What Is an Independent Baptist?

Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right, we are in page uh I believe it's page 16 of your notes. We're on Roman number two uh or number one, I'm sorry, there independent Baptists. We've been talking about the church and then uh before I left, we talked about uh what a Baptist is and and so I want to define now for you is what is an independent uh Baptist? We are an independent Baptist. So let's define that term so that you understand in we in our church I'd say probably uh not even 50% of our church as a whole are actually from a Baptist background that grew up Baptist went to a Baptist church. So for many of uh many of even you, it's not something you're familiar with.

And then when you start talking about Baptist, you've got every different kind of Baptist plus uh there are there are so many different Baptist I think there's a hund and something different Baptist groups and churches and and so what is an independent Baptist? And when we say an independent Baptist, it means that we can't get along with anybody. But with independent number a there is there is no organization or authority outside the local church in scripture. When you go into the Bible you see a few verses where it talks about the church as a a broad concept. The church as a whole which is all those that are saved are the church of Jesus Christ.

And anybody who's a Christian is is part of that. Sometimes it's called universal church. I don't know if I like that name or not, but uh there there's a broad broad concept of the church of God. Uh the church of Jesus Christ, but the majority in the Bible are talking about a church at somewhere. Uh the church at Ephesus, the church at Corenth, the church at Rome, and and so they're talking about a a local group of believers. Now, remember back then, you didn't have large bodies of believers that met together in one place. uh they didn't have the facilities or the opportunity to do that in most cases.

And if if they did meet together, it would be out at a at a park by the river or something like that. Uh but they didn't have a building like we have today. And so when a church was composed of many different smaller groups that would meet around the the city around the area uh that's why in Acts chapter 2 it talks about that they they met daily breaking bread daily uh as as they would meet over here at this person's house and then they would meet at that guy's house and then they meet over here at this park and and and so there's a you know different they were gathered but they would also many times gather together as a group.

They would usually have a a a primary pastor in charge of all of them uh like Timothy that we're studying on Sunday night and then they would have leaders of the different uh groups around the city as well. Uh but it was a church at Ephesus. And so we believe in uh in the local church. We've already talked about that that there that each church is independent and separate. And and we don't see in the Bible a formal organization. you did have the apostles, but even the apostles when they would uh send out their letters, even Paul would say, "Listen, uh basically, I can't tell you what to do because I'm not in charge, but here's what you should do."

And he would give them guidance. He would give them direction. And he would speak sometimes pretty forcefully, but he also understood, "But you as a church answer to God, not to me." And and so what we don't see in the Bible is a formal organization of churches. and and some of you may have grown up. I grew up in a Southern Baptist church that was part of the Southern Baptist Convention. There's also a Northern Baptist Convention. There's also Eastern and Western and Midwestern and all the rest of them. And um and and a lot of have these these these organizations that are above the church and are are uh in in in some some groups they they actually control the church and other ones the churches are more are more independent.

but they're still under the authority of that organization. And um and and we don't believe in that. We believe that that there is no authority outside of the local church. The church and then God. There's not the church and then organization or convention or whatever else it might be. And so uh let her be there. Each church is independent of governmental and ecclesiastical control. uh we are very strong and here in America of course the separation of church and state that has come to mean that the church is not supposed to be involved in the government in any way not making their opinion known not voting your Christian faith and that's not what that means uh the separation of church and

state means that that first of all the government does not control the church and there are many places around the world where that happens the government is in charge of the church and uh and and and on the reverse as well the church does not control the government where that's also happened in many areas of the world and um but that doesn't mean we should not vote we should not make our voice heard we should not have an influence within the political arena uh we don't leave our Christianity outside when we go into the politics as well uh but we do believe that the government should not tell the church what to do and so as a church if the government came in and said you can't preach this you can't teach that then we would have to say no we we can't follow that we have to obey God acts 5 verse 29, obey God rather than men.

And so we would not do um we would not do what they tell us to do. And we've had had some occasions of that. Uh not so much some here in America. You're seeing it more in places like England and Europe and other places around the world. And so if you preach against uh homosexuality for example or you know the whole gender thing you can be um you can be the government can come and say you can't do that and uh and of course there's other places like China where they try to control the church and and and Russia and other places like that that are more even more extreme. Uh so we say no we believe in liberty.

Now, one of the things that's been unique and important to understand about Baptist history is we have always fought for liberty for everybody to believe what they want to believe. So, if you're Muslim, we believe you should have the right to believe that. If you're Catholic, you should have the right to believe that. If you're Buddhist, you should have right to believe that. Uh we're going to fight for that liberty. And Baptists, if you go back into the foundation of this country back in the 1700s, Baptists were very much uh involved in that that battle for for the liberty, the freedom of religion, but at the same time, while we're fighting for your freedom to believe what you believe, we're going to tell you, but you need to believe in Jesus Christ.

Uh we're going to we're going to preach that message. And you've seen some of that with the whole turning point thing with um Charlie Kirk. Kirk is, you know, he's very strong Christian. And that was very obvious if you watch anything in the news. I mean, you watch if you watch any of his funeral. It was almost like a revival service in some way. Um, what's interesting to me is how many of our politicians I never knew were Christians that now say they're Christians. Uh, and that's kind of sad that they never really, you know, I appreciate like JD Vance. I appreciate that. He says, "I've not talked about my faith half a dozen times in my life and now I've I've done it.

You know, I'm glad glad he's been brought out to say something about that." And and we have to understand that a lot of times when the world talks about be a Christian, they're not talking about our Christian beliefs. They can be they can be Catholic. They can be Mormon. They don't have to believe in salvation through faith in Christ to claim to be a Christian. So keep that in mind. But at the same time, the Baptists have fought for religious freedom, but said, "Yeah, but you need to trust Christ as your savior. We don't force it on you because we don't believe that's going to change anything. I I can make you get saved if I have the power to do that, but you're still going to go to hell without Jesus Christ as your savior.

So, we believe in the governmental, but also ecclesiastical. One thing about independent baptism, we say, "Listen, we are going to choose not to work together with those that do not believe what we believe." And um and and so what happens is and we'll talk about this a little bit more later on, but you you know where is that line that we have to draw, you know, uh we're, you know, working together. Again, or like Turning Point, I'm all for them. They're they're a great organization, but they're not going to the there there are people on there that are Catholic and and all different denominations and don't believe in salvation by faith.

and and that's okay for what they are, but at the same time, I'm not going to work directly with them in the sense of, you know, I believe in salvation by faith. And and so we as independent Baptists believe that we need to separate. So, and and this is a challenge because what do you do when you have common issues? For example, um abortion. There's a lot of different religions that are opposed to abortion and I want us I want to get together and make our voice be heard. But at the same time, they don't believe in salvation by faith through grace. And and so we have to understand that especially when we're dealing with uh you know, biblical issues, we have to have an ecclesiastical separation.

And and so a lot of times people say, "Well, pastor, why don't we cooperate with this or why don't we cooperate with that?" Because as independent Baptists, we we do not. We have an ecclesiastal separation. Uh we'll talk about that more in a moment there. So letter C, there's no formal membership in a convention or religious organization is taught in scripture. There's nowhere tells us that we need to be part of this over overarching organization with a president and vice president or or bishops and and so on. Uh we don't have that. We do believe in cooperation and fellowship with churches of like faith and practice.

Uh and it's taught and encouraged. So we we cooperate with other churches to support Bible colleges, to support missionaries. We cooperate like we had this ladies conference, we invite other churches to come join us for that. Um same thing with youth conference in the springtime. We we work together camps, whatever else it might be. But at the same time, there's not a a formal organization. Now from a legal perspective, sometimes there has to be, for example, mission boards. Uh many missionaries cannot be on the mission field unless they have a uh an organization that endorses them. Uh brother Fucci, our our chaplain in our church, he has to have an endorsing organization.

