Malcolm Yarnell

Theological Sermon, Lecture, and Interview Podcasts

2011-10-16T17:03:00.005-05:00

The following theological sermons, lectures, and interviews are available for free as Podcasts through iTunes or other venues. Heartfelt thanks are extended to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for graciously making these available. Other theological sermons currently not on iTunes are available through Roberts Library at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

"The Word of God," on Romans 10, preached 20 September 2011 in Southwestern Seminary Chapel

"Globalized Theological Choices for the 21st Century," lecture on Contextualization at the "Sola Scriptura or Sola Cultura?" Conference, delivered 15 April 2011 at Riley Leadership Center

"The Theology of Vocation," lecture for The Richard Land Center for Cultural Engagement, delivered 2 March 2011 at Naylor Student Center, powerpoint available here, newsarticle available here

"God's Electing Purpose," on Romans 9, preached 30 September 2009 in Southwestern Seminary Chapel

"The Essentials of Christianity," on Matthew 7, preached 30 October 2008, Reformation Day, in Southwestern Seminary Chapel

"Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church," on Matthew 16, delivered at the 2008 Baptist Distinctives Conference

"An Uncommon Priesthood," on Sole Competency, interviewed by Dr. Paul Wolfe, 5 October 2008 on Laus Deo Radio

"My Son Be Strong!" on Family Devotions, delivered at the 2007 Baptist Distinctives Conference

"Were it So? An Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the Southern Baptist Convention," on Acts 17, preached 20 March 2007 in Southwestern Seminary Chapel

"The Heart of a Baptist," on the Great Commission, Matthew 28, preached 9 March 2006, Founders Day, in Southwestern Seminary Chapel and in October 2005 at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention

"The Government of the Deity: Southern Baptist Political Theology," delivered at the 2005 Baptist Distinctives Conference

Life in Pictures

2011-07-08T08:22:00.002-05:00

My son, Matthew Yarnell, has a blog entitled "Life in Pictures." Matthew is a budding photographer and the art he is posting there presents life through the eye of the camera lens. I commend his work to you.

"He Must Increase And I Must Decrease!" My Son's First Sermon

2011-05-25T21:04:00.013-05:00

Caravaggio, The Calling of St Matthew

Tonight, my wife and I had the unparalleled privilege of hearing our son, Matthew, open the Word of God and preach to his peers. This 16-year-old explained the Word of God with conviction and in a compelling manner, interacting with the historical background of the text, using appropriate illustrations to draw his listeners closer to the truth, and citing relevant supporting biblical texts copiously.

The point of Matthew's sermon, developed out of John 3:22ff, was that we must humble ourselves and exalt Christ entirely with our lives. Fallen humanity naturally desires to lift up itself, but God calls us to a different way of life. John the Baptist had a vibrant and popular ministry, but after Jesus came on the scene the crowds began to diminish. Unlike us, John was not bothered that somebody else was more successful and eclipsed him. John understood that the ministry of Jesus, the Son of God, was most important. Jesus Christ is God Himself and He deserves all the glory. "He must increase and I must decrease!"

Drawing on Ecclesiastes, Matthew showed how all human efforts are ultimately vain. The things that will last forever all come from God as divine gift, and should thus all be focused on God's glory. Drawing on the Gospel of Luke, chapter 17, he pointed out that we must see ourselves as mere servants of Christ and simply be happy with doing God's will as our reward. Everything we have in this life, including the Christian's ministry, is a gift of God, and we must use everything with all our effort for God's glory. He must increase and we must decrease!

Matthew concluded by calling on us to apply this truth in our lives in five ways: 1) confessing and repenting of all known sin, 2) getting rid of every questionable habit, 3) confessing Jesus Christ to others, 4) obeying every prompting of the Holy Spirit immediately, and 5) encouraging God's work in the lives of other people. Too often, we do not encourage the ministries of others, but we should. Not only must we increase Christ in our lives but we must help others see and reflect God's glory in their lives. This multiplies the increase of His glory, while we properly decrease!

They were all speaking well of Him and were amazed by the gracious words that came from His mouth, yet they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” (Luke 4:22)

When Jesus preached His first public sermon, people were amazed that this one who could preach with such authority came from the home of a simple carpenter. They knew Joseph, who they assumed was Jesus' earthly father (though He was actually born of a virgin and God was His Father by generation), and they could not understand how Jesus had gained such teaching authority.

Honestly, when I heard my son preach for the first time, I was personally shocked. My own first sermon was nowhere near the level of rhetorical and theological subtlety of my own son's first effort. Where did this come from, except God?! Matthew is still in the process of discerning God's particular vocation for his life, and his parents pray that he will follow wherever God leads him. However, Matthew's father is very proud of his son's depth of biblical devotion and he is amazed at how fluent of a speaker his son is.

Matthew, our heavenly Father in Christ is pleased when His prophets speak His Word with clarity, and your earthly father is pleased that our heavenly Father has chosen to gift you with lips ready to proclaim His Word. You were named for a Gospel writer (Matthew) and for a Gospel theologian (James Leo Garrett), and you have reflected well on both men, but you reflected best the desire of your heart to exalt God alone. Never stop doing that! Always give Christ the honor!

He must increase and I must decrease? Indeed!
Soli deo gloria

Easter Sunday: A Baptist Reflects on Holy Week

2011-04-24T17:11:00.012-05:00

And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, 'Rejoice!' So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him (Matthew 28:9 NASB)

Sometimes, my friends and family are surprised at the intense passion this highly rational man can display when it comes to Jesus. Really, there should be no wonder about the matter, for the passionately reasonable faith I possess mirrors that of the first person to see Jesus after He arose from the dead.

Mary Magdalene initially appears in Luke 8, when she is noted as prominent among the women who supported the ministry of Jesus. The physician Luke informs us that Jesus had previously cast seven demons out of her. Demons are fallen angels, spiritual principalities and powers who rebelled against the rule of God in order to place one of their own in His place. Demons seek to rule the world through the perversion of truth and the subjugation of humanity. To be personally possessed by demons may result in personal harm at the bodily level, but demons also destabilize the human mind. Therefore, when Jesus cast out demons, He did so through intense prayer and powerful proclamation.

Mary knew Jesus primarily as 'Rabboni' ('Teacher'), indicating she knew Him as the one who liberated her with His words. Her mind was once under the sway of the false teachings of the ruler of this world. Then Jesus freed her through His own teaching, a teaching characterized by the authority of truth. Mary's mind had been released from the demonic powers active in this world's ideologies. Her conversion was a conversion to the highest of rationalities, the rationality of the creative Logos, who is the source of right reason. That Logos became flesh in Jesus in order to restore human beings such as Mary to their right minds.

As has been noted before, the courageous faithfulness of the women disciples stands in stark contrast to the cowardly disbelief of the male disciples during the crisis of the cross. Mary and the other women followers of Jesus were the last to leave the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus, and they seem to have departed only because they were compelled to obey the Lord's Sabbath ordinance. Moreover, they were the first to arrive on the morning after the Sabbath to minister to His body.

Over against such faithful devotion, Peter--the man who claimed he would stand with Jesus until the end--fled before the mob, denied his Lord three times, and withdrew from the scene to weep with guilt. The other disciples, too, ran for their lives. John was the male disciple who seems to have stayed long enough to be commissioned to care for Jesus' earthly mother. Perhaps their nonthreatening presence preserved the women from Roman and Jewish hostility, or maybe there really was a personal fortitude among the women that their public leadership currently lacked. Before the sun came up, out of devotion to the Man who released her from the grip of ideological bondage, Mary led the other women to take spices and prepare his body for permanent burial.

But when the women arrived at the tomb, their world was turned upside down. An angel, emitting the light of heavenly glory, descended to roll away the large stone covering the tomb. The earth shook under the electric might of this angelic act. And the professional soldiers guarding the tomb, men who knew power and how to use and abuse it, were debilitated. Heaven's display of shock and awe left them paralyzed. This woman, once tormented by the deceptions of fallen angels, now witnessed the power of 'an angel of the Lord'. She was frightened, too, but this angel spoke words of comfort and of transformative importance to her. This angel was different, for his power was submitted to the Lord who had liberated her.

The angel told her not to be afraid. He knew that she was coming to take care of His crucified body. But there was no need for that anymore, because His body was not here. Why? He was no longer dead. 'He is risen, as He said!' Through her keen mind rushed those words that Jesus had told His disciples before this week had begun. He had warned them that He would be betrayed, that He would suffer at the hands of the elders and chief priests, and that He would die. But He also said that on the third day He would arise from the dead. Had He done what He said He would do? Had Jesus embraced death and walked right back through it into life?

As if sensing her wavering over the unprecedented nature of the Lord's resurrection, the angel invited Mary to see where Jesus had lain. As she looked in, she knew there was something intentional about this raising from the dead. When Lazarus had been raised from death by Jesus, Lazarus needed assistance to be unbound. But Jesus conquered death on His own through the divine power of His Holy Spirit and thus needed no assistance. Moreover, Jesus folded the expensive linen and placed it neatly aside, indicating His approval of the goodness of restored creation.

Finally, the angel of the Lord over life and death told Mary Magdalene to go tell the disciples, 'He is risen from the dead!' The disciples must, therefore, go to meet Him where He appointed them to gather in Galilee. There, they would see Him and have their questions answered. Of course, we know Galilee would also be the venue for the disciples to receive the Great Commission, which has defined the purpose of the Christian life on earth ever since.

Marveling over these unprecedented events, trying to make logical sense of what she had seen and heard, Mary and her companions immediately set out to find the disciples. Mary obeyed the angel and went to seek out the men who were to lead the new faith, the faith in the living Lord who had conquered death. With tears in her eyes, Mary ran into another man. At first, she thought this man was the gardener and with humble apology, she asked where she might find Jesus' body. Really, she did not want to bother anybody. She just wanted to take care of His broken, lifeless body.

Then, He spoke to her. We can hear Him saying to her, 'Mary,' with the gentle power that only He possesses. Her capacious mind remembered all the times Jesus had taught her the truth, and it suddenly dawned on her that the gardener was no anonymous gardener at all. He had said her name in the familiar way that only He could say it. And her world was changed in a moment. THE ONE SHE THOUGHT WAS DEAD WAS NOW ALIVE! Death was transformed into life! Hopelessness was changed into hope! Untold fear was turned into unlimited joy! Her mind cried out with her voice to the Master who is Reason Himself, and with the greatest passion in the world, she fell at His feet to cling to Him for all she was worth.

Twice in my own life, I have seen a person fall and grasp the feet of another. Such an act is unusual. It is an act of chaste intimacy; it is an act of love; it is an act of hope. Once, I saw a distraught woman cling to the legs of a husband who decided to walk away from a lifelong commitment. Another time, I saw a man kicking his wife with cowboy boots. As I ran to grab him and stop this vicious act, the man's little girl leaped on his feet, hoping to protect her mother. Such an act is unusual. When the Magdalene grabbed her Risen Lord's feet--and she was not alone among the women disciples in doing so--she was telling the Lord she never wanted to depart from Him again.

Moreover, these perfectly orthodox women rendered that thing which human beings render only to God: they 'worshiped' Him. At that moment, the faith of these women became the faith of the first Christians. They had personally witnessed His death for the sins of mankind, they had personally heard the Gospel of His resurrection from the angel, and now they personally gave their homage to this Man, the God-Man, their Teacher, their Lord, their Savior. These women were the first Christians, because they were the first to believe that God had come in Christ Jesus, had died, and had risen from the dead. Jesus commanded them to do what they were already beginning to do: 'Rejoice!' He then untangled His feet from their hands, letting them know there was much to do, and warning them He would ascend to the Father.

And for nearly a whole day, the faith that saves humanity was exclusively the faith of these women. The Gospels tell us that the women went and told the disciples, but they did not believe, assuming these women were just relaying 'idle tales'. Later, after Jesus appeared to two men, Simon and Cleopas, that evening at the inn at Emmaus, they raced the seven miles back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples, but they still did not believe. Only late in the evening, when they had shut the doors for fear of the Jews, Jesus Himself appeared in His resurrected body to the disciples. Jesus rebuked their unbelieving, hard hearts. At last, they believed. And one of them, Thomas, took another day to meet Jesus, but when this doubter did finally see Jesus, with his hand in the Teacher's side, he cried out with the reasonable faith of Mary Magdalene, 'My Lord and my God!'

Some people assume that reasonableness and faith are anathema to one another. Certainly, there is a difference between reason and faith. Faith, according to Hebrews 11:1, is 'the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' Faith, in other words, will always require what Soren Kierkegaard referred to in terms of an existential leap. However, faith is, nevertheless, substantial, and faith is based upon evidence, even as it is temporarily formed in hope. The faith of Mary Magdalene was a supremely reasonable faith even as it was a supremely passionate faith. She was not embracing idle tales, unreasonable fables. She had been there and done that and wanted no more falsehood.

No, Mary Magdalene was reasonably passionate and passionately reasonable, because the One who is Reason Himself was the One who suffered the greatest Passion on her behalf. She saw Him die with her own eyes, a spear in His heart, and she saw Him alive again, and she believed. Her faith is my faith, and together, we are quite passionate and quite reasonable about Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord. And like her, I look forward to the day when I can fall at His feet, weeping in worship, and beg Him for the privilege of always living in His presence. Noli me tangere no more.

NOTE: This is the third and final installment of three reflections on Holy Week. Please go here for the first reflection, on Good Friday, and here for the second, on Holy Saturday.

Holy Saturday: A Baptist Reflects on Holy Week

2011-04-23T07:21:00.011-05:00

And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth (Isaiah 53:9 ESV)

What exactly was happening with Jesus Christ between His crucifixion on Friday and His resurrection on Sunday? It may be hard to believe, but most contemporary Christians, including many pastors and professional theologians, have not stopped to reflect deeply upon this question. This is amazing, because it is so central to the economy of the atonement (Mark 15:37-16:1 and parallels), central enough to be considered in the first Christian sermon, the first public presentation of the gospel (Acts 2:27, 31), and central enough to have a New Testament book dedicated to the theology of that event (Hebrews).

The plain fact is that between His crucifixion on Friday and His resurrection on Saturday, Jesus Christ, whom orthodox Christians confess was fully God and fully man in one whole person, was dead. Perhaps this is the problem for us. There are all sorts of knotty and complex questions that arise and we don't know how to answer them with our limited theological development: First, how do you understand and explain death? How do you explain that Christ, who is God, was literally dead? What does this entail for our understanding of the unity of the God-man? Did God literally die? Second, what does this entail for our understanding of the state of man between physical death and physical resurrection? Does death mean the cessation of existence, as some prominent evangelicals have held, or is the soul active in death? Third, what does this entail for our understanding of the universally accepted Apostles' Creed, when it declares that Christ was 'dead, buried, descended into hell'? What was Christ doing in hell? Fourth, what does this entail for our understanding of the Old Testament saints, who looked forward in faith to the Messiah, but who died before His atoning work was accomplished on their behalf? Fifth, why is it significant enough for the prophet to note that Christ would be buried with the rich and for all four of the Gospel writers to note that this was indeed the case? Sixth, why was it providentially necessary that Christ die? Could the Father have found some other way than the horrific death of His only begotten Son, whom He loves? Finally, what was going on within the divine Trinity between the death of the Son of the God and His subsequent resurrection? What were the Father and the Spirit and the Son doing in their relation with one another?

What we will accomplish today is not the provision of a final answer to these deep and important questions, but the proffering of a suggested outline that may help us begin to answer them. A way forward to a theology of Holy Saturday may be through a consideration of what was happening on earth, in heaven, and in hell on this day, a day that basically changed the structure of the universe.

Holy Saturday on Earth

Isaiah prophesied that the Suffering Servant would be buried with the wicked and the rich. Some interpreters and translators (yes, translation is an act of interpretation) want to make a distinction between the wicked and the rich, as if the rich possessed some righteousness, but that is difficult to reconcile with the scathing social commentary of a Jeremiah (17:11), Amos (4:1), or Micah (6:12), or the ruminations of Psalms (ch. 49) and Proverbs (28:6, 11, 20, 22). No, rather than making a distinction between the wicked and the rich, the point is to focus upon the honor of the rich in their death and burial. Although wealth does not change the perception of a person before God, it does change the perception of a person before men. In death, a rich man will have 'honor' even if he 'does not remain' (Psalm 49:12).

Isaiah prophesied that the Suffering Servant would be buried like wicked human beings but with the rich, because in His death, even men would perceive that He remained honorable throughout. Isaiah and the Gospels make much of Christ's demeanor during His trial and crucifixion. He refused to defend Himself; He refused to curse His false accusers; 'He was led as a lamb to His slaughter'. The stark contrast between the wickedness of both Jew and Gentile during the trials and crucifixion of the Lord and the manifest righteousness of the crucified God-man caused men to honor Him. At the end, after the frenzied, uncontrolled hatred of mankind had spewed its murderous bile upon the Innocent Man, there was widespread recognition that this was a travesty of justice.

Why would we 'hide our faces' from this One who was now the very opposite of 'beauty'? Why did Pilate symbolically wash his hands of the matter? Why did the one thief confess that he deserved death but Jesus did not? Why did the crowd that looked on at the crucifixion and saw Jesus breathe his last 'beat their breasts'? Why did God Himself bring a great darkness over the land at the death of this man? Why would a pagan Roman centurion cry out the very claim of Messianic faith of an orthodox Jew but currently absent Simon Peter, 'Truly this was the Son of God' and 'Certainly this was a righteous man'? Why would a frightened rich man named Joseph of Arimathea all of the sudden take courage and ask Pilate for the dead body of Jesus? Why?! Because all of them--Jew, Gentile, Rich, Poor, the Everyman, even God Himself--all of us knew that Jesus was without sin!

Jesus did not deserve to die. He had no sin. He was the exemplar of righteousness. He was completely obedient in all things to the will of God. Human government and opinion at all levels, from the local to the imperial, from the populist to the elite, from the religous to the royal, displayed our fundamental depravity in our happy collaboration to put to death the only Innocent Man. And we knew it. This is why Joseph and Nicodemus took His body and wrapped Him in expensive linen and spices. And this is why Joseph gave Him his own tomb. After their despicable treatment of the Innocent Man, the least men could do was take His dead body and give Him an honorable burial.

And the women who loved Jesus followed along to see where He was going to be buried. Then they went home to honor the Sabbath. They went home to rest even as they grieved. The human body of Jesus rested, too, on that Sabbath day. But the Son of God, whose body rested on earth, was not merely resting on earth. He also rested in hell, enjoying the proclamation of His victorious vindication. And He rested in heaven, displaying His once-for-all sacrifice to His Father through His eternal Spirit. Did He rest? Yes! His work was done, but the ramifications of His willing act to receive our death continue forever. This is why He could cry out from the cross that complex word of triumphal tragedy, 'It is finished', and yield His spirit in death.

Holy Saturday in Hell

On this Saturday those many years ago, there was silence in the households of the spectators. The Romans returned to watch over a quiet city. The Jews returned to honor the Sabbath law. The women and the disciples rested, the tears on their faces dry, the darkness in their hearts complete. Peter, the rock who became a coward, no doubt cringed in shame and considered himself dead in spirit. The silence of hopelessness is the worst silence of all. But there was no silence in hell that day. Rather, there was a shout in the abode of the dead. Sheol was shaken and transformed forever by the very presence of the Son of God in spirit.

At least, this is how the church fathers understood Holy Saturday. The addition of descensus ad infero to the Apostles' Creed occasioned no evident opposition, because the early church believed that Christ 'first descended into the lower parts' so that He might lead 'captivity captive' (Ephesians 4:8-9). Peter preached that 'His soul was not left in Hades', understanding Hades to be the equivalent of the Old Testament Sheol, the abode of all the dead (Acts 2:27, 31). The early fathers understood that Hades and Gehenna (both unfortunately translated by the King James Version as 'hell') were two different places. Hades was the abode of the dead, which was divided into two chambers before the atonement, the 'bosom of Abraham' for believers and 'this flame' for the wicked (Luke 16:19-31). At the cross, Christ was 'put to death in the flesh', but He was 'made alive by the Spirit'. He then went to preach 'to the spirits in prison'. The 'gospel was preached also to the dead' (1 Peter 3:18-19; 4:6). Christ thus confirmed the disobedient in their judgment and freed the Old Testament believers, who had a 'good testimony through faith', but who could not until His work on the cross was completed 'receive the promise' (Hebrews 11:39). The Old Testament saints subsequently made their appearance in Jerusalem after Christ's resurrection, startling many (Matthew 25:50-53).

The Patristic understanding of Holy Saturday has found adherents among Anabaptists, Baptists, Lutherans, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox. Modern scholars, especially those in the Reformed tradition and under the spell of the Enlightenment, are less convinced. However, for those theologians who think historically rather than philosophically, there is a certain concurrence to what the Fathers discerned in Scripture. It also presents a serious challenge to the peculiar Reformed idea that the Old Testament saints could be born again by the Holy Spirit before Christ performed His work on the cross and gave the Holy Spirit to the church. The primary difficulty I have with the idea of a 'harrowing of hell' is that it depends upon a scattered exegetical approach to Scripture, and some of the readings of the texts may be countered by legitimate alternatives. Personally, I have yet to accept the Patristic presentation, though I find it intriguing.

What I do find of unchallengeable significance, however, is the fact that Christ was doing something important in heaven with His death.

Holy Saturday in Heaven

The author of the book of Hebrews believes that in His death, Jesus Christ brings together eternity with history. (The book of Hebrews was written as an encouragement to Jewish Christians considering apostasy to relieve their persecution.) The author demonstrates from a series of sermons on the Old Testament that Christ is superior to everything, including the angels, the old covenant, the old priesthood, and the old sacrifices. In chapter nine, drawing on the priestly typology of Leviticus, He focuses particularly on the death of Christ as the perfect sacrifice by a perfect priest, who reconciles man in time with God in eternity.

'Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission' (Hebrews 9:22). This single phrase seems to be thrown in almost casually, but it is the key to the eternal significance of Holy Saturday. It is only through the blood-spilling death of the perfect sacrificial victim that a way is opened into life. Because of the sinfulness of human priests, a way to reconciliation with God could never be opened for those who willfully sinned, unless there could be found a perfect priest with a sinless sacrifice. As for the perfect priest, Jesus Christ is the only one who could mediate between God and man, because He alone is both God and man. As for the sinless sacrifice, Jesus Christ is the only one who, though tempted in all things as we are, is without sin. He is, uniquely, both priest and sacrifice.

The significance of the sacrifice of Christ comes not only from its place in human history, a cross in first-century Palestine, but from its place in eternity. Through His sacrifice, Christ 'obtained eternal redemption'. As a result, we 'may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance'. The only way the eternal value of a temporal sacrifice could be established is if it were 'once-for-all'. For this purpose, the second person of the eternal Trinity took humanity into Himself through being conceived of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary. As the one who is simultaneously fully God and fully man, Jesus Christ shed His blood in human death for our eternal benefit.

His work on the cross was performed 'once at the end of the ages' in order to 'put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself'. The cross of Christ is where time and eternity find their fulfillment. Sin is atoned, creation is recovered, and man is brought into the presence of God with this sacrifice. The death of Christ is necessary, because it is the sacrifice that restores everything to the way God intended. With His death, Christ brought humanity into the presence of the Father, having satisfied the wrath of God against sin and demonstrated the love of God for sinners. The death of Christ is where we find 'the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God' (Hebrews 9:14).

In other words, with His death, which we see so clearly throughout Holy Saturday, the eternal Son of God comes through the eternal Holy Spirit to present His blood to the eternal Father as a sacrifice. This sacrifice is what allows sinful man to find again His way into the presence of God. By reason of His love and in accordance with His holiness, the Trinity has sacrificed the Second Person of the Trinity as a human being in order to open the way for sinners to be reconciled and enter the Triune life, eternal life with the God who is one yet three.

This, at least, is how this unworthy man understands this most holy Saturday. Through faith in Christ, this dishonorable sinner may join the honorable man on the cross, escape from the deserved horrors of hell, and see heaven opened to a life with the God who is, who was, and who will be. I pray you too will believe and live.

NOTE: A reflection on Good Friday and an accompanying note on the Christian calendar may be found here. A reflection on Easter Sunday is hoped for tomorrow.

Good Friday: A Baptist Reflects on Holy Week

2011-04-22T07:25:00.014-05:00

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5 NASB)

Why did God the Father send His only begotten Son to take on our humanity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth in order to die on the cross? This is the great question regarding the atonement, a question that demands an answer. Some eight centuries before the event of the cross itself, the Father sent His Word to whisper by His Spirit into a prophet's ear part of the answer. Why would Jesus come to die on the cross? 'For our transgressions...for our iniquities.'

As a seminary student, my best friend, now the pastor of a very large church, invited my wife and I to watch a showing of U2's 'Rattle and Hum'. It was supposed to be an interesting movie, since some of the members of that band had identified themselves as Christians. One song struck me as quite effective and affective. The old blues artist, B.B. King, accompanies U2 lead singer, Bono, to voice confession of personal wickedness, particularly when they forsook true love in favor of crass fornication. That piece reached its climax in some profound reflections. In 'When Love Comes to Town', King joined with U2 to belt out with conviction, 'I was there when they crucified my Lord, I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword, I threw the dice when they pierced his side'.

Leaving the theater, I wondered whether King understood the strong theological realism he had just affirmed. Did he really understand that we were the ones who had pierced the Son of God? Did he understand that sin is universal and that sin, even when committed against man, is committed ultimately and primarily against God? Did he understand that the cross was not only a temporal event, in a particular time and place in Roman Palestine, but also an eternal event that brings all of human time into heavenly focus?

Do we really understand that it was our sin that nailed him to the cross? Do we really understand that we were the Jews crying out, 'Crucify Him! Crucify Him!'? Do we really understand that we were the Roman soldier piercing His side to watch His blood flow out of a broken heart? Do we really understand that God crucified His own Son, not for the sin of His Son, but for our sin? Because of our embrace of pride in the garden, it is the most difficult thing for a human being to admit truthfully and with all of his or her heart, 'I am wrong. I have sinned. I have no excuse.'

When we look at the cross from 800 years beforehand, we must weep with Isaiah, the mouthpiece of God, in the deepest of woe, 'I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips!' When we look at the cross on that day, we must run away and cry with Peter, the weak one who is supposed to be the 'rock', knowing that we just denied our best friend, the one we confessed only shortly before, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God'. When we look at the cross two thousand years later, we must plaintively admit with all of our soul, along with B.B. King, 'I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword'. It is my sin that put Jesus on the cross, my sin, and I have no excuse!

However, neither Isaiah nor Peter in biblical days, nor King nor us in these days, are left without hope. Beyond the lying lips about God, beyond the traitorous denials of God, beyond the sins of the body committed against God, there is God Himself. And God Himself seeks our reconciliation. On the cross of Jesus Christ, the righteous wrath of a holy God against our utter depravity was met with the gracious mercy of a God who is love in essence. For Isaiah, the transformation from wicked sinner to victorious saint occurred when the angel flew with tongs holding a hot coal from the altar to cleanse those lying lips. For Peter, the transformation from wicked sinner to victorious saint occurred when the risen Lord once again looked directly at the one who had denied him and again committed the care of other souls to him. For King, the admission that he was at the cross participating in the slaughter of the Lord of creation was followed by the victorious proclamation, 'but I've seen love conquer the great divide'.

If there is hope for a lying prophet and if there is hope for a fallen apostle, then there is hope for a fallen music star and there is hope for you and me. Whatever your sin, know that God is reaching out to you externally through His proclaimed Word and internally through His convicting Spirit, calling you into a restored relationship with Him. In Jesus, God became a man in order to die on the cross, so that you might have your sins forgiven. Christ took the sins of all men of all time upon Himself at the cross and took our punishment for us. If you will believe, then those sins no longer need to be owned as yours. He has taken them upon Himself, and He has overcome them through His death and resurrection. Confess, repent, believe, come to life, leave the guilt behind, open your eyes in hope toward the God who forgives and invites you to a glorious eternity.

NOTE: When I was a pastor, I recognized that Baptist churches, especially those on the old American frontier, often did not make much of the Christian calendar, the exceptions being the particular days of Christmas and Easter themselves. In my free church context, the Christian calendar was and is often crowded out by primarily secular concerns: American Independence Day, Veteran's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, even the Super Bowl. Such secular holidays have their place, but might it be of some value if we Baptists were to make more of the specifically Christian holidays, literally treating our 'holidays' as 'holy days'?

Mind you, I am not arguing for a return to the saints' days of the old Christian calendars, though a broad appreciation for Christian history could have a memorial value to inspire us to walk with the faith of such exemplary saints as Polycarp of Smyrna, Monica of Hippo, Michael Sattler, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Rather, what would it be like if we in the free churches were to focus on the biblical side of the Christian calendar? What if we were to seek to integrate the biblical events more intentionally into our daily lives in order to foster a greater appreciation for the impact of the calendar on the rhythm that establishes our lives?

In that train of thought, I once encouraged my congregation to replace our annual 'revival' with a focus on the events of what is traditionally known as 'Holy Week'. Rather than starting the evangelical week of revival on a Sunday and ending on a Wednesday, we started on a Wednesday and ended on a Sunday. On Wednesday, we began with the washing of the disciples' feet. Weren't the deacons surprised when I called them up on stage and removed their shoes to wash their feet, some of them fresh from the farm! The chairman of deacons even unconsciously pulled a Peter on me and tried to forbid me from washing his feet, since he should wash mine.

On Thursday, we celebrated the Lord's Supper and reflected on the fact that God intentionally sent His only and eternally begotten Son to die on the cross for our sins. And Christ Jesus, knowing what would come next, intentionally left us the practice of the Lord's Supper for continual memorial celebration between the Last Supper and the Lamb's Supper, when the universal church first gathers with Him. On Friday, two of our hefty, young deacons brought in several large pieces of wood during the middle of my sermon and nailed together a grisly cross. The shock of deacons interrupting the pastor's sermon was one thing. The visible representation that we human beings were the ones who put Him on the cross was quite another.

On an overcast Saturday, we gathered in a somber mood to remember that on this day, Jesus' body was in the tomb as He conquered hell. But then, oh, yes, we arose early to watch the sun rise together on Sunday, resurrection Sunday, the day when history was transformed by eternity, when death was defeated, when the grave became not an end but a beginning! And our final service was on Sunday at the normal time.

The transformation of the people (and the pastor) in our attitude toward what Christ had performed during that week some two millennia ago, about which some half of the gospel literature was devoted, was palpable. And the effect on the unwritten Baptist liturgy was nothing short of revolutionary. (Yes, even the low churches have a high regard for their liturgy. We just do not typically write them down and call them liturgies.) Alongside this call for a return to integrating the biblical calendar into our free church calendar, I offer a few thoughts today, tomorrow, and Sunday, on the meaning of Easter.

The Spiritual Condition of Infants

2011-04-20T12:50:00.003-05:00

Adam Harwood, Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at Truett-McConnell College in Clevelend, Georgia, answers a critical question on the minds of many Christians, especially parents, about the eternal destiny of their youngest children. Dr. Harwood provides a meticulous survey of the biblical witness and the historical responses and arrives at a most biblical conclusion. The book includes a foreword by Paige Patterson and has been endorsed by Charles White (Spring Arbor University), James Leo Garrett Jr. (Southwestern Seminary), and Rustin J. Umstattd (Midwestern Seminary). My own endorsement is as follows:

Through extensively examining relevant biblical and historical sources, two major questions with profound pastoral consequences are answered in this important book: Do infants inherit a sin nature from Adam? Although utilizing different models, most theologians agree that infants inherit a sin nature. However, are infants, therefore, guilty before God? In answering this second question, Adam Harwood challenges the dominant systematic discourse and properly reorients our understanding of infant salvation. Harwood's careful thesis will stand.

The book can be purchased here or here. Congratulations go to Dr. Harwood for this signal achievement.

Top Ten Theological Truths Every Young Christian Should Know

2011-04-04T13:49:00.003-05:00

(The following summary of doctrine was created at the request of the leadership for the Youth Ministry Lab at its 2011 meeting. YML recently drew a great number of young people and their ministers together for worship and instruction in Fort Worth, Texas, where numerous decisions were made to follow Christ into salvation and service. It is offered for general readership here.)

The Trinity: The one true God who created all things, who redeems believers, and whom believers worship is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; God the Trinity is eternally one God in three persons.

The Bible: God reveals all the truth we need in order to know of Him, to be reconciled to Him, and to live for Him in the 66 canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, which comprise Holy Scripture. Holy Scripture is the perfect Word of God with full authority over mankind, because it was inspired by the Holy Spirit, who kept the original autographs free from error, who preserves the text through history, and who testifies its full trustworthiness while illumining its meaning to us.

Creation and Providence: On the basis of His love, the triune God created all things, visible and invisible, out of nothing, sustains all things providentially, and will bring all things to their proper end for His glory.

Humanity and Sin: The triune God created humanity, male and female, in His image. He gave mankind dominion over the earth and commanded him to be fruitful and multiply. God intended the man and his wife for a faithful lifelong marriage exclusively with one another, the man at the head of his family. However, Adam with all of his descendents rebelled against the Creator. Thus, human beings come under a sentence of condemnation to eternal death through their own sin. Humanity was driven from the holy presence of God because of sin.

Jesus Christ: In order to restore mankind and bring him to eternal life, God the Father sent His only begotten Son, the eternal Word of God and second person of the Trinity, to unite Himself forever with humanity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus Christ was conceived of a virgin by the Holy Spirit, lived a sinless life, taught us the words of God, died a propitiatory death on the cross as a once-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, arose from the dead on the third day for our justification, ascended to reign enthroned at the right hand of the Father, and will one day return to render judgment on all creation.

The Holy Spirit: God sends the eternal Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, into the world to accompany the proclamation of the Word of God and convict men of the sin of unbelief, of the coming judgment on the ruler of this world and those in the world, and of the righteousness that is available freely to all sinners through faith in the Son of God. The Holy Spirit comes to reside in new believers, providing them with the seal of promise that God will complete His work of salvation, with spiritual fruit to characterize their lives, and with spiritual gifts for the edification of the church, especially the gift of proclamation.

The Beginning of Salvation: In salvation, when a person hears the Word of God proclaimed and truly believes by grace, the external righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to the believer as justification, thus saving him from condemnation; at the same moment, the Holy Spirit sovereignly regenerates or transforms the believer with faith and repentance so that this person now begins to follow Jesus Christ in salvation.

The Christian Life and the End: As salvation continues, a believer is assured of perserverance unto eternal life, but must consistently seek to grow in holiness through hearing, reading, and knowing God's Word and the Holy Spirit's work of sanctification. Salvation will one day be completed in God's work of glorification, when believers shall receive transformed bodies in the first resurrection as Jesus returns to reign. At the end of the millennium, Christ shall judge all with the eternal consequence of heaven or hell. By grace, believers are united with God and one another, entering the eternal presence of the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

The Church: All believers must regularly and faithfully worship God with the church, the gathered congregation of true believers, hearing the Word of God proclaimed and observing the Lord's ordinances, beginning with believers-only baptism by immersion as a sign of faith and continuing with regular celebration of the meaningful memorial of the Lord's Supper, submitting to redemptive congregational discipline.

The Great Commission: The church, inclusive of all believers as a royal priesthood in Christ, was commissioned by the Lord, beginning in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, to go to the entire world until the end, to proclaim the Word of God so that whosoever will believe should become disciples of Jesus Christ, to baptize new disciples in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them all things contained in the Word of the Lord, of which this is a mere summary.

The Doctrine of Vocation ~ Scripture, Reformation, Today

2011-03-18T17:05:00.004-05:00

Recently, I was invited to contribute to a series of lectures on Work and Economics at the Richard Land Center for Cultural Engagement here at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Land Center is named for Dr. Richard Land, the President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. It is currently directed by Dr. Bill Dembski and Dr. Craig Mitchell. Dr. Mitchell asked me to address the theology behind work and economics. The resulting lecture was entitled "The Doctrine of Vocation: Scripture, Reformation, Today" and is available in both voice recording and Powerpoint format here. Martin Luther and his doctrines of universal priesthood and vocation contributed significantly to my own understanding of the scriptural witness, so he figures largely in the lecture. This was the fourth lecture in a series of six, which will be succeeded by a summer institute on work and economics. Personal thanks are extended to Dr. Mitchell for the invitation as well as the 100-odd students and faculty, who showed up for the lecture and lunch and were gracious in their numerous responses and questions.

Update: Here is a good summary of my recent lecture on a Theology of Work & Economics: "Yarnell: Christians called to salvation, service," by Benjamin Hawkins of Southwestern Seminary.

The Trinity ~ Father, Son and Holy Spirit

2011-03-17T16:11:00.010-05:00

Recently, Dr. Bob Pearle, the senior pastor of Birchman Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, asked me to take three Wednesday night Bible Studies and lead our people to focus on the doctrine of the eternal Trinity. A number of people within and without our church have queried me regarding access to these lectures. Unfortunately, the hour-long lectures were only partially recorded. However, providentially, a pdf version of the Trinity lectures is available here. May God--the God who reveals Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit because He is eternally so--bless you as you ponder His beauty through His Word.

Why the Trinity is Non-Negotiable

2011-02-14T22:27:00.002-06:00

Four reasons why the Trinity cannot be compromised:

1. The Trinity is integrally correlated to salvation, Christian identity and baptism, at least according to the Great Commission. Matthew 28:19

2. Apart from the Trinity, there is no salvation. We come to the eternal Father only through the eternal Son in the eternal Spirit. Ephesians 2:18

3. The Trinity is integral to revelation. If the Father does not send the Spirit to testify of the Son, we would not know who He is. John 14:26

4. The Trinity is integral to creation. The Father willed creation; the Word (Son) spoke creation; the Spirit formed creation. Genesis 1:1-3

Conclusion: If the Trinity--the one God existing eternally in the three persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit--is integral to creation, revelation, salvation and the Great Commission, then the doctrine of the Trinity is non-negotiable, is it not?

Fullerism as Opposed to Calvinism

2011-02-10T16:41:00.007-06:00

A. Chadwick Mauldin has accomplished the rare feat of having a ThM thesis published as a book. Due to this rarity, two glowing endorsements from Baptist studies professors at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and a foreword written by a major Baptist historian from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Mauldin's book obviously deserves attention. If you have any interest in Baptist identity, Calvinism, and missiology, you will want to read this. My own endorsement follows:

With this important book, a young and rising scholar, Chadwick Mauldin, enters the intense conversation about Baptists and Calvinism with a novel yet stunningly accurate thesis. Andrew Fuller is the theological giant who led the Baptists to inaugurate the modern missions movement and it is his theological principles that define contemporary Baptists more adequately than the undeniable yet mitigated principles of the Genevan Reformer, John Calvin. This book will set the debates regarding Baptist identity on a new and proper track.

For more information about Fullerism as Opposed to Calvinism: A Historical and Theological Comparison of the Missiology of Andrew Fuller and John Calvin, see here and here.

The Church ~ A Bride, A Building, A Body

2011-02-01T18:51:00.007-06:00

SBC Life Focus on Doctrine

It is common to describe relationships, such as that between two lovers, through similes and metaphors. For instance, one may say to a beloved, "I miss you like the flower misses the rain." Or, "Our love is forever in bloom." In referring to a flower, the speaker does not literally mean the two lovers have petals, anthers, and stamens. The point in the first statement, a simile, is that the lover longs for the beloved; the point in the second, a metaphor, is that their love is constantly experiencing new life. Such images are not intended for scientific detail. Rather, they evoke profound truths individual words are unable to convey on their own.

Biblical metaphors allow us to understand more clearly the mysteries of God. For example, when Paul spoke of the relationship between a husband and wife, his purpose was to reveal a deeper "mystery" (see the Ephesians discussion below). The relationship a husband has with his wife is supposed to model a spiritual truth concerning Christ and His church.

This is only one of the metaphors Scripture uses to describe the church. There are nearly one hundred such images in the New Testament, images that reveal the church for what it is theologically. Three of the more significant metaphors reveal that the church's relationship with God is one of utmost proximity. In the metaphors of the church as a bride, a building, and a body, we learn that our life as a community of disciples proceeds from within the life of the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three metaphors unfold the mystery of Christ's intimate relationship with His beloved church.

Continue Reading at SBC Life

"As Chaos Rocks Cairo"

2011-01-29T16:05:00.007-06:00

The blood of martyrs, Alexandria, January 2011 (Source: Reuters)

------------------------

Interview with a Young Egyptian Christian

Ayman Ibrahim, whose home is in northern Egypt, is a doctoral student living at this time in the United States. He agreed to be interviewed regarding the groundbreaking events now occurring in his homeland.

Q: First, Ayman, you are a long way from home and family at this momentous and turbulent time in your nation's history. Have you personally been able to contact your family in Egypt? Are they safe?

A: Yes, I was able to call, but to landlines only. They are safe so far. Yet there is some news that as chaos rocks Cairo many gangs have started to go to different areas stealing property and threatening people in their homes.

Q: News reports indicate that the protests coursing through the major cities began with the young people in the middle classes, as they did recently in Tunisia, but that they have since spread to include all age groups and classes. What are the factors that drove young, educated people into the streets in the first place? And, what do the young hope to accomplish?

A: It is true that demonstrations began with the middle class and then spread to include all age groups, classes, and religions. Our young people have been suffering from unemployment and poverty. The demonstrations have been calling for change. However, the question we should also ask is, "What type of change?" Many refer to two or three requests, but I believe we Egyptians should be more objective in what we are seeking. If we seek change just for the sake of change, we may not appreciate the final result.

Q: As a young Egyptian yourself, what type of change do you believe Egypt should experience in the areas of politics and economics?

A: Concerning politics, I believe we need a new government with a secular nature, a government that represents all of the different sects of Egypt in a fair way. Concerning economics, we need to seek forms of social justice that would help people live honorable lives and that would raise our minimum wages. We also must ensure that the aid that comes to Egyptians from Europe or America actually reaches the needy of Egypt, who are the majority of the people. In summary, we need freedom in speech, religion, and politics, and we need a fair way of distributing the wealth of the country, making sure to empower and support the underprivileged.

Q: With regard to religion, just a few weeks ago, a massive explosion in Alexandria ripped through a crowd of Christians outside their church, killing and maiming so many. In the wake of this, there arose some solidarity between Muslims and Christians in Egypt. How many Christians live in Egypt, and how long have Christians been there?

A: Concerning Christians, the official number states they are between 6 and 8 million; however, I would argue they are more than 12 million. Christians have been in Egypt since, according to tradition, St. Mark came presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ in the first century of the Christian era. Today, Christians make up 15 percent of the total population (12 million Christians out of a total population of 80 million). Yet, ironically, Christian representatives in the government and the parliament do not exceed 10 people!

Q: Reports have come from Egypt that the cry of "Allah Akbar!" was chanted by some groups in the streets, while others responded, "Muslims, Christians, we are all Egyptians!" Most news reports indicate primarily secular slogans in the streets. As you know, in the West, there is concern that the Muslim Brotherhood, as the largest existing political opposition party, may exert its influence to take Egypt in a radically Islamist direction. Does that concern exist for you? What is the likelihood of a radical Islamist government coming into power?

A: Yes, this concern definitely does exist. Egyptians by nature are a peaceful people and we love life. I am positive that the demonstrations started in a very proper and peaceful way. Even when some people wanted to shout with Islamic slogans on the first day of demonstrations, they were asked to silence themselves and shout only patriotic slogans, not religious ones. However, after Tuesday's demonstrations, it was reported clearly that the Muslim Brotherhood called on its followers to keep on protesting. They also called for another major demonstration after the Muslim noon prayer on Friday, January 28, in order to dethrone the Mubarak regime. Therefore, it seems that things started in a great and peaceful way, but then Mubarak's staunchest opponents wanted to take advantage of what happened and they seem to be leading the nation into total chaos.

Q: It appears then, that on the one hand there is a widespread call for change in the Egyptian government, but on the other hand there is the threat of an open-ended chaos that could lead to an even more repressive government. If you could speak at this critical time to your fellow Christians around the world, for what would you ask them to pray? And, are there definite actions they might also take? Please be specific.

A: Concerning prayer, first, please pray for protection for all Egyptian families and for our national wealth, economically and culturally, not to be lost. Second, pray that these demonstrations do not take on a radical religious nature, namely, that they do not lead to a religious government representing only the majority of Egyptians. Third, please ask God that our future government would bring justice and social opportunity to underprivileged Egyptians. Fourth, pray that this new era would witness fair treatment to Coptic Christians, including protection to them and their belongings. Finally, and most importantly, please pray that we Christians of Egypt will have opportunity and courage to share our peaceful faith, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Concerning actions to be taken, the first thing that comes to mind is that I ask Americans to petition their own government to make sure that the financial or social aid she provides Egypt reach all Egyptians, not only a few leaders who may waste it in corruption. Finally, I hope that the West makes it a priority to foster religious freedom in Egypt, including especially protection of the Christian minorities.

La vida en medio de la tormenta (una carta para hombres)

2011-01-24T20:51:00.004-06:00

For English

NOTA: Gracias, Dr. Gerardo Alfaro, para traducir esto en español.

Caballeros,

Esta mañana me desperté y ore por cada uno de ustedes por nombre.

Me imagino que su vida es como la mía. Parece provenir de una aventura a la otra, y frecuentemente una la aventura es una de peligro y tragedia. Sabemos, conceptualmente, que el lugar más seguro para estar es el centro de la voluntad de Dios. Sin embargo, la vida presenta dificultades, aun cuando seguimos a Jesús.

Los discípulos de Jesús experimentaron un ejemplo de esto en mateo 8. En el verso 18, Jesús les dijo a sus discípulos que pasaran al otro lado del mar de Galilea. Algunos decidieron quedarse atrás. Otros fueron fieles e hicieron lo que Jesús les dijo. En el verso 23, se dice que Jesús subió al bote, e inmediatamente "los discípulos le siguieron." Sin embargo, en el siguiente versículo, el bote se encuentra en medio "de una gran tormenta, y el la embarcación se cubre con olas."

¿Qué te parece? Sigues a Jesús, el Hijo de Dios, el salvador del mundo, y Jesús te guía hacia una tormenta!! Este no es el tipo del vida que los predicadores del evangelio de la prosperidad están predicando en televisión. No, la Biblia nos enseña otro paradigma: Sigue a Jesús, entra en la tormenta. Se un discípulo, él te manda, y la vida se apresura dentro de una tormenta fatal... Entra en el bote con el Hijo de Dios, vive en medio de una tormenta.

SI eres como yo, tu empezarías a gritar "Por qué Señor? Por qué este relajo? Por qué esta pasando esto? Esto pasa y luego aquello, y luego mi amigo le pasó esto, y entonces aquello ( y así sin parar). Se derrumbará todo en mi vida ahora? Por qué todo es tan difícil? Por qué está todo tan complicado? Por qué mi hijo no quiere? Por qué mi esposa hizo eso? Por qué lo hice yo? Señor estoy tan confundido y tan cargado y me siento inútil.. Señor, ayúdame! Me estás acaso escuchando? Estás despierto?

Entonces, mientras todo se desmorona, tu te desesperas. Tal vez no en lo exterior, porque como hombres, debemos ser sólidos y estoicos. Pero a dentro, el conflicto de la vida se convierte en el conflicto de nuestro corazón y mente. Y lloramos. Tal vez no con lágrimas, porque, como sabes, somos hombres y debemos ser sólidos y estoicos. Lo que significa que los conflictos internos solo se harán más grandes y deberán manifestarse de otra forma. Los conflicto del mundo de nuestro alrededor fácilmente se convierten en nuestros conflictos internos.

Así pues, como los discípulos, alcanzamos el punto donde vamos al Señor y tratamos de despertarlo. Como ellos, clamamos, Señor, sálvanos, nos estamos muriendo!! (verso 25). Y cuando dios no actúa inmediatamente, empezamos a dudar. Todo tipo de duda se atraviesan por nuestra mente: "Estás oyendo Dios? " Le importa a Dios? Tiene de verdad poder sobre esta vida? Porque permite él que todo esto me lleve de un lado para otro? Tiene sentido la vida?

Sin embargo, cuando llagamos al final de la soga, cuando ya no tenemos esperanza, pasa. Sí, pasa. Miramos a Dios una vez más, y como para sellar nuestra falta de fe, descubrimos que él nos está mirando directamente. Nos damos cuenta de que es real y que está vivo. Miramos que los ojos de Dios se fijan como un láser en nuestra situación. Y la pregunta sin sentido que teníamos encuentra respuesta. Escucha Dios? Por supuesto! El es omnisciente. El lo sabe todo. El sabe exactamente lo que pasa conmigo.

También notamos que sus ojos como láser, nos miran con amor. Algunas veces parece un amor cansado de mostrarnos que su forma de hacer las cosas es la mejor. Pero sus ojos nos miran con el amor más profundo que pueda haber. Ese es el amor que es la base de la creación y la redención. Y recordamos aquella pregunta rara que hicimos: Le importa a Dios? Sí, absolutamente!

Después, miramos detrás de esos ojos como de láser, y miramos que allí hay puro poder. vemos que dentro, atrás, arriba, antes y alrededor se encuentra el poder que creo todo lo que existe, que sostiene su existencia, le poder que hace que todo llegue a su propósito. El está en control. El mira la injusticia, pero ha estado esperando. Sí mira el dolor, pero se ha detenido. Sí él mira la muerte, pero ha estado pacientemente trabajando con su poder para lograr la solución perfecta. Y recordamos la tercer grupo de preguntas que ignorancia hicimos: Existe Dios? Tiene de verdad poder sobre esta vida?

Antes de que podamos seguir contestando las preguntas que antes nos hacíamos, Dios nos habla. Si, el Señor habla. Y, esta voz de consuelo y regaño nos dice: "Por qué tienes miedo, hombre de poca fe?" Ahora, como Tejano, eso duele!! Por que no hay nada pequeño en la vida de un Tejano! Excepto que aquí sí tenemos evidencia de nuestra fe pequeña. Pero, Jesús prometió que le podía tomar la fe tan pequeña como la de un grano de mostaza, y hacer algo grande de ella, no es cierto? Y así lo hace.

Mientras tratamos de entender qué significa todo esto, el Señor se levanta con su poder y con una sola palabra, le habla a la tormenta en nuestra vida, la regaña. Y el silencio es inmenso! El significado de aquella calma entra en ti con una claridad tan grande como la de una orquesta tocando con toda fuerza. Pero no hay sonido, ni movimiento. No hay nada más que tú, los otros discípulos y Dios. Tu y Dios. Todos los problemas se han desvanecidos. La tormenta se ha desaparecido. Y tu te das cuenta que él es real, que Dios el Señor, el Creador, el Redentor, el Padre que envió al Hijo, el Hijo mismo, y el Espíritu.

Y la paz desciende, y junto con los otros discípulos nos preguntamos qué pasó. En un momento, la tormenta nos abruma. Le clamamos a Dios e inmediatamente, notamos que Aquel que creíamos que no le importaba, o no quería ayudarnos, o no podía, ahora nos ha ayudado. Y nos maravillamos! "¿Quién es este hombre que aun el mar y el viento le obedecen?!!

Al reflexionar en este silencio, la verdad que el Padre le reveló a Pedro, se convierte en algo nuestro: Sabemos que este hombre, Jesús, es también Dios. El es el Cristo, el Hijo del Dios viviente.

Mis amigos, mis hermanos, mis con-discipulos. A Dios de verdad le importamos. Tu le importas. Le importa la tormenta en tu vida. Y él la calmará. Y en la calma, cuando venga, nos maravillaremos juntos.

Cuando era joven, un adolescente, pasé por una tormenta de depresión. Dios me consoló con Juan 10:10: "El ladrón viene a robar y a matar, pero yo he venido para que tengan vida y que la tengan en abundancia." Ese versículo me ayudó tremendamente en la más temprana y violenta tormenta de mi vida. Y ahora, al mirar todas las tormentas a mi alrededor, listas para dar contra mí y contra tí, he entendido que la vida abundante debe vivirse en la aventura de las tormentas. Lo único que tengo que hacer es entrar al bote con Jesús y mantener mi vista en él. El sabe todo y puede tomar inclusive mi pequeña fe y hacer algo grande con ella, aun a pesar de mi.

En Cristo,
Malcolm

Life in the Midst of the Storm (A Letter for Men)

2011-01-24T13:08:00.009-06:00

Para el español

NOTE: The letter below was written to the 40 men in our Men's Bible Study class at Birchman Baptist Church, which has been in existence for a year now. The letter ministered to many of our men and it has taken on a life of its own among others to whom our men minister. It is reprinted here for easy dissemination. One of our men has received a request for a Spanish translation and that will be posted here soon.

22 January 2011

Gentlemen,

This morning I woke up and prayed for each of you by name.

I imagine your life is much like mine. It seems to proceed from one adventure to the next, and often an adventure will be one of danger and tragedy. We know, conceptually, that the safest place to be is in the center of God’s will. Yet, life presents difficulties, even when we follow Jesus.

The disciples of Jesus experienced an example of this in Matthew 8. In verse 18, Jesus told the disciples they were going to get up and go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Some decided to stay behind. Yet others were faithful to Jesus and did what Jesus said. In verse 23, it says that Jesus got in the boat and, immediately, “his disciples followed him.” However, in the very next verse, the boat was in the middle of “a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with waves.”

How do you like that? You follow Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of the World, and Jesus leads you into a storm! This is not exactly the kind of life that the health and wealth preachers are preaching on the television. No, the Bible teaches another paradigm: Follow Jesus, enter turmoil. Be a disciple like He commands, and life heads into a life-threatening storm. Get in the boat with the Son of God, live in the midst of the storm!

If you are like me, you begin to cry out sometimes and say, “Why, Lord?! What is this mess? Why is this happening? This happened and then that, and then my friend had this happen, and then that (and on and on). Will everything in my life come apart now? Why is everything so difficult? Why is everything so messed up? Why won’t my kid...? Why did my wife...? Why did I...? Lord, I am so confused and so burdened and so helpless. Lord, help! Lord, are you even listening? Lord, are you awake?!”

Then, as everything is falling apart, you become frantic. Maybe not on the outside, for we men are supposed to be strong and stoic. But on the inside, the turmoil of life becomes the turmoil within our hearts and minds. And we cry. Maybe not with tears, because, you know, we are men who are supposed to be strong and stoic. Which often means that the inner turmoil may only build and show itself in other ways. The turmoil in the world around us can so easily become the turmoil inside us.

So, like the disciples, we reach the point where we go to the Lord and try to wake Him up. Like them, we cry out, “Lord, save us; we’re dying here!” (verse 25). And when God doesn’t act immediately, we begin to doubt. All sorts of strange thoughts run through our mind: “Is God listening? Does God care? Is He really there? Does He really have power over this life? Why is He letting me toss and turn and flop all over the place? Is there any meaning in this life?”

