Fellow Soldiers, My Father and I

Our Agreement

1. Agreed on far more than we disagreed upon in holy things, and I rejoiced greatly in our fellowship in those things for over forty six years.

2. I believe what dad believed from the years 1958 till 1964 when he was a true old or primitive Baptist, being a sovereign grace missionary Baptist in the likeness of Spurgeon and Gill.

3. My dad helped to form Christ in me by his preaching of the gospel of sovereign grace in the winter of 1970-71. He baptized me in the Cumberland Gap, in Middlesboro, Kentucky, in August of 1972 and was the lead elder in my ordination at Thompson Memorial Primitive Baptist church in the summer of 1974.

4. He was without question born of the Spirit, and one who persevered and overcame by faith. All who knew him could see that he loved Jesus and his last fifteen minute sermon was on "what Jesus means to me."

5. I fought side by side with dad over those schismatic Hardshell brethren who declared the historic Christian view of the fall of Lucifer (Satan) from the third heaven to be a heresy and a test of orthodoxy.

6. I fought side by side with dad over the "KJV Onlyism" among the Hardshells.

7. I fought side by side with dad in debates with the Campbellites, being his moderator in one, and he the moderator in one of mine. We both battled Arminianism.

8. I fought side by side with him against the idea that God has subjective faith.

9. I fought side by side with dad against the quasi and outright Universalism and No-Hellism among the Hardshells. We stood side by side in affirming that the story of the rich man and Lazarus taught what happens to men when they die and destroyed Universalism.

10. I fought side by side with dad against Elder Jarrel and others who denied the eternal sonship of Christ.

11. I fought side by side with dad against those who opposed supporting ministers financially, and full time pastors, and against those who were opposed to meeting every Sunday.

12. I fought side by side with dad against several other errors, many too numerous to mention.

Now, I cannot exclude what is already rather well known, that dad and I had our disagreements, in much the same way that Elder Sylvester Hassell disagreed with his father C.B. Hassell.

All the following errors are the things he once opposed before he became a Hardshell, from 1958 to about 1964-65. These are the things I, dad's son and former Hardshell, now reject and know to not represent the teaching of Scripture nor what our old Baptist forefathers taught.

Dad's Major Errors (which he once rejected from 1958-1964) but changed when he became a "Hardshell Baptist."

a) No means regeneration, or new birth without faith.
b) Preservation of the elect that does not involve their perseverance.
c) Amillenialism instead of Premillenialism.
d) Failure to adhere to the historical-literal interpretation of scripture
e) Not allowing people to repent of "marital adultery" and be baptized, eat the Lord's Supper, and to become members of the church.
f) Believing that the Great Commission was not binding on all disciples and on the church as a whole.
g) denial of the absolute predestination of all things (the all encompassing decrees of God)

In conclusion, know that father is now in heaven and has no errors. Any errors he held while here on earth are forever gone for he has perfect knowledge of all things (in error about nothing). If he could now speak to me or to his converts and church, he would tell us all to discard the errors he taught and to keep tight hold on the truth that he taught.