Comments on: Southern Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress Against Religious Accommodation of Pagans

By: Glenn Beck the Evangelist: His Divine Destiny & Influence on Southern Baptists | the big daddy weave

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:23:41 +0000

[...] cited by Southern Baptists especially in the blogosphere. In some instances, Southern Baptists have taken Barton’s historical revisionism to the media as with the case of Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, [...]

By: K Gray

K Gray — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:21:00 +0000

Thanks for your response.

By: John King

John King — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:11:57 +0000

(continued)
For some this “natural, literal, biblical” point of view has hardened into a “conscious literalism” that is in a conscious battle with a modern world view and lost its emphasis on God as love and having a personal relationship with God. Instead, for some there has become an preoccupation with “correct belief” as opposed to a “life of faith and trust”. Part of this “correct belief” is what I call “supernatural interventionism”. The greatest contribution of the fundamentalists has been their insistence on opposing a modern, scientism, reductionistic world view. Unfortunately, in their opposition they have retreated to an intellectual ghetto that result in either irrationality or atheism

By: John King

John King — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:02:52 +0000

Your question is an interesting one; and, as it is with Baptists, not an easy question to answer with generalities. I can only offer my own perspective on this question. Just so you know where I am coming from, I grew up and was educated in a strong American and Southern Baptist tradition. Since 1979 when the “fight” about the Bible and “just about everything else” began, I left any formal relationship with the Southern Baptists.

In general, I think the most Baptists have a “natural literal biblical” view of God”. While you could say that is represented a “supernatural interventionist” view of God, the perspective was held without any conscious conflict with the modern worldview. I think this worked from two main reasons: less formal education and certain aspects of Baptist theology that ameliorated this “supernatural theism”. As I see it, these ameliorating factors in Baptist theology are 1) an emphasis on the love of God 2) an experiential emphasis on conversion and “knowing Jesus” (what I call a relational aspect to Baptist theology 3) an emphasis on a “personal” relationship with God.

By: K Gray

K Gray — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:36:03 +0000

“I also bet that he still believes in a God of supernatural interventionism.”

Is this something that Baptists do not generally believe in? Any enlightenment welcomed.

By: John King

John King — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:35:26 +0000

There is a certain fringe among the SBC that has gotten so far off the Baptist reservation regarding religious liberty that it suprises me that they even claim the name of Baptist anymore.

Does he think that the United States is in a covenant relationship with God like with Ancient Israel? And does he not know that for Christians the old covenant has been replaced by a new one. And does he think that Ancient Israel did not have a choice regarding their worship of God? I also bet that he still believes in a God of supernatural interventionism.

I have enormous respect for the power of his perspective; however, that perspective is losing credibility daily