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SBC’s Hunt for the Calvinist Boogeymen
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark Nashville.
Wait. Let’s start over.
Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 4, 87-91….and Action!
Horatio:
He waxes desperate with imagination.Marcellus:
Let’s follow. ‘Tis not fit thus to obey him.Horatio:
Have after. To what issue will this come?Marcellus:
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.Horatio:
Heaven will direct it.Marcellus:
Nay, let’s follow him. [Exeunt.]
Ok, it’s Shakespeare.
But the same lines could be used by current SBC members regarding the continuing hunt for the Calvinist boogeymen lurking, or trying to infiltrate, the SBC. There’s something wrong with the head of the fish – something’s rotten, it smells. I wonder why?
This morning brought news of an SBC church requesting membership in a regional SBC assembly within the state of Kentucky, but denied, and said membership was denied because of the fellowship’s adherence to Biblical truth. Calvinism.
Oh, the humanity.
There is a seemingly never-ending resolve of the SBC to detect and subsequently snuff out, or at the very least, expose, any church holding to the doctrines of grace.
Speaking of fish in Nashville, Frank Page, President of the Executive Committee of the SBC has his own theological confession in the form of an acronym which is quite interesting:
GRACE
- G- Given through Christ
- R -Rejected through rebellion
- A-Accepted through faith
- C-Christ died for all
- E-Everlasting life/security of the believer
Note the conflict between ‘C’ and the ‘E’. Talk about rotting fish heads.
That acronym can be found in this article from Western Recorder (see page 3).
What can also be found in that link is the following statement:
Page claims he is neither Calvinist nor Arminian but has said there needs to be honest dialogue between the camps.
So, apparently, according to Frank Page, the best way for Calvinist and Non-Calvinist to get along is, well, to be neither. That’s the solution for the theological divide in the SBC? Compromise truth? C’mon.
In a recentinterview with SBC Today, Page responds to the question – What do you think are the greatest challenges facing the SBC?
He answers:
I think the challenges confronting the SBC today are different than they have been in decades past. I think one of the issues which is a tremendous challenge for us is the theological divide of Calvinism and non-Calvinism. Everyone is aware of this, but few want to talk about this in public. The reason is obvious. It is deeply divisive in many situations and is disconcerting in others. At some point we are going to see the challenges which are ensuing from this divide become even more problematic for us. I regularly receive communications from churches who are struggling over this issue. …
Theological divide. That means a divide in theology. A difference of theology. It’s not a ‘getting along’ issue, it’s a theological issue. We get it.
However, Dr. Page, in a response to this very quote, has denied that theology is the issue:
The theology of Calvinism isn’t the problem…the problem is that those who disagree can’t get along.
But, as we say here in the South, that dog won’t hunt. If, Dr. Page, as you say, it is a theological issue, and you did, then the matter is, indeed, theological, a matter of theology, not merely the ability to ‘get along’ or have some pansy, politically correct ‘dialogue’.
Truth is to be proclaimed. Dialogue is for emergent heretics.
Here’s an acronym for you Dr. Page: ASKEW
- A-lways
- S-eeking to
- K-now more
- E-cumenical
- W-ays to ‘get along’ at the expense of Truth
TRUTH–which is Calvinism.
On this one , I’m with Marcellus. Until Dr. Page gets truth right, pray for him, love him, and respect his position, but in regards to Biblical Truth – ‘Tis not fit thus to obey him.’
The SBC, currently, to use Shakespeare’s words, is “an unweeded garden” of “things rank and gross in nature” (Act 1, scene 2). And that rotten smell in Nashville? It’s not people, it’s erroneous doctrine.
What is needed in Nashville, and in every SBC church is a humble, yet tenacious belief in sound, biblical, historical Baptist, Calvinistic doctrine – all 5 points.
5 Pt. Salt 
A-lways
S-eeking to
K-now more
E-cumenical
W-ays to ‘get along’ at the expense of Truth
Clever
I – I think
C- churches that are SBC
H- have to remember
A- any SBC churches warring against sovereign grace
B- become unworthy of our close fellowship & outside of the realm of reasonable fidelity to faith
D- doctrinally confused and diminished by grievous error
Great post, Joel – sad news but not surprising. Ken Silva has been saying for quite a while now that it appears “SBC” now stands for Slowing Becoming Catholic.
David L. – wonderful! Wish I had thought of that while at my previous church.
“Truth is to be proclaimed. Dialogue is for emergent heretics.”
HIT the nail on the head right here! Great post, brother. Too bad you had reason to write it, but well said nonetheless.
Good article, at the current rate it’s going I can forsee a out and out split in the SBC, and maybe that wouldn’t be a bad thing.