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...well, OK, imbibe moderately and purge the church rolls with SBC calvinists, I couldn't resist a great topic title.

Calvinists in a clamor at the convention seemed to focus on two things: 1. The resolution on , and (2) .

I'm not sure of the value of either of these, or if this is where calvinists would love to lead the denomination if they ever gained office and dominated trustee boards, both of which seem unlikely.

I would say concerning integrity in my church's membership that it is none of Tom Ascol's business, but if he had a church, I'd certainly favor him using integrity with his statistics, though the calvinists I've been around seem to be on a mission to empty churches. Perhaps I've been around the wrong ones.

I don't quite get my calvinist brothers keen interest in NOT expressing a view that abstaining from alcohol as a beverage is a good thing. One calvinist blogger seems to thrash it out in character under the main thrust that we cannot maintain a postion that opposes drinking because it is not just extra-biblical but anti-biblical. Dang...where has Steve McCoy been all these scores of years that baptists have been doing this...if we had only known...think of how "high" the SBC would be now if we had only figured this out generations ago.

I love the young bloggers but extra-biblical is a great hyphenated term, not always a concrete thing. I wonder if this young blogger, portion of his anatomy being pictured will have us in another extra-biblical mode next year? I can see it now...Resolution on Permanent Disfigurement as an Expression of our Freedom in Christ.

William,

You seem to be on a calvinist crusade recently. I cannot remember a time recently when I have seen so many posts come from you dealing with calvinists and calvinism. Let me share, if I might presume, some of the thinking involved here.

First, on the matter of alcohol, the calvinists were simply trying to be what they are. John Calvin, in the Institutes, said that we must speak where the Bible speaks and where the Bible is silent we must be silent. He warned that we have no warrant to go beyond what the Bible says. I think calvinist support for the alcohol resolution is doing exactly that ... trying to go as far as the Bible and no farther.

On the matter of integrity in report our numbers ... think back to Jim Elliff's article ... "Southern Baptists - An Unregenerate Denomination." We say we are the largest Protestant denomination in America and report just over 16 million members. But more than half those members do not show up for church even once a year. Also, I seem to remember the same kinds of numbers (total SBC membership) being reported throughout the years. Now, when the CBF formed and many churches and members went away, there should surely have been a decrease in our overall membership numbers. But I never remember seeing such a decrease. The call for intergrity is a call for us to see that there is a problem somewhere. When I was in the Air Force they told us the first step to fixing a problem is seeing there IS a problem. If my church says our total membership is 1000 and I have 250 attend every week, I have a problem. Dr. Ascol and others, I believe, want us to see the problem so we can do what we need to in order to fix it.

You can read Jim Elliff's article at his website at:



Well, that is my thinking on this.

JohnTS