Thomas advocated splitting up families. He wrote, “We do not get excited about the harm done to children if the father gets sent to the penitentiary for life.”¹ Does that sound like the thinking of the hard-hearted Pharisees, of whom Christ said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith” (Matt. 23:23)?

The influential J. D. Thomas, Abilene Christian University professor, elder, and author, wrote, “Proper interpretation of scripture calls for a careful exegesis (‘leading out’ of the meaning) of the text of the original language. This must obviously be done by trained scholars.” ¹ That sounds eerily like the Pharisees who exclaimed, “But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed” (John 7:49). God’s revelation does not need revealing.

Leslie Grier Thomas, a descendent of Moses E. Lard,¹ was born July 6, 1895 in Gibson County, Tennessee. Baptized at the age of fourteen, Thomas began preaching in Gibson, Missouri, in 1913 at the encouragement of Foy E. Wallace Sr., C.R. Nichol, and J. W. Shepherd. In his lifetime he preached in over twenty states from rural churches to large metropolitan area congregations. Thomas wrote about marriages he considered unauthorized and separation: