387 thoughts on “A Welcoming Spirit”

  2. Ah, yes. McSpadden was at HAC when my dad was a student and I was a wee child. A list of things that they were proud to tell you that you won’t like also appeared in the HAC catalog when I was a student in the early 2000’s. I have a copy of the 2003-2004 catalog (only kept it because my picture is in it), and there it is. It seems we can thank McSpadden AND Hyles for this load ‘o crazy.

    1. I knew that You may not like… sounded familiar… there was an advertisement in the Sword of the Lord many years ago that said something similar: You probably won’t like Hyles-Anderson College because”

      and then listed a bunch of reasons… No wonder this was so familiar to me.

  3. Sounds like typical Bucky Tucker. He’s a wanna be from an era that is slowly ceasing to exist.

  5. @stacyMcAnderson,
    why are you SO consumed with liberals, socialists, and communists? Part of the reason I LEFT authoritarian religion was this mentality that all True Christians must also be staunch conservatives.

  6. This is for Charis, who posted earlier with questions about what the distinctives of IFB fundamentalism are, and why they are antithetical to Christianity:
    Two of the best resources, which helped me to see the disparity, are the short book “Fundamental Flaws”, by Darrell Dow, moderator of this blog, and a certain audio by Jeri Massey (I don’t remember the title, but someone here might). The book is available for a very reasonable price (Darrell offered it for free as an ebook when first published) is available in the link at the bottom of this page. Jeri’s audio might still be streaming, though I’m not sure. I think her website is Jeriwho.net
    This is an unsolicited endorsement, I just am trying to help, since they were both so helpful to me.

      2. Also, Charis, what years were you at Cedarville? I was there from ’93-’97.

        2. Man, I just graduated this year from the ville. Crazy the changes that happened the last year. Glad to be moving on.

    2. Sadly, just in the past week my host provider made me remove my audio files, saying they exceeded bandwidth, even though they have been posted for three or four years. I don’t know why they suddenly exceeded bandwidth, or why a host who advertises “unlimited bandwidth” would suddenly object to them.

      But the same information about Fundamentalism does appear in SCHIZOPHRENIC CHRISTIANITY by Jeri Massi, which is available at amazon.com

      3. There’s a difference between bandwidth and storage space. More downloads/listens = more bandwidth. You may have had a sudden influx of new listeners. You might get around the bandwidth issue by compressing the files to smaller size if you can do so without seriously compromising audio quality (and make sure they are mono and not stereo). Otherwise, hosting them on an alternate provider might be the only option. Itunes perhaps?

        1. Also unlimited bandwidth often refers to fictitional burstable speeds, but there are monthly and possibly annual aggregate caps which sounds like the culprit here. I think Jeri’s download popularity exceeded her max monthly bandwidth cap, not a storage or download speed issue. Just FYI.

        2. PS I think you can host on like google docs/drive if it’s not a streaming file, but just a downloadable one and link to that. I don’t think even the free version has a max downloads limit. Might be issues with creating a link to directly download from docs/drive. I’m not sure of other hosting options to get around bandwidth caps.

        3. My thanks for the additional information. I don’t have the time to upload them elsewhere and create links, but that one sound file would be no problem. Regrettably, I would need to know the title. I could put it on Dropbox and post a link for download (not streaming).

          Alternatively, you *could* read my book, SCHIZOPHRENIC CHRISTIANITY. But I will try to figure out which sound file Troublewit was referencing and post a link if I can sort through the files and find it.

      1. That was a gem, Jeri. I miss your podcast with the sermon deconstructions (preceded by the Three Stooges theme music), your skits and parodies were very funny, yet illuminating as well. The audio file(s) I was referring to included the one you just posted, along with a great explanation of the MOG heresy. It really turned a light on for me- I thought I was alone in observing some of the inconsistencies in IFB, until I heard you explain it so succinctly. Cheers and blessings to you…

        1. Thanks, Troublewit! Always great to hear that people benefited from the podcast. I never thought I had many listeners, but every now and then somebody will tell me they listened to it every day. Thanks for letting me know!

  7. Does anyone else remember a time when HAC’s handbook listed that they banned the internet and/or computers, or am I just crazy? Well, either way I’m crazy, but I seem to remember this being during the late 90’s or early 2000s.

      1. Please define “essential,” Jack.

        I know it must include those pictures of kitties my Mom sends me. What else?

    2. I remember seeing a Youtube clip of I think it was Schaap in chapel berating someone about a cellphone. I’m curious about what they do about today’s tech. I mean, there are ways to bypass HAC’s IT system.

  8. I would like to thank the Academy for this award, I think it was Poe, that said,…………

    Recovering IFB

  10. The church was constantly harassed by kind and open minded people trying to come in so they had to do something.

    1. Lol. That makes sense. You wouldn’t want those types showing up and attracting more people like them. You’ll be overrun and have to find somewhere else to spew your hate. Lol

    2. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James 4:4

      Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John 2:15-17

      Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 Timothy 3:12

      1. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 Timothy 3:12

        How would you know? Have hatred, anger, false accusations, and vitriol toward fellow believers become Christ-like?

      2. ” Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

        Mark 12: 30, 31

  11. Ah, yes, another church that defines itself by what it is against, rather than what it is for.

    1. Or rather, by what the pastor is against. The church folks probably really don’t have any say.

      1. They choose to not leave. They are agreeing with the pastor even if it is by default.

    2. Ideally a church would be defined by Who is for them (in the substitutionary sense).

    3. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James 4:4

      Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John 2:15-17

      Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 Timothy 3:12

    1. That’s the biggest mess of an “about ” page that I’ve seen.

      One prime example:

      ” If Bill McSpadden needs to get something done for a right reason and he doesn’t fell [sic] that task is exactly ‘Bill McSpadden,’ he will find a way to make it ‘Bill McSpadden.'”

      What makes a task “Bill McSpadden”, exactly?

      Another point:
      “Multi-faceted, multi-talented, this red-haired bundle of energy is a laid back philosopher.”

      Nothing says being laid back like being “against communism, socialism, liberalism, and materialism [….] naturalism, moral relativism, multi-culturalism, pragmatism, utopianism, existentialism and post-modernism.”

      1. I think that this crap was written by the alleged dead lady he met at HAC. Who the hell knows what the dead lady really wrote…maybe:
        “Of all the students I ever tried to teach, Bill McSpadden was one of them.”
        “I can’t recommend Bill too highly.”
        “Somewhere, a village is missing an idiot.”
        Who really knows? Dead ladies tell no tales.

        ‘fess up, Bill. What did that cadaver really say about you??

  13. This great church has been a shining lighthouse of the Gospel and Christian growth for 40 years.

    What does this even mean?

    1. Get out the Fundy-to-English translator:

      “The church was founded 40 years ago.”

      There you go.

      1. Either that or “forty years ago, we finally got electricity into this place.”

  14. actually listened to the “What the Bible says about wine” sermon. His sermon style is irritating. every few sentences he utters;”Am I making myself clear?”
    Not to mention the fact he butchers the Scriptures, pulls the verses out of context, adds his own opinion as law, and tells the typical ” made up stories of woes of drink; ie. “I once knew a man who started to drink socially, yada yada yada yada, drink caused him to lose his wife, home and marriage. :(. of course never uttered the verses where it shows alcohol as a blessing.

      1. Yeah, I actually listened to it while drinking an IPA and smoking a cigar, actually enjoyed it.
        The cigar and IPA, I mean.

    2. When a preacher rails against Jim Beam’s Devil’s Cut, please post it.

  15. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James 4:4

    Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John 2:15-17

    Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 Timothy 3:12

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