I Am Still

God said, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Psalms 46:10 (KJV)

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Don’t be upset. I know what I am doing. I am simply playing with a word. Allow me to play and, perhaps, as you would watching a child at play, enjoy it.

God said, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

I am still.

Because I know Him to be God, I am still.

I am still a believer in Jesus Christ.

The years of worldly wisdom, exposure to disappointments, and even some disillusionments have not soured my faith in Christ. I came to trust Him as my Saviour at the age of 18. Since that day, I surrendered to preach the gospel, got married, raised my children. My wife and I have forty years of marriage. We’ve seen heartache and hurts. But Jesus has not failed us. I am still a believer in Jesus Christ.

I am still the same kind of Baptist I was when I was baptized.

I was baptized into the membership of an independent fundamental, Bible-believing Baptist Church. I am still a member of the same type of church to this very day. I went off to Bible College. I have served in four churches since then. I am still the same kind of Baptist I was when I was baptized.

I still have the same kind of personal separation.

I still listen to the same type of music. I still wear the same type of clothing. I still read and study a King James Version of the Bible.  I still believe in living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. And I still believe those things are defined as I was taught when I began my Christian walk. I still have the same kind of personal separation.

I still hold the same doctrinal Baptist distinctions.

The Lord exposed me to enough types of denominational doctrine that I knew all that was taught in the name of Jesus was not of the Lord. By the time I had found my way into an Independent Fundamental Baptist church, I had been exposed to the Presbyterian church, the Christian Church, the Southern Baptist denomination, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Nazarene Church. I didn’t buy into the Baptist doctrine without some investigation, but when I did buy into it, I bought it lock, stock and barrel. I still hold to the preservation of Jesus’ Church through John the Baptist. I still hold that the only authority to baptize is in a Baptist Church. I still hold that the Lord’s Supper is for the local body alone. I still hold to Biblical authority, autonomy of the local church, priesthood of the believers, two ordinances: baptism and the Lord’s Supper, individual soul liberty, saved, baptized church membership, two offices: pastor and deacon and separation of church and state. I still hold the same doctrinal Baptist distinctions.

God said, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

I am still.

Because I know Him to be God, I am still.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

Are the Bible and the Spiderman Series Comparable?

A recent comment on my blog No Proof God Exists, Really?[1] (His comments are found in a version of this blog flipped to Flipboard[2] at this cite.)[3] says,

“Just because stories in a book exist does not make them true. By that logic, Spider-man exists just as much as god does.”

My answer to him is,  “Your comparison is absurd. Spider man's author:

·       never claimed to be inspired,

·       never confirmed inspiration through fulfilled prophecy and

·       never corroborated his work through multiple witnesses.

To elaborate upon that I add, in every case these are true of the Bible.

·       Throughout the Old Testament the writers used statements such as “Thus saith the Lord.” They spoke not their own words but what God told them to speak.

·       The Bible is filled with prophecies, pronouncements declared before the fact. More than three quarters of those prophecies have been fulfilled, not partially, but exactly. The remaining prophecies have a future fulfillment to our day.

·       The Bible is not one book but a series of sixty-six books, written over a period of thousands of years by approximately forty different writers. Each book is individual and bears the character of the writer, yet presents a cohesive unity with the others.

The Bible is like no other book.

2 Timothy 3:16 (KJV)

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

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[1] https://niume.com/post/234388

[2] https://flipboard.com/

[3] https://flipboard.com/@marvinmcken7kv5/baptist-theology-in-american-culture-uoce9638y

The Bible is Right

The Bible is the Guide.

Men interpret history and purposes according to their own wisdom. They see motives in the players of history, secular or spiritual, that may not have existed. They imagine an evolution that has taken place and must take place in the spiritual realm and well as, they believe, in the human realm.

But the Bible is right.

We may not always get the Bible right. Yea, we have plenty of evidence that the most earnest of men depart from their convictions with just a little push from the world.

But the Bible is right.

When men who believe the Bible do that which is against the Bible we do not throw away the Bible but return to the Bible.

The Bible is right.

In our struggle to understand the human struggle the answer is to depend more fully on the Bible. As we see fewer men accept the truth of the Bible we ought not to abandon the Bible but with even greater zeal preach the Bible.

The Bible is right.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

Deception?

Recently I read the blog post of the conversation between Fundamental Baptist Evangelist Arv Edgeworth and the self professed ex fundamental Baptist church member Steve. The site is www.baptistdeception.com/arv-edgeworth-deception.

Apparently Steve has made it his mission to blog about his traumatic experiences in church and thus, to encourage others in their exodus from church. In an attempt to befriend and perhaps turn Steve, Arv reached out through e-mail correspondence, believing those e-mails to be private. Steve published what he claims is the raw and unabridged and unedited trade of correspondence. Steve warns his readers that it is brutal and urges those who suffer from post traumatic stress resulting from their life in an independent fundamental Baptist Church not to read. He claims at the beginning that Arv verbal fists were swinging so wildly that he eventually had to cut the correspondence off.

I read the thing in its entirety.

First, I saw nothing near what could have been called verbal fists. Arv did, near the end, suggest seeking legal recourse if his correspondence was published on the site. Steve countered that with a refusal to be threatened and some pretty good verbal jabbing of his own. His closest actual argument against Arv is that Arv would write a post and then write another before Steve had time to respond to the first. This, Steve wanted to clearly point out, and it is obvious that it really bothered Steve.

I know neither man.

The correspondence reads pretty much like I would think two men who are locked in disagreement might communicate. Both become frustrated that the other has not accepted his views.

The thing that does become blatantly clear is that Steve does not accept any passage that Arv refers to as a valid authority in the communication. He constantly asks Arv to support the Scriptures he cites with other references and he wants to know who taught Arv to accept Arv's understanding of the passage. Steve also likes throwing out term used in debate, argument and philosophy. Steve wants Arv to know that Arv doesn't have an education and Steve implies he does.

Bottom line, I came away from the blog with the sense that Steve has swallowed Satan's bate to catch Eve in the garden "hook, line and sinker." Whether he in fact grew up in an abusive church I do not know. I do know that there are some. But Steve just doesn't like authority. He has bought into the idea that he can be, as god, knowing good and evil. And he has elevated the man made education above the Word of God. Steve claims to be a follower of Christ, but it is after the order of Cain, it's on his terms and not the Lord's. Though he titles his blog about the deception of Arv, the deceived is Steve.

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

Sin Invented?

The other day someone responded to a friend of mine by saying that sin was invented by the Bible (I would presume he meant those who wrote it) so that it could then be cured by the Bible. He went on to ask, "Would you be grateful to a doctor who cut you just so he could stitch you back up?" But is sin really just the invention of the Bible? Would there really be no such thing as sin if there were no such thing as the Bible? It isn't that difficult to find an answer.

The problem of sin existed before there was a Bible. I know believing the Bible will give me critics; but I ask my critics to confirm that the oldest portions of the Bible are only about 4000 years old and that known human history records stories of wars, rebellion and Conquest prior to the writing of Moses. Would we really insist that war is not sinful? I am reminded that one of the early accusations the American Indians had about as Christianity is that it took the honor out of murder. The Indians believed they did no wrong in killing another human being so long as they did not dishonor the body of the dead by stealing from it. Really?

Speaking of native people, there are, people groups who do not have a word of the Bible. Those people groups each have some code of ethics, morality, right and wrong. Even in the least civilized people groups there is some form of government and some means of dealing with those who will not live for the betterment of the group as a whole. The word "sin" may not exist in their vocabulary but the problem of sin does.

The Bible did not create the concept of sin so it could then be the cure of sin. But it does offer the only true cure for sin. In Benjamin Franklin's autobiography he described his method of becoming perfectly moral. He believed that since he thought he knew right from wrong and desired to be perfectly moral, it should not be a problem to become perfectly moral. I note two things about his system;
First, even he included a passage of Scripture to meditate upon daily
Though he saw that Scripture as merely a wise saying rather than God breathed.

