Category: Church

A friend recently wrote a letter to the editor of the Richmond Times Dispatch.  His letter was printed this past Sunday .  I thought he made a good point so I asked him if I could post it here.  He said yes.  So, here is his letter:

 Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Both evolution and creation are conclusions drawn from assumptions. Letter-writer Andrew Shufferly [“Creationism Assumes the Conclusion”] and many other people believe that evolution is fact, based on the evidence. However, neither evolution nor creation can be proven, because the beginning of our world happened in the past, without eyewitnesses, and cannot be repeated. Evolutionists and creationists look at the same evidence, but come to different conclusions because of their assumptions (there is no God, or God created the world in millions of years, or God created the world in six literal days).

Millions of years are not needed to create fossils or the Grand Canyon. A museum in Zeehan, Tasmania, has a fossilized felt hat that can be no more that 100 years old (it was found underwater in a mine). The Grand Canyon could have been created with a lot of water in a short amount of time. The fossil record could be seen in terms of the sorting action of a worldwide flood, such as Noah’s flood. A person’s assumptions determine his or her conclusion.

God is the real issue here. If there is a God, then we would have to come under his authority as the one who created us. If there is no God or if the Bible can be questioned, then humans can come up with their own rules for living. I challenge the reader to look at the evidence with a different assumption. If there is a God, then he is an authority over all he created whether we believe in him or not.

Tim Elder. Richmond.

I was reading the news a few days ago when I came across this article about this “priest” who claims to be both a Christian and a Muslim. I did a double take. The answer to me is fairly obvious….you cannot be both. Yes, Muslims believe Jesus was born of a virgin, did miracles, and lived a perfect life. BUT they do not/can not/will not put Him equal with Allah. A, very basic, point of Christianity is that there is One God who revealed Himself to humanity in three different ways. Therefore, Jesus is God while being all man.

I was reading Dr. Mohler’s blog when I saw he dealt with this issue. I think he lays it out straight:

Rev. Redding wants to claim to be both a faithful Christian and a faithful Muslim. The problem with this is immediately clear to anyone who understands the most basic teachings of Christianity and Islam.

Christianity stands or falls on doctrines such as the Trinity and the deity of Christ. The heart of the Christian understanding of Jesus Christ is that He is the only begotten Son of the Father, fully human and fully divine. Christianity also points to Jesus death on the cross as the means of our salvation and to Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead as the Father’s vindication of the Son and the promise of the resurrection of believers yet to come.

Islam acknowledges Jesus as a historical figure and a great prophet, affirms the virgin birth, and points to a future role of Christ in judgment. Nevertheless, Islam explicitly denies that Jesus Christ is in any way begotten of the Father, that He died on the cross, and that He was raised from the dead.

These are merely the most obvious foundational contradictions between Christianity and Islam. Furthermore, these most obvious contradictions are affirmed by all major Christian denominations and both historic branches of Islam.

That doesn’t deter Rev. Redding one bit. “At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That’s all I need,” she says. The important point here is that “the most basic level” to which she points is a figment of her own fertile and heretical imagination.

I was surfing the ‘net today when I came across this article. Basically, Wade is saying he thinks messengers should be able to “vote” electronically at the SBC. I think it is a bad idea.

No, I don’t think it is bad because more people will get involved. I don’t think it is bad because of what the outcome may be. I think it is a bad idea for technology reasons (the same reasons I don’t like electronic voting machines and conducting public elections online). What happens if some hacker hacks the system? How will we know? How will we ensure that fraud doesn’t happen? The second reason is one of capacity: what happens the first year when 40,000 people try to vote for president and the system crashes? How will those votes be tallied? It happens (a classic example is the Victoria’s Secret fashion show online where demand was about 15bazillion times higher than anyone thought to plan for–they only planned for tripple or quadruple capactity–and everything went to pot).

I read tons of things on the internet.  Some from sites I agree with, some I’m sort of nuteral on, and others I don’t agree with.  MondayMorningInsight.com is in the ok list.  Some of their stuff is good, some isn’t, and I don’t agree with most of it.  Take this post on 10 Ways to Increase Giving.  Just for reference, here are the 10:

#1 – Personal giving testimonies
#2 – Outside teaching resources that will teach Christians to manage their finances
#3 – Annual financial or whole life stewardship sermon series
#4 – Designated giving
#5 – Money-back guarantee
#6 – All-church tithing Sunday
#7 – Pre-offering Bible verse, comments and offertory prayer by a church leader
#8 – Effective use of your church’s giving records
#9 – Outside stewardship speaker
#10 – Start a Christian financial counseling ministry 

 Way way too complex.  The way to increase giving is by doing some simple…very simple things:

1) Teach what the Bible says:  God commands Christians to give [a minimum of] 10% of their increase [pre-tax income] to the storehouse [the local church you are a member of].  If you are not, you are robbing God.

