Posts by Dave Saxon
God’s Pressure Cooker
Practical Help from 2 Corinthians 4:7–18 As a child, I well remember the sound of a whistle blowing to indicate that dinner was almost ready. It was the release valve on one of my mom’s favorite cooking utensils, her pressure cooker. Pressure under controlled circumstances produces greater effectiveness and productivity, making water do what it…
Read MoreThe “Goodness” of Unbelievers
The interpreter of the New Testament faces an apparent contradiction when he reads that Cornelius was a “devout man, and one that feared God,” although he was clearly not yet regenerated, and then hears Paul affirming that “there is none righteous, no, not one. . . . There is none that doeth good, no, not…
Read MoreFrancis Wayland: The Ideal of Autonomous Baptist Churches
Throughout their history Baptists have been committed to autonomous local churches. Like other Christians, however, they have often noted the value of cooperation and fellowship between churches. A tension has resulted between the principle of independence and the benefit of association. Actual Baptist practice has resulted in a range that has, at one end, radically…
Read MoreUnity and Purity In The Church
A Historical Survey As early as the second century, two contradictory trends had developed that would affect the doctrine of the church until the present time. One trend was toward external unity; the other was toward internal purity. These two directions were present prior to the Reformation, as Catholicism formed around the concept of an…
Read MoreBeware the Hermeneutics of Accommodation
David Saxon It is undeniable that the history of interpretation includes numerous examples of commentators benefiting from insights garnered from general revelation. Historical discoveries have shed light on various passages, sometimes causing adjustments to interpretations.1 Similarly, each generation reads Scripture in light of its current scientific perspectives.2 It is, therefore, naïve to say that biblical…
Read MoreWhy Are Most Fundamentalists Dispensationalists? (2)
David Saxon (Part Two — Part One appears here) A Deeper Reason? All of the reasons just given, however, seem to cry out for some deeper reason. Why did the heirs of the Niagara Bible Conference turn primarily to dispensationalism in the early twentieth century at a time when they were combating liberalism in the…
Read MoreWhy Are Most Fundamentalists Dispensationalists?
David Saxon Although precise statistics are not available, it is undeniable and commonly recognized that the majority of American believers calling themselves “Fundamentalists” today are also dispensationalists. For instance, the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International, the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches, the Baptist Bible Fellowship International, the World Baptist Fellowship International, the Sword of the…
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