Second, he admitted failure
Though he wanted to be moral; though he believed he knew right from wrong, though he applied himself to becoming perfectly moral nearly his entire adult life, he admitted he had failed. Only the Bible offers a perfect solution to the sin problem and it is not in a system but in a Person. Jesus Christ came
• First to seek the lost, finding out those who longed to be forgiven
• Secondly to pay the price of sin dying in the place of the sinner and giving us reconciliation with God and
• Finally to prepare for us a place where sin would be non existent

The Bible did not invent sin. But it does offer the only eternal remedy for sin.


Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

Independence

Americans love independence.
• Our forefathers paid an awful price for us to have it
• As young people we revel in it
• As we age we look forward to the day when we can retire and rest in it

We struggle with the fact that other do not have it, sometimes concerned for them, but mostly miffed that we can't go to their countries and enjoy our same independence.

And I pastor an Independent Baptist Church.

Truth be told I have yet to meet a Baptist of any sort who would not defend the independence of their church.
• An American Baptist pastor defended his independence to me
• A General Association of Regular Baptists pastor preached it publically
• The Southern Baptist pastors adamantly proclaim the independence of their churches
• Missionary Baptists will fight for their right to be called independent
• Conservative Baptists believe their churches are independent congregations
As I presume the other what, twenty seven or so Baptist denominations do as well.

And of course among those who are independent Baptist churches, there is all sorts of rankling over which are the most independent of the independents.

I would hate to be anything less than independent; free to worship the Lord according to the dictates of conscience and not the whims of men.

But I see a whole lot of problems with being independent.
In many cases we are so independent we have no accountability. We do and say as we please and the only thing there is to stop us is; whether anyone will come to hear us preach and give their tithes and offerings when they do.

And we call them backslidden, rebellious or worse when they do not.

• Because we are independent we cannot be held accountable for our actions
• Because we are independent we often become self serving, do what is best for our own church (lest I say what is best for our own selves) at the expense of what is best for the cause of Christ or even what is best for the people we claim to be ministers to.

Because we are independent, we are completely unethical. Even when we are men of integrity we cannot be men of ethics because there is no one who is allowed to call us into account.

We are independent, but we are not loners. So we assemble together with other independents who appear to be compatible with us. But our union is more like a pack of stray dogs than a heard of the Lord's sheep. We submit to the most alpha among us, believing that he can make us as alpha as he is.

And when he falls:
And he does fall - those alphas are falling like flies. Believing the claims of everyone around them that they are incapable of failing, they fail.

And when he falls; we destroy him, hoping to be the next one to take his place as the leader of the pack, or at least be best friends with the guy who does get to be the leader of the pack.

I am all for independence.
But there is something to be said for organized unity. There is merit for purposeful, genuine concord with the strings to call one into question and bring one into accountability.

To my readers:

I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For more than 3800 Daily Visits with God visit Pastor Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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Classical Baptist

I friend of mine recently announced that he would self identify as a Classical Baptist rather than an Independent Fundamental Baptist.

Citing a number of reasons; from the excesses of some of the larger and more "excessive" IFB churches, to the effeminate nature of many of today's more common IFB churches.

He claimed for himself the term Classical Baptist in the likes of Benjamin Keach, Adoniram Judson, William Carey and  Charles Spurgeon whose doctrine and practice could hardly be compared to anything Baptists are doing today.

He claimed Classical Baptist in contrast to Reformed Baptist (for reasons I have not yet discovered).
Whose current trend concerns me first because the term reformed links them to Protestantism, which I do not believe true Baptists were ever a part of and secondly because Baptist Churches need no real reformation. Each church does correct its error or divert to the place it is no longer a biblically Baptist church. But those principles, practices and doctrines that make one Baptist need never, yea must never be reformed.

I have long ago determined I did not fit in the Independent Fundamental Baptist mold, though I am all of the above. 

• I am independent in church polity.
• I am fundamental in basic doctrine.
• I am Baptist in conviction

But I am wary of the movements that are identified with the title

Perhaps I too am a Classical Baptist.