Wednesday, January 13, 2010
MY CONVERSION-AN ORDINARY TESTIMONY. Ron Smith
I was born on a snowy January day in 1936, in a house on the Watling Street, Dunstable. A house which more recently became a French restaurant. I was born again on October 15th 1955 during a gospel meeting in a church hall in Ipswich.
I have an older brother, unconverted, and I had a younger sister who met a tragic death at the age of 37, also unconverted. My parents were unbelievers so I grew up in an ungodly home. My father was a wife-beater and a child molester and a blasphemer with a vile temper so I did my best to stay out of his way. He on one occasion pushed his mother-in-law down the stairs. Despite my father's evil ways our home was more stable than many are today.
My parents were not devoid of religion. When I was 19 months old they had me sprinkled at the parish church so that I might be fit for heaven. I still have the certificate signed by the vicar stating that I was now “A member of Christ; The child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.” A splash of H2O on the face certainly works wonders! On this certificate the words of Keble are recorded;
In every Church a Fountain springs
O’er which the Eternal Dove
Hovers on softest wings.
A few calm words of faith and prayer,
a few bright drops of holy dew
Shall work a wonder there
Earth’s charmers never knew.
O happy ye who, sealed and blest
Back to your arms your treasure take
With Jesus’ mark impressed,
to nurse for Jesus’ sake.
This is what the protestant superstition is all about. It is the National religion of England over which the Queen presides.
At the age of seven I began to attend the local Baptist (Union) Sunday School. My younger sister was being taken by a neighbour and I thought I might be missing out , so I asked my parents if I could go too. My sister got bored after a while, and stopped going but I continued until I was twelve, often going to both morning and afternoon sessions and staying after morning Sunday School to listen to the pastor's preaching. I do not recall hearing a clear gospel preached but many a Scripture text was being sown in my young mind and soul. In those days only the Authorized Version of the Bible was used.
When I was twelve I told my parents I did not wish to go any more. I considered myself too grown up for Sunday School. They were not bothered what I did. There was never any compulsion in it. Indeed from the age of five I was allowed to wander where I would and so I explored the whole neighbourhood, often playing in the extensive woods that then existed nearby. There was little danger in those days.
I passed the "11 plus" and found myself in the A-stream of a four stream Grammar School, where I largely wasted my time, having no interest in academic subjects. At 16 years of age I left. VIth form was considered middle class and I had a very much working class background.
Within a few days of leaving school I was in RAF uniform. This was my escape- an armament engineering apprenticeship in the Air Force. I wanted to fly but my eyesight was not good enough.
Apprentice days were gruelling. The regime was harsh. Reveille every morning at 6:30.a,m, Lights out at 10:15.p.m. Even at the age of 19 we had to be in bed by that time. Three Sundays out of four each month we were marched to church. This experience hardened most of the boys in atheism as we listened to godless chaplains trying to preach morality.
But I listened. I thought there must be a God somewhere. I didn't know where. On our final church parade, as we stood on the parade ground I looked up in to the overcast sky and prayed. "God, I think You are like the clouds, all vague and distant. If you really are there, prove it." I was saved ten weeks later.
Only once had I heard the gospel as an apprentice. This was when a Scripture Reader came into our billet. One young Scotsman -a "hard-nut"- broke down in tears, confessing his sins, but I had not understood a word the preacher was saying, though I had listened intently. My time was yet to be.
Following my graduation I was posted to RAF Wattisham, near Ipswich and on my first Sunday there I thought it would be a pity never to go to church again now that it was no longer compulsory. So I went down to the village church in time for Evensong but could not bring myself to go in. I decided from that moment to abandon all thoughts of religion for ever and made my way back to my billet.
Some weeks later I was sitting on my bed in the billet when a young man came in; a national serviceman. He walked straight up to me and invited me to a youth rally in Ipswich. When I learned that it was a religious rally I declined the offer but as my pal said he would go, I decided to go as well. Later my friend told me he only went to have a laugh, having nothing better to do that night. He didn't get saved, but I did. Christians on the base had hired a coach and then had prayed that they might fill it with servicemen who could be taken to hear the gospel. Their prayers were answered and the coach was full.
It was a gospel meeting, being held at St. George's church and was sponsored by the Keswick Association . There were several hundred people present. The preacher was the Rev. Buckhurst Pinch. As I listened to him I knew that I would not be able to leave that hall the way I had come in. I would have to accept Christ or reject Him. I believed the message that I heard, that Christ the Son of God had died on the cross to save me from my sins though up to that point I had not been the least troubled by my sins. What weighed most heavily upon my heart that night was that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and therefore I must trust Him and subject myself to Him.
