Letters    

ON CHURCH GROWTH

Dear J. W.                                                                                                         April 26, 1994

     ...You express concern about the lack of conversions in your church. While I do not want to minimize any lack of zeal on the part of the church, it is to be expected that in an age of apostasy that the work of God will not prosper. If it did, there would be no apostasy.

       A young man who was attending Augusta College began coming with his family to our church. We hold services in our living room, and have between 20-25 people. His father had attended a big bus church for more than 9 years, and now plays the piano for us. In the last year, J. has given credible evidence of true conversion. We have not given an "altar call," but God has issued his own call. His mother testified one prayer meeting that J. is such a joy to her heart; that he is no longer insolent and rebellious. ...This is true conversion; and it is extremely rare in our day when people have little love for truth.

      Certainly, we can call men and plead with them without trying to manipulate a decision from them, or by equating salvation with a public altar call. Spurgeon was right when he said, "We have no altars now: Christ is our Altar."

TO A PRIMITIVE BAPTIST ELDER

Dear R. S.                                                                                                   February 18, 1995

      ...To answer your questions, 1.) our congregation is Baptist in doctrine, but we are not members of any Baptist body. We are designated as an independent Baptist church.

    2.) We encourage tithing, but not as a matter of Law, but rather as the place where Christians should be willing to begin to give.

      3.) I receive no salary, but live according as the people of God are made willing to give.

     4.) Bible school, or seminary is not necessary for one to preach the gospel, but the lack of formal education should not be allowed to encourage an ignorant ministry. A truly serious pastor, and one who knows that he has been called of God, will certainly want to "show (himself) approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth" (II Timothy 2:15).

     5.) We do not belong to the Old School Primitive Baptists, although we preach the Doctrines of Grace. We believe the Scriptures teach God's use of instrumentality in salvation. Paul says, "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (I Corinthians 1:21b). The Primitive Baptists reject the doctrine that God being sovereign has the right to use instruments in the salvation of sinners, and have made up their own doctrine to explain this verse. They argue there is a difference between "eternal salvation" and "salvation to fellowship" as by church membership. However, the Bible teaches no such thing.

      6.) In asking about the history of our church, let me say, we do not believe in the Roman Catholic doctrine of apostolic succession which strangely enough the Old School teaches. Every child of God since the time of the apostles has proceeded from the apostles and their ministry.

       I know this is brief, but I trust it will help answer your questions. I am grateful the Lord has opened your heart regarding the Doctrines of Grace. Hold firmly to the Scriptures, and base everything upon them. And, with each thing you learn intellectually, may it humble you even more, and cause you to look to the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer.

      I will pray that the Lord will ...use you to spread abroad the glories of His name.

ON THE USE OF WINE

Dear J. Z.                                                                                                  September 25, 1984

      ...I do not see any evidence to substantiate the fact that Jesus or the Apostle Paul drank alcohol. I know there are some saints who disagree such as the Plymouth Brethren, the Protestant and Catholic churches, and even including Reformed Baptists. However, I find no such inference in Scripture; and to me, since Solomon, the "wisest man who ever lived," states that fermented wine is capable of causing its users to "behold strange women," "utter perverse things," to become insensitive to feeling, and to lose the ability to discriminate between what is holy and what is profane, and all the while is capable of becoming habit-forming (Proverbs 23:33,35; 31:5; 23:35)—I cannot believe it is reasonable to play with it.

     An article that appeared in the Baptist Examiner argued that because the Corinthians were rebuked by the Apostle for drunkenness, fermented wine must have been used for the Lord's Supper. That is like reasoning that since the Apostle Paul rebuked the Corinthians for tolerating immorality in the church that immorality must have been the custom of the early church.

     The fact that the Lord's Supper was instituted at the close of the Passover does not help the case of those who want to drink alcohol because in preparation for the Passover Feast the Jews were commanded to purge out all leaven from their dwellings. Fermented wine is "leavened" juice. Was leaven forbidden to be eaten but allowed to be drunk?

      The Baptist Examiner then tries to argue that grapes contain their own leavening agent, and that in fermenting, the leaven is destroyed. The argument is ridiculous since everyone knows that in baking yeast bread, the leaven is destroyed. Using such reasoning, it would be proper for the Jews to use yeast bread in the Passover.

      In the mid 1600's, John Trapp published a tract entitled Abstinence in which he argues that wine is forbidden to Moslems. He then wrote, "Now if these Gentiles which have not the Law, do by nature the things contained in the Law, and so show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness with or against them; shall not the uncircumcision which is by nature if it fulfill the Law judge thee who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the Law? Doth not that perfect Law of Liberty, the Gospel, teach men to do something singular? to walk exactly? to exceed the scribes and Pharisees? how much more Turks and Heathens?" (I am quite sure you cannot find this tract unless it was published at the end of his Commentary On The New Testament which was recently reprinted. My set of Trapp is a second edition.) Must go.

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