Church Discipline – Rolfe Barnard

Note quickly the desperate need of discipline. Don't tell me how it's going to do. I know. Don't tell me how John Calvin sought to exercise it. He is dead. Don't tell about the Puritans. They are dead too. Tell me how this generation of church people in the pulpit and the pew can speak to this lawless in for hell generation, when they can't be any more lawless than we are as church members. The one statement that characterizes Calvinist Baptist churches is “that every man is a law to himself”, and “every man does what's right in his own eyes. “

No preacher and no church that ignores that fact that one of the central heart things that makes a church is the exercise of new testament discipline. It is silly to talk about being a church of Jesus Christ without it. And while we're cussing out everybody else, we need to face the fact that only that congregation that bears as a body in its body the marks of willing glad subjection to the authority Jesus Christ as its expressed in that local church has got anything to say to anybody else.

How can we demand of this lawless generation total surrender unless we've come to love the chastening rod of the Savior's discipline in our own lives?

A Biography of Rolfe Barnard

Compiled from his own personal recollections and taped sermons, especially "Saved from Infidelity" and "Watching Men Die," Barnard's Sermon Notes, and from correspondence with his daughter, Mrs. R. C. Moser, of Clemmons, North Carolina  I well recall when Rolfe Barnard first came to my hometown, Ashland, Kentucky. It was the spring of 1950. I was a teenage boy and attended, along with my mother, younger sister and brother, a large Baptist Church. It was one of the most influential churches in Eastern Kentucky with a membership of about 1,000. Some way, I do not recall how, they scheduled Rolfe Barnard to come and speak.  In those days evangelistic services were conducted annually, sometimes more often. They were known as "revival meetings." Some of the most prominent evangelists in America came to our church. Evangelistic services were extravaganzas: there was almost a "show biz" atmosphere. They featured fancy musicians, former boxers, convicts and entertainers as speakers, and all kinds of gimmicks and goodies for the youth. Aeroplane rides were offered for those who brought enough people to church and there were rewards for those who induced others to walk down the church aisles after the sermons. It was the big boom and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

I do not recall there being much permanent good effect of these "revivals." After all the excitement died down, people usually went about their sinful ways of living as before.Like all the guest-evangelists who came, the picture of Barnard was placed on posters and nailed all over town. Beneath his picture was an interesting slogan. It said, "The evangelist who is different." Exactly what was different about him the posters did not say. The man looked to be in his late forties. The only thing noticeably different about his appearance was that he came across as somewhat sombre–there was a slighly menacing look on his face. Normally, evangelists had broad smiles and shining faces advertising the jolly good fellows they were.  After a few sermons in the church, folk knew just how different Rolfe Barnard was from the evangelists who had visited the church before. There was none of the flashy demeanor, but a grave and dignified bearing like one who had been sent on a mission. One soon got the impression that he was not there to whip up religious excitement, but to deliver a message from God.


The message was as startling as it was different. It centered around the character of God, a God about whom most had never heard before. The deity most were acquainted with was a nice sort of fellow who did his best to save people, but was often frustrated in the attempt. Many times I have heard preachers say, "God has done all He can for you, now it is up to you." I used to listen with astonishment to this statement, for I wondered why I should seek help from a being who could not help me. Barnard, on the other hand, preached a God Who was sovereign and omnipotent, One Who dispensed His mercy according to His own discretion. He preached that sinners were not to come to God with the idea of helping Him out of His dilemma, but they were to come as guilty sinners, suing for mercy. He exalted the holiness of God and the strictness of His Law. This, you can be sure, was different.  Rumors began to spread all over town that a Calvinist had come to Ashland. Some reacted with amazement, some with confusion, others with down-right anger. But a small group rejoiced and said, "We have been wanting to hear this for years." My father, who believed in the doctrines of grace, started attending the services and announced to all of us that there was one at the church preaching the theology in which he believed.


