In Ephesians chapter four, part of the chapter I'd like to focus on is beginning there in
verse number 11 where the Bible reads, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and
some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the
unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children
tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men and
cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
But speaking the truth and love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head,
even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which
every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Titled my sermon this morning is The Bible College Scam.
The Bible College Scam.
Bible College is a scam today.
It is, as I'm going to demonstrate to you from the Bible, it's completely unbiblical.
It's not God's will.
It's not God's plan.
It's not what God has intended.
And it has had devastating effects on Christianity, on our independent fundamental Baptist movement
in America.
Because when we don't do things God's way, we suffer the consequences.
God's way is perfect, the Bible says.
And so we need to get back to doing things by biblical methods and not get sucked into
this scam of Bible College.
What's wrong with Bible College?
Let me get into some of the negative repercussions of what Bible College has done over the last
several decades that this model has been pushed in Baptist churches.
First of all, it has drained manpower, money, and resources out of God's institution, the
local church, and siphoned them into an unbiblical institution known as the Bible College.
Not only that, but as a result of Bible College, local churches are now devoid of young singles.
Single young people.
I mean, I remember when I was a young person, 18 years old and single, I was in an independent
Baptist church, and there was no one in my age demographic, none.
There were a whole bunch of teenagers, and then there were people 30 and up.
And there was just a whole demographic just missing.
So here I am, an 18-year-old young person, and I have a choice of having zero Christian
friends at my church or going off to Bible College.
Because every young person, when they hit 18, either goes to Bible College or goes to
the world.
None of them are staying in the churches.
So you have churches that are just empty of young people, and you want to know why you
go to the average independent Baptist church today, and it's just filled with old people,
and there's no youth, there's no young adults, because they've all been shipped off to Bible
College, that's why.
But not only that, local churches today have stopped teaching doctrinally-danced sermons,
they've stopped teaching the deep things of God, they've stopped preaching messages that
go deep into the Word of God, because they say, well, if you really want to learn doctrine,
you've got to go to Bible College.
If you really want to go deep, you've got to go to Bible College.
So the churches have become shallow as a result.
Not only that, but local churches have stopped training men for the ministry.
They've stopped sending out preachers and pastors because they say, well, you've got
to go to Bible College to do that.
And today, even if young men go to their pastor and say to them, I don't want to go to Bible
College, I want to be trained out of local church, that training is just not available.
They just won't offer it.
They just won't provide it.
I said that to my pastor when I was 18 years old.
I walked in and said, I don't want to go to Bible College, I want to be trained by you.
I like you.
I want this church to train me.
He provided no training.
For years on end, eventually, I had to just bite the bullet and go to Bible College because
he didn't give me any training.
There's no training opportunity.
Not only that, but Bible College, by nature, is geared toward bringing many people together
from many different churches.
And so in order to maximize enrollment, they have to make sure not to be too controversial
because they have to appeal to so many different churches to all send their students to that
college.
So they have to be one that can appeal to a very broad base of churches.
So by nature, they're not going to be controversial.
Whereas the local church can get up and rip face and preach whatever God lays on their
heart and say, hey, you don't like it, there's the door.
Because they're not trying to please 50 churches.
They're just trying to please God and preach the Bible.
And not only that, but Bible College causes false doctrine to infect hundreds of churches
at a time.
Because all the devil has to do is get a false doctrine into the Bible College, he can filter
it out to hundreds of churches at a time.
Let's get into the Bible this morning.
Let's see what the Bible says.
Well first of all, I turn to Ephesians chapter 4 because Ephesians 4 is talking about the
local church or the body of Christ.
In fact, more than half of the New Testament is specifically addressed to the local church,
whether it be the churches of Galatia, the church at Ephesus, the churches of Colossae,
all these different epistles that are written to the Thessalonians, they're written to the
churches in those places.
And so the church is the emphasis.
In fact, if you read the New Testament, you'll find the word church 117 times.
So God is telling us 117 times, it's the church, it's the church, it's the church.
How many times does he bring up the Bible College?
None.
How many times does he bring up the Christian school or the Bible school?
None.
Zero.
Zilch.
Nada.
But 117 times, he tells us, is the church.
But in this particular passage, he explains to us in Ephesians 4 that the church has everything
that we need to not only win people to Christ, to not only baptize them, but to perfect
them, to perfect them.
The word that keeps coming up here in Ephesians chapter 4 is the word perfecting or perfection.
Look at verse 12.
For the perfecting of the saints, do you see that?
And then he says in verse number 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith and
of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a what?
A perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth
be no more children.
What is this saying?
What the Bible is saying here is that the church can complete us spiritually.
What does the word perfect mean?
Perfect does not mean sinless.
Obviously, no one is without sin.
The Bible says there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
So when the Bible says perfect, it's not saying that you have no sin.
The word perfect means complete.
It's sort of like when you go to English class and you learn about the different verb tenses
and you learn about the imperfect and the perfect, right?
The perfect is an action which is complete.
The imperfect is an action that's ongoing, right?
But you probably don't even remember that part from English.
But those of you that are homeschooling, right, you got that fresh in your mind from teaching
your kids about the imperfect and the pride.
I served my wife teaching a couple weeks ago.
So the point is that perfection, when it says that Job is a perfect man, it's not saying
he never makes a mistake.
But what it's saying is that he's mature, he's well-rounded, he has all the parts, he's
complete.
And the Bible says we're complete in Christ.
And the Bible says here that the pastors, the teachers, the prophets of the local church,
they are here to perfect the saints and to edify the body of Christ until we all come
in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man under
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
We don't need to go somewhere else.
We don't need to travel to a distant city.
We don't need to go enroll in a Bible college to be perfected spiritually.
We are supposed to be getting that right here in our local church.
We're supposed to be edified right here.
We're supposed to be trained and perfected right here for what?
For the work of the ministry.
This is where you get trained for the work of the ministry in the local church and at
other thousands of local churches all across America and all across the world.
That's God's plan.
The Bible says in verse 16, from whom the whole body, and remember the contest, the
body of Christ is referring to the church, from whom the whole body fitly joined together
and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part maketh increase of the body, watch this next phrase, unto the
edifying of itself in love.
So right there, the church edifies the church.
The church edifies itself.
We're all fitly joined and compacted together and we can be perfected, right?
Not saying we're going to be the modern day definition of perfect meaning sinless but
we're going to be perfected meaning we're going to be mature, we're going to be fully
grown, fully well-rounded Christians.
We have everything we need right here in the local church so why do we need this other
institution in the Bible college which is never mentioned in scripture?
