Ernest Pickering

Ernest Dinwoodie Pickering (December 14, 1928 – October 16, 2000) was a fundamentalist Christian pastor, author, college administrator, and mission board representative.

Life

Pickering was born in St. Petersburg, Florida, the oldest son of Ernest Joseph and Evelyn Ida Pickering, officers in the Salvation Army. The family lived and ministered in Florida, Maryland, West Virginia, Alabama, and Texas. Ernest was converted to fundamentalist Christianity as a teenager in Dallas and immediately began to participate in street meetings, including some at which he dodged rocks and tomatoes. He graduated with a B. A. in Bible from Bob Jones University in 1948, when he was nineteen; and he earned his Th.M. and Th.D. degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1952 and 1957 respectively.

In 1952, Pickering married Ariel Yvonne Thomas, whom he had met as an intern pastor in Colorado City, Texas, and the couple shortly moved to New Kensington, Pennsylvania, where Pickering pastored Maranatha Bible Church.