Polishing the Baptist Family Name by Rev. Craig A.Sherouse, Ph.D.

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Sermon Series Introduction

Epiphany was this week. The word means 'manifestation,' and in the Eastern Orthodox churches it is celebrated to commemorate Jesus' baptism. And since the Orthodox practice baptism by immersion, they usually celebrate it by blessing some body of water.
The world's largest celebration of Epiphany was held this past Monday in Tarpon Springs. 26,000 people cheered as 42 young men from St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church dove into the 65 degree water of Spring Bayou. In the longest search anyone can remember, 18 year old Nioti Koulianos dove four times but he finally retrieved the white cross thrown in by the Archbishop.
Nioti had an Epiphany! He surfaced from the depths shouting 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' He held up the cross in his bloody hand, cut while searching the rocky bottom. It was an Epiphany, a manifestation of the cross where blood once again mingled with water, as it had at Golgotha. When Nioti arrived at the shore he fell crying into his parents' arms. His proud grandmother, still in her green choir robe, buried her face in his neck. The other divers carried him on their shoulders to the church, where the Archbishop blessed him. Since he was 2, Nioti had practiced for this dive, and it was his last year to be eligible. It was, he said, the greatest day of his life. It was an Epiphany. The very best manifested by his Greek Orthodox tradition had been grabbed by this young man.
I also had an Epiphany this week. I had a renewed manifestation of how honored I feel to be an historic Baptist. Immersing myself in preparation for this sermon series I felt like I had dived again into the invigorating Baptist waters, like I had tightened my grip on some of the best distinctives of our Baptist tradition. I said 'yes, yes, yes,' and I gained a new enthusiasm about sharing these sermons with you.
It felt a little like I was reclaiming my family name. Our Baptist family name has been tarnished in recent years. Like expensive, fine silver that is placed on the shelf for years, our family name has been tarnished by lack of use. We don't study nor celebrate our unique understandings of Christianity. 'Baptist' is just our name, not our identity. I have neglected this myself. Years ago I put a great deal of energy into studying and teaching our Baptist identity, but I have neglected it. I've shelved it. Literally, I have kept my four shelves of Baptist Studies books on the most inaccessible shelves in my office and behind some closet doors. As a symbolic act of repentance, I rearranged my bookshelves this week and brought my Baptist books out to a prominent, proud place!
Some church growth experts tell us that we ought to let denominational names tarnish. We should shelve them if we want to reach what they call our 'post-denominational' culture. Post-modern people don't care about denominations, we are told. Denominations are dinosaurs from a by-gone age. Leave them tarnishing on the shelf. So, many new start-up congregations do not use a denominational designation in their name, even though they are denominationally affiliated. They are 'Community Churches,' or 'Grace Churches.'
Certainly, brand-name loyalty is not what it used to be. We are a nation of switchers, and the younger we are the less loyal we tend to be. My children's generation is not nearly as denominationally loyal as my parents' generation. Many of us have children who are not Baptist, and many of us did not grow up Baptist. But some of the best church growth research I have been reading says that a denominational name is actually a more positive than negative influence on the unchurched. According to Thom Rainer's important book, Surprising Insights from the Unchurched, 80% of the formerly unchurched who have been reached for Christ say that a denominational name had neither a negative nor a positive influence on their coming to a particular church. And of the other 20% who were influenced by a denominational name, there was more positive than negative influence. In other words, polishing off our denominational family name isn't going to hurt our evangelism to a post-modern culture. It may actually help. People like to know what they are getting into! We believe in truth in advertising, don't we'
Our Baptist family name has been tarnished by neglect. It has also been tarnished by misuse. Like a fine piece of silver that is abused, our Baptist distinctives have been tarnished through mishandling. Our recent family feud in Southern Baptist life has tarnished our name to some people. Some prominent Baptist leaders' widely distributed statements about Judaism, Muhammad and others have caused some of us to tell our friends, 'I'm not that kind of Baptist.' Some of us have been a little embarrassed of our name. Why is the Baptist Bookstore now known as 'Lifeway'' Why is the 'Baptist Hour' radio program changing its name after over 60 years to 'Strength for Living'' Why do some new Baptist churches leave 'Baptist' out of their name' The name 'Baptist' has been tarnished by misuse, and some think it may not be the best marketing slogan.
We need a Baptist Epiphany, a re-manifestation of some of the truly good things about who we are and what we believe. We need to dive down deeply into those invigorating Baptist waters and come up with a firm grip on some of our wonderful distinctives. We need to rearrange our shelves and pull out and polish up our Baptist name! The five sermons of this sermon series are my effort to help us do that. We will be looking for an Epiphany that will help us grab a hold of some of the best of our tradition. We will be looking at our understanding of the Bible, the free human soul, the autonomy of the local congregation, the freedom of religion from governmental control, and our understanding of the wonderful symbols of baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Polishing the Baptist Family Name:
"Bible Baptist"
James 1:25 January 12, 2003 AM
Rev. Craig A.Sherouse, Ph.D.
Lakeside Baptist Church, Lakeland, FL

Today we look at our understanding of the Bible. Every authentic Baptist church can call itself a 'Bible Baptist' church. We believe that the Bible is God's written Word. We believe that the Bible must be central in the life of the believer. We believe that the congregation must be ordered around the centrality of the Bible. We believe that the Bible points us to Jesus and that He is the criteria by which we interpret and apply the Bible to our lives. We believe in Bible study and believe that every believer is both and free and obligated to study and obey the Bible. We believe that pastors and scholars and their insights are important for understanding the Bible. But we believe that each individual must decide for themselves what the Bible means. We are Bible Baptists!
James 1:25 says there is a blessing for those who look into the 'law of liberty.' The 'law of liberty' ' what a great thing to call the Bible! What a free and freeing book! I want us to grab that blessing this morning, to come up saying, 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' What a wonderful blessing it is to grab this 'law of liberty.' My friend and mentor, Walter Shurden of Mercer University, has helped me know how to grab the blessing of looking into the law of liberty as a Bible Baptist. Dr. Shurden uses four prepositions as handles for grabbing onto this free Bible: Of, Under, From, and For. Bible Baptists experience the law of liberty as liberty of interpretation, liberty under the lordship of Christ, liberty from any binding creeds, and liberty for the purpose of doing the Word of God. I want to break down James 1:25 using each of those prepositions.
As Bible-believing Christians we have liberty of interpretation! God must like variety of expression and interpretation. Look at the Bible itself ' what a diverse collection it is! Even each of the four Gospels has a different interpretation of Jesus. Hebrews 1 says that God has spoken in 'many and various ways.' And those various ways have been understood in many more various ways! God has never dictated absolute uniformity in interpretation. He honors the liberty of each individual to read and interpret scripture.
I like 5-year-old Robin Erwin's interpretation. She lives in Largo. Her mother was helping her rehearse "Away in a Manger" for her Christmas concert. But Robin was having trouble understanding the lyrics, "the cattle are lowing ." When her mother told her that people spoke differently in Old Testament times than they do today, Robin piped up, "Old Testament cows low--and New Testament cows moo!"
Maybe not completely correct, but it is Robin's interpretation. And she has the liberty to have it! That doesn't mean we have to agree with everyone's interpretation. You don't even have to agree with everything I say, or the Sunday School lesson says, or the Sunday School teacher says. We Baptists do not have a designated final word of interpretation on the Word! There is no formal teaching office that hands down correct biblical interpretation.
This means you have to be a serious student of the Bible to be a growing Baptist Christian. You have to do like James says, 'look into the perfect law.' That is continuing action. James says you have to 'persevere' in this looking. It means to be very intentional, not just glance. It means to stoop and stare. It is the same word used of Peter and Mary when they stooped down to look into the tomb to see if Jesus' body was there.
Several years ago Billy Graham, one of the world's best known Baptists, was asked what he would do differently if he could live his life over again. He said: "I wish I had studied more and preached less." It is our privilege and responsibility to study more, to stoop down and stare into the perfect law of liberty, to dive into the deep and come up saying, 'Yes! I have an interpretation!' That's the liberty of interpretation!
Our liberty of interpreting the Bible is exercised under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Paul told Timothy that the ultimate purpose of the scripture is to 'instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.' (II Tim. 3:15) John said that his gospel was written 'so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.' (20:31)
Before there was a New Testament the early Christians were expressing their faith by saying 'Jesus is Lord.' Early Christians interpreted all of scripture in light of that confession. A Baptist Christian understanding is that we must also filter every interpretation of the Bible through that confession. How do we judge among so many different individual interpretations of scripture' We ask ourselves, 'How does this stack up to who Jesus is and what he did while on earth' What did Jesus do, or not do' What did Jesus say, or not say' What is Jesus saying and doing now about this''
We affirm that the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament are the inspired, written Word of God. We call them the 'canon,' or measuring rod, of faith. But who sets the standard of the measuring rod' Who says an inch is an inch, a gospel is a gospel, salvation is by grace' Jesus does, for he is Lord ' Lord of the church, Lord of the Bible, Lord of the interpreter. It is Jesus who blesses the conscientious interpreter. That's what James means when he says that those who continue to intentionally stoop and stare into the perfect law of liberty and do what they find 'will be blessed in their doing.' Jesus is the blesser! He is the giver of all beatitudes, and here is another!
Although we firmly believe in the liberty of individual interpretation, we also believe in accountability of interpretation! It is liberty of and under! All proper interpretation of scripture must be carried out under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That's why the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message Statement, which our church's Bylaws affirm, says so wonderfully: 'The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ.'
I remember when Jesus cheers came out: 'Three cheers for Jesus!' What a hubbub they caused! But early Baptists actually had two cheers. They were: 'This Lord and no more!' And, 'This Book and no more!' No pope, no king, or no bishop could usurp the lordship of Christ over the soul of the individual. No creed, no confession, and no doctrinal statement can usurp the authority of the Bible. As Bible Baptists we can cheer that we have liberty of interpretation, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and from any binding creed, confession or statement. We can come up saying 'Yes!' When you joined this church you were asked to say straight from the Bible 'Jesus is Lord;' you were not asked to affirm a creed.
James calls the Word of God the 'perfect law.' Scripture is complete, it is all you need to be brought to faith in God. It does not need any supplementary editions. It does not need any creedal glasses through which to read it. No other document can adequately summarize its message! No other word can become the norm! The Bible is complete in and of itself. It is the perfect law. We can go there and have our spiritual needs completely serviced ' it is one-stop spiritual shopping!
I read a cute story about Jacob, 85, and Rebecca, 81. They decided to get married and went for a stroll to discuss their wedding plans. On the way they came to a drugstore and decided to look around. Jacob addressed the pharmacist: "Do you sell heart medication'" "Of course we do!" the Pharmacist replied. "How about medicine for circulation problems'" "All kinds" "Medicine for rheumatism'" "Definitely!" "How about Viagra'" Jacob whispered. "Of course!" "Medicine for memory'" "Oh, Yes, a large variety," said the pharmacist. "What about vitamins and sleeping pills'" "Absolutely!" Satisfied, Jacob turns to Rebecca: "Sweetheart, this is all we need! We might as well register our wedding gift list with them!"
'This Book and no more!' We don't need any other binding sources of spiritual authority in our lives. All we need is right here! We may as well register with this authority! Jesus never said, 'Repeat after me.' He said simply, 'Follow me.' And as Bible Baptists we believe that is enough ' that the liberty of interpretation of the Bible, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ liberates us from having to repeat after anyone a binding creed, confession or statement!
Bible Baptists are creed-challenged. We won't even call them creeds, they are 'confessions,' or 'statements,' or 'messages.' The Southern Baptist Convention was founded in 1845 deliberately without any confessional doctrinal statement. That's hard to imagine in this creed-fixated day and time. The Minutes of that first meeting read: 'We have constructed for our basis no new creed; acting in this matter upon a Baptist aversion for all creeds but the Bible.' That aversion for all creeds lasted for eighty years until the first Baptist Faith and Message statement was approved by the SBC in 1925. That statement has been revised two times since as we have become increasingly creed-fixated.
By my count there are at least 50 major confessions of Baptists around the world. Each group does their own rather than affirming an international creed, like most major denominations do. Some large Baptist conventions, like the American Baptist Churches, still do not even have a confessional statement. This diversity is itself a sign of the freedom we Bible Baptists have. It is the law of liberty's liberty from any other binding authority.
As Bible Baptists we have the perfect law of liberty's liberty of interpretation, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is liberty from any binding creed, confession or statement. And it is liberty for the purpose of doing the Word of God. It isn't enough to hear and interpret freely. The Word must be obeyed! As James says, we must be doers of the word. Otherwise we have been deceived and have forgotten what the Word is all about.
We don't just interpret the Bible. It interprets us. Helmut Thielicke, the German theologian, told about holding up his infant son in front of a mirror. The baby moved; the reflection moved. Baby waved; the reflection waved. Suddenly the youngster's face lit up. He realized, 'That's me!' Thielicke said that's what scripture does to a person, it becomes a mirror in which we see our real selves, and then are able to do something about it.
That's how James describes a Christian's encounter with the Word of God in Holy Scripture. It is a look in the mirror, and it gives us the liberty to not just see but to do something about what we see. The law of liberty is liberty for the purpose of not just hearing and seeing, but for the doing of the Word!
Years a go, a clergyman took a seat in a dining car of a train traveling along the Hudson River. Opposite him sat a passenger who prided himself on being a card carrying atheist. When this gentleman noticed the minister's clerical collar, his pulse quickened in anticipation of a feisty philosophical fight.
After a few pleasantries were exchanged and lunch was served, the atheist mounted his attack: 'I see you're a minister.' 'Yes,' said the clergyman. 'And I suppose you believe the Bible,' the gentleman added, a hint of contempt creeping into his voice. 'Well, yes, I believe God speaks to us through the scripture,' the minister answered. 'Well I certainly don't,' the man shot back. 'The Bible is too full of holes for any thinking person to take it seriously.' Whereupon, he launched into a withering attack on Holy Scripture.
The minister listened patiently as the gentleman cited a number of supposed contradictions and critical problems within the Bible. While the atheist continued his tirade, the minister simply nodded in acknowledgement and went on eating his dinner. He happened to be dining on Hudson shad, a tasty fish but one noted for its bony structure.
'So tell me,' said the atheist, not willing to let the matter drop, 'how can you possibly take the Bible seriously, when it is so riddled with problems'' The clergyman paused to wipe his mouth. 'Well, sir, for me, reading the Bible is a lot like dining on this delicious shad. When I come to the bones, I just put them to the side of the plate and go on enjoying my lunch. I leave the bones for some fool to choke on.'
'Be ye doers of the Word!' Not hearers. Not skeptics. Not critics. Not those who choke on the bones. What are you doing with the part you can digest, the part of the Word that you do understand' What are you doing about that true picture of yourself that you see when you look in this mirror' How honored we are to have the liberty of the perfect law for the purpose of doing the Word!
Do you need an Epiphany today' Do you need to dive down into the deep and come up saying 'Yes! Yes! Yes!'' Do you need a re-manifestation of some of the truly good things about who we are and what we believe. Do you need to dive down deeply into those invigorating Baptist waters and come up with a firm grip on some of our wonderful distinctives. Do you need to rearrange your shelves and pull out and polish up some things'
Start by being a Bible Christian! Look deeply into this perfect law of liberty. Discover your liberty of interpretation, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ that frees you from any other binding authority and gives you the liberty for the doing of this Word! Claim your prepositions! Claim your liberty! Claim your name! Claim Christ!

