Funny Picture at Southern Seminary

There is a Catholic Church in Louisville close by the Seminary called Holy Spirit Catholic Church. I like one of the signs that it has by the parking lot entrances. Thought everyone would like it.

At Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY

I am at school this week at Southern Seminary and I thought that I would share a couple of pictures of the campus. Every time I am here, I simply get in a "scholastic frame of mind". I love this campus, it is so beautiful to me.

Conversion Day

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of my public profession in the Lord Jesus Christ. To commemorate this event in my life, I like to each year read the full hymn of "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing", which Charles Wesley wrote on one of the anniversaries of his conversion. The hymn actually has many more stanzas than we normally sing. Please read the full hymn below. Thanks be to God and the Lord Jesus Christ for such a gift of grace!

O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

He speaks, and, listening to His voice,
New life the dead receive,
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.

In Christ your Head, you then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

Glory to God, and praise and love
Be ever, ever given,
By saints below and saints above,
The church in earth and heaven.

On this glad day the glorious Sun
Of Righteousness arose;
On my benighted soul He shone
And filled it with repose.

Sudden expired the legal strife,
’Twas then I ceased to grieve;
My second, real, living life
I then began to live.

Then with my heart I first believed,
Believed with faith divine,
Power with the Holy Ghost received
To call the Savior mine.

I felt my Lord’s atoning blood
Close to my soul applied;
Me, me He loved, the Son of God,
For me, for me He died!

I found and owned His promise true,
Ascertained of my part,
My pardon passed in heaven I knew
When written on my heart.

Look unto Him, ye nations, own
Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone,
Be justified by grace.

See all your sins on Jesus laid:
The Lamb of God was slain,
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man.

Awake from guilty nature’s sleep,
And Christ shall give you light,
Cast all your sins into the deep,
And wash the Æthiop white.

Harlots and publicans and thieves
In holy triumph join!
Saved is the sinner that believes
From crimes as great as mine.

Murderers and all ye hellish crew
In holy triumph join!
Believe the Savior died for you;
For me the Savior died.

With me, your chief, ye then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

Reclaiming a Merry Christmas

When did Christmas become like it is today? This is going to be a rambling post, but here it goes.

As a young boy and teenager, I did not mind the commercialization of Christmas, for I always enjoyed opening gifts at Christmas and cherished it as one of the greatest days of the year, one where my wishes for new toys, video games, clothes, candy, cash, and other great items came true. I would then spend the next week while off from school enjoying the gifts that I had received. It was always a highlight! Sure, as a Christian, I understood the deeper meaning of Christmas, that it was the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ and enjoyed the festivities at church each year. But as I have grown older, Christmas has become complicated. Now, I have a hard time answering the question, "What makes Christmas merry?" It seems that America's answer to this question would not line up with the biblical ideal.

What happened? Well, in my own life, the realization that there has been a secular backlash against the political incorrectness of celebrating Jesus' birth came a couple of years ago. During that Christmas season, JC Penny had an advertisement that had the music to Joy to the World in the background. But it was not the Christian version. It was the song "Joy to the World" sung by Three Dog Night which starts, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog...". When I heard that, it hit me, Christmas is no longer about Jesus Christ in this country. This year, the similar effect on me occurred when I first saw the jewelry commercial on television where a couple is skating on a frozen pond and the man intentionally falls down to give a Christmas gift to his love as she comes to his aid. The song in

the background? "I've got you babe" by Sonny and Cher.

It seems to me (I could be way off base here) that the focus has shifted from the celebration of the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the focus on charitable giving and philanthropy to a focus on the gift giving within the immediate and extended family with little or no giving to those in need. Yes, we give side notice to the plight of the poor, but the focus is on what little Johnny is getting for Christmas from Santa. When did Santa Claus go from gift-giver of the poor to gift-giver to good boys and

girls divorced from its Christian origin? This I think is the key. The change in the legend of Santa Claus in the nineteenth and twentieth-centuries, especially in America, moved Santa Claus from the category of charity to the category of giving children the toys of their dreams and all they had to do was be good. Here is the problem with this picture:

Santa Claus' other name - Saint Nicholas is based on the Christian bishop, Saint Nicholas of Myra who died in 346 A.D. He is famous for two things. First, he was a defender of Orthodoxy who in 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicaea, tradition holds that he punched the heretic Arius after Arius repudiated the deity of Christ. Also, and this gets more to the issue of Christmas, he was renowned for his charity to the POOR. He is especially well-known for donating money to three destitute, young women's dowries so that they could get married, and thus he prevented them from a life of prostitution. The name of Santa Claus comes from the Dutch "Sinterklaas" which is a hybrid of the St. Nicholas tradition and the Norse myths surrounding the god Odin. I recommend that you go to Wikipedia.com and research the origins of Santa Claus.

But, before digressing into a Santa = Satan discussion, let's answer the problem of reclaiming a Merry Christmas. Here is a list of ideas that I recommend:

1. Remember that Christmas is a festival about the INCARNATION of CHRIST = God incarnate. This is the greatest event in human history. We should focus everything / filter everything around this central and glorious truth! Glory be to God!

2. Unapologetically say "Merry Christmas" to everyone - don't worry about political correctness.

3. Celebrate the spirit of giving by investing your time in participating in charitable activities - especially giving to the poor or participating with organizations that do.

4. Celebrate your family! Spend time with your family!

5. Don't get sucked into the commercialization of Christmas. Resist it. Give gifts with meaning and purpose.

I am sure that there are many more tips and recommendations to make a Merry Christmas, but the greatest way to make this Christmas merry is to celebrate your relationship with Christ. The most merry Christmas comes with being a redeemed follower of the Christ who was born on the night that split history.

Merry Christmas!

A Conversion of Sorts

I have recently made the plunge and have bought an Apple MacBook. The last time I owned an Apple was never, because I was in elementary school the last time I used one. My fondest memory of Apple computers was playing Oregon Trail. I cannot count the times I died of dysentery on the game - not even knowing what that was. It certainly is a change in computing. I am enjoying it so far. I am thankful that Microsoft has a version of Microsoft Office that is compatible with Apple Mac's.

I put the logo of Apple on the blog post for a reason. The logo is of an apple with a bite out of it. I seriously doubt that this is the motive behind the logo, but whenever I look at the image, I am reminded of the fallenness of humanity - that Adam and Eve took of the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and sinned. Just thought I would throw that imagery out there.

James vs. Paul? The dynamic between Faith and Works

For those who were not at the service on Sunday, I preached on James 2:14-17. James 2:14-17 states this:

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”


Is James contradicting Paul here? James goes on to say specifically Abraham and Rahab were justified by works in verses 21-26. Paul states in Romans 3:23-27 that we are justified freely by grace and the propitiation of Christ Jesus our Lord (“for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.") Many in scholarship today and in the past saw no way to reconcile James and Paul. What about James and Jesus? James was a half-brother of our Lord, but some could say that James and Jesus both teach a justification by works and Paul teaches a justification by faith. Look at Matthew 5:17-20:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven.

How do we reconcile this? The words justify, righteous, and righteousness all come from the same root Greek word - dikaios. Justify in Greek is simply the verbal form of the word righteous. To justify is to make righteous. So when Jesus says that unless our righteousness / justification exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven and James says that Abraham and Rahab were justified by works and faith without works are dead, how do we reconcile that with Romans 3-6?

First, we need to realize that the way Jesus and James define and use the word justification is different than the way Paul uses it. James uses the term to refer to an expression of the faith that is in you. The justification is an evidence or a proof of saving faith. And thus, what Abraham did in his agreeing to sacrifice Isaac or Rahab in assisting the spies was to evidence the saving faith that they already possessed. Genesis 15:6 records that when Abram believed in the covenant that God made to him, Abraham believed the Lord, and God counted it to Abram as righteousness. The event referenced in James about the almost sacrifice of Isaac did not occur until Genesis 22. Therefore, Abraham was already justified by faith in Genesis 15, 7 chapters before he was "justified by works". You see how James is using this term differently - as an evidence or a proof. Regarding the Matthew 5 passage in the Sermon on the Mount, my ESV study bible notes (written Michael J. Wilkins) state this (this is not gospel but I agree with him):

"Jesus calls his disciples to a different kind and quality of righteousness than that of the scribes and Pharisees. They took pride in outward conformity to many extrabiblical regulations but still had impure hearts. But KINGDOM righteousness works from the inside out because it first produces changed hearts and new motivations (see Rom. 6:17; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 5:22-23; Phil. 2:12; Heb. 8:10), so that the actual conduct of Jesus' followers does in fact 'exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.'"

This is deep stuff - BUT IT IS CRITICAL. The idea of justification by grace through faith because of the propitiatory work of Christ on the Cross (Propitiation is another word for ATONEMENT) is so mind boggling that we many times cannot grasp the concept even after salvation. Last night during class as we were going through Romans, my professor Dr. Steven Carlson mentioned this (in paraphrase):

Works righteousness and the idea that you can earn salvation or favor from God through works is the default religious view of fallen humanity. After the fall, there was within us a desire to still commune with God and to get back to that relationship. The problem is that in our fallen state, we by default assume that it is through "being good" or "good works" that this comes about. Thus, every religion in the world assumes works righteousness leads to salvation except Christianity (and I suppose Hinduism / Buddhism, which simply denies that sin exists, which is why it is so popular today).

Many of us who have lived within an evangelical context read the previous statements and say, "Sure, we get that you are saved by grace through faith and not by works, what else is new?"

But the following is what I think the hidden danger of legalism in the church:

Are you a closet legalist? A closet legalist is one that believes in salvation by grace through faith and not by works but once saved does good works to either reap the blessings of God or stave off the chastisement of God. We may think this is a proper reading of Scripture, but it robs us of the God of Scripture. It makes our God out to be some cosmic ogre demanding repayment of a stifling debt or a divine Santa Claus “making a list and checking it twice to see who’s been naughty or nice!”

NO – WE DO GOOD WORKS, WE ARE CHARITABLE, WE ARE LOVING, WE ARE OBEDIENT BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN BORN AGAIN, WE ARE A NEW CREATION, CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS FOR GOOD WORKS AND OUR GOOD WORKS IS OUR HIGHEST FORM OF WORSHIP THAT WE CAN GIVE TO A GOD WHO SAVES!!!!!! Any other faith, any other work/deed that is not rooted in CHRIST and for his glory is DEAD.


In the Heidelberg Catechism question 86 says this: “Since we are redeemed from our sin and its consequences by grace through Christ without any merit of our own, why must we do good works?” In other words, if salvation is by grace, why be good? The answer that the catechism gives is very instructive: “So that with our whole life we may show ourselves grateful to God for his goodness and that he may be glorified through us.” We offer service to the kingdom of God not to gain his affection but in loving thankfulness for his affection. (Question 86, pulled from Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching, p. 314)

It is my prayer that Christian evangelicalism will have a revival during the coming decades that will reclaim the true Gospel teaching of faith-righteousness in Christ Jesus. We truly are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come. All this is from GOD WHO THROUGH CHRIST RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF AND GAVE US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION (II Cor. 5:17-18).

Amen, Christ Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father from everlasting to everlasting!

Sermon tomorrow

I will be preaching tomorrow night during the evening worship service at Dresden First Baptist Church. The title of the Sermon is "Diet Faith". We will be looking at James 2:14-17. Here is the text:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can this faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well," but you don't give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead by itself. (HCSB).

May God be glorified in the services tomorrow at Dresden First Baptist Church!

Friday at the Future of Denominationalism Conference at Union University (Part II)

Dr. Mohler spoke at the chapel service on Friday and discussed the question, Are Southern Baptists Evangelicals?  Here are the notes that I took from his impressive call to the next generation of Southern Baptists (of which I assume I am a part).

 

Luke 18:8 – "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?"