What about the people who can’t tithe?  Everyone can tithe.  If you made a dime (10 cents) you can tithe (that would be a penny by the way).  Well, technicially, I guess you couldn’t tithe if you only made a penny…in that case, be like the widow who gave her two mites and give the whole penny.  If you aren’t tithing,the Bible is clear…you are robbing God .

Doesn’t God love a cheerful giver?  He sure does; however, if you can’t even do something as simple as tithe, I think you have a larger heart issue.  If you can’t give cheerfully, here is what I want to challenge you to do:  write your check once a week (or every payday or every month…whatever), put it in the offering plate, and pray that God change your heart.  Give as God commands and pray that He change you heart.

Wasn’t the title part of the old covenant?  No…if you study it, it actually predates the Old Testament law:  Abram tithed to Melchizidek prior to the 10 commandments .

By the way, here is some free advice: round up.  If you made $987.65 don’t write your check for $98.76 (that isn’t 10% by the way…you forgot the 1/2), $98.77, or an even $99.00.  It’s all God’s anyway…why not round up to an even $100?  If you made $1,234.56, why not make your check out for $125 or even $130.  If God has blessed you, my not an even $150.  If you need a reason, it will make your bookkeeping easier.  If you want a spiritual reason…it all belongs to God.

Every time we sing the hymn Standing on the Promises, it bothers me.  I remember the lyrics for the chorus like this:

Standing, standing,
standing on the promises of Christ my Savior;
standing, standing,
I'm standing on the promises of God.

But the current edition of the Baptist Hymnal has the chorus like this:

Standing, standing,
standing on the promises of God my Savior;
standing, standing,
I'm standing on the promises of God.

How about you?  How do you remember the lyrics to this song?

One of the blogs I read is Mainstream Baptist.  Don't get your hopes up….it isn't mainstream at all….it is VERY liberal.  Anyway, today, there was a post about Americans Lagging the World in Scientific Understanding.  On the surface, it appears as if that is bad; however, if you look closer, it is a good thing.  Why is it good?  It turns out that it isn't scientific understanding we lag behind in…it is acceptance of evolution:

The study found that over the past 20 years:

The percentage of U.S. adults who accept evolution declined from 45 to 40 percent. The percentage overtly rejecting evolution declined from 48 to 39 percent, however. And the percentage of adults who were unsure increased, from 7 to 21 percent. Of the other countries surveyed, only Turkey ranked lower, with about 25 percent of the population accepting evolution and 75 percent rejecting it. In Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and France, 80 percent or more of adults accepted evolution; in Japan, 78 percent of adults did.

Looks like support for evolution is going down (45% -> 40%).  That is good.  The next number is bad:  fewer people are rejecting evolution (48% -> 39%).  However, there is some hope.  The number of people unsure about evolution went up from 7% -> 21%.

Christians, don't be swayed:  everyone doesn't believe in evolution.  Kids in school, don't let your teachers lie to you:  not everyone believes evolution.  Parents trying to teach your kids the truth, don't be swayed:  not everyone believes in evolution.

Don't forget that we need to give them something to believe in.  We need to stand firm on the Bible.  We need to stand firm on the Genesis!  There is only one Biblical stand you can take:  the earth was created about 7,000 years ago.  God created the earth and everything in it in six literal days(apx. 24 hours…like we know them now).

If you need information to back up these positions, or still aren't sure, there are a few things you can do:

• Read the Bible.  Especially focus on Genesis 1-11.  Ask God to reveal the truth to you.
• Go visit the Answers in Genesis website.  They have information and scientific evience that can help you decide.

I was reading some online articles today when I came across this article on Baptism and Church Membership.  Go read your Bible and this post and let me know what you think.  If you want to find out what I think, read more of this post…. Continue reading “Baptism and Church Membership”

While there are points of disagreement within the Southern Baptist Convention, I'm glad we are all, for the most part, on the same page.  Next year in San Antonio, we won't have to worry about electing a woman to be president, whether or not churches will ordain womoen, or whether homosexuality is "normal" or not.

Al Mohler has a good wrap-up of the ECUSA sutuation.

Remember though, "But for the grace of God, there Go I."  It is only by God's grace the SBC was turned back from liberalism.  It is only by His grace that we aren't having these types of conversations at Convention.

I came across this post today while reading various blogs.  Instead of answering on Blogger, I decided to answer on my blog.  If you want to read the whole response, read more….

Continue reading “Questions about the Flood”

I have posted pictures and scans from the 2006 SBC.

General Pictures
2006 SBC Pastor's Conference Program
2006 SBC Program
2006 SBC Bulletin #1
2006 SBC Bulletin #2
2006 SBC Bulletin #3
2006 SBC Prayer Guide

I'm thinking about scanning the book of reports too, but that will take some time.  I'd like to do it using OCR and get the text in some searchable format, but who knows when that will be.