Posted on 03/11/2006 5:42:09 AM PST by WKB
Baptists are caught up in controversy again.
This time conservative Southern Baptists are in contention over a new rule approved by the International Mission Board that disqualifies future missionary candidates who admit to speaking in a charismatic "private prayer language."
Proponents say the new regulation is needed to emphasize Baptists' long-held position against charismatic practices such as praying and speaking in unknown tongues, or "glossalalia," a practice popular among Pentecostals and other groups.
The irony is that Jerry Rankin, the leader of the Richmond, Va.-based foreign mission board, has long used a charismatic prayer language in his private prayers. So, could the man who runs the worldwide organization of 5,000 missionaries be disqualified under the rule? Not at all. The new regulation is not retroactive.
The mission board already prohibits missionaries from publicly speaking in tongues, but in November added the regulation disqualifying new missionary candidates who, like Rankin, admit to having a private prayer language.
Future candidates who use a private prayer language also have a right to appeal to try to convince screening committees that their practice doesn't violate Baptist policy.
Rankin said in a press conference with Baptist editors that he's used a private prayer language for 30 years but doesn't encourage others to do it. Rankin strongly opposes publicly speaking in tongues.
One mission board trustee, the Rev. Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., has led the opposition to the new private prayer language rule and believes it may have been meant to discredit Rankin. Burleson criticized the new rule as narrow and restrictive.
"For the record, I do not have the gift of tongues," he said on his Web site. "I never have had it and I don't desire it, but I sure don't mind going to Africa and serving on a mission field with someone that prays in tongues in their prayer closet."
David Rogers, a Baptist missionary and son of the late Rev. Adrian Rogers, an icon among conservative Baptists, agreed. He said in a letter to Burleson that he doesn't use a private prayer language but works with many missionaries who do.
The Rev. Tom Hatley, chairman of the mission board, this week said trustees thought the rules were needed to address some problems with charismatic practices in Baptist missions in some parts of the world, particularly South America. He doesn't think the rules were meant to target Rankin.
"One of the reasons it hasn't come faster is that trustees knew Jerry Rankin had a private prayer language and the rule might be wrongfully perceived as trying to hurt him," said Hatley, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Rogers, Ark.
Hatley, a native of Fort Worth who grew up in Glen Rose, sent out an open letter this week to pastors urging them to study the proposals and offer their views by e-mail. He included position papers quoting the late Rev. W.A. Criswell, longtime pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, and Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, as critics of charismatic practices.
"Most pastors and theologians among Southern Baptists of recent decades and of today regard the charismatic movement as divisive, encouraging spiritual pride, and stressing minor gifts out of proportion to biblical evidence," the paper states.
Burleson has said he opposes the new rule on his widely read Web site, www.wadeburleson.com. The trustees adopted, then rescinded at Hatley's request, a motion that the Southern Baptist Convention remove Burleson as a trustee.
Central to the controversy are different interpretations of the New Testament. The Book of Acts tells of the Holy Spirit coming down on the Day of Pentecost "like a rushing mighty wind." It says cloven tongues like fire appeared over Jesus' followers and they began to speak in other tongues. Non-Christians from many nations heard the story of Christ in their own language and scores were converted to the new faith.
Southern Baptists generally have taught that the event in Acts was a one-time miracle related to building up of the early church and that the tongues mentioned were then-known languages.
But Pentecostals and many charismatic Baptists, Catholics, Episcopalians and independent Christian groups say they experience their own New Testament-style Pentecost today. They believe the Holy Spirit comes over them, enabling them to speak a spiritual language and drawing them closer to God.
Baptist ping
All I have to say about this is "mglmptbyy wwaaatrayala noballalto ugaferamaeeta"
One of my best friends growing up was Pentecostal and I am Baptist. I used to ask him about the "speaking in tongues" thing. He seemed to think it baloney but wouldn't say as much. I still wonder.
I thought the author's name made this article
a little suspect.
it's baloney.
There was a thread on this recently
That kinda takes the "private" out of it don't you think?
I used to go on Sundays, but they got a new pastor.
He is charismatic. He jumps around and hollers like a pentecostal preacher. He moves about the church like he studied preachers on TBN.
I don't go anymore.
Can anyone help me find 'private prayer language' in my bible?
All I have to say about this is "mglmptbyy wwaaatrayala noballalto ugaferamaeeta"
Chuckle, chuckle... hee, hee
Okay, so if they have a private prayer language with God, why do we even have to know about it? Maybe, this is an effort to keep out the habit of publically speaking in tongues, which is popular in Africa. The Bible clearly states that speaking in tongues should not be allowed if there isn't an interpreter there. Who is stirring up this non-controversy? I'm assuming it's a pagan practice amongst some Africans and a few SB Missionaries have allowed them to do this during Christian worship services. If that's the case... then it shouldn't be allowed. This article lacks facts. It's just dropping big names and creating a rift. Southern Baptist missionaries need to comply with SB theology or join another church that does permit "speaking in tongues" during public worship servies!
That kinda takes the "private" out of it don't you think?
From a public stand point, yes!!
According to the bible, those who spoke in tongues were understood by all of these different people no matter what their language.
Therefore, one would think that *if* someone were truly speaking in tongues, rather than sounding like jibberish, EVERYONE would understand them.
Therefore, I say POPPYCOCK!
Anyone who claims to speak in tongues, and makes unintelligible sounds, is either faking it, or possessed by something other than the spirit of God.
I Tim 1:6-7
Some have wandered away from [the commandment of love] and turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.
"From a public stand point, yes!!"
LOL, well the whole controversy is now public.
Years ago the Holy Rollers in this part of the world weren't doing so well so they pulled down their Church signs and put up Babtist signs so as the area grew in the early 50 people moving into the Dallas area went to what they thought was a local Babtist church, people calling themselves Babtist have been confused ever sence.
He's still dead, I think.
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