Now, About Those Differences, Part Twenty Four
The entire “Now About Those Differences” series is available here.
Fellowship and the Evangelical Spectrum
Finally we come to the hard part. I have been writing about fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals. In the process, I have tried to articulate briefly a vision of Christian fellowship and separation. This vision involves a boundary (the gospel), outside of which no Christian fellowship is possible. It also involves a center, the whole counsel of God. Increasing levels of fellowship necessarily index to this center.
In my thinking, separation is simply the absence of fellowship. Outside of the boundary, separation is absolute. No Christian recognition should ever be given. Inside the boundary, separation is decided by the extent to which we Christians mutually hold the faith (the whole counsel of God) in its integrity.
Even among fundamentalists, certain separations are unavoidable. These separations are forced upon us when we cannot jointly hold the whole counsel of God in its integrity. In that sense, each separation includes some element of censure. Nevertheless, separation at one level does not necessarily require separation at every other level. Nor do these separations necessarily require that we adopt a contemptuous attitude toward one another. To the contrary, separations can and usually should be carried out with grace and charity.
At the risk of publicly embarrassing a friend, let me cite an example. Some years ago, God in His grace allowed me to make the acquaintance of Dr. Michael Barrett, president of Geneva Reformed Seminary. Dr. Barrett is a committed Presbyterian, while I am a Baptist by conviction. He is a covenant theologian (though a premillennialist), while I am a dispensationalist (though hardly of the Hal Lindsey variety).
It should go without saying that Dr. Barrett and I find our fellowship limited in a number of areas. Both our ecclesiology and our eschatology differ at important points. He is not going to ask me to lecture on baptism and I am not going to ask him to make speeches about pretribulationism.
More importantly, we cannot be pastors in the same church. Dr. Barrett probably could not in good conscience pastor a church that strictly forbade infant baptism. I could not pastor a church that allowed it. Consequently, Dr. Barrett and I are not likely to plant any churches together.
In other words, we separate from one another. We separate in every area that requires a commitment to those areas of eschatology or ecclesiology over which we differ. We cannot cooperate in any way that would require either of us to surrender his obedience (as he understands it) to Christ.
Do not make the mistake, however, of thinking that Dr. Barrett and I see one another as enemies or even opponents. Far from it. When it comes to an understanding of the beauty of holiness, of the majesty of God and the mercy of the Savior, of the importance of gracious affections and the role of sober worship, I find that I have far more in common with Dr. Barrett than I do with most Baptists or dispensationalists.
For the sake of those things, I have a deep respect and love for Dr. Barrett, and I am convinced that he reciprocates. Each of us shares concerns with the other that we share with few other people. We pray for one another. Both of us yearn for God’s best blessings in the ministry of the other. Most germanely, we are committed to fellowshipping and collaborating wherever it is legitimately possible.
To put it baldly, I grieve to be separated from Mike at any level. I see our separation as an evil, and I yearn for the day when our fellowship will be utterly unhindered. If there were a legitimate way of overcoming that separation now, I would pursue it.
Our separation is an evil (an evil circumstance, not an evil act), but it is a necessary evil in view of the alternatives. One alternative would be for one of us to abandon his commitment to obeying Christ. The other alternative would be for us to pretend hypocritically that we are not divided in those areas where divisions really exist. I would sin against Dr. Barrett by asking him to do either of these things.
Until one of us can convince the other of the error of his ways (not a likely prospect at this point in our lives), Dr. Barrett and I will continue to separate from one another where we must. We will also fellowship and work together where we can. We will do both to the glory of God, precisely because we care about one another.
This ought to be our attitude toward all fundamentalists with whom we differ. Indeed, it ought to be our attitude toward all other Christians who stand in some degree of error. We ought to separate where we must, fellowship where we can, and love one another withal.
In my opinion, the now-old new evangelicals were guilty of a very serious error. It was as serious as a Christian can commit. I also believe that hyper-fundamentalists are guilty of errors that are (nearly?) as serious. Very few levels exist at which I can overtly cooperate with exemplars of either group. Fellowship in both instances is severely truncated. Nevertheless, I find leaders in each group who challenge me spiritually and whose examples (at least in limited areas) I wish to emulate. Furthermore, where they are obedient to the Lord and genuinely trying to serve Him, I want them to succeed.
