A. W. hits the nail on the head. He addresses the biggest problem in our churches today. What exactly is that? We have people that think they are saved when actually they are not!
Click here to read this excellent devotion
Dr. Daniel Akin shared some thoughts with his students at Southeastern Seminary. I appreciate his gentle spirit and keen insight into the SBC. His thoughts are:
"Having returned home from the annual meeting of the SBC in San Antonio , I again was reminded why I love and appreciate the people called Southern Baptists. We are not perfect to be sure. Sometimes we can be somewhat funny and even a bit strange in how we do business. Still, our love for the Lord Jesus, devotion to the Bible, and passion for the lost makes me glad to be a part of this family. It honors me to serve you and our Convention at Southeastern Seminary.
As I have done in previous years, let me share some reflections on this year’s meeting, where I think we are, and where, by God’s grace, we can go in the days ahead. Know that what follows will chart the future for Southeastern Seminary.
First, I rejoice in the re-election of Frank Page as our Convention president, and the election of Jim Richards and Eric Redmond as 1st and 2nd vice presidents. All three are friends of mine, and they are men for whom I have great respect. I will support each of them this coming year, especially with my prayers.
Second, we saw a renewed commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the sufficiency of Scripture, our doctrinal commitments, and the priority of the Great Commission both at home and abroad. All Southern Baptist should be able to unite around these great affirmations. Along with my fellow seminary presidents, I believe the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 is a solid theological confession to guide us. It is not an exhaustive statement, but it is a sufficient statement. It, along with the Abstract of Principles, will continue to give theological direction to Southeastern. This is what our convention reaffirmed on Tuesday evening. Barry McCarty, our chief parliamentarian said to me at the airport following the Convention, there was no understanding that this motion was asking our agencies to do anything different than what we had been doing. It was a reaffirmation, not a re-direction. In that context let me say this. Your seminaries are not interested in theological witch hunts. At the same time, we will not be ostriches with our heads in the sand. If we spot a teaching that possesses a danger to our churches or will compromise our ability to fulfill the Great Commission, you can rest assured that we will withstand it with all our might.
Third, Southern Baptists are overwhelmingly a body of cessationist and continualist when it comes to spiritual gifts and their activity today. We are not “charismatics” in any historic sense of that word. This is what the recent LifeWay survey clearly revealed, and I am surprised at a number of shrill responses I have heard. I am personally grateful for the research done in this area by LifeWay under the superb leadership of its president Thom Rainer, and I am disappointed that some have questioned Dr. Rainer’s motives and intentions. I have known Thom for more then ten years, and I know him to be a man of the highest degree of integrity. Now, let me put my theological cards on the table as I did at this convention. I am a continualist, “open but cautious,” when it comes to the activity of spiritual gifts in our day. This has been my position since I began teaching at Criswell College almost twenty years ago. It is also the case that I do not have a private prayer language nor do I believe that one can make a good case for a private prayer language from the biblical text. Still, I must be honest and note that good non-charismatic scholars like D.A. Carson and Darrell Bock believe 1 Corinthians 14 allows for the possibility of such a gift. Therefore, for me and for Southeastern Seminary, the issue will be one of priority and agenda. If someone makes private prayer languages an agenda item, then I will oppose them in the strongest measure. In fact, as I said above, I will withstand any agenda or movement that gets in the way of fulfilling the Great Commission of Christ. Perhaps you wonder how many of our faculty at Southeastern has a private prayer language. The answer is I do not know. I have never asked. It is not an issue with this faculty, and it will not become one.
Fourth, I believe it is clear that Southern Baptists have got to grow in the discipline of thinking theologically and living biblically. Hopefully the new Broadman and Holman work, A Theology for the Church, will help us in this area. I had the honor to edit this book, and it includes contributions from some of the brightest and best in Southern Baptist life. Our own David Nelson, Pete Schemm, John Hammett and Ken Keathley participate in this project. You will also discover that Mark Dever, David Dockery, Timothy George, Al Mohler, Russ Moore, Paige Patterson, Malcom Yarnell, and Greg Thornberry penned significant chapters as well. Southern Baptists cannot afford sit on the sidelines when it comes to good and careful theological reflection. At Southeastern we are committed to loving God with our heart and head. We believe in pursuing the model left to us by the apostle Paul, the great theologian and the great missionary. We believe the best context for doing theology is the Great Commission. The best missionaries are capable theologians, and the best theologians are also passionate missionaries. The two must never be separated. This is absolutely essential for the future health of our denomination.
Theological discussion and debate, carried out in the atmosphere of mutual love and respect, is a good and healthy thing. Indeed, it is vitally necessary for the health and well-being of the church. Southeastern is delighted to partner with LifeWay and the Founder’s Ministry in sponsoring a conference on Calvinism at Ridgecrest on November 26-28. No subject needs more light and less heat than this one. Extreme positions and dispositions need to be exposed, confronted and rejected. Areas of agreement that will show how we can work together for the gospel need to be embraced and affirmed. We are thrilled to host on our campus, October 26-27, what is certainly to be the premier C.S. Lewis conference in America in several decades. We also are glad to sponsor a conference on the Emerging/Emergent Church with participants like Mark Driscoll and Ed Stetzer on September 21-22. I applaud neither Pastor Driscoll’s view on alcohol nor his less than wholesome language. The former is unwise and runs the risk of compromising his witness. The latter is blatantly sinful. However, we need to hear and learn from persons like Mark Driscoll in how to effectively engage an increasingly secular culture with the life changing gospel of Jesus Christ. We can learn from those with whom we do not see eye-to-eye theologically, or practically, (e.g. in everyday decisions of Christian living). I want a well informed and educated student body. I believe it is appropriate to invite to a college or seminary campus those you would not invite to speak or lead in worship when your local church gathers for worship. It seems to me that a clear difference exists between the two.
Fifth, I was delighted we approved a resolution on integrity in ministry but disappointed we did do the same for one on regenerate church membership. Some feared the latter was telling the local church what to do, but a resolution can never do that. Some may think there was some political agenda in the works. However, this is a clear biblical and theological issue all Baptist should be able to affirm. Perhaps the resolution presented needs to be reworded or adjusted, but an emphasis on regenerate church membership needs to be recaptured by our churches. I have personally been saying this for several years now. I will continue to speak to this in the days ahead.
Sixth, it was a joy to welcome Geoff Hammond as the new president of North American Mission Board and to receive their fine report. Southeastern hopes to work side by side with the North American Mission Board in the years to come as we seek to reach North America with the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Finally, this year’s attendance is a cause for grave concern. In spite of “pre-convention activity,” this was one of the smallest conventions in years. Our annual meeting is also aging, and I include myself having turned 50. A younger generation committed to the goals and convictions of the Conservative Resurgence must be sought out. We must get them involved with what we are doing. They need our wisdom and we need their passion and energy. I pledge to do my part to see this happen. I believe what is happening on our seminary campuses is a very hopeful sign.
God has blessed our Convention beyond what we deserved. He has indeed been gracious and faithful. Now is the time for us to come together as a mighty army equipped and ready to take the gospel to the nations. Time is short. The hour is urgent. Heaven and hell are real and Jesus is the only difference. If you come to Southeastern, if you send your children to Southeastern, know that our challenge will not be, “Should you go to the nations?” Rather, it will be, “why would you not go? You have already received the command to go to the nations by the Lord Jesus Himself.” Southeastern is committed to being a Great Commission Seminary, and a Great Commission seminary is what we will be. I love you and consider it a joy words cannot capture to serve you."
Danny Akin
President
For many believers, fulfilling Christ’s command to make disciples of all nations begins at home—with their children. In fact, few experiences bring greater joy to Christian parents than seeing their children come to faith in Christ.
The process of evangelizing one’s children, however, can be a daunting task. For many parents, the questions are as practical as they are disconcerting: How should I present the gospel to my children? What’s the best approach to take? How do I know if I’m doing it right? Pitfalls, both real and imagined, intimidate virtually every parent who contemplates this responsibility.
On one hand, there’s the danger of leading children to think they are saved when they are not. On the other, there’s the risk of discouraging children who express a genuine desire to follow Christ.
How, then, should we evangelize our children? The answer to this question is not an easy one, but it begins with recognizing and avoiding some of the common pitfalls in child evangelism.
QUOTE:
"On one hand, there’s the danger of
leading children to think they are
saved when they are not. On the
other, there’s the risk of discouraging
children who express a genuine
desire to follow Christ."
Click here for full article.
