Bad Precedent

In light of this thread, perhaps, I see some telling statistics, maybe ??

These are current, BTW, at least as of a few moments ago.

Current active users 54: 15 members and 39 guests. (09-02-2007, ~ 1:30 P.M.)

Most ever users on-line: 316 (06-07-2006, - 2:05 P.M.) Unless my math is failing, today there are only about 17% as many here, as were here a mere 15 mos. ago.

FTR, 3 of 15 currently on-line, have more posts than I, here, and all three have been members much longer than I.; 9 of the 15 have been members longer than I have at 1yr. 8mos..; 1 person currently on-line has been a member for over three years, and has yet to log a post.; (I know, for I looked up all 15 of 'em, with their dates and the number of posts.)

BB Members - 8,414; "Active" Members - 570 That is less than 7% of the BB members who are "active". I do not know if members who have been "banned" are still considered as "members", for this statistic. If not, even the percentage of one-time BB members is undoubtedly even less.

Nonetheless, 17% of the number of users; 7% of the members who are active! Not exactly overwhelming numbers, these days, I would say. :tear:

These continually running stats can be found at the bottom of the first page on the BB.

It is found under the question titled "What's going on?"

Good question!

Ed

 

EdSutton, it just reminds us that the BB has plumeted in not much more then a year.

 

So, what are you saying? That Baptist Board has done something bad, and as a result, is going to be punished for 1,000 years in hell during the millenium?

Sorry, but after reading all these "doom and gloom for BB" comments, I couldn't resist.

 

I have no idea what ME is, I did not read the treads, and don't wish too. What I would like to know is if those banned becasue of it were banned for insulting people who did not beleive it saying they weren't christians, hey had to beleive it in order to be christian, or what?

 

Remember, as a rule very temperamental people tend to find positions where they can control others, hence the continuing complaint in all places of society that many in authority are inconsistent, arbitrary and unreliable. Even saying this to you is probably a threat to my very existence as a poster here. Maybe not. But it is quite true that the WHY is not as important to these people as the what and who. Anyone that doesn't recognize their superior intellect, moral or spiritual position but exists as a threat or challenge to their idealogical dominance, they are the ones that will be eliminated, often without legitimate cause or with the invalid application of some minor offense ridiculously overcharged as a bannable offense. And then you will see the very same behavior, discussions or mild offenses committed by certain others who remain untouchable. That should be a warning sign always that an unhealthy person is in authority.

 

LOL

. . . .

 

You will find the ME threads archived near the bottom under 2007 archives.
They are all amalgamated together, and there are consequently 82 pages of them.
I would encourage those of you who keep questioning whether or not these posters were warned to read this post located back on page 66

http://www.baptistboard.com/showpost.php?p=1081516&postcount=653

Sixteen pages of posts after that did these people get banned. That is a lot of time for warning. After that warning was issured much was said about the warning. It did not go unnoticed.

The BB has rules concerning who may post and who may not. Most of those rules you agreed to when you registered and pressed a button that said "I agree." You can still find them on the bottom of every page called "posting rules."
However there are certain doctrinal postitions that are not allowed, and thus certain cults not allowed. Anyone that denies the deity of Christ, the trinity, attacks the person of Christ, as well as number of essential doctrines that are considered heretical by most evangelical Christians are not permitted to be members. That is why we don't allow cults.
The ME doctrine led to such doctrines as: a denial in the sufficiency of the blood of Christ or the atonement; it led to a works salvation; it was a neo-orthodox relgion changing the meaning of basic terms like "eternal" to mean age--a finite period of time instead of forever and ever; it created a 'Baptist Purgatory' for believers to suffer torment--for those believers who were not righteous or "good enough" during this life. And I could go on. But based on such doctrines as these which were avidly posted in thread after thread (even threads were hi-jacked so the subject of ME would be talked about when it wasn't the original OP). It was pushed and pushed. It is blatant heresy. Often such heresy is dealt better with in the Other Christian Denominations Forum. But these people claimed to be Baptist, and were posting this heresy in the Baptist Theology Forum for the most part. The administration council saw fit to put a stop to it because we don't need such heresy being promoted from this board.

