Imagine the following article appearing in the Corinth Gazette in the year 55 A.D. under the title, “Apostle Paul disqualified!”:
“Paul, a Christian church planter imprisoned in Ephesus for preaching Jesus, had planned to come to Corinth to do some more mission work for the fledging Christian movement. His resume includes scores of new church starts in Asia, Macedonia, and other parts of the Mediterranean world.
“But the trustees in charge of the newly formed Jesus for the World Mission Board (JWMB) abruptly changed some of the qualifications, and in so doing, disqualified Paul and many of his colleagues. The JWMB will no longer allow any person (male, obviously) to serve as a missionary if he speaks in tongues.
“In his first letter to our local Corinthian Church, the apostle wrote, ‘I thank God that I speak in tongues more than any of you,’ and that admission will no longer allow him to be a part of the mission field personnel.”
Now return your thoughts to 2006. The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention has had a policy that excludes anyone from serving as an SBC missionary who publicly speaks in tongues.
On Nov. 15, 2005, the trustees of the IMB approved a new guideline that disqualifies anyone who practices “prayer language” (defined as speaking in tongues in private devotions).
Now understand, I don’t speak in tongues; I don’t know how. But I am not going to be so presumptuous as to tell another person how he or she can pray to God in their private devotions. What difference does that make anyway? Aren’t one’s commitment to Jesus, love of the church, and ability to work in various mission fields the most important things?
By their own rules, the apostle Paul would not qualify as a missionary with the International Mission Board.
What a sad day we’ve reached as Baptists that the man who penned one third of the New Testament would not qualify as one of our missionaries.
God have mercy on us.
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