TURNING POINT FOR SOUTHERN BAPTISTS? DENOMINATION PRESIDENT OPEN TO
EXTRA-BIBLICAL PROPHECIES
SEE: https://pulpitandpen.org/2019/01/03/turning-point-for-sbc-denomination-president-open-to-extra-biblical-prophecies/;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the
prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…Hebrews 1:1-2
Baptists, at one time, were known as People of the Book and defended the Sufficiency of Scripture. The Sufficiency of Scripture is undergirded by Cessationism, the orthodox and Biblical position that the Apostolic Sign Gifts – like the gift of miracles or prophecy – have ceased with the Apostles. This belief is taken from 2 Corinthians 12:12, which states that these types of First Century phenomenon were meant to designate Apostleship. Without Apostles, the Christian Church has uniformly held to a belief in Cessationism since the second century.
The Montanists were a group of heretics who were denounced by the early church for claiming that God continues to speak outside of Scripture. The belief of God speaking directly to people (as opposed to the Spirit leading us through Scripture) was altogether absent from church history between the time of the excommunication of the Montanists and the revival of Montanism in 1906 at Azusa Street. During the 20th Century, Baptists were at the forefront of opposing the notion of extra-Biblical prophecy. As the Southern Baptist publishing house, Lifeway Christian Resources, began to promote the work of charismatics and profit handily from their false teachings, Southern Baptists have largely embraced the false claims of extra-Biblical revelation.
JD Greear speaks about his open-but-cautious view below.
New video: @JDGreear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of @SummitRDU, weighs in on whether God still speaks audibly.
Greear claims in the video that God can speak in an audible voice should he want to. While it may seem wise to “not put God in a box” (by the way, the Ark of the Covenant demonstrates that God doesn’t mind putting himself in a box) or to claim that an omnipotent God can’t do something, God can’t do that which is against his own Word or something contrary to his own nature (see Titus 1:2 as an example). And, God has been very clear (see Hebrews 1:1-2 above) that how he now speaks to us has been relegated to prophecy inside the Bible. Essentially, Greear is open-but-cautious to the Scripture not being sufficient.
The danger of the open-but-cautious approach is that it leaves open the Charismatic Window. This is the means by which most false teachings today enter the church.
If you want to know how dangerous Greear’s view is on this issue, consider the lauding it received by Charisma News. This publication promotes material from the New Apostolic Reformation, Bethel Church and Bill Johnson, Benny Hinn, and televangelist convicted felon, doomsday prophet and accused rapist, Jim Bakker. It is the worst of the worst promoter of the worst of the worst charismatic false prophets. And it loved JD Greear’s video.
In the article from Charisma News, it ask’s whether this is “a turning point for the Southern Baptist Convention.”
And the answer is no. The turning point is when Lifeway indiscriminately began to pump the SBC with charismatic resources more than a decade ago. It is just now bearing fruit.
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SOUTHERN BAPTIST PRESIDENT SAYS
WE CAN’T “PUT GOD IN A BOX”
(Friday Church News Notes, January 11, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org,
866-295-4143) - In a video interview with The Gospel Coalition, J.D.
Greear, President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), said that
God can still speak audibly to believers today and is not limited to
speaking through Scripture (“Southern Baptist President,”
BreakingChristianNews.com, Jan. 4, 2019). Greear said “he would never
place God in a box about what He could do today.” This has been the
Pentecostal position from its inception. “Don’t put God in a box” has
always meant that God can do all sorts of things that we don’t see in
Scripture, such as knock people down, glue them to the floor, cause them
to speak gibberish, laugh hysterically, shake, jerk, roar like lions,
bray like donkeys, and stagger like drunks. “Don’t put God in a box” has
always been the theme song of those who refuse to be bound by
Scripture. Former Pentecostal Hughie Seaborn comments as follows: “The
SBC will be thoroughly Pentecostal before too long. God can do whatever
He pleases, but He won’t contradict His Word, and His Word tells us in
Hebrews 1:1-2 that, ‘God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets [who received dreams, visions and audible voices], Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son [through
that which is perfect, the written Word of God].’ Dreams, visions and
audible voices are subjective and fraught with dangerous deception. How
can we know for sure who is speaking to us, even if what is received
agrees with the Bible? The devil speaks a lot of truth, but it always
has an agenda. The written Word of God is the only safety we have in
these perilous last days. J.D. Greear is a dangerous man. When they say
they ‘would never place God in a box about what He could do today,’
they are actually saying that they don’t want God to ‘put them in a
box.’ That’s the real issue that I’ve found with them. It’s not, ‘Don’t
tell me what God can and can’t do,’ but rather, ‘Don’t tell me what I
can and can’t do.’ They don’t like the restrictions that Scripture
places on them.”
