DISCLAIMER: Although I am dealing specifically with fundamentalist preaching, the problem of moralistic messages without explicit reference to the redeeming work of Christ permeates all of evangelicalism.
Independent Fundamental Baptists love preaching! And when I say preaching, I mean hell-fire and brimstone, Bible-waving, Satan-trouncing PREACHING! Amen? The best preaching is usually accompanined by the most screaming, hollering, spitting, snorting, and a good dose of preaching “antics”.
An example of this I’ll never forget would be the preaching of George Griffis, camp director of Camp Victory in Somerset, KY. My church made the long drive from the Detroit area to Camp Victory every summer when I was a teen. There would be various preachers, but always Bro. George would preach. When he got worked up, he would be screaming and crying at the same time. He had a knack of jumping from the edge of the platform and grabbing the rafters of the old-fashioned tabernacle, where the preaching was done. He would swing and scream with all his might! A few hundred wide-eyed teens was always the result…. He had his heart and soul involved in his preaching for sure!
Now another aspect of the kind of preaching fundamentalists savored was what is called toe-stomping. Yes, if you are thinking of the image of someone stomping on your toes–that is what is meant. It seems the preachers job was to make us feel guilty about all of our failures. If we really felt like he had put us through the ringer, so to speak, it was thought the preacher had really done his job well. This is why a full altar meant a great sermon. When all kinds of people felt the weight of their guilt to the point of coming forward and “getting things right” with God, the preacher had done his job well. No pain, no gain! Amen?
This view of preacing had many direct and indirect results. In many spheres of extreme fundamentalism, theatrical antics, brashness, an almost uncouth mouth, and emotional manipulation became the tools of the trade for the kings of the sermon. And even among those who were not so keen on showmanship, Billy Sunday remained a hero. Still, in most IFBx churches, if one does not holler one is not really a preacher. “We need preachers not teachers”, as the saying goes. Expositional preaching does not serve this view of preaching as easily as topical preaching, and so in many spheres of fundamentalism expositional preaching was outright condemned, while in others it just became more and more rare.
While the loss of expositional preaching is great indeed, I would venture to say another result of IFBx’s view of preacing is even more troubling. I would say the tactic of heaping guilt on the hearers and calling them to reform and seek revival, has led to a kind of moralistic preaching which is most perilous indeed!
Fundamentalist preaching mirrors the fundamentalist view of sanctification by keeping rules. While not all IFBs and IFBxs claim to believe in sanctification by keeping rules, to one degree or another the fundamentalist emphasis on external conformity to standards conveys the idea that the more one adheres to these standards the more right with God he is. This results in the unconscious view that our own level of performance plays a big part in God’s acceptance of us. As I said in an earlier post,
“Often, the solution to struggling against sin was provided as merely gritting one’s teeth, and working harder. Character was the means to accomplishing my moralistic goals….IFB/IFBx churches stressed the importance of duty. But they did not address the question of human inability and depravity, so much. We all could do it, and if we didn’t we weren’t filled with the Spirit enough. Blame and guilt was applied as a means to motivate us to do right.”
What do I mean by moralism? I mean the mere attempt to be good. I have heard countless fundamentalist messages on having character, giving, being truthful, loving others, obeying one’s parents, reading the Bible, praying, going to church, courage, not quitting, leadership, and on and on the list goes. Yet many of these same virtues are extolled among people who have no true claim to the name Christian. Mormons extol family values, and Jehovah’s Witnesses are for many of the things on that list. In fact, non religious groups extol sacrifice, leadership, truthfulness, loving others, courage, even meditation, etc. These things are moral issues, and Christians do not have the market cornered on morality.
Recently, I came across another ex-fundamentalist blog called The Misadventures of Captain Headknowledge. In a few of his posts he emphasizes this very thing: how Christ needs to be central in preaching. Let me quote him in-depth from his post, “What am I Hearing in this Sermon?”, as he sums it up well.
“…the Law (what God is and does, and so what man ought to be and do) is imperative, and the Gospel (what Christ has done for sinners) is indicative.
In Christ-centered preaching, the logic will flow from indicative to imperative; from what God does, in Christ, to what man ought to do. We derive the proper motive and power to perform the imperatives of Scripture from the proclamation of the indicatives of Scripture.
Whenever the focus of the sermon is imperative, what we can or should be doing, and the indicatives of God’s work on our behalf rates as a secondary concern in the sermon, we unintentionally slip into thinking we’ll earn the indicatives (that which God grants by his grace) by performing the imperatives (that which God gave us to prove to us we must rely only on his grace). This is the danger of man-centered preaching.
