"Join or Die"

Among some, the proceeding topics covered here will be heavily scrutinized, criticized and shrugged off as just another apostate way of thinking, as the ramblings of yet another complacent, compromising, Christian who does this or that. Many things posted here will in all likelihood be categorized by some as another trait of “lukewarmness” or passive Christianity in the “Church”, when it is neither.

Evidence with faith is a wonderful combination. In a court of law, both sides must present as evidence what they believe to be a “burden of proof”, to prove their case. To the Christian, however, it is not as simple. We have people on both sides of a matter who consider themselves to be true believers in the word of God, who are both using the same A.V. 1611 King James Bible to try to prove opposite points. If only we had the “luxury” of being bound by a court of law to gather and reason to see what the truth actually is!

We are held by a higher court, not a court of law, but a “kingly” court, with a righteous King who gave us His righteous words. Not only did He give us His words, but He gave us men in history to “expound more perfectly” the Word of God unto us. We understand dispensations now due to the life-long labor of notable Christians prior to our generations. We understand the the roots of the Bible now more so than any other generation. Has this knowledge been to our own detriment?

I have learned from experience that most men who are of a certain “sort” that I will discuss will never go through any length of time discussing or reasoning these things. They hastily scoff and dismiss, hurling scripture at you to appease their seared consciences. Many Independent Pastors and preachers can defend the Bible with great ease, but they can't defend their behavior. Examination and consideration are healthy Bible principles. It would behoove the Baptist to practice a little humility of life when delving into such things. Psalms 26:2 ~ Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.

There will be many references to men in these coming post that will be specifically and directly aimed at a “sort” or a “sect” of Fundamental Baptist. There are many Independents who love the preeminence as much as the clergy whose very hypocrisy we ourselves hold in contempt! Many of these men who instead of following Biblical patterns of ministry, have chosen to invent ministries or follow “patterns” or “traditions” of men of old, or men of other ages, than the very patterns of life and ministry we see in Christ and Paul in the New Testament.

They have as well devised ways, systems, programs, and statements of faith that give them all authority in their special “callings” and their prescribed “ministries”. They refuse to reason or discuss matters with those who disagree with them about how things should be operated so vehemently that the person calling them into question runs the risk of being excommunicated or “churched” for “causing dissension”. This sort will slander, discredit, compare, measure, and literally go “medieval” on the dissenter who stands against them, saved or lost, as if they were a reincarnation of King Richard the Lionheart during the Crusades.

Many men think the proper reaction to what they perceive to be “persecution” or resistance that they may be receiving from their flocks, congregations, or masses is to retaliate with hard preaching, sin preaching, prophet-style preaching, and unorthodox styles of ministering. Many of these Independent Baptists have long made it tradition to evoke the spirit of men in the past whom they admire (for example Martin Luther, the John Wesley, circuit riders, or even preachers from our own generation) as well as verses, stripped from their context in history and in dispensation to prove their salt. Though these men were extraordinary men, should we be attracted to their spirit or the work of the Holy Spirit? We should consider our own ways.

Men who can no longer justify their conduct with the Bible will call anyone who disagrees with them a “hyper” dispensationalist, unsaved, or deceived, and will trash them over the course of time with lying and deceitful words to push them out of the fold. I have seen this happen many times, to many Christians. It is a wicked practice no different than the excommunicating of a member of the Church of Rome, whereas in our “circles” this act can easily be done for something as minor as disagreements on the simplest matters. It is about control and fellowship of “our own spirits”, not fellowship of THE Spirit.

It has become common place in many churches now to preach for bloodlust. They love a good fight. They love war. They thrive off of confrontation with both Christians and the unbeliever. It's a warfare, and we are soldiers, right? They have left a wake of confrontation, concision, corruption, confusion, and the end result is usually captivity of some sort for the Christian and driving away of the lost and babes in Christ. Those that are not driven away are then held captive to the standards and ideologies of these men which are no more scripturally relevant than sacrificing bulls and goats to take away sin. We have become accountable to them, and not Him. There can be no other way but the way that they are doing it. "God's way or the highway!" Some of these Independent men are often so extreme that the only choice that is left for sensible people who may not agree with their methods or conversation of life is to remove themselves from such a fellowship and seek spiritual unity with another group of believers. There is, many times, no latitude in these cases. “Join or Die” is the message of unity coming out of many Independent churches today!

