A Resource Guide to “Biblical Integrity and the Fundamentalist Anathema”

by Michael Gobart, October 5, 2006

Editor’s note: In June 2006, the Fundamentalist Baptist web forum, SharperIron.org, published articles formally denouncing Vision Forum and the National Center for Family Integrated Churches for alleged “errant theology,” “practice,” and “false teaching.” Vision Forum Ministries is publishing a series of articles which interacts with this thesis. We respect and appreciate charitable dialogue over theological differences between brothers. We oppose the use of websites to bring a false witness, to mock, present gossip, revile or defame others. The purpose of our articles is to address these deficiencies in the SharperIron.org presentation.

Inaccuracies and misrepresentations in clear violation of the Ninth Commandment are documented and refuted in Bill Einwechter’s three-part series, the first of which is entitled, “Family Squabble, Part I: An Autopsy of Joe Fleener’s Three Part, ‘Vision Forum, Patriarchy and Federal Husband.’” The second and third installment of Mr. Eiwechter’s analysis will follow in the weeks ahead.

This document is to be read as a companion document to our article, “Biblical Integrity and the Fundamentalist Anathema,” (to be published within the week) which addresses the publication by SharperIron.org of documents which call Christians to disassociate with the “false teachers” at Vision Forum and elsewhere who are part of a “movement” they have termed the “ICM.”

The purpose of this document is to provide readers with a few preliminary resources which correct the hyperbolic and misleading charges presented by SharperIron.org — charges which constitute far more than a theological disagreement, but a false witness against brothers in Christ contrary to the Ninth Commandment.

Along with each accusation or assertion against Vision Forum and the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, you will find recommended resources defending and clarifying our positions. We encourage all those who have questions regarding doctrinal and theological positions of Vision Forum and the National Center for Family Integrated Churches to examine these resources for an accurate representation of our position.

To accurately represent the SharperIron sources we quote, we have included terminology and abbreviations coined by the authors and publishers of each article including terms such as “The Integrated Church Movement” and “ICM.” We hope this document will prove helpful for those seeking to better understand the biblical tenants of unity between church and home.

1. In the SharperIron article, “Concerning the Integrated Church Movement: FBFI Resolution 06-03,” the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International accused the Integrated Church Movement of “encourag[ing] schisms in local church bodies by encouraging its adherents to change the theology and philosophy of the churches of which they are members.”^[1]

   Completely false. Not one of our conferences or articles in any way instructs members to foist a change of theology or philosophy on their local church or become schismatic. Change may come through constructive dialogue and true iron-sharpening-iron interaction with elders, but not through subversive or divisive means.

   For further information on this subject please see: A Covenantal Perspective on the Jurisdiction of the Family and the Local Church (CD), The Big Picture (CD), & How Modern Churches Are Harming Families (CD).

2. In the SharperIron article, “Concerning the Integrated Church Movement: FBFI Resolution 06-03,” the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International asserts the Integrate Church Movement “does violence to local church authority, calling on local church members to leave their churches when the church does not bow to the philosophical demands of the movement.”^[2] Furthermore, the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International claims “ICM promotes a divisive spirit within families and churches.”^[3] And the FBFI states that “ICM’s goal is to either transition local churches into integrated churches or divide them unbiblically.”^[4] Moreover, this article provoked further slander in the discussion of this thread on the SharperIron website including the following comments “...they have ‘encouraged’ people to become suspicious and divisive in the name of reclaiming some fundamental essential for our churches;”^[5] and “I cannot emphasize enough that this movement and its mouthpieces fit the biblical description for divisive teachers.”^[6]

   Completely false. Vision Forum does not agree with or encourage — much less “promote” — a divisive spirit within families and churches. This accusation stands in direct opposition to our stated purpose of unity between church and home. We advocate unity between church and home, not the sowing of discord. Vision Forum and the National Center for Family Integrated Churches’ conferences and articles alike continually warn of the great evil in causing division in churches and repeatedly emphasize the unlawfulness of leaving a church in an unbiblical and dishonoring manner. For further information on this subject please see: A Biblical Confession for Uniting Church and Home, and consult our messages in the Uniting Church and Family Conference Album (10 CDs).

3. In the SharperIron article, “The Integrated Church Movement: Viable Church Polity or False Teaching,” David Smith claims Doug “Phillips and the staff of Vision Forum...have attempted to launch a drastic paradigm shift in evangelical church polity...”^[7] Furthermore, Mr. Smith states those of the “ICM” “equate the family with the church and vice versa.”^[8] The FBFI Resolution 06-03 further clarifies on the nature of this “church polity,” claiming that Vision Forum “espouses an ecclesiology based upon the family that is not based upon the New Testament but rather is an adaptation of Old Testament patriarchy.”^[9]

   Vision Forum advocates clear distinction between the jurisdictions of the family and the church. Each of these institutions have separate and unique, biblically-defined distinctions, without antagonism or opposition to one another. Rather, these separate institutions are supportive towards the same end. Fathers must assume responsibility to govern, teach, and disciple their own families, as well as submit themselves to the co-laboring effort and accountability to the local Church. For further information on this subject, please see: Why the Church Needs the Family and the Family Needs the Church (CD), A Covenantal Perspective on the Jurisdiction of the Family and the Local Church (CD), Uniting Church and Family Conference Album (10 CDs), Holiness, Legalism, and the Sufficiency of Scripture (CD); How to think like a Christian, How God Wants Us to Worship Him, The Sufficiency of Scripture: By What Standard?, The Sufficiency of Scripture at Work in the Family Integrated Church; Returning to Biblical Order in the Church and Home; A Biblical Confession for Uniting Church and Family; Faithful Fathers and the Church Meeting; The Scriptures the Only Guide in Matters of Faith; Duties of the Master of a Family; Seeking the Family Integrated New Testament Church.

4. In the SharperIron article, “The Integrated Church Movement: Viable Church Polity or False Teaching,” David Smith claims: “...the only biblically bona fide church ... is essentially an integrated church.”^[10]

   Completely false. For further information on this subject, please see: A Biblical Confession for Uniting Church and Home; Covenantal Churches vs. Consumer Churches; We Must Rebuild Both Families and Churches; Uniting Church and Family: A Time for Maturity.

5. In the SharperIron article: “The Integrated Church Movement: Viable Church Polity or False Teaching,” David Smith claims: Vision Forum and the ICM espouse the position, “that any ministry that physically separates family members from one another is evil and Satanic in origin.”^[11] And, “such a sentiment goes hand in hand with ICM’s emphasis on patriarchy.”^[11] “This application of patriarchy”^[12] he asserts, “is essentially the adoption of a very literal view of Old Testament Jewish customs.”^[13]

   Misrepresentation/mischaracterization. For further information on this subject please see: Uniting Church and Family Conference Album (10 CDs), How Modern Churches Are Harming Families (CD), The Role of Children in the Meeting of the Church (CD), Holiness, Legalism, and the Sufficiency of Scripture (CD).

6. In the SharperIron article, “The Integrated Church Movement: Viable Church Polity or False Teaching,” David Smith claims: “Single individuals, in this paradigm, are left out unless they come under the headship of a patriarchal family leader within the church.”^[14]

   Misrepresentation - Mischaracterization. For further information on this subject please see: Defending the Fatherless (CD); The Role Woman the Local Church (CD); The Role of Grandfathers in the Local Church (CD) & The Spotless Bride (CD)

7. In the SharperIron article, “Concerning the Integrated Church Movement: FBFI Resolution 06-03,” the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International represent Vision Forum and the NCFIC as claiming, “that the destruction of the family in the U.S. is solely the fault of age-graded ministries in local churches.”^[15]

   Vision Forum does believe that unbiblical methodologies of church polity are a contributing factor to the continual delinquency of the Christian family as well as of the nation and church itself. However, the accusation that we lay full blame upon the age-graded local church is a misrepresentation and therefore a false witness. For further information on this subject, please see: How Modern Churches Are Harming Families (CD); The Big Picture (CD); The Role of Children in the Meeting of the Church; The Critique of Modern Youth Ministries.

8. In the SharperIron articles, “Concerning the Integrated Church Movement: FBFI Resolution 06-03” and “The Integrated Church Movement: Viable Church Polity or False Teaching,” the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International and David Smith both accuse Vision Forum and the ICM of espousing “a postmillennial theology.”^[16]

   Neither Vision Forum nor the National Center for Family Integrated Churches addresses the issue of eschatology. Neither organization promotes a position in their mission statement, articles, or public discourse. These conclusions are based upon misrepresentation and interpretation in accordance with Mr. Smith’s eschatological understanding: “They reject any ministry structure that separates family members from one another at any time. This is not a new concept. It is the reworking of an ecclesiology birthed as the logical outgrowth of a postmillennial theology.”^[17] This assertion is false.

   A list of issues we do address can be found in the fourteen point mission statement at Vision Forum Ministries and National Center for Family Integrated Churches websites: Vision Forum Ministries; “A Biblical Confession for Uniting Church and Family.”

9. In the SharperIron article, “Concerning the Integrated Church Movement: FBFI Resolution 06-03”, the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International accuses the ICM of being “oddly inclusive, basing fellowship on a particular philosophy of ministry rather than on the great fundamentals of the faith.”^[18] Similarly, in the SharperIron article: “The Integrated Church Movement: Viable Church Polity or False Teaching,” David Smith claims that Vision Forum and the ICM’s “integrated church philosophy” is a “litmus test for fellowship.”^[19]

   Nowhere in our writings or lectures have we stated that our fellowship is based upon the beliefs of families regarding this issue. Additionally, we have certainly neither sought to, nor have we charged others to dispense with, the great fundamentals of the faith when seeking fellowship in the church. Please see the following resources: Uniting Church and Family Conference Album (10 CDs), Uniting Church and Home.

10. In the SharperIron article, The Integrated Church Movement: Viable Church Polity or False Teaching, the discussion thread includes the following comment: “[T]his organization seeks to raise itself, a para church group, above local churches to sit in judgment on them.”^[20]

    Our understanding of ecclesiology recognizes autonomy between local churches, each of which subordinates themselves to the direct command and revelation of God. Neither Vision Forum nor the National Center for Family Integrated Churches bears oversight of any local church. However, this does not limit an individual or organization from recognizing theological or orthopraxic error through exposition of the Scripture.

11. In the SharperIron article: “Helping Families Hurting Churches? Part 1,” Joe Fleener accuses Vision Forum and the National Center for Family Integrated Churches of making a “strange attempt to rewrite history in order to justify themselves.”^[21] And, in the SharperIron article: “Vision Forum, Patriarchy and Federal Husband: Part II,” Joe Fleener asserts, “This lack of historical research seems to be an endemic problem for Vision Forum.”^[22]

    For a rebuttal of Joe Fleener’s criticism of our brief reference to Gnosticism, see Michael Gobart’s article, “Gnosticism and Physical Things: A Summary View.”