Here I Stand - I Can Do No Other

"Here I stand - I can do no other.  God help me. Amen."

--Martin Luther, April 18, 1520.  Before Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms, at the castle in Worms, Germany

I do not write out of personal anger, hatred, or bitterness at the pain I have been through, or the lies I have been told and believed.  I am not even certain if I ever was angry or bitter.  Sad, yes.  Bitter? No.  I do have burning within me a righteous indignation at the pernicious rotgut propagated amongst certain churches.

Let me be frank with you.  My outrage is not with historic fundamentalism.  Historic fundamentalism was a multi-denominational movement which embraced a strong defense of the truth of God's Word.  It stood against those who would deny core Biblical truths.  Any church which believes the following without apology is a church which believes in the fundamentals of the faith:

1.  The deity and virgin birth of Jesus Christ
2.  The substitutionary blood atonement for sin on the cross by Jesus Christ
3.  The physical death, physical burial, and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day
4.  The physical and imminent return of Jesus Christ
5.  The inerrancy of the Word of God, the Bible

Anyone who holds to these is my brother and my sister.  Anyone who adds to these may find themselves looking into the eyes of an angry lion.  Not mine, but the eyes of the Lion of Judah.  Compared to Him, I am not worthy enough to be regarded as even a kitten.

No, my outrage is not with historic fundamentalism.  My outrage is with the modern corruption of the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) church.  Too often there is a confusion of terms.  I am guilty of it as well.  Though I know what I am talking about when I say fundamentalism or fundamentalist, as do many who say such things, what I (and they) really mean is the modern IFB church.  Granted, not every IFB church is corrupt.  I want to believe that a good many, even a majority nationwide, are good.  I want to believe it.  But I am seeing more and more areas of concern even among those churches which are not extreme.  I am seeing less and less of those churches which claim the IFB label as being worth anything.  And IFBs are not the only ones experiencing these problems.  Southern Baptists and other Baptists are also growing cold.  Maybe the Baptist church as a whole has this same problem.

A good litmus test is to see how much emphasis the IFB church places on their label.  Are they openly and proud to be IFB?  Do you get the impression they are Baptists first and Christians second?  Do they glory in their independence or loudly proclaim their fundamentalist stand?  Do they use the expression "KJV Bible" or "Authorized Version" or "AV" a lot with reference to it being the only Bible a person can trust?  If you can answer yes to any of these questions, the chances are they will be in the Independent Fundamental Baptist Extreme (IFBX) camp, and you should investigate further and with a lot of prayer and care, and possibly even avoid them altogether.  If you can answer yes to all of these, FLEE!!!!  This church will suck your soul dry and leave you a mere husk of what God is desiring to grant you.

"What do you mean?" you may be asking yourself.  I will attempt to explain what I mean.  It all boils down to where the church's emphasis is.  A church may claim to preach grace for salvation but place all sorts of external conditions on a believer to maintain a good standing with God.  It all boils down to adding to what the Bible says it means to be a Believer.  A good and proper church is not going to demand from you what the Bible doesn't demand from you.  A good and proper church is not going to judge your appearance but let time and the Holy Spirit do His work in you and change you.  A good and proper church is not going to turn you into a sermon illustration.  A good and proper church is not afraid to confront your sin in a loving way.

Here are some examples of some extreme teachings commonly found in IFBX churches.

First Example:

A Christian must meet an external code of conduct.  I have touched on some of these before, but I am going to go into detail on some of the more pernicious ones here.  These laws include the following, but are not limited to them.  I am presenting these as I have heard them taught, with a few of my comments thrown in:

