Dear New Life Baptist Church. I have your letter here, dated "March 26, 2001." It seems to have been written by Mr. James Hamilton who claims to be your "pastor/founder." He did not write it to me or to Bro. Edwards but simply to "Dear Flaming Torch". Since Mr. Hamilton's salutation was generically impersonal I thought it appropriate to answer in kind.

Just in case Mr. Hamilton did not "share" with you his letter, before he mailed it, I thought you might like to see some of it in print, along with my responses. In the letter, Mr. Hamilton writes, "please remove my name and our church off your mailing list," (which we were happy to do).

Mr. Hamilton also seems to take pleasure in calling the publishers and writers of The Flaming Torch, hypocrites and not "True Baptists." He writes in your letter, "True Baptists, and those supporting the text that underlies our KJV would in no way line up with men like Hyles, Hatch, Gray, and others I've read in your paper that promote a false gospel that excludes repentance, any surrender of the sinner to Christ, and that gives false assurance to sinners that they are saved simply by repeating a sinner's prayer that they can't even come up with on their own."

Of course, Mr. Hamilton does not offer any evidence that he has ever gone soul winning with Dr. Hyles, Dr. Hatch or Dr. Gray to back up his accusations as an eye witness. "Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses". (1 Timothy 5:19) Nor does he give us confidence that he has any idea what true repentance is, when related to salvation.

According to Mr. Hamilton, to "repent" means, "to leave their sins and follow Christ." He writes: "Christ called people to follow Him, not to simply say they believe in Him. (John 8:31)" The following are the verses he chose to prove his kind of "repentance": John 8:30 - "As he spake these words, many believed on him." John 8:31 - "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed".

The reader should notice that the word "repent" is not in the verses he chose. As a matter of fact, the word REPENT, in any form, is not found in the entire book of John. Is Mr. Hamilton going to tell us that a lost sinner cannot get saved by reading the book of John? Well, John said this: "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." (John 20:30)

By the way, the word BELIEVE is found in the Book of John ninety- nine (99) times but "repent" zero times! You should also notice the word "believed" is used twice in the verses Mr. Hamilton chose. When a sinner BELIEVES on the Lord Jesus Christ he is instantly saved. (grace) (Acts 16:31; Eph. 2:8-9)

The requirement for "discipleship" for these Jews was to continue in the word. Discipleship comes AFTER a man is saved and is a matter of growing in grace and living a DISCIPLINED, holy life in following Christ. (works)

The truth of the matter is, the three men of God that Mr. Hamilton selected to slander, by name, all believe in repentance as a part of salvation. Unlike Mr. Hamilton's works and grace mixture of salvation. Dr. Hyles, Dr. Hatch and Dr. Gray believe the Bible.

They understand that REPENTANCE is a gift from God just as FAITH is a gift from God in BELIEVING on the Lord Jesus Christ. They understand that repentance is an attitude of the heart, not cleaning up ones life and quitting sinning, in order to be accepted by God as a candidate for salvation.

"Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." (Acts 5:31)

"When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." (Acts 11:18)

"Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 20:21)

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8) Holy Spirit conviction and repentance comes by the preaching of the word of God. (Acts 24:25)

In soul winning it is our duty to "go and tell the good news" and it is the Holy Spirit Who takes the two-edge sword of the word of God and convicts the heart of the lost sinner of his hell bound condition. The lost person, being under conviction then turns his heart away from his evil condition (repentance) to a good God, and God sends him faith to BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Gospel.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)

"Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and fobearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? (Romans 2:4)

"For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Mr. Hamilton, as other "Lordship Salvationists" believes that the lost sinner must come to God and repent of all of his "WORLDLY" sins and then God will save him by grace. But this is a mixture of works and grace in order to be saved and to stay saved.

It is taught by the John Calvin "TULIP" sniffers who are trying to "Persevere" unto the end. (Matthew 24:13) It is rejected, however, by the Apostle Paul and true Bible believers, who are not interested in "the text that underlies our KJV." (Since we have a perfect Bible in the English!)

"And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work." (Romans 11:6)

In your letter, Mr. Hamilton says, "Men like Peter Waldo, Menno Simons, and Hans Denck preached a full-Gospel message totally foreign to this false Gospel preached by many so-called Baptists including those you regularly have in the Flaming Torch."

I guess we are supposed to be overwhelmed by Mr. Hamilton's appeal to men of the past. However, I did not quite make it to a state of nirvana! My Bible says: "Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29)

Some preachers like to appeal to what was preached by other men in order to make their case. This is usually done when their doctrinal position is weak or wrong. There is no evidence that Waldo, Simons and Denck's position on the doctrine of repentance is more correct than the men who have written articles for The Flaming Torch. We have printed articles on both sides of the repentance issue and have not always agreed with all of them.

Mr. Hamilton continues in his letter: "I personally take offense at Mr. Perkins [sic] comments in his recent article on Jack Hyles `A Mighty Man of Valor' that do not follow his shallow form of evangelism are `jealous' of him and are part of the devil's workers that accuse the brethren."

This inaccurate statement by Mr. Hamilton sounds like my article must have struck a nerve since I did not say what he said. Mr. Hamilton needs to go back and read the article again. Here is what I said: "Some people did not like Dr. Hyles, yet he was always a gentleman concerning his enemies. One way to determine the worth of a man is to observe who his enemies are. We know who the accuser of the brethren is." (Revelation 12:10)"

Since Mr. Hamilton did not like Dr. Hyles or his soul winning church, he assumed Dr. Hyles' enemies were all in agreement with Hamilton's Lordship Salvation heresy of repenting of all of ones sins (works) in order to be saved. Many of Dr. Hyles' enemies were in agreement with his soul winning efforts and methods. They accused him about other matters without proof or eye witnesses because of envy, jealousy, revenge or bitterness.

In the letter, Mr. Hamilton wrote, "Your paper includes a message of salvation on page seventeen that is false and incomplete; it never deals with the sinners [sic] guilt before the law of God, reasons why he/she is under the wrath of God, and why they are called on to repent (leave their sins) to follow Christ . . . Contrary to what you title your salvation plan, the Bible does not say that salvation is easy (Matt. 11;12/Luke 16;16); [sic] if it was than [sic] Jesus would not have said "few there be that find it"!"

To illustrate what a great Bible inter preter Mr. Hamilton must be, here is what Matthew 11:12 says: "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." This is the verse Mr. Hamilton says proves it is hard to get saved.!!??!!

1. The verse has nothing to do with anyone getting saved in any dispensation.

2. The kingdom of heaven is not Heaven.

3. The "violent" are not lost sinners trying to get into Heaven.

What a place to try to prove getting saved is hard and not easy! You talk about Bible ignorance.

Then here is the other verse: "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it." (Luke 16:16)

It is obvious the verse has nothing to do with repenting or believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor does either verse prove Mr. Hamilton's theory of "hard-believism."

I do not recall Jesus ever saying: "I am going to the cross now and die for you but I am going to make it very hard for you to get saved." Actually salvation is so simple most people miss it. God called us to be witnesses not to play the Holy Spirit.

One must conclude that Mr. Hamilton is weak in eschatology and rightly dividing the word of truth. Not to mention his ignorance regarding the Bible differences between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God.

You want to be saved the Bible way? Try these verses:

"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13)

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. or God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:14-18)

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36)

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." (John 5:24)

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." (John 6:47)

"He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' (John 7:38)

"Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him." (John 9:35-38)

(Oops, do we suppose The Lord forgot to tell this blind man to repent of all his sins and then he could believe on him? The very idea this guy worshipping Jesus before he thought of and repented of all his sins!)

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:1-2)

"And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me" (John 16:8-9)

"And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him." (Acts 8:36-38)

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9-10)

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13)

In concluding this letter to you church members of New Life Baptist Church, one question remains: does your pastor, Mr. James Hamilton, take you soul winning? (Proverbs 11:30)