The pastor, after much heart-searching and Bible study, came to believe in the doctrines of grace as a result of this meeting, and invited Barnard back in the summer of 1951 to hold a tent meeting in a large park downtown. In the intervening months a division developed over the so-called "five points" of Calvinism with the majority becoming more hostile. The pastor was a very talented and gracious man with a winsome personality, and he tried to woo as many as possible to the "new" view, but most stiffened and gave him trouble.  The church had a very active youth group, including a choir. I was a member of this choir and also sang in a quartet with others about my age. I had been baptized at the age of 12, but was utterly without any vital relationship with God in my life. There was in fact a terrible, aching void in my heart which I could not understand. Still, I did not even want to consider that I was not a Christian.  The two-week meeting in the park was a memorable event. The crowds were fairly large, considering the type of preaching which was sounding out. Barnard boldly preached the Gospel as he understood it, often denouncing the superficiality of modern religion. We were all fascinated with his style, though he seemed awfully stern and rough. Plain truths of the Word of God were set forth, even the harshest, in their naked reality. One of his favorite texts was "God will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy," Romans 9:15.


Shortly after the meetings started, there began to be a breaking up. Many, mostly adults, began to go forward after the messages and state publicly that they were lost and wanted prayer. These, and others who sat trembling in the audience, were under "conviction of sin." The amazing thing is that most of them were church members. I remember one night the piano stopped playing during the invitation and the pianist went to the front seat and sat down sobbing. We all knew she meant that she wanted to be saved. Prominent church leaders such as deacons, Sunday School teachers, and youth workers began to acknowledge that they had been false professors or deceived about their state before God. Our male quartet was singing each night under the big tent, and as it turned out later, not one of us was converted at that time. One night Don, one of the members of the quartet, went to the front where the pastor and evangelist were standing and asked for prayer. It was announced that he was lost and needed Christ.

It was at this point that I became involved in the picture. God was about to set me straight.

At that time I had the notion that anyone who had any religious feelings such as "seeking after God" was a true Christian. I misunderstood the text in Romans which says that there is none that seeketh after God (Romans 3:11). At any rate, it rankled me somewhat that my friend had been disturbed by the evangelist. At this very time my own soul was torn asunder because I had no real assurance of salvation, but I had a reputation of being a young theologian who believed in Calvinistic doctrine. I thought this would be a good time for me to show my skill in counselling and to help my friend who was in trouble.I went to the front of the tent where Barnard and the pastor were talking to Don. Butting in like the immature, upstart youth I was, I said to him, "Don, you do not need to worry. You are seeking God. The lost man does not seek God. Therefore you have the life of God in you, you are saved," or words to that effect. Never, till the day I die, will I forget what Rolfe Barnard said to me. Looking straight at me with his piercing eyes, he said, "Young man, a believer is not seeking Christ, he has found Christ!"


Ten pointed arrows piercing my body, or a jolt of electricity would not have shaken me more than those words. Barnard had not only corrected a false notion which would have led Don astray, but also he put his finger on a raw nerve in my own life. With this statement, through the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart, he stripped aside the shroud of pseudo-religion in which I had been hiding, and left me standing exposed to my true condition. I did not know Christ! I was angry. As my parents drove home, I said little, but within I was seething as I resisted the prickings of the Holy Spirit on my conscience. Was this abrasive preacher right? Was it true that seeking is not enough, one must actually find Christ? If so, I knew I was lost, a fact I did not want to face. That night, I told my mother that I wanted her to pray for me, because I thought I might not be saved. I expected her to have some words of comfort, for after all I was a good boy, supposedly, one of the model young men in the church. She had no soothing balm for me, but only said, "Son, I'll pray for you."


What went on in the next 24 hours would take many pages to tell, but briefly I will say that I spent the most miserable night of my life that night wrestling with the condition of my soul. The next morning, somewhat humbled, I told the pastor and the evangelist (there were morning services) that I was lost. I recall well the pastor's words. He said, "John, this is not surprising, since most of our best young people are coming to realize that they have never had a real experience of grace." There were no words of counsel given me except these, "God saves sinners." This is all that was said to me about how to get relief. This seemed like a brush-off, but I went away. Before the day was over, God used the words of the song, "Jesus Paid It All," to bring peace to my heart. Through this song, Christ and His substitutionary work came before my mind. The Holy Spirit seemed to be telling me that it was for me that Jesus had died, and that all my sins were put away forever. That night I joyfully confessed Christ to the crowd and later was baptized, along with twenty or so others who were converted in the tent meeting.