However, when we have reached the end of our rope, when we have given up the last hope, it happens. Yes, it happens. We look at God one last time, as if to seal our unbelief, and we notice that He is looking straight at us. We notice that He is real, that He is alive. We notice that the eyes of the God who knows everything are focused like a laser on our situation. And that stupid question we had gets answered. “Is God listening?” Of course! He is omniscient; He knows it all. He knows exactly what is happening in my life.

We also notice that His eyes, which are fixed like a laser on our life, are fixed with a look of love. Sometimes, a weary love, at having to show us yet again that His way is the best way. But, His eyes look at us with that deepest love that ever was, that love which is the basis of all creation and all redemption. And we remember that second odd question we asked: “Does God care?” Yes, He absolutely cares.

Afterwards, we notice behind those laser-like, loving eyes, there is raw power. We see that in, behind, above, before and all around those eyes is the power that created all things, the power that sustains their existence, the power that brings everything to its final end. He is in control. He does see the injustice, but He has been waiting. He does see the pain, but He has held back. He does see the death, but He has been patiently working with His power to the perfect solution. And we remember that third set of ignorant questions, “Is He really there? Does He really have power over this life?”

Before we can even proceed to try to answer the other questions we were asking, God speaks. Yes, the Lord speaks. And, this voice of comfort and rebuke says to us, “Why are you afraid, man of little faith?” Now, as a Texan, that hurts, because there is nothing little in the life of a Texan! Except, now, here, we have evidence of the littleness of our faith. But Jesus promised that He could take even faith as small as a mustard seed and make something great out of it, didn’t He? He did. And He does.

As we try to understand all that this means, the Lord stands in His power and with one word, He speaks to the storm in our life, and He rebukes it. And the silence is awesome. The meaning of the stillness breaks on you with the mind-grabbing clarity of clanging cymbals and beating drums. Except, there is no sound, there is no movement. There is nothing but you and the other disciples and God. You and God. All the problems have faded. The storm has disappeared. And you know that He is real, this God, the Lord, the Creator, the Redeemer; the Father Who sent His Son, the Son Himself, and the Holy Spirit.

And, as the peace descends, like the disciples, we begin to wonder at what has happened. One moment, the storm is overwhelming us. We cry out to God. The next moment, we notice that the One whom we thought didn’t care or couldn’t care really does care. And we marvel. "What manner of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey Him!"

In the reflections of the silence, the truth the Father revealed to us through Peter becomes ours: We know that this man, Jesus, is also God. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!"

My friends, my brothers, my fellow disciples. God really does care. He cares for you. He cares about the storm in your life. He cares. And He will calm it. And in the stillness, when it comes, we will marvel together.

When I was a young man, a teenager, I was in a storm of depression. God comforted me with John 10:10--”The thief comes not but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy, but I have come that you might have life and that more abundantly.” That verse helped me tremendously through my earliest and most violent storm of life. And, now, as I see all of the storms around me, ready to crash into me and you, I understand that the abundant life is a life lived in the adventure of storms. The only thing I need to do is get in the boat with Jesus and keep my eyes on Him. He knows it all and He can take even my small faith and do something great with it, in spite of me.

In Christ,
Malcolm

Beautiful Tunisia: A Call to Prayer

2011-01-15T10:00:00.023-06:00

Update: This essay has been republished by Baptist Press. A few photos are newly added here.

Several years ago, alongside several other professors, Dr. John Mark Yeats and I led a group of students to Tunisia in order to study North African Christian history and theology. Today, we see occurring what the media has dubbed a "jasmine revolution," which is apparently the first populist rejection of an Arab leader and the first governmental change wrought through the activities of Wikileaks. President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who is accused of having ruled Tunisia on behalf of the economic interests of what became known as "the Family," has fled the country. It is still unclear as to what the form and composition of the government will be, and the interim government itself has already changed structure in a matter of hours as the frantic search for constitutional legitimacy and political stability vie with one another.

The place known today as Tunisia has a long and colorful history. Phoenician traders settled here around the tenth century BC, establishing a colony that became the world power known as Carthage in the sixth century BC. The Carthaginian navy's capabilities, shrouded in secrecy, and the Carthaginian army's tactics, exemplified in Hannibal's surprise march through the Alps, were nothing short of brilliant, even as their religion was marked by incredible brutality. Phoenician ships brought a barbaric religion from the Middle East, which was affiliated with the god known in the Old Testament as Molech. Molech's priests were particularly adept at the sacrifice of infants by making them "pass through the fire." The Carthaginians sacrificed their own children to Kronos, or Saturn, according to ancient historians, by placing an infant on the hands of the bronze god, hands which were then raised by hidden priests through a pulley system, dropping the helpless child into a gaping maw to be consumed in flames. The bones of the infant would then be interred in a small stone sarcophogus, and were often deposited in the foundation of a new building, such as a private home. So many were sacrificed in the hope it would bring happiness and prosperity to a new family. (The Western idea that children are an economic burden worthy of abortion was thus prefigured.) Hundreds of children at a time were also sacrificed during times of war as a way to appease their offended god. The vigor with which the Israelite king Josiah suppressed such misguided brutality is, to say the least, understandable (2 Kings 23:10). To this day, I cannot forget the haunting scene of thousands of small stone sarcophogi still littering ancient Carthage outside modern Tunis. The children paid for the sins of their fathers, at their fathers' own hands.

When, in the second century BC, the Romans finally put an end to Carthage at the conclusion of the third Punic War, they salted the site of the city but developed the rest of North Africa into a breadbasket for Rome itself. Roman culture followed Roman agriculture as it spread through North Africa, south toward that oceanic desert now known as the Sahara, east toward modern Libya and west into Algeria. Tunisia is filled with ancient sites containing coliseums, temples and palaces from the Roman period. The surviving mosaics that abound there are absolutely beautiful and indicate an advanced culture. Christianity thrived in the early centuries in North Africa, in spite of the intense persecution the Christians often suffered. The saga of Perpetua and Felicitas, two young Christian martyrs, still inspires those who read of the suffering of these faithful witnesses. (The ancient arena in which the Christians were martyred in Roman Carthage and many of the early churches are accessible today.) Providentially, in spite of the intent of the imperial authorities, the blood of the martyrs proved not to be the burial of the church of Jesus Christ, but the seed for her growth, as Tertullian noted.

As the church of North Africa grew in both difficult and easier times, it produced a number of very important theologians--especially Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine--who shaped the way Western Christians still think about their faith. Tertullian, whose writings are available here in both the original Latin and modern translations, was a converted Roman lawyer active at the turn of the third century AD. This ground-breaking church father developed the rudiments of the Western understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. His refutation of the modalist heresy has been most helpful to those who desire to see God as the Bible reveals Him to be. Tertullian also expressed misgivings about the innovative doctrine of infant baptism, even as he flirted with the spiritualistic and ascetic heresy of Montanism. The early churches of North Africa, many of whose ruins are still in existence, long retained the architecture of a New Testament faith. There is nothing more informative than seeing with one's own eyes the extant visible evidence of the North African baptistries standing, sometimes in the pattern of a womb, at the very entrances of their churches. Moreover, these earliest baptistries were fully immersionist. The late historical development of infant baptism with sprinkling is readily perceptible, for small raised baptismal fonts were centuries later placed in and over the old immersionist and often richly-decorated mosaic baptistries, the ruins of which have been preserved in the semi-desert open air.

Cyprian, whose writings are available here, came from the Roman colonial elite itself and brought a stable leadership to a church experiencing even more thorough persecution under the emperors Decius and Valerian. After the Decian persecution, Cyprian led the way in providing church fellowship to those Christians who had lapsed under persecution but who subsequently repented. One of his most famous works, On the Unity of the Church, has been the source of both inspiration and tribulation for those churches dependent upon his theology of episcopacy, due to the work's existence in two variant forms. From a free church perspective, Cyprian's legacy is most difficult, for the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers offering spiritual sacrifices was lost in the midst of his advocacy of episcopal authority, sacerdotal administration of the sacraments and his peculiar sacrificial presentation of the Lord's Supper. On the other hand, encouraging all later Christians, Cyprian remained firm in his Christian faith and was executed in 258 for refusing to sacrifice to the imperial cult.

Though his bishopric was based over the border in modern Algeria, Augustine of Hippo, whose voluminous and theologically essential Latin works are available here and described here, spent a good deal of his life in Carthage. The mental portrait of Augustine's mother, Monica, standing at the dock as her son fled her presence for a profligate life in Europe, is one that should strike any Christian mother's heart. Be encouraged, Christian parents, for Monica's fervent prayers and continual witness ended in her son's glorious conversion. Augustine describes his conversion to Christ (and presents a sublime view of the relation between eternity and time) in his introspective and authentically open Confessions, a must read for every Christian. After his conversion, Augustine returned to North Africa, where his works were instrumental in helping Western Christians understand that salvation is entirely by divine grace, as he fought against the works-salvation taught by the British monk, Pelagius. Unfortunately, at the same time he underscored divine grace, he also led the church to embrace the conscience-violating doctrine of the baptismal regeneration of infants.

In yet another controversy, with the Donatists, Augustine argued for the universality and unity of the church, but horrifically through the advocacy of governmental coercion of unbelievers and dissenters into the state-supported churches. In yet another controversy, against the pagans, who were blaming the fall of Rome in 410 on the rise of Christianity, Augustine worked out a comprehensive philosophy of history, inclusive of both the sacred and secular. His monumental The City of God is simultaneously majestic and utterly persuasive. In his 15 books on The Trinity, Augustine established the Western view of the relations between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, a view that ultimately ended in the theological division of East and West. Augustine's days ended as his city of Hippo was under siege by the invading barbarians, who would restructure and shape the Europe as we know it today. Augustine of North Africa remains the premiere theologian of Western Christianity, thus the faith of most Europeans and Americans remains in profound ways an African faith.

Although Constantinople under Justinian the Great recovered North Africa, the Byzantine empire could not retain its hold in the face of the onslaught of military Islam. Christians (and Jews) survived for centuries under Muslim rule, and huge Christian graveyards are still in evidence, but with time and the slow persecution of the dhimmitude system coupled with periodic onslaughts of intense persecution worsened by the invasion of the Sicilian Normans, Christianity (and Judaism) were eclipsed by Islam. I can still see the stone blocks with crosses on them that were torn from old churches and used to build mosques for the increasing number of Muslim people. As a French colony, Roman Catholic Christianity was revived, but, especially outside the capital of Tunis, there is not much that survives. During World War II, Rommel's troops battled with American and British armies for control of Tunisia and a large cemetery is maintained there to memorialize the multitude of Americans who gave their lives to push Hitler's Nazis out of Africa. Yes, the first (or, is it fourth?) "Star Wars" film was made in the Tunisian Sahara. And, yes, you can still visit the beaches that are traditionally swamped by European tourists. And, yes, the American ambassador at the time was a fine fellow and a gracious host to this American visitor.

As I survey the photographs of protest-torn Tunisia, I remember the beauty of the cities and, most importantly, the beauty of the people. I also remember the calls to prayer at the local mosque that wafted through our open windows every morning. But mostly, I remember that Tunisians are now suffering. There are many young people who need stable employment, and all Tunisians are doubtless concerned about what tomorrow will bring them. The people I encountered in Tunisia were kind and wanted to know about these wandering Christians, and, with appropriate prayer and cultural sensitivity, they were open to hearing the gospel. This brings us to the primary purpose for this post: Would you please pray for Tunisia? For her political freedom and stability? For the gospel of eternal peace, once again, to flourish in this beautiful land?

Christian Realism regarding Christian Unity in Paris

2010-12-30T08:50:00.010-06:00

Late last month, I was in Paris, France, to deliver a lecture for La Société d'Histoire et de Documentation Baptistes de France (SHDBF), co-sponsored by the Centre Mennonite de Paris. The subject provided by my hosts was "Baptists: Are We Calvinists or Non-Calvinists?" That lecture will be published in their journal, so I have refrained from disseminating it. Nonetheless, I would like to discuss one critical subject that arose in that paper and that came into sharper focus for me during my short sojourn in France: Christian unity.

I have been involved in a number of ecumenical conversations over the years, somewhat formally between world Baptists and Anglicans and between American evangelicals and Roman Catholics, as well as many informal conversations at Duke and Oxford universities and elsewhere. Ecumenical conversations have proven beneficial for my own theological development because they allow one to hear from other Christian traditions and to reflect upon one's own tradition, from within and from without. When engaged from a realistic viewpoint, ecumenical conversations clarify both convergences and divergences between the various Christian traditions, helping to shed light on the glories and inadequacies of each.

And that viewpoint--let us call it 'Christian realism'--provides for difficult though beneficial conversations. On the one hand, there is the hope that Christian divisions may be overcome; on the other hand, there is the constant reminder that significant differences remain. The divisions between the various Christian traditions persist due to apparently irreconcilable historical, theological and ecclesiological foundations. The doctrine of papal primacy is not a mere inconvenience keeping Christians from learning to worship together--it is a sublime Spirit-given truth to the one and a gross human imposition to the other. The doctrine of infant baptism is not a secondary or tertiary roadblock on the highway to Zion--it is a necessary theological building block to the one and a tyrannical violation of human conscience to the other. The doctrine of biblical inerrancy is not a mere historical footnote--it is a fundamental aspect of biblical inspiration to the one and a puzzling theological claim to the other. No matter what our personal or ecclesial desires, the theological facts on the ground remain: although we may each claim the name of Christ, Christians from the various traditions possess fundamental reasons to retain our divisions.

And yet, because this 'Christian realism' is 'Christian', it is replete with the expectation that these divisions will be overcome by and in Jesus Christ, the one Lord that Christians commonly proclaim. The lack of unity among Christians is not a cause for celebration but for mourning. This reality was brought home to me palpably during this lecture delivered in a Baptist church building at 123 Avenue du Maine in the Fourteenth Arrondissement of Paris. In the audience that evening were Baptist, Mennonite and Reformed Christians, laity and clergy, from across Europe, Africa and the Americas. I had historically and systematically laid open both the convergences and divergences between all three Christian groups, and the divergences seem to be so intractable. Towards the end of my lecture, while reminding us of the divergences, I fell back upon Scripture for hope:

The unresolved nature of this dispute--over what is and what is not 'necessary', 'essential' or 'fundamental'--lies at the root of the continuing division between the churches of the Reformed and the churches of the baptizing tradition. Until that is resolved, it is doubtful there will be a reunion. Ultimately, however, there must be reunion, for Christ is our Lord and He has prayed for our unity (John 17). Surely, there will be no divisions at the great supper of the Lamb as the universal church gathers to worship Him who died for the atonement of our sins, who arose from the dead for the redemption of our bodies, and who will one day return for our glorification (Rev 19).

Christian realism regarding Christian unity. The 'reality' is that the divisions between Christians cannot be quickly papered over or glibly bypassed with some temporary emotional sentiment accompanying a facile theological equation. The divisions between the Roman Catholics, the Reformed, and the baptizing churches are deep and, more importantly, they are fundamental. This is the reality we must face. However, our realism is also 'Christian'. And Christ calls His disciples to display their unity in love. He promised such unity would lead the world to see Him in us (John 13:34-35). The Christian hope is that our divisions will be overcome, and they will be at the least eschatologically, but we must do whatever we possibly can to overcome them now, with integrity, on the basis of His will and for the sake of evangelism.

These ideas continued ringing through my head and heart the next day as I visited the Faculté Libre de Théologie Évangélique in Vaux-sur-Seine, which serves theological students in the evangelical free church traditions from both France and Switzerland. Professor Alain Nisus, their primary systematic theologian, invited me to deliver lectures and take questions on free church ecclesiology, and it was a pleasure to get to know this rising theologian, from whom I hope we will hear more. I also enjoyed my conversations with Professor Neal Blough, whose work on Pilgram Marpeck I have long greatly admired. As I sat through worship and a meal with Professors Nisus and Blough, and their academic dean, Professor Jacques Buchhold, I was reminded of those fundamental truths that hold the evangelical free churches together. (The Paris seminary, whose leading scholar is the highly respected Calvinist theologian, Henri Blocher, has an evangelical confession. You may consider her history here and her confession here.) And yet, even among the free churches, we must admit that we maintain ecclesiastical divisions. I pray these, too, will be overcome, for the sake of our witness to the gospel.

Christian Profiling?

2010-10-21T13:06:00.006-05:00

One of today's big news items is that National Public Radio, an entity supported with American tax dollars, fired Juan Williams, one of their long-standing news analysts, for making the following statements,

“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I've got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

Whether Mr. Williams deserved to be fired, or not, and whether this liberal news organization should be supported by taxpayer dollars, or not, are important though mundane issues that should be addressed. However, what I would like to consider is what should be my attitude as a Christian in such a situation. Should a Christian ever engage in profiling? Before I answer the question, please allow me to relate a story of a similar incident to that of Juan Williams, a relevant incident that happened in my own life.

A short time after the horrific events of September 11, 2001, I started flying again in order to fulfill my responsibilities as the Academic Dean at Midwestern Seminary. It was the first time on the plane again for many of us and the nervousness was palpable in the terminal and only increased as you traversed security and approached the gate. Moreover, as we began boarding the airplane that day, suddenly a half dozen armed police officers descended on the gate and soldiers could be clearly seen in the background brandishing automatic weapons. The object of their concern was a big olive-skinned man with a long beard wearing middle-eastern clothes and a close-fitting hat. They took him to a side hallway and began thoroughly searching his carry-on baggage. The rest of us began to board the airplane.

As the plane filled up, it became apparent that the flight was fully packed and, later, that we were not leaving the gate any time soon. After a while, the stewardesses began to look around and check through the passengers. Then, their eyes settled on me and a hushed conversation ensued. This was followed by one stewardess coming to my row and asking the lady in the center seat next to me if she would mind being moved. Time passed and we all watched as the big olive-skinned man with the long beard wearing the middle-eastern clothes and the close-fitting hat was escorted to his seat. Everybody in the plane turned to look at him the entire way as he came to the center of the plane and then sat next to me.

Needless to say, my own thoughts at that point probably should have been the same as what Juan Williams expressed, and I have to be honest that I did wonder whether I had taken out enough life insurance for my wife to care for herself and our children, in case something were to happen to me. But the Bible resting in the seat pouch in front of me said that all things were providentially guided by God: my life and my family's lives were in His hands, and my only fear should be toward Him. So, I stood up from my aisle seat and the man made his way through to sit next to me. He was obviously shaken by the whole encounter as the perspiration dripped profusely from his forehead.

As we settled in, the continual furtive glances from around the plane, looking back from this point in time, were almost comic. I began to wonder what people were thinking of me as well as him, then I remembered that a 6'4" 260-lb man with a trimmed beard wearing a suit and tie must look like an authority figure. I laughed about that because I come from a family of police officers but personally have neither pretension nor desire to exercise governmental authority. By the way, two big men sitting next to each other on an airplane is always an uncomfortable experience, and this was perhaps the closest I have been to another man for an extended period in my life.

As the plane took off, I took out my Bible and began to read, and he took out his own book, written, yes, in Arabic script, and seemed to withdraw into himself. The woman seated on the other side of my new co-passenger was as close to the bulkhead as she could get and could not take her eyes off of the window. This poor man had obviously just been through a grilling security search and suddenly my heart leaped out in compassion for a fellow human being. There was little doubt in my mind, or anybody else's on that day, that this man was subjected to such a search because he was dressed as a Muslim from head to chin to toe. This was an instance of racial profiling, whatever one thinks of the practice. But, Muslim or not, he deserved to be respected as much as the big Caucasian guy seated next to him.

As I prayed quietly, I discerned that this had to be the most important and obviously preordained appointment of my day, so I might as well use it to the full advantage. God had arranged for an American professor of Christian theology to sit next to a devout Muslim immigrant to the United States; God wanted me to comfort a fellow human being and offer him the succor of human conversation, including conversation about the gospel. Moreover, looking at the shrinking violet on the other side of my new co-passenger, I was obviously the only nearby person secure enough to speak with the man. So, as you can see, I had engaged in a little Christian profiling. Yes, I admit it, I saw this man, recognized he was most likely not a Christian and knew that God intended for me to share the gospel with him.

It was a great experience. He was so thankful that somebody would even speak to him at that point, and he was most definitely open to hearing about the gospel. And because nobody in our immediate area was even daring to whisper, it became an opportunity for me to raise my voice ever so slightly as I engaged with him in discussing what the Bible had to say about God, about human sin, and about the sacrifice that Jesus had made for our sin. He was fascinated to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ and all the nearby passengers could not help but hear, too. (Yes, I admit it, that too was Christian profiling. How do I know some of them were not Christians? I didn't, so they all needed to hear the gospel, too.)

I also was privileged to hear about his beliefs. You see, this man was a Sunni Muslim who practiced a form of mysticism known as Sufism. The book he was praying from was the Dala'il Ul Khayrat, a sort of Arabic book of common prayer, if you will. He really was a peaceful man who was trying to be true to his culture and beliefs in the midst of a vastly different culture. He even shared with me that he did not believe the way to happiness was through violence against non-Muslims. So, here in the midst of a very tense situation, two large men from two different cultures practicing two different religions found comfort in their common humanity and shared their respective faiths peacefully with one another.

After the flight, we kept conversing with each other, even as every eye in the plane and then in the terminal followed the two of us, me with my Holy Bible and him in his Muslim dress with his holy prayer book. We exchanged cards and both went on our way. When we parted, it was as if a part of me left with him, and judging from the letter he later sent me, which now lies before me, he felt the same. Sadly, from my perspective, my new friend did not receive Jesus Christ as His personal Lord and Savior that day. However, happily, I was obedient to my Lord and shared the gospel with a fellow human being and all those tense human beings around us.

As I think about Juan Williams' statements and his unfortunate firing from NPR, I also think of how I as a Christian should respond in situations where I encounter other human beings, including human beings who are radically different from me. From a Christian perspective, every human being--no matter how alike or different his or her culture--needs to hear the gospel, and every Christian must find them and tell them that Jesus died on the cross to atone for their sin and that He arose from the dead so that any who believe in Him can find forgiveness and have eternal life in communion with the God who is love. Christians ought not engage in racial profiling, but we ought to engage in witness profiling, taking every opportunity to tell others how we had the burden of sin lifted away by the free grace of God in Christ.

Today, I pulled out the copy of the Dala'il Ul Khayrat that he mailed me and his letter fell out on the floor of my office. As I think of my friend, the devout Muslim with the Muslim beard in the Muslim dress carrying his Muslim book, I pray that sometime soon he will pull out the copy of the Bible that I sent him. And I hope that he remembers that I respect him as a fellow human being. Moreover, I hope he will recall what I said: that because God loves me, a sinner, I know God loves him, too. And because of Christ, I love him, too, no matter how different we are. I long for the day when I will meet people from every culture before the throne of God. And, more than anything else in my life, I long for my Lord to say these words to me, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

The Empire of the Holy Spirit

2010-10-15T16:13:00.005-05:00

Michael A.G. Haykin has drawn upon a lifetime of biblical studies, spiritual experiences, and focused scholarship to write a popular volume on the Holy Spirit and spirituality entitled The Empire of the Holy Spirit: Reflecting on Biblical and Historical Patterns of Life in the Spirit, published by BorderStone Press. This is perhaps the most important book yet written by a prolific author. In eleven chapters, beginning with a discussion of why Christians believe that God is Trinity and the Holy Spirit is one of the three persons sharing in the Godhead, Haykin demonstrates how orthodox theology may be presented in a popular format.

There are four things to note about Haykin's sources and methodology: First, Haykin exposits Scripture at length with regard to its teachings about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. I did not discover one instance in which I found the author to have missed Scripture's presentation of pneumatology, including matters of emphasis. Second, Haykin has read the early church fathers deeply but wears his profound knowledge of Patristic history and theology with humility and without any trace of pretension. Even as he draws upon Irenaeus, Basil, and Hilary, the citations are always appropriate to the discussion and always illuminating. Third, Haykin draws upon his long interest in the eighteenth-century Puritans, especially the pioneers of the missionary Baptist movement. The illustrations from this period do not dominate the text, though his studies therein have dominated his career for many years. Fourth, Haykin engages with contemporary expressions of spirituality, both Christian and non-Christian, evaluating them with both judiciousness and gracefulness. If you want to know what the German philosopher Martin Heidegger contributes to postmodernity or where the pop spirituality of Eckhart Tolle has gone astray, Haykin provides a succinct and accurate Christian response.

At 180 pages, this slim volume was not intended to function as a systematic exploration of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in all of His glorious deity and powerful works, but nevertheless it does touch upon much of what a traditional systematic text would. Many of the chapters were presented in other venues, both spoken and written, but the book does not read as a compilation of chapters but rather flows seamlessly from one subject to the next. What is unique about the presentation is that more contemporary issues are not addressed until the end of the book, which means that some of the more culturally relevant portions will not be discovered until the book is nearly completed. And yet, this may also be a strength, for the book is biblically relevant from cover to cover.

Although I might quibble with some of the matters presented herein, such as Haykin's construal of the Spirit's movement of grace in salvation as "irresistible," I found myself in almost wholehearted agreement with nearly every word. While Haykin acknowledges that he was once involved in the Charismatic movement popular in the 1970s and is involved in the Calvinist movement that is currently the rage, these are merely secondary even tertiary matters in this book. Haykin has not set out to prove or disprove Charismatic theology or Calvinist theology, but to bring the reader closer to an understanding of what true "spirituality" is. And that true spirituality is, according to Haykin, a biblically-faithful, God-honoring, personally-embracing love for God and His church through Christ in the Holy Spirit.

This little treasure, The Empire of the Holy Spirit: Reflecting on Biblical and Historical Patterns of Life in the Spirit, comes with my highest recommendation.

A Lecture on "Foundational Theology" or «Систематичне богослов’я»

2010-10-06T16:19:00.005-05:00

Карл Барт та Герхард Ебелінг, двоє заслужено відомих німецьких богословів 20-го сторіччя, вони давали однакове визначення богослов’ю як «критичному віддзеркаленню проповіді церкви». ...

Thus began my plenary lecture on "Foundational Theology," which was delivered this past June to the faculty and students of the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary. The seminary has campuses in both Lviv and Borislov, Ukraine. The lecture was kindly translated into Ukrainian, for which I am thankful. Lviv is the cultural capital of Ukraine and is one of the most intriguing cities with regard to Christian art and history that I have ever visited. For more on UBTS, a conservative Baptist seminary intent on spreading the gospel in Ukraine, follow this link.

HCSB Study Bible: God's Word for Life

2010-10-01T14:23:00.017-05:00

The HCSB Study Bibleis now available and comes with this reviewer's studied recommendation. The importance of this recommendation should be evident since, after considering other popular study Bibles, I chose to give a leather-bound version of the HCSB Study Bibleto my middle son in order to encourage him further in his Bible reading. Before proceeding to a discussion of the Study Bible apparatus, we will consider this new translation.

The HCSB Translation

HCSB, Holman Christian Standard Bible, seeks to fill a recognizable hole among modern English translations in seven notable ways. First, the translators utilize the most recent critical editions of the Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts of the Old Testament and the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Second, the translators did not insist upon revising previous translations, as has been all too common, but they sought to provide "a new translation for today's generation" of English-speaking peoples.

Third, the translation philosophy of the HCSB is neither that of "formal equivalence" nor that of "dynamic or functional equivalence." Formal equivalence seeks to retain the exact equivalence of word and sentence structure from the original languages, but this sometimes results in awkward English translations. On the other hand, dynamic equivalence seeks to bring across the thought of the original into modern English forms, but this sometimes results in the loss of formal meanings affiliated with the original text. Recognizing the difficulties with both of these older translation philosophies, the translators chose to follow the practice of "optimal equivalence," retaining the original forms as much as possible without also sacrificing English comprehension.

The fourth notable fact about the HCSB is that the translators retained the original gender distinctions of the biblical text, a matter of no small consequence in today's egalitarian culture. Fifth, the HCSB has chosen to translate the names of God as closely as possible to the original, which means, for instance, that the personal name of "Yahweh" actually appears in the translation, a practice long overdue. Sixth, some special formatting features, such as marking quotations of the Old Testament in the New Testament in bold, are very helpful. Seventh and finally, textual footnotes regarding alternate readings or more literal readings are provided.

These seven aspects of the HCSB translation make it a worthy addition to any Christian's library and a worthy gift for any unbeliever interested in hearing about the Christian Bible. One of the few complaints I have with regard to the translation itself is its continuation of transliterating the Greek words for immersion rather than translating them. This is a peculiar decision for a translation coming from a Baptist organization and one that runs against the grain of the HCSB's own stated translation principle of "fresh translation." Nonetheless, the translation is one that should continue to be tested and grow in usage.

The HCSB Study Bible

Now, we proceed to the commentary apparatus known as the Study Bible. There are seven notable features to the HCSB Study Bible that make it a worthy addition to the Christian reader's library. First, other than the introductions and essays, the publisher has chosen to make sure that the biblical text itself is highlighted on the typical page of the book. This is intentional, as it gently reminds the reader through text placement and font size that the Word of God is authoritative while the commentator's study notes are of entirely secondary status. Second, each biblical book is preceded by a short but informative introduction regarding the book's circumstances of writing, message and purpose, and a helpful structural outline. There is also a chronological timeline with each introduction.

The third notable feature of the Study Bible are the study notes that accompany the text. These study notes provide historical, linguistic and theological comments upon the biblical text prepared by highly-qualified Christian scholars. For instance, Andreas Kostenberger contributed the introduction and notes for the Gospel of John and Paul's letter to the Colossians, while Terry Wilder wrote the introduction and notes for 1 Peter, 2 Peter and Jude. The fourth notable feature are the essays scattered throughout the text, also written by highly-qualified Christian scholars. For instance, George Guthrie contributed a compelling essay on "How to Read and Study the Bible," which I recommend every Christian read, not only for its hermeneutical instructions but for its spiritual maturity and practical encouragement. The reader will appreciate the other essays, including such small jewels as "Christ in the Old Testament" by Craig Blaising, or "The Bible and Civil Rights" by Kevin L. Smith.

Fifth among the notable features of the Study Bible are the word studies and bullet points. The individual word studies bring the reader summary information regarding the historical and theological significance of important Hebrew and Greek words. The bullet points refer the reader to an appendix for definitions of important common scriptural words. The sixth feature concerns the helpful maps, charts, photos and illustrations that are scattered throughout the text.

The final notable feature of the HCSB Study Bibleregards the intention of the publisher and the contributors (and, yes, I am one of them, having written the introduction and notes for the epistle to the Hebrews). As Jeremy Howard notes in his introduction, the contributors seek to be "servants to the text" so that people might be encouraged to engage God's Word "on a deeper level." We believe that all human beings "are sinners in need of reconciliation with God, and that this reconciliation comes only through faith in God's Son who paid our sin debt on the cross." This is why the reader will repeatedly be encouraged to encounter God in the Word by the power of His Spirit.

Yes, I would have written some of the notes and essays differently from my colleagues. (The most disconcerting example being the general editor's choice to impose a Calvinist meaning in his comments upon the text through the theologically loaded language of "effectual," including the authoritative use of unexplained quotation marks, to describe the calling of Romans 8:30.) However, that said, this Study Bible is worthy of purchase and use by the average Christian, as long as it is remembered that our commentary upon Scripture is fallible while the Biblical text itself remains absolutely trustworthy.

The HCSB Study Bibleis available in hardcover, imitation leather, bonded leather and leather. The HCSB Study Bible also may be accessed through the internet at mystudybible.com, and a very nice application is available for use on iPhones and iPads.

A Rich and Fulfilling Legacy: The Editors of the Southwestern Journal of Theology

2010-09-30T22:22:00.012-05:00

Since January 2007, I have had the extraordinary privilege of serving as the Managing Editor of the Southwestern Journal of Theology. The privilege comes not only from the trust placed in this particular editor by the current administration and by the current accomplished and recognized faculty, but also because of the memories of a stellar faculty that contributed editors to our academic journal during prior years. There have been two series of the journal. The original series started in 1917 under the editorship of C.B. Williams and the new series began in 1958 under the editorship of James Leo Garrett, Jr.

To review the list of previous editors is to be reminded of the high standards toward which Southwestern Seminary's faculty have always aspired. (It was personally interesting to discover two things from this list. First, although I only turned 48 two days ago, I was shocked to realize not only that I recognized all of the names on this list, but that I actually have personally known most of these giants. Second, I was surprised to learn that, with this semester's issue, only two of the 16 editors--Al Fasol and William M. Tillman--edited more volumes than the current editor.)

There are three major reasons that remembering these previous editors strikes this theologian as bequeathing us a particularly fulfilling legacy. First, I have read many important theological, historical, pastoral and preaching monographs written by these men. These monographs include but are not limited to: W.T. Conner's foundational systematic theology texts, which helped propel the exponential growth of Southern Baptists in the twentieth century; H.E. Dana's ecclesiology, which was the last major book on the doctrine of the church written by a Southern Baptist for over five decades; James Leo Garrett's systematic theology, Baptist theology and ecumenical theology texts, which have set the standards in all these areas and which have yet to be surpassed; William R. Estep's work on the Anabaptists, which is still in print and still invaluable as an introductory text. The list could go on, for the theological contributions of these editors, as well as the writings of many quality Southwestern faculty who were not editors, are so numerous and so profound as almost to defy the imagination.

The second reason that this group of editors presents a fulfilling legacy is that, as a Master of Divinity with Biblical Languages student in the 1980s, I sat in many of these men's classrooms. I can still remember how their biblical, theological and missiological knowledge--a knowledge gained both through extensive practice and sustained reflection--shaped my own formation. Even more than that, I remember how each of these professors modeled for all of their students a profound spiritual maturity. These faculty members were never well paid and were sometimes maliciously and ignorantly maligned by uninformed controversialists, but they were more interested in godliness than either wealth or fame, and as the years pass their selfless Christlike stature will properly grow. It should therefore be no surprise that these professors also evinced a deep and increasingly rare social maturity. We students learned, as we watched them, what it meant to be Christian gentlemen (and gentlewomen) and servants of the churches. Many of us who are active in the Southern Baptist Convention in the current generation (including the present writer) may not have lived up to their high standards, but one day perhaps, with God's grace, we shall.

The third reason that this legacy is fulfilling is that, ten years ago, I had the incredible privilege to join their number. I can still remember the day in 2000 when I was elected to the faculty under the leadership of President Ken Hemphill, Dean Tommy Lea, and acting Dean William Tolar. On that day in the summer of 2000, I knew that it was a distinct privilege to be classified no longer only as a Southwestern student (itself a high honor), but also as a colleague to these giants of the faith. Over the years since then, some of these men have approached me to tell me how much they have appreciated my contributions. One even did me the favor of publicly taking me to task when I gave a paper that he thought was not yet complete--he was correct, and I supplemented that paper before it was published! As I grow older, and as I survey the many highly gifted faculty members now serving through my alma mater, I pray that we will discern how rich is the legacy of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I also pray that we will strive to stand upon their shoulders and advance our seminary's rich legacy even more.

Below is a list of our journal editors, along with the volume and issue numbers over which their tenure began. If you are a graduate of Southwestern or are knowledgeable of Southern Baptist theological achievements, perhaps remembering their accomplishments as well as their personal demeanor will bless you as much as it has blessed me. Theirs is a fulfilling legacy worth remembering, celebrating and emulating.

Old Series
C.B. Williams (1.1)
W.T. Conner (3.4)
H.E. Dana (8.2)

New Series
James Leo Garrett, Jr. (1.1)
J. Gordon Clinard (2.1)
William R. Estep, Jr. (6.1)
William L. Hendricks (10.1)
Leon McBeth (14.1)
F.B. Huey, Jr. (17.2)
Bert B. Dominy (20.2)
James A. Brooks (23.2)
Dan Gentry Kent (27.1)
Al Fasol (29.2)
Dan Gentry Kent (30.2)
William M. Tillman (33.1)
Al Fasol (40.3)
Douglas Blount (46.1)
Malcolm B. Yarnell III (48.2)

Creativity & Discipline

2010-09-22T09:00:00.007-05:00

Discipline is necessary to accomplish almost anything worthwhile in this life. Christ Jesus, we are told, 'learned obedience', most likely a reference to his humanity, as an ascription to the divine nature would call into question his constancy and omniscience. So, the human Jesus learned obedience. He grew in his knowledge of the divine will, bringing the human will into conformity. Here is an argument for a free will, a will exercising true freedom in obedience to God. How did he do it? 1) As the revelation of God, he knew the divine will. For us, this requires constant exposure to divine revelation, finding our life in the living word that gives life, exulting in the presence of God in our ears, on our lips, in our hearts, hearing, confessing, believing. 2) He obeyed the divine will, submitting himself to the will of the Father, even when it brought him duress in extremis in the garden. For us, this requires divine grace, since the human heart, having sold itself into wickedness, is locked in its depravity. By faith (itself a grace) we accept this grace into our lives and are thereby saved, being saved by grace, holding onto our salvation until its completion by grace. Christ 'learned obedience' and the restoration of a truly free will among the redeemed is manifested in a similar learning of obedience to God. This obedience is through the Word in the Spirit unto the Father; this obedience is by the Word in the Spirit from the Father. (The mystery of free grace and human response is again before us.) This obedience is otherwise known as discipline, discipleship, taking up the cross and following Him. So far, discipline.

And yet, as beings made in the image of the God who creates, we humans, male & female, also share in creativity. Do we as creatures fashion ex nihilo, out of nothing, as God did in the beginning? No, but we do fashion that which God has made. Surely, God finds joy in his image mimicking his creative acts. Like God's Word, we also use words to name creation--God found delight in Adam naming animals. Like God's Spirit, our spirits become one in the flesh of man & wife and we marvel at the mystery of the gift of a new breath coursing through the body of a newborn child. Beyond these acts of creation, is not work itself, for which God made us, by nature a creative activity? Whether it be the subduing of the earth in rows of corn, or the reporting of responsible capitalism in the columns of an accounting ledger, or the brushing of the swirls of an approaching storm splashed upon a taut canvas, these are acts of creation. Creativity from a human perspective involves taking two or more related yet often seemingly irreconcilably conflicting created things and bringing them together into some new created thing, 'new' in the sense of not previously recognized in our experience. And in that moment of creative action, the artist, the pilot, the scientist has a sense of exhilaration that is fundamentally pleasurable. As when God declared such and such to be good at the end of its creation, we too mimic him. The 'aha' of the creative work of man is a statement of discovery that echoes the 'it was good' declaration of God, an echo diminished qualitatively by the depravity of man, but an echo of goodness nonetheless.

So, what has creativity to do with discipline? Discipline brings the creative acts of male & female closer to the 'it was good' of God. When a human musician disciplines her fingers to pluck the strings of a classical guitar, chords of the divine symphony orchestrating creation throughout all time whispers mystery into our ears. When the architect disciplines his eyes and hands with his mind to connect this line with that circle at that particular angle in a reflection of the perfection of a divine thought, we glimpse behind the maker of the building another Maker whose glory is at the same time overwhelmingly awesome yet only vaguely perceived now. And when Christ disciplined his body and his mind to glorify his father, we see him take with divine authority the most gruesome deformation of wood & metal devised by human depravity for the sake of human torture, the cross of death, and through his human discipline, which he learned, transform that grotesque instrument by his own blood into the most glorious means by which his humanity, our humanity, reaches out and fully embraces and is embraced by the perfection of the God of love who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The discipline of the man who was God recreated humanity again into the image of God. And what cannot a humanity recreated by the cross of Christ itself create to bring us closer to the knowledge of his perfect formation of creation? Greater works than the miracles he performed in his first ministry upon the earth he promised his people would do. The key to the grace of creativity is the grace of discipline, a discipline with its eyes set on the revelation of God in Christ, and its hands wrapped around the pain of brokenness of whatever cross he lays upon his own, and its feet moving whither the Spirit would take them, and its mouth opening to speak nothing but his Word, for his glory, by his power. This is the discipline of Christian creativity. What ugliness, Lord, would you have transformed through the instrumentality of this body, which is learning the beauty of discipline to your will? Speak, Lord, your servant is ready to be disciplined for the sake of your creation.

(I offer this piece only at the encouragement of my bride, who read this entry from my private diary.)

A New Treatment of the New Testament Church

2010-09-20T10:48:00.009-05:00

For nearly a century, the Baptist doctrine of the church did not receive sustained consideration. Providentially, over the last decade or so, there have been a number of monographs and collections of essays dedicated to rediscovering and restating the Baptist understanding of the biblical witness about the community established and ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ. Into this growing conversation enters again a group of theologians affiliated with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, who have contributed essays to Upon This Rock: The Baptist Understanding of the Church. What makes this particular work unique is the sustained treatment given by ten authors to the doctrine of the church as delineated in the official Southern Baptist confession, the Baptist Faith and Message of 2000. Each author takes one aspect of the New Testament church and demonstrates its scriptural basis, its historical development and its contemporary application. It is this common confession that holds the book together as a unitary presentation.

Among the authors are David Allen, who defends the necessity of the autonomy of the local church; Bart Barber, who demonstrates why a denomination of churches is both biblical and useful; Emir F. Caner, who grounds the local church in the covenant of faith; Jason Duesing, who draws upon John A. Broadus to explain why Baptists must present their distinctive beliefs; James Leo Garrett, Jr., who explains why Baptist churches necessarily follow democratic processes under the Lordship of Christ; Byron McWilliams, who paints a compelling picture of the church and its officers from a pastor's perspective; Paige Patterson, who argues that churches should observe the two ordinances not as mere symbols but for the sake of sanctification; Thomas and Joy White, who consider the relation of gender and office; Thomas White, who distinguishes the universal and local church; and, Malcolm Yarnell, who explains the seminal ecclesiological passage of Matthew 16 through a sustained theological exposition. Upon This Rock: The Baptist Understanding of the Church, a new treatment of the New Testament church established long ago by our Lord and Savior, is now available.

The Danger Facing Systematic Theology

2010-09-09T15:53:00.005-05:00

As you contemplate the task of moving from Scripture into systematic theology, please consider the following warning from Irenaeus about how the heretics known as the Valentinians distort Scripture to support their ideas. Note that Irenaeus is not against systematic theology; rather, he is against imposing an unbiblical system upon Scripture; he prefers to allow the “order” or “proper connection” of Scripture to assert itself. As we know, this is a perilous but necessary task, and this is why we should be constantly reading Scripture and hearing it, letting its order and proper connections form our theology. (Taken from Irenaeus, Against Heresies, book 1, chapter 7, in ANF, volume 1):

Such, then, is their system, which neither the prophets announced, nor the Lord taught, nor the apostles delivered, but of which they boast that beyond all others they have a perfect knowledge. They gather their views from other sources than the Scriptures; and, to use a common proverb, they strive to weave ropes of sand, while they endeavour to adapt with an air of probability to their own peculiar assertions the parables of the Lord, the sayings of the prophets, and the words of the apostles, in order that their scheme may not seem altogether without support. In doing so, however, they disregard the order and the connection of the Scriptures, and so far as in them lies, dismember and destroy the truth. By transferring passages, and dressing them up anew, and making one thing out of another, they succeed in deluding many through their wicked art in adapting the oracles of the Lord to their opinions.

Their manner of acting is just as if one, when a beautiful image of a king has been constructed by some skilful artist out of precious jewels, should then take this likeness of the man all to pieces, should re-arrange the gems, and so fit them together as to make them into the form of a dog or of a fox, and even that but poorly executed; and should then maintain and declare that this was the beautiful image of the king which the skilful artist constructed, pointing to the jewels which had been admirably fitted together by the first artist to form the image of the king, but have been with bad effect transferred by the latter one to the shape of a dog, and by thus exhibiting the jewels, should deceive the ignorant who had no conception what a king’s form was like, and persuade them that that miserable likeness of the fox was, in fact, the beautiful image of the king. In like manner do these persons patch together old wives’ fables, and then endeavour, by violently drawing away from their proper connection, words, expressions, and parables whenever found, to adapt the oracles of God to their baseless fictions.

A Lament regarding Christian Infidelity to the Great Commission

2010-08-17T14:08:00.005-05:00

This is a lament recorded by Sir William Petre, one of Edward VI's privy councillors, in a letter to Sir William Cecil, in 1551:

We which talk moch of Christ and his holy worde have I feare me used a moch contrary way, for we leave fysshing for men and fyssh agayn in the tempestuous sees of this world for gayne and wycked mammon.

While lamenting the acquisitive activities of so many leaders in the Edwardian government, it seems that Sir William Petre was reminded of the calling, failure, and re-calling of the apostle from whom his surname derived.

In Mark 1:16-18, Christ called Peter to become a fisher of men. In Mark 14:66-72, Peter denied his Lord three times. In John 21.3, Peter went back to fishing. In John 21.15-17, Christ again set Peter back upon the road of Christian service.

If there was hope for Peter (and there was!), then there was hope for Sir William Petre, and there is hope for you and me! Let us leave our carnal concerns behind and go back to fishing for Christ, today!

Voting for a Genuine Great Commission Resurgence

2010-06-23T14:52:00.012-05:00

A number of people expressed disappointment when I informed them of my planned absence from this year's Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando, Florida. Indeed, two different pastors offered to provide funds for my attendance. I am very grateful for their proposed largess, but alas there were other matters calling for my attention. Because of my nearly month-long responsibility to be away each summer with the Oxford Study Program of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I must limit my summer travel severely. If, that is, I am to enjoy any family time with my beautiful wife and our five children.

Ultimately, the choice came down to attending the Southern Baptist Convention in mid-June, on the one hand, or participating in a mission trip to the Ukraine in early June, on the other hand. The choice was originally difficult, for I am very interested, from a personal and vocational perspective, in seeing a genuine Great Commission resurgence among the free churches of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). God has called me to minister among these churches and I desire the best for them, and the best is found in fulfilling His commission by going to make disciples, baptizing and teaching (cf. Matthew 28:16-20).

There is little doubt among those of us who keep our eyes on the health of our local churches that we as a convention of churches are simply neither as fervent in our efforts nor as blessed in our fruitfulness as we once were. Discipleship--understood as submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of the Christian life, inclusive of evangelism, worship, church life, etc.--and its initial visible manifestation in baptism are suffering from a long-term malaise. I would like to see that turned around and am convinced that the best way forward is through a genuine Great Commission resurgence.

Because of this personal commitment to a Great Commission resurgence, I suppose it would have been best, from one vantage point, to attend the SBC meeting in Orlando, and cast my ballot for an amended version of what the GCR Task Force was proposing. As you may know, the GCR Task Force has generated much discussion among Southern Baptists over the last year. First prominently advocated in a resolution carefully written by Jeremy Green for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention in November 2008, then championed in a major way in April 2009 by Dr. Danny Akin of Southeastern Seminary, the idea of a Great Commission Resurgence resonated with many hearts in the Southern Baptist Convention. In June 2009, the Southern Baptist Convention approved a motion for the President of the Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Johnny Hunt, to appoint a task force to study how Southern Baptists can work "more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission."

The history of that task force during the period between June 2009 and June 2010 was marked by some speculation, sharp controversy, and increasing education in Southern Baptist polity. Ultimately, however, the specific recommendations made by the task force, except for the definitions used to describe church contributions to Southern Baptist causes, did not strike most of those involved as particularly controversial. Moreover, the evangelistic sentiments expressed by both proponents and opponents of various recommendations were often similar. Indeed, when reading widely diverse views of the Task Force's work over the past year, I was struck by the unified desire of almost everybody involved to see a Great Commission resurgence. Any disagreement has been over the methods proposed by the Task Force rather than its actuality. From an historical perspective, however the responsible state and national agencies finally interpret the amended recommendations of the SBC in June 2010, stirring up sentiments for a Great Commission Resurgence will likely be the most important fruit of the Task Force's work.

This brings me back to my earlier dilemma. Should I get involved (again) in Southern Baptist politics at the Southern Baptist Convention while serving as a messenger for my local church? Or should I go on a mission trip? Ultimately, I came under conviction that the most important action I could take in June 2010 for a Genuine Great Commission Resurgence would not be political but missionary in nature. Yes, I did contribute an essay or two to the debate, trying to remind us of the biblical and historical nature of a genuine Great Commission resurgence, but even those pieces were not terribly political in nature. And, yes, I still do believe in the necessity of sanctified political activity on the part of faithful Baptists in the convention. However, in June 2010, my presence was simply not needed in Orlando, Florida, but it was needed on the other side of the planet.

And I am so glad I chose to vote for a genuine Great Commission resurgence, not with a ballot but with my feet, from a long distance away! I was given opportunity to witness repeatedly to the gospel on the streets of Kiev and later in London, to preach before an established church and a church plant, to work with Dr. Keith Eitel and Mr. Art Savage in persuading an important civil leader to accept Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior, and to witness the public declaration of faith in Jesus Christ through biblical baptism by several former Muslims from a Middle Eastern country. I was also pleased with the gracious response I received from the plenary lecture on theological foundations delivered to the president, faculty and students of the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary in Lviv and Boryslov, and by the opportunity to discuss the nuances of Eastern Orthodox theology with an Eastern Orthodox priest as well as a dozen students from Southwestern Seminary. Finally, and perhaps most poignant of all these blessings, I witnessed my middle son, Matthew Garrett, minister to the children of Kiev and later disperse hundreds of gospel tracts to people he will likely never again see in this life, but hopefully will see in the next.

So, yes, I am all for a Great Commission resurgence! However, I am also convinced that sometimes, for some of us, ecclesiastical politics is best put aside, for the Lord has determined that His gospel would be active when we speak it (Romans 10). And I must speak the Word of God everywhere I can, whether among unbelievers in Ukraine or among unbelievers in the United States. It is only as we become more active in our verbal witness--to Jesus Christ as the God-man who died on the cross for the sins of all who will believe and rose again for our eternal life. It is only through the necessary activity of witnessing to Jesus Christ that we will see a genuine Great Commission resurgence. Let's get started, Southern Baptists, here in the United States and around the world. Let's vote with our feet and with our tongues, now that the ballots have fallen away from our hands.

GCRTF VIEWPOINT: What does Scripture say?

2010-03-26T20:48:00.002-05:00

By Malcolm Yarnell
Mar 26, 2010

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--The Southern Baptist Convention's decision last June to create a Great Commission Resurgence Task Force was motivated by our growing realization that the baptisms within our churches are slowing. The highly anticipated interim report from this blue-ribbon committee chaired by pastor Ronnie Floyd recently fostered much debate. However the upcoming national and state convention meetings receive the final recommendations, one must agree that we are all becoming more aware of our God-given responsibility to fulfill His Great Commission. It cannot be stressed enough how important this is. The study committee and its respondents are providing a great spiritual service in highlighting the Great Commission. Let us thank God that He is fostering a renewed concern for His will.

Historically, we began our existence through a similar renewed concern to fulfill those Bible passages identified with the Great Commission (especially Matthew 28:18-20, but also Mark 16:15-16, Luke 24:45-49, John 20:21-23 and Acts 1:8). The Anabaptists and early General Baptists referred to such passages as the "rule of Christ." A 16th-century Particular Baptist, Benjamin Keach, popularized the term "Great Commission" through his many writings. Later, William Carey used the Great Commission to rebuke hard-line Calvinist views among 18th-century Baptists, thereby launching the modern missionary movement. The first Baptist convention in America began with a sermon on the Great Commission by a leading southern Baptist, Richard Furman, and missionary Southern Baptists often have returned to the Great Commission in their zeal to please God. Thus, historically, the Great Commission is part and parcel of what it means to be Baptist. But tradition, as inspiring as it is, is not what motivates Baptists; Scripture does.

The Biblical Basis for a Resurgence

This brings us to ask: Where in Scripture might a Great Commission Resurgence be discussed? If we peer over the desk of the late Herschel H. Hobbs, we discover that the New Testament letter to the Hebrews was written in order to challenge its readers "to go on in the fulfillment of their divinely given mission -- to be a people of evangelism and missions" (Hebrews: Challenges to Bold Discipleship). In other words, the Hebrews had reached a crisis point: Either they would fulfill the Great Commission of their Lord Jesus Christ or they would fall away into obscurity. Hobbs again remarks, "A given group of God's people, a church, or an individual Christian may so rebel against God's world-mission as to lose the opportunity of being used in it." These are sober and frightening and relevant words, indeed.

Has our generation of Southern Baptists reached a similar crisis point? Is God reminding us of His commission, warning us to fulfill His will or be bypassed? This is not the same question as apostasy; rather, it is a question about our churches' obedience to the Lord. Are we willing to recognize that Jesus is the Lord of His church and He alone determines her membership, her structure, her gifts, her leadership, her ordinances, her mission, her methods and her message? Are we willing to hear His Great Commission and obey it, precisely as He put it forward in the Bible?

These are questions that we in the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention must ask ourselves. Before continuing, we must admit these are not really questions for the denomination, as good as it has been and still is, for Christ did not establish denominations. The only redemptive institution established by Jesus Christ in Scripture is the church (Matthew 16:18), and she is seen now only in local covenanted gatherings of believers (Matthew 18:18-20). Denominational entities exist only for the cooperative purposes of the churches and carry no dominical claim whatsoever to be church. A denomination is dependent upon and subservient to its churches. It may surprise us, but in the end the Lord will not ask whether our denominational entities were obedient to His Great Commission, for He did not give this responsibility to them. Our churches are directly responsible to Jesus Christ to fulfill the Great Commission, and we may not empower and release that responsibility to even the most efficient entity.

Where Do We Begin and How Do We Proceed?

The Great Commission Resurgence must be fulfilled first and foremost in the local churches. The primary question is, therefore, not about the denomination's structure, but the local church's structure. If we in the local churches do not look like what Christ established and the apostles practiced in the New Testament, we must reconsider our structures. The denominational structure, a human innovation, only comes into consideration as a secondary or tertiary matter. Our first concern must be with Christ's institution: Is my church New Testament in its structure, methods, etc.? Denominational structures are relevant only insofar as the God-given priorities of the local churches are honored, maintained and promoted. From this perspective, the more ties an extrabiblical entity has with the local churches, the better; the fewer contacts, the worse. So, the resurgence must begin locally.

If there is to be a Great Commission Resurgence, it must start within the churches. But where do the churches start? Hebrews 5:8-14 compels us to look to Christ Himself as the perfect example of obedience and to proceed into theological and ethical maturity. Growth into Christian maturity begins with making sure that the foundation of our faith is right. After the foundation is set, theological maturity is found in obeying the Word of God, not piecemeal, but completely. According to Hebrews 6:1-2, our foundation doctrines include repentance and faith unto salvation, the proper practices of baptism and laying on of hands, and the eschatological teachings on resurrection and eternal judgment. It is only when these essential doctrines -- noticeably inclusive of baptism -- are maintained that we may press on to maturity. Let us make sure we always maintain the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith, but we cannot remain there.

