DISCERNING THE “FEEL GOOD” CHURCH

William Andrew Dillard

Most of “Christianity” including many Baptist churches have abandoned anything considered to be negative under the guise that people like to go to church where they are made to feel good. To be sure, true Christianity is essentially a positive religion, but it can be positive only because the negatives exist. Furthermore, if the negatives and positives are not kept in proper order eternal disaster will occur.
First there is a problem. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23. Sin is filthy, abominable, and condemned by the righteous, Creator God. If one is rocked to sleep in a positive evaluation of life while in sin, hell will be his eventual home. Oh, I forgot, that is also negative. Still, if all men are condemned by sin as the Bible affirms, then something must be done to correct that state. It is for this purpose that the Son of God both came into the world, was crucified, and arose from the dead. Romans 6:23, 5:8. It is the shed blood of Christ Jesus alone that is purgatory of sin. The crying need of the human family is to recognize this, and thus be saved (not from hell, but from their sins that will send them there). But no one is ever saved who does not first realize he is lost. Realizing one is lost is not a good feeling, but it is that realization that brings one to the foot of the cross in repentance and faith, and that is a very good feeling.
Once saved, one has the blessed privilege of following the Lord in the watery grave of baptism, and subsequent fellowship in one of His local churches. Then, and only then will one’s viewpoint of the church be changed from negative and condemnatory to positive and happy, understanding righteous things of time and eternity. It is then that it becomes the bona fide “feel good” church that is pleasing in God’s sight. So, it is really not the church. The church is only the messenger. The message must be God’s message. The effects of that message will bring conviction or elation according to one’s personal relationship with the Lord. God forbid that the message should ever change to please sinful men in their sinful state. When that happens, the church is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot as savorless salt.

Church by Evolution

Parson to Person

William Andrew Dillard

There are some things that are easy to believe, but difficult to prove. In fact, most things in the spirit world are that way to the carnal mind. It is the intent of this short article to draw attention to the folly of New Testament church existence by evolution. Please think with me for a moment.
Most Baptists readily agree that a New Testament church cannot be divorced from its membership. Therefore, the qualifications of each church member become all important to the spiritual status of the local body to which he belongs. As the members go, so goes the church for better or worse.
It is equally agreed among non-Protestant Baptist churches that the new birth experience and deep water baptism by the authority of the church is essential, constituting the prerequisites to church membership. By these things, and the fulfillment of the other parts of the Great Commission churches are kept separate from the world, from false religion, and in an acceptable state to enjoy the blessings of the Almighty in word, and in deed.
With all this being said, it is recognized that there are a lot of “Speckled Bird” churches in Baptist ranks today. Some are “planted” by men who care little for the fundamentals of the faith once delivered to the saints. Some are socio-religious gatherings that “evolve” into a “church.” This method was used by the Wesley brothers, but their production was not a New Testament church.
Then there are those who pick no bones about their disdain for the Baptist heritage. They refuse to use the Baptist name, and think to create a church by some sort of deception, deception I say because they still want to claim scriptural Baptist status. Humm. does that not sound much like so many who call themselves “non-denominational” or “Usta-Wazer Baptists? That former title is an oxymoron simply because non-denomination is a denomination with reference to type or kind.
So, the questions remains. Might a group of people, two or three or more, achieve a non-profit charter to claim tax exemption engage in religious activity, and thereby grow into a bona fide New Testament church regardless of their prerequisites? More precisely stated, may a group of religious minded people evolve into a New Testament church?
When the Word is followed, only those who are endowed with the new birth, and scriptural, deep water baptism administered by a bona fide church of the Lord, may constitute a church that is recognized and blessed of heaven. Such is the perpetuation of the baptism of John (heaven-sent baptism). There may be many ceremonial washings and dips, but there is only one baptism of John. So, a church by evolution? That is biblically unknown, and in the end worthless.

