Hi Thredj,

In reply to your question here:


Quote
So here's my question: Would it be unwise and presumptuous to assume that one could attend a biblically sound seminary and then go back to serve in an American Baptist Church, or is the goal to change one church in the denomination futile?
I am including this little piece from the latest article posted by Cook:

"It is often argued that Christians ought to seek the reformation of apostate churches and not separate from them like some “holy elite”. In the past Evangelicals have been notorious for leaving churches on the grounds that they have become unspiritual in their way of life; so had the Corinthians, but Paul did not anathematise them. We must not separate from other Christians by reason of their low spirituality — our own is not very high — but we do say with Scriptural warrant that we ought to separate from people who are perverting and rejecting the truth of the gospel, however religious or respectable their lives may be. Luther affirmed in his sixty-second thesis: “The true treasure of the Church is the sacrosanct gospel of the glory and grace of God.” Yes; and if the treasure has gone, the receptacle ceases to be the treasury. A church without the Word of God is not a church."


For your contemplation!

In His Hands,

Ruth

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