There were appeals at the end, and folk were invited to come down to the front. That all seemed so superfluous to me. As I sat there watching people going forward I put my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. A final appeal was made for any who would like to speak to the preacher to come to the back hall. I thought that might be helpful so I then got up and went along with a number of other folk who wanted counselling. But the preacher said he had a train to catch and wouldn't talk to us. Nobody else seemed interested in us so I walked back out to the main hall.
I did know that I was saved. I knew that I had taken an irreversible step. I believed in my very first breath as a believer that something had happened to me that could never be undone. Later I appreciated that the instant I had trusted Christ the Holy Spirit had come in and indwelt me and had begun then to teach me divine truths. I also found out sometime after that the preacher had lifted his sermon out of a book. I had been saved through a secondhand message!
At the back of the hall I got my second blessing. There was a bookstall. I knew I should need a Bible now, so I bought my first Bible. Fortunately there were no modern versions there so I did not have to face that confusion so early in my Christian life. Here was the next greatest blessing after conversion -a Bible of my own.
Only minutes after this I got the third blessing. I had to testify. Another serviceman on the coach travelling back to our base challenged me as to whether I had got saved. I said I had been saved which resulted in my first preaching engagement when we got back to the billet. I, a one hour old believer, found myself having to defend my stand in front of a dozen young men, and I almost totally ignorant of the Scriptures. All I could say was that once I was blind but now I could see.
There was something else I had to do that night and nobody had told me to do it. I read my Bible and knelt by my bed to pray on that very first night. I knew that if I did not make a decisive stand immediately I might never do it. There were many opportunities for witnessing in the Forces and it was a very fruitful field. So many young men were conscripts, away from home and often quite lonely. It was a joy to see many respond to the gospel of God.
There were no prohibitions on evangelization on the various bases where I served, so frequently the billets would be tracted and personal invitations would be given to come and hear the gospel.
I do remember the very first invitation I gave. I entered a billet and saw a young man sitting with his back to the door. He couldn't see me coming! I sat on his bed and asked him if he were a Christian. To my surprise he said he was so I didn't know what to say next, except that he should come to our meeting that night which he did. Afterwards he returned to his billet, knelt by his bed and put his trust in the Saviour.
That was in Germany. That young man went home to Wembley on his next leave and got himself baptized at the local Gospel Hall. At that time I was not baptized so that brought me under conviction as to believer's baptism. On my next leave I returned to the Baptist church that I had attended as a boy and was baptized there. It was like a second conversion.
What a blessing there is in obeying the commands of the Lord Jesus. He said "If ye love me, keep my commandments." How I wished I had responded earlier.
I had become a member of the Baptist church in Luton but being in the Forces I was seldom there. There was not much new life in evidence. Nobody talked about being saved; not even the pastor. He advised me in my Bible-study to avoid Revelation as it was obscure and only caused debate and division among those who studied it. I thought it odd that God would inspire such a book if it caused so much trouble. I was already of the opinion that God had spoken very plainly in the Scriptures and wanted His children to understand His Word. There seemed to be no point having a book that could not be understood.
From Germany I was posted to RAF Leuchars in Fife. There, in June 1959, I began to attend the Baptist Church in St Andrews. It seemed a good church but none of the members spoke to me. I was hundreds of miles from home but none ever invited me to their home. The preaching was 'intellectual', aimed at the few undergraduates in the congregation. I did not feel at home there and it did not really seem like a NT Church. I was told that things that suited 1st C. Christians could hardly be applied today.
Then something happened that completely changed the course of my life. The squadron in which I served was due to go to Cyprus for summer exercises. I wanted a book to read on the plane taking us out so I visited a second hand bookshop in Dundee, where I bought for 6d a book entitled Lectures on the Church of God, by W.Kelly. I understood that Kelly was 'Brethren' and his book gave an exposition of NT Church practices and principles.
By the time we arrived in Nicosia I was 'converted'. I knew I would have to find a place where this teaching was applied. I didn't know anything about 'Brethren' but was told that they meet in Gospel Halls.
When we got back to Fife three months later, I drove into St. Andrews to look for a Gospel Hall. Eventually I found one, in Market Street. I resolved to go to the mid-week meeting first because I was under the impression that one would not be allowed in to the Sunday Morning meeting if one was not a member. I still did not know the difference between open and exclusive brethren. However, on that first Wednesday evening nobody turned up. I rechecked the notice board - Wednesday, 7.30pm Bible Study. I checked my watch, then my diary, but nobody came. So I returned on the next Sunday evening for the Gospel Meeting. A family turned up - a couple with their teenage daughter, then an old man, then an old lady. So there were six of us. Of course they were very excited that a stranger had come into their meeting and when I told them that I would like to become a member they could hardly contain themselves. I was asked, are you saved? - yes. Are you baptized? - yes. You can come and break bread with us next week. I had expected a grilling. I thought they would want to test me. But in less than a week I was a full member of the 'Brethren'. I often thought in later years how unwise was this approach because they didn't know me, and becoming a member there had given me a ticket to all other assemblies.
