Ready for Reformation

This evening in our time of family worship, we read Nehemiah 13 and some devotional remarks on it (found in this book). I wanted to share these powerful words:

One of the most striking evidences of sinful human nature lies in the universal propensity for downward drift. In other words, it takes thought, resolve, energy and effort to bring about reform.

People do not drift toward holiness. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith.

Reformation is something I've been thinking on a lot recently. As we read from Nehemiah, there were two thoughts going through my head: 1) I need to obey God's Word & 2) Our church needs to obey God's Word. In my own life I know that I will (and do) move in the wrong direction when I'm not purposefully striving for holiness and pursuing God. We sinful men & women are never treading water spiritually. We're either swimming upstream or we're being pushed downstream. So fight for it! Take the kingdom of heaven by force (Matt. 11:12)!

All this is true for the church, too. A church that is not purposeful in watching over its doctrine, holiness and practices will inevitably drift, and I'm afraid that many Southern Baptist churches have drifted. This is a drift that will take more than a 'revival' service to undo. This is a drift that demands nothing short of a full-fledged reformation.

I long for an Ezra/Nehemiah-like, God-sent, Spirit-led reformation! We need our membership rolls reformed. We need our preaching reformed. We need our worship reformed. We need our local church leadership reformed. We need our youth ministries reformed. We need our lack of prayer, lack of passion, lack of evangelism, lack of accountability reformed!

When I look at the biblical standards and then look at the average church, I see an enormous gap between the two. My generation has inherited a mess, which is why many of us are opting to just start new churches. Clean slate; no mess. I see the benefits. But before I walk away from the established church, I want to fight for reformation.

I'm encouraged to fight for at least two reasons. First, God is patient. He is looooongsuffering. Hallelujah! He knows that we're prone to wander, and He is faithful to bring us back. Second, reformation is what God does. The Christian life is reformation. Because sin is constantly attacking, a Spirit-led church is constantly reforming. And get this... if God gives us the grace to see our need, and if God gives us the grace to care about it, then why wouldn't God give us the grace to make it happen?

Go ye therefore and start a reformation!

Graduation, Thankfulness & Facebook

Well, I am an official graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary! I graduated yesterday with a Master of Divinity degree (can you really master divinity??). Nevertheless, thankfulness fills the Culbertson house today, and this is especially true for me.

I am thankful for Southern Seminary, a fortress of truth sending out an army that is mighty in the Scriptures. Everytime I walk on that beautiful campus I know it is a bright hope for the SBC.

I am thankful for Dr. Al Mohler and the men who taught me. I have come to deeply respect these men and greatly appreciate all that they teach.

I am thankful for my wife. Her encouragement, support and assistance eased the burden of these last few semesters. Dianna is truly a God-delivered helpmate.

These past two days were wonderful. And to top it all off, I'm on Dr. Mohler's facebook page!

A Revival of Church Membership & Discipline!

I am very pleased and very surprised to share that the Southern Baptist Convention adopted the following resolution at its '08 meeting:

ON REGENERATE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP AND CHURCH MEMBER RESTORATION

June 2008

WHEREAS, The ideal of a regenerate church membership has long been and remains a cherished Baptist principle, with Article VI of the Baptist Faith and Message describing the church as a “local congregation of baptized believers”; and

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WHEREAS, A New Testament church is composed only of those who have been born again by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Word, becoming disciples of Jesus Christ, the local church’s only Lord, by grace through faith (John 3:5; Ephesians 2:8-9), which church practices believers’ only baptism by immersion (Matthew 28:16-20), and the Lord’s supper (Matthew 26:26-30); and

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WHEREAS, Local associations, state conventions, and the Southern Baptist Convention compile statistics reported by the churches to make decisions for the future; and

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WHEREAS, The 2007 Southern Baptist Convention annual Church Profiles indicate that there are 16,266,920 members in Southern Baptist churches; and

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WHEREAS, Those same profiles indicate that only 6,148,868 of those members attend a primary worship service of their church in a typical week; and

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WHEREAS, The Scriptures admonish us to exercise church discipline as we seek to restore any professed brother or sister in Christ who has strayed from the truth and is in sin (Matthew 18:15-35; Galatians 6:1); and now, therefore, be it

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RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, June 10-11, 2008, urge churches to maintain a regenerate membership by acknowledging the necessity of spiritual regeneration and Christ’s lordship for all members; and be it further