That's my question.
Now just to make sure we have the right definition of church, the church is the congregation.
If we look up Old Testament scriptures that use the word congregation, those are quoted
in the New Testament as church.
So when we say church, we're not referring to all believers and we're not referring to
some kind of an organization or institution that has different branches and different
cities.
We're referring to an assembly of people.
That's why in verse 16, it talks about the whole body being fitly joined together and
compacted.
How could all believers be joined together and compacted?
That doesn't make any sense because believers are all over the world.
The universal church doctrine is not something that we subscribe to.
We believe in the local church, the local body of believers, the congregation.
That's what we mean and that's why the Bible talks in plural of churches, not one church
but churches over and over again.
So the local church has what we need.
We don't need Bible college.
It's not mentioned in scripture.
Go if you would to John chapter 2.
John chapter number 2.
Now the word college is used one time in the Bible.
I looked up the word college in the Bible.
It's used one time.
I'll read it for you.
You're turning to John chapter 2.
2 Kings 22, 14 says this, So Hilkiah the priest and Ahicham and Achbor and Shaphan and Azahiah
went unto, watch this now, Huldah the prophetess.
Now what's a prophetess?
A female preacher, a female prophet, right, prophetess.
It says that they went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shalom, the son of Tikva, the
son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe.
Now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college and they communed with her.
So the word college is only used one time in the whole Bible.
Second Kings 22, 14, and a female preacher dwelt in the college.
So there's college for you in the Bible, right?
Well, Bible college is biblical, really, because I looked up college and it's a woman
preacher, Huldah, you know.
So Huldah, the female preacher, is in the college and her husband, oh, he's the keeper
of the wardrobe.
He's a fashion designer.
All right.
So here's your Bible college in the Bible, right?
The college of Jerusalem, you've got Huldah, the female preacher, and her husband, the
fashion designer, and that's it.
You say, well, but what about, you know, the Bible talks about the school though, right?
The school.
And I grew up my whole life hearing about the school of the prophets.
Who's heard that preached before?
You know, Elisha had the school of the prophets, except if you look it up, it isn't there.
The word school is only mentioned one time.
Acts 19, 9 says, but when divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way
before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples disputing daily
in the school of one Tyrannus.
So the only place school is mentioned in the Bible is when the apostles are going into
this unbeliever school and basically disputing and preaching and they're arguing with them
about the word of God.
That's the mention of school, okay, is this Tyrannus' school.
Not John, Peter, James.
They didn't have a school.
Paul didn't have a school.
They went to a heathen school and preached.
Sort of like we go in and preach in all these heathen schools in Guyana, Botswana, or even
I preach three times a year in four different classes.
So actually I speak in 12 different classes per year at the community college right down
the street here, right?
But you know what?
That's not a godly institution, South Mountain Community College.
I go in there and I go and preach there the word of God to the heathen to try to get people
saved.
That's a big difference.
So there's no mention of school positively.
There's no mention of college except a woman preacher.
And yet we have 117 mentions of the local church.
So why would we think that God wants us to put all of our energy and effort and money
and resources into a college and make that the emphasis?
Why would we believe that it's God's will that 99% of preachers get sent out from a
college instead of getting sent out of their local church, which is the reality of the
situation today in America?
It isn't right.
It's backwards.
It's unbiblical.
But you say, well, Pastor Anderson, Bible college is an arm of the local church.
It's under the canopy of the local church.
It's under the umbrella of the local church.
It's a ministry of the local church is what they say.
Okay, then here's my question.
Do you have to pay to go to church?
Does it cost money to go to church?
Absolutely not.
But do you have to pay to go to college?
Yeah, you do.
And you know what?
It's wicked.
Because God's house is not to be made a house of merchandise.
And merchandise is anything that is bought, sold, or paid for.
And the Bible says that God's house is not to be made a house of merchandise.
And if you want to know where any wrong thing in this world comes from, you can always follow
the money because the love of money is the root of all evil.
So where all this stuff goes back to is the money.
And I'm going to get to that later in the sermon.
Look down at your Bible in John chapter 2 verse 13.
And the Jews' Passover was at hand.
And Jesus went up to Jerusalem and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep
and doves and the changers of money sitting.
And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple and the
sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers' money and overthrew the tables and said unto
them that sold doves, take these things hence, make not my father's house a house of merchandise
and his disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
You say, well Pastor Harrison, don't get mad.
Hey, we ought to get mad.
This is the maddest that Jesus ever got in the whole Bible.
Read the whole New Testament and show me the part where Jesus was the angriest.
It's right here.
Show me another place in the Bible where Jesus flipped over a table.
Show me another place in the Bible where Jesus grabbed somebody's money and started dumping
it all over the ground.
I mean imagine going into a place where things are being sold and just taking the money and
dumping it in the ground.
Imagine walking into one of these churches or one of these Bible colleges and just grabbing
their cash register and dumping it in the lobby.
Imagine it.
It would still be milder than what Jesus did because you wouldn't even have a whip in your
hand.
Jesus went in.
He flipped the table.
He dumped out their stupid cash register of their little coffee shop and their little
bookstore and their little souvenir shop.
He dumped out their money.
He flipped over the tables and then he got a whip and started chasing them out with the
whip.
You see, it's not Pastor Anderson that's too radical.
It's not Pastor Anderson that's too mean.
It's not Pastor Anderson that's preaching his own opinion and not the Bible.
No, I'm preaching the Bible this morning and I'm not even as mad as Jesus was.
I don't even want to hit anybody with a whip because I'm not that mad yet.
But Jesus was.
You say, well, Jesus blew his top.
Jesus didn't blow his top because he's sinless.
Jesus slowed anger.
The Lord's attribute is being slowed to anger.
What did he do?
He made a cord.
He made the whip.
I mean, how long does it take to make a whip?
I would assume it would take a few hours to braid the leather and work on it.
He sat outside that temple making a whip for hours.
This was totally premeditated.
This was not an impulse.
And the zeal of God's house, here's the exact wording of the Bible, ate him up.
I mean, the zeal of God, I mean, it just ate him up.
He's just like...
I mean, he's just cutting that leather and braiding it and just...
And then he went in there, you know, and started flipping over the tables, dumping out the
money, swinging.
I mean, can you imagine?
I mean, look, people talk about wanting to see the Red Sea parted.
I'd rather see that.
You know, if there's a video archive in heaven, that's what I want to see.
Okay, wait, before we pop in the Red Sea, I want to see that part where Jesus cleans
up his house.
And by the way, he did this twice.
