Tag Archives: Separation

View on Ecclesiastical Separation

Posted on by
FBBC&TS has long been associated with the separatist movement. It has stood against religious apostasy, and sought to maintain a Biblical position in the area of ecclesiastical relationships. Its institutional Statement of Belief states: “We believe that progressive sanctification involves separation not only from ungodly living but also from ungodly teaching; that though we love all men and seek their salvation, there are areas in which we cannot have fellowship with unbelievers; that, in areas of ecclesiastical fellowship, it may be necessary to separate even from our brethren in Christ, if they in turn maintain fellowship with unbelievers” (FBBC College Catalog, 1992–1995, p.

The Danger of Drifting

Posted on by
I. The Principle of Drifting Every organization sooner or later faces the danger of losing its founding focus and of moving away from the distinctive characteristics, priorities, and convictions which brought it into existence. Some of the factors which help to bring this about are Time, Size, and Affluence. The longer an organization is in existence and the larger and more prosperous it becomes, the greater the tendency to shift the organizational emphasis and one’s loyalty from the original distinctive convictions to support for and loyalty to the organization itself.

Reflections on the Church Marketing Movement

Posted on by
Within the last few years, several books have been written about what we shall call the Church Marketing Movement. These writings include: Anderson, Leith. Dying For Change. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1990. 208 pp. Barna, George. The Frog in the Kettle. What Christians Need to Know About Life in the Year 2000. Ventura, CA: Regal Books (A Division of Gospel Light), 1990. 235 pp. Barna, George. User Friendly Churches. What Christians Need to Know About the Churches People Love to Go to. 

Learning From the Closing of Des Moines University

Posted on by
On Saturday, September 30, 1989, the alumni of Des Moines University held their last reunion. This might not seem so remarkable, but for the fact that the school closed in 1929. For the last sixty Years the alumni have faithfully commemorated their school. Since now they are all in advanced age, they determined that their sixtieth reunion would be their last. The beautiful shaded campus is long gone with barely a trace. All the old buildings but one have vanished, and you need to look closely to find the one shell that remains.

Historic Marks of Fundamentalism

Posted on by
Fundamentalism began in the later nineteenth century as a concerned response to the rise of higher criticism and doctrinal deviation and also as a response to the worldly drift among God’s people. How far back does the movement go? Surely not before the Believers’ Meeting held in Chicago, 1875, with their concerns about prophecy and German theology. Some have dated it from 1909, with the publication of The Fundamentals and the first edition of The Scofield Reference Bible. Surely it dates no later than the 1920 Northern Baptist Convention, when Curtis Lee Laws coined the term Fundamentalist.

Marks of a Fundamentalist in the Book of Jude

Posted on by
Introduction: In the mid-1970s, at Denver Baptist Bible College, I preached a chapel sermon from the Book of Jude. In preparation for that sermon, I discovered ten marks or characteristics of a true Fundamentalist. Recently I gave a series of lectures at Faith Baptist Theological Seminary on the subject of “The Biblical Basis of Separation.” I reviewed my notes from that earlier study in the Book of Jude, restudied the text itself along with the commentaries and expanded the details for each of the ten marks.

The Evangelical Drift

Posted on by
As a self-conscious movement, new evangelicalism has been with us almost half a century. Forty-five years have passed since the founding of the National Association of Evangelicals, forty since the opening of Fuller Seminary, and thirty-five since the shift at the Conservative Baptist Seminary. That was also the year that Billy Graham left Northwestern to go into evangelism full time. Thirty years have passed since Graham’s New York campaign. Ten years have passed since Quebedeaux finished writing The Worldly Evangelicals, and twenty-six have passed since I first heard Charles Woodbridge deliver one of his famous lectures on new evangelicalism.

Ecclesiastical Separation

Posted on by
Nearly four centuries ago the Puritan William Perkins drew a useful distinction. He suggested that there is a working difference between error and heresy. He wrote that error of itself is no ground for breaking fellowship, that any doctrinal discrepancy between two Christians means that one or both are in error. The Bible does not on that account command them to separate from each other. Heresy is another matter; heresy is error, but error that strikes at the very roots of the faith, and heresy is always grounds for breaking fellowship.

A Biblical Separatism

Posted on by
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? 1 Corinthians 6:14 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15 So why shouldn’t a Christian drink beer? What’s wrong with playing bingo or getting tattooed? What verse says you can’t listen to rock music? We get into odd situations.