Biography

Many years ago I met Thomas Ross as a young man.  My wife and I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area two weeks after we married in August of 1987.  Thomas grew up in San Francisco with a single mother.  We came into contact when he was still college age.  He had already received Christ, graduated from University of California at Berkeley at the age of 19, and was training to serve the Lord by attending Fairhaven Baptist College (read his testimony tract, his story in html, and his resume).

Thomas Ross came back to the San Francisco Bay Area and served with and at the church I started, Bethel Baptist Church, for several years.  I acted as a proxy father to him in his betrothal and marriage to Heather Roberts and stood as his best man in his wedding.  He and Heather settled in Wisconsin to minister at Muckwonago Baptist Church under her father, Rhon Roberts, for many years before coming back to California in 2020 after my wife, parents, and I moved to Oregon to start Jackson County Baptist Church in Medford.

What Is Truth and Faithsaves.net

I began What Is Truth?  Opinion Based Upon the Bible (also kentbrandenburg.blogspot.com and kentbrandenburg.com) in 2005 and Thomas joined me in 2012 when we were at the old blog address.  He started writing or publishing every Friday.  As many of you reading here know, I normally write on Mondays and Wednesdays and he writes or publishes here on Fridays.  Thomas and I write with different styles and some different content, but we believe essentially the same.  We’re almost identical in our belief and practice.

Thomas also has his own website, faithsaves.net, with a wealth of material mainly written by him.  I would assess that among independent Baptists almost no one has published as much biblical, scholarly material as Thomas Ross.  It is also very helpful, practical, and free at his site.  It is a great service to God and the faith and conduct of true Christians and New Testament churches.

Doctrine of Sanctification and Debates

No one in evangelicalism, I would safely say, has done as much work on the doctrine of sanctification.  The material by Thomas Ross on biblical sanctification surpasses anything else I have seen.  No one knows this subject better than he.  I point especially to his one thousand plus pages in his PhD dissertation.  The title is The Doctrine of Sanctification: An Exegetical Examination, with Application, in Biblical, Historic Baptist Perspective, to which is Appended a Historical, Exegetical, and Elenctic Evaluation of Influential Errors, Particularly the Keswick Theology (free pdf of it).

In recent years, Thomas began doing scholarly debates.  He has taught college and seminary classes and posted them free at his youtube channel.  He debates high level scholars on the other side with biblical and historical arguments on many different topics.  I was there for the first of his debates in 2005 against Church of Christ foe, Larry Hafley, on the subject of baptismal regeneration.  Out of it came his book, Heaven Only for the Baptized?  The Gospel of Christ vs. Pardon through Baptism.  It is the best book available against baptismal regeneration, a false doctrine that has damned millions to Hell.

Evangelism

Filling a great need in churches, Thomas wrote several evangelistic Bible studies, again available for free at his website.  You can also watch them on his youtube channel.  He also wrote several various tracts and pamphlets for the purpose of doing spiritual warfare with different strongholds against the true gospel.

No one that I have ever known or met is more evangelistic than Thomas Ross.  As scholarly and well-learned as he is and as hard as he worked to become like this, nearly every day he either preaches the gospel to someone or gives one or multiple gospel tracts to people.  When he was much younger, I would stop at a gas station to get gas.  By the time I left the station, Thomas had given a gospel tract to everyone at the station.  If he is on public transportation, someone on the bus or train will probably hear the gospel from him before he arrives at his destination.

I could write many more positive paragraphs about Thomas.  However, I am writing this post to announce that Thomas is leaving the What Is Truth blog and writing here with me for the foreseeable future.  I will still host his posts here and hopefully edit the format of all of his, so that they become easier to read.  You may have noticed that he has not published here for a few weeks.  You can still read his writings that will continue to accumulate at faithsaves.net.

Future for Thomas Ross

What are the future plans of Thomas Ross?   The Bible says:  “teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).  For quite a while, Thomas has pondered if he should keep writing on the blog or use that time, instead, for other projects for God’s work.  He is not done with writing, Lord willing, but he now has other projects to which he wants to devote himself.

One,

Thomas wants to finish his dissertation on the Biblical doctrine of sanctification.  He is almost done, but he needs to finally finish.  You can still click on the link above to get everything he did so far.

Two,

Brother Ross wants to write a multi-volume historic Baptist systematic theology.  He would rather stand before Christ with this done, but fewer blog posts written, than more blog posts, but that work not completed.  You can check faithsaves.net at least on the first and fifteenth of each month to see what is new there from him.  He also intends to keep adding useful material on his KJB1611 YouTube channel and his KJBIBLE1611 Rumble channel.  You can and should subscribe to those and check in regularly if you are not already doing that.

Three,

Thomas Ross needs to prepare college and seminary classes that need to get done.

Four,

Thomas wants to do some more debates.  Debating James White, or Dan Barker, or Shabir Ally, or Douglas Jacoby requires proper preparation, which can be very time-intensive.

Last,

Lord-willing, still living in San Francisco, CA and taking care of his dear mother, Thomas and Heather want to evangelize with the goal of helping an independent Baptist church start there.

All these above goals will take far more time than what Thomas has to do them even without writing here on Fridays.  He will move on from here from henceforth.  Please pray for him.  You can contact him directly at his website — that’s the easiest way.

Conclusion

I would contend that Thomas Ross is perhaps the greatest scholar among independent Baptists.  Scholarship-wise he is on the level with any evangelical scholar.  This is not his talking, but my saying this.  He’s never said anything like this to me.  I don’t believe anyone has worked harder or committed more to learning scripture than him either.   He continues at an incredible pace, especially with his circumstances.  He does it in relative anonymity to maintain his convictions and stand.

With his abilities and work ethic, if Thomas Ross were an evangelical or conservative evangelical, he could make a living teaching in some seminary and then writing books.  He could be very well known and a feather in the cap of graduate schools across the country.  He chose not to do that.  His convictions and commitment to his belief and practice excluded him from that.  Not many men would do that.  Almost no one, maybe no one, has done that.  I commend him for that sacrifice.  For many years, he accomplishes what he does by working as a security guard and then economizing as efficiently as anyone with whatever funds he gets.

No doubt, Thomas wishes a loving goodbye to his readers on the blog.  He would be glad to write that himself, but I chose to wrap up his time here with my thoughts about him.  Know that he wishes you good will and blessing as he and you move into what God has for him and you.

So, I bid Thomas Ross a fond adieu here at my blog.  Farewell to him to his future life and endeavors.