LANDMARKS OF BAPTIST FAITH

HEBREW HONEYCOMB

William Andrew Dillard
LANDMARKS OF BAPTIST FAITH

Baptist Churches lay claim to continued existence since the days of the apostles. They are the only community of churches with such origin. They have not been called by the same name, but were known variously as Paterines; Novations; Paulicians; Albigenses; Waldensians; Petro-brusians; Donatists; Anabaptists, etc.
These names, and others, were put upon them usually by the population of their location throughout the centuries. However there is a common thread running through them all by which they are identified as one and the same people. That thread is a core of common beliefs. Recognizing that fact, scholars of various Protestant faiths including Methodists, Episcopalian, Lutheran, and Catholic, too, have verified their continued existence since the apostles, and the only community of churches which have never symbolized with Rome.
These churches were often nomadic of necessity because of persecution from the religious wife of Rome which was most zealous to unite all religion in the empire or else put it out of business via taxation, confiscation of property, burning of houses of worship, imprisonment and execution of the people espousing Biblical views and practices.
There were things about them in different countries and in different times that were uncommon, but the common thread was there exemplified as in a statement of Faith dated 1120 A.D. in THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCHES OF THE VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT written in 1654 by Samuel Moreland.
The Landmarks which have always identified the people presently known as Baptists who are the legitimate successors of those earlier named, but all of whom were generally known as Anabaptists are 1) The depravity of the total man, that is, all of mankind are sinners by nature, and practice. 2) Spiritual salvation is effected by grace through faith plus nothing else. 3) There is eternal security of the believer in Christ, since all who believe in Jesus as personal Savior are granted everlasting life. 4) Baptism is effected by total immersion in water of a professed believer by the authority of a bona fide New Testament Church.
Of course, there are quite a number of other doctrines which make up historic and modern confessions of faith. All of them are important, but those four core doctrines are consistently identified as present and foundational among the Lord’s churches wherever, and whenever they are found. They truly are landmarks of the first church and its successors.
Solomon said it well in Proverbs 22:18, “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.” Today, a shallow people is giving way to marginalization by the world’s humanistic religions. Let the wisdom of Solomon be heard for when the landmarks are gone the ship of church is perished.

JANUARY 8 – SENT

JANUARY 8 – SENT

Exodus 3:10 – “Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh…” Moses was sent. It is an example for us. He was sent to lead Israel out from bondage. He was sent to face Pharoah and give him a message from God. It was a simple message. “Let my people go!

Moses had several excuses for not going. 1. I have no power or standing to approach the supreme leader of a nation. 2. I don’t know your name so that I can tell Israel who sent me. 3. They will not believe me nor listen to me. 4. I can not talk in an eloquent manner and my speech is slow.

Sounds like a bunch of Missionary Baptists. Always the excuses. I am too busy. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to start a conversation. I don’t see anyone to witness to. While my father was still with us and preaching and pastoring he would often make the statement, “I don’t know why God called a shy, bashful, backward country boy like me to preach the gospel. But he did.” At the age of about 80, my dad tossed his car keys to a son and said you can drive me to town. Upon their return quite some time later the son went to my mom and said, grandma, we would have been back sooner but granpa had to talk to everyone in the store. He always carried a bulletin or tracts and a shy, bashful, backward country boy from the hills of Batesville, Arkansas had been equipped by God to witness to anyone he met of his Savior.

Every excuse that Moses came up with was met by God. 1. I have no standing – I will be with thee. If God be for us who can be against us. We often quote that but do we believe it enough to practice it? 2 I don’t know how to tell the people who you are. – We have who God is. -I AM THAT I AM – “Thus shalt thous say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. 3. God, these people will not believe me. – “What is that in thine hand, a rod. We have God’s word. That is the reason it is important to memorize verses, carry a small New Testament with you and have a general knowledge of God’s Word. Every born again child of God should be able to show scripture of how to be saved, whether it is the Roman Road or John 3 or Paul on the road to Damascus. 4. I can’t talk. God gave Moses a mouth piece, his brother. I have observed people that have used that excuse. Some of them have never met a stranger. In our area, John Deere is a large employer and these people that can’t talk, know they can ask where a person is employed. Cubs is a baseball team that is religiously followed and that subject is often discussed among strangers. We have had several weeks of below zero weather and it has been discussed by strangers. Deer season is a great subject that know no stranger. They are strangers only when the subject of Jesus is raised or rather not raised.

