{"id":1676,"date":"2010-05-12T05:46:04","date_gmt":"2010-05-12T13:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2010\/05\/12\/its-not-simple\/"},"modified":"2010-05-12T15:16:31","modified_gmt":"2010-05-12T23:16:31","slug":"its-not-simple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2010\/05\/12\/its-not-simple\/","title":{"rendered":"it’s not simple"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave points out<\/a> some of the difficulties we have in dealing with the doctrine of separation. I agree with him about the complexities we face. Separation decisions aren\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n

His \u2018case study\u2019 is the recent conference in Powell, TN, the International Baptist Friends Conference<\/em>. His view is that it is unacceptable to enter into ministry partnership with a church and pastor from Hammond, IN. In the main, I agree with this point.<\/p>\n

In discussing the topic, Dave says this:<\/p>\n

My guess is that plenty of people in the FBF are prepared to overlook it. It is clear that speaking for the Pastors School in Hammond doesn\u2019t get one excluded from Bible Conferences or have churches refuse to host your music seminars. And that reality raises the point that needs to be discussed and illustrates something that I\u2019ve been saying for at least a couple of years now\u2014what ripple ramifications should this have for my fellowship?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, that is a good question. What should our relationship be with those who don\u2019t see Hammond as such a problem as I do (or as Dave does)?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dave goes on to say:<\/p>\n

I doubt that many men in fundamentalist circles will stop having any of the good men who have spoken for or along side of Jack Schaap in to speak for them. They will ignore this or explain it away. They will say that these men have good reasons for what they are doing. They will minimize the theological and ministerial aberrations in Hammond.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To be clear, we are especially talking here about Vaughn, Binney, and Hamilton. A lot of fundamentalists will continue to have ministry partnership with these men, to one extent or other.<\/p>\n

It sounds like Dave is saying that he wouldn\u2019t have ministry fellowship with these men, given this statement:<\/p>\n

I have good friends who are thoroughly committed separatists who will still have these men speak in conferences or in their churches or will serve with them on boards. It doesn\u2019t make sense to me, but the bottom line is that it doesn\u2019t need to make sense to me since they don\u2019t answer to me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A logical step from this position is to say that, on the other hand, fellowship with certain conservative evangelicals is legitimate even though they may have some problematic associations themselves. But, the logic would say, we shouldn\u2019t condemn any brethren who do this, since many of our fundamentalist brethren are entangled with these other<\/em> problematic associations.<\/p>\n

To all that I say this:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Hammond connection is a huge problem. I understand the rationale of Dr. Vaughn for attending the IBF conference, but am not entirely comfortable with it.<\/li>\n
  2. I don\u2019t like the connections of Binney and Hamilton with Hammond. I still use their materials, but my connections with them likely end there.<\/li>\n
  3. One conference does not a pattern make. I am not comfortable with this choice, but it isn\u2019t yet the end of the world for me.<\/li>\n
  4. I am appreciative of the apparent movement of Sexton towards the BJU\/FBF orbit. I want to encourage it, but I wouldn\u2019t just enter into unreserved fellowship at this point. He does need to shed the Hammond baggage if he wants less reserved fellowship, in my opinion.<\/li>\n
  5. The support of men like Dever for the Acts 29 (Driscoll) movement is far more problematic for me<\/em> than Vaughn\u2019s participation in the IBF conference. The charismatic confusion MacArthur promotes by his associations is likewise far more problematic.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As I say in my subject line, \u2018it\u2019s not simple\u2019. The decisions of others make our relationships with them a matter of individual judgement. Since fundamentalism is largely an unorganized group of independents, it will always be thus. Some who wear the label won\u2019t fellowship (partner) with others who also wear the label, for various reasons. Those reasons (and partnerships) may change over time.<\/p>\n

    This complexity is frustrating, but it is unavoidable if we wish to attempt a consistent fundamentalist testimony.<\/p>\n

    \"don_sig2\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Dave points out some of the difficulties we have in dealing with the doctrine of separation. I agree with him about the complexities we face. Separation decisions aren\u2019t easy. His \u2018case study\u2019 is the recent conference in Powell, TN, the International Baptist Friends Conference. His view is that it is unacceptable to enter into ministry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[91,37,71,68,44],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2fYWj-r2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1677,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions\/1677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}