Call To Die

Then [Jesus] said to them all, "If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will save it. (Luke 9:23-24, HCSB)

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Location: Louisville, Kentucky, United States

follower of Christ, husband of Abby, father of Christian, Georgia Grace, and Rory Faith, deacon at Kosmosdale Baptist Church, tutor with Scholé Christian Tradition and Scholé Academy

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

The Alcohol Post

Today, Timmy Brister of the Strange BaptistFire website posted an important article on the issue of the Southern Baptist Convention's recent resolution concerning the use, manufacture, sale, or distribution of alcohol. This resolution effectively prohibits anyone who does not practice total abstinence from alcohol from any leadership position in the SBC, even if they never get drunk. Timmy basically argues that this is a kind of false Shibboleth. I would like to call special attention to a few specific points Timmy makes in his article, which is titled, The Pseudo-Demarcation Line of Resolution No. 5 and the Shifting Sands of the SBC.
  1. Concerning the sufficiency of Scripture: "Our conviction on the sufficiency of Scripture should cause us to rest in God’s complete revelation in the Word of God written and the Word of God Incarnate. Where Scriptures is silent, we must not speculate."
  2. Concerning cooperation for the sake of the Gospel: "We are a convention being divided over such a pathetic issue as that of alcohol. We could learn some lessons from the T4G guys. Where they have learned to come together [despite denominational differences] for the sake of the gospel, we have learned to be divided for the sake of alcohol. There could not be a more stark contrast than this!"
  3. Concerning life principles, with a specific application to the alcohol resolution: "There are three “all’s” which I try to think of regularly during my day. They are, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do ALL to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31), “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do ALL (everything) in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Col. 3:17), and “I do ALL things for the sake of the gospel, that I may be a fellow partaker of it” (1 Cor. 9:23). The glory of God. The name of the Lord Jesus. The gospel of Jesus Christ. These three we should do in all things, including what we eat and drink. Do I believe someone can drink wine in moderation to the glory of God? Yes I do. Jesus did."

posted by Andrew Lindsey | 3:32 PM

2 Comments:

Blogger Timmy Brister said...

Andrew,

Glad to see that you have found the SBTS Metablog. Good folks over there.

Also, I just want you to know that anytime I hear the word "Shibboleth" I get giddy. I just really like that word. :)

Oh, and a huge debt of gratitude I have for your proofreading of the article. I am truly grateful.

9:07 PM  
Blogger Nathan White said...

Andrew! You found a good use for Phil Johnson's SBF graphics! I keep telling him that I plan to use them somehow and in some way, but I haven't just yet. I still have the full batch though, including the...uh...in-your-face versions :)

Nice summary of Timmy's excellent article. It is kind of amazing to consider all the different secondary issues among the TG4Gospel guys, and yet they chose to lay them aside and emphasize what is really important, and what is missing from popular evangelicalism: the pure gospel. We can only pray that the future of the SBC (guys like you and Timmy) will lead this denomination in that direction.

Not to say that secondary issues are not important, for they most certainly are. But not when 90% of everyone else under the name of Christianity has a flawed gospel.


SDG

5:33 PM  

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