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News & Views, April 2003 - Edited By E. L. Bynum
Fellowship Merger in the Works - By E. L. Bynum
Hollow Holidays - By Norman H. Wells
Jesus in Mecca - The Voice of the Martyrs
Mother Teresa's 50 Years of Doubts - The Fairhaven Fundamentalist
Booze Pushers -The National Statesman
Three Reasons I Am Not A Southern Baptist - From The Baptist Trumpet
Men with powerful influence have now determined that a number of separate Baptist Fellowships should merge into one giant Fellowship. The vocal leader of this movement seems to be Dr. John Rawlings. As far as I know he is the first one to go public with this plan. Dr. Rawlings has been one of the leaders of the Baptist Bible Fellowship International (BBFI) since it split with the World Baptist Fellowship back in 1950. For many years he was pastor of the large Landmark Baptist Church of Cincinnati, OH. According to what we have heard, he is now the head of the Rawlings Foundation. They seem to have a lot of money, because it has been reported that he has given large sums of money to the enterprises ran by Jerry Falwell. Be that as it may, it can be said that he has a powerful influence in the BBFI.
"The Rawlings Foundation sponsors an annual meeting of BBF state chairmen just before the Mid-Winter BBFI meeting each February. The main feature of the three day pre-meeting is to hear from `Dr. John' as he casts a vision for today's chosen leaders." (Statement on the bbfi.org/news site). Apparently this costs the Rawlings Foundation a good bit of money, but it gives Rawlings a great opportunity to influence the state chairmen of the BBFI.
According to the BBFI web page, "a meeting was proposed for September, 2004, to be hosted by Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga with an invitation to pastors in Southwide Baptist Fellowship, World Baptist Fellowship, Independent Baptist Fellowship International, and Baptist Bible Fellowship International to participate. These four groups include the majority of independent Baptist churches in America."
As an independent Baptist pastor for 42 years, I would like to correct the last sentence of the above quote. None of the four Fellowships mentioned above are truly independent Baptists, nor should any of the churches in these Fellowships carry the name independent Baptist.
If I may be so bold, I would like to recommend that all of the above Fellowships be dissolved. They will not do this I am sure, but if they don't, all those who want to be independent Baptists, both churches and preachers should withdraw from these unscriptural organizations. Then let all the rest join in one big Fellowship. There is not one verse of Scripture in the New Testament that authorizes a Fellowship organization. Neither is there a Scripture for a Baptist Convention or Baptist Association. There is just as much Scripture for one as there is for the other, which is zero.
Four different men started the above Fellowships. As a young man, I had the privilege of knowing them all. This does not mean that I was intimate friends with them, but I knew all of them personally. There are good things that I could say, and will gladly say, about each one of them. The four men were J. Frank Norris, G. B. Vick, Raymond Barber, and Lee Roberson.
The granddaddy of them all was J. Frank Norris, the founder of the World Baptist Fellowship (it had a different name at the time). He had broken his connections to the SBC over modernism. Southern Baptists would be a lot better off today if they had paid more attention to what he said. He was the pastor of the First Baptist Church, Ft. Worth, TX for more than 40 years. Part of that time he was also the pastor of the Temple Baptist Church, Detroit, MI, and he divided his time between the two churches. Vick and Barber both owe their ministry to the Norris influence. From my own personal observation, J. Frank Norris was the most powerful man in the pulpit that I ever heard. I do not say that without careful thought, because I have heard some of the most famous preachers who lived during his time, and since. I will never try to defend every thing that Norris did, nor will I ever be one of his critics. He probably had a greater influence on my life than any other man who has lived during my lifetime. As a boy growing up on a farm in Oklahoma, we often listened to his broadcasts on Sunday Night after getting home from church. He was on from 9:00 p.m. until midnight, if I remember correctly. From his ministry I learned to stand against modernism and to go into conflict with the captains of compromise. Some of his critics say that he had feet of clay. Every man has his weaknesses, but his strength and achievements cannot be overestimated. He was the moving influence for fundamental Baptists during the 20th Century, even though he died in 1952. I think that his biggest mistake was when he gradually organized the WBF.
