Empire of Error - Episode 1 - Can A Man Be Infallible?

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:28]A lot of the people that were there weren't I don't know didn't have enough secular insight you know not to become uh what's the word cult members without wanting to be you know it's like he was the he was the man he was the he was the leader and it was in other words it was very easy to come under that spell it really was I was right there and I didn't think he did I thought he did no wrong you know but when I had to realize that, you know, I could walk away from it when I thought I needed it versus everybody else would just, you know, crash and burn because they were they were under a spell.

[00:01:14]>> Well, thank you for watching today's video today. I am your friend Spencer here. Please take a moment to go ahead and smite your like button and subscribe to this channel if you are new. Today's episode is episode one when we where we're going to ask the question, are men infallible? Are men infallible? Now, for those of you who watch this channel, we study uh end times apostasy, false teachers, def uh deception, and end times cult and things cults and things like that. Now, in this series, I'm going to give you some some facts, some things that happened that were um just terrible, dreadful things. Some of this can be kind of heavy. Um, but I I want to tell you that I've read a lot of criminology reports. I've let I've done a lot of studies on psychopaths, sociopaths, serial killers, uh, all kinds of cults and things like that.

[00:02:02]They all have patterns. Um, and in this episode, I want to give you one of the markers of a cult, and that is that the leader is infallible. Listen to me, please. If you're part of an organization, whether it be a church or whether it be a club or whether it be I mean just some anything where the leader is absolutely the authority in all matters of faith and practice. He is 100% right all the time. He never gets it wrong. Then you are in a cult. And I want to read my script to you and just give you some commentary along the way and we will discuss this topic together.

[00:02:41]Stick with me to the very end please.

[00:02:42]That would be a great thing. A a hallmark a hard marker of a cult is the claim whether stated outright or functionally enforced that the leader cannot be wrong. And this does not always stand uh come out in him saying basically I am infallible. He doesn't come out and say that but it shows up in how the group treats his words and even his judgments. His interpretations become final, his decisions unquestionable, and any disagreement is framed as rebellion or spiritual failure. Scripture is filtered through him rather than being test rather than him being tested by scripture. So the final authority is really not what the Bible says, it's what he says the Bible says, which is an entirely different thing. We find the exact opposite in Acts 17:1 where believers search the scripture daily to verify what they were taught by the Apostle Paul. They were called the Bereans and the Bible calls them more noble. When a man becomes the standard of truth instead of the word of God, you no longer have a healthy church. You have a system built around a personality. History has demonstrated this clearly multiple times. Jim Jones demanded absolute loyalty and eventually convinced his followers to follow him into mass death. They drank the Kool-Aid because Jim Jones, the man of God, said you had to drink it. David Caresh claimed unique authority to interpret scripture and his followers accepted it without question. He even asked them if they would die for him and they all said, "Yes, we would gladly die for you."

[00:04:17]In both cases, the root issue was not just bad doctrine, but unquestionable authority vested in a man. This same pattern appears in a more subtle religious settings where uh the language is softer, but the structure is the same. Son Mong Moon taught that he had a special messianic role placing his authority above correction. Joseph Smith, the leader and founder of the Latter-day Saint Church, the false end times cult, introduced a new revelation that his followers were expected to receive as binding truth regardless of contradiction.

[00:04:49]Once a leader is treated as the final authority, correction disappears, accountability dies, and error multiplies.

[00:04:57]That is why the Bible repeatedly warns against trusting man and commands believers to quote prove all things. As it says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 21, a godly leader points people to Christ and invites examination by scripture. A cult leader replaces that process and whether openly or quietly positions himself as the voice that cannot be questioned. The Bible is relentless in showing that no man is infallible. No matter how gifted, used or influential he may be. The Bible says even in Romans chapter 3:4, uh, "Let God be true and every man a liar." That is not exaggeration. That is a doctrinal hardline boundary. Scripture consistently exposes the failures of even the greatest leaders. Moses, though chosen to lead Israel, lost his temper, struck the rock, costing him entrance into the promised land. David, a man after God's own heart, fell into adultery and murder. Peter denied Christ and later had to be publicly corrected.

