Baptists and Freedom: What's it really all about?

At TBC, we talk a lot about freedom. So much that sometimes the purpose of that freedom gets lost. It is through Christ that we are free. But it is also for Christ that we are free.

We are passionate about freedom because we are passionate about Jesus. At least that's the way it should be. We defend freedom for believers and churches because we believe it is biblical - but also because we believe that only by being free can believers and churches build the strongest possible relationships with God through Christ; and that only free believers and churches can be their most effective as witnesses and servants for Christ.

In recent months, Rob Bell's book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived has engendered a lot of discussion among Christians and others. It has some Christians allowing for the possibility that God's eternal grace is ultimately extended to all, regardless of whether they have accepted or rejected Christ in this life.

I have one close friend who is an agnostic and another who is Jewish by birth and deist in his worldview. I've told both of these friends that I pray that God's grace is greater than I understand, because I don't want either of them - if they keep their current beliefs to the end - spending an eternity without God. However, I've also told them that I can't get around scriptures like John 14:6, which appears to put God's grace on pretty exclusive terms: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (NIV)

But discussions such as those centering on Rob Bell's book tend to dwell on the hereafter at the expense of the here-and-now.

Don't get me wrong. I understand the importance of eternity. After all, it's . . . eternity! What's not to understand?

But when I hear people discussing Rob Bell's ideas at great length - from whatever perspective - I begin to fear that we're missing the point. I hear Christ being discussed in dry, academic terms. I hear Christ being discussed in pragmatic terms. I hear Christ being discussed in abstract terms.

So what's missing? Passion!

And where does passion come from? A future that we know about only from descriptions and promises recorded by people living millenia before us? Or a present relationship that fills our being from day to day?

There is much in the Bible that is open to interpretation and speculation. And that's what TBC is about - defending every believer's God-given right to interpret Scripture rather than having an "official" interpretation handed down by pharisaical bishops.

But there are a few things that we should expect to agree upon. And the most elemental of those things is that Jesus Christ is the ultimate revelation of God. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible points to Christ.

Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

John 1:1-3a - "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made." 

Revelation 22:20-21: "He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming soon.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen." 

Prophets prophesied His birth . . .

Isaiah 7:14b - "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel [God with us]."

 . . . and his sacrifice.

Isaiah 53:5 - "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by His wounds we are healed."

God with us!

To me, that is the most monumental - and elemental - thought the mind can conceive. God is too big, too grand for our minds to grasp. But Jesus came - flesh-and-blood, living among women and men like you and me . . . eating, drinking, sleeping, dealing with difficult people (the disciples were no picnic), discussing scripture in the temple (Sunday School, anyone?), and even wrestling with temptation. Yet He is God.

And He is with us!

That's the kind of freedom TBC is talking about - freedom to draw close to Jesus . . . to know Him . . . to draw from His strength . . . to share our darkest, deepest secrets, sins, fears, and joys with Him. Freedom to listen to Him in the quiet of our closets (isn't that where He told us to pray?) but also in the busyness of our lives and relationships . . . to find His guidance for every part of our lives. And all without the intervention of a dictator pastor telling us what we should believe . . . or a denominational high priest telling us what the scripture REALLY means.

The kind of freedom that motivates us to daily seek a deeper relationship with God through Christ. A relationship that produces passion for the God we know personally through Christ.

That's why TBC is so passionate about freedom . . . because we're passionate about Jesus.

Foy Valentine and Phil Strickland - Their Prophetic Voices Still Sound the Call

Two of our great Baptist statesmen shared a conviction that all believers are called to be prophets.

In November 1987, Foy Valentine, longtime executive director of the SBC Christian Life Commission, accepted the first T. B. Maston Christian Ethics Award with a ringing address entitled Crying in the Wilderness: Streaking in Jerusalem: The Prophethood of All Believers.

In November 2005, Phil Strickland, longtime executive director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, prepared an address for the annual Texas Baptists Committed Breakfast in Austin. Phil's illness prevented him from attending; his friend and pastor, George Mason, Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, delivered the speech on Phil's behalf. It was entitled Where Have All the Prophets Gone?

Foy and Phil are both gone now, but their stirring messages are needed just as much today as then.

Following are a few excerpts that I chose for the blog, because I think they help to summarize the critical points embodied in these speeches. To read the full text of Foy Valentine's speech on the Maston Foundation Web site, click here. To read the full text of Phil Strickland's speech on the TBC Web site, click here.

Crying in the Wilderness: Streaking in Jerusalem: The Prophethood of All Believers
by Foy Valentine
"Even the Lord’s anointed are subject to temptations related to . . . pleasure, materialism, economic determinism, and love of comfort. When the winnowing and harrowing of Fundamentalism started among Southern Baptists, Baptists were not lean and mean, ready for the war, but soft and satisfied, flabby and floppy."

"At the 1985 Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas, there were 36,270 seats in all three auditoriums; there were 45,049 messengers registered; and there were 44,248 ballots allegedly cast (with 98.2% of the registered messengers allegedly present and allegedly voting) in the presidential race between Charles Stanley and Winfred Moore; the denominational news services and the editors of state Baptist papers chose not to report those curious statistics. Let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may, tell‑it‑like‑it‑is prophethood did not ring their journalistic bells."

"Our world needs few things more now than prophetic words and prophetic deeds. The churches now need few things more than the prophethood of crying in the wilderness like brave John the Baptist, streaking in Jerusalem like courageous Isaiah. By these words and deeds, the demands of God are understood to be not obscure or ambiguous, but understandable and doable, practical and specific, clear and concrete, relevant and redemptive."

"The prophet is the priest who is taking the longer look, listening to a different drummer, and feeling the fire in his baptism as it burns to become fire in his belly."

"As we speak of the priesthood of all believers, we may also rightly speak of the prophethood of all believers. There is nothing that would do more to revive authentic Christianity in our time than for us to find the ways and devise the means to press successfully for the prophethood of all believers."

"That incarnational witness of God in Christ puts the streaking of Isaiah in Jerusalem into perspective. Isaiah’s witness was but a pale portent, a mere shadow, of the power of prophecy when presented by the Prophet of prophets, Jesus Christ."

"The prophethood of believers can smash idols. . . . Gentleness and facile optimism sometimes need to be balanced by justice and hard reality. The prophethood of believers can foster repentance; and repentance, it is to be remembered, is the keynote of the New Testament message. . . . Voices crying seize interest . . . demand attention."

"Oh, there is one other little matter. With the prophethood of all believers recovered and then taken seriously, failure is assured. . . . rejection, loneliness, scandal, stoning, banishment, scorn, hatred, and crucifixion go with prophethood. . . . The prophet’s pay may be spit in the face.

"But the prophet’s reward is God’s 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant. . . . Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord' (Matthew 25:21).

"As we believe in and practice the priesthood of all believers, so let us believe in and practice the prophethood of all believers."

Where Have All the Prophets Gone?

by Phil Strickland

"One-half the world is living on $2 a day.

"Twenty-five percent of our Texas children [are] living in poverty. 

"Religious liberty is . . . oozing away through our fingers like a fist full of sand until we open it all too late to discover there is not much of it left in our grasp. 

"Then there’s the dramatic and continuing shift of the world’s wealth away from the poor and the middle class to the largest corporations and the wealthiest people. 

"Environmental regulations are disappearing every day. 

"What about another tax cut of $70 billion that will be funded by $50 billion of cuts to children?"

"Pretty much all of us are called to have an element of the prophet in us. . . . The title of prophet might even apply to laymen. . . . ready and willing to confront the principalities and powers, whether they be school boards, city councils, the legislature, Congress, or even our own Baptist institutions."

 

"Should [denominations] take risk and speak prophetically or declare that [their] only real role . . . is meeting the needs of the churches . . . ? To me, the answer is easy. Meeting the will of churches, vital as it is, comes in behind one other: listening for and meeting the will of God."

In his speech, Phil also quoted a paragraph written by Joe Haag and published in a CLC flyer. I honestly don't think I've ever heard the challenge and demand of Christian prophethood summarized as "aptly" (to use Phil's description of it) as Joe Haag sets it forth in the following:

"To follow Christ means that we allow his life to gain leverage against our lives. Against our lust for power, he endures the cross. Against our pride and arrogance, he washes the disciples’ feet. Against our upward mobility, he preaches good news to the poor. Against our self-absorption, he has compassion on the multitudes. Against our tight circles of family and friends, he reaches out to strangers. Against our safe noninvolvement, he confronts the powers. Against our violence and hatred, he demands that we love our enemies. Against our self-righteousness, he welcomes sinners. Against our bigotry, he tells us about a Good Samaritan. Against our frenzy, he invites us to trust God. Against all the lies which enslave us, he tells the truth which sets us free. How can we be transformed into the image of Christ? . . . as we surrender our lives to God’s purposes, God changes us."

OPINION: Growing up Baptist in a pluralistic world

NOTE: This article was originally published on June 10, 2011, on the Associated Baptist Press Web site.

Written by J. Zachary Bailes, an M.Div. candidate at Wake Forest University Divinity School and editor of the blog Crazy Liberals . . . and Conservatives

In his Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport, George Washington wrote in 1790: “May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

Growing up Baptist, if someone had told me that Washington had written a letter assuring safety of a “Hebrew congregation,” I’m not sure I would have believed it. This is because I was either explicitly or implicitly taught that Christians and Jews are not to mingle. Yet in Rhode Island, it was Baptists who created the space for Jews to worship as they pleased.

Today, fundamentalist viewpoints have conflated Israeli identity with Zionist belief. As the record will show, Israel does not demonstrate the most tolerant attitude when it comes to other religions. And, yet, it was Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission this past week that advocated for America to “bless the Jews” so that God will “bless America.”
 
Land’s words are neither constructive for the Middle East peace process, nor do they reflect the highly held value of religious liberty. Land’s thought conflates theology with public policy in a disastrous manner. Indeed, his words stir the boiling pot of militant activity. His theological belief creates political action that demeans the religious identity of Palestinian Christians and Muslims.

It is at this point Land stands against his Baptist heritage . . . . . .

Click here to read the entire article.

OPINION: Don't try to ‘fix’ women in ministry

NOTE: This article was originally published on May 11, 2011, on the Associated Baptist Press Web site.

written by Laura Rector, a Ph.D. candidate in Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California

I’m in the bookstore at an egalitarian seminary. Unfortunately, not everyone there is an egalitarian. An older gentleman waylays me, finds out what I do, and starts telling me I’m sinning for feeling called and for being one kind of Baptist and not another kind, and that I’m wasting my education by not using it to disciple only other women. All I really want to do is get my cup of coffee and get back to my schedule, but I try to be polite so he feels heard.

Later, I’m at a conference. I’ve just presented my first professional academic paper (totally unrelated to women’s leadership). I’ve been traveling non-stop for two weeks, because a grandparent died just before the conference. I’m relieved the paper is over and, frankly, just ready to rest, yet a casual hello to a fellow conference participant somehow turns into listening to a long monologue in which the man takes the opportunity to make sure I know, among other things, that "There’s absolutely no way a woman can be a church leader if you look at Scripture."

As a woman in ministry, I walk away from such all-too-common experiences wondering, "Is there any such thing as good manners left in this world?" More importantly, where is the Jesus who said to love our neighbor?

Frankly, it takes a special kind of narcissism to engage a total stranger and question her love for her Savior -- to imply or openly assume . . .

Click here to read the entire article.