Polishing the Baptist Family Name:
"Free Baptist"
Matthew 16:13-18 January 19, 2003 AM
Rev. Craig A.Sherouse, Ph.D.
Lakeside Baptist Church, Lakeland, FL

I woke up really thirsty Tuesday morning. Not thirsty for my normal orange juice, but for something more quenching than that. Monday night Beverly and I tried to practice some of what I preached last Sunday night about biblical financial management. We looked at our 2002 end of year financial picture. We looked at our retirement funds, and like most of yours, ours was not a very pretty picture. That led us into some pretty serious conversation about priorities and work, about success and calling. We didn't really resolve anything, we just wore ourselves out, ended the conversation and I went to bed, rather thirsty.
Tuesday morning, when I awoke, I grabbed a glass of orange juice and went, still thirsty, to my holy chair. I picked up one of my favorite devotional books. Telling God that I really needed a Word, I turned to January 14th and read that day's prayer: 'Father, the psalmist expresses my need: 'As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God' (Psalm 42:1-2).' I already knew Lester had picked the Praise Song of that verse for this morning. That seemed like God was bringing me a Word! And then I read the next line in the prayer: 'Nothing and no one can settle my inner restlessness. I praise You for this longing to reaffirm my relationship with You.'
It was a Word for me! It was like taking a drink from a cool, fast-flowing brook. It was like living water that became a spring within me. It was God's Spirit saying to my thirsty soul through His Word, 'Numbers won't settle it. Success, no matter how you measure it, won't settle it. Failure, however you gauge it, will not unsettle it. Only I can settle your inner restlessness.' And in a quiet moment with God, I wasn't so thirsty. I wasn't so restless. I wasn't so unsettled. My faith had found a resting place, as we just sang.
That personal, direct devotional encounter of my restless, thirsty soul with the Living God is a window into the topic of this sermon. Nothing and no one can settle a soul's inner restlessness. Only my personal encounter with the living God can give my free soul a resting place. A religious ceremony cannot do that matter how much water you use nor where you put it. A pastor or priest cannot, no matter how trustworthy that person is. Saying some biblical words cannot do that; even the demons say they believe in God, and tremble. Having someone pray for me cannot do that. Having parents or children who are at rest in the Lord doesn't do it. Not my mother nor my father, but it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer ' needing to find a place to rest all my weight and quench all my thirst.
Its being a thirsty deer panting for Living Water. Its being a free soul, created in God's very image, trying to reconnect personally, intimately and deeply with this One with Whom we have to do. It is the priority of the individual over the institutional, the personal over the sacramental. It is praying, not 'saying our prayers.' It is the sacredness of individual choice -- what C.S. Lewis meant when he said that there are only two types of people: Those who say to God, 'Thy will be done;' and those to whom God says, 'Thy will be done.'
It is what preacher and author Brownlow Hastings called 'the secret of the soul's naked presence before God alone.' It is what is called by various people with various shades of meaning 'soul competency,' 'soul liberty,' 'the priesthood of believers,' 'direct access to God.' It is the reason that Paul raised the questions to the Corinthians, 'For why should my liberty be subject to the judgment of someone else's conscience'' (I Cor. 10:29)
It is the reason that we Baptists do not believe in a hierarchical religious class system that elevates the clergy over the laity. It is the reason we believe there can be no proxy religious experience ' parents cannot do it for a child. It is the reason we do not baptize infants. It is the reason we believe you can pray directly to God through Jesus Christ. It is the reason we believe you can read and interpret the scriptures for yourself. It is the reason we believe you can confess your sins directly to God without the aid of any human mediator. It is the reason we do not want the state, the church, a creed, a pastor, a seminary president, a denominational leader or anyone or anything else to even cast a shadow between a free soul and God. It is the reason that in all our services we call people to make personal commitments to Christ. It is one of the outstanding distinctives that we Baptists have been right about. It is why I call us today 'Free Baptists.'
Dr. Herschel Hobbs, former pastor of First Baptist, Oklahoma City, wrote about Billy Graham preaching a good Baptist sermon to the combined civic clubs of his city some years ago. Billy shared a simple gospel message. He talked about the freedom and competency every soul has to make a personal, direct salvation connection with God. 'At the close,' Hobbs wrote, 'non-Baptist men that I know hold positions of leadership in their churches, comparable to deacons, rushed forward to thank Billy for his message. More than once they were heard to say, 'I have been going to church all of my life, but I never heard that before. It is the greatest thing I ever heard!' The Baptist Governor of Oklahoma said to me, 'You know, preacher, you could hear a similar sermon on any given Sunday in any Baptist church in Oklahoma. But they do not know it is there.'' Being free Baptists is part of our name, and we dare not let it tarnish from neglect nor abuse! We need to polish soul liberty up, and let it shine for all to see!
You know the old saying, 'You can take a deer to water, but you can't make it drink.' Well, it goes something like that! But suppose instead of your high-powered rifle you carry a 16 foot cast net up into your deer stand. And suppose when that 12 point buck walks by, you net him, jump down and tie him up. Suppose you put some ropes around his neck and dragged him, like a wild mustang, down to the creek. You might possibly be able, with a little help from your friends, to get him to the creek. But do you in your wildest imaginations think you could make him drink'
We are all, in our heart of hearts, created by God to be spiritually free souls, wild bucks that cannot be coerced into faith. We have to want and chose that drink! Authentic faith is a supernatural intersection of God's grace and initiative, and personal response. It doesn't happen by committee. The kingdom is built one by one. Jesus becomes Lord one by one! 'But who do you say that I am''
The pollsters had been checking up on how Jesus' campaign was going. 'What are they saying about me out there'' Jesus asked his disciples. 'A resurrected John the Baptist is the leading opinion. Others say one of the prophets, Elijah, Jeremiah or someone else.' 'But who do you ' 'yall' ' say that I am'' Forget this polling. It is time to vote. And you have to vote one-by-one. Even though Jesus used the plural form of you, he doesn't want a group opinion. He doesn't want them to huddle up and take a straw poll and announce that it was 7 to 5, but 'the Messiah' won. He wants them to make up their own mind, every one of them.
Peter gives the right answer, not just because he used the right words, but because they were his words. His confession: 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus blesses Peter for using his God-given free soul, for being his own priest, for not huddling and doing 'group-think' on this most important question. 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you ' not polls, not 'herd mentality' ' but my Father in heaven.'
Imagine that: the Father in heaven circumventing all other intermediaries and bringing that most important awareness directly to an untrained fisherman! No priests, no ceremony, no congregation, no one else's words, no pressure other than the pleading love of Jesus ' just Peter, Jesus and the Father, and that was enough. And that is enough to build a whole church out of: one free soul after another responding to the initiating love of Christ. One deer after another coming to the brook and choosing to drink. There's a lot of risk with this soul freedom thing. Look at Peter - he hits a homer with this confession. But right after this he forbids Jesus from going the way of the cross, and Jesus throws him out of the game. 'Get behind me, Satan!' Soul freedom allows for mistakes. God is willing to risk our irresponsible interpretations, even our heresies. Jesus permitted Peter to be both advocate and adversary.
Both advocates and adversaries can be found in the story of soul freedom and the church. But one of the saddest historical facts of the Christian faith is that we have had so few advocates of soul freedom. It has always been a minority report. The early church faced persecution, but when Christianity became the dominant religion in the Roman Empire, it became the persecutor. Heretics, blasphemers, pagans and sincere interpreters who differed from the party line were harassed, imprisoned, tortured and executed ' all in the name of God.
Prominent Christian leaders -- like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, many popes, Martin Luther, John Calvin and Oliver Cromwell -- all supported the use of coercion in the spread and defense of the Gospel. 'Compel them to come in' (Luke 14:24) they quoted from Jesus' parable of the Great Banquet. So Protestants and Catholics fought wars and Catholics had the Inquisition. 'Compel them,' they cried as Protestants banned Catholic worship and as Calvin supported the burning at the stake of a Unitarian. The oppressed became the oppressors! Protestants even persecuted each other. Luther supported the persecution of our cousins, the Anabaptists, and Anglicans persecuted Separatists, Puritans and Baptists.
My ancestors came as colonists to Savannah, Georgia in 1741. They were Lutherans who had joined an immigration of about 300 Lutherans who were forced by the Catholic Archbishop to leave the Salzburg area within three months. When they settled in Georgia they initially opposed the efforts to legalize slavery there. But eventually they supported it, and even their pastor became a slave owner. The oppressed became the oppressors.
We think our nation was founded by people who universally supported soul liberty. Wrong! We have been both advocates and adversaries. The Puritans did come to New England for the freedom of their souls -- their souls, but not non-Puritan souls! In Massachusetts they oppressed Baptists and others who differed with them. Just a few years after the first Thanksgiving they called down God's wrathful judgment on the Indians. Baptist pastors were jailed and flogged. Roger Williams ran away from that colony in the dead of winter, persecuted by the Puritans' version of the Taliban. He called his experience 'soul rape.' He founded Rhode Island and the first Baptist church in America as centers of religious liberty based on his commitment to soul freedom.
Even in freedom-loving colonial Virginia it wasn't much better. There the Episcopal state church persecuted dissenters. Baptists were flogged and imprisoned for preaching. Throughout our history, the church, founded on Peter's personal confession, has been both advocate and adversary of soul freedom.
In May, 1920 George W. Truett, pastor of First Baptist, Dallas preached from the steps of the U.S. capitol a famous sermon on religious liberty. He called it 'the keystone truth of the Baptists' and made the grandiose statement: 'Baptists . . . have never been a party to oppression of conscience.' Truett displayed his own cultural captivity, ignoring Baptist participation in slavery, segregation, racism and sexism. And I suspect this George W. has been rolling over in his grave in recent years as Baptists have begun to emphasize the popehood of the preacher and creeping creedalism! But Truett did strategically highlight what is our singularly most important distinctive and contribution to the Christian community and the wider culture. We have certainly been more advocate than adversary when it comes to freedom of conscience!
Why all of this oppressed becoming the oppressor, advocates of soul liberty becoming its adversaries' Sin. Power corrupting. Greed. Revenge. The arrogance of dogma ' dogma biting man. Not understanding who God is and how He works.
I want to end this sermon with three short, basic biblical truths about God's nature, and two counter-balances to the risk of soul freedom. Soul freedom is derived primarily from the nature of God as revealed in scripture, not human nature. And the clearest thing the scripture reveals to us about God is that God is love. Christ came as a servant, without splendor, rank or worldly power. He lovingly invited Samaritans and other outcastes into his kingdom. He did not force their face into the Living Water. He went to the cross. He did not force people to follow him, he loved them. He was lifted up and drew us to himself. Love respects freedom. It has to. You cannot make someone love you. And our loving God wants to be loved by us. That's why He made us like He did.
Secondly, God is sovereign. God and God alone is ultimately in charge. He is Lord of all. He alone is the sovereign Lord of the human conscience. He has the freedom to speak directly to and through all people. Before His judgment seat alone we shall each stand and give an accounting. And we have the responsibility to obey His sovereignty. We must be like Daniel, and continue to pray to our God despite the law of the Medes and the Persians. We must say with Peter, 'We must obey God rather than humans.' (Acts 5:29)
And thirdly, God is trusting. God trusts us to be competent to make eternally significant decisions. He trusts us in matters of belief and interpretation. He called us to be a 'kingdom of priests' (Ex. 19:5), a 'holy priesthood offering sacrifices through Jesus Christ.' (I Pt. 2:5) He has 'broken down the wall of partition' (Eph. 2:14), the barriers that separate us from Him and each other. He has torn the temple curtain from top to bottom with the death of Christ. He trusts us to handle the awesome privilege and responsibility of the secret of our soul's naked presence before Him!
How else can we respond to God's love, sovereignty and trust but to be drawn to Him, to thirst for Him ' to run like a thirsty deer to the water brook' But as we run, remember two things. Remember that soul competency is not self-sufficiency! Salvation is by grace through faith, not of ourselves. Salvation is gift. Jesus asked the questions, Peter responded. God initiates, we reciprocate. God saves -- loving, ruling and trusting our souls to be competent to respond to what He does.
And secondly, soul freedom is not autonomy. None of us lives to ourselves, and none of us dies to ourselves (Rom. 14:7). We are part of a body, members of a community. We are family. We are church. We are not Lone Rangers. We are free agents who join a team! We are deer who group with others for a deer-drinking party at the brook!
Free Baptists. Free Christians. Thirsty deer hearing the call of Living Water. Me, thirsting for God sitting in my chair Tuesday morning. You, thirsting today, sitting in the pew. Free souls before the loving, sovereign, trusting God, responding to the question, 'But who do you say I am?'... Well?

Polishing the Baptist Name:
"Independent Baptist"
Acts 15:22 January 26, 2003 AM
Rev. Craig A.Sherouse, Ph.D.
Lakeside Baptist Church, Lakeland, FL

Baptist pastor and educator, Brad Creed, tells about a significant archeological find he made at one of the churches he pastored. Thumbing through the yellowed pages of a book of minutes from the turn of the twentieth century he read the following: 5:30 P.M. Thursday, May 16, 1901. Ladies Missionary Society met at the church. Member present: Ida L. Stephens. Sang -- 'All the Way My Savior Leads Me' and 'Come Unto Me and Rest.' Read James second chapter. Meeting adjourned. Signed, Ida L. Stephens.
Don't you like Ida's spirit! She was a good Baptist -- committed to being a part of a community, but independent. Involved in a network of cooperation for the cause of world-wide evangelism, but willing to go it alone if need be. Ida was a little 'i' independent Baptist. It was Thursday night, and she was there! She knew her place!
I found my sense of place in church, or I should say, churches. My life has been centered in, around and by the ten local congregations I have been a member of or regularly attended. All were Baptist churches. All had a place in their name, a road, a location or a town. Each congregation was independent, but each was a close knit community. From them I have found my place as an autonomous individual who desperately needs community.
I like to call our kind 'independent Baptists' with a small 'i.' There are capital I Independent Baptists. They are islands unto themselves. They participate with no other congregations, associations or conventions. They certainly don't mingle with the Methodists and Presbyterians. They don't do Ministerial Associations, Billy Graham Crusades or even Mayors' Prayer Breakfasts. They do not want to risk their autonomy nor doctrinal integrity by having community with anyone other than their own. They are capital 'I' Independent Baptists.
We are little 'i' independents. We have all the autonomy and independent rights as any capital 'I' Independent, but we also believe that we desperately need community. So we choose out of our independence to cooperate with other congregations, associations, conventions, alliances, fellowships and organizations.
The ten churches that have given me my sense of place have all been little 'i' independent Baptist congregations. From them I have learned that I am a free soul, competent to make eternally significant spiritual decisions. But I also learned that I am a vulnerable, needy, lonely believer who needs other believers to help me get it right. I need to be centered. I need a sense of my place in both the plan and the people of God! I need to be a small 'i' 'independent' kind of Baptist!
Some people think of the church as a group of self-righteous religious folk who try to put everyone else in their place. My experience is that all ten of my congregations were full of people who knew they were sinners, but who wanted to help me find my place in the plan and people of God. I have been universally loved and encouraged in all of these churches, from the nursery through middle age. I found out a lot about people there. My first social interaction outside of my immediate family came there. And there I found an extended family, full of married women I called 'Miss' and men old enough to be my grandfather that I called 'Brother.' I remember being welcomed and loved as I came to the nursery. But the earliest pain I remember was being kicked in the eye by Linda Kaye Johnson after I hid in a closet in the church nursery and scared her. I haven't tried that since! And there have been other hard life lessons I have learned in church - lessons about how to get along with people, how to confront people, how to care for and grieve and celebrate with people. I found my place in church, my place in an extended family.
I found out about love in church. I came to Christ as a child sitting in my pastor's study. He led me to understand how much God loved me and how He had sent Christ to die and be raised for me. The next Sunday I went down front and professed my faith and asked to be baptized and join the church. I had my first date at a church Valentine Banquet. I had my first kiss in the choir room. I met Beverly at a prayer breakfast in the Fellowship Hall Tuesday morning before high school. We taught Vacation Bible School together and became friends. One of my best friends from church arranged our first date. We were married in her sanctuary by my pastor. We were showered with gifts before our wedding. Our children were showered with gifts before their births and showered with love from birth until now by good congregations. Our children's babysitters, friends, faith and values were all radically shaped by Lakeside and two other congregations. And last summer two good congregations gave Alan and Jenny an incredible beginning to the next cycle of Sherouse family love. I found my place in church, my place in love with Beverly, Alan, Susan and now Jenny.
I found my voice in church. Miss Rosemary, Brother Bill and Brother Cal taught me to sing. Brother John helped me hear a call to vocational ministry and asked me to preach my first sermon -- seven minutes long! Don't you long for the good old days! Three college churches where I worked let me try out my leadership skills. During seminary, Rock Haven Baptist endured three pretty mediocre sermons a week from me for 5 1/2 years as I learned how to preach. Yet they encouraged me. They listened to me. And some times, they said they even heard the very Word of God!
Yes, I found my sense of place in church. I found my voice. I found love. I found an extended family. I found a remarkable balance of autonomy and community. I found a lot of who I am and where I belong. So I'm pretty big on being a little 'i' independent Baptist! Local congregations are the best places I know outside of your family to find your sense of place.

Ida L Stephens was an independent Baptist. I am one, and so are most of you. Ida's story, my story and your story really are stories of finding our sense of place through local congregations. The Baptist story is also a congregational story. The first Baptist church was formed by an uncommonly courageous pastor with the most common possible name, John Smyth. What a symbol for our sense of place: we have been a place for common people who exercise uncommon courage. Smyth and Thomas Helwys, a layman, led their congregation to migrate from England to Holland in 1607.
They were what we might call 'second wave' English reformers. The first wave were Puritans who tried to purify the Church of England from within. When these efforts failed the second wave, called 'Separatists,' separated to form autonomous, free congregations. They wanted to be free from the prescribed order of worship in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. They wanted to be free from persecution, free from restrictions and regulations, free from governmental interference. They wanted to be free to order their lives and congregations around their own interpretation of the scriptures. Holland was a center of such freedom, so there Smyth and Helwys led around forty Separatists.
After two years in Holland, studying the scriptures brought Smyth to the dramatic conclusion that baptism should be administered to believers only. He then baptized himself, by pouring water over his head. Only later did Baptists recover the biblical practice of immersion. Smyth then baptized Helwys and all in his congregation who wanted believer's baptism. And that's the beginning of our story. We found our sense of place through a congregation. Before there was believer's baptism, there was a free congregation. Before there was immersion there was a congregation. Congregationalism helped bring us into our place in the world.

Congregationalism says that every congregation is autonomous -- self-governing. The Episcopal form of church government vests authority in one person, a bishop. Congregations must conform to the teachings of the bishop. The Presbyterian form vests authority in a small group of elders who, along with a larger synod, composed of representatives from member congregations, rule the local congregation. The congregations are not self-governing, but have input. Congregationalism, in contrast, is not government by one or a handful, but by a church-full. Congregationalism says the local congregation has the power to choose and ordain pastors and deacons. The power to set membership requirements, to welcome and discipline its members. The power to chart its own mission, administer the ordinances, and select its own literature. The congregation has the power to designate its offerings, decide what other bodies it will cooperate with, what its doctrine will be, how it will worship and who its staff will be. It has the power to designate any of its members to carry out any of its functions. You don't have to be ordained or the pastor to baptize or preach or serve the Lord's Supper. You just have to be authorized by the congregation to do so.
Obviously, each of the three major forms of church government believes they are biblically based. We congregationally governed churches point to texts like Acts 15:22 that I just read. The early church had to decide whether Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised and follow other Jewish regulations. A major meeting of the apostles and missionaries was held in Jerusalem. A recommendation was brought from this group to the Jerusalem congregation to send a letter to the Gentile churches asking four things of them: to abstain from eating meat offered to idols, blood and animals that have been strangled rather than slaughtered, and from sexual immorality. Otherwise, they could ignore the Jewish laws. But before the leaders sent the letter, the entire Jerusalem congregation approved it. The most critical decision early Christians made had to be congregationally approved! It wasn't enough for Paul, Peter, James and Barnabas to say so. The authority came from the Jerusalem congregation.
We congregationally governed churches point to other biblical texts. Matthew 18's formula for handling church conflict authorizes the congregation to handle its own problems. Paul tells the Corinthians the same thing. In Acts 6 the congregation, not just the apostles, selected and laid hands on the seven deacons. In Acts 13 the church in Antioch called out and laid hands on Barnabas and Saul as missionaries. In I Corinthians 12-14 Paul talks about the church as a gifted body in the context of a local congregation. In I Timothy 3 the qualifications for overseer and deacons show the congregation is the body making those decisions.
We Baptists do believe in the Church universal, not just the church local. We do believe that we are a part of an eternal fellowship of all true believers that has no denominational nor geographical boundaries. We believe that heaven is the fulfillment of this universal church, and that there is a present ecumenical reality that we need to celebrate and participate in. But we very much put the emphasis on the local congregation rather than the universal, invisible Church. And we do this because we believe that is a biblical emphasis. Of the 110 times the word 'church' is used in the New Testament, almost 95 of those times it refers to a local congregation. So we Baptists have tended to put at least 90% of our emphasis on the local congregation, rather than the church universal.
Because of these texts, we believe that congregations are both competent and responsible to make their own decisions! We do not believe that the majority is always right. Sometimes the minority discerns God's will where the majority is culture-bound and fearful. But we do believe that the odds are greater at understanding God's will through congregational polity. If all believers are priests with competent souls to make their own spiritual decisions, putting all of those decisions together should be a good way to hear what God is saying!
That's really where Smyth and Helwys came from in becoming Separatists and then Baptists. They simply wanted the freedom to be left alone to listen to God and do as a congregation what they heard Him saying. They wanted to be little 'i' independent Baptists! They wanted their congregation to be made up of born again, alive in the Spirit believers, worshipping God as they felt led. They didn't want to be baptized as infants into a state church and assigned to a parish congregation based on where they lived. They didn't want to be governed by a bishop who told them how to worship from a prescribed prayer book! They wanted to be a 'Believer's Church,' a gathering of those who voluntarily receive Christ as Savior and covenant together to be a community, a family. They wanted people like Ida L. Stephens and me and you to be able to find our place within the plan and people of God ' to become autonomous believers within community.

I want to close with what I think are the three biggest threats to a congregationally governed church. One threat is to become denominationally centralized. Congregational autonomy means that we must remain little 'i' independent Baptists. We must not be isolated from other Baptists nor the wider Christian community, but we also must not surrender our autonomy and creativity to become a mere local denominational franchise. This is church, not McDonald's!
You can go into a McDonald's anywhere in the world and the Big Mac will taste almost exactly the same. But you ought to be able to go into a Baptist congregation and taste the unique flavor of that local congregation. We are not 'McBaptists!' We are not even 'McSouthern Baptists!' No one is authorized to speak on behalf of the 15 million autonomous Southern Baptists nor the 43,000 independent Southern Baptist congregations. You cannot even talk about 'the Southern Baptist Church' the same way you can talk about 'the Roman Catholic Church,' or 'the Evangelical Lutheran Church,' or 'the United Methodist Church.' The only 'the' in Baptist church life is the local Baptist church! The various associational and convention structures are subsidiaries of the local Baptist churches, not vice versa! And to maintain the strength of our system we must maintain the centrality of the local congregation, not the centrality of the convention!
A second threat to a congregationally governed church is when the congregation allows an individual or a group to usurp the congregation's authority. The deacons begin to function as a 'board of directors,' making all the decisions. Or a power group or family group controls the congregation. Or, most often, a dictatorial pastor takes over, which, according to what I am reading, is the #1 problem in Southern Baptist congregations these days. One of my favorite professors, Henlee Barnette, said it this way: 'Have you noticed that when a minister begins to play God, he winds up acting like the devil'' A congregationally governed church can only be the church it is intended to be when the congregation governs ' when the pastor, deacons and all others exert their influence and leadership, but submit their will to the will of the body.
The third and greatest threat is to become an 'unbeliever's church.' A parish of the state church in Scotland developed a serious problem. The noted poet Robert Burns was buried in their cemetery. Everybody in the community wanted to be buried in that cemetery with Burns. So the church posted a sign on the cemetery fence: 'This cemetery is reserved for the dead now living in this parish.' The greatest threat we face is to become a cemetery reserved for the dead now living in it ' a church full of unbelievers.
That has been the greatest problem with the European state, parish church system. That is certainly one reason that the European church has declined so dramatically. But why do we Baptists claim twice the number of members as ever participate in our congregations' The church cannot survive if it is filled with unbelievers. Congregational government is no guarantee of life in the church. But a place in the church of the living Lord Jesus Christ must be reserved for only the eternally living ' for those who have been born from on high by the grace of Christ.
The biggest threat to our church and any church is for us to quit telling the gospel, the old, old story of Jesus and his love. So, let's go back over the basics another time. God loves us and has a wonderful plan for each of our lives. But we have wrecked God's intentions by sin. We have willingly chosen to put our will over the Father's. We are caught in a web of sin that stretches all the way back to Father Adam and Mother Eve. And we cannot get ourselves loose, we cannot save ourselves. So God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to live a sin-free life and die a death that pays the penalty for our sin. God raised Jesus from the dead to give us Christ's victory over sin and death, and He offers us Christ's very life. But we must respond. We must admit our sin and need. We must believe that Jesus is God's Son and our Savior and that God raised him from the dead. And we must confess Him as Lord of our life.
Would you do that today' That's what the true church is made of, however it is governed. The true church is a Believer's Church. And part of what we believe is that it is critical for believers to connect publicly and locally to the church. Would you do that today' We need more little 'i' indepent Baptists like Ida L. Stephens! Ida knew her place! It was Thursday, the Ladies Missionary Society meeting night, and she was at the church! We need more of us to simply know where we belong! We need more of us to find our sense of place through the church, like I have ' our place in the plan and people of God. See, it is Sunday morning, decision-making morning, and you are at the church!

Polishing the Baptist Family Name:
"Citizen Baptist"
Matthew 22:15-22 February 2, 2003 AM
Rev. Craig A.Sherouse, Ph.D.
Lakeside Baptist Church, Lakeland, FL

No one likes being bullied, do we' Bullies make us feel less than we are. They can cause us to respond out of fear and intimidation, not faith and strength. Danny was our neighborhood bully. I lived across the street from the high school, and the football stadium was a block away. Danny lived on the other side of the stadium. I spent a lot of my childhood underneath the bleachers of the football stadium, and Danny didn't like it!
Underneath the bleachers my buddies and I built our own version of Al Quaida forts and bunkers. The soft Florida sand was ideal for easy digging. We would haul some 2x4's, old plywood and cardboard from our fathers' workshops and go to work. First you had to clear away the years of accumulation of crumpled Coke cups, popcorn bags and candy wrappers. Then a stick of dynamite would loosen up that hardened topsoil that had marbleized from the years of Coke goo sediment. Digging, bracing and covering with plywood and you were ready to do battle! And what an ideal little boy battle field! Endless supplies of crumpled Coke cups for ammo! The only problem was Danny, the Bully!
We would leave from the day's battle, return the next day only to find that Danny had been there. The sides were caved in, the plywood stomped in two, the 2x4's thrown into the woods, the cardboard ripped in two and the hole half filled with crumpled up Coke cups, popcorn bags and candy wrappers! We felt defeated, violated, trespassed upon! We felt bad! Danny was three years older, bigger and meaner, but there were more of us. But we never stood up to him. I wonder what would have happened if we had just stood up and said, 'No!''
No one likes being bullied, do we' And we especially don't like being bullied by either the church or the government! And perhaps the most disliked bullying is when the church and the government become allies in their bullying. We Baptists have been among those who stood up and said, 'No!' We have not built a fort of sand but a shared wall of separation and protection ' a wall of separation between the church, the state and the individual's rights. And we have stood up when the wrecking crews wanted to tear it down the wall and when the carpenters wanted to cut sliding doors into it!
Jesus stood up! Jesus stood up to the bullies! Here they come: the Pharisees and the Herodians. The Pharisees are the religious bullies, the overseers of synagogue or congregational life. You might say they represent the church. The Herodians are the nationalists. They take their name from being supporters of King Herod and his sleazy dealings with the Romans. They represent the ultra-nationalist, 'our Herod, right or wrong' approach to government. The Herodians are rare birds in the New Testament. They only appear twice in the Gospels: this passage and at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. There, after Jesus had ticked off the Pharisees by healing a man's withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath, Mark 3:6 says: 'The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.'
For three or more years the Herodians had been working behind the scenes in their Mafia-like ways to try to destroy Jesus. This unholy alliance of bullies has been like a pack of hounds from hell, tracking Jesus. And now, during the last week of Jesus' life, they will tree him on the cross!
Understand, the Pharisees and the Herodians did not get along. They were not on each others' invitation lists. They did not normally hang out together. So what an interesting mob they make. Mafia-like ultra-nationalists and mean, muscle-bound religion. Quite a bully mob! Underline this in your mind: The first time in the New Testament that a bully mob coalition of church and state came together they nailed Jesus to the cross!
I was driving on I-4 this week in one of the sections where it has three lanes. I was in the right hand lane, the middle was open and there was a commercial van in the left lane. I went to move into the middle lane to pass the car in front of me, but the van made his move at the same time. I saw it just in time, swerved back into my lane, let him pass and pulled in behind him. As I did I read the company name on the back of the van: 'Bio-Medical Solutions.' And I saw through the van's rear window, strapped down in the back, one of those red bio-medical waste disposal units that you see in the hospital ' you know, the kind you say 'unclean!' to and walk on the other side of the hallway! Of all the things I would not want to collide with, a van carrying bio-medical waste ranks toward the top!
Of all the things you don't want to collide with and be caught in the middle of, its this kind of a church/state unholy alliance that comes to try to trick the Lord! It's messy business! The bully mob comes, trying to smash Jesus in the middle. They want Caesar to do their killing ' he's pretty good at that. Some of us here today may feel like we have almost been killed over taxes, either trying to raise them or trying to pay them! If they can trick Jesus into sounding like a full-blown supporter of Caesar, he will lose much of his following. Or if they can trick him into saying, 'Don't pay your taxes,' Caesar will arrest him for treason. Either way they win. A ferocious pack of hounds from hell they are!
William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, said: 'People who are ferocious in their religion are ferociously irreligious.' Several weeks ago in the little town of Crestview, just south of Ocala, the City Council had its second vote on whether or not to post the 10 Commandments in their council chambers. It lost both times. The swing vote was a very devout Christian councilman who said he voted against it after praying hard. He believed he should out of his commitment to this New Testament principle of the separation of church and state. But the fierce Christians of Crestview threatened him, that he would be the first to be voted out in the next election.
Did you know where the word 'bigot' comes from' It is a combination of the words, 'by God.' 'By God, we'll get that councilman!' 'By God, we'll get that Jesus!' Ferocious, muscular religiosity. I've noticed that people who have to clean up the hazardous bio-medical mess after a collision of church and state don't say 'by God' all that much.
Walk with me up the steep hill from Plymouth Harbor to the mother church of the Plymouth Bay Puritan colonists ' our founding fathers and mothers. Beverly and I made that lovely walk a few years ago. And if you make it you too will stand with drop-jawed astonishment as you stand in the narthex of that beautiful colonial building and read that for almost 200 years it has been a Unitarian Church. I don't know if you know what that means, but it means that the descendents of those fierce, muscular Congregationalist Puritans went about as far to the opposite extreme as they could on the American religious landscape. And not only they, but many Puritan churches became Unitarian churches in reaction to the Taliban-like approach of their parents' faith. Just try that ferocious, muscular, 'by God' approach out on your children and see what happens. It just doesn't work! They will probably go the opposite direction. Try that on the nation and see what happens. It didn't work on the Plymouth Bay citizens.
The Pharisees and Herodians are right about Jesus, even if they are pretty syrupy when they say it: He did not show deference to anyone; he did not regard people with partiality, not even the Emperor. 'Look at the Roman coin. Whose face is on it' The Emperor's. Then give him what is his, and give God what is His!' Jesus stood up, and the bullies went away, scratching their heads. Jesus caught them in their own trap! He did not elaborate. He did not give a twenty page treatise. But Jesus clarified a very simple, basic principle: there are things that are Caesar's, and there are things that are God's, and we ought to keep them separated. It is as simple as looking at the coin.

