Dr. Robert Sumner passed away in December 2016. The Biblical Evangelist newspaper is no longer being published and the ministry of Biblical Evangelism has ceased operation.

The remaining inventory of his books and gospel tracts was transferred to The Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles and may be ordered here.

Off the Cuff (Part 1)
Evangelist Robert L. Sumner

Our glorious government has done it again! Every subscriber received his July-August issue with the address label over the start of the main sermon with a sticky label. It couldn’t be removed without tearing up the paper. Our mailer had to put all the labels on by hand because our glorious government gave no advance notice of the new restrictions. Apologies are due, not from us, but from the government. Oh, well, we were promised ‘change,’ weren’t we?

In this issue we are printing messages from the pens of yesterday’s greatest voices. One was Dwight L. Moody’s successor at Moody Church (then called the Chicago Avenue Church) in Chicago, Reuben Archer Torrey. Before that he was the Superintendent of the Moody Bible Institute and later started a sister school on the West Coast, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, known by its acronym, BIOLA. Dr. John R. Rice considered him one of the all-time evangelical/fundamental great scholars and preachers. Not only trained in some of America’s greatest institutions of the day, such as Yale University and the Yale Divinity School, he also studied abroad, notably in Germany at Leipzig under Franz Delitzsch and at Erlangen under F. H. R. Frank and Theodor Zahn. These latter Lutheran schools were among the most prestigious institutions in the world at the time. Our dear friend Dr. Roger Martin of Tennessee Temple Seminary wrote the only biography of him with which we are familiar, R. A. Torrey: Apostle of Certainty.

Not only was he a brilliant intellectual, he was also a powerful evangelist and evangelicals still talk about his ‘round the world’ evangelistic effort with singer/musician Charles Alexander. I wanted a sermon on Hell for this issue and wrote out one of mine to use. But, frankly, Torrey’s is so much better I felt I must use his. This message is not found in the several books of Torrey’s sermons we had in our old library. In fact I don’t even remember the title of the book where I located this one years ago, but if memory serves correctly, it was the only one of his messages in the volume.

Read it and share it, especially with your unconverted friends.

To match the message on Hell is one on Heaven, written by a powerful preacher of the 20^th century, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Len Broughton. Do not be offended by his language regarding blacks; it was the kind they themselves used in that era. We do apologize, however, for his understanding of the separation of the races shared by most every southerner in that day. We left it in because we want you to read how and when he got “the victory” in the matter.

The other past saint we honor with a message this issue made one of the strongest impacts upon evangelical Christianity of any man in the 20^th century, Cyrus Ingerson Scofield. His 1909 publication of The Scofield Reference Bible was a classic – a masterpiece, one I still use – that changed the dispensational thoughts of evangelicals in a marvelous and helpful manner. He was born on August 14, 1843, and died on July 24, 1921, about a year before your editor was born.

Since this is the 100^th anniversary of the publishing of that reference Bible we especially wanted to honor him. This is the second Scofield sermon we’ve published this year. Earlier we received an e-mail from a brother whose elevator evidently doesn’t go all the way to the top – at least on this issue. He recommended wearing black armbands to show disagreement with Scofield on this anniversary.

Black armbands to show disagreement with a man who stood strong and faithful (as did his reference Bible) for the complete inspiration of Scripture, the full deity of Jesus Christ, the redeeming atonement through His blood provided for sinners on the cross, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, the Son of God’s second coming, a literal Heaven and a literal Hell, salvation by grace through faith and other fundamentals of the Faith once delivered? But wear a black armband because someone disagrees with some of his dispensational teaching? After all, God is a dispensationalist. He divided His Word into the Old Dispensation and the New Dispensation.

We live in a strange world, don’t we?

Our longtime friend and fellow evangelist, Tim Lee, gives us, from his own experience of receiving government health care, what we can expect if ‘universal health care’ is passed. It is not a happy story Dr. Lee presents, but it is an accurate one. Pray that it won’t happen here. We have the best health care in the world, barring none, and our ‘experts’ in Washington want to “fix” it.

We are introducing a new writer in this issue, Robert Vanderburgh, a pastor in North Carolina. His parents were faithful workers at the Sword of the Lord when we worked with that organization decades back. In fact, we were in town when Bob and his twin brother Bill were born – setting a new “weight” record for twins born in the Rutherford County hospital at Murfreesboro. We don’t recall the exact weight, but it was over twenty pounds for the duo. Bob has the same passion for souls his folks had. We also have a good message by one of our old writers, Arthur Petrie, on the new birth.

