Year 2009 Resolutions:

Resolution Opposing H.R. 1913 and S. 909

The Church Today

Biblical Fundamentalism

Resolution Opposing H.R. 1913 and S. 909

Local Law Enforcement and Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009

Whereas H.R. 1913 and its Senate equivalent S. 909 are being considered by the United States Congress and Senate to grant special status as a protected class of citizenship to homosexuals, sexual deviants and pedophiles by making any speech against their behaviors a hate crime, when such speech is determined to lead to violence against them, and

Whereas efforts to amend H.R. 1913 to exclude protections from this “hate crime legislation” for pedophiles have been rejected by the House Judiciary Committee, and

Whereas sexual conduct is not a civil right under the Constitution of the United States of America, and

Whereas both these bills and others similar in theme and character in the state legislatures demonstrate a concerted effort to silence the preaching, teaching and personal witnessing of the truths of the Word of God, which plainly and repeatedly condemn such behaviors as abominations in the sight of God (Romans 1:24-27), and

Whereas such legislation is a direct attack upon the free speech rights of Christians, as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, and compounds the penalties upon those whose thoughts and conscience have never before been required to answer to men, under American law, and

Whereas no nation throughout history that has accepted, condoned, approved or recommended homosexual and/or pedophile conduct has ever survived for very long,

Be it therefore resolved that we, the members of the Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America meeting in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, on June 23-25, 2009, do hereby condemn any and all legislation, whether national, state or local, that robs Christians of their God-given rights of free speech, to proclaim the whole counsel of God’s Word, including the condemnation of any and all sins, including the sins of homosexual conduct, pedophilia and other sexual deviations.

We further resolve that because our faith rests solely upon the authority and truthfulness of the Word of God, we cannot, in good conscience before God, neglect to preach against the sins of our society, such as homosexual conduct, pedophilia and other sexual aberrations, as defined by Scripture; and we would rather suffer the persecution of the state than yield our witness and ministry of God’s Word to the presumed authority of men (Acts 5:29). Therefore, we will not cease to preach, teach and bear witness to the whole counsel of God’s Word, including the condemnation of the sins of homosexuality, pedophilia and other sexual deviations, since our consciences are answerable only to God and not to man. Scripture teaches us that God alone is the Judge of the thoughts and intents of our hearts by His Word (Hebrews 4:12).

We further resolve that we hereby admonish, in Christ’s stead, those who presume to make laws in direct defiance and contradiction to the one true Lawmaker and His Word, who would rob God-fearing citizens of this nation of their God-given rights of free speech and freedom of worship and urge earthly lawmakers to repent of such folly lest they draw the wrath of God upon themselves and upon our land.

We finally resolve that, together with our spiritual forefathers, who safeguarded our liberties so that the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18b-20) might be fulfilled in our land, we confess that we own no Sovereign but God and no king but Jesus.

The Church Today

Whereas Jesus said He would build His church (Matthew 16:18), which He loved and gave Himself for (Ephesians 5:25), which is the pillar and ground of the truth (I Timothy 3:15), and

Whereas the early church was a vibrant, committed, active fellowship which sounded forth the Word of God as a lighthouse in its day, whose example and pattern the church of today should follow carefully, and

Whereas many churches today have surrendered their God-given vitality for an apathy more reflective of the world that surrounds them, rather than being “steadfast, unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord” ( I Corinthians 15:58),

Be it, therefore, resolved that we, the members of the Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America meeting in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, on June 23-25, 2009, “knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:11), do urge our people and churches to renew their commitment to a bold testimony and spiritual fervor, as clearly seen in the Book of Acts, where believers paid more than lip service to the authority of God’s Word in their lives and where evangelistic zeal was a part of daily life, even though they lived in times and circumstances far more difficult than believers do today.

Be it further resolved that we will, as pastors and leaders, set the example of doing God's work in the church “heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23) and continually search our own hearts for obedient attitudes consistent with God's Word, lest we become castaways by serving the Lord in the flesh. May we endeavor always to follow the pattern of the New Testament church in our worship practices, rather than recreate the church in the image of men with forms of worship that are the inventions of men, which have proven in hindsight to weaken the testimony of the church and pander to the flesh without truly edifying the Body of Christ. May we be resolved to uphold the high standards of God’s Word for the selection of both personnel and programs we employ for the purposes of God-given church growth which honors Christ above men. May we also endeavor to be people of the Book, given to an honest, methodical and thorough study and exposition of the Word of God, given to much prayer, and always seeking the mind of Christ, rather than be deceived by the latest whims and fancies which men propose as shortcuts to local church progress.

We finally resolve that we welcome this opportunity to remind God's people not to fall prey to the wiles of the devil by being complacent, lethargic, and apathetic, but resolve to be committed, diligent, and faithful in matters of true spirituality, spiritual worship, and the evangelization of the lost for Christ before it is eternally too late.

Biblical Fundamentalism

Whereas Biblical Fundamentalism has always rested upon the exclusive authority of the Bible as God's perfect and complete revelation of Himself to man, whereby man can be reconciled to God and which provides a path of obedience to God for man to keep in fellowship with God, and

Whereas Biblical Fundamentalism unreservedly accepts all that the Bible has to say about itself and the person and work of Jesus Christ and that Biblical Fundamentalists interpret literally all the truths of the Scriptures, including Christ's eternal deity and perfect humanity, His virgin birth, His vicarious and substitutionary death on the cross to redeem man from sin, His bodily resurrection from the dead, and His personal return to rule on this earth, and

Whereas attacks upon the authority and veracity of the Word of God from various sources have increasingly drawn particular aim upon the doctrine of Biblical separation, Biblical Fundamentalists must continue in obedience to the Word of God, including the exposure and separation from all that is contrary to its whole counsel, and “earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), and condemn any and all additions or subtractions to the Holy Scriptures whether in writing or in practice, and

Whereas there is also an advancing trend to either ignore, or water down, the clear teaching in Scripture regarding both personal and ecclesiastical separation, as demonstrated by many organizations and movements that have abandoned their separatist foundations in favor of compromise and broader appeal to worldly people, and

Whereas the practice of theological inclusivism and the acceptance of immature and worldly church members have only served to corrupt the testimony of fundamentalism and transform Separation into a relic of church history,

Be it, therefore, resolved that, for such a time as this, we, the members of the Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America meeting in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, on June 23-25, 2009, reaffirm our historic separatist position by obeying what God says plainly in His Word.

We further resolve both personally, and in our ministries, to do all we can to conform to those Scriptures which command us to separate from those “who are otherwise minded” (Philippians 3:15) and “mark them” (Philippians 3:17, 18), “avoid them” (Romans 16:17, 18), “from such turn away” (II Timothy 3:5), “reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11), “have no fellowship with them” (Ephesians 5:11), “be not equally yoked together with” them (II Corinthians 6:14-16), “come out from among them” (II Corinthians 6:17), “reject” them (Titus 3:10), “note” them (II Thessalonians 3:14), “withdraw yourself” from them (I Timothy 6:5), “have no company with” them (II Thessalonians 3:14), “rebuke them sharply” (Titus 1:13), and “keep not company” with them (I Corinthians 5:11).

We finally resolve that we will uphold one another in prayer and encourage one another in the things of God so that we may we be “approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of God.” (II Timothy 2:15)

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Last modified: July 04, 2009