[Updated: March 5, 2024 -- Please see Addendum]
This is a tribute to a godly, brilliant, and wise faithful servant of Christ, a crippled giant among men, one that has impacted my Christian life over the years. With his paralyzed legs in long steel clamps and arms in crutches, he went all over the world doing abundantly more than most men with two working legs.
I count it both an honour and privilege to give tribute to this godly, wise man, who preached boldly and uncompromisingly, yet was as humble and kind as a believer comes, and harmless as a dove. He was once described as a two-fisted, no-nonsense giant of Gospel exposition behind the pulpit, while at the same time, a man of extraordinary tenderness and painstaking politeness.
Missionary Henry R. Pike, who is known by all familiar to him as Randy, sadly passed away last year on March 15th, at the tender age of nearly 91. But he lived an amazing life for God, Whom was his, and he His.
Missionary (or Evangelist, same thing Biblically) Randy was a giant among men, though small in stature. He was born on June 4, 1932 in Nashville, TN, and outlived his doctors predictions by at least 40 years. You see, at the ripe young age of 18, in the very last play of the very last football game of his very last year in high School, Randy made a tackle and broke his back, never to walk again. Randy, a country boy, was a very gifted athlete and orator. By the age of 18 he was already a golden gloves boxing champion and great football player. But one last play, and his life would be changed forever. Randy called it, the Lord getting his attention. You see, Randy had been converted to Christ only a few years prior to that, in 1946 at the age of 14, while whittling away on the back of a Sunday school bench with his Swiss army knife. His special teacher of whom he spoke so highly, Ruth Gifford, led him aside and preached the gospel to him. Later that morning during church service, Randy was converted to Christ. He was dramatically born again. Many times he would bring this wonderful servant of Christ into memory, who obviously had such a profound effect on Randy's conversion. Randy's salvation also wasn't some kind of prayer to "ask Jesus into his heart," but true supernatural, superdramatic regeneration by the Spirit of God through repentant faith, bringing to life a lifeless soul.
Randy would say, if this accident had not happened with his legs, there is little chance he would've given his life in the work of a missionary. In his own words:
"As an 18-year-old boy, I was knocked cold in a high school football game and paralyzed in both legs from the hips down. Thousands of prayers went up from family, churches, and friends asking God to restore my legs. I spent the next 60 years walking on braces and crutches. Now, nearly 82 years old, bent over in a wheel chair, and bed ridden, their prayers were never answered! Looking back, had God not taken away the function of my legs I would never have given my life as a missionary in His service. Psalm 119:67, "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word." Spiritually minded believers see through the big talk about jackpot prayers. This satanic lie has deceived millions. None of us knows what waits down the road. Some will face cancer, heart attack, Alzheimers, dementia, family separations, deadly car wrecks, and loss of job, financial ruin, stokes, or dissertation by a mate or child and so on..." (Pike Prayer Letter, Feb 2015)
Randy would marry his sweetheart Addien on April 10, 1954 in Nashville, TN and they were married for nearly 70 years, a women whom he loved dearly, a woman he called the greatest Christian he had ever met. As Randy's loving and devoted helpmeet, she reminds me in many ways of Ann Judson, the wife of the godly and faithful Adoniram Judson, missionary to the Burmese people (Everyone should read To the Golden Shore, I gain no monetary provision for this recommendation).
Randy was a very intelligent, brilliant man, but a humble and godly man, a greater attribute. He earned three doctorates (Ph.D) in his lifetime, and had a special love for archaeology with studies on the subject.
Randy was a straight talker, he didn't beat around the bush, he didn't attempt to scratch the itch of ear-tickled listeners seeking after fables (2 Tim 4:3-4). He made full proof of his ministry, even as Paul exhorted Timothy (2 Tim 4:5).
Over the last 50 years of his life, Randy read over 5,000 books. Yes, you read that right. Thats over 100 books per year. He also collected a massive library of books, many of which he would give away over the years.
In the early 1960’s, Randy and family moved to Australia as missionaries started a faithful true Bible believing Baptist church in Gladstone, Queensland, Faith Baptist Church, and then another one in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Randy was the first Independent Baptist missionary to Australia, as far as we are aware.
Sign to Faith Baptist Church that Randy started in Gladstone, Queensland:
After serving Christ in Australia for 16 years, they (Randy, his wife and four children) moved on to South Africa, for 16 years. Randy was both loved and hated for his unapologetic preaching of the truth, but whatever came his way, he stood boldly for Christ without ever backing down. Because of his straightforward and relentless bold preaching especially against the evils of Communism (which was starting to take root in South Africa), Pike was frequently the product of death threats and even threats of bombings. But that wasn't really to much out of the ordinary for brother Pike. In Australia a boot-legging, bar-owning, gambling cowboy business man wanted to kill Randy for preaching to his wife that led to her conversion (Randy and Addiean had spent some time teaching the gospel to the man's wife and she was eventually converted to Christ). He didn't like that one bit. He was on a mission to Randy's house to kill him. But by that afternoon, that old mean-spirited drunkard cowboy became a brand new creature in Christ Jesus himself, and they would become dear friends and brethren. Isn't it lovely how the Lord Jesus Christ works and what his great salvation can do for anyone that will come to the Redeemer by repentant faith!
