February 25, 2002

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
Right & wrong
___Who is right?
___One side

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says, "We gladly sign every page of the Bible." The other side says the litmus test is signing the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.
___Could it be that our signature on anything is meaningless? Is God really interested in our signature on his word or parts of his word? Could it be he is more interested in us allowing him to write his signature on our hearts and lives? (Revelation 3:11-13).
___Isn't it true that the only place that is important for our name to be written is the Lamb's Book of Life?
___Could it be that we all have missed the mark and fallen short of God's glory?
___ John Curry
___ Blackwell

Much at stake
___I have read with surprise and disappointment the misinformation being circulated concerning the request that International Mission Board missionaries affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.
___As an IMB missionary for 17 years, the son of an IMB missionary from Texas and a former Texas pastor for 10 years, it is my honor to affirm the 2000 BF&M to all Southern Baptists. This has long been the practice for missionary candidates, even under previous IMB leadership. Southern Baptists--and Texas Baptists--have a right to expect that the missionaries they support are in step with the statement of faith adopted by the SBC. It is IMB administration's responsibility to keep that trust.
___Asked to affirm agreement with the BF&M--yes or no, with the option of noting areas of difference--is not signing a creed. To promise to carry out my responsibilities "in accordance with and not contrary to" the BF&M is a reasonable expectation of any SBC employee. I do not consider it a lack of trust or an infringement on my conscience.
___In accountability to Texas Baptists, who support and pray for us, we are seeking to fulfill the mission mandate to reach a lost world for Jesus Christ. Great opportunities lie before us in this generation. We are seeing thousands of souls swept into the kingdom. Thousands of Southern Baptists are responding to the call of missions. Let us not fail in this generation when so much is at stake.
___Thank you, Texas Baptists.
___ Gordon Fort
___ IMB regional leader
___ Southern Africa

Evil content
___It is because the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message has not been widely condemned for its evil content that more and more Southern Baptists are being forced to affirm that content.
___At first, only the regular Southern Baptist Convention employees had to affirm it. Today, even long-standing career missionaries must affirm it. Soon, every affiliated SBC church and association will have to affirm it. And finally, every member of every affiliated SBC church will be required to affirm it.
___Well, I for one will never affirm that the 2000 BF&M is suitable as an "instrument of doctrinal accountability." Only to God the Father are Christians accountable for their doctrine (Acts 5:29). Nor will I ever affirm that the Bible is "God's revelation of himself to man." Only Jesus Christ, the Son of God, holds that position (John 14:9). Nor will I ever affirm that the 2000 BF&M contains the "essentials" of my faith. Only the Bible contains those essentials (2 Timothy 3:16), and only the Holy Spirit has the power to identify them (John 14:26).
___These three quotations nullify everything else that might be good about the 2000 BF&M, because it supplants the Holy Bible and usurps the very honor, power and authority of God Almighty himself.
___Affirmation of the 2000 BF&M is blasphemy and should be widely proclaimed to be such.
___ Donnell Hewett
___ Kingsville

Baptist wedge
___Thanks to Charles Wade for "The peril of a man-made document" (Feb. 11). It is well-written, gracious and right on target.
___Our leaders in the SBC just don't get it. By design, intent or ignorance, they have driven a wedge among, between or into the hearts of Southern Baptists, however you wish to state it.
___God help us, and God be with us. The SBC leadership's actions are about power and control. It's that simple.
___ Jim Armstrong
___ Wichita Falls

Agree or ...
___Regarding "Missionaries will agonize ..." and "Baptists deserve decisions based on fact, not fallacy" (Feb. 4):
___Whether from a grassroots conservative resurgence or from an orchestrated plot to take over the SBC and its agencies, those in power continue to say by their words and deeds: "Agree with our doctrinal interpretations or get out! But continue to send money. How dare Texas Baptists redirect funds to their own ministries?"
___ J. Lillian Brown
___ Austin

Politics over ministry
___I recently applied for service through the SBC North American Mission Board. I was saddened to learn I had to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.
___I am frustrated that the SBC has put politics and agendas over ministry. I am not allowed to serve and spread Christ because I disagree with parts of the Baptist Faith & Message. Now, International Mission Board missionaries have to sign. The SBC has gotten out of control. SBC pastors might as well start signing, too. So should members of their churches. Start making the seminary students sign as well. This might sound overboard, but it is the same as what they asked me to do.
___This issue is a matter of principle. The slogan on their website gives the appearance they are serving Christ. It reads: "Reaching the world for Christ." This reminds me of the church at Ephesus, where God tells them they have the appearance of doing good, but he holds one thing against them--they have forsaken their first love (Revelation 2:2-4).
___God goes on to command them to repent, or he will take away their lampstand (v. 5). I pray this will happen to the SBC (or any convention that has forsaken Christ as their love); that its lampstand will fall so that the convention may be rebuilt upon Jesus.
___Repentance must come, or we are in danger of losing (if we haven't already) the best and most productive mission programs we have ever had.
___ Scott Venable
___ Brownwood