So we cooperate with the churches, but they're churches of like faith and practice. All the churches that are part of that organization believe basically what we believe. And so we work together to endorse him as a chaplain. We work together to support missionaries and to give them a a legal entity that they can, but there's not a formal where there's a organization that's over the church. Um, and so we don't have that formal organization. And number one, there cooperation fellowship of like faith and practice. So the big thing we look for is like faith and practice. Do they believe what we believe?

And do they practice what we practice? And here's one of the challenges with that. Where is our you remember in math the lowest common denominator where you could take these two fractions and what is the lowest thing number that both of them have in common and and and and that's where the challenge comes in at what point do we have to say well no we don't believe what they believe at what point do we draw that line and in what areas do we draw that I I have no problem with cooperating with some people in a political thing like abortion or some other issues like that turning point because that's a political organization.

But when they're if they're having a revival down here at the stadium and uh they're inviting all these churches to cooperate together and you got, you know, Catholics and and um this group and that group all working together. Well, wait a minute. We don't believe the same thing. And so obviously the the major thing we want in common is we believe in salvation by faith through grace. But we as independent Baptist, we we go further than that. We we believe in the word of God. We believe in the inspired word of God that there's no errors and no mistakes. We believe, you know, so there's certain things that we have to kind of draw that line with.

Um the churches we work together here with the islands, I I we're not we don't have everything in common. There's some things they do I wouldn't do and vice versa. But yet there's certain basic important things that you cannot compromise on. And so as independent Baptists, we we believe that. And then number two, some independent Baptist church belong to fellowships. And so you might have heard some of these like the Bible baptist fellowship or the general association of regular Baptist churches. The difference is you get some groups that are very formal organization. The the main organization owns all the property.

They decide which pastors go where. There's a lot of control. Then there's other organizations where they're kind of the middle ground. like the Southern Baptist Convention is that way. Um they have a combined mission fund. So like we support missionaries individually and choose which ones we support in their group mostly. You support them through this combined mission fund. And you know that sounds well that would be more efficient. Well in my opinion and by studies it's not more efficient because you you lose that personal connection as well. But, you know, they have and and some Southern Baptist church like uh there's a church here in Hava that's owned by the Southern Baptist Convention.

And so, when that church closed down, the Southern Baptist Convention decided what to do with the church building. There's a little more control and and so they're kind of halfway in between there. With with organizations like the BBF and GRBC and others, there's less control. They're just saying we we're going to come together and work together. Like the general association regular Baptist churches, they started uh Regger Baptist Press a publishing company to publish Sunday school curriculum and books together. Uh they've also the BBF has got some colleges that they're they've organized together.

And so again, there's a little more formal organization. Most strictly independent Baptist churches, there is no formal organization. We just say, "Listen, we'll work together with who we choose to work together with and we won't who we choose not to." And and each church makes that choice individually. So, we have colleges that we support and you know, West Coast Baptist College or Ambassador Baptist College or Prince Christian College, but we can choose or not to support them. And and we got missionaries. We work with mission boards like um Baptist International Missions Incorporated and Worldwide New Testament Baptist Churches.

But again, there's no control factor there. It's a it's a cooperation factor and and so that's kind of the difference there. Um and so there's no formal membership. And letter D there, the emphasis is on autonomous self-governing local churches. So this church decides what this church is going to do. There's no there's nobody we have to report to and say, "Can we do this?" There's no organization that has to approve that. Uh each church answers directly to God. And we've talked about this before. We're a theocratic democracy. We we believe that God is the head of the church and we have to obey him.

And the way we do is that through a democratic decisionmaking process, but it's it's the decision-making is not what when I go into voting booth, I'm voting my opinion. I'm voting, you know, as a Christian, I'm praying to say, God, who do you want me to vote for as well? But I am, you know, as a democracy here in America, we every individual goes in and votes his opinion. But in church, I'm seeking what does God want? And sometimes that can be different from my opinion or my desires. And so, but each church is autonomous. So, we don't tell Friendship Baptist Church what to do or Cole Baptist Church.

We work together with them. Coal was our mother church. When when I first came here, I was assistant pastor for five years there and and we we thank God for them. Uh but we're not under their control. We have about um about eight to 10 daughter churches that we've helped start and some of them very directly but we don't control them either. Once they got established, you're on your own. Uh we helped them out with uh we provided for them financial support. We provided for them physical support. Uh when they first started, they would do their finances under our 501c3. Um and and we would when they did that, we would have a say in their finances because we're we're the ones responsible to the government for that.

And um and other legal opportunities like that, but as soon as they could, you know, start your own, get your own account, get your own going. You're on your own. Uh you want advice and counsel, come talk to me. But otherwise, you are have to make those decisions between you and God. And and so that's the emphasis of being an independent Baptist church. And uh we're not only an independent Baptist church, but we're also a term that's not used as much lately. Uh but we would be call ourselves, we would have especially back in the 70s and 80s and 90s and and I'm not ashamed of this, but we call ourselves independent fundamental Baptist church.

And uh that term is kind go over to the book of Jude if you would right before revelation. The term has kind of come into disuse today is because it's fundamental is now, you know, associated with the idea of being a terrorist and and all the rest of that. So, it's a term that's not used as much today. You'll still see it, but very very few churches advertise themselves as independent fundamental Baptist churches uh today, but we are still fundamental. And the word came from the idea of the fundamentals of faith. back in around the um mid 1900s uh from the early to mid 1900s, a lot of churches begin to get into what was called hired thinking.

And they begin thinking they knew more than God did. And so at that point, they begin changing their beliefs and and saying, "Well, we don't know if we believe in creation anymore. We don't believe know if we believe in inspiration anymore. We don't know if we even believe in salvation by grace." And and so a lot of mainline line churches that were great church groups began to move away from their fundamental beliefs. And so a group of leaders at that time said, "Wait a minute. We believe in the fundamentals of the faith." And so they made a list of those fundamental beliefs that that were necessary to believe in that there was no compromise on.

And uh and and they made this list. Now in what happened is fundamentalism became instead of believing in that list it became that these were the strict people that believe that you shouldn't smoke, drink or chew or go with girls who do you know it became more about standards and it became about the fundamental beliefs. And if you go back to that list it's we what we still believe today. We believe in the inspirational word of God. We believe in uh in the creation story. We believe in Noah's arc and the flood to be true and all the rest of it. You know, we believe in salvation by faith and so on.

And so they made this list of fundamentals and said this is what we believe and and that's what it would identify. What we tend to use the word today instead is bibllicist because really is what come back. We still believe in the Bible and so we we tend to probably use the word biblicis more than we would use the word fundamentalist. But I'm not ashamed of that idea of fundamentals either. Look at Jude verses 3 and 4. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the com common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered on the saints.

For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So he said, "Listen, there's there's people are starting to take us away from those fundamentals of faith and you need to stay faithful to that. You need to contend for that." And that's what happened. These guys stood up and said, "Listen, we're not going to compromise." And some of them stayed within their groups and tried to hold on to that. And some of them said, "There's no saving it.

We're going to come out and start a different group here over here and come away from that." And by the way, that's another reason for the independent. If we as a church go bad, it just affects our church. It doesn't affect all the other churches in that group. So, like you you may have seen in past years, the Southern Baptist Convention has a number of issues that they've fought over uh like women being pastors and other issues. And when it's your whole convention, it affects everybody. But when it's just your church, it's just your church. You you answer to God. But so we believe in the fundamentals of fa faith fundamentals in our beliefs and practices.

Go to Isaiah chapter 8 and verse number 20. Isaiah chapter 8 and verse number 20. To the law and to the testimony they speak not according to words because there's no light in them. And so we we say listen if you're not preaching according to the word of God then it's not the truth. And we're going to hold fast to those things which come from the word of God. And um and so and some of you might be saying, "Well, why do we have to do all this, pastor?" Because what happens is is this has been constant throughout the ages is you get a group of people are really on fire for God, right with God. And then what happens to begin to move away from that and then a group comes out from them and then they move away from it.

And it just happens over and over again. And that's the challenge is to stay faithful to the fundamentals of what we believe in the word of God. All right. When we um we talk about different groups, there's three primary groups you're going to talk about here. We're going to talk about here. And and again, I don't want to I just want you to understand because you're going to hear some of these issues as a Christian. You got what are called fundamentalists. And those that could be a pretty broad definition. Um it can be people that are very extreme. It's like a Republican. You got the MAGA Republicans, you got the moderate Republicans, you got the liberal Republicans.

So just because they're Republican gives you a general picture, but there can be very different variety within there. And um and and so you got fundamentalists, then you've got what are also called liberals. Now today's world, a liberal is a leftist, socialist, communist, you know, whatever else it might you might term you use politically. We're not talking about a political liberal. We're talking about a liberal in their beliefs about the Bible. And then the third group you've got are what are called new in new evangelicals. Now, anybody know what an evangelical is? An evangelical is somebody believes in evangelism, which is what evangelism is?

You need to come to trust Christ as your savior. It's reaching out to people that you need to get saved. You need to trust Jesus Christ as your savior. That's evangelism. So we we are evangelical as fundamentals. We we are evangelicals because we try to reach the loss for Christ. The new evangelicals, there's they're they're moving away from the fundamentals of faith. They still believe in salvation, but that's where the kind of that's where the commonality ends. So let's look at these. So fundamental believes fundamentalist believes that the Bible is the only rule for faith and practice. This is it.

I don't need anything else. There's no other books. There's no other place I need to go except right here. Everything that I need is in this book right here. I believe it's the only rule for faith and practice. Uh second Timothy chapter 3, all scripture gives inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for reprove, for correction, for instruction, righteousness, that the man of God may thoroughly furnish unto good works. We believe that everything you need is right here in the word of God. It's it um second Peter chapter 1 and verse number 19. Second Peter 1 and verse 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy where unto you do well that you take heed is unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts.

So as fundamentals we believe in the fundamentals of the word of God. We believe that we believe in the creation story as written, not a day age theory, not a uh gap theory. And we and and if you don't know what those are, gap theory says that God created the world, then there's a millions of years, and then Satan rebelled. And that's what that's what answers for all the millions and billions of years of scientists tell us about the day age theory says that a day with the Lord is a thousand years a thousand years day. So when the Bible says God created the world in six days, it really means it was in in in six millenniums and that's what both of those are compromises with evolution is what they come down to.

We believe in the beginning God created the heaven's earth and he created the heaven and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. We believe in a literal creation story. We believe in a flood, a worldwide flood. We believe that Noah saved two of every animal and and his family and and it all start over again. We believe in the the death, the burial, the resurrection of Christ. Literally, uh we believe in all of these things. We believe when the Bible says it, it's true. And we believe in the and and it's the only, you know, guide for faith and practice and everything is true. So that's the fundamentalists.

Okay? And um then you've got the liberal. Now again, remember this is a biblical liberal, not a political liberal. The Bible is one rule for faith and practice. Yeah, this is a great book and it's got great things in there, but there's other things we can turn to as well. So, the liberal will say, "Yeah, the Bible's got some good things, but so does whatever other religious book it might be. You can find truth elsewhere as well." They don't believe in the absolute truth of the word of God. See, we believe in two two kinds of truth as as fundamentals. We believe two kinds of truth. One is absolute truth.

God said it. It's true. Second one is observational truth. There are some things that God did not say but we can observe to be true. Now observational truth is based on what? Your observation and your point of view. An unsaved evolutionist can observe the facts and I can observe the facts and I observe and I say they all point towards creation and the onsave of evolution says they all point towards evolution. We're observing the same truth but our perspective is based upon our core truth what we believe. Do you follow what I'm saying? And and so um we always have to separate out is this absolute truth is God said it there's no arguing with it and then is this observational truth that we can base on which means I can be wrong because I'm a finite person but if I'm using the right foundation in my studying the truth I'm I'm going to come to the right conclusions.

