There are a few odd things that really scare us Baptists. An angry, vindictive old woman can wreck a church and strike terror into the pastor’s heart. These threatening figures have plagued God’s men since Jezebel sent Elijah fleeing for his life. Her spirit still tormented the church in Thyatira, as recorded in Revelation 2. Beneath that makeup and motherly smile lies a monster! You laugh, but it’s true.
A board of elders is another fearful prospect that can arise in our churches. Although you find examples of a plurality of elders in the New Testament, just mentioning it can send shivers down any pew-sitter’s spine. The deacons really get the willies when they contemplate the difficulties of having to boss around two or even three preachers. Though I personally favor a single-pastor model, I’ve met many wide-eyed church members who are full of scary stories about the elder board.
I shudder to even admit my fears about what will happen if the church down the road splits. Then half of them show up in our church. Did the Lord send us His faithful remnant? Or is the earth about to open up and swallow these rebels and us with them? I now fall asleep each night wondering, “What strange doctrines have they brought with them?” Lord, we want new members, but we don’t want a new majority at the next business meeting.
I must also mention the general horror that befalls a church when she is asked to do something new. It doesn’t matter whose idea it was — it’s different, and different is scary. Different is always wrong until proven innocent by the appropriate committee. The next step in overcoming our fear of the new is to adopt it into the bylaws by a 2/3 vote of the 10% of attendees at the business meeting. With it now forever recorded in the bylaws, we can rest assured that the new item is deemed ancient and carries the Lord’s blessing.
Now for the scariest thing of all: the one thing we all pray for and hope for, yet if it ever actually happens, it scares us slap to death. The thing we have read about in glowing terms in our history books. The very same thing that splits churches, fires preachers, busts up the deacons, exposes wolves, and burns bylaws — the powerful arrival of the Holy Spirit in our assembled services.
I need not say anything else to some of you. You have already judged me to be a Pentecostal in sheep’s clothing. You have me pegged as a holy roller, and if — yes, if — you read the rest of this article, you will do so with a fair amount of skepticism and doubt. Our ignorance and skepticism about the Holy Spirit’s work are precisely why so many Baptists are spooked by any account of the Spirit’s work among us.
Our Baptist doctrine is clear — we are Trinitarian. We believe God is “revealed in the unity of the Godhead as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, who are equal in every divine perfection.” Our BMAA Doctrinal Statement further describes God the Holy Spirit as “the manifest presence of deity.” Evidence of the Spirit’s work points us to God’s presence among us. The Spirit’s primary role is to testify of Christ.
This is the main reason for fear when the Holy Spirit is realized: God is manifest. Every time God appears to man in the pages of Scripture, He strikes man with awe and reverence, and, more often than not, with arresting fear. In the manifest presence of a thrice-holy God, mankind will no doubt tremble, quake, fall down, and may even feel as though they will surely die, as those recorded in the Old and New Testaments. The completion of our Bible has not altered the nature or attributes of our God. “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6).
This brings us to the second main reason Baptists fear the work of the Holy Spirit. We are surrounded by professing Christians who claim the Holy Spirit’s work makes you bark like a dog, laugh hysterically, and speak in gibberish, all while dancing uncontrollably until you pass out. Yet these same folks don’t believe the Holy Spirit is capable of keeping you saved until the day of redemption. In other words, the Spirit can make you crappie flop on the floor, but He can’t ensure your soul enters Heaven’s door.
Every Baptist with an open Bible and an ounce of discernment can see that these people do not understand the Holy Spirit’s true role. But we are so afraid that we might look like them or legitimize their practices that we denounce anything out of place, not in the program, or not pre-approved by the worship team. Heaven forbid something out of the ordinary causes us to go past noon!
There are two distinct ditches along the pilgrim pathway regarding the Holy Spirit. On one side are the crazy charismatics. This ditch is deep and well-defined. You don’t accidentally run into it. I don’t want to run these dear folks down — there are many good people in this movement. You don’t need a Bible college degree to see the differences among us.
The other ditch appears to be nothing more than a wide shoulder to ride on. It doesn’t look deep or dangerous at all. This ditch is smooth and well-traveled by the scholarly, the serious, and the saintly. It’s deceptive because it gives us a sense of security against anything from the other side of the road.
Historically, those with two wheels firmly in the safe, shallow ditch have missed most of God’s great awakenings and revivals. God did something they didn’t see coming, so they rejected it. Don’t become so entrenched in avoiding false teachings about the Holy Spirit that you miss an actual work of God because it wasn’t in the bulletin.
