Hi Brother John. I wanted to email you earlier with my condolences but
unfortunately continued to forget to do so. May the Holy Ghost bestow the
peace that surpasses all understanding always upon you and your loved ones
and give to you all enormous comfort in knowing that Ernie is eternally in
Glory, experiencing indescribable joy, in the presence of the KING of kings
and the LORD of lords, our Messiah and friend, Jesus the Christ.
In His grip,
Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Reisinger" <jreisinger@...>
To: <soundofgrace@...>
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2004 8:17 PM
Subject: [soundofgrace] A Tribute to My Brother
A tribute to my brother Ernie
By John G. Reisinger
Yesterday I attended my older brother's funeral. This is the
second of my two brothers that have gone home to be with the Lord. At the
time of refreshments following the funeral there was an opportunity for
personal testimonies and nearly everyone who spoke had come to faith in
Christ through my brother Ernie's witness. On my drive back to New York I
kept remembering things about both of my brothers. In some ways they were
very much a like and in other ways radically different. At my brother
Donald's funeral over half of the people spoke to me and said, "Your brother
Donald was the first person who ever told me the Gospel." An elderly Amish
man said, "I knew a lot about Moses and works but not much about Jesus and
grace until I met your brother." God used my brother Donald's funeral to
bring Ernie's son Donald to a clear understanding of God's sovereign grace.
In some ways, my two brothers were two of the greatest
Christians I have ever known. Ernest was by far the most famous. I used to
say, "My only claim to fame is that I am Ernie Reisinger's brother" since I
was constantly introduced that way at conferences." Under God, I owe my soul
to Ernie's witness to me. I also owe him for many other things over many
years. As I said, he was in some ways one the greatest Christian I have ever
known. Let me share some things that I think made him the great Christian
that he was. I would remind any who feel it is wrong to pay open tribute to
a believer's faithfulness that Scripture says, "Honor to whom honor is due."
It also gives us many examples of God Himself testifying to the faithfulness
of some of His saints. Hebrews chapter eleven is only one example.
First of all, Ernie was never bitten with the love of money. He
viewed his business as a ministry unto God and seriously treated it as such.
The business could have made ten times more money than it did and he would
not have been one penny richer. It was God's business and God's money. He
paid himself a salary and put everything else into a Gospel foundation to
help further the cause of Christ. He did not live in expensive homes or
drive "rich men's cars." He enjoyed the good things of life but never
allowed anything to possess him or his affection except the Savior. "Love
neither the world nor the things of the world" was not a struggle with Ernie
since his heart and life were occupied with something, or Someone, far
better.
Secondly, Ernie never did anything in a half hearted way or with
a lukewarm attitude. Some may feel he did not always act as wisely as he
could have but no one can ever question his zeal or his motive. He could
have well answered any critics by saying, "I like the way I do it better
than the way you don't do it." Let me give a few instances of what I mean.
Not long after Ernie went into the construction business, he
went to listen to John Rice preach. He arranged to have the Sword of the
Lord, a paper John Rice edited, send for three months to every home with a
Carlisle mailing address. During that three month period there were Sword of
the Lord's wrapped around telephone poles, laying in the gutter and
doorways, sticking out of garbage cans, etc. I do not know if anyone got
converted through that effort but I do know that one whole generation of
people living in Carlisle, PA will never say, "No one ever loved me enough
to put the Gospel in front of me." The whole town of Carlisle will be
"without excuse" because of Ernie's effort.
Several years later Ernie went to hear Donald Barnhouse and was
greatly impressed. He arranged to have every professional person, doctors,
lawyers, dentists, teachers, college professors, etc. living in Carlisle to
receive a subscription to Eternity, the magazine edited by Dr. Barnhouse.
Again, I have no knowledge of the results of that effort but I do know that
one generation of all the professional people in Carlisle had the Gospel set
before them through the efforts one building contractor.
There is one instance where a nasty situation was created quite
intentionally. Shortly after I went to Bible school I stopped to see Ernie
and he gave a "great book" by a man named Andy Telford. It was on the
subject of predestination as it relates to personal salvation. I had just
recently come to understand the doctrine of sovereign grace in election. I
opened the book and the author gave his understanding of predestination on
page one. He said, "The doctrine of predestination means that believers are
'predestined' to get safely to heaven. It has nothing to with getting saved.
It means "pre" and 'destination.' The train company predestines or
guarantees that a certain train will take you to Chicago. If you will use
your free will and get on the train, the train company guarantees that,
because of "pre" - "destination" you will arrive safely in Chicago." I am
sure it was not even close to the wisest way to say it, but I blurted out,
"The man does not know what he is talking about." A very nasty discussion
followed. What I did not know at the time was that Ernie had gone to hear
Mr. Telford and true to form, he had bought 500 copies of his book. All of
you who know Ernie will know that he changed his mind about predestination.
Thirdly, Ernie knew how to see the big picture and always keep
it in view. He had that rare ability to be a 100% idealist and 100% realist
at he same time. It was this gift that enabled him to accomplish many things
that the pure idealist would never touch with a ten foot pole and the 100%
realist would say it was neither practical nor possible. Ernie was chided
for going into the Southern Baptist. He was called a compromiser because he
bent over backwards to take people where they were and slowly teach them "a
better way." Few, if any, Reformed Baptists could have started or developed
the Founders Ministries in the Southern Baptist. I personally think the
Founders was one of Ernie's greatest accomplishments even though that
ministry, along with Ernie's disagreement with the view of Eldership
practiced by men like Al Martin, created one of the splits within Reformed
Baptists that exists to this day. I should add that I personally feel the
split was more than justified.
During the last fifty years Ernie and I differed on more than
one subject. It would be dishonest with history and a dishonor to both my
brother and myself to gloss over the obvious. On nearly all of our
differences over the years we ultimately reached agreement, the one
exception being the morality of the Sabbath commandment and Law and Grace in
general. Of all our theological differences over the years, this is the only
one that he refused to discuss with me even though he wrote quite
extensively on the subject. He sincerely believed and stated , "There is
nothing to discuss, the creeds have said it all." I would feel that Ernie
did not really understand what I believed. I was often asked, "How do you
feel about your brother Ernie's strong disagreement with you over law and
grace?" I would reply, "If I believed what Ernie thinks I believe, I would
be more upset than he is. Given what he thinks I believe, he would be a
hypocrite if he were not upset. He is more than justified in opposing me as
long as thinks as he does about my convictions." It would be both unfair and
untrue for anyone to say, "Ernie worshipped the creeds." He did not. He was
committed to the theology of the Westminster Confession of Faith only
because he sincerely believed it was the true expression of what Scripture
taught. This is why I could honestly respect his convictions and sincerely
respect and love him as a Godly Christian. I can understand exactly why at
one point he could most conscientiously regard me as being on the border
line of heresy. I think in later life he modified that to mean I was
"grievously wrong." However, his attitude was based 100% on what he believed
the Scriptures taught and what he understood me to be teaching.
Ernie's body will lie silently in the grave until the
resurrection but we will still hear him speak. Though he is dead his voice
will be heard for a long time. We will see his foot prints in a lot of
places and in a lot lives for many years to come. Ernie's death coincided
with Ronald Reagan's death. As I listened to the many changes that had taken
place in the world of politics because of Reagan's vision and influence, I
thought of Ernie. I heard Reagan list a few of the things that he and his
philosophy had changed and then he said, "Not bad, not bad at all." I
thought of a ninth grade drop out well on the way to being an alcoholic
being rescued by sovereign grace and then having the unbelievable effect on
so many lives and the well being of the Church of God at large and I
thought, "Not bad! Not bad at all!"
Before he was converted Ernie had never read a single book. He
did not even read the funny papers. His conversion filled him with a thirst
for knowledge and truth that made him wiser than his peers. Despite his lack
of education his greatest influence was with professional people. Again we
can rightly say, "Not bad, not bad at all." God took a nobody and really
made him a somebody. He took a drunken carpenter and made him a Prince in
the House of Israel. He will be both remembered and missed.
--
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