This morning I read a blog article with a link to the Austin American-Statesman newspaper about an interfaith "worship" service that has been going on for 23 years. This year it had planned to be, and reserved the facilities at Hyde Park Baptist Church. You can read the article here.

So here is my question, is interfaith/interreligious worship actually worship?

Quite simply put, no. No. NO. In Christian worship we are coming before a Holy God and ascribing, telling, proclaiming His worth-ship to us. In the practice of doing this to also change "hats" to worship Buddha, Allah, or whatever counters everything that the Bible tells us to do. Here are some examples.

Exodus 34:13-16 You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim ¹⁴ (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), ¹⁵ lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, ¹⁶ and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

(funny…the leaders of the synagogue in Austin must have forgot )

Deuteronomy 4:35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him.

Acts 4:11-12 This Jesus¹ is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.^2
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

This is by no means an exhaustive list of Scripture. Just a taste.

"(Simone Talma) Flowers said she was disheartened by the church's decision. "As a Christian, my first response is, what would Jesus do in this situation?" she said."

Probably He is rejoicing over this church keeping His bride pure. Should we mingle worship so as to provide peace between faiths? Does it mean that we cannot associate with those of different beliefs?

We absolutely should work to develop relationships with those of different faiths and be a witness to them, in loving, gracious, Christ-like love; not bending on the facts of Scripture that there is only one God, one Savior, Jesus Christ.

However, to welcome them into, and worshipping with, different faiths, dilutes and condones the cultural idea that there are multiple ways to heaven. Our children see, by our example, that other "ideas" or cultural "truths" all mean the same thing. This is the most dangerous threat to our churches today. A coalescing and watering down the truth of Scripture, intermarrying of children of different faiths (the only intermarrying banned in the Bible is different faiths-not race).

Those outside the Christian faith call this "Interreligious Ministries", in the Christian church we call it "Emergent".

More on that later.

Thank God this church had sense to realize the error and correcting it.

When I was in Israel this past summer, we met an IMB missionary that was studying in Haifa. He told our group of something that had happened in his church that he was working with. He sent the story in an email. Here is the excerpt from the email.

Friends,

I'm writing this email to quickly update all of you on two new IAM
members of God's family! Yes! After we returned from Amman an elder
from the Arabic church we attend here in Haifa shared with me that
several members of the church had been in contact with three Muslims
who had show an interest in the gospel. The following day he called
and said that two of them had accepted Christ and were interested in
following that commitment by being baptized. Wednesday night I had
the amazing opportunity of attending the prayer service and hearing
one of these new believers pour out his heart in conviction over his
personal sin, thankfulness that Jesus had come to rescue him from the
pit he was living in, and that those around him, his family and
friends, would also come to know the truth that had set him free. It
was the most beautiful prayer I have ever heard; the prayer of a new
believer from a Muslim background pouring out his heart in gratitude
to a wonderful Savior. I know you all are rejoicing as well.

One of these new believers was imprisoned for nearly 15 years for
being a member of Hamas and carrying out a terrorist attack. His
wife and two children are not (yet) believers, to our knowledge, so
remember them. Both men are already beginning to receive threats,
however, both are being extremely bold. The former Hamas member
said, "This is the path I've been looking for my whole life." Pray
they would continue to have boldness and share their faith. Many
times new believers feel isolated and alone. These believers have
found a new community in this church. Pray we would BE the community
they need so they can flourish and we can see more believers brought
into the fold.

That was the first of June, end of May. The reason I share that with you is because of the email I received yesterday from Scott. Here is one of the prayer requests he listed.

The believer here in Haifa we informed you about a few months ago
was recently put in jail, seemingly at the instigation of his
unbelieving wife. He has since been moved to a psychiatric
facility. Pray for Mahmoud to grow in his faith and be a strong
witness wherever he is. Pray for his wife to have a broken heart and
for the Lord to reveal himself to her in a very personal way. Pray
for healing for the whole family.

I could not imagine a wife putting a husband away for believing in Christ.

Matthew 10:35-39 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶ And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. ³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Be praying for Mahmoud, and for Scott and his family (they also just had a 3^rd child), and the IAM (Israeli Arab Muslim) ministry there.

The one thing you won't hear much, at least not in the affirmative, about inerrancy. But one thing you will hear continuously is "soul competency". The SBC has inerrancy as its litmus test, and the BGCT has soul competency.

So what is soul competency? Is it biblical?

