Why Aren’t Our Churches Remaining Baptist Long Term?

I have spent a number of days running down old Baptist churches in the northern part of Kentucky. Think about it! One of these churches was established while George Washington was still alive. Another one, while John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were living. They are in different circles than I am, but they are still active, and they are still Baptist in name. Why aren’t more of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches remaining Baptist long term?

 

I am sure I don’t have all of the answers but here are some thoughts: 

Most of these churches are either Southern Baptist or Missionary Baptists. 

They might likely say that their longevity is attributed to their organizations. I would not agree with this because their organizations are moving toward being non-Baptist.

 

I would argue that many if not most independent Baptists are not, in fact, Baptists. 

I think they are more immersing old-fashioned Methodists. 

 

I think Independent Baptists have, for many decades, been more pragmatic and growth-oriented rather than doctrinal oriented. 

Almost anything goes in these days so long as we can claim souls being saved and churches growing. 

 

Doctrine is not preached as much as “help” messages. 

Too many preachers try to answer the questions people ask rather than informing people of the questions they should be asking.

 

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

The Gold's Up Higher

Psalms 119:127 KJV

Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.

Our recent family vacation was spent in Winthrop, WA and the Methow Valley, the heart of Washington gold country. Even now hobbyists and more serious prospectors are bringing gold out of "them thar hills!"

Thanks to Bohannan, my oldest son, we got a small taste of gold prospecting while we were there. Placer gold is that which is scattered down a river stream by the current of the water. It's recovered either by panning or dredging the gold river's bottom and running it through a sluice to sift out the gold from other sediment.

Here's the applicable part for us; since the gold is scattered down the river through the current it stands to reason that the farther you get from the source, the smaller will be the pieces of gold. There are huge amounts of gold all the way down to the ocean, but it's so fine it is almost impossible to sift out. If you want the bigger pieces, you have to go up river, high into the mountains where the nuggets that are too heavy to be carried away in the current are deposited.

Of course, the higher in the mountains a person is, the greater are the hardships of being there.

The same is true in the spiritual life. The greatest treasures of Christianity can only be gleaned by being very close to the Lord. The problem is, it's a challenge to get there and once there you'll find that the world will bring hardships upon you.

Paul said any sufferings he endured in those higher elevations of the spiritual life could not be compared to the glory which would be revealed in him in heaven.

The gold that's available from a close walk with God is obvious worth the hardships of that spiritual life.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

Vacation and Services

I didn't grow up going on a lot of vacations per se. My dad was a professional rodeo cowboy and we went somewhere almost every weekend. Often if we weren't staying in the camper at a rodeo arena we were camping in it at a lake, fishing trout in the early mornings.

In my earlier years of ministry I modeled my family off times more like how I grew up. We didn't ever take a vacation as in a week or two unplugged and away. We did travel almost every month to a preachers' fellowship meeting and we always turned some portion of that trip into an adventure for our kids. We also camped a lot as Oregon's largest state park is just outside of Astoria, where we lived in the earliest days of our ministry.

Things changed when we moved twelve years ago to Puyallup. Bible Baptist offered a vacation package as a part of my benefits so we began modeling our down time a little more like how my wife grew up.

The first year was two full weeks out camping. We decided that was much too long. The next year was a week long trip to Lake Louise, Canada. It was a bit hurried, but the most significant challenge was attending church. We attended a good church Sunday morning and headed into Canada thinking we could find a church to attend where ever we stopped for the night. We stopped early on purpose so we could get cleaned up from traveling in time for church. What we found was that no church in town held a Sunday night service. I was even willing to attend an Episcopalian service if necessary. No open church whatsoever.

The next several years were no better. We went on an Alaska cruise one year. The timing was such that we left after the morning service so we missed church that evening and there was not church in Skagway, where we spent Wednesday so we missed that service too. Apparently a lot of preachers have no problem missing services to go on a cruise because a lot of them recommend cruising.

Another year we planned to take a train from Seattle to New York and back. I made reservations for a sleeper car. The whole vacation was going to be the train. Just ride it to New York and back (taking different routes each way). My (by then) adult children and their wives drove us to the train station. On the way one asked where we would stop for church. It was not until then that I realized that we would not be able to attend a single church service the entire way. My kids tried to justify their parents' lack of church that week but by the time we arrived at the train station I had come to the conclusion that I could not set that example for my kids. I canceled our trip and ate the cost.

This year we secluded ourselves in the North Cascade Mountains no more than one and a half hours from four Baptist Churches of like faith and practice. Still trouble attending church. It turned out that 

• One is a church plant and does not yet have mid week services. 
• Another advertised just a children's outreach for the mid-week (turns out their web site needs a little updating. They did have a preaching service on Wednesday.) 
• Another held their mid week service on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. I know that many do Thursday instead.

Here is the thing, it's just about impossible to go on vacation and be faithful to worship in God's house. Oh, sure, almost every town has something that looks like a church but those with a little biblical discernment know that most things men call church are just that, called of men and not the Lord. Trouble is that some who have the Lord's authority are shirking their obligations. Church needs to be 

• On a consistent time
• Well advertised and 
• Faithfully executed

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

Courageous

I guess I am behind the times a bit. I just watched the film "Courageous" for the first time. I can see why so many have spoken highly of it.

• The acting and production has improved dramatically from "Flywheel."
• The story is compelling and emotional
• The conclusion is powerful and convicting.

It was a pleasure to watch.

That said, there were some things in the show that a Christian ought to give second thought to. This show claims a Christian message. For that reason it must be held to a higher standard than other things a person might watch. As much as the "message" of the show is preached, so too are some more subtle "mini messages" that we might not even be aware were preached.

First there was the issue of allowing a nine year old daughter to attend a party where there would be dancing. The daughter wants Dad to teach her to dance and the clear message is that he should have done it. I understand that Baptists are about the only people in the world who are opposed to dancing. But we have good biblical reason.

• The music is sensual and worldly.
• The context of dancing is sexual in nature.
• Those dances that involve an embrace are in direct violation of the Bible[1]
• The atmosphere of the dance hall is wicked.
• The conclusion of a dance is nearly always (especially in the heart of the worldly male) to find someplace to consummate what was acted out on the floor

This film's not so subtle approval of Christians dancing is an enemy of the cross.

Second there is a prosperity theology message promoted in the film. I commend the film for encouraging men to work and I certainly commend the film for encouraging workers to be honest. But Javier's story is the opposite of the message of the Christian classic "In His Steps" by Charles Shelton where the character does the right thing and losses his job because of it. The message of this film is that if we will do the right thing, God will reward us with a promotion and more money. That flies in the face of those millions of Christians of the past who did the right thing and we're burned at the stake or torn to pieces by wild animals. Where was God for them?

It might seem like a trivial complaint but as a preacher I deal with the consequences of this false doctrine regularly. Americans have been led to believe that if they become Christians and obey the Bible they

• Will get raises at work
• Own the best houses and
• Raise the happiest families.

But that isn't the message of the Bible and years of reality have now led to a generation of people who do not trust Christianity because the (false) message of prosperity hasn't come to pass so they won't listen to the (true) message of salvation.

The movie is good. I do not deny that it is compelling and mostly clean. But the messages under the message are dangerous and Christians ought to take heed.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

---

[1] 1 Corinthians 7:1

Hate Crimes

There has been much to do of late concerning the Fundamentalists' hatred of homosexuals. I want to go on record that I do not hate them.

• I do not wish anyone to be executed
• I do not wish anyone to be placed in prison
• I do not wish anyone to be persecuted

I will go on record as being appalled by the outlandish sentiments of those preachers recently cited as urging the above upon people in the homosexual community (I did note that among those cited were people of other than Independent Fundamental Baptists, though one of them was.)

I am certain there is much better preaching than the kind of preaching that incites people to hysteria over their pet peeves. It's pretty easy to get people stirred up over things that appeal to their sense of culture. Too much preaching serves no real purpose but to please the listener. To what value is it to preach to a room full of non homosexuals that you think that all homosexuals should be executed? Those in the room have no authority to practice your message and presumably have no need of repenting of the sin being preached against.

But it is not hateful to preach what the Bible says and the Bible does say that homosexuality is sin. The lifestyle is contrary to nature and to the purpose for which God has created us.

• To urge a congregation to practice the Word of God
• To encourage people to obey all of the Word of God
• To enlist a congregation to pray for those who are involved in a non biblical lifestyle

That is not hatred.

