It’s the nature of Western Christianity to fracture, for sectarian divisions to proliferate. Every new theological fad that comes along generates new divisions and distinctions. Radix Fidem is on a different planet. We may tend to overlap now and then with one group or another, but we are genuine Christian Mystics, something that is wholly rejected by the Western Christian mainstream. The only time a mainstream agency may pretend to accommodate us would be for political reasons.
So it’s no surprise that there comes to our attention yet another dust-up within the biggest evangelical denomination in the US — Southern Baptists. Try to understand something: Genuine liberalism has no place among Southern Baptists. Christian liberalism essentially denies the existence of God in the first place, never mind the rhetoric. But among Southern Baptists, there are folks who are relatively liberal to varying degrees. They still believe in God, but dispute with others how He operates, and over what the Bible requires of us. Thus, they generate a different flavor of religion that still resembles the more conservative flavors, but simply isn’t the same thing.
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) itself was born of political controversy, and was regarded as inherently more conservative since it was formed. Within that broad belt of relative conservatism, you can find leaders all over the map, ranging from fundamentalist to fairly moderate. A few decades ago, a whole raft of moderates were forced to pull away under the label “Baptist Fellowship” while trying to remain in varying degrees part of the SBC itself. The SBC lacks the mechanism to purge dissidents; it’s entirely democratic and political, rather like a parliamentary entity with many parties.
Within the mainstream of the SBC, a recent trend has seen those formerly regarded as “conservatives” drift into a quasi-SJW camp. I am not sure what to call this thing, but it includes some leaders with outsized political sway, able to convince boards to vote their way. Try to picture a very powerful influence that remains somewhat fragile behind the scenes. They can push through certain decisions that would be difficult to reverse later, but at any moment the whole thing could fracture. This group includes folks like Al Mohler and Beth Moore (a defacto “female preacher”).
I noted a few months ago a spat they had with John MacArthur who is a full-blown Calvinist (pointing to yet another fractious controversy in the SBC) and traditionalist, when he rebuked Beth Moore over her preaching, against very clear Scripture that women should not teach men. MacArthur was actually rebuking everyone who supported this trend. He was also reacting to Beth Moore’s very public support of gay marriage.
Well, in their rush to defend Beth Moore, some of the ostensibly conservative leadership of the SBC have been forced to embrace the wild SJW nonsense that permeates Moore’s teaching. This is kind of an odd, semi-Charismatic revivalism that pulls in a bunch of feminist nonsense, but with the same kind of subtle rhetorical trickery we first saw historically with the Judaizers in the New Testament. The net result is a sort of weird Pentecostal Globalism. In the end, it really cannot avoid supporting the globalist agenda. It tries to sanctify it with a heavy fake Jesus-propaganda paint job, with all kinds of Scripture quotations twisted to give credence to their globalist ends.
Despite the vastly different packaging, it remains little different from Dominionism. It is still the belief that we could somehow save this damned world via “good” politics — theocracy and theonomy.
At any rate, Mohler used his influence to get some folks fired recently. This includes a quartet of seminary professors who refused to endorse Mohler’s promotion of Beth Moore and her wild teaching. They are manifestly more conservative than Mohler. I shed no tears for these rationalist professors who deny the mysticism in Scripture, but I’m just pointing out how purely political this whole thing is, because it’s part of a long series of skirmishes in a war that will destroy what the label “Southern Baptist” used to mean. It’s a war that started with the battle to hijack the SBC by the Zionists, shortly after WW2. The planning for that began much earlier, around the turn of the previous century, but the warfare broke out in earnest during the 1950s.
I’ve noted previously that Zionists and globalists began to diverge from each other in the past few decades, so we are seeing the fruit of that in Mohler’s moves. Not because he has necessarily taken sides in the feuding between globalists and Zionists; indeed, both he and Moore appear to be rather quiet about Israel, but loud about the globalist agenda. Still, that whole thing is becoming quite unstable. The instability is hitting the SBC, which has become a very political institution. I can recall when an SBC church would not even consider putting a US flag in the sanctuary. Now they drape it over the Cross.
And to be honest, I have no dog in any of their fights. However, I am still friends with SBC people, and I know it affects them. It’s part of my ministry to help them walk through the coming tribulation. No, I have no pretense of trying to attach them to my particular kind of religion as a replacement, but simply to help them find a clear path to wherever it is they think God wants them to go. In so doing, I know that I can help them examine their own hearts, and any move closer to a heart-led walk is far more important than trying to point them in a particular direction.
