Jack Hyles "Cult" ?

Advice from a 50 year old man- fuggedaboutit.

#1. It is OLD news.
#2. Jack Hyles is dead.
#3. If you aren't a member of FBC or HAC or Dave Hyles' wife, no need to waste your God-given time on it.

 

Dr Hyles was an icon of the IBF movement in the 70's and 80's. I for one believe he accomplished much good but somewhere along the line he seemed to start agreeing with his press clippings (sad) and slid saddly into many (reportedly) questionable activities.

I have seen little factual information (though I believe Sumner Wimp tried to document some of it). I agree with MexDeaf we don't need to exhume old bones at this time for it is obviously all in the Lord's hands since Dr Hyles is dead.

 

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=hyles&domains=www.wayoflife.org&sitesearch=www.wayoflife.org

http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/hyles/

http://www.biblicalevangelist.org/jack_hyles_story.php

http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/2005/01/brent-stevens-dave-hyles-everett.html

'Nuff said.

 

Many of them are unfortunatly- his consituents though will chop ones head off for mentioning them though.

 

Jana,

I suggest that if you want answers from people who were there you go to their website and ask this question. Most people here do not like Hyles so you will get answers coming from that bias.
Most people at the Hyles board DO like him, so you will get answers coming from THAT bias. As long as you know which bias a person is coming from you can modify your belief in what they say accordingly. Pro-Hyles people may not be willing to allow for even a hint of negativity in regards to him, but for the most part I believe that the negative stuff you hear is not true, at least not to the extent that most people take it.

Some are indeed in a "Hyles Cult"....but it is not one of Jack Hyles making. It is followers who have gotten so stuck on "I am of Apollos" mentality that they can't see what they've become.

OTOH, there are some people who religiously believe everything that Moody or Spurgeon or one of these old time pastors from long ago said. I think partly we are "prejudiced" against complete loyalty to anyone who was alive until very recently.

 

My Father-in-Law (under great duress) admitted to going to The college run by Hyles. He has told my wife about the time he was going to a special "revival meeting", and spending money he didn't have to get there. They had a good guest speaker, he said. But at the end of the service, Jack got up and ordered the deacons to close the doors AND LOCK THEM, till they got a certain amount of money for the guest speaker.
They also required his wife to always wear her clothes just so, and be the perfect wife......even though she was not attending the school herself. Needless to say, he went for only one semester.

 

I would respectfully beg to differ. Much of the 'Jack Hyles cult' WAS of his making. It just took me many years before my eyes were opened to it.

No doubt Bro. Hyles started out good. He influenced my life in many good ways and did many things for many people but somewhere along the line, as someone else has said, he started to believe all the fantastic things said about him and the fantasy became much more important than the reality. For instance- the '100 percenter' movement.

BTW, I don't and never did hate Hyles. Just discovered that he has feet of clay just as I do.

 

Anyone...ANYONE that reads their Bible and compares Jacks words to Gods Word, would say this guy was off base and near to a cult. His doctrine was "Jack". My sister use to like Jack but she too has now changed. She use to give me and my wife tapes to listen to and all Jack did was talk about Jack. If Jack read the Bible, on these tapes, it would be 1 verse. I say if, for he hardly ever read the Bible. He would then close the Bible and tell a story about Jack.

Even his hard luck stories were told in a way to bring glory to Jack. One time I went to a week of meetings by him when he was in town. The place was packed each night. People from outside the state drive 100-150 miles to see this guy. Jack did the same thing each night...told stories about Jack.

The 1st night I came home very upset, for I felt it was a big waste of time. For the life of me, I could not see what people saw in this man. He was a good story teller..yes...but a preacher?...no...i had not seen any preaching. That night he never read the Bible one time. It was all a big show, and Jack was the star.

I went back each night thinking maybe it was just a bad night. The 2nd night was better. Jack read one verse...then closed his Bible and never opened it again. This was back when my sisiter liked the man. She did not go to that church and I don't recall her coming to the meetings. After I was married my sister kept giving my wife all these tapes of Jack, because my wife had never heard him preach. I remember my wife coming to me after she heard the 1st tape and asked me..."Is this a joke?". I told her it was not, that the guy had a big following. "But he doesn't even preach" she said to me.

I have read some of his words before, and to tell you the truth, based on what he said, i wonder if know the Bible at all. He would talk down to God. He acted as if he could control God. He acted like...God needed him. Jack had so much pride it would be hard to hear a message if he did preach one.

