Kinsey Drive

  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Faith
      • 1646 London Baptist Confession of Faith
    • Constitution and Bylaws
    • Service Times
  • Our Ministries
    • Majesty Episodes
    • Sunday School
    • Sunday Night
    • Prayer and Praise
    • Nursery
    • The Sword & Trowel
    • Greater Works
    • Historical Prints
    • Missions at KDBC
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Archives for article

Nashville Statement: A Coalition for Biblical Sexuality

January 14, 2019 by admin

The Pastor and Deacons believe we need a written statement on Biblical Sexuality to protect the church. We would like to bring the Nashville Statement before the church to potentially adopt it into our bylaws and beliefs. We will be discussing the issue at our Quarterly Business meeting on Wednesday January 23, 2019 at 6PM. We will have have printed copies of the statement available at the meeting. Please read this statement.

Here is the link to the original website: https://cbmw.org/nashville-statement
To download a PDF, please click HERE

“Know that the LORD Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves…”
-Psalm 100:3

Preamble

Evangelical Christians at the dawn of the twenty-first century find themselves living in a period of historic transition. As Western culture has become increasingly post-Christian, it has embarked upon a massive revision of what it means to be a human being. By and large the spirit of our age no longer discerns or delights in the beauty of God’s design for human life. Many deny that God created human beings for his glory, and that his good purposes for us include our personal and physical design as male and female. It is common to think that human identity as male and female is not part of God’s beautiful plan, but is, rather, an expression of an individual’s autonomous preferences. The pathway to full and lasting joy through God’s good design for his creatures is thus replaced by the path of shortsighted alternatives that, sooner or later, ruin human life and dishonor God.

This secular spirit of our age presents a great challenge to the Christian church. Will the church of the Lord Jesus Christ lose her biblical conviction, clarity, and courage, and blend into the spirit of the age? Or will she hold fast to the word of life, draw courage from Jesus, and unashamedly proclaim his way as the way of life? Will she maintain her clear, counter-cultural witness to a world that seems bent on ruin?

We are persuaded that faithfulness in our generation means declaring once again the true story of the world and of our place in it—particularly as male and female. Christian Scripture teaches that there is but one God who alone is Creator and Lord of all. To him alone, every person owes glad-hearted thanksgiving, heart-felt praise, and total allegiance. This is the path not only of glorifying God, but of knowing ourselves. To forget our Creator is to forget who we are, for he made us for himself. And we cannot know ourselves truly without truly knowing him who made us. We did not make ourselves. We are not our own. Our true identity, as male and female persons, is given by God. It is not only foolish, but hopeless, to try to make ourselves what God did not create us to be.

We believe that God’s design for his creation and his way of salvation serve to bring him the greatest glory and bring us the greatest good. God’s good plan provides us with the greatest freedom. Jesus said he came that we might have life and have it in overflowing measure. He is for us and not against us. Therefore, in the hope of serving Christ’s church and witnessing publicly to the good purposes of God for human sexuality revealed in Christian Scripture, we offer the following affirmations and denials.

Article 1

WE AFFIRM that God has designed marriage to be a covenantal, sexual, procreative, lifelong union of one man and one woman, as husband and wife, and is meant to signify the covenant love between Christ and his bride the church.

WE DENY that God has designed marriage to be a homosexual, polygamous, or polyamorous relationship. We also deny that marriage is a mere human contract rather than a covenant made before God.

Article 2

WE AFFIRM that God’s revealed will for all people is chastity outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage.

WE DENY that any affections, desires, or commitments ever justify sexual intercourse before or outside marriage; nor do they justify any form of sexual immorality.

Article 3

WE AFFIRM that God created Adam and Eve, the first human beings, in his own image, equal before God as persons, and distinct as male and female.

WE DENY that the divinely ordained differences between male and female render them unequal in dignity or worth.

Article 4

WE AFFIRM that divinely ordained differences between male and female reflect God’s original creation design and are meant for human good and human flourishing.

WE DENY that such differences are a result of the Fall or are a tragedy to be overcome.

Article 5

WE AFFIRM that the differences between male and female reproductive structures are integral to God’s design for self-conception as male or female.

WE DENY that physical anomalies or psychological conditions nullify the God-appointed link between biological sex and self-conception as male or female.

