I find this ironic for two reasons:

1. Religious reform is a young man’s game and always has been.

How old was John the Baptist when he preached against the Pharisees? (Remember they were the conservative religious rulers of their day?) How old was Isaiah or Jeremiah when they started their reforms? How about John Wesley, George Whitfield, D.L. Moody, Charles Spurgeon? (and the list continues)

Under 30.

They were probably all dismissed by their older contemporaries as youthful enthusiasts, flashes in the pan, young upstarts. (We know for a fact that the last four were.) Is that how we know them today?

Go read about the dutch Anabaptists who are our spiritual ancestors. They stood against men like Calvin, Zwingli, and Luther (all of which were godly men and to the right of the religious spectrum of their day.) Not only did they begin their reforms as young men, most of them were martyred as young men.

I don’t think myself, or most of the younger men who write and are pushing for reform are anywhere near their calibre of preacher or leader; but, if everyone had the idea that young men’s input wasn’t valid or valued, there would be many wonderful reforms and revival movements throughout Christian history that would have never happened. That is a historical fact.

While we’re talking about historical facts…

2. The Independent Fundamental Baptist movement was started and led by younger men who were critical of the old guard.

J. Frank Norris, Lee Robberson, John R. Rice, Jerry Falwell, Clarence Sexton, Curtis Hutson – these guys as young men decided to go in a different direction than their spiritual forbears. They felt the call to leave (or were forced to leave because of their vocal criticism) the Southern Baptist Convention out of which they were saved, discipled and educated. This no doubt was a disappointment to the many godly pastors and educators who were still in the Convention. Were they not, in a sense, betraying their mentors?

But now we’ve come to a place where the thing they started, the Independent Baptist movement, has become above criticism. Where young men are put down for doing exactly what the first Independent Baptists did. For checking what their religious context against the Bible and trying to right the differences. For taking a stand.

Isn’t it ironic?

Conclusion

We young guys need to be careful and we need to be respectful. We weren’t saved in a contextual vacuum and we should acknowledge the impact and efforts of those who came before us. We should do everything in our power to keep the lines of communication open between us and older men who have already fought the battle. They are to be treated with utmost respect.

But to you older preachers I say this:

We’ve chosen to identify as Independent Baptists in a time when that’s never been less popular. Many of us have taken stands on separatism, practical christianity, and Bible versions that make us the laughingstock of the professing Christian world. We are dealing with the daily pressures of the pastoral ministry just like our older brethren.

If our ideas about the scripture are untrue – deal with our ideas. By all means, open your Bibles and set us straight. If our ideas about fundamentalist leaders are historically inaccurate – tell us why. Point us to the true history. Talk to us.  But please do not take the easy way out and write us off because of our age or lack of experience.

“Let no man despise thy youth.”

The post The Irony of the Blog Squashers appeared first on Pastor Ryan Hayden.

Independentbaptist.com, due to it’s name, has a certain responsibility. Our church sign says “Independent Baptist” as do the signs of thousands of other churches. In the eyes of the unbelieving world, it’s not too much of a stretch to say they speak for all Independent Baptists. They do not speak for me.

I try to stand behind everything that the Bible says, even when it is not popular. For example, I regularly catch flack from unbelievers over my stance on homosexuality or on creationism. The Bible, however, says absolutely nothing about interracial marriage. NOTHING.

That article stated that God sent the flood because of the intermarriage of Seth’s and Cain’s lineage. Where does it say this in scripture? The article says that God judged Abraham with a famine because he married Hagar. Where in the Bible does it say that? The article says that Moses’ marriage to the Ethiopian was sinful? Again, where in scripture does it say that? Miriam said that and was stricken with leprosy.

Was Boaz in sin when he married Ruth? Was the husband of Rahab in sin because he married a woman of Jericho? Is Christ the not product of interracial marriage?

We know the author married whites to asians and whites to hispanics. When he was talking about intermarriage, he most likely had only type of intermarriage in mind – whites and blacks. I can understand if his upbringing and times made it hard for him to swallow the intermarrying of blacks and whites, but twisting scripture to justify that prejudice was unacceptable.

By the way, it’s not his times. It’s 2013. Desegregation happened 50 years ago. That so many independent Baptists stood against it back then is something we should be ashamed of. They were wrong. To print this article today is just inexcusable.

There is perfect term for this kind of article – racist. It should be taken down and there should be a retraction posted.

The post A Racist Article on Independentbaptist.com appeared first on Pastor Ryan Hayden.

Is the “Leadership” emphasis biblical or is it just practical?

We Independent Baptists have our “Leadership Conferences,” every year a multitude of new leadership books come off of Christian presses, and you’ll have no problem finding a multitude of blogs and podcasts featuring some one’s tips on “leadership.”

I’m not throwing stones here.  I’m guilty.  I’ve been a long time fan of leadership books. (my favorite secular book is and probably always will be Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.) I listen to Michael Hyatt’s podcast and Paul Chappell’s Spiritual Leadership is one of only three books displayed in my office.  I’ve sat under numerous lectures, both public and personal, on what it means to be a leader.  I’ve attended leadership conferences both as a teenager and as a pastor.  I’m neither a stranger to, nor have I been a critic of, the leadership theme.

Here’s the thing that bugs me though – as I read the scriptures, particularly the New Testament, I really don’t see this kind of leadership emphasis anywhere.  I could be missing something, (and if I am, please point it out in the comments) but I just don’t see it.  If you had to boil down the New Testament to a dozen themes, I don’t think leadership would be one of them.

(That’s not to say that scripture says nothing about leadership.  We have the New Testament teaching on the role and responsibilities of church leadership.  We have the Old Testament examples from Moses to Elijah and New Testament men like Paul and Peter.)

I just have this nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach that the leadership emphasis has a lot more to do with the spirit of the age than the spirit of the book.   Also, I think it contributes to the unbiblical goal of having your church turn into a mega-church (and thus  puts undue pressure on pastors all over the country.)  One more thought – could it be that the leadership emphasis contributes to the trend to reduce a church to it’s pastor (and de-emphasizes  the corporate work of the church?)

Please don’t read this to mean I’m against any emphasis on leadership, I just think it should be tempered by what the New Testament actually emphasizes.

What’s your take? Let me know in the comments.

The post Is all this emphasis on leadership biblical? (or healthy?) appeared first on Pastor Ryan Hayden.

But Secret Thoughts of An Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield is so much more than a book to help you deal with the gay problem. It is a book that will radically challenge so many of your conceptions: conceptions about your fellow human beings, conceptions about evangelism, conceptions about evangelical Christianity, conceptions about the spectrum of Bible believers, and conceptions about what it means to be a godly husband or wife. I read this book looking for ammunition to use against the gay rights activist who circle the wagon every time I write something in a public forum, and what I got was a non-stop barrage against my own conscience. It made me feel at times like a coward, like a bigot, and like a narrow minded jerk. Most importantly, its ignited in me a new passion to love sinners and to share Christ with them.

(Lest you think I’m alluding to Rosaria Butterfield being soft on the sin of homosexuality. I assure you, I am not. She affirms the sinfulness of homosexuality completely.)

If you are the type of person that can’t handle intellectual challenge, if you’d rather just sit in your ideological bunker and throw bombs at the sinful world around you than see them come to Christ and become trophies of grace like Dr. Butterfield or if you refuse to believe that anybody outside of your club is a committed and conservative follower of Christ then don’t read this book. If you do, at least be warned that you are handling dynamite and you will not come out unscathed.

If you think you can handle it – go buy it today. You will not be sorry you did.

I did NOT receive this book free from the publisher. I was NOT required to write this review. I will be purchasing copies of this book for my friends.

The post Book Review: Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert appeared first on Pastor Ryan Hayden.

I believe wholeheartedly that the time has come for Independent Baptist pastors to take a firm stand against non-biblical preaching. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have started this site.

Most independent Baptist preachers that I know would affirm that they are Bible preachers and they think Bible preaching is important. Most independent Baptist Bible colleges and seminaries (at least as far as I know) emphasize Bible preaching. Unfortunately, however, many of those same preachers and institutions do not consistently apply their principles when it comes to the use of their pulpits. They send mixed messages. They aren’t really taking a stand.

I think that needs to change. Yesterday. Heres why:

1. Because non-biblical preaching is offensive to God.

Have you ever had your words taken out of context? I have, and I was far from happy about it. Imagine someone taking a snippet of one of your sermons and using it as if you endorse something that you’ve never said. Understandably, you would be irate. Common sense and courtesy keeps us from doing that to each other.

But for some reason, common sense and courtesy elude us when it comes to preaching God’s Word. Need something to lend authority to your latest tirade against the government or to get people excited about your building program – God’s got more on the record than anyone you know, and you can always find something in there that sounds right, even if that’s not what it meant originally. Is that how you’d want your words handled?

