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Breakaway Baptist Group Deletes Reference To Jesus From Constitution
Orginally published on Thursday, July 14, 2005 at 1:30 PM
by Todd Rhoades
This just in from KWTX-TV, the CBS affiliate in Waco, TX: Southern Baptist Convention leaders are criticizing a change in the constitution of the breakaway Cooperative Baptist Fellowship that deletes a reference to Jesus Christ in a statement of the fellowship’s purpose…
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is an alliance of 1,800 congregations that opposes conservative leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The group?s constitution was amended during the fellowship?s 2005 General Assembly, which wrapped up July 1 in Grapevine.
Previously, the fellowship's stated purpose was to bring Baptists together "in order that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be spread throughout the world in glad obedience to the Great Commission,? in reference to Jesus' call to win disciples.
The new language says the group?s purpose is "to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission."
Fellowship officials defended the change.
"Jesus is present in all we think, do and say ... and anybody who reads that statement otherwise is not being fair to Him or us,? said Rev. Bob Setzer of Macon, Ga.
ORIGINAL CLAUSE
(Source: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship)
Article II. Purpose
The purpose of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (hereinafter,?the Fellowship?) is to bring together Baptists who desire to call out God?s gifts in each person in order that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be spread throughout the world in glad obedience to the Great Commission. The Fellowship is committed to the preservation and propagation of individual and historic Baptist freedoms and distinctives, including the priesthood of all believers, the acceptance of the authority of the Bible without the aid of creeds, the autonomy of each church, and the separation of church and state in the interests of religious liberty.
AMENDED CLAUSE
(Source: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship)
Article II. Purpose
The purpose of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (hereinafter, ?the Fellowship?) is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission. The Fellowship shall fulfill its purpose in keeping with its commitments to the historic Baptist principles of soul freedom, Bible freedom, church freedom, and religious freedom; to biblically-based global missions; to a resource model for serving churches; to justice and reconciliation; to lifelong learning and ministry; to trustworthiness; and to effectiveness.
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Thursday, July 14, 2005 at 5:28 PM
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Friday, July 15, 2005 at 3:34 PM
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Tuesday, July 26, 2005 at 12:35 AM
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Posted by Secret Rapture
Friday, November 25, 2005 at 5:19 AM
Post Your Comments:I’ve never known any group of people in an association/organization to breakaway over semantics, there’s something much deeper here. Their new constituion “sounds” like they’re on their way with Rick Warren towards a global peace plan.
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The SBC needs to clean up its own closets and leave those folks alone.
For those of us Southern Baptists who are thankful for the resurgence, watch the “Convention Message” by Ken Whitten on this years convention video archive file...he weaves into it Video of Adrian Rogers, Jerry Vines, Paige Paterson etc. preaching for the WORD from 1979 until today
It will inspire
Ho-hum. Amen, Art!
Few in the SBC blinked an eye when they revised the Baptist Faith and Message and removed “The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ.”
SBC leaders need to deal with the plank in their eye (Matt. 7:3)
Only the insiders really know what is happening… everyone else (us) gets the PR message… from both sides…
Overall, not a very interesting story…
...Bernie
Thanks, Bernie!
As a Southern Baptist pastor, I find myself perplexed and unhappy with all the controversy by some of our leaders. I have found most SBC; folks believe the Word, follow Jesus Christ and seek to fulfill the Great Commission. Trying to deal with the politics is distracting at best.
That being said, I must take offense that the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship clouds the real issues in semantics. However, the new statement reveals some real agendas at the heart of their existence—hiding behind freedom. There seems to be a lot of emphasis on “nobody has a right to tell me what to think, do, or believe...including the Bible and Jesus.” (My interpretation of the statements they make.)
On the SBC side, we seem to “strain at the gnat and swallow the camel.” There is a lot of allowing the world and the media to determine our agenda and our doctrinal statements.
Isn’t it amazing how Satan attacks one of the greatest groups of mission/evangelism minded people?
Hebrews 12:1-2 comes to mind regarding our focus and attention...KEEP YOUR EYE ON JESUS AND GET RID OF EVERYTHING ELSE!
I think its a slow falling away from the truth which is Jesus Christ. It may seem like a small issue on the surface but the iceberg beneath the water says that Jesus is offensive to some so lets mask him in semantics. I say that the name of Jesus should be posted on everything, and we should never loose sight of who died that we might live.
Yes it is true that the church needs to equip believers so they can utilize their gifts and evangelize. However, Christ is the head of the Church and to delete Him from the purposes in the constitution is a grave error. Let’s not forget that the Church serves three purposes:
1. Exalt Christ
2. Edify one another
3. Evangelize the Lost
Praise Be Too God:
We are getting ready at the end of July to open a church that was built back in 1874 and has been closed for a number of years.
We are in desperate need of prayer warriors as we are starting out basicly with nothing but Gods call and no material backing. We are trusting in Gods direction and just asking for you to hold us up in your daily prayers. Thank you and God Bless, Pastor Mike
Since the above posting, I have had opportunity to see the full statement that the CBF adopted, and my concern is their position as a whole based on their new purpose...some of their own members at the meeting voiced some of the same concerns...to much human independence and not enough Jesus!!
Are we that ashamed of Jesus Christ that we cannot name His Name even in such a simple statement. If Christ is truly the center of everything, then He should be the center of all things. Will He not be ashamed of us when we stand before Him. Perhaps He would forget to enter our name in some book somewhere and cover it with some semantic generic statement rewrite of the the book of life.
Just looks like a “seeker sensitive” adaptation to me. What the purpose for it is will probably follow the “seeker sensitiveness” of many churches that do the same things in their worship services.
I am sick and tired of all this political correctness in both the secular world and now in the religous world. My God it is all about Jesus or it is all about nothing. Dropping Jesus from their statement of purpose is appallng and offensive to me as a person and as a Christian and as a minister of the Gospel. They can call it whatever they want, but what it is, is blasphemy and they will answer for it on judgement day. This is not my opinion, it is Jesus’ opinion, He is the one who said if you deny me before men, I will deny you before my father.
I’m not a Baptist, but I was interested in the Cooperative Fellowship on the basis alone of breaking away from SBC over women in ministry - as I understood it. After reading what sort of change the Cooperative Fellowship made, I’d be scared to join them now.
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