Recent revelations as to the deception and errancy of the Southern Baptist Convention's multi-million dollar "Guidepost" investigation into allegations of systemic sexual abuse (which were motivated by the demonic social justice push and a desire to please men and maintain power) within the SBC have prompted me to repost the following blog post from July of 2022 -
A couple of months ago, I was in the company of a small handful of pastors and church leaders, all of whom were Southern Baptist with the exception of myself and, as you might expect, the topic of the SBC and the upcoming Annual Meeting (held in Anaheim, CA June 13-14) came up. The general sentiment of the group was disappointment and frustration, but there was also surprise amongst the minority who weren't quite as aware of the recent developments and who were bewildered to hear the staggering reports from the group. The one word that came to me in that moment, which I did share with the other men, was "Ichabod".
As you very well may know, we find this word in I Samuel 4:21. Eli (the priest at Shiloh) had two sons, Hophni and Phineas, who were godless. Due to Eli's indifference toward the sin of his sons, God pronounced judgment on Eli's house and even all of Israel as they followed a similar pattern. God used the pagan Philistines to carry out His judgment on Israel. The Philistines killed Eli's sons in battle, along with many others, and took possession of the Ark of God. When Eli received the tragic report from the field, he fell backward off his stool, broke his neck and died. The pregnant wife of Phineas, when she heard the news, went into labor prematurely. This labor would take her life as well. But before passing on, she lived long enough to bear her child and to name her son Ichabod, which means "the glory has departed" (see I Samuel 4 for the entire disheartening account).
The glory has departed. Meaning that what was once glorious and familiar is now gone. What a hopeless assessment. The final words of a dying woman, whose life should have held so much promise and hope, revealed the devastatingly dire reality of the tragedy that is, as opposed to the glory that should have been. Indifference toward sin, capitulation to pressure, a lack of vigilance and general weakness culminated in a harsh judgment by God which was meted out by pagans and in the abandonment by God of the once proud, mighty and victorious nation of Israel.
In that moment, back in early May, this was the exact thought that I had regarding the SBC, but had been holding in quiet reserve. I chose not to share that thought openly due to a hope that truth and a deep love for God's Word would prevail in our nation's largest Protestant denomination.
Sadly, I take no pleasure in reporting that what I observed from the 2022 Annual Meeting (I was not present, but kept up with it online) confirmed my assessment. Without repentance, and I don't mean sometime down the road, but NOW, the SBC is going the way all other major denominations have previously gone - spiritual irrelevancy. When a denomination becomes irrelevant in the culture, it is because that denomination has grieved God's Spirit to such a level that God's Spirit "departs" from them. The pronouncement is - Ichabod.
The SBC has reached critical mass. All of the ingredients necessary for their self-implosion have been combined together. The Southern Baptist Convention has been the lone cultural holdout thus far, having fended off liberalism to this point, but the pressures of the culture and the pragmatism required to run large denominations like corporate businesses eventually torpedo them, leaving them in sinking ruins.
We cannot state strongly enough that God has a particular way. And that way must be adhered to with diligence and vigilance. God's way is narrow, rigid, impractical, odd and difficult to us. It doesn't resemble our way at all. If we do not continually refer to His map with each step and reorient ourselves to His direction when we have drifted, we will soon find ourselves off course and headed away from Him and toward disaster, though our trek may, and likely will, seem gloriously smooth. By His grace, impending disaster comes with signals of warning, but those signs are easily missed or dismissed by those who continuously search for smoother waters and "by-path meadows".
The priorities of the SBC have been perverted. Holy living before an infinitely holy God is not what drives their decisions. This is more than a mistake on their part, this is sin and is a grave error. There is but one hope for the SBC, and it had better come very soon as judgment is imminent. The heartfelt prayer must become -
Psalm 51:7-12 - "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit."
Out of a love for Jesus Christ,
Pastor Jeremy