Article 6

WE AFFIRM that those born with a physical disorder of sex development are created in the image of God and have dignity and worth equal to all other image-bearers. They are acknowledged by our Lord Jesus in his words about “eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb.” With all others they are welcome as faithful followers of Jesus Christ and should embrace their biological sex insofar as it may be known.

WE DENY that ambiguities related to a person’s biological sex render one incapable of living a fruitful life in joyful obedience to Christ.

Article 7

WE AFFIRM that self-conception as male or female should be defined by God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption as revealed in Scripture.

WE DENY that adopting a homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption.

Article 8

WE AFFIRM that people who experience sexual attraction for the same sex may live a rich and fruitful life pleasing to God through faith in Jesus Christ, as they, like all Christians, walk in purity of life.

WE DENY that sexual attraction for the same sex is part of the natural goodness of God’s original creation, or that it puts a person outside the hope of the gospel.

Article 9

WE AFFIRM that sin distorts sexual desires by directing them away from the marriage covenant and toward sexual immorality— a distortion that includes both heterosexual and homosexual immorality.

WE DENY that an enduring pattern of desire for sexual immorality justifies sexually immoral behavior.

Article 10

WE AFFIRM that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness.

WE DENY that the approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree.

Article 11

WE AFFIRM our duty to speak the truth in love at all times, including when we speak to or about one another as male or female.

WE DENY any obligation to speak in such ways that dishonor God’s design of his image-bearers as male and female.

Article 12

WE AFFIRM that the grace of God in Christ gives both merciful pardon and transforming power, and that this pardon and power enable a follower of Jesus to put to death sinful desires and to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

WE DENY that the grace of God in Christ is insufficient to forgive all sexual sins and to give power for holiness to every believer who feels drawn into sexual sin.

Article 13

WE AFFIRM that the grace of God in Christ enables sinners to forsake transgender self-conceptions and by divine forbearance to accept the God-ordained link between one’s biological sex and one’s self-conception as male or female.

WE DENY that the grace of God in Christ sanctions self-conceptions that are at odds with God’s revealed will.

Article 14

WE AFFIRM that Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners and that through Christ’s death and resurrection forgiveness of sins and eternal life are available to every person who repents of sin and trusts in Christ alone as Savior, Lord, and supreme treasure.

WE DENY that the Lord’s arm is too short to save or that any sinner is beyond his reach.

Scripture References*

Gen. 1:26-28; 2:15-25; 3:1-24; Ex. 20:14; 20:17; Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Dt. 5:18, 21; 22:5; Jdg. 19:22; 2 Sam. 11:1-12:15; Job 31:1; Ps. 51:1-19; Prov. 5:1-23; 6:20-35; 7:1-27; Isa. 59:1; Mal. 2:14; Matt. 5:27–30; 19:4-6, 8-9, 12; Acts 15:20, 29; Rom. 1:26–27; 1:32; 1 Cor. 6:9–11, 18-20; 7:1-7; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 5:24; Eph. 4:15, 20–24; 5:31–32; Col. 3:5; 1 Thess. 4:3-8; 1 Tim. 1:9–10, 15; 2 Tim. 2:22; Titus 2:11-12; Heb. 13:4; Jas. 1:14–15; 1 Pet. 2:11; Jude 7

*Scripture texts are not a part of the original document but have been added subsequently for reference

Filed Under: article, Ministries, Special News Tagged With: Biblical Sexuality, Nashville Statement, Protection

Sanctification

November 9, 2018 by admin

The moment God shows us a little more of His truth we should feel compelled to compare this with the rest of Scripture and make sure we have no clear contradictions. It seems to me that is the essence of the Berean spirit which the Apostle commended. A serious problem arises when we feel an even greater obligation to make the new truth fit into our presently held system of theology. There is an assumption involved here that is saying, “Every thing in our system is true therefore we can test anything by comparing it to our system.” This is fine for a ‘confessional’ church that has deliberately wedded its conscience to a confession of faith. R.L. Dabney is typical of the mentality that accepts a confession of faith as being equal in authority with the Bible:

“The Confession will need no amendment until the Bible needs to be amended.” R.L. Dabney, The Doctrinal Contents of the Confession Memorial Volume of the Westminster Assembly (Richmond: Presbyterian Committee of Publications, 1897.)

Dabney is one of my favorite writers simply because he has such a logical mind. However, he often allows his logic to totally swallow up a text and literally change the meaning of a text of Scripture so it will fit the system set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith.

In recent years, God has been pleased to open up the truth of sovereign grace to many of His people.  Spurgeon said, “I shall be eaten of the dogs [for his outspoken Calvinism] for the present but another generation will arise and defend the same truth.”  We live in that generation! However, along with the great blessings have come the resurgence of many of the doctrinal battles that were bitterly fought by sincere brethren in the past.  Some of the very doctrines that divided solid Calvinistic Baptists are again being fought in books and at conferences.  One example is the debate between John Gill and Andrew Fuller that has been revived in full force.

One of the subjects under serious discussion today concerns the nature and outworking of sanctification.  The argument hinges on whether sanctification is a progressive work of the Holy Spirit or whether we are ‘sanctified by faith’ in the same sense we are ‘justified by faith.’  Some years ago I wrote to a young man struggling with the law vs. grace issue.  He had been reading the controversy that William Huntington had in his day. The rest of this article is part of a letter that I wrote to this young man. That accounts for the constant use of the personal pronoun you, especially in the last paragraph.

My dear brother, do not allow yourself to get caught in the fallacy of a total ‘either/or’ thinking.  Religious leaders use this Jesuit method of teaching all the time. “It is either A or B. I have proved it cannot be B therefore it must be A.” There are some things which are clearly either/or. Either the Bible is the Word of God or it is not. There are no other choices. However, most things, have more than two choices. Covenant Theology as defined by the Westminster Confession of Faith and Dispensationalism as defined by the Scofield Reference Bible are not the only two options.  Likewise, Huntington’s view of the law/grace tension and the view of those who opposed him are not the only two views. It is quite possible that both Huntington and his enemies were often responding more to what each other was saying than they were exegeting Scripture. The older I get the more difficulty I have fitting into any system. It seems to me the Word of God and true life is far too big for us to whittle down into an all-inclusive system.

“But that’s Dispensationalism” is not a sufficient response to prove something is either right or wrong. Likewise, “But that is incompatible with Covenant Theology” is no test of the rightness or wrongness of anything. We must ask,

“What does the text of Scripture say?” The question is: “Do the Scriptures clearly teach that we are ‘sanctified by faith’ in the same way that we are ‘justified by faith.'” This is what you are claiming. Let me immediately say that Huntington was fighting men who were teaching that “Moses will drive you to Christ to be justified, and Christ will send you back to Moses to be sanctified.” I, like you, agree with Huntington that such a view must be fought. At the end of the day, that view will always leave Moses as the ‘big man on Campus’ in the conscience of the Christian and will quickly lead to some form of legalism. I wholeheartedly agree that we do not ‘believe to be justified’ and then ‘obey the law to be sanctified.’ That is one of the root errors of the Covenant Theology of the Puritans.

However, you and I, as believers, are faced with many, many exhortations to obey clear objective commandments in the New Testament Scriptures. Do we ignore them? If we teach them, does that mean we are teaching ‘sanctification by works?’ Is it not possible, or should I say mandatory, to teach that both justification and sanctification are 100% by grace and are not earned or worked for in any sense whatever, and at the same time exhort professing Christians who have “believed by grace” (Acts 18:27) to “Examine yourselves…prove your selves…except ye be reprobates” (II Cor 13:5) and “make your calling and election sure” (II Pet 1:10)? Are these verses advocating sanctification by works, or are they merely insisting that the saving faith produced by the Holy Spirit in the true elect of God will, and must, manifest itself, in some degree, in biblical good works. Is the problem either/or or is it both/and while insisting on a correct understanding of which is the cause and which is the effect?

Look carefully with me at two verses of Scripture:

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12, 13)

How do you teach these verses? One of your favorite catch phrases seems to be “trembling in the camp.” Again, let me say that I totally agree with you that men have misused the law to tyrannize the conscience of Christians and have corrupted the gospel of grace. They have made, to use Luther’s phrase, “work mongers” out of untaught and insecure believers. They have used guilt to control and manipulate weak Christians. However, what is the “fear and trembling” to which Paul is exhorting us in this text? Is there a “fear and trembling” that is the evidence (produced by the Holy Spirit and not our self effort in obeying the law) of a holy and healthy attitude towards God’s truth? Are we to seek to experience this kind of trembling, and is such trembling in anyway inconsistent with the holy joy and assurance that is found in free grace alone?

