Are You Running from Your Book?

There is a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation about “fundamentalists” these days. For one thing, Islamic Fundamentalists are frequently being called “extremists” by authorities and in the news, because they have returned to a literal interpretation or practice of their holy book, the Quran. I have done a little study on that book, and while it is often self-contradictory, it does seem that the terrorists are practicing their book fairly accurately. This would make them very much “Muslim” even if they are being left behind by some of the modern moderates who use the name.

Webster’s definition of “fundamentalism” is what I have in mind, which is, “a movement or attitude stressing strict and literal adherence to a set of basic principles.” For Muslims those principles are found in the Quran even though their imams are given wide latitude in interpretation. For Orthodox Jews their basic principles are found in the Talmud and the Torah, and for Biblical Fundamentalists, the first ones to get the name, it is the 66 books of the Bible.

Those of us who are still willing to be identified as “Biblical Fundamentalists” are doing our best to practice the Bible carefully. By the way, the Bible says that we are to love our enemies, do good to them, and pray for them. The sixth commandment forbids us from murder, and Jesus said that harboring hatred in our hearts is just the same. If in this matter, or in any other, we stray from the practice of God’s Word, we are failing fundamentalists! Sadly the failures are the ones who get the most press and taint popular impressions of those believers who are still committed to God’s authority over man’s.

Once in a while it seems that it is necessary for all of us to be reminded of where we find our best and most basic guidance. That is true especially (but not only) in matters of faith. Many of us come from a background where we, our parents, or grandparents, were guided by a particular book, and for many Americans that book was the Bible. Today, though, there are fewer people all the time who believe that there is any book which has authority over them personally.

Some mainline churches openly place church tradition equal to or above the Bible. Those traditions are often based on rulings or findings of church leaders at some point in time, but they amount to the authority of men. Our church is “traditional” in many ways, but we do not believe that any tradition should be kept or begun if it is not in keeping with Scripture. That belief comes from the Bible itself. We recognize that churches will have different ways of doing things, but all of us will answer to God measured by the absolute standard which is His Word.

Cults are known for following books written by their leaders, or just a particular contemporary personality. Sometimes they include the Bible but re-interpret it or add other books to “explain” it authoritatively. Followers of any faith make a choice, and it should be a conscious and well-informed choice to place their hope and trust in a certain authority. For myself, I cannot imagine placing my trust in anything less which would be anything other than the Bible. Neither can I imagine giving my children or other Christians counsel and direction from any other, inferior, source. This is not just the way my parents lived, the Bible has given me every reason to trust it and no reason to doubt it.

Referring to Christ, the Bible says, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” Acts 4:12. “His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue:” II Peter 1:3. It seems that the Bible is not a “good book” if it is lying to us (or deceiving people who take it naturally and literally) on this or any matter. I believe that there is one true God, and that the Bible is truly God’s Word.

Perhaps this article will spark some good discussion, and I hope it is discussion related to the most important issues of life today and eternal. Our church is a group of people who love to help others find the truth about God’s way of salvation and abundant life, please contact us if you need a Bible or have questions about it, www.southportbaptistchurch.com is a good place to start, or “southport baptist church” on FB. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” John 14:6.

If you know of someone in particular need of solid spiritual footing, or if you believe as I do that there are many people who would benefit from a return to basic understanding and practice of faith, please share this message with them. There is a temptation for Biblical Fundamentalists to duck and cover while under fire in this day, but it is our responsibility to spread the good Word!

My Call to Christ and His Service

This is the testimony and challenge that I shared at a seminary chapel in Crato, Brazil, in September 2005:

John 15:7  “If ye abide in Me and My words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.”

Early in my life I realized that receiving whatever I asked of God would happen as I accepted His desires as my own.  The desires that He gave to me were to be a pastor and to be a missionary.  My testimony is that God’s Word is true, God gave me these desires and He has been fulfilling them.  Being allowed to be here with my dear brothers and sisters in Brazil today is part of that.  Although I have believed God to be good for a long time, every day I am more certain!

I was brought up in a family with Christian parents who were away from the Lord for several years but had come back to Him at about the time I was born.  This meant that I had parents who loved the Lord sincerely with a realization of how desperate life can be without Him.  They also had, and still have today, a burden for lost souls that is contagious.