If you study your Bible, he did this at the beginning of his ministry and at the end of
his...
Two times he went in there and tore that place up.
And they were mad when he did it.
They didn't like it.
But look what the Bible says.
Because people have all kinds of answers, don't they, how they explain this away instead
of believing what the Bible said.
You know what the Bible's teaching here?
Don't sell things in the house of God, period, full stop, end of story.
It's that simple.
You can twist this all you want, but what he's saying is you don't sell anything in
God's house, period, nothing zeros.
Now, what I grew up hearing was, well, you know, you can sell things as long as they're
spiritual things.
You know, you can sell a preaching tape or a preaching CD or whatever.
Okay, well, let me ask you this.
Were they selling a spiritual thing here in verse 16?
He said unto them that sold doves.
Why would they sell doves?
Was this a pet store?
No.
They're selling doves because doves were used in the animal sacrifices.
So people were commanded by God, if you study the book of Deuteronomy, that if the way was
too far for them, instead of bringing their animals to sacrifice, they were to sell their
animals, turn them into money, and then when they got to Jerusalem, you know what they're
supposed to do when they get to Jerusalem?
Buy the animals.
He told them to do it.
He told them to buy doves.
He told them to buy sheep.
You know, if you actually study the Old Testament, you'd know that buying sheep and doves to
sacrifice to the Lord was biblical.
That's why Jesus didn't tell them stop selling doves.
He said take these things hence.
What does hence mean?
From here.
So it's not that what they were doing was wrong.
It's that they're in the wrong place.
There's nothing wrong with selling things at the store.
But when you're selling things at church, that's a big problem.
You say, well, what's the difference if they go to the coffee shop across the street or
if they go to the coffee shop in the lobby of the church?
I'll tell you what the difference is.
One's right and one's wrong.
That's what the difference is.
You know, what's the difference?
One of them's wicked and the other is acceptable.
That's the difference.
You got it?
The difference of whether they bought the sheep and doves across the street at a flea
market versus buying it in God's house.
And this is what the Bible says.
No one can give a reasonable explanation of this passage other than the fact that they're
being told to sell the stuff somewhere else because they're not to make God's house a
house of merchandise.
What's a house of merchandise?
A store.
God's house is not a store.
You don't go to God's house to buy things.
Now why did they have the money changers?
Because people are coming from all over the world.
At the day of Pentecost, there were devout men from every nation under heaven.
So they have to bring, obviously it was different money back then, but they have to bring their
pesos and their yen and their deutsche marks and change them into their shekels so that
they can actually buy the stuff that's there.
So look, this is all for a spiritual reason of buying things that they need to serve the
Lord.
The problem is you don't do it in church.
That's why our church will never sell you a cup of coffee.
We will never sell you a book, a DVD, a CD for any reason at any time.
It will never happen as long as I'm the pastor here.
And you say, well what about all that stuff on the back shelf?
It's all free.
It's free.
All that stuff is free.
Go take as many as you want, all the DVDs, CDs, flash drives.
There's not even a little donation box or something.
You know, well, I mean it's free, but you better give a donation.
No, no, it's free.
All that stuff is free.
Look, people come here with literal grocery bags and fill them up from that shelf back
there.
And I just ask them if they want paper or plastic.
I don't give them a bad time.
I don't tell them, hey, you're taking too much, hey, load up.
People have literally flown on a plane, landed here on a Wednesday night, come to church,
filled up two suitcases with DVDs from back there, and flew home the next morning.
And I asked him, so what's the visit?
He said, I just need to load up on material.
I'm like, great, let me help you.
Load them up.
This house will never be a house of merchandise.
House of prayer?
Yes.
House of God?
Yes.
House of preaching?
Yes.
House of praise?
Yes.
House of merchandise?
Never.
It's unbiblical.
You say, well, that's just a small issue.
Really?
Doesn't seem like it in this passage.
Seems like Jesus is pretty mad.
And you can find this account also in the other gospels as well.
This is John chapter 2.
You can find other accounts of this from other points in Jesus' ministry where he did it
the second time.
The zeal of God's house has eaten me up.
Well, you know what it eats me up to?
When I see people selling things in God's house.
It's wicked, it's a sin, it's wrong.
Here's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, 18.
What is my reward then?
Verily, that when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge.
Did you hear that?
That I abuse not my power in the gospel.
What's he saying?
You know, if I charge people for the gospel, then I'm abusing my power in the gospel.
So here's my question.
If college is supposedly part of church, then why is it a house of merchandise?
Why do you have to pay for every class?
Why do you have to pay for every book?
Why do you have to pay for every credit hour?
Why does it cost so much money?
Why are they selling food and drinks and books and sweaters and caps and everything else?
If it's part of the church, then why does it cost so much money?
And if it's not part of the church, what do we need it for?
It's not biblical.
It's unbiblical.
One of my friends, basically, was a student at a Bible college.
And he was involved in a question and answer time with the president of the, and this is
a big, huge major Bible college.
It was a thing where you text in your questions and the president of the Bible college will
answer you.
So he texted in, you know, how do you interpret John chapter 2 about not making God's house
of merchandise in light of the bookstore, the coffee shop, and everything that's in
your church on Sunday mornings where you're selling stuff?
And here was his answer.
Well, it's a different dispensation.
That's literally what he said.
How do you get around Christ with a whip and flipping over tables saying, don't make my
house of merchandise?
Well, it's a different dispensation.
That's pretty interesting that this was such a short-lived commandment because Jesus comes
in and gets mad about it and then a couple years later we're in a totally different dispensation.
So I guess he just didn't want them to sell it for those last couple years.
But the New Testament church is supposed to just be a full-blown house of merchandise.
No, actually, the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet it after,
they've earned from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Hey, if Jesus made a big deal about it, I'm going to make a big deal about it, not selling
things at church.
So 117 mentions of the church, zero mentions of Bible college, zero mentions of the Bible
institute, zero mentions of Bible school.
And if you try to claim it's church, then you're charging people money to go to church
and you're making it a house of merchandise.
They're pretty much doing both anyway.
Turn if you would to Romans chapter 15.
And the reason that I call my sermon, and I realize that there are some people that
are probably offended by this sermon, well, you know what, why don't you just hit the
road, Jack, and don't you come back no more then.
Go down to your little coffee serving, book selling, Bible college peddling, money driven
church down the street.
This church, I'd rather have a church in a strip mall with ceiling tiles on the ceiling
instead of some palace with stained glass because you know what, Christ wouldn't flip
a single table in here.
But Christ would have some money to dump out in some other places.
Romans chapter 15, and I'm going to call out some specific Bible colleges this morning.
If you don't like it, why don't you just get up and walk out right now then so that you
don't get your feelings hurt.
But these people need to be called out.
They're turning independent Baptist Christianity into Kenneth Copeland style televangelism
where it's all about the money now.
I'm sick of it.
Here's an example of this.
I just got this this week in the mail.
You got five seconds to get out of here before I start ripping on the Bible colleges by name.
I got this in the mail this week from Heartland Baptist Bible College.
Now let me tell you something.
I've lived here in Arizona for the last 12 years and I've been pastoring for 12 years
and in the last 12 years, this particular Bible college has sent me stuff in the mail
literally over 30 times.
My wife thinks it's more like 50, but I was trying to be conservative.
I said, honey, wouldn't you say it's at least three times per year that they contact us?
She believed it was more like five times per year.
Every single time it's to ask us for money.
So here we are just minding our own business, just serving the Lord in Tempe, Arizona, preaching
the Bible and these people have contacted me over 30 times only to ask me to give them
money.
In fact, they've even sent us a piggy bank and literally said, use this piggy bank to
save up coins so that you can send it to us.
I don't even know who these people are.
I've never contacted them.
I never got on their mailing list.
I never joined their club.
Listen to me.
If they're sending it to me, they're sending it to everyone.
You think they're like, hey, let's send this to Pastor Steve Anderson.
I mean, I know he's hated Bible college for the last 12 years.
I mean, I know that he's against Bible college.
I know that we wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole, but let's get him out of it.
If people send me stuff, you know what it means?
They're sending it to every independent Baptist in America.
Now look at this.
This is a full color magazine infomercial, okay?
How much does this stuff cost?
They've sent me posters, piggy banks, magazines, just tons of packets.
I promise you that they've sent me at least $100 worth of mailers.
At least.
Because, I mean, how much does it cost to do a mass mailing of giant color magazines?
And then they sent me a preaching CD with it, too.
Now you say, oh, well, Pastor Anderson, they're trying to edify you with some biblical preaching.
That's good.
No, they've never sent me a Bible sermon to edify me.
Here's the title of the sermon.
The Importance of the May College Offering.
That's the title of the sermon.
They sent me a preaching CD called The Importance of the May College Offering.
I popped it in the CD player, and in the first few minutes, he's like, now, you know, this
is a time that would normally be reserved for preaching, but, you know, we need to talk
about this offering.
That's what they sent me.
Who are you?
I never knew you.
Okay, but look.
They sent me, this is just one of 30 things.
I just got this this week.
Here's what it has on the inside.
Real big.
The big center fold right here.
Look at this.
$1.5 million is what they want to raise.
We need $1.5 million.
Now, this is how deceptive these people are.
They sent me this CD all about the importance of the May College Offering.
On the front, it's all about a preaching conference.
On the back, it's all about a preaching conference.
No mention of money, but every page is only about money on the inside.
Like, for example, on the front page is Dear Friend.
He doesn't know me.
I want somebody to go up to this guy and ask him, is Stephen Anderson your friend?
Is Pastor Stephen L. Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church your friend?
Dear friend, give me money.
Okay, listen.
I'm just going to read you a little bit from every page, just a little sampling.
Now please, brothers and sisters, how special can the 20-year celebration be if we only
endeavor to reach the offering amount of the previous two years?
Surely a special celebration calls for a special amount in the May College Offering.
I'm almost sure I'm hearing a resounding amen.
What is this?
Is this TBN?
Is this Kenneth Copeland?
Is this a televangelist?
I mean, how can we have a special conference without a bigger offering than last year?
I'll tell you how, by preaching the Bible, by ripping some face, by doing some soul-winning,
by winning people to Christ, because it's not about money.
It's about serving God.
It's about preaching.
It's about the Bible.
But to them, it's like they can't help but speak what's on their heart.
How can we have a special meeting if the offerings aren't exceeding last year's offerings?
That shows where their heart is, huh?
I'll tell you how we can have a better year than last year at Faithful Word Baptist.
More souls saved, better sermons preached, right?
More baptisms.
It's not just about bringing in more money.
And look, if they're sending this to 6,000 independent Baptist churches, and they've
sent me at least $100 worth of stuff, probably more like $200 or $300 of stuff in the last
decade, that means they've probably spent a half million dollars just sending out this
kind of junk.
You think this junk mail is cheap?
It's all color.
It's all glossy.
They're spending hundreds of thousands of people's donations asking for more money,
so they can send out more requests for more money, so they can bring in more money to
send out more requests for more money.
They're calling it the make a difference offering.
Listen to this.
There is such a thing as giving what is convenient, and there is forward planning that can quote
make a difference.
Now, you know why they're putting make a difference in quotes?
Because they're quoting the Bible.
Here's what the Bible says.
And of some have compassion making a difference.
Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted
by the flesh.
So they're taking a verse that's about soul winning.
Making a difference is about pulling people out of the fire.
It's about having compassion on lost souls.
And they're saying, hey everybody, let's make a difference by sending us $1.5 million.
So they can build this palace that's on the front of their flyer, this giant 40-foot tall
ceiling palace.
You know what?
This ceiling is high enough for me.
I want to be able to hit the ceiling.
I want people to come to church and say, Pastor Harrison was so mad.
I mean, he just hit the ceiling when he got that junk in the mail.
That's what I want him to say.
What do I need a 40-foot ceiling for?
Were there giants in the land in those days?
It doesn't make any sense.
It's all just to show off their palaces.
Send us money so we can make a palace.
They have a list of what they want to spend the money on.
$120,000 for the men's dorm bathroom renovation.
Why don't you go in the bushes and let me keep my money?
The whole world's a men's room, for crying out loud.
$120,000 for the men's room renovation.
$220,000 for the maintenance and exercise facility.
Exercise facility?
We're going to drain all the money from the local churches and send all our money so they
can have an exercise facility.
Then you know that it's a bunch of machines and stuff that doesn't work.
They're probably not even hitting the real heavy weights.
You think those bunch of lavender shirt-wearing, pink shirt-wearing Bible college students
are dead lifting and bench pressing and doing squats?
No, they need some expensive machine.
Some expensive cardio machine or something.
Why don't you go outside and go run and then you'll find your bathroom while you're on
the run.
Get out there and do a real workout.
Professional sound treatment for the cafeteria.
What is that?
You say, well that's none of your business if they want to professionally sound treat
their cafeteria.
You need to pay for it.
Professional sound treatment for the cafeteria.
