SWORD LEADER SPEAKING AT HYLES WORSHIPPING CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, May 25, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - This week I was sad to learn that Shelton Smith (editor of The Sword of the Lord) is scheduled to speak at the “Old-time Religion Real and Revisited Conference” at Berean Baptist Church, Fleming Island, Florida, in September. There is a full-page ad for this meeting in The Sword. The other speakers are Tom Neal, Greg Neal, John Hamblin, Joe Arthur, Norris Belcher, Terry Sellars, Lawrence Mendez, and Mark Campbell (all “doctors,” of course). Every preacher attending the conference “receives a copy of Dr. Hyles’ ordination certificate.” Whoop-ti-do! This church is a man-centered cult pastored by the idolator Tom Neal. Of all of the Jack Hyles worshipers, Neal is perhaps the king. He published a paper (Independent Baptist Contender) devoted to “perpetuating and protecting the principles and philosophies of Dr. Jack Hyles.” In a letter he wrote to explain his absence from the 2001 Pastor’s School at First Baptist Church of Hammond--after Hyles’ death in February of that year--Neal said: “It has been said of me, and I consider it a great compliment, that Tom Neal is all about Jack Hyles. My agenda was to please him. ... every success I have, I owe to Pastor’s School and Dr. Hyles. ... It is my desire that Jesus and Bro. Hyles be proud of me” (March 29, 2001, reproduced at http://jackhammer.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/kneeling-tom-neal/). The November-December 2002 issue of Neal’s IBC mentioned Hyles at least 95 times by name and featured an article entitled “The Mind of Dr. Jack Hyles.” Whereas true Christians and Biblicists seek the mind of Christ, cultists seek the mind of their human leader. In 2001, Tom Neal’s son, Greg, was caught having secretly video recorded church women changing clothes. One of the video cassettes inadvertently turned up in a box of tapes that was given to a deacon, and it even showed Greg setting up the recording session, but it turned out that by the time the video cassette came to light the case was too old to prosecute. James Colaw, Assistant State Attorney, told MSNBC: “While the evidence of his crimes of voyeurism in 2001 is overwhelming, unfortunately, the Statute of Limitations has expired. Consequently, there is no way to legally pursue a prosecution for these acts.” Following in the footsteps of his hero, Tom Neal protested his son’s innocence in spite of the evidence. See “Berean Baptist Pastor Tom Neal Insists ‘Peeping Tom’ Son Innocent,” Apprising Ministries, Aug. 18, 2011, apprising.org.) For evidence that Jack Hyles was a cult leader see The Two Jacks, which is available as a free eBook from the Way of Life web site - www.wayoflife.org. I am completely fed up with the Independent Fundamental Baptists who engage in mutual backscratching and refuse to speak out plainly against heresy in their own camps. I refuse to have any ministry association whatsoever with any preacher who doesn’t stand against the “Two Jacks” and that entire crowd and all of its wretched compromise and error. “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us” (2 Thessalonians 3:6).
As a long-time reader and supporter of THE SWORD OF THE LORD it is my prayer that Brother Smith will reconsider speaking at this event. I have no problem with "old-time religion," but I do find it appalling that Jack Hyles is still being worshipped more than a decade after his death by many within Baptist Fundamentalism.
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