ABOUT BILLY

My story really begins with my great-grandparents. My great-grandfather on my mother's side was Daniel Thomas. He was a Baptist pastor in a small town in Kentucky until the year of 1896. That year, as he was standing in his corn field, an angel appeared to him and told him that he was not preaching the full Gospel. As a result of that experience, he received the baptism with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues and preached about it in his church. When he did, the four deacons of the church ran him out and locked the door behind him. On his way out, he prophesied that each of those four men would receive the baptism. This happened just like he said it would, and they approached him to help them start a new movement. I don't know if it was a mistake or not because I was not there, but he refused the invitation. They started the movement without him, and it still exists today as the Church of God Mountain Assembly.

As that movement began to take off, there was another Baptist pastor named George Edward Prewitt or G.E. for short. He became sick with double pneumonia, and a pastor from the Church of God Mountain Assembly came to pray for him. He was instantly healed and became a Pentecostal. The short of it is that G.E. was my grandfather on my dad's side. This is how I came to be raised as a Pentecostal.

I was born in Owensboro, Kentucky before moving briefly to Hazard and then to Corbin. It was there at a very early age that I was saved. I remember the experience very clearly even though I was so young. Corbin was only 90 miles from Knoxville, Tennessee, so my parents liked to go there for a day out once a month or so. It was on one of those trips while on top of Jellico Mountain that I climbed up into the front of the car and asked about being saved. My mother led me in a prayer. I was later baptized in Laurel Lake.

It was about that time that I began showing interest in music and started taking piano lessons which eventually led to band and playing the trumpet. This caught hold of me like a whirlwind. By the time I was a sophomore, I was invited to audition for the Star of Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps. I saw an opened door, and I went through it. I spent that summer on tour all over the US while my family moved from Corbin to Orlando, Florida. Very shortly after moving to Orlando, I received the baptism with the Holy Ghost in a small Assembly of God church.

While living in Orlando, I finished high school, all the while pursuing music with all my might. I was very successful and received many awards and recognitions. Before I graduated, I began to receive scholarship offers from schools as far as Ohio and Massachusetts. I chose to go to the University of Florida where I studied music for two years. During that time, I began to experience a deep dissatisfaction with just about everything. I could not explain it. I started making plans to transfer to the University of North Texas which was one of the most prestigious jazz schools at that time. I was accepted on scholarship with special permission to personally study with one of their professors rather than an undergraduate, yet I could not seem to get excited about that. At the end of that school year, I won some money in a jazz competition, so I spent my summer fishing without any direction in life whatsoever. Little did I know that God was calling me into the ministry.

As the summer began to draw to a close, my dad gave me the "Hey, what are you planning to do..."�speech with the ultimatum to either go to school or get a job. He suggested that I try Southeastern Bible College for a semester and see what would happen. I took him up on the offer, and within a few weeks, I realized that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I eventually graduated with a BA in Sacred Music, and went directly into full time ministry as a youth pastor. After being a Youth Pastor for a few years, I returned to Orlando to work in my dad's church as the associate pastor, but because I had to be bivocational, I also started teaching school (band, chorus, and guitar). It was in my dad's church that I met and married the love of my life, Rebekah.

After working with my dad for several years, I felt that the Lord was directing me to leave. We did so and eventually began working in an inner city outreach ministry that we called Trinity Pentecostal Church. We ministered in some of the worst situations imaginable. This was far from the comfort zone of a suburban church. It was outdoor, face-to-face confrontation of the kingdom of darkness, and it was also a training ground for both of us. It was at that time that I sensed a need to go to seminary. I didn't have any money to go, but God reminded me that I did have a boat. I prayed, "Lord, if you want me to go back to school, send someone to buy my boat."� You can imagine my surprise the next morning when I watched it being pulled away by its new owner. Now I had the money and eventually graduated with a Master of Arts in Theology from International Seminary.

As I said before, I had taught school in addition to ministry for years, but I had taken some time off from that. When I decided to teach again, there was a surplus of teachers making it hard to get a job. I eventually landed a job as an academic instructor at a prison in Lake City, Florida. The competitive market for teachers motivated me to go to school once again. This time I earned a Master of Education degree from Northcentral University, and then became an elementary music teacher in the public schools (this explains some of my videos). I still had a desire for a doctorate, so I finally went back to International Seminary and earned my PhD in Biblical Studies.

Even before getting my PhD, I had written several books. The Lord also commissioned me to write commentaries. I resisted it at first because I knew the work was enormous. I started Matthew only to write five chapters and stop due to the magnitude. I took time off and wrote two other books, Abraham and Why Children Cry, but the Lord was not willing for me to stop writing commentary. I took back up the task and eventually finished Matthew. Since that time I have written Galatians, Acts 1-12, Acts 13-28, and 1 Corinthians. Each of these has been a marvelous blessing to me. At the time of this writing, I am working on Romans which, if the Lord wills, will be available in 2026.

Well, that is me in a nutshell. Thanks for reading.

Statement of Beliefs

Our Statement of Beliefs is as follows: 

1. We believe the Holy Bible to be the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God. 
2. We believe in one God who exists in three persons, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 
3. We believe Jesus Christ came in the flesh through the virgin birth, led a sinless life, performed great and mighty miracles, died on the cross and rose again bodily to redeem us from our sins, and is presently seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. 
4. We believe that man was created both good and upright but fell through voluntary transgression bringing both physical and spiritual death. 
5. We believe that salvation is only through Jesus Christ for all who truly repent, believe, and endure to the end. 
6. We believe in the baptism in the Holy Spirit evidenced by speaking in other tongues. 
7. We believe in the modern expression of the gifts of the Spirit. 
8. We believe in eternal punishment of the wicked and eternal rewards of the righteous. 
9. We believe in the pretribulation rapture of the Church and the literal return of Christ to reign for a thousand years on the earth.