Death of Herbert Reynolds
Brother Bob Ross posted this today. I am glad to be able to share it with
Flyswatter readers.
Charles
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REYNOLDS' DEATH
Bob to Charles:
Baptist Press reported yesterday the recent passing of former Baylor President,
Herbert Reynolds http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=25747
Reynolds was one of the "architects" of the anti-inerrancy-of-Scripture camp of "moderate-mainstream" DOWNSTREAM Baptists here in the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
He was also the primary constructor of the "
Baptist Convention of the Americas," incorporated in 1998 by
Reynolds, John Baugh, Paul Powell, and Winfred Moore, an organization which Reynolds hoped would consolidate the "downstreamers" to compete against the Southern Baptist Convention, but has never really gotten off the ground. To my knowledge, it has never "gone public" seeking affiliatiating churches.
Baugh, the Houston mult-millionaire, was Reynolds
financial "crutch" for his anti-inerrancy projects. Now both Baugh and Reynolds have passed away in recent months. Also
Paul Powell is resigning at the Truett Seminary, which Reynolds and Baugh helped to found on the Baylor campus to compete against Southwestern Seminary of Fort Worth.
Wonder who the replacements will be as trustees for the new convention which has yet to have any affiliating churches? To my knowledge, the four incorporators were the only "members" of the new convention!
In addition to the foregoing,
Charles Wade, another influential leader in the anti-inerrancy camp in the Baptist General Convention of Texas, is resigning his post as the headman at BGCT headquarters. This comes after the financial scandal in the Valley where pseudo churches were "planted" by religious con-men as a means of siphoning big bucks from the BGCT.
These recent developments which involve Reynolds, Baugh, Powell, and Wade leave gapping holes at the elitist level of the anti-inerrancy camp. It will be interesting to see if others will step-up and seek to take over where these have left off. It will be hard to replace the "money bags" of Baugh and the venom of Reynolds against inerrancy. See this website for information on the leaders of the anti-inerrancy camp in Texas:
http://members.aol.com/baptistsoftexas/ourstand.htm
iMonk Returns to the SBC
Brother Bob Ross posted this as a comment on May 23rd, and in case you missed it, I'm posting it in its own thread.
You can find out more about iMonk Michael Spencer in Brother Bob's
Monkey Business thread.
Personally, I have had a special affection for the iMonk ever since he called my report on the evangelism failures of James White and Tom Ascol "
the lowest thing I have read in the Christian blogosphere." I guess the subject of failure in evangelism hit a little too close to home for the iMonk.
Charles
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ADVENTURES OF "iMONK"Bob to Charles:Have you noticed, Charles, that the "iMonk" has a new gig? He says he is "
going back to an SBC church." Link: http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/on-going-back-to-an-sbc-church
Who says "we can't have revival now"!I suppose iMonk must have run-out of verbal viperity for Joel Osteen, public invitations, and other objects of his "shock-blog" act.
Anyway . . . don't you think iMonk and Jimmy Carter might be cut from the same cloth? They both slam-and-slash at Southern Baptists, but when they want to be pampered, to whom do they apply for cuddling? Of course, back to "Mother" -- the Southern Baptists!
Jimmy Carter's "Celebration"
Recently, Brother Bob Ross sent to his email list this opinion piece about former President Jimmy Carter's plans for a "Baptist Celebration." I am posting it for the benefit of
Flyswatter readers.
I find it interesting that Pastor Wade Burleson seems to be lining up with Carter. Does Burleson not know about Jimmy Carter's support of the moderate/liberal factions? Or does he just not care?
Charles
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JIMMY CARTER'S "CELEBRATION OF A NEW BAPTIST COVENANT" TO BE HELD IN EARLY 2008 IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA [05/21--2007]
We always have observed former President Jimmy Carter apparently to be a sometimes "conniving" type of man. His "Christian character," if it may be called that, has more than once demonstrated itself to be made more of a cunning, pragmatic fabric than anything else.
For instance, we first became acquainted with Carter's bane years ago when he was elected Governor of Georgia. A pro-Carter book later said Carter admitted that he pulled so many "dirty tricks" in running for Governor in Georgia against Lester Maddox in 1970 that he "felt so bad" he was compelled to
"pray for forgiveness"! -- (
The Miracle of Jimmy Carter, by Norton and Slosser, Logos 1976, page 48).
"You know, I have temptations, to which I sometimes yield," he said (ibid., page 49).
"It was unquestionably a campaign of expedience. And it worked. Carter confessed it all later -- to friends and to the Lord" (ibid., page 48).
Lester Maddox, also a Baptist, called Carter
"the most dishonest man I have ever known" (ibid., page 48).