 

In 1989, Albert Mohler wrote an article entitled, "Are Southern Baptists Evangelicals?"  Even though there were some misgivings about this term, in regards to the overall options to be identified with the only place we fit is Evangelical.  That term still has meaning for us.  The options are Liberal, Evangelical, or everything else.  We don't want to be in the everything else category, so the evangelical moniker fits.  Other identification discussions also centered around the truth party vs. liberty party debates (coherent truth vs. soul liberty).  The bottom line of these introductory comments for Mohler is that in 1989 it was good to know that we had friends in the evangelical world in the midst of the debates surrounding the Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention.  But Mohler mentioned that twenty years after this article was published, he would not write the same thing today.  Today his title would bee, "We REALLY ARE BAPTISTS!"

 

We live in the midst of a culture and a religious experience that is marked by the following:

1. Confusion over religious branding and over the purpose of denominationalism
2. Weakness of parachurch organizations
3. Evangelical identity issues. 

 

And thus the Southern Baptist Convention is headed for a crisis.  And this crisis will be focused on the forging of a new identity for the denomination.  Currently, across the board, we are seeing the death of cultural Christianity, which counted on people being involved in denominations and the religious experience just because it was the way it is culturally.  This is no longer the case. 

 

Today's crisis is a generational crisis and a new slogan will not suffice.  What is needed now is not a new slogan, but a resurgence in the Great Commission.  Only the cause of the Gospel will keep us together and strong enough to endure.  The gospel is the only message that saves.  We must ask the hard questions of ourselves.  We have been called to be a church on mission. 

 

This new generation is a Generation of Social Transformation, Historical Significance, and Global Responsibility.  Thomas Friedman recently wrote an article identifying three "bombs" that threatened the new generation.  Those bombs are the nuclear bomb (still a threat), the climate bomb, and the debt bomb.  But, according to Dr. Mohler (and I agree with him), the 800 pound gorilla, or the proverbial pink elephant, in the room is what are we going to do for the cause of the Gospel! 

 

According to author Christian Smith, today's generation is marked by a "moralistic therapeutic deism".  This is a problem.  Again referring to Smith, Mohler mentioned that we are less sure even about the deism part.  Today's generation does not reject the gospel, but simply a shrug of indifference.  This is the Generation of Institutional Disinterest and this is the Generation that the Southern Baptist Convention's new generation is called to reach. 

 

Mohler implored the new generation not the leave the Southern Baptist Church, but to save it. We are to give ourselves not to the Southern Baptist Convention, but to Christ. 

 

This next Generation is the Generation to Go Deep!  Deep ecclesiology, deep missions, deep passion.  There can be no easy believism.  We should not give ourselves to the culture wars, the culture is lost and gone!  We are to give ourselves the Gospel ministry – all of us. 

 

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?  Will he find a powerful demonstration of faith in the Southern Baptist Convention?  It is Dr. Mohler's and my prayer that Christ will indeed find such faith upon the earth! 

Friday at the Future of Denominationalism Conference - Union University (Part I)

Friday, October the 9^th, 2009 Bonnie and I were privileged to attend the Future of Denominationalism conference at Union University on its final day.  The speakers for the morning were Nathan Finn (a professor at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) and Dr. R. Albert Mohler (President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary).  This blog will be the notes that I gleaned from these two impressive discourses on the future of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

 

Nathan Finn discussed the idea of Baptists as Evangelicals.  He stated that we are ourselves evangelicals that sometimes must swim against the evangelical currents, but must remain in the evangelical river.  The major thrust of his discourse was the two non-negotiables that Southern Baptists should affirm and uphold as Evangelicals.  Those two foundations should be Catechesis and Narrative. 

 

1. Catechesis:  We must labor to pass on a commitment to convictional integrity but we must also focus on a Christian way to read and study the Christian Scriptures.  We must have a robust view of the Gospel.  We must know it, teach it, and live it!  We must have a theological vision for ministry.  This theological vision for ministry involves:
1. Gospel Instinct against heterodox beliefs and to avoid the truncated view of conversion.  We must get back to the life change (not easy believism).  Do we have more conviction in our denomination for culture wars or for gospel ministry?  We must restore our confessional convictions! 
2. In our Catechesis, we should NOT pass on to the future some of the following things:

                                                              i.      Unhealthy likeness / affinity for theological diversity and parachurch organizations.

                                                            ii.      We must not pass on cultural captivity.

                                                          iii.      Ethno-centrism à Southern Baptists as white southerners. 

                                                          iv.      Denominational arrogance and elitism – as if God cannot evangelize the lost through any other mechanism.

                                                            v.       Atheological pragmatism – sacrificing the gospel ministry for what is pragmatic in regards to politics and mechanism of the denomination

                                                          vi.      Penchant of bricks, budgets, and bottoms over the conversion and discipleship of souls

2. Narrative: We must as Southern Baptists also be focused and committed to passing on our stories.
1. We must pass on the stories and lives of the giants of the faith in Baptist History
2. We must uphold with pride that it was the Baptists who championed religious liberty over 100 years before Jefferson and the Constitutional Congress took up the call.
3. We must also tell the grand story of Baptist involvement in mission over the centuries.
4. We must tell the story of the great seminaries and colleges that we as Baptists have founded.
5. We must tell of the likes of Smyth, Helwys, Mercer, Broadus, Boyce, Hobbs, Rogers, McCall, Mullins, Pressler, Manly, Carey, Fuller, Dagg, Mell, Judson, Wallace, Moon, Armstrong, and others.  [Blogger Interlude: how many of you can identify who I am talking about here?  If you can't, this underscores the point that we need to educate our churches on the wonderful history of the Baptist movement.]

 

That was Nathan Finn's speech.  Well done! 

Union Conference

Thursday and Friday, Bonnie and I were privileged to attend the conference at Union University entitled "Southern Baptists, Evangelicals, and the Future of Denominationalism".

Thursday night, Dr. David Dockery spoke on the topic of "So Many Denominations: The Rise and Decline of Denominationalism...and the Shaping of a Global Evangelicalism." Dr. Dockery did an excellent job discussing the history of denominationalism in Christian history and tactfully explained why there are so many denominational structures. What I took from his speech was that we should all realize that even though denominationalism is rampant in today's society and is getting a bad wrap, denominations still provide a context for guidance and a place of belonging. We should all strive for a denominational future that has conviction and cooperation; boundaries and bridges; structure and spirit.

