Coming Tomorrow, The Separatist Cause...
To coincide with this weeks Calvary Baptist Seminary (Lansdale) Conference, Advancing the Church I am posting a new article. Come back tomorrow for, The Separatist Cause is Not Advanced by Featuring Non-Separatists. For related reading on the convergence of Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism at Lansdale see Ps. Brian Ernsberger’s Dead Man’s Curve at The Parsings of a Preacher. Until tomorrow, for your consideration, the following is my (revised and expanded) September 2010 announcement that Dr. Kevin Bauder and Dr. Dave Doran would be joining SBC pastor Dr. Mark Dever on the platform at Lansdale.
Dear Guests of IDOTG:
Questions have now been answered about this statement from the *Central Seminary Ethos Statement on Fundamentalism, “For this reason, we believe that careful, limited forms of fellowship are possible.”
Dr. Mark Dever will be the keynote speaker at the Calvary Baptist Seminary (Lansdale) Conference Advancing the Church in 2011. Dr. Dave Doran and Dr. Kevin Bauder are joining Dever on the platform.
Dave Doran, of course, has already hosted three evangelicals in his pulpit and seminary. Will Kevin Bauder soon be opening the classrooms of Central Baptist Seminary to the evangelicals? To date he finds no significant differences that might give him pause. “Careful, limited forms of fellowship...?” This is only the beginning of what will be greater forms of compromise for the sake of fellowship with the evangelicals.
The magnetic attraction for men like Bauder and Doran to the so-called “conservative” evangelicals is Calvinistic soteriology in the form of Lordship Salvation. Lordship Salvation is the so-called “pure gospel” rallying point. Because of that point of agreement Bauder and Doran have shown a growing willingness to tolerate, allow for and excuse the aberrant doctrine, worldliness in ministry and **ecumenical compromises of the evangelicals.
Mark Dever is just the latest step toward greater compromise of genuine biblical separatism for expanding the boundaries of limited fellowship. Dever is the bridge that will take Bauder, Doran and those they are seeking to influence to completely embrace the entire T4G/Gospel Coalition community. This step toward Dever is a baby-step. Compromise is a learned behavior. It typically progresses this way: Crawl, then Walk, then Run. Kevin Bauder and Dave Doran have, in my opinion, just about outgrown the crawling stage.Anyone believing this cooperative fellowship with Dever is going to be the full extent “limited form of fellowship,” is mistaken.
It is timely to repeat the prophetic commentary of Dr. Gerald Priest who in reacting to Bauder’s incendiary Let’s Get Clear on This noted,
“Kevin has been quite lavish in his praise of conservative evangelicals while castigating so-called fundamentalists. Yet he has spent very little time warning us about the pitfalls and problems of conservative evangelicalism…. What I fear is that we may be allowing a Trojan horse into the fundamentalist camp. And after a while, if we keep going down this track, any significant difference between conservative evangelical and the fundamentalist institutions may disappear.”That is exactly what we are witnessing in these days. The Trojan horse is being brought into the fundamentalist camp and it is Kevin Bauder, Dave Doran, Tim Jordan, and NIU president Matt Olson that are holding the gate open and leading it in. All doubt has been removed on the bent of these men toward closing ranks with evangelicals. Is this a fundamentalism worth saving?
LM
*See- Cogitations Stemming From the Central/Bauder Ethos Statement
**The reaction from Bauder and Doran to Al Mohler signing the Manhattan Declaration was to dismiss it as merely an “occasional inconsistency, single episode” (KB), merely “a wrong decision based on bad judgment.”(DD)
Who were the three evangelicals Doran allowed at Detroit?
ReplyDeleteAlso, when you say prophetic commentary, I assume you don't mean in a continuationist sense, right?
David Oestreich
Dave:
ReplyDelete"Continuationist," I like that, clever.
The three names appear in tomorrow's article. You find them in footnote #3. Google the names if unfamiliar with them.
LM
Lou,
ReplyDeleteIf I recall, Doran had something to say about LS at the Preserving the Truth Conference. You should listen to the panel discussion. From what I remember, after hearing where he is at on that, I think you would be hard pressed to say "The magnetic attraction for men like Bauder and Doran to the so-called “conservative” evangelicals is Calvinistic soteriology in the form of Lordship Salvation." Your thoughts?
Joel:
ReplyDeleteSorry late in getting your comment posted. The new paradigm shift for cooperation with evangelicals coming from Doran, Bauder, Olson, et.al. is centered on their interpretation of a “pure gospel.” Doran wrote of a “Gospel-Driven” separation.
The interpretation of the gospel held by virtually every evangelical is Lordship Salvation (LS). Our men know this, it is no secret. So, as we watch KB/DD convergence with men on the so-called “pure gospel” our men know it is a convergence around the LS interpretation of the Gospel.
LM
Lou, two problems here in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteFirst, you quote a portion of Dr. Pickering's book that is a gray area, which you can tell by the way he handles it. He believes he lays out the best application, but its far from binding across the board.
But what you're doing here when you say things like "They have moved to a position that contradicts the teaching of an earlier generation of Fundamentalists, Dr. Ernest Pickering in particular." is assuming they had it all exactly right. They may not have.
Secondly, you point out Falwell as a cautionary example, but, having just read fascinating book by one semester student there (he was sort of an undercover journalist), I'd say Fundamentalists already share as many of the Falwell foibles as we shun, including a tendency towards easy prayerism, over emphasis of politics, hit or miss discipleship, Arminianism, and most importantly, a full understanding of the overarching power of the gospel.
These are things many CEs do get right. Perhaps broader Fundamentalism ought to focus moe on some of the rudiments before nitpicking the ministries of others.
David Oestreich
(don't think I signed that last one)
David:
ReplyDeleteThank you, but I see no problems here. Dr. Pickering is speaking exactly to platform fellowship. Doran and Bauder joining Dever of the Lansdale platform, knowing all the associations and issues he (Dever) brings with him, are acting in a way that is clearly contradictory to what Pickering taught. Furthermore, in my previous series The RAP on Mark Dever
I documented Dave Doran writing, “…obscure the distinction between the church and the world…by embracing worldly approaches for the church’s growth and/or worship…. The distinction between the church and the world must be guarded.... these are the biblical justifications for and biblical boundaries of ministerial cooperation and fellowship.”
With Mark Dever’s personal affinity for the RAP, Hip Hop medium in his personal life and approval of it in ministry he crosses the boundary that Doran set for ministerial cooperation. However, when faced with Dever having crossed the boundary that he (Doran) set for himself, Doran appears to have contracted amnesia. Has this become a trigger illness when it comes to evangelicals who cross boundaries.
One of my goals here is to show that SI/Mungons are wrong when they suggest Kevin Bauder, Dave Doran, and Tim Jordan do not contradict the teaching of an earlier generation of fundamentalists, namely Dr. Ernest Pickering from the excerpt I've cited.
The issues in both camps among certain segments of men are real. No disagreement. FWIW, I do not consider embracing worldly forms of entertainment medium for the church, ecumenical compromises with unbelievers or apostates and Charismatic theology, all of which is found among the evangelicals, nits. These are termites in the NT Church. They are dangerous compromises of doctrine that must be exposed, the men be admonished, rebuked and called to repent of these things.
LM