Northern Baptist Convention How Liberalists Under Camouflage o f Loyalty to Bible and Christ, Put One Over the Fundamentalists By DR. F. W. FARR Los Angeles
|HB recent session of the North ern Baptist Convention at In dianapolis wrought no material change in the denominational situation. The issues are unchanged, the problems are unsolved and the alignment is the same as before. It is true that among the registered delegates, the lib erals out-numbered the conservatives. The relative proportion, however, among the constituency must remain a matter of conjecture. There is every reason to believe that liberalism will increase and pervade the entire denomination, as, un der a standardized ministry, the schools will supply the ministers for the church es. Moreover, Scripture gives no hint that the tide of apostasy will turn before the end of the age. The motto of the Convention was “The Uplifted Christ.” This is ambiguous. It means one thing to the conservative an(J another to the liberal. To the former it speaks of the cross and the atoning blood according to John 12:32. To the latter ii only means holding up a higher type of manhood than we see around us for imi tation and emulation. There are several parties in the North ern Baptist Convention. Besides the con servatives and the liberals, there are the “middle-of-the-road” people. These are commended by both soft-pedal conserva tives and politic liberals as models of sanity and safety. In view of the moral issue at stake this course savors more of Laodicean lukewarmness so nauseat ing unto God. The most dangerous place, in these days of exceeding the speed limit, is the middle of the road, where
one is liable to be run over by cars com ing and going in all directions. This class of persons is either culpa bly ignorant or shamefully indifferent to the issues involved. At the right of the motto of the convention in front of the assembly, in large letters, was the phrase, imported from the recent Shanghai Con ference, “Agreed to differ, but resolved to love.” As the convention progressed the intent of the phrase seemed to be that the conservatives should love the liberals. It did not seem to be con strued that the liberals should love the conservatives. No opportunity was lost in public and in private, by innuendo and direct disparagement to belittle and dis credit the fundamentalist movement. The convention would like the coin and the prayers of the conservatives, but it has no use for their creed. The relative strength of the two sides was evidenced by the vote on the con fession of faith. The conservatives pre sented a resolution that the convention express its approval of that historic state ment of orthodoxy known as the New Hampshire Confession of Faith. The lib erals immediately brought forward a sub stitute motion to the effect that nothing was needed but the New Testament. The convention was then treated to a unique and anomalous spectacle. The various liberals who supported the substitute mo rion were, for the most part, those who emasculate the authority of the New Tes tament in their preaching and teaching by denying its plenary inspiration. Nev ertheless, in the interests of parliamen tary strategy, they lauded it to the skies
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter