(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Hey guys, it's Brother Peter James. So in the midst of this whole Tyler Baker debacle, I was advised that my personal testimony of my experience with Tyler Baker might be of some insight and it might be of some help to anyone who's on the fence about this issue and who is questioning the character of Tyler Baker. So I am going to just in this video give my personal testimony of my experience of my relationship with Tyler Baker while it lasted. Specifically because Tyler has come out and made it known that he will be starting Valiant Baptist Church in March after he has been fired from being deacon of Faithful Word Baptist Church back in June. So I met Tyler Baker in September of 2015 at the Washington DC Soul Wing marathon and we met, we became acquainted and we became friendly and about a year and a half, two years up until the point that he was fired, Tyler and I were friends. And if you were to ask me who my best friend at Faithful Word Baptist Church was, I would have told you that it was Tyler Baker. Up until the point where he was fired, Tyler and I talked regularly on the phone. He was very hospitable to me when I went out to visit Faithful Word Baptist Church and he entertained me and I loved him and I really loved his family and I considered him a good friend. And when it was announced that he was going to be ordained to go start a church in Jacksonville, our conversations quickly took a turn to him more or less looking to persuade me to move to Jacksonville to go to his church. I mean, he was basically trying to recruit me to go to his church and to commit to going to his church. And I wouldn't say that he was necessarily pushy or anything like that but he did somewhat insist that I pull the trigger and make the decision to move to Jacksonville and he would often say that to me. He would say, so when are you going to pull the trigger man, you know, decide to go to Jacksonville. And you know, I thought, I guess I thought it was kind of flattering, you know, Tyler is my friend and he wants me to go to his church. You know, I didn't think anything too strange about that. He wanted to build his new church. So up until that point during that time when Tyler was looking to convince me to move to his church in Jacksonville, we would talk about the Bible a lot and we would talk doctrine a lot. I mean, that's, you know, and that's not, I don't think that's that strange. I mean, one reason I love this movement is because I love the people in this movement and I just love making friends in this movement and that's one reason why this whole situation even grieves me because, you know, I hate losing friends in this movement. I love the people, but I guess that's, that's not even on the radar because the truth and the Lord and the truth of the Bible is obviously of the utmost importance. But you know, I talked to him probably just like I talked to a lot of you, I call you to see how you're doing. You might call me and I, and we talk in this movement and we talk about the Bible, but during this time, since he was potentially going to possibly be my pastor, if I would ever choose to move there, I would try to, you know, really just, I would try to dig into his brain and into his psyche and I wanted to know what he believed. I wanted to make sure we were on the same page and at one point I'll say that it was in around, around February of 2017 is when I remember being on the train coming home from work and we were talking on the, on the phone. He called me when I was on my way home from work and he was telling me his plans for the church and I, I said to Tyler, I said, so Tyler, you know, I'm pretty much more or less in lockstep with your pastor, Pastor Anderson, when it comes to doctrine. You know, I'm a fundamental Baptist and I believe all the fundamentals of the faith like your pastor does and I'm on the same page with him when it comes to end times doctrine and stuff like that. And I said, is there anything that you believe differently than your pastor that I would like to know about? And this was in February and he had admittedly, you know, after the fact afterward, he had just admitted to having believed the oneness doctrine at this time. So I said to him at that time, I said, is there anything that you believe differently that I would like to know? Tyler said to me, no, which as far as I'm concerned, that was a bold faced lie. So I believe Tyler just, he lied to me. He was lying to me, uh, you know, he said, no, I don't believe anything different than Pastor Anderson except for what you know, the Jerusalem. He said, I believe that Jerusalem is Babylon. Pastor Anderson believes it's the USA. I believe different when it comes to breastfeeding and, and, and he said just insignificant inconsequential doctrines that wouldn't really make a difference either way. And you know, I guess the Trinity and the Godhead is just really insignificant and I guess it's just the nature of God and who the Lord Jesus Christ is and who God the Father is. It's just pretty inconsequential and it's not fundamental according to Tyler. So my question for Tyler is, you know, with all the effort that he put in to trying to get people to move to his church and trying to recruit me to pull the trigger and recruit me to his church and make the choice to move to his church, I guess he was just willing, perfectly willing knowing