I would like to give a side note concerning my own experience. I graduated from Bible Baptist Seminary, and I am thankful for all the good things I learned there. Even then the seeds of compromise were being sown. There were some teachers that were not entirely sound in their doctrine, but there were no modernists there at the time. They did not all agree on separation, or on doctrine. There was compromise with preachers and churches that were not sound doctrinally. This was done to get financial support and to get more students. By the time that I left the Seminary, I was disillusioned about the scripturalness of an organized Fellowship. Within a short time I came to the biblical conviction that such organizations were not scriptural. Consequently, my total pastorate has been independent of all organized fellowships. I thank God for the sweet fellowship between pastors and churches of like, precious faith, but there is no organization. In the New Testament, "fellowship" is not a noun.
Vick worked with Norris in the First Baptist Church, Ft. Worth, and then later for years as the Superintendent of the Temple Baptist Church, Detroit, MI. He was the president of the Bible Baptist Seminary, when I enrolled there in 1949. All seemed to be well between the two men, but underneath there was a controversy going on. In 1950, it came to head with a big Baptist blowup in Ft. Worth. This resulted in many pastors and churches withdrawing and starting the BBFI. This resulted in the Baptist Bible College of Springfield, MO. At the time I was in sympathy with the Norris group, but I have since come to see some of the right and the wrong with both groups. As a result of this split, Vick became the full pastor of Temple Baptist Church, Detroit. Norris died in 1952, but it was too late for any breach to heal.
G. B. Vick was a powerful influence in the Baptist Bible Fellowship International. There are many good things that could be said about his labors. I am glad that I was blessed by hearing him speak, and knowing his good stand on many issues. He helped to keep the BBFI on the original path until his death in 1975. Since that time, there has been a steady deterioration in the BBFI. Every year that passes, it seems to get worse and worse. In recent years a considerable number of churches have pulled out of the BBFI. Some of them really became independent Baptists, but others have made the mistake of organizing another Fellowship, which in time will go down the same road. Why build another unscriptural Fellowship, only to see it compromise down the road? They all eventually go that way. I personally heard Noel Smith, the able first editor of the Baptist Bible Tribune, say that no Fellowship could stay pure for more than 15 years, and then you would have to pull out of it. I wonder what he would think of the situation today?
After the death of Dr. J. Frank Norris there was a power struggle in the World Baptist Fellowship. Homer Ritchie became the pastor of First Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, where the Bible Baptist Seminary was located, Earl K. Oldham was the president of the Seminary. Thankfully for the good of the Seminary, Oldham prevailed, and the school was eventually moved to Arlington, TX. Ritchie led the First Baptist Church down the road of ruin, and virtual extinction. Earl Oldham was the leader in stabilizing the school and in renaming it Arlington Baptist Schools.
Raymond Barber was the leading pastor in establishing the Independent Baptist Fellowship International. I know Barber, and as a matter of fact we were in Bible School together. He became pastor of the Worth Baptist Church in Ft. Worth and had a very successful ministry there. He became president of the World Baptist Fellowship, and there was a power struggle between him and the people who controlled the College. This resulted in his leading a number of pastors into pulling out and organizing the IBFI, and establishing a new school. Barber is an able speaker and often has spoken in Sword of the Lord conferences and in the meetings of the Southwide Baptist Fellowship.
These first three fellowships have common roots, as they all came about as a result of the ministry of J. Frank Norris. He established the World Baptist Fellowship, and the BBFI and the IBFI are splits off of it.
Lee Roberson and the Southwide Baptist Fellowship have entirely different roots than the others. He was in the Southern Baptist Convention and was pastor of the Highland Baptist Church, Chattanooga, TN. Under his evangelistic ministry the Church grew and prospered. Disagreements with the SBC led him in a different direction. He established Tennessee Temple Schools which includes a college and seminary. This eventually led to the organizing of the Southwide Baptist Fellowship.
