On Sunday, Dr. Voddie Baucham and pastor John MacArthur delivered messages at an event hosted by the Conservative Baptist Network.
The event, which was held a few days before the Southern Baptist Convention's Annual Meeting (June 14-15) in Anaheim, California, touched on issues the SBC is currently facing. In addition to Baucham and MacArthur, there was a panel discussion with CBN-endorsed candidates running for SBC offices.
Baucham, who is running for president of the SBC's Pastor's Conference, stressed that the Kingdom of God remains "undefeated" regardless of what happens in the world's largest Baptist denomination following this week's meeting.
"And here's another thing that I want to say. We recognize that God doesn't need the Southern Baptist Convention," he said.
While acknowledging that God does not need any single denomination, Baucham added that he prays that the Lord would continue to use the denomination and that there would be repentance and revival.
"And the reason I say that is because I recognize that God doesn't need America … What I'm worried about is that there is this judgment that is happening simultaneously," Baucham warned. "There's this judgment that we're seeing in our broader culture that is also being reflected in a kind of judgment that we're seeing within broader evangelicalism and a judgment we're seeing within the Southern Baptist Convention."
This week's Annual Convention will largely address the SBC's history of sexual abuse and the denomination's efforts to cover up allegations, as found in the recent Guidepost Solutions Investigative report. Baucham, however, also warned that the Convention has been compromised with social justice and mercy programs that are taking precedence over preaching the Gospel.
"One of the things that happens when the Gospel becomes an enemy in the culture is that we want to appease the culture by doing the good without the name," Baucham explained. "And so our churches become known as soup kitchens. Our pastors become known as community organizers."
"The work that we do is known as work that is social in nature [and] that has absolutely nothing to do with the gospel," he added. "It's work that anyone else can do, and you don't need the name of Jesus in order to do it. And we do this because we recognize the animosity that the culture has toward the Gospel."
As reported by ChurchLeaders.com, Baucham also argued that the world will never accept Christians, noting that no matter how much good works Christians do, the world will always see them as evil.
"They've gone [from] arguing that we're wrong to arguing that we're evil," he said. "And now with all of this social justice ideology – the social justice ideology argues that there is not only this sort of oppressor-oppressed paradigm but that the oppression is ultimately rooted and grounded in Christianity."
"[To them], you're not just wrong. You're evil," he added.
In closing, Baucham encouraged believers in attendance to remain steadfast in preaching the Gospel without compromise.
"I literally could not care less if the world likes, lauds, or appreciates me," he said. "We have to preach the gospel."
Later that evening, MacArthur shared a similar message on the importance of remaining uncompromised in a fallen world.
"All effective, uncompromising ministry starts with an understanding [that the Kingdom of God is not of this world]," MacArthur, the pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, said.
"The world provides nothing for you to advance the Kingdom of God—not politically, not in terms of power, not in terms of influence, not in terms of alliances, not in terms of connections. It offers you nothing," he stressed.
"Sometimes, I hear people talk about the fact that we're supposed to have some mandate, some urban mandate to go in and win the cities of the world, and I want you to hear Jesus' approach to speaking to the cities in Matthew 11:20," MacArthur said later. "'Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of the miracles were done because they didn't repent.'"
As a professing Christian, MacArthur shared that he expects to be unpopular and hated by the world because the message he preaches is "so deeply unacceptable to them."
He added that he has no interest in designing "a church service for the children of the devil."
"I have no desire to be popular with them. I have no interest in taking orders from the political powers of the kingdom of darkness," he asserted.
Photo courtesy: Islandsend/Creative Commons, image cropped and resized.
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
