Apprising Ministries presents the following in prayerful hope it will prove edifying. And showing that the emerging church hasn’t a corner on the market, may this also provoke some ah, interesting…well; um, conversation…

—– Original Message —–
From: Concerned Brother
To: Ken Silva
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 3:53 PM
Subject: NC Conference

Ken,

My buddy had returned from the NC love-fest and reports that some are fired up and ready to take the SBC for Christ (or Calvin…), some good talks, but Mohler (surprise!) was a complete dud.

Concerned Brother

—– Original Message —–
From: Apprising Ministries
To: Concerned Brother
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 4:30 PM
Subject: Re: NC Conference

Concerned Brother,

O, I quite agree; having been in the Southern Baptist Convention since 1994, that’s precisely what these conferences are: Love-fests. Yes, I’ve heard that also re. Calvinism’s supposed rise in the apostatizing Slowly Becoming Catholic. It’ll never happen. The SBC, and for that matter, the American Christian Church as a whole, is far too dominated by the unbiblical gospel of synergism.

I don’t really see anyone with a “name” who has the guts to point out that if one preaches the Reformed (and Calvinist) soteriology of monergism (God alone saves), and someone else preaches synergism (man cooperates with God on some level in salvation), then quite obviously someone is preaching another gospel. This was the main point of my piece about emerging church pastor Dan Kimball:

EMERGENT CHURCH: “DOES DAN KIMBALL PREACH A PERVERTED GOSPEL?”

Now I have heard Jeff Noblitt’s excellent message On the Rise of Calvinism in the SBC. But unfortunately, in my opinion, he is simply WAY too optimistic; especially about SBC seminaries. And as far as Dr. Al Mohler being “a complete dud”; well, it seems quite consistent as far as I’m concerned.

Sadly, even too many of the Calvinists are in the “good ol’ boy network,” which is the SBC, and are far too concerned with politics to make any real difference in that dying convention. Dr. Ed Stetzer and his “missional” boys are really pretty ignorant about the emerging church aka the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church, which all sprang from the same rotten neo-orthodox (at best) root.

And although this was written a couple of “love-fests” ago, the spiritual prognosis in the following piece doesn’t look good and my view hasn’t changed:

IS THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION ITSELF FILLING UP WITH “DEAD CHURCHES”?

I do wish I had better news. I’m glad you wrote this however because I’m going put it online in the AM Mailbag.

Ken Silva, pastor-teacher