[00:05:56]These are not minor figures. These are men who are pillars of the Bible, high points, if you will. Yet the Bible records their failures in detail to make one thing unmistakably clear.

[00:06:09]Greatness in use does not equal perfection in nature.

[00:06:15]Because of this, scripture commands believers to never place absolute trust in men. Never do that. Never. Never have absolute 100% trust in any man, not even me.

[00:06:26]Jeremiah 17:5 says, "Cursed be the man that trustth in man and maketh flesh his arm." And says, uh, it's I mean, that's strong language, strong language for the Bible because misplaced trust leads to spiritual corruption. Even leaders within the church are subject to examination. Paul the Apostle commended the Bereans for searching the scriptures daily to verify his teaching, showing that no preacher is above scrutiny. And by the way, no preacher is above being questioned either. The standard is always the word of God, not the reputation of a man. A biblical leader does not demand unquestioning loyalty.

[00:07:01]He inv he invites testing by scripture.

[00:07:04]The moment a man is treated as beyond correction, the scripture has already departed from the pattern God. The structure has already departed from the pattern God has established. And I want to tell you this, the Bible clearly teaches that God does use men.

[00:07:19]Absolutely he does. But always as instruments. They're never they're never the source of the power of the work.

[00:07:29]They are just the instrument. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter number three and verse 5 and 7, who then is Paul and who then is Apollos but ministers by whom you believed? I have planted Apollo's water, but God gave the increase. This is the proper perspective. God chooses the work through human vessels, but the results belong entirely to him. Paul the Apostle and Apollos were effective, influential, and used mightily. Let Yes. Yet scripture deliberately minimizes them to emphasize that God is the one producing the fruit. Even the greatest preacher cannot change a heart, save a soul, or build a true work of God. When men are elevated as if they are the cause, the focus shifts away from God to the tool that he used. And because of that the Bible warns strongly against giving glory to men. In acts chapter number 12 21-23 you find that Herod a grippa uh he um the bible says um he accepted the praise of people who said it is the voice of God and not a man and god judged him instantly.

[00:08:35]That that account shows how seriously God takes misplaced glory. Men may be used, but they are never to be worshiped, exalted, or treated as the source of spiritual power that belongs to God alone. A faithful leader points people away from himself and towards Christ, echoing the spirit of John the Baptist, saying, quote, "He must increase, but I must decrease." And when a ministry magnifies a man instead of magnifying God, it is already a drifted away from the biblical pattern because God will not share his glory with another.

[00:09:09]And I want to tell you that uh this is the problem. This is the problem with many men who came out of Hammond is that they came out of there worshiping men.

[00:09:18]Uh there's nothing wrong with honoring a preacher, but these men borderline deified him in many ways. I want to read to you a quote from a man. I'll just read a little excerpt of this. Um and um and it kind of gives you the heart of what these men did and how they felt about Jack Hiles. Uh they they borderline worshiped him and exalted him to an unhealthy degree. This was on a website that I found from a pastor who knew Jack Hiles and he this is what he put in a dedication page to him. This is the website says W. Robert Nichols said of Charles Haden Spurgeon, he was a ministry unparalleled in the history of the Christian church. No one but Mr. Spurgeon has steadily preached for 40 years and three times a week so much audiences as he commanded. There were hundreds of thousands who owed their souls to him. And he says this, Mr. Nickel, God raised up another one surpassing these very qualifications.

[00:10:17]Jack Hiles preached from the pulpit of First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana faithfully week after week for more than 41 years. Jo Dr. John Rice said, "It is doubtful if any man who ever lived would be a serious competitor to Spurgeon for the title of the greatest preacher since the Apostle Paul." And this is what this man says. It is my belief that Jack Hiles was a serious competitor.

[00:10:39]So basically, he's saying that Jack Hiles in his opinion was the greatest preacher to ever live since the Apostle Paul. Now, can I tell you that's very dangerous talk. That's very dangerous talk because the judgment seat of Christ will determine that. And quite frankly, I don't know why we're supposed to be worried about who the greatest is anyway.

[00:11:03]The greatest is Jesus. Obviously, and we are just vessels by which Jesus is used.