Here is a good article at the Union University website about Dockery's speech:

http://www.uu.edu/news/release.cfm?ID=1570

I will be posting tomorrow some comments regarding Friday's discussions by Dr. Nathan Finn, professor at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Dr. Albert Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.

Is America Turning into a Hindu Nation?

Lisa Miller of Newsweek Magazine wrote this in August of 2009 and I used this in my sermon last night on I John 4:1-6.  This is startling information and goes to show the challenge that American Christians have in the sharing of the gospel.  God is good and Our Savior Reigns!  Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world!

 

 

 

Here is the Article:

 

“America is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a nation founded by Christians, and according to a 2008 survey, 76 percent of us continue to identify as Christian (still, that's the lowest percentage in American history). Of course, we are not a Hindu—or Muslim, or Jewish, or Wiccan—nation, either. A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity.

 

The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says this: "Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names." A Hindu believes there are many paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga practice is a third. None is better than any other; all are equal. The most traditional, conservative Christians have not been taught to think like this. They learn in Sunday school that their religion is true, and others are false. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me."

 

Americans are no longer buying it. According to a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65 percent of us believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life"—including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group most likely to believe that salvation is theirs alone. Also, the number of people who seek spiritual truth outside church is growing. Thirty percent of Americans call themselves "spiritual, not religious," according to a 2009 NEWSWEEK Poll, up from 24 percent in 2005. Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, has long framed the American propensity for "the divine-deli-cafeteria religion" as "very much in the spirit of Hinduism. You're not picking and choosing from different religions, because they're all the same," he says. "It isn't about orthodoxy. It's about whatever works. If going to yoga works, great—and if going to Catholic mass works, great. And if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus the Buddhist retreat works, that's great, too."

 

Then there's the question of what happens when you die. Christians traditionally believe that bodies and souls are sacred, that together they comprise the "self," and that at the end of time they will be reunited in the Resurrection. You need both, in other words, and you need them forever. Hindus believe no such thing. At death, the body burns on a pyre, while the spirit—where identity resides—escapes. In reincarnation, central to Hinduism, selves come back to earth again and again in different bodies. So here is another way in which Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent of Americans say they believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris poll. So agnostic are we about the ultimate fates of our bodies that we're burning them—like Hindus—after death. More than a third of Americans now choose cremation, according to the Cremation Association of North America, up from 6 percent in 1975. "I do think the more spiritual role of religion tends to deemphasize some of the more starkly literal interpretations of the Resurrection," agrees Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion at Harvard. So let us all say "om."  (ref: http://newsweek.com/id/212155/)

 

 

Greek Test tomorrow and then to Start Blogging Again

I want to thank everyone for your patience during this time of busyness. Over the past few weeks I have been working a full time job while trying to prepare for a Greek Advanced Placement exam along with the assignments that have come due in my semester classes - Christian Preaching and New Testament I and II. But I should be at a point on Monday that I will be able to start blogging again.

Please pray for me as I take this exam. If I do well on it, then I will not have to take Elementary Greek and will save some moolah.

God Bless,

Joshua Moore

Going on a Little Hiatus

Last week, I started my Fall 2009 courses at the Southern Seminary Extension Center. I am in the process of getting acclimated to the new semester as well as preparing for the Greek Test at the first of October. Therefore, my plate is overflowing and I am going to hold off on posts for a couple of weeks.

Thanks!

Josh

Dealing with the Guilt of Sin

I wanted to write a quick Biblical encouragement to those who are dealing with the guilt of past sin or habitual sin. Are you a Christian who feels that you cannot be used of God because of some past sin that Satan keeps throwing in your face? Do you allow the Accuser to keep you enslaved to a habitual sin? I want to share this verse with you that should encourage you!

Micah 7:7-9 ESV - this passage in context is talking about the City of Jerusalem, but it has a New Covenant meaning for the Christian that is evident. Here is the text:

But as for me, I will look to the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.
Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be a light to me.
I will bear the indignation of the LORD
because I have sinned against him,
until he pleads my cause
and executes judgment for me.
He will bring me out to the light;
I shall look upon his vindication.

This is a powerful verse. Whatever hold Satan has on you, it does not have to be this way! Yes, you have sinned, and yes, you will bear the indignation of God and the consequences of that sin. But you will not experience condemnation! There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). What an amazing promise!!! It is God who will bring you out of the darkness of sin and into the light. Do not trust your own strength, nail your sin to the cross and put it to death at Christ's finished work!

Rest in God's amazing grace! Look upon the vindication of God's almighty name in your life! He will have vindication, he will have his victory in your life!

Jerome Quote

I got this off the wikipedia article for Jerome. I think this is a really great quote - similar to the "lazy hands are the devils workshop" proverb.

"Be ever engaged, so that whenever the devil calls he may find you occupied."

Jerome was a Christian in the 4th Century and was responsible for translating the Original Languages (Hebrew and Greek) into Latin, called the Vulgate. This translation of the Bible was the only authorized translation of the church (Roman Catholicism) until the Protestant Reformation.

No Other Name - Acts 4:12

A couple of weeks ago, we at Dresden First Baptist Church had a scripture memory verse, Acts 4:12. Here is the verse with verse 11 to provide a small amount of context:

"This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." ESV.

This is another scripture on conversion that highlights the exclusivity of Christ. Evangelical Christians do not make up the belief that Jesus is the only way to salvation. There are ample passages of scripture that point to this doctrine, this being one (John 14:6 being another). There is no other way under the sun to receive salvation except through the blood of Christ Jesus. This has massive implications - with one I would like to highlight today:

Major Implication: If Christ is the only way, and he is, then Christians must evangelize the world for Christ and be not ashamed of the gospel! There are over 5 Billion lost people in the world today, and this statistic simply blows me away. We must work in our local churches to get connected and mobilized for Great Commission tasks. In other words, our main goal is to be about making disciples.

