83 thoughts on “Jack Hyles Tells A War Story”

  3. Hideous choir outfits. Check. Nod to other fundy pastors (Bob Gray). Check. Yelling and Hooting. Check. Audience Yelling and Hooting. Check. Waving the Bible like a mob. Check. Not using the Bible for at least 9 minutes and 7 seconds. Check.

    It’s amazing how everyone quoted the same phrase. “My wife is going to heaven…etc” It’s also amazing that he saw someone saved every week. If it truly happened, wonderful. If he cajoled people or conned people or is outright lying…Shameful.

    1. Did the church get a deal on some throwaway pea green 1970’s choir robes down at the Goodwill?

      1. From the frozen shot, it looks like two men in suits backed up by a bunch of female soldiers in camouflage and 80s hair.

      1. It’s ALL about HIM. Hitler was able to emote an unthinking mob of useful idiots. Jack ranks right up there as well.

        I JUST sat here this morning and listened to a pastor talk about those who would take your spiritual gifts and abuse you with it and it’s called spiritual abuse. He said to be aware of people like this and don’t let them have any power over you.

        The church we were married in wasn’t Hyles, but he was a stickler for NOT missing church when he opened the doors. I remember him “praying” in a Sunday School class about us out loud that we would…”get our hearts right with God and be there whenever the doors are opened.” See, we didn’t got to the Missions Conference which was 6 nights in a row b/c my hubby had worked 60 hours that week. THAT was spiritual abuse.

        2. Don-

          Yep. And there was a young couple in our SS that made a lot of money and they were never treated like this.

          If you had money, you were treated with kid gloves. All those MOG went to the books and watched who gave what.

  5. First off, I noticed that the comments are disabled for this video on YT.

    Is DaveC6th afraid everyone will find out the “greatest preacher of all time” was an adulterer ❓

  6. He nearly knocked the podium down several times swinging his arms around like that. He is just horrible to listen to but his worshippers sure seemed to love it. I don’t know when this video is from but I wouldn’t doubt our former pastor was there waving his hands and shouting with the rest of them. 🙄 😳 😮 😕 😡 😥

    1. My ears hurt listening to that this early in the morning. I will never listen to a Hyles clip again while enjoying my morning coffee! 😯

    1. I have to disagree, it’s not entertaining at all. Pitiful, yes, a waste of people’s time, yes, self serving, yes. But entertaining it is not.

  8. People believe this crap? I used to believe this crap? I don’t get it. If any other religion did this, I’m sure Christians would say that the crowd was being manipulated, and it was just emotionalism.

    1. Fundies would claim that it was emotional manipulation instead of preaching (which it totally is, whoever is doing it) if a Christian church in a different denomination were doing it, not just another religion. 🙄

  9. I am having serious doubts about my sanity from my youth. As I was watching this man rant and realizing that over 30 years ago I was 100% under the belief that this man was the ONLY man who truly understood the Bible and blah blah blah… I want to throw up.

  10. His preaching style is similar to what might be heard in an African-American church.

  12. Did he really say “get off your blessed a$$urance”?? 😯 Skating a bit close to the edge, isn’t he? Minced oaths, and all that…

    1. If I had a dollar for every time I heard some preacher say “blessed assurance” (as in getting off yours) I’d be very rich! 🙄

  14. I made it through three minutes of that before having to turn it off. I had to listen to him IRL a few times. He “ran the pews” in a church we visited once. My parents were in absolute heaven over that — “He was so filled with the spirit!” *groan* I was rolling my eyes. No grown man should be “running pews” in a church. So disrespectful, imo.

