Polity Matters (Part XI): A Case Study in Membership Requirements

Today John Piper, senior pastor of Bethelehem Baptist Church, released a statement that the elders of the church are leading the church through a process that will culminate in a vote to modify the church's consititution and by-laws to allow:

the possibility that a person may become a member who has not been baptized by immersion as a believer but who regards the baptismal ritual he received in infancy not as regenerating, but nevertheless (as with most Presbyterians) in such a way that it would violate his conscience to be baptized as a believer.

The motivation for the amendment is that a vast majority of the elders believes that the requirements for membership at Bethlehem:

should move toward being roughly the same as the requirements for membership in the universal body of Christ. That is, we have come to the conclusion that it is seriously questionable to say to a person who gives good evidence of being a true Christian and who wants to join Bethlehem: you may not join.

What makes this amendment acceptable in the elders' view is that Bethlehem has recently adopted a more stringent statement of faith for the elders, which includes a specific affirmation of believers' immersion. I discussed a very similar statement made by John MacArthur in a previous post. MacArthur, however, was addressing signing a doctrinal statement, not the necessity of believers' immersion for church membership. One of the points I made then is that a polity that locates virtually all authority in the elders (as Grace Community Church models) permits greater doctrinal latitude for the membership. GCC's model is not what I believe the NT church models, but it does have that practical ramification.

There are two primary questions that I'm thinking about:
1) Does BBC's constitution require all constitutional amendments to originate with the elders? If not, this more permissive policy could potentially lead to an influx of members who would initiate an other amendment to eliminate the recently-strengthened statement of faith for the elders.

2) If it is a bad thing to set a higher standard for membership in a local church than God's standard for membership in a universal church, why would BBC want to set a higher standard for BBC's office of elder than God's standards in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1?

Qualifications for local church membership are not prescribed in Scripture. We have no hard and fast evidence that an official "church roll" even existed in the churches of the NT, although I do believe that a synthesis of several texts points toward some sort of accounting process. On the other hand, we can find no evidence in the NT of a believer who was not immersed. Believers' immersion is one of those doctrines that just seems pretty clear to me, but I understand that those who follow a traditional covenant hermeneutic are dissuaded by their rigid identification of the Church as the "new Israel." That's a long rabbit trail for another time.

For the best arguments available today on biblical NT church polity, just memorize everything at the 9 Marks web site. In all seriousness, some of the interviews in the audio section address this precise issue, and I suspect some of the articles do as well. I recommend them wholeheartedly.

You Might Be a Paleoevangelical If . . . (#7)

. . . you hear someone (who does not name names) talk about a recent guest on Larry King Live that conceded that Muslims may be accepted into heaven because of their sincerity, and you immediately speculate that it must have been Rick Warren, Billy Graham, or Deepak Chopra.

P.S. I don't think it really was any of these men.

Gospel-Centered Hurricane Relief

Dozens of organizations will provide hurricane relief in coming weeks and months, and I think that providing physical relief in this time of emergency is a demonstration of Christ-likeness. Meeting physical needs is surely one way to let the world know that we love them.

Still, we ought not forget that when Christ met physical needs, he also offered spiritual healing—living water, if you will. The food and healing was not always conditional on faith, but the offer of the gospel was clear. In coming days I hope to provide contact information for churches that are working to make their relief efforts gospel-centered amid the chaos. If you know of gospel-centered relief efforts in the Katrina-devastated area, please e-mail me at paleoevangelical [at] gmail [dot] com.

For Entertainment Purposes Only

When did BJU move to Arkansas?

Reflections on a Hurricane

I heard a news commentator say this week that you know it's going to be a bad day when you can stand on your front porch and watch Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel broadcasting a block away.

It is stunning to me to think that as catastrophic as Katrina appears it will be, the loss in human life will not begin to compare to the tsunami that struck Asia last December, and that tsunami will not begin to compare with the contents of the Book of Revelation. Still, I will be in prayer during the coming hours and weeks for the inhabitants of New Orleans and surrounding areas. I'll be praying specifically for these things:

1. That people in caught in this storm might recognize the awesome might and terrible power of our great God.
2. That He might demonstrate His grace by enabling believers in New Orleans to pour out the love of Christ on their neighbors.
3. That God might move in the hearts of believers nationwide to support New Orleans believers in their evangelistic and relief efforts.
4. That no preachers with a microphone might proclaim to know with certainty that the purpose of this hurricane is to pour a bowl of judgment on the filth of the French Quarter (Colossians 2:18b).
5. That God might demonstrate His grace by drawing people to Himself through this devastation.

Religious Discrimination and Christian Textbooks

Al Mohler posts an interesting blog entry about discrimination by the state of California against some familiar names in Christian textbook publishing.

"You Won't Meet a Liberal Dispensationalist"

So said Al Mohler on yesterday's "Ask Anything Wednesday" radio program. He was responding to a question about the difference between Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism. (I really am loving this podcasting thing, by the way. Perhaps I should post links for my daily routine sometime soon.)

Mohler considers himself a Covenant Theologian, but he admits that he doesn't fit well into either box. My analysis is that he likes the CT forest but many of the Dispy trees. He specifically noted some OT prophecies related to the land and Israel and, of course, baptism.

For those of you who have been taught to think of Dispensationalism as a pejorative term for backwoods, anti-intellectual, Scofield Bible-thumpers, this is a gross misconception.

Many Dispys do live in or near large cities.

In all seriousness, broad-brushing Dispensationalists with anti-intellectualism is about as fair as a stereotypical college mascot like the Fightin' Irish, but that's another post. Check out Alva McClain's Greatness of the Kingdom for a good example of Dispensational scholarship. It does not satisfy all my questions related to hermeneutics and biblical theology, but it offers a more consistent hermeneutic than the arbitrary spiritualization of texts that seems so common to CT.

Here's a related question that I ponder from time to time as I read. Is it possible to be a Traditional Dispensationalist, a Progressive Dispensationalist, and a New Covenant Theologian simultaneously (without the presence of internal inconsistency or substantial irrationality)? I may well be missing something, but as yet I have not found them to be mutually exclusive.

You Might Be a Paleoevangelical If . . . (#6)

. . . you ponder whether it is worse for religious leaders to say dumb things about the Bible or dumb things about assassinating foreign leaders.

I suspect that there is less reward and greater risk to the name of Christ when we abandon the text and spout our personal opinions.

On a related note, should shepherds be known for their original or creative thinking? Or should we be recognized for our ability to regurgitate God's truth? (Hmmm . . . Graphic ideas for book titles are running through my head all of a sudden.) I wonder if it is wise for people whose gifts are honed to teaching God's truth to venture into the realm of independent thinking and pontification. The fact that we may able to gain an audience and a bit of credibility does not imply the capacity to speak prudently when we depart from the authoritative text.

There's a Price for Freedom—a Price Some Are Willing to Pay

That statement is the last line from the trailer for The Great Raid. I watched the trailer today after listening to Al Mohler's radio show from yesterday in which he described the courage, sacrifice, and heroism of 120 U.S. Army Rangers sent to rescue 500 American soldiers in a WWII Japanese POW camp in the Philippines.

The Department of Veterans Affairs tells us that we bury 1,000 WWII veterans every day. That means that every two days more WWII vets die than have been killed since 2001 in Afghanistan and Iraq combined. Sixteen million men and women served in that war.

In the past 18 months I've attended the funerals of two of these WWII vets. One was my grandfather; the other was the gentleman who sat in the pew in front of me in church for the past three years I've lived in North Carolina. Mr. Walker passed away just two weeks ago, right around the 60th anniversary of Japan's surrender.

I realize this post isn't about a core Paleoevangelical principle, or perhaps gratitude ought to be. Multitudes gave their lives—more than 400,000. A few lived with the horrific memories of what duty demanded of them. The cable documentaries of the Hiroshima bomb drop offer a stark reminder of that fact.

The vets you and I know have been channels of God's grace that gave us life and freedom. We have little time left to express our gratitude to them. For that matter, there is no good reason for us to postpone showing our respect and gratitude to veterans of more recent conflicts.

Quotes Round 7

It will take a herculean effort to get this one. I'll settle for the historical context.

How dare you support men and institutions who deny your Lord? How dare you keep fellowship with the enemies of the cross of Christ?

Oh, listen to his call! Who is on the Lord's side? If He tarry a little while longer you will find that you must either follow this solemn call of God or go along with the apostasy.