I was not put off by the smallness of numbers at this Gospel Hall. The family were extremely hospitable to me and I spent many blissful weekends at their home. A few days after I joined the assembly in St. Andrews, my friend; a fellow believer, and colleague on the same squadron ; also joined us and ended up marrying the daughter of the couple.
On the base at Leuchars, we held a weekly SASRA meeting. At first there were just the two of us, but we began to tract the billets and found a few other believers who were added to our numbers. In the two years spent there we had the joy of seeing about twenty servicemen and women saved. I think this irritated the chaplain as our congregation exceeded his and we did not attend his services anyway, being in fellowship in St Andrews.
Later, during our next tour in Cyprus I found that we were unwittingly offending the local Scripture Reader. (These are civilian evangelists who operate under the auspices of SASRA and have access to military bases.) He asked me why he didn't see me at the Garrison Church on Sundays. I told him I was in fellowship with believers meeting in Nicosia, and that during the week some of my off- duty time was spent evangelising servicemen in their billets. I asked him why I never saw him doing this seeing he was paid to do it.
I suppose it was because of my experience with this Scripture Reader and the growing awareness of unavoidable compromise of Christian principles that I began to think about leaving the Forces. I had thought about becoming a Scripture Reader, but they have to work in conjunction with the chaplains, many of whom are exceedingly ungodly men. Also SASRA whilst being evangelical is itself a seriously compromised organisation. Basic doctrines and practices may not be taught where they offend any sectarian members. E.g. Believer's Baptism is taboo in SASRA. The system is class-riddled; no NCO or 'other ranks' being able to serve on the committee and no officer to my knowledge has ever lowered himself to being a common Scripture Reader.
Service life compromises the believer. When I became a Christian I was informed that I could not 'change my religion' without the authority of my chaplain! We ignored that one.
I didn't become fully convicted on 'Thou shalt not kill' until after I had bought myself out.
So the time came in 1961 that I applied for discharge. It would cost me three months wages and I had to have a reason. My reason was that I had been offered a place at Moorlands Bible College. So I left the forces. A rather strange thing happened on the day I left. As I took my uniform off for the last time, I switched my radio on for a news check and found myself listening to a negro spiritual , 'I'm gonna lay down my arms, I'm gonna study war no more.'
When I got home to my parents house I found a Moorlands brochure waiting for me. I looked at it and knew instantly that I would not be going to Moorlands. There was a photo showing three young men naked apart from shorts, with a cart loaded with camping gear, and the caption; 'Going on a Gospel Trek.' I knew that going on a Gospel Trek I would not be. I was still a young man in my twenties, not all that long saved but I considered then that those who engage in the ministry of the Gospel of Christ should do so with a dignity that becomes such a high calling. I wrote to turn the place down. Many years later I was thrown out of an assembly, one of the reasons was because I would not go tracting with some young women who were wearing jeans. Other reasons are given below.
As I had turned down my place at Moorlands only a few days before I was due to go, I was much cast on the Lord as to what I should do instead. We had a visiting preacher, J. Glenville, at our hall in Luton and he invited me to go back with him to the London Docks. In those days they had ships in them. He had a pass to enter the docks and he arranged for me to get a pass so for a few days we walked round the docks giving out tracts and speaking to men where it was possible. We would preach outside the gates at lunchtimes. Then J G had to return to his business so he left me to continue on my own, which I did for the following 18 months. It was largely personal work, tracting and knocking on doors around docklands where most of the dockers lived.
My local assembly decided that as I was fully engaged in Gospel work, they should offer me the right hand of fellowship in this so after a few weeks a meeting was held where the assembly commended me to the grace of God for the work of the Gospel. They had not approved of Bible Colleges anyway, there being no provision for such in the NT.
In 1962 I got married and we thought at first we would be going out to Northern Rhodesia to engage in missionary work. There was political unrest at the time and we were advised to delay. The delay became rather protracted and I ended up going to college, only it was a Teacher Training College and not a Bible College.
We moved to Grimsby to take up my first teaching engagement. I had already resolved to spend the summer holidays having tent meetings. The first series of tent meetings began as soon as I had graduated. My main subject had been music and my tutor had nominated me to take an advanced singing diploma at Cambridge . She was quite put out when I turned it down because I was about to start Gospel meetings.
