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,      

A Statement of the Calvinist Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation

IV. Salvation

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

A. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.

Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.

B. Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.

C. Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person's life.

D. Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.

Genesis 3:15; Exodus 3:14-17; 6:2-8; Matthew 1:21; 4:17; 16:21-26; 27:22-28:6; Luke 1:68-69; 2:28-32; John 1:11-14,29; 3:3-21,36; 5:24; 10:9,28-29; 15:1-16; 17:17; Acts 2:21; 4:12; 15:11; 16:30-31; 17:30-31; 20:32; Romans 1:16-18; 2:4; 3:23-25; 4:3ff.; 5:8-10; 6:1-23; 8:1-18,29-39; 10:9-10,13; 13:11-14; 1 Corinthians 1:18,30; 6:19-20; 15:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17-20; Galatians 2:20; 3:13; 5:22-25; 6:15; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-22; 4:11-16; Philippians 2:12-13; Colossians 1:9-22; 3:1ff.; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; 2 Timothy 1:12; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 2:1-3; 5:8-9; 9:24-28; 11:1-12:8,14; James 2:14-26; 1 Peter 1:2-23; 1 John 1:6-2:11; Revelation 3:20; 21:1-22:5.

Truth for Today

GRITS For the SBC

G - Great Commission Focused
R - Repentance from Arrogance and Divisiveness
I  - Intentional in Seeking Unity
T - Total Commitment to the BFM2000
S - Sensitive to the Views of Others

Like it our not... Southern Baptist are a very diverse group of people.  You may not agree, but I believe that is a good thing!  I know there are those within the Southern Baptist family who are obsessed, it would appear, with imposing their identity and doctrine upon all Southern Baptist regardless of the utter destruction such an agenda would have to the Convention if successful. 

I believe there is great strength in diversity, even if it means that we must at times agree to disagree on some pretty important stuff.  Other denominations have gone down the path of seeking a very "narrow identity", and sometimes even a "forced conformity", and each time it has not ended well for them.  

Just as most of us have our own preference for what we like to eat for breakfast, most of us have a preference for the church in which we worship.  We want breakfast made "our way"... and we church done "our way".  Let me just say that "there is absolutely noting wrong in either of these".  One of the great blessing of freedom in this great nation is that if I don't like what they are serving for breakfast at one restaurant I can simply go somewhere else.  Don't like what they are serving at McDonald's?  Then go to Waffle House.  Don't like what they are serving at Waffle House?  Then go to Denny's.  No, where we get into trouble as Southern Baptist is when we feel the need to order breakfast for everyone else.  

Have you ever saw a couple at a restaurant and the man ordered for both himself and his wife (without asking her)?  I don't know about you, but on the few occasions that I have witnessed this I got a knot in the pit of my stomach because it was obvious to all that the wife was living under the domination of her husband.  Is this what any of us really want for the Southern Baptist Convention?  I certainly hope not, because the movie Sleeping with the Enemy depicts what will happen if any one group of Southern Baptist think they can "rule" over the convictions of other believers... it will not end well. 

Perhaps it is time that all parties within the Southern Baptist Convention started allowing their brothers and sisters to order off the menu for themselves?  And don't forget the G.R.I.T.S "I'll have mine with a little cheese please". 

Grace for the Journey,    

Southern Baptist Theological Confusion

As I have been saying for a long, long time... The Majority of Southern Baptist are "Atheological".  

Atheological refers to one's lack of  concern for theology, and this new survey from LifeWay research shows that about 50% of Southern Baptist Pastors, if not unconcerned about theology, are at the very least "Greatly Confused!" 


"If a person does not care about their theology, they miss the importance of rooting their entire life in the true knowledge of God and a true, coherent, rational, theological worldview. A person's relationship with God is built on the foundation of what one believes about God and what it means to be right with God, and this is the most important determining factor in shaping the way a person lives. An atheological person does not seriously reflect on their own foundational worldview assumptions (e.g., what is truth, who is God, does this matter?), nor do they see how doing so would be relevant to everyday life." - [http://www.mormonwiki.org/Atheological_tendency] 


Some are trying to use the above survey data to say that the majority of Southern Baptist have a problem with the growing influence of Calvinism in the SBC.  If that is true then an equal majority of Southern Baptist have a problem with the lingering influence of Arminian (Non-Calvinism) in the SBC.  But neither of these are what this survey truly shows... 


