Calvinist Flyswatter

New Ascol "Piggy-Back"?

HAS TOM ASCOL FOUND
A NEW "PIGGY-BACK"?

If you will read Tom Ascol's latest blog, you may understand why I ask the above question. Among other comments, Ascol says, "As a reformed, Southern Baptist pastor, my feet are firmly planted in the GCR camp. "

I don't know how President Danny Akin and his associates at Southeastern Baptist Seminary will react to this, but it made me think -- "With friends like Ascol and his assistant Timmy Brister, and the other Flounders' baggage which Ascol drags along, who needs enemies?"

Akin and friends at SEBTS have been writing about something they have dubbed, the "Great Commission Resurgence," which to my knowledge is, at this time, more of an Internet commodity than anything else. Ostensibly, the GCR hopes for a "resurgence" of interest in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Ascol's Flounders organization has always been committed in its stated "purpose" to "reforming" Baptist churches and re-shaping them into something on the order of Reformed Presbyterianism, sans the baptism of babies. I have not seen where Ascol has repudiated that as the "purpose" of the existence of what they call "Founders Ministries."

It seems to me that all Ascol is endeavoring to do is get the Flounders a new "piggy-back" ride on a more significant constituency than Ascol has been able to otherwise garner or generate. The reported less-than-a-hundred registered attendants at the Flounders 2008 National Conference did not indicate that very many are infatuated with the "reformation" being promoted by the Flounders. Also, the "Bridge to Nowhere" Conference promoted by the Flounders apparently did not succeed in accomplishing what Ascol hopefully envisioned. It appears that Ascol & Co. are starving for some attention.

So now, Ascol is courting the group at SEBTS which is engaged in writing about a "Great Commission Resurgence." If the GCR program has anything more to show than writing and "conference" messages, I have not detected that the "resurgence" has yet materialized in notable evangelistic efforts, converts, and baptisms.

While Ascol has evidently selected the "Baptist Identity" people as his new "whipping boy" and "scapegoat" for all things contrary to the interests of what Ascol calls "Christ-followers," we can't disregard the fact that the Flounders were launched by Ernest Reisinger who once wrote to Pedobaptist Iain Murray, saying, "We all seem to lean to the Presbyterian idea of elders and deacons . . . We are a congregation of Baptists that is almost Presbyterian" (Ernest Reisinger, A Biography, pages 104, 105).

It is perfectly understandable why Ascol & Co. are inclined toward elements of Presbyterianism, since this is a part of the Flounders' "tradition" [ecclesiastical DNA?] which was instilled in the movement by its Flounder, Ernest Reisinger. "Fruit doesn't fall far from the tree."

As we have often stated, the Flounders are a parasitical movement. They don't win souls, but "suck-in" their "Founders Friendlies" from other sources, primarily people who were saved under "Arminian" ministries and have become infatuated with Pedobaptist Reformed Hybrid Calvinism.

Evidently, Ascol sees in the GCR a new association from which the Flounders may "suck-in" some followers in the development of this sect saturated by Reformed Hybrid Calvinism.

posted by Bob L. Ross @ 12:15 PM