The editor’s front page offering this issue is not a sermon, but it is as important to the life of The Biblical Evangelist as would be any sermon. It is a ‘life or death’ message, in fact. Read it carefully and prayerfully ask the Lord what He would have you do. In one sense you’ll be voting to keep the paper alive or let it die – and keep in mind how rarely we mention finances in this paper.

MEMORIALS

He was born in Jacksonville (Texas – not in the Alabama, Florida, Illinois or North Carolina Jacksonville). We first heard of him in the late 1930s when he was an All-American tackle and a tri-captain on the 1939 national championship team of Texas A&M (his fellow A&M All-American that year was backfield ace “Jarring John” Kimbrough). The team also won the New Year’s Day game at the New Orleans Sugar Bowl (the sixth game in Sugar Bowl history), eking out the Green Wave of Tulane 14-13 and making their record for the year 11-0. He left A&M with a Bachelor of Science Degree and after his call to preach earned a Master of Theology Degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Later he was honored with a Doctor of Divinity.

We are speaking of Joe Boyd, a dynamic evangelist, powerful speaker and gifted soul winner who joined his Lord and Savior in Heaven last June. Joe got saved at age 12. It seems he was trying to fly a kite and couldn’t get it airborne. He doubled his fist and swore toward Heaven. When it dawned on him what he had done it frightened him and brought him under deep conviction of sin. The next Sunday he walked the aisle and gave his heart and soul to Christ. His dad was the pastor.

Alas, he backslid badly at A&M. The year after graduation he and his wife moved to La Marque where he was employed as assistant chief accountant at the Todd Galveston Shipyard. In the providence of God he and his wife Edith moved in next door to Leonard Lee Hopkins, a soul-winning deacon and father of my dear friend, J. E. Hopkins (my pastor when our headquarters was in Mesquite). The families became good friends and the senior Hopkins “was after him like a hound dog after quail” to get him back into church. Joe started attending and it wasn’t long until he surrendered his life afresh to Jesus Christ. We met him first well over a half-century ago when he was a pastor on the east side of Dallas.

As I recall, when I was conducting meetings at the Wildwood Baptist Church in Mesquite, Joe invited me to speak in chapel at the Baptist Evangelistic Schools of Texas, which he headed and whose home was in the church he pastored. B.E.S.T., the acronym for the school, in addition to the preachers’ school, included both grade and high schools.

What a huge man he was. When we were introduced I offered my hand and it totally disappeared in the hand of this giant. He was big, yes, but his heart was bigger. He was as tender as a little child and he often wept profusely over souls. The men in his school, for the most part, were human castoffs who had been converted out of crime and addiction – many in the meetings of Evangelist Freddie Gage, who was a member of the B.E.S.T. board – men not welcome in the established schools, for the most part. Later I spoke at a $100-a-plate fundraiser for the school and eventually he asked me to take the post as the B.E.S.T. executive vice-president, meaning I would be the primary leader of the institution.

At first I agreed, but the closer the time came to take over, the more fearful I became. I had no experience as an educator. My gift was evangelism. Dr. John R. Rice, my mentor and confidant, was in the Pacific Northwest holding meetings, but I got him on the phone and we talked for some time. He assured me I could do it, but did not advise me to take the post (only God could do that he emphasized), but he promised to pray with me. I agonized for several days and then contacted Joe with the news that I felt I would be out of the will of God going to the school, assuring him that if such were the case, I would only damage B.E.S.T., not do it good. He disagreed. Eventually, I came to the place where I felt the only honorable thing to do was resign – so I did, without ever serving a day at the school.

I always held Dr. Boyd in high esteem and, on occasion, when asked for a good evangelist, I offered his name to the pastor inquiring. In one meeting the pastor told me he had considered inviting Joe or me, finally deciding on me. I told him he had made a mistake, that Joe was the better man. Nonetheless that pastor became my dear friend and he is on the board of Biblical Evangelism today.

After he left the church and school in Dallas, he entered the evangelistic field and conducted local, citywide and area-wide crusades both in this country and abroad. For the better part of his latter ministry he made West Union (WV) his home and there, about a third of a century ago, he launched the Mt. Salem Revival Grounds, which is still going strong today.

He went to Heaven on the first day of June at age 92. His wife survives him.

Earth is poorer and Heaven richer once again by the promotion of James Rufus Faulkner in early June at the ripe age of 95. “J. R.,” as everyone called him, was a highly gifted gentleman and one of the smartest things the late Dr. Lee Roberson ever did was to first hire him as a teacher at Tennessee Temple Schools and then make him vice-president. In 1974 he became president. At the time of his promotion to Glory he was serving as president emeritus.

