The term church discipline might sound harsh and cruel to the ears of this pampered, self-esteem mad generation, but true discipline is neither. Church discipline is a matter of love–love for God, love for holiness, love for the truth, love for Christ’s testimony in the church, love for the brethren, and love for the unsaved who are observing the church’s testimony and who might stumble and be offended and therefore not get saved if sin is not disciplined. “So long as the churches fail to preserve a pure membership, so long as they refuse to purge out the obvious leaven, so long as they fail to seek to reconcile those who may have been excluded, there is little hope for any improvement in the condition of the churches, and good reason to expect the churches to move in the opposite direction” (Davis Huckabee, The Constitution of the Church).
One of the root problems with the lack of spiritual power and zeal in Baptist churches today is the neglect of discipline. This affects nations as a whole. When President Bill Clinton committed adultery and lied to the country about it and tried to pervert the judicial system to cover himself, there was a call for his home church to exercise discipline; but the call was ignored. Bill Clinton was a member of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. In that context, Dean Register, president of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, testified: “IT’S VERY UNUSUAL FOR SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCHES TO TAKE DISCIPLINARY ACTION AGAINST AN INDIVIDUAL” (The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Mississippi, Sept. 13, 1998).
This is a very sad testimony, but there can be no doubt that it is accurate. Across the length and breadth of the land there are unrepentant moral reprobates and heretics on the rolls of denominational Baptist churches. Billy Graham and many other radical ecumenists who are promoting unity with Roman Catholicism are members of Baptist congregations. Many politicians, such as Bill Clinton and Al Gore, who support the murder of unborn children, are members in good standing in Baptist churches. More than a million Freemasons, who are yoked together with idolatrous organizations in disobedience to 2 Corinthians 6, are members of Baptist congregations. Many heretics who deny the infallible inspiration of the Holy Scripture are members of Baptist congregations. An example is Mercer University President R. Kirby Godsey in Georgia. In his 1979 book, When We Talk about God, he said, “The notion that God is the all powerful, the high and mighty principal of heaven and earth should be laid aside.” Wicked heresy such as this is held by thousands of men and women who are members in good standing in denominational Baptist churches.