It is time to learn how to turn a conversation to the Lord. There are times that I sit quietly and run through my mind various ways to turn a conversation from the subject some want to discuss into a conversation about the Lord. Preparation is the key to being sent. If a salesman tried to sell the best product on the market without knowledge of the product and a way to present it, he would starve and his family would starve with him.

We are sent. Let us prepare and then GO!

A Lesson from History

December 31, 2016

|

I. K. Cross

 

Source: The Baptist Sentinel – March 1988

Some feel that the issue of the universal church is not important.

‘Others declare that Baptists have been divided over the issue through the ages, never coming to agreement on the subject. This depends upon whom you call Baptists. Not everyone that wears the name qualifies with the evidence. On the other hand, prior to the 16th Century Reformation, Baptists were not even known by that name.

“Catholic” in the Generic Sense

It is true that groups identified with Baptist principles prior to the Reformation occasionally used the term “catholic,” or “universal” when referring to the church. But what did they mean? There was nothing else around except the Roman and Greek Orthodox Catholic churches, and groups such as the Paulicians and Donatists certainly did not intend to include them when using the term. All they meant by the term was all true churches considered as one group, much as we use the term church in a generic sense.

History reveals, quite clearly what these congregations believed about the purity and independence of local congregations.

It is also true that when the first confession of faith was written for the Philadelphia Association in America they used the term “universal church.” But a sense of history will clear up your thinking on what these churches believed about the nature of the church. ‘The association was originally made of ‘of Baptists from Wales, one congregation coming as a body from that country. Their minutes were kept in the Welsh language for a number of years. No one knew better than the Baptist in Wales the price they had paid for the true nature of New Testament churches. They had been hounded by the legions and bishops of Rome and they survived only because they could secure themselves in the mountains of that country during the harsh winters. They had stedfastly refused to bow to the concept of the catholic church of Rome, and who would dare accuse them of compromising with the Protestant Reformers’ catholic substitute!

Danger of the Universal Church Concept

Is there a real danger in the universal, invisible church concept, or is it merely a side issue? Back in the 19th century Southern Baptists were writing about the “Universal Church Heresy,” (Re-Thinking Baptist Doctrines, Victor I. Masters, editor). But in 1939 Dr. Aidredge couldn’t even get the floor of the convention to introduce a resolution declaring they did not accept the idea.

Southern Baptist Convention Embraces the Universal Church Theory

In 1963 the SBC wrote the universal church into their declaration of faith (Baptist Faith and Message). Now the denomination declares itself Protestant, claiming its heritage goes no farther back than the 16th century. They meet gladly with Roman Catholic leaders and even greeted the Pope of Rome on his arrival in the U.S. last year. Many of their churches accept baptisms from Protestant denominations and practice open communion, and it is also taught in the classrooms of their schools by a number of their professors.

Shot through with Modernism

This position was taken by the northern convention, American Baptist Churches, U.S.A., long before it was received in the south, and they have become so shot through with modernism that they receive the National and World Council of Churches as an affiliate. It is the universal church concept that has opened the door for the forward thrust of the ecumenical movement among Protestant churches today.

Read Up on Church History

Read history before you embrace the universal church concept, or call it a minor issue. Isaiah warned about drawing sin as it were a cart rope (Isaiah 5:18). Shall we gradually lose our identity as Landmark Missionary Baptist by blending gradually with the dull grey of a universal church protestantism, or will we reaffirm the basic principle upon which we have held our ground through the centuries?