Other fundamentalists do not necessarily draw the lines where I do. On one hand, some are more willing than I am to cooperate on the neoevangelical side. For example, Carl F. H. Henry (one of the original neoevangelicals) would sometimes attend chapel at Maranatha Baptist Bible College, where he would be asked to lead students and faculty in prayer. On the other hand, some are more willing than I am to cooperate on the hyper-fundamentalist side. Bob Jones University, for instance, has featured Clarence Sexton (a King James Only advocate) on its platform.
So what? My conscience, my attempt to apply biblical principles, does not govern the ministries of others. I am perfectly willing to concede that they may have the best reasons for making the decisions that they have made. Our ability to apply the principles of Scripture is often influenced by the circumstances in which we find ourselves and by the perceptions that control us. We need to allow each other a measure of latitude to apply those principles differently.
Limits still exist, of course. Even if we recognize that we are making judgment calls, we know that some judgments are better than others. A consistent pattern of poor judgments may lead us to rethink our relationship with a leader or an institution. We may even be constrained to offer a rebuke or a warning. Even then, however, we need to discipline ourselves to act with grace and charity, lest our separations become an endless round of one-upmanship and self promotion.
So what about my own actual choices? Two are worth mentioning.
The first occurred several years ago when I was invited to preach for the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship, International. After I had accepted, I learned that I was to share the platform with Clarence Sexton. Some fundamentalists encouraged me to withdraw my name from the conference (i.e., to separate from the FBFI because of its affiliation with Pastor Sexton).
On my view, sharing a platform constitutes a relatively low level of mutuality and commitment, ceteris paribus. I believe that one’s presence on a platform entails little if any endorsement of the other speakers or of their positions. Reasonable people of all sorts are able to understand the differences between individuals who happen to be speaking at the same event. In my estimation, so-called “platform fellowship” is only a notch above personal fellowship in terms of its requirements.
Other fundamentalists weigh platform fellowship more seriously. This is probably not the place for a full discussion of that subject, though I believe that the interaction would be very useful. Whatever our conclusions, we do need to bear one factor in mind: we must apply our principles consistently. Those who believe that platform fellowship does constitute a significant endorsement are responsible to separate from friends as well as from opponents, from those on their Right as well as those to their Left. The greatest argument against the fundamentalists’ insistence upon highlighting platform fellowship is the inconsistency of the very fundamentalists who are most likely to make that argument.
At any rate, I did not believe that I should withdraw from the FBFI platform over the presence of Pastor Sexton. My presence there was no endorsement of his views in the King James debate, nor was his presence any endorsement of mine. In other words, I was not prepared to separate from the FBFI over the invitation of Clarence Sexton (who, I must add, I appreciate at several levels).
More recently, I have applied the same principle in a different direction. I was asked to speak this coming February at a conference being hosted by Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary. This is a conference at which I have spoken many times in the past. This time, I was told that Dr. Mark Dever would be on the platform. In many ways I am a great admirer of Pastor Dever, but the differences between us are quite real. We differ markedly over dispensationalism, over limited atonement, and over the value of the Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor Dever is a committed Southern Baptist, while I question the value of affiliating with a convention that will not respect at least the fundamentals as a test of fellowship (I am speaking here of convention membership and participation, not of institutional employment).
These differences limit the possibility of cooperation with Pastor Dever at more than one level. Nevertheless, appearing on the same platform does not (as I see it) constitute an endorsement of his views in those areas over which we differ. If it did, Mark would be as eager to avoid endorsing my views as I am to avoid endorsing his!
The issues over which I differ with Dever are less serious than the issues over which I differ with Sexton. In both cases, however, my thinking is essentially the same. We cannot cooperate in areas where we really have no fellowship. Our actual fellowship is limited wherever we do not hold the whole counsel of God together. Where we do, the fellowship is real and cooperation ought to be possible. Platform presence generally constitutes a very low level of cooperation and requires minimal agreement in the faith. I was not willing to separate from the FBFI over Clarence Sexton, and I am even less willing to separate from Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary over Mark Dever.
As I write these words, I do so with full awareness that either Calvary Seminary or the FBFI may see things differently. One or the other (or both!) might very well choose to separate from me. That, too, is part of the judgment that they must make, and I must grant them liberty to make it. I am not the one to whom they will answer.
For my part, the dictum is pretty simple. Let us separate where we must. Let us fellowship where we can. Let us love one another withal.
Advent, 2
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
Earth grown old, yet still so green,
Deep beneath her crust of cold
Nurses fire unfelt, unseen:
Earth grown old.
