chadwickivester

According to LifeWay®, half (21,000) of the SBC’s 42,000 pastors believe the Holy Spirit gives some people a special language to pray to God . . . and I’m Batman . . . again!

The only validity about the survey is, at least, 207 or .493 percent SBC pastors out of the 42,000 endorse PPL. I consider the information from Lifeway Research’s PPL Survey (of only 405 SBC pastors) to be very vague and presumptuous! The random opinions of .964 percent of the 42,000 SBC pastors cannot truthfully determine the disposition of the majority of the SBC. Such a survey cannot tell the whole story of a group of people, the 42,000 SBC pastors, in particular. It’s more like a snapshot that gives us information at just one particular point.

It is indeed amazing that anyone can claim a sampling of just a few hundred pastors can represent the Theological views of 42,000 pastors. Nonetheless, that’s exactly what LifeWay Research® does, and thousands of our CP dollars are spent based on just such speculative surveys. That can be done because of a scientific principle called the “central limits theory” that predicts such responses will fall into a predictable bell shaped pattern. The Burlesonites put much presumptuous faith in research principles that claim to tell us accurate Theological representations of the whole population of Southern Baptist pastors within a certain known range.

The SBC’s Constitution makes it clear that it is the elected messengers (not LifeWay Research® Surveys), no matter how few or many in attendance, who are sent by cooperating churches to San Antonio to vote on the issues at hand in the SBC. The participating messengers, in turn, make their voting voices know with messenger cards; this gives the actual opinions of the SBC. Therefore, the voting results by the elected messengers, not LifeWay Research®, will determine the SBC’s actual Theological beliefs (on PPL) in San Antonio.

The stage is set for the Battle of the Alamo SBC:

Two diametrically opposed resolutions will be brought to the floor in San Antonio:

1. Dwight McKissic’s “RESOLUTION ON PRIVATE PRAYER IN TONGUES“
2. Robin Foster’s “Resolution On Glossolalia and Private Prayer Languages“

There are only three four outcomes:

1. Both resolutions will be endorsed; that would make the SBC Schizophrenic . . . hey, that rhymes with “irenic!” (Both of these resolutions cannot “logically” be endorsed by the SBC.)
2. McKissic’s resolution will be endorsed while Foster’s resolution will be rejected; that would make the SBC Charismatic! (According to Lifeway Research®, McKissic’s resolution will easily prevail over Foster’s.)
3. Foster’s resolution will be endorsed while McKissic’s resolution will be rejected; that would make the SBC Southern-Baptistic.
4. Both resolutions could both be rejected . . . but I think that is very unlikely. (If the resolution committee rejects both resolutions, they still could make it to the floor like Tom Ascol’s resolution did last year; it was rejected by the Resolutions Committee, but still made it to the floor via the messengers.)

I predict that Foster’s resolution will prevail by a landslide in San Antonio! This will ultimately prove:

• The SBC’s true stance on PPL has ALWAYS been Southern-Baptistic! (Just study the SBC History Books! . . . better than that, just ask Bart Barber!)
• The Lifeway Research® Poll on PPL is skewed.
• CP money is being wasted.
• LifeWay (Ed Stetzer?) will have a lot of explaining to do.
• Wade Burleson and the Burlesonites will be in the minority. (Don’t worry, Wade, I affirm my commitment to not remove those Southern Good Will Baptists who hold to the minority view of cessationism ecumenicalism from future SBC leadership, missionary assignments, or trustee service.)

See Ya in San Anton’,

Chadwick