Those first meetings, in 1972, were at Linslade, Bedfordshire. We were given a very dilapidated tent and a set of 25 chairs and so we started. Children's meetings were well attended. Our own five children attracted others to come along. We also held a gospel meeting each evening but did not see any saved during that first season though we saw a number saved in subsequent years.
Our next tent meetings, the following year, were at Buckland Wharf and here one man professed faith in Christ. We had tracted the whole village but had missed his house as it was hidden by trees. It was the nearest house to the park where we had the tent. He came into the park to exercise his dog, heard us singing, came in, and got saved. Sadly he was never baptized and received into fellowship, being severely hindered by some in the meeting at that time. Some thought he should be instantly received into the meeting, the result was that he actually had the bread presented to him at the morning meeting only to have it snatched away from him by another brother. He never ever went back again.
The most profitable meetings were at Chalfont St. Peter where several were saved and about the same number were baptized at the close of the six weeks of meetings These entered into the local fellowship.
The most difficult tent meetings were held at Flitwick, where the local youth decided to turn the tent into a youth centre. Each evening 30 or 40 youths would be in the tent and each evening at 7.30 I turned the PA system on and began to preach. That usually got rid of most of them but a few would stay to listen. They were very difficult to control and on most nights I was on my own, as no believers were exercised to come and have fellowship with me. One night a young girl walked out of the tent while I was preaching and was seriously assaulted just outside the tent. That meant I also had to cope with CID enquiries during my stay there.
We were on a number of occasions attacked with bricks while at Stopsley and Toddington and the tent was let down at various places. In the end the tent became so damaged that we could no longer use it. We just praise God that it lasted such a long time and many souls came to know the Lord within those canvas walls.
By 1980 a number of cases of immorality had to be dealt with in our assembly. They included fornication, adultery, sodomy, drunkenness. Also one man was teaching that the Lord could have sinned while on earth. He was never dealt with and he became an elder. He died without renouncing his heresy.
Because of growing strife in the assembly a full time minister, F Cundick, claimed that he had apostolic authority to appoint elders. He selected six from the brethren, including his son-in-law among them. He, and an older man, brought into the assembly through marriage, had never taken an audible part in any meeting. This action caused further strife and hastened the rot that was working through the assembly.
Since 1982 most of my preaching has been in the open-air. My temporary teaching contract was eventually not renewed and I was able to give myself entirely to the work of the gospel once more. At this time I was cast out of the assembly for withstanding the doctrine that the Lord could sin. This was being taught by one of the elders and when I raised the issue the other elders closed ranks against me and cast me out. During the following two years more than 70 of the 90 or so in the meeting left. Some of my friends shunned me because I had apparently opposed 'The Divine Rights of Elders'.
My family stood with me and for several months we were out of fellowship. During this time we were shunned by many of our friends because "Assembly Rules" had to be maintained even though my friends agreed that I had stood for the truth. (I was unable to grasp then that this is a cult characteristic)
Eventually the brethren at Kempston took pity on us and for about 15 months we commuted from home to Kempston. We thought we might move to Kempston but there were no houses that suited us so we stayed put.
Then in April 1985 we heard that the meeting at Buckland Wharf was liable to close. It was slightly nearer to us than Kempston so the brethren at Kempston gave us a letter of commendation that we might go and help the two remaining families at B.W.
In 1986 we had tent meetings in the park near the hall in B W where we had held meetings in 1973. The children's meetings were well attended and a nucleus continued for some years attending the weekly children's meetings in the hall. The following year Bob Eadie joined me for tent meetings in the same place, but again no adults were saved.
From 1987 I concentrated on open air preaching in Luton, Dunstable, Hitchin, Aylesbury, Leighton Buzzard and Tower Hill, London. I tried to be consistent in visiting each place and found several who would be waiting so they could hear the gospel preached.
Because of growing antipathy towards the Authorized Version, I decided to examine its textual background, that I might be better qualified to defend this version. We do not defend Scripture for Scripture defends us. Then in 1993 I began Waymarks a quarterly publication giving vindications of the AV Bible and including reports of personal evangelism .
I was quite dismayed at what came to light during my research. The Brethren Movement was founded by men, some of them scholars of renown, who were deeply hostile to the AV Bible. Men such as Darby, Kelly, Wigram, Tregelles, Newberry, Vine, Bruce, to name a few. Darby’s translation was, and still is by some, held to be superior to all others. But very few read it today. Their criticisms of the traditional text has resulted in a marked declension of faith among us.
Mobility problems now restrict my movements but I am usually able to preach in the open air on two or three days each week, doing so from a mobility scooter.