Hobbs points out that Hebrews 6:4-6 is a commentary on the events of Numbers 13-14, where the people of Israel "were failing to fill their place in God's world-mission." The church must learn from Israel's mistakes and not forget its mission. What is the church's mission? Our Great Commission is found in Matthew 28:18-20. The primary command is to "make disciples," but also included are the imperatival participles of "going" on mission, "baptizing" the new converts as a public witness to their faith, and "teaching them all" that Christ has commanded. There will be no Great Commission Resurgence as long as any of these commands, or their sequence, is dismissed as non-essential. We absolutely must cross all ethnic and geographic boundaries to make disciples. We absolutely must baptize new disciples. We absolutely must teach everything that Christ commanded, committing ourselves to lifelong Bible education.

Matthew 28:18-20 commands that we "make disciples," and the other passages help complete the picture as to how that lifelong process must begin. Common among the renditions of the Great Commission is the need for Christians to proclaim the words of the gospel of Jesus Christ -- words available only from the Bible. Christians must be verbal witnesses, and their words must: focus on the God-man Jesus Christ (John 20:21; Acts 1:8); include the good news of His death for our sin and resurrection for our life (Mark 16:15; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8); call for personal repentance and promise forgiveness (Luke 24:47; cf. Romans 10:9-10); and be directed individually to every human being on the planet (Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:19-20). This great responsibility is incumbent upon all Christians and is impossible for any one congregation to fulfill on its own.

The Greatness of the Great Commission

In other words, Christ's Commission is "Great" because it cannot be completed unless every Christian in every church receives it as a personal and congregational responsibility to share the New Testament gospel verbally with every lost person. Why a verbal witness? Because God ordained that faith would be engendered in the human heart through the proclaimed Word of God. God has chosen our tongues to be the instruments that carry His Word. And the churches are to train and send out their members to proclaim it (Romans 10:14-17). The particularity of this task (giving a personal verbal witness) alongside its universality (providing that witness to everyone everywhere every day) demands our entire attention and drives us into each other's arms.

We cooperate together because the commission is too great for any one church to fulfill alone. The Great Commission, as noted, is also found in Acts 1:8, where the Jerusalem church is given responsibility not only for Jerusalem, and for Judea and Samaria, but also for the "remotest part of the earth." When a local church hears Christ's command, she receives responsibility for proclaiming the gospel to her local community, in her state and to all the nations of the world. Yes, every local church is responsible for preaching Scripture within every geographic category of our earthly existence. My church in Fort Worth is responsible to make disciples in Fort Worth, in Texas and the United States, and in Afghanistan and everywhere else.

Note two truths here: First, the local community and the state have no more priority than the rest of the world. Second, the local community and the state have no less priority than the rest of the world. The entire world is our emphasis, and no place, near or far, may be excluded or diminished in importance. This comprehensive calling is why Southern Baptist churches have historically cooperated in amicable relationships through local associations, state conventions and the national convention. The churches understood that friendly cooperation is necessary at all levels in order to penetrate the world's darkness. All of our denominational levels and their entities -- mission boards, seminaries, colleges, children's homes, soup kitchens, etc. -- are intended to help us be better Great Commission churches. Jerusalem is just as important as Judea and Samaria, and both are just as important as the uttermost ends of the earth. The Great Commission demands universal geographic application beginning with one's community.

The all-encompassing nature of Christ's Great Commission should drive us into one another's arms for mutual help, but not because we see what others might contribute to our various personal or institutional priorities. We should be driven into cooperation because we see Jesus Christ in each other, and that vision of Him reminds us of Who the Great Commission concerns. The Great Commission compels us because it comes from our Lord, Who gave Himself totally for us. We respond by giving ourselves totally to Jesus and for His glory alone. The Great Commission is great because it is from Jesus and because it is for Jesus. Jesus wants His churches to make sure the foundation is correct and to mature by fulfilling His mission to a lost world. We all need each other to accomplish Jesus' Great Commission.

Will We Really Have a Great Commission Resurgence?

Knowing the Hebrew church needed a Great Commission Resurgence, the author expressed grave concern. Like Israel, that church was given so much, but they were tempted to suppress their witness in difficult times. The apostle warned them that when God works in mighty ways in a community, He expects it to bear fruit. "But if it yields thorn and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned" (Hebrews 6:8).

Hobbs lamented that when Christians refuse to proclaim the gospel, they "negate God's redemptive purpose. Thus they join with the crucifiers." God will then choose another people or a different generation to accomplish His world-mission. This is a dire warning to my generation of Southern Baptists today. However, on the bright side, the apostle also said, "Beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation" (Hebrews 6:9).

So, does Scripture have anything to say about a Great Commission Resurgence? Yes, indeed, it does. The question now is whether we will obey our Lord's commission. Will we follow Him? Will we let Him rule His churches as He commands in Scripture? Will we make sure that we have all the fundamentals established? Will we then grow into the full maturity of His Great Commission -- by going, making disciples, baptizing and teaching all His commands? Will we proclaim His Word faithfully?

Will we see everyone everywhere every day as our personal responsibility? Will we call them to repent from sin and believe in the resurrected God-man Jesus Christ, and then call new disciples to obey Him starting with baptism? Will we be faithful to implement Jesus' will completely in His churches? Will we cooperate together in our local associations, our state conventions and as a Southern Baptist Convention for His purposes? Will we obey His Great Commission? I pray we will, and I am convinced that God will bless our churches as we fulfill Christ's Great Commission completely for His glory alone as authoritatively relayed in the Bible alone.

--30--

Malcolm Yarnell is associate professor of systematic theology and director of the Center for Theological Research at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

© Copyright 2010 Baptist Press

Original copy of this story can be found at http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=32581

Oxford 2010 - A Study Tour

2010-03-22T09:46:00.005-05:00

Open to students and friends of the seminary. Applications close as of 31 March 2010. Space is still available but limited. Please contact Madison Grace for more details: oxford@swbts.edu or 817-923-1921, ext. 4495. See also www.swbts.edu/oxford.

Book Cover - Upon This Rock

2010-02-19T16:48:00.004-06:00

The prospective book cover for "Upon This Rock: A Baptist Understanding of the Church," being published by B&H Academic, is:

A Poignant Visit to an Old Church in England

2010-02-08T18:01:00.017-06:00

On this rainy, with spots of sunshine, Saturday, 19 May 2007, I sit in the church occupied by my forefathers: St. James Church, Oddingley, Droitwich, Worcestershire, England. The sense of history is, if I may say so, palpable. The church is not very large, though perhaps deemed quite respectable in the 15th century (ca. 1460), when a window above the altar, was dedicated to John and Joanna Yarnold. Yarnold, which derives from the Norman words for "eagle's rule," has been spelled also as Yarnell and Yarnall.

The Yarnolds/Yarnells/Yarnalls of today may trace their ancestry from this small church in the west of England. It is a quiet place with a wonderful view, being set on the side of a hill looking over a valley through which a small canal flows. The horses run at their leisure in a field to the north, a large home is located to the southeast and fields of various types stretch into the distance. One can only imagine why the Yarnells left this paradise on the northwestern edge of the enchanting Cotswolds, if one were to realize that persecution will often drive people of conscience to change their location rather than their religion.

The Yarnells of the 15th and 16th centuries were at least nominally faithful children of the medieval and then Reformation church of England. But in the 17th century, they were swayed mightily by the preaching of the Quakers. Some of the Yarnells then immigrated to the new colony established by the wealthy Quaker, William Penn. The largest cluster of Yarnell families in the United States thus may be found in Pennsylvania and the surrounding states. There are significant branches represented in Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, and now Texas, too.

The Oddingley stained glass window, in the left part of the trifold, shows a middle-aged couple richly but chastely dressed, bowing in prayer to God. His head is uncovered, his hair is neatly cut, his eyes are raised heavenward, and his hands are gently opened as in supplication. Her head is covered, she is somewhat shorter than him, her eyes are raised heavenward, and her hands are positioned as her husband. The window above them is occupied by a queen, standing with a sword under her left hand and a wheel under her right. The window below them is occupied by a tonsured cleric in prayer. They are the only ones in the stained glass window to have their hands open in prayer, while the rest have their hands closed. The middle portion of the window is occupied above by saint Matthew with a bishop’s staff and below by another monarchical clerical figure with a cross. Both figures have their right hands raised in blessing (two fingers raised, two fingers lowered. The right part of the trifold is occupied above by a king. In the center of the right part is another couple praying with a monk below in prayer. The arms on the left and on the right, above the king and the queen, are unknown to me. (The window was obviously damaged at some point, for the right and central portions have pieces that have been rearranged in reconstruction.)

The Yarnold window asks in Latin for the observor to pray for the souls of John and Joanna. And so I shall, though perhaps not in the way intended by these pious medieval Christians. For, though I am no Quaker, I am a fellow free churchman among the baptizing churches. I have a history of Christian piety in my family, alongside a history of military servants, and I pray that this tradition will continue among my children and theirs. Although the destiny of our ancestors is determined already by their faith or lack thereof in Christ, we may pray for (and witness to) those who are alive now or are yet to be born. Medieval society was divided between those who pray, those who fight, and those who work. It seems that my ancestors have included all three estates, though not very high in any, except in the new world, which opened the door for meritorious achievement, including ministers, the calligrapher for a very famous writing by Thomas Jefferson, as well as admirals, physicians and managers.

Thank you, Lord, for allowing me this poignant moment in the beautiful countryside from which my family descended. It is nice to know that there were people who were respected in society as being faithful in your eyes in the past, stretching at least into the 15th century, and perhaps far beyond. Interestingly, not only is the window dedicated to Matthew, but a recent grave to the left of the entrance door is occupied by an Elizabeth Joy Fabricius who lived to see grandchildren and was beloved. My own Matthew and Elizabeth Joy would find that of interest.

What Did Jesus Think of Scripture?

2010-01-20T16:23:00.005-06:00

A decade ago, Paige Patterson addressed the subject of Jesus' own view of Scripture. It is an excellent presentation for a popular audience of the high view of Scripture which Jesus held. According to Patterson, Jesus believed that "the Word of God as revealed in Old and New Testaments is without error, scientifically, historically, philosophically or theologically." In other words, a high Christology and a high view of Scripture are necessarily interdependent. Enjoy!

Patterson looks to Jesus' standards to determine beliefs about Bible
By Tammi Reed Ledbetter
Sep 5, 2000

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--How Southern Baptists answer the question of "how you know what you say you know is true" is reflected in their statement of faith, said Paige Patterson, speaking in the closing chapel of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's Week of Preaching, Aug. 29-31.

Taking students through a Bible drill, Patterson described evidence that Jesus believed in the verbal and plenary inspiration of the Bible, as well as its infallibility and inerrancy.

In his first sermon of the week, Patterson spoke of "three profound, defining moments in the history of Christianity," referring to heresies that spawned "intellectual activity and spiritual concern." Each era led to the adoption of a conclusion widely accepted within Christendom, Patterson explained, regarding Christology, soteriology and epistomology. (News coverage of all three messages is available at www.mbts.edu.)

"After having occupied the first seven centuries of the church's history discussing who is Jesus [the field of Christology], it then became necessary in the Reformation to decide how it is you get to Jesus once you've decided who he is [soteriology]," Patterson said. "The soteriological controversy determined whether or not the church should be viewed as the lifeboat or the lighthouse." And with the Enlightenment came the question of whether such conclusions about Jesus Christ were true (the arena of epistemology).

The 1963 Baptist Faith and Message, Patterson explained, added two statements that had never been used in previous confessions of faith by Baptist groups. The Bible was presented as a record of revelation, with Jesus Christ as the supreme standard by which the Scriptures should be judged, Patterson said.

"On the surface, both of those seem to be perfectly understandable. The Bible is certainly a record of revelation. And certainly the standard by which the Scriptures are to be judged is Jesus Christ, the ultimate revelation." Patterson asked, "Why were they put into the 1963 statement and why were they taken out of the 2000 statement? And why is there so much commotion about it?"

Patterson cited the influence of followers of philosopher Immanuel Kant in wanting "wiggle room" to "kick all faith into the upper story" and say there is no way to verify one's faith. "And since we cannot reduce it to any of the phenomena that we know, therefore it is purely a faith matter," Patterson said in explaining the position of the 1963 revisionists. "And faith is basically up to the individual and there are no guarantees" of its truth, he further recounted, as compared to the scientific verification available for the law of thermodynamics.

"I'm glad we took it out," Patterson said of the 1963 language. "We needed to take away the wiggle room."

Borrowing the language of critics of the 2000 revision who insist that Jesus must be the standard by which Scripture should be judged, Patterson asked, "Do we not do the right thing to believe about the Bible what Jesus believed? Whatever it is Jesus thought and said about the Bible is what I ought to think and say about the Bible."

Traditionally, evangelicals have said four things about the Bible, Patterson said, dealing with verbal and plenary inspiration as well as infallible and inerrant content. In order to show that Jesus believed in these same principles, Patterson directed his audience to Matthew 22. Jesus demonstrated his confidence in the verbal inspiration of Scripture on the basis of the Holy Spirit directing David to call his descendent Lord, Patterson observed.

"If they'd known the Scriptures they could have said this one is both the root -- gives rise to David and was before David and Abraham and everybody else -- but in incarnation becomes a son of David born to Jewish parents in the line of David, so he is both the root and the offspring of David."

Turning to Luke 24:25, Patterson asserted Jesus' belief in the plenary inspiration of Scripture, the belief that all of it is inspired of God. Jesus referred to the foolishness of the men for being slow to believe Moses and all the prophets, a typical Jewish reference to the whole of Scripture, Patterson explained.

"I never called anybody a fool for not believing everything that's in the Bible," Patterson emphasized. "Let the record show that was done by Jesus the Christ. I just read you what he said. That's all. He said that a man who doesn't believe all that is in the prophets is a fool." Quoting Psalm 41:1, Patterson reminded, "'The fool has said in his heart there is no God.' And another kind of fool says, 'Yes, there is no God, but we don't know for sure that you can trust anything that he claims to have said.'"

Patterson asked, "How much of the Bible did Jesus believe? Every single solitary syllable of it. Don't tell me you're a disciple of Jesus Christ and you're following him and he is the supreme standard by which the Scriptures can be interpreted, and then take a view contrary to that of Jesus concerning the Word of God."

Moving on to Jesus' perspective on infallibility of Scripture, Patterson said it means "the documents in the Bible properly understood and interpreted will lead to God and it will never lead you astray."

Pointing to Jesus' statement in John 5:39 as evidence that "the scriptures are they which testify of me," Patterson reminded that almost nothing is known of Jesus except what is said in Scripture. Those who say they don't follow Scripture so much as they follow Jesus should be asked, "Which Jesus?" Patterson said. "If you're following the Jesus who's the real Jesus and not some Jesus manufactured by the Jesus Seminar or Albert Schweitzer in years gone by, then you follow the Jesus of the Bible because the only place we know anything about Jesus is from the Bible."

In John 5:45, Jesus declared that Moses wrote of him (Jesus), questioning how they would believe his words when they didn't even believe the writings of Moses, Patterson recounted. He then paraphrased Jesus' response in John 5:47, stating, "The truth is, you don't believe me. The reason you don't believe me is that you didn't believe those who wrote about me."

From Matthew 5:17-18, Patterson argued for Jesus' belief in inerrancy, defined as a belief that "the Word of God as revealed in Old and New Testaments is without error, scientifically, historically, philosophically or theologically." Patterson acknowledged poetic license, metaphor and figures of speech which served as "normal human language" by which the Bible could be understood.

Noting the use of a double negative for emphasis, Patterson said the text conveys the sense that "under no circumstances never" will any part of Scripture pass away. "Now Jesus said," Patterson began, interjecting, "mind you Paige Patterson didn't say, Adrian Rogers didn't say, Jerry Vines didn't say, Al Mohler didn't say ... Jesus said it," he continued with a reminder that Jesus is "the supreme standard by which the New Testament and Old Testament will be judged." He continued, "Jesus said the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet found in the Scripture shall not pass until heaven and earth pass away. That's a pretty powerful claim."

He described a "tittle" as an extended line on the end of the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. "You say, 'My goodness, a tittle couldn't be very important.'" Patterson admonished, "Don't you dare leave your tittle off! If you leave your tittle off, you didn't write a Beth [the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet] at all; you wrote another letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And because most Hebrew words are in three radicals, you changed the whole meaning of the word. You may have changed the whole sentence, the whole meaning of the paragraph just because you didn't watch out for your tittle."

To get a better sense of the size of a tittle, Patterson joked, "I got my Kittel and my ruler and I measured my tittles." He concluded, "Jesus is saying, 'Under no circumstances never shall the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet or a little mark of one thirty-second of an inch pass from my Word until all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth will pass away before that will happen.'"

Recalling Martin Luther's defiance of the Pope during the Reformation, Patterson recalled that he determined that "the boy that drives a plow shall know more of the Scripture than the pope does." He added, "That's what Reformation Christianity is all about. That's what biblical Christianity is all about. What Christ is all about is a sure word and revelation of God in the living word, Jesus Christ, and in the written word, the Bible, which is never to be separated from the Jesus, the living Word."
--30--

© Copyright 2010 Baptist Press

Original copy of this story can be found at http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=6445

A Southern Baptist's Pilgrimage From Racism

2010-01-18T15:22:00.008-06:00

Below is the first non-academic theological essay which I wrote as a pastor, back in 1996. It was originally accepted for publication in the Christian Century, if I would modify the language of inerrancy. I refused and it remained unpublished. In commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr., I offer it here for the first time publicly.

It Started in Panama

Parked in a shady spot near a gas station along a highway in the Central American country of Panama, I noticed a dark object in the road a little bit away in the opposite lane. Four-year olds often perceive what others may miss. That ebony object in the road was not a dog or a wild animal, but a human being. What was amazing to my little mind was that a truck came barreling along and ran over that man's body as if it was nothing--I can still see the indentations in his flesh where the wheels of more than one automobile had crushed him. I had often taken my toy cars and pushed tracks into the wet mud in a similar manner. I looked to my father, "Daddy, why doesn't anyone stop?" He turned, surveyed the scene, and quickly hustled my brothers and I back into the car. He drove away without a word, but with an unexplainable look on his face. How do you tell a three-, four-, and five-year old that a black man's life is cheap?

Some months later, my father drove us into the "wrong" section of Panama City. There were several black boys who began throwing rocks at us. My father quickly turned the little red car around and gunned it out of danger. "Daddy, why did they throw rocks at us? We didn't do anything to them!" Again, no answer.

My daddy was from the mountains of central Pennsylvania, a stronghold of abolitionist Quakerism, but where few minorities dwelt. However, my mother was from the swamps and hills of northern Louisiana, a stronghold of racial segregationism, and a nearly balanced black-white population. My father was a life-long military man, and as he was transferred quite often, we were exposed to numerous cultures on the North American continent. We had lived for periods of one to four years in New York, Panama, Louisiana, Illinois, Alaska, Maine, Indiana, and back to Louisiana again.

In the military of the 1960s and 1970s, the official policy was racial desegregation, and as we grew up in the same schools, most Air Force "brats" took little notice of the differences between our races and originating cultures. That is, until we were exposed to the local, native schools. In the north, they used to ask me to talk so they could hear my southern accent. The local bullies would jeer, "Hey, listen everybody! He's going to say 'ya'll' again!" I became sensitive to being different. With every new move came a sense of depression. I lost old friends and had to make new ones all over again--an agonizing process for an introverted child. It was as if God had arranged my life to make me empathetic to those who do not fit the mold, or who do not find it easy to change like chameleons with new situations.

I learned to take people as they are, without a lot of misconstrued, cultural judgment. How? Well, I had learned to lean on the Jesus of my mother and father. This Jesus came to me in songs, songs like "Jesus Loves Me" and another old favorite,

Jesus loves the little children,
all the children of the world,
Red and yellow, black and white,
they are precious in his sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Like most children, I took those songs and the red, printed words of Jesus in my Bible quite literally. Jesus spoke of loving your neighbor. In the story of the "Good Samaritan," I learned that my neighbor was anyone who was near me. So I loved anybody near me. Color did not matter. In my foolish, simple, little mind, that was the way it was supposed to be.

You can imagine my confusion when a young friend and I were beaten up by a group of black boys in North Chicago because we happened to be the wrong color and had accidentally missed the bus home that day. You can imagine my confusion when I heard the kids in the high school in Maine call each other "Nigger" and "Honkie" with such invective that the walls shook. I thought Jesus commanded us to love each other. Soon, I learned that not everybody revered the words of Jesus. Unbelievers could be excused to a degree for their hatred--they just did not know any better.

However, my confusion increased a hundred-fold after I became pastor of a medium-sized church in a transitional neighborhood on the edge of a major city in Louisiana. Before that, at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, we had been presented with the Church Growth Movement as the ultimate expression of a vital church. Imbibing such a view, I had pastored a new mission into existence in a run-down western Fort Worth apartment complex. We had forty or more black and white adults and children to serve. Nobody really noticed the dissimilitudes. It is hard to notice "otherness" when you have to fend off drunken fathers, addicted mothers, swarming cockroaches, absent landlords, and excruciating poverty--you tend to rely on others who may help you, no matter their external oddities. God moved powerfully in that human-forsaken place.

Louisiana and Racism

But in Louisiana, the differences were profound--the old, gentlemanly segregation remained. I led Lakeview Baptist Church to begin reaching the neighborhood for Jesus Christ. Some of the youth wanted to know if they could invite their black friends. The very question shocked me. Why not? So, the black youth came. Then came the whispers, but I had heard whispers before and had survived them. Why would anyone object to a black boy or girl coming to know Jesus? Doesn't he love the little children? That's what the Bible said. That's what the songs said.

I did not realize it, but I had violated a strong cultural more--blacks and whites do not mix in church. They may go to the same schools, the same stores, the same jobs, but they must not worship on the same sacred ground. In the 1950s, both Billy Graham and Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed disgust that "eleven o'clock Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America." These two friends did all they could to rectify the situation in their own ways. Surely, by the 90s, things had changed. Sadly, they had not.

The church watched as the youth brought their friends and the grumbles progressed towards a roar. Try as I might, the Lord would not let the situation settle quietly down. During preparation for a revival, we took names from anyone who wanted the church to pray for the conversion of their family and friends. One black youth offered up his sister's name. We prayed for her along with forty or fifty others--be careful about what you pray for. Soon after the end of the revival, on September 26, 1993, his sister came to church.

She was twenty-three years old, seven months pregnant, and wore no ring on her finger. During the invitation, she came down the aisle. I knew the trouble this might cause. So when she told me she was being called by God to join the church in baptism, I became very tough on her. "When were you saved?", I queried. This was going to be just the first of many questions. Such a question was not bad in and of itself. Rather, these questions should be asked. But I had not asked any other convert such specific questions before then. Her answer still shakes me to the depths of my bones. "On the eighth of this month," she said so meekly. And then . . . well, then, she began to cry. I had never seen such a genuine display of Christ in my life. All I could think of before was how to keep her out, and now God had given me a new child to disciple, a child I did not want. When I presented her for membership, the church was still in shock and many voted yes. Others sat in their comfortable seats, arms folded, staring dumbly. There was no open dissension, yet.

Realizing my own sinful attitude, I felt the need to involve someone who could hold me accountable. Many white pastors in such a situation usually contact a local black pastor and quietly shuffle the convert into a black church--an older, white pastor encouraged me to take this very route. Every member of that church would have applauded or excused me if I had done so, but that was not the way of Christ. Moreover, she was convinced that God called her to Lakeview Baptist Church. There was no meanness or point to be made on her part. She was just humbly convinced this was God's will. Who am I to argue with God? She needed baptism, discipleship, and loving fellowship, and God had sent her to bless Lakeview Baptist Church.

I called Rev. Milton Boyd, pastor of a black Southern Baptist congregation. I considered asking him to take her off my hands--that was my temptation. It would have been easier to put her off, save my career, and seek a means to put a salve on my torn conscience. But what I asked him to do seemed to come off the top of my head. "Milton, you don't know me. But I know you, and I want you to hold me accountable. I am the pastor of a white church and a pregnant, black, unwed teenager has just come for baptism. Will you meet with me on a regular basis to make sure I treat her no differently than I would anyone else?" Milton needed no time. His answer was simply, "When do we get started?"

Pragmatically, I should never have done such a thing. We lost a number of families, tithing families. I faced a myriad of dilemmas, social and theological. The questions from the congregation were almost always of a social nature. How do we keep the white girls from marrying the black boys? How do we keep "them" from taking over "our" church? These questions loomed larger as blacks continued to join the church.

Church Growth Movement

I had violated one of the cardinal rules of the very church growth I was pushing so hard to my congregation, the homogeneous unit principle. One church growth guru listed the violation of this principle as the third of eight "growth-inhibiting diseases,"

People-blindness occurs when churches do not recognize the important cultural differences which glue large social groups together and which can become barriers to the communication of the Good News. The notion that "our church can win anybody" is good rhetoric, but poor church growth thinking. God has given your church the ability to reach only a limited number and kind of people, and this you should be doing well. That is why I mentioned that, in writing a philosophy of ministry, you need to be explicit about the sociocultural profile of your congregation. While biblical ethics do not permit a church to develop a racist or segregationist philosophy of ministry, they do not prohibit narrowcasting the gospel and giving priority to certain market segments. At the same time, efforts need to be made to see that other churches are established which qualify for reaching each one of the segments of society. In that way the total body reaches the total population.

Was Peter Wagner right? Had I violated a cardinal rule of the Church Growth Movement? I soon came to realize that such a gospel as this is not the gospel preached by Jesus and the apostles. Jesus did not come to divide people into "market segments" based on "sociocultural profiles." Rather, he came to break down the dividing wall of hostility.

Paul, a Jew who brought uncircumcised Gentiles into the synagogue, seemed to have a parallel situation to my own. In his liberating letter to the Galatians he seemed to speak directly to the Church Growth Movement's homogeneous unit principle. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, . . . for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3.28). Furthermore, anyone that "narrowcasts" the gospel necessarily changes the very nature of that gospel. He aptly wrote, "If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (1.9). Finally, Paul said that bearing another's burdens is not a "growth-inhibiting disease," but a divine commandment (6.2).

Other thoughts invaded my mind. Had I done a great disservice to my church? Was it going to be destroyed because of my childlike faith in a God who is no respecter of persons? I was thrown back on my Bible and the loving God revealed there. It seemed that every other support was failing. Most of my friends thought (and still think) I was too cavalier with tradition--"He's a little too prophetic, too confrontational." However, my Southern Baptist background had bequeathed me another more important principle than the Church Growth Movement or my genteel, southern culture: an inerrant, authoritative Word.

The Inerrant, Authoritative Word of God

If God's Word cannot err and if that Word provides the norm for the Christian life, what does it say about such a crass approach to reality as my childlike faith in a loving, reconciling God who ignores the differences between black and white? Should I really try to pastor a multi-racial flock? A rapid survey of Scripture revealed the thoughts of God on the subject:

I discovered that racists have used the curse of Ham in Genesis 9 as one of many proof texts for negrophobia. But my theological mentor, James Leo Garrett Jr., demonstrated that such interpretations are clearly errant denials of the unity of mankind.

In Numbers 12, Miriam objected to Moses' marriage to a black woman. A narrative reading of the text suggests that God responded, "If you want to be white, Miriam, I will give you white!" He then struck her with leprosy.

In the book of Jonah, God dealt harshly with a prophet who had forgotten the Abrahamic covenant--YHWH wants to bless all the families of the earth through his chosen people (Genesis 12.3).

The prophet Jeremiah was pulled out of the sewer, and a certain death, at the behest of a black man (38.7-13, 39.15-18).

Jesus broke down the walls of Jewish particularism. The Jew prayed, "Thank God I was not born a Gentile, a woman, or a dog." Jesus let the crumbs of grace fall to the very "dog" which the Jews despised. He went out of his way to point to the faith of a Roman centurion whose trust was greater than any Israelite's. He allowed a black man the privilege of carrying his cross to Calvary. It was a Samaritan, a despised half-breed, who became his prototypical neighbor.