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RESOLVED, That we humbly urge our churches to maintain accurate membership rolls for the purpose of fostering ministry and accountability among all members of the congregation; and be it further

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RESOLVED, That we urge the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention to repent of the failure among us to live up to our professed commitment to regenerate church membership and any failure to obey Jesus Christ in the practice of lovingly correcting wayward church members (Matthew 18:15-18); and be it further

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RESOLVED, That we humbly encourage denominational servants to support and encourage churches that seek to recover and implement our Savior’s teachings on church discipline, even if such efforts result in the reduction in the number of members that are reported in those churches, and be it finally

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RESOLVED, That we humbly urge the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention and their pastors to implement a plan to minister to, counsel, and restore wayward church members based upon the commands and principles given in Scripture (Matthew 18:15-35; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15; Galatians 6:1; James 5:19-20).

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Wow! In a church culture that fails to take church membership seriously... in a church culture that has never heard of church discipline... in a Baptist culture completely ignorant of regenerate church membership, the SBC makes this robust, biblical statement! I truly am astonished and filled with joy at this resolution. I praise God that my denomination, with all its flaws, still has the courage to stand for truth in this manner. I praise God for His work among us! Praise the LORD!

Pentecostal Power

I was shocked by a recent LifeWay Research study that reported 50% of Southern Baptist pastors believe in a “private prayer language.” The exact question posed to these preachers was:

Do you believe that the Holy Spirit gives some people the gift of a special language to pray to God privately? Some people refer to this as a private prayer language or the ‘private use of tongues.’

And 50% of the men in our pulpits answered, “Yes.”

Now let me try to clarify what they are and are not asking. They are not asking about the gift of speaking in tongues. You'll find that discussed in Acts 2 and 1 Corinthians 12-14. Speaking in tongues was a way in which God revealed His Word to the early church. It involved a believer speaking in an unlearned human language... notice I said human language. Scripture never tells of anyone speaking in "angelic" or "heavenly" languages. Thus, speaking in tongues was not random jibber jabber; it was an intelligible, earthly language.

The early church needed this gift because they did not have the full revelation of God that we now have (the Bible). God does not still reveal His Word to us. If you believe that He does, then you are denying the sufficiency of Scripture.

LifeWay was asking about something different from speaking in tongues. Notice how the question places the emphasis on speaking this unknown tongue in private. Many, particularly among charismatics, believe that God gives us a language in which to pray to Him. One verse commonly used to support this idea is Romans 8:26, "For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." The doctrine of praying in tongues is a manipulation of the biblical teachings about speaking in tongues. Praying in tongues (and not speaking in tongues) is the question posed to these SBC pastors.

The findings of this study shock me for several reasons, but let me just share one with you.

The influence of charismatic doctrine is extremely powerful in today's church.

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I've often wondered how the TV preachers and things seen and heard from today's popular Christianity have influenced the men and women in our church pews. Now I know. And now I know it's not just coming from their TVs and radios, it could just as easily be coming from their pastors!

Why is this type of Christianity so influential? It's exciting. It's different. It has the allusion of "deeper" or "higher" spirituality. Christians who are fed up with dry, monotonous, ritualistic Baptist churches go searching for something better... something deeper. Many of these seekers find themselves getting "filled with the Holy Ghost" and speaking in tongues. If you're looking for an experience, nothing tops that!

The charismatics have hijacked the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, turning the third person of the Trinity into a mysterious force that produces chaos. These days, Baptists hardly even mention God the Spirit because we're afraid of Him. We think the charismatics have dibs on the Spirit, so we avoid Him, lest we all start shaking violently and speaking in tongues. It's high time we get the doctrine of the Holy Spirit back to its biblical basis and away from these misguided spiritual thrill-seekers.

The precious Spirit of God revealed to us in the Bible is even more powerful than the erroneous Spirit of God revealed to us on TBN. The Spirit's power isn't seen in knocking people to the ground; it's seen in a new believer's eyes when he understands the Gospel for the first time. The Spirit's power isn't seen in one's private prayer language; it's seen in the change in one's private behavior. Only God the Holy Spirit can give new birth and only He can sanctify us, making us more like our Savior.

That's power. Just ask anyone who has experienced it.
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I'd like to close with a word to LifeWay, the group that did the research. I appreciate the research that is now coming from this Baptist entity. But, with all due respect, you guys are not helping this problem by bombarding your customers with books by Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen. Watch what you sell in the stores. While it may cut back on some of your profits, it will help the SBC tremendously.