Robert Sumner is Dead

[TidesofTruth]

Dr. Robert Leslie Sumner, 94, of Lynchburg, Virginia went to his heavenly home on December 5, 2016. He was born to the late Clarence and Gladys Sumner on August 3, 1922 in Norwich, NY. He accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior at LeTorneau Christian Camp at Canandaigua, NY at age 17. Almost immediately, he felt the call to preach and enrolled in Baptist Bible Seminary in Johnson City, NY where he graduated in 1943. He married the former Orphina Mingori on August 16, 1942.

He was an ordained Baptist minister and evangelist. His first pastorate was in Pontiac, IL. He later served pastorates in Long Beach, CA, Graham, TX, and Portsmouth, OH. In 1955, Dr. John R. Rice, a nationally known evangelist and editor of the Sword of the Lord newspaper invited Dr. Sumner to become Associate Editor and a staff evangelist. Later, Dr. Sumner would write the biography, Man Sent From God, about the life of this good friend and mentor. For years, Dr. Sumner wrote a column for The Sword called Sumner's Incidents and Illustrations which he later continued in his own paper after Dr. Rice's death. Dr. Sumner has preached in all of the 50 states, Canada, the Philippines, Mexico, and Brazil. He always gave an invitation for people to accept Christ whenever he preached. He signed his correspondence, "Sincerely for souls." His messages were saturated with Scripture and he read the entire Bible through four times each year since 1946. He read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month, and read the entire Bible through hundreds of times.

http://www.biblicalevangelist.org/index.php?id=1688&issue=Dr.+Robert+L.+Sumner+obituary

 

[Vince Massi]

I realize there is controversy, but:

Saved in 1969, I was reading the Sword in 1970. Dr. Sumner's "Incidents and Illustrations" were a fascinating way to present a strong fundamentalist viewpoint of life. But even then, I could see that Sumner was an angry man. That anger got him into trouble with Christians leaders later on.

 

[RAIDER]

Did not know Sumner.  The "story" that I have heard is that he was going to be  Dr. Rice's "self proclaimed" replacement when Rice passed.  Curtis Hutson was chosen and approved by the SOL board instead of Sumner.  Dr. Hyles happened to be a key member of the board.  This greatly affected Sumner's feelings toward Hyles.

 

[Still There]

Wasn't he the guy who tried to put Bro. Hyles to shame and it backfired on him?

 

[Tarheel Baptist]

Wasn't he the guy who tried to put Bro. Hyles to shame and it backfired on him?

http://www.biblicalevangelist.org/jack_hyles_chapter3.php

 

[Sherryh]

praying for his family

 

[bgwilkinson]

Wasn't he the guy who tried to put Bro. Hyles to shame and it backfired on him?

I do not believe he took any pleasure in writing this.

http://www.biblicalevangelist.org/jack_hyles_story.php

I say that because the most explosive and damaging material from the divorce transcripts were withheld.

They give compelling testimony to the veracity of VNs allegations and were by Bro. Hyles himself in his own words, they were testimony against his own  interests.

If you want a balanced carefully researched account of the whole affair from an outside source, this is it.

I personally did not like VN and was quite biased against him, at the time.

Now in hindsight things look totally different than they did in the heat of the battles that seemed to go on and on year after year.

 

[ALAYMAN]

Dr. Robert Leslie Sumner, 94, of Lynchburg, Virginia went to his heavenly home on December 5, 2016....

He was an ordained Baptist minister and evangelist. His first pastorate was in Pontiac, IL. He later served pastorates in Long Beach, CA, Graham, TX, and Portsmouth, OH.

I didn't know he pastored in my hometown (way before my time) of Portsmouth Ohio.  I know at one time this small-town area was sort of a hotbead for Hyles-style fundamental Baptist churches, including appearances by Hyles and Lakin at various churches.  Does anybody happen to know what church Sumner pastored in Portsmouth?

 

[Mr. White]

Dr. Robert Leslie Sumner, 94, of Lynchburg, Virginia went to his heavenly home on December 5, 2016....

He was an ordained Baptist minister and evangelist. His first pastorate was in Pontiac, IL. He later served pastorates in Long Beach, CA, Graham, TX, and Portsmouth, OH.

I didn't know he pastored in my hometown (way before my time) of Portsmouth Ohio.  I know at one time this small-town area was sort of a hotbead for Hyles-style fundamental Baptist churches, including appearances by Hyles and Lakin at various churches.  Does anybody happen to know what church Sumner pastored in Portsmouth?

Temple Baptist

 

[ALAYMAN]

Temple Baptist

Thank you. 

I just heard Temple's pastor preach for the first time at one of our pastor's fellowships a couple of weeks ago.  That's an interesting connection to Sumner. 