 

I started reading them yesterday. I wanted to read them earlier, but with school starting . . .

After I got a handle on what ME was, I could focus on what was being said. The threads were exhausting reading and I was amazed they were allowed to go on as long as they did. Have I said that already or did I just think it? The moderators were pretty patient IMHO and at times bated and downright insulted. We also have some very patient and biblically sound & knowledgeable posters here. Y'all knew that though.

I could have sworn (but the threads are a huge blur today) that after a warning was issued one of the banned even said something to the effect of "Go ahead and ban me!" I was amazed that posters I thought I knew could spout what some were spouting. AND it went on and on and on.

Just my take.

 

I am not sure what is going on with BB.
Faithgirl

 

These people plainly preached 3 (or more) salvations, and multiple gospels, including a gospel of works. If you want to complain about Baptist Board putting a stop to it, then you'll have to go back and charge Paul, God and the Holy Spirit with being too harsh when Paul said that such people should be accursed.

As DHK said, they also preached a number of absurd "doctrines", such as the claim that John 3:16 actually means "shall not perish but have 1,000 years of life in the millenial kingdom".

To all who disagree with the decision, where would YOU draw the line? Should anyone be able to come on here and preach that Jesus taught reincarnation ("you must be born again"), and allowed to do so because he calls himself a Baptist? You think that's funny? I've heard so-called Christians claim such things, although I don't recall if they considered themselves Baptists.

Not that it matters where you or I would draw the line - it isn't our board. BB can permit or ban whatever it likes, but I personally think the ME stuff was way over the limit. I heartily agree with this decision.

 

I would only say that truth can withstand debate. Only false ideas need protection. I disagree with the ME folks wholeheartedly, but I am sad to see the wholesale bans. Still, it ain't my board.

 

A board like this is limited in discliplinary actions though. When someone is asked to do something and they (rather in your face) say no and have been told that banning is the consequence, then banning it is.

ME is a mess and had a lot of odd anscillary stuff coming out of it too.

 

Do we actually know that these guys were banned? You know there is no icon for suspended in this new format.

 

DHK told us they were.

 

Overall, I feel it is a blessing to be a part of the BB. I have learned a lot. It certainly seems to be ran in a fair manner. When someone ignores a warning and continues on, they expect consequences. We agreed to follow the rules when we joined.

 

I really don't "get" why people are upset about this. I can see why people would rally for anything-goes free-speech on a "Debate Board". But this is not "Debate Board", it is Baptist Board, and it has sections for Baptists only.

Or try to look at it this way. Imagine your church suddenly had an influx of ME proponents. They spent a lot of their energy trying to convince the flock of their additional salvations and gospels, including the works-based gospel. Now imagine that the pastor deliberately allowed this to go on. The pastor insisted that their ME speech was protected, and that you were required to allow them to preach their heresy in the church. You were free to refute their doctrines in the debate, but that was all.

NOW, imagine that everything that was said in your church was recorded and made publicly available on the Internet - so that all could see that preaching ME was a protected form of speech permitted by this Baptist church.

If you're ready to support this type of thing in YOUR church, then go ahead and rail against BB for banning these people.

Sure, I realize Baptist Board is not a church. But to the unbelieving world (and probably even to many new believers) it may as well be. Preached doctrine that is explicitly protected in a Baptist-only section is implicitly approved doctrine.

 

Well said npetreley !

 

I remember a time when there were 13,000 members... back in 2003-2004

The problem is, people sign up, then disappear.

 

While on a personal level it is sad that people had to be banned, I think it was the correct decision. In fact I am surprised that it took this long to do. More and more threads of every variety of topic were becoming polluted with ME doctrine being pushed. No matter how you sliced it came up ME. The real last straw for me personally was when they started falsely stating for fact that A.W. Tozer believed this heresy, when in fact he had never preached this or supported this view ever. IMO to slander a man of God who is no longer alive, by latching on to his name in an attempt to gain credibility, was in affect lying. So as much as I found these posters pleasant on a one to one bases of conversation, that was both a real eye opener, and a real turnoff as to their standards of conduct. I support management's decision in this matter 100%.

 

While I couldn't stand the ME theory, I am going to miss a couple of the guys...