Philip, the liberal prophet--liberal, that is, in spreading the Word of God--took the Word to an Ethiopian and baptized him. He even took the Word to the despised Samaritans (Acts 8ff).

Paul was taken to task several times for his willingness to offer the gospel freely to those of other races and cultures.

Peter received the revelation of the sheet to open his heart to the Gentiles. Yet later, Paul was compelled to remind him of the universal scope of God's grace.

Finally, in the Revelation, we see around the throne, people from every tribe, nation, and tongue. There are no "market segments" in glory! And on earth? Well, Jesus tells us to pray, "on earth as it is in heaven."

It seems that the inerrant Word tears down racism, particularism, or the homogeneous unit principle, whatever one may call such wall-building. Any individual or church which takes the Word of God seriously cannot harbor racism of any kind in their attitude and ethics.

When I realized the Biblical message, I immediately preached a sermon to my congregation and confessed my sin of racism. I begged God for forgiveness because I had treated this precious child of His harshly because of her skin color and because of my fear of an irate congregation. He gave me the strength to do what was right and love my neighbor. Many in the congregation fled to other churches. Many repented with me. Miraculously, providentially, the congregation actually grew in numbers and in faith.

A Theology of Image and Koinonia

Ultimately, the question must be asked, do people who are different than me have souls? Most certainly, they do. They, too, are created in the image of God. We learn in Genesis that God created humans in his image (1.26-27, 5.1). If murder is the destruction of that divine image (9.6), can exclusion by reason of race be anything but exclusion of the divine image? Furthermore, since destruction of the divine image is deserving of death, should not one practicing exclusion be punished by exclusion, too? Since God made humans in his image, all humans are greatly valued, no matter the color of their skin.

The only way to bypass such a Biblical argument for universal dignity and love is to deny that someone is human. This is what the Nazis did to the Jews in World War II. They were designated as "sub-humans." It seems that the easiest way for any "Christian" to deny love and respect to another human is to deny their humanity, a path all too familiar for Southern Baptists, who, themselves, were born in reaction to anti-slavery sentiments in the north. The steps from sub-human to animal to inanimate object are easy once the step from human to sub-human is taken.

In addition to the theology of image, there is the theology of koinonia. In his first epistle, John gave his readers a method by which they could judge their assurance of salvation. There are three primary measures: obedience, confession of Christ, and koinonia. John spoke in stark times of light and darkness, love and hate. He equated koinonia, fellowship, with God and fellowship with God's people. "He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light. . ." (I John 2.9ff). The implications were clear. If I love and fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ, black or white, I have love and fellowship with God (cf., Jesus' new commandment, John 13.34-35). If I do not koinonia with my brothers and sisters in Christ, I do not koinonia with God.

The "M" Group

Milton and I met with Mark Eakin, a white pastor, on a Thursday morning in the first part of October 1993. Mark was invited by Milton with my permission. We met at the Freestate Diner in the northern industrial section of Shreveport. Soon, Milton Boyd, the quintessential organizer, had invited Milton Huston, a black pastor in transition between churches, and Mel Brown, black pastor of a mission sponsored by Highland Baptist Church in Shreveport. There never really seemed to be any question but that we would continue to meet for prayer, fellowship, accountability, and encouragement. We eventually called ourselves the "M" group because all of our names started with that letter. Others came and went, but these five remained the core of the group, meeting weekly.

We discovered much about ourselves, the sinfulness of our cultures, and the graciousness of God in those meetings. I have never felt such intense fellowship in my life. There has been an unfilled void in my heart ever since I was called away to pastor in North Carolina and further my education at Duke University.

What made the "M" group special? I think it opened several doors and kept some rather weak men strong. (It also became a dynamic witness to other patrons of the restaurant.)

First, it provided a deep, Christian fellowship. We brought our problems openly and humbly to the table and received encouragement and exhortation. Milton Boyd made sure that nothing was ever glossed over. He became our undesignated leader. His spiritual gift is definitely administration. Mark, a compassionate man, encouraged us with the gift of mercy. Milton Huston came to have a special place in my heart--he is a hero of the faith. He once invited us over to his home for breakfast. He cooked, his wife played an excellent hostess, and when his sister began to sing, heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Mel and I were the prophetic ones. He and I could butt heads with the best. We each shared Biblical insights, sermon materials, and illustrations--some sessions were downright sermonic. My preaching and devotional life improved tremendously.

Second, the "M" group was special because it allowed us to see life through a different set of lenses. I had no idea of the respect which a black pastor commands in his community. It makes most white pastors, who find little reason to challenge the status quo out of fear for the loss of face and income, look like kept harlots. I also had no idea of the pain of being treated as a second-class citizen at best and sub-human at worst. Rarely, in these days, is such treatment overt, but it exists nonetheless. Mark and I were taken out of our privileged, white, middle-class, Republican-voting backgrounds and introduced to the vagaries of a segregated existence.

Third, the "M" group was special because it kept our theology straight. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the few Christian martyrs of Nazi Germany, once attended Union Theological Seminary. He could not stand the irrelevant preaching in the mainline churches in the area,

One may hear sermons in New York upon almost any subject; one only is never handled, . . . namely, the gospel of Jesus Christ, of the cross, of sin and forgiveness. . . .

Bonhoeffer found a black church in Harlem--the Abyssinian Baptist Church--that taught the gospel faithfully. There, Bonhoeffer says he became a Christian. He subsequently returned to Germany under a divine burden and became a lone voice crying out for the German church to deny Hitler and his antichrist laws. Like Bonhoeffer in Harlem, we discovered that the "M" group exposed the cultural accretions to the gospel we were preaching. Like barnacles attacking a ship, churches of all types have been left increasingly dead in the water because of their sanctification of cultural ideals. As black and white pastor came together, we learned what was culture and what was Christ. As different aspects of our theology and ethics revealed themselves to be profane or sacred, we adjusted our preaching and activities accordingly. The "M" group helped me to see the gospel for what it really is--the grace of the eternal, incarnated, crucified, triumphant God. I also learned that I wanted to be instrumental in the growth of the Church of Jesus Christ, and not just be another hired hand in a God-forsaken social club. I discovered that white pastors will preach against the sins characteristic of the black community while glossing over their own. Similarly, black pastors will preach against the sins characteristic of the white community while glossing over their own. Those pastors who address the true problems of, and true grace available to, their people are few and far between.

Finally, the "M" group was special because it let me see the black community as part of the flock which God has given to me to minister the Word. I sense as much compassion for the black community's struggle with the appeal of the sword of Islam (in its many forms) as I do for the white community's struggle with the machine gun of Aryanism (in its many forms). I sense as much responsibility for the salvation of Latesha and Calvin as I do for that of Mary and John. When God calls a man to preach, He does not limit his audience by race.

A Final Word

Now that I am an adult, I will never again stand by and watch a man desecrated because of his parentage and the low price that the dominant culture has put on his skin. Never again will I stand idly by while the name of Christ is proclaimed in the interest of racial superiority. Never again do I wish to preach a sermon to a congregation to confess my own sin of racism. Racism may continue to grip this nation, north and south, in its politics and in its individual and communal ethics, but this pastor will be a voice crying out against such sin.

Mark and Milton have led their respective churches into fellowship and cooperating covenants with one another. Milton and Mel continue their dynamic ministries. The "M" group continues to meet and has grown in numbers. Me, well, I will never trade my experience of pastoring an interracial church, and I will never forget my true friends, my brothers in Christ. Soli Deo Gloria.

Foreword to Michael Nelson, "The Seven Signs"

2010-01-06T09:12:00.002-06:00

I thought my friends might enjoy this foreword for a theological commentary on the Gospel of John that a former student has written.

-------------------

It is somewhat startling to hear an orthodox Christian preacher, who affirms that the entire Word of God is thoroughly inspired by the Holy Spirit, proclaim that the Gospel according to John is “the most important book in the Bible” or that the third chapter of John is “the most important chapter in the Bible.” However, from the perspective of an evangelistic pastor concerned for the eternal state of every human soul, Michael Nelson’s emphatic claims carry a certain relevant validity. In a day when so many Christians frantically seek ways to justify the avoidance of sharing their faith, whether through some wine-and-cheese theology or through a non-proclaiming social ministry, Nelson bucks the prevailing trends and prophetically demands Christian fidelity to the message and means specifically given by our Lord. Believers must not only recognize but also embrace and live out this truth: that a personal encounter with Jesus Christ is “the most important meeting in the history of mankind.” In other words, Nelson argues from Scripture and with compelling illustrations and application that it is our responsibility as Christ’s followers to present Jesus, from the Bible, to every lost man, woman, and child on the planet.

I first met Mike when he was an entering graduate student in theology at the seminary, and I knew from that point on that he would never accept anything I taught as truth unless it could be demonstrated according to the Word of God. Mike, in this book, has sought to hold himself to that same standard, and has fundamentally succeeded in doing so. Another thing I learned about Nelson during those exciting years of pleasantly boisterous give and take with an unpretentious yet precocious theologue, and have since rediscovered in these pages, is that Nelson possesses a genuine love for people. There is a pastoral sensitivity here, coupled with a rare ministerial gravitas, that accompanies God’s Word as it reaches down through the webs of personal deception that too many of us have erected in our own lives and that touches the soul where that defiled image of God is at its most crucial point in its precarious existence. Mike allows the biblical text to speak and then proceeds to explain the meaning of the text with logical clarity. With dependence upon the Holy Spirit, Nelson then illuminates the text with illustrations from Scripture, from the critical events and commonplaces of his own interesting life, and from many other places.

As you will soon see, there is much here that the reader should appreciate, but we must speak a word to the unduly squeamish: Nelson recognizes that his idiosyncracies may not be your “cup of tea,” to employ a common British idiom. However, for the most part this is not germaine, for Nelson’s overarching goal is to make sure that you meet and appreciate the Lord who created you and who will judge you instead. His immediate desire is to see the body of Jesus Christ incarnated before the world, so that, as a result, lost people everywhere may have opportunity to hear that Jesus Christ should be their cup of tea and, more profoundly, their Lord and Savior. And everything written here is filtered through the sieve of that principal concern. We rejoice in the fact that Nelson cares more about presenting the compelling attractiveness and inviting openness of his Savior than he cares about making a short-lived and dubious name for himself. That loving and selfless boldness—some wimpish worldly-wise ministers would dismiss it as heedless recklessness, but the wise in the ways of the God of Scripture would laud it as a holy temperament—is one of the virtues that sets Nelson apart as a minister of the Gospel and as an upcoming popular theological writer. May his tribe increase!

From a more academic methodological perspective, Michael Nelson serves as the preaching bridge between scholarly biblical exegesis and engaging Christian application. With regard to biblical exegesis, Nelson utilizes currently well-respected and quite often long-established evangelical scholars to aid him in the process of interpreting the Gospel of John. With regard to ministerial application, he provides a superb example of how theological interpretation is best done by the pastor who lives among his people, prompting them orally and demonstrating to them visually how they may and must reach out to the world with the life-giving Word of God. Though I personally might have phrased some things alternatively or presented a distinctive theological nuance or come to a slightly different conclusion, there is no doubt whatsoever that this book comes from a like heart desiring entire submission to Jesus and a keen mind dedicated to the utter reliability of Scripture. You will be blessed, as I have been, when you read what this minister of the good news has to say and you will be challenged to believe, in the full sense of the word, the truths of God’s Word without any reservation whatsoever.

In Christ,
Malcolm B. Yarnell III
Director, Center for Theological Research
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Fort Worth, Texas
Christmas 2009

Rejoicing in the Ministry of a Church-Planting Church

2009-12-03T08:28:00.003-06:00

A few months ago, I was introduced to a pastor in London, England, Barry King, through the kind words of another pastor in Farmersville, Texas, Bart Barber. Dr. Barber knew of my long experience with the British churches and of my own desire to see a revival occur in Great Britain. Christianity has fallen on hard times all over Western Europe; for instance, in England, church attendance is limited to less than 5% of the population, and the fastest growing religion is not even Christianity but Islam. I have been sharing the faith with unbelievers in Great Britain for some 15 years during my frequent visits there including a three-year residency at Oxford University. It has always been difficult for me to recommend that a new Christian attend a church there, knowing that many of the most vibrant evangelical churches are unfortunately disorderly in their doctrine of the church. And, as for those churches who possess a more New Testament polity, they are typically consumed with unbiblical oddities such as theological liberalism, the modern charismatic movement, or hyper-Calvinism.

However, now I am elated to report that there is a church—indeed, a growing family of churches—that possesses three important characteristics of a proper church: a missionary mindset, a healthy view of scriptural proclamation, and a Christ-exalting New Testament ecclesiology. It is in these three areas, among many others, that Grace Baptist Church, whose home congregation is located in north London, excels. Six years ago, Brother King resigned another church in London because he could not affirm certain aspects of their philosophy of ministry. Having sought to maintain peace with that church even as he departed her service, he was subsequently approached by two men whom he had recently begun to disciple. They encouraged him to consider establishing a new work, one that would emphasize biblical teaching and missionary outreach.

Barry prayed about the matter with them and his family and they began meeting together weekly for worship and fellowship. A year and a half later Barry was approached by the remnants of a small evangelical Baptist church who possessed a building but were soon to be without a pastor. After further prayer, the group meeting with Barry and this small group of believers entered into a new covenant as a new congregation with an old building. The result was Grace Baptist Church, Wood Green, Haringey. Because of their missionary mindset, they chose to start new congregations in other parts of London whenever possible. Indeed, every time the church has grown to a certain size, they have sent several families off to start a new congregation elsewhere in London. To date, they have begun five new congregations with work set to begin in two additional areas early in the New Year, who remain in affiliation with Grace Baptist Church and whose ministers Brother King is mentoring in the Word of God. (They currently have opportunity to begin some 20 other congregations and desire to see a church-planting church in each of the 41 boroughs of London with work in each of the 635 neighborhoods in London.)

Recently, sitting in a coffee shop early one Sunday morning in Wood Green, I had the pleasure of questioning Barry as to how he began and was continuing the work. We noted that his congregations were primarily composed of new believers. Then, I queried him, “And how were these new believers won to Christ?” At first, Barry looked at me quizzically, but recognizing that I was being intentional in my questions, he responded, “Well, I meet somebody, say, in a coffee shop, and then I talk to them about what the Bible says about their need for reconciliation with God and how Jesus Christ is the only answer.” He then explained that he believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection as the means of the salvation of all sinners, who must be born again with faith and repentance. He also explained that he believes biblical proclamation is the divinely ordained method of delivering that good news to lost people. I learned that he relied neither upon some humanly contrived church planting principle nor upon some emerging social ministry as his method for reaching the lost. Rather, he relied upon the Bible’s own method, which is to speak the Word directly in the hearing of as many lost people as will listen, encouraging them to believe (cf. Romans 10).

After this refreshing conversation about missional truth, we then proceeded to his church building, which like many in the British dissenting tradition was located off the main thoroughfare in a residential area. There, I was privileged to preach on the doctrine of believers-only baptism by immersion out of Romans 6 to his congregation. And during the service, I witnessed a wonderful man leading an expectant people to worship God with all their hearts and to hear God’s Word as the sole authority for their lives. We also heard reports from the ministers who are leading the church plants. These reports were, to say the least, personally inspiring and highly informative. Door-to-door evangelism, personal evangelism, street witnessing—Grace Baptist Church and its associated congregations were reaching the people of secularized multi-ethnic London, a society too many have deemed impenetrable, through a means that has been written off as old and unworkable, direct biblical proclamation.

Moreover, to my great delight, I was informed beyond a shadow of doubt that these churches followed the New Testament model in structuring and conducting their own lives as congregations. They begin with a covenant; they teach the entire counsel of God from the Bible regularly; they engage regenerate church membership by accepting only believers who have witnessed to their conversion through biblical baptism; they maintain authentic church membership through the regular meaningful observance of the Lord’s Supper; and, when necessary, practice redemptive church discipline. I was shocked. Here, in modern London, is a group of churches who recognize and honor the same truth as the first Baptist churches of seventeenth century England, who in turn emulated the New Testament church as established by Jesus Christ.

Well, there is so much more to report—the unremarked yet wonderful composition of the churches across ethnic, racial, and national boundaries; the intentional outreach to those who evangelical ecumenists may unwittingly and hastily mistake for true Christians (because, unlike Grace Baptist Church, they neglect to exercise spiritual discernment); the placement of the need for new congregations as primary and their own church building as important yet secondary; the centrality of the Bible in worship and the prominence of the gospel in every verbal action. Let me summarize what God is doing in north London through the ministry of Barry King and Grace Baptist Church by saying that I find great joy in this man’s ministry. He is leading people to follow Jesus exactly as the Lord has revealed His will in Scripture, not from legalistic motives but with thanksgiving in response to God’s saving grace. Moreover, as a non-Calvinist, I am overjoyed to report that Barry and his congregation were more concerned about what Scripture had to say than about whether or not I was personally holding to their own quite orthodox and evangelistic Calvinist convictions. May God glorify Himself far into the future through the joyful ministry of this church-planting church extraordinaire.

Karl Barth Demonstrates the Insufficiency of Reformed Theological Prolegomena

2009-10-12T16:40:00.008-05:00

In The Formation of Christian Doctrine, I discussed four major options for Christian foundations in theological method. These were the (1) Roman Catholic, (2) Liberal Evangelical, (3) Reformed Evangelical, and (4) Free Church models. At one point, I criticized Gerhard Ebeling for ignoring the Free Church model in his understanding of Christian history, wherein he offered only a threefold paradigm, subsuming the Free Church understanding under the "Enthusiastic" as opposed to the Roman Catholic and Reformed models. Here, I would like to extend the critique of insufficient paradigms toward that premier Reformed theologian Karl Barth.

In his Church Dogmatics, I/1, under his discussion of "The Task of Prolegomena to Dogmatics," Barth, similarly to Ebeling, presents only three possible models for Prolegomena: (1) Roman Catholicism, (2) Protestant Modernism, and (3) Protestant Evangelical. These three models correlate to the first three models that I set out in chapter 2 of my book. The fourth model, that of the Free Church, is, however, woefully underestimated by Barth.

Barth, incredibly, subsumes the Free Church understanding within Protestant Modernism. Indeed, without any historical justification for such a dependence, he states that the assumption of Friedrich Schleiermacher, that faith is prior to dogmatic formation, has its "origin in English congregationalism" (p. 38). He then cites articles 20, 23, and 24 of the Platform of the Savoy Declaration as proof, adding further, "They and they alone could authorise Schleiermacher to commence his basic work of introduction with statements borrowed from ethics. And of themselves they are sufficient to characterise these borrowed statements as dogmatics, i.e., dogmatically heretical statements" (ibid.)

So, there you have it, according to Barth, the Free Church theological method is really the basis for Evangelical Liberalism, and the result is "dogmatically heretical statements." Unfortunately, Barth does not justify these statements beyond his cryptic reference to the Savoy Declaration. Later, in the Church Dogmatics and in numerous other writings, Barth will pursue, repeatedly and without satisfactory finality, the problem of relating ethics with dogmatics, a subject treated exhaustively in many of the works of my old professor, John Webster, now at Aberdeen University. Barth never could make the transition from dogmatics to ethics, try as he might, because he was constantly worried that human agency just might impinge upon divine grace.

As I argued during a lecture delivered at Aberdeen a few years ago, Barth would have benefited by a close reading of the work of Pilgram Marpeck. Marpeck, in my opinion, was able to weave his way clearly through the problem of grace and discipleship by allowing the latter an integral function within his theological foundation. In doing so, Marpeck demonstrated a way past the knotty problem that has held Reformed dogmatics in an irresolvable philosophical grip, a grip demonstrated in Barth's own philosophical ruminations regarding the doctrine of election. (Yes, even Barth, in spite of his Christological reading of Romans 9, could not escape the Stoical bases of Reformed thought.)

What I find of especial interest in Barth's flippant dismissal of the Free Church tradition is that he utilized the Savoy Declaration, in its discussions of the Gospel and Grace (art. 20), Oaths and Vows (art. 23), and the Civil Magistrate (art. 24). The Congregationalists/Independents who adopted the Savoy Declaration were, in many ways, just as enamored as Barth with Reformed speculations regarding divine election. However, in article 20, an article that they added to the Westminster Confession, they did leave some room for human response and personal transformation: "for the producing in them a new spiritual life."

And in articles 23 and 24, this opening is explored again. In discussing the taking of an oath, the human person is protected from external coercion with this statement: "neither may any man bind himself by oath to any thing, but what is good and just, and what he believeth so to be, and what he is able and resolved to perform." Again, though in an apparently post-conversion context, the idea of a fully involved personal response by a human being is advocated.

Barth's reference to Article 24, on the Civil Magistrate, is highly disturbing, for in the Westminster Confession, the government is called upon in no uncertain terms to enforce the godly faith. The Savoy Declaration, however, respectful of human responsibility, qualifies the role of the government, bringing the liberty of individual consciences into direct conversation with government authority, protecting the former, in a limited sense, from impingement by the latter.

Let me wrap up this little exercise by noting the problems here with Reformed theological methodology, as exemplified in Karl Barth. By divorcing discipleship from doctrine, Reformed theology has created an irresolvable dilemma that prefers speculation about election to dependence upon scriptural affirmations. By citing his difficulty with the Savoy Declaration, Barth has demonstrated that Reformed theology is uncomfortable with personal responsibility and personal transformation, which are integral to any biblical doctrine of faith. Finally, again, by citing the Savoy Declaration, Barth has demonstrated that Reformed theology is, in its genesis, grossly dependent upon the coercion of consciences through, though here he is later equivocal, infant baptism.

Is Communion for Sinners?

2009-10-05T16:30:00.007-05:00

Recently, a friend passed me the link to a video promotion for a DVD entitled "Communion." It is an interesting video (and painfully slow, so be warned!) It is interesting in that the author(s) seems to present the Lord's Supper as indiscriminately intended for all sinners. But this is too simple of a solution, and does violence to the biblical witness.

It is an indisputable truth that all human beings, other than Jesus Christ, are tainted by sin. This is what makes us worthy of the eternal punishment of death. Death, of course, is separation from God. And the Son of God took on our humanity in order to suffer the penalty of death for us on the cross and rise from the dead so that we might have eternal life. Christ came to save sinners from sin and its consequence of death, which ends in eternal punishment away from the comforting presence of God. One is saved through being born again, which accompanies faith in Him and repentance toward God (John 3).

Unfortunately, the video's author, in this short promotion, presents the Lord's Supper as being intended for all sinners indiscriminately. But is this the case? Is communion intended for all sinners? Absolutely not!

When the Corinthian church demonstrated a penchant for gross immersion in the sins of the wider culture of their day, Paul rebuked them in no uncertain terms. The point he repeatedly made in the Corinthian correspondence was that the Lord's Supper was to be reserved only for the regenerate church. Those who were still infatuated with the sinful culture of Corinthian paganism were reminded that communion with God and communion with the devil are incompatible (1 Cor 10:20-21). The Corinthians were warned that they must be separate from the world: "'Come out from their midst and be separate,' says the Lord, 'and do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you'" (2 Cor 6:17).

In other words, I believe that, according to Scripture, the ordinance of communion, practiced by the churches at the direct command of Jesus Christ, is to be reserved for sinners who have been born again and are pursuing a life of repentance. Are the unholy invited into communion with the Holy One? Yes, indeed. But, first, there must be a transformation prior to communion. Sinners must repent and believe; otherwise, they are still sinners subject to the judgment of God. Moreover, such repentance from sin and faith in Christ must continue to characterize the Christian's life.

Paul warned that those who continued in sin are subject to divine judgment precisely because they were unrepentant sinners. "For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly" (1 Cor 11:29). The body must be judged. "The body," of course, is a common Pauline metaphor for the church. Individual Christians, in other words, must examine their own consciences (1 Cor 11:28), and Christians in the local church must hold one another accountable for one another's doctrine and conduct (1 Cor 11:29).

A concrete example in Corinth occurred with a young man involved in gross sexual sin. The speech of the Corinthian church had become so saturated with vice that she overlooked a situation by which even the pagans would be shocked (1 Cor 5:1). But rather than pass over the matter in silence, or make excuses for it, Paul called the church to take immediate action. As an Apostle, Paul recognized the need for the congregation itself to exercise governance through the application of discipline. The church must repent of its habit of condoning gross sin and excommunicate the sinner. When the church gathered, it must remove the sinful person "in the power of the Lord Jesus" and return him to the realm of Satan, i.e., the world (1 Cor 5:2-5).

The action of the Corinthian church in disciplining the unrepentant sinner was necessary, in spite of the difficulty it might bring to all involved. Yet, the difficulties were worth what seems to have been the result. Rather than continue condoning sexual sin, the majority of the Corinthian church seems to have obeyed and applied church discipline. This resulted in getting the sinner's attention, bringing to him great sorrow, and as a result, he repented. Paul then called the church to restore the repentant sinner to fellowship (2 Cor 2:1-9). Through discipline, an unrepentant sinner who thought he was already a Christian but did not act like it, was brought to repentance and faithfulness towards Christ.

My friends, our churches must seek to maintain their public purity. On the one hand, the church will never be perfect until all Christians gather (for the first time as one) at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:7-8). On the other hand, the members of the church are commanded by Christ to help one another towards repentance and a faithful lifestyle even now. If an individual Christian will not repent of publicly-known sin, then he or she must be excluded by the church (and only by the church--there is no room for elders arrogating to themselves the power of church discipline) for the purpose of loving redemption (Matt 18:15-17).

Let it be clearly noted that the intended outcome is, ultimately, the redemption of the sinner. Punishment is entirely in the purview of God alone, but loving discipline is given by the Lord to the church to practice when necessary. The church is to separate from unrepentant sinners in order that they might prompt one another through the covenantal life of the community to follow Christ completely.

So, we come back to the question prompted by the subject video: Is communion for sinners? Yes, but not without discrimination. Communion is only for sinners who have been born again. We know we are truly born again only because we are repenting of sin and are seeking to live lives faithful to the high call of Jesus Christ in discipleship.

Perhaps the video that prompted this short essay goes further into these matters. Unfortunately, the website does not clarify. I hope the full content is better than the presentation available publicly, for what they have posted online presents a highly distorted picture of the scriptural witness. For more on the biblical understanding of the regenerate church practicing close communion, see the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 articles on the church (art. 6) and on baptism and the Lord's Supper (art. 7).

Jesus is the Lord of His churches, which means that He is to be followed in what He commands them.

Unauthorized Consent: An Old Essay Addresses New Problems

2009-09-25T07:54:00.006-05:00

Yesterday, somebody affiliated with the Baylor community re-posted a paper on their discussion forum, which I originally wrote in 2002 . If you have not heard, the Baylor University Administration is seeking to shut down all dissent by swallowing the independent Baylor Alumni Association whole. Read about their attempt here.

For Moderate Baptists

It is somewhat curious to me that a school community affiliated with the more moderate side of the Baptist equation now includes an appeal to the work of a conservative Baptist scholar. Why? Because moderate Texas Baptists, who have prided themselves on being Baptist, find that they are losing their Baptist way of being community. If that popular-style essay, written some 7 years ago, is of any help to these fellow Baptists, I will rejoice, even across the moderate/conservative divide.

A Warning For All Baptists

But moderate Baptists are not the only ones who need to be reminded of our principles. In light of the fact that we are always in danger of losing our Baptist identity when some Baptists seek to remove other Baptists from their rightful place at the table, I am re-posting that essay. "Unauthorized Consent" applies to more situations than the gross practice of liberal-leaning self-perpetuating boards.

The only way we will remain Baptists (i.e. New Testament churches) by conviction is when we remember the theological principles upon which we are built. The priesthood of all believers and congregationalism are non-negotiable essentials in our Baptist identity. If we neglect those truths, we will become Baptists by convenience rather than Baptists by conviction, and, eventually, we will lose the name as well as the substance.

You may access the essay, "Unauthorized Consent," originally published in the Missouri Baptist Pathway, in Adobe format here.

A Tribute to My Father

2009-09-10T07:59:00.006-05:00

My father is known as Mel Yarnell to his friends and family. He is the son of a Pennsylvania farmer who left the farm to join the United States Air Force, where he served for 27 years as a security officer and recruiter, before retiring in Louisiana. A strong believer in Jesus Christ who is a consistent witness to lost souls, he has always looked for ways to bless others who are in need. The dynamic nature of his love for others is seen in how he continues to do what he can for them in spite of having suffered a debilitating stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body a few years ago. My father's life story was recently summarized in "The Posse Press," a publication offered by the Bossier Sheriff's office. This provides some details about my father, a Christmas blessing to the people of Korea, and how he met my mother. I am proud of both of them.

The Relevance of the Past for a Great Commission Resurgence

2009-06-05T12:33:00.004-05:00

FIRST-PERSON: The relevance of the past for a Great Commission resurgence
By Malcolm Yarnell
Jun 4, 2009

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--At the beginning of the 20th century, Southern Baptists numbered 1.6 million people. And now, at the beginning of the 21st century, Southern Baptists number over 16 million people.

The story of Southern Baptists in the 20th century is the growth story of a communion of free churches who focused upon telling lost people the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet, in recent years, our baptisms have slowed and our growth has been tempered. Why has this happened? And does our past hold any lessons for our future? How may we truly reclaim the growth habits of our forefathers and the resurgence in our hearts of Christ's Great Commission?

As the editor of the Southwestern Journal of Theology, I have been reading through our earliest issues. In the midst of that, I repeatedly encountered denominational leaders issuing powerful affirmations of the fundamentals of the Christian faith alongside equally powerful affirmations of the fundamentals of Baptist identity. They understood the fundamentals of the Christian faith to focus on Christ, Scripture, the cross, divine grace and personal discipleship. They understood the fundamentals of Baptist identity to focus on the Lordship of Christ and His will for His churches. These leaders, from many places and walks within the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention, simultaneously shared a passion for the Gospel along with a passion for obedience to the commands of Jesus Christ, especially His Great Commission.

In the midst of this reading, I also discovered a general foreboding about the future of Christianity, alongside a sense of profound excitement, especially regarding the future of Southern Baptists. As we know from our current vantage point, Southern Baptists entered their period of greatest growth in the middle decades of the 20th century. Our amazing growth was truly the work of God in the midst of our churches. And the mid-century growth was laid upon the foundational work He performed with our forefathers in the early part of the century. What characterized the foundational work of those early 20th-century forefathers? And what may we learn from them about how to prepare for an advance in the Great Commission of Jesus Christ?

DARK DAYS IN THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION

To answer these questions properly, some historical matters in the early 20th century must be addressed. During this period, the United States entered and emerged from its first engagement in world war. At that time, Americans were at war with German imperialism, just as now, we are in the midst of a war against Islamic terrorism. Also, in the religious realm, things were similar to today. There had been a powerful call by evangelical missionaries for a common missionary endeavor both in the United States and throughout the world. Internationally, these efforts were centered in the famous meetings in Edinburgh in 1910, which culminated in the World Council of Churches.

In the United States, the drive for ecumenism was led by John R. Mott, a young evangelical who succeeded the great revivalist D.L. Moody at the YMCA. Mott's efforts gained steam and became known as the "Union Movement," because it called for lowering denominational barriers between evangelical Christians in the name of "efficiency" and "unity" in Christ. From within the Southern Baptist Convention, L.R. Scarborough, president of Southwestern Seminary, led the effort to denounce unionism in its various forms. Even as he defended a biblically based spiritual unity, Scarborough and other Southern Baptists excoriated cross-denominational ecclesiastical unity for impinging upon the prerogatives of Christ over His churches.

Thus, many saw ecumenism as dangerous to spiritual Christianity, while others were interested in forming coalitions with other Christians for the greater cause of the Gospel. Things looked fairly bleak in the late 1910s as evangelical Christians divided into camps. In particular, it seemed as if Southern Baptists might dissipate their strength in a fight over evangelical cooperation. J.B. Gambrell, pastor and seminary leader, spoke soberly of the deep challenges leading into the 1919 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Atlanta, saying:

"The great war forced on Southern Baptists grave issues. They were precipitated on us in such a way that each man had to decide on his own course without any wide council. Unusual efforts were made by outside forces to capture and take over the leadership of the Southern Convention in the interest of plans destructive of the faith of the Gospel. The Convention in its Atlanta meeting was at the parting of ways. There was much heart-searching, and much prayer. Personally, I do not doubt that God, the Holy Spirit, dealt with the hearts of His people all over the South and prepared them aforetime for what happened in Atlanta. The Convention was the greatest ever assembled on this Continent, 4,200 messengers plus. It was widely representative. All the estates of Israel were there."

In spite of the troubles, perhaps God was not done with Southern Baptists. With the heaviness of his previous comments in mind and the largest-ever convention gathering before him, Gambrell believed that God still desired to move mightily in the midst of His churches. Reflecting later about what had happened at the 1919 meeting, Gambrell concluded, "The Spirit of grace and power was on the assembly." And looking back from here, we perceive that Gambrell may have actually understated the wide-ranging impact of God's grace and power in this convention.

THREE FUNDAMENTAL PLANKS IN THE DENOMINATION'S GROWTH

And what did the Spirit of God lead the messengers of the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention to do during their 1919 meeting? Out of a dark period arose something profoundly God-honoring and world-moving from within the Southern Baptist Convention. Alongside their defense of Christian truth and their defense of Baptist identity, our forefathers were interested in reaching the world for Christ. And God honored Southern Baptists as they followed a three-fold pursuit.

The efforts of our early 20th-century forefathers manifested themselves in three significant planks in our denomination's foundation: a compelling goal, a defined identity and a common program. First, their compelling goal was the fulfillment of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. Second, their defined identity was evangelical Christianity of a firmly Baptist type. Third, their program was to further the Great Commission efforts of the local churches in ways respectful of the local church's authority.

In the case of the first plank, Southern Baptists had long received the Great Commission as their own, as sermons delivered in the churches and the writings in those early issues attest. Indeed, the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 has historically been the loudest refrain of the Baptists in general and of Southern Baptists in particular. The Great Commission was their compelling goal, just as it is ours.

DEFINING BAPTIST IDENTITY

But there were two additional acts representing the two other planks that Southern Baptists needed to form the basis for their future growth: a defined identity and a common program. According to Gambrell, "The Convention rose to its greatest height, and did two vastly significant things. It disposed of all questions of alliances with other orders holding different standards of faith and practice, by passing, with amazing spirit and unanimity, a carefully considered report, which defined the Baptist position so clearly, that all the world may understand. And the convention put on a program so large, so noble and so commanding as to challenge Southern Baptists as they have never been challenged before in their history."

In the case of a defined identity, the convention appointed a committee to write a Fraternal Address, which was soon followed by the first version of The Baptist Faith and Message. To drive home the point that Southern Baptists would maintain their Baptist identity, Gambrell, the president of the convention during that important year, listened patiently to the address of J.C. White. White had come from the evangelical Inter-Church Movement and was granted a place in the SBC program. After White spoke, Gambrell publicly grasped him by the hand at the podium and declared, "Baptists do not have popes. They never put anybody where they can't put him down ... and another thing: Baptists never ride a horse without a bridle."

"Baptists," according to the bold Gambrell, "do not have popes." This fierce defense of Christ's direct prerogative over His people has been echoed through the years, not only in the Southern Baptist Convention, but in the local associations and state conventions that preceded the national denomination by decades and centuries. Most importantly, that sense of singular devotion to Jesus Christ has its basis in the New Testament pattern of the local church, which is the only institution created by Jesus Christ to fulfill the Great Commission.

A COMMON PROGRAM RESPECTFUL OF THE LOCAL CHURCH

In the case of a common program, these earlier Southern Baptists believed that the local churches may and must support one another in their mutual efforts. The mutual cooperation of free New Testament churches for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus Christ was the genius behind the programmatic efforts of the Southern Baptist Convention. And this third plank of Southern Baptist success, a common program, was dependent upon respect for the local church for its success. New Testament churches are autonomous under Christ and their independence was zealously guarded.

But Southern Baptists in these years also sought ways for the free churches to move forward together for the Gospel. They began by improving the church-supporting structure of the convention they had received. They recognized the need to help their two great foundational mission boards (Home and Foreign), as well as their growing number of seminaries and the Baptist Sunday School Board through improved means. In 1917, they created the Executive Committee as a better means to coordinate their broadening administrative needs. And in 1919, they wholeheartedly adopted the 75 Million Campaign as a better means to fund their common efforts to preach the Gospel and plant Baptist churches worldwide. The end result was the Cooperative Program and the basic structure of the national denomination as we see it, today.

HOPE FOR A NEW HIGH

And what was the result of this compelling goal of the Great Commission, the defined identity of Baptist Christianity, and this common program respectful of the local churches? Gambrell's own words resonate with our hope for a renewed sense of commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ over His churches, a commitment that is expressed as the churches fulfill the Great Commission given to us by Jesus Christ:

"Thus the healing tides of Southern Baptist life met and Jordan overflowed its banks. As never before in all their long history, Southern Baptists are together after Paul's ideal of efficiency -- 'in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the Gospel.' At Atlanta a new era opened and we are in that day now. What Isaiah cried out for and some in our day have longed for came to pass. Southern Baptists awoke. They broke forth on the right hand and on the left hand. They are putting on their strength. They are enlarging the place of their habitation, and there is a new high note of courage and joy sounded out from every hilltop...."

Oh, Lord, send us a three-planked revival, again! Restore to our hearts an overwhelming to desire to fulfill Your Great Commission as defined by Your Word. Restore to our voices an evangelical identity of a distinctively Baptist type as gleaned from the New Testament. And restore to our ways remembrance that Your local churches are your ordained means and therefore our ordained program.
--30--
Malcolm Yarnell is associate professor of systematic theology and director of the Center for Theological Research at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

© Copyright 2009 Baptist Press

Original copy of this story can be found at http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=30620

Christ My Pleasure

2009-06-01T15:28:00.005-05:00

Lord God, pity me: my infancy was stupid, my boyhood vain, my adolescence unclean. But now, Lord Jesus, my heart has been set on fire with holy love, and my disposition has been changed, so that my soul has no wish to touch those bitter things which once were meat and drink to me.

Such are my affections now that it is nothing but sin I hate, none but God I fear to offend, nothing but God in which I rejoice. My only grief is for sin, my only love is God, my only hope is in him. Nothing saddens me except wrong, nothing pleases me except Christ.

Richard Rolle, The Fire of Love (1343), ch. 12

The Pride of Scholars

2009-05-06T21:40:00.009-05:00

Before, I supposed myself profound through Aristotelian dogmas and argumentation with men of limitless shallowness, when You touched me at my core with Your heavenly truth, dazzling me with Your scripture, scattering the clouds of my error, showing me how I was croaking with the frogs and the toads in the swamp.

Richard Fitzralph, Archbishop of Armagh (Mid-14th Century)

The recurrent temptation of those who have been blessed with the life of the mind, the contemplative life, is to find sufficiency in one's own mind. The above quote from Richard Fitzralph, a medieval theologian who exercised great influence upon John Wyclif, the so-called "morningstar of the Reformation," is only one such remonstration against such an attitude. As an historian at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary relays, the temptation to professorial elitisim was alive and well in the early 20th century.

Because scholarly pride continues to waylay the unwary academic in the early 21st century, I encourage my brothers and sisters in the academy to avoid such hubris as if it were a deadly virus. Some of my colleagues have wondered why I am so harshly critical of useless speculation in biblical and theological studies. The reason I despise scholarly pride is that it blinds us to our radical need for God and His grace towards us, both before and after justification. Academic arrogance also leads those who look to our words as authoritative down unbiblical paths. In other words, for me, scholarship or the scholar's attitude toward his or her work is fundamentally a spiritual issue.

After all, let us not forget that the first sin had to do with the tree of knowledge.

Another New Appointment

2009-05-05T10:14:00.004-05:00

Thanks to the folks at B&H Academic Publishing in Nashville, Tennessee, for their recent appointment of this professor of theology as "Associate General Editor" for the "Studies in Baptist Life and Thought" series.

Alongside the appointment to a Fellowship at the "Centre for Baptist History and Heritage" at Oxford University, I am deeply honored.

The Relevance of a Change to Biblical Methodology

2009-04-24T16:28:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, we learned that the baptism numbers reported by the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention suffered another slight decline from 2007 to 2008 (3,743 fewer baptisms during the year or minus 1.08% to a total of 342,198). Total membership, too, suffered another even slighter decline (down 38,482 or minus 0.24% to a total of 16,228,438).

In comparison with the alarm being raised by these numbers, the use above of the words “slight” and “slighter” may seem something of a misnomer. However, an accurate description of the situation as “slight” should not be seen as an excuse, for the numbers indicate that at a number of local churches there really is a problem. Any decline in baptism or membership is a sign that we are not what we ought to be as instruments of God for converting the world. As a result of these declines, one leading denominational figure asked a pertinent question indeed, “What is the needed change and do you have hope that change is coming?”

“Change,” of course, can be understood, from a value perspective, in different ways. Change could be a transition for the better, that is, towards God’s will—the New Testament refers to this positively as “repentance toward God” (Acts 20:21). Or, “change” could be a transition to the worse, that is, away from God’s will—in the Old Testament, God refers to this negatively as when people “turn from following me” (1 Kings 9:6). A third alternative is to utilize the language of “change” as a mere mantra to cover some hidden agenda. For instance, many Americans, jaded by long experience, are apt to consider a politician’s call for change as deceptive and self-serving. When other Christians use the concept of “change,” we should assume the best, that they mean neither a turn from following God nor a hidden agenda.

With that positive call for “change” or “repentance” in mind, what would be a positive change on our part that may prompt God to bless the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention in manifestly great ways once again? By the way, let us assume that every one of those 342,198 baptisms in 2008 represent real blessings from God upon those born-again persons primarily, and secondarily upon their churches, their families, and their friends. When but one sinner repents and believes, the angels in heaven throw a party because they recognize God has glorified Himself in another life (Luke 15:7, 10).

With such appropriate celebrations in mind, still we should ask, “How might we see even more believers arise?” Our desire should be for even more souls to repent and believe in the divine-human person of the Lord Jesus and in His substitutionary work upon the cross and His resurrection. The focus in recent decades in our convention has been upon a pragmatic solution to such problems. There is some truth in pragmatism, but pragmatism must always be firmly grounded in Scripture to be truly effective. So then, what new method should we adopt to see a revival of God’s blessing upon Southern Baptists? What biblical method might there be to foster true revival in our churches?

The Biblical Method for Revival

Well, Scripture provides some answers that are quite clear. For instance, let us examine the tried and true locus classicus for every self-respecting church revival in which I ever participated: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Now, some crack Bible scholar might object that this passage is technically for Israel and not the church, which is certainly true in the literal sense. However, a similar restriction in application would deny Christianity use of the Old Testament as its own Scripture. Recognizing the Old Testament as Christian Scripture, I would argue that the church is certainly able to see itself in this promise. Moreover, the New Testament also promises Christians that God intends to bless the humble (James 4:10), those who pray (Luke 21:36), who seek His presence (Acts 3:19), and who turn away from sin (Acts 2:38).

Scripture, then, seems to affirm at least this fourfold methodology for bringing about revival: self-humbling, prayer, seeking God’s face, and turning away from sin. Now, I can offer you no social survey to verify that this method actually works to the satisfaction of men. Yet this method is advocated within the Word of God itself, so the believer may take it on faith that this is a divinely ordained method to seeing God bless our churches mightily once again. Let us consider the method in its four parts.

1. Self-humiliation

Self-humbling implies that the minister and the people of our churches must evaluate themselves honestly. Exactly who are we? Are we the giants about which we read in Scripture? Where is the Moses who can lead his people into what human logic would necessarily consider a dead-end wilderness, but faith sees beyond into the promised land? Where is the David who has encountered God in the difficulty of his own failures and yet trusts that God redeems those who will cry out in true repentance (Psalm 51)? Where is the follower of Jesus who understands that glory comes through self-renunciation on behalf of the other, and who is therefore more than ready to bear the cross? After all, the cross is the Christ ordained methodology of true revival, and such true revival focuses on the soul and takes its eyes off of the world (Mark 8:34-37). Revival begins with biblical evaluation and humility.

2. Prayer

Prayer teaches us that the minister and the people of our churches must not look to their own power to bring revival. “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” is the method that the Lord gave to the people of Israel. And he gave it to them at their weakest point after returning from the Exile to the promised land (Zechariah 4:6). In a true revival, the leaders and the people of God will start their work in weakness, yet faith, and they will finish their work with shouts that it was grace from the beginning and grace to the very end that brought about the great work.

There is no room for human glory in a true revival; indeed, from a human perspective, true revival occurs in “the day of small things” (Zechariah 4:10). As the remnant that returned from exile discovered, it was only in their weakness that they were able to complete a great work of God. This is why they could finish the capstone work with shouts of “Grace, grace to it” (Zechariah 4:7). Ultimately, it is not a humanly devised method that wins men to God; it is divine grace working through a willing though weak people that wins men and women and children to faith. Our access to God’s sovereign grace on behalf of others begins and ends with humble prayer.

3. Seek God’s Face

Exactly what does it mean to seek God’s face? The answer lies in the biblical references to God’s face. “The face of God” is another way of speaking of the powerful disposition of God toward a creature. When Jacob saw God “face to face,” he walked away a changed man and considered himself blessed, in spite of the crippling blow he received from God (Genesis 32:30). True spiritual blessing is accompanied by a palpable change, sometimes even physical, always profoundly spiritual, in a person. Perhaps the memory of Jacob’s crippling blessing prompted Moses to turn away from God’s face at first (Exodus 3:6). People typically want God’s blessing; we just don’t want the temporarily painful and truly humbling transformation that comes with it. For one cannot have God’s presence without having His discerning holiness, too.

Solomon in his wisdom understood, moreover, that the face of God must be visible if salvation is to be possessed (2 Chronicles 6:42). When we want God to bless other men, men who in turn wish a blessing from God, then we must seek His face. If we will seek God’s face and if they will turn to God, He is faithful to bring a blessing (1 Kings 13:6). Perhaps what is holding back revival today is that many of us Christians refuse to surrender to God’s method because we don’t really want to see His face. For God’s face profoundly changes us, since we cannot see Him without seeing who we really are.

Today, standing under a tree, I myself saw the face of God in a fellow Christian, who reflected back to me the difficulty of my calling with regard to the deep things of God. The encounter changed me profoundly in ways that blessed me even as I felt the man within me crippled (again) by the reminder of both my task and my weakness. I thank God for letting me see His face in my friend. I pray that we Southern Baptists will follow His method and embrace the change He demands within our own souls, change that we may fear, change that we may not understand before it happens, but change that will benefit and cripple both us and the people whom God seeks to be His own.

4. Repentance from Wickedness

Positive change is not only about turning towards God through faith in the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ. Positive change is also about turning away from cultural wickedness. Moreover, true repentance is impossible unless God gives it (John 16:8-10), even as true repentance must likewise be the personal exercise of the human being (Matthew 4:16, Acts 17:30).

Why is it important to repent from wickedness? First, those who do not truly repent of sin have cast a shadow of doubt upon their salvation. Second, those who do not repent of wickedness stifle the working of the Spirit of God in their lives. Third, those who continue to live in sin even while they claim the gospel of Jesus Christ bring disrepute to the church and cast aspersions upon their Lord’s character.

On the one hand, faith without repentance is the experiential basis of the ethical heresy of antinomianism. On the other hand, faith with repentance is the definition of true Christian conversion. I am reminded of Jesus’ haunting words, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). One cannot claim Jesus is Lord but then ignore His Lordship. Jesus is Lord of our lives and Lord of our churches. To deny Him sovereignty over one’s own life is to deny He is Lord. To deny Him sovereignty over His churches is to deny He is Lord. The fourth part of the biblical method of revival is repentance from wickedness, whether that sin is personal or congregational.

Conclusion

The question of my first friend, the denominational leader, is a good one. “What is the needed change and do you have hope that change is coming?” On the basis of Scripture, I would argue that the needed change for Southern Baptists is self-humiliation, prayer, seeking God’s face, and repenting of wickedness. This comes home to me personally now. I see the need for change in me and in my church. I also have hope that God can sovereignly use me, in spite of me. Why?

First, I have been humbled by God’s sovereign and very personal movement. Second, I have seen God’s face in a friend and was reminded of my difficult task. Third, I ask you to join me in prayer. For fourth, this weekend, I join my three sons and some twenty students alongside a seminary president as we go into the highways and byways of the Cross Timbers Association in west Texas. We go there to call men to repent of their wickedness and believe in the free gospel of Jesus Christ, a free gospel that can change anyone because it has changed me. Pray that men, women, and children will repent and believe and be baptized into the churches, including some churches that have not seen any baptisms this last year.

Southwestern Seminary Does Not Affirm Ecumenical "Tomfoolery"

2009-04-20T16:03:00.013-05:00

The Union Movement does not go out with the idea of allegiance to doctrine and loyalty to the teachings of Jesus Christ. It goes on a spiritual camouflage of these doctrines. It asks the people to lay down their convictions of the truth. They propose for [...] all to lay down their former convictions and go into a church of scrambled religion. The church they would organize would sprinkle, pour and immerse. You would not have to claim any experience of grace to become a member. If you were opposed to baptism in any form or mode you could get in. You would neither have to have religious conviction nor moral character to be a member. You would have no distinctive doctrine to bind you. You would have to be led solely by a desire to get together in some form of worship so that you would save money in church buildings and local expenses, and be more efficient, as they think. All this sort of molly-coddle talk is tomfoolery. It is against the strength of character produced by conviction and allegiance to the truth of God. I am for Unionism as far as men can unite on a conviction and a loyalty to the Word of God and Jesus Christ. I am not for a patched up, convictionless Unionism. Unless there is unity in faith, doctrine and practice there can be no union and successful effort following. Christ laid down a program for uniting all people. It was that they should all repent of their sins, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and by open and public confession of their faith in Him, by a baptism which was an immersion in water, and by a union with His regularly constituted church, followed by a life of loyalty to Him and His truth as laid down in the New Testament, and of heartful and spiritual service for the winning of the world to the Savior and the building up of His glorious kingdom. Any union of religion based on any other program is contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ, and cannot hold and will not hold together. If men cannot agree on the doctrines of the Word of God they should not unite in a church through which they propose to worship and serve God. But they can and should co-operate as far as their convictions of the truth will allow them, for the general good and uplift of humanity.

L.R. Scarborough, Editor-in-Chief, or C.B. Williams, Managing Editor, The Southwestern Journal of Theology, 3.1 (1919): 5-6

Rebuke One Who Has Understanding and He Will Discern Knowledge

2009-04-17T20:37:00.012-05:00

For over a year now, I have been deeply concerned about some of the teaching that is being propagated by the leader of a Seattle church and of the Acts 29 movement, Mark Driscoll. Although previously expressing misgivings about the man's flippancy in an interview with New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in March 2008, I have since remained relatively silent. However, one of his more recent missives, released in November 2008, was absolutely horrifying to my wife and me. And now, at this time, because Mark Driscoll continues to gain recognition, and in order to support publicly the sober response of another minister, I have chosen to speak again to the matter.

One man's ministry that has repeatedly inspired many ministers to be more biblical and thus more like our Lord Jesus Christ, in word and in deed, over the years, is Dr. John MacArthur. Dr. MacArthur recently concluded a short series in Pulpit Magazine on proper and improper exegesis of the Song of Solomon and on the need for purity in the pulpit. His four-part series is a restrained approach to a recent rash of improper but otherwise unchallenged conduct by Mark Driscoll. MacArthur has shown incredible foresight even as other ministers, who continue to support Mark Driscoll, have apparently been rather reluctant to register rebuke.

The doctrinal moral of this sad tale is that any time that a preacher attempts to appropriate worldly methods to aid in the propagation of the gospel, he has already fundamentally compromised the gospel. The recent movement towards claiming that, "As long as our doctrine is correct, we can agree to use various methods," certainly carries some truth, but such a position is not to be taken naively. Methodology, too, is restrained by the commands of Christ, both positively with regard to the church's actions (preaching the Word, celebrating the ordinances, worshiping in spirit and in truth, etc.) and negatively with regard to personal and communal doctrinal and moral integrity. The issue in the present case is moral integrity: there simply is no way that the sacred and the profane, or Christianity and Hedonism, may be blended, even for altruistic "missional" reasons. In the very act of combining the holy--that which has been separated unto God--with the unholy, the result is assured to be profane (1 Cor. 5:6, 10:21).

Earlier this evening, as I spoke tenderly but firmly to my oldest son about how to treat a young lady properly when on a date, I prayed for him to have wisdom in such situations and he bowed his head in agreement. And later, as I tucked my two precious daughters into bed, moved in the depths of my heart by concern for them in a sinful world, I prayed for the Lord to give these girls godly husbands, who would treat them with a holy respect, in word and in deed, and they smiled in agreement. And tonight, as I conclude this post, I pray that the ministers of our nation, young and old, will see their task not to engage their cultures with reckless abandon but to carry their Christ-given crosses with bold holiness. Oh, Lord, hear this prayer! And, oh, reader, consider the wisdom of Proverbs 19:25!

Thank you, Dr. MacArthur, for your bold and needed stance in reminding us of these truths. May others see the wisdom in your words. (Note: If you are not a mature believer, please do not read the posts linked here. Although Dr. MacArthur handles the issues circumspectly, they are nevertheless for the mature.)

Dr. John MacArthur, "The Rape of Solomon's Song" (part 1)
"The Rape of Solomon's Song" (part 2)
"The Rape of Solomon's Song" (part 3)
"The Rape of Solomon's Song" (conclusion)

Centre for Baptist History and Heritage

2009-04-13T21:38:00.004-05:00

Robert Ellis, the Principal of Regent's Park College at the University of Oxford, and his colleagues were kind enough to offer me a Fellowship of the Centre for Baptist History and Heritage. This is quite an honor and comes with a three-year appointment as a "Visiting Fellow."

The only disappointment is that Dr. John H.Y. Briggs, Director of the Centre for Baptist History and Heritage, and author of a number of excellent studies, will be retiring in the near future. He is a class scholar and his contributions will be sorely missed.

Take note also of the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture at Regent's Park College. A few years ago, when I was a PhD student, they were kind enough to offer me a stipendiary Fellowship in that Centre. It was a blessing for a student supporting a growing family in a foreign land.