So, but the liberal, they say there's more than one place we can go. And and again, there's different extremes of that. There's some churches that hardly ever refer to the Bible, and there's other churches that will, yeah, they talk about the Bible, but there's Yeah, but and they'll they'll bring in the additional there. Um, they basically deny the supernatural elements in the Bible. So most most liberal churches and most of your mainline denominations now would be considered probably liberal churches. Um the ones that have been around for a long time, those are the ones begin going bad in the mid1 1900s and they've just continued that process.

And even some great churches, the Methodist Church started out as one of the greatest soul-winning churches there was. And today, uh United Methodist Church, I I have I used to have I I don't have a copy of anymore, but I cut this out of paper. was an ad that the United Methodist Church had paid for it. They paid for this ad. It was not some reporting on them. And in the ad and big letters, it said, "Do you believe?" And then below it, they listed in the creation story. "Do you believe in the flood? Do you believe in?" And they listed about three or four other things there. And then in bigger, bolder letters under they said, "Neither do we."

and they were paying to advertise that to people that we don't believe it and that's a liberal. Now, there's different levels of them. Again, some liberal churches will have some things they will believe in, but they they don't look at the Bible as absolute. They don't look at the Bible as being, you know, fact and and all. They look at as they they can interpret what they want in there and they take the truths that they want. Basically, liberal churches will preach and practice a social gospel. That you, you know, you can be changed through society, not through Christ. It's if if we can change your circumstances, if you can change how you act, the social gospel, it's a works gospel.

It's a social gospel that they preach rather than the gospel of salvation. Okay. Then number three there is new evangelical. And this kind of started around the 60s,7s, 80s right there back in the 1900s. Um, and what it was is they believe the Bible is the rule for faith and practice. And you say, well, what's what's that different? We believe this is the only rule for faith and practice. A new evangelical would say, we we believe this is the rule for faith and practice. They're stricter than the liberal, but they kind of fudge on that. And and so number one there, letter A under that, an evangelical again believes in the need for evangelism.

So this would be primarily churches that do believe in salvation by grace through faith. They don't believe in a work salvation. They don't believe in a social gospel. They believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They would believe in that. Now what you'll find is a lot of them will preach about Jesus but never really bring to that point where you need to trust him. They talk about Jesus. They talk about the gospel. They talk about all this, but there's really no invitation to come to Christ, to put your faith in Christ. There tends to be less of that that you'll see. Not always. Um there's some great uh new evangelical evangelical um groups that will have revival service.

Billy Graham was one of those. A lot of people got saved under Billy Graham. Um that's where my wife, I think, really came to understand the gospel was watching him on TV. and and yet at the same time they'd have Catholic priests there. If somebody came to trust Jesus, they would say, "Well, this Catholic priest will take you and talk to you." As well as a Baptist and a Lutheran and everybody else. Um so they what they what ends up is they say, "Yeah, we believe this is the the the um the rule for faith and practice, but it's not they're not they don't want to be too strict on it." And and so a new evangelical wants to bridge the gap between liberals and evangelicals.

They're kind of in the middle say, "Well, you know, you guys believe in Jesus and you guys believe in, you know, Jesus, too. So, we're going to try to kind of bring you to the middle." And and and that's their kind of their goal in that. Uh go to 2 Chronicles chapter 18, if you would. 2 Chronicles chapter 18. We see a lot of this going on in in the time of the the kings and the prophets and everything and and um you remember uh in 2 Chronicle 18 vers1 now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor and abundance and joined divinity with Ahab. You had the two two groups, the the Judah and Israel. They had separated out and Judah was following the Lord somewhat and Israel was not.

And and the two kings came together and said, you know, we can find common ground and let's work together because we both believe in God. And if you read through this chapter, what end up is it end up God said, you know, both of you now, you know, remember what it says in Revelation, I would you either cold nor hot because you're lukewarm basically. I I'm going to spew you out of mouth. And that's what happened. And and so that's what what happened is this this this group came along and and I very I think very sincerely. I know a lot of new evangelicals that you I love them and and I believe they believe in the word of God and they believe in Jesus Christ, but they're just not willing to take a stand on that and they they want to bring everybody together into one group.

