THE MEMPHIS DECLARATION AND OTHER POST-MODERN NONSENSE

Today I reviewed the Memphis Declaration again. It is cynical nonsense. It is hard to say that because of my high respect for some of the signatories. Some of them are good people who, I believe, have been deceived. Others should know better. Some have been bouncing around the Convention for a long time. One has a very serious criminal conviction in his past. I pray that he has repented and I would never dare underestimate the power of the grace of God to forgive and reclaim his life. If he is reconciled to God I would welcome him with open arms but there's also a time to "let a man prove himself". I will never mention his name but he certainly knows who he is and others know too.

Some of the signatories have gone through great crises in their personal ministries and they probably feel that their brothers in the Convention didn't do enough to help them in reclaiming their ministry. That is probably true because they are very committed Christians for whom I have great love and respect. I would only caution that getting involved with a group of schismatics who are parading as unifiers is not the answer.

The Declaration is a very cleverly worded, self-righteous statement that finds little good in the Southern Baptist Convention. It was obviously prepared by a group of self styled watchdogs of the Convention. They have repented of all the sins of our Convention (shades of some church members I have known). In fact, in reading the Statement you would have a hard time concluding that Southern Baptists are anything more than a group of hypocritical rascals and charlatans. They have repented for everything from our "triumphalism" to "arrogance" to a lack of love for those "without Christ" to a lack of "reason" and for our "wickedness". According to the statement, we have misplaced priorities, disrespect for the sovereign grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and have been inattentive to the governance of our Convention. The Statement is basically anti-convention and anti-resurgence. If they want to repent of their own sins, that is their own business but to "repent" for other Baptists is beyond the pale. We don't need any priests. Jesus is our Mediator and High Priest.

The tenor of the whole document is that we should invite the liberals who left us to come back and assume the reigns of our Denomination. Of course, they left of their own accord and the various organizations that they formed are not prospering very well. The graduates of their dinky divinity schools that they have formed are not in great demand. It is like a shrill, distant vituperative chatter that pronounces doom upon the Southern Baptist Convention from those who are just sure that they can run the Convention better than those who have been elected to do so. It is all a part of the crazy quilt of post-modern theology that is more anti-denominational than anything else. It always elevates "love" above truth.

POLITICS

Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are attempting to capitalize on this Post-Modern thought to drag more Baptists into the Democratic party. They have announced the "Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant" for January 30 - February 1, 2008 in Atlanta. At the news conference they were flanked by liberal Baptists from various liberal groups in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Bill Underwood of Mercer University said they would attempt to draw attention away from "the Baptists who have the microphone" meaning conservative Southern Baptists. He said: "North America desperately needs a true Baptists witness." Strangely, no Southern Baptists leaders were invited. The group worries that the Southern Baptist Convention has been "negative" and "exclusionary". This in spite of a Zogby Poll that shows that Southern Baptists have a favorable rating equal to that of other denominations. Of course Bill Clinton's wife, Hilary, happens to be running for President. What a coincidence!!

A KINDRED SENTIMENT

In a February 7 Baptist Press Release, Douglas Baker voiced a kindred sentiment when he said, "It is not enough to trot out the usual statements about the importance of inerrancy and expository preaching". Well, whoever said it was? I have never heard anyone in Southern Baptist life say that. Inerrancy describes our view of Scripture and expository preaching describes a kind of Biblical preaching that is strong in Biblical content and application to the hearers' daily lives. It is the most effective preaching that great Pastors have used for years in the building of great churches. Baptists who have heard that kind of preaching over the years are not easily confused by every wind of doctrine. Baker goes on to declare that "much of what is commonly called the Southern Baptist Convention may well not survive this century". He contends that "theological dust ups" between religious factions are so akin to political conventions that they "rightly dismiss denominations as simply playgrounds for wannabe politicians". The group think of post-modern theology was expressed by Paul Cain of the Vineyard movement back in 1989 when he warned the post-modern generation that they must beware of "old order brethren". At the Vineyard Prophetic Conference Cain said, "You can become the Word". Most Southern Baptists would agree with the prologue of John that Jesus is the Word.

CONFESSION

These people have no time for such things as Confessions of Faith. The Baptist Faith and Message, since 1925 has declared that the Bible is "truth without any mixture of error". That Statement was based on the New Hampshire Confession of 1833. It is not exactly a new concept. The Baptist Faith and Message of 1925 was adopted in the wake of the fundamentalist tidal wave that was unleashed by the Presbyterians at Princeton University in 1910 when faculty members at Princeton lead the General Conference of the Presbyterian Church to adopt the Five Fundamentals. Baptists were never excited about them even though they had no quarrel with them. They saw it as a very limited confession. They disagreed with the Fundamentalists over other things such as baptism and church government. Liberalism had also made its way to America and was undermining many American Churches and Institutions. Southern Baptists felt a need to make our position clear concerning our Baptist Faith. It has never been binding on any local church but it was guide for the institutions and agencies of our Convention. It has been slightly amended but it still serves that purpose.