Jimmy Carter was the
first candidate for President who openly, deliberately, and effectively engaged in
"using" religion to help get himself elected. Even John Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, had not noticeably attempted to use his religion to get votes. Carter, however, must receive the credit for being the modern "Father" of the
religio-politico pragmatism which later became more associated in the 80s and 90s with the "Moral Majority," the "Christian Coalition," the Jesse Jackson-Al Sharpton types, and other "religious" personalities who sought to utilize religion to promote political candidates.
Also, Carter was the first candidate in my lifetime who made
overtures to the "gay community" for their support. He said, "I oppose all forms of discrimination on the basis of sexual preference and I want to assure you that all policies of the federal government would reflect this commitment" (
Houston Chronicle, 8/28/76, page 2, section 1).
Examples of Carter's pragmatically using his identity as a
"born again Christian" for political advantage was illustrated in his complicity in the publication of
The Miracle of Jimmy Carter by the Charismatic publishing house, Logos, in June 1976.
Another book,
Why Not the Best? was published by Broadman Press of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1975 when Broadman was under the control of "moderates" such as James L. Sullivan. Sullivan was head of the SBC's Sunday School Board and its Broadman Press which had previously published the heretical
"Genesis" book by heretic Ralph Elliott and the heretical
"Broadman Commentary." On the back cover of the Logos book, there is a photo of the Carter family, and he is described as
"Jimmy Carter--man of faith and politics." On the back cover of the Broadman book, Carter is described as a
"Christian American." Both of these books were published by the tens of thousands and
targeted the religious market, with the intent to
seduce Christians to vote for Carter out of consideration for his self-proclaimed religious dedication. The title of the Broadman book,
Why Not the Best, implied that Carter would be "best," and he had the Christian religion to prove it.
Carter embellished himself by publicizing his devotion to religion, saying,
"My religion is as natural to me as breathing" (ibid., page 1).
"For the first eight primary elections, faith in Jimmy Carter was the commodity he was selling to the voters," wrote Slosser and Norton (ibid., page 5).
Carter very craftily solicited and piously reveled in the support of those professing Christian people who later would become identified as
"the Religious Right" in the 1980s and thereafter. One religious leader of that time, head of a group allied with
Pat Robertson, said of Carter's candidacy,
"God has his hand upon Jimmy Carter to run for president. Of course, he's wise enough not to be presumptuous with the will of God. But
he's moving in the will of God" (ibid., page 9).
Carter manipulated the endorsement of the now-defunct
National Courier, "a Christian newspaper," edited by the same
Bob Slosser, the longtime associate of Pat Robertson. In fact, as I recall, this tabloid was apparently established as an instrument to promote Carter's candidacy for President. Slosser, who worked on Robertson's staff at CBN, said of Carter:
"Jimmy Carter was one of the best things to happen to American evangelical Christianity in this century" (ibid., page 10).
The Robertson staff member said "many people" felt that Carter
"might be moving under the direction of God himself" and his election
"could bring a spiritual revival to the United States and government" (ibid., page xii).
A full-page photo of Carter standing in front of the Plains, Georgia Baptist church building, holding an open Bible, appears in the center photo-section of the book. The "message" to American Christians was clear -- vote for a
Bible-believing Christian for President.
Carter's sister,
Ruth Stapleton Carter (now deceased), who was noted for her
"inner healing" philosophy, was credited by Carter as giving him "advice and counsel" (ibid., page 133). As I recall, his sister was popular with the Charismatics and the Pat Robertson contingent.
What America got, religiously, when it elected Jimmy Carter was an
admirer of Neo-orthodox theologians who spawned the
anti-inerrancy movement which had infected the Southern Baptist seminaries in the 1950's. It did not get a "revival." One of the offspring of the Neo infiltration is the current crop of elitists who run the Baptist General Convention of Texas and led in the anti-SBC, anti-inerrancy campaign in recent years.
Their use of Carter in promotion of their cause a few years ago was not at all a surprise.
At the height of the
anti-inerrancy campaign in Texas in 2000, just prior to the state convention in Corpus Christi, Carter connived with billionaire John Baugh's
"Texas Baptists Committed" group to promote the cause of the anti-errancy camp in Texas. According to the
Associated Baptist Press, Carter held a meeting with
David Currie, editor of the TBC newsletter, and gave his support to the anti-inerrantists by means of a mass-mailout to Texas Baptists.
