Warning to the New IFB

Though originally addressed to Ben Naim, a.k.a. Ben the Baptist, amid Donnie Romero sex, gambling and drugs scandal in January 2019, comments made by Dr. James White are applicable virtually in any of the never ending controversies of the NewIFB.

It does, however, point to fundamental flaws in #fundamentalism, starting with a diminished and/or view of God, the Scriptures, the Gospel, and man's depravity.

Space not permitting a full treatise on (New)IFB's theological issues, in a nutshell, a sub-biblical views of said fundamental elements lead, first and foremost, to many false converts. Reliance fully on the Holy Spirit to work in an unsaved sinner listening to a Gospel presentation to bring conviction, repentance and faith leading unto salvation, and assurance thereof afterward, is replaced by making an unsaved person to intellectually understand and accept Gospel facts, answer all the questions correctly, and to decide for themselves to accept salvation by praying a prayer, thereby making false assurance of salvation by declaring them saved to their face (without the capability and right to do so).
Furthermore, sanctification in a believer's life by the Holy Spirit, conforming them to the image of Christ, producing fruit and good works meet for repentance, is replaced by (New)IFB's rules made by men, and set as a standard of measure of one's "growth" or even an indication of one's conversion in the first place.

Such practices produce fear in such a convert who is left with no choice or is forced to pick a side in any given split and controversy, lest they be pronounced unsaved (and a reprobate in the NewIFB's practice of anathematizing), thus proving their salvation by displaying loyalty to "the man of God", based purely on sentimental reasons (often being the very person who preached the Gospel to them) and fear of somehow demonstrating they were not really saved to begin with if they dare to ask a question or stand up to false doctrine or #malpractice by the "I man of God here!".

Another very dangerous fruit of fundamentalism is over-zealousness in the defense thereof by it's followers, against people who rightly (or wrongly) point out errors in IFB doctrines. Such a defense is most often based on merely repeating verbatim stuff preached from the pulpit by various pastors, without actually verifying anything, and a seeming endeavor to do so with even more aggression, trying to mimic "hard preaching". One might perceive it as a contest between pastors, preachers, YouTubers and keyboard warriors to see who will say the most extreme thing, who will go the furthest, feeding off of each other. It inevitably leads to horrible and ungodly things being said against "the enemy", often wishing death on people, cursing them to hell, railing and false accusations, demonstrating nothing but hate.
Very often that kind of behavior turns right against them and exposes their Pharisaical #hypocrisy, interestingly, exposing the very sins which they were falsely accusing others of participating in.

Such is ultimately destructive for everyone involved. In the case of disgruntled unbelievers, it leads to further heresy and apostasy. But for the true believers among them, it leads to permanent damage to their soul, mind, and relationships with others.

(New)IFB movement has repeatedly demonstrated fatal flaws - both doctrinal, and lifestyle-wise - and as such is not the Cristian way of worship and living.

I myself can testify to that, being part of the NewIFB from May 2015 to December 2019. I was introduced to the Gospel by Steven Anderson's videos, and became very zealous very quickly, believing to be following the true way, wanting to contribute in reaching others with NewIFB materials.

Thankfully, the Lord was gracious to me, and eventually showed me the errors of my ways and led me to the true path, eventually joining other saints of God whom I attacked previously in grave ignorance. I am ashamed of my behavior during my fundamentalist days. The punishment from God I experienced was severe. The sins scarred my soul permanently and it left damage in my life, probably without repair. Something I will have to live with from now on.

So my message to the fellow brothers and sisters in the NewIFB, who are worried about the never ending controversies: pray and reconsider. Check everything, especially those things and doctrines that you have always wondered about. Learn from my mistakes.

I pray God will guide you in your search for truth.

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Few more thoughts on the situation

This is not about the sins of Steven Anderson’s and other underage children. I can’t emphasize that enough. We should not use someone’s children against them.
I did sinful things in my youth, but I happened to live in a day when we did not have smartphones and social media, and hence even the opportunity of being publicly recorded for all posterity and for all to see. I am grateful for that. I feel for young people who have to grow up in this day and age where every mistake they make is instantly recorded by ten other people, live streamed to the world or published afterward, without the possibility of forgetting.