No, this survey shows that, sadly, over 50% of Southern Baptist Pastors are "atheological".  


I don't have any data to back this up, but it is my suspicion that this is largely a generational issue as theology was not stressed in seminary in the previous generations of Southern Baptist as, thankfully, it is today.  I pray that as the years go by that we begin to see an improvement in these numbers.  


Grace for the Journey   

Florida Independent Blues

Florida Independent Blues, Company B, 3rd Florida Infantry

The 3rd Infantry Regiment was formed near Pensacola, Florida, in July, 1861. It recruited from the counties of St. Johns, Hernando, Jefferson, Duval, Wakulla, Madison, Columbia, and Suwanee. The unit served along the coast at Talbot Island and Cedar Keys, then moved to Mobile. After fighting at Perryville it was assigned to Preston's, Stovall's, Finley's, and J. A. Smith's Brigade, and during December, 1862, consolidated with the 1st Florida Infantry Regiment. The 3rd was engaged at Murfreesboro and Jackson, then participated in the campaigns of the Army of Tennessee from Chickamauga to Bentonville. It was organized with 950 officers and men, and the 1st/3rd lost twenty-six percent of the 531 engaged at Murfreesboro and thirty-four percent of the 273 in action at Chickamauga. In December, 1863, this command totaled 240 men and 119arms, but only a remnant surrendered in April, 1865. The field officers were Colonel William S. Dilworth; Lieutenant Colonels Lucius A. Church, Elisha Mashburn, and Arthur J. T. Wright; and Major John L. Phillips.

Dance in the Rain

No matter what you are facing today...

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." (Psalms 23)

Quote for Today:

[Freedom is not befitting of, nor long held by, an Immoral People!]

It is important for us to remember that our Freedom comes from God alone... and not man. It is also important for us to remember that as Christians we have an obligation to Vote For Godly Men.

A Wicked man is incapable of ruling well... The Scriptures put it this way: "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked bears rule, the people mourn." (Proverbs 29:2)

So in choosing whom to vote for, the believer bears the responsibility of not only knowing the public policies of the candidates but also knowing their personal values.

Grace for the Journey,

Greg

Google To Donate $11.5 Million To Fight Slavery | Fox News

Google To Donate $11.5 Million To Fight Slavery | Fox News:

Tech giant Google is donating $11.5 million to organizations fighting to end the slavery of 27 million people around the world.

It is believed to be the largest corporate grant ever devoted to the intervention and rescue of people being held, forced to work or provide sex against their will.

Google made the announcement Wednesday as part of its $40 million, end-of-year charitable donations. In total, the tech company donated more than $100 million in 2011.

Anti-slavery organizations International Justice Mission, the Polaris Project and Slavery Footprint will receive the bulk of the latest grant.

Much of their work will be focused on helping people being forced to work against their will or trafficked in India, as well as raising awareness about the issue here in the U.S.

In the aftermath of the "War of Northern Aggression" (U.S. Civil War) the Victors sought to justify their invasion and total destruction of the Old South, including the death of more Americans than all those who would died in both World wars, Korea, and Vietnam combined, by telling themselves and the world that this devastating (and completely unnecessary) war was fought to free the slaves in the South.

The truth of history has proven this to be a great lie, yet our New Masters in Washington continue to this very day to defend their actions during and following the U.S. Civil War as necessary to free the slaves in the South. If this were indeed the truth, that the invasion of the South and death of 500,000 Americans, was justified by the freeing of the Southern Slaves (for many slaves in the north remained slaves until their death many years after the end of the war) then I ask you "Where is the outcry from our Masters in Washington over the 27 MILLION held in slavery around the world today?"

Our Masters in Washington are willing to spend Billions and Billions to fight a war on terror... and yet they are unwilling to lift even one finger to free the staggering number of 27 MILLION people that are held in slavery around the world today. Why is this so???

In case you have not noticed Friends, I am through drinking the politically correct Cool-Aid... and while others may remain silent when it comes to defending the honor and integrity of the Christian Men and Women of the Old South, I will not.

If you have not read the old book "A Defense of Virginia and the South" by R.L. Dabney, published by Sprinkle Publications I encourage you to do so... It will go a very long way in enlightening you to the truth on this issue... and in the process you just might gain some insight into the gross abuse of power that we see on a daily basis in Washington today.

Grace for the Journey,