R. L. Hymers, Jr.

Robert L. Hymers, Jr., is a conservative Baptist pastor noted for his evangelistic sermons and for his emphasis on classical Protestant conversion. He is the founding pastor of the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles. In the 1980s he drew media attention for his demonstrations against abortion and "The Last Temptation of Christ." He is the author of several books on conversion, apologetics and theological subjects.

Biography

Hymers was born in 1941 in Glendale, California. He became a Baptist when he was taken to a church by neighbors at the age of thirteen. He decided to become a minister in 1958, and was licensed to preach in 1960 at the First Southern Baptist Church of Huntington Park, California. Planning to go to the mission field, he joined the First Chinese Baptist Church of Los Angeles in January 1961, where he received his early theological training from its pastor, Dr. Timothy Lin, who came to the Chinese church from Bob Jones University. citebook|title="The Testimony of a Shepherd: A Tribute to Dr. Timothy Lin, Thirty-Three Years with First Chinese Baptist Church"|publisher=First Chinese Baptist Church|date=1994|page=6] On July 3, 1972, he was ordained as a minister by this church.

Hymers graduated from Los Angeles City College in 1968, and from California State University of Los Angeles in 1970. He then attended Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminiary, a Southern Baptist school north of San Francisco, and graduated in 1973 with a Master of Divinity degree (M.Div.). While attending this school, Hymers confronted some of the professors over their rejection of the full authority of the Scriptures. Hymers strongly believed in the complete reliability and inerrancy of the Scriptures.citebook|author=R.L. Hymers, Jr.|title="Battle for the Bible in the 21st Century"|publisher=Hearthstone Publishing, Ltd.|date=2000|pages=35-53] In 1974, he graduated with a Doctor of Religion degree (D.Rel.) from the California Graduate School of Theology. He also attended the San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, California (United Presbyterian), where he earned a Doctor of Ministry degree (D.Min.) in 1981. He received a Doctor of Theology degree (Th.D.) at Louisiana Baptist Theological Seminary in 1989. Louisiana Baptist University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Literature degree (Litt.D.) in 2003.citebook|author=C.L. Cagan, Ph.D., and Robert Hymers, Th.D.|title="From Darwin to Design"|publisher=Whitaker House|date=2006|pages=169]

Hymers is the author of a number of books and the sermon manuscripts that appear on his website. He works alongside Dr. Christopher Cagan, who edits and types the transcripts of his books and sermons and supervises the translation of his sermons into nine languages for Hymers' site. Hymers has been a member of the Baptist Bible Fellowship since 1985. He celebrated the 50th anniversary of his call to ministry in 2008.citebook|title="Hymers Celebrates 50 Years in Ministry"|publisher=Baptist Bible Tribune|date=June 2008|page=39]

Hymers and his wife are the parents of two sons who are both graduates of the California State University at Northridge. Both of them attend their father's church.

Churches

Hymers served in a number of capacities at First Chinese Baptist Church while attending college at night and working full-time for the Division of Corporations of the State of California. Shortly before graduating from seminary, he founded the interdenominational Church of the Open Door in Mill Valley, California in August, 1972 with two of his classmates from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. He later founded an interdenominational church, Maranatha Chapel. In the 1970s this church was renamed The Open Door Community Churches of Los Angeles, with the goal to have a network of 1,000 homes run and occupied by Christians. During this time he emphasized door-to-door and campus evangelism. The church was eventually renamed The Fundamentalist Army, but it disbanded in 1985 amid allegations of infighting and confrontation. Former members of the now-defunct Fundamentalist Army have alleged that Hymers used ethnic slurs and struck them or humiliated them before crowds.citenews|publisher="Los Angeles Times"|date=August 12, 1988|title=Hymers' Fight — He Sees Sin All Around Him|author=Ferrell, David|page=3|section=Home Edition]

Shortly thereafter, a group of people from that church joined with Hymers to form the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles, officially named for the church John R. Rice had founded in Dallas, Texas in the 1930s. The name of the church is often shortened to the Baptist Tabernacle. Dr. James O. Combs, editor of the "Baptist Bible Tribune", wrote the constitution for the new church and spoke at the inauguration service.

