see above.) And the feminism is also wrong and unscriptural (1 Timothy 2:11-15; 1 Corinthians 14:33-37). I think that you would say that this feminism is not at all part of the organization, but I assure you that it definitely is.)   I don’t know if the creation/evolution debate has been addressed, but you do know what God says about this.

Oh, Bill, what more can I say? I feel dismayed. On the one hand, I do admire you and your work. I have learned much from you and so have millions of others. On the other hand, I must strongly reject some of the things that you hold to and believe (and even teach). Your benefitting from the organization and staying at their house must also go.

Sadly, I would hate to be in your shoes in the Judgment. So sad, Bill.

May God bless you, my dear friend and associate.

Richard Hollerman