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.

Sunday

I had a conversation with my oldest son this week. Bohannan is a pastor of a smaller sized church and must work a full time job to care for his family as well as for the ministry in which the Lord has placed him. This week an extended family member made an expectation of Bohannan and expected that Bohannan would meet that expectation, as Bo said to me, "On Sunday."

For Bohannan, as well as for me, Sunday is a different sort of day than the rest of the week. We hold it as sacred and hallowed. Things that would be perfectly acceptable any other day of the week are just not; come Sunday. It is a day for God. Sure, we eat meals, care for our pets, enjoy family time and many other things like that on Sundays. But Sunday is not a day for traveling - unless that travel is ministry related. Camping or fishing and hunting and other forms of entertainment take on a different hue. It is Sunday.

Centuries ago, when Baptist churches first found the freedom to worship without fear of persecution, Sundays were given to worship and ministry. After morning worship the members of the congregation were encouraged to devote the afternoon to ministering to the needs of orphans, evangelization of their neighbors, and even educating children in reading, writing and arithmetic. The day was treated wholly different than other days.

Sunday is not the New Testament Sabbath. We are not bound to observe it under the same laws as the Old Testament Jews did the seventh day of the week. But this does not mean we treat the day as profane. It is not.

It is Sunday.

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

Man of God

"Our people need a God-besotted man. Even if they criticize the fact that you are not available at the dinner on Saturday night because you must be with God, they need at least one man in their life who is radically and totally focused on God and the pursuit of the knowledge of God, and the ministry of the word of God.
How many people in your churches do you know that are laboring to know God, who are striving earnestly in study and prayer to enlarge their vision of God. Precious few.…")*

1 Timothy 6:11 KJV
But thou, O man of God ….

Over the years, as my relationship to the Lord has (I trust) grown, that which I would like to be known by has changed. Yea, even the concept of being known has changed for me because today I have no real desire to be known at all, but rather be completely unknown in Christ.

Early on I preferred the title, Pastor
I remember struggling in my early pastorate attempting to get people to call me by this name. While it is still the most common name my congregation address me by, I seldom introduce myself with that moniker any more.

Pastor is a title of office. I am convinced that the members of a church ought to respect this office. I just do not believe I must be identified with the title so much any more. I do, after all, still have the office.

My tastes fairly rapidly added to that title that of Preacher
This is can be considered a term of affection. When a church member calls me preacher they generally do so because I have progressed in their mind from one holding the official roll over them to one that has the emotional ministry to them.

The term preacher might also mark a degree of achievement in the ministry. If a pastor has developed skills in the pulpit so that his preaching is easier to listen to, e might be called preacher. If he has attained some level of skill in expositing the Bible and it is recognized by a congregation, the term preacher might be a reflection of that skill.

The term, Reverend, has never been a coveted title to me
However, under certain circumstances I have come to appreciate that title and even an occasional "Padre." I served as volunteer chaplain for the Astoria Police Department for several years. In that position, various officers referred to me addressed me as "Rev" or "Padre." I accepted those designations as gestures of warmth and was pleased to be addressed by them in those terms.

At one time I thought I liked to be addressed as Doctor.

When serving at Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College and then Heartland Baptist Bible College, it seemed important that students and staff address me with that title as a reminder of the educational atmosphere we were in.

While I have earned degrees, they are not accredited by the world's standards and mean very little other than that I did benefit from those studies necessary to attain said degrees.

I am no longer interested in titles.

Mom and Dad named me Marvin. I am happy with that. I don't even really have to have the Christian "Brother" before it.  

But I do have a goal to pursue yet, not for a name, but for a quality. I long to be a man of God. Not merely a man of the book, or a man of the church. I recognize that I must be each of those to be a man of God. But I want to be a man of God. I want to be one who is wholly and completely devoted to God. I want to come to the place where my congregation recognizes me, not only as faithful to my responsibilities as a pastor, and not merely as skillful in my duties as a preacher; I want my congregation to see in me a man "who is radically and totally focused on God and the pursuit of the knowledge of God."

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields


*Excerpted from The Pastor as Theologian, by John Piper

Choosing

Joshua 24:15 KJV
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

John 15:16 KJV
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Though these passages seem to oppose the other, they are both true.

At least one explanation arises from the fact that the one is in the Old Testament and the other in the New Testament. Though salvation is always by grace through faith in both the Old Testament and in the New, God's dealings with people were different in the Old Testament than they are in the New Testament.

Another difference is in God's dealings with the nation of Israel and with individuals. Though Jesus is speaking directly to His disciples, who were Jewish, in John fifteen, He was addressing them as individuals and not as a part of the corporate Jewish nation.

There is also the fact that, once Joshua had admonished them to choose, and they responded apparently positively in choosing to serve the Lord, his next words indicate that their reaction was not the correct one and that they (and we) probably mistinterpret Joshua's intent. We cannot make this choice on our own. Joshua urged them to choose the Lord, but they chose to serve the Lord in their own power and not in the wooing of the Lord.

The reconciliation of the two passages is this; God chooses us. He makes that choosing apparent to us through some form of witness.
• It might be a gospel tract
• It might be an invitation to a church service
• It might be through the witness of a friend or neighbor
• It might be through a chance hearing of a TV or Radio message
• It might be through a Scripture billboard along the road
and when that choosing happens in our hearts, we have a choice to make: will we be obedient to the voice of the Lord, or will we ignore and disobey it?

Have you obeyed God's choosing of you?

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

Fifty-Three

My 53rd birthday:

• The body is older
• The emotions are more worn
• The energy I once had is beginning to wane

but the blessing of salvation is better now than maybe even when I first got saved.

The world has not been easy but I doubt that it would have been without salvation. Satan not only hates the Christian, he hates all mankind as the object of God's love and grace. It's just that the lost don't realize it. The destruction in society is not merely a destruction of Christian principles, but of morality.

• Marriage
• The family
• Children, even
• Governments and other
• Social influences
are under the attack of the devil and the lost world doesn't know where to point the blame, if they even know something is wrong and must be blamed. No, the world would have been unkind these many years even if I had never trusted Christ or followed Him into ministry.

But what has happened in the last several years is that I have come to look more deeply into myself and the heart and soul of my own motivations. I cannot say I have arrived at anything. Only that I recognize something that is grander than even Christianity has offered me to this date. I am sure that, despite the mess sin has made of everything, even Christianity, Jesus Christ has a glorious resolution. I want to see Him. And until that day I stand before Him I trust that all things, even the more terrible things that happen in this realm of life, will work together to bring about that glorious resolution.

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