What is that?
Is that white noise?
I don't know what that is.
Here's a pie graph.
This is why they need to raise the $1.5 million because they want to make it really cheap
for the students to go there.
The May college offering subsidizes 20% of the tuition and then churches sending money
every month subsidizes 12%.
So basically 32% of the tuition is subsidized by local churches giving them money.
So what does that mean?
Let me break that down to you.
Last year they're trying to raise $1.5 million this May.
Last May they brought in $1.08 million.
The year before that they brought in $1.03 million.
Well riddle me this, if that's 20% then what's the 12%?
That's another $600,000 if you do the math on that.
So what they're basically saying is $1.6 million was already given the last two years toward
making it cheap for the students to go there.
So now they've made it so cheap that a student can go to this Bible college for tuition,
room, board, food, everything.
So it's your food, it's where you live, it's your tuition for $8,000 a year.
If we didn't all give them millions of dollars it would cost $14,000 a year.
So why do they want so bad to bring the cost down from $14,000 to $8,000?
I'll tell you why.
Because if you open up the sword of the Lord and if you open up revival fires and if you
open up any of these independent Baptist newspapers all the colleges are advertising how cheap
they are.
$79.99, $89.99, $69.99.
So they have to compete with that.
They're trying to compete with that by having a cheap price so that you'll go to their Bible
college instead of the other guy's Bible college so that we can get your money and build our
palaces and our exercise rooms.
So that's what's going on.
That's why they want to make it so cheap.
Why don't these college students get out and work and pay their own way?
Why do we have to subsidize them so they can sit on their lazy rear end?
They can't earn $14,000 in a whole year?
I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands but I believe that probably every adult hair-legged
man in this room earns $14,000 a year.
I don't care how poor you are because these are only singles, right?
Because they're living in the dorms and stuff.
Are you telling me a single man can't earn $14,000 a year?
Because this way he only has to earn $8,000 a year.
What in the world?
It makes no sense.
Let's turn the page here.
Oh man, you've got to listen to this.
Okay here's a testimonial from a pastor.
Josh Merrill.
The seminary I now attend costs nearly $2,000 a class.
Did you hear that?
Don't tell me it's not about the money with these Bible colleges.
What's this?
The seminary I now attend costs nearly $2,000 a class.
Progress is painfully slow because I cannot afford a full loan without incurring debt.
The May offering allows Heartland students to avoid such an educational quagmire by subsidizing
over half their tuition.
We give, therefore we get trained men and women into the field quickly and debt-free.
So this is like an infomercial where they're like, the leading brand could cost you up
to $2,000 a class, but we will give you the whole year.
How much would you expect to pay for such an education?
Would it be 12,000?
Not 10,000.
Oh, it's $7,840.
You heard it right, folks.
And if you call right now, you'll also get the ShamWow squeegee thrown into the bargain
so you can squeegee the exercise facility when you're done.
Look, this is garbage.
First of all, $2,000 a class, who believes that this guy's actually paying $2,000 a class
at any school unless he's at Harvard?
Is this guy at Stanford?
Okay, well guess what?
I looked up what school he goes to.
I googled this guy's name and I looked up what school he goes to.
He goes to a Southern Baptist seminary.
So this is their graduate, right?
Notice he says he's paying $2,000 a class to go to seminary.
Well guess what?
This guy already graduated from this college.
So here's my question.
If he already graduated from this college, why does he need to go to seminary for $2,000
a class?
Is anybody listening?
Didn't they teach him everything in four years?
I mean he went to this school for four years and he got such a great education at this
school for four years that now he has to pay $2,000 a class just to fix it.
Think about that.
Here I went to his church's website.
It says that he already has a degree in equine science.
This guy, this pastor who's paying $2,000 a class, he's got a degree in equine science.
That's horse science.
Horse pucky.
But anyway, he got a degree in horse science.
Then he got a degree in animal science from Oklahoma State University.
Then he went to Heartland Baptist Bible College and got a bachelor's degree in pastoral theology.
How much college does this guy need?
You got the horse degree.
You got the animal degree.
You got the pastoral theology.
I mean look, what else do you need to take care of sheep, buddy?
You got two degrees.
You got two degrees on being a physical shepherd.
You got one degree on being a spiritual shepherd.
You're ready.
But no, no.
He's got to spend $2,000 a class to get his master of divinity degree.
That's what he's getting.
He's pursuing a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
in Fort Worth, which is a Southern Baptist Seminary.
So the graduates of this Independent Fundamental Baptist College, they're such awesome men
of God.
They're such awesome preachers.
We got to fund this thing so that their graduates can go hang around with Southern Baptists
all day and go dump $2,000 a class into a Southern Baptist school.
It's madness and folly.
What else we got here?
Oh, how about this one?
Here's another pastor, Aaron Denson.
Nothing more significant.
I can think of a lot more significant things, buddy.
But he says there's none more significant than seeing our missions dollars going to
an institution that believes what we believe, practices ministry how we practice ministry,
and does it influencing so many future servants of God.
It's quite the return on an investment, not only immediately, but for eternity.
So basically, people come to church now, and they put their money in missions.
I mean, look, preachers get up, and they put up an overhead projector showing black kids
in Africa eating malt-o-meal with a song saying, here am I. I will go.
I will reach the lost untold.
I will give the Lord control.
I will give a lot more money to missions.
You know what I'm talking about.
They show you them going to Africa reaching people that actually need the gospel, right?
People that are just foreign countries, and they're showing Africa, they're showing Asia,
all these exotic places, and it's, people need the Lord.
People need the Lord.
They're showing a crying eight-year-old girl, when will we realize?
So people that, they're like, yes, please get that little girl the gospel.
Get that little Vietnamese girl the gospel for crying out loud, right?
Get that black kid in church.
Get him saved, right?
Get him out of the charismatic church, or get him out of Catholicism or Buddhism or
Hinduism, right?
And then the money goes to this college, so they can build their palace.
Did you hear that?
We take our missions money, our missions fund, and we send it to Heartland Baptist Bible
College.
Not to Africa, not to Asia, not to the Caribbean, not to South America, but to Heartland Baptist
Bible, and send it to Oklahoma.
That's the heart of the mission field.
Oklahoma.
Look, just because it's called a heartland, you know, that's not the heart of Africa folks.
Listen to this.
We need, and our school deserves a good offering.
I mean they send me this in the mail saying, hey, we deserve your money.
I've never come back to this church because Pastor Anderson ripped on another, hey, this
is wicked.
They send me junk mail telling me, we deserve your money.