With that kind of a family it is not entirely surprising, but it is still wonderful, that I came to trust Christ as my Savior at the age of four.  Someone here asked me how I could understand salvation at the age of four, my answer is that I understood it very simply, the only way that anyone can receive it.  I was taken to church every time the doors were open since I was born, and we had devotions as a family almost every day of my childhood, but there was no question that I was a sinner.  I had a pastor who was not afraid to preach about hell, and he put it on a level that I could understand.  It was after a church service on September 16, 1973, that I knelt beside my bed to beg the Lord to save me.  The next day I told my father what I had done and he took me through the Scriptures to be sure that I understood my decision.  I was baptized a few years later at the same time as my newly-saved grandmother!

Now, about this verse, notice that there are conditions set for having our prayers answered.  They are that we abide in God and have His Word abide in us.  That has never come easily for me.  I was a disobedient rascal as a child and especially as a teenager.  I would have times of repentance, though, and I always knew that the Lord wanted to use me.  At the age of 11 I formally surrendered my life to the Lord’s service.  Even while I was a sneaky, selfish, trouble-making youth I was involved in many ways in my church and went on several missions trips.  I worked in AWANA, a bus ministry, and Children’s Church.  We ministered with American Indians, Haitian refugees in Miami, retired missionaries, a new church plant, and at a Christian camp.  The Lord was giving me valuable experience even before I had fully surrendered to Him.  A new pastor that came to my church took me in as an apprentice and taught me a great deal.

In my last year of High School I had begun dating the girl who would be my wife, and I began to get serious about preparing for the ministry.  The Lord still did not have my dedication on a consistent basis though, until I got into Bible College and began to faithfully have personal devotions.  You see, I had not been abiding in God because His Word was not abiding in me!

While in college I was given the opportunity to serve as a youth leader in a church and remained with that ministry for three and a half years.   Seeing how much I needed the Lord’s help in His service taught me to apply myself to my studies like I never had before.  I also grew more mature as I got married while in college and carried the financial responsibility for my education and that of my wife as well.  She trained as a teacher and put me to shame with her almost perfect grades.

I started school with very little money and a small scholarship which I lost when I married.  I learned then to work hard at several jobs and to earn an academic scholarship to pay our way through school.  I often worked more than 40 hours a week, carried a full class load, and spent the entire weekend at our church ministry 150 kilometers away.  Yet it was the Lord Who carried us through and we did it with great joy, still finding time to make good friends and play Volleyball and Ping Pong!

During our last year of school I took on a new ministry as an interim pastor, and that led us to the planting of a new church just before we graduated.  Because I had a burden to be used of the Lord in training missionaries in America and visiting foreign fields I continued to study after receiving my Bachelor’s Degree.  I wanted to come to places like this and be something more than a tourist.  The Lord was calling me to make myself more useful to Him through further training.  I just kept at it, not really stopping until last year when I had all of the degrees that my school had to offer for pastors.

As I have said, I count it a great privilege and a fulfillment of God’s promise to be here in Brasil today.  I did not ask Him to take me to a certain country, but to use me wherever there were precious souls that needed to be saved, and willing workers with a burden to reach them.  My church in Wild Rose is honored to have a small part in the ministry of the Willsons, and if the Lord is willing we will keep the church alive and make it grow.  Then it can do more yet to further the work here, and in Mexico, and in Italy, and in Tanzania, and in Cuiaba Brasil, in New York City, and in Wisconsin.

I have spoken of my calling specifically, let me say a few words about the calling which we all share.  Acts 5:17-20 "Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation,  And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison.  But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said,  Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life."

That passage can serve as an illustration of what the Lord is asking of each of His children.  This passage illustrates my ministry calling, and perhaps it will be a challenge to you as well.  The apostles had been imprisoned by the high priest and Sanhedrin for doing God’s work, but the Lord did not want them out of service for long, in fact they did not even get the whole night off!

An angel was sent to break them out of jail and give them God’s orders.  First he said that they were to “Go.”  They had no cause to feel sorry for themselves or permission to take it easy and lie low for a while.

The angel also said that they were to “stand.”  That meant that their ministry would be open, and particularly that they were being sent out into the court of the temple even though that was very near to the men who had commanded their arrest!  “If our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost.”  The people needed to see their determination and conviction and they needed to hear their message.

That brings us to the angel’s third command, for God’s men to “speak.”  They had something to say and they refused to be made quiet by any threat.  It is hard to keep good news to yourself, but when it may be dangerous or uncomfortable for us to speak up we can often find excuses for silence.  Now let us apply these three commands to Christian life and ministry.  I particularly want to point out how important it is that we obey all three together and do not leave any one undone.

What if we are willing to stand and speak but do not go anywhere?  I am afraid we will be like a great many of the Lord’s people today.  Sometimes we treat our churches like traps, we are just waiting for the lost to come in so that we can spring upon them with the gospel.  That is great, we should do that, but let us make that our Sunday strategy, the rest of the week is hunting season and we need to go out to where the game is, wherever the Lord sends us, near or far away.

What if we are willing to go and speak but we do not really stand for anything?  We are not only disobedient, we will be totally ineffective. The Lord has designed His work to be done as a harmony of sound doctrine, pure testimony, and compassionate outreach.  Too many have gone to a mission field or church ministry and have become so much like the lost that they are no good to them.

Let me say one more thing about standing firm in the ministry, and illustrate it.  I used to push the limits of Christianity with things that were new and exciting which I felt that I had liberty to do.  During college the Lord impressed upon me the necessity of standing “fast,” or “firm” which He commands many times.  Remember this: the way you lean is the way you will fall.  Are you technically standing in obedience, but beginning to lean?  The world the flesh and the devil will push us at every opportunity and often right in the direction that we are leaning.  We will have a much better chance of staying true and straight if we are not leaning.  Are you conservative, but leaning contemporary?  Are you standing pure but leaning toward worldliness?  Are you standing in what is right but leaning toward compromise?  The way you lean is the way you will fall.  The safest stance is the straightest one!

Lastly I ask you, what good will we do for the lost if we go to them and stand faithfully, but do not speak the gospel?  A silent witness is no witness at all, the truth must be spoken or it is not rightly lived.  We cannot take this for granted among God’s people.  Sadly, there are many evangelistic efforts that never get to a clear presentation of the gospel!

I am so glad that a pastor answered his calling to go to Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.  I am so glad that he stood for pure living to remain in the ministry, and that he stood for the truth of God’s Word.  I am also very glad that he spoke the whole gospel, the terrible penalty of sin and the hope of salvation.  His obedience made all the difference of eternity for me!

“We Shall All Be Changed”

As I sat in the midst of the church council, comprised of at least a dozen grey heads, I was painfully aware that I was only 21 years old. They had asked me to consider being their pastor. That could not have been an easy decision for them, but I was going to ask them to do something much harder: change. As a fledgling separatist I could not join their church’s conference, but it would be simple enough for them to withdraw from it, right? They could hardly understand why I would ask such a thing. They had always been conservative and thought that holding to their solid tradition was enough, while the world changed around them.

Today, half a lifetime later, I am a grey head and I am struggling with the concept of change. Is it too late in the course of church history to propose another doctrine? Not so that I can teach it, but so that I can study it, a thorough “Changeology” needs to be developed. I must not be the only one who is longing to know when it is right and best to cut loose of old moorings, and when it is both courageous and wise to hold to the time-tested. Choose your hot-button issue: Bible translations, music, worship formats, personal separation standards, and probably any other you can imagine, the issue is: “to change or not to change.”

In my opinion Leith Anderson makes some good observations but comes to the wrong conclusions in his book “Dying for Change,” perhaps the volume most to the point. He says, “Two theological truths explain God’s relationship to change: immutability and sovereignty.” (11) He rightly notes that change is most often chaotic for man but never is for God. I disagree with some of his suggestions for modernizing the church because we have different “non-negotiables,” but I appreciate his consistency.

Growing is the stuff of life, the antonym of death. Someone taught me that growth is painful because it is change. It was a prolonged lesson, but that was all that I needed to hear, I understand that change is hard. Moving from one job or ministry to another always brings a retching pain to the pit of my stomach. I ask myself every time: “It was right for me to come here, can it be right for me to leave? Is this the right time for a new chapter?” By nature I enjoy doing bold things, but I have done enough of them to know that “bold” is often another name for “stupid.”

Not all change or growth is positive. I have heard Dr. Les Ollila say, “Not all growth is good, it may just be swelling!” As we seek to grow we should ask the Lord to build our discernment first. It is a mark of maturity, along with growth in all directions, to have the wisdom to see which new bulges are positive and which are not!

If we find ourselves in a rut, whether it is of our making or someone else’s, it will take a large stride to step out of it. Stretching ourselves is the painful part of growth. Following God’s leading consistently and faithfully, will open us to the accusation of being in a rut. That is an accusation which the righteous man can endure, but being consistent and faithful is the task of a lifetime.

Can fundamentalists keep clinging to “ancient landmarks” or “old paths” and still maintain personal growth? If I were on a sinking ship and was disposed to find something to which I could cling for dear life, I would want to examine the qualities of my floatation device to discern if it was really likely to float! Some ancient landmarks are real sinkers because they are man-made and not biblical. At the same time our world is mass-producing shiny new floaties, which will not float. Discern between them we must.

It interests me to find that Jeremiah’s command, “Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths,” (6:16) was a call for the people to change their ways. He called for a radical change. “Radical” is a synonym for “Fundamental” according to Webster, meaning “back to the root.” There were great champions of tradition who were not truly keeping the law in letter or spirit in Jeremiah’s day, as in ours.

(The Proverbs 22:28 statement, “Remove not the ancient landmark,” is made in the unusual situation where context is instructive to the Proverbs reader. The landmarks to be left alone were established business practices. The advice involved keeping an honest reputation.)

Personal spiritual growth will require a constant examination of what we think we know in the light of unchanging Scripture given by an immutable God. Our personal change and development will require strength and courage. We cannot be stagnant and be right with God. There is no permissible plateau in the Christian experience, which is the process of sanctification. Growth is not an option, so, neither is change.

Grounding seems to be just as necessary as growing for obedient believers. Change gets attention, and it can be exciting. Being attention and adrenaline junkies, we may be tempted to enter a pattern of constant change. Some call it a “slippery slope” when one change leads to another, undoubtedly as obstacles are overcome and we are more practiced at it, making changes becomes easier. We are cautioned that it is just as important to stop when enough has been done as it is to get started. Proverbs 24:21 “My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change.” (KJV)

Another poor motive for change may be proving our bravery, our independence, and our free-thinking. Living in this world we cannot help but be affected by its atmosphere of anarchy. We may fear being written off as irrelevant if we are not moving in some proportion to the world around us. We want to be bold and be different. Yet, it seems that the masses become more alike as they all strive to be different. True courage and individuality may require willingness to be the last one clinging to a timeless tradition. The difficulty is discerning the value of the tradition in our grasp.

The Apostle Paul’s example might be instructive here. He was constantly changing venues of ministry and making plans and changing his plans. He also wrote about changing his approach in different circumstances, “I am made all things to all men.” (I Corinthians 9:22) His “non-negotiables” were the gospel and the doctrine which he taught, and the Galatians were warned to accept no “other.”

What we are to be producing for the Lord is most often pictured by a building with foundations rather than a trailer or a tent. The changes which He prescribes lead us to more growth in the short term, but ultimately He is producing something timeless and unchanging. “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.” Ecclesiastes 3:14 

Glorifying God is supposed to be the focus and highest end of our lives. We want to keep growing, and we want grounding, but there must be a hierarchy of these values, and when God has lost preeminence we have made at least one change too many.

To check our motives for change it may be helpful for us to ask, “Who are we trying to impress?” It is tempting for some fundamentalists to push boundaries or do things differently, so that they will get noticed. Rather than accusing brothers of attention-seeking, or of sacrificing orthodoxy out of pragmatism, we should not pretend to know their motives. We should be on guard, but for violations of Scripture not just tradition.

Personal growth was the focus earlier, but everyone involved in ministry loves to see the corporate kind of growth as well. What we will do to encourage or facilitate that growth begs the question, “Who are we doing it for?” We can argue that ministry growth is numbered in souls being affected and that the desperate need of souls is worthy of our most creative efforts. At the same time, though, we know better than to construct a man-centered ministry, we are not doing anything for people if we are not doing it for their Creator.

Like Moses, we are only to move with the pillar of cloud or fire. We are to hit the rock when God says so, and to change to speaking to it when He says. Moses could not set their course by the people’s complaints or his own whim or ambition.

Do I need to tell you that the church council that I mentioned in the beginning voted against my proposed change? They admitted that they were driven by financial fear because the conference held a $30,000 note on their $500,000 building. The Lord did direct two of the men to plant a new church with this young pastor, and a lot of change was in store for all of us. Not all of it was done in faith, hence the grey hairs. Change has only become more difficult since then, so I will be first to buy your book on the new doctrine of “Changeology!”