The Independent Baptist Movement - Part 2 of 4

Its Ideals, Its Integrity, Its Imperatives

By DR. SHELTON SMITH
(Read Part One)
(Read Part Three)

 

In the April 18, 2008, issue of the SWORD OF THE LORD, we featured the first part in this series entitled “The Independent Baptist Movement.” We come now to the second article in the series in which we will give what we believe to be substantive reasoning for why independents should maintain a clear line of separation from the Southern Baptist Convention.

 

Why Do We Raise the Issue?

In the past twenty-five years there has been a deliberate courtship of the independent Baptist men by certain conservative men in the Southern Baptist Convention. The result has been that a number of prominent independent Baptist churches have officially aligned themselves with the Convention.

The question that must be asked is, “Why is this happening?” I want to be kind in addressing this, but be assured I will also speak plainly and frankly.

 

1. An element of naiveté! Some independent Baptist men want to believe that somehow everything is going to work out for everybody. They do not have the heart to stand up and hold the line. They simply do not see far enough down the street to perceive the danger. They just want to love everybody and have all of us get along. There is simply no rhyme or reason by which they are willing to stand up against the compromise of others. They have no fight in them, they say. It is, in my judgment, immature and simple naiveté.

 

2. An absence of discernment! When compromise and other unwise practices present themselves, they do not typically carry a placard which clearly proclaims their true nature. To the contrary, they are notorious for putting on the spit and polish to make their less-than-honorable intentions look honorable.

 

If you and I do not possess a degree of spiritual discernment, the culprits (compromise, carnality and corruption) may actually ensnare us into becoming complicit with them.

 

The lack of discernment on the part of some independent Baptist men concerning the Southern Baptist Convention leaves them vulnerable.

 

3. Unwillingness to pay a price! Some second-generation and third-generation independent Baptist men have paid little or no price at all for the privilege to be independent. They’ve never been inside the Convention. They don’t know both sides of the equation.

 

Harold Sightler, Lester Roloff, Lee Roberson, John R. Rice, Jack Hyles and a host of other men paid a heavy price for leaving the Convention to become independent.

 

When some of our brethren today become flirtatious with the Convention, one of the causes for so doing is truly that they have paid no real price.

 

This conflict that separates the independent crowd from the Convention crowd is not a battle with personalities. Of course we should love the folks in the Convention. I have dear friends inside the Convention; some of them are personal friends of a lifetime. I love them dearly, but the Convention is still an issue. It is an obstacle of offense of sufficient size that I cannot simply overlook it.

 

So even though I have friends there, I will not compromise my platform and my principles by featuring them. I do not want my family, my friends, etc., to be lured into the Convention because I give it place.

 

So What’s the Beef With the Southern Baptist Convention in 2008?

Some Convention men and some independents want everyone to believe that the “holy war” waged by the conservatives (1979–2004, approximately) settled everything. They want us to believe that the conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention erased all the issues that necessitated our separation from them.

Their claims, however, are little more than public relations gestures. The substance of the issues with the Southern Baptist Convention in 2008 is still significant. Just consider:

 

1. The Southern Baptist Convention of 2008 is more ecumenical than ever before!

Ecumenical activities are commonplace practice among the SBC churches, and by the denomination as well. The Graham Crusades and the Palau Crusades have been the pacesetters for them. It is not unusual these days to see the leading conservative SBC pastors advertised as speakers at some charismatic event or otherwise vastly ecumenical gathering.

 

About ten years ago when I saw Dr. Adrian Rogers on the 700 Club, I wrote him a note expressing my disappointment at seeing him in that venue. He responded by saying that he hoped his presence there would influence them. I assured him that, in actuality, his presence there loaned them his influence and legitimized that charismatic ministry in the eyes of many of his peers.

 

Ecumenism has taken root now in the SBC. It is their philosophy and their practice.

 

When independents hook up with the SBC, they too become a party to ecumenism.

 

2. The Southern Baptist Convention of 2008 is less Baptist than ever in its history!

With the gradual ecumenization of the Convention churches, their distinctives have, of necessity, become less and less an issue.

 

The history of Baptist people has typically been one in which doctrinal specifics were important. Salvation by grace through faith (plus nothing, minus nothing), baptism by immersion of believers only (no sprinkling, no christening of babies), the security of the believer (salvation that is everlasting life), creation (not evolution), and the authoritative Word of God (an inspired, inerrant Scripture) are just a few foundational matters that are Baptist essentials.

The acceptance of other points of view on these vital matters erodes the doctrinal underpinnings very quickly. That erosion is happening quickly in SBC ranks today.

 

3. The Southern Baptist Convention of 2008 has contemporized more than ever!

When the contemporary church philosophy arrived on the scene in the 1990s, it was spearheaded in the SBC by the “purpose-driven” methods of Rick Warren (he is Southern Baptist). Over the past dozen years, thousands of Southern Baptist churches have adopted the contemporary church model. The resultant acquiescence to the demands of the culture has totally changed many of their churches. It is a tragic development!

 

4. The Southern Baptist Convention of 2008 has a growing problem with five-point Calvinism!

I’ve seen estimates that indicate approximately twenty percent of SBC pastors are Calvinists. One of the leading and most visible of those in the conservative SBC leadership is Dr. Albert Mohler, the president of the SBC seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Mohler is a Calvinist. He is leading the Louisville Seminary in that way. It is an openly debated and growing controversy with the Convention.