that I would reject that doctrine that he had, did believe when he told me he didn't believe anything different than his pastor. He didn't believe anything differently that I would like to know about. He was willing to let me move down to Jacksonville in August, you know, had I decided to do that. And then just, you know, after packing my whole life up and moving my whole life down there, moving to a strange city where I don't know anybody, moving my job, just changing everything, leaving everything behind for this church, he was willing to let me go down there and then just drop this bomb on me there. So I guess his strategy was to just kind of entrap us there and then teach us this doctrine and basically say, you can either accept it or, or move back. I mean, once we had all already moved our stuff there and I know that was the, you know, I have one good friend of mine, he did move to Jacksonville and he had, he got a new job down there. He got a place to live down there and literally a week before he was supposed to move, Tyler was fired and it was found out that he was teaching this heresy of modalism and it was, it was as much of a shock to my friend as it was to me. So he was willing to let all of us just move our whole lives down there. You know, our own, our own, everything that we had moved down there and then just teach us this doctrine and say, take it or leave it and just, I guess he thought we'd be more likely to stay, have him teach us that doctrine while we were already there and be more likely to stay, then we would be likely to move after him telling us that he believes it. So that's all I can give is my personal testimony and this even still grieves me in a way because it just almost makes me, you know, sick to my stomach that this even happens and that this kind of thing does happen and is bound to happen again and, and you know, that, that people will move in these shady types of way, you know, the, the, the shady types of ways to get what they want. But like I said, the truth is more important because I believe that I don't believe in modalism. I believe that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world. I mean, it's so clear in the Bible that it's, there is a distinction in the Trinity and that Jesus isn't just the father. The Bible says that there are three that bear record in heaven. The father, the word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one. When you get to heaven, there will be three. There's there are three that bear record in heaven and the Bible says the father has judged no man but has committed all judgment to the son. I mean the Bible is constantly making a distinction and I would not have been on board with this oneness doctrine and I called him when all this went down and just to try to hear his side of the story and it didn't make sense and that was the last time I talked to him. I talked to him when he got fired in June and that was the last time I talked to Tyler and um, you know, we were, we were talking on the phone, we hung up. I was like, whatever, we're not, this isn't going anywhere because I didn't believe what he was saying. I couldn't even understand what he was teaching. He sounded, you know, he, I mean, he sounded nervous. He was, you know, he sounded just bewildered and confused as to what was happening and I guess understandably so, I mean, I don't know what he thought was going to happen and he was teaching this to everyone in the church and just secretly believing and teaching this. But um, we hung up and then later that day he texted me and he said, you know what, no matter what happens, brother, I love you. And I said, I love you too. Something along the lines of that. And that's the last time I talked to him. And the reason I mentioned that is because in the most recent video Tyler put out, Tyler mentioned my name and um, you know, besides Simon Faulkner who is sympathetic towards Tyler Baker and towards his doctrine and his cause. He also mentioned my name and um, I just don't want anybody to think that I'm yoked up with Tyler Baker because I'm not, and I haven't talked to Tyler in months and um, I don't believe in the oneness doctrine. I believe in the Trinity, you know, as 99% of Christianity believes it, I believe in the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost. These three are one in the traditional Trinity doctrine. So I don't want anybody getting the wrong idea that I believe like Tyler and that I'm yoked up with Tyler, that I'm still friendly with Tyler. You know, as much as this, this grieves me, like I said, and as much as my friends are important to me in this movement is my favorite. One of my favorite things in this movement, my favorite thing besides just the truth and the Lord Jesus Christ is making friends with this movement and is all the people and the relationships that I build in this movement. But like I said, the truth is obviously more important. The truth trumps that. And so, you know, even any reservation that I might still have you, you can call me soft or whatever. And you know, you know, I understand that the truth is more important. The truth of the Godhead is more important. And just a couple other red flags. I mean, besides the fact that I was hesitant to move to Jacksonville for a couple reasons. One is because I have, first of all, New Jersey is my home. It's where I was born and raised. I have a burden for New York City