Those who have wrongly applied the Christian message have incited a different kind of hatred than against homosexuals; they have stirred up the hatred of those non Fundamentalist Christians against not just Fundamentalists but everyone they choose to label as Fundamentalists. Several articles and blog pieces have suggested that Fundamentalism will soon be illegal because of the kinds of sermons they have cited in the last few days. Here is the thing; Bible believing Christianity has been illegal for the better part of Christian history. To be sure, there has been a long history now of a particular form of Christianity that has wielded popularity and politic power, but a good part of those who have claimed to be Christians have always been

• Hated,
• Imprisoned
• Persecuted and even
• Executed

by both the non Christian and the established kind of Christian world. Such attacks upon Fundamentalism will not stop it or change it; it will just refine and define who in it really is Fundamental.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

Sheep Don't Bite

I read a short blog the other day that has been stuck in my craw. The writer was attempting to encourage pastors with a list of quips concerning the ministry. One of those quips was, "Sheep bite; they just do." or something like that. Though I confess that I am unable now to find the blog to reference it, I was able, through a simple Google search, to find several Web sites that contain articles about sheep biting. The idea of course is that Christians, who are characterized as sheep in the Bible often hurt there pastor, who is characterized as their shepherd or one another.

This is interesting and I think addresses a flaw in our definition of who exactly is a sheep. The fact is real sheep do not bite. Their teeth and their palate is designed to graze and bite off grass. They so not bite. Not one another; not their shepherd. This isn't to say that sheep are perfect.

• They do wonder off
• They do get ill  but
• They don't bite

Sheep are a unique animal that has no chain of authority. There is no alpha sheep in the flock. No one in a flock of sheep is fighting to be lead. It is against their nature.

Dogs, or rather biblically, wolves bite. They bite each other and they bite anything else in their way. They are pack animals and the leader must always assert and defend his lead because every other wolf in the pack is waiting for its chance to assert itself and become lead.

All of this reflects on the current concept of what constitutes a Christian and what the role of the pastor is. Today's model sees anyone who attends church or makes any sort of profession of believing as a child of God. We view Christianity as a life choice today so anyone who chooses to may claim the status of "sheep." consequently a shepherd's job in today's Christianity has the role of coaxing as many self professed sheep as possible into choosing his flock and then managing those "sheep" well enough that they won't go looking for another shepherd and some other flock. The shepherd of this sort of flock, the contention is, must expect to get bitten once in a while. It is the nature of the sheep.

I have a different idea. It sounds to me like that kind of shepherding isn't shepherding at all; I think that's just managing a wolf pack. Anyone working with wolves of course has to be careful of being bitten. That is not true of shepherds. Our trouble today is that we accept that wolves are sheep just because the wolf says he is a sheep. The Bible warns that wolves will enter among us. The Bible warns that there will be many false professors. We would do best to remember that and warn those who are prone to bite that they don't possess the character of their profession.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

Religion versus Theology

The issue of same sex marriage is heating up again in Washington state. A group is pushing Washington to become the seventh state in the country to legalize same sex marriages. Proponents claim the this is not a religious issue. They said yesterday, on the Ken Schram radio show, that they freely respect the rights of those who are opposed upon religious grounds to abstain from practicing same sex marriages. The example I heard on the radio show was from Schram's guest who said that he was Roman Catholic and completely understood that his priest would be unwilling to perform his wedding. Speaking of Ken Schram, (himself a professing Catholic) he chided his audience not to send him emails claiming that "God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve," calling that "trite."
So I began to think about the difference between a religious argument against homosexual marriage and a theological one. It is obvious that religious arguments are powerless in our day. Very few people these days care what any church thinks about any thing. Here were two Catholics aggressively opposed to the message of their own religion. They weren't even bothered that their religion comes out on the opposite side of a position they are passionate about. The position of their religion, though still their religion, just does not matter to them. Therefore a religious argument is a hopeless argument. But what about a theological one? What if we argued that God Himself is opposed to homosexuality?
I realize most people would not see the difference. For most people religion has replaced God. They do not know God, they only know their religion and they have come to see their religion as fallible. Their own opions are as good as any opinion of their church. So, in order for my proposal to have any effect, two things would have to happen:
First, religions would have to get out of the way of God. We would need some honest to goodness real believers who meet with the Lord and hear from Him day by day. We would have to find some Christians who worship the Lord when they assemble rather than merely practicing their church form.
Second we would need a message from God so we know His views on issues such as homosexuality and etc..
Oh yea, I have heard about some Christians like that. These were those that refused to join up with Constantine when first he proposed to put religion above God. These have been a hated and persecuted people since the crucifixion of Christ. But they have also been a tenacious people, persisting through flame and flood.
• They have worshiped God in barns and meat-houses.
• They have preached in cathedrals not built by human hands.
• They have met in secret places and heard their preacher in hushed tones.
• They would not enter into the established churches knowing that those places only smothered out the heart for God.
They are the Baptists.
Not those who like to use the Baptist name but are really just Protestants who immerse; I am speaking of those Baptists who have, through the ages, lived and died by this one rule; their faith was in a resurrected Saviour and not a system of religion.
Hey, and that same people did have a message from God. Their Bibles gave us a family of Biblical manuscripts that were untainted by the perversions of Romanism. They saw the Bible as more than an instrument to control the masses for their purposes, but as indeed the very word of God. That message has been faithfully preserved and passed down to in the King James Version of the Bible.
The Baptist people have the message Washington State needs to hear. It is not that our church that opposes homosexual marriages; it is that God Himself is offended when His creation defiles the order He created. He has clearly said so, not in a religious document that has been written and re-written by men, but in the breath of God, recorded and supernaturally preserved.
The state of Washington may very well legalize homosexual marriages. But they will do so in defiance, not of a church, but of the very God of heaven.
And God have mercy if they do.

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

The "Weaning" Process of American Faith

I have been weaning my mother goat from her kids. It is a process that is emotionally painful for both mother and kids. It is at least for them what they instinctively feel is unnatural. The kids want the milk and the mother wants to give it to them. Goats are heard animals and carry in their genes a high level of (emotional) dependence upon the whole.

It has set me to thinking about the separation of a parent from his or her children. The child sees it as natural and normal to wean from the care of their parents. But I don't think a parent ever gets fully weaned from their children. I am not even sure it is really God's will for them to be "weaned" in the sense that American culture insists upon. The American family, and especially the Christian family in America, would be much better off if family members not only loved each other but stayed physically together through generations. The American model of moving families around the continent has served to disband the fabric of family and effectively kill the faith of their fathers within one or two generations.

In much the same way American Christianity accepts a sort of weaning of its offspring that is unhealthy to the cause of Christ. I have, for instance, several men who have been trained under me in the ministry but believe they have outgrown me and my doctrine. Though they seem perfectly comfortable with the separation that is the result of their adventures into doctrines and practices I preach and taught them against, I still pine for them in a fashion similar to my emptiness for my children. My sons in the faith have forgotten me, but I cannot forget them.

And this laissez-faire attitude towards making their own way at the abandon of that which I preached contributes to the downhill slide of true faith. They think they have found something I (and preachers like me) were not aware of. In fact what they have found is the error we stood opposed to. And rather than humbling themselves and submitting to their fathers in the faith, they have let slip those things we hold so dear.

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

Terrifying Fundamentalism

I was with a young pastor a week or so ago. His church is meeting in a building that has had three different church denominations in it previous to him. Although his is the fourth church to use the building, he has been there three years, and the Nazarenes who built the building have been was more than 30 years ago, to this day he says people will say "Oh, you are the Nazarene Church."

It just reminds me that people are not particular about their labels. To most people, a church is a church is a church.

The same goes with distinctions, the distinction of fundamentalism for instance. I realize that there is a multiplicity of fundamentalist organizations.
• Fundamentalist Jews
• Fundamentalist Islam and
• Fundamentalist Christianity
In fact, within Fundamentalist Christianity there is a multiplicity of divisions.

Marc Adler's article in Splice Today entitled, The Terrifying Christian Right, is written from the perspective on one who lumps all that anyone has ever labeled fundamentalist into the same inaccurate heap. Adler's article lumps Evangelicals, Pentecostals and Baptists in the very same camp as being dominionists.
• Dominionists are not Fundamentalists
• Evangelicals are not Fundamentalists for that matter
• True Baptists are not Fundamentalists

That there is a theological perspective called dominion theology is a fact. That dominion theology is dangerous, I will agree. That Baptists, along with evangelicals and fundamentalists have been misled into embracing dominion theology is an unfortunate truth. But to categorize everyone who believes the Bible to be the Bible to advocate dominion theology is inaccurate.

Fundamentalism has its problems to be sure. But let's be careful of our terminology. Bible believing Baptist people are not trying to take over the world. We do not want the media to proclaim the Good News, we are not asking women to stay and home and we certainly do not want to silence all voices but the Christian one.

