Yesterday, I received my copy of “Baptist & Reflector”
vol. 177/ No. 15, in which there were two articles celebrating 20 years of “Experiencing
God,” by King and Blackaby. Both
articles were filled with testimonials on the wonderful impact this book and
the many studies based on the book have had on individuals, leaders, and
churches across the Baptist landscape and beyond. I’ve only read the youth edition of the
series as it was used with my church’s youth group. I thought it had some really great basic
information about who God is and how to be in relationship with Him, but then
it gets problematic. Eventually, you get
to the part about God speaking and that’s where it leaves the traditional
Baptist understanding of the sufficiency of scripture.
 |
| Uh, no thank you. |
Reality
#4, as expressed in this book, states that God speaks by the Holy Spirit
through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His
purposes, and His ways. This statement
would fit nicely with a Roman Catholic, Wesleyan, charismatic, and even Mormon understanding of scripture as one of several modes
of divine revelation, but never with the historic Baptist stand on scriptural sufficiency. Therefore, no matter how tasty the rest of
the book is, at its core there’s a nasty little nugget of corruption, which has
for the last 20 years been infecting a once conservative denomination with the notion
that God is mumbling and whispering new
directives to us all the time. I’d
like to see the next issue of the B&R filled with cautionary tales of
folks who were led to believe their hunches and impressions were inspired. Of course, Lifeway has millions of reasons not to publish that story.
First you went green! I hope it was today, because honestly I didn't notice before.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I have never heard of Baptist Reflector before. Of the 46 or so recognized and registered distinct type of "baptist" which does the BR reflect, no intentional pun on the name?
Third, what a great way to phrase your point: "the notion that God is mumbling and whispering new directives to us all the time."
Good post!
the notion that God is mumbling and whispering new directives to us all the time
This stuff is spreading like wildfire! Everywhere I turn I hear/read the fruit of this... and I have left the Catholics and charismatics! Great post! It's going in my 'keep for later' box. :-)
ReplyDeleteI remember going through that study. I was completely distracted with a brand new baby and never really got into it (now, so glad!) but even then I remember thinking something was fishy. Just didn't have a free brain cell to apply to the problem.
ReplyDeleteYou've summed it up exactly.