201 thoughts on “Friday Challenge: Name That Scrawl!”

    1. That’s how I got my first “first” last week. Now I’ve gotten it I won’t try so hard anymore. 😉

      2. I knew he didn’t die in 2001, cause he had plenty of kick in his giddyup to go blaming 9/11 on ACLU, women, and gays.

  4. I feel confident that is Jerry Falwell. I didn’t know he participated in thise kind of stuff.

    I’ve never heard any of the Pope’s, other than maybe a clip or 2 from here, but that’s definitely his signature, and looks like the signature of an INCREDIBLY pompous/arrogant human being.

  6. Jerry Falwell
    Johnny Pope
    John Rawlings
    Wallace Strawn

    There are a lot of other first names I can make out… but not the whole thing. They are too cool at signing their signatures.

  7. Wow, there’s a really wide range of names here: Johnny Pope, Phil Kidd, John Rawlings, Tom Farrell, Jerry Falwell, Tom Malone. All those different names in one Bible, it’s a wonder the ink didn’t start attacking each other! Well done! Even if I would never do something myself, I can admire someone else doing something well.

    1. Just curious – would a Fundy MOG refuse to sign a Bible because of another signature in there? I wouldn’t put it past them.

      1. I’ve heard stories of a MOG who would refuse to sign on a page with _any_ other names and would turn to find a blank page instead.

        But that’s just one that was repeated to me. I didn’t see it first hand.

        1. That’s why that one preacher did that!! I was probably about 7 or 8 and I don’t even remember who it was, but I remember some preacher flipping to the blank page on the back instead of signing next to all the other guys in the front.

      2. I had a missionary straight out of grad school stop and ask me whether or not the Bible was a KJV, but that’s the only time someone actually wouldn’t have signed it. I did have a few of them who kinda made snide remarks about others: “Oh. Jim Schettler. When did you hear HIM speak?”

        And Darrell, I have an even better specimen of a signature page (three or four of them in one Bible, actually) if you want me to send you a picture. . . :mrgreen:

    2. Darrell, your hover-text is hilarious. I know of a couple of friends in my youth group when I was a kid who did exactly that.

      1. So did I… on the page where it said “presented to.” So it would be returned to me in case it was lost. But not in the big headed way these men did. 🙄

        1. Same here. My current Bible has my name neatly written up in the corner on one of the blank pages at the beginning. I wonder if I should add my e-mail address? 😛

          But obviously, not like how these men signed it.

    3. “It’s a wonder the ink didn’t start attacking each other!”
      For real. I was shocked to see Tom Farrell and Jerry Falwell’s signatures right next to each other, considering Farrell and his ilk considered Falwell to be a liberal compromiser.

      1. You’re a pretty extreme Fundy if you can use the words “liberal” and “Jerry Falwell” in the same sentence.

        2. You should have heard what my Fundy U friends said when they heard I was transferring to Liberty. 😈

  8. So it looks like “Dr.” Schaap signed this. Left-hand side about 1/3 of the way down. At first I was surprised that his signature was so small. But then I noticed the “J” in Jack. It takes up half the page!
    I’m sure Schaap could do a sermon on how he signs his name just like Jesus did.

  9. I love how each has its associated Bible verse. From here on out I’m going to sign mine with Leviticus 3:15 next to my name.

      4. My verse would be Ezekiel 25:17, from the Jules / L Jackson / Pulp Fiction of the Bbile

      1. “Ain’t gonna see THAT verse cross-stitched on a pillow! (unless it’s a special pillow.)”

        1. Psalm 38:7 would be perfect for one of those donut-shaped pillows for people with, er, sitting problems.

        4. Don, when I read your comment a couple hours ago I was at the community college library. I had a lot of trouble keeping myself from laughing out loud LOL 😀

  10. Alas, I possess no such signed Bible. However, I did get my Bible signed by an evangelist’s daughter (kind of like an autograph). She basically wrote to read my Bible, she’d be praying for me, and I’d better surrender my life to God for “full-time Christian service”. Oh and the six things to look for while I read the Bible. I must add, for perspective, she was maybe 13, and I was 11. Not exactly sure on the ages, but we were really young. Her dad would have been proud. Especially since when I stayed overnight with her in their trailer once, he basically ignored the family “doing Gawd’s work” instead. . .

