You can debate the merits of these questions, whether they are important to ask or not, whether they are the right questions to ask, whether we are too obsessed with separation and this is evidence of that, or what have you. Regardless, these are<\/em> the questions we are asking and the central theme around which most discussion on fundamentalist blogs have been obsessed for the last while, maybe since fundamentalists took up blogging at all.<\/p>\n All right then. We are wrangling about these questions. Up until the last six months or so this wrangling has mostly been talk. Now we are seeing some fairly important figures answering the questions practically by involving themselves in some kind of cooperative Christian endeavor with Conservative Evangelicals.<\/p>\n But here is where we have something I don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dave Doran posted today<\/a> at his blog a letter he sent to a fundamentalist pastor asking questions about his planned involvement at the upcoming Leadership Conference at Calvary Baptist Seminary in Lansdale, PA where Mark Dever is scheduled as the keynote speaker. The letter gives Dave\u2019s rationale for participating:<\/p>\n That said, let me offer my thinking about why I don\u2019t believe my speaking there needs to be justified. For context, I\u2019ve spoken at all of the annual conferences at Lansdale since they started way back when, so it was something of a given that I would speak at this one. In other words, the burden of proof was on the side of why would I not speak (vs. why would I speak). I\u2019ve posted something about my rationale for making speaking decisions on my blog, so you can read <\/strong>that<\/strong><\/a> for a longer explanation. The shortened version is simply the answer to these questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n (1) Do Mark Dever or CBTS extend Christian recognition and fellowship to those who deny the Faith?<\/strong><\/p>\n (2) Do Mark Dever and CBTS oppose the granting of Christian recognition and fellowship to those who deny the Faith?<\/strong><\/p>\n (3) Do Mark Dever and CBTS obscure the distinction between the church and the world by denying the transforming power of the gospel, by embracing worldly approaches for the church\u2019s growth and\/or worship, or by failing to articulate and practice genuine church membership and discipline?<\/strong><\/p>\n I suppose someone could disagree with me about these, but my answers to these questions are, respectively, no, yes, and no. Since I believe that Christian fellowship and recognition is limited to those who embrace the Faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3), that we cannot ignore or disregard God\u2019s commands about separation (Rom 16:17-18; 2 Ths 3:6-15), and that the distinction between the church and the world must be guarded (1 Cor 5; 1 John 2:15-17), these are the biblical justifications for and biblical boundaries of ministerial cooperation and fellowship.<\/strong><\/p>\n I am no fan of the Southern Baptist Convention, but I also will not categorically assign everyone in it to the non-separatist category. Just as there were committed separatists within the Northern Baptist Convention for decades fighting for its purity, and just as there were men who fought for a long time within both the Presbyterian and Methodist churches, there are men of separatist conviction who have been fighting to remove liberalism and compromise with it from the SBC. Mark Dever is one of those men.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Just a few days ago, however, Dave gave his reasons for REFUSING an invitation to speak at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, pastored by Mark Dever. Here is what he said:<\/p>\n \u201cMy answer\u2026 to go back to Kevin\u2019s \u2026 my answer was to Mark [Dever], No, I won\u2019t come and preach and the reason I won\u2019t come and preach is because I don\u2019t agree with stances that you\u2019ve taken and your church might be an anomaly in the fellowship that it\u2019s in, but its not \u2026 the, the rest and \u2026 and I \u2026 I\u2019m not comfortable with that\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Now, please note this is a transcription of audio, the ellipses indicate hesitations and pauses in speech, not anything that has been left out. And it is something that is off the cuff, not a prepared remark or anything on the same level as Dave\u2019s letter to the fundamentalist pastor. I include the audio below.<\/p>\n Audio clip:<\/p>\n\n
![\"don_sig2\"](\"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/don_sig28.png\" "\\"don_sig2\\"")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"