1. A Christian does not go to movies.  Hollywood is of the Devil, and going to movies directly supports the ungodly Hollywood actors, producers, etc.  Going to a movie means you are a weak Christian at best and fake one at worst.  You compromise with the world and God will not bless you.  However, you can rent as many movies as you like from NetFlix or Blockbuster.  Of course, some of the more hardcore proponents of this would say not to even rent movies, but watch them when they come on TV in 6 months or so after their release.  The really hardcore ones wouldn't even have a TV, but these are few, but also the most consistent.  Just remember that not everyone who doesn't have a TV is IFBX. 
2. A Christian woman is not to wear slacks.  Slacks are immodest at best and evil at worst, and a woman in slacks has a morality issue at best and is no better than a street walker at worst.  Those who say slacks are immodest would permit women to wear them in the home, and some may even allow them for certain activities in which a skirt or dress would be REALLY inappropriate, but often would require a skirt to be worn over the slacks in public.  The really hardcore ones say no slacks ever and are not afraid to destroy a woman in public by calling her a whore or even referring to her as a Jezebel. 
3. A Christian must be in church when the doors are open.  Some allow one to miss church for sickness and family emergencies only, others for work as well.  When traveling you are expected to find a like-minded church to attend. To miss church the evening of Superbowl Sunday is utterly inexcusable and demonstrates where your heart truly lies - the world is more important to you than the things of God.  If a church should dare to reschedule the evening service on Superbowl Sunday to accommodate the game (and even host a party), then that church has compromised.
4. A Christian must be actively engaged in soul winning.  A good Christian leaves tracks where ever he goes.  A good Christian confronts sinners where ever he finds them.  Sounds good, but the fact remains that Christians who leave tracks at restaurants are notoriously bad tippers.  The message is completely lost because the waitress feels slighted.  As for confronting sinners, love is often optional.  It is OK to scream out that someone is going to Hell because he/she is doing something or IS something.  I've heard IFBXs scream out that homosexuals are going to Hell, people with tattoos are going Hell, people with body piercings (other than just single piercings in each ear for ladies) are going to Hell, that if you listen to certain bands you are going Hell.  My niece was told that she was going to Hell because she wore a Black Sabbath T-shirt.  I talked to a girl who was told that she was going to burn in Hell because her name, Lea, was not spelled the Bible way - Leah.  Another girl named Sara told me the same thing.  Also, yelling out Bible verses also constitutes soul winning.  Getting someone to repeat a prayer after bulldozing them with the gospel message constitutes soul winning, and the more souls won, regardless of whether or not they ever come to church or become discipled, increases one's standing in the church
5. A Christian never listens to Devil Music, by which is meant rock 'n roll.  Drums are OK as long its the Gaithers or Gospel music.  Country music can be OK, but this is a sore spot with many.  Some say no secular music at all, while others say no secular with a back beat.  But never rock 'n roll.  Never hard rock or metal.  A person can't be a good Christian and listen to that stuff, if he is even a Christian at all. There are no real reasons given that it's bad, just that it is.  Personally, I've encountered some Country that is a lot worse than some metal I've heard, and I've heard some music from the '40s with content far worse than even some of the raunchy stuff I've heard from Country.

DISCLAIMER:  Simply because someone has chosen to live by a higher personal standard in any area of his life does not mean that person is an extremist.  People do and believe things for various reasons.  Extremism comes into play when those higher standards are required of others.

Second Example:  Here I butcher the sacred cow.  A true Christian only uses the KJV.

In the IFBX churches, the KJV (or AV or Authorized Version or simply The 1611) itself is held up to such a lofty position that it is nearly worshiped.  There are those that teach that God worked a second work of grace when the KJV was translated in that the Holy Spirit moved in the translators to the extent that the KJV is THE new inspired Word of God, superior to the Greek and Hebrew, and if the Greek or Hebrew differ from the KJV, then the Greek and Hebrew need to be corrected to conform to the KJV.  Others teach that if a person is saved out of a Bible other than the KJV, he is not truly saved.  Others add to this and declare that not only is that person not saved, but that person can never be saved and that he is now a two-fold child of Hell.  All will claim that any version other than the KJV is inferior, many going so far as to declare that every translation other than the KJV is satanic. 

I have to answer this travesty.  First, most who use the KJV and declare that the 1611 was perfect (even in the printing process) do not realize that the "1611" they hold in their hands is a 1769 update which modernizes most of the spelling, nor that there were numerous errors in the 1611 committed by the printers, such as whether it be a "He" bible or a "She" bible, the omission of differing "not"s from the 10 Commandments (depending on the printer, and such errors generating colorful titles such as "The Adulterer's Bible" or "The Murderer's Bible").

Most of those who profess any of these positions have themselves never read the "Translators Preface to the Readers," which has been left out of almost all modern printings (ca. 1890 onward - I don't know when it stopped being included as standard practice, but I do know it hasn't been included for generations), which explains their translation philosophy and pays due acknowledgment to previous translations.  This preface alone disproves any notion that the translators were working under direct Holy Spirit inspiration.  Only the autographs - the original documents of the Old and New Testaments, now long since turned to dust, - were inspired.  The KJV is nothing more than a good translation, and as such it is subject to the same inferiority of any other translation: it will never be better or even equal to the original languages - it will always be subordinate.

As to the other charges, I will let them drown in the sound of their own drivel. 

DISCLAIMER:  Just because a person uses a KJV, or even believes it is a superior translation, does not make him an extremist.  Many godly men have studied the issues and believe that the KJV is the better translation.  The extremism comes into play when they cross that boundary and prescribe to a mere translation qualities which only rightly belong to the Autographs, or decry other translations as evil.

There.  I have thrown down the gauntlet.  I have severed my ties with independent fundamentalism.  I remove myself from the Baptist camp, and I embrace the Evangelicals.  I choose Grace over a false fellowship.

I know I have just hurt some good friends, and I pray they understand that I mean them no hurt.  I know you will not agree with everything I have written.  I have spoken my conscience, flawed as it may be.  This blog is not about doctrinal perfection.  It is about my journey into Grace from bondage.  As I started out with a quote from Martin Luther, so too do I close with the same quote:

"Here I stand - I can do no other.  God help me. Amen."