Paul clearly understood that he was both saved by faith and that he lived by faith (Gal 2:20), but that did not hinder him from saying, “I fight…I run…I keep my body under…let us labor…let us cleanse ourselves…let us lay aside every weight” (cf. I Cor 9:26; II Cor 7:1; Heb 4:11; 12:1). This is holy and conscious effort. However, the choice is not, on the one hand, to ignore these verses and lean toward antinomianism, or, on the other hand, to think that Paul is saying our obedience to the law is the means of sanctification and head toward legalism. Why not say, “The grace of God that saves us is the very same powerful grace that ‘works in us [as believers] to [both] will and to do’ His revealed will?” Why not magnify grace by insisting that it, and it alone without any help from either the law or carnal flesh, can, and must produce the fruits of true grace. The answer to legalism is not antinomianism, and the answer to antinomianism is not nomianism. The answer to both is the power of the sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ our living Lord. The answer is to stand under the cross until the heart is melted in worship and praise. Neither a true legalist nor an antinomian can do this.

We both agree that we are not justified by faith and sanctified by works. However, the Word of God nowhere teaches that faith sanctifies us in the same sense, and in the same manner that faith justifies us. In justification, faith is a grace that “worketh not,” but simply and only trusts, rests, and leans on Christ (Romans 4:5). And we must never forget that this faith is in itself a gift of God’s grace to us. In sanctification, grace is the power of God (the Holy Spirit Himself) in us that literally enables us to both “will and obey.” The grace that alone enables us to believe the gospel is the same grace that inwardly constrains us to obey the commandments of our Lord. I grant you that Huntington’s enemies often turned the power of sanctification over to the law and greatly confused the doctrine of sanctification. However, Huntington’s response of “sanctification by faith alone” corrected one error by creating another one.

We are not sanctified by faith nor are we sanctified by the law. The law is just as impotent to produce holiness in a saint as it is impotent to produce holiness in a lost man. The law is just as powerless to keep our hearts and wills apart from grace as it was to cleanse our hearts in the first place. We are sanctified by grace alone, but it is a grace that enables us to believeingly, and gratefully, walk in obedience to the revealed will of God. The only well from which any obedience can be drawn is the well of grateful assurance of salvation. Here is where Huntington and others were dead right. They saw and rejoiced in a living Christ Who was both at the Father’s right hand and in them personally. We must insist that the law is totally powerless to either justify or sanctify, and, at the same time, also insist that the grace in which we boast must sanctify those in whom it resides or else that grace is just as impotent as the law.

The real questions are these:

One: What is the goal of God in redemption? Answer: To save us from our sin for His own glory.

Two: Is it essential that the grace of God in which I boast accomplish that goal in my life? Answer: Absolutely! If grace does not conquer sin, then I am not any better off than I was under the law!

The only verse where the phrase “sanctified by faith” is found is Acts 26:18: to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

It is always dangerous to build a whole theological concept on one verse—especially when it creates real difficulties with other clear texts. It is wise to ask, “Can this verse have another meaning other than what I have given it?” Alford comments that the phrase “by faith” in this text belongs to the whole sentence and must not be tied to the word sanctified alone. The true sense of the text is, “that by faith in me they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified.” The basic meaning of sanctified is ‘set apart.’ It is sometimes equivalent to eternal election and at other times is equal to the word salvation. Compare the above verse with Acts 20:32:

And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

It is obvious that the word sanctified here means all Christians. We could read it, “among those who are saved,” or “among those who are in Christ.” The phrase “among them which are sanctified by faith” (Acts 26:18) can only mean “those who are saved by faith.” It is identical to the phrase “inheritance among all them which are sanctified” in Acts 20:32. Both Acts 26:18 and Acts 20:32 mean “those who are saved.” Acts 26:18 is using the word sanctified to mean “all believers.” It is not talking about “how a believer is sanctified,” but “who are those who are truly saved.” Perhaps a short quotation will help clarify what I am trying to say:

As to the phrase “holiness by faith,” I find it nowhere in the New Testament. Without controversy, in the matter of justification before God, faith in Christ is the one thing needful. All that simply believe are justified. Righteousness is imputed “to him that worketh not but believeth” (Rom 4:5). It is thoroughly Scriptural and right to say, “Faith alone justifies.” But is it not equally Scriptural and right to say, “faith alone sanctifies.” The saying requires very large qualification. Let one fact suffice. We are frequently told that a man is “justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” But not once are we told that we are “sanctified by faith without the deeds of the law.” 1 On the contrary, we are expressly told by St. James that the faith whereby we are visibly and demonstratively justified before man, is a faith which, “if it hath not works is dead, being alone” (James 2:17). 2 I may be told, in reply, that no one of course means to disparage “works” as an essential part of a holy life. It would be well, however, to make this more plain than many seem to make it in these days. Holiness, J.C. Ryle, p. xiii.

I assure you that I have prayed for you as God called you to mind. It is only because I believe there is evidence of an earnest and burning desire in you to know and preach the glorious gospel of our lovely Lord that I write these words. I shall be happy to have your response and converse with you more. I stand ready to be taught as well as help to teach. I have not yet arrived. I am still learning.

Notes:

1. If we mean as the meritorious cause, then we are indeed both justified and sanctified “without the deeds of the law.” However, if we mean that one can be sanctified without the fruits of obedience being evident in some degree in his life, then we cannot be sanctified without the works of the law. If we could be, that would be saying, “You can be sanctified without actually being sanctified!”

2 Ryle then adds this footnote: “There is a double justification before God: the one authoritative, the other declarative or demonstrative.” The first is St. Paul’s scope, when he speaks of justification by faith without the deeds of the law. The second is St. James’ scope, when he speaks of justification by works. T. Goodwin on Gospel Holiness. Works, vol. vii, p.181

 

Filed Under: article, Reisinger Tagged With: Reisinger, Sanctification

Gary Scott will be speaking Sunday, April 15th at KDBC at 11am

April 13, 2018 by admin

Gary Scott will be speaking Sunday, April 15th at KDBC at 11am. Gary was pastor of KDBC for 12 years and Administrator of the Kinsey Drive Christian Academy during his tenure. He presently serves on the Board of Directors for To Every Tribe Ministries and Providence Theological Seminary/Institute.

He will be teaching on the Cross Theatre…
The Apostle Paul actually said, “We [Apostles] have become a theatre to the world, to angels, and to men.” (1 Corinthians 4:9)

Too often when we hear the word “Theater” we think of Broadway, Soap Operas, and actors pretending to be something they are not. What does this have to do with Spiritual Warfare?

Do you remember how this word “Theater” was used during WWII? There was the “European Theatre,” “The Mediterranean and African Theater,” and “The Pacific Asian Theater.” As you know these were not Soap Operas or Broadway Plays but real places where battles took place that shaped our future for the last 70 years. There were real people, extraordinary leaders, fierce battles, grievous casualties, glorious victories and bitter defeats. One well known Colonel today narrates them in a TV program called “War Stories.”

In many respects we might say the Bible records the ultimate “War Story” between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan. Our world is the “Theater” and our history provides a timeframe when this battle plays out. There are real people, supernatural powers both demonic and angelic, fierce battles, and grievous casualties. It can be summed by saying, “God wins! Satan loses!”

However, we are not yet at the point of final victory but find ourselves in the middle of this war sometime between the Resurrection of Christ that establishes a New Covenant and the Return of Christ in power and great glory, the Parousia. This course is designed to help equip you to successfully engage in Spiritual Warfare in the context of anticipated Gospel Ministry.

——

The Kinsey Drive Christian Academy was lead by the Deacons of KDBC and Pastor Gary Scott. Gary was the Administrator of the Academy for its entire existence.

ID left to right: Back row: Ronnie Boyd, Dave Williams. Middle row: Darrel Edwards, Calvin Boyd (deceased), Harold McMahan (deceased). Front row: Herman Caldwell (deceased), Gary Scott and Dick Barton (deceased).

Filed Under: article, Gary Scott, Ministries, Special News

The Loving Intolerance of God by Melissa Kruger

April 3, 2018 by admin

Tolerance. The modern, cultural elite praise this virtue in every school setting, media outlet, and job training workshop. There seems to be no truer way to love another person than to fully accept everything about them. Christians have often joined the tidal wave of this mainstream value and often long to be known for their acceptance of others’ opinions and lifestyles. On the surface it seems to be a positive virtue, one that exemplifies the life of the Christian.

