Posted on 08/09/2021 8:22:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Someone once said, "Be grateful for the doors of opportunity — and for friends who oil the hinges."
That's how I feel about a recent magnanimous offer made to Southern Baptists by apologist Alex McFarland about six weeks ago. In the wake of their previous president, Russel Moore's departure from the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), Onenewsnow.com reported McFarland offered to fill the position pro-bono. "I would like to give back to the denomination that invested itself in me. It will not cost the SBC a penny, and I can virtually guarantee giving to the Cooperative Program will go up," said McFarland.
In my estimation, the ERLC couldn't find a more qualified candidate. He's been with Southern Baptists since his conversion to Christ. He has zealously proclaimed the Gospel of Christ in over 2,000 churches both nationally and internationally. Having been the third president of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, which specializes in apologetics, and served as Director of Apologetics at North Greenville University in South Carolina, McFarland has been teaching believers how to effectively defend their faith for quite some time.
Moreover, he has never hesitated to boldly address the controversial social issues of our day from a solid Christian worldview.
His resume is stellar, and lest I be perceived as exaggerating, I'm only mentioning a fraction of what he's done for the cause of Christ.
Still, one other thing should be added. Some leaders can be quite knowledgeable but not so communicable; not McFarland. He's been a frequent spokesperson on Fox News and interviewed by numerous national media outlets, including "Fox and Friends," Billy Graham's Decision radio broadcast, Focus on the Family radio, NPR's "All Things Considered," The New York Times, and The Washington Post, to name a few. He's a prolific author, having written numerous books on Christian themes and been a contributing writer to the L.A. Times, Boston Herald, OK-Celebrity News Magazine, Christianity Today, Charisma, On Mission, Billy Graham's Decision magazine and many more.
Being Southern Baptist myself, since Moore took the reigns of the ERLC, I have had grave concerns that the Christian convictions of fellow Southern Baptists were not sufficiently represented. For those of us who look to the ERLC as our advocate in the public arena, Moore's leadership was unquestionably a departure from the strong conservative direction it had under Dr. Richard Land for 25 years.
Like many, I hesitated to criticize because I wanted to give the ERLC leadership every chance to prove itself. It didn't. Instead, it did more to divide Southern Baptist churches and leaders on key Gospel issues in society and split their ability to successfully engage the culture with a sure word from the Scriptures.
Southern Baptists are the largest protestant denomination in the United States. The Convention is made up of many theological and political views. Nevertheless, generally speaking, there is a consensus on most social issues and considerable leverage for political persuasion that ought to be tapped and brought to the table. After Land, it was never appropriately utilized.
The ERLC should have partnered with other dynamic nationally conservative activist groups and been in the very vanguard of influence for traditional Christian values. Instead, Moore seemed to stand aloof from the religious right while also disparaging the robust kind of leadership provided by former evangelical leaders who elevated social and political-religious conservatism to a place of prominence.
Furthermore, I thought the ERLC was too distracted with telling everyone why they should reject Donald Trump. Mind you; Trump directed the friendliest administration to conservative evangelicals in American history. Yes, I agree Trump was not perfect and didn't always behave in a thoroughly Christian manner. Nevertheless, for once, a president demonstrated he was taking conservative evangelicals and their contentions seriously. It was an unprecedented opportunity squandered.
I want to see the ERLC trending in the right direction again. Its positions and actions shouldn't even smell of progressivism. Still, I fear it won't happen unless a new guard is restored to prominence more like the old guard.
Today, Southern Baptists need a strong man of God in the office of the ERLC, who will say to our wayward country, "Thus saith the Lord."
McFarland has written:
"We live in an age in which entire denominations are abandoning biblical principles for the sake of cultural acceptance. Yet our Lord has not called us to convenient lives, but lives of conviction. In addition, Southern Baptists stand in need of spiritual awakening. We cannot overlook past sins in our churches, including pride, immorality, and discrimination, but instead, look to the Lord for the solution to our weaknesses and as the power for our future. We will not change our culture by embracing it. Our culture stands in need of change, and it is a change too big to accomplish in our own strength. We need the power of God's Holy Spirit if we desire to live with the eternal impact our Lord Jesus demands."
Just as the apostle Paul asked how shall people hear without a preacher (Rom. 10:14), I ask how Southern Baptists will lead America back from the precipice without sound Christian leadership in the ERLC?
Has anyone contacted McFarland about his offer? Has anyone taken up his name for consideration? Or are we about to miss another exceptional opportunity?
The SBC is now far too “woke” to be interested in someone like McFarland.