    1. I remember when Bob Gray (Texas) was visting our church in Michigan years ago and he’d step on the front pews. At the time we got a kick out of it but later on realized how disrespectful and self aggrandizing that was. That’s all Hyles is doing in this segment, just drawing attention to himself. How many times did he say the word “I” as opposed to how many times he said “God,” “Jesus,” or “the Lord”? 🙄 It’s all about him and his accomplishments! 👿

      1. Oh man, I HATED when Jack Hyles and his copycat pastors would stand on the front pew, run up and down the aisles, kick things over & just look at us like this was ALL part of being a “great manofgod”!! We had more than our share of mics broken from getting kicked down the stage’s stairs & it just used to piss me off because I was so tired and just wanted to go to bed & instead I was getting yelled at for 2 hours by a crazy person wiping foam off their mouth with a handkerchief. *shudder* It is very disrespectful behaviour and of course ALL ABOUT THEM. 😡 😡 😡

      1. When they come down from the podium and stand in front of the church, then walk or run down the aisle, with the microphone, preaching as he’s going down the aisle, sometimes stopping to get in someone’s face. You don’t want to be sitting on the aisle when a preacher does that. I hate when they do that. It’s showing off in the extreme. Just stay behind the pulpit! 👿

        1. Yeah, that seems utterly unnecessary. And I can see the potential for abuse. Hoo, boy. It’s one thing to greet and speak to congregation members at an appropriate moment, but a sermon is a sermon.

        2. I think it depends on the style. I’ve never minded it if the preacher is talking in a more conversational tone. But if he’s shrieking and yelling, it’s way too “in your face”.

      2. Is there a different term used when he actually was walking on the tops of the pews? Pretty sure he’s done that too. He was also fond of kicking microphone stands.

    1. I-I-I-I-I! “Goin’ off the rails on the Crazy Train,” indeed.

  16. Every former fundy has their “buttons” which, when pushed, set them off. This man or style of brainwashing isn’t one of mine. I can only pity those affected by this cult leader. It’s the offshoots of this man that plague my past. A bunch of men took Hyles’ idealology and packaged it in such a way that the next generation that came along could stomach it (unlike this offensive crap spewing out of his mouth in the video.) Its the same crap, just flavored differently. I can’t think of too many people that would actually fall for this man’s gimmicks today but Look Out for his imitators and supporters. And as one put so well. Follow the money.

    I thank God for His grace in delivering me from this type of cult. I’m sick to think of how many are still in it. Lord have mercy on them.

  17. I made it to 2:02 and shut it off. Talk about someone who is full of himself. Glad I never met him.

  18. I listened to the whole thing (I’ve heard entire messages by him, so 10 minutes was easy); toward the end, the self-love and self-aggrandizement really spilled over into how great he has been for the last 40+ years.

    He may have, in the beginning, started off well, but something sure happened along the way.

    He pushed hard to be successful and was a master manipulator – he told people that they were shameful Christians if they weren’t out all the time “winning souls” (really just manipulating them into saying a prayer) all the time. He questioned people’s Christianity who didn’t “win souls” in this way.

    1. It was part of why we left the former church run by pastor hyles worshipper. We had been teaching Sunday school that year but we were not going “soul winning” any longer because we realized that the easy prayerism method was not working. We could no longer participate in it and be hypocrites. So when it came time to make up new classes for the following year he told us we couldn’t teach any more because we had stopped going. We told him our concerns but it went in one ear out the other. I was tired of the church being pastored in effect by a dead man (hyles) who this pastor couldn’t avoid mentioning in every sermon at least once. On the tenth anniversary of hyles’ death he announced that morning that that evening he would be preaching a sermon entitled “10 things I learned from Pastor Jack Hyles.” I think you won’t be surprised when I say, we did NOT attend that evening! 😈

      1. I enjoy reading your posts because our stories are so similar, just in different parts of the country.

        I think I could have been a good teacher of, say, young converts, but my dislike of the easy prayerism and the “selling heaven” mentality stopped me going, so the pastor told me to my face that he would never use me until I “got right” and started doing things his way.

        I really think that the neighborhood door knocking is not a good way to spread the gospel; most people are suspicious of those who knock on their doors. In addition, people are usually doing “something” and dislike being interrupted (for the most part). Perhaps an appointment system could be worked out where people are expecting the church person — you at least know that they have some interest.