He had strong connections with the Sword of the Lord and Dr. John R. Rice. Roberson has been for many years a frequent speaker in conferences and churches. He is a person that would be very hard to dislike, if you knew him.
It is not my intention to besmirch the character of any of the four men. They all had strong characteristics of leadership, and they all have had powerful influences in the lives of many people. None of them was bad, but they all made mistakes, as all of us do. I am not implying that the four fellowships were simply the work of only these four men. There were many other able people who helped in the work of organizing and financing these movements.
Norris and Vick are both dead. Barber and Roberson are no longer pastors, but they are both active in preaching. Lee Roberson must be in his 90s, but I still see a demanding schedule of speaking engagements.
It is true of all movements that over time they have a strong tendency to decay. Soon a generation of leaders arises that does not know the issues, and does not have the same convictions as the founders. This was true in the case of Charles H. Spurgeon, the great English Baptist pastor of the 19th Century. When he died he left no successors and a deterioration of the church, school, and movement set in.
J. Frank Norris left no successor. G. B. Vick left no successor. As a result, the great First Baptist Church of Ft. Worth is gone, and the great Temple Baptist Church of Detroit is gone also. Norris was editor of the Fundamentalist which was a flaming sword against modernistic liberalism of every kind. Now the same paper is a hollow anemic news and publicity publication with no kinship to its original purpose. The Baptist Bible Tribune (BBFI) was very vocal in standing against modernism and false doctrine until the death of Editor Noel Smith. Now it is a colorful publicity magazine with little semblance to the original purpose of the paper. The two schools do not stand on the same convictions and doctrines on which they were founded. They may have more polish today, but they do not have the same substance they once had.
Now strong leaders are going to try and put these four separate movements together and glue them together with love. They think that one big Fellowship will have a much greater impact than they are presently having. All of these Fellowships have declined from their former convictions and doctrines. (We know a lot more about the first two than the last two). There has already been great compromise over the years, and to get Humpty Dumpty back together again there must be many other compromises.
The whole thing is a bad idea, and it shows the weakness of the sick Fellowships. If you are a patient in a hospital, and four or five doctors are in a huddle outside your room, that does not mean you are about to get good news. It means you are in a pickle, and the doctors are trying to figure out what to do with you.
To be honest, I have had a few friends in most of these four Fellowships. After publishing this article, I will most likely have none. That is the way life is when you take a stand.
The Baptist Bible Tribune of April 15, 2003 contains an interesting article titled, "First date... and maybe a goodnight kiss." It was written by Bill Monroe, President of Baptist Bible Fellowship International. Because of space, I will only print part of it below.
"Last fall the Baptist Bible Fellowship (along with some other independent Baptist fellowships) came under the fire of a Christian publication's editor. I met with that editor, and the Tribune published my report of that meeting in January. (Editor's note: He is talking about an article in the Sword of the Lord, written by Editor Shelton Smith. In the article Smith did give a quote that I had written for the Plains Baptist Challenger.)
"About that same time, I met with David Bouler, a leader among pastors in the Southwide Baptist Fellowship. Pastor Bouler had also been criticized by the same editor. As we discussed the matter, we wondered aloud why there were so many independent Baptist groups. The reasons for our divisions, primarily personality conflicts, no longer exist. The fellowships always had the same doctrinal DNA, but they had splintered over issues of personal separation (standards of dress), styles of music (a centuries long debate that probably began when someone stopped singing the psalter and wrote a hymn the first contemporary song), personalities, and secondary separation.
"In our conversation, we dreamed of how it could be a movement represented by thousands of pastors in great inspirational meetings, making a significant impact on our nation and world. We talked of how the independent movement has for many years been pushed further and further to the extremes both right and left.
"Meanwhile, our Articles of Faith (the basis of our fellowship) and the precious doctrines of soul liberty and the autonomy of the local church have been sacrificed to a demand for conformity in the areas of music, methods and associations. The result is an independent Baptist movement splintered into far too many small and ineffective fellowships, with the accompanying consequence that no fundamental Baptist group has enough resources to make the impact we otherwise could. This splintering is a luxury we can no longer afford, and this attitude has marginalized us as a movement when the need is greater than it ever has been. The prophet Isaiah described our state: `the children are come to the time of the birth and there is not strength to bear' (Isaiah 37:3)" (End of our quote from the Baptist Bible Tribune.)
There you can begin to see some of the issues that will have to be compromised for this merger to work. They include, and I quote, "issues of personal separation (standards of dress), styles of music (a centuries long debate that probably began when someone stopped singing the psalter and wrote a hymn the first contemporary song), personalities, and secondary separation." Many churches have left the BBFI over these very issues, and so fellowship leaders are seeking to gain strength by a merger with others who will compromise on these matters.
Personal separation does not matter to these people. Standards of dress are divisive to them. It doesn't matter to them if people come to church in miniskirts or shorts. Personal separation is a strong biblical doctrine along with modest apparel. To them contemporary music is OK, even if has the sensual rock beat and all that goes with it. There are many other issues at stake, such as Bible versions and church doctrine, to name a few.
These men know very well that there are great divisions over which Bible to use. Some stand for the King James Version, while many others prefer the new versions which are based upon inferior texts. They will have to compromise on this, or just agree that it doesn't matter, which would be a serious mistake. Some of these churches take alien immersion, while some do not. This too must be faced. Then there is the matter of the Lord's Supper. Some are open communion, others are close communion, while some are closed communion. This is important. These and a whole lot of other issues must be settled. Of course what they will try to say is that it will be up to each local church to decide these matters. So they must agree to not make an issue out of these doctrines. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3)
After all, Jerry Falwell is in the BBFI, and he has also joined the Southern Baptist Convention. John Rawlings is a close confident and friend with Jerry Falwell, and no doubt Falwell is all for the merger. Since Falwell has great buddies in the SBC, he could no doubt pull it off on that end. Anyway, that is where the whole thing will finally end up. Blind followers will cheerfully follow, never realizing the depths of compromise to which this will lead.
Will the merger marriage take place? I don't know, but if it does, why not let Jerry Falwell be best man at the wedding? No doubt there will be many who will line up to kiss the bride. The whole thing stinks to high heaven, and is an ecumenical new-evangelical compromise. If you intend to buy into this plan, you should read the sign "Let the Buyer Beware."
(Note: We mean no disrespect by using the names of these men rather than Rev., Dr. or whatever title they might prefer. The name their momma gave them is good enough for us.)
Below you will find another article that I downloaded from bbfi.org/news web page of Tuesday, February 25, 2003. It gives more information on the plan for the merger.
There is a saying, "God makes waves, men only ride them" but this month in California, there were some waves generated by men that will affect independent Baptists for some time to come. It is typical of Baptists and amoebas to divide on a regular basis so last week it came as "counter- cultural" from Dr. John Rawlings that independent Baptists come together as brethren to see what can be done to reach this lost world. Imagine such a thing!
The Rawlings Foundation sponsors an annual meeting of BBF state chairmen just before the Mid-Winter BBFI meeting each February. The main feature of the three day pre-meeting is to hear from "Dr. John" as he casts a vision for today's chosen leaders. His desire to put courage into men of God has made a difference for many years among Baptists. His raucous sense of humor and infectious laughter keeps the sessions from ever becoming boring.
This year he challenged state and national leaders from his heart to reverse the trend of splitting and to reach out to men of other independent Baptist groups. He proposed some common meetings for preaching and fellowship where men could share their burdens and ideas. He even dared to forecast a "coming together" of many independent Baptists for the formation of a larger group.