[00:11:09]And let's just say hypothetically, I'm an author and I'm writing great books that God is using. And and I mean, I write books that men use by the millions. And I these are the three pins that I use to write these books. And I, you know, I wrote this one one day, I used this one the next day and this one the next day. And then after I die, people set aside my books and start to argue about which one of the three pins that got that I used to write these books were the greatest of my pins. You would say that was silly.

[00:11:36]Well, it is silly. But that's exactly what people are doing when they are worshiping preachers.

[00:11:44]You are sitting here trying to find out, you know, which one of the pins that a great author used was the greatest of the pins. They're just pins. It doesn't matter. They were just tools being used by an author. And the author did the work. It wasn't the pen. It was the author doing the work. And when it comes to the work of God, we argue about which preacher was the greatest preacher.

[00:12:07]That's silly. That's silly. Because at best, preachers are just tools in the hands of God. And God is writing a story upon the world history and upon the hearts of men. And he uses the tools to do it. So to argue which tool is the greatest, that's dumb.

[00:12:26]Now, let me tell you this.

[00:12:30]There were men throughout history who did good things, and we acknowledge the good things that they did.

[00:12:41]But the overarching legacy that they left behind despite the good things that they did along the way was that overall the big picture is they left things worse than they were when they got there.

[00:12:55]Manasseh is one of the clearest biblicals example biblical examples of this. He was a leader who left God's people spiritually worse than they were when he found them. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 33:9, "So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to heir and to do worse than the heathen." Now, that's a staggering indictment, but given some of the episodes we're going to do in the future, I think in some ways you could say that about certain preachers throughout history. He did not merely tolerate idolatry. He actively promoted it. He re rebuilt the high places that his father had destroyed. He introduced witchcraft and familiar spirits and even placed a carved image in the house of God. His leadership normalized sin at a national level. What had once been the practices of surrounding pagan nations became the accepted culture among God's own people.

[00:13:52]Under his influence, the nation did not just drift. It descended into deeper corruption than the very nations God had judged. Even though Manasseh later humbled himself and sought the Lord, the damage he caused did not simply disappear, the people continued sacrificing in the high places, showing that the habits and structures he established outlived his personal repentance.

[00:14:16]A generation had been shaped by his example, and that influence could not be easily reversed. His reign proves a sobering truth. A leader can get right with God personally and still leave behind a legacy of of a legacy of spiritual ruin. Manasseh did not inherit a perfect nation, but he passed on one that was more deeply entrenched in error than before. His life stands as a warning that leadership carries consequences far beyond the individual.

[00:14:42]And when a man leads people away from God, he can leave things far worse than he found them.

[00:14:50]And the question is, can a preacher today do that?

[00:14:56]Could Jack Hiles have done that?

[00:14:58]Interesting question. I want to end this episode with a story of a preacher that I knew personally. He told me this and he asked me not to use his name, but he said long time ago, years ago, that there was a group that came through his church and the people there now would be appalled at this story, but this is a story that I've verified. And the singing group came through from Hiles Anderson College and they sang the song with uh of course, you know, promoting the college. They sang the song, "Oh, how I love Jesus because he first loved me." And in one verse, they thought it was silly. The preacher didn't find it funny.

[00:15:35]They s they changed the words from Jesus to brother Hiles. And they sang, "Oh, how I love Brother Hiles. Oh, how I love Brother Hiles. Oh, how I love Brother Hiles. Because he first loved me."

[00:15:54]And the preacher didn't think that was funny.

[00:16:00]So I hope that horrifies you. That horrifies me.

[00:16:07]So are men infallible?

[00:16:10]No. Men can be greatly used. Men can be greatly blessed of God, but men are not infallible.

[00:16:19]And if the idea, if the idea in your mind that somebody were to examine and point out the shortcomings, the scandals, the compromise, or even the bad things that Jack Hiles did, if that highly offends you, sends you into some sort of wild tizzy where you're foaming at the mouth angry, you are cult bait.

[00:16:45]That's exactly right.

[00:16:47]And we're going to explore this further in the next episode. Please subscribe to this channel if you're new and go ahead and smite your like button. And we will see you guys next time. We pray that you all have a wonderful day. God bless you.