He was also a vital part of the church ministry. Dr. Roberson had invited him to leave the pastorate of the South Rossville Baptist Church a few miles below Chattanooga and become his associate pastor at the Highland Park Baptist Church. There was a discussion among many as to who ended up the most valuable to that mega church, Roberson or Faulkner. The latter would have insisted it was ‘no contest,’ saying Dr. Roberson was the main foundation of both church and school. We think Dr. Roberson might have acknowledged it was “J. R.” But, in fact, both were vital factors in the success.

J. R. could preach. He could sing. He could teach. He could serve as an administrator. He was an artist. He was the enthusiastic and gifted song leader for the church. And he did it all in a spirit of humility that would shame the average preacher or musician of today. Anything Dr. Roberson asked him to do, J. R. did enthusiastically and with attention to detail, giving any job assignment his very best effort.

Frankly, he was one of the finest gentlemen I ever met in all my ministry, traveling incessantly for most of my 65 years of sharing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And yet he treated me – as he did everyone else – as royalty, perhaps basing it on Revelation 1:6 and 5:7.

A North Carolina native, he was saved at age 23 and four years later entered Bob Jones College, then located at Cleveland (TN). There he met and married, in 1943, Magdalene Amstutz, a union that produced five sons, all of whom graduated from TTU and three are in the ministry today. He earned a B.A. degree in Bible in 1946 and BJU later honored him with an L.L.D. Trinity Baptist College (FL) also gave him a D.D.

We end this tribute by a statement coworker Dr. Lee Roberson gave him (quoted by Mildred Eifert, Dr. Faulkner’s secretary at TTU for 42 years): "In the many years of my work, I have found no one to equal Dr. Faulkner in fruitfulness, purity of life, and dedication to the cause of Christ. As a multi-talented man, he performed every task with precision, enthusiasm, zeal, and spiritual power. As a song leader, artist, administrator, preacher or soul winner, he worked with an unquestioned whole-heartedness.” Everyone who knew J. R. would echo a hearty “Amen!” I do.

What you probably didn’t know: he had a motorcycle and loved to ride it!

In addition to his sons and their mates, he is survived by 17 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. Memorial gifts may be sent to church or Camp Joy, using the same address for both.

Mrs. “Matsie” Faulkner preceded J. R. to Glory by less than a year at age 97 and her promotion was mentioned in our first issue of 2009. His memorial service was on Monday, June 15, at the Highland Park Baptist Church.

If the Word of God is true – and it is, every jot and tittle, Jesus said – Heaven really got lit up in mid-July. That is when my dear friend and former associate in the early 1960s at Temple Baptist Church in Portsmouth (OH), Billy Carl Rice (he was Minister of Visitation and took on Minister of Music when we were shorthanded) entered Heaven. After all, doesn’t Daniel 12:3 say, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever”?

After some depart others say, “He/she never met a stranger.” I can say about Billy Carl, “He never met a lost soul he didn’t want to win.” That was his passion after he got saved and he never got over it. If his wife still has Bill’s little black book, I’d like to take a peek inside. (He kept the name, date, and usually the address of each person he led to Christ.) I do know that in just one year when he was on the Temple staff with me in Ohio there were 100 entries. That was just one year and he lived until age 79.

Billy Carl was born a Rice and since he decided the Rices were a great bunch, he located a Rice to court. Naturally, he went to the top and began courting a daughter of the famous evangelist, editor and author, Dr. John R. Rice. Joanna Rice was daughter #5 of Dr. John (all his boys were girls, as he said many times) and they were married after a proper college courtship (they met at Wheaton College during its glory days).

A Kentucky native, after graduating as salutatorian of his local high school, he joined the United States Air Force and served during the Korean War. After his service and graduation from Wheaton, he and Joanna served on the staffs of churches in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and South Carolina. Then he ministered as pastor of Fellowship Baptist in Richmond (VA) and Southgate Baptist in Augusta (GA). Mrs. Sumner was an active member in the latter church. Bill remained busy for the Lord in retirement.

From a large family, both his parents, a brother and four sisters preceeded him in death. Survivors, as well as his wife of 52 years, include two sons, John Robert (known to all as Robb; wife, Nina) and William Carl (wife, Julie); two daughters, Linda Jo Bailey (husband, Jim) and Laurel Ann Moore (husband, R. L.); and 15 grandchildren. Three brothers and a sister also survive, as do a number of beloved in-laws.

His memorial service was held at Grace Baptist in Chattanooga and burial was at the Bill Rice Ranch in Murfreesboro (TN). Memorial gifts may be made to the Joyful Christian Ministries, P. O. Box 90028, Chattanooga, TN 37412.