There is no other name, but the name of Jesus that brings peace and salvation. Let's bring that name to the nations.

Amen, let it be so.

In Nashville for Family Visit

This weekend, Bonnie, Marianne, and I have traveled to Franklin, TN to visit Bonnie's parents. Bonnie's parents have recently moved to Franklin, TN (last week) and we are visiting them for the first time here. Johnny and Julia Brundige live in a great area now and we know that we have a great "get away" spot in Franklin, TN!

New Covenant

The following is another posting from the past (moore4christ blog) that I am transferring over to this blog. If you have not read this before, I hope this is edifying. If you have already read this, I will be writing new posts in the coming days. This blog post was another response to a collaboration question in Old Testament II. Thank you! jtm

Perhaps the finest expression of Jeremiah’s prophetic preaching is found in 31:31-40. Jeremiah describes the new covenant as “permanent” (see especially 31:35-40). If this new covenant is “permanent,” what is its relationship to the covenant made at Sinai? Does the new covenant supplant the covenant at Sinai? Can this new covenant be broken as was the one at Sinai? Can Jeremiah’s new covenant be equated with the covenant established by Christ’s blood? Why, or why not?

Clearly, the context of Jeremiah 31:31-40 illustrates and describes a permanent, new covenant between God and His people.First I want to quickly answer these questions and then make some observational points in more detail.

What is the relationship to the covenant here described and the covenant made at Mount Sinai? I would say that new covenant does not SUPPLANT the Mosaic Covenant, but it fulfills the covenant. In other words, the covenant made at Sinai is fulfilled ultimately in this new covenant.
Can this new covenant be broken as was the one at Sinai? No, not in an ultimate sense.
Can Jeremiah’s new covenant be equated with the covenant established by Christ’s blood? Yes, I have always equated the two in my interpretation of Jeremiah 31:31-40. I see the covenant provided by the atonement of Christ for our sins and the justification that is found in grace and through faith and repentance to be equal with the new covenant described in Jeremiah 31.
With these brief responses, I would like to make the following points of observation:
Jesus definitely represents and enacts a new covenant, one that is synonymous with the covenant described in our focal discussion. The writer of the book of Hebrews makes this plain in Hebrews Chapter 8. Starting in verse 6, “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.” (Hebrews 8:6-7). The writer then quotes verbatim Jeremiah 31:31-34 in Hebrews 8:8-12. Thus, it is obvious that the writer of Hebrews through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit equates the Then the writer wraps up the discussion of the covenant by saying in verse 13 of Chapter 8, ‘In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” This verse raises the earlier questions in the issue – is the Sinai Covenant now abolished or overthrown and to be forgotten?Since Jesus inaugurates this new covenant in his life and ministry, which is fulfilled ultimately in his death, burial, and resurrection, we need to see what Jesus said about the old covenant. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said in Matthew 5:17-20: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heave and earth pass away, not an iota, or a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus in this passage clearly is connecting his ministry with the old covenant in that he will be the fulfillment of that covenant. Reading the old covenant (the Law and the Prophets) is not abolished, it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.But what about Hebrews 8:13? The ESV translation says that the old covenant is obsolete. This at first glance seems to be synonymous with “abolished”. But I believe that this is not what the writer of Hebrews is saying. The writer is not saying that the old covenant is abolished, but that many aspects of the old covenant, heavily dependent on the sacrificial system, is now obsolete given the complete and victorious work of Christ on the cross.Can this new covenant be broken like the old one could? The language of the new covenant in Jeremiah is totally opposite the language of the Sinaitic covenant. This new covenant illustrates a loving God actually doing the action of creating the new covenant “within” the believer. No longer is the covenant externally focused on the obedience of a nation or chosen race. This covenant is forged within the individual believer. We must be careful however to make the distinction that the Old Testament believers were not saved because of their works or in obeying the Law to the letter. Legalism has never saved. Paul in Romans 4 makes clear that even before the Law was instituted on Mt. Sinai, the righteous were saved through faith. Justification has always been through faith alone by grace alone. The difference in the Sinaitic Covenant (the best I can see it right now), is that it encompassed both the remnant of Israel (those who truly believed) and also “nation” of Israel, even including those who were unregenerate. In the new covenant, there is no distinction. In the universal church, there is no such thing as a visible church and invisible church. Yes, there are some denominations that want to place this moniker on the church, but the new covenant will NOT be broken. Once you are regenerate, once you are justified, and as you are sanctified, you will persevere to the end. Yes we are subject to sin, but we will not break the covenant.

God Hates the Sin, but Loves the Sinner?

In the continued effort to bring the posts from my old blog (moore4christ) over to this blog, below is a post I published in April of this year and was a submission that I made in a collaboration for Old Testament II. The question as posed by the professor is in red and then my response is in black:

The obvious theme of Psalm 2 is Yahweh’s use of “his anointed” (v. 2) to control rebellious nations. However, not all mentioned in this Psalm are pictured as rebellious and thus as objects of divine wrath. The Psalm closes on a positive note: “How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” Clearly, the Psalmist believes that the wicked will experience God’s wrath, not his grace. On the other hand, those who bow before him will experience blessing. In light of the Psalmist’s presentation, evaluate the statement: “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.”

I believe that we talked about this somewhat in an earlier collaboration for Old Testament II, but I am glad to see singular treatment using the 2nd Psalm as the context. I think the previous collaboration discussion was on the equality of God's love - the thought that God loves the entirety of humanity in the same way, equally. There is a sense that in an individualistic and largely democratic society that we live in today, that the thought of equality is certainly a major factor in our idea of freedom. The Declaration of Independence declares that all men are created equal. This has been the clarion call for all disenfranchised persons in the American tradition and it has also had somewhat of an impact on our view of God's approach to the sinner and sin. We run to John 3:16 and read, "For God so loved the world..." or I John 2:2, "He is the propitiation of our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world", and then say that God LOVES the world and LOVES the sinner. God LOVES you and me. When HE was on the cross YOU were on his mind (and in our minds, there is no qualification to that thought - no limitation). Therefore, God even LOVES the unregenerate sinner. But I cannot go that far. Ephesians 2:3 states that we are by nature children of wrath - all humanity. By nature, all humanity is subject to the wrath of God. This is a holy stance against the sinner! Yes, there is an effacacious condescendence by God through Christ to the world because of God's love for the world so that he might save the elect, but God still must stand in holiness against sin and thus the sinner. God hates sin - with wrath and judgment - and the nature of the sinner is SIN. Therefore, God hates the very nature of the sinner. But this is not an EMOTIONAL hatred that we usually attach to the word in human terms. WRATH is not an emotional response from God - it is a response of holiness and according to the sake and glory of HIS NAME. This HATRED is wrought out of the perfection of God's holiness. The only people that the phrase, "God hates the sin, but loves the sinner" would apply to is the regenerate believer - not the unbeliever.

