Pensacola Christian College Is The Dead Church At Sardis

Revelation 3:1-3, “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.”

The church at Sardis was backslidden! They were spiritually “dead” the Bible says. Sardis was one of the oldest and best defended cities in the region, in the wealthy capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia (which is part of the country of Turkey today). The church at Sardis was not pleasing to the Lord. They were dropping the ball for God, not preaching the Gospel, merely going through the motions of playing church. I can't think of a better example of Pensacola Christian College (PCC) today than the backslidden church at Sardis in the Bible.

Jesus unapologetically condemns the lifeless condition of the Sardian church: “I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Revelation 3:2). Pensacola Christian College and their Campus Church has a popular name worldwide. PCC started in 1974, two years after Hyles-Anderson College where I thankfully graduated. I am so glad that I didn't attend a lifeless hellhole like PCC, learning to do much but accomplish little for God. There is no Holy Spirit power at work in the PCC camp today. I attended their church for the summer of 2021, and it was dead spiritually. There is no door-to-door soulwinning at PCC. They haven't even begun to reach the city of Pensacola with the Gospel. You can drive down the street by PCC, and view their city blocks of real estate, but as a religious cult, they are locked away in seclusion, alienated from the local community. There is no bus ministry.

Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001) said it best about PCC:

“The pastors have destroyed the churches, and they've been trained by people that have never built churches, and they have no compassion.” —Pastor Jack Hyles, “Many Pastors Have Destroyed My Vineyard”

When I attended Campus Church in 2021, Pastor Jeff Redlin treated me like garbage as a divorced person, showing no love, no compassion, no understanding, no prayer and no concern for my hurting soul. He horribly criticized my website ministry and made me feel unwanted as a divorce man at Campus Church. Psalms 142:4, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” So, of course I left Campus Church hurt and frustrated, and I never heard from Pastor Jeff Redlin again (he has my email)!

You'd think if anyone in this world had love and compassion for divorced people, it would be a pastor; but that is rarely the case I find. Most pastors are self-righteous jerks, condemning the fallen, and so also does their congregation follow their horrible example. It is sadly true that many churches are cults today, where the people blindly follow and support their pastors, no matter who rotten m, wrong or corrupt he becomes!

I am tired of sanctimonious carnal Christians going around on social media posting stupid messages about: letting it go, loving the unloving, being kind to the unkind, and throwing that crap in other people's faces who have been hurt by carnal church leaders. The truth is that bad carnal pastors need to identified and exposed for who they are, rotten phonies who serve only their belly (Romans 16:17-18). If I attend a church and the pastor mistreats me, or I don't feel like he gives a damn if I come back, he can expect a negative review to appear on social media within a week or two!!! That is my right as a child of God, an American and a consumer. The world is going to Hell because of passivist believers who think it is “unkind” to expose bad pastors, expose doctrinal error and speak out against evil (Ephesians 5:11; Titus 1:9-14).

Those of my web visitors who know me (and in the last year, my new eight blogs and my grateful blog readers), you all know that I can be sharp in my tone and words at times while expressing myself. But I do not make apologies for being a sincere man with a big heart, and for having deep feelings, and that I express myself passionately with zeal and strong words. That is who I am! No pastor needs to fear my pen, as long as I know he cares about me as a hurting human being, and loves me unconditionally as a divorced man with God's love. People just want to be loved. Love is what I look for in a pastor and church.

God knows that I NEVER intend to be cruel or mean, but simply try to get people's attention. Mrs. Beverly Hyles once said on her blog, which is still available to read today, that hurting people hurting people. I have been hurt by many pastors, who threw me under the bus for befriending them with THE TRUTH that the new Bibles are corrupted by Satan, and Lordship Salvation is a perversion of God's grace.

PCC has sadly drifted away from the Gospel, now preaching in 2021 that, and I quote from the Foundation's Class at Campus Church: “Repentance is a change of mind which produces a change of behavior.” No sirs, that is heresy! A changed life has NOTHING to do with God's free gift of eternal life. You get saved by resting in the finished redemptive work of Jesus Christ (1st Corinthians 15:1-4), and then as a child of God the indwelling Holy Spirit begins to convict you about the sins in your life (Romans 8:9; 1st John 3:24). It is a false gospel to associate a changed life in any way with getting saved.

