IMAGINE NO RELIGION: SBC MOSQUE BUILDER RUSSELL MOORE GETS SOME PUSHBACK?
BY BUD AHLHEIM
SEE: http://pulpitandpen.org/2016/06/08/imagine-no-religion-sbc-mosque-builder-russell-moore-gets-some-pushback/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
If the Christian orthodox view that there is one true God is still held by Southern Baptists, the behavior exhibited by Russell Moore, President of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission seems to seriously undermine its claim.
By now you may know that Moore, via the ERLC, has aligned the SBC in support of Muslims in Bernards, New Jersey who are appealing the township’s denial of their permit to build a mosque. Moore, as a member of the Board of Directors of The Becket Fund For Religious Liberty, has joined hands with Muslims for the claimed nobility of ensuring religious freedom in America. For Moore, it seems, God reigns not from a throne in heaven, but one more closely resembling a marble edifice of justice in our nation’s capitol.
If you take a moment to review the cases handled by Moore’s buddies over at The Becket Fund, you’ll find an array of endeavors in support of what has become nothing less, for Moore, at least, the continued pursuit of the worship of the idol of religious liberty. From standing with the Little Sisters of The Poor in their Supreme Court case over mandated pro-choice elements of ObamaCare to defending an incarcerated Muslim’s rights to grow a beard, the firm engages in a wide array of religious freedom defenses with no regard for which god’s worship is being bolstered.
With regards to the amicus brief onto which Moore penned his support for the New Jersey mosque, he has also linked the SBC with organizations following, as Joshua wrote, “foreign gods.” Consider the offering plate passing before you with an appeal to give so that your cooperating SBC church can pay Moore to align with – as he has done – the following:
Interfaith Coalition on Mosques
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Muslim Bar Association of New York
New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association
Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Sikh Coalition
Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of New Jersey
The ecumenical spirit of tolerance in America today demands such unholy alliances. Such are the things that Moore, with seemingly no regard for defending the worship of the one true God, supports by his board membership on a firm with no orthodox convictions, unless “worship whatever you want” may be considered “orthodox.”
Southern Baptists often seem thoroughly oblivious to what is being done in their name – via their tithes and offerings – by Moore. Perhaps, though, some vocal Southern Baptists with denominational visibility are taking notice. Moore’s behavior seems to be ruffling the denominational feathers of lauded unity within the ranks.
In his June 6, 2016, editorial, Gerald Harris, Editor of The Christian Index, the SBC newspaper for Georgia Baptists, penned an opinion entitled, “Do Muslims Really Qualify For Religious Freedom Benefits?” In citing Georgia’s 10th District U.S. Representative, and former Baptist pastor, Jody Hice, Harris posits the query as to whether Islam even qualifies as a religion itself.
Hice says, “Most people think Islam is a religion; it’s not. It’s a totalitarian way of life with a religious component. But it is much larger. It’s a geopolitical system that has governmental, financial, military, legal, and religious components.”
In his editorial, Harris highlights another quote by Hice in which the legal, geopolitical element is the decided intent of some Muslims. “This is not a tolerant, peaceful religion even though some Muslims are peaceful. Radical Muslims believe that Sharia is required by God and must be imposed worldwide.”
Harris summarizes his concerns that ought to be given due consideration by Moore:
“When we engage in a crusade to grant political Islam all the rights and privileges of other religions, we are not engaged on a level playing field. We are not comparing apples to apples. The more leniency we give in the present to Muslims who may desire Sharia Law, the less freedom we will be giving in the future to ourselves.”
If you’re like me, a pew-sitting, but Bible-reading, Southern Baptist in America, such an understanding of Islam’s goal for Sharia on a global basis is not only intolerable from a nationalistic basis; it’s a usurpation of our allegiance to the law of the one true God. How can a Southern Baptist agency possibly be in concert to help build a facility where the worship of a civilization-destroying “foreign god” will occur, and the tenets of their twisted system of Sharia will be taught?
Whether or not Islam qualifies for religious freedom in America may be, frankly, irrelevant. The question is, should Southern Baptists be actively supporting them as they seek to worship their false god?
For the ERLC, though, blinded by the idyllic hopes placed in a god enthroned in D.C. halls of justice, the necessity of unrestricted alliances in the increasingly hallowed name of religious liberty is clear. How can we possibly demand exclusivity? Even though our nation was born from a desire of devout worshippers of the Christian God seeking asylum from persecution, and even though our founding documents are clearly replete with Scripture-drawn truths, Moore, and the ERLC have succumbed – eagerly it seems – to the ecumenical spirit of the age. We must support others so they will support us. We’re in this together. In this case, though, the “god” of our legal ally is not the God of our true worship. In fact, we find ourselves in alliance with the very enemy of our God.