Theological Views

Hymers is a moderate Reformed, evangelistic Baptist pastor and a proponent of classical Christ-centered evangelistic preaching. Like C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), he believes that every sermon should point sinners to Christ the Savior. He considers himself to be an “old school” evangelistic preacher in the Puritan tradition.citebook|author=Iain H. Murray| title="The Old Evangelicalism: Old Truths for a New Awakening"|publisher=The Banner of Truth Trust|date=2005|pages=3-18] His beliefs about conversion were modified by reading Richard Baxter (1615-1691).citebook|author=R.L. Hymers, Jr.|title="A Puritan Speaks to Our Dying Nation"|publisher=Hearthstone Publishing, Ltd.|date=2002|pages=10-11, 15-17]

Hymers has taken a stand against what some call “King James Onlyism,” but he prefers to call “Ruckmanism,” after a proponent of this movement, Dr. Peter S. Ruckman. Ruckman claims that the King James Version Bible is given by inspiration of God and is perfect, and even corrects the Greek text from which it was translated. Hymers has taken a mediatorial position on the KJV question by writing that, though the King James is not perfect or given by inspiration in English, it is the only reliable Bible because it is the only one taken solely from the best texts, the Textus Receptus Greek text of the New Testament, and the Masoretic Hebrew text of the Old Testament. citebook|author=R.L. Hymers, Jr.|title="Ruckmanism Exposed"|publisher=self-published|date=1998]

Hymers has written extensively against the “Decisionism” that has risen since the time of Charles G. Finney, a nineteenth-century evangelist who disavowed the central teachings of the Reformation and made salvation hinge upon the will of the sinner, rather than the grace of God in Christ.citebook|author="Murray, Iain H.|title="Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism 1750-1858"|publisher=The Banner of Truth Trust|date=1994|pages=357-388] citebook|author=R.L. Hymers, Jr. and C.L. Cagan|title="Today’s Apostasy: How Decisionism is Destroying Our Churches"|publisher=Hearthstone Publishing, Ltd.|edition=second|date=April 2001] Soul-winning and evangelism have always been at the heart of Hymers’ ministry.

Demonstrations

Hymers became deeply concerned about the milllions of abortions in America when he spoke with Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer, a leading theologian, on January 20, 1981 in Dr. Schaeffer's living room, as they watched Ronald Reagan's inauguration and discussed abortion. citebook|author=R.L. Hymers, Jr.|title="Battle for the Bible in the 21st Century"|publisher=Hearthstone Publishing, Ltd.|date=2000|pages=76-77] Schaeffer blamed this on the Supreme Court's 1973 "Roe v. Wade" decision, and on June 1, 1986, Hymers called on his parishioners to pray for God to remove Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan from his seat on the court by death. On the same day, his church, the Baptist Tabernacle, chartered a plane that trailed a banner reading "Pray for Death: Baby killer Brennan." citebook|title="Religious Violence and Abortion: The Gideon Project"|author=Blanchard, Dallas A.|coauthors=Prewitt, Terry James|publisher=University Press of Florida|date=1993|location=Florida|isbn=9780813011936|pages=258] This resulted in the "Los Angeles Times" referring to him as a "Death-Prayer Pastor."citenews|publisher="Los Angeles Times"|date=June 18, 1986|title=Death-Prayer Pastor Hails Burger Move|page=19] Hymers later stated that he regretted this prayer and demonstration. However, he maintains a strong commitment to the pro-life movement, and continues to write against abortion, which he compares to Hitler's Holocaust.

Hymers read the "The Last Temptation of Christ," the book upon which the controversial movie was based, and felt that the film would be an attack on orthodox Christian belief concerning Christ. Hymers led two demonstrations against the movie: The first included about 200 of his followers, and occurred at Universal Studios; it featured a small plane overhead that carried a banner proclaiming, "Wasserman Fans Jew-Hatred W/Temptation."citenews|title=2 Step Back From Film Protest Over Anti-Jewish Tone|author=Dart, John|publisher="Los Angeles Times"|date=July 23rd, 1988|pages=1] The second protest occurred in front of the home of Lew Wasserman, the head of Universal, and featured a passion play in which a blood-soaked Jesus knelt down under the weight of a large cross; another actor played “Wasserman,” and stepped on him repeatedly, holding the Christ-figure down with his foot. Meanwhile, another plane appeared overhead, trailing the same banner about Wasserman, while the crowd chanted about the film being “bankrolled by Jewish money.” Hymers told the Los Angeles Herald Examiner that the "chant" was spontaneous, started by someone else and unplanned. citenews|publisher="Los Angeles Herald Examiner"|date=Monday, August 15, 1988|page=A6|title=Yielding to 'Temptation' as Furor Fizzles] citejournal|title=In the Name of Jesus — Filmmaker Martin Scorsese's Daring Vision of a Tempted and Vulnerable Christ Enrages Conservative Christians|author=Grogan, David; Lustig, David; Marlow, David|date=August 8, 1988|publisher="People" magazine|volume=30|issue=6|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20099624,00.html] citejournal|title=A Holy Furor|author=Leo, John|publisher="Time" magazine|date=August 15, 1988|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,968114-1,00.html]