Randy's opportunities for preaching the gospel were simply incredible. The stories, so many really, should be compiled into a book and shared with the world. They were incredible, because God knew He had a faithful and willing servant. Randy didn't neglect. Every opportunity he had, he preached. The grace he had received was not in vain (cf. 2 Cor 6:1-2). Randy also wasn’t interested in picking green, unripened or corrupt fruit. He laboured in the true gospel, emphasizing the importance of genuine conversion, of true repentance and surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and had no interest in false professions but true conversion, not pew warmers slamming wide open the gates of hell. He was no Dr. Bottlestopper.
Together, Randy and Addien served the Lord Jesus Christ for nearly 70 years in America, Australia, and South Africa, and preached in many areas around the world, including Singapore, India, Malaysia, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Italy, Greece, England, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, France, Hawaii, Fiji, Canada, and South America, to name just a few.
His great God-given intelligence and wisdom and zeal for seeing the unsaved come to Christ, his love for the lost (right to his dying hour), resulted in many incredible encounters, some hard to believe but true indeed. Over the course of his five decades of preaching the gospel, he was invited to meet with everyone from tribal chiefs to Prime Ministers; from military troops in combat to entire police forces; from school children to CEOs; from churches to hostile college campuses. For many years he helped to smuggle God’s Word into communist countries like China, Cuba, and East Germany to assist the persecuted Christians there. But Randy was just as excited preaching to a tiny group of 8 or 10 people as he was to crowds of thousands.
I knew Randy loosely, from a distance, with crossing of paths in Australia, but much through his preaching and writings. I have listened through his sermons online at least twice (and more some sermons), and own all his books for a number of years now.
Randy’s hard, bold, uncompromised, intelligent, wise and edifying preaching helped me immensely as a new Christian after my new birth in 2005. Besides some things I disagree with (such as his position on demonology, division of doctrine, misinterpretation of some Scripture and parables, among other things) overall our doctrine and positions were similar.
I am thankful for the those who have preserved Randy's preaching online.
To hear pastor Randy Pike’s good preaching available by audio, please go here: http://www.valleyviewbaptistflintstone.com/randypike.html. If you are one of those rare saints that look for good sermons to listen to, then you ought to go to this site and grab the lot.
To hear pastor Randy Pike’s good preaching available by video, please click here: Henry R. Pike Sermons
We also quite happily endorse brother Pike’s commentary, “Selah!”, the product of 14 years of intensive work, and probably the best commentary on the four Gospels in my humble opinion. Its really unparalleled. I access it very frequently, even today.
Selah! surveys the life of Christ as recorded in the four Gospels and contains a defense of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible. Dr. Pike deals with several pseudo beliefs regarding divine inspiration of Scripture, unsaved “textual critics,” sensational date-setting eschatology (which is the handmaid of radical dispensationalism), apostate ecumenical movement, false cults masquerading as Christian, the Papal system of religion, and a look at the Mega Church phenomena. His treatment of the so-called church fathers and certain “heroes of the faith” such as Augustine, Calvin, and Luther, many of the Reformers, the radical wing of the Anabaptists, the impure Puritans, C.S. Lewis, and others will shock some readers! There are several enlightening paragraphs dealing with apostate hymnology that has cunningly infiltrated Christian worship.
Click on the picture above to take you to Local Church Bible publishers (same group we link to in our "Links"), where you can purchase this invaluable commentary (I gain no monetary benefit from this recommendation).
Randy, in all his sufferings and enduring, would almost always end his prayer letters with 2 Tim 2:3,
"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ"
And often the following words:
Amen!
Randy can walk again. He is now with his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Whom he loved so much. I would imagine, he ran to meet his Lord.
If I had to pick a passage of Scripture to summarize brother Randy, it would be Gal 2:20,
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
To the end, Randy was faithful to the God who loved him and died for him and saved his soul, body and spirit unto eternal life, so the following benediction is very appropriate:
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." (2 Tim 4:7-8)
Randy wrote his obituary in advance, and I would like to share it with you here and personally take his advice to heart:
Selah!
Until we meet in the glories of heaven.
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Addendum
Updated: March 5, 2024
The following addition has been added due to serious concern over some of Randy's position, something I was not privy to prior or forgot as it had been nearly a decade since I last heard him preach. A sermon entitled “Getting it Straight from the Start” based upon Lk 14:25-35 was drawn to my attention, and though I had listened through all of Pikes audio sermons a number of years back, I had not heard all the recently added video sermons on YouTube. I might also have forgotten his stance on these passages and doctrine. There is no respect of persons or partiality with the Lord, and thus neither with us. It don’t matter who you are, if you publicly teach error or false doctrine wilfully, wrest the Scriptures, purvey false teachings, corrupt the gospel, and the like, we will in all likelihood expose it publicly, as time is afforded us Lord willing, lest there has been genuine repentance and change. Sometimes we will keep the warning up, if the danger continues to remain (like a book for example), in spite of public repentance over the error.