But have you ever considered that tolerance is never encouraged in the Bible? The fruit of the Spirit includes love and kindness, but missing from the list is tolerance. In fact, Christians aren’t called to tolerance, because we serve an intolerant God.

Just consider a few stories from the Old Testament:

The Garden: God didn’t tolerate Adam and Eve’s sin. He didn’t accept their lifestyle choice to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He banished them from Eden and left an angel with flaming swords to guard the entrance so they couldn’t return.

Noah and the Flood: While the sanitized version of this story is pleasantly detailed in children’s storybooks, we cannot forget this story is about immense judgment. Picture a tsunami of destruction instead of a nursery filled with smiling stuffed animals. The flood involved terror, suffering, and death. It was a catastrophic event that only one family survived.

Uzzah: One of the most uncomfortable accounts of divine intolerance is found in 2 Samuel 6. This story recounts Uzzah’s attempt to steady the ark of the LORD after an oxen stumbled on the journey back to Israel. When he reached out and touched the ark (an expressly forbidden action), God didn’t say, “Well, his heart was in the right place. I know he was just trying to help.” Uzzah’s instinctive response was met with God’s intense anger, and Uzzah was immediately struck down.

We could go on and on throughout the Old Testament, considering Achan, Korah, Aaron’s sons, the Canaanites, and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, just to name a few. All perished by the very hand of God. He did not tolerate their sin; he punished it.

Greater Judgment

Lest we somehow think Jesus represents a different God than the one of the Old Testament, though, consider his teaching to the disciples in Matthew 10:14-15:

And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the Day of Judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

Jesus claims a greater judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah for those who reject the message of the gospel. He warned many would believe they knew him, only to learn they have been rejected with these words: “Depart from me, all you workers of evil!” (Matt. 7:21-23; Luke 13:22-27) Rather than find welcome into God’s kingdom, they would find themselves in a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Both the Old and New Testaments display a God who doesn’t tolerate sin. Yet there is one story in Scripture that demonstrates most clearly the intolerance of God.

It is the story of the cross.

Take a fresh look at the terrifying and uncomfortable reality of the cross. Here is an innocent man—whipped, beaten, nailed to a tree, bearing the sins of the world. For you. For me. Is this the picture of a tolerant God who ignores evil? No, this is a gruesome picture of divine wrath and judgment. The story makes no sense if God is a tolerant God.

The cross demonstrates God’s character in all its complexity. It shows his love, kindness, and mercy united with his justice, holiness, and wrath. It perfectly demonstrates a God who surpasses understanding. The Lord is giving us a glimpse into the immensity of his love for us. The love of God is not a tolerant love. It is much better. It is a redemptive love.

Tolerance Is Unloving

Sin must be paid for. To tolerate evil is to deny justice. God unleashes his full wrath on evil because he’s good. If good tolerated evil, it would cease to be good. Refusal to tolerate sin, then, is an essential part of loving others well. It might be tolerant for a mother to let her children play in a busy street or run with scissors, but it’s not loving in the least.

We also should hate sin because it’s harmful, even if we don’t always understand the harm that may be caused. As a child is unaware that a car may quickly appear, we must understand that we’re unaware of all the dangers of sin. God, our loving Creator who understands our frame more fully than we do, bids us to flee from evil and find abundant life in him alone. Life outside the revealed will of God doesn’t ultimately fulfill; it leads to misery and emptiness.

As his people, then, how should we live? Romans 12 provides helpful insight:

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. . . . Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

God calls us to abhor evil, while at the same time warning us against being agents of his wrath. We should hate the act of stealing while showing mercy and compassion to one who steals. Loving people well doesn’t mean we must embrace the choices they make. It means we openly welcome and embrace all who come into our lives with a heart of understanding and the message and hope of the gospel. We love people well when we call them out of sin into relationship with King Jesus. It may not be the world’s definition of tolerance, but it’s the truest way to love.


Melissa Kruger serves as women’s ministry coordinator at Uptown Church (PCA) in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is the author of The Envy of Eve: Finding Contentment in a Covetous World (Christian Focus, 2012) and Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood(Waterbrook/Multnomah, 2015). Her husband, Mike, is the president of Reformed Theological Seminary, and they have three children. She writes at Wits End, hosted by The Gospel Coalition. You can follow her on Twitter.