"Rediscovering Jesus is Lord"

2009-04-11T11:07:00.014-05:00

John Mann, pastor of LaJunta Baptist Church, Spring, Texas, asked permission to post the audio file of the sermon I preached there on Sunday, 5 April 2009. It was a pleasure to fellowship in the Word with this leading young pastor and his wonderful church. Following is the outline of the sermon:

Introduction - Malcolm Muggeridge, Jesus Rediscovered
Text - Romans 10:1-4

Verse 1 - The Apostle's Desire
Verse 2 - Israel's Zealous Ignorance
Verse 3 - Locating False Righteousness
Verse 4 - Christ is the Goal

Conclusion - Kenneth Wuest, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, on hupotasso, "submit":

Appropriation by faith of God's righteousness involves not only the discarding of all dependence upon self and self-effort for salvation, but also the heart's submission or capitulation to Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

Supernatural Word vs. Natural Words

2009-04-04T16:01:00.006-05:00

Supernatural good is not a kind of supplement to natural good, as some Aristotelians would like to convince us for our greater comfort. It would be pleasant if it were so, but it is not. In every poignant problem of human existence, there is a choice only between evil and supernatural good. If words pertaining to the lower level of values--democracy, rights, person--are placed on the tongue of those who live in affliction, it would be a gift likely to lead them to no good and would inevitably cause them a great deal of harm. These ideas have no place in heaven. They are suspended in mid-air, and for that very reason they can have no influence on earth. Only the sunlight falling constantly from the sky can furnish a tree with the energy necessary to thrust its powerful roots deeply into the ground. Only the things that come from heaven are capable of making a real imprint on earth. If we wish efficaciously to fortify the afflicted, we must put on their lips only the words whose proper dwelling place is heaven...

Simone Weil, "Beyond Personalism" (London, 1942)

The voice said, "Cry out!"
And he said, "What shall I cry?"
"All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever."

Isaiah 40:6-8 (NKJV)

Don't Be Eager About This World

2009-04-01T14:12:00.003-05:00

"Are you astonished at the world going to pieces? You might as well be astonished that the world has grown old. The world is like a man; he's born, he grows up, he grows old ... the world has grown old; it's full of troubles and pressures ... Don't be eager to cling to an aged world."

Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 81.8, Reflecting upon the Barbarian Invasions

"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen"

1 Peter 1:1

The Family of Christ

2009-03-30T09:19:00.004-05:00

Then His mother and brothers came to Him, but they could not meet with Him because of the crowd. He was told, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see You.” But He replied to them, “My mother and My brothers are those who hear and do the word of God.”

Luke 8:19-21 (HCSB)

Yesterday, Sunday afternoon, my two oldest sons were late on their homework and were diligently seeking to finish their work before Monday. However, a kink was thrown into their plans: the evening service at our church was scheduled to celebrate communion. I explained to the oldest boy that Christ commanded us to celebrate the Lord's Supper until He comes again and that our church practiced communion at set times but with less frequency than my own desire. There was no way any of us were going to miss out on obeying the Lord's command when given opportunity. Without delay, the three of us packed into the car and joined my wife with the other three children for worship.

Over the last two years, during previous celebrations of communion, I was in the practice of whispering to my youngest son, who is now a 9-year-old, what the Lord's Supper means. The Lord's Supper is a memorial celebration performed as a communal confession of the atonement of Christ worked upon the Cross. The fundamental reality of the body broken and the blood that Jesus Christ, the sinless one, voluntarily poured out on behalf of our sins is powerfully represented in the bread and the cup. The accompaniment of the visual practice with the audible Word has a powerful effect upon the observer of this second of the great Christian ordinances.

But participation in the second of the great ordinances commanded by Christ for His church to practice in its worship is reserved for those that have been born again and witnessed to that regeneration through participation in the first of the great ordinances commanded by Christ for His church: baptism. Previously, my youngest son had requested permission to participate in the Lord's Supper in our church. He understood the meaning of the Lord's Supper and his Christian faith prompted him to desire to participate in this great communal confession. Unfortunately, he had not yet followed Christ in the first public act of a Christian believer: baptism by immersion. He was definitely part of my family, but not yet visibly part of the family of Christ, and Jesus Christ had set certain standards for membership in His family, standards over which we have no authority to dispense or alter.

In our age, as in previous days, there is a thoroughgoing antinomianism at work with regard to the commands of Christ. This is true with regard to personal ethics and with regard to communal ethics, ecclesiology. Indeed, whole churches have bought into ecclesiological antinomianism. They dispense with the commands of Christ in mission and in communion. Mind you, many individual members do so out of ignorance, but disobedience is still disobedience, whether performed by churches or by individuals, who have been misled by churches. The family of Christ is identified not by blood kinship, but, according to Jesus, it is composed only of those who "hear and do," that is, "hear the Word" and "do the Word." The antinomian confesses that he or she has heard God's Word, but then refuses to carry out God's Word.

Antinomians, whether individuals or organized into communities, have the fundamental problem that they say they know Christ but then dispense with His commands entirely or alter His commands to their own liking. This hypocrisy is usually excused through some type of man-made theological innovation: for instance, in the doctrines of baptismal regeneration, covenantal infant baptism, sprinkling or pouring rather than immersion, etc. More closely to home, this hypocrisy is often propagated by those who hold (correctly) to the Reformation doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone. The problem these sincere Christians have is that they seem to forget that true discipleship is not just properly confessed in word, it is also properly confessed in deed, both personally and communally.

The Great Commission of Jesus Christ explicitly includes the practice of baptism, and the ordering given by our Lord and subsequently practiced by the apostles was that baptism succeeds faith but precedes further instruction in our Lord's commands (Matt. 28:18-20: 1-going, 2-making disciples, 3-baptizing, 4-teaching all things commanded by Christ). "Baptism," of course, means "immersion" in the original Greek, so proper Christian baptism occurs after conversion and is by immersion. As with the Lord's Supper, the visual act of Christian baptism accompanied by the confession, "Jesus is Lord," is a powerful memorial to one's personal faith in the God who is Jesus, who died and rose again. This is the way Jesus intended it to be and those who dispense with His commands by attenuating the Great Commission or by altering its order will stand before God to give an account of their disobedience.

Baptism is the first act of the public Christian life and thus should be obeyed before one is able to participate in the other commands of Jesus Christ for His churches, including the Lord's Supper. Again, note the order laid down by Jesus: 1-going, 2-making disciples, 3-baptizing, 4-teaching all things (inclusive of the Lord's Supper) that Christ has commanded. When I explained this to my son, he accepted the biblical order of close communion, a logic confessed in my own denomination's Baptist Faith & Message. However, it took some time before he was able to overcome his fear of standing before the church to request entrance into the church covenant and the right of participation in the Lord's Supper.

I praise God that my son overcame human frailty by the power of the Holy Spirit and obeyed Christ by requesting public baptism in the name of his Triune Lord. I praise God that I was prompted last evening to remember His command that we participate in the Lord's Supper until He comes again (Matt. 26:26-29 and par.; 1 Cor. 11:23-26). After the service, I asked my oldest son, "Aren't you glad we obeyed Christ and came to see your brother profess Him as Savior?" His reply, of course, was in the affirmative, though the homework still remained to be done.

I praise God that my family of blood kin includes members of the family of Christ, too. I praise God that He has given us the grace of salvation, a grace confessed visibly and necessarily in the grace of obedience. I praise God that He has led our church to recognize that baptism is to precede communion and that it is a confession and not a magical rite that is disconnected from the individual human will. (I also praise God that He has led our church not to affirm those improperly baptized, for to affirm an error is to participate in that error.)

Oh, Lord, help us to hear your Word clearly, and do your Word diligently! And where we have erred, please illumine the Bible so that we may understand correctly and empower us by your Spirit so that we may live correctly! I thank you that You have led my son into Your family, whose Father is so much superior to his earthly father. Your ways truly are effective. Your truth truly is invincible.

The Relevance of the Word of God

2009-03-13T16:23:00.002-05:00

By Malcolm Yarnell
Mar 13, 2009

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--We often hear today that Christians must make the Word of God relevant to their culture. During my first full-time pastorate, I learned a difficult lesson that challenges such an idea. Because of prior training in finance and economics, my assumption was that it was the essential actions of the pastor and the people that determined how successful the church would be.

More specifically, I assumed that man was the effective agent rather than the instrument in the health and growth of the church. I knew better than that in my formal doctrine but not in my lived doctrine. With this assumption of human power in heart, I set off to grow that first church through man-generated evangelistic fervor and organizational manipulation. In the process I learned a lesson in the relevance of God's Word.

Now, mind you, God honored that activity and that active spirit; however, He did so not because of my man-centered assumption but in spite of it. What I discovered, experientially and scripturally, was that all my efforts to make God's Word relevant to the people failed week after week. However, when I reached the end of my own efforts and relied only upon the Word of God, the church thrived. I may not be the sharpest tack on the board, but the repetition of 1) failure through my efforts, followed by 2) success through focus on preaching the Word alone, demonstrated a pattern.

When I began to cry out to God as to why there was so much heartache with my own efforts on His behalf but marvelous and often unexpected results from focusing on preaching His Word, He opened my eyes to the relevance of His Word. Indeed, the Bible declares the utter relevance and power of the Word, even as it teaches the temporal and weak nature of human action.

Is the proclaimer of the Word a necessary agent in God's redemptive plan? Absolutely! Is it the teacher of the Word who makes the Bible relevant to contemporary culture? Absolutely not! A review of Scripture's witness to the relevance of the Word may be helpful here.

THE OLD TESTAMENT WITNESS

The Hebrew uses of "Dabar" and related terms for "word" are important in Old Testament theology. The book of Genesis begins with a Trinitarian work: in verse 1, God creates; in verse 2, the Spirit of God forms that creation; and in verse 3, the Word of God speaks creation into existence. Thence onward, the Word of God is considered in dynamic terms.

Repeatedly, the Word of the Lord was said to come upon the prophets and compel them to speak. The Word of God "came" to Jeremiah bringing joy and delight (Jeremiah 15:16), except when the people rebelled against the Word and persecuted the prophet. Yet, when the prophet tried to remain silent, the Word would literally consume his inner self like a fire in his bones (Jeremiah 20:9). The prophet was an instrument that the Word employed in order to proclaim God's will and ways to humanity.

According to Isaiah, the Word of the Lord is eternal while man is temporal and quickly passes away (Isaiah 40:6-8). Moreover, the eternal Word comes down from the Father in heaven in the same manner that rain or snow falls. And just as the rain brings forth the harvest, "so shall My Word be that goes forth from My mouth." The Word comes from the Father and does not return to Him without accomplishing what God sent the Word to do (Isaiah 55:10-11). The Word of God is presented as actively accomplishing the Father's will.

WHY IS THE WORD OF GOD POWERFUL?

The Word of God, as we know, was not only spoken through the prophets; the prophets also recorded the Word of God in writing. They did this because they were inspired by the Holy Spirit to do so (2 Peter 1:21). God inspired the written Word so that, even today, people might hear Him and be redeemed, instructed, and perfected by God (2 Timothy 3:15-17). This is why many theologians speak of the Word of God as being both the Word intoned or spoken and the Word inscribed or written. The Word of God, whether written or spoken, speaks actively to people.

A third way to speak of the Word of God -- next to the Word intoned and the Word inscribed -- is as the Word incarnate. The eternal Word, participating in the very nature of God, came to this earth and assumed to Himself our humanity, thus participating also in the very nature of Man.

The Word of God is therefore powerful because the Word of God is first and foremost the Second Person of the Trinity. Moreover, the Word of God is known clearly today through the written Word of God, which is the inspired and inerrant Bible. Finally, the Word of God is clearly proclaimed when believers speak the Bible to others. God the Word speaks powerfully through the proclamation of the book that His Spirit inspired.

THE NEW TESTAMENT WITNESS

In the New Testament, the Greek words for "word" are "Logos" and "Rhema." According to the Gospel of John, the Word is both "God" and "with God." This is true in the very beginning or from eternity (John 1:1). Moreover, in the person of Jesus Christ, the Word "became flesh" (John 1:14). Thus, in all three ways of speaking of the Word -- spoken, written, and enfleshed -- there is a definite active meaning. There is no hint whatsoever that the Word of God lacks power or relevance; God acts in His Word.

The relevant nature of the Word of God becomes absolutely clear in Hebrews 4, where we are told that the Word is "zon" ("living") and "energa" ("active"). This energetic Word is neither passive nor impotent. Like a Machairan, a double-edged surgical knife, in the hand of the Great Physician, God approaches the human person and pierces down into the deepest part of his or her being.

God's Word penetrates and probes into the inseparable aspects of the human soul and spirit, delivering divine judgment upon what He finds there. For the Word is "a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" and nobody can hide from Him (Hebrews 4:12-13). In this passage, the Word is not seen as a static object that man dissects; rather, the Word is the subject that reads and dissects man!

The activity of the Word in Hebrews 4 is to judge man, while the activity of the Word in Romans 10 is to present salvation to man. Drawing upon a number of Old Testament texts, the Apostle Paul presented the Word as coming from God through the preacher to the human ear. But the Word does not stop there, for the Word engages a person by coming "near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (Romans 10:8).

And there, when the Word is believed it is by reason of its proximity to the heart. The Word is also confessed, having come into the proximity of the mouth (Romans 10:9-10). Thus, the Word that has been called out by God in turn empowers human faith, enabling a person to call back to God (Romans 10:13). The truth that faith comes through hearing is supplemented by the truth that hearing itself is an activity empowered by the Word of God as the effective agent (Romans 10:17).

Yet, God has also ordained that the churches and their preachers are the chosen instruments of God in the proclamation of the Word. The churches send the preachers as they are led by God's Spirit (cf. Acts 13:2-4); the preacher preaches the Word; the listener hears the Word; the believer believes the Word and calls back to God in faith, and is thus saved.

The temporal ordering of Romans 10:13-15 is significant in this regard: sending—preaching—hearing—believing—calling. Through every step in the communication and reception of salvation, the Word of God is active. The Word by His Spirit provides the power of salvation; the preacher is instrumentally used to deliver the Word; and the believer receives the Word then in turn calls back to God.

THE RELEVANCE OF THE WORD OF GOD

The Word of God is energetic, being active in judgment and salvation. This Word is theological -- He is God Himself. This Word is scriptural -- the Bible is God's written revelation. And this Word is proclamatory -- the speech of God is on the lips of His gospel preachers. Because God is a living and active God, His Word is also living and active.

The active relevance of the Word is a reminder that His human instruments are both blessed and humbled. It is the greatest blessing to be the instrument by which God saves a human being -- "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace" (Romans 10:15). It is the greatest humbling to recognize that the initiating and effective agent alone is God Himself speaking in His Word.

We may add nothing to the Word of God to make the Word relevant. We may only speak the Word in the ears of the people of the world. When we speak from the Bible, the Word opens ears and hearts to God's truth. The Word reveals to the listener what is truly relevant: that God is sovereign, that man is sinful, that judgment is at hand, and that the cross of Jesus Christ is man's only hope.

Ever since I learned this lesson from Scripture and witnessed the life-transforming power of God's Word, I have found that there is no greater joy than being a preacher of the Word. Let us be instruments of the Word of God -- let us read it constantly for our minds and lives; speak it consistently to our families; bear witness of the Word boldly to lost souls everywhere; and, preach the Word faithfully and expositionally to His churches. When we do so, we shall rediscover that the Word alone provides relevance.

For the glory of God alone in the power of the Spirit alone, let us preach the Word alone.

--30--

Malcolm Yarnell is associate professor of systematic theology and director of the Center for Theological Research at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

© Copyright 2009 Baptist Press

Original copy of this story can be found at http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=30075

But Those Who Serve Christ Are Always Glad, Whether in Tribulation or Not

2009-03-11T20:54:00.008-05:00

The Burning of Savonarola, Florence, Italy, 23 May 1498

The men of the world are without grace and and have no consolation above in that they are turned toward the things of the world, from which they draw no consolation, for the more you own, the more you are anxious. But those who are in the grace of Christ, grace enlightens, draws, and leads. And so you see, all those who love Christ are glad and joyful in their tribulations, while those others, among all their pleasures, do not have such joy, and even if they do, it lasts but a short time. But those who serve Christ are always glad, whether in tribulation or not.

Girolamo Savonarola, Sermon XLIV, 1 April 1496

And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God."

Paul and Barnabas, Acts 14:21-22

Southern Baptists: "Our Problem Is That We Do Not Look Or Live Like Jesus"

2009-03-05T12:35:00.008-06:00

Today, we do not know who we are. The world does not know who we are. Our lost friends and neighbors do not know who we are. In the New Testament world, believers lived differently than their neighbors. That is how they came to be called Christians, a term of derision, not respect. Our problem is not that more of us don’t witness to our neighbors. Our problem is that more of us do not look like and live like Jesus. How long has it been since you heard a joke about Baptists? This is not necessarily a good thing. If we do not produce children, youth, and adults who live out a biblical worldview, no strategy for doing church will make us salt and light in the world.

Dr. Charles (Chuck) S. Kelley, "The New Methodists: Reflections Upon the Southern Baptist Convention"

Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

The Lord Jesus, Mark 8:34

Freedom Begins with Seeing the Evil Within Us All

2009-03-02T19:10:00.007-06:00

It was granted me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, the essential experience: how a human being becomes evil and how good. In the intoxication of my youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the surfeit of power I was a murderer, and an oppressor. In my most evil moments, I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments. And it was only when I lay there [in the Gulag Archipelago] on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes, not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts ... And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me: "Bless you, prison!"

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 312-13.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Paul the Apostle, To the Romans, 8:2.

When Man's Hope Ends, Eternity's Begins

2009-02-28T18:33:00.010-06:00

It is precisely when every earthly hope has been explored and found wanting, when every possibility of help from earthly sources has been sought and is not forthcoming, when every recourse this world offers, moral as well as natural, has been drawn on and expended with no effect, when in the shivering cold every faggot has been thrown on the fire, and in the gathering darkness every glimmer of light has finally flickered out -- it is then that Christ's hand reaches out, sure and firm, that Christ's words bring their inexpressible comfort, that His light shines brightest, abolishing the darkness forever.

Malcolm Muggeridge, Confessions of a Twentieth-Century Pilgrim, 89-90.

New Essay: "A Call to Theological Maturity"

2009-02-27T21:40:00.003-06:00

Robin Foster and I wrote a short essay together that tries to bring some maturity to the use (or not) of "theological triage." You can find this essay at the website, SBC Today.

Upon This Rock

2009-02-25T21:07:00.005-06:00

I have been asked to provide material from the theological sermon delivered at the Fall 2008 Baptist Distinctives Conference at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The sermon was entitled, "Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church: A Theological Exposition of Matthew 16:13-20." The sermon can be heard and the paper itself viewed at BaptistTheology.org through the Baptist Resources page, under "Southwestern Baptist Resources". The accompanying visual aid, a powerpoint presentation, can be found by clicking on the title above. The paper itself will be published in an upcoming book entitled, Upon This Rock: The Baptist Understanding of the Church, edited by Thomas White, Jason G. Duesing, and the current writer, published by B&H Academic, forthcoming 2010.

The Lordship of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew

2009-02-22T22:12:00.006-06:00

The pastors and laypeople that attended the Theology Conference at Grace Baptist Church in Parkersburg, WV, requested a copy of the powerpoint. In honor of that request, please click on the title above for the powerpoint. Special thanks are extended to Bill and Alicia James for sponsoring the conference and to Pastor Todd Hill and Grace Baptist Church for hosting it and to Dottie and Chuck Tommey for the idea and then the incredible servanthood in the kitchen and beyond!

The Desire for Relevance

2009-02-21T04:20:00.004-06:00

By Malcolm Yarnell
Feb 20, 2009

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--Relevance before the culture is a great concern for many Christians, and rightly so. When a person repents of sin, believes in Christ, and then is baptized as a testimony to faith, he or she is left in this world and its cultures in order to bear witness to the world to come. God typically does not remove a new Christian from the world but leaves him or her in it for a time, so that others might hear the Gospel and believe, too.

The Apostle Paul felt the tension between the desire to be in the immediate presence of God and the desire to preach the Word to the world. First, in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul spoke of his desire to bring the Gospel to all peoples. In verse 22, he spoke passionately of his missionary mindset: "I have become all things to all men that I might by all means save some." Paul, a Jew, from a nation bound by covenant to God's law, submitted to the old law in order to be a better servant to the Jews in the hope of winning them to Christ.

However, Paul was not confined in his witness to the nation of Israel. He also lived among the Gentiles during his fruitful ministry. And to the Gentiles he also preached the Word of God. Gentiles, not living under Israelite law -- i.e. being "without law" -- required sensitive yet bold proclamation. That is, the Gentiles were subject to Christian proclamation even though they lacked the old law (1 Corinthians 9:21).

Yet Paul was careful not to leave the idea that sensitivity toward Gentiles entailed a forsaking of all standards whatsoever by the Christian missionary. In a significant qualification, Paul claimed that in spite of no longer being under the old covenant, he is still "subject to the law of Christ" (verse 21). The law of Christ, we learn elsewhere, is not the means of salvation, but it most definitely is the means of guidance for the lives of Christ's disciples.

On the one hand, Paul wrote to the Galatians that they are justified only by grace through faith. Therefore, they must not become subjects of the old law, as if such observance was necessary for salvation (Galatians 5:1-4). On the other hand, Paul went on to explain that a new law would be operative in their hearts, minds and bodies. The Christian must "walk in the Spirit." Walking in the Spirit is not submission to Israelite law, nor, we are strongly reminded, is it giving free reign to "the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).

The desire of the Christian church is not set upon this world and its sinful ways. The desire of Christians is for God above all. This brings us to a second great desire in the heart of the Apostle Paul. If his desire in 1 Corinthians 9 is for the conversion of all people, his desire in 2 Corinthians 5 is to dwell in the presence of God in heaven.

Again, this second desire is an embodied desire. Yet, the bodily form of this heavenly desire is not identical with this world's forms. Paul is quite clear that his desire is to leave behind "this earthly house" and to take on the resurrected body, "our habitation which is from heaven" (2 Corinthians 5:1-2). Paul is not prematurely embracing death in some perverse way of thinking. Rather, this is his way of saying that his ultimate goal is "to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8).

Paul is ready and willing to stay here and continue his witness to men in service to God. (Elsewhere, we learn that his courageous efforts on behalf of the Lord brought him many persecutions.) But his overarching desire is to please God: "Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him" (2 Corinthians 5:9).

So, a tension of desires pulled Paul's heart between this world and the presence of God. And yet, his primary desire always was for the holy presence of God. He desired a presence in this world only as a means to be pleasing to God. Paul's desire for God trumped his desire for the world. Moreover, he found much in this world to reject, because it is filled with lusts, or false desires.

Paul was content to remain in the world, but not so that he might enjoy the world. Paul was content to remain in the world, so that he might win people for God. What was ultimately relevant to Paul was not the world or its nations and their cultures. What was relevant to Paul was not even his contributions to the world (he considered his best works filthiness, Philippians 3:8).

What was relevant to Paul is Jesus Christ and His atoning work upon the cross. Making Christ and His cross known to the world was Paul's singular focus, and everything else paled before the relevance of the cross. For the cross of Christ is the only means for bridging the gap between God and man (1 Corinthians 2:2). (The cross is not only the unique bridge for our forgiveness; it is also the exemplar for the Christian life, Mark 8:34-36.)

Does this mean Paul found human existence in the here and now irrelevant? By no means! But he did believe that relevance truly occurs when people forsake this doomed world and its ways in order to be transformed by faith in Jesus Christ. This is spelled out for us in his great letter of justification to the Romans.

In Romans 12:1-2, Paul called upon Christians to present their bodies as living sacrifices to God. We must submit our lives to God in service of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Two Pauline words particularly stand out for the current context, a context where many Christians are eagerly desiring relevance before the cultures of the world: "conformed" and "transformed."

Paul teaches that we must not be conformed to, literally "schematized with," this world. Rather, we must be transformed, literally "metamorphosed" or "changed," by the renewing of our minds and wills. Such transformation in the Christian life begins with consistent and prayerful meditation upon Scripture and results in lives entirely submitted to Jesus as Lord. Such transformation is not in words only but also in deeds.

It is God's desire that the justified will be sanctified. He wants His children to be transformed by the Word and to become instruments for transforming others. This means that the people of the world must be transformed in their attitudes as to what is truly relevant. Scripture determines what is relevant, and people must adopt its holy outlook, leaving behind the world's sinful outlook.

The only proper means of relevance is immersion in the Bible. And as we win people's hearts and minds to the relevance of Scripture, we must remember that we will never successfully transform an entire culture. Some will believe, and some will not. And it is our job not to determine who will and who will not. Our job is to proclaim the Gospel freely to all, so that "some," as Paul said, might be saved. Our job is also to see our own wills transformed to what is pleasing to the Lord.

It is my deep and heartfelt prayer that we will have a desire for the relevance of pleasing God. We can do this through preaching the faith to this world and through living the faith faithfully in this world, looking forward to the day when we will be in His very presence. That is the only relevance worthy of a Christian's desire.
--30--
Malcolm Yarnell is associate professor of systematic theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

© Copyright 2009 Baptist Press

Original copy of this story can be found at http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=29937

B.B. Warfield, "The Idea of Systematic Theology"

2009-01-21T15:56:00.012-06:00

In spite of a genuine appreciation for his important contributions to pneumatology and bibliology, one ought not care for Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield's definition of systematic theology as a discipline shaped by human philosophy, nor may one agree with his rejection of theology as a Christocentric enterprise. Like many theologians and preachers today, Warfield was never able to comprehend fully the diversions from biblical theology that often result from Reformed commitments. However, one must laud the final paragraph of his essay, "The Idea of Systematic Theology." While downplaying such ideas earlier, Warfield in the end indicates how theology must inculcate a living faith through biblical preaching in order to be truly orthodox, thus demonstrating why the free churches have some limited communion with the evangelicals. It is repeated here in its full Victorian structure:

"If such be the value and use of doctrine, the systematic theologian is preeminently a preacher of the gospel; and the end of his work is obviously not merely the logical arrangement of the truths which come under his hand, but the moving of men, through their power, to love God with all their hearts and their neighbors as themselves; to choose their portion with the Saviour of their souls; to find and hold Him precious; and to recognize and yield to the sweet influences of the Holy Spirit whom He has sent. With such truth as this he will not dare to deal in a cold and merely scientific spirit, but will justly and necessarily permit its preciousness and its practical destination to determine the spirit in which he handles it, and to awaken the reverential love with which alone he should investigate its reciprocal relations. For this he needs to be suffused at all times with a sense of the unspeakable worth of the revelation which lies before him as the source of his material, and with the personal bearings of its separate truths on his own heart and life; he needs to have had and to be having a full, rich, and deep religious experience of the great doctrines with which he deals; he needs to be living close to his God, to be resting always on the bosom of his Redeemer, to be filled at all times with the manifest influences of the Holy Spirit. The student of systematic theology needs a very sensitive religious nature, a most thoroughly consecrated heart, and an outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon him, such as will fill him with that spiritual discernment, without which all native intellect is in vain. He needs to be not merely a student, not merely a thinker, not merely a systematizer, not merely a teacher--he needs to be like the beloved disciple himself in the highest, truest, and holiest sense, a divine."

Vita of Malcolm B. Yarnell III

2008-12-10T16:24:00.003-06:00

An updated vita of Dr. Yarnell is available upon request to malcolm.yarnell@sbcglobal.net

An Honor of an Invitation

2008-11-29T21:54:00.006-06:00

The board of a new conference on Pilgram Marpeck sent me a personal invitation to submit a paper at their conference. Considering the quality of the organizers and the participants, this is a real honor. See the following announcement.

Another Book Review of The Formation of Christian Doctrine

2008-11-29T21:50:00.005-06:00

David Buschart, an evangelical dean and historical theologian at Denver Seminary, was nice enough to write another review of my little book, The Formation of Christian Doctrine, and correspond with me afterwards about it. See his review on their seminary's website.

2008-04-24T12:36:00.000-05:00

Click here for BaptistTheology.org