Elder James S. Coleman

Source: Elder James S. Coleman

248 – Sept. 05 – This Day in Baptist History Past

Posted: 04 Sep 2014 06:24 PM PDT

 

Jailed for encouraging a brother

John Spur and John Hazel, both elderly men, were hauled into court in Salem, Mass. on Sept. 05, 1651,  for the horrible “crime” of offering sympathy to Obadiah Holmes, at the time of his brutal beating by the authorities, for preaching without a license from the Congregational Church. Neither men were convinced Baptists as yet, but Spur had been excommunicated from the Salem Congregational Church for declaring his opposition to infant baptism. Spur was given his choice of a forty shilling fine, or a whipping. Someone paid his fine, which he declined, but the court took it and released him anyway. Hazel, though very Ill, defended himself by saying, “…what law have I broken in taking my friend by the hand when he was free and had satisfied the law?” The sentence was still given: Hazel was to pay a fine or be whipped. Five days went by and when he refused to pay, the jailer released him, but he refused to leave without a discharge. The jailer gave it to him and he left totally free of all charges. Three days later, on Sept. 13, 1651 John Hazel was with the Lord Jesus, set free forever more. [Edwin S. Gaustad, Baptist Piety (Grand Rapids, Mich.: WmB. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1978), p. 30.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon: From: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 486-487.

The post 248 – Sept. 05 – This Day in Baptist History Past appeared first on The Trumpet Online.

246 – Sept. 03 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

 

He evangelized a wild and barbarous people

 Sept. 03, 1884 – W. Holman Bentley sailed from England to the Congo to begin his second tour of missionary service, married for the first time with four other men and their families. Holman was the son of Rev. William Bentley, Baptist minister at Sudsbury, Suffolk, England. Holman was born Oct. 30, 1855. At 17 young Holman was reading from the Hebrew Psalter and Greek New Testament, and at 19 was baptized into the Downs Chapel (Baptist) at Clapton. He became actively involved in witnessing. He was appointed as a missionary by the Baptist Mission Society on Jan. 15, 1879. The Congo missionaries had many trials including escapes from wild animals, disease and cannibals. Bentley served longer than any of the others who left with him in 1879. Even though he only lived to be fifty he translated the N.T. into Congolese and gave the people a complete dictionary and grammar. He saw over 1200 baptized and according to historians saw a whole district of wild, barbarous people almost completely evangelized and civilized, if not Christianized. [H.M. Bentley, W. Holman Bentley-The Life and labors of a Congo Pioneer (London: religious Tract Society, 1907), p8.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon: From: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp.  481- 83.

The post 246 – Sept. 03 – This Day in Baptist History Past appeared first on The Trumpet Online.

The SECOND Great Awakening

American Minute with Bill Federer

In his Memorandum Book, Jefferson noted:

“I have subscribed to the building of an Episcopalian church, two hundred dollars; a Presbyterian church, sixty dollars, and a Baptist church, twenty-five.”

The Boston newspaper Christian Watchman, July 14, 1826, printed an unverified story of Jefferson dining at Monticello before the Revolution with Baptist Pastor Andrew Tribble.

According to the story, Jefferson remarked of Baptist church government that he “considered it the only form of pure democracy that exists in the world…It would be the best plan of government for the American colonies.”

Jefferson ‘organized’ a church, as Julian P. Boyd recorded in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, drafting “Subscriptions to Support a Clergyman in Charlottesville,” February 1777, which stated:

“We the subscribers… desirous of encouraging and supporting the Calvinistical Reformed church, and of deriving to ourselves, through the ministry of its teachers, the benefits of Gospel knowledge and religious improvement…by regular education for explaining the holy scriptures…

Approving highly the political conduct of the Revd. Charles Clay, who, early rejecting the tyrant and tyranny of Britain, proved his religion genuine by its harmonies with the liberties of mankind…

and, conforming his public prayers to the spirit and the injured rights of his country, ever addressed the God of battles for victory to our arms…

We expect that the said Charles Clay shall perform divine service and preach a sermon in the town of Charlottesville on every 4th…Sunday or oftener if a regular rotation with the other churches…will admit a more frequent attendance.