Never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Russell Moore was as much a symptom as he is the problem. The entire leadership of the SBC is doctrinally-compromised, as are a significant percentage of the leadership and membership at the local church level.
This is not a new problem. Most SBC members are far more concerned with the social aspects of their local church than they are with following the teachings of the Holy Bible. In fact, many of those who do care about Bible-based teaching have been leaving SBC churches for decades. I seriously doubt McFarland would have much impact on that trend, especially considering the output of the SBC’s Left-leaning seminaries.
“The SBC is now far too “woke” to be interested in someone like McFarland.”
They were the last major group for the Left to get control over, and it looks as though they succeeded.
Sounds too big for his boots to me.
The problem is not many Southern Baptists believe that. Many believe in a young earth, especially the older ones who still wield much influence. IMHO that would be the most pressing issue keeping McFarland from leading the SBC.
Amen. What type of organization would appoint a Moore or a Greear to high levels of leadership to begin with? A compromised one.
I’ve spoken directly with several professors from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the consensus seems to be for “theistic evolution,” including the origins of man. It’s astounding how much liberalism has infiltrated the largest Protestant church sect/denomination in the United States.
Yes, through their children. It's why the left is so hell-bent (no pun intended) on indoctrinating children through the cultural outlets and public education. They know that demography is influence, and are content to play the long game.
When someone accepts theistic evolution, you can be sure that many other doctrinal stances they hold are severely compromised as well. That world view is awash in unbelief: Jesus was not God, Mary was not a virgin when she conceived, Jesus did not literally rise from the dead, etc.
Are you sure at Southwestern Baptist Theological the professors were believers in theistic evolution and not old earth creation? I’ve seen the two beliefs confused with each other, especially by young earth creationists. The first believes God is impersonal, very much like deism. The latter believes God is very much involved with His creation, breathed life into Adam making him a special creation, simply had a lot of time to do all of the creation in the Genesis account, and the Hebrew word “yom” that’s translated to “day” in Genesis 1 has three literal meanings: one of which is an “era of unspecified length”. So you can be an “old earther” while believing the Bible is inerrant and meant to be read literally (except for where the teachers in the Bible itself say things are meant to be allegorical).
These professors believe that everything sprang from evolutionary processes. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
As an Armenian who clearly disagrees with the Baptists' Calvinism and other relatively small belief disagreements like that, I always respected what Baptists bring to the table.
A rejection of a Biblically-based view of creation is one of many areas in which the SBC seminaries have thought themselves wise even as they became fools.
In the not too distant past, Southwestern was a conservative seminary, but even then it did less to ground its graduates in a solid foundation of Bible-based doctrine than it did to “educate” them in “church administration” and the latest, greatest “growth strategies”.
As an example of how far from Scripture the current leadership has strayed, consider how they treated Professor Robert Oscar Lopez for his ministry leading homosexuals to repentance. Many SBC churches are now all-in on the “acceptance/diversity/equity/inclusive” agenda which has been reinforced/indoctrinated in the SBC seminaries.
The SBC have lost their way and forgot their main mission, spreading he gospel and standing for Christ’s teachings even when they slam into liberal ideology. The Bible says the word is like a two edge sword and it’s going to cut at times and hurt the saved and unsaved.
Our small SBC church is on the verge of ditching the SBC because of it’s insane tack left into the same oblivion all the other denominations have taken and destroyed themselves, but they are woke, tepidly accepted by a few on the left and dying slowly from the fact that they drove the Spirit out of their churches and can write Ichabod over their doors.
Our pastor was asked to do a revival at one of these churches and brought the gospel and being saved to the forefront of his message the first night. He was met by several deacons and church members who told him they didn’t need that type message that all were saved and members of the church. The pastor said that’s fine and proceeded to walk to the door and wipe his feet before going out and one asked what are you doing? He said shaking the dust from my feet and this place, bye.
Even the literature from Lifeway is lacking. Silly and unmeaningful activities for the kids, too. For Babies through 6th Grade. . .we are ordering the teacher’s books and the packet with the visuals and that is it. One can find excellent worksheets on line or make up your own. What a disappointment. The cd’s/dvd’s aren’t any better either. They may be going the way of hiriing relatives which has been the demise of many organizations.
The current state of the SBC is a tragedy, especially so for missions. The Cooperative Program has long been a ministry that drew/kept many within the SBC and it is suffering for the misdeeds of SBC leadership.
Though I know The Lord will open other doors to share the Gospel unto the uttermost parts of the earth, those who undermined this missions ministry will surely have to give account. They may not care this side of Heaven, but they will surely care when they depart the temporal for the eternal.
Dwight Moody would roll over in his grave to see what Sunday School literature has become.
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