Here is a definition from Wikipedia. (if you know of a better one, let me know I'll change it out)

Soul competency is a Christian theological perspective on the accountability of each person before God. According to this view, neither one's family relationships, church membership, or ecclesiastical or religious authorities can affect salvation of one's soul from damnation. Instead, under this view, each person is responsible to God for his or her own personal faith in Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection.

What has seemed to have taken place in the BGCT is that soul competency has morphed into this definition and then some. Not only can no one else affect the salvation of one's soul, but they can't tell you what is proper to believe. Because we each have the Holy Spirit, we can look to scripture and come to our own interpretation in light of Jesus.

But this is not what historical Baptist belief has held. Even if, IF, it were, is it biblical?

No.

Is the definition that I posted from Wikipedia right? Yes. Just not the mutation that no one can tell us how to interpret the scripture. What does the Bible say?

2 Timothy 4:1-4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: ² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound¹ teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.(emphasis mine, ESV)

Now here is the thought. If one is completely free to believe and interpret the scripture as they see it, without anyone being able to tell them that they are wrong, then why does scripture tell us that we (especially pastors) are to reprove, rebuke, and exhort?

Just when you think that things are bad at home in the BGCT, you read this. Did the North Carolina State Convention rightly, and by rightly I mean biblically, remove a church that was trying to get publicity and/or be ground-breaking (language which also is used about the BGCT's election of it's first female president) by allowing those who are practicing homosexuals not only to be members, but lesbian deacons?

Here is the over arching question: Does the teaching, in Matthew 18:15-20, concerning church discipline, apply to a church's relationship with an association, convention? Or a national convention with a state convention? An association with a local church? What about church, convention autonomy?

Leave a comment.

Earlier this month an editorial was published in the Baptist Standard by Marv Knox. It made some interesting points that I would like to interact with. You can find the article here.

The assumption that the election was an overwhelming victory for those of the Texas Baptists Committed is amazing to me. Their candidate won the election by a mere 60 votes. 60. It is not a landslide at all, in fact it is statement the other direction. That almost half of the messengers felt that a candidate who was only announced as a candidate approximately a week earlier, is a statement of lack of support in the establishment rather than a vote for it.

However, I really want to address the three points that Knox gives as reasons that he doesn't think the loss will be great.

Here are my reasons why I think it will.

1. Baptists are uninformed. The general member sitting in the pew of a typical BGCT church is uninformed of the typical events within the political, educational, or doctrinal world of the BGCT and its affiliated universities and seminaries. Most Texas Baptists sitting in the pew, hold to the inerrancy and authority of the Scripture. When brought to light that the inerrancy question is the dividing point with the SBC for most of the leadership in the BGCT, it comes as a surprise because most of them do. It is also evident that most of the churches within the BGCT were absent from the convention and didn't even send a single messenger. So not only are the individuals in the pew uninformed of the issues, so is leadership in a large number of local churches. This is most likely due to pastors being too consumed with the life of the church (which is not a bad thing). But had they been there, would things have been different? Perhaps.
   
2. The election of a woman as president WAS unbibical. Regardless of resume, yes, Mrs. Fenner's is impressive, the biblical fact that women are not permitted to lead is quite evident. From 1 Timothy 2.9-14 to 3.1-15, the biblical model is that the role of pastor is reserved for men. Women have roles to play as well, though not in a leadership or authority position. Last I checked, president of an ecclesial body is just that. The introduction by Charles Wade of Mrs. Fenner as the next president to "lead our churches" sends the message that she is the leader of the churches of the BGCT, and its spokesperson. Also, when we have young people who are looking to the ministry, and they see one in leadership who is a woman, it conveys to ministerial students that it IS biblical and is a natural progression. Most Texas Baptists see this, as a liberal step that other denominations have gone down, and are now in a quandary over. Why doesn't anyone else see that the next step is the open door policy allowing homosexuals to take leadership in the pulpits?
   
3. The church, founded on biblical principles, won't stand for it. Whether or not women will stand for it is irrelevant. The church must seek the truth of Scripture, and apply it to the lives of individuals. One of these truths is church discipline. There is no accountability at the individual level, which affects the church, association, and yes, the state level. Holding individuals to a high level of doctrinal integrity amongst the individual, church, associational, and state levels is a necessary practice that should be reinstated.
   

   The men, in our churches have for too long taken the back seat to our ladies in the area of lay ministry by not taking the initiative to become proactive in teaching/training men to spiritually lead their families and churches in evangelism and service ministries. We are now paying the price for our lack of commitment in completing the Great Commission, just baptizing them and not discipling them.
   

   Once the church educates its membership to the issues involved, and the men become involved in the ministry, mission and leadership of the church, then there will be a change.