“Nothing Christian about a ‘covention’, a central authority over local churches. “
One more time...the SBC is in no way a central authority.
Each church is autonomous.
Where in the world did you get the idea that they weren’t?
You obviously have not done any research.
It is you who is blowing smoke.
In the book of Acts, there are various local churches established, but there are no denominations or associations. In his epistles, Paul addresses local assemblies, but no denominations or associations are mentioned. In Revelation 1:4, we read these words: John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne. We do not read anything about denominations, conventions, or associations. Jesus then goes on to address letters to each of the seven churches independently in chapters two and three (Rev. 1:4, 11; 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14). The Bible simply does not support denominationalism. New Testament churches are independent, autonomous, assemblies of Christians, and nothing more. I realize that Southern Baptist churches are not usually as denominationally oriented as, say, the United Methodists or the Roman Catholics, but they are still part of a denomination (see their web site), so they are still unscriptural. Are the Southern Baptists in a CULT? No, of course not, but they are in a sick and unscriptural system.
http://www.biblebaptistpublications.org/southernbaptists.html
WHY I AM NOT SOUTHERN BAPTIST
CONCLUSION
Friends in Christ, beware of the Southern Baptist Convention. In spite of the conservative renaissance and the many commendable steps that have been taken at the national level to distance the convention from modernism, it remains a deeply compromised, New Evangelical hodgepodge of truth and error. Though there are godly Southern Baptists and some good and Scriptural things in many Southern Baptist congregations, this good is leavened with Billy Graham ecumenism, Jimmy Carter modernism (Carter still teaches Sunday School in a Southern Baptist-associated congregation even though he has distanced himself from the SBC), rock & roll worldliness, contemporary worship charismaticism, Rick Warren pragmaticism, and Masonic Lodge paganism.
Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? (1 Cor. 5:6).
http://www.wayoflife.org/database/whynotsbc.html
“...the SBC is in no way a central authority. Each church is autonomous.”
Not autonomous if compared with a truly independent Baptist church. We were members of an SBC church for a few years. A big chunk of the offering went to the Convention and we never really knew how it was used there. Missions efforts were via Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong. VBS programs were all standardized, like going to any McDonalds to get an identical hamburger.
An independent Baptist church IS autonomous. I grew up in one. Finances were all internal. We actually MET the missionaries we supported and hosted them in our homes. We chose Sunday School and VBS materials to best suit the attendees.
An SBC church is semi-autonomous (if that’s a word).