We who live are quickly told:
Millions more lie hid between
Inner swathings of her fold.
When will fire break up her screen?
When will life burst thro’ her mould?
Earth, earth, earth, thy cold is keen,
Earth grown old.
Kevin T. Bauder Bio
This essay is by Dr. Kevin T. Bauder, who serves as Research Professor of Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary (Plymouth, MN). Not every professor, student, or alumnus of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.
- 77 views
First, a response to JG. I believe that the same principles ought to guide our decisions about fellowship and its obverse, separation, under all circumstances. These principles are:
1) Fellowship is gospel-bounded. No Christian fellowship of any sort exists where the gospel is not held in common.
2) Fellowship is whole-counsel-of-God centered. To the extent that we hold the whole counsel of God together in its integrity, the actuality of our objective or real fellowship is increased. To the extent that we do not hold it together in its integrity, the actuality of our objective or real fellowship is decreased.
3) Experiential fellowship may be limited by any number of factors, one of which is the extent or degree of our actual fellowship. It is hypocritical to engaged in joint effort when it assumes a level of commonality that we do not share.
4) When we weigh decisions about subjective or experiential fellowship, our goal should be to fellowship where we can, separate where we must, and love withal.
These principles are identical in every instance. It is there application that may vary from one circumstance to another. I apply these principles to Dr. Barrett, to pastor Dever, and to pastor Sexton. What I find is that I do actually hold some things in common with Dever and Sexton that I do not hold in common with Barrett (ordinances and church order). I hold some things in common with Sexton and Barrett that I do not hold in common with Dever (millennialism). I hold some things in common with Barrett and Dever that I do not hold with Sexton (acknowledgment of non-KJV version as the Word of God).
These things do not weigh the same theologically. Mutatis mutandis, Baptism rightly administered is more important and more urgent than millennialism, and so (I think) is church order. I think that respect for the Word of God is more important than either. Again mutatis mutandis, (considering these three issues only), I could be a member at Capitol Hill. I could not become a Free Presbyterian or seek membership at Temple Baptist. I could preach for Dever (but not on eschatology) or Barrett (but not on church order, the ordinances, or eschatology). I could not preach for Sexton.
If we introduce the issue of separatism, I find that I have much more in common with Barrett than I do with either Dever or Sexton. Dever maintains connections to his Left with which I am quite uncomfortable. Sexton does the same with people to his Right. In principle, Barrett seeks to balance his separatism in much the same way that I do (though I do not mean to make him liable for my applications by saying that). As a separatist, I am much more comfortable with Barrett than with either of the other two.
The most egregious error is the one that Sexton advocates. The New American Standard Version is the Word of God. The New International Version is the Word of God. The English Standard Version is the Word of God. For someone to insist that they are not is to show contempt for the Word of God. I believe that this is grave error, every bit as serious as anything that Billy Graham has done.
Now, please notice that I apply the same principles in each case, but the outcome is different. The different outcomes occur because (a) the situations are different, and (b) I don’t think that either fellowship or separation is necessarily all-or-nothing.
Several years ago I was invited by Dr. Barrett to preach for a commencement at Geneva Reformed Seminary. I was happy to do that, and would do it again if asked. In the case of Crown College, however, Dr. Sexton is not likely to extend an invitation, and if he does I am not likely to accept it. It would be easier to justify preaching at Capitol Hill (where I am not likely to be invited) than it would be to justify preaching at Temple or Crown.
I weigh involvement with KJO in almost exactly the same way that I weigh involvement with neoevangelicals (and by that use of the term, I mean real ones, not people like Carson or Piper). Again, however, fellowship is not necessarily all-or-nothing. Because neoevangelicals are (or were) inside the gospel boundary, some level of fellowship is possible.
In fact, I will go a step further. Not only is some fellowship possible with neoevangelicals, but I have actually engaged in it. So have many other Fundamentalists, even very conservative, separatistic ones. But that’s another story. Probably I should cite a specific instance in one of these posts.
Are you beginning to see how, in my thinking, the same principles produce different results under different circumstances?
To be clear, I am not claiming that either my principles or my applications are above being challenged. What I am trying to do is to give you a glimpse inside my mind. You can’t really argue with either my principles or my applications if you don’t understand what I’m thinking. (Well, you could, but then you’d become another caricature of Fundamentalism—a regular Cartooniac).
My method in all three cases is the same: fellowship where I can, separate where I must, love withal. This method, however, does not ineluctably produce identical results.