Is Jesus mentioned in the sermons you hear? If he is, is he the subject of the verbs; is he the one doing the work, or is Man? If Jesus is the one doing the work, what work of his is being proclaimed? Is he proclaimed as our Problem-Solver, Example (WWJD), Therapist or Sugar Daddy? Or is he proclaimed as our Creator, Redeemer, Advocate, Mediator, Judge, Prophet, Priest or King?
The reason this matters is because ‘the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes’ (Romans 1:16). Salvation is an all-encompassing work, including not only our justification, but also our sanctification and our glorification. Preaching on sanctification is vitally important; there is much for us to do, in dependence on God’s gracious empowerment, to grow in sanctification, but this is not achieved by majoring on detailing all the imperatives alone, but the imperatives of preaching, what we normally call ‘application’ of God’s Word, must be built on the foundation of the indicative of the Gospel preached alone.” (emphasis his)
I believe he leans heavily on Bryan Chapell‘s book Christ-Centered Preaching. Chapell emphasizes that in every sermon one must relate the explanation of the Scripture passage to the redeeming work of God in the present. Otherwise, he insists, all you have is “simply a ‘sub-Christian’ call ‘to be’ or ‘to do’ something in one’s own strength” (quoted from an online summary of Covenant Theological Seminary‘s homiletical programs). Chapell’s book is simply a homiletical application of the Reformed approach to hermeneutics–redemptive historical interpretation, which I have discussed elsewhere. UPDATE: To listen to a message by Bryan Chapell which summarizes well his book, click here [or right click on it and select "save target as" to download it and listen to it later].
Captain Headknowledge goes on to say in another post:
“…and this is the point of my incessant howling about basing all application… in preaching on the basis of the Gospel preached…, and not only preached as an evangelistic appeal directed toward unbelievers, but preached also to the believers as the foundation and reason and source of the particular application of each and every ‘practical and relevant’ sermon. If application is preached as separate from the gospel, you have legalism. It’s not good enough to assume the listeners understand the foundation, it must be presented as a unified, package deal. It is ‘wickedness of the deepest darkness’ to preach application without explicitly basing it on the gospel. Imperative comes from Indicative; application comes from gospel; ‘do’ comes from ‘be’. Kind of like that old saying, ‘we sin (do, imperative) because we are… sinners‘. Likewise, we walk in righteousness because we are righteous, not ‘we become righteous by walking in righteousness’. How did we become righteous? Righteousness was given to us by God as a free gift of his grace (Romans 1:17; 3:24). Hello! Indicative! Followed by Imperative!” (emphasis his)
So what am I driving at? I am not concluding one should never encourage believers to obey God’s Word. Believers do need to be truthful, godly, etc. The Holy Spirit certainly may convict believers of their need to “do better”. But ultimately, we need to preach how the gospel touches each area of the believer’s life. We cannot, apart from God’s Spirit given to us based on the Gospel work on our behalf, ever be wholly truthful and godly. And even if we could, it would avail us nothing! We need to be reminded that God accepts us based on Christ and because of Christ we can obey and become all that we already are in Christ.
We don’t need more toe-stomping sermons. We need more sermons that direct sin-laden believers to feast their eyes on the glories of Christ. A greater appreciation of Him, a greater understanding of His work–these will give us hope and faith and courage to keep pressing on.
So whatever standards you hold, and whatever group you identify with, beware of moralism. Make much of Christ! Glory in the cross!
Picture of Billy Sunday borrowed from here.
∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 • Rom. 15:5-7
Great post,as a former Jehovah’s Witness i can attest that their ‘moralism’ is a fraud through and through.Best regards,Danny Haszard
Thanks for the comments, Danny. Having spent many an hour trying to argue around their circular reasoning, it is a blessing to know that God’s grace can save even Jehovah’s Witnesses!
Morning Bob.
Last night, I took the time to read your letter in ‘my story.’ Wow! THAT is a powerful testimony.
I had only ‘heard thru the grapevine’ some of the things with which you had first-hand experience. It is so sad that Scripture is twisted to cause bondage instead of the freedom we actually do have in Christ.
Your journey is such a testament to the power of an Almighty and Sovereign God. He indeed will finish the work He began in those He has called to Himself.
God bless you, Bob. I look forward to being a regular reader!
Bob,
GREAT post. I taught on much the same thing this last Sunday. The need for Christ in all of our preaching and evangelizing is as/more important today than ever. It’s so encouraging to see other pastors rightly dividing the word of truth and doing things the wa they need to be done.
Gayla,
Thanks for the encouraging words. God is good, and I have been greatly blessed by Him in more ways than I can count.
I’ll have to keep up on your blog, too.
