Baptists around the world are uniting, and conforming. The American Baptist USA joined in convention and worship with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship for the first time last week in Washington DC. The former is experiencing a small exodus of those who refuse to follow the ABUSA’s embrace of the sin of homosexuality, and the latter is busily ordaining women as senior church pastors. The Ghana Baptist Convention, also meeting for several days now in Africa, suffers a delegation of women church leaders espousing the Feminist Theology which demonizes men, and calls for equal opportunity standards of employment to replace God’s qualifications for pastors.
The reason behind all this alignment with the politics of globalization stems from an acute concern Baptists have over their prevailing negative image in the world. As can be seen by the remedies they are administering, they are desirous to present an image that meets with more approval on the world stage. Towards that end, they are increasingly taking on the world’s causes such as fighting AIDS, poverty, genocide, and even climate change .
Notwithstanding the fact that it is an image Christians are instructed in the Bible not to conform to, many leaders of Baptists are rallying their troops to do just that.
Of course, it does not take long before this sort of rebellion departs from biblical instruction, and openly scoffs at God’s word as well. “Some Baptists seem concerned only about doctrine,” complained Denton Lotz, Baptist World Alliance general secretary, at their convention a few days ago. His rebuttal to this irritating insistence on doctrinal fidelity was his claim that Jesus emphasized “unity as a great doctrine of the faith.”
Taken by itself, the emptiness of such an assertion is comparable to the pronouncement that eating is a great doctrine of the diet (completely empty without stipulating what, when, and how often), but it seems that nearly everyone with word “Baptist” in their organizational name is lining up to embrace this new tenet of faith. To do so, they are dressing up in the image of that political organization of unity, the United Nations.
Along that line, former president Jimmy Carter, already known for his humanitarian aid gospel of a quarter century’s penance of atoning for his failed presidency, is leading the force behind a huge Interbaptists convocation scheduled for next year. Not only will methods for polishing the Baptist’s image with the world’s rouge be highlighted, but Carter’s brinksmanship assures that the social gospel of acceptance will continue to be preached with much belittling of scripture.
All is not lost, however, for all Baptists. Carter has not as yet formally invited the Southern Baptist Convention to the insurrection. No doubt this snub is a political ploy of Carter’s meant to harness world opinion to pressure the SBC to conform.
It has been said that the stature of a man is best determined by assessing his enemies. By this estimation, the SBC stands commendable to the faith, but there is also a strong current of compromise moving within the organization. There even appears to be dissention in high places. SBC president Frank Page has recently made overtures to Carter, and many other politicians; and has reported making no rebukes. He could have been expected to take Carter to task for his affiliation with the CBF, or at least for his continued and reprehensible antipathy towards Israel, and Guliani could have been confronted for his endorsement of abortion.
Page’s posture does not bode well for the backbone necessary to stand firm against the winds of compromise forecasted to blow. Furthermore, Page’s remarks at the SBC convention a few weeks ago seem to indicate that he too is also concerned with the image cast in the world’s looking glass, and the politics of unity. Touching on the subject of doctrine, Page went so far as to complain that the members focusing on being doctrinally correct “sure don’t look too happy about it!” Perhaps Page prefers the happy and conforming face of imbecilic ignorance led by the hand of globalist politicians such as Carter. Only time will tell if Page is clandestinely working as a diplomat for Carter’s United Baptist Nations, and whether there is a split in store for the SBC as a large portion of it apostatizes.
(read about it in The Christian Post- 1 2 3)