They will deceitfully use our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul, Isaiah, Jeremiah and any other prophet of God or preacher that got in someone’s face about God or sin as a justification to do the same themselves. We love this stuff. We look for these traits in our revival preachers. We remember the “fire from heaven” when thinking of past revivals and camp meetings.

You that are reading this most likely know of what “sort” I am discussing. They are deceiving the “busy in much work” Christian who usually does not even have time for his own spiritual life or family life due to the guilt-laden messages of the necessity of our “work”, “always abounding in the work of the Lord”. Or, they are busy about the “Lord’s work”, guilting the “ignorant” Christians who may have just recently been saved, or even those who have been saved for a while, who through haste, end up being led into a form of godliness through religious service, but they never get established and “grounded and settled” in the Word. “Join or Die” should become our slogan now as Baptists

If you know by now that I am talking about you and you disagree, you should probably just keep on about your life, preaching the God of the Old Testament, slamming the sinners and sodomites, filleting the layman in the church that pays your bills and puts gas in your car while piously begging for money. Continue with the dangerous propagation of a possibly perverted gospel which produces perverted or forced conversions, fishing for retreads, and unlearned Christians to have your vain glory. You will get to glory with your one hundred saved and your one thousand offended. Keep blessing America, putting God back in the schools, building your kingdoms, inventing your programs, fighting the devil, abridging freedom of religion for others, protesting, standing as a soldier onward as to war, decapitating those who stand against you as you progress through life, offending, reproaching, and whatever you deem that is justifiable for you to do that you claim to see in the Word of God. We Baptist know how to wrest the scriptures better than anyone! We are doing dangerous things with his word! All in His name.

We have handled the word of God deceitfully, crying of our rights and freedom being trampled under foot as if they were under the Baptist banner of blood, fully living up to our title as Laodicean Christians, concerned with the "people's rights". We have corrupted the gospel in thinking that our actions with saved and lost should mirror old saints of God from previous generations and ages as well as many characters in the Bible.

We sound like salesmen advertising and pitching, “hurry today, don’t delay, before time runs out, behold now is the day", etc. We expect to see decision and reaction. We are living by sight and not by faith. We misuse the Great Commission that Christ gave to his disciples by preaching a different gospel and using the command to "go" as a cause for nearly every tradition, program, and method of man we see prevalent today in our Baptist society. “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” and “pull them out of the fire” for God.

Many a young Christian has no idea the history behind the traditions we adhere to so strictly in our churches. Or simply, why we do what we do. Many an old Christian is too comfortable in their traditions to change now. We were taught to think all we do is Biblical. Wouldn’t it have to be, hence the name “Bible Believers”?

We always see the banners with the Great Commission from Matthew, Mark, or Luke in churches everywhere. We just assume this is the gospel. We just assume the Great Commission should be the root of all ministry activity. So it would only be natural for a fired up, milk-fed babe in Christ who is full of zeal to want to be like Hudson Taylor, George Whitfield, D.L. Moody, Martin Luther, the Anabaptists, the Waldensians, and many more members of HIS body who boldly stood for the same or varying truths in their different ages, with some in fact shedding their blood unto death.

In many ways, some of these figures are directly responsible for freedom of truth, doctrine, dispensation, and the Word of God we have today. We should be thankful for these men. We should be encouraged by their sacrifice. The question remains though, should we imitate these remarkable men in our day? Should we follow them and their manners of life in our day? Should our focus be to preach the gospel of the Great Commission with confusion or the gospel of the grace of God, given to Paul, with understanding? They do not carry the same tidings.