Yet today, even after all the facts have come out about him, we still have some that will go to their grave believing Jack was framed. Many books have been wrote. Many web sites exposing his shame. But some can only hear Jack's great stories and walk around with stars in their eyes as they dream of what a great preacher he was.

Sad

 

Dr Hyles remembered

I had the privilege of being called to ministry under Dr Hyles when he came to preach at my home church April 23, 1978. I distincly remember the events of day and evening. I had been struggling with my spirutality and actually went to services that evening to tell the SS administrator I was resigning my class. Instead I heard Dr. Hyles preach his message on the 'Duty of a Believer'.

The results were that I repented and surrendered for ministry which I followed up on nearly two years later after coming to grips with a 28 - 30 year old surrendering for the ministry.

I was invited to have dinner with he and my pastor the next year and it was a highlight at the time even though I barely said "Hi, glad to meet you" through the whole meal.

As I said in an earlier post his later life especially in the 80's has come under much scrutiny and condemnation none-the-less I honor the man for his part in my life and ministry and thank the Lord that he preached that message on duty those many years ago. "How shall they hear with out a preacher".

To hold a man accountable for his actions is right and proper but also acknowledge that he was used by God during parts of his ministry.

:type:

 

Is this the message?

http://lighthouse-baptist.net/hyles/sermons.shtml

under the name..."duty"

If so...this is the very thing I remember about Hyles.

Stories...stories and more stoires.

If so...I'm glad it did something for you, but this is just another cult talk about Jack.
If not...and you have a copy of the one you like, i would love to hear it.

In this message the same way Jack always preaches/talks...Jack reads a few verse and then talks about himself...listen to all the numbers he brags about..i did this..i did that...i do... i do...its me me me. I like to hear Gods Word when I hear preaching. I like to hear from God..not from Jack. I like to hear how good God is...not how good Jack is.

Listen to even his "sad stories"..near the middle of this message...is told in a way to lift Jack up..and make him look good. Why in the world does he spend so much time talking about what he said to his doctor...and what the doctor says to him. this is a big joke...a sad joke.

if its the one..or not....this is just the sad truth of one of Jacks message.

Sad that so many like this kinda preaching

Notice how Jack Claims...God NEEDS him. The Bible says God needs noone and will raise up rocks if he needs to.

Sad...

 

Well said.

 

When I was a senior in high school, I would write letters to my girlfriend who was a freshman at a fundamental college. These letters would sometimes be composed over days, then mailed all at once.

I visited a neighboring church one night to attend a SOTL Conference. Before retiring, I wrote to my girlfriend "I heard Jack Hyles preach tonight and I don't think I'll ever be the same again."

The next night I began by writing "False alarm; I woke up this morning and was back to normal." I was a kid, and a motivational personality like Hyles's was contagious, but that's all it was.

His daughter-in-law can fill you in:

http://www.jeriwho.net/audio/Paula01.mp3
http://www.jeriwho.net/audio/Paula02.mp3
http://www.jeriwho.net/audio/Paula03.mp3
http://www.jeriwho.net/audio/Paula04.mp3

 

I don't believe this thread was started in order to try and drag out all the dirt that has been passed around about him and his son. However, I am curious about the idea of a "cover-up" in general.

Generally speaking I would say we OUGHT to try to keep it private (within the church and within the scope of appropriate, Biblical church discipline)when a man of God fails. At least out of the press. Why do I need to know what happened in another person's church? Why do all the new members now need to know what happened in THAT church a year ago? Why do the children all need to be informed of what their pastor has done? And why do we have to keep visiting it in perpetuity whenever a man's ministry is mentioned?
I started to listen to one of the links that Pipedude provided in that last post, and then I thought....why on earth is it any of my business? And yet in the very start of Paula's phone call she states herself that she has refused to talk to the press, for the sake of her kids. She ought to be allowed this privacy of course, but so should the other side of the story.

But in actuality my question is not about this specific case but about this idea of "cover-ups" which seems to crop up whenever any church leader has some kind of major failing. Why can we not have the leaders deal with it and keep it there rather than thinking that every person within the contiguous United States must know about it or else it's a cover-up? Is this better dealt within its own thread?

 

Not every IFB loved the man, The former Pastor of Ecorse Baptist Temple in Ecorse, Michigan, could NOT stand him, His name was Dr. Henry H. Parrish II. He passed last year. J. Frank Norris lead him to the Lord. I remember Hyles name being mentioned, whoa boy did Dr. Parrish go into orbit!

I cannot type here what was said. :laugh:

Needless to say... he wasn't on hyles mailing list. :tongue3:

I know this, because I attended EBT's Christian school back in the late 80's/early 90's...

