November 13, 2008

An Awful Insult!

I was raised on good preaching. I assume that most of you reading are of the Baptist faith. My prior Pentecostal colleagues won't read this since I am Calvinist.

I heard good preaching in an open air tabernacle in Chattanooga on old Lee highway. The floor was strewn with sawdust shavings and seating for several thousands was old fashion angle iron and wood pews. The main service was the evening services with nationally recognized speakers. This was pentecostal preaching but with a strong Wesleyan-holiness emphasis. We fought "Jesus only" Independent "free holiness" people and of course the Baptist. Often the preaching was energized and emotional but deeper was a good message of holiness of life and commitment to Christ. There was exuberant praise, with occasional shouting , leaping and one man who ran around the tabernacle. Those were good old days.

The day was devoted to good Bible teaching by some of the best teachers the denomination had to offer. Attendance was lower but that was our favorite service. I was raised on what I hear many crying for today.

When I visited Bellevue Baptist ten or so years ago I went to observe Rogers preaching. I recognized good preaching and anointed preaching. Dr Rogers was a good preacher. The fact that this was a large beautiful sanctuary filled nearly to capacity and the preacher had a national broadcast, Love Worth Finding, did not effect my judgment. There was no awe in my sight. I did not worship the man. I do not mean this in a mean spirited way. I recognized the qualities of good speaking, subjective conviction and excellent voice control. But I didn't recognize an anointing. There is a difference between "spirited" preaching and "Anointed" preaching. Now a seasoned Pentecostal recognizes the difference. A "good" Pentecostal has to be able to hear the Word in the midst of murky emotional exuberance. This is a good thing!

A "good" Baptist has to just trust that his preacher is preaching the Word. There is little cultivation of hearing the Word in the murky splendor of a good speech. You confuse the Word with good speech. An old fashion classical Pentecostal would not be swayed by good speech nor a loud screaming message. Good hearing comes not from the flesh but the Holy Spirit. He gives the ear the hearing.

What is the difference you might ask? The Baptist is taught that right doctrine must be mastered to know the difference and there is a truth in that. A Pentecostal looks to a witness of the Spirit that bears a witness to his spirit. This witness cooperates with the witness of the Bible.

One of the things that interested me about Dr Rogers was his altar calls. He had a pattern and never strayed away from it. He always left the platform and came to the floor and stood below the pulpit. There he gave the invitation.

I found myself many times thinking, "why is he walking that way?" Over and over I heard myself think that. He walked strange , flatfooted and cautious. "Why" is he walking that way?
"Why am I thinking this?" "What does it matter that he is walking that way?"

When the Paul Williams crisis surfaced it occurred to me that the Spirit was providing the utterance for this thought. He was getting my attention, "what do you see here?" "He is walking funny!" "Why is he walking this way?"

The floor was covered in blood, the blood of the Son of God! The blood wherewith he was sanctified was being trampled. It was treated as an unholy thing! A great insult to the Spirit was taking place in that Church. This sin was not an isolated sin of one man but a corporate sin flowing from a false gospel. It was the result of a semi-Pelagian gospel.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Charles,
Not all Baptists ARE LIKE WHAT YOU DESCRIBE , some go for the witness of the Spirit, particularly those in the Blue Ridge area.
There were shouting Baptists long before the pentecostals move on the scene.
Most of these Baptists were not Southern Baptists, but Particular Baptists from the old Tricentinnal Commission, holding to The Philadelphia Baptist Confession of Faith.

Anonymous said...

Dear Charles,
Not all Baptists ARE LIKE WHAT YOU DESCRIBE , some go for the witness of the Spirit, particularly those in the Blue Ridge area.
There were shouting Baptists long before the pentecostals move on the scene.
Most of these Baptists were not Southern Baptists, but Particular Baptists from the old Tricentinnal Commission, holding to The Philadelphia Baptist Confession of Faith.

WatchingHISstory said...

anon

Ah, that is sweet music to my ears!
Thanks

Charles

WatchingHISstory said...

That's right! There were not only shouting Baptist but also Methodist. My great grandmother was one. They were physically demonstrative in their worship before the Pentecostals came along. Of course I know this first hand from many family accounts.
In my family this went as far back as the civil war and written accounts place this way before the civil war. My established religious account goes back to 1820. The witness of the Spirit was a criterion of true religion.

The proper exposition of scripture replaced the witness of the Spirit. This is all a simplification of the strain between Spirit and Word. The errors between the two extremes are obvious.

The extreme view of exegesis has left Christians "Spiritless" in experience. They have head knowledge (correction: I'm not really sure that the average Christian has head knowledge) At any rate they rest in the assurance that their pastor and leaders have head knowledge.

Earlier in this century AW Tozer warned us of this. Also Leonard Ravenhill.

It is difficult to build a mega Church with people who walk in the Spirit! When the Spitit is the final criterion (not to say the Word is not important) it is difficult to unify a small group let alone a mega group!

I Cor 12-14 seems to be relevant as a guide for small groups but with a large mega group these passages have seemingly no relevance. ala Dispensationalism seems to be guide for mass movement evangelism. But real global evangelism expands with small group mistique. People moving vs moving people! Mass movements and winning nations is restrictive to fewer people with less effect while people moving is intensive moving deep into culture cohesion where institutions cannot reach. Less, less, less expensive!

Holy Spirit led evangelism! This is the reason that the best thing we can do for evangelism is wait and pray. Wait on the Lord of the Harvest.

Oh my I'm preaching! This excites me. Maybe John Ryland Sr was right all along!!!!

Anonymous said...

Pervert you have not seen the day you could preach. That is why you are a package handler fool and not a preacher. Remember the swingers and swindlers that were on your staff before you got fired? They know what a fool you are.

Baptists have nothing to do with you crap you are spewing. That is just and excuse for you to go off on a dead pastor that was so far ahead of you in so many ways. And now the big man is going after this man's widow, such a coward.

And in your ealier post you rant on the living "Christian Homo" and bragging what you would like to do to him and brerating others for not being upset more. Hell you are a such a sissy. Come grab those filberts and head to Fayette County. Just remember he is tall so take a step ladder so you can properly kiss his ass.

You are so funny, thanks Page.

oc said...

He thinks that is preaching. No wonder he sells God short.