The Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America (IBFNA) is a separatist fundamentalist independent Baptist fellowship for pastors and laymembers. Sometimes confused with the Independent Baptist Fellowship International (IBFI), the IBFNA is a northern-oriented fellowship formed by individuals who left the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC) due to what they felt was a drift of the association away from their original separatist position. The Fellowship was organized in October 1990 at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Its constitution was ratified in 1993 at Providence, Rhode Island. It is composed of individuals rather than churches. Individuals must renew their membership annually; churches are recognized as 'supporting churches' by financially supporting the Fellowship. This body is very local church oriented, and all boards, institutions, and agencies remain in the hands of the churches. Articles of Faith have been adopted, containing statements on the Scriptures, the Triune God, Salvation, Sanctification, the Church, Biblical Separation, Civil Government, Creation, The Fall of Man, the Devil, and End times. The Review is a quarterly published by the IBFNA. A Conference is held annually.
In 1994, the individual members of the Fellowship were from 106 different churches, 60 of which were not affiliated with other bodies and 46 were dually aligned with the IBFNA and the GARBC. The greatest strength of this group is in Pennsylvania. A few members are located in Canada. The Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America is a member of the American Council of Christian Churches.
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“Civilization does not engross all the virtues of humanity: she has not even her full share of them. They flourish in greater abundance and attain greater strength among many barbarous people. The hospitality of the wild Arab, the courage of the North American Indian, and the faithful friendships of some of the Polynesian nations, far surpass any thing of a similar kind among the polished communities of Europe.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Where beauty is worshipped for beauty’s sake as a goddess, independent of and superior to morality and philosophy, the most horrible putrefaction is apt to set in. The lives of the aesthetes are the far from edifying commentary on the religion of beauty.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“You should approach Joyce’s Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“Good fellowship and friendship are lasting, rational and manly pleasures.”
—William Wycherley (1640–1716)
“Biography is a very definite region bounded on the north by history, on the south by fiction, on the east by obituary, and on the west by tedium.”
—Philip Guedalla (1889–1944)
“In America nothing dies easier than tradition.”
—Russell Baker (b. 1925)