Love & kindness
___Thanks for printing the differences in beliefs between the two conventions in Texas that seem to have a few indifferences (Feb. 11).
___As we began planting a work for the Lord in Texas, it did not take this outline to indicate the places where contention was coming from the two ranks. We are proud to affiliate with the BGCT and uphold their beliefs as our beliefs. Baptist churches are autonomous bodies of believers and not clones. Jesus spoke to the scribes and Pharisees about the things they were doing in Matthew 23:15. This is not what denominations should do.
___I am also convinced that free moral agency has little to no effect on me if the word of God cannot come from him to me without revelational knowledge, unless it agrees to what everyone else would say. Perhaps we should read God's word written to us in 2 Peter 1:20. It does not take a theological degree to be able to understand the word of God, but a relationship, on an individual basis, to gain an understanding of his will for us.
___Despite the differences, we should love one another and be kindly affectioned one to another (Romans 12:10).
___ Randy Heddings
___ Comanche

Open Theism and election
___ As to "open theism" (Dec. 3, Jan. 7, 21) how can God "love" the world (John 3:16) and "hate" Esau?
___ God had billions of options open to him when he decided to create. He "elected" a world where people could decide for themselves to love him or not. But God knew most would say no.
___ Thus, by creating a free choice environment, God indirectly banished many to hell. In this sense, God "hated" such people by creating them with freedom to choose to begin with.
___ But God did not make them take that option. One is not "less free" to choose as he wishes because God's foresight knows what he will choose. He says, come one, come all, "but they paid no attention" (Matthew 22:5a).
___ God's foreknowledge and election as to what he would create would only be manipulation if God were incapable of letting persons make choices other than those God wishes they would make. My God is not that "incapacitated."
___ Thomas F. Harkins Jr.
___ Fort Worth

Beliefs important to Baptists
___ I have just attended one of the seminars promoting the study guide for "Beliefs Important to Baptists." The one in our area here in Northeast Texas was presented by James Semple, the author of three of the thirteen studies.
___ Each topic is carefully explained and documented with copious biblical references. I would highly recommend the seminars to Texas Baptist leaders. I plan to ask our church to use the text for Discipleship Training for the summer quarter.
___ Carroll Johnson
___ Douglassville

Praying for the lost
___ "Praying for the 'lost,'" (Feb. 4) is an imperative, certainly, but we tend to forget or ignore that most of Jesus' references to the "lost" were to those that had already belonged—the coin, the sheep, the son (prodigal), even the life (if lost for his sake, restored).
___ Too often, we define "the lost" exclusively as the unsaved who have not heard the gospel, so that most of our efforts are concentrated on action akin to rounding up wild longhorns to tame, to build our herds into barns and bigger barns, yet disparaging or neglecting the tending and care of our own flocks, purses, families and bodies, so to speak.
___ Pride in growth should come second to confidence in health; the body or army or family that is not tended, encouraged, held together with a good morale, cannot effectively be marshaled to action with enthusiasm and power, no matter how efficient the plan or eager the "vision."
___ For whatever reason, some may stray, become discouraged or overlooked, backslide, fall into philosophical disharmony with "management" or simple inertia.
___ Bonding and reclaiming our own, by Jesus' definition and examples, should come first.
___Harriet Kelley
___Dallas

Christian Zionism is an oxymoron
___"Israeli government seeks to shore up evangelical support" (Feb. 4) is disturbing. That evangelical Christians would support Ariel Sharon's regime in Israel is bad. That they would use the Bible (Christian Zionism) to justify it is worse.
___Christian Zionism involves a mixture of the physical and spiritual to justify injustice toward Palestinians and Arabs. It declares "moral immunity" for Israel to set aside traditional standards of peace, justice and human dignity. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Tim LeHaye should know better.
___When Israel invaded Lebanon during the 1980s, about half the Lebanese were Christians. Many Palestinian families have Christian roots going back to the Crusades. Thus, Christian Zionism involves supporting non-Christians against Christians.
___ Ariel Sharon has been charged with war crimes for his role in the massacre of Lebanese. Sharon, along with Bush campaign advisor Richard Perle, sabotaged the Middle East peace talks in September 2000. The obvious purpose was to help Bush and Sharon win elections. Over a thousand people—both Jews and Palestinians—have died needlessly since.
___ Christians should defend Israel's right to exist. Christians the world over should encourage the European Union to provide leadership for peace in the Middle East. And Christians should support the hundreds of Jewish soldiers who refuse to take part in Sharon's policy of systematically taunting and humiliating Palestinians youths.
___ Jesus teaches us to be peacemakers. We should emulate Pope John Paul II, Jimmy Carter and George Mitchell—not Sharon. There is no legitimate place in Christian doctrine for the oxymoron Christian Zionism.
___ Charles Reed
___ Waco



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