As much as I love Randy Pike, I have to unfortunately add this warning and red flag about his position on certain salvation passages in scripture, such as Lk 14:25-35; 9:23-26; Matt 16:24-26; Mk 8:34-38. Drawing salvation from these passages (which is very obviously what they are since that is exactly what Jesus is teaching for a number of important reasons), is the “tail wagging the dog” according to pastor Pike. Randy says we got to get this right and straight from the start, but he is 100% wrong about these passages, undoubtedly and unequivocally. It is not true that “Our Lord was not talking about salvation” in passages such as Lk 14:25-35. Here are some of the things Randy Pike stated about this passage in Lk 14, rebutted with what Scripture teaches.
Pike says we are not saved by denying and forsaking self and other things. Wrong. That is contrary to Scripture, even the very text from whence he is preaching (Lk 14:26, 33; see also Matt 16:24; Mk 8:34; Lk 9:23). “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14:33). Every saved person is a disciple of Christ, but not every professing disciple of Christ is truly saved (Jn 6:60-66). No exceptions. Salvation makes a disciple, so that the call to discipleship is 100% of the time a call to salvation. No exceptions. When Jesus said, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me,” he used the very same language to call sinners to salvation as in many other passages (such as Jn 14:6; Rev 22:17). Its also the very same thing He said to the rich young ruler, who Randy agreed and taught was unsaved: “Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.” (Mk 10:31). That is EXACTLY what Jesus was teaching in Lk 14:25-35, what Randy claims is something to do with “service.” Jesus was preaching this to the mass multitudes that are following Him (Lk 14:25; Mk 8:34), which are almost entirely unsaved (see Jn 2:23-25; 6:66; Lk 12:32). Jesus is not teaching the unsaved how to do “service, that follows salvation.” That would be ridiculous and pointless, truly “the tail wagging the dog” in telling a dead man in sins who has no true understanding or wisdom about truth and obedience, what he should be doing once he is saved. What would be the point in that?! Absolutely no place in Scripture does Jesus ever teach unsaved people how to be post-salvation disciples. He is indeed calling them to discipleship, because that is the same call as the call to salvation. Only someone steeped in commentaries and tainted by Keswick theology, would make such an implication. The four gospels are “four gospels” not “four practical sanctifications.”
Pike says a man is not saved by turning from family. Wrong. “Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” (Mk 10:29-30). The effect of forsaking idolatrous family in place of serving and living for Christ, is the new birth. The Jewish people were the target of His message, for they had everything to lose when they were converted to Christ, as it remains to this day. Thus, and not only for Jews, turning from a love for family and their affections, to a love for God and His will, is absolutely required to be saved. Jesus: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matt 10:32-39). Thats ALL salvation, what it is required in repentance and surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. To be worthy of Jesus is to be saved by Him. Please read more about this here: The Idolatry of Family - They That Love Their Family More Than Christ, Are Not Worthy of Christ.
Pike says a man doesn’t take up the cross until he has been saved. Wrong again. The call to salvation is a call to death of self on the cross. NO ONE can be saved until they die to themselves which means denying themselves and losing their lives for Jesus and the gospels sake (Mk 8:35; Matt 16:25; Jn 12:25). No man can be saved till he dies to self and his loves which are his sins and desires and appeals and dreams and selfishness and family and more. These scripture passages are entirely within the context of salvation, and are crystal clear. No one can bear fruit until he has died, the seed must first die: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” (Jn 12:24-25). When does fruit start? At the very moment of conversion, just like Jesus said: Matt 13:23, and just like Paul declared: Col 1:4-6, and then the rest of Scripture. Indeed we are saved by taking up the cross, which means to die to self, deny self, to lose our lives for Christ and the gospels sake, which results in man finding and saving his life (Matt 16:25; Mk 8:35), not “los[ing] his own soul” (Matt 16:26; Mk 8:36) and becoming Christ’s disciple (Lk 14:25-33).
So contrary to what Randy says, salvation is precisely (and only), what the Lord was speaking about. “Contextually, Exegetically” this is “getting it straight.” Nothing more, nothing less. It has absolutely nothing to do with "service." This is also NOT works, and if Randy was content with calling it works, then he was accusing the Lord Jesus Christ of preaching works for salvation. God forbid. But such is the case when a man corrupts salvation passages. What Randy Pike is teaching in these passages and his corruption of salvation itself, is “a fraud” and dangerously close to being a false teacher. I wish I could have spoken to him about this.
We cover this subject also here and encourage all to read:
Lord willing I’ll be posting a report on this subject in the near future; specifically on Lk 14:25-35 and what it means to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, though the above articles touch on the subject in detail likewise.