“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.” So when I came across this video, with a Venn diagram and graphics… it’s rather impressive, but taken out of context, it could be a madman.
I didn’t watch this video–nor do I intend to–but the freeze shot of him with this completed white board just amuses me. The gentlemen in question is Robert R. Breaker III, a “missionary evangelist to Spanish-speaking people.” Anyway, he has a YouTube channel, and this is his lecture on The Spirit World vs. The Physical World.
I know enough Protestant Christian theology to know what he’s talking about, but it’s easy to imagine what it looks like if I didn’t. After all, Adam goes from having a purple body to a red body, “washed in His blood!” My favorite is near the bottom: “Empty Spirit. 2/3 = .666,” because nothing turns me off more than gematria, or making points by connecting two unrelated objects through math.
Now Robert is a true believer–he also follows a very specific form of Christianity–so much so that he’s not just an Independent Baptist, he is a non-denominational independent Baptist, which means he’s not following along with anyone else’s organized church. The only true Bible is the King James Version. Sola Scriptura. Sola Fidei. Sola Christus. On his website, he’s got his own testimony, his wife’s testimony, and his father’s testimony. Well… how could you not be convinced?
Bob and his wife Laura look like they’ve got a great family. They live in Florida, he runs his own church, and he continues his mission. And there are plenty of Spanish-speaking peoples in Florida. However, there’s my problem with Pastor Bob. This gets to something I heard as a kid growing up in the 80’s; the idea that Catholics are NOT Christians. Considering one of my best friends was Catholic at the time, I found this very disturbing. It’s a level of hubris to say, “Your brand of Christianity is not good enough.” It’s another to say, “You’re dammed if you follow Christ that way.”
I understand if a denomination splits over practice. The Trefa Banquet (1883) caused the split between Reform and Conservative Jews in America because some thought having clams and shrimp at a rabbinical school graduation party was not just stupid, it was a serious lack of foresight. The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) split from the mainline UPCUSA in the 70’s because they got tired of the denomination closing low-performing churches (and going way more liberal). The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints (now called Community of Christ) broke away because they believed a) that Joseph Smith, Jr was the true leader and b) they didn’t feel like schlepping off to Utah with the rest of the Mormons.
The stricter the dogma, though, the smaller your church. There’s an Orthodox Presbyterian Church that makes the PCA’s fundamentalism look weak and liberal. Old Order Amish look down on Amish with cell phones and tractors. And Pastor Bob has a such a narrow view of Christianity that he has to save people who’ve already been saved. I believe he does it out of love, and I’m sure after years being frustrated walking through Honduras, he’s found a niche where he can still accomplish his mission while performing the additional challenges of being a husband and father. Him, I don’t find offensive, just his message.
What do you think? Can you separate the message from the man? Have you ever read the King James Version and found it confusing, instead of enlightening? Do you think that me and Pastor Bob having the same hairstyle is a problem? Let me know in the comments below!
Albigensia Press 
Don’t know if you were trying to, but I was splitting a gut from laughter. The hairstyle thing put it over the top. Thanks for sharing. Brilliant piece!
Keen to see his browser history…
Interesting read, to say the least. To answer your question at the end, yes there are times that I can separate the message from the messenger. This guy though… Right off the bat I notice a major flaw in his ideology via the white board (Thank you Glenn Beck for making those trendy with ranting people). Anyway, going by the board, one of his basic premises SEEMS to be that the material world is inherently corrupt. Physical body bad, spiritual body bad, etc… Doesn’t that fly in the face of the idea that God wouldn’t or outright couldn’t create anything corrupt? Even if he were to argue it was corrupted later by original sin or whatever, God is going to use a corrupt footstool (Acts 7:19)??
I could go on and on here, but I’ll only hit on one more specific; The King James version is just as flawed as any other version of the Bible out there. Look at Exodus 22:18 – Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. I’ve heard from a few different sources that verse was poorly translated and “witch” could have also been interpreted as whore. I suppose either is plausible given that a young society would see both as a threat to the existing social structure. ANYWAY (got off track), it takes very little research to find out how biased the translation work was for the KJV.
The thing that really irks me the most about people like this is they get held up by atheists and people who hate the idea of morals in general as shining examples of what Christianity is
I cannot separate the message from the man. With something as life-defining as religion (no matter what religion) people tend to cling to it more than the real world. Unfortunately, I’ve found religion trumps everything with believers. So they’re honestly supporting and actively furthering their gods’ plans, whatever they may be.