He invited such leaders as: Bill Monroe, Florence Baptist Temple in Florence SC; David Bouler, Highland Park Baptist Church, Chattanooga, TN; Tom Messer, Trinity Baptist Church, Jacksonville, FL; Dino Pedrone, New Testament Baptist Church, Miami, FL; Gary Coleman, Lavon Drive Baptist Church, Garland, TX; Willie Weaver, Worth Baptist Church, Fort Worth, TX; and David Bryant, President of Arlington Baptist College, Arlington, Texas. They and others came to listen and participate in the discussion.
Based on their responses, a meeting was proposed for September, 2004, to be hosted by Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga with an invitation to pastors in Southwide Baptist Fellowship, World Baptist Fellowship, Independent Baptist Fellowship International, and Baptist Bible Fellowship International to participate. These four groups include the majority of independent Baptist churches in America.
Not every Baptist will be happy about the idea but that is a personal choice. Dr. Rawlings has cast the vision ... it will be interesting to see who responds and what God does with them. I plan to be there!
Chapter 11 from the book, "The Religion Racket." Most religions in the United States use Sunday, the first day of the week, as a day of worship. This is called the Lord's Day. What happens on this day is a real indicator of the place that religion holds in this country.
We can see the decline in that the majority of churches have just one service a week ... and that is discontinued a lot of times in the summer months. The routine of churches in this country originally included a lot more services. There was always Sunday School and morning worship on Sunday mornings. There was a time of studying, preaching, praising, worshipping, etc. Everyone would return on Sunday nights for Evening Worship. This was a worship service which was characterized by a great emphasis on evangelism. Added to these was the Mid Week Prayer Meeting ... ordinarily on Wednesday. The church would assemble for a time of worship, praise and prayer. There was a time when most churches would assemble on Saturday nights in a kind of preparation for Sunday.
What has been mentioned were the "regular services" held every week. In addition, churches would have revival meetings of anywhere from one week to a month or more ... and folks came every night! Throughout the year there would be Bible Conferences, Training Courses, etc. Religion meant something then ... what happened?
The first to go was probably the Saturday night meetings. Folks found other things they would rather do on Saturday ... things that were not quite so religious. Next casualty was the Mid Week Prayer Meeting. As we became more self-sufficient we found we didn't need to pray as much ... besides, it took so much time. Sunday Evening Services lasted a little longer, but finally fell by the wayside. After all, folks didn't want to be fanatic about their religion ... and there were so many other things clamoring for attention. Along the way, revival meetings went out of style and were dropped along with all similar services. This leaves Sunday Morning services ... and they are just barely holding on. Already a lot of churches are closing down tight during the summer months. On any given Sunday morning there are more church members not attending church than are attending. How long?
Religious folks seem to find no inconsistency in using the Lord's Day as a day of play, visiting, loafing, etc. More and more it is just another workday. More and more businesses are open on Sunday. Less and less it is a Lord's Day. How long?
We have condensed our religion to an occasional one-hour service on Sunday morning ... and that still seems to be too much. Some have it down to two a year ... Christmas and Easter! These are the two really big days on the religious calendar ... Christmas and Easter. There are other holidays, but these two are by far the most important.
Christmas is supposed to be the celebration of the birth of Christ. This explanation is needed because it could hardly be recognized as such from the way it is observed. This celebration of the birthday of Christ didn't start until about three or four hundred years after his birth, but it has come a long way since.
Christmas supposedly is a time of peace on earth and good will towards men. It is a time of expressing our love one toward another in gift giving. At Christmas we are supposed to be particularly aware of spiritual values, and our minds and hearts are to be attuned to our Saviour in a wonderful time of closeness and fellowship.
That Christmas is not all it is supposed to be is very evident. Every year we hear the familiar cries about putting Christ back into Christmas. We are admonished not to forget the real meaning of Christmas. Every year the same petitions go forth but no one really pays much attention.
Actually, what is Christmas? Christmas is large crowds of greedy shoppers, tired and short tempered, jamming the stores in a spending spree that grows bigger every year.
