I appreciate your quick response and any and all help you provide. I would, in perhaps my own defense simply point out that I was posting this at 7 this morning (local time) after having stayed up and out all night with some of the BCM girls, so I was not exactly running on full power. And also, while I intended too, I didn't actually run this through Word or Wordperfect before I posted. I intended to, but then my dad came in and I got distracted and so I didn't. I am very sorry.
Also, I'd like your opinion, I was thinking of adding an objection based on the Preamble and the first sentence of the Baptist Faith and Message chapter or statement 18, "God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to His Word or not contained in it." The Preamble affirms that Baptist (SBC) don't hold the Faith and Message as a "complete statement of our faith, having any quality of finality or infallibility" and "that they are not to be used to hamper freedom of thought or investigation in other realms of life".
My main objection is not to any one area of requirement but to the fact that I do not believe these statements to be entirely biblical or in agreement with Southern Baptist Doctrine. I fully realize the strong argument from Romans 14 about the desire to not cause someone to stumble, but I believe this can and has been taken to the point of not a worry about the spiritual well being of those around us but a desire to border on people pleasing.
Oh, and to go on and answer Chestnut's objections, I do know alcoholics, I freely admit that I might be one if I drank. I must also admit that it is hypocritical to say that men ought to be free but then to place a rule which curtails that freedom in a way God doesn't. We are all responsible before God.
I feel strongly that this statement violates the word and rule of the word of God and would be unsafe to sign. That's why I start from Luther's quote and a mentioning of Romans 14.
By the way, I went through and corrected some of the spelling here with the revision I'm attaching, though there are still grammar problems in the paper due to the necessity of being able to read this. Sometimes you can say something rightly and get no results b/c people don't always use proper english.
Once again, thank you.
Bro. Luke
Last edited by BrimstonePreacha; Sat Feb 26, 20055:19 PM.