I am not excusing their behavior, but I pray for those children that they find forgiveness in the Lord, and not lose their faith (and if any of them is not truly saved, that the Lord uses this in their life to bring true repentance and faith). I do also pray for their safety, given the reports of “severe punishment” they’ve received (as to what that means, I fear for the worst, given the behavior we’ve seen from Steven Anderson). And if there was physical abuse, I pray that they don’t grow to hate Christianity like so many who grew up in abusive fundamentalist “Christian” families.

I pray for all the disillusioned brothers and sisters who are in shock and confusion right now, being let down by men whom they looked up to.

My problem is with reports of legal adults having unacceptable conversations with minors, and seeming cover-up thereof. And if such is true, it is dangerous, I hate it, and it should be exposed and punished.
My problem is the double standard. If this were about some FWBC church member’s children, Steven Anderson would not only immediately kick them out of the church, but then proceed to anathematize them and demonize them to others (including the online audience, via YouTube videos and Facebook posts, which often escalate into child-like back and forth), railing and falsely accusing. But when a scandal involves Anderson’s children, all of a sudden the church service where it is addressed is not live streamed, it is dealt with privately (we know about this only because damaged families leaked it), families who see the problem with it are violently expelled from the church, and emphasis is being made on forgiveness (I find it interesting how both Anderson and Thompson, whose children were involved, found the need to preach on forgiveness within a week of each other).

And now, when the spotlights are on the NewIFB movement, it seems that all sorts other issues, malpractices and hypocrisy are coming out, once people started digging.

And that is the main problem – fundamentalism is not working. Old IFB, New IFB – the fruits are unfortunately the same. Doctrines on marriage, parenting, and church polity are fundamentally flawed, and it results in these kinds of scandals. And all have their roots in sub-biblical and simplistic understanding of Sola Scriptura and Tota Scpriptura, along with inerrancy of the Bible (resulting in unbalanced King James only position), as well as of sin and salvation, and hence evangelism and sanctification (read my statement in the video description for further explanation of what I mean).

This leads to the problem of the fruit of the New IFB movement. People get saved by listening to Gospel presentation by one of the New IFB pastors, get zealous right away (which is a great thing), but unfortunately learn to trust the preaching to much, without doing their own study, looking at all sides, ask questions, and are discouraged to do so.
Deep studies and reading books on theology and church history are mocked. Exposure to other perspectives is discouraged.
Any disagreement is looked down upon, and a cause for questioning one’s salvation.
Such unbalanced people (not of their own fault, but as a result of unbalanced preaching) in interaction with others (primarily unbelievers) simply end up repeating stuff they hear from sermons by their favorite pastor, and start getting nervous when another pastor has a different belief. This results in fractions within the movement, which escalate when a controversy or a scandal happen. People pick sides based on pastors’ personality, not the real issues or doctrine. What was once your close friend becomes an enemy of the faith in split second, for daring to question the “I’m the man of God here!”.

I speak all this from personal experience, having been such a person.

Such mentality is extremely close-minded, indefensible in the real world against attacks on every aspect of Christian faith, and is ultimately destructive to one’s faith and believers themselves.

Also, there is an interesting side-effect of producing heretics all over the spectrum – from oneness Unitarians, to bizzare King James onlyism that would make even Ruckman blush – all claiming to have learned this from Steven Anderson. I find it to be semi-true, since all heretics kicked out of FWBC have simply gone to logical conclusions of what he used to (shallowly) preach, but has now corrected when errors were manifested in those off-shoot heretics. And of course, there are also just simple nutcases who just end up trolling in any way.
But this is the result of shallow, unbalanced doctrines based on proof-texting, not exegesis (which concept is mocked constantly).

And this leads to another problem of true believers who, having spent time in any fundamentalist group, eventually get disillusioned and betrayed by them, in seeking other church to go to, gravitate toward the same type of church and doctrines hoping for a better experience, but often experience the same problems and abuse. A sad result of being under preaching against (and demonizing) everyone who does not look and act like KJVonly independent fundamentalist Baptist. Of course, not every church is a Christian church (granted, not every IFB church is a Christian church). But there are all sorts of Christians (arguably with more historic foundation) who look different and practice differently, even use different Bible translations, but have the same Gospel, and love toward the Bible and the Triune God of the Bible, who in spite their differences are more united than New IFB churches (some of which are trying be a clone of FWBC in every way).