 

5. The Southern Baptist Convention of 2008 has adopted “cool and casual” as the persona of its clergy!

The business world went through a phase where “casual Fridays” were the “in” thing. They soon discovered that Friday was the least productive day of the week. Many have stopped the practice for obvious reasons.

But with many clergymen, the lure of being everybody’s buddy has caused them to shed any semblance of what might appear to be in any sense professional.

 

The fact is that “cool dude” is far more common among them than “man of God.”

 

6. The Southern Baptist Convention of 2008 has a weakened stand on alcohol!

It hasn’t been so long ago that alcohol consumption in SBC circles was totally taboo. I remember that when I was growing up, the preachers preached against it openly.

 

Today, a growing number of SBC pastors soft-pedal the alcohol issue. Some of them make allowance for drinking wine or beer. At a recent SBC annual meeting, it was debated publicly. It is another ominous indicator as to the spiritual health inside the SBC.

 

7. The Southern Baptist Convention of 2008 has very few pastor-led churches!

 

The board-run approach is predominant in the Convention churches. The pastor is primarily a figurehead. He is the preacher, but his leadership is severely limited by the oversight and control of the deacons, the trustees, the finance committee, the nominating committee, the committee on committees and other such groups.

In brief, the pastor of an average SBC church has very little authority, and his leadership is restricted and contained in large measure.

 

8. The Southern Baptist Convention of 2008 has a major deficiency in evangelism!

It is a natural consequence of all the other compromising things that are going on that the winning of souls would get lost in the shuffle.

 

In recent years there have typically been 10,000 to 12,000 SBC churches that reported no baptisms whatsoever during any given year. The fact is that the concept of soul winning is just simply not in vogue with the folks. In truth there are very, very few SBC churches that could be described as “a soul-winning church.”

When Dr. Bobby Welch was elected president of the SBC in 2004, he launched a fifty-state tour in which he was pressing the goal of baptizing a million souls in one year. For two years he preached it strongly and pressed his program fervently. The results were disappointing. Not only did the effort fail to produce increases in baptisms, but the numbers have continued to decline!

 

It is our opinion that the overall dysfunction within the rank and file of the SBC churches makes a full harvest in evangelism virtually an impossibility.

 

Now I’ve cited eight of the reasons why I believe the Southern Baptist Convention of 2008 is in worse shape than it was when the conservative resurgence began in 1979. In Part Three of this article, I will provide at least that many more reasons why I believe this to be the case. But now I want to bring Part Two to a close.

 

Aren’t the Convention Baptists Christians Like Us?

The folks in the Convention get saved the same way folks outside the Convention get saved. This issue over the Convention is not a matter of who is saved and who is not! If they have heard the Gospel (I Cor. 15:3,4; Rom. 10:9,10) and received the Saviour by faith, then they are saved like the rest of us.

Sources inside the Convention have confided in me that the current situation (which we are describing in this article) makes it likely that there are many more unsaved church members in the Convention churches today than there were thirty or forty years ago. I believe they are right, because the emphasis and the thrust of preaching and soul winning have not remained as strong as they once were.

 

Now this quickly starts to make sense, does it not? I think we must maintain the line of separation if we expect to build strong Christians and solid churches.

 

Should Independents Love the Convention Crowd?

Absolutely! But let’s understand that love doesn’t just agree with everything loved ones do.

Love coaches!

Love corrects!

Love takes its stand!

Love doesn’t give in to whims, fads and foolish trends!

Love does not give place to compromise and carnality!

 

The fact that we make our case for being independent and remaining free of entanglements with the Convention does not make us unloving or unkind; it simply means we have commitments to truth and principle that supersede our loyalty to personalities or programs.

 

Is Our Raising These Issues Just Bashing Southern Baptists?

Some will think so! They would not want to say a negative word, no matter how bad it gets. Others think we should never correct a Christian brother about anything.

 

Obviously, they are not reading the New Testament very closely. It its twenty-seven books, there are numerous examples of both instructions (to them and to us) and actual illustrations (where it was done in the first century).

“Bashing,” in my judgment, would mean that there is a malicious agenda utilizing unfair or unreasonable methods to dispense untrue information. And don’t forget about a mean, vindictive spirit. Any resemblance to such behavior would indeed be bashing.

 

What we have done in these articles and in previous exposés doesn’t even come close to being bashing. Any suggestion that that is our method or our motive is completely bogus.

 

Conclusions

In these times there is a trend to go soft, make it easy, discount the price of everything, go along to get along, and let everybody do whatever he chooses.

 

There is a religious pragmatism (whatever works) that has captivated many of our Baptist brethren. The reliance upon scriptural authority as a basis for all we do has gotten shortchanged.

 

As I pen these articles, I have two major goals.

 

1. I want to see our independent Baptist men stay true and stand tall in line with the heritage of our movement.

It is my prayer that all of us will be able to smell compromise a mile away and zealously turn from it.

 

2. I want to see our friends in the SBC disengage themselves from their dysfunctional and compromised denomination.

It is my prayer that many of them will do as others of us have already done and withdraw from the SBC. I know it is not easy, but right is always right.

 

So I am hopeful that many will be helped as we once again raise the issues.

 

In the next issue of the SWORD OF THE LORD, we plan to have Part Three of this series of articles. Do pray with me that they will be a blessing everywhere they are read.