The Beginning of Knowledge

I am going to over the next couple of days be re-submitting some old posts from a previous blog onto this "Moore For Christ" blog so that all of my pastoral / devotional postings will be in the same place (there will be some exceptions that I will not post). This is from earlier this year and is a devotional thought from Proverbs 1:7 and 3:5-6

A couple of weeks ago, our church had a Scripture memory verse from Proverbs. I posited a second verse in addition to Proverbs 3:5-6. That verse was Proverbs 1:7, which reads:"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction." This is a very interesting verse and one that carries a TON of relevance to today's Christianity and every Christian's life. Also, since I have been studying the philosophy this week (still studying) up here at Louisville, KY at Southern Seminary, this verse is also extremely helpful for me.One of the main questions in philosophy is this:

Can you know anything?

What is truth?

Is it knowable?

This verse simply answers that question. Knowledge is only possible by belief. Saint Augustine famously said, 'You must believe something, before you can know something." True, lasting, purposeful, abundant, and sustaining knowledge begins at one place - with the fear of the Lord! Even though most of you do not have advanced degrees in any scholastic discipline, this does not mean that you lack the possession of knowledge. You actually have more knowledge than the pagan philosopher or the heathen mathematics or scientific genius. Why? Because, those disciplines operated outside of the fear of the God of the Bible, is useless and without purpose.

Remember these cross-references:

1 Corinthians 1:18-21: "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.' where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe." ESV

1 Corinthians 13:2: "And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." ESV

Fools - the wise of the world act as illustrated in the latter part of our focal verse.

They despise:

1. Wisdom: this wisdom is a spiritual, heavenly wisdom - the wisdom that comes from above. To contrast earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom - read James 3:13-18.

2. Instruction: the wise of this world spurn instruction that comes from Scripture, which is the final authority for instruction on life. Wisdom from above is grounded in Scripture. Scripture is the depository for the source of all knowledge.

All knowledge and all the disciplines can find a starting point and a grounding in God's Holy Word. It is my earnest prayer that all members of Dresden First Baptist Church will be GROUNDED - ROOTED in the Word of God.Such is the beginning of knowledge.

Reminder on Bible Reading

I want to encourage everyone to continue reading the Scriptures according to our Bible Reading Plan for 2009. As you can see, on the left side menu bar of this blog, I have this week's Bible Reading. You can read all sections of Scripture or pick any to read. It does not matter what you read in Scripture, but THAT you read. Remember, all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of god may be competent, equipped for every good work. (II Timothy 3:16 ESV)"

Many of you may have realized that we have left the Books of the Law (and for some, I suppose this is a relief) and have entered the books of History in our OT I readings. Also, we have moved from Wisdom literature in our OT II readings to Isaiah and the Major Prophets. Don't be intimidated by the prophets for some of the most glorious passages and promises about Christ Jesus and the faithfulness of God is found in this section of Scripture (Isaiah 6, 7, 40, 53, 60, 62, etc.). In the NT readings, we are still focusing on the gospel of Luke.

I pray God's richest blessings upon you in the reading of His Faithful Word!

Richard Baxter - How to know that you are Unconverted

I have started reading Richard Baxter's masterpiece, The Christian Directory, and have been thoroughly enjoying it. I am reading it quite slowly trying to digest this mammoth volume. This book is about 800 quarto pages long. It will take a LONG time to read, but it is a gold mine!! Reading this last night, Baxter was discussing in his Christian Ethics on the conversion of the lost. On page 18 of Part I, Baxter describes the marks of the unconverted state. I want to share them with you. If you ever wanted to know if you are in the faith or not, this list is a great start to show you your true spiritual state - whether dead or alive.

Here are the words of Baxter:

Marks of an unconverted state:

1. If you are persecutors, or haters, or deriders of men, for being serious and diligent in the service of God, and fearful of sinning, and because they go not with the multitude to do evil, it is a certain sign that you are in a state of death: yea, if you love not such men, and desire not rather to be such yourselves, than to be the greatest of the ungodly.

2. If you love the world best, and set your affections most on things below, and mind most earthly things; nay, if you seek not first God's kingdom and the righteousness thereof; and if your hearts be not in heaven, and your affections set on the things that are above; and you prefer not your hopes of life eternal before all the pleasures and prosperity of this world, it is a certain sign that you are but worldly and ugodly men.

3. If your estimation, belief, and hopes, of everlasting life through Christ, be not such, as will prevail with you to deny yourselves, and forsake father, and mother, and the nearest friends; and house, and land, and life, and all that you have, for Christ, and for these hopes of a happiness hereafter, you are no true Christians, nor in a state of saving grace.

4. If you have not been converted, regenerated, and sanctified by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, making you spiritual, and causing you to mind the things of the Spirit above the things of the flesh. If this Spriti be not in you, and you walk not after it, but after the flesh; making provision for the flesh, to satisfy its desires, and preferring the pleasing of the flesh before the pleasing of God, it is certain that you are in a state of death.

5. If you have any known sin which you do not hate, and had not rather leave it than keep it, and do not pray, and strive, and watch against it, as far as you know and observe it; but rather excuse it, plead for it, desire it, and are loth to part with it, so that your will is habitually more for it than against it, it is a sign of an impenitent, unrenewed heart.

6. If you love not the word, as it is a light discovering your sin and duty, but only as it is a general truth, or as it reproveth others: if you love not the most searching preaching, and would not know how bad you are, and come not to the light, that your deeds may be manifest, it is a sign that you are not children of the light, but of the darkness.

7. If the laws of your Creator and Redeemer be not of greatest power and authority with you, and the will and word of God cannot do more with you, than the word or will of any man; and the threatenings and promises of God be not more prevalent with you, than the threats or promises of any men, it is a sign that you take not God for your God, but in heart are atheists and ungodly men.

8. If you have not, in a deliberate covenant or resolution, devoted and given up yourselves to God as your Father and felicity, to Jesus Christ as your only Saviour, and your Lord and King, and to be the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier, to be made holy by him, desiring that your heart and life should be perfectly conformed to the will of God, and that you might know him, and love him, and enjoy him more; you are void of godliness and true Christianity; for this is the very covenant which you make in baptism..."

I don't know about you, but these signs or marks of the unconverted truly convicted me! Oh how I hate sin, but how I so often find myself not resting in the Spirit of God, but instead allowing myself to live as if I am unconverted! May these marks be blazened on my mind and in my heart that I may not sin against God and thus search out the Scriptures for the surpassing love that is found in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Matthew 11:28

The scripture memory verse this week is Matthew 11:28, but I would like to quote the entire passage in this blog to give context (Matthew 11:25-30)

At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" [ESV]

What an amazing passage! The first section of this discourse is astonishing. Jesus glorifies the Father in His will that the Lord has hidden the kingdom of heaven from the wise and understanding and has revealed them to little children. In other words, Jesus is declaring that those who are wise in the world's eyes but are unrepentant and stubbornly refuse to accept the gospel. The little children however receive the gospel openly in simple faith and humility. Thus, we must emulate the little children in our faith, not the skeptic. We live in a society that exalts doubt and skepticism. But this "un-trusting" attitude towards God and his revelation, the Holy Bible, has caused more harm to the gospel than anything else today. We see denomination after denomination finding its effectiveness eroded by their rejection or manipulation of the gospel of Christ. Paul the apostle mentioned this tendency in Galatians 1:7-9 --> "not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have saide before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed." Strong words. God has shut out and hidden the truth from those who are wise and understanding according to the world's calculations. Jesus calls this hiding of truth from the wise and understanding God's GRACIOUS will. Jesus glorifies God in doing this. But those who humble themselves in confession before God and trust their lives to Him, they shall be saved! Salvation is found in humility and in faith, not in pride and in worldly wisdom.

The second section of this passage is equally astounding. My ESV study bible notes say this: "The first part of verse 27 reveals the profound divine self-consciousness of Jesus, as well as the supreme authority of the Father within the Trinity, by which he has delegated authority over "all things" to the Son. 'All things' probably refers to everything needed with respect to the carrying out of Christ's ministry of redemption, including the revelation of salvation to those whom he chooses to reveal the Father." Christ while incarnate had full authority on who he was going to reveal the Father to. He is perfect in his wisdom and authority! Jesus, both in his incarnate state and eternal state, shares an exclusive relationship with the Father, including a "direct and immediate knowledge of each other". Thus, this is the glorious truth of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are separate in personhood, yet united and one in substance - co-equal and co-eternal. God the Son and God the Father are separate in personhood, yet are always united in a direct and immediate knowledge of each other and in communication and relationship.

The final section is so reassuring! This divine triune God, who created the world and by him all things are held together, move, and have their being (including us), is a God of peace and love for those who come to Him. Christ Jesus calls for all who have a downtrodden spirit, a frustrated life, dreams that have been crushed, souls who feel that they have no purpose, those who have tried everything in life and still are unsatisfied with life, those who have looked to material things for sustenance and found them wanting, those who are worried about tomorrow, those who are completely and utterly overwhelmed by anxiety, to simply come and fall down at the cross and cast our burdens upon him and he will give us rest! As I write this, I feel my own burdens lifting - what a glorious knowledge, that I can find true rest and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ!

Christ then invites us to take his YOKE! This is in itself a burdensome object. The yoke was a wooden frame joining two oxen for pulling heavy loads, and is a metaphor for one person's subjection to another, and a common metaphor in Judaism for the law [ESV study notes]. The law under the Pharisees' influence had become a crushing burden, but the Pharisees truly believed that this burden of the law originated with God. However, Christ OBLITERATES this view!!!! Christ's burden / yoke of discipleship brings REST through simple commitment to Christ. We no longer have to focus on minute details of the law and try to figure out how to keep an unkeepable legalism. We only have to yield to Christ Jesus. Our salvation is now focused on ONE person, not HUNDREDS of rules. Remember what Bro. Don mentioned in his sermon Sunday, grace is a FREE GIFT OF GOD (Romans 3:24), made possible by the sacrificial atonement of Christ for sin. However, this Grace, although it is free, is NOT CHEAP. This grace COSTS MUCH - it cost the life of the SON OF GOD! And thus, in order to have this grace you must yield all of yourself to the LORDSHIP of Christ - "to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow HIM. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Christ's sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Christ and his words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels." [Luke 9:23-26 ESV].

Oh the glorious grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the divine, amazing love that is found in our Triune God!

2009 - 2010 Church Year Approaching

I have taken about a 10 day vacation from writing in the blog, but am back to tell you a little about Dresden First Baptist Church's 2009 - 2010 Theme. Our theme for the coming year will be: "Maximizing Church Membership".

Our church is in the midst of working on our plans over the coming weeks for the start of the new church year in September. No matter what our plans are, it will be involving the reclamation of a biblical view of church membership. Also involved will be a focus on Sunday School and starting new Sunday School units. If you, dear reader, are a member of our church, I encourage you to pray and think about Sunday School classes that we currently do not offer that would be good additions to the church program. I do know that the Sunday School Ministry is planning a Singles Class to start the first Sunday of September. Also included in this vision for a new vision is a bold thrust in our church for missions involvement and awareness. I will be working with the pastor to encourage our church to adopt an active, overseas missionary and communicate with that missionary on a regular basis. That way we will be praying for and communicating with an actual missionary. We hope to eventually start local church mission projects and also encourage individual volunteer mission trips. Maybe, in the near future, our church will commission a church member to full time, international missions.

I encourage each member of our church and others to pray for our church in the coming weeks as we plan for the new year. I ask the Lord's blessings on Dresden First Baptist Church

Sermon Tonight

Tonight, I will have the privilege of preaching at DFBC during the Wednesday night Prayer Service. We will be continuing our study in I John, focusing tonight on I John 3:11-18. Here is the text for you to meditate on today:

"For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."

These are stark and plain words - Christians know the love of Christ in their lives and they exhibit it to one another. Bottom line. We will be talking about love tonight.

Looking forward to seeing each of you!

God Bless

A New Denomination is Born

I want to highlight something that happened last week as the Southern Baptists were meeting in Louisville, KY. In Texas, a new denomination was formed called the Anglican Church in North America. This is good news. The Episcopal Church USA, which has endorsed the ordination of openly homosexual priests and bishops and also has given in to the relativistic views that reject the exclusivity of Christ (see Gene Robinson's prayer at Obama's inauguration - praying to the "God of our many understandings"), has fallen under sharp criticism and rebuke from the greater Anglican Communion of the world. The most populous region of the Anglican Communion (or Episcopal Church or Church of England) is Africa. The African Anglican community is extremely conservative, evangelical, and has decried the decaying of gospel ministry in the Episcopal Church, USA. Also, many conservative churches of the Episcopal Church USA over the past few years have considered breaking away to form a new denomination based on the founding principles of the Church of England (the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles). These conservative churches petitioned to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Rowan Williams) a few years ago to help stop the slide into apostasy that was happening in the US. The Archbishop did nothing.

Last week, the conservative Anglican churches met in Texas and formally split with the Episcopal Church, USA, forming a new denomination.

Although I disagree strongly with many of the views of Anglicanism (such as baptism, church polity, church leadership, high church worship style, scripture and tradition, religious liberty and soul competency issues, etc.), evangelical Christians should welcome this development. The African Anglican community has already endorsed and associated with this new group as opposed to the Episcopal Church. We should welcome this development because it is a group of churches who have upheld the Gospel truth and have taken hold of the faith once for all delivered to the saints and are standing firm against the tide of cultural relativism by saying that Christ truly is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father but by Him.

Here are a couple of articles that might help you understand the movement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglican_Church_in_North_America

http://www.episcopal-life.org/79901_111236_ENG_HTM.htm

Thoughts on the Convention

Here are some pictures from the convention this past week. The chapel picture on the top is from the Sesquicentennial (150th) Dedication of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. This was my first time at a chapel service at the seminary. The other two shots are pictures from our "best" seats at the convention on Tuesday afternoon.

What are my thoughts on the convention?

1. It was not as highly attended as I thought it was going to be. I have a book that I had to read for the seminary class that had on the cover of the book a picture from the 1988 SBC Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX. In that picture, there is an entire stadium filled with SBC messengers (looks like well over 20,000 people). This convention only had a little over 8,000 messengers and it was in a convention hall at the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville, KY.

2. There was not all that much controversy. This is not a bad thing. But, due to the preparation seminar that we had at the Seminary class on Saturday (6/20/2009), Dr. Russell Moore (Dean of Theology at Southern Seminary) mentioned what to expect and I left with the impression that there would be some debate on the floor especially with the Great Commission Resurgence and also about the possible disfellowship of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX. As it turned out, the Broadway Baptist Church disfellowship recommendation by the Executive Committee passed without discussion and the Great Commission Resurgence was passed whole heartedly without much debate (it was the only "controversial issue).

3. There was one resolution that was most publicized in the media. It was a resolution on President Barack Obama. The resolution celebrated the fact that an African American was elected to the highest office in the United States. However, it also lamented the positions that the Obama administration was taking on the abortion issue and pro-gay rights. Here is the Baptist Press article about the resolution [http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=30759]. You will notice in the article that Dr. Roger "Sing" Oldham is in the picture with Danny Akin and Richard Land. Akin is the President of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and was also chairman of the Resolutions Committee for this year's convention. Richard Land is the Chairman of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the SBC.

4. The Exhibit Hall of the SBC was absolutely amazing! There was an entire Lifeway Christian Store in the middle of the hall. Also there were unbelievable exhibits from every seminary and entity of the SBC and also all the Christian Colleges in the states. I am proud to announce that Union University probably had the best location in the entire hall, right at the entrance! Bonnie and I especially enjoyed the International Mission Board exhibit. There was a huge board that had a map of the entire world with indications of the percentage of evanglical Christians in each location. Each messenger had the opportunity to sign his or her name in a region of the world to pray for the missionary effot to reach that part of the world for Christ. I picked Russia, since Breanne Oldham (Dr. Sing Oldham's daughter and fellow classmate) is currently in that country as a journeyman missionary.

5. Bonnie and I attended the Union University Alumni dessert reception on Tuesday evening. It was a wonderful event. Dr. Dockery informed the guests that Union is having a record Freshman enrollment this year. Things are doing great for my alma mater!

6. I got to meet a bunch of new ministers my age throughout the country and also got to meet and "rub shoulders" with some of the leaders of the convention. It is neat to be walking around the exhibit hall and then turn around and there is R. Albert Mohler walking right by you, or Thom Rainer, Jerry Vines, Paige Patterson, Richard Land, etc. I also got to see some familiar faces. It was definitely great to see Brother Wayne and Linda Perkins and also Eddie Mallonee and his wife. We also saw Jim Barnhouse from Macks Grove Baptist Church.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the convention and am thankful that the church has allowed me to go. I look forward to the next time I will be able to go.

Tuesday at the Convention

I am now at the hotel room after the Tuesday session of the Southern Baptist Convention. I am completely exhausted after a fourteen hour day at the convention hall. I will most likely not post until I am home in Weakley County, TN on Thursday evening.

I had a great time!

God Bless.