We just want to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.
We want the freedom to use the spoken and written word to persuade others toward our position and
We expect the Lord of Heaven to be glorified shortly


Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

It's Not Doing or Even Being, but Believing

I met with a young pastor last week who related the following account to me. He said that when they first began the church he now pastors, he held a series of lessons exposing the doctrinal positions of various religious groups and Christian denominations. As a part of this series of lessons, he had gathered literature from each of those denominations he was teaching about so people cold see what these groups themselves circulated, and not just what he said about them.

It happened that a visitor came to the services the night he was addressing this visitors own denominational background. Having a packet of material in his hands from his own denomination he told the pastor, "I have gone to that church all my life and never knew this is what we believe."

It is not impossible for a person to attend almost any sort of church for a lifetime without knowing what the church actually believes. It is because many churches focus all attention on what they are doing, not on what they believe. Most independent Baptists are every bit as guilty of this as some other group. Too often the focus of our efforts to get people into our church has to do with highlighting our various ministries;
• What we can do for your children
• How we minister to the family
• The type of music program we feature
• The activites the teens are part of
• Etc.

Often times the pulpit is no more specific concerning what the church actually professes to believe. The pastor careful crafts his messages in such a way that he feels he is helpful to the congregation without hitting on points of doctrine that might come into conflict with a person's core beliefs.

Frankly, most churches today conduct themselves in such a way that a lost person could attend faithfully and never come into conflict with the message of the church.

That brings me to my consideration today. So far as a spiritual things are concerned, it is not nearly as imprtant what we do or even what we are as it is what we believe.

There are plenty of do gooder societies in our world.
And they do good things. I will not contest that. I will just say that the church of Jesus Christ has been given a different commission that good deeds.

There are plenty of people who are very good men
Benjamin Franklin, I have no doubt was a good man. Though in his early years, it sounds like he might have been a scoundrel, as he matured he developed a passion for the good and moral. His efforts to benefit his country, his community and even his world are legendary. Franklin, for instance, refused to be compensated for his design of the Franklin Fireplace, believing that something with som much potential for good belonged to the people and it would be improper for him to be paid for making it available.
But Franklin was also obviously unsaved. Though the evangelist George Whitefield had stayed in his home and Franklin had heard his sermons and printed his papers, Franklin rejected the message of the preacher. As good of a man as Franklin was, he is in hell today (unless he believed later in life and it was never reported.)

The one work that God has given the local church is the work of faith.
It is our duty to reach out to all mankind, not merely to get them to attend our congregations and convert them to our way of life. We are disseminators of faith, of doctrine. So far as the church of Jesus Christ is concerned, it is
• Not what we do
• Nor even what we are
• It is what we believe
that matters.

Jailhouse Christianity

Our church has a reader sign in front of the very busy road we are located on. Having appropriate and insightful and very concise (less the 140 character) messages on the sign can sometimes be challenging.

• Generally we get positive feedback
• From time to time it has been quite negative
• Sometimes we what we displayed didn't mean to passers by what we thought it meant to us

So I am sensitive concerning others and the messages they display. This then is not meant to be a criticism but a matter of thought.

The message I on another church's sign today reads, "Children brought up in church are seldom caught in jail."

First, there is some question as to the accuracy of the statement
The word seldom may be the saving statement of the message. Perhaps it is true that per capita church kids end up in jail less than kids who have not grown up in church. But I have met plenty of adults who grew up in church, some in fundamental Baptist churches, who have done time; hard time. My friends involved prison ministry have testified that lots of church kids and even preachers kids are locked up right now. So the message is cute and hopeful but might not be true.

More seriously though, I question the point of the statement
And would go so far as to say it is dangerous. It is the wrong message. It makes the church out to be the hope of the family, the hope of our children and the rescuer of the potential inmate. The church is not the hope; Christ is.

This is tantamount to being a false gospel. It is probably what most people who attend church think is the gospel and it is damning families to heartbreak when their kids go bad, bitterness at the church, and eternity in hell. They placed their hope in church, not in Jesus Christ.

Church is terribly important. I would suggest that the professing Christian who sees no need for church membership, worship and service has never met Christ as Saviour. But church is not the Saviour. Sometimes a person glosses over the Saviour, to get into the church where they have been led to believe their help lies. They assume salvation and then commence into church life expecting to have all their problems resolved there. That's backwards. We must become in love and engrossed in the things of God. That is the most likely way our kids will come to be saved and learn to love the Lord themselves.

Subculture or Counter Culture

Back in April of this year Elizabeth Vargas gave her expose' of what they called this "dangerous subculture" known as Independent Fundamental Baptists. The term subculture struck me as I meditate considerably on the issues of Christianity and culture. It does not seem to me that Christianity ought to fit into the realm of the culture in which it finds itself but it ought to create its own culture. Missionaries are quick to tell me that what I believe to be Christian culture is not but merely American Christian culture.

But the term subculture sounded shocking to me. Almost underground. Include independent Baptists in with the subcultures of
• Marijuana smoking free sexers
• Underground poet societies
• Goth
• Punk, etc.

But even more unnerving to me is the connotation that our "subculture" is somehow beneath what is the true culture of America.

This week I heard a man refer to the Ana Baptists not as a subculture but as a counter culture in their day. That speaks volumes to me. That is Biblical Christianity.
• It is not blended into the culture it finds itself
• It is not under and somehow subservient to the surrounding culture

Christianity is supposed to run counter to the culture in which it is found. It is to oppose, to check and to resist the cultures of this world.

Matthew 5:13-16 KJV
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Christian faith is not supposed to be a sub culture it is supposed to be another culture, a different culture. And that is perhaps our biggest problem today. We appear to be too much like a light under a bushel, we are there, we have light, but it is muffled under the basket of cultural worldliness.

Only when we become counter to the culture will we truly be a light on a hill.

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

A Better Christian Than Me?

I cannot tell how many times I have heard a Christian esteem another and judge themselves with a term similar to this, "He is a better Christian than me."

Such a judgment has sometimes led to one being motivated to grow in the cause of Christ. As often and perhaps more often it leads to compromise or other weaker spiritual traits. Who is to say that they are a better Christian? By what criteria do we make such a judgment? Is one a better Christian because
• They win more people to the Lord?
• They spend more time in the Bible?
• They are less likely to display tendencies of the flesh?

After all I have heard some Christians claim that Mormons are better Christians than they are. Mormons are not Christians at all!

And then when did we get Biblical authority to judge one a better Christian than another? The Bible says 2 Corinthians 10:12 KJV
For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

It is never safe to compare ourselves among ourselves but would do best to keep our eyes upon the Lord. He is the measure by which we want to place ourselves.

I tend to think that the comparing of our Christianity with that of another person is based rather on our own sense of failure in the Christian life. Which one of us feels like we
• Pray enough?
• Witness enough?
• Know our Bibles well enough?
The most telling though is this, who is it who believes His relationship with Christ is essential and real enough?

We all wrestle with the flesh and we know it. We know it well enough that we certainly want to avoid letting others know it. And here is the thing: that guy who is a better Christian than we are; he's got the same tension inside him we do.

He probably thinks we are better Christians than he is.

Marvin McKenzie
In the field

Could He? Would He? Did He?

May 2nd will mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible. It seemed appropriate to me to post this article as my thoughts concerning the King James Bible. It was originally written as a tract for discipleship in our church.
……………………..

Bible Baptist Church believes that the Word of God is preserved without error in the King James Version of the Bible. With new versions of the Bible being printed seemingly every year, each claiming to be more accurate and easier to read than the ones before, is this position tenable?

Consider these thoughts:
Could God?
Could God preserve the Bible word for word accurate and without error today?

If you were to read the positions of the prominent Bible publishers you would think not.  Each new version of the Bible claims to be an improvement upon the version previous to it and since you can't improve on perfection the obvious conclusion is they do not believe the Bible versions before theirs were perfect. (Nor do they claim perfection for their own.)

Yet we still are faced with the question, “Could God preserve His Bible perfect and without mistakes today?” If God is God at all He can!
• If He can call into existence the heavens and the earth, He can preserve His word without mistakes
• If He can part the Red Sea, He can preserve His Word
• If He can dwell among us as Jesus did, He can preserve His Word.

Could God preserve His Word without mistakes? The answer is a resounding, of course He could!

Would God?

Would it be the will of God to preserve His Bible perfect and without mistakes today?

Psalms 12:6-7 says He would.
Jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away but not “one jot or one tittle” of God's Word will pass. (Matthew 5:18)

The Bible makes it very clear that God had no intention to allow man to mess up His Bible. He gave it to us as His communication to man how to be forgiven of our sin and given a home in heaven. The message is just too important to let it be corrupted by the errors of man!

Would God preserve His Word without mistakes? The answer again is a resounding, of course He would!

Did God?

Since God can and God would preserve His Bible perfect and without mistakes, it is only right to ask the question, "Did he do it?"

