Brother Martin Unmasked

Since the beginning of this blog, you have known its authors by their pen-names (Brother Martin and Wilber). Well at first we were unsure that anyone would even read what we wrote. We also didn't want people to associate our very Biblical message with any of our past life's mistakes. Believe it or not there might be a few people out there who will listen to Brother Martin, but who would close their ear to Mike Hall.

Well, Blake (aka Wilber) and I feel that it is necessary to run that risk. We want those of you who don't know us from Adam to associate our purpose with our personalities warts and all. So I decided to beat Blake to the point and go first.

My name is Mike Hall. I am a relatively young man (in my mid 30's), who serves as a curriculum editor for a company that produces Sunday school and discipleship material. I also serve as the Director of Student Discipleship at a sizable Southern Baptist church in the state of N.C. I was raised an independent, fundamental, King James, Baptist, but (according to my old indy, fundy friends) have lapsed into becoming a Reformed, Southern Baptist.

I am fascinated with Reformation history (especially Martin Luther). This can be partially explained by the fact that I served as a missionary youth pastor in two small churches in Germany. In fact, one of the churches that I served in is only about one and a half hours from the castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible into German. I visited it many times.

One of the things that I have become passionate about in the last couple of years is the whole idea of ad fontes. This is a Latin term that means "back to the sources". It was very popular for academics during the Reformation to use this term. Basically, it is a desire to break with current conventional wisdom to find out the historical basis for any teaching. I have applied this concept to my understanding of baptist heritage and theology and have come to a place where in my younger years I would have deemed heretical. Here are a few things I have discovered from studying the Bible and church history...

1. While it is certainly true that many baptists throughout history were free-will or arminian in their thinking, the majority of all Baptist leaders who made a profound impact and who evangelized their generation were strongly reformed(i.e. John Smyth, Thomas Helwys, John Bunyan, William Carey, Andrew Fuller, Adoniram Judson, Shubal Stearns, Daniel Marshall, C. H. Spurgeon, etc.)

2. That much of the fuzzy-headed teaching that goes on in some Baptist churches is a result of the conservative reaction to the secularization of society that began towards the end on the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Unfortunately, instead of engaging the culture with the truth, the leaders of this reactionary fundamentalist movement retreated to their Christian communes.

3. That there are a few theological essentials that should never be in question, but beyond that, Christians shouldn't be so quick to separate from one another. It makes us look silly, weakens our evangelistic appeal, and it thrills satan to no end.

There are others, but unfortunately my posts is already too long. Let me encourage you, reader, if you have a difference of opinion with what I have said to leave a comment or send me an email. I would be happy to hear from you. So now you know a little about Mike Hall, I mean Brother Martin :-)