        Anyway, thanks for the post.

        1. Absolutely! Coming to the door is foolish in most parts of the country. Maybe there are still places in the south where people will open the door, but most sane people don’t open the doors to strangers who come knocking in the middle of the day. Especially if they want to take their kids away to VBS. It’s one thing to advertise in a neighborhood: another thing to have someone in the cult uniform show up asking to pick your kids up and take them away somewhere.

          The average person has plenty of contacts among friends and family to witness to, if they are a friendly person and willing to actual commit to a relationship with a person. Alternately, the internet is now where people meet to talk with others. It’s where a lot of people go to tell their problems and where they go to seek help. But I don’t think fundies have the patience (or the spelling skills) to talk to people there.

        2. We visited a church once, filled out the visitor card, checked the no contact box. Monday at 5:30, a group of ladies showed up at our apartment. I was pregnant, had been throwing up all day. Husband was working, so I was home alone. I didn’t answer the door. They left info from their church on the door. Husband called the pastor the next day asking why they ignored the no contact box. He said the church visited every new person, no matter what so they could get their foot in the door. We were so offended that they felt the need to be pushy and self righteous. We never went back.

        3. I open the door. Usually I have my Baby Eagle II .40 strapped to my waist. Sometimes it’s my .45 though.

        4. the effect is so much better when your gunbelt is all you have on when you answer the door… 😈

          and then you invite them in… 😈 😈 😉

          …for a drink :mrgreen:

  19. I truly don’t miss these types of sermons. At one point, I really thought that man hung the moon. Sad……..

    1. To hear him tell it, he did! He always gave more glory to himself than to the One who did hang the moon, and the sun and the stars and everything else! 👿

    2. formerHACgirl- of course you thought he hung the moon…you were brainwashed to think so! I recall the song they used to make us sing (at Hammond Baptist Schools, but my Mom said they sang it at HAC when she was there & sometimes at FBC staff meetings…?!?), “we love you Bro. Hyles, oh yes we do! We don’t love anyone as much as you. When you’re not with us, we’re blue…oh Bro. Hyles we love you!” And he would just stand there and smile while throngs of women sang their undying love & worship to him.
      Sick.SICK.SICK!!!
      So glad you are FORMER HAC girl and you are out!!!

      1. My sister attended HAC. She said he would buy pizza for all the girls in the dorms (NOT the boys, mind you, just the girls). Once he dressed up like an ice cream guy and brought them all ice cream. *shudder* Just way too pervy and weird for my tastes.

        1. Yes, well, his excuse was he was trying to keep the girls from being homesick — he didn’t do it for the boys because they could earn money off-campus. (that was his story/excuse for the treatment).

          I think he just wanted people to love him/adore him/think he was the greatest.

          I always wondered if this was his own money, or church money, or school money.

        2. i actually have a picture of him dressed up like an ice cream vendor standing outside the door of my dorm room (surrounded by girls) I remember at the time thinking how strange it was, but also how easy it was to get caught up in the excitement of it all. Mostly I really REALLY wanted that ice cream bar. I also remember him bringing pizza and pretending to be a pizza delivery guy. Now that I am old and jaded I do think it was sort of pervy and gross.

        3. I don’t doubt that old Jack went home after these sessions with the college girls and had a grand old party with his hand.

        4. Doesn’t Jack Schaap also do that? I believe Bob III did that too.

  20. I barely made it 45 seconds… i grew up in fbc and he passed away when i was in 7th grade so i really dont remembe much about him but every year they made us watch a sermon dvd on his birthday and the anniversary of when i died… so yeah i could listen past 45 seconds…. His son in law that took over Jack Schaap is just as worse or possibly more so… the lies and the cover up that go on in that place are plain criminal… jmo:)

      1. I agree. The son in law is MUCH worse. And also agree about the lies and cover ups. I am ashamed that I was there for as long as I was and ignored all the signs. In my defense, I was pretty young. But still…

    2. Ugh! Can’t believe (well… actually, I can) they made you watch a DVD on his “deathiversary”. So weird! My family left FBC when I was in 6th grade and we moved to the west coast. I remember when he died & our church went into “mourning” over some guy they’d never met. It was so creepy. From what I’ve seen & heard, Jack Schaap is WAY worse. Trying so hard to “uphold the legacy” he has gone completely crazy. I’ve heard a couple clips of his sermons & I literally think he is clinically insane.
      So sorry to you both for your FBC experiences. 🙁 But, glad you two are out!