And that's what you see. So they they try to grip bridge that gap between liberals and evangles through ecumenicism and compromise. And so you'll see we'll have big big revival meetings. let's bring all the different churches together or we'll we'll work together for this or that or things. And again, I think there's like like you I think turning point is a good example. There's a place for that maybe politically and I think there's some good things they may accomplish at different times, but at the end it still ends up I know a lot of those people that spoke at his funeral were Catholics. And I'm not trying to diss Catholics, but they do not believe in salvation by grace through faith as a church.

And and they don't believe what I believe. And yet they're up there talking about Jesus Christ. And and there's a difference between that and and there was Mormons there and and other groups there as well. And and and so from a Lynch's point of view, we we have to have a separation for them. And then there's compromise. Well, you know what? just let's not let's not fight over whether we believe in creation. Let's just all get together because we believe in Jesus. And so they want you to compromise your beliefs in order to come together and cooperate together. And that's what happens. This is a statement from one of them and I' I didn't write down who said this so I apologize but what matters is a heart attitude of complete love and trust in Christ regardless of how you live the outward life.

You know it's not important how you live. It's not important what you believe. as long as you believe in Jesus. You know, we all believe in Jesus, don't we? And then that's what it comes down to. In Hebrews, I'm sorry, in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verses 15 and 16, the Bible says, "But as he which called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." Because it's written, be holy, for I am holy. The word holy means to be set apart. And so, seven characteristic of new evangelical is number one, a fresh understanding of the reliability and authority of the scriptures. Again around the 70s, 80s, 90s, a big group of a lot of books were written, a lot of people coming out in this and saying, you know what, let's just look at the authority of the Bible in a with fresh eyes.

I think that's a great thing to do. But what they were really doing is saying, let's just look at what we can kind of compromise on a little bit. And that's where the problem came in. We said, no, this is the word of God. There's no compromise on that. Number two, a reinterpretation of biblical infallibility and inherency and acceptance of higher criticism. Higher criticism is not that they're, you know, they're up on a hill criticizing everybody. By the way, you know why they call colleges institutes of higher learning because most of them are built up on a hill. Uh but anyway, um higher criticism came in again the mid 1900s as basically a bunch of theologians said we're going to criticize the Bible.

we're going to go through and really break it down. And so we don't believe Moses wrote all of this. We don't believe that this was actually true. And and they begin to to break down the Bible in that way. And and and and so some evangelicals said, "You know what? Let's let's not be so strict." And again, I don't want to be so strict. I'm I'm not willing to listen to the other side and all the rest of it. But at the same time, this is the word of God, and there is no compromise here. Number three, an emphasis on meaningful sanctification rather than a legalistic code of conduct following the new birth.

The new evangelical church said, you know, it's okay if we don't live the way we should as long as we believe in Jesus. Don't judge people on how they live. Now, again, we can take it, and I'll talk about this later, we can take it to the extreme and become legalistic, and we don't want to do that, and we'll talk about that. But at the same time, as independent fundamental Baptists in our beliefs, we believe that if you're saved, your life should be different. You're a new Christian in Christ. You should live different. You should act different. You come out from the world big and separate, all the rest of that.

And um and then that's where the argument comes in with that. All right. And we're going to have to stop there. We'll go through this. I don't want to get bogged down here, but you need to understand where we came from. It's like understanding we're coming up to with 250th anniversary of America. If you don't understand our foundation is where we came from, then we're going to lose it. We've got to understand that. The same thing is true in our beliefs because you know what's going to happen? More and more people keep pulling away. We thought it was bad back in the 40s and 50s and 1900. It's worse today.

And so there's got to be a group of people say, you know what, no compromise here. the stay faithful to the word of God and we also got to understand what we should not compromise on. So we'll talk about that some more and go into that and then um we'll we'll kind of define some of the dangers. There's dangers of being a fundamental independent fundamental Baptist. You can become very arrogant. You become very legalistic and there's dangers that we want to avoid as well.