A few years ago, I was involved in training the laity of a local church in the activity we call personal evangelism, and I did that over a period of sixteen weeks. Of that sixteen weeks, about three weeks required training in the content of the message we call the gospel. That was the easy part. The rest of the training was devoted to helping people learn how to communicate their faith in a way that was nonthreatening and noninsulting to people.
People are extremely sensitive about how they’re approached on matters of religion. Many of us who are so excited about our faith in Christ want to share it with everyone we love, and our intentions are good. We care about our friends, and we want them to participate in the joy and discovery of this wonderful thing called salvation. But when we do that, so often we come across to these people as saying, in attitude if not in words, “I’m good and you’re not.” People are turned off by that, and rightly so.
Somebody said once that evangelism, true evangelism, is only this—one beggar telling another beggar how to find bread. There’s nothing that should make me boastful about my faith. I recognize that my faith is a result of the grace of God. And so we must understand that when we’re talking to people, we’re called to be gracious and kind. The fruit of the Spirit that the New Testament calls us to exhibit includes gentleness, meekness, patience, and love. That’s the spirit in which we are called to communicate to people.
Even though we are gracious, kind, patient, friendly, and sensitive to people’s dignity, we cannot remove altogether what the New Testament calls the offense of the gospel because the gospel does call people to repentance, and people are threatened by that. But it is important that we not add unnecessarily to the offense that is built into the message of sin and redemption. Sometimes people reject us and what we say because they’re rejecting Christ—and we suffer unjustly. But many more times people get angry not because they’re offended by Christ but because they’re offended by our insensitivity toward them as people.
Columnist Maureen Dowd of The New York Times drew fire from a variety of people, men and women alike, with her controversial book asking, Are Men Necessary? It’s a good question, but perhaps we should also ask, “Are fathers necessary?” Are men important only for the purpose of procreation, or as fathers do they fulfill an important and overlooked role in the family and society?
The anti-male consortium has its endorsers, and they waste no flattery on the masculine gender. Gloria Steinem once remarked, “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” To some, men are little more than an unnecessary commodity. But why this negative view?
Of course, men have not always made the most positive contributions to their collective reputation. Many have backed out of relationships and have given up their responsibility to love, support, discipline and nurture their children. Women have often had to step up to the plate and try to fulfill the roles of both mother and father. Although humans are capable of amazing resilience in the face of difficulty, such situations are obviously far from ideal.
For full article click here.
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary gladly uses the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 as a guide in hiring professors but holds professors to standards that go beyond the BF&M in order to ensure their commitment to God’s truth and their compliance with the wishes of the Southern Baptist Convention, R. Albert Mohler Jr. said June 13 in his report to the SBC in San Antonio.
“In the hiring of a seminary professor you do not want to ask those questions that will mean that we will hire those who merely meet the most basic requirements. If you’re going to hire a seminary professor, you want the one who most comprehensively embraces the truth taught by the Scripture and embraced by this denomination,” Mohler, who serves as president of Southern Seminary, said.
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A new evangelistic movement has emerged in America. Yet this effort does not spring from those loyal to a particular faith or religious view.
The new evangelists are atheists. People who have determined there is no God or who doubt his existence (a group commonly known as agnostics) are adopting a more aggressive, intentional effort to discredit the notion that God exists and to critique people of faith. Widely reviewed new books such as The God Delusion and God is Not Great represent this movement.
Beyond the bestseller lists, however, a new survey shows there is indeed a significant gap between Christians and those Americans who are in the "no-faith" camp. For instance, most atheists and agnostics (56%) agree with the idea that radical Christianity is just as threatening in America as is radical Islam. At the same time, two-thirds of Christians (63%) who have an active faith perceive that the nation is becoming more hostile and negative toward Christianity. ("Active faith" was defined as simply having gone to church, read the Bible and prayed during the week preceding the survey.)
For full article click here.
Our only hope for living the radical demands of the Christian life is that God is totally for us now and forever. Therefore, God has not ordained that living the Christian life should be the basis of our hope that God is for us. That basis is the death and righteousness of Christ, counted as ours through faith alone. All the punishment required of us because of our sin, Christ endured for us on the cross. And all the obedience that God required of us, that he, as our Father, might be completely for us and not against us forever, Christ has performed for us in his perfect obedience to God.
For full article click here.
Some Baptists in this state say the Florida Baptist Convention is intimidating and demonizing churches that believe in Calvinism -- and doing it with the churches' own money.
Convention executive director John Sullivan last week sent recordings of sermons by Sullivan's former pastor Jerry Vines to every church in the state, apparently at convention expense, that identify Calvinism as a threat to Baptist life.
A week earlier, Sullivan sent one of his associates to a rural Panhandle county to confront local pastors about alleged "conflict" created by Calvinists in the Holmes Baptist Association. Sullivan's emissary, Cecil Seagle, was at times "angry and mean-spirited" and tried to intimidate the pastors, according to the pastors' detailed notes from the meeting, warning that Calvinism "is dividing the Florida Convention and a split is almost inevitable."
For full article click here.
Southern Baptists head into their annual national meeting next week at odds over whether they’ve become too conservative and wed to partisan politics, or whether a harder line is necessary to give the denomination a clear identity.
Beginning Tuesday in San Antonio, proposals over everything from political involvement to clergy sexual abuse to speaking in tongues should provide a glimpse at where the 16.3 million-member denomination is headed, 28 years after the “conservative resurgence” swept liberals out.
What’s at stake is the direction of the SBC — the difference between conservative and even more so. And tied to that, how the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. will work to reverse stagnating membership.
For full article click here.
China has printed more than 43 million copies of the Bible in the past three decades, and the number of Protestants in the country now exceeds 16 million, a top leader of the country's Protestant churches said.
The free expression of Christianity in China is ensured and the Bible is widely available, said Rev Cao Shengjie, president of the China Christian Council, at the "Bible Ministry Exhibition of the Church in China", which concluded in Germany yesterday.
"People in China enjoy religious freedom, I never heard anyone being persecuted for their religious belief," she said.
Rev Mei Kangjun, executive associate secretary-general of the National Committee of Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China said Christianity developed very quickly under China's religious freedom policy.
As well as 16 million Protestants, there are some 55,000 places of worship and18 divinity and Bible schools.
For full article click here.
It is easy for a believer to go through a rut in his or her daily life. To begin taking spiritual things for granted. To take His great salvation for granted. CH Spurgeon puts it in perspective in this mornings devotion. Grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair and rejoice in what he says from this passage of Scripture.
"The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad."—Psalm 126:3.
National Founders Conference, 25th Anniversary, June 26-29, 2007, Owasso, OK -- Keynote Speaker: David Wells (pictured). Every generation faces the challenge of biblical reformation. Unless the church recognizes how to apply the unchanging truths of God's Word to the culture's constant changes, then gospel ministry will be deminished.
The time for polite debate is over. Militant atheist writers are making an all-out assault on religious faith and reaching the top of the best-seller list, a sign of widespread resentment over the influence of religion in the world among non-believers.
Christopher Hitchens’ book, “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” has sold briskly ever since it was published last month, and his debates with clergy are drawing crowds at every stop.
Sam Harris was a little-known graduate student until he wrote the phenomenally successful “The End of Faith” and its follow-up, “Letter to a Christian Nation.” Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion” and Daniel Dennett’s “Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon” struck similar themes – and sold.
For full article click here.
A local Christian radio network in Syracuse, N.Y., refuses to advertise a city-wide crusade because a female pastor is scheduled to speak at the event.
The Mars Hill Network's board of directors voted last week not to promote the June 7-8 City Wide Crusade and Conference featuring Pastors Jamal Bryant and Paula White. The all-male board "can't comfortably promote women in the role of pastor," said Wayne Taylor, general manager of the radio network, according to The Post-Standard.
Taylor was alluding to White's participation in the crusade which is expected to draw more than 3,500 people from throughout the northeast region of the country.
“It’s a doctrinal issue,” he said, according to the local newspaper. “It’s not about women preaching. It has to do with a woman taking on a pastor’s role.”
For full article click here.
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Results from a recent LifeWay Research study indicate that many American teenagers are confused about what it takes to get to heaven.
More than 1,000 teenagers were surveyed in January and February of 2007 by mail questionnaire. These results are compared to an identical survey conducted in 2005. Each sample consisted of 12-19 year-olds.
Results show that 69 percent of teenagers believe heaven exists. Also, a majority of teens agree with the traditional Christian belief in Jesus Christ’s death for their sins as the reason they will go to heaven (53 percent strongly agree, 16 percent somewhat agree).