Pastor Jack Hyles gives an excellent illustration of this truth in his sermon called: “Your Salvation Did Not Change You A Bit.” In the sermon Dr. Hyles explains that a former strip joint owner felt convicted week after week, as First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana (FBCH) soulwinners passed by his filthy business. In time, the business closed and a couple years passed. One day Pastor Hyles received a sincere letter from the former strip joint owner, explaining how he felt convicted every time he saw people from church sharing the Gospel. The owner had been saved, and was now preparing to become a preacher. He offered to sell the building to FBCH and the church purchased the building. Now even though ownership had been transferred to the church, the building itself was still a strip joint inside. It needed to be renovated.

Likewise, when I got saved at age 13, my body, soul and spirit changed ownership from Satan to God; but I was still the same filthy, dirty, ungodly sinner that I was a moment before. In God's sight I was sinless, having Christ's imputed righteousness (Philippians 3:9); but my life needed to be renewed by the Word of God. John 17:17 says that we are sanctified by the truth, and the Word of God is truth! You see, I was saved by faith alone, and ownership was transferred from the Devil to God when I got saved. But my building (flesh) was still a mess. I needed to be converted, which happened as I had a new hunger to read and study God's inspired Word. I attended a good Bible-believing church and learned the Bible. I heard Bible preaching at church, and later I attended Bible college at age 18, which all helped me to grow in the grace of Jesus Christ (2nd Peter 3:18).

I've said all this to refute the heresy at Campus Church that repentance results in a change of behavior, it does not! Repentance only results in a change of ownership. After you're saved, your life needs to be converted (i.e., renovated), which takes time and requires that you desire the sincere milk of the Word (1st Peter 2:2), and that you present your body a living sacrifice to serve God (Romans 12:1-2). Growth is not automatic. The church today has utterly failed to mentor new believers with the Word of God, leaving them to languish on their own. Consequently, many of them never mature to win souls themselves, which is what the Parable Of The Sower And The Seeds is about in Luke 8:11-15. The problem is not that they have never repented, as the perverse Lordship Salvation crowd says, but that they have never been mentored properly. I speak this to the shame of Campus Church and PCC.

The church at Sardis had a good reputation, but they were spiritually lifeless. The Lord commanded them to repent (change their mind). The issue is not sinful behavior in the church. The Bible does not mention their sins. The Bible says they failed to do the things they had received. They likely weren't going soulwinning. They likely weren't baptizing new converts. Jesus tells them: “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent.” They had drifted away from what a church is supposed to be, a vineyard to win the lost to Christ. The church at Sardis may have focused on education, like PCC.

They probably stopped contending for the faith. PCC has NEVER contended for the Christian faith. Since they opened their doors in 1974, the only thing Rebekah Horton ever fought against was Dr. Kent Hovind. She helped get him convicted to 10 years in prison, testifying against him at the request of an ungodly feminist judge in Florida. Kent Hovind is an alumni of PCC. Really great people at PCC, huh? She took vengeance upon Kent Hovind, who preached against them over tax issues in the 1990's. What Rebekah Horton did was wicked, testifying against her own Christian brother (1st Corinthians 6:1-8. Rebekah defrauded her Christian brother, assisting a wicked, perverse and corrupt government.

Jesus commands the church at Sardis to repent, to strengthen what remains and is about to die. God told them to WAKE UP!!! Pensacola Christian College needs to WAKE UP!!! They need to fire Jeff Redlin. I will never return to the PCC camp until Jeff Redlin is either gone, or he humbly contacts me to make peace (which he is too proud to do). PCC is only concerned about going on the defensive, and not reaching out to people who have been deeply hurt and wounded by their lack of compassion, woeful lack of concern and carnal attitudes at PCC. They are cowards at PCC and Campus Church. Jeff Redlin needs to be humbled.

I wouldn't give you a dime for the calloused, cold-hearted attitudes of the PCC camp today. They buddy-buddy with the Calvinist Bob Jones University crowd. PCC students compete in intercollegiate sports with the BJU camp. What they ought to be doing is boycotting BJU until they stop preaching Lordship Salvation!!! PCC and BJU graduates send new students to each other's Bible colleges. Why is PCC treating the rattlesnakes in the BJU camp with kid gloves? Right doctrine matters!!! It really does.

Lordship Salvation is not an acceptable optional alternative to the Gospel, it is dangerous poison!!! 2nd Corinthians 11:6, “But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.” The wicked devils in the Bob Jones University camp who preach Lordship Salvation must be identified and exposed for what they are, wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:1-15). ...