Dispensationalism • Leadership in the Church • Unity and Purity in the Church FrontLineB R I N G I N G T H E T R U T H H O M E FrontLineJuly/August 2011 • $3.95 JULY/AUGUST 2011 ContentsFRONTLINE MAGAZINE VOLUME 21 • NUMBER 4 6 Twentieth Anniversary 8 Remembrances Dispensationalism Departments Separatist, Baptist Larry R. Oats Mail Bag Fundamentalism Fundamentalists must 4 look to their past to Kevin Schaal 5 On the Front Line In its purest form, understand their pres- ent and to determine The Doctrine of the Church Fundamentalism is a deep Larry Oats commitment to and willing- their future. ness to contend for the clear 20 On the Home Front teaching of the Word of God. 26 Ladies’ Circle 13 Leadership in the Loneliness Local Church Claudia Barba Larry R. Oats Allowing churches to be 27 Wit & Wisdom flexible where the New David Atkinson Testament is not definitive is a historic Baptist position. 28 Regional Reports Doug Wright Unity and Purity in 17 29 The Evangelist’s the Church Corner David Saxon Stifling the Work of God As early as the second centu- Jerry Sivnksty ry, two contradictory trends 24 The Spiritual Nature of the had developed which would At a Glance Church 30 affect the doctrine of the Colossians: Living Life in Larry R. Oats church until the present time. Christ Alone The church is a liv- Layton Talbert 21 The Primacy of the ing organism, linked Local Church organically to Christ 33 Newsworthy Brian Trainer and empowered by Robert Condict The church, in this dispen- the Holy Spirit. sation, is the very center of 35 Global Focus God’s work in and to the The Mission of the Church and world. Its Accomplishment, Part Two Pearson Johnson 37 Chaplain News John C. Vaughn 39 Behind the Lines We are grateful to Dr. Larry Fundamental Baptist Oats for his help with this Ecclesiology and the Military issue. Chaplaincy John C. Vaughn Visit us on the Web at www.fbfi.org Mail Bag FrontLine We want to hear from you! Editor Executive Board John C. Vaughn Rick Arrowood Let us know what you like or don’t like President James Baker about FrontLine. Address your comments to Office Manager Earl Barnett Managing Editor, FrontLine Wayne Bley Malinda Duvall 2801 Wade Hampton Blvd, Suite 115-165, Dave Byford Taylors, SC 29687 or send them by e-mail to [email protected]. Publication Editor Robert Condict Rick Cross Steve Skaggs You may request that your letter not be published or that your Johnny Daniels name be withheld, but anonymous letters will not be accepted. Contributing Ken Endean Editors Johnny Franco Mike Harding Mark Minnick Gary Hirth Layton Talbert The 2011 FBFI ered. Please connect me David Innes Design Stephen Jones Annual Fellowship to other chaplains and [ Mike Moreau John Mincy in Indianapolis] was a chaplain assistants. Mark Minnick great conference and it May the Almighty bless Executive Officers Jeff Musgrave Kevin Schaal Tom Nieman answered many ques- you and the families. Chairman Dave Pennington tions for me and my wife Peter Kabulayi Chuck Phelps Matthew Recker and I met some great Chaplain Department Vice Chairman Wilbur Schoneweis David Shumate people, and heard the Ndola, ZAMBIA David Shumate Ron Smith Secretary kind of preaching that I Michael Sproul was supposed to hear. I hank you for send- Doug Wright Jeremy Sweatt Treasurer believe FrontLine is the Ting me copies of your Wayne Van Gelderen best fundamental media FrontLine and a copy Advisory Board Doug Wright Ron Allen Mike Yarborough available in content and for my pastor. I am old, Dale Cunningham Aaron Young quality of presentation. retired, . and just plain Jeff Davis Thanks. tired. But I love to read Roger Duvall Board Emeritus Gary Fisher CH (1LT) Chris Wyrick material that takes me Phil Golden Charles Britt Tom Knauf FBFI Army Reserve Chaplain back to my youth. Cary Grant Gerald Carlson Peter Maruyama Springfield, MO . Virgil Arrowood Mike Gray Ed Caughill Bennie Moran Dale Heffernan and I started the church Walt Coles Mike Moreau Marty Herron Collins Glen Fred Moritz ay the peace and in Westminster when I Don Johnson Brian Green Ed Nelson the love of our lord was studying at what is Larry Oats Bill Hall Les Ollila M Stephen Russell Bruce Hamilton Randy Shaylor Jesus be with you! I hope now Colorado Christian Dave Schindel Bob Jones III John Stevens Dale Seaman this letter will find you University. We share some Gary Jones Bob Taylor Brent Snow well. Greetings to you great memories of the Bud Steadman Walter Kirk George Youstra and the families. I am school and the church. Dan Unruh fine too with the family. Then God let me Joe Willis Please accept my pastor the First Baptist Mission Statement: The Fundamental Baptist Fellowship In- regards for the wonder- Church of Clifton, ternational exists to provide a rallying point for Fundamental Baptists ful works which you are Arizona, for five years. seeking personal revival and the opportunity to work with committed Bible-believers in glorifying God through