And we further mutually agree with each other that we will meet at Charlottesville…every year…and there make a choice by ballot of three wardens to collect our said subscriptions…for the use of our church.”

Jefferson noted in his Memorandum Book, August 15, 1779:

“Pd. Revd. Charles Clay in consideration of parochial services.”

The Calvinistical Reformed Church met in the Albemarle Courthouse for seven years.

It ceased meeting after subscribers Philip Mazzei and John Harvie moved away, and Thomas Jefferson, depressed after the death of his wife and several children, sailed to France in 1783 as an ambassador.

Virginia’s religious revival continued as part of the Second Great Awakening.

Methodist evangelist Jesse Lee, who traveled a circle of cities, reported in 1787 the “circuits that had the greatest revival of religion” included Albermarle county.

Virtually all Baptist and Methodist churches were of mixed races.

In 1788, Rev. John Leland, a friend of Jefferson’s and pastor of Goldmine Baptist Church of Louisa, Virginia, personally baptized over 400.

In Charlottesville, attorney William Wirt wrote in 1795 of the preaching of Presbyterian Rev. James Waddell:

“Every heart in the assembly trembled in unision. His peculiar phrases that force of description that the original scene appeared to be, at that moment, acting before our eyes…

The effect was inconceivable. The whole house resounded with the mingled groans, and sobs, and shrieks of the congregation.”

James Madison, who was a member of St. Thomas Parish where Rev. James Waddell taught, exclaimed:

“He has spoiled me for all other preaching.”

Madison had Presbyterian preachers speak his Montpelier estate, such as Samuel Stanhope Smith and Nathaniel Irwin, of whom he wrote:

“Praise is in every man’s mouth here for an excellent discourse he this day preached to us.”

Methodist Rev. Lorenzo Dow, nicknamed “Crazy Dow,” traveled over ten thousand miles preaching to over a million people. His autobiography at one time was the 2nd best-selling book in America, exceeded only by the Bible.

Dow held a preaching camp meeting near Jefferson’s home, writing in his Journal that on April 17, 1804:

“I spoke in…Charlottesville near the President’s seat in Albermarle County…to about four thousand people, and one of the President’s daughters (Mary Jefferson Eppes) who was present.”

In the lawless Kentucky frontier, Rev. James McGready and his small church agreed in 1797:

“Therefore, we bind ourselves to observe the third Saturday of each month for one year as a day of fasting and prayer for the conversion of sinners in Logan County and throughout the world.

We also engage to spend one half hour every Saturday evening, beginning at the setting of the sun, and one half hour every Sabbath morning at the rising of the sun in pleading with God to revive His work.”

In June of 1800, 500 members of James McGready’s three congregations gathered at the Red River for a “camp meeting” lasting several days, similar to Scottish “Holy Fairs” where teams of open-air preachers rotated in a continuous stream of sermons.

On the final day:

“‘A mighty effusion of the Spirit’ came on everyone ‘and the floor was soon covered with the slain; their screams for mercy pierced the heavens.’”

In July of 1800, the congregation planned another camp meeting at the Gaspar River. Surpassing their expectations, 8,000 people arrived, some from over 100 miles away:

“The power of God seemed to shake the whole assembly. Towards the close of the sermon, the cries of the distressed arose almost as loud as his voice.

After the congregation was dismissed the solemnity increased, till the greater part of the multitude seemed engaged in the most solemn manner.

No person seemed to wish to go home-hunger and sleep seemed to affect nobody-eternal things were the vast concern.

Here awakening and converting work was to be found in every part of the multitude; and even some things strangely and wonderfully new to me.”

On AUGUST 7, 1801, though Kentucky’s largest city had less than 2,000 people, 25,000 showed up at revival meetings in Cane Ridge, Kentucky.

Arriving from as far away as Ohio, Tennessee, and the Indiana Territory, they heard the preaching of Barton W. Stone and other Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian ministers.

Rev. Moses Hodge described:

“Nothing that imagination can paint, can make a stronger impression upon the mind, than one of those scenes.