I have given this firsthand account of Barnard's ministry in one city because it illustrates in a capsule way the leading elements of his evangelistic preaching. What happened in the church in Ashland is a sample of what occurred in dozens of places throughout America and parts of Canada. While different churches and communities responded differently to Barnard's preaching, there were many instances, in the 1950's and 1960's, especially where churches were claimed for truth, and many sinners were converted.

(I think this is from John Thornbury, but I am not sure)

Heshimu

The Character and Holiness of God (Rolfe Barnard)

(1) The Character of God. What kind of God is the God whom men shall meet at the judgment and with whom they have to do now? This generation does not know. For the most part it has not heard preaching on the character of God! God is holy! Men do not believe this today. Do we who preach believe God is holy?

We must preach the holiness of God until some spew out their hatred of such a Holy God and others flee for refuge to His Holy Son. God’s Law was and is holy, just, and good. He did not make a mistake when He gave His law, nor has He ever apologized for it. It is still the expression of His holy character. God delights to show mercy, but He will save no one apart from the absolute satisfaction and vindication of His law and justice. He cannot be bribed nor coaxed. It is redemption through Christ who obeyed the perfect law and endured the righteous judgment of a Holy God for believers, or it is to experience the punishment of that God.

(2) God is Sovereign. He reigns in grace. He blesses those in Christ and damns all outside of Christ. He raises up vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath. He shows mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth (Rom. 9:18). He loves Jacob and hates Esau (Rom. 9:13). He saved Israel and hardened the heart of Pharaoh (Exod. 7:13). He gives salvation to whom He will (John 5:21). He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph. 1: 11).

This generation of church goers has yet to hear for the most part the truths that are basic in God’s way of grace. Depravity, election, predestination, salvation as a free-gift (not a timid offer), and the effectual sacrifice of Christ has not been preached. As a result, sinners have a mighty poor conception of God and a mighty high opinion of themselves. To the average person God is a person or a principle who is trying to catch men and is failing. To them God is one to whom they propose someday to give some attention. How the truth of God’s absolute sovereignty would strike fear in their hearts if preached today! (Rolfe Barnard)

The Preaching of Sovereign Grace - Rolfe Barnard

The preaching of sovereign grace is not therefore the giving of undue prominence to any single doctrine of scripture. It is rather the proclaiming of a sovereign God graciously dealing with sinners as it pleases Him. We are often and somewhat vociferously accused of being guilty of the first part of this statement. This writer would certainly join in condemning the same. It is quite true that there is danger here. Any doctrine isolated from the whole body of revealed truth becomes perverted doctrine.

THE ASCENDED LORD - Rolfe Barnard

There is a nominal Christianity which is accepted and approved of men, but the pure gospel is still despised and rejected. The real Christ of today, among men, is unknown and unrecognized as much as He was among His own nation nineteen hundred years ago. Christ in doctrine, Christ in Spirit, Christ in life—the world cannot endure as King. It is all right for men to chant about Him in cathedrals, or sing about Him in synagogues, or preach about Him in pulpits; but Christ honestly obeyed, followed and worshipped in simplicity, without pomp or form, Christ exalted as prophet, priest, and King (not later, but now), they will not allow to reign over them. It is as spiritual Lord that Christ claims sovereignty among men.

Somewhere in my reading I came across the expression, “The richness of the ascension.” I was struck by the expression because so little is said or written these days about the tremendous act of both the Father and the Son by which the gospel of God concerning His Son is brought to its climax. A gospel that does not speak of an ascended Lord is not the Gospel of God. If the gospel is Christ and Christ is the gospel, and surely this is true; we must proclaim a Christ risen, exalted and reigning. He must be preached where He is now and identified as the pre-existent, virgin born, sinlessly living, vicariously dying, Son of the Living God. Always the apostles preached the Living Christ and worked backward, a decided reverse from the gospel of today. This is God’s good news. How can Christ be preached if He is not preached where He is now. If Christ be risen and exalted, the rest is easy to accept! If not, the virgin birth and everything else cannot be accepted. The whole pattern of the gospel story sinks or swims on the truth or falsity of the resurrection and exaltation.