These demonstrations caused an outcry from the Jewish community; several evangelicals and other members of the Christian clergy called Hymers an "anti-Semite." citenews|publisher="Los Angeles Herald Examiner"|date=Monday, August 15, 1988|page=A6|title=Yielding to 'Temptation' as Furor Fizzles] Jonathan Rauch later referred to Hymers as a "religious zealot" for saying "I think the movie is filthy! I think it is ugly! I think it is going to bring God's fiery judgment upon America."citebook|author=Jonathan Rauch|title="Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought"|publisher=University of Chicago Press|date=1993|page=94] Irv Rubin, who was at the time the national chairman of the Jewish Defense League, maintained that he “sympathized” with the concerns of evangelicals, "but Hymers wants to make a Jew-hating thing out of it." One of Hymers' ministers at Open Door Community Churches, a former member of Hymers' Board of Elders while a seminary student--who left ODCC in 1981--recalls Hymers using the word "kike" "many times." The entire episode led to a break between Hymers and Moishe Rosen of Jews for Jesus, who had actually performed Hymers' wedding ceremony.

Following these events, Hymers apologized to the Jewish community. Unfortunately, one of his attempts to build bridges ended with Irv Rubin stalking out of Hymers' church, and Rubin and Hymers each referring to the other as “crazy."citenews|title=Effort to End Disagreement over ‘Temptation’ Ends in Rancor|author=Hernandez, Marita|publisher="Los Angeles Times"|pages=6|date=July 25, 1988]

Before and since this incident, Hymers has repeatedly said that he takes the side of the Jews and the state of Israel. He claims he is not anti-Semitic.citebook|author=R.L. Hymers, Jr.|title="Buchanan’s Bad Book: A Review of ‘Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War’ by Patrick J. Buchanan"|date=July 19, 2008] He maintains that he takes the "Scofield Study Bible"’s view that the “Abrahamic Covenant” grants favor to the Jews and, thus, to the state of Israel.citebook|author=R.L. Hymers, Jr.|date=2004|title="The Passion of Christ"|publisher=Hearthstone Publishing, Ltd.|pages=27-30] Hymers also claims that he has never used anti-Jewish slurs in his life. He has given his pro-Jewish and pro-Israel view in his books, "Holocaust II" (1978)).citebook|author=R.L. Hymers, Jr.|date=1978|title="Holocaust II"|publisher=Bible Voice] and "The Passion of Christ" (2004).citebook|author=R.L. Hymers, Jr.|date=2004|title="The Passion of Christ"|publisher=Hearthstone Publishing, Ltd.] , and articles such as "Why President Nixon Was Wrong About Israel" (2002)citebook|author=R.L. Hymers, Jr.|title="Why President Nixon Was Wrong About Israel"|date=February 17, 2002] and "Buchanan's Bad Book: A Review of 'Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War' by Patrick J. Buchanan" (2008).citebook|author=R.L. Hymers, Jr.|title="Buchanan’s Bad Book: A Review of ‘Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War’ by Patrick J. Buchanan"|date=July 19, 2008]

In 1992, the "Jerusalem Post" reported that Hymers had apologized for the mistakes he made during the demonstration against "The Last Temptation of Christ." Hymers said, "I made a terrible mistake. What I did was wrong and I apologize for it." Hymers had become a member of "The Committee of Concerned Christians," a group that sought to bring better relations between Christians and Jews. The leader of the organization, Ben Friedman, said, "Hymers has become my right hand man."citenews|title="Preaching on anti-Semitism's Evil"|publisher="Jerusalem Post"|date=March 24, 1992] That same year Hymers, along with 200 Christian clergy, pledged to give at least one sermon a year in support of Israel and the Jews, and against the Holocaust. Hymers said, "We have a moral obligation to make sure it never happens again."citenews|title="200 Christian Ministers Vow to Sermonize Against Anti-Semitism"|publisher="Los Angeles Times"|date=February 23, 1992]

Publications

References

External links

* [http://www.realconversion.com Official Website] (Warning: sound-enabled.)