While many teenagers believe they will go to heaven because of their belief in Jesus Christ, one quarter trust in their own kindness to others (27 percent) or their religiosity (26 percent) as their means to get to heaven.
For full article click here.
I get two things out of the nihilistic existence of the atheists: 1) astonishment and 2) a more rational faith. I’d like to thank you, my anti-God buddies, for both.
From an astonishment stand point, I gotta hand it to you guys . . . you have huge cojones! Think about it, Christian: These folks are taking on God, bashing the Bible and slapping the church with only a 50/50 chance that they’re either right or eternally screwed—and yet, they still plow forward with their faith in no faith.
What incredible, though non-religious, belief and zeal these God-deniers possess! You should bow and kiss their rings, all you Christians who are afraid to stand up for your convictions.
For full article click here.
A recent study from LifeWay Research on the use of private prayer language indicates that half of Southern Baptist pastors believe the Holy Spirit gives some people a special language to pray to God.
The study also indicates the majority of Protestant senior pastors (63 percent) and laity (51 percent) believes in the gift of a private prayer language.
The study was conducted by phone survey to 1,004 Protestant laity, 405 Southern Baptist (SBC) senior pastors, and 600 non-SBC Protestant senior pastors in April-May, 2007. In addition, SBC seminary graduates were also called upon to answer related questions. All 1998-2004 masters level graduates from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southeastern Theological Seminary, and the Canadian Baptist Seminary were invited to participate (a limited subset of graduates from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., were available for the study).
For full article click here.
The first Christians were charged with blasphemy because they refused to confess “Caesar is Lord.” For this crime against the state, they were crucified, lit on fire, and served as human torches to light the evening parties in Caesar’s gardens.
Jesus was the first to teach the separation of church and state. His followers were instructed to “Render unto Caesar, that which is Caesar’s, and to God, that which is God’s.” This was a direct challenge to the unified powers of Caesar as both priest and king. It was required of Roman citizens to proclaim “Caesar is Lord.” But for Christians, only Jesus is Lord. For this reason, a person could not be both a Christian and a good citizen of Rome.
Plato addressed this theological-political problem in his Laws and it is elucidated in the nexus of the good man, the good citizen and the immoral law. In ancient Greece, each city-state had its own gods that demanded worship--and thereby laws to be obeyed, in order to be a good citizen in good standing. Plato raised the question, if a good citizen is one who obeys the laws of his own city, then what happens when he travels to another city? Is he no longer a good citizen in the foreign city? Can there be such a thing as a good man who is a good citizen in every city? If gods make the laws, and some laws are wrong, then are some gods wrong? That is, can there be a universal law that is higher than each particular, local law? Is there an Almighty God who is always right and the Author of the true moral law who rules over lesser local deities who are often wrong? If so, then can there be such a thing as an immoral law? Is there a universal morality that trumps the merely legal?
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Like the lukewarm church at Laodicea that Jesus said in the Book of Revelation He was about to spew out of His mouth, The Barna Group in a recent study assessed American Christianity as neither hot nor cold."
Most Americans do not have strong and clear beliefs, largely because they do not possess a coherent biblical worldview," David Kinnaman, president of The Barna Group, said. "That is, they lack a consistent and holistic understanding of their faith. Millions of Americans say they are personally committed to Jesus Christ, but they believe He sinned while on earth."
Many believers claim to trust what the Bible teaches, but they reject the notion of a real spiritual adversary or they feel that faith-sharing activities are optional," Kinnaman added. "Millions feel personally committed to God, but they are renegotiating the definition of that deity."
For full article click here.
After a recent Los Angeles Times editorial used the platform of the evolutionists versus creationists debate to leap into an excoriating criticism of three Republican candidates who professed faith in Christianity, the top three Democrat candidates on June 4 stood in the public limelight and offered their testimonies to YAHWEH — The Almighty who the LA Times' editors apparently believe is merely a figment of the imagination of more than a billion people around the world.
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The doctrine of creation is the foundation for biblical Christianity.
However, in contemporary culture critics of creation abound and they seek to undermine this key doctrine and knock the pillars out from under the Christian worldview.
Essayists in the latest edition of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology sort through issues of science and theology associated with the universe’s origins and show where contemporary commentary opposes the biblical view. Essayists include editor Stephen J. Wellum and Southern professor Kurt P. Wise.
For complete story, click here.