More later.
I have recently been enjoying fellowship with an OPC minister … (1) sitting under him in a Greek class, and (2) last Sunday evening, relishing his church family’s presentation of 9 Christmas lessons through Scripture reading and serious sacred music. My heart was stirred in affections toward the Savior.
I could not become a member there; but I think I have more in common with this dear brother than the independent Baptist church across town. But I love some of the brothers and sisters, too, at that Baptist church where I grew up as a child.
“Fellowship where I can, separate where I must, love withal” - I understand this statement.
thanks again,
et
[Kevin T. Bauder] First, a response to JG. I believe that the same principles ought to guide our decisions about fellowship and its obverse, separation, under all circumstances.Thank you, Dr. Bauder. I believe your response is sound and Biblical. The difficulty is always in proper and consistent application, but the principles do not change. I appreciate the time you have taken to answer.
Your previous article left me with a distinctly different impression. If you do as someone suggested and put these articles into book form, I would urge you to give that chapter some serious consideration — at best, it confused some of your readers as to your intent.
I came out of conservative evangelicalism. I know what it is, and I could never go back. There are very serious problems in conservative evangelicalism — their “camp” is (amazingly) a bigger mess than the fundamentalist “camp”. But “mark and avoid” is not a Biblical response to conservative evangelicalism. Many of these men are godly men who love the Lord and it is manifest in their lives and ministries.
We differ somewhat on neoevangelicalism, because I am persuaded that the nature of their error makes almost absolute ecclesiastical separation necessary (it would distract from this thread to elaborate, but if you write an article on neoevangelicals I will try to comment). As to conservative evangelicals, we are in broad agreement on principle, if not on application. I appreciate your efforts to grapple with the question of how and where we should draw the lines in our ministry relationships with these men. It is something I have had to consider extensively since becoming a fundamentalist, and the answers are not always as simple as some make them out to be.
1) Separation seems to imply prior unity, or at least the duty to be unified. When a man and his wife stop living together, we say they are separated. We don’t say that about two strangers.
2) Baptist polity, which features the independence and autonomy of the local church, does not seem to establish a duty to be unified. All things necessary to the government and function of the church are supposed to reside at the local level. So, the local church does not need any external ties to be a church.
3) Does the local church have any duty to cooperate with other churches in its endeavors? Must it combine resources with other churches for church planting? Must it join with other churches to support a college? May it do those things? There does not seem to be clarity in Baptist theology about the requirements and permissions of unity.
4) If local churches have significant duties to cooperate with one another in gospel endeavors, that pushes us toward connectionalism. Apparently, the local church does need other churches to carry out its business. On the other hand, if there are no significant duties, only permission, then the choice not to use that permission is not so grievous. No one is violating a duty by refusing to cooperate. It’s just an option not exercised.
Ted, if you want to talk more about Presbyterian separation, I’d suggest opening a new thread.
My Blog: http://dearreaderblog.com
Cor meum tibi offero Domine prompte et sincere. ~ John Calvin
[Charlie] I echo Roland and Bob here. I don’t think defining separation as “absence of fellowship” makes any sense. If a church in Oklahoma doesn’t know that a church in Wyoming exists, then there isn’t any fellowship going on between them. Yet, it would be absurd to say, merely on that basis, that they are practicing separation. If that were so, then all Christians are practicing much more separation than any of us have supposed!I’m inclined to agree but would take it even further. There’s pretty much always been a punitive (or at least censorious) aspect to separation, seems to me. It can be pretty mild, but it is supposed to be a way of saying “I/we believe your faith and/or practice are wrong in area A to the extent that we can’t work together as we otherwise would.”
Rather, it makes much more sense to say that separation is the refusal to fellowship, either totally or in limited respects. It’s not until Barrett asks Bauder to plant a church with him that Bauder has to say, “Sorry, I can’t do that.” It’s that decision, or the pre-commitment to make that decision should the situation ever arise, that makes separation.
Intentional non-fellowship is an even broader category (would include the above, but more). There are ministries our church would not do certain things with simply because we have a strong difference of opinion that impacts how we would do those things. But we intend nothing punitive at all by our non-fellowship. It’s intentional but not a claim to rightness in contrast to wrongness.
[Charlie] 2) Baptist polity, which features the independence and autonomy of the local church, does not seem to establish a duty to be unified. All things necessary to the government and function of the church are supposed to reside at the local level. So, the local church does not need any external ties to be a church.I think these are really good questions. Perhaps someone involved in the Preserving the Truth event coming up will take note of them? I intend to be there so maybe there will be an opportunity to put these out there and chew on them a bit.
3) Does the local church have any duty to cooperate with other churches in its endeavors? Must it combine resources with other churches for church planting? Must it join with other churches to support a college? May it do those things? There does not seem to be clarity in Baptist theology about the requirements and permissions of unity.
4) If local churches have significant duties to cooperate with one another in gospel endeavors, that pushes us toward connectionalism. Apparently, the local church does need other churches to carry out its business. On the other hand, if there are no significant duties, only permission, then the choice not to use that permission is not so grievous. No one is violating a duty by refusing to cooperate. It’s just an option not exercised.
Off hand, I have to say that in my own experience as a Baptist, we have not felt much of an obligation to do stuff jointly with other churches. But many Baptists I know do feel that obligation very strongly. It’s just that the extent, form, frequency etc. of the fellowship/joint endeavor is not formalized. In a denominational situation, or a presbyterian polity, you have some “outside the local level” relationships that are quite formalized—all spelled out. There is the main difference. With independent Baptists, the degree and form of connection with other churches is a matter of liberty—each participating church charts its own course.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
[DavidO] If Bauder sees Dever as less problematic than Sexton, I imagine Graham would have his own, more severe, level of problematicism (heh).Ladies and Gents, the SI Godwin Award goes to DavidO and that may be the fastest manifestation of Godwin’s Law I’ve ever seen in a serious discussion. By the commonly-accepted rules of internet argumentation, DavidO has officially lost the debate.
His point is separation by gradiation, dependant on level of error. You can’t throw in a Hitler figure (Graham) and ask why he’d treat him like Dever or Sexton. He wouldn’t/we shouldn’t.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law] [img=224x224] /sites/default/files/images/10_02/godwin.jpg
We now return to your regularly-scheduled scholarly debate.
Why is it that my voice always seems to be loudest when I am saying the dumbest things?
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
[Jay C.] The purpose of separation is correction for the erring brother.No, Jay, that is not true. The purpose of separation is to protect the flock. Acts 20. The purpose of discipline is for correcting an erring brother in the local assembly. Mt 18 and 1 Cor 5.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
[mounty] Ladies and Gents, the SI Godwin Award goes to DavidO and that may be the fastest manifestation of Godwin’s Law I’ve ever seen in a serious discussion. By the commonly-accepted rules of internet argumentation, DavidO has officially lost the debate.Actually, though, I was the one that brought up Graham, which in fundamentalist argumentation might be the same kind of argument. In which case David would be right and I would have lost.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Nuances, people. :bigsmile:
[Don Johnson][mounty] Ladies and Gents, the SI Godwin Award goes to DavidO and that may be the fastest manifestation of Godwin’s Law I’ve ever seen in a serious discussion. By the commonly-accepted rules of internet argumentation, DavidO has officially lost the debate.Actually, though, I was the one that brought up Graham, which in fundamentalist argumentation might be the same kind of argument. In which case David would be right and I would have lost.
[DavidO] Obviously I’d agree with Don on who actually pulled the (so-called) Godwin, and the supposed loss of debate is only a corollary to the actual law.The ruling on the field was a personal foul. That foul is under review.
Nuances, people. :bigsmile:
The way I see it, when discussion issues of separation, referencing Billy Graham is to be expected since the modern model of separation is based squarely upon the separation reaction when Graham did his thing. So in the context of this discussion, I wouldn’t consider bringing up Graham to be an A-bomb-caliber event, any more than comparisons to Hitler would be shocking in a thread about mass murderers. So if we were talking about, say, our favorite sports teams, and I dropped the H-bomb after learning you were a Dallas Cowboys fan (or compared Jerry Jones to Hitler), I would automatically lose the argument; likewise if we were discussing our favorite brand of communion cracker (?) and I dropped the G-bomb after finding out you used kosher matzo wafers instead of Keeblers, I think you could rightfully claim Godwin’s Law on me and shut me down. In this case, though, I think the initial introduction of Graham to the discussion was bound to happen and acceptable in the context. Casting Graham as the Hitler of the theological realm, though, is what drew the penalty.
After further review, the ruling on the field stands. The foul carries 15-yard penalty and results in an automatic first down. Play on! :D
Hopefully I can avoid a fine from the commissioner.
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