and New Jersey when it comes to the gospel and going soul winning here. My family and my friends are here. And my church is here. Most importantly, I have a great church here, very, very good church, just fantastic church that does not tempt me to move because of you know, because it's such a good church. I'm not just I don't just sit in church and think I wish I could get out of here and do a better church, honestly, because that's not what I think because my church is a very good independent fundamental Baptist soul winning church, good preaching, good people. You know, Spirit of God is working there at that church. So that's one reason why I wouldn't just be so quick just to get up and move to Jacksonville. But secondly, I was, I was reserved to put my spiritual well being in the hands of Tyler Baker in the sense that I was reluctant to make him my pastor, because of the fact that I felt like he was immature, and that he did sing his own praises often. And he did talk about himself a little bit too much, and it made me a little uneasy. And I just chalked it up to the fact that he was young, not much older than me. And I chalked it up to the fact that, well, he just, he just probably really wants me to move to his church and he wants people to move to his church. So he's really just trying to show us that he's a good guy and that he's capable. But the whole time there was just a voice kind of telling me and I felt like there was something holding me back saying, this, you don't want this, you know, you don't want this person to be your pastor and you're not moving to Jacksonville, Florida. And obviously, now looking back, I believe that that was God, because, you know, to be quite honest, I was never, you know, just all the way in, I was, I was probably, you know, I was 80% towards just staying in my place where I was and blooming where I'm planted, so to speak, in New Jersey at People's Baptist Church, you know, I was 80% leaning towards staying and probably 20% leaning towards moving towards Jacksonville. And I thought, well, if I'm gonna move towards Jacksonville, it's probably gonna, or if I'm gonna move to Jacksonville, it will probably be in the future. A couple years from now, when I'm ready to be trained for the ministry, and when I want closer to a time where, God willing, if I were to ever be sent out as a missionary, or a pastor, you know, that's probably when I would move there. But, you know, he just, as much as I loved Tyler, and I love this family, and I liked his preaching, and he just didn't come off to me as someone who I would want to pastor me. And I felt like it would be a step down, actually, you know, in, in pastorship, you know, my pastor now, if I would then move to Valiant Baptist Church, I feel like that would have been a step down when it comes to who my pastor was and who my leader was. So that's another reason I didn't move. But that's my testimony with Tyler Baker and, you know, just in closing, I would just ask, you know, is he qualified to be a pastor? I would say no. But I mean, as someone who is not even willing to just be forthright with you about what they believe about the Godhead, and about the Trinity, and is holding back this major doctrine from you, as one of their potential church members. I mean, are they someone who is qualified or even, you know, morally capable of being a pastor? I mean, I would say no. And I'm glad that this came out before the church started, I'm glad God allowed this to be revealed. So I feel like Tyler is moving the goalposts right now. And he's making videos about, well, I really was a hard worker, and I really am a good worker and I worked hard at Faithful Word Baptist Church. He's moving the goalposts because the main issue, whether he was a hard worker or not, he was still teaching heresy, and he was still privily and selectively teaching this doctrine to some people, you know, holding it back from me, for whatever reason, wouldn't tell me about it, while on the other hand, selectively teaching it to other people at Faithful Word Baptist Church. I mean, you know, woe unto him that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully. I mean, that's not honest, that's not forthcoming. You know, you should be willing to preach what you believe from the housetops, and if you're going to be my pastor, I wish you'd tell me what you believe, you know, that's not, that's not good. So I feel like this video had to be made, and you can do with it what you will, I hope it was a help. I don't know if it will be. But that's my experience. You know, is there anything else here? Nothing else. I mean, yeah, I don't, I don't believe Tyler Baker's qualified to be a pastor, you know, at best, at best, he's fallen into a wicked, evil heresy. And you know, he was lying about it. That's the issue. He was lying about it and teaching it privately, selectively. That's the issue here. Not, not even whether he was a hard worker or not. The issue is that he's into heresy, and he's going to deceive a whole city with it. That's his goal, is to go teach it to Jacksonville. And you don't need valiant Baptist Church, but you already have a good Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, that's Steadfast Baptist Church. Pastor Donnie Romero and Brother Adam Fannin, who is leading that congregation while Pastor Romero is in Fort Worth. So that's what I got and God bless you and have a good night.