After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17, NASB)

To Deny The Trinity Is To Deny Who God Is

The Southern Baptist Convention just continues its drift further into hypocrisy and outright apostasy. For far too long its spiritually spineless leaders are being allowed to cower behind their Idol of Autonomy all the while bowing in reverance before what Tozer once called “the great goddess Numbers.” Being an ordained pastor in the SBC here at Apprising Ministries I have continued to present clear documentation of the above for those who would bother to pay attention.

For example, as far as hypocrisy, we begin with former SBC president James Merritt who is on record in his 2001 SBC Presidential Address “The Battle of New Orleans” as declaring:

Now I want to say this straight and I want to make it plain… I believe in local church autonomy… I don’t want any leader,… any agency,… any institution or any convention giving orders to me or my congregation but hear me and hear me well… the ocean of church autonomy stops at the shore of biblical authority…

Local autonomy without biblical authority becomes spiritual anarchy!! My friend, it is the height of spiritual callousness and theological hypocrisy to hide behind the skirt of local church autonomy or the priesthood of the believer while pretending that churches can do anything they want to do and believe anything they want to believe and still be a Baptist church!! (Online source, emphasis mine)

Hoo-wee; preach it brother! O, I’m sure that there were the requisite shouts of “Amen!” amidst thunderous applause. Well, Dr. Merritt isn’t at fault in this; he is dead on target. However, adding apostasy to hypocrisy AM readers will recall that in Southern Baptist Pastor Ed Young, Jr.: Church Leadership Conference Is Not About Theology (I know, amazing) we discussed where Ed Young, Jr—preacher of the sophomoric seven day sex challenge—brought in Word Faith mogul and Oneness Pentecostal heretic T.D. Jakes to share his pulpit at the SBC mega-playpen Fellowship Church.

During that whole non-controversy I personally contacted then SBC president Dr. Frank Page and he assured me that he was “making some phone calls.” Well, apparently Page was ordering pizza because he did nothing whatsoever concerning this particular “ocean” violation which washed up on the “shore of biblical authority.” Specifically as it concerns Young, a pastor whose church is in the SBC of which Page was president, we refer to 2 Corinthians 6:14-15.

This is the necessary background as I bring to your attention Temple Baptist Church (TBC), White House, TN. TBC is a church aligned with the SBC (Online source), which may refer to Slowly Becoming Catholic. Tomorrow, as of this writing, TBC is having something they call “Community Worship Service” (Online source). Again, note that this is “Community Worship,” and therefore by their own admission an event of worship where the following from God’s Word would then apply:

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. (2 Corinthians 6:14-15, ESV)

Among the churches invited to TBC for this community worship service we find Christian Gospel Temple (CGT) of Cross Plains, TN. In addition to the announcement concerning their worship with TBC we can also see that Joel Hemphill has preached at CGT a number of times  (Online source). For those who may not remember in “Christian” Gospel Artist Joel Hemphill: “Jesus Is Not God.” we find out that Hemphill doesn’t even know the Savior he claims and believes, in fact, a doctrine close to that of T.D. Jakes.

Hemphill isn’t the only Trinity-denying heretic who has spoken at CGT as Anthony Buzzard has also preached his heresy for them as well. Space doesn’t allow further discussion but you need to know that Hemphill, a former Oneness Pentecostal, and Buzzard are actually anti-trinitarian Unitarians which Dr. James White of the fine labor in the Lord Alpha & Omega Ministries discusses further in his piece Anthony Buzzard “Reviews” The Forgotten Trinity. At just after the 1:16 mark of this Gospel Of The Kingdom message pastor Steve Farmer begins enlightening us it was actually God Who put CGT in touch with Unitarians Hemphill and Buzzard and then “knit” together their spirits.

CGT itself seems a rather odd and eclectic church also preaching what they call “the one true God” and the closest I could find to a doctrinal statement was in the “About Us” section:

Christian Gospel Temple is a non-denominational church made up of people from nearly every Christian and non-Christian background… Many of us have been part of gatherings that divided over small doctrinal differences and non-essentials. We believe this does not represent the love that Christ has “shed abroad in our hearts.” (Online source) 

Well, despite our gelatinous evanjellyfish leaders the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not a “small” doctrinal difference nor is it a “non-essential” matter. It concerns the very nature of God Himself and He happens to take a rather dim view of people who are not willing to confess Him before men. That the doctrine of the Trinity is unimportant would have been news e.g. to someone like Athanasius. And another church which is to be part of the worship service at TBC is Christ Worship Center with co-pastors Bruce and Sharon Allen (Online source), also in violation of Scripture e.g. 1 Timothy 2:12.

In addition my source also informs me that River of Faith Church with Steve R. Bivins, who teaches Word Faith doctrine ala T.D. Jakes, is also scheduled to be part of this worship event with Temple Baptist Church (SBC) as well. Which returns us to my original point, the doctrinal distinctives of Protestant evangelicalism within the SBC just continue to be blurred and erased while its leaders simply slip their spiritually obtuse heads deeper into the sands of apostasy.

Let me set the tragic facts here in perspective for you. We are rapidly speeding toward a time when the very real possibility looms larger that proclaiming the exclusivity of the Gospel will be outlawed due to hate crime laws. Well, if the leaders within the ancient church were as effete and afraid of their own spiritual shadows as the timid folk in positions of authority within evangelical “Protestant” Christianity are today there would never have been a Christian faith left to preach.

See also:

JOEL HEMPHILL DOES DENY THE DEITY OF CHRIST