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

2. Because non-biblical preaching robs God’s people.

When someone take God’s words out of context, not only are they being rude in the way they handle God’s word, but they are necessarily taking pulpit time away from what He actually said. God has given His Word for the health of the church – “that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” Your church people don’t need your latest idea, with a little bit of Bible pried from it’s context sprinkled on like salt on french fries, they need God’s Word. They need “all scripture.” Every time you allow someone to preach anything but a Bible message, it’s like allowing your brother to give your kids Kit-Kats for dinner. Your church is not getting the nutrients they need, and it’s probably going to have adverse effects on them.

3. Because allowing non-biblical preaching puts Independent Baptists in the precarious situation of having a weaker stance on scripture than evangelicals.

Have you ever listened to a message by John MacArthur, Mark Dever, John Piper, Albert Mohler, Carl Trueman or David Jeremiah? Those men are all leaders in evangelicalism, and they are dead serious about fidelity to their Bible (although we would disagree on some of their applications or on the version they use.) Even Mark Driscoll (who I personally think is one of the most dangerous preachers in America) takes a very serious approach toward being a Bible preacher (if he takes a serious approach to nothing else.)

When you get up in your pulpit or behind a classroom lectern and say that evangelicals are compromisers who don’t preach the Bible, and then go into the pulpit and preach a message on dress standards from Nehemiah, what kind of message are you sending? What do you think is going to happen when the 19 year old in the pew hears John MacArthur when he’s channel surfing on his car radio? Or picks up one of Carl Trueman’s books in the local Christian bookstore?

I believe that one of the reasons so many young preachers are dropping their fundamentalist stance toward evangelicalism and jumping fences is because they are seeing a fundamental disconnect in what we say we believe about the Bible, and the way that we treat it. A disconnect that, ironically, isn’t present in many evangelicals.

If fundamentalism is all about fidelity to the scriptures, then what could be more fundamental than handling God’s Word right in the pulpit?

Take a consistent stand against unbiblical preaching – not just because you are trying to slow the bleeding out of young fundamentalists – but because your church needs it and God’s Word demands it.

The post The time has come for us to take a stand against non-biblical Preaching: appeared first on Pastor Ryan Hayden.

While I still think that obscurantism is a problem, and in many cases I think there is a “just accept what I say and don’t ask questions” attitude among pastors (which is surely not biblical) I don’t want to give the impression that I think it’s a bad thing for pastors to warn about the dangers of immersing yourself in doctrinal error.

So I pulled the article. Maybe, someday in the future, I will revise it and repost it when I feel like it’s a little more ironed out and balanced.

The post Retraction: Why I Pulled Yesterday’s Obsucrantism Article appeared first on Pastor Ryan Hayden.

1. Why are you doing this?

The sole purpose of the IFBRevolution project is to raise awareness about three unbiblical practices that too often go completely unchecked within IFB churches:

• Abuse of Scripture
• Preacher Worship
• Prideful Factionalism

These are not the ONLY problems within IFB churches, but they are in most cases foundational problems. For example, a commitment to a proper treatment of scripture will go a long way towards ironing out doctrinal problems. A commitment to avoiding preacher worship will eventually have a huge impact on abuse of pastoral power (where that exists). A rejection of factionalism will enable independent Baptist churches to truly be independent.

The vision for IFBRevolution is to be all about awareness. The goal is to force a Biblical conversation on these three issues across the spectrum of fundamentalism, to encourage pastors to take a stand where the Bible takes a stand, and to inform believers, through articles written by many pastors, about the dangers inherent in these three problems.

2. Are you trying to start another group?

Absolutely Not. I have no intentions whatsoever in starting another political circle within IFB churches. My goal in designing this was that it be “circle independent.” I’m not asking pastors to come together, I’m asking pastors to take a stand, a specific stand, in whatever context they are in. There are no plans for any fellowship meeting, conferences, newspapers, etc. rising from this effort.

3. Are you going to “name names”?

On my personal blog, I never name names. That is not because I think naming names is an unbiblical practice, it is because I feel that the ideas I present have a better chance of being heard if people don’t feel like I’m attacking their favorite preacher. Naming names may be a beneficial practice, I just don’t feel like my blog is the place for it.

I really want IFBrevolution to be more about our future than our past and present. I also want it to be something that appeals to a cross section of IFB churches from many different circles, for those reasons, I’m going to institute a “no name naming” policy.

4. Are you going to devolve into a free for all anti-fundamentalism site?

I want IFBrevolution to be a focused project. For that reason, the only things you will find information about on the IFBrevolution website are our three issues and their corresponding positive virtues.

I also want it to be God honoring and encouraging. If and when comments are opened for articles, they will be tightly monitored so that the web site does not develop the critical and bitter tone that you find in other websites that are in any way critical of Independent Baptist churches.

5. What’s with the pledge?

A major part of the plan for IFBrevolution is a pledge we are asking pastors to sign and publish. The words of the pledge are:

I pledge to take a stand against those who would abuse the Bible by preaching it without regard to it’s original context and those who neglect it by preaching only on topics. I will not do these things myself, and I will make this stand known to all who use my pulpit. I pledge to strive for humility in my leadership roles. I will deflect attention given me to my Lord Jesus Christ and will withhold admiration and applause from preachers who are actively seeking it. I pledge to be loyal to Christ, to His church, and to His Word. I will not base my loyalty on any one school, preacher, paper, or other man made institutions.

It is not a pledge of loyalty to our website or our writers, it is a pledge to take a stand. (A stand that I believe strongly the Bible mandates.) I totally understand pastor’s being hesitant about signing pledges, but I think this is a worthy one.

6. Are you going to police the pledgers?

No. This isn’t an organization that’s trying to have any kind of oversight over anyone. I believe strongly in the independence of the church. This is merely a venue to encourage pastors to take a stand within their church on these three issues.

7. Will it be KJV only?

I adhere to the Received Text position of scriptural interpretation. (In practice, that makes me KJV only.) The writers and active participants of IFBrevolution will be people that share doctrinal and practical common ground with me and that will be a part of it. We will not, however, make being KJV only a part of our pledge, or ask those who are promoting the cause of IFBrevolution to adhere to any form of doctrinal statement.

The reason for that is 1) This is not an organization or fellowship of preachers, it is merely the promotion of a cause. 2) I really want this to be about a biblical cause, and I think even those who don’t walk in lock step with me doctrinally can agree that these things are taught against in scripture. I want to give them the opportunity to publish that.

If you have any other questions or comments about the IFBrevolution project, please let me know in the comments. Also, please, please spread the word and consider helping.

God Bless.

The post Answering Your Questions about the IFBrevolution Project. appeared first on Pastor Ryan Hayden.

I’m not satisfied with a single blog post, I really want to see some changes within fundamentalism and I can do very little by myself. I’ve been thinking of some things that could be done and came to the conclusion that a huge amount of change could happen if Pastors would take a stand on three issues:

• abuse of the Bible
• preacher worship
• proud factionalism

(I really think that these three issues are foundational to just about any issue within the movement formally known as fundamentalism.)

In my opinion, what we really need is to draw battle lines and say

“These things are clearly condemned in scripture, they are everywhere in fundamentalism, and we aren’t going to sit silently by and watch it anymore.”

If fundamentalism is about staying true to the truth of God’s Word and if those things really are condemned in scripture, I think that such a stand is wholly within the bounds of fundamentalism. In fact, I think that if you are unwilling to do so, you might as well stop calling yourself a fundamentalist.

What I’ve done

I’ve purchased a website “ifbrevolution.com” and I have started laying it out.

My plans are to ask pastors to do three things:

1. Read our explanation of what the Bible says on those issues.
2. “Sign” a pledge that they will take a stand against those issues. (We’ll list in a directory all the preachers who have signed the pledge.)
3. Share there stand with others via social media.

Even if many pastors will not take this stand, if enough pastors do, it will do a lot to raise awareness about the biblical inappropriateness of those three things. It will force a conversation that has been needed to be had for a long time.

It is absolutely essential that this website not veer off topic and become a sounding board for Independent Baptists to express their angst with standards, with KJV-onlyism, or anything else. If this is going to work, it cannot be seen as a bunch of kids fighting for their right to go to the movies. It’s way bigger than that.

How you can help

I need three things to make this work.

Writers

I need a group of Independent Baptist pastors and missionaries who are willing to write about these three issues. What you write has to be fair, it has to be accurate, and it has to be somewhat peaceful. I’m not so much looking for an excoriation of our past as a statement of intent for our future. I don’t care how big your church is or how much or little you’ve written in the past, I’m just looking for guys who care enough about these issues to put something together and put your name on it. I want this to be way bigger than me.

Editors

I really struggle with grammar and spelling. Especially homonyms. I’m looking for a couple of people who can proofread articles and pages on this site and make sure that people can’t disqualify us because we don’t pass the shakedown of the grammar police.

