TDS is known as "Trump Derangement Syndrome." It manifests itself in several ways, one of which is to be against anything that President Trump is for, and to be for anything that Trump is against. If Trump is for peace, those with TDS are for war, and vise versa, just as king David said: "I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war." (Psa. 120: 7 kjv) In this post I want to speak of MBDS, or "Missionary Baptist Derangement Syndrome," a disease that many Hardshell Baptists have. This causes them to be against anything that Missionary Baptists are for, and for anything that Missionary Baptists are against. To prove this I will begin by citing the following from Elder Lemuel Potter's autobiography titled "Labors and Travels of Elder Lemuel Potter" wherein he wrote the following in chapter twenty six (See here; emphasis mine):
"I have always claimed that if the Methodists had anything good, I wanted it. If the Missionary Baptists have anything good, or if any other people have anything good, I think we ought to have it, and I never saw any good reason for rejecting anything simply because somebody else, of a different denomination, had it. I have heard good songs many times, that are found in the hymn books of other denominations and that are sung by almost every denomination, and some of them are sung by most of our people, but to some people among the Old Baptists such songs are very much out of place. I have spoken of or recommended a song many times, and have been answered by this remark: “I have heard that song sung so much by the Methodists that I do not like to hear it sung,” or “The Methodists sing that song,” or “That song belongs to the Methodists;” as if Baptists must not sing it, if the Methodists do. I have thought that if we are never to do anything that other people do, we will have to quit preaching, praying, and going to church, for other people do all these things."
I recall this occurring in Hardshell churches I visited during the several years I preached among them. On one occasion a sister called out a selection and another brother got irritated and said "there she goes again calling out that song." I think she did it to irritate him. There was nothing wrong with the song, but the old brother did not want to sing it because the Arminians sang it. Even my beloved father was a little this way. For many years he was a Missionary Baptist before he became a Hardshell Baptist, and he did not like to sing some songs that the Missionary Baptists sang.
Potter wrote further:
"Besides all those good things that other people have, we had first; and we should not give them up."
That is certainly not true, however.
Potter wrote further:
"We should never refuse to use a good thing religiously simply because the Methodists or any other people use it. I have been told many times that such and such things were not Baptist usage and I have almost always replied that Baptist usage is not a standard. When we come to quote Baptist usage on anything religiously, we find ourselves lost, for there is no one church that can be a standard for other churches. Each Baptist church is an independent organization of its own, and each one has rules and usages of its own. I have seen things practiced in some churches that I am satisfied would be very bitterly opposed in other churches, of the Old Baptist order. I believe if one church can practice a thing and be good Baptists, any other church may practice the same thing and be good Baptists. I also believe that if one church can do without that practice and be a good Baptist church, any other church may do the same; but the fact that my church never practiced such a thing, is no reason that your church should not. If a church is pursuing a course that is contrary to the Scriptures, either in doctrine or practice, she should quit it, and no Baptist church should give countenance to the doctrine or practice. I have seen a great many Baptist churches of our faith and order who at their meetings, took up public collections from their congregations just like the Arminians and other denominations in this country by passing the hat. The Baptists of the Ketockton and Ebenezer Associations of Virginia, and perhaps all other Baptists in the east, have that practice among them. I visited Elder Chick's church in Washington City and they took up a public collection, and I am told that all the Baptists in the east and northeast practice that course. If the Baptists in this country should undertake such a thing, there would be very serious objections raised to it; but I think those eastern people are good Baptists and they have that practice. If they were going to quote Baptist usage, they would be in favor of public collections, but if we were going to quote Baptist usage, we would simply quote what we are used to here. In no case can we take usage as a standard for all Baptists everywhere, neither should we say that people who do those things or do them not, are not Baptists. We have no right to say that. I mention the subject of public collections as an example, because there are many other things in which churches differ from each other as to their customs, that are too numerous to mention here."
It is a shame that Potter did not feel the same way about Baptists who supported paying their preachers, or theological education through seminaries and Sunday Schools, or mission societies, etc. In chapter one of my long series (or book) "The Hardshell Baptist Cult" I wrote:
"Actually, the Hardshells, do just about everything they can to be unlike the Missionary Baptists. They work hard to oppose whatever the Missionaries and Arminians believe and do. It has gotten to be absurd and the source of much difficulty." (See here)
Other Hardshell Baptists have likewise said the same thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment