<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dr. Bob Griffin:
Somebody inform us poor NORTHERN Baptists who this "judge" is, why liberals would be unhappy, why SBC are getting the book free, etc etc etc.
Remember, there are more NON-SBC among Baptists in America than youse guyz!! 
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HeHe, you is right bout that and we hear about it every day.
Here come da judge. Judge Pressler was a legislator and judge in Houston, TX who helped start the Conservative movement within the Southern Baptist Convention. Granted, many, many pastors have abused the conservative movement to their own welfare of controlling the church beyond limits (i.e. W.A. Criswell). But, the theory behind the conservative movement was really simple to start with. Liberals who believed that the Bible was NOT the Word of God and that it was really Man's attempt to reach God had infiltrated the convention and had taken control. Conservatives were groups like the Judge who believed that the Bible is the only necessary authority today of God. In other words, if a preacher gets up and says: God told me to kill the abortionist down the street, we should check our Bibles first. We also do not answer to a Pope or headquarters somewhere that supposedly has a secret path to God. The Judge was simply trying to help bring the convention back to its original beliefs in God. In fact, for an interesting point go to my site at
www.baptist-church.org and click on baptist beliefs. Read the three different versions about the Bible and see if you agree with the 2000 version. The liberals had a FIT because they claimed the part about the Bible is NOT correct. That is what caused the First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City to leave the convention just two months ago. They claimed it was over that one statement on the Bible in the 2000 statement of beliefs. (I think there was probably more to it than that.) But, in a nut-shell that is all it is and we are likely to see a split in the convention and churches over this. The conservative intentions were good, back-to-the basics theory, but as I said, some pastors abused their powers and basically said: God put me here so I'm the big boss and you can't get rid of me. This caused a lot of distress to the conservative movement and gave it the bad name it carries today. I believe in the conservative movement myself, because the original plan, as I stated earlier was to bring us back to fundamental Bible, Jesus diety and Grace, etc. that Southern Baptists used to stand for. Now, we find preachers that aren't even sure that Jesus was the true Son of God. In my opinion, why bother with church, if you believe like that.
Oh, one final note: Our definition of "liberal" may not be your definition of "liberal" so, a lot of non-SBC Baptists don't understand that we had preachers that were literally unbelievers in God's Word as the final authority. etc.
[ December 04, 2001: Message edited by: Phillip ]