Lest you think this unbiblical spirit of ecumenism is merely a Southern Baptist foible, it is moving with increased vigor throughout the evangelical world, where doctrinal, orthodox convictions are being relegated to back seats, or even out the doors. In May 2016, an Anglican church in Melbourne offered the use of its parish to local Muslims after their mosque was burned to the ground.
Recall the appropriate furor that arose when the Washington National Cathedral hosted its first-ever Muslim prayer service in November 2014. As the Western Journalism website wrote, ‘for the first time ever, this prominent and powerful symbol of America’s Judeo-Christian heritage will host a Muslim prayer service.”
That such things are occurring in a world that is accelerating with ever greater velocity to a Noahic level of depravity is no surprise. That Southern Baptists would engage in an endeavor with the spirit of “imagine no religion” is quite another thing. Given such unholy alliances, the ERLC could hardly be chastised if they changed their logo to the more appropriate-to-it’s-behavior, and increasingly ubiquitous, “COEXIST” bumper sticker.
To be sure, the quest for, and defense of, religious liberty is not one that should go unattended. Southern Baptists, alongside other orthodox Christian denominations, ought vigorously speak up in the face of what is an enemy-inspired onslaught against the worship of our one true God. But in so doing, we must be cautious that our defense of a temporal freedom does not become merely the replacement of God with an idol of our own legislated making, that of religious liberty.
God has never been bound by the laws of governments. He institutes those governments. He ordains those authorities. Worship due Him has never been dictated by the legislated permission of our human institutions. Such was the very thing that prompted those first faithful Europeans to set foot on American shores, seeking escape from unbiblical government demands – especially those invoking ecclesiastical compliance.
There are no new shores for authentic believers to set sail towards. But no such shores are needed. What is needed is to heed the words of Joshua to the young, elect nation of Israel.
Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the LORD, the God of Israel.” And the people said to Joshua, “The LORD our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.” Joshua 24:22-24
Southern Baptists and orthodox Christians in America need to “put away the foreign gods” and alliances with those who worship them. If you love America more than you love God – even if you claim to be a Christian – you’ll find that exhortation unpalatable as you attempt, like Moore, to reconcile worship of the god of religious liberty alongside the God of Scripture. But, for those of us who believe His Word, know His power and sovereignty and understand what is happening in the world, there is but one choice … “His voice we will obey.”
The SBC is merely days away from its annual meeting. Pray that the imperative question from Joshua is repeated in St. Louis. “Choose this day whom you will serve.”
Somebody ask Russell Moore if he will continue on a path that makes undistinguished our God and our faith from the pluralistic presentation to the world he creates by unholy alliances. Must we hand-hold with evil for our God to prevail?
Will we choose to serve, trust, and obey the God who rules from His throne in heaven, or will we continue to join hands with foreign gods as we worship an idol enshrined in marble halls of Washington? What witness do we wish to give to a dying world? One that relies on tenuous legislated freedoms from a wicked government … or one that stands boldly, even if alone, on the power of the one true God for authentic liberty and eternal salvation?
Indeed, what is our Gospel witness worth these days in the SBC?
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Epic Report: SBC Loses Nearly A Million Members
BY BUD AHLHEIM
SEE: http://pulpitandpen.org/2016/06/07/epic-report-sbc-loses-nearly-a-million-members/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The Baptist Press just released the Annual Church Profile report for 2015. The article opens with the decidedly Scripture-oblivious words, “Southern Baptists may find cause for hope in the latest Annual Profile Report. The Southern Baptist Convention added more churches in 2015, due mostly to church planting efforts.”
Really?
Look. I love the Southern Baptist Convention, but I can assure you that the very last thing I have any concern about is finding “cause for hope” in anything the SBC does these days. My hope, my assurance, lies in quite a different place. The SBC would be wise to start placing their own hope – and obedience – in the same place.
Here’s the news. Inclusive of this latest statistical data, since 2002 the SBC has lost nearly one million members (952,972). Some of those lost were, of course, already “lost” before they temporarily planted themselves in an SBC pew. Some of them were given false absolution, granted full church membership, and promised “Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” because they repeated some prayer or walked some aisle. That message apparently didn’t work out and they walked.
Others, no doubt truly regenerate, were driven to find more (authentic) Gospel-friendly shores where Scripture isn’t merely given the lip service of sufficiency but is actually believed, preached and taught.
(Here’s a thought. Why don’t we charge LifeWay Research with the task of tracking down every departing soul from our midst and find out why they left? Perhaps, like the real Gospel is to a fallen world, that truth might just be too divisive for the SBC intelligentsia.)
