A Southern Baptist Decline?

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A Southern Baptist Decline?

One of the big stories out of this week’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Houston is that the denomination is facing a decline. Statistics, which tend to be the measure of all things in Baptist life, show that membership has declined by 0.98% and Baptisms had their second lowest year in the last fifty.

On the surface these are concerning statistics. However, there are other statistics, equally concerning, that generate far less hand-wringing.  Al Jackson pointed out two years ago that of the 16 million Southern Baptists on church membership rolls, some 10 million of them are nowhere to be found on any given Sunday.

Under such circumstances, is a reduction in members and baptisms really bad news? If such things represent people not being reached for Christ, certainly but if they represent a reduction of members in name only, then I’d call it progress, not decline. In fact, it’s possible that real progress would look like a membership decline several percentage points larger which would indicate the recovery  of meaningful church membership in the denomination. That would be progress indeed.

The Original “Deeds Not Creeds”

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Pharisee and Publican - Tewkesbury Abbey

Pharisee and Publican – Tewkesbury Abbey (Photo credit: Walwyn)

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee,standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off,would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” – Luke 18:10-14

Boice on Theistic Evolution

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Reblogged from The Reformed Reader:

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I found J. M. Boice’s critiques of theistic evolution quite helpful. Here’s a shortened and edited version. You can find the entire argument in volume 1 of his commentary on Genesis (p. 52-55).

“First, there is a problem with the supposed truth of evolution itself. The theistic evolutionist believes in evolution, as we have seen. But evolution is not necessarily true, as we have also seen.

Read more… 559 more words

Good addendum to yesterday's post "What Would Athanasius Say to Richard Dawkins?"

What Would Athanasius Say to Richard Dawkins?

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What Would Athanasius Say to Richard Dawkins?

In regard to the making of the universe and the creation of all things there have been various opinions, and each person has propounded the theory that suited his own taste. For instance, some say that all things are self-originated and, so to speak, haphazard. The Epicureans are among these; they deny that there is any Mind behind the universe at all. This view is contrary to all the facts of experience, their own existence included. For if all things had come into being in this automatic fashion, instead of being the outcome of Mind, though they existed, they would all be uniform and without distinction. In the universe everything would be sun or moon or whatever it was, and in the human body the whole would be hand or eye or foot. But in point of fact the sun and moon and the earth are all different things, even within the human body there are different members, such as foot and hand and head. This distinctness of things argues not a spontaneous generation but a prevenient Cause; and from that Cause we can apprehend God, the Designer and Maker of all.

Athanasius of Alexandria – On the Incarnation

Should You Try to Find God’s Will for Your Life?

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Should You Try to Find God’s Will for Your Life?

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yes.

Next post, right?

Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Because there is often confusion over what’s meant by “God’s will” this question must be explored more thoroughly. A simple yes / no answer is not sufficient.  Scripture speaks of the will of God in multiple ways. There are at least two ways which bear on this discussion: God’s revealed or moral will, whereby He shows us what He considers to be good and just and His secret or decretive will whereby He determines all things that come to pass. This dichotomy is laid out for us in Deuteronomy 29:29 which says “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

So,  before we can answer the question posed here, we must know with which aspect of God’s will we are dealing.

God’s Revealed or Moral Will

This is what we see in the commands and precepts of scripture. We absolutely need to know His will here. It’s here we learn how we are to relate to God and to one another. That we are to love our neighbor as ourselves or to be faithful to our spouses in marriage. It’s where we learn we are to work as unto the Lord and support our families. It’s where we learn about the gospel. Human beings can resist God’s moral will – that’s called sin.

This is why one of the most important things a Christian can do is read, study and meditate on the word of God. The Psalmist says “I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:9).

God’s Secret or Decretive Will

As true as it is that God has given us in His word all we need to know to please Him and lead godly lives, it’s also true there is much He’s chosen not to tell us – for example, when He will return at the end of time to consummate His kingdom.

The Bible is clear that God ordains all things that come to pass from the rising and falling of nations to the death of a sparrow. However, nowhere in it’s pages are we told to try to figure out what will happen when for things like this. In fact, divination, trying to determine what will happen in the future, is associated in the Old Testament with witchcraft and pagan religious practices – the antithesis of godly behavior. Human beings cannot resist or thwart God’s decretive will.

Practical Application

So how does this work in our day-to-day life? Say you want to get married. That’s a big, life altering decision so you want to be sure to get it right! Can you go to God’s word for guidance? Absolutely. We know from from the Bible that in order to be in God’s will for marriage we must marry another believer of the opposite sex. Beyond that, the Bible gives us no specific direction. Therefore, if we marry another Christian of the opposite sex, we can be comfortable that we’ve married within the boundaries of God’s will.

The Bible does not tell us, nor should we expect extra-biblical revelation to tell us, who specifically to marry. We have the freedom as Christians to marry whoever seems best within the boundaries set by scripture and once we’ve done so we have the obligation to cherish and care for our spouse as commanded by scripture. There should be no second-guessing that we perhaps picked the wrong person or missed out on “God’s best” because we didn’t figure out that God was really telling us to marry Susie instead of Jill.

So, should we seek God’s will for our lives? Yes, but how we do that will differ depending on the issue at hand.  Where scripture is specific, we are to obey.  In areas not specifically addressed by scripture, the Bible gives us general guidelines and God gives us the freedom to decide within those guidelines using the resources, intelligence and gifts He’s given us. That is, after all, why He blesses us with those things.

For further reading on this topic, I recommend Decision Making and the Will of God: A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View by Gary Friesen

Roundup of Stories On The Gosnell Horror

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Roundup of Stories on the Gosnell Horror

Buchenwald Corpses 07511 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Much has been written recently about the goings on in the blood spattered house of horror known as The Women’s Medical Society run by “Doctor” Josef Mengele Kermit Gosnell in the city of Phillidelphia.

Here are some I think are particularly insightful:

Gary DeMar points out the contrast between the way Kermit Gosnell has been treated in the media as opposed to Michael Vick: If Baby Killer Kermit Gosnell Had Been Dog Killer Michael Vick.

Douglas Wilson notes that what Kermit Gosnell was doing to babies outside the womb is no different than what other abortionists do to them while either partially or fully inside the womb: Our Gosnell Gulag. 

Though not addressing the Gosnell case specifically, Jack Minor writes about the efforts of those in the abortion industry to protect child rapists: Why are Rape Charges Missing in Child Sex-Abuse Cases?

An editorial in “Investors Business Daily” argues that “a squirming infant on a table outside the mother’s womb is as worthy of protection from harm as children in classrooms in a school in Connecticut:” Newtown In The Clinic: Media Ignore The Gosnell Trial

Finally, even “The Atlantic,” wonders why this is not a front page story: Why Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s Trial Should Be a Front-Page Story.

We can no longer say we didn’t know. That we had no idea what that smoke drifting up from the ovens in the camps each day meant. The curtain has been pulled back. I pray the Lord will use this case to open the eyes of this nation to the carnage and horror that has been happening right under our noses, and with our approval, for for 40 years and that we will finally say “enough.”