Again you would think not, seeing all of the versions of the Bible on the shelves today. One would have to admit that with so many versions, and with each one being different than the other, all of them cannot be perfect and without mistakes. Then, of course there is the problem of the ancient languages. None of the original copies of the Bible still exist today. And, even if they did, we could not read them.

But there is light in this tunnel. One version of the Bible bears the marks of infallibility. The King James Version has

• The backing of the majority of ancient manuscripts of the Bible
• The witness of several earlier translation efforts
• The cooperation of some of the world's finest minds serving together to complete its translation, and
• The heritage of millions upon millions of lives being saved and changed because of its impact

• God could preserve His Word without mistakes
• God would want to preserve His Word without mistakes and
• God did preserve His Word without mistakes in the King James Version of the Bible

  

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

What Is An Independent Baptist Church?

I thought I would submit today an article I wrote originally to be used as an informational tract for those visiting our church.

---------------------------
Are you confused about all of the different churches in your community? Do you wonder what the difference is between each of the denominations?

You are not alone! Jesus warned that there would come a time when there would be so many different religions claiming to be the true faith of Jesus Christ that, if it were possible they would deceive even the very elect of God. (Mattew 24:24)

Many today feel that the church should be a place where no real distinction is made, only that we all love Jesus. But is this really of God?

The position of independent Baptist Churches like this one is simple and three-fold.
Independent Baptist Churches believe in the preservation of the soul.
Our contention is that the Bible teaches very clearly that when a person is genuinely saved, they cannot lose that salvation. Our conviction is based upon the person of Jesus Christ. If He is all that the Bible claims Him to be, then how could He possibly preside over a salvation that is as fickle as is mankind? The Bible says we are saved, not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy. (Titus 3:5) His mercy brought Jesus to the cross for us while we were yet sinners. (Romans 5:8) That same mercy will not fail to keep us saved after we have trusted Christ.

Independent Baptist Churches believe in the preservation of the Bible.
How could Almighty God have gone through the effort to give us a perfect Bible, only to allow sinful men to pervert it and twist it? It is not consistent with the power of God that He would allow the Bible to be so corrupted by men as to necessitate the work of scholars to improve upon its accuracy. God has promised repeatedly in the Bible to preserve His word without error. (Ps 12:7) Baptist Churches like this one believe that God has kept His promise and that He has done it through the King James Version of the Bible.

Independent Baptist Churches believe in the preservation of the church.
Jesus said He would build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) That church, as far as the Bible declares, is always a local congregation of believers.

Historically, there are those churches that strayed from the faith once delivered unto the saints. (Jude 1:3) Those churches had to be protested against and reformed. Today they take the form of the Catholic Church and all of her children, the Protestant denominations.

Independent Baptist Churches follow a different line than those. We follow a line of churches that refused to unite with the catholic system from its very beginning and that have tenaciously striven to keep the faith committed by Jesus to His apostles.

When you attend an independent Baptist Church, you are participating in a form of worship

• That leans only on the Word of God for its authority,
• That believes strictly that we are saved and by the grace of God and not of our good works, and
• That claims a heritage of unwavering allegiance to the doctrines once committed to the saints.

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

Perceptions Concerning the Power of God

Brother Greg Perkins is the pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Republic, WA. We are privileged to host him in our church this week for what we are calling revival meetings. This pastor is as genuine as any one I have known. I asked him for revival type preaching and he came prepared to bring just that.

Last night was the first service. The preacher's theme was the potential power of God in us - especially through the church. Basing his message from Matthew 28:19, "All power" Bro. Perkins asked repeatedly whether we think we are experiencing the full potential of God's power. We of course answered, "No."

Here is the potential trouble I see: while each of us in the service last night wants to see God's power in our church and in our lives, each of us, including the preacher and including this preacher, has a different opinion of what that power would look like. Each of us perceives God's blessing and fullness of His power in different ways.
• Some of us have been in churches where a thousand or more assembled together weekly.
• We see that as the power of God
• Some of us see God's power as baptisms every Sunday, or professions of faith.
• Some of us would view the power of God as some perhaps intangible dynamic happening in church

Or getting a raise at work
Or getting our way in our marriage
Or having an enemy vanquished in some way

What if God's power displayed didn't mean any of that?
• What if it meant the power to die without denying Christ?
• What if it meant the power to stay in a situation that hurt every moment?
• What if the power of God meant something spiritual, internal and completely invisible to the fleshly eye?

Perhaps the greatest battle we fight with the flesh is the battle to let God speak through His Word without inserting in it the meaning we choose for it.


Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

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)

The Best Path for my Family?

Among several other reads going on in my life right now, I am in the middle of Thom and Sam Rainer's book, The Essential Church. At about 71% of the way through they cite an interview they have with a man named Kenneth who grew up in church, dropped out, and is now considering returning for the sake of his family. Kenneth is quoted as saying, however, "I want to be a good example [to his soon to be born child] but I am still not sure church is the best path for our family."
Wow!

How could a person growing up in church ever think that church is not the best path for his family?

I could understand if he offered his dozen excuses for not coming.
But he contemplates it and concludes, it might not be the best thing for his family.

Ouch!

I do note that he said church, not God or Christ. He said he did not know if church was the best path for his family. It is possible that Kenneth does not know the Lord and relates church as a religious practice rather than the worship of the Lord. In that case, he is absolutely correct. Church would not be the best path for his family.

But it could be that he saw hurting people being hurt in church.

Yesterday I officiated at the funeral service of a dear man I was privileged to pastor only six months. I saw him in the hospital about a month ago and I suppose it was that visit that brought me to the minds of his family for the funeral.

At the service were many families I had pastored when I pastored him, most of them now scattered into several other churches, few of them still belonging to the church we all belonged to when I pastored there. At the service also, was this man's pastor, who was completely left out of the service - I presume by the adult children and not by the wish of my friend who is now gone.

I did not want to get into conversations with any of these very nice people, why they no longer attend the church we all once attended or why the pastor there had not been asked to conduct this service. I did hear that one family said "We will never go to a Baptist Church again."

And then today I spoke with that pastor. I wanted to at least attempt to make things right with him. I hadn't any idea that there were reasons I was asked and he was not, other than my friendship to this man.

He expressed hurt; not toward me, but at not being asked to officiate, at seeing so many there who had quit his church, and not even being informed he was in the hospital just before he died.

There was a lot of hurting represented in that service yesterday. People who had been hurt; some by my leaving so soon after becoming the pastor there. Same at changes that had taken place in the church, some just by personalities.

And I am reminded that we are such broken creatures.
• Even we who are Christians
• Even we who are pastors

We are such broken creatures and we are so capable of inflicting great harm and pain on others.

James 3:1-2 KJV advises us
My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

There is such huge pain involved in the ministry. My oldest son, who has pastored now for three years, described his experience in the pastorate as "hard, highlighted by days that are harder still."

But the reason James counsels us to be slow to take on the work of the ministry is because it is so easy in that position to hurt others.

I then enter this day of ministry in fear and trembling.

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

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 pexels.com)

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)

The Surprising Subculture

The Christian (and otherwise) internet is all abuzz ollowing the expose' on 20/20 of the dangerous subculture of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches in America. The expose' was to say the least, biased and sensationalized. This sort of one sided reporting is typical of a media system whose purpose is as much about preaching their own irreligious religion as it is about making money. Little in the system could be considered journalism. They do not mean to tell a story, they mean to interpret it.

Still, that there was a story, speaks volumes that ought to be heard, especially among those who consider themselves to be Independent Fundamental Baptists. Some observations of my own:

As with any honest people, Independent Fundamental Baptists ought to police themselves.
The Scripture gives us instruction to do so. Fundamental Baptists are, like any other human being, human beings. We sin. We have some who do so to extremes. We should not shy away from discipline. The fact is, we are sorely lacking in accountability.

However, discipline was the very thing the expose' "exposed" and denounced.
The whole point was that it is abusive of a Baptist church to expect accountability among its membership. The fact is we could never put into place a system of accountability that is true to the Scripture and pleasing to the world.

As to the denigrating title of "subculture" so what?
Baptist people have always been the smallest number of those professing faith, while at the same time being among the most influential people in the planet. The Ana Baptists' writings and indeed very lives were all but wiped out during the dark ages. Still they kept reaching souls. Luther and Calvin were both influenced to some degree by the Baptists of their day. The bedrock of the faith rests not on the large denominational systems of Catholicism or Protestantism, but upon that almost unknown group of believers whose faith was so despised by the world in their day that they were forced to meet in secret places and were often hunted down in the effort to eradicate them.

I am not a fan of much that is found in Fundamentalism. I do not believe much of it is even Baptist (though it might wear the label). Still I am a believer in fundamental doctrines of the faith and I am convicted as a Baptist. This is the sort of thing that makes the faithful, well, faithful.

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 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)