    2. That doesn’t count. She was only female. I remember wishing one of my Sunday school girls would ask me to sign her Bible but no… that privilege is only reserved for MEN of God, not mere Sunday school teachers. 🙄

    3. I never had a preacher sign my Bible because they didn’t write it. My friends thought I was pompous for saying it. I did have my decisions scrawled inside the front cover though.
      Saved Nov 18 19..
      Baptized April 22 19..
      Rededicated my life at camp June 3 19..
      Rededicated again …
      Surrendered my life to marry a pastor…
      Surrendered my life to go to PCC…

  11. Signature on the very bottom of the right-hand page. Is that Dr. Phill Kidd? Really. Who signs their name with Dr?
    And of course what makes it comical is that he is a Dr as much as I am a polar bear.

    1. I never heard him, but by this signature (or is it an autograph?) you can see how highly he thinks of himself. It’s the biggest signature on the pages. Talk about signing your John Hancock! 😆

    2. I also wondered if that was Kidd. Freaky, and strange that he would sign the same Bible that had the Falwells names on it. Unless of course, his was there first and these signatures actually represent a gradual journey out of fundamentalism…

      1. This sounds like an awesome hypothesis. We’ll see it trending to true if we see Billy Graham’s name, then Rick Warren, then Deepok Chopra, then…..

      1. Thank you BG. To keep with the fundie way of doing things, to earn my polar bearate, all I had to do was look at some pictures of Alaska. :mrgreen:

  12. Funny how you just accept things because they do it and you don’t question it… for a long time anyway. I used to have my Bibles signed by evangelists etc, coming in. I remember wanting Jack Hyles’ signature but he’d always run off somewhere after preaching (when he visited my old fundy church in Michigan) so I was never able to get his signature. Twice I got Dr. Lee Roberson’s and one of those times he preached me a sermon. I told him it was a new Bible so he preached about how I should read it every day. The other time I got ticked with him. The pages were very thin and he wanted to use this heavy marker that would bleed through. I asked him to use my pen instead but no he had to insist on using the marker! I felt like ripping his signature out of it.

    Later on it occurred to me that no one but the author of a book ought to sign it, as it makes the book more valuable if the author’s signature is in it, plus they wrote it you know. By these fundy preachers signing it, it’s like they are saying they wrote it… which fits in very well with their self aggrandizing images of themselves. 🙄

    1. I too remember trying to get Jack’s signature, but they always would say that he had another preaching engagement he had to get to and that’s why he couldn’t stay. I did get his scrawl eventually. As far as him having to get to other preaching engagements? Sure, we can call it that if he wants to as I wink and nod knowingly.

  13. I would love to see a handwriting expert’s evaluation of some of these signatures to evaluate which if any of these indicate megalomaniac, schizophrenia, or tendencies. I think whoever Johnny is on the right side definitely qualifies for an inflated view of himself.

    1. I would pay money to have the signatures analyzed. But I think we all know that the results would indicate all of those tendencies and more.

      1. -Narcissist
        -Megalomaniac
        -Sociopath
        -Narcissist
        -Sociopathic megalomaniac
        -Megalomaniac
        -Narcissist
        …. et cetera, et cetera, et cetera

    2. That would be Johnny Pope, who probably does think well of himself. I have to say, though, he was my favorite chapel speaker, at HAC, especially when he did his imitation of Ed Reese. Even funnier was the time Ed Reese imitated Johnny Pope. I THINK that while JP is still fundy, that he has separated himself from the whole Hyles crew, which is saying a lot, since his wife grew up in FBC Hammond. He also told me, about twenty years ago now, when we saw him in another place,that he no longer did all the comedy shtick in the pulpit, as he had been convicted that the pulpit was a place to speak the Word, not glorify himself. That was refreshing, and I hope he has stuck to it.

      1. Johnny Pope runs in a lot of circles. Preaches at PCC, but also preaches in Pensacola at a church with Tim Lee. And no, he hasn’t given up the excessive humor.