Listen to this CD, we're going to tell you how you owe us money.
Here's what I think of your stupid CD.
It's garbage.
Garbage.
You're making God's house a house of merchandise.
You sound like Kenneth Copeland.
You sound like a TV evangelist.
We need, and our school deserves a good offering.
You can direct your money toward any number of good causes, but if you want a 30, 60,
or even 100-fold return on your investment, send it to Heartland.
This is garbage.
It's ShamWow Baptist College infomercial.
Now look what the Bible says.
Look at Romans chapter 15.
The Bible says in Romans 15 verse 25, but now I go into Jerusalem to minister unto the
saints, for it has pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution
for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.
It has pleased them verily, and their debtors they are, for if the Gentiles have been made
partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal
things.
When therefore I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by
you into Spain.
In this scripture, the apostle Paul is talking about how the saints of Macedonia and Achaia
voluntarily decided, hey, we want to give money to help out the church at Jerusalem.
They voluntarily just said, you know what?
We want to help out because there are poor saints that are suffering in Jerusalem.
We want to relieve the afflicted, so we of Greece are going to send money to the church
at Jerusalem of their own free will, not by constraint, but willingly.
They're going to give money to them because they said, you know, we've been a partaker
of their spiritual things, so we want to repay them with our carnal things.
They're saying, look, we benefited from the preachers that they sent out.
We benefited from them, so we want to give back.
Answer me this.
What in the world did these people ever do for us, for our church?
Why do they have the right to hit us up for money 30 times when they don't even know us,
they don't care about us, they don't love us, and then they call us on the front page,
dear friend?
It's all a lie.
This is just like a bum by the side of the road just asking me for money.
I don't know who you are.
It's garbage.
Go if you would to 1 Timothy chapter 6.
I'm telling you, money is what's behind it.
That's why I'm calling it the Bible college scam.
It's all about the love of money.
Look, the Bible warns us over and over again about filthy lucre, about people that are
in the ministry for money.
It says, while you're turning to 1 Timothy 6, 1 Samuel 8, 3 says, his sons walked not
in his ways, that's Samuel's sons, or I'm sorry, Eli's sons, excuse me, Samuel's sons,
I had to write the first time, but turned aside after lucre and took bribes and perverted
judgment.
1 Timothy 3, 3, the pastor is not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre.
1 Timothy 3, 8, likewise must the deacons be grave, not double tongued, not given to
much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre.
Titus 1, 7, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God.
Not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre.
Titus 1, 11, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, watch this, teaching
things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake.
1 Peter 5, 2, feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof.
Not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.
So we have verse after verse warning us about preachers and deacons and pastors who are
only interested in money.
So don't tell me it doesn't exist.
He's saying they're in it for the money, they're in it for the money, they're in it for the
money.
Then he says in 1 Timothy 6 where you are, verse 6, but godliness with contentment is
great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing
out.
For food and raiment, let us be there with content, but they that will be rich fall into
temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction
and perdition.
For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet it after, they've erred
from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
But thou, O man of God, believe these things.
Look, the Bible tells us the love of money is the root of all evil.
It's the root of all evil.
It's something that we need to be aware of all the time.
It's money driven.
And let me just briefly, I'm running out of time, but I've got to briefly explain how
this works.
Here's how it works, friend.
This is a wealth transfer from local churches to this college.
Churches give $10,000, $20,000, $100,000 from their local church to that Bible college.
It's a transfer of money from God's institution, the local church, to this foolish, patterned
after the world Bible college system, okay?
But not only that, it's a transfer of all the manpower.
Think about all the young men and young women in our church.
I'm talking young single men and women, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, who do a ton of
soul winning at our church, who help out and volunteer in ministries, who preach, who
win souls, who serve God, right?
So what they want to do is they want to drain all that.
We're supposed to send them all to them.
So we're draining money and we're draining manpower.
That's why the independent Baptist churches across America are getting smaller and filled
with gray heads.
And the Bible colleges are getting bigger and fancier and a bigger palace and they brag
about all their achievements and all their achievements are with money and manpower that
they stole from local churches.
They brag about, oh yeah, these big, huge churches.
You know what it is?
It's all based on other people's labor.
When I went to Hiles Anderson College, you know what they told us over and over again?
Now remember, First Baptist Church of Hammond was the largest Sunday school in the world
the year before we opened Hiles Anderson College.
So don't get the idea that the college is what's driving everything.
Now you know why they had to keep saying that to us?
Because all of us had our eyes open and we could see every week that the college students
and the college staff did 99% of the soul winning and had 99% of the converts baptized
on a weekly basis.
We could all see it.
I mean, unless you're blind, when you're at Hiles Anderson, you'd see that 99% of the
work is getting done by the college students and the college staff.
And you'd show up to a church soul winning time, two people would be there, three people
would be there.
You show up to the college ministries and there's hundreds of people there.
There's 200 people to work the bus route, 200 people to work in the chapel ministry,
200 people to do the shut in, whatever.
But when it came to the church soul winning times, there'd be a handful.
You'd watch people walk down the aisle on Sunday morning, it's all the students and
the staff bringing their converts down.
Why?
Because the whole thing, so they have to tell you how well 45 years ago this church was
doing something, but now it's all driven by the college.
Okay, well guess what?
That's what all Bible colleges are doing.
They bring all the youngest, strongest, healthiest, most zealous young people and they bring
them to the Bible college and put them to work for them.
They get the money, they get the manpower, they get the resources, the churches back
home get smaller, the Bible colleges get bigger and fancier.
And then they sit there and when the graduates graduate, all the best graduates, they offer
them jobs and keep them there.
So it's just a total drain from the good church.
And let me tell you something, the little churches across America are better than the
big Bible colleges.
Why?
I mean doctrinally, I'll tell you why.
Because the big Bible colleges have to be compromised in order to bring in as much enrollment
as possible.
Look, in order to bring in as much donation as possible.
I mean if these guys were on the news for being too controversial, they're not going
to bring in 1.5 million.
So they got to please everybody, be middle of the road, compromise, and then they get
everybody to donate, they get everybody to send.
So the local churches are preaching hard.
But then they send all their young people off to a Bible college and then they just
slowly die.
That's what's going on all across America today.
It's a transfer of wealth and resources to these big colleges.
Then the big colleges just brag about how big they are.
Look at us, look at all the soul winning we do, look how big we are.
Yeah, will you take all the soul winners out of the churches?
But not only, I got to hurry for sake of time, what about the unscriptural titles that these
Bible colleges confer?
