Edit: Since January 6, 2019, “the church in Punchbowl” has now been renamed “The church in Liverpool.”
Victor Tey is the pastor of the Church in Punchbowl, New South Wales, Australia. Is he a part of the New IFB? Almost a decade ago, he moved to The US for a year to attend Faithful Word Baptist Church. He left on moderately good terms, and now he’s on shaky ground.
First, he agrees with the main points of the New IFB. He opposes salvation repentance, is anti-Israel, doesn’t accept dispensationalism, is Pre-Wrath rapture, etc. The notable exception is that Tey refuses to label those who disagree as unsaved, something he is now decrying the New IFB for doing, as preachers such as Logan Robertson are now labeling him as unsaved.
The reason he is being labeled as unsaved is because he holds a non-Orthodox view of the trinity. His view is that God is both one person, and also three persons. He accepts that his view is unorthodox in his video where he calls out Logan Robertson for being a railer.
He was shown to have this unorthodox view after the recent controversy at Faithful Word Baptist Church, in which Andrew Sluder, Garrett Kirchway, Dominique Davis, Rick Martinez and Elliot Ray and Tyler Baker were all removed from the church for their view of the trinity, which Steven Anderson (correctly) recognized to be unorthodox.
While the controversy brewed Tey preached a message on the trinity, after which Pastor Anderson released a video calling him a modalist heretic. After Tey clarified his views, Anderson took the video down, but upon Tey’s request for further apology and after Tey posted several videos (1,2,3) explaining his history with Faithful Word Baptitst Church, Anderson doubled down, made the video public again, and uploaded a video calling Tey A Liar. Tey responded to this video as well.
The controversy has continued to brew, and just two days ago, Tey uploaded a new video calling out New IFB pastor Pastor Logan Robertson of Pillar Baptist in Queensland Australia for falsely railing against him. In this video Tey is adamant that his position on the trinity is the same as Roger Jimenez’s position. (Tey explains how his position is the same as Jimenez and different from the other four men in this video. He also explains why neither position is modalism.) Robertson’s main defense in calling Tey unsaved is his view of the Trinity, though he does throw many other things around as well.
Notably, Tey seems to reject the New IFB movement, with the title of this latest video containing the words “New IFB Bad Fruit” at the end of the title. So The New IFB rejects Tey, and Tey seems to reject them, but in practice, his church is very much New IFB in that he believes most all of their distinctives, but does seem to now be disenchanted with Steven Anderson.