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SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AND CHARISMATICISM
(Friday Church News Notes, January 11, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org,
866-295-4143) - The charismatic movement has been spreading through the
Southern Baptist Convention since the late 1980s and the pace is
increasing with each decade. In April 1995, Charisma
magazine reported that two professors at Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary (William Hendricks and Tim Webber) urged churches not to fear
the charismatic movement. Hendricks, director of Southern’s doctoral
studies, said, “We shouldn’t feel defensive or threatened by an
alternative experience, perspective or insights about the Holy Spirit,”
and warned that in fighting the charismatic movement “you could be
fighting what is a legitimate experience of the Spirit.” In March 1999, a
Charisma
magazine report entitled “Shaking Southern Baptist Tradition” gave many
examples of charismatic Southern Baptist congregations. At that time,
Southern Baptist pastors Jack Taylor, Ron Phillips, and Gary Folds,
embraced the unscriptural nonsense that occurred at the Toronto Airport
Church in Ontario and Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida.
This “revival” took the form of gibberish speakings, uncontrollable
laughter, falling on the floor, rolling on the floor, barking like a
dog, roaring like a lion, braying like a donkey, electric shocks,
shakings, jerkings, and other bizarre experiences with no biblical
support. Since then, Ron Phillips’ Fresh Oil & Wine Conferences at
Central Baptist Church of Hixon, Tennessee, have promoted charismatic
heresies. One of the speakers was Rodney Howard-Browne, the so-called
“Holy Ghost Bartender.” Southern Baptist Pastor Dwain Miller of Second
Baptist Church in El Dorado, Arkansas, prophesied that God would use
Phillips “to bring renewal to the SBC’s 41,000 churches.” Phillips told
the Tennessean
newspaper that he first experienced speaking in tongues when he was
sleeping! In 2008, Phillips counted 500 churches in his charismatic
network (“Charismatic Southern Baptist Churches,” Baptist Standard,
Oct. 30, 2008). James Robison, once a fiery Southern Baptist evangelist
who preached against the theological liberalism of its schools and the
worldliness of its churches, had a charismatic experience in 1979 and
became a charismatic ecumenist who joins hands in fellowship and
ministry with “Spirit baptized” Roman Catholics and praises Pope John
Paul II as “one of the finest representatives of morality in this
earth.” Bill Sharples resigned a Southern Baptist pastorate after
accepting the tongues-speaking movement, but 25% of his meetings are in
SBC churches and he claims that 15 to 20 percent of Southern Baptists
that he meets are open to the charismatic movement. In November 2005,
the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board voted to forbid missionaries
to speak in tongues, but Jerry Rankin, the head of the board, said that
he had spoken in a “private prayer language” for 30 years. What
confusion! Speaking at a chapel service at Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary in 2006, Pastor Dwight McKissic, a trustee, told
the students that he speaks in tongues in his “private prayer life” and
has done so since 1981, when he was a seminary student (“Southwestern
Trustee’s Sermon on Tongues Prompts Response,” Baptist Press, Aug. 30,
2006). In May 2015, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board
reversed its former policy, now accepting missionaries who speak in
“tongues” so long as they don’t become “disruptive” (“FAQs on Missionary
Appointment Qualifications,” IMB Policy 200-1, IMB.org). One of the
major bridges from the charismatic movement into Southern Baptist
churches and homes is contemporary worship music. The 2008 Southern
Baptist Hymnal contains a great many songs written by charismatics.
About 75 of the top 100 contemporary worship songs are included. These
songs are direct bridges to the one-world “church.” I don’t know of one
prominent contemporary worship artist who is opposed in any practical
sense to the charismatic movement and ecumenism, and that includes the
Gettys. Because the SBC refuses to deal with this error consistently,
the leaven will continue to spread. The Bible warns that “a little
leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” This is true for sin (1 Cor. 5:6) as
well as for false doctrine (Gal. 5:9). And in a few years, someone will
be writing about “tongues speaking” and other charismatic phenomena
among Independent Baptists.