What are you paying for when you give them thousands of dollars?
Are you paying to hear preaching?
No you're paying to get the degree.
That's what that guy's paying $2,000 a class for.
He wants to be declared the master of divinity.
Go if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter 3.
The Bible specifically tells us that master is a forbidden title for any Christian.
This guy is dumping tens of thousands of dollars so that he can achieve a title that Christ
forbids.
Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago said, be not ye called master.
And the graduate from this Bible college, what is he doing?
Dumping $2,000 a class to do what?
To be called master.
I got to get my master of divinity.
Masters of the universe.
You say, why don't you grow up Pastor Anderson?
Hey, why don't you grow up master of the universe?
Why don't you grow up He-Man?
Why don't you grow up She-Ra?
At least I'm not calling myself superhero names like doctor of divinity and master of
the universe.
Unscriptural titles like master, which is specifically forbidden in Matthew 23 verses
8 through 10.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 1.
Do we begin again to commend ourselves?
Or need we as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?
Year our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men.
He said, look, we don't need all these letters of commendation, epistles of commendation.
What is that?
It's a college degree.
That's what it is.
Some thing telling you how great you are.
You know what?
If you have to go around telling people how great you are, maybe you're not that great.
If you have to show everybody your degree, maybe you're not that smart.
And not only do they call themselves master of this and master of that, but they take
another unbiblical term, doctor.
Now I'm not against doctors being called doctors.
A physician being called a doctor is no problem.
But if you don't have a stethoscope around your neck, you have no business calling yourself
a doctor.
Period.
The word doctor is used three times and is always referring to the Pharisees.
Luke 5 17, there were the Pharisees and the doctors of the law were sitting by.
Acts 5 34, then stood there up, one in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor
of the law.
You know who called themselves a doctor?
A Pharisee.
But yet all these Bible college presidents call themselves doctor.
The professors call themselves doctor.
Doctor of this, doctor of theology, doctor of divinity.
Is there a doctor in the house?
It's garbage.
It's a Pharisee title.
Christ, you're going to tell me the Holy Spirit led you to seek to be called master or seek
to be called doctor?
That's not in the Bible.
It's pride, it's arrogance, which the Lord doth hate.
And everyone that's proud is an abomination to the Lord.
So why give yourself time?
Why don't you just be called bishop or pastor or deacon?
Or elder?
Why don't you use the Bible, not master, not doctor, bachelor?
I got married to not be that.
Why don't I go seek to be a bachelor?
Bachelor of science.
Lastly this, turn if you would to Genesis chapter 2.
And you say, well, what about the importance of a degree?
Here's all the Bible I can give you right now on degree.
You want some Bible on the word degree?
Well, you got to get your degree.
Surely men of low degree are vanity.
The low degree, that's the first one you get in horse science.
And men of high degree are a lie.
That's the master of divinity from Baptist theological seminary of the deep freeze.
Some southern Baptist cemetery, you couldn't pay me to take a degree from them.
You know what, if Baptist southwestern theological whatever cemetery of the southern Baptist
sent me an honorary doctorate, you know what, I'd donate it to Heartland Baptist Bible College
to help renovate their men's room with it.
You decide what it would be used for in that men's room.
You couldn't pay me to take one of these epistles of commendation from the southern Baptist
convention for a bunch of liberal, watered down, garbage theologians not interested.
Men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lie.
To be laid in the balances, they're altogether lighter than vanity.
The Bible says he put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree.
The Bible said that they that have used the office of a deacon well purchased to themselves
a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
See, the only good degree in the Bible, it's not one from a Bible college.
It's one that you earn by working as a deacon.
You do the work and you have a good degree.
But let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he's exalted.
You say you're just jealous because you don't have a college degree.
Look, I don't want a college degree.
You couldn't give me one.
And you know what?
We have a guy in our church who got a bachelor's and a master's degree from Bible college.
The first week he joined our church, he walked up to me and he showed me his bachelor and
his master's degree from Bible college and he tore them up and threw them in the trash
in front of me and said, I'm sick of this.
I'm ready to get some real training now.
He said, I'm here at Faithful Word Baptist Church to get the real training.
This is trash.
And he threw it away.
I'm not going to tell you what college it was from, but it started with a P and a Pensacola.
It started with a P and a Pensacola and he tore it up and threw it in the trash and said,
I don't need this.
I'm here to I'm here to learn the training.
Why?
Because the proof's in the pudding.
That's why.
We don't need a pieces of commendation.
Paul didn't need it.
But last but not least is this.
It is not God's plan for young people.
So just a quick review of the points made.
Number one is we need the church, not the college.
That's what the Bible said.
I defy you to show me Bible college in the Bible because it isn't there.
He said the church, not the college.
Number two, you're making God's house a house of merchandise.
He's so angry.
You know the story of what he did when he flipped the tables.
What else?
Number three is all about the money.
It's all about just transferring money and manpower from the little churches to these
big mega center churches so that they can get bigger and everybody else suffers.
And then lastly, the unscriptural titles.
But let me finish on this.
It's not God's plan for the young people.
See today, the Bible college movement says when your kid's 18, you ship them off to Bible
college, right?
That's not what the Bible says either.
Look down at your Bible at Genesis 2.24.
It says, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife
and they shall be one flesh.
So you know what?
God's plan for you in a perfect world is that you go from father and mother to your wife.
I don't see a stop in between where you leave father and mother and cleave unto your bunkmate.
Cleave unto your roommate.
No.
You cleave to your wife.
You know what?
When you're ready to move out is when you get married, 18-year-old.
Hey, listen, 19-year-old.
You know when you're ready to move out?
When you're ready to get married.
You don't need to be shipped off when you're 18 to some Bible college, 19 to some Bible
college.
That's not God's plan.
That's not what he taught.
Just to show you how much of a scam Bible college is and how it's just all about money.
It flies in the face of the Bible.
Here's another example because we kind of gave this guy a hard time, but let's go after
another one.
Bob Gray.
Bob Gray Sr. spent about 30 to 40 years of his life preaching how great Bible college
is and running a Bible college, right?
So he's got his Texas Baptist Bible college or whatever and before that he's promoting
Hiles Anderson, went to Hiles Anderson.
So he spent decades telling people, you need to go to Bible college, you need to go to
Bible college, you need to go to Bible college for decades, right?
But then as soon as it stopped putting money in his pocket, all of a sudden he turned on
a dime and he's like, oh yeah, these Bible colleges, they're ruining churches.
Now you've got to get on my online Bible college and send me the money, literally.
It's funny how for decades when Bob Gray was profiting from Bible college, right?
