Let me tell you a little story.
When I first began attending my fundamental-independent-baptist church, I was shocked to hear my family mentioned as a prayer request at visitation. And I was even more appalled that the soul-winner/assistant pastor had pronounced them unequivocably unsaved.
I didn't know that anybody from the church had even contacted my family. I obviously took issue with the comment, respectfully of course. The assistant pastor and his wife had been out door knocking (the fundamentalist term for this is soul-winning) as they often did during the week. They pick a street on their way home, knock on a few doors, and then go about their evening.
One fateful night, they happened to land on my street without knowing it. Upon "witnessing" to my parents, they decided that they MUST be unsaved because....get this....because of the church they attended. This "awful" church used drums in worship, and any church who used drums was also charismatic, and by definition, charismatics must speak in tongues. And anyone who goes to such a church that believes in speaking in tongues is clearly not saved.
I respectfully attempted to correct the skewed picture, but this only cast me into the shades of suspicion, too. I earned a lengthy office visit, during which I assured the assistant pastor that nobody at the church engaged in that fateful "unbiblical" practice of tongues-speaking, but yes, they did use drums in worship, and no, they did not publicly condemn Billy Graham. I still had to fight tooth and nail to prove that my parents were indeed truly, Biblically saved and had "followed the Lord" in believer's baptism--by immersion.
After this new information, my family was graciously moved from "unsaved" prayer list to the "far from God" prayer list. This act of magnanimity was decided upon by the almost unanimous consent of the Thursday night visitation crew.
The one dissident (me) still insists that her parents have been and are godly, upright, and smack-dab in the center of God's will.
When I, righteously enraged, told my parents of the incident, my father quetly replied, "They're just trying to serve the Lord, Stephanie." He rebuked me for being so hasty to judge them, and reminded me that they were indeed godly men, and that even the most godly man will be confused along some point of his doctrine and practice.
Amazing. Even though vilified as unsaved and ungodly, my Father still believed that his accusers were godly, upright Christians. I tried to argue that they wouldn't give him the same benefit of the doubt, but I was shut down: "They're just confused, Stephanie. We all are. No one is perfect."
I tried to justify my church's actions, tried to reason it away. Perhaps it was only an isolated incident involving only one church. But the comments have never stopped coming--from many churches, many institutions. This week alone I have heard three statements (by prominent leaders of Fundamentalism) to the effect that "Any person who does ________ CANNOT be a devout, faithful Christian." And each of the "unpardonable sins" is either something that my parents do, or something that is practiced in their church.
Are we re-writing scripture by our practice?
I am sad, heartbroken this week. After a long battle to justify Fundamentalism's practice in my mind, I must now here admit that Paul's commendation of the Thessalonian church does NOT apply to us:
"Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers..."
1 Thessalonians 4:9-10
Let us pray.
And then let us do something about it.
There is biblical value/biblical mandate for biblical separation. The sad thing is (as you've described) when we deviate from the biblical motivation and definition.
Fundamentally, there is a logical progression and a traceable pattern for how things have morphed. It is human nature to default to what is tangibly measurable, to fall back on our senses.
It is an act of faith to believe that the Holy Spirit is keeping us from the world, continually sanctifying (yes, we are to be continually responding in obedience, and to be continually adding more different, rather than more of the same) us and making us salt and light.
The biblically laid out purposes of separation are to preserve the purity of the gospel/Christ's testimony, the sanctity of the Church/Christ's bride, and to restore unruly brothers/sisters to a walk that magnifies their Redeemer (to the praise of the glory of His grace rather than to the ridicule of the glory of His grace).
I have a hard time understanding how ostracizing believers (at a personal or institutional level) without biblically-derived criteria and without biblically-patterned follow-up can be termed biblical in the first place.
I'm thankful for a fundamentalist heritage from which I've learned the important of allegiance to God's Word as the rule of my faith and practice. I especially love it when I encounter people whose true understanding of grace works itself out in their dealings with unbelievers and fellow-believers alike. If we really knew who we were/are/are becoming in Jesus Christ, and if we operated with Him as our single inerrant absolute standard--the line that cuts across all the grey issues and all the mind-boggling relationship questions entirely--if we make His M.O. our own method and make His holiness our own objective, then we cannot go wrong.
For what it's worth, I would recommend Steve Turner's book (even though I'm only on p. 13) IMAGINE, and Tim Keller's sermon series on Daniel ("Living by Faith in a Secular World"). He points out something interesting in his first sermon--the fact that Daniel's interaction within Babylon was patterned after the blueprint in Jeremiah 29. (Jeremiah wrote against the other exiled prophets who were strongly urging total separation for fear of assimilation, strongly urging that the people pray for Babylon's destruction, etc.; while on the other hand, the word from the LORD to Jeremiah was that they should neither assimilate nor separate--they should live in the world but not of it.)
Posted by: joy at November 29, 2003 03:11 PMI think the fundamental baptist Christians may seem to be legalistic, but they truly love the Lord. And their beliefs are based on bible verses; I'm sure they'll be glad to supply you with these verses when asked. They also do not believe that someone should do these things without conviction from God. Someone should not totally agree with them without talking to God first. If someone is not convinced, they are definitely still welcome at the church. If it's only legalism that keeps them going, it would not take them very far. Just get to know some of them personally, and you will see God truly working in them
Posted by: Linda at January 9, 2004 05:48 PMActually, I am one. A fundamentalist, that is. This story was a critique of *our* practices, not *their* practices. I am a fundamentalist, and it is because I love these people, love this church that I raise issues such as these.
Thank you for sticking up for them/us, though, since you had no idea of my own affiliations.
And how about you? Who are you? Thank you for commenting, and I'd like to get to know a bit more about you.
Posted by: stephanie at January 10, 2004 01:29 PMPlease note: Comments will not appear immediately. Your comment will appear upon approval by the blog's editor. We had to implement this to decrease the amount of spam that our site receives. Please forgive the inconvenience. We are looking into other, friendlier options.