God Bless,
Bob
Jeremy,
Thanks for the comments. I hope more and more pastors focus on this kind of ministry. (Just to be clear, I am not a pastor, yet. Although I desire to pastor one day.)
God bless you and your mission work.
Bob Hayton
Bob,
Just because you aren’t behind a pulpit doesn’t mean you aren’t leading sheep! Be encouraged, you’ve got a great outreach here. Keep it up.
There is a lot of straw man tactic going on in this post, and you know it.
My Pastor preaches strict verse by verse exposition and he is an Independent Baptist. You referenced that IFB’s say “we need more preachers not teachers”, I do not believe I have ever heard that said. Yet, the Bible says that some would desire “teachers” when the previouse verse mentions the command “Preach the Word” II Tim 4:2-3. That point may have been referenced but it is Bible truth.
Anonymous,
I am glad your pastor preaches verse by verse exposition. I wish more IFBs would. Unfortunately, in my experience (and others would agree), your pastor is the exception not the rule.
You may have not heard such a phrase relating to the difference between teaching and preaching. But I have heard similar remarks countless times. Often people do not feel that someone has actually “preached” if the sermon did not have enough emotion or was not loud enough. Rather than looking for Biblical content, often people look for a certain style.
I am glad that many IFBs do not major on every aspect of the preaching style I described. But we all could use some encouragement to keep the Gospel central in every sermon.
God bless.
As an ex-fundamental preacher’s wife who, along with my husband, left the IFB church a couple years ago, I can say that you are so very correct in this blog entry. The teaching of moralism runs so very rampant in the majority of these churches. My husband and I have come to the conclusion that one of the main reasons for this is the preacher’s lack of understanding of the Bible, of the original languages, and biblical customs and history that lead them to preach a misled gospel; a gospel of traditions; and of man’s rules and standards rather than God’s.
Thank you for an informative, well written piece. I wish more of our IFB friends would come to the realization of these things, but trust that, in our Lord’s time, He will bring them to the place He has so graciously brought us.
Thanks, Becky for your kind words. I am with you on this, hoping that our IFB friends will eventually come to realize this too.
I was saved, baptized, discipled and found my dear wife in an Ind. Baptist Church. The word of God is accurately preached and I have peace and joy and the grace of God is real in our church. Your approach toward my kind of church is disturbing. You portray IFB’s as extreme and you give examples like the “7 dwarfs sermon” and the guy swinging from the rafters. These are obviously extreme and nobody would argue that. Maybe down south you have a little more emotion, but so what. Your blog is turning into – “how many ways can I portray IFB’s as extreme”, in doing so you are grappling for unique examples and you our really not being accurate, which is dishonest and dsipleasing to God (Ps 15:1-4).
Anonymous,
You are certainly welcome to your own opinions. I do not think I am misrepresenting IFBs/IFBxs. I have made repeated efforts to clarify what exactly my problem with fundamentalism is. See this post for an example.
Again, I make every effort to be accurate. Feel free to point out where I am wrong.
I am glad you are happy in your church. I would remind you that the particular focus of my post was concerned with moralism in preaching, and the tactic of heaping guilt upon hearers. This can happen in other non fundamentalist contexts also. The solution is a focus on Christ and the grace of God as essential to sanctification. I hope you are not missing the main point of my blog because you dislike any criticism of fundamentalists. Disagree with me if you will, but catch what exactly is my beef with fundamentalism.
All,
A conversation has developed between myself and California Chris (Christopher Myers) in the comments here about this post.
Just thought I would mention it here since it relates to this post.
If you keep quoting the Captain, the Captain’s Head is going to swell.
You are on the nose in concluding that I read “Christ-Centered Preaching” by Chappell, but I was drawn to the content of Chappell by regular listening to Michael Horton on the White Horse Inn Radio Show. http://www.whitehorseinn.org.
Horton is not only the man who first explained the Reformed faith in a coherent and meaningful way (and I was watching him on TBN at the time, too!)to me, but he’s my source for all the “indicative/imperative” language.
Everybody, go straight to whitehorseinn.org and download their programs. The most recent broadcasts are always free!
All,
Check out a more recent post on exactly this same point–moralism in fundamentalist-type preaching: Billy Sunday, Alcohol, and Moralism: A Fundamentalist’s Conundrum by World from Our Window.