        1. Huh. One would hate to think that he found that after all, that was what he did best, in the pulpit… 😕

      2. Johnny Pope is a genuinely nice guy, although a bit naive and misguided on certain topics. He truly does seek to magnify Jesus and he does teach the Bible. His preaching style is different at his home church where he tended to be less humorous and flashy and more in-depth.

      3. Pope just preached Youth Conference and Pastors School in Hammond this year, so not yet separated from the Hyles crew. Story is that Hyles wouldn’t have him in to preach the last years of his life because Pope routinely preached for Southern Baptists *gasp*

        By the way, the top right corner, the scrawl in red on the right is Bob Gray (TX)…..definitely an ecclectic group

        1. Gross, yucko, glurg, nasty. And here I was, hoping he was finished with that bunch. 👿

        2. You know who I was thinking of was Jack Rose… Not Johnny Pope. I didn’t mind JP so much, but then again I never listened in chapel anyway.

        5. Wrong Bob Gray, Jack Missionary. They are saying that the Bob Gray here is the one from Texas. You’re thinking of the one from Florida.

      4. He doesn’t associate with Hyles anymore. He did keep the Honorary doctorate from them though.

  14. Wait — it’s not ok to place other books (particularly not the wife’s Bible!) on top of the Bible, but it’s just A-OK to scribble graffiti all over the inside of it? 🙄

    1. With that much Fundie Power on the inside you don’t have to worry about anything being placed on top of it… it will clean itself off and climb to the top of the heap on its own.

  15. I tore out the pages like this from my college-era Bibles. They sickened me. I have never regretted it, nor have I regretted getting rid of my HAC yearbooks, and anything written by Jack Hyles or any of his worshippers. STILL, this is HILARIOUS to look at. 😆 🙄

    1. We lost ALL our fundie paraphanalia in a house fire. I never have even thought about it until I started coming here. Then I have sort of wished for some of it to give to Darrell as a gift. (He could have kept this site in fundie lore for a long long time) But other than for that reason I have never wanted it back. My Bible had so many signatures in it I am sure it was heavier and more powerful than everyone elses’ Bibles. But the Bible I have now gets read and understood much more often. 😉 My husband had ALL Jack Hyles sermon tapes ~ well all that were ever sold. We had all the books he wrote, and all the books they required us to buy for school, (including all of Marlene Evans books) We had our class notes and journals (those would probably have been a trip down memory lane for sure) Anyway, it is probably good they are all gone. Clean sweep.

      1. It IS good. I DO have my wedding album, full of Jack Hyles and even Beverly, but somehow, I cannot bring myself to donate that to Darrell, much as I love him as I would love any similar GIFT to my SANITY. My late husband is in it, of course, and I just cannot bear to part with it. Besides, the photos do not really tell any sort of fundy story, that I can think of…

        1. Seen, of COURSE you wouldn’t give your wedding album away! Pictures of your late husband = Priceless.

          Fellow widow here…*Hugs*

  16. Just last week, I picked up an old Bible of mine and found that there was a signature in the front. Funny thing is, even when I was a kid, I somehow felt it was a little weird that someone would autograph someone else’s Bible. I know I didn’t have anyone sign my Bible. What gives?

    The handwriting is undecipherable, so I’m clueless as to who took it upon themselves to graffiti up my Bible, but it doesn’t appear to be by any of the big fundy guns.

  17. OK,so does anyone have an NIV (or other lesser version) with Fundy MOG autographs in it? Is that even possible, or would they only sign a KJV?

    1. Just for fun I would love to do this now. I mean if I actually could tolerate being around fundy preachers that is. Show up with a large NIV study Bible and see how many would sign it. It would be truly hilarious!

      1. I doubt it’d work. If it’s not covered in cheap imitation leather they’ll check the binding. I had one a few years back, oohing and ahhing over my pocket ESV – one of the smaller ones with the nice brown leatherish cover and an inlaid design on the front. He asked me if he could see it, and the first thing he did was check the spine. He went from “ooh, pretty!” to “eww, not KJV” and even his grip posture changed. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen and it took all my strength not to laugh. He gave it few cursory glances, even opened the pages randomly and pretended to read, then gave it back to me and whispered, “Be careful carrying that around.” And I don’t think it was an idle warning; when I was singing with my quartet, I’d see pastors looking at or handling my Bible on the front pew and once or twice I was concerned they’d do physical harm to my Bible.