Sinners dropping down on every hand, shrieking, groaning, crying for mercy, convulsed; professors praying, agonizing, fainting, falling down in distress, for sinners or in raptures of joy!…

As to the work in general there can be no question but it is of God. The subjects of it, for the most part are deeply wounded for their sins, and can give a clear and rational account of their conversion.”

Prior to the Revolution, the FIRST Great Awakening was led by Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and other preachers who helped start the University of Pennsylvania (1740), Princeton (1746), Brown (1764), Rutgers (1766), and Dartmouth (1770).

The SECOND Great Awakening led to the conversion of a third of Yale’s student body through the efforts of its President Timothy Dwight.

Spreading to other colleges, hundreds of students entered the ministry and pioneered the foreign missions movement.

Young men, along with the first women missionaries, were sent to the American West, and as far away as Burma and Hawaii.

The Second Great Awakening contributed to the founding of the American Bible Society, the Society for the Promotion of Temperance, the Church of Christ, the Disciples of Christ and the Seventh-Day Adventists.

Christians helped reform prisons, cared for the handicapped and mentally ill, and worked to abolish slavery.

George Addison Baxter, a skeptical professor at Washington Academy in Virginia, published an account of his travels throughout Kentucky, which was printed in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, March of 1802:

“The power with which this revival has spread, and its influence in moralizing the people, are difficult for you to conceive, and more so for me to describe….

I found Kentucky, to appearance, the most moral place I had ever seen. A profane expression was hardly ever heard. A religious awe seemed to pervade the country.

Never in my life have I seen more genuine marks of that humility which…looks to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of acceptance with God…”

Baxter continued:

“I was indeed highly pleased to find that Christ was all and in all in their religion… and it was truly affecting to hear with what agonizing anxiety awakened sinners inquired for Christ, as the only physician who could give them any help.

Those who call these things ‘enthusiasm,’ ought to tell us what they understand by the Spirit of Christianity….

Upon the whole, sir, I think the revival in Kentucky among the most extraordinary that have ever visited the Church of Christ, and all things considered, peculiarly adapted to the circumstances of that country…

Something of an extraordinary nature seemed necessary to arrest the attention of a giddy people, who were ready to conclude that Christianity was a fable, and futurity a dream.

This revival has done it; it has confounded infidelity, awed vice to silence, and brought numbers beyond calculation under serious impressions.”

---

The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s books here.

220 – August, 08 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Baptism has always been by Immersion                                                                        

At Westminster in England on August 8, 1644, after another warm dispute, it was voted that “’pouring or sprinkling water on the face’ was sufficient and most expedient.” This event was reported by the historian, Dr. John Lightfoot, who was present. Out of this meeting came the Westminster Confession of Faith, “a creedal standard for all Presbyterian churches.” This conference was called on June 1, 1643. Some Episcopalians, Independents, and Puritans were present but no Baptists. Lightfoot’s entry for Aug. 7, 1644 tells of a “great heat” in the debate over the issue of baptism.  Rabbi Coleman, a great Hebrew scholar and Marshall, a great pulpit orator insisted that the Hebrew word tauveleh – dipping, demanded immersion “overhead.”  The vote was 24 for dipping, 25 against it. How did this Presbyterian body, without a Baptist in it, come to such a “great heat” on this subject of immersion if it were a novelty and among believers in England at that time? The answer is clear. Immersion was practiced from the days of the N.T. Dr. Philip Schaff, a member of the German Reformed Church, wrote:  In England immersion was the normal mode down to the middle of the 17th century. The New Catholic Edition of the Holy Bible with the imprimatur of Francis Cardinal Spellman states: “St. Paul alludes to the manner in which Baptism was ordinarily conferred in the primitive church, by immersion. The descent into the water is suggestive of the descent of the body into the grave, and the ascent is suggestive of the resurrection to a new life.” The ordinance of believer’s baptism has historical perpetuity from the days of the apostles until now.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon: From: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 325-26.

The post 220 – August, 08 – This Day in Baptist History Past appeared first on The Trumpet Online.