Pledgers

On of the best things you can do for us is to take the pledge once the site is “live” and promote it. There is strength in numbers, and it will snowball much faster if it doesn’t go three weeks with five people pledging.

I know there are some people who will hate me for this. I know that it will be misunderstood. But I think the good it could do in our churches is well worth the risk of alienation I face. Help me. Please.

You can contact me through the comments, through my Facebook page, or email me at pastorryanhayden@gmail.com.

“He who aims at nothing, always hits his mark.”

The post An Important Project For Change In Fundamentalism. appeared first on Pastor Ryan Hayden.

Last week, Stuff Fundies Like, a behemoth of a blog, linked to an article I had written on their Facebook page. Though it resulted in my best blog traffic day ever, it wasn’t pretty. I tried to defend myself for a time in their comments and then bailed. I started getting a host of negative, mean spirited comments here on my web site. Somebody accused me of wanting to be the pope of my church. (Anybody who knows me and our church would laugh out loud at that.) Someone else took offense to my mention of Pink Floyd and boldly declared that a Pink Floyd song would be the soundtrack for his entrance into heaven. The things being said at Stuff Fundies Like were much, much uglier.

If they are still paying attention, which I doubt, I’d like to say three things to the crowd of Stuff Fundies Like.

1. The vast majority of people who attend Independent Baptist Churches are sincere Christians who are just trying to serve the Lord in the context God placed them.

There are about 2.5 million independent Baptists in America and over 13,000 independent Baptist churches. Among those millions of members are some real nut jobs. That is an undeniable fact. Among those thousands of churches are the Westboro Baptists of the world. There is, and no one can deny this, a whole lot of ugly in those numbers.

But that’s not indicative of all of us. Not even the majority of us. I’m a member of a fellowship of independent Baptist pastors here in central Illinois. Not one of the guys who attends those meetings is someone who I would be ashamed of in any way. They are humble guys who love the Lord, love the Bible, and hate much of the nonsense that goes on in IFB churches. Even if you could somehow prove that the majority of independent Baptist pastors are manipulative, Bible abusing buffoons (which I don’t think you can.) You cannot possibly believe that every member of their churches are. Even the ugliest and most manipulative pastors have members in their churches who love Christ sincerely and are just trying to serve him.

Its wrong to assume, in your vitriolic disgust of those in your background, that everybody who calls themselves an independent Baptists is just like who your pastor (or whatever IFB person set you off) was. You are painting with an awfully large brush. You don’t seem interested in cutting out error with a scalpel, you seem to want to drop an A-bomb on Nagasaki. Collateral damage – it’s just part of it.

2. There is no “due process” on Stuff Fundies Like. It is guilty until proven innocent. You have tunnel vision, and that almost never happens.

In my most recent run in with Stuff Fundies Like, they read one of my blog posts, which was really just a teaser for a sermon, on 3 Tests for Gray Areas and misread my post to think that I was teaching that a pastor has some form of pope like authority over his church. Had they listened to the sermon, read any of several posts on my blog, or asked me they would not have come to that conclusion. But that didn’t matter. For the SFL crowd, it is guilty until proven innocent.

One of the greatest complaints many critics have against fundamentalists is the way they handle sin. We have been accused of going after sin with birdshot, rather than a rifle round. They say that we often lump things in as sin that are not sins. This is a recurring theme.

What the SFL crowd does not seem to realize is that in going after the fundamentalists, they have become fundamentalists. They have become exactly the same kind of monsters that they criticize. Only in there case, to simply be a fundamentalist is a sin, and qualifies you for all the scorn, reproach and name calling they can muster.

On that subject…

3. There is absolutely no excuse for people who call themselves Christians to mock, satirize, shame and scorn others the way you do on your site.

I find the content of Stuff Fundies Like to be objectionable sometimes. Often, it is pretty reserved. The comments, on the other hand are the internet equivalent of a fourth grade playground or the wild wild west. People take on fake identities and mock fundamentalists with all they have, holding nothing back. It’s not uncommon to see profanity in the comments. Name calling is a standard feature. It’s very, very ugly stuff.

SFL Crowd, if you are Christians, you have absolutely no right to talk that way to anybody. Anybody. I know that there are preachers who preach that way, but they are wrong too.

Consider what the Bible says about the way Christians talk:

“Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” Colossians 4:6

and

“Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. 7 In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, 8 Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.” Titus 2:6–7.

and

“15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:” Ephesians 4:15

Can you honestly say that Stuff Fundies Like is “with grace” or that it is “sound speech that cannot be condemned” or that you are “speaking the truth in love”?