  19. Schaap, Malone, Ferrel and Falwell all in the same Bible? That is Heroes of Fundiedom Awesomeness beyond comprehension!

    With a 1611 KJV like that all you have to do is point it at people and shout the magic phrase and immediately they will fall down under conviction and get saved right then and there!

    1. Now I hope that Bible has a stand in a prominent, sanctified position where it can be placed under glass and this page can be left open so that the spirit of M-O-g can be felt by all who come into the home.

    2. It seems the only hero missing is Sam Gipp?

      I say this Bible’s Fundiedom Awesomeness isn’t quite what it could be if it had the Gipper’s own sanctified signature in it. :mrgreen:

      1. If Gipp, Hyles and Roloff were added this Bible it would immediately be raptured and transported to Heaven in a whirlwind to reside on the right hand of the Great White Throne of Judgment!

        1. 😆 😆 😆 ! It never occurred to me to ask someone to sign my Bible. One time my x pastor was asked to sign a lady’s Bible and he chose to do it in front of the congregation, I remember thinking “Why would she want him to sign her Bible?” Now that I think of it maybe he was wanting more people to ask him? 🙄

  20. OK, so I pulled out my KJV I had when I was a kid and I’m fairly nauseated right now. On the same flyleaf in my Bible I have Jack Hyles and Joe Combs. There are a bunch of others there too, but those two made my stomach turn over.

        1. I had Joe Combs in mine. Once in class he chewed my husband out and I covered his name with a sticker.

        2. I had Joe Combs and JH in mine. He chewed me out once in class, too. I was laughing at something HE said. Dolt.

  21. I hate to sound mercenary but some of those might be worth money someday..especially the ones who were in the news a lot like Jerry Fallwell.

    I have one of my mother’s signed by the Rev. Ian Paisley. He was not only a friend of Bob Jones but he was a member of the British Parliament and a significant figure during the troubles in Northern Ireland. I’m hanging onto that! :mrgreen:

    1. Significant figure?
      He was the leader of Northern Ireland’s second-biggest (after the Provisional IRA) terrorist gang.

      Yes, his signature would be of historic interest– along with Pol Pot’s, Osama Bin Laden’s, Stalin’s, the Unabomber’s, etc.

      After Paisley signed your Bible, I imagine the pages would all be stuck together by the blood dripping from his hands.

      1. George will probably put this down at the end of the page but this is a reply to Big Gary. The Rev Paisley did not sign MY Bible. He signed my mom’s.
        And yes… I agree with you on all points about him. I just didn’t want to go into detail.

        1. I’m surprised that elfdream and Gary found the time to find this site, after all, time spent on here means less time drinking. Are you serious? You two clowns should just stick to being drunk Irishmen and leaving the serious issues of the world to sober, sane people.

        3. Oh, c’mon, Bart, you can surely be more offensive than THAT! That the best ethnic slur you can manage? Aw, I bet you’ve got a million of ’em. You super-intelligent racists always have the BEST responses! 🙄

        4. So just because Irish people like to drink too much I’m a racist? Wow. And I suppose you’d call me a “Southernist” too because people from the South are slow, blue collar, and actually watch NASCAR?

        5. Nah. I would just call you a troll, and thus, useless and in need of a life. Toddles, Bartie Pooh. Xo

        6. Seriously, are you really that lonely that your need for interaction is so desperate you are trying to pick fights on the internet? I feel so bad for you. And oh, it is probably time to open a window and let in some fresh air. Mommy’s basement is probably getting a little stuffy.

        7. Eh, I’m not Irish and not drunk.
          I’m from the South, but I’m not slow or blue-collar (which are two completely different things), and I don’t watch NASCAR.
          So, except for being wrong about everything, Bart, you’re absolutely right.

        8. Have to say about Ian Paisley that he has pulled back from his ultra extrmist position and involved himself in peace negotiations with his former enemies in Northern Ireland.
          Don’t recall Pol Pot, Stalin et al doing any such thing.

    2. Maybe he should bring it to the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas and have Rick give him an offer (for those of you who have ever seen Pawn Stars).

      Rick: “Wow, what have you got here?”

      Customer: “Genuine signatures of many fundamentalist leaders.”

      Rick: “Hold on. Let me get my buddy down here and he can authenticate them. Does it include Bob Jones?”

      Chumlee (with his dopey look): “Who’s Bob Jones?”

      Old Man: “Oh, you young kids don’t know nuthin’. Haven’t you heard of the great golfer Bobby Jones?”

      1. +1

        Rick – “I’ve got a friend who’s an expert on MOG signatures. Let me give him a call…

        2. I like yours better. 😉

          Expert: “Rick, the good news is these signatures are all authentic. The bad news is all together they’re worth about $2.”

        3. For what it’s worth, I have no idea who Ean Paisley is. He’s probably some fashion designer who makes cool paisley ties. But I have to agree with the previous poster. If he’s Irish, then he must be a drunken, brawling redneck. And why do we even care about Ireland anyway? Ireland is a cool place in that it has nice golf courses and provides nice scenery for golf calendars, but do we actually care about anything related to Ireland other than golf calendars and a fun place to visit for a day or two on vacation? I don’t see why we’re getting all worked up over some insignificant, meaningless 3rd world country full of drunks? I’d rather talk about the NFC Central’s weak points. At least that’s a topic that has meaning and interest to people.

      3. Can we get back to racism here? Most Irish that I know are constantly drunk and brawling. Why is it “racist” to point out a well known part of their culture? I also don’t like Socialism and I think that Norwegians are not wise for trying to attempt it. The only reason it works there for the time being is because of the surfeit of oil in their economy. If it weren’t for the disparate amount of oil which skews the true facets of Socialism, then Norway would be almost as bad as Greece right now. Oh, and I suppose Angela Merkel is somehow a racist, Germo-centric evil woman because she doesn’t give Greeks real high marks for running a country without actually destroying the economy? Is is racist now, according to SFL, to not fawn all over Greece for destroying their own economy?

        I’m a Southerner and I reluctantly admit that many of us are true to stereotype. Might I suggest that some of you actually decide to grow up and actually learn to deal with reality and not run to Momma and cry “racism” every time someone mentions a hard fact?

        1. This statement is blatantly racist: “Most Irish that I know are constantly drunk and brawling.”
          If it happens to be true, I submit that you must not know many Irish people. Even if it were true of “most Irish,” how would it be helpfult to assume that about an Irish person you don’t know?

          Your other comments are political opinions about systems of government, not racial stereotypes, so I won’t debate them (since forms of government was not the topic here).

        2. Oh, Loop is prolly that same boob from yesterday, trolling, because it has no life. No one but a troll could open with uch an asinine proclamation. 🙄

        3. I don’t appreciate this guy trolling on this board. But more importantly, I am incredibly saddened at Gary’s response. I am a Norwegian-American and I am repulsed and sickened at this guy’s, whom I used to call a “friend,” horrible and racist response to racism. To say that “this is not racism, this is just politics” makes me angry, sad and ashamed to be on this blog. Gary obviously has some deep seated racist towards Norwegians and somehow has the gall to write it off as “politics.” So I suppose that Gary is now going to prohibit us all from dating African-Americans because they are just Nig###es and we certainly don’t want to associate with them. Gary, you sicken me that you can actually endorse racism.

  22. I can’t read most of the names, but how is it that most of them seem to start with “J”? Are Fundies superstitious about the letter “J”?

    2. Why of course! Not only J but Jack! You know, the big three, Jack Hyles, Jack Schaap, and Jack Trieber. And all of the up and coming preacher boys who were named after Jack Hyles. In the next ten to twenty years there are going to be so many IFB preachers named Jack you’ll never be able to tell them all apart. 😈

      1. I think it is more likely you will find them doing other things besides preaching. If they got born into that system by enthusiastic parents who thought they might have a little “preacher boy” and name him Jack, they probably have already rebelled.

