Thoughts on Baptist History and Calvinism

1. Baptists are first of all Biblicists

What Baptists believed in the past is helpful to give grounding. However, any true Baptist would put the Bible above history

2. Baptist history in England is strongly Calvinist, but not elsewhere 

For instance, those Baptists in Russian countries tend to be predominantly Arminian. To claim the historic Baptist position is Calvinism is to claim that Baptists began in England and not with the earlier Anabaptists.

3. Not all English Baptists were Calvinists, the Regular Baptists believed anyone could be saved

It was the particular Baptists who were Calvinists. The a Particular Baptists eventually overwhelmed the Regular Baptists, changing their name to Grace Baptists.

4. Baptists embraced Calvinism over time in order to become more acceptable with the popular churches in England

Compare the Baptist Confession of Faith in 1644 with the one in 1686 and notice the changes to read like the Westminster confession.

5. Baptists in America began to swing toward the opposite Protestant heresy after the popularity of the Finney revivals

Baptists should embrace neither Calvinism nor Arminianism because Baptists are not Protestants. Our doctrine is the bible, and not the doctrines of men. Confessions and statements of faith, like church history, can be helpful to ground us, but our allegiance must be to the Bible and not the teachings of men about the Bible.

Marvin McKenzie

In the field

Why I Am Opposed to Reformation Theology in a Baptist Church

1. Reformation theology denies the perpetuity of the church as taught by our Lord in Matthew sixteen.

2. Reformation theology assumes that Baptists embraced the doctrines developed by the reformers.

3. Reformation theology leans upon the doctrines of Catholicism.

4, Reformation theology obliterates the evidence of a great cloud of Christian witnesses that never united with the corruptions of Catholicism.

5. Reformation theology leads modern Baptist pastors into a quagmire of false doctrines.

6. Reformation theology is thoroughly universal church.

7. Modern Reformation theologians are reckless socially.

  

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

Why Young Baptists are in Love with Modern Reformed Theology

A trend which seems to be increasingly popular among young independent Baptist preachers is to embrace, or at least flirt with the modern reformed theology of the likes of Mark Driscoll. I see at least three reasons why this may be the case:

1. It is popular and growing large congregations; that appeals to the flesh


2. It emphasizes precise theology; that appeals to the intellect, or the flesh


3. It is without standards of worldly separation; that appeals to the flesh.

I received a recent post from a missionary which read,
“… our English Baptist forefathers left their original position of "local church" proclaimed in their declaration of 1644 to embrace the reformation idea of the universal church to be "politically correct" in the second London Confession of 1689. They felt the need to be accepted as orthodox in their doctrine in order to be included in the Act of Toleration of 1689. From that time on we find Baptists struggling with this issue. On one hand we have the clear Bible teaching of the "ekklesia" and on the other hand the insatiable desire to be accepted by the protestant/evangelical community. May God help us to be faithful to Him and not to men.”

Amen...

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

Can the Gospel Go to the Wrong Door?

When I was in Bible College a preacher came through encouraging missions and soul winning.

One of the statements he made was, "The Gospel Cannot Go to the Wrong Door."

I want ask the question, "Can We Go To the Wrong House?" Is the phrase "The Gospel Cannot Go to the Wrong Door" a biblical concept? What about the home of someone who gets upset? What about if no one is home? What if the people at the home are from a different religion?

I. God would have all saved
1 Timothy 2:1-4 KJV
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

2 Peter 3:9 KJV
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

II. God commissions to us is to go to all the world
Matthew 28:18-20 KJV
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

III. Salvation requires both the planting and cultivating of the seed
1 Corinthians 3:5-9 KJV
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

Matthew 13:3-9 KJV
And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

God may use means we can't understand in the planting and watering

IV. Therefore to go to a home, even if that home is unresponsive can never be wrong

What Is Truth?

It is interesting how many things may pass as Christian today. Not that it has ever been much different. Even the Apostle Paul dealt with "another gospel: which is not another." Mankind has an uncanny way of following after that which is not of God.

And so times are changing and with it who preaches what gospel truth. At one time it would have been strictly the Catholic Church and those smaller churches who would not unite with it. Then came the Reformation and with it all of those little baby denominations that splintered out of her; Lutheranism, Presbyterianism and the Church of England. Of course, through the Reformation there still existed those churches, though severely persecuted, had never united with Catholicism so never needed to protest away from it. They, by the way, didn’t need to be reformed either. They insisted it was true and so were persecuted; not only by the Catholic Church, but now by her Protestant and Reformation children as well. The distinctions were fairly clear between them.

But then a shift happened in Christianity. Issues of denominational and particular doctrine began to give way to more general distinctions

• Modernism VS Fundamentalism - this battle gave way (as we set aside Liberalism and Modernism) to
• Evangelicalism VS Fundamentalism - which appears to be giving way (at least to a larger number of professing Christians) to
• Emerging VS Reformed

It appears that both Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism, which both still exist, are beginning to disintegrate, giving place to these two newer terms for a newer type of Christian interpretation.

The question comes to mind, "How can the truth be in all of this?"

And the answer rings back, at least in my mind, "It can't."

Now here is the issue; we humans tend to think of truth as a relative and even evolving thing. So far as human logic is concerned, truth is based upon man's own understanding of good and evil, and that is based upon his experience. Even within the larger Christian world, the truth that is God's Word is interpreted under the magnifying glass of this principle. What was true 1000 years ago, 100 years ago or even 25 years ago in not necessarily true, according to the logic of the human mind, because our experience  and with it our knowledge of good and evil, has changed in that time.

This is where Baptists differ. Our position has always been that truth is a standard given to us from God. Truth is a cornerstone planted by the Lord. Truth is God's Word. We are not to interpret the Bible according to our experiences but we are to interpret our experiences according to the Bible.

And this difference in thinking, in viewing the Bible - 

is fundamental.

Marvin McKenzie

In the field

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.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit Bible Baptist Church of Puyallup.

(photo from pixabay.com)

Less Important Doctrines

In Justin Taylor's blog entitled True Boldness For Christ he uses the term, "less important doctrines."

Honestly, I find this blog good reading. There are some sentiments that ought to be expressed and are helpful. Addressing Edwards warning of the desire to "seek distinction and singularity"is particularly helpful. The power of pride can be so blinding that we may move from the desire to be used of God to the desire to be known among men in a heartbeat, often not recognizing that it has happened and growing defensive when it is pointed out.

But I take exception to the concept that there is such a thing as "less important doctrines." H. Boyce Taylor, in his book, Why Be A Baptist, says, "The doctrines and teachings of the church were given by the Master. They are included in then"all things He commanded." I have no problem claiming that those doctrines that are not in the Bible are lesser doctrines.

• They are the doctrines of men and not of God.
• They then are not merely lesser doctrines but no doctrines at all do far as God's church is concerned.

And here is the gist of the real trouble; Protestants, Reformers, and Catholics compartmentalize doctrine. Some are considered important and cardinal. Some are considered of less importance, allowing for the opinion and doctrine of man to enter in to the church. The Baptist claim is that all things commanded in the Bible are of supreme importance and not one of them is to be set in a lesser position nor should any teaching that is beyond the Bible be viewed as church doctrine.

One could argue that every doctrine than those doctrines concerning our salvation are lesser doctrines." but the argument would be based purely on human reasoning and logic. It makes sense to a man that the most important thing is that a man is saved. But no where does the Word of God give us this leave. Doctrine in the Bible, all doctrine in the Bible, is placed on equal ground. When a man is saved, he is to be baptized, that makes the doctrine of that ordinance vital. After baptism he is to be instructed to observe all things Christ commanded. That makes those all things as important to the work of the church as the message of salvation.

H. Boyce Taylor said, "if you find it in the Bible, it is Baptist doctrine. If you can't find it in the Bible it isn't Baptist doctrine." Perhaps the strongest case in favor of that assertion is that we Baptists don't consider any doctrine of lesser importance.



Marvin McKenzie
In the field

A Stomach For Christ

Just finished reading a blog from Justin Taylor. He speaks of those both inside and outside of the church that, "can't stomach traditional Christianity."

I have to wonder what ever happened that gave people inside the church the right to stomach or not to stomach the faith?

From the very first century - before Paul was off the scene, there were already those who had turned the faith of Christ into something other than conversion to Christ.

Attacks upon the Apostle and perversions of the Gospel make it apparent that human sin nature had infiltrated the churches early on, if not from the beginning. Jude wrote to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered, declaring that certain had crept in unawares to destroy and deny that very faith. Paul warned that wolves would come up from among those in the ministry. Much of his writing was an apology not only for the faith but for his own ministry within the faith. Obviously there were some who could not stomach the ministry of the very Apostle Paul.

What grieves me is that we don't seem to grieve over it today. Rather, we almost relish in the religious banter of those who claim to be of us but who can't stomach us. Traditional Christianity is the only truly sound Christianity. All other types of Christianity are not Christianity at all. Fundamental doctrines (rather than reformed by the way) are those only doctrines that the Apostle Paul or Jude would have stomached. That there are those today who cant stomach them should lead us to pray for them, but not to cater to them.

Marvin McKenzie
In the field

To my readers:

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

For more than 3700 Daily Visits with God visit Pastor Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit Bible Baptist Church of Puyallup.

(photo from pixabay.com)

I am a Fundamentalist

Hello. My name is Marvin. And I am a Fundamentalist.
I became a Christian in 1977. Trusting Christ as my Saviour has been the single most wonderful thing that has happened in my fifty two years of life on planet earth.

It would seem by some of what I have read lately that it is just unfortunate that it was a fundamental conversion that took place in my life. From the "IBFxers" to the Evangelicals, to the newly "Reformed Christian," it seems that the main stream Christian blogger, you know, the one whose stuff gets read by the larger numbers of relevant Christians, have little to nothing kind to say about a Fundamental Baptist. One blogger, does the kind service of finding and posting the horror stories of those who, like me, were unfortunate enough to have become involved in a Fundamental Baptist Church (but unlike me, are now fortunate enough to have escaped this torment).

I have read that we may be "rabid" and that perhaps the best thing to do when encountering a Fundamental Baptist is just run. I am reminded of an article I read many years ago about the forming of a group called Fundamentalists Anonymous. I dismissed it then. But maybe I just could not recognize the seriousness of this illness.

Perhaps I am still in the denial stages of my disease. I just don't get the problem.

Ok. I will admit that there have been some excesses among Fundamental Baptists. We've had our headline cases of top tier preachers caught in the immoral. And even among those who have done nothing criminal there are certainly cases a plenty of abuses of power. But is that really a problem inherent only to Fundamental Baptists? Isn't that more a problem inherent to humanity in general? Are there not cases sufficient to demonstrate that even among the more relevant religious leader models sin still exists? Aren't there at least a few who would disdain the title Fundamental Baptist from whose presence it would be best to flee?

I am still excusing my disease aren't I? I just don't get it.

And what is wrong with Fundamentalism anyway?

• Do we really want to believe a doctrine that is not fundamental?
• If our faith is not fundamental, meaning foundational, is it really worthy of our faith?
• Wasn't Christ's real message to the Pharisees to return to the fundamentals of their walk with God?

So what if the Fundamental Baptists believe the Bible has no error? Would it be better to believe it has error but hypocritically claim to follow it?

Let's see. What damage had been done (besides that same sort of damage that can be attributed to being human in general and not Fundamental Baptist in particular)?

• Fundamental Baptists have supported thousands of missionaries around the world, not only doing evangelistic work and planting new churches, but rendering all sorts of humanitarian assistance in places like Sri Lanka, New Orleans, and Haiti.
• Fundamental Baptists have voted alongside other morally and patriotically minded Americans for laws that encourage Biblical principles be followed in our country.
• Fundamental Baptists have urged husbands and wives to stay faithful to their marriage vows, learning to love one another and to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
• Fundamental Baptists have led programs intended to keep children off of drugs and alcohol and out off the sexual bed until marriage.

I just don't get it. It sure doesn't look like rabies to me.

Just looks like some seriously angry people who have found a popular venue in which to vent.

So I am not an IFBxer. I am more like an IFB+er.

My name is Marvin. And I am...a Fundamental Baptist.

Marvin McKenzie

From the Field

To my readers:

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

For more than 3700 Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit Bible Baptist Church of Puyallup.

(photo from pixabay.com)