Australian Independent Baptist Newsletter

www.Bennett.BibleForToday.org

JANUARY 2006

Dr. David C. Bennett, Editor (DCB)

PO Box 1241 - Dubbo - NSW 2830

Phone/Fax 02-6884-2846

Email: Bennett@BibleForToday.org

Permission is given to forward material contained in the AIB Newsletter.

Purpose: To inform and warn God's people of religious, social, and political events in today's world.

A BAPTIST CHURCH THAT DOES NOT REQUIRE BAPTISM BY IMMERSION FOR MEMBERSHIP? That is what well known author and pastor, John Piper’s, Bethlehem Baptist Church is proposing. You can read the full story at http://www.desiringgod.org/ and then http://www.desiringgod.org/ library/topics/baptism/bbcmpls_baptism_membership.html .In the announcement that heads this article it seems that after three years of studying and praying about the baptism issue the Bethlehem Baptist Council of Elders came to the conclusion that if one gave evidence of being a true Christian they should be accepted into the Bethlehem Baptist Church membership whether they have been immersed or not. According to this proposal one could even become a member of Bethlehem Baptist church if they had been sprinkled as an infant, but believed this act had no regenerating effect, but their being immersed would violate their conscience, immersion would not be required for membership. When a Baptist church begins to depreciate baptism by immersion it ceases to be a Baptist church. The Bible teaches that baptism is essential to entrance into the local church; Acts 2: 41 "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." The Scriptures speak of baptism as a matter of obedience after one receives Christ; Acts 8: 36-39 "And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing." Note it was after he was obedient to baptism that the man went away rejoicing! I wonder how many Independent Baptists will now follow Bethlehem Baptist and John Piper.

The Daily Telegraph NGUYEN OFFERS HIS SOUL TO GOD 2 December 2005 (Edited by DCB) It was with the reading of the 23rd Psalm that "…condemned Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van sought the strength and the courage for his final journey." He spent the night before his hanging, 2 December 9am, praying with a priest. The convicted drug trafficker was arrested "…three years ago with almost 400g of heroin strapped to his body and inside his hand luggage…" He had "…renewed his Catholic faith 12 months ago while on death row, and his supporters say it is this spiritual belief which has given him, and them, great courage."

His lawyer said he would not be shackled on his walk to the gallows and "He'll have rosary beads" with him. His lawyer went on to say "He genuinely thinks he's going somewhere good." The hanging took place 2 December and the body was flown to Melbourne for the funeral.

Editor’s Comment: From the media coverage one would have thought this young man was a war hero rather than a drug trafficker. >From the above article and other sources the Roman priest was very much a part of this young man’s final days on this earth. The article mentioned him taking the rosary beads with him to his appointment with death. We read at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20021016_rosarium-virginis-mariae_en.html that "The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christocentric prayer. In the sobriety of its elements, it has all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium. (2) It is an echo of the prayer of Mary, her perennial Magnificat for the work of the redemptive Incarnation which began in her virginal womb. With

the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer." From what I read in the newspaper, heard on television and radio the Roman Church helped this young man leave this life trusting anything but Christ and confidentially entering that place "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" Mark 9: 44, 46, and 48.

RockeyMountainNews.com 5 December 2005 PASTOR SEES NEED FOR CHANGES (Edited by DCB) The Rev. Jean Schwien pastors the Green Mountain United Methodist Church in Lakewood, Colorado. She "…has joined a number of liberal pastors disillusioned with traditional Christianity and ripe to try the Center for Progressive Christianity, a movement started by Boston-based author and retired Episcopal clergyman Jim Adams." Adams questions the existence of a personal deity and "…he says he doesn't believe Jesus is God." "Schwien’s in agreement with Adams about Jesus but this doesn’t create problems, as Schwien sees it. She says "We're not trying to wipe out tradition in the church; we're trying to create more ways for people to enter the church." Too top it all off the Green Mountain United Methodist Church’s programme director, Steve Walden, is a Buddhist. Walden is the one who directed Schwein to Adams’ teaching.

Editor’s Comment: 2 Timothy 3: 5, 7 "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Global Prayer News Vol. 6 No. 3 July – Sept. 2005 THE POWER OF VIOLENT PRAISE (Edited by DCB) C. Peter Wagner is a charismatic who has influenced many who claim the name fundamentalist. A couple of his books were required reading in a course I took at Grand Rapids Seminary. In this article he writes that the time in which we live "…is ripe for an apostle like Chuck Pierce to bring new revelation to the body of Christ." New revelation!? Later he writes "What is the difference between the sound of pastoral worship and apostolic/prophetic worship?" The difference according to Wagner is the apostolic/prophetic is a warring ministry which leads the church into battle against the enemy, Satan. In his closing remarks he writes "Unfortunately, in the church today…we do harbor an anti-war faction. It is clearly a deterrent to preaching the gospel of the kingdom, which is a warfare gospel given to reclaim the dominion of God’s creation that Satan usurped in the Garden of Eden." Along with other things this is dominion theology.

Editor’s Comment: Romans 16:17 "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them."

Yours against apostasy and for Biblical Truth,