'ROPE OF SAND'

Rope of Sand

Cassidy has referenced R. V. Clearwaters. He was founder and president of Central Seminary in Minneapolis where I attended. In Baptist Polity classes he used the term to describe the unity that Bible believing Baptists have based on their common biblical faith and their common practice of New Testament church polity expressed in the Baptist distinctives. As I remember it, in his mind the rope of sand was the common faith and practice that produced the voluntary cooperation in associations of churches, mission agencies, etc.

Even in Baptist circles the connectionalism and conventionism can infringe on the rope of sand.

 

Baptists are not like a rope of sand

Joseph Belcher, Religious Denominations of the United States (1854) pp. 206,209:

"It must not be inferred from anything which has been said in this article, that the Baptists resemble a rope of sand, without union or cement. In no body of Christians is there more of a disposition to coalesce, both for devotional purposes, and for discussion and action on the great common objects they have in view. It is true, their decisions and councils have no authority in their churches only that which arises from the wisdom they may show, but very rarely indeed do the churches refuse to act on their recommendations. Their annual Associations are very largely attended. There are many hundreds of them all over the United States, which meet once or twice a year to hear of the state of the churches, unite in devotional exercises, and discuss matters of common interest. Here friendships are formed and cherished, and the influence carried home from them is good, and productive of benefits throughout the year. Besides these meetings they hold Conventions, which usually include the churches and other ecclesiastical organizations of a whole State; where almost every object, domestic and foreign, is discussed, and where during some six or seven days much important business is transacted. In the leading Institutions of the day, such as the Tract Society, the Sunday School Union, and the Temperance cause, they are one with their brethren, and share in labor and its happy results."

 

The image of the rope tells us that the things that bind Baptists in cooperative efforts are only as strong as the participants want them to be. At any moment, any member of the association or convention may simply and easily shed the rope. Or may submit to the rope, as it wills.

 

It is rather ironic that the term "rope in sand" was coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson, a one-time Unitarian minister. "It was a plea for the individual consciousness (as against all historical creeds, bibles, churches) for the soul of each man as the supreme judge in spiritual matters." A speech by Emerson before the divinity class, Cambridge, 1838.

It was about the free spirit of all men.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Salty, I have learned that when Jim1999 contributes to a discussion, there is usually nothing left that needs to be said.

 

First time I saw the thread. I thought it was about the 1949 Burt Lancaster-Claude Rains movie and wondered, "Why is that in the 'Baptist History' forum?"



OK, maybe it wasn't that funny ...

 

I had originally thought that "Rope of Sand" might have been coined by James Sullivan for his book, Rope of Sand with Strength of Steel: How Southern Baptists Function and Why, but I had found it used in 1900: Proceedings of the Baptist Congress at Richmond, Va., 1900. But Jim pointed out Emerson used it in 1838.

I've located a use of it two years earlier than that, with implications that it is even older:

 

SBC conservative W.A. Criswell describing the reality of Southern Baptists being bound together with "cables of steel" (the CP):

SBC President Criswell at the denomination's 125th Anniversary Annual Meeting