>>
"I had never been involved in the political struggle for control of the SBC and have no desire to do so," Carter wrote in the letter, which was mailed to 75,000 Baptists nationwide by the moderate group
Texas Baptists Committed. . . . He decided to go public with his decision after meeting, at his initiation, with moderate Baptist leaders from Texas, Virginia and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. . . . his letter endorsed a taped message on the topic by
Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, which was included in the mass mailing. . . . Texas Baptists are locked in a dispute with SBC leaders over a proposed budget cut of $5.3 million to SBC seminaries and selected other entities. A vote on the proposal is scheduled at the BGCT's annual meeting Oct. 30-31 [2000] in Corpus Christi.
Carter initiated a meeting in Plains Sept. 28 with
David Currie, director of Texas Baptist Committed, and Becky Matheny, director of the moderate Georgia Baptist Heritage Council, during which he shared his convictions about the SBC.
"We said, 'It would be great for Baptists to know how you felt,'" Currie recalled.
"He said he was thinking about sending a letter to folks. That's where the idea of linking the [letter and tape] came together." Carter's letter and Wade's 45-minute tape were mailed beginning Oct. 18 to Texas Baptist Committed's national mailing list at a cost of more than $75,000, said Currie.
>>Associated BP
[http://www.abpnews.com/abpnews/story.cfm?newsId=2411]
In writing this letter for mailing by Charles Wade's BGCT anti-inerrantists, once again we saw a demonstration of Carter's cunning craft. He collaborated with the chicanerous heretic, David Currie, front man for "deep pockets" John Baugh (founder of SYSCO Foods, a multi-billion dollar company based in Houston), and the elitist "Baptists Committedites" such as Charles Wade of the Baptist General Convention of Texas who oppose the view that the Bible is the inerrant, verbally inspired Word of God.
As for Carter, due to his long
infatuation with Neo-orthodoxy which he attained from reading heterodoxists such as Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, Karl Barth and Soren Kirdegaard, made him easy prey for the clever, captious Currie and the anti-inerrantists.
All the while -- at the same time in 2000 when Carter, Currie, Wade and the anti-inerrancy camp was engaged in their campaign --
corruption was taking place in the southern part of Texas where large amounts of money were being deceptively drained from the BGCT's coffers by supposed "church planters." This tragic revelation came to light a few months ago, and Wade has recently announced he will resign as Executive Director of the BGCT. This resignation comes in the wake of mass criticisms over the misappropriation of millions in the Valley. Now Carter is seeking to "stick his nose" into Baptist affairs again by means of this
"New Baptist Covenant" meeting in 2008. Now he is feigning an interest in promoting a meeting of Baptists
"about the gospel," according to
Pastor Wade Burleson, one of the invited conservative Southern Baptists. You may read Burleson's rather embellishing article at this blogsite: >
http://kerussocharis.blogspot.com/2007/05/that-which-unites-us-is-gospel-of.html<
A more realistic comment about Carter and what he believes about the Gospel may be read elswhere. See
"Jimmy Carter Revises the Gospel . . . Again" on
Dr. R. Albert Mohler's blogsite at: >
http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=909<
Nettles To Remain At Southern - Ascol Strikes Out Again
Brother Bob Ross has some thoughts about Tom Ascol's failure to get Dr. Tom Nettles to join him in Florida.
Charles
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Ascol Strikes Out Again [05/08--2007]NETTLES REMAINS AT SOUTHERNDear Charles:
The Flounders' blog has announced that Tom Nettles will not leave Southern Seminary for an Associate's role at Tom Ascol's church in Florida. See http://www.founders.org/blog/
So Ascol has "struck out" again in his efforts to discern and act in accordance with what has been foreordained and predestinated.
He struck out at the SBC Convention in 2006 with his
resolution -- which he says he will present again at this year's meeting.
He struck out in 2006 with his much ballyhooed
Tom Ascol & James White versus the Caner Brothers debate, which of course never took place due to White's dissatisfaction and withdrawal.
Now Tom has struck out in his efforts to get Tom Nettles to move to Florida -- presumably to start some type of Flounders theology school or seminary.
We might makes a few "guesses" about what influences bore upon Nettles' mind to lead him to turn down Ascol's offer. But if, as we think, the establishment of a Flounders' theology school was one of the projects on Ascol's mind, Nettles may have realized that another Hybrid Calvinist theology school in Florida might have some difficulties. After all, the "Reformed" baby regenerationists are already entrenched there, and they appear to proselyte the Baptist Hybrids to a greater extent than the Baptist Hybrids convert the "Reformed."
If it was originally thought that this "happening" was perhaps indicative of a move by Southern Seminary leadership to rid the school of at least some of the Hybrid Calvinism element, it appears that such is not the case. With Nettles remaining at SBTS, a significant amount of Hybrid Calvinism will remain with him and continue to flow to the students.
And this makes the function of
The Calvinist Flyswatter as great a need as ever in calling attention to the distortions of Hybrid Calvinism.