-WTD

 

Good point...and this is how everyone tried to handly this right? I do not know 1st hand. But i'm not blind. I can read what went on. They took it to the church leaders and the leaders covered it up. Jack lied. Jack KNEW about it. Jack HELPED cover it up. If Jack would have dealt with it...my guess is we would not be talking about it now. And when you bring this up, people do not want to listen. They can not believe that their leader lied. They will turn off the tape, put their fingers in their ears...sing.."la la laaaaa la la leeee....I can hear a word you are saying"...and the coverup goes on. If one WOULD listen..this is what they would hear. This of course does not mean they would believe it.

If the church leaders would deal with it....if the jack followers would deal with it....it would be done with. Those that follow jack just remember his great stories....and love him.

All leaders fall...in some area. That is not the point. I have heros both inside the church and outside the church. It always hurts to find out they sin. If you watch anyone very close..you will find out they are human. All sin. What makes Jack so bad...he lies about it and says he didn't. He lied about his son. He lied about his other lady friend. And the "star" of the show lives on.

Look above...drag out all the dirt...it is dirt. It was sin. But that sin did not make it a cult. The coverup and those that still do not believe...this is what a cult does. A cult still has the man preaching. In most cases when this happens, the leader is removed and the Church goes on. For God is the one we must honor not a man. To a cult...lets not let the world know about our great leader...is what you see.

The cult was the mind control. The cult was building up Jack. The cult was saying.."i'm 100% behind Jack". The cult was those that KNEW and did nothing. The cult was hardly ever hearing Gods Word preached....but falling in love with the words of Jack. Jack says it...so it must be. THAT IS A CULT.

 

The really sad thing is, that he DISQUALIFIED himself from the "office of a bishop"and still kept on "preaching". What gets me, is that others knew about it, and instead of making him own up and resign.... it was covered up, and he kept on "preaching"

BTW.....thjplgvp had been influenced by him. Doesn't it say that God uses the FOOLISHNESS of preaching to save them? (1Co 1:21)

 

JArthur,

I agree with much of your post. I don't say 'all' because I do not have personal knowledge that Dr. Hyles ever lied about any of these controversies, AND men whom I respect and know as honorable men also believe wholeheartedly that he did not lie. Do you see what I mean? This to me means that I hold off judgement and will just continue my life up here in WI, doing what I know I ought to do. I do not say this to argue with you, JArthur.
Im in a more rare position here. I am not a "100% Hyles" person, yet I go to a church which is pastored by a man who considered Dr. Hyles to be a very good friend of his. ANd let me add, my pastor is a man of great integrity, and I will stand behind him 100% as my preacher. Now Im going off, sorry. But Im in a culture here at my church which includes quite a few who tend to go overboard in things like if Hammond wrote it we can't correct it. (Not the leadership, but some of the laymen.) Its not so much as it used to be, when we had a church split many of the more rabid followers left. I say that to point out that Im on the outside but looking in from a pretty close vantage point.
I don't know if Dr. Hyles lied. I tend to think that he probably did not. But that is because I know the people who support him and they are good people. I think this is where this "cult mentality" started. During this controversy with Dr. Hyles being accused of infidelity, a movement started within his church to support and protect their pastor. He was being accused of things which he flatly denied, and continued to deny until the day he went to Heaven. Those closest to him also denied them, and they also declared that they knew his schedule and knew him well enough to know that this was not true. Frankly, if my pastor were accused of this I doubt that I would believe the accusation either. To my point.....it was at this time that people really started declaring things like whether they were "100% Hyles" or not. I believe some ridiculous things were done at this point....like asking other churches whether or not they "supported Hyles." I think it is partially a natural reaction to what those people saw as an attack on their pastor.


I think I will start a thread about my real question. It works better when not discussing any one specific case.

 

Yes, I must confess, I was once a Hyles-ite. The man did great things, no doubt. But I knew there was something cultish going on when a visiting evanglist told me, as a young man, to go to HAC and be one of "Jack's boys". That just didn't sound right to me. Later I learned of the system of slavery that his "preacher boys" suffered under. I'm glad I never went there.

JAurther brought up something that caught my eye. He said "He would talk down to God. He acted as if he could control God. He acted like...God needed him." As God began to open my eyes, I saw this as well. I have a tape on which Jack screams to the top of his lungs "GOD IS HELPLESS!!" Way back then I said to myself "that don't sound right". Many years later, I've come to learn the word that describes such utterances - that word is blasphemy.