I can almost hear the objections – you bunch of legalists don’t deserve grace, you don’t deserve love. What you are doing is sin, and we have the right to condemn it with all the vitriol we can muster.

I disagree. But let’s say you are right. Scripture still says “let you speech be alway with grace.” It says that we are to be “in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves.”

And if we are sinners. If we are in sin. Scripture still says “Fools make a mock at sin.” Proverbs 14:9.

Conclusion

If you have been hurt by fundamentalism, especially independent Baptist fundamentalism, then my heart goes out to you. I seriously doubt there is a single young man or women who grew up in an independent Baptist church in the eighties or nineties who couldn’t justifiably take issue with the way some things were handled then. I’m sure there are many today being hurt by the excesses of the IFB movement. My heart goes out to all of them.

But two wrongs has never made a right.

If you are lumping everyone together, refusing to give us a chance to defend ourselves, or mocking us hatefully. Then you are wrong, and someday you will stand before God and answer for that.

The post A Rebuke to the Readers of Stuff Fundies Like appeared first on Pastor Ryan Hayden.

Joshua 22

Way back in the Deuteronomy years, Isreal had conquered some land under Moses’ direction that was east of the Jordan River. Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manassah, asked Moses for that land and Moses agreed as long as they would take part in the conquest of the rest of the land west of the Jordan. They kept their end of the bargain, and after years of fighting crossed over the Jordan to their geographically isolated home.

But shortly after that, the 9 and a half tribes west of Jordan heard that the eastern tribes had erected a huge altar.

Immediately, they prepared for war. The sting of the plagues from Israel’s foray into Baal worship was still in memory, and they would not tolerate jews in any deviant kind of worship.

But, before they sent the armies, they sent a party of priests and representatives to hear the easterner’s story.

There was no civil war. There never was a need for one.

The altar was not an altar for worship and sacrifice, it certainly was not an altar to Baal, it was a memorial to remind the easterner children of what God had done for them. When the peace party heard this explained, they were o.k. with it.

Jovan Mosely

I also read (actually listened to while I painted) a book this week called “Long Way Home.” The book told the story of a 19 year old kid named Jovan Mosely. A guy from the bad parts of Chicago who witnessed a murder and was tricked/coerced into signing a confession. He waited six years for a trial and would have been sent away for life was it not for a chance encounter with a female high power defense attorney. It’s a fascinating book (although I could have done with out the gritty street language.)

Mosley was never read his Miranda rights, and never told what was going on. He was chained to a wall in a six by six room for 27 hours without food, water or a bathroom break. None of the detectives wrote his statements down. He waited over a year to get a public defender who didn’t turn out to care.

I saw a common thread this week in both stories and that was the importance of due process.

Due Process

The legal system needs prosecutors and we need detectives. It needs people to police the streets and to make sure that the bad guys go to jail. It needs lawyers to prove before a court of law that the people did what they are accused of.

The legal system also needs defense attorneys, juries, and due process. It need a court system that is thorough, fair, and built of the presumption of innocence. It needs defense attorneys to make sure everyone gets a fair trial and procedures to make sure no one is abused before they are convicted.

Due Process in Church Relations

In a spiritual sense, we need the prosecutor side of the courtroom. We need to stand for the truth. If the 9.5 western tribes had had the same attitude towards compromise that they show in this chapter at Kadesh Barnea, or when Aaron made the golden calf, or when the Amalechites introduced Baal worship then thousands of lives would have been spared. Their desire to keep religion pure was laudable. They were “earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints.” They were being spiritual prosecutors, just as we sometimes need to be.

But we also need to remember, in our contending for the faith, that our gut instinct is not always right. Not everything that smells of smoke is fire. It is entirely possible for us to get the motives, intentions and actions of others wrong. It’s possible to earnestly contend with the wrong people. We need some kind of due process to balance our tendency to mark everyone off as a heretic.

When we hear about Christian’s who have “gone into compromise” or who are “teaching false doctrine.” It should not be “guilty until proven innocent” but “innocent until proven guilty.” We need to get all of our facts strait before we go on attack. We cannot jump to conclusions, and then go look for data to back up our conclusions. Everybody deserves a fair trial.

Imagine how many innocent Hebrews would have been slain by their brothers had not they sent a party to ask questions first. Consider how many people have been hurt in fundamentalism’s history by over zealous contenders who didn’t have all of the facts.

Before we go into attack mode against a brother we must remember that the burden of proof is on the prosecutor, and we should sincerely want them to be innocent.

We are after converts not casualties.

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