SBC news with a TULIP scent

What Trickles Down Is Often Nasty

01/30/2006 - Dr. Tom Ascol was recently made aware of an article in the Northwest Florida Daily News written by a Rev. Joel McDuffie, Jr., Pastor of First Baptist Church, Valparaiso, Fl., that publicly planted doubts that John Calvin was in heaven. Dr. Ascol's treatment of McDuffie's article in his Founders Ministries blog was devastating to McDuffie's unsubstantiated allegations concerning John Calvin and Calvinism in particular. Apparently McDuffie responded to the blog with vitriolic emails.

Editor's Opinion - When Southern Baptist mega church pastors feel free to attack Calvinism in the SBC from the safety of their powerful pulpits or from the podium at the SBC Convention or other large meetings, they do so knowing that their sermons will not return to them void. When average Joe Southern Baptist pastors, like McDuffie, who look up to these men, hear those sermons and attempt to duplicate them in their own locales, the result is often very nasty and reveals much about the character of the anti-calvinistic sentiment that springs up in the ranks of average SBC pastors.

Will all of this rancor ultimately lead to a split of the SBC?

Yes, if the influential Southern Baptist pastors don't stand down and defuse their rhetoric against the Founders Ministries and against Southern Baptist Calvinists in general. They should know better.

posted by Jim Shaver @ 9:08 AM