April 15, 2002

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
Separate now
___A year or so ago, I wrote a letter to the Standard. My question today and response today are more emphatic than then: Why does the Baptist General Convention of Texas not separate immediately from the Southern Baptist Convention and stop this turmoil, finger-pointing, accusation and waste of time, effort, money and damage to our image as a "Christian" group?
___The answer is politics, greed, ego, money and a fear of weakness to acknowledge the truth. It is not about creeds, interpretation

E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

of Scripture or the belief in Christian programs.
___Every week, I hope to find that this fight has stopped. But I know it will continue for as long as it takes; just as it did before.
___ Don Phillips
___ Fort Worth

Baptist pope
___W.T. Connor, the late theology professor at Southwestern Seminary, made a profound statement in his last book, "The Work of the Holy Spirit." In essence, he said, "I think I see a definite centralization of power in Baptists that changed the New Testament church into what is now the Roman Catholic Church."
___How right he was! In a fellowship of retired pastors recently, I was amazed that most agreed that if you left interpretation to the individual and the Holy Spirit, you would get all kinds of different opinions.
___They also thought SBC missionaries should sign the new Baptist Faith & Message statement or resign as missionaries.
___Question: Are those who wrote the new BF&M more qualified interpreters of Scripture than anyone else in the denomination?
___If that is true, we have made giant strides into papalism. If you do not want to wind up with a Baptist pope, better leave the train at the next station!
___ M.G. Upton
___ Sacramento, Calif.

Beliefs matter
___I know the words of Jim Richards, "To say we have no creed is to say we have no beliefs" (April 8) are going to be characterized as evil by the leadership of our Texas Baptists.
___I know we as Baptists say, "I have no creed but the Bible." But what does that mean? Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Universalists, David Koresh and a host of other non-Christian or heretical sects have claimed they believe the Bible.
___In the context of our world, to say one believes the Bible means little. The questions ought to be: "What do you believe the Bible says? Do you believe the Bible teaches salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, by the work of Christ alone? Do you believe the Bible teaches God is holy, good, loving, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient and omni-present?" Beliefs such as these are what separate us from cults and error.
___There are those in our Texas Baptist life, "open theists," who state that they believe every word of the Bible and yet deny the foreknowledge of God and describe God as one who makes mistakes, risks, regrets and repents as a man, and as one who is incapable of working all things for good. Do we want these who say they believe the Bible but believe such unbiblical things teaching in Texas Baptist schools, preaching in Texas Baptist pulpits or representing Texas Baptists in missions around the world?
___ Brad Wheeler
___ San Antonio
___Editor's note: We are not aware of open theists who hold positions of responsibility in BGCT life. If names of such persons are submitted, we will investigate the charges.

Fish & birds
___One difference between fish and birds is fish worry if there are hooks in the worms.
___People, like hooked fish, may be controlled. Most Baptists believe in being controlled only by the Holy Spirit interpreting the Bible. It's called "priesthood of the believer" and is in the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message as, "The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ."
___That statement was removed in the 2000 BF&M, and leaders of the SBC are Christian Judaizers using a committee for interpreting Scriptures to be obeyed.
___Jesus didn't mention committees interpreting anything. If we let missionaries be fired, who will stand for us when it's our turn to sign the new BF&M? Legalistic rulers will continue increasing their authority as long as good men do nothing.
___ Rex Ray
___ Bonham

Likeness of Jesus
___As I was preparing a Sunday School lesson, I came across a verse that those who wrote the new Baptist Faith & Message--who have elevated God's written word above Jesus--would do well to peruse: "Jesus said, 'But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me'" (John 15:26).
___That says the Holy Spirit, not God's Scripture, is to testify or witness of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is to testify of God's Living Word, not his written word.
___I love God's Scriptures and treasure every word I read and study, but Jesus is the very embodiment of God's Scripture. Christ, the Living Word, not the written word, hung on the cross for my sins. Christ, not a book, endured the pain. How can we not elevate him, the Living Word, above a written word?
___Remember that Jesus was with God at creation. He takes precedence over the written word. Jesus said: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).
___Thank you, BGCT, for your love of Jesus over the written word. "Speaking the truth in love," we are to be the likeness of Jesus' love for the world and even for brothers and sisters in Christ who elevate the written word over the Living Word.
___ Margaret McLain
___ Corsicana

No loss of truth
___For most of the last 40 years, I have used a gender-neutral version of the Bible without loss of biblical truth.
___My wife and I, serving as International Mission Board missionaries in the Philippines, learned Filipino pronouns are gender-neutral. There is no "he" or "she," only "siya," meaning a person. If the context did not clearly indicate the person's gender and if gender were important, then the translators had to add male or female indicators. That was seldom necessary. Philippine language translations naturally resolve the issues Today's New International Version of the Bible deals with.
___ Biblical truth has not been lost in Filipino gender-neutral translations. Of course, their translations indicate God is "Father" and Jesus is his "Son."
___Opposition to the TNIV Bible seems to come primarily from those who would judge the motives of the translators. Should we judge the motives of those who insert a new topic title, "Husbands and Wives" (Holman NIV, 1986) between Ephesians 5:21 and 22? Verse 22 lacking the verb "submit" in the original Greek text stands as a clause dependent on verse 21. "Submit" occurs only in verse 21.
___ What agenda leads the editors of Bibles to break a sentence in the middle?
___Does breaking a sentence apart and beginning a new section with its impotent fragment (no action word-verb) under a new title affirm the biblical truth involved? Could such inappropriate grammatical steps result simply from editors' needs to support a cultural tradition?
___ Les Hill
___ Lexington, Ky.

Drain swamps
___Thanks for your editorial pointing out we must "drain the swamp" that breeds terrorism (April 8).
___I am doing something about the "swamp" in Guinea, West Africa, a nation 85 percent Muslim. Frontier Land Development is taking American Christian farmers to farm in Guinea and to set up a school on their farms to teach English, modern farming methods and the Bible.
___The government supports our project because it means a better food supply, lower prices, and jobs and training for their farm workers.
___I would like to see President Bush place our secretary of Agriculture, head of the Red Cross, USAid director, etc., on the same TV programs with Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Food, education and health assistance will do the job of draining the swamp much more effectively than tanks, bombs and bullets. By the way, I am not a pacifist--rather a pragmatic, long-range thinker.
___I support Bush in his Christian values emphasis and believe he is doing a good job overall, but he has tunnel-vision advisers. Also, the "industrial-military" lobby is having a field day today, with billions spent for arms. My program would call for farms, not just arms.
___Many Palestinians are third-generation residents of the refugee camps, while they look across into Israel at modern apartments and modern cities. (Did this come from the billions given to Israel by the United States in the last 40 years?)
___Let's call Christians to pray, "Lord, show us how to drain the swamps, and lead us to do it, starting now."
___ Robert Bradsby Sr.
___ Lumberton

Services inspiring
___I wanted to write to proclaim that the worship services at First Baptist Church in Plano have been inspiring over the last three or four months.
___The music, the prayers, the children's time and the preaching have lifted me to new heights. The preaching has been biblically oriented, and it has convicted and encouraged me to draw closer to God and to share that relationship with others.
___God is using the interim pastor in a mighty way to lead the congregation to make commitments to love God and to love our neighbor. It is very obvious from the way he fulfills his position that the interim pastor is committed to God and his word.
___Even though this man is a scholar and has helped to lead our denomination in a mighty way in the past, the humility he has exemplified before the congregation is a standard that many need to work toward. Never has he been one to create factions or to be controversial. He has always been Christ-centered.
___Oh, by the way, my interim pastor's name is Russell Dilday.
___ Walter Norris
___Plano

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