the uncompromising fulfill- doing for the Lord Jesus Then I was called to the ment of the Great Commission. as per great commission. West High Baptist Church As the journal of the FBFI, FrontLine Magazine provides a forum for I am a Zambian of Phoenix. It was associ- God’s people to reverently express a conservative Christian perspec- chaplain assistant serv- ated with the Arizona tive on pertinent issues. In an effort to keep readers informed, quotes ing under the special Baptist (Conservative) and references to many different individuals and organizations will forces at 1 Commando Convention. I helped pull appear. This does not imply the endorsement of the magazine or its board. Unsolicited manuscripts and artwork accepted for review. Headquarters who would it out of the Northern Advertising: like to be in contact with Baptists and soon we had For information contact Harvest Media at (847) 352-4345 or FAX (866) 583-5709. All advertising in FrontLine is for you. This was after read- over one hundred church- the sole purpose of sharing valuable resource materials with our ing one of the magazines es around Arizona. God readers. Although we carefully screen the materials, we are not giv- you produce. I am so allowed me to help start ing a blanket endorsement of any products or advertisers. much interested to be a Bible Institute that has receiving any material now grown into Arizona FrontLine Magazine you feel can be of help. Christian University. 2801 Wade Hampton Blvd., Suite 115-165 Taylors, SC 29687 I will appreciate if my Wes Darby (800) 376-6856 • (864) 268-0777 request will be consid- Phoenix, AZ E-Mail: [email protected] • www.fbfi.org COPYRIGHT 2011 FrontLine Magazine. No materials may be reproduced 4 in any manner without prior written permission of the publishers. ISSN 1526-8284 On the Front Line The Doctrine of the Church: Introduction to the Series Larry Oats onservative Christianity in gave in the Civic Auditorium tion of the Fundamentalist social North America was a fairly in Pasadena. While reaffirming theory. Fundamentalists respond- homogenous movement until the theological view of funda- ed with a call for separation from the mid-twentieth century. The mentalism, this address repudi- New Evangelicalism. For instance, rise of liberalism in the latter ated its ecclesiology and its social George Dollar, Fundamentalist histo- half of the 1800s brought about theory. The ringing call for a rian, declared, “A new and powerful Cthe discrete and defined movement repudiation of separatism and the movement began in the 1940’s. It eventually called Fundamentalism, summons to social involvement was carefully defined in the 1950’s an amalgamation of various churches received a hearty response from and then became a national menace and denominational leaders who stood many evangelicals. The name in the 1960’s, even spilling over onto for the truth of Scripture against the caught on and spokesmen such the mission field. The movement rise of unbelief in many of the main- as Drs. Harold Lindsell, Carl has a permissive attitude on personal stream denominations and seminar- F. H. Henry, Edward Carnell, and ecclesiastical separation . and ies. During the first half of the twen- and Gleason Archer supported a new toleration of the ecumenical tieth century, “‘fundamentalist’ and this viewpoint. We had no inten- movement.”4 The result was a rift in ‘evangelical’ meant roughly the same tion of launching a movement, the old movement. It is important to things. People might use either name but found that the emphasis note that this New Evangelical move- to describe those who preserved and attracted widespread support ment was in one sense a separatis- practiced the revivalist heritage of soul and exercised great influence. tic group—the National Association winning and maintained a traditional Neo-evangelicalism differed of Evangelicals separated from the insistence on orthodoxy.”1 Carl F. H. from modernism in its accep- Federal Council of Churches. The Henry agreed. “In the 1930s we were tance of the supernatural and its debate between the Fundamentalists all fundamentalists. The term ‘evan- emphasis on the fundamental and Evangelicals centered around not gelical’ became a significant option doctrines of Scripture. It dif- separation per se, but the extent of when the NAE [National Association fered from neo-orthodoxy in separation—the decision concerning of Evangelicals] was organized. In its emphasis upon the written from whom one should separate. the context of the debate with modern- Word as inerrant, over against A number of explanations for ism, fundamentalism was an appropri- the Word of God which was the varying positions on separation ate alternative; in other contexts (of above and different from the have been explored by numerous the debate within the fundamentalist Scripture, but was manifested in authors: sociological distinctions, movement), the term evangelical was Scripture.