ORTHODOXY

The Memphis Group condemns us for not reasoning with those who disagree with our Articles of Faith that are "not essential" to Christian Orthodoxy. Who decides what is essential and what is not essential to Christian Orthodoxy? Those who think that we are narrow are as intolerant as anyone with those who disagree with their views. Kenneth Sublet put it this way, "If one of the bits of 'human material' (communicants) decides to disseminate some truth totally based upon the Bible, they are divisive, counterproductive and must be eliminated. Those who would try to do it emotionally are no less violent than those who would burn your body in an oven".

The Memphis Declaration leads off by the condemnation of something they call "triumphalism". What kind of a thing is that? I have been as deeply involved in the conservative resurgence as anybody but I have never witnessed anything like that. We all recognize that we only triumph in Christ. Are we to cast aside II Corinthians 2: 14? Are we to ignore Colossians 2: 15?

The tenor of the entire document was hostile to the Southern Baptist Convention. I would like to suggest to the authors of the document that we may have some problems here and there but there is plenty in the Southern Baptist Convention that gives us cause to rejoice.

BAPTISTS WILL BE BAPTISTS

Yes, we Baptists sometimes have disputes. They can take place in a Sunday School Class, in a Local Church, in an Association or a Convention. We are very individualistic. It is not uncommon for individual Baptists to have an opinion. Someone has facetiously said that "wherever there are two or three Baptists gathered together there are four opinions". It is because we have a congregational form of Church Government. We are not hierarchical. We are not presbyterial. Because of our congregational form of government we are a democracy whose head is Jesus Christ and we look unto Him who is the author and finisher of our faith. Every Church, Association, State Convention as well as the national Convention are all autonomous one of the other. Each Baptist entity has the right to decide what their basis of cooperation will be. The Southern Baptist Convention operates its agencies and institutions in accord with the Baptist Faith and Message of 2000 and we have a right to do that.

WORTH DYING FOR

Southern Baptists today embody the same principles for which Baptists of yesteryear have been willing to die. In 1603, the year that Roger Williams was born, King James ascended to the Throne of England. He didn't like the Baptists. He referred to them as "dissenters" and "non-comformists". He vowed that they would conform or he would "harrie them out of the land". The Baptists didn't conform and he harried them out of the country. A group was meeting at Gainsborough under the leadership of John Smyth and Thomas Helwys who are considered the Fathers of Baptist beginnings in England. They rejected papal authority. They rejected the divine right of kings (for which Helwys died). They insisted on believers' baptism and a regenerate church membership. They insisted on the congregational form of government and Scriptural authority in all matters of religion. They insisted that baptism was a testimonial and that the Lord's Supper was a memorial. They believed in religious liberty for all. The group at Gainsborough had divided because of their size (since their meetings were unlawful in England) and some had begun meeting at Scrooby Manor. Both groups migrated to Amsterdam where they worshipped with the Ancient Church for a time. But, that Church was embroiled in a controversy over the daring dresses that the Pastor's wife wore. So they moved to a small place out from Amsterdam called Leiden (also spelled Leyden) where they founded the Pilgrim Church under the pastoral leadership of John Robinson. This group also contained two laymen who would become famous in America. They were William Bradford and William Brewster. After a time they became discouraged because of financial reverses and the fact that their children were marrying into the Dutch and leaving the English language. Finally, 37 of them journeyed back to Scrooby where they boarded a small ship called the Mayflower. Pastor Robinson went to see them off and he intended to join them later but he never joined them because he died in 1625. This group on the Mayflower were called Pilgrims. Some on the Mayflower joined their group on the way over and before they landed they formed the Mayflower Compact. No one knows exactly what was in the Compact since it was lost soon after they landed at Plymouth but those who remembered generally agreed that the document provided that they would be ruled by law and not by men. Those same principles that inspired and motivated the earliest of Baptists in England are still important to Southern Baptists today.

Yes, there is room for diversity of worship in the Southern Baptist Convention but there are still some basic tenets of the faith that are not negotiable among Southern Baptists and they are embodied in the Baptist Faith and Message of 2000. That is what the resurgence was all about. Many of us paid a high price for the things that we stood for and we have little time for those who constantly want to trash us for what we did - especially those who don't even remember where we came from.