I will let the reader to think about what that “Christian” unity in the New IFB stands on – fear of God, or fear of pastors?

[BibleVersionConspiracy]

You nailed it on the NIFB, James. I remember when this nonsense went down. I guess everyone should have seen it coming. Sad and maddening. 😟

[Lambdamale.]

They are similar to the woke movement. It's a competition to see who is the most radical. Radicalism is radicalism.

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Playlist documenting the July 2020 Faithful Word Baptist Church sex scandal (more links in the playlist description)

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Playlist documenting constant controversies and issues in the New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist movement (more links in the playlist description)

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For more background information regarding the Donnie Romero scandal, listen to the insightful interview with his ex-wife Leslye from July 2021:

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And here is the sad fruit, the tragic consequences of Steven Andersons's "parenting", as testified by Anderson's own children. I am saddened by this. May God be merciful to them and bring them to Himself truly.

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Documentation on the New IFB problems, malpractices, and never-ending controversies

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Should've published this months ago when I had it queued up after the Anderson/Perry split...


Regardless of the original context of this message by Dr. James White, it is always the same story - New IFB members attack, rail on, and hate their enemies, and when the inevitable controversy occurs within the movement, people turn against each other, pick sides based on whom they like, and anathematize one another, while others are left in fear and confused.
Every New IFB member should ponder on this message to Ben Naim well, as I did when it originally aired.

I wrote a lengthy comment in the video description (just about used up all of the 5000 characters - and there are still things left to be said) that gives my perspective on the issues drawn from personal experience in the New IFB movement.

I dislike drama, and adding fuel to fire, but this was on my mind for a good while, out of concern for the precious souls of true believers who are still involved in the New IFB movement. It is that audience for which this video and my comment are intended primarily.
I want you to know that there are other more biblical churches that have historical background. New IFB has demonstrated not to be such after all.

As much as there were people who were genuinely converted to Christianity by this movement (myself included), it has left many people with scars and damage - not only in those who attend personally one of these churches, but also people all over the world (myself included).
I am grateful for positive things I’ve learned from the New IFB. I really am. But at what cost?


I hope and pray this will be a help and a blessing to those who find it.

[martinsloan]

Why are there so many splits in Christianity? In recent research, I counted approximately 890 denominations calling themselves Christian. That number may be a conservative estimate. I understand that different denominations can be accused of bad or weak teaching, carnal gospels, or any number of other things, but I can’t help think that these accusations are ‘surface based’, that they are directed at teaching style or peripheral doctrine. At the core most of these denominations are the same. Since the splits are based on surface features of the denominations, why can’t they get round a table and prayerfully and humbly seek the truth to make them all genuinely united?

[Yelladog]

You're just witnessing a modern day reformation only this time in the IFBC instead of Catholics. In 15 years they NIFB churches will dominate & the old IFB will be only a fraction of what it was

[aaronhusar]

They might protect Ben like they protect their own kids and Kyle ward chambers.

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For a fuller discussion on NewIFB's M.O. I highly recommend, and urge you, to listen to the following Dividing Line program where a more in-depth analysis is provided:

It would also be highly useful to watch the subsequent debate on Romans 8:28-34 between Dr. James White and Pastor Jason Robinson:

I hope and pray this will be useful and influential in a good way for everyone.

[anythingafter]

Could James White speak with a more smarmy affectation? It doesn't seem possible.

[craigorymccraigerzson]

What In the world are you talking about? Why would even waste your time on a video

[buckeyebaptist]

The NIFB has the right doctrine but the wrong polity.

[kane]

JESUIT PLANTS, TRIGGERING ALL AT ONCE .NOTHING NEW HERE BEEN DOING THIS TYPE OF TACTICS FOR YEARS.

[lightningbug]

Hi. Are the Duggars part of this movement?

[anonymousduck]

Pastor Anderson is a great man of God.