 

Article originally posted at https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-loving-intolerance-of-god/

Filed Under: article, Ministries Tagged With: Melissa Kruger, The Loving Intolerance of God

William Wilberforce – Antislavery politician

January 27, 2018 by admin

“So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the [slave] trade’s wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition.”

In the late 1700s, when William Wilberforce was a teenager, English traders raided the African coast on the Gulf of Guinea, captured between 35,000 and 50,000 Africans a year, shipped them across the Atlantic, and sold them into slavery. It was a profitable business that many powerful people had become dependent upon. One publicist for the West Indies trade wrote, “The impossibility of doing without slaves in the West Indies will always prevent this traffic being dropped. The necessity, the absolute necessity, then, of carrying it on, must, since there is no other, be its excuse.”

By the late 1700s, the economics of slavery were so entrenched that only a handful of people thought anything could be done about it. That handful included William Wilberforce.

Taking on a purpose:

This would have surprised those who knew Wilberforce as a young man. He grew up surrounded by wealth. He was a native of Hull and educated at St. John’s College at Cambridge. But he wasn’t a serious student. He later reflected, “As much pains were taken to make me idle as were ever taken to make me studious.” A neighbor at Cambridge added, “When he [Wilberforce] returned late in the evening to his rooms, he would summon me to join him…. He was so winning and amusing that I often sat up half the night with him, much to the detriment of my attendance at lectures the next day.”

Yet Wilberforce had political ambitions and, with his connections, managed to win election to Parliament in 1780, where he formed a lasting friendship with William Pitt, the future prime minister. But he later admitted, “The first years in Parliament I did nothing—nothing to any purpose. My own distinction was my darling object.”

But he began to reflect deeply on his life, which led to a period of intense sorrow. “I am sure that no human creature could suffer more than I did for some months,” he later wrote. His unnatural gloom lifted on Easter 1786, “amidst the general chorus with which all nature seems on such a morning to be swelling the song of praise and thanksgiving.” He had experienced a spiritual rebirth.

He abstained from alcohol and practiced rigorous self-examination as befit, he believed, a “serious” Christian. He abhorred the socializing that went along with politicking. He worried about “the temptations at the table,” the endless dinner parties, which he thought were full of vain and useless conversation: “[They] disqualify me for every useful purpose in life, waste my time, impair my health, fill my mind with thoughts of resistance before and self-condemnation afterwards.”

He began to see his life’s purpose: “My walk is a public one,” he wrote in his diary. “My business is in the world, and I must mix in the assemblies of men or quit the post which Providence seems to have assigned me.”

In particular, two causes caught his attention. First, under the influence of Thomas Clarkson, he became absorbed with the issue of slavery. Later he wrote, “So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the trade’s wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition.”

Wilberforce was initially optimistic, even naively so. He expressed “no doubt” about his chances of quick success. As early as 1789, he and Clarkson managed to have 12 resolutions against the slave trade introduced—only to be outmaneuvered on fine legal points. The pathway to abolition was blocked by vested interests, parliamentary filibustering, entrenched bigotry, international politics, slave unrest, personal sickness, and political fear. Other bills introduced by Wilberforce were defeated in 1791, 1792, 1793, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1804, and 1805.

When it became clear that Wilberforce was not going to let the issue die, pro-slavery forces targeted him. He was vilified; opponents spoke of “the damnable doctrine of Wilberforce and his hypocritical allies.” The opposition became so fierce, one friend feared that one day he would read about Wilberforce’s being “carbonated [broiled] by Indian planters, barbecued by African merchants, and eaten by Guinea captains.”

In particular, two causes caught his attention. First, under the influence of Thomas Clarkson, he became absorbed with the issue of slavery. Later he wrote, “So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the trade’s wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition.”

Wilberforce was initially optimistic, even naively so. He expressed “no doubt” about his chances of quick success. As early as 1789, he and Clarkson managed to have 12 resolutions against the slave trade introduced—only to be outmaneuvered on fine legal points. The pathway to abolition was blocked by vested interests, parliamentary filibustering, entrenched bigotry, international politics, slave unrest, personal sickness, and political fear. Other bills introduced by Wilberforce were defeated in 1791, 1792, 1793, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1804, and 1805.

When it became clear that Wilberforce was not going to let the issue die, pro-slavery forces targeted him. He was vilified; opponents spoke of “the damnable doctrine of Wilberforce and his hypocritical allies.” The opposition became so fierce, one friend feared that one day he would read about Wilberforce’s being “carbonated [broiled] by Indian planters, barbecued by African merchants, and eaten by Guinea captains.”