The separation of church and state is a healthy New Testament model of how we live out our Christian lives in the public arena. It is not a naked public square! But it is a healthy public square, we have found, when the state and the church maintain their separate quarters. But there are some bullies in the public square, as there have always been. Bullies who want to narrow and accommodate that separation into some other form of church-state relationships. But you will notice that when they quote the Bible they go to the Old Testament. They go to the Old Testament model of the king and his role in shepherding the whole flock. Why don't they go to Jesus! Why don't they go to this passage, where King Jesus, the Good Shepherd, very clearly defines the principle of separation'
When I was a child I proudly learned how to spell what I was told was the longest word in the English language: 'antidisestablishmentarianism.' Twenty-eight letters! But I had no idea what the word meant, and most of us still don't. 'Establishmentarianism' was the practice in England of having an 'established,' state sponsored church. No separation there. 'Disestablishmentarianism' is the disestablishing of this system. Baptists and other 'free church' separationists are 'disestablishmentarians. But 'antidisestablishmentarianism' is the regressive, revisionist movement to undo disestablishment and reconnect the church and the state. And it is alive and well in this country! It's most radical form goes under the name of 'Reconstructionism.' It's easier to spell ' only 17 letters, not 28! They want to reconfigure the American political system along the lines of Old Testament theocracy and law. And these hyper-Calvinists have strong political connections and lots of money backing them. And they are working kind of like the Herodians, quietly but effectively, behind the political scene.
We need to go the way of Jesus, not the Herodians! The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus, not the Old Testament kings! Jesus' divinity means not only that Christ is God-like, but that God is Christ-like. If you want to see what it would be like with God as King, look to Jesus! And Jesus very clearly articulates the principle that God wants the church and the state separate!
Some people don't like the sound of the term 'separation.' It sounds too much to them like God isn't to be involved in our government, or that we are suppose to be a Sunday Christian and a weekday citizen. That certainly isn't what separation means, but maybe it helps to use the word 'independence' ' 'the independence of church and state.' That's a good word, isn't it' But whatever you call it, it means, as E.Y. Mullins defined it, that Christ is not to be brought before Caesar's judgment seat. Neither is he to be placed upon Caesar's throne. It means that the state has no right to tax or interfere with the church, nor does the church have the right to use tax funds or manipulate the government. It means that the direct institutional involvement by the church in politics should be non-partisan, issue-oriented and not candidate-oriented. It means that we should not be trying to establish a 'Christian government,' but a strong Christian influence within a secular government. We should be salt and light. Individual Christians should be penetrating the political order, not entangling the institutions of the church and the state.
Jesus' principle of the separation or independence of the church and the state means that we owe our government faithful Christian citizenship, and our government owes us the state's protection and honor. We are to render to Caesar faithful citizenship, but not to give him sovereignty, even during ultra-patriotic times of looming war. Our salute is 'Jesus is Lord,' not 'Caesar is Lord' as the Roman soldiers saluted! The separation of church and state means that, if we are going to salute the flags at Bible School, we probably ought to at least teach our children to pledge first to the Christian flag and to the Kingdom for which it stands! Now there is a heretical statement!
The separation of church and state means that we ought to travel in parallel lanes, but keep an open lane between us so we not have a bio-medical mess to clean up! It means that we ought to walk side by side, but not hold hands. It means that when we hold hands, Caesar almost always has the tighter grip! Don't you think that Caesar knows that the southern vote is a key to the national vote, and that the Baptist vote in the south is a key to the southern vote' Separation means that the government should not try to shape either the political or religious persuasions of the church. Revolutionary War era Baptist leader John Leland said it this way: 'The government has no more to do with the religious opinions of men than it has with the principles of mathematics.' The separation of church and state means that what God has put asunder, let not man put together!
I mentioned Roger Williams a few weeks ago ' this dissident from the Massachusetts Bay Puritan colony. He was run out of that colony by the Puritans' version of the Taliban into the howling winter and had to survive with the Indians. He went and founded the Rhode Island colony and the First Baptist Church in America as lively experiments in the separation of church and state. He has done more in the history of our country to help us keep the independence of the church and the state than anyone I know. Williams told a parable about a ship to illustrate his convictions about our corporate life. On board this ship are hundreds of passengers ' Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims. No one is compelled to attend the captain's worship service, nor even their own service. The captain has his role: to keep the ship on course and to see that justice, peace and sobriety are kept by all the passengers and crew. If the crew refuses their duties, or if the passengers refuse to pay, or to help in the common duties and defense, or to obey the common laws, the captain may judge, resist, compel and punish them. But otherwise, let's just all be on board together!

