Controversies and Quarrels

Yesterday I came across an article on line that was written by Paige Patterson, the current president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In the article, Dr. Patterson goes to great lengths to prove that the Bible teaches total abstinence from strong drink. He refers to Greek texts and also ancient history to show that the wine that was produced by Jesus at Cana wasn't drank by him, and that the Greek word for wine is not mentioned in the accounts of the Last Supper.

It was all very interesting indeed. As were the recent discussions on women in the ministry, women in the seminary classroom, appointing board members who spoke in prayer languages, or appointing missionaries who weren't baptized in a Southern Baptist Church. You see, no matter what the issue, or how peripheral it may be, many in the SBC hierarchy feel the need to make statements and set policy and write resolutions about it. As a result, the SBC has become a splintered shell of what it used to be in the "glory days."

Interestingly enough, before I read Dr. Patterson's article, a passage of scripture came up in my quiet time.

2 Timothy 6:3-5

If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

(I'm not saying that the people on seminary hill, or at the SBC headquarters, are trying to better themselves financially, but if you were to contact the SBC executive committee and ask for the salaries of the top executives in the SBC, you would get the run-around.)

When I was the singles minister at Wedgwood Baptist the big quarrel was regarding Calvinism. Some new Calvinists had infiltrated the singles group there and as a result many were being discouraged and frustrated. Men became such followers of a faith system, that they no longer were being followers of the faith. Now that the reformed movement has fully taken hold the arguing has died down with regard to Calvinism, but has shifted to other topics. Women in ministry and faculty positions at seminaries, divorcees in our pulpits and classrooms, the consumption of alcohol, and private prayer languages are just a few.

So as Baptists argue with each other, over useless controversies and quarrels that we are never going to solve, the world looks at us and wants nothing to do with the faith because of the poor example we have set for them.

The time has come to lay aside the foolishness that is found in arguing with a fellow brother in Christ, to link arms and to say, "even though we disagree with each other on some issues, we agree together that we must work hard to take the news of Jesus Christ to a world that needs it." Because ultimately, the world needs the Gospel so much more than it needs seminary professors that don't drink alcohol, and the world needs Jesus more than anyone needs a private prayer language. So, as one of my old professors, Dr. Fish, once said to our evangelism class, the time has come to "stop fightin' and start fishin'"