I was born on a snowy January day in 1936, in a house on the Watling Street, Dunstable. A house which more recently became a French restaurant. I was born again on October 15th 1955 during a gospel meeting in a church hall in Ipswich.
I have an older brother, unconverted, and I had a younger sister who met a tragic death at the age of 37, also unconverted. My parents were unbelievers so I grew up in an ungodly home. My father was a wife-beater and a child molester and a blasphemer with a vile temper so I did my best to stay out of his way. He on one occasion pushed his mother-in-law down the stairs. Despite my father's evil ways our home was more stable than many are today.
My parents were not devoid of religion. When I was 19 months old they had me sprinkled at the parish church so that I might be fit for heaven. I still have the certificate signed by the vicar stating that I was now “A member of Christ; The child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.” A splash of H2O on the face certainly works wonders! On this certificate the words of Keble are recorded;
In every Church a Fountain springs
O’er which the Eternal Dove
Hovers on softest wings.
A few calm words of faith and prayer,
a few bright drops of holy dew
Shall work a wonder there
Earth’s charmers never knew.
O happy ye who, sealed and blest
Back to your arms your treasure take
With Jesus’ mark impressed,
to nurse for Jesus’ sake.
This is what the protestant superstition is all about. It is the National religion of England over which the Queen presides.
At the age of seven I began to attend the local Baptist (Union) Sunday School. My younger sister was being taken by a neighbour and I thought I might be missing out , so I asked my parents if I could go too. My sister got bored after a while, and stopped going but I continued until I was twelve, often going to both morning and afternoon sessions and staying after morning Sunday School to listen to the pastor's preaching. I do not recall hearing a clear gospel preached but many a Scripture text was being sown in my young mind and soul. In those days only the Authorized Version of the Bible was used.
When I was twelve I told my parents I did not wish to go any more. I considered myself too grown up for Sunday School. They were not bothered what I did. There was never any compulsion in it. Indeed from the age of five I was allowed to wander where I would and so I explored the whole neighbourhood, often playing in the extensive woods that then existed nearby. There was little danger in those days.
I passed the "11 plus" and found myself in the A-stream of a four stream Grammar School, where I largely wasted my time, having no interest in academic subjects. At 16 years of age I left. VIth form was considered middle class and I had a very much working class background.
Within a few days of leaving school I was in RAF uniform. This was my escape- an armament engineering apprenticeship in the Air Force. I wanted to fly but my eyesight was not good enough.
Apprentice days were gruelling. The regime was harsh. Reveille every morning at 6:30.a,m, Lights out at 10:15.p.m. Even at the age of 19 we had to be in bed by that time. Three Sundays out of four each month we were marched to church. This experience hardened most of the boys in atheism as we listened to godless chaplains trying to preach morality.
But I listened. I thought there must be a God somewhere. I didn't know where. On our final church parade, as we stood on the parade ground I looked up in to the overcast sky and prayed. "God, I think You are like the clouds, all vague and distant. If you really are there, prove it." I was saved ten weeks later.
Only once had I heard the gospel as an apprentice. This was when a Scripture Reader came into our billet. One young Scotsman -a "hard-nut"- broke down in tears, confessing his sins, but I had not understood a word the preacher was saying, though I had listened intently. My time was yet to be.
Following my graduation I was posted to RAF Wattisham, near Ipswich and on my first Sunday there I thought it would be a pity never to go to church again now that it was no longer compulsory. So I went down to the village church in time for Evensong but could not bring myself to go in. I decided from that moment to abandon all thoughts of religion for ever and made my way back to my billet.
Some weeks later I was sitting on my bed in the billet when a young man came in; a national serviceman. He walked straight up to me and invited me to a youth rally in Ipswich. When I learned that it was a religious rally I declined the offer but as my pal said he would go, I decided to go as well. Later my friend told me he only went to have a laugh, having nothing better to do that night. He didn't get saved, but I did. Christians on the base had hired a coach and then had prayed that they might fill it with servicemen who could be taken to hear the gospel. Their prayers were answered and the coach was full.
It was a gospel meeting, being held at St. George's church and was sponsored by the Keswick Association . There were several hundred people present. The preacher was the Rev. Buckhurst Pinch. As I listened to him I knew that I would not be able to leave that hall the way I had come in. I would have to accept Christ or reject Him. I believed the message that I heard, that Christ the Son of God had died on the cross to save me from my sins though up to that point I had not been the least troubled by my sins. What weighed most heavily upon my heart that night was that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and therefore I must trust Him and subject myself to Him.