    3. I remember the day he died in February of ’01. When my mother told me I cried most of the day (and I was a teenager!). He was almost elevated to “god status” in our cult IFB circles. He came to our church every year. I’d met him and attended the Youth Conferences as well. I thought I was also going to attend HAC also but thankfully that didn’t happen.

      Looking at how much I idolized a man I didn’t really even know is just….unthinkable. The mind controlling powers of the IFB are strong indeed. 👿

    1. Perfect. I heard this on the radio this weekend and thought about how it applies perfectly to Fundy culture.

      1. Best line of song, “I exploit you, still you love me”. What was I thinking during my time in the compound?

  22. That kind of “preaching” is akin to professional wrestling in that they are trying to get a “pop” out of a crowd. That is why I cringe if I hear a preacher say he does not want to be in a dead church. When I hear that I check the block next to “knows very little about the Bible”.

    1. I agree, which makes it doubly ironic when they accuse the local evangelical church of trying to cater to their audience or trying to entertain as if this kind of fundy preacher isn’t himself putting on a three-ring circus on the platform every Sunday, performing for the approval voiced in “Amens” and “Preach-it-brothers” from the congregation.

  23. The first time that he yelled my dog got up and left the room. Smart dog!!

    How cam anyone in good conscience every support a “ministry” like his? My God help every one exposed to this type of “worship” !

  25. I recognized Bob Gray of Longview Texas sitting in the “Pastor’s Pew” on the right behind Hyles. Must have been his church.

  26. I’ve said it before, but … Every one of Hyles’ sermons and written pieces that I’ve heard or seen yet had exactly the same subject: “How Great Jack Hyles Is.”

  27. Did I hear him say the people were driving horses and wagons?
    In what century did this story take place?

    Jack Hyles was reportedly born in 1926 in Italy, Texas (50 miles from Dallas).
    By the time Hyles was a preacher boy, most people in Texas had cars– especially if they lived in the country, and practically nobody still went to church meetings in horse-drawn wagons.

    1. And in his world, it was uphill to church both ways, and the hills shifted during the offering.

  28. I noticed that in his various attacks on the podium he actually knocked the Holy Bible to the floor several times. At least he bent over and picked it up … until the next knock-over.

  31. I salute those of you who selflessly sacrificed your sanity and stomach contents to watch this…”bull…stuff” (As Dr. Bob. Jr said in chapel one day, much to his family’s chagrin). I can’t do it. The dog carried off my barn boots yesterday and I don’t know where he put them.

  32. It was a litany of “I”s. He didn’t even make the attempt to PRETEND to give God the glory for anything, just a list of “here’s what I did” and “here’s how many people I claimed to have saved.” 🙄

    Of course, even if he had played at being humble it wouldn’t have made any difference with him. I can’t really take the “preaching”/self-promotion of a long-time, unrepentant adulterer seriously.

  33. Did my youtube downloader err, or did he repeat about 2 minutes worth of words in there towards the beginning? You know, I have read for a long time on this site about all this yelling in churches and stuff. I’d never seen it in my churches, so I didn’t quite believe you all here about the yelling preacher people. But after viewing this clip, I am shocked. I have never seen this before from a pulpit. I have never seen a congregation act like this. That sounded like a circus or a protest or something.

  34. Spent my teen years in a fundy church. Most of our “youth outings”? Dressing up, riding in a crappy church bus going to hear preachers like Hyles (and we went to hear him ALOT). Makes me sad… 🙁

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