Aloha brother Winman,
You may be surprised by what I am going to say - but I do not know Sam Gipp and have never read any of his books. I do know that he came to the Island of Kauai and preached a couple of times and I didn't go to hear him because the church that brought him over is a totalitarian dictatorship (which doesn't speak well about WHO brother Gipp chooses to associate with.)
My whole point in this "
donnybrook" is I really don't care WHERE a man has gone to "SCHOOL" or whether he has a "DEGREE" or not!
Peter James, John, and many of the other Apostles NEVER went to SCHOOL and the Lord Jesus Christ "picked" them (I
suspect that one of the reasons for choosing them was the fact that they HADN'T GONE TO SCHOOL and in turn had never been "
brain-washed" by a bunch of Pharisaical Apostate "Professors"), and you know what? They did just fine!
Apollos was "mighty in the scriptures" and yet had to be "straightened-out" by a couple of ordinary Christians who sewed tents (Priscilla & Aquila). And the Apostle Paul (who had learned from the top "PhD" of his time {Gamaliel} counted his "DEGREES" as "DUNG"! I refuse to "
translate" THAT in the "vernacular" so that all those with "
degrees" in the Greek & Hebrew can understand it!
)
The fact is, many of these people with "
degrees", or those people who place "significance" in a man with a "
degree", are "
puffed-up"
intellectual elitists, who look down their noses upon all of the "
unwashed masses" (you & me) as a bunch of "
ignoramuses".
I've had my "fill" of them for over 40 years, and I refuse to be "
cowed" by them or "
impressed" with them!
They are nothing but a bunch of Bible denying
apostates living off of ignorant Christians who "
think" that because they (the Bible deniers) have a "
degree" - THEY MUST KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT!
Genuine Bible believers must not "give place" to these people - "NO, NOT FOR AN HOUR" [
Galatians 2:5] If we fail to confront them and "contend for the faith" - we will be failing in our responsibility to
WARN the brethren and our DUTY to "admonish", "reprove", or "rebuke" the "GAINSAYERS"!
When dealing with "
gainsayers" & "
apostates" we are not required to be polite and "sweet". These people are out to spread their
perverse "
LEAVEN" and they have
no principles! They will not hesitate to "
join" with us and through
guile and
subtlety they will try to
undermine our faith in God's Holy word. I for one, refuse to stand by and do nothing about that.
We are in a WAR brother, and church history has demonstrated over and over again that the enemy that we must beware of is
WITHIN our ranks! The Apostle Paul WARNED us about this [
Acts 20:17-32] and every church that ever was in existence from the Apostle's time up to the early 1900's has IGNORED that WARNING and has fallen into APOSTASY! There have been NO EXCEPTIONS!
I will not cease to WARN the brethren - whether they like me or not; whether think that I am out of order or not; and whether they believe that I am just a crotchety old man or not! Now is not the time to let down our guard:
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.