There were appeals at the end, and folk were invited to come down to the front. That all seemed so superfluous to me. As I sat there watching people going forward I put my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. A final appeal was made for any who would like to speak to the preacher to come to the back hall. I thought that might be helpful so I then got up and went along with a number of other folk who wanted counselling. But the preacher said he had a train to catch and wouldn't talk to us. Nobody else seemed interested in us so I walked back out to the main hall.
I did know that I was saved. I knew that I had taken an irreversible step. I believed in my very first breath as a believer that something had happened to me that could never be undone. Later I appreciated that the instant I had trusted Christ the Holy Spirit had come in and indwelt me and had begun then to teach me divine truths. I also found out sometime after that the preacher had lifted his sermon out of a book. I had been saved through a secondhand message!
At the back of the hall I got my second blessing. There was a bookstall. I knew I should need a Bible now, so I bought my first Bible. Fortunately there were no modern versions there so I did not have to face that confusion so early in my Christian life. Here was the next greatest blessing after conversion -a Bible of my own.
Only minutes after this I got the third blessing. I had to testify. Another serviceman on the coach travelling back to our base challenged me as to whether I had got saved. I said I had been saved which resulted in my first preaching engagement when we got back to the billet. I, a one hour old believer, found myself having to defend my stand in front of a dozen young men, and I almost totally ignorant of the Scriptures. All I could say was that once I was blind but now I could see.
There was something else I had to do that night and nobody had told me to do it. I read my Bible and knelt by my bed to pray on that very first night. I knew that if I did not make a decisive stand immediately I might never do it. There were many opportunities for witnessing in the Forces and it was a very fruitful field. So many young men were conscripts, away from home and often quite lonely. It was a joy to see many respond to the gospel of God.
There were no prohibitions on evangelization on the various bases where I served, so frequently the billets would be tracted and personal invitations would be given to come and hear the gospel.
I do remember the very first invitation I gave. I entered a billet and saw a young man sitting with his back to the door. He couldn't see me coming! I sat on his bed and asked him if he were a Christian. To my surprise he said he was so I didn't know what to say next, except that he should come to our meeting that night which he did. Afterwards he returned to his billet, knelt by his bed and put his trust in the Saviour.
That was in Germany. That young man went home to Wembley on his next leave and got himself baptized at the local Gospel Hall. At that time I was not baptized so that brought me under conviction as to believer's baptism. On my next leave I returned to the Baptist church that I had attended as a boy and was baptized there. It was like a second conversion.
What a blessing there is in obeying the commands of the Lord Jesus. He said "If ye love me, keep my commandments." How I wished I had responded earlier.
I had become a member of the Baptist church in Luton but being in the Forces I was seldom there. There was not much new life in evidence. Nobody talked about being saved; not even the pastor. He advised me in my Bible-study to avoid Revelation as it was obscure and only caused debate and division among those who studied it. I thought it odd that God would inspire such a book if it caused so much trouble. I was already of the opinion that God had spoken very plainly in the Scriptures and wanted His children to understand His Word. There seemed to be no point having a book that could not be understood.
From Germany I was posted to RAF Leuchars in Fife. There, in June 1959, I began to attend the Baptist Church in St Andrews. It seemed a good church but none of the members spoke to me. I was hundreds of miles from home but none ever invited me to their home. The preaching was 'intellectual', aimed at the few undergraduates in the congregation. I did not feel at home there and it did not really seem like a NT Church. I was told that things that suited 1st C. Christians could hardly be applied today.
Then something happened that completely changed the course of my life. The squadron in which I served was due to go to Cyprus for summer exercises. I wanted a book to read on the plane taking us out so I visited a second hand bookshop in Dundee, where I bought for 6d a book entitled Lectures on the Church of God, by W.Kelly. I understood that Kelly was 'Brethren' and his book gave an exposition of NT Church practices and principles.
By the time we arrived in Nicosia I was 'converted'. I knew I would have to find a place where this teaching was applied. I didn't know anything about 'Brethren' but was told that they meet in Gospel Halls.
When we got back to Fife three months later, I drove into St. Andrews to look for a Gospel Hall. Eventually I found one, in Market Street. I resolved to go to the mid-week meeting first because I was under the impression that one would not be allowed in to the Sunday Morning meeting if one was not a member. I still did not know the difference between open and exclusive brethren. However, on that first Wednesday evening nobody turned up. I rechecked the notice board - Wednesday, 7.30pm Bible Study. I checked my watch, then my diary, but nobody came. So I returned on the next Sunday evening for the Gospel Meeting. A family turned up - a couple with their teenage daughter, then an old man, then an old lady. So there were six of us. Of course they were very excited that a stranger had come into their meeting and when I told them that I would like to become a member they could hardly contain themselves. I was asked, are you saved? - yes. Are you baptized? - yes. You can come and break bread with us next week. I had expected a grilling. I thought they would want to test me. But in less than a week I was a full member of the 'Brethren'. I often thought in later years how unwise was this approach because they didn't know me, and becoming a member there had given me a ticket to all other assemblies.