  23. I don’t even know who I had sign my Bible, but I distinctly remember there being a line of us impressionable young men queuing up for signatures after any revival service. Even worse was the summer camps – first night there was always a line. Not unlike the line at Eagles training camp as the players were walking out from the locker room to their cars, now that I think of it. Called to serve the least among you? Bah! When’s the last time you got an autograph from the guy collecting your trash every week?

    1. This would be Evangelist Joe Boyd, who told the young men at his camps, among other things, never to read C.S. Lewis. Anglican, you know. 🙄

  25. Man. I’ve never understood the whole “sign my Bible please” thing – I never encountered it until I went to BJU. It struck me as so odd – you want a fellow man to scrawl his name on a copy of God’s word? Huh? Then again, I believe very strongly in the priesthood of all believers, so maybe I just can’t grasp how preachers have better access to God than me.

  26. I never understood signing Bibles. It gives the signer a puffed up view of himself and breeds “hero worship” in those salivating for some MOG to touch their Bible because it might make them more spiritual. If one wants to take a strict fundy thinking approach to this, the Bible (of course KJV) is pure, prefect and sacred so why tarnish it by having imperfect men sign it and those signing should refuse because it’s GOD’S HOLY BOOK.

  27. Darrell, will you reveal all the answers at some point?

    I really can’t figure some of them out, especially the upside-down one with the huge flourish under the name in the lower left-hand corner.

    1. I’ll have to leave that up to the guy who submitted them. I don’t recognize them all either. 🙂

  29. I believe that’s Steve Robertson on the right. I attended many, many youth retreats with Pope and Robertson. I should clarify not THE Pope, but good ‘ole Johnny.

  30. Who’s the dude who signed it upside down? should I be surprised that he doesn’t know which way up a Bible goes? 😉

  31. I got an autographed book the other day. But the woman who signed it was THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK, and an old friend as well. She wasn’t signing some random book of mine just because … because … Why DO those preachers sign those Bibles, anyway?

  32. I got Bill Gothard’s signature in the front of my Bible once…………………….. 😕 😆 😐

    1. I had to go through the Bill Gothard training, and I can assure you the Gothard has never read that Bible (or any other Bible). Instead, he wants the god of his own creation to go over the Bible.

      1. I was sent to “Basic Youth Conflicts” several times (sometimes on scholarship) in the hopes that it would help my attitude problem. (It didn’t)

        1. What is the name of his basic seminar that he does? I (and the entire staff) had to watch it. We found where the leftover mattresses were during that week.

  33. I never asked for any of their autographs, I was taught not to idolize men. Is this some kind of contradiction of theirs, cunfusion to me.

  34. How duped I was back in the day not to see through these guys and their big pompous egos! They were feeling like pro athletes or rock stars while we were living in fear of them. Blecchh! Jerry Falwell was liberal where I came from. If his signature was in my bible my old pastor would have had me tear out the page.

  35. I swear, that upside-down “Bob” in the corner looks Like Bob Gray, but it’s the wrong verse.

    Oh, maybe it’s Texas Gray. Florida Gray used the “precious seed” verse from Psalms, and signed it Robert C. Gray Jr.

  36. Someone once asked R.C. Sproul to sign their Bible. He replied “No, thanks, I didn’t write it.”

  38. I got a signed first edition. I just wish Jesus would not have used red ink. Red ink fades over time.

  39. Check my fundy cred out…
    John Rawlings – Rawlings Foundation
    Wallace Stawn – Lighthouse Baptist Mississississsissippi
    Jack Schaap – Pope
    Patrick Daily ? not sure
    Jerry Falwell – Fallen Angle of fundyland
    Jack Graham – Pastor of the massive Prestonwood Baptist a SBC church
    Tom Farell – Wilds now West Coast Evangelist
    Mark Minik – Mt. Calvary Baptist Greenville not sure on this one just a guess
    Clarence Sexton – Assistant to the Pope
    Sam Davidson – Heartland pres
    Tom Malone – dead guy with big glasses and a dying church
    Steve Roberson – Chattanooga TN Bobby’s son
    Johnny Pope – Christchurch Baptist in TX
    Phil Kidd – Nut job/Marylin Manson of Christianity
    Jack Trieber – maybe
    Paul Chapple – not found

    2. **standing and applauding** Very close my friend, very close. I am the source of the photo and know each signature. You have come very close to winning the coveted “Friday Challenge Award” for this week!