Prime minister of philanthropy:

Slavery was only one cause that excited Wilberforce’s passions. His second great calling was for the “reformation of manners,” that is, morals. In early 1787, he conceived of a society that would work, as a royal proclamation put it, “for the encouragement of piety and virtue; and for the preventing of vice, profaneness, and immorality.” It eventually become known as the Society for the Suppression of Vice.

In fact, Wilberforce—dubbed “the prime minister of a cabinet of philanthropists”—was at one time active in support of 69 philanthropic causes. He gave away one-quarter of his annual income to the poor. He fought on behalf of chimney sweeps, single mothers, Sunday schools, orphans, and juvenile delinquents. He helped found parachurch groups like the Society for Bettering the Cause of the Poor, the Church Missionary Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Antislavery Society.

In 1797, he settled at Clapham, where he became a prominent member of the “Clapham Sect,” a group of devout Christians of influence in government and business. That same year he wrote Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians—a scathing critique of comfortable Christianity that became a bestseller.

All this in spite of the fact that poor health plagued him his entire life, sometimes keeping him bedridden for weeks. During one such time in his late twenties, he wrote, “[I] am still a close prisoner, wholly unequal even to such a little business as I am now engaged in: add to which my eyes are so bad that I can scarce see how to direct my pen.”

He survived this and other bouts of debilitating illness with the help of opium, a new drug at the time, the affects of which were still unknown. Wilberforce soon became addicted, though opium’s hallucinatory powers terrified him, and the depressions it caused virtually crippled him at times.

When healthy, however, he was a persistent and effective politician, partly due to his natural charm and partly to his eloquence. His antislavery efforts finally bore fruit in 1807: Parliament abolished the slave trade in the British Empire. He then worked to ensure the slave trade laws were enforced and, finally, that slavery in the British Empire was abolished. Wilberforce’s health prevented him from leading the last charge, though he heard three days before he died that the final passage of the emancipation bill was ensured in committee.

Though some historians argue that Thomas Clarkson and others were just as important in the antislavery fight, Wilberforce in any account played a key role in, as historian G.M. Trevelyan put it, “one of the turning events in the history of the world.”

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”

― William Wilberforce

“If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.”

― William Wilberforce

“Accustom yourself to look first to the dreadful consequences of failure; then fix your eye on the glorious prize which is before you; and when your strength begins to fail, and your spirits are well nigh exhausted, let the animating view rekindle your resolution, and call forth in renewed vigour the fainting energies of your soul.”

― William Wilberforce

“true Christians consider themselves not as satisfying some rigorous creditor, but as discharging a debt of gratitude”

― William Wilberforce

Filed Under: article, Bio Tagged With: Antislavery politician, William Wilberforce

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next Page »
Covid-19 Coronavirus

Covid-19 Coronavirus

March 16, 2020 By Ron McKinney

Because most of our congregation are the most vulnerable, others travel a greater distance, It is our consensus that we should suspend church attendance for three weeks beginning with Sunday, March 15th till Sunday, April 5th 2020.

Recent Posts

  • Covid-19 Coronavirus
  • Dinner at KDBC Sunday, Nov. 17,2019
  • Conference Speaker Shane Kastler
  • Majesty Episode – Chris Pearce on 1 Peter – maj02182019
  • Called business meeting 2/17/19

Welcome to Kinsey Drive Baptist Church

We are happy you are with us today. We welcome you as our guest and hope that you will be encouraged today by God's Word.

Our Faith

DECLARATION OF FAITH We do hereby adopt as the fullest expression of our faith, the First London Baptist Confession of 1646 along with an Appendix by Benjamin Cox. These documents are the most excellent epitome of things most surely believed among us. We accept the same, not as an authoritative rule or code of faith, […]

Our Pastor

Meet Our Pastor

Mission Statement

The purpose of this church is to glorify God by providing for the corporate worship of God in prayer, and praise, by providing for the nurture of God’s people through preaching, teaching and pastoral care, by evangelizing sinners, and by contending for the faith once delivered to the saints.

CONNECT WITH US

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

NEWSLETTER

Signup for our monthly newsletter

Thank you

Copyright © 2025 · Outreach Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in