I was not put off by the smallness of numbers at this Gospel Hall. The family were extremely hospitable to me and I spent many blissful weekends at their home. A few days after I joined the assembly in St. Andrews, my friend; a fellow believer, and colleague on the same squadron ; also joined us and ended up marrying the daughter of the couple.
On the base at Leuchars, we held a weekly SASRA meeting. At first there were just the two of us, but we began to tract the billets and found a few other believers who were added to our numbers. In the two years spent there we had the joy of seeing about twenty servicemen and women saved. I think this irritated the chaplain as our congregation exceeded his and we did not attend his services anyway, being in fellowship in St Andrews.
Later, during our next tour in Cyprus I found that we were unwittingly offending the local Scripture Reader. (These are civilian evangelists who operate under the auspices of SASRA and have access to military bases.) He asked me why he didn't see me at the Garrison Church on Sundays. I told him I was in fellowship with believers meeting in Nicosia, and that during the week some of my off- duty time was spent evangelising servicemen in their billets. I asked him why I never saw him doing this seeing he was paid to do it.
I suppose it was because of my experience with this Scripture Reader and the growing awareness of unavoidable compromise of Christian principles that I began to think about leaving the Forces. I had thought about becoming a Scripture Reader, but they have to work in conjunction with the chaplains, many of whom are exceedingly ungodly men. Also SASRA whilst being evangelical is itself a seriously compromised organisation. Basic doctrines and practices may not be taught where they offend any sectarian members. E.g. Believer's Baptism is taboo in SASRA. The system is class-riddled; no NCO or 'other ranks' being able to serve on the committee and no officer to my knowledge has ever lowered himself to being a common Scripture Reader.
Service life compromises the believer. When I became a Christian I was informed that I could not 'change my religion' without the authority of my chaplain! We ignored that one.
I didn't become fully convicted on 'Thou shalt not kill' until after I had bought myself out.
So the time came in 1961 that I applied for discharge. It would cost me three months wages and I had to have a reason. My reason was that I had been offered a place at Moorlands Bible College. So I left the forces. A rather strange thing happened on the day I left. As I took my uniform off for the last time, I switched my radio on for a news check and found myself listening to a negro spiritual , 'I'm gonna lay down my arms, I'm gonna study war no more.'
When I got home to my parents house I found a Moorlands brochure waiting for me. I looked at it and knew instantly that I would not be going to Moorlands. There was a photo showing three young men naked apart from shorts, with a cart loaded with camping gear, and the caption; 'Going on a Gospel Trek.' I knew that going on a Gospel Trek I would not be. I was still a young man in my twenties, not all that long saved but I considered then that those who engage in the ministry of the Gospel of Christ should do so with a dignity that becomes such a high calling. I wrote to turn the place down. Many years later I was thrown out of an assembly, one of the reasons was because I would not go tracting with some young women who were wearing jeans. Other reasons are given below.
As I had turned down my place at Moorlands only a few days before I was due to go, I was much cast on the Lord as to what I should do instead. We had a visiting preacher, J. Glenville, at our hall in Luton and he invited me to go back with him to the London Docks. In those days they had ships in them. He had a pass to enter the docks and he arranged for me to get a pass so for a few days we walked round the docks giving out tracts and speaking to men where it was possible. We would preach outside the gates at lunchtimes. Then J G had to return to his business so he left me to continue on my own, which I did for the following 18 months. It was largely personal work, tracting and knocking on doors around docklands where most of the dockers lived.
My local assembly decided that as I was fully engaged in Gospel work, they should offer me the right hand of fellowship in this so after a few weeks a meeting was held where the assembly commended me to the grace of God for the work of the Gospel. They had not approved of Bible Colleges anyway, there being no provision for such in the NT.
In 1962 I got married and we thought at first we would be going out to Northern Rhodesia to engage in missionary work. There was political unrest at the time and we were advised to delay. The delay became rather protracted and I ended up going to college, only it was a Teacher Training College and not a Bible College.
We moved to Grimsby to take up my first teaching engagement. I had already resolved to spend the summer holidays having tent meetings. The first series of tent meetings began as soon as I had graduated. My main subject had been music and my tutor had nominated me to take an advanced singing diploma at Cambridge . She was quite put out when I turned it down because I was about to start Gospel meetings.