  40. WAIT…Bob GRAY! obviously from TX the one from JAcksonville only gave out autographs to little girls who would kiss him on the cheek 😯

  42. I bet the real reason fundy pastors preach against people reading their Bible in church via a handheld device is cause they will not be able to sign it.

      1. Joshua, or they don’t want you to check the plausibility of all their urban legands and myths:

        “Our college doesn’t need accreditation! Why, even Harvard is not accredited!!!”

        (sound of audience tap-tap-tapping away on their handheld devices) :mrgreen:

  43. This was something never practiced in my church. Signing bibles. What’s the big deal. Why would someone want some guy to sign their bible?

    1. To explain it to the best of my ability to explain, I think the idea was that there were “Great” preachers whom, if one had enough exposure to them, they could possibly someday be great too.(somehow) and getting your Bible signed was almost like fans getting autographs of their favorite celebrities and also a little bit of bragging that you have heard each of those men speak “in person”. Also, there was the big deal of getting to shake their hand and get a little bit of notice, and the idea of “encouraging” them by treating them like a celebrity. It was a very screwed up system that could only be seen as screwed up if you weren’t too deep into it.

  44. I knew of a church that used a Bible as a promotion for a Fall program attendance drive. Apparently the Bible had been kept in the church office and was signed by every important evangelist/pastor/speaker who had been a guest at the church for at least 20 years or so. I’m not sure who wound up getting it, but I’ve always wondered why anyone would be motivated by such a promotion.

    1. Yeah I’ve heard of promotions like that, only it was with only one signature, I can’t remember whose.

      I wonder what God up in heaven thinks of these men signing HIS book as though THEY wrote it? 😉

  45. Pope John Paul II is in there. However, since he is with Baptists, he shortened his name to Johnny Pope.

  46. Life verses after your name. If I ever become famous and start signing my name to stuff I think I will use Ezekiel 23:20

  47. DUDE. This week I found my very first Bible with all of the signatures and was going to email it to you/post it to help me figure out who the signatures belonged to. The only one I could read from mine was “Shelton Smith”… yeah.

  48. I want Exodus 22:18 on my tombstone. In the AV, of COURSE! I am not one of these, but can have those tendencies…. 😉

  49. To all members of the SFL nation,
    Here are the answers to the following picture starting at the top and going clockwise:

    Right hand page: Charles Chandler (guy that I was saved under), Bob Gray Sr (Longview Baptist Temple, Longview, TX), Tom Malone, Keith Gomez (Northwest Bible Baptist Church, Elgin, IL), Johnny Pope, DR Phil Kidd, Steve Roberson, Joe Boyd, Sam Davison (went to his college and church for 4 years)

    Left hand page: John Rawlings (founder of the Baptist Bible Fellowship and Baptist Bible College in Springfield, MO), Jack Schaap (ever heard of him?), Jerry Falwell (yeah baby, got it at a funeral), Tom Farrell, Mike Huckabee (yeah,that Mike Huckabee the former presidential cndidate/pastor), Bob Gray Jr.(Texas), Jack Graham (representing the SBC and the mega-church Prestonwood Baptist in Plano, TX), Parker Dailey (former BBC president), Wallace Strawn (a hero of mine).

    There ya have it! Just a piece from my personal library that I collected through the years. May I just say that while some of these men here have major ego issues and have a horrible spirit, there are some men listed here that truly love God and have given their lives to Him. They are good men who just happen to share a page with some not so humble people. Hope you all enjoyed!

    David

      1. I’ve never met the guy or heard him preach, but live in that area and could tell on first exposure to that church what kind of person he was. I can only assume with the “Dr.” plastered on everything that he didn’t earn his either…

    1. “The Jack”. He makes other conspiracy theorists look like the Hardy Boys. I learned the phrase “Whore of Babylon” and all of the scary time lines from him around 11 or 12 years of age. I remember thinking he was a modern day prophet because he knew what Revelations was talking about when nobody else did! 🙄

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