Churches, Get a Calvinist Pastor!

Tom Nettles

Southern Baptists inherited the most compelling aspects of all the Baptist Calvinists that preceded them. James P. Boyce summarized this well. He encouraged every preacher to get theological education in some way, even if it could not be at the Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina. If no other means were available, he advised, “work at it yourself.” The fathers of the convention did this, Boyce claimed; “They familiarized themselves with the Bible, and Gill and Andrew Fuller, and they made good and effective preachers. God is able to raise up others like them.”1 The irony of Boyce’s appeal to the grassroots for support of theological education was this: the seminary would not interrupt, but would perpetuate, the work of pastoral ministry, preaching and theology consistent with the Gill/Fuller tradition.

But this is the very difficulty that we face at this moment in Southern Baptist history. God indeed is raising up others like them, that is,….

 

 

 

Read the entire article here.

It is the duty of Baptist to teach their distinctive views

In opposition to all this, Baptists insist on holding to the primitive constitution, government, and ceremonies of the Christian societies, or churches; and this on the principle of recognizing religious authority but the Scriptures themselves, and of strict observing all that the Saviour has commanded. Now, the Saviour says in our text that we must teach them to observe all things whatsoever he commanded. These commandments include matters just mentioned, concerning which the people who allow themselves to be called Baptists differ widely from large portions of the Christian world, and are persuaded that their own views are more scriptural, more in accordance with the Saviour commands. They must therefore feel themselves required teach these things as well as others. Hence, the text lays upon us the duty of which I have been requested to speak, the duty of Baptists to teach their distinctive views.

John A. Broadus-The Duty of Baptists to Teach Their Distinctive Views

Today’s Charismatic Tongues Examined Pt 3

The past few weeks we have looked at the Charismatic use of tongues in our present churches. We have discovered that the tongues that are practiced today, among Charismatics, are not the same as the tongues manifested among the early Church. First the early church spoke in other languages and not just several syllable words that are nothing more than gibberish. Secondly the tongue gift used in the early church was a sign to the unbelieving Israelites and not for the believing Gentiles. Today we will examine why Paul wrote to the Corinthians concerning tongues.

It seems that every Charismatic Church, that I have ever visited, who have manifested strange utterances during the service, have always been out of order in their use of their so-called tongues. Men or women will begin to use strange utterances at any or all times during the service. I have even heard, through close acquaintances, that in the Church of God denomination that certain people will begin to use tongues even while the preaching is going on.

Paul wrote no instructions on how to preach the word of God. In other words he did not say that a preacher must wear a robe or not wear a robe. He did not say that the minister ought to sit, stand, kneel, preach from a pulpit, a table, etc….. He wrote very little concerning how to partake of the Lord’s Supper, save only that an individual ought to examine himself and see whether he is worthy to partake of it. Paul also wrote no instructions on how to baptize individuals, yet when it comes to the spiritual gifts and particularly tongues, Paul wrote three whole chapters and one chapter centers around nothing but the right use of tongues.

Why did Paul spend so much time on the subject of gifts and particularly the subject of tongues? The reason is obvious; the Corinthian Church was out of order in their use of this gift. Most Charismatics today believe that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 12-14  in order to give the Corinthians the knowledge of how to use spiritual gifts. This is only half the truth. Paul’s entire letter to the Corinthians is a rebuke and not a commendation. In other words Paul wrote a letter that was actually a rebuke of the Corinthians for all kinds of sins, abuses or misuse of sacraments, namely the Lord’s Supper. The first letter to the Corinthians is a rebuke by Paul for division, vain oratory, fornication, going to law against one another before unbelievers, getting drunk and taking communion, depriving the poor of communion, misuse and extreme abuse of sign gifts, and so forth. Therefore chapters 12-14 are chapters that are meant as a rebuke of the Corinthians misuse and even pagan manifestation of certain so-called gifts, instead of chapters on the use of spiritual gifts, as some Charismatics of today think.

Therefore I will say that even if the so-called tongues movement of today were genuine, then it is usually manifested against the order laid down by Paul in the first book to the Corinthians. Since God is not the author of confusion as Paul states, then we should not practice anything that leads to confusion in the Church.

Though I had much more that I wanted to go into, nevertheless in order to keep this post from being to long, then I will conclude by saying that today we have seen that Paul’s writing of the first letter to the Corinthians was in order to correct abuses that were present among the Corinthian Church. Therefore we have discovered that the chapters that deal with spiritual gifts were actually written in order to bring order to a church, which was out of order.

Next week we will examine the right use of tongues as laid down by the Apostle Paul.

Hershel Lee Harvell Jr.