Christmas is sending Christmas cards. This is a very unique custom. About the only attention these cards really get is to be counted. You judge how well you are liked by how many cards you receive. In order to get cards you must send cards, and this necessitates maintaining an ever increasing list of names and addresses of folks who are obligated to send you a card because you sent them one. This way you get a lot of cards, and everyone will know you have a lot of friends with whom you are popular. If you receive more cards than you mail you are something really special.
Christmas is spending a fortune on Christmas trees and decorations that have no spiritual significance. Christmas is kindling greed in a child's heart. A youngster who is already overindulged will sit down on a Christmas morning and rip through one package after another and always seems to have an expression on his face that says, "Is that all l got?"
Christmas is the birthday of Christ, and Santa Claus gets all the attention. The question is, "Do you believe in Santa Claus?" not, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?"
Christmas is taking back all those gifts, which were just what you needed and exchanging them. Christmas is a time of office parties and other types of drunken orgies. It's a time when it is supposed to be all right to make love to your secretary and your neighbor's wife.
Christmas is reveling in the name of religion, where drunkenness is substituted for devotion, and where there is more greed than God. Christmas is doing for the needy once a year what we should be doing all year. Christmas is using the money we have saved all year in a Christmas Club to buy everybody gifts they don't need and probably won't use.
In view of the covetousness, greed, drunkenness, reveling, and hypocrisies that bury Christmas, maybe we need to change our slogan. Instead of trying to put Christ in Christmas maybe we should take Christ out of Christmas. Let it be what it is and quit disguising it as a religious holy day.
Then there is Easter. Each church probably has its largest attendance on Easter. It seems everyone goes to church on Easter. Easter is the day when the resurrection of Christ is celebrated. The resurrection of Christ presents the prospects of victory over death. The symbol of this day is an Easter bunny bringing hen eggs. Easter, as everybody knows, is the time to buy new clothes and strut to church in the Easter parade.
It doesn't seem to strike anyone as particularly odd that the wild, depraved, drunken orgy that takes place in New Orleans every year is associated with Easter.
How handicapped it would be to celebrate victory over death one hour a year...yet this is what a great percentage of church-goers are supposed to be content doing. What we really are putting on display at Easter is not our new clothes but our old shams and hypocrisies.
It seems that real religion would insist that the tainted hands of greed, commercialism, and drunken reveling be taken off of what are supposed to be holy days.
The city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia is the spiritual capital of Islam where the Kabah, the holiest Muslim site, is located. As documented in the book "The Islamic Invasion" by Robert Morey, the Kabah contained 360 stone gods with the moon god being the chief deity. Thousands of inscriptions to the "daughters of Allah," the moon god, have been excavated in the North with a crescent moon carved above them. Many Islamic flags contain this crescent moon, and it is on the top of many mosques. Although the name of the moon god was Sin, his title was Al-ilah, "the deity." Until 100 years ago, Westerners involved in these excavations understood this and called Islam "Mohammedism," reflecting that this was a cult designed by a man, like the naming of Buddhism after Buddha.
Today, Mecca has a population of 550,000. Christians are not allowed to enter Mecca. Swissair cannot fly over Mecca because of the cross painted on its tail. VOM recently financed a trip of Muslim converts to Christ (from another country) to meet with the underground church in Mecca. Meeting in homes, these secret Christians offered praises to the Redeemer, who gives eternal life. They prayed for the many souls in this large city who have not yet found the Door Jesus. In Mecca, the crescent moon may be on the outside, but the Son is on the inside! Pray these secret Christians will continue to effectively share Christ's love in Islam's capital.
The Voice of the Martyrs
In diaries scheduled to be published this month in Italy, the late Mother Teresa described terrible, nagging doubts that plagued her mind for the last 50 years of her life. The Italian newspaper II Messeggero said, "The real Mother Teresa was one who for one year had visions and who for the next 50 had doubts until her death." In 1958 she wrote, "My smile is a great cloak that hides a multitude of pains." In another letter she said: "The damned of hell suffer eternal punishment because they experiment with the loss of God. In my own soul, I feel the terrible pain of this loss. I feel that God does not want me, that God is not God and that he does not really exist."
The Bible says that the true believer in Jesus Christ has eternal life as a gift of God and that it is not of works but of faith (John. 3:16; Eph. 2:89). The Bible gives the true believer a blessed know- so salvation (I John. 5:1113). The believer's hope is not an uncertain thing but is "an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast" (Heb. 6:1819). Mother Teresa, on the other hand, put her faith in Rome's false sacramental gospel that can never give assurance, because it is a mixture of faith and works.
copied from The Fairhaven Fundamentalist
For the last decade sales of wine, beer and distilled liquor have all markedly declined even as the total population is increasing each year. Some California wineries have recently gone bankrupt. A number of booze pushers have diversified by buying legitimate companies a hedge against further declines in sales.
To try to lure non-drinkers to the ranks of the addicted, the liquor traffic, with help from some willing helpers in the medical community, are using junk science to claim that their products will improve health if used "moderately."
Of course, the more than twenty million problem drinkers and alcoholics in America all began their relationship with beverage alcohol as "moderate" drinkers. Since ethyl alcohol is an addictive drug many of the "moderate" users eventually become enslaved to the bottle.
We would ask those making health claims for liquor why they do not just urge the consumption of straight alcohol to do the job. Of course, they might respond, alcohol taken straight will kill people. Why? Ethyl alcohol is a poison. The only reason all users of liquor do not die the first time they drink is because the poison is diluted.
Any medical benefits found in alcoholic beverages come from the grapes or grains used in their manufacture. Those elements are available in juice, bread and cereal without the harm that ethyl alcohol brings to the human body.
There are still no insurance companies that give lower rates to drinkers. Abstainers still live longer and healthier than do drinkers of booze. No clinics exist to rehabilitate those "afflicted" with abstinence BUT the affliction of alcohol addiction has spawned a multi-billion dollar industry of rehabilitation.
Shakespeare had it right when he penned: "Oh, that men would put a poison into their mouth to steal their brain away." The Bible says "at the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." -The National Statesman
SADLY, we have come to a place in the Independent Baptist movement where for all practical purposes it is becoming more and more difficult to discern the differences between Independent and Southern Baptists. Last month when we wrote an article about the Southwide Baptist Fellowship preaching two Southern Baptist's, many wrote expressing their curiosity about why that was a problem. Clearly we have moved a long way from our founding landmarks. With these thoughts in mind I thought we would give the three reasons why we are not Southern Baptists.
The Lord's apostles planted autonomous congregations and they did not build denominational structures yoking the congregations together. The whole concept of the associational missionary coming by to run the business meeting to run off the pastor is not only wicked but is unscriptural to the core.
The Southern Baptist Convention is one of the chief members of the World Baptist Alliance, an organization almost as radical as the National Council of Churches in America and the World Council of Churches. The Southern Baptist Convention provides a whopping 34% of the total budget of the Baptist World Alliance. In 2000, SBC Executive Committee President Dr. Morris Chapman stated that Southern Baptist churches will "benefit by remaining very active participants in the Baptist World Alliance" (Foundation, Nov.Dec. 2000, p. 45). Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu, who denies Bible miracles and call for the ordination of homosexuals, spoke at a Baptist World Alliance meeting in 1988. Brutal communist dictator Fidel Castro spoke to the Baptist World Alliance in 2000.
Though there are many godly Southern Baptist people, mainstream Southern Baptist will be the first to tell you that they are conservative in their theology but do not want what they call "legalistic" preaching on matters of dress, entertainment and fellowship. The popular community church, "give- the-people-whatever-they-want" mentality is the promoted dogma of the SBC growth movement. The First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, considered one of the SBC's most conservative, recently hosted a "Hard-Core-a-Thon" concert that kicked off a new youth ministry. A picture in the Dallas Morning News showed "young people slam-dancing the night away." I don't want that junk.
Copied ... The Baptist Bible Trumpet 12/02 (Via Maranatha Baptist Watchman)