In the classic passage, Phil. 2:9-11, Paul says, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that … every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” The word hupsoo, which is translated 'exalted' is never used of the Resurrection. It is the word for, ascension or exaltation. Thus it was by His ascension that Jesus was marked out to be Lord, as by His resurrection He was marked out to be the Son of God in power (Rom. 1:4). By the resurrection Jesus Christ is seen to be Victor over death and corruption. By the ascension He is seen to be Lord, with all power in heaven and earth (Matt. 28:18). As sin was shown to be subject to Him by His sinless life, as death was shown to be subject to Him by His resurrection, so all things in heaven and earth are shown to be subject to Him by His ascension. It was not that the ascension effects His lordship any more than the resurrection effects His victory over death. Rather, the ascension is the designation and the demonstration of His Lordship. It is the designation in that it is the reward of the Father for His perfect obedience. In His humanity He was subject to His Father. It is demonstration since He ascended of His own will, His own power and in His own right. It is true to say that God raised Him and that He raised Himself. God took Him up and He ascended of His own power.

Peter points out the tremendous significance of the ascension as he comes to the climax of his sermon on the day of Pentecost. He quotes first from Psa. 110, and then says, “Therefore (in view of the ascension), let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus, Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” The climax of gospel preaching must be here. This is God’s answer and act. Men killed Jesus, God exalted Him. Let us preach this Jesus. Peter writes, “Jesus Christ is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him” (I Peter 3:22). This is true. It is true now, not in the some distant future. Where is the crucified Christ now? He is at the right hand of God. All things are under Him now. Brethren, the hour is late. It is long since time that this generation hear the gospel, not just a part of the chain but all of it. The whole Christ is the gospel, nothing less, nothing more.

The apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:8 quotes from Psa. 18 and portrays a wonderful picture in this connection, “He led captivity captive.” The ascension is the triumphal return to heaven of the Son of God. He has conquered and He returns with the captives of war. Sin and death, those enemies of man and God, those tyrants which had enslaved men, are themselves now subjected and held captive to Him who openly triumphed over them. The power of sin is broken; it shall not lord it over the believer. Death is swallowed up in victory, its reign ended. Christ the Conqueror rules and He shall rule “till He hath put all enemies under His feet” (I Cor. 15:25). For the apostles, here is greatly needed help and hope. They see now that the resurrection proclaimed a King after all.

The suffering Servant is enthroned, this same Jesus. His kingdom indeed is not of this world. He will (and does) reign, but not simply from an earthly throne. His kingdom is and shall be glorious, but it shall not be the glory of this world. He is and shall be victorious, but His victories shall not be achieved through the blood and steel of men. The cross was the decisive and atoning conflict. The resurrection was the conqueror’s return with the captives of war which issued in the enthronement of the victorious King. Away with the preaching of a pitiful, helpless Jesus. He is not an exile hopefully watching to see what happens. He is the enthroned Lord into Whose nail-pierced hands the control of all things and all men has been given. It needs to be shouted from the housetops now as perhaps never before that everything depends on a man’s union with a living, present Saviour. In the absence of that union, even the gospel of the cross loses its saving efficacy. “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (I Cor. 15:17). Atonement remains impersonal and largely irrelevant until we make contact with the One Who atones; and contact of a vital kind is possible only if Jesus is risen, alive and on the throne now. James Denney in his book The Christian Doctrine of Reconciliation, says that “nothing could be more curiously unlike the New Testament than to use the resurrection to belittle or disparage the death.” But we do not disparage the death of our Lord, we simply insist that unless Christ is now enthroned, the death is powerless to save. We insist that without a living, present, reigning Christ, with Whom through faith the believer can come into union, all the benefits of His death would have had to stand unappropriated forever. It was on the resurrection and ascension fact that the church was built.

This was the gospel of the apostles. It was the experience of union with the risen, exalted, living Lord that made them conquerors. Let their gospel once more be preached.

A PROBLEM PROPOSED FOR BAPTIST PREACHERS

Rolfe Barnard
(1904-1969)

There is no logical intermediate between Calvinism and Arminianism that is capable of combining both systems. It is impossible to say: (a) That a man is both totally and partially depraved. (b) That election is both conditional and unconditional. (c) That regenerating grace is both irresistible and resistible. (d) That redemption is both limited and unliniited. (e) That perseverance is both certain and uncertain. Nor can there be a modification of one by the other. One or the other of the above mentioned points must overcome the other. It is impossible to blend the two, which is a requisite in order to a modification. History records such efforts in the past; but despite the efforts the two will not mix, nor can they walk together in peace. Nor can those holding either system force the other to their own view.

The endeavor by the Arminians in Holland, in the 17th Century, to modify the Belgic Calvinistic Creed (the chief Spirit of which was Calvin) and of the Calvinists to suppress the Arminian creed by the Civil power, resulted in one of the most bitter conflicts in Church history, and filled both parties with an unchristian spirit. Had there been no union of Chruch and State at that time, neither of these two theological divisions would have interfered, by civil and military power, with the doctrine and practice of the other and mutual respect would have characterized both. Whenever the endeavor is made to mix the unmixable and to fuse two types of theology that exclude each other, hypocrisy and the pretence of being what one is not are liable to prevail. A Calvinist is a dishonest disorganizer if he poses as an Arminian, and so is an Arminian if he pretends to be a Calvinist.

The above-mentioned facts (and they are facts) pose a tremendous problem for Baptist preachers. Whichever system of theology (of the two) be correct, or the nearest correct, is not my concern as I -thus write. Here is the problem: Every confession of Faith of Baptists, all standard books on theology written by Baptists, all doctrinal statements of our schools, without (I am informed) exception; confess, proclaim and expound the great Calvinistic system. At the same time, a Calvinist is not acceptable in Baptist pulpits for the most part.

In both message and method Baptists are more and more becoming Arminian. My contention is this: In order to be honest, new statements of belief, new confessions of faith, new doctrinal standards for schools ought to be formulated and published. Baptists ought frankly to be told by their pastors and leaders that our forefathers were wrong and that what Baptists used to believe is just not so. The trouble today is that a present-day Baptist has nowhere to find out what a Baptist believes as to doctrine. If he goes to the books of theology or the old confessions of faith, he soon is informed that they are no longer held to be true.

To add to the dilemna, suppose by accident (?) a Calvinist comes along and preaches what he believes the Bible teaches, a fight is started at once. The Calvinist is branded as a disturber and a Non-Baptist. I know, from twenty-five years of holding meetings for Arminian Baptist preachers, whereof I speak.

Is it not time, in all honesty, for Baptist preachers to return to the old paths doctrinally or formulate new statements of Faith? I respect, honesty demands one or the other of these.

It is high time that preachers cease bragging about not being theologians. It is not a matter to brag about. This generation knows little of the character of the true God, nor of the condition and danger of mankind. We need some preachers who believe something, not just some cheerleaders for a program.
I see no discernible hope that Baptist leaders will either come back to the old beliefs or honestly frame new doctrinal beliefs, but as for me I am a Baptist who still believes in the doctrines and Christ of Sovereign Grace. If I could, I would call my brethren back to them.

We want no new convention or denominations, but we will not apologize for, in however poor way we are able, preaching the grand old truth that Whitfield and Spurgeon preached. If not in Baptist Churches now constituted, we will preach them in tents and chapels and new Churches. Thus . . . we earnestly solicit the prayers . . . of every preacher who believes in the old truths once held by and preached by Baptists and the many hundreds of God's dear sheep who hold membership in an Arminian Baptist Church, who long to hear the old truth preached again! We say that such ought to help support our small beginning and that without apology. We ought to support and bid Godspeed the preaching of what we believe to be the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.