All the students are coming in with the money coming in, right?
When he's profiting from it, it's wonderful for decades.
But then as soon as his retirement plan gets cut from his church and all of a sudden he's
got to make some money, all of a sudden he just turns on a dime and says, oh yeah, Bible
colleges have devastated our churches and you know what he said?
He said, yeah, I mean they took all the young people.
They're taking all the young, and then other pastors are like, yeah, we've never recovered
from losing all our young people and losing all that money and resource that we shipped
off to the Bible college.
That's funny because, you know, your whole life you promoted Bible college when the money
was coming to you and when the people are coming to you.
So now he's got an online Bible college.
What a scam.
And by the way, these Bible college degrees, they're not even accredited.
They don't even mean anything.
They're just like, you just show them to people, like.
You know what I mean?
Like, I'm a bachelor of theology.
But literally, you take a class at this online Bible college, it's 300 bucks, 200 bucks,
100 bucks to watch a video.
Hey, save some money.
My YouTube channel costs less than $2,000 a class.
It's free.
There are so many tens of thousands of hours of Bible preaching on YouTube.
And you know what, you say, yeah, but we need something of a little more higher quality
like Harvard.
Did you know you can watch the classes from Harvard on YouTube?
Did you know that?
You can go on YouTube and you can watch Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, you name the college.
You can watch it all on YouTube.
But no, it's all about purchasing your little piece of paper.
Hey, everybody, hire me because I got this piece of paper.
Throw that piece of paper in the trash and show us what you got.
That's what any real employer will tell you anyway.
But isn't that funny how Bob Gray was so gung ho Bible college when he was making the money.
Now he's got his online scam where he gets paid.
Every time somebody takes his class, cha-ching, cha-ching, he gets this recurring revenue
for him and all the other people that are involved in the Bible college scam with him.
What's a scam anyway?
What is a scam?
I'll tell you what a scam is because I was just, I was just reading something about scams
and so forth.
You know what a scam is?
A scam is a company that dumps millions of dollars into advertising and very little into
a quality product.
You know, you go to, I was just reading a book that had to do with nutrition and it
was talking about those supplements that you buy at the store like, you know, the weightlifters
buy.
What do they have on the outside?
Some roided out, you know, just veins or, you know, sort of looks sort of like this,
you know.
You know, they're just like, and they're just like veins are bulging out, just muscles everywhere.
I mean, just their head looks like they had a visit to a voodoo witch doctor or something
because their head is so small compared to their body.
And they're just like, they look like they're about to die of a heart attack, you know,
just all roided out.
Look, because here's what they do.
To get that big, those roids cost money.
They're spending like 50 grand a year on steroids, these body boulders.
So this is what the supplement company pays tons of money to that guy to roid him up for
the cover.
Everybody listening?
50 grand, 75 grand a year just to keep his roids pumping and to keep it all, to make
him huge, right?
What goes into the canister?
Bunch of maltodextrin, bunch of fillers, sawdust, flour, whatever.
And then it's all part of their proprietary blend where they put like one drop of the
effective nutrient and it's 99% filler and junk.
So then they're selling you powder that cost $50.
It cost them three bucks to make, five bucks to make, sell it to you for 50 bucks.
Why?
Because you know where they're putting all the money.
They're not putting it into a quality product.
They're putting it into what?
Advertising.
They're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars sending you all the ads to tell you,
look everybody, look at this.
Why?
To perpetuate themselves.
They're like a virus.
They're like a parasite.
They're like a bacteria, just a drain.
And you want to know the funniest part about this?
What if I, Pastor Steven L. Anderson, what if I sent a letter to every independent Baptist
church in America said, send a donation to my church?
How do you think people would react to that?
What if I sent a piggy bank to 6,000 churches that said, put your money in this piggy bank
and then send it to me?
What would they do?
They'd freak out, right?
They'd be like, it's a cult.
Isn't that what they would say?
Okay, how about this?
What if I did this?
What if I traveled around the country saying, hey, your young people need to leave your
church and come join my church in Tempe, Arizona.
Now I've had people accuse me of doing that.
I've never done that.
But isn't it ironic that these same people accuse Pastor Steven Anderson of being a sheep
stealer and he's trying to get people to leave their church and come be a part of his church?
You know what the true story is?
Let me tell you the true story.
When single men and single young ladies show up at this church and say, I moved here to
come to the church.
You know what I say to them?
Go home and live with your parents.
Chris, is that what I tell them?
I tell them, go home and live with your parents.
Now sometimes they stay and sometimes they go home.
And I tell them, it's up to you what you're going to do.
But I believe you should be at home living with your parents.
So I'm doing the exact opposite of what these Bible colleges are doing.
They're going around saying, leave your parents and come be with us.
Come to Archer.
I'm doing the opposite.
I'm saying go home and live with your parents.
Leave father and mother and cleave unto your wife.
So isn't it funny how they accuse me of doing exactly what they're really guilty of?
Going around stealing everybody's church members and asking everybody to give all the money
to them.
You know what I tell people?
Tithe in your local church.
People say, hey, should I send my tithe to you or tithe in my local church?
I say, tithe in your local church.
I don't say, send me 1.5 million dollars.
You know why?
Because Faithful Word Baptist Church is about giving and giving and giving and serving and
helping other people.
We help other churches.
We benefit other churches.
We bless other churches.
We send them church members.
We get people saved and then tell them to find an independent Baptist church in their
area.
And we've sent thousands of people to churches all over America through our online ministry.
We send them there.
They tithe there.
They're a blessing there because we're not a parasite.
That's why.
We give, give, give.
We build something ourselves.
We don't just say, all right everybody, all right churches, send us all your money.
Send us all your young people.
Send us all that new blood and we'll die a slow and painful death as everybody in our
church now averages age 87.
That's what's going on today and it's a scam and somebody needs to call it out for what
it is.
We need to get back to the local church because Christ said upon this rock, I'll build my
church.
He didn't say I'll build a TV show or a school.
He said I'll build my church.
And we need independent Baptist churches all over America, not these big parasite cancers
draining all the nutrients from the rest of the nation.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for our local church, Lord, and I pray that, that any young
people at our church, Lord, would not be deceived by the, the fancy brochures and the catalogs
that tell them to go to these Bible colleges, Lord.
I pray that they would stay here and learn how to serve in their local church, get married,
meet singles here, Lord, and not feel like they have to go join some other place in another
state, Lord.
And I pray that all across America we get back to the local church model of doing things
and get away from this Bible college model that's been a failure for decades now.