Welcome Blog
My name is Charles (Charlie) Parker. I am a 74 year old “retired” pastor and Bible college teacher/Seminary professor. I am also the husband of one wife, Bonnie. Next year, if it pleases the Lord, we will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. We have six adult children and twenty-one grandchildren. We homeschooled our children all the way through high school. We currently live in Virginia.
Very shortly after I was redeemed (in the spring of 1976) I was led by the Lord to get into serious Bible study, primarily under the teaching ministry of Frank Sells here in Virginia. He had taught at Columbia Bible College in South Carolina for many years prior to being led of the Lord to depart from that school in the mid-sixties due to the encroachment of serious error into the curriculum. His Bible-teaching ministry was unlike anything I had encountered under our pastor then, and would continue to sustain the same quality during the next three and a half years he was in the area teaching. He taught me that the true focus of all of Scripture is coming to know and submit to Christ as He is revealed in the whole Bible.
In the summer of 1980 Mr. Sells was led of the Lord to return to South Carolina. But during the time he taught here in Virginia, I was privileged to study twenty-eight books of the Bible under him. Among these Bible book studies were the foundational books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Isaiah, Daniel, John, Acts, Romans, Hebrews and Revelation. This in depth Bible study over a period of three and a half years radically changed my life and Bonnie’s life.
When Mr. Sells left the area in 1980 I became aware of a deep burden to commit my life to Bible study and teaching. I was deeply aware that not just Christians in general, but especially the believing remnant, were literally not being adequately fed upon God’s Word in their churches. As a result, the quality of serious Christian commitment to the fullness of the truth was already lacking, and “Christianity” was bland and powerless from the conservative end of the spectrum all the way through the liberal end of the spectrum.
Fast forward to 2022. Bible study in the churches today cannot be likened to the serious Bible study that had been far more prevalent in the churches generations ago. So much of what is called Bible study today is topical, valuing so-called “relevance” and quick results over long term in depth study. Like everything else in the culture of “modern” nations, Bible study has become more a means to an end than a commitment to truth. Other meaningful pursuits have set aside serious Bible study in the churches: prayer, missions, youth work, “soul-winning,” etc. As Mr. Sells taught years ago, when something “good” moves to the center, that “good” thing becomes a substitute for Christ Himself.
Christians have learned to substitute something “good” for the full truth about Christ in the entirety of the Bible right in the churches. Because of this, they find it more and more difficult to discern truth in all of life. But, as we say, “all truth is God’s truth.” Our hope is to at least “move the needle” of the discernment of truth among God’s believing remnant.
It seems that many restrain Truth because of the shame it brings to the old man. The false prophets in Micah’s day rebuked him for his message of judgment, which brought shame to their constituents. The false prophets presumed upon the Chesed love and mercy of Jehovahs covenant with His people.
Micah 2:6 Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy:
They shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame.
Many pastors and churches selectively pick and choose Truth that will not bring shame to their assemblies and confront the old nature that must be cast off in sanctification, but tickle the ears by providing a one-dimensional view of Christs love and mercy.
Come to find…