My heart jumped as I read the Stomping Toes blog. It accurately and elequently, without unnecessary vitriol, states what I’ve been unable to describe for decades. Growing up in a pastor’s home, whose family, including myself, educated at the Grandaddy of Fundamental Colleges, have struggled to grasp. While my ministry now as a pastor of a small church (and still loyal to my alma mater) have tried to impress on my people the crucial nature of Biblical Principle, over emotional rhetoric. Recently, I had a member leave my church stating that he never “got anything” from my messages because all I ever did was teach verse by verse instead of preach (I’m not a screamer!). While I’ve found myself agreeing with much in the blog, I’ve found myself at a loss in honestly presenting a principle without giving license to activities that can be problematic. While in agreement with statements regarding music, I cannot believe that all that passes for Contemporary Christian Music is pleasing to God. Many groups look like filthy street people, lining the pockets of mainline music producers.
I must run, but thanks for an excellent article
Too bad you slept through the sermons :0)
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This article is so right on. I find also so many people do not want to read about the founders. The history of the church just want to be handed it. Thanks for all you do in your blogs. This is the first time commenting to one of your blogs but over the past year have read close to all of your blogs. Followed you from the other blog site. Cant wait for Kingdom Surge looks good. Even while here in GA still a huge Piper fan myself. Thanks again
Mike
I came across your blog and was reading some of your older post when I came to this one. I remember when Amy Grant sang the words: Being good is just a fable, I just can’t ’cause I’m not able, gonna leave it to the Lord…or some thing close…memory doesn’t always serve me well *; )…That song just made me mad! I would think…Just stop it! Of course you can be good…just stop being bad!…Ahhh the bliss of a mind in the process of renewal! *: ) I can now sing along happily!
Thanks Nancy.
P.S. to my last post. Our pastor always says, “When your heart is truly submitted to Jesus as Lord, the ten commandments become the ten promises…as we are changed image to image and glory to glory, this will be our character.
My Dad has been a preacher in an IFB church for as long as I have been alive, 36 yrs. I can tell you that, yep, this article is dead center right on. It is because of this moralistic, wash it all off on Sunday, dress right for Sunday and when the preacher comes around, that has led to the double life style christains that flood the IFB movement now. My Dad had this revelation about 10 years ago and began to move towards the “meat” of the Bible and not the pulpit antics that just get repeatative and eventually boring and not effective.
Here’s where it hits home for me. My 16 yr. old Daughter is going to spend the Summer working at Camp Victory, not by my choice, for George Griffis. Her mother, who is my ex due to IFB moralistic guilt, and her Dad, another radical IFB nut job plus a legalistic pastor, has convinced her that this is “a calling from God?” My daughter is a great kid, level headed, smart and just the joy of my life. Unfortunaltly, she will come back from this camp convinced that she needs to be a preachers wife and go to BBC to meet a good husband and fall right in line with the never ending cycle of IFB munipulation.
Now, I know not all IFB churchs work like this BUT, we are setting up our children to repeat the same mistakes that we have lived for the last decade or two simply to satisfy 1 man, a senior pastor that insist, through many explanations of how God as blessed his life and the Holy Spirit speaks through him, that his “preaching” is Gospel. It is sad that so many God fearing people rely on 1 man, the preacher, to maintain the truly wonderfull realtionship the God overs all us every moment that we live. I am glad that my Dad and I have realized the mistakes of men and have found the truth in being a Child of God.
Thanks for your testimony, brother. When you don’t know anything else, this kind of preaching seems right. But it isn’t best and can be damaging. We need to rely on the grace of Christ not on the power of our moralistic efforts.
Blessings to you in Jesus,
Bob Hayton
Hello all!
I chanced upon this site and have found it very informative! I too, was raised in a fundamental Baptist church until the age of 24. I am now 38. I think that this site is right on the head in most of its descriptions of an Independant Fundamental Baptist Church. I now go to a Methodist, but have also gone to a Lutheran church while living in another area. I don’t think that IFB are all bad churches, but I think that they are very misguided and not focused on what counts! I made a lot of good friends growing up in the IFB church and I am glad of that. I also learned a lot about the Bible stories! My favorite Bible version is the King James Version, but I do not think it is the only Bible that is correct or to be used in the english language. Folks that believe the KJV is the only Bible to read are just ridiculous in my opinion. I speak several languages, and I find that The Bible in other langauges is easier to follow and more enjoyable to read actually! Anyway, thanks for this site! Keep up claiming God is love and Mercy instead of what IFB preach…that God is not these things!
An Ex Fundy Baptist in Texas
Thanks George. It’s a blessing to hear others’ testimonies. Blessings to you in Christ,
Bob Hayton
[...] [For my treatment of how the Gospel should be the focus of each and every public sermon in church, see here] [...]
Bob,
Came to this post from SI.
I like it.
I hope it will be one that you share on FC sometime in the future. It is very applicable to what we want to deal with.
Thanks Jason. I’ll have to do some reposts over there. Good idea.
[...] Stomping Toes and Stomping Souls: The Moralistic Bent to Fundamentalist Preaching [...]