We have developed historical amnesia about religious liberty issues! There has arisen a new generation of Americans and Baptists who know not Pharaoh, or Caesar! We view life like a digital clock, with no sense of what comes before or after. We see only the present moment. And we forget that you used to have to be a member of the state church to even be elected in office. We forget that in our own country the state church of Massachusetts was supported with tax dollars until 1832. We didn't end all of this with a revolution! We forget that in Maryland non-Christians were not tolerated, and that even in revolutionary era Virginia Baptist preachers were arrested for disturbing the peace. We forget that Patrick Henry, who cried, 'Give me liberty or give me death!' did not mean religious liberty. We forget that even in Quaker-controlled colonial Pennsylvania you had to be a Christian to hold office. We forget that evangelism works best where there is religious liberty. And evangelism has worked well in our country! In 1776 experts estimate that 5% of Americans were church members. Today 60-70% are and we are the most religious nation in the western world. Would you want to trade our system for the heavy-handed, bullied approach they used in Europe'
We need to remember that the Statue of Liberty does not say, 'Give me your tired, poor Christians.' We need to remember that shortly before the space shuttle exploded there were at least Christian, Jewish and Hindu prayers being said. We need to remember that if the government mandates prayer in the public schools we will have Wiccan and Buddhist and Muslim prayers. We will! We need to remember that the Scientologists and Black Muslims and the Moonies and the White Supremacist churches are lining up for tax vouchers and faith-based initiatives. And they will receive a disproportionate share of those tax dollars. I don't know about you, but I don't want my tax dollars going to help fund a white supremacist church's parochial school! There is something fundamentally wrong about that!
We have developed historical amnesia to what the blending and accommodation of church and state has meant in our country. Two things vividly illustrate this loss of memory to me. George W. Truett, the prominent pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas in the first half of the twentieth century celebrated what he called the 'divorcement of church and state.' His successor for the second half of that century, W.A. Criswell, called the separation of church and state 'a figment of some infidel's imagination.' That's a serious loss of memory in one generation.
The second illustration is a statement from Brent Walker. He is a 'walker on the wall' of separation of church and state. He's the Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee in Washington, D.C. Walker knows as much as anyone I know about the current state of church-state relations. In his October 23 newsletter he said that if the First Amendment to the Constitution were put up for a vote in Congress today, it would fail! You remember that Amendment, that codified the separation of church and state and which colonial Baptists lobbied hard for: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' Walker quoted a recent survey reporting that 49% of Americans think the First Amendment goes 'too far.' We are the ones who have gone too far ' too far from our memories of muscular, bigoted religion bullying other citizens! And to forget is to empower the bully!

'But Pastor, we're in trouble!' We are! 'Pastor, desperate times demand desperate measures. The ship has been torpedoed and bombed and there are mines ahead. We are on fire and people are fighting each other on board and abandoning ship. Our schools have gates and guards and metal detectors. They've turned into war zones. Shouldn't we take over''
I understand the fear. But let faith control the fear! Let faith in the basic principles of scripture control the fear. I honestly do not want the little Jehovah's Witness children in my wife's elementary school music classes to be forced to sing patriotic songs or songs about holidays. I don't agree with much at all about their religion. But I don't want those little first graders to be bullied into doing something that their parents have taught them is against their religion.
So, how do we take over' Our schools are not religion-free zones. They are not! There are right ways to do it. Teach in the public schools. You can have a profound Christian influence there. Let your light shine as a Christian student. Support the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and 'See You at the Pole' and other right ways of being a witness. According to the Departments of Education and Justice, students can pray individually anytime in school and as a group either before or after school. Students can discuss your faith, write papers and do art work on religious subjects, and form religious clubs. You can be excused from subjects that are objectionable to your faith and can be dismissed to off-campus religious instruction during school hours. The Bible and religion can be taught about, and schools can teach community values that are also shared by religious communities. There is much you can do, but don't be a bully! We don't need bullies in the school, we need servants!
'But Pastor, what can we do'' We can give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's! Don't abandon ship! Be a witness! Don't give up on your biblical principles! Polish them up!
No one likes being bullied, do we! Especially in matters of faith. So what do we do' Do we ban together and beat up Danny, the Bully' Maybe we stand up to him and say, 'No!' But maybe more than that, we act toward him like Jesus, who said, 'Give Caesar what is Caesar's and give God what is God's!' Maybe we just say to Danny the next time he comes around: 'Here's a full cup of Coke, and a fresh bag of popcorn and a new Snicker's bar. You are welcome in our fort. There's a place at the table for you.'

Polishing the Baptist Family Name:
"Symbolic Baptist"
Matthew 3:13-17; 26:26-30, February 9, 2003 AM
Rev. Craig A.Sherouse, Ph.D.
Lakeside Baptist Church, Lakeland, FL

Southern writer, Baptist preacher, civil rights activist and farmer, Will Campbell, wrote a novel, The Glad River, about being a real Baptist. The main character, Doops Momber, refuses to get baptized because he can't find a real Baptist left to do the baptizing. Throughout the book he is looking for a real Baptist.
In this sermon series we have been looking for what it means to be a real Baptist. We have plunged again into those uterine-like waters of what it means to be baptized as a believer. And we have come up with new birth of identity. We have tried to emerge like that Greek Orthodox boy I mentioned a month ago. He came up from the waters of Spring Bayou in Tarpon Springs on Epiphany, grasping the white cross, clinging to the symbol and experience of his particular understanding of Christianity.
We have been polishing the Baptist family name, which has been tarnished from neglect and abuse. We have been looking for a real Baptist! And we've tried to hold on to what we've found ' to hold it up and let it shine. We have held on to five of our first names, our very personal names that precede our Baptist family name. We are 'Bible' Baptists ' we are committed to the authority of scripture and want to order our lives and our church around holy scripture. We are 'Free' Baptists ' we believe that God has made us with free souls that are fully capable of making eternally significant decisions. We are 'independent' Baptists, with a little 'i.' -- we believe in the autonomy and importance of the local congregation. We are 'Citizen' Baptists ' we believe in the separation of church and state. And today we lift up another first name: we are 'Symbolic' Baptists ' we believe in the power, mystery and radicalism of two primary Christian symbols, baptism and the Lord's Supper.
In our particular Baptist clan of the Christian family we believe profoundly in the mysterious power of these two symbols! Baptism is a whole lot more than holding someone 'under 'til they bubble!' Communion is a whole lot more involved than 'just don't kick the table!' They are full of meaning and mystery that defies easy categorizing. On the meaning side, there are four basic words I use to explain as much as I can about these powerful, mysterious symbols. The first word is 'modeling.' These symbols are ways to be more like Jesus. And to be a 'Christian' literally means to be a 'little Christ.' We want to do what Jesus did! And Jesus went down into the hard, cold Jordan River. He did it because he said it was a right thing to do. And Jesus created the Lord's Supper. He reshaped the symbolism of the Passover, his Last Supper, to apply to his impending death.
The second word I use is 'obedience.' In his Great Commission Jesus commanded baptism as a part of making disciples. And at the Last Supper, he commanded that we 'do this.' That's the reason we call these symbols 'ordinances' ' because were ordered or ordained by Jesus. 'Witnessing' or 'story-telling' is the third word I use to try and wrap my mind around the mystery of these symbols. Baptism tells the story of death, burial and resurrection ' Jesus' and our. It tells of the washing of gracious forgiveness. The Lord's Supper tells about Jesus' broken body and shed blood, given on the cross for our forgiveness. The fourth word I use is 'initiation.' The Christian faith is not a private party! It is a public dunking, an immersion into a whole new life and family. These symbols are something all Christians share in common, even those who use less water and more fermentation! That's why these c