SBC-Today (vs.) Free Will Baptist Theology

I won’t take up a lot of your time today with this topic, because quite honestly the Obsessed Anti-Calvinist over at SBC-Today do not deserve much of anyone’s time.  

However, I would like to ask, and answer, a question that has been repeatedly ask of me by up and coming Southern Baptist Pastors…

Here is the Question:  “What is the difference between the theology of the SBC-Today/New Traditionalist in the SBC, and Free Will Baptist Theology?      

Here is my Answer:  “Other than the Free Will Baptist being Theologically Consistent and Intellectually Honest, NOT MUCH!”

Grace for the Journey,      

Why SBC-Today’s Anabaptist concerns me.

I have debated writing this post for some time. The reality that anything written can be misconstrued is enough by itself to cause hesitation. The last thing I want to do is leave the wrong impression with anyone. I love Anabaptist and I love Calvinists. I work with both and even some in other groups. So I write the following to voice concerns that I am seeing and hearing. I write to add clarification as to why I did NOT signed the Anabaptist/Traditional Statement. I write to reveal why this issue of growing Anabaptist influence in the SBC is problem. And since I write best by making lists, I will compile a list of my concerns while making it clear that NO priority is given other than the first one on the list.

The list will include specific and generic issues tied to people and promotion. Again, these are my concerns and are questions that I have yet to get consistent answers from (NEW) Anabaptist/Traditionalist. The older SBC Anabaptist/Traditionalist that I have known and respected were totally different.

My Concerns:

1. Ask 10 different Anabaptist what they believe must occur for a person to be saved, and you will get at least 5 different answers.

2. Do Anabaptist really believe that John 3:16 shows that God loves those he sends to Hell?

3. Do Anabaptist really believe that all people are born with an equal opportunity of salvation?

4. At what point do Anabaptist believe salvation occurs?

5. How can Anabaptist call Calvinists divisive when it is the Anabaptist who have web sites and blogs that repeatedly state that Calvinism is a danger to the SBC?

Here is an example:  SBC-Today

6. Old Anabaptist Pastors are speaking and writing articles claiming that all a child needs to do in order to be saved is “repeat this prayer”.  If this is true, does the pastor have any responsibility to make sure the child really understands what sin, repentance, and faith in Jesus truly are?  Is there any minimum age at which a child should be led through this prayer?  I have known children who were talking at 30 months… is that two young?  Why?  

7.  Why are Anabaptists opposed to Lifeway sponsoring The Gospel Coalition conferences?

8. Why are Anabaptists opposed to Lifeway promoting anything written by a Calvinists?

9. Why are Anabaptist leaders NOT doing more to instill that Anabaptist pastors must be upfront with their soteriology?

10. Why are Anabaptists leaders sending out DVD/CD’s by Jerry Vines warning churches about the dangers of Calvinist doctrine and pastors. If there is no move to purge the SBC of Calvinism; then why are they doing this?

11. Why the aggression from Anabaptist because many in the SBC do NOT agree with them?

12. If the BF&M is enough, why do we have the Anabaptist pushing their “New” statement of faith that was written to exclude their Calvinist brothers in the SBC?  

13. Why do we have two seminaries pushing an Anabaptist agenda upon the unsuspecting young men our Southern Baptist Churches are sending them? 

14. Since when did Anabaptist and Southern Baptist go together? The day-to-day operations of the church do not even match!

15. If there is no plan by the Anabaptist to purge the SBC of Calvinism, why then do we have a SBC Professor writing an Anti-Calvinist statement of faith, and State Executive Directors pressuring their staff to sign it, and asking Local Association DOM’s to sign it?

16. Why are Anabaptist upset that Lifeway did a survey that offered respondents no option other than saying they were, essentially, either Calvinists or Arminians?  Did they want Semi-Pelagianism to be an option?

17. With the exception of eternal security, since when were Southern Baptist and Methodist so much alike? John Wesley was my kind of Methodist, but today’s “NEW Anabaptist” are nothing close in belief and practice.  From John Wesley’s own writing on the doctrine of election I think they would even condemn him as a Calvinist?…


In case you are not aware by this point… This article was written as a “complete” parody of  Tim Guthrie's article over at SBC-Today that sadly was not written as a parody.

Grace for the Journey,      

“Baptist Identity" Movement Endorses Jimmy Jackson

The Baptist Identity Movement have chosen their man for SBC President and it’s Jimmy Jackson.

If the Fighting Fundamentalist over at SBC Today have found their man in Jimmy Jackson, that is enough to give me pause in considering him for President of the SBC.

Just saying…

SBC Today - Three Blind Mice

The “Three Blind Mice” over at SBC Today are now decrying, of all things; “Great Commission Giving”.

Are you kidding me? I wish I were making this up… but, sadly it is not April fool’s Day, and I am not making this up. Today Tim Rogers posted a lengthy screed entitled “Great Commission Giving–The Dumbing Down of the Cooperative Program”

Apparently Tim is deeply concerned about the Great Commission Task Force recommendation to give the local Baptist Church the authority to direct its mission giving to the Southern Baptist causes it deems are the most important and worthy of receiving their missions offerings.

Just how Tim equates this recommendation of the Great Commission Task Force with the “Dumbing Down of the Cooperative Program” is anyone’s guess. Personally, I think Tim is just spewing inflammatory rhetoric here, but that is nothing new. Beyond the absurd title, Tim goes on in this article to make the ridiculous claim that this recommendation actually “mutes the Cooperative Program while quashing local church autonomy.”

Yes, Tim I can clearly see how actually giving local churches a voice in the SBC as to how their mission dollars are being spent would quash the Baptist Principal of local church autonomy… NOT!

Tim tries, unsuccessfully, in this article to build his argument against this recommendation by bringing in charts and comments from other bloggers and by saying over and over that this will dumb down the Cooperative Program. As if saying it over and over will win the day. It will not.

Reading this article through it is not difficult to discover what has set Tim off… He writes:

“The combining of the CP with other designated mission monies has not seen this problem in the past. Why? Churches were not supposed to be wooed by entities to give for special projects. No one knows when this changed but it did and we are reaping the bad fruit from this practice. Now we have churches giving more of their funds directly to various entities.”

O the tragedy of it all!!! Southern Baptist Churches have had their local autonomy quashed… Local Southern Baptist Churches are in ever increasing numbers deciding (of all things at the local church level) just where their missions giving will go. This must not be allowed to happen in the Southern Baptist Convention!!! --- [Sarcasm Intended]

To truly understand what has the Blind Mice over at SBC Today so upset with this recommendation, one only need to realize just WHO these local churches in ever increasing numbers are NOT sending their missions offering to, and the fact that under this recommendation direct giving to entities would be counted toward qualifying churches for sending messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Contrary to Tim’s opinion, this recommendation is a huge step in the right direction for building a brighter future for the SBC… It is in my opinion long overdue and is something that will in practice build greater cooperation throughout the SBC by getting the local churches directly involved in the work of the SBC (something sorely missing today). And just the opposite of what Tim says; by keeping these decisions at the local church level it will empower and undergird the autonomy of the local church… not quash it. Any claim to the contrary is absurd at best, and perhaps even disingenuous.

Grace Always,