A Call to Remember

On Wednesday, March 9, 1994, Dr. Russell Dilday was fired as President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary by the Board of Trustees. A year has passed since that Black Wednesday. What might the Apostle Paul have written?

A Letter to the Churches of Texas

(a Paraphrase of Paul’s Letter to the Galatians)
I. My name is Paul. Jesus, who is Christ and Lord, and God called me. The Christians who are with me and I send greetings to the churches of Texas. Remember, grace and peace come from God and Jesus Christ. After all, Jesus suffered for all of us so we could endure in these times. Be assured that is the will of God. So be it.

I am amazed that some of you have turned away from Jesus and His graciousness. There are those among us who have developed a message which is not even close to the Good News. Some of you are confused. Listen: it is a perversion of the Good News and not the real thing. It is so far away from what I have tried to teach you I can’t believe it. Listen closely: if someone in your churches or in your denomination if defining the Good News in their terms and not as Jesus intended, ignore them. Their punishment is coming.

I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I’m not interested in what people think of me. What God thinks is the important thing.

These words which I speak and write have come from the Lord I serve: I didn’t make them up. My background was full of anger. I tried in every way to upset the followers of Jesus Christ. But God showed me His Son and I realized my old way was wrong. That’s why I can recognize the anger and contention in our churches and denomination: I once was like that! I’ll tell you how thoroughly God changed me: others knew of my old life—full of hatred and vindictiveness. When they realized I served the same Jesus Christ they served, they thanked God.

II. Years later, several Christians and I ran into a problem, a problem you should recognize all too easily: some who claimed to be followers of Jesus came into our churches and denominations to watch and listen and spy on us. They didn’t like the freedom we enjoyed in Christ. They wanted us to follow their way, not God’s way! We did not surrender to their false perversion. The truth is too important! Listen: those people want power and prominence. There is nothing sincere about them. God doesn’t care for their power or their egocentric ways: remember, they didn’t represent Christ in their lives or their behavior.

Remember, also, that friends of yours— leaders in your churches—told me I was doing good, that God was evident in my ministry. Think about that when some criticize me and those with whom I work.

Someone close to me, though he knew better, insisted that some believers weren’t good enough for him to have fellowship with. Others joined him in this unethical behavior. I told him to his face in front of those he had persuaded that he and they were wrong! “Don’t force people to believe the way you do,” I said. “We live by faith in Jesus Christ, not by faith in some man-made set of rules!” I went on to tell them I am no longer who I once was. If Jesus is my Saviour, He lives in and through me. If I could have saved myself, then there was no reason for Jesus to die.

III. Do you understand what I am saying? Someone or some group has pulled the wool over your eyes! You have been fooled! You believed in Christ, right? You professed to follow Christ, right? And now you try to do your own thing dictated by others among you, but not as a result of your profession in Christ. Because you believed in Christ, you are children of God. Before Jesus, we were all prisoners. Before Jesus, there was no basis for faith. But now that Jesus has come—in person and into our lives—we have been set free and we have discovered faith! We are the children of God because of faith. And if we are God’s children, then there is not room for man-made differences—we are all equal: denominational boundaries do not matter; gender is inconsequential; who controls whom doesn’t mean a thing. We are brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ and we belong to Him.

IV. Let me pursue this idea a bit more: we are children of God because Jesus, God’s Son, came to live in this world and to die and to live again. And since we are God’s children, we are heirs! Once we were disowned, not knowing the owner. Now we know the Owner and He knows us. Let me ask you, would you rather be disowned? Would you rather be owned and controlled by those who have no influence of God in their lives? Don’t turn back! Don’t make me think I’ve wasted my time! Remember how you welcomed me? There was no disdain or hatred or suspicion. You treated me as if I were Jesus Himself! Now look at yourselves: once there was joy. Where is it? Once we were friends. Are we still friends or do some of you now consider me your enemy because of what I say to you and others? Those who have tried to lead you astray are up to no good. What they want is for you to follow them with the same intensity you once followed me. What they want is to interrupt our friendship. Your birthright, spiritually speaking, and my birthright is in Christ, not in those creating the friction. It is as if I am having labor pains in your behalf so that Jesus Christ can be reborn in you. Were you spiritually born to be controlled by someone else or to be free, to stand on your own, so speak and act as a child of God?

V. Jesus Christ has Himself given us our freedom! Stand up for your freedom! There are those among us who want to take away your freedom. Don’t let them! They will make Christ and all He represents of no value. They want you to be obligated to them. If you follow them, you will have fallen from the graciousness which is in Christ and which we should have for each other. Remember what really counts: your faith which is in evidence only through your love. You were running the race with consistency until someone or some group persuaded you to go off on another course. That path is not the one you can walk if you want to walk with Christ! That someone or group is confusing you and he or they will pay for their deeds. I wish sometimes that they would be completely neutralized so they can do no more harm. Regardless, you have been called to be free people. In that freedom, take care of and love each other. If you tear up each other you will be devoured by each other: mark my words.

Your old nature has been replaced by a new nature because of God’s Spirit within you. But the conflict between the old and the new continues. You know that, don’t you? Sometimes you do not do what you know you should do. That’s the old nature and it’s immoral and impure. Look at the marks of the old nature: hatred, conflict, spite, rage, selfseeking, envy, factions. Living like the old nature cuts off any inheritance in God’s family.

The new nature, however, produces love, gladness, harmony, tolerance, compassion, graciousness, dependability, tenderness and self-control. No one who really belongs to Jesus Christ can live in the old nature: if was killed when the enemies of God killed Jesus Christ. As Jesus lives again, so do we in His Spirit and our nature is the new nature. There is no room for envy or distrust or conceit.

VI. Watch out for the sinners in your churches and in your denomination. Try to understand them, even care for them. But they may lead you into temptation.

If anyone has a high-minded opinion of self, it is deception. Each of us is responsible for our own behavior. We must not compare ourselves with others: each of us has enough responsibility for our own behavior, let alone worry about someone else’s behavior.

In the end, any deception comes from mankind because God cannot be make into something mankind wishes Him to become. Remember the old nature? It will destroy him or her. The new nature, however, brings life, real life. That’s what the Holy Spirit can do. Don’t quit! Don’t give in! Do good things for others in God’s family.

Watch our for those who are superficial and who want you to become obedient to them. The miss the mark! They want your loyalty and then they can use you and brag to each other.

I can’t brag: Jesus died for me and I live only as He lives in me. Anything else is boastful, egocentric and distasteful. I am a new person with a new nature because of God’s grace and mercy. Don’t give me any trouble! I belong to Jesus Christ—body, soul and spirit.

Remember, grace and peace come from Jesus who is Christ and Lord. (This paraphrase was prepared by Darrell Baergen following the untimely dismissal of Russell Dilday and is released a year later as a “Call to Remember.”)

April 1995