From 2014 to 2015, the SBC lost over 200,000 members. (204,409) Well yeah, but, here’s the great news! We planted another 294 new churches! Yippee! Give Kevin Ezell a raise! (Ezell is the President of the North American Mission Board.) Proving Christ right, but not knowing it, the SBC is perhaps the leader in building more churches while simultaneously losing more members than any other “We will build the church” denomination on the planet.
Read in a different, far less than self-aggrandizing light, here’s what the latest ACP report reflects. In 2015, for each new church planted by the SBC, 695 members were LOST from the membership rolls. That ratio is worse even than 2014 over 2013, when nearly 632 left the ranks per new church plant. But it’s only in the bureaucratic aristocracy of upper echelon SBC-dom that any “cause for hope” might be proclaimed.
(Build one church = Lose 695 members!!! Whoever cast this vision of lunacy … can we puh-lease lose him from our leadership? Make a note, please. I am not opposed to church planting. Not at all. I’m opposed to churches that do not preach and teach the actual Truth of Scripture. Clearly those are the majority in the SBC.)
It is disobedience to the Word that produces the epic unbuilding of the church that the church planting wizards and faux gospel pastors of the SBC are able to accomplish in massive annual numbers. It takes a decided effort and an intentional disregard of the problem – viewed in a purely Biblical light – to tolerate the fact that vision-casting, seeker sensitive, felt needs, purpose-driven drivel is a failure. It’s a failure precisely because it is all unbiblical.
Eventually, folks realize what’s being sold from the pulpit is nothing less that Christianized charlatanry, aimed at keeping pew sitters happy, engaged, and, of course, giving. But what’s being hurled from the dais, from the big screens behind it, or via “worship” tunes wailing from stage speakers, is a doctrine-free, Bible-lean course that will not feed authentic sheep. And the entertainment of the goats from it isn’t working too well either.
(To be sure, the follies and failures of the SBC’s “let’s build the church” endeavor are assuredly not impacting the “true” church. It’s just a tragedy that the SBC has moved so far from Scripture that it has become blinded to its own errors.)
The Bible is actually pretty clear. (Perspicuity … it’s part of the doctrine of Scripture, FYI) The church exists to edify the sheep. The real sheep, authentically regenerated by the Spirit of God and not by the incantation of a nonsensical, non-Scriptural prayer, must be fed the Word. In turn, those sheep share the Gospel.
Yet, in the Baptist Press article, Thom Rainer, President of LifeWay, says “While a decrease in baptisms is very disappointing, we don’t take for granted 295,000 baptisms. We should rejoice with each of those individuals who chose to follow Christ.”
(Umm, last time I read the Bible, it says salvation belongs to the Lord. I can’t “choose” it, regardless of how hip, slick, and emotionally-manipulative the worship “experience” is. Regardless, far more are choosing to leave than choosing to stay. Somebody must be getting the words wrong to that salvation-inducing sinner’s prayer, I guess.)
Since the goats that have been ushered into pews don’t actually eat sheep food, SBC churches have changed the menu. (Warning: Eating this diet of disobedience will result in massive bloodletting … of members from the ranks!)
The SBC has taken upon itself the task Christ reserved for Himself. “I will build my church.” He didn’t mention light shows, monotonously-lyric-ed praise music, and “its-all-about-you” sermons as tools He would employ. He said “the gospel is the power of God for salvation” and then charged His sheep to go proclaim it.
If the cooperating member churches of the SBC would jettison tolerance for “other” gospels, stand firmly against false teaching, preach and teach actual Scripture, a funny thing will happen. Christ will, indeed, build His church.
The mission we’ve been given in Scripture is only capable of being accomplished by the method we’ve been given in Scripture. Scripture is sufficient because our God is sufficient. He has decreed the mission and the method. Too bad the SBC doesn’t believe it will work.
Like I said, I love the SBC. But it in no way resembles anything close to the “true” church that Christ is building. I just pray that we’d be obedient to the sufficiency of Scripture so that our image might just change to look a little bit more Christ-like. Who knows? Souls might actually be saved along the way. After all, Jesus promised that very thing.
As it stands, though, the frustrated flock of genuine sheep sitting in SBC pews best be on the lookout for further tourniquet-tightening methodologies from the ivory towers of the SBC to stem the hemorrhaging. Apparently, they just don’t have a copy of the Scriptures.
The purpose-driven downgrade continues …
(The downgrade, by the way, is not the loss of members. The downgrade is the loss of Scripture. The epic membership decline is the evidence of it.)