Those first meetings, in 1972, were at Linslade, Bedfordshire. We were given a very dilapidated tent and a set of 25 chairs and so we started. Children's meetings were well attended. Our own five children attracted others to come along. We also held a gospel meeting each evening but did not see any saved during that first season though we saw a number saved in subsequent years.
Our next tent meetings, the following year, were at Buckland Wharf and here one man professed faith in Christ. We had tracted the whole village but had missed his house as it was hidden by trees. It was the nearest house to the park where we had the tent. He came into the park to exercise his dog, heard us singing, came in, and got saved. Sadly he was never baptized and received into fellowship, being severely hindered by some in the meeting at that time. Some thought he should be instantly received into the meeting, the result was that he actually had the bread presented to him at the morning meeting only to have it snatched away from him by another brother. He never ever went back again.
The most profitable meetings were at Chalfont St. Peter where several were saved and about the same number were baptized at the close of the six weeks of meetings These entered into the local fellowship.
The most difficult tent meetings were held at Flitwick, where the local youth decided to turn the tent into a youth centre. Each evening 30 or 40 youths would be in the tent and each evening at 7.30 I turned the PA system on and began to preach. That usually got rid of most of them but a few would stay to listen. They were very difficult to control and on most nights I was on my own, as no believers were exercised to come and have fellowship with me. One night a young girl walked out of the tent while I was preaching and was seriously assaulted just outside the tent. That meant I also had to cope with CID enquiries during my stay there.
We were on a number of occasions attacked with bricks while at Stopsley and Toddington and the tent was let down at various places. In the end the tent became so damaged that we could no longer use it. We just praise God that it lasted such a long time and many souls came to know the Lord within those canvas walls.
By 1980 a number of cases of immorality had to be dealt with in our assembly. They included fornication, adultery, sodomy, drunkenness. Also one man was teaching that the Lord could have sinned while on earth. He was never dealt with and he became an elder. He died without renouncing his heresy.
Because of growing strife in the assembly a full time minister, F Cundick, claimed that he had apostolic authority to appoint elders. He selected six from the brethren, including his son-in-law among them. He, and an older man, brought into the assembly through marriage, had never taken an audible part in any meeting. This action caused further strife and hastened the rot that was working through the assembly.
Since 1982 most of my preaching has been in the open-air. My temporary teaching contract was eventually not renewed and I was able to give myself entirely to the work of the gospel once more. At this time I was cast out of the assembly for withstanding the doctrine that the Lord could sin. This was being taught by one of the elders and when I raised the issue the other elders closed ranks against me and cast me out. During the following two years more than 70 of the 90 or so in the meeting left. Some of my friends shunned me because I had apparently opposed 'The Divine Rights of Elders'.
My family stood with me and for several months we were out of fellowship. During this time we were shunned by many of our friends because "Assembly Rules" had to be maintained even though my friends agreed that I had stood for the truth. (I was unable to grasp then that this is a cult characteristic)
Eventually the brethren at Kempston took pity on us and for about 15 months we commuted from home to Kempston. We thought we might move to Kempston but there were no houses that suited us so we stayed put.
Then in April 1985 we heard that the meeting at Buckland Wharf was liable to close. It was slightly nearer to us than Kempston so the brethren at Kempston gave us a letter of commendation that we might go and help the two remaining families at B.W.
In 1986 we had tent meetings in the park near the hall in B W where we had held meetings in 1973. The children's meetings were well attended and a nucleus continued for some years attending the weekly children's meetings in the hall. The following year Bob Eadie joined me for tent meetings in the same place, but again no adults were saved.
From 1987 I concentrated on open air preaching in Luton, Dunstable, Hitchin, Aylesbury, Leighton Buzzard and Tower Hill, London. I tried to be consistent in visiting each place and found several who would be waiting so they could hear the gospel preached.
Because of growing antipathy towards the Authorized Version, I decided to examine its textual background, that I might be better qualified to defend this version. We do not defend Scripture for Scripture defends us. Then in 1993 I began Waymarks a quarterly publication giving vindications of the AV Bible and including reports of personal evangelism .
I was quite dismayed at what came to light during my research. The Brethren Movement was founded by men, some of them scholars of renown, who were deeply hostile to the AV Bible. Men such as Darby, Kelly, Wigram, Tregelles, Newberry, Vine, Bruce, to name a few. Darby’s translation was, and still is by some, held to be superior to all others. But very few read it today. Their criticisms of the traditional text has resulted in a marked declension of faith among us.
Mobility problems now restrict my movements but I am usually able to preach in the open air on two or three days each week, doing so from a mobility scooter.
