DO FUNDAMENTALIST CHURCHES NEED A BIBLICAL ALTERNATIVE TO PROMISE KEEPERS?

By Tod Brainard

[Distributed by Way of Life Literature's Fundamental Baptist News Service. These articles cannot be stored on BBS or Internet sites without permission from the author. Any articles which are redistributed by e-mail or print must be left intact and nothing must be removed or changed, including these informational headers. This is a listing for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Our primary purpose is to provide information to assist preachers in the protection of the churches in this apostate hour. If you desire to receive this type of material on a regular basis, e-mail us, tell us who you are and where you are located, and request to be placed on the list. Also include your postal address and the name of the church of which you are a member. Some of these articles are from the "Digging in the Walls" section of O Timothy magazine. David W. Cloud, Editor. O Timothy is a monthly magazine in its 14th year of publication. Subscription is $20/yr. The Way of Life web site is http://www.wayoflife.org/.]

March 6, 1996 (Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following excerpt was taken from an article written recently by a well-known fundamentalist. He writes, "Fundamental Baptists need to provide a biblical alternative to Promise Keepers within the context of our various local churches. It may not have all the glitz and glamour of this super-star movement, but if it is done rightly and biblically, it will be capable of an enduring transformational impact."

No doubt this statement was written with all sincerity. However, while one may appreciate some of the emphases of the Promise Keepers movement, one must also realize the deception of this movement. Another "Fundamentalist-form" of Promise Keepers is not what our churches need. The much promoted idea that we must group our men together (apart from the regular meetings of the local church for worship and preaching of the Word) and provide them with some "additional" means to make them better men, better husbands, and better fathers is deceptive. The strong, systematic, Spirit-directed Biblical preaching of the Word of God in the local church is profitable for "doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." The work of the Spirit of God through the Word of God is the only "enduring transformational impact" that the believer will ever experience.

It is not necessary for us as Fundamentalists to come up with a "creative or biblical alternative" to what New-Evangelicals offer to their masses. The Bible way is still the right way! Preach the Word! If a man will not hear the Word of God and obey the teachings of Scripture concerning his role as a man, husband, or father, any other motivating influence must be of the flesh and, therefore, unacceptable with God.

Some within the camp of Fundamentalism are ever sensitive to the criticism of disobedient New Evangelicals upon Biblical Fundamentalism. Instead, let us concern ourselves with doing right at all costs in obedience to the Word of God, and let the chips fall where they may (The Fundamentalist Digest, January/February 1996).