Are you from around the Portsmouth area?

 

[Walt]

Wasn't he the guy who tried to put Bro. Hyles to shame and it backfired on him?

During the height of Dr Hyles' popularity, he wrote an article exposing much of what was going on behind the scenes at FBCH, and accusing Dr Hyles of adultery, based upon the testimony of others.

Hyles' ministry never recovered from this kind of mega-bomb.  It divided much of fundamentalism.

Much of what he discussed was already known and talked about between preachers, but no one had the courage to bring it out in public.  Holiness required that it should have been publicly rebuked; in my book, Dr Sumner was incredibly courageous.

Dr Sumner received all kinds of hate mail and phone threats from Hyles' followers after the article was out.

So, I don't know if call rebuking a ministry leader "trying to put Bro Hyles to shame", nor if by "backfired" you mean all of the hate mail and vicious attacks that were made upon him.

 

[Walt]

I realize there is controversy, but:

Saved in 1969, I was reading the Sword in 1970. Dr. Sumner's "Incidents and Illustrations" were a fascinating way to present a strong fundamentalist viewpoint of life. But even then, I could see that Sumner was an angry man. That anger got him into trouble with Christians leaders later on.

Interesting take - but the "Incidents and Illustrations" may have given a misleading viewpoint of the man.

 

[Walt]

Did not know Sumner.  The "story" that I have heard is that he was going to be  Dr. Rice's "self proclaimed" replacement when Rice passed.  Curtis Hutson was chosen and approved by the SOL board instead of Sumner.  Dr. Hyles happened to be a key member of the board.  This greatly affected Sumner's feelings toward Hyles.

I never met him personally, but chatted with him via email at one time.

Certainly it is true that there was controversy about Curtis Hutson - Dr Sumner says that he had left the Sword of the Lord, but the work of running his paper, conducting evangelical campaigns, and fund-raising was too much for him, so he shut down his paper and returned to the Sword of the Lord at Dr Rice's request; at that time, Curtis Hutson was already picked to become the editor when Dr Rice was gone, and Dr Sumner had Dr Hutson's blessing as well.  It wasn't until a couple of years after Dr Rice's death that many people working for the Sword had concerns about Dr Hutson and notified Dr Sumner.  This was the famous / infamous meeting mediated by Dr Hyles.  Dr Sumner claims that Dr Hyles never even heard their issues; he just decided to support Dr Hutson, so Dr Sumner and others left.

Hyles' take on this is more like what Raider said -- that this was some kind of "grudge" that Dr Sumner had against Curtis Hutson.

I tend to believe Dr Sumner's account, just because he doesn't accuse either Dr Hutson or Dr Hyles of petty things, as (Hyles does Sumner).  He just states fairly that there was a difference of opinion about ethics; Dr Hutson had no problem with some things that others (including Dr Sumner) thought were dishonest.

 

[Phooey-dini]

Wasn't he the guy who tried to put Bro. Hyles to shame and it backfired on him?

Can you enlighten us as to how it backfired?

I seem to recall Hyles stating that Sumner went blind (presumably because he "attacked God's man"), and I'm fairly certain this never was the case but was just good fundamentalist sermon fodder.


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[bgwilkinson]

Wasn't he the guy who tried to put Bro. Hyles to shame and it backfired on him?

Can you enlighten us as to how it backfired?

I seem to recall Hyles stating that Sumner went blind (presumably because he "attacked God's man"), and I'm fairly certain this never was the case but was just good fundamentalist sermon fodder.


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I also would like to know how it backfired as I was there the whole time and never was aware of anything that reflected badly on Bob Sumner.
Sumner outlived Hyles by about 20 years.

 

[Twisted]

Wasn't he the guy who tried to put Bro. Hyles to shame and it backfired on him?

Can you enlighten us as to how it backfired?

I seem to recall Hyles stating that Sumner went blind (presumably because he "attacked God's man"), and I'm fairly certain this never was the case but was just good fundamentalist sermon fodder.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I also would like to know how it backfired as I was there the whole time and never was aware of anything that reflected badly on Bob Sumner.
Sumner outlived Hyles by about 20 years.

If it backfired on anyone, it was on Hyles.

 

[Walt]

Wasn't he the guy who tried to put Bro. Hyles to shame and it backfired on him?

Can you enlighten us as to how it backfired?

I seem to recall Hyles stating that Sumner went blind (presumably because he "attacked God's man"), and I'm fairly certain this never was the case but was just good fundamentalist sermon fodder.

I heard this tale, and, as tall tales often are, it was a gross exaggeration.  Dr Sumner had cataracts, which are typical in many older people.  This was twisted to "struck blind"... *sigh*