Sadly, we have come to a place in the Independent Baptist movement where for all practical purposes it is becoming more and more difficult to discern the differences between Independent and Southern Baptists. Last month when we wrote an article about the Southwide Baptist Fellowship preaching two Southern Baptist’s, many wrote expressing their curiosity about why that was a problem. Clearly we have moved a long way from our founding landmarks. With these thoughts in mind I thought we would give three reasons why we are not Southern Baptists.

(1) THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM ITSELF IS UNSCRIPTURAL. The Lord's apostles planted autonomous congregations and they did not build denominational structures yoking the congregations together. The whole concept of the associational missionary coming by to run the business meeting to run off the pastor is not only wicked but is unscriptural to the core.

(2) THE SBC IS RADICALLY ECUMENICAL. The Southern Baptist Convention is one of the chief members of the World Baptist Alliance, an organization almost as radical as the National Council of Churches in America and the World Council of Churches. The Southern Baptist Convention provides a whopping 35% of the total budget of the Baptist World Alliance. In 2000, SBC Executive Committee President Dr. Morris Chapman stated that Southern Baptist churches will "benefit by remaining very active participants in the Baptist World Alliance" (Foundation, Nov.-Dec. 2000, p. 45). Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu, who denies Bible miracles and calls for the ordination of homosexuals, spoke at a Baptist World Alliance meeting in 1988. Brutal communist dictator Fidel Castro spoke to the Baptist World Alliance in 2000.

(3) WORLDLINESS IS RAMPANT IN SBC CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS. Though there are many godly Southern Baptist people, mainstream Southern Baptist will be the first to tell you that they are conservative in their theology but do not want what they called “legalistic” preaching on matters of dress, entertainment, and fellowship. The popular community church, “give the people whatever they want” mentality is the promoted dogma of the SBC growth movement. The First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, considered one of the SBC’s most conservative recently hosted a "Hard-Core-a-Thon concert that kicked off a new youth ministry." A picture in the Dallas Morning News showed "young people slam-dancing the night away." I don’t want that junk.

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