At about the same time celebrities Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson stepped into eternity – their destinies in the hands of a holy God – Phil Shuler entered Heaven. But even if the former had received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, their welcome would have been like parents applauding a child’s lemonade stand and Phil’s like a batter hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth and winning the World’s Series.

Dr. Shuler came from good stock. His dad was the illustrious Robert P. “Fighting Bob” Shuler, an old-time Methodist who dared stand for truth when other Bible believers (there were a few) in his liberal denomination were figuratively hiding under their beds. One of the first things I did after arriving in the Golden Bear State back in 1945 was go to Los Angeles and look up the Trinity Methodist Church – where he had built the largest church in his denomination and where he ended his noble ministry. I was awed at the thought of his dedication to Christ and His Word.

Phil was made of the same stock. While three of Fighting Bob’s sons entered the ministry and one was far more famous – at least for a time – Phil was the pick of the litter, the most like his famous father. His oldest brother, Bob Jr., entered the liberal Methodist denomination as a pastor; his second brother Jack entered citywide evangelism and had tremendous success in that field for a time (dying at the tender age of 45); Phil also entered evangelism. Saved at 14 under his father’s powerful ministry, he was called to preach under the ministry of his brother Jack.

When World War II broke out he joined the Navy, serving in the Pacific theatre and being involved in nine invasions as part of the naval landing team. After the war he enrolled in Bob Jones College (then in Cleveland, TN, but soon moving to Greenville, SC). While at school, he and the late Evangelist Glen Schunk (another greatly used evangelist) became good friends and they started conducting evangelistic campaigns together, a total of six of them a year in black churches.

In 1948 he married his childhood sweetheart, Marie Lemmon, and upon graduation from BJU in 1950, both he and his wife joined big brother Jack’s team, he as field director and advance man, she as a pianist and organist. After about two years in that saddle the “preaching itch” became too strong to ignore and Phil launched his own evangelistic ministry, both in local church and citywide meetings – and with his own team.

Feeling a burden for the little churches, in 1952 he started the practice of holding a dozen meetings annually in churches with a membership of 50 or less, a gracious gift to ‘little men’ that saw amazing and blessed results. He continued this policy right to the end of his ministry.

Like his famous father, he started out as a Methodist but modernism became so rampant there that in 1957 he joined the independent Baptist fold and remained in that group. In his approximately 50 years of evangelism, he had the joy of seeing tens of thousands come to Christ and literally thousands of youth surrender to full-time service.

Both Phil and Marie were gifted musicians, she serving as the father’s pianist at age 12 and graduating from the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music at 18. Phil wrote over 450 gospel songs and he sang them each night in his crusades, accompanied by Marie. She majored in piano at BJU, graduating with honors. In fact, at the school, she was Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.’s private radio accompanist.

Phil and Marie, who survives him, had two daughters, Debbie and Julie, both of whom married ministers of the Gospel. Born in 1924, Phil was pure in life, sterling in character, absolutely true in doctrine, and faithful to the One who called him to preach. Being in poor health for several years, he went to Glory on June 19 and will be sorely missed by all who knew him. Alas, we are losing our fundamentalist greats and there seem to be few coming along to take their places.

Hardly anyone knew him as “Vernard W,” but a multitude around the world knew and loved him as V. Ben Kendrick. He and I were ‘classmates,’ sorta (he, Class of ’49; me, Class of ’43 – at least we were in the same decade) of what is now the Baptist Bible College and Seminary at Clarks Summit (PA). In 1948 he married Nina Brownell and the preacher that tied the knot did a great job. They were married slightly over 61 years.

Ben really wanted to be a professional baseball player and played semipro for a time, even getting a ‘look see’ by the Saint Louis Cardinals, but his ambitions took a 180º turn after he came to Christ. Hitting home runs seemed tame after the thrill of winning someone to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Upon graduating and marrying, Ben and Nina went to Africa under Baptist Mid-Missions and served in both Chad and the Central African Republic, functioning as Field Administrator in Bangui during his final term. The Dark Continent inspired a number of his eight books, most of which were reviewed on these pages. When he returned to the States he served in the BMM mission office until his retirement.

Retirement didn’t suit him and his last days were filled with camp ministry and finally teacher and administrator at the Indiana Baptist College. In addition to Nina, he is survived by two sons, Peter (wife, Deborah) and Paul; a daughter, Pamela (husband, Jeff) Cook; two grandchildren, seven step-grandchildren; two great-step-grandchildren; and a brother, Homer.

Memorial gifts may be given to the Kendrick Scholarship Fund, Indiana Baptist College, 1301 W. County Line Road, Greenwood, IN 46142.