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I don't spend my time on Twitter baying for the blood of @SEBTS; I'm thankful for SBC institutions, choose to believe the best as much as I can, & work for the healthiest versions of our Convention. That on the table, here's a ready illustration of why the SBC is in crisis. (1/)
This professor of church history, @StephenB_Eccher, lest I be accused of subtweeting, espousing a view of the Reformers & their dynamic relationship with the various authorities around them that would embarrass a novice. Why? Naked, crass, political bias seems the... (2/)
...ready explanation, given the current controversy (!!) with John MacArthur's church doing what Christians globally & historically have understood as essential to the faith. This subjugation of the historical data to a contemporary political bias is confirmed further in... (3/)
...a follow-up tweet that likens the gov't authority demanding that churches not gather and not sing when he deigns to allow a small number to congregate, with Frederick the Wise. Remember, Frederick was a defender of Luther against both Pope & Emperor. Stunning doesn't... (4/)
...even begin to touch, as an adjective, the kind of historical, theological, and ethical nonsense put forth by Dr. Eccher here. To be clear, Newsome, the man responsible for restrictions on local churches unheard of in living memory, is apparently now, in Dr. Eccher's... (5/)
...estimation protecting the faithful against a despotic government by... being a despotic governor. And protecting the faithful against bankrupt church leaders who... want the church to have the choice to gather on the Lord's Day - like Christians have done since... (6/)
...Christ rose from the dead. Again, nonsense, foolishness, and a degree of confusion that is absolutely staggering. This is precisely the content, coming from @SEBTS, that stokes the flames of suspicion about what exactly is being taught in the classrooms and, of... (7/)
...necessary consequence, exercising a shaping influence on future pastors. @DannyAkin, a man I greatly respect, and the various admins & trustees of @SEBTS have to be in front of SBC laymen & non-platform pastors addressing this craziness and keeping their house clean if... (8/)
...cooperative missions and theological education has any substantial future through the Southern Baptist Convention. This kind of institutional tomfoolery, if remaining unchecked, will be the undoing of the SBC in our expected lifetimes.
I'll be clear: I don't think... (9/)
I'll be clear: I don't think... (9/)
...there is one plan that a local church has to embrace on the subject of meeting or not. I *value* local church autonomy & respect those who advocate for the wisdom of one plan or the other in good faith. However, subjecting the entire Protestant Reformation to the... (10/)
absolutist demands of one man's preferred course as a means of castigating faithful brothers who have chosen another course is wicked, ignorant, craven, & beneath the support of Southern Baptists (or Christians of other traditions). What I have said here about the urgent... (11/)
...need for redress of this public position is not merely the problem of SEBTS and Eccher but extends to otherwise good groups like @9Marks who have joined in criticizing MacArthur while their leaders march in protest realities or even our current President... (12/)
... @jdgreear who is his own special category of threat to continued cooperative ventures via the SBC in the empty gesture of retiring the Broadus gavel and closing his own church while inviting others to join him in protest marches. Those choices are well within the... (13/)
...rights of individual choices but when pressed on other believers as the only acceptable strategy, so important that even Christian history must be marshaled in defense, we have entered a realm of toxic threat to what has been the genius of the cooperative program. (14/14)
