Rainer urges forgiveness in SBTS chapel November 13, 2007

Failure to forgive others may destroy churches and break a Christian’s fellowship with God, Thom Rainer said in chapel Nov. 8 at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources and former dean of Southern Seminary’s Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth, speculated that a lack of forgiveness might be one cause of the decline in baptisms across the Southern Baptist Convention.

“As we look at the fact that hundreds of our churches are closing every week, I wonder if perhaps some of the problem may reside in the fact that in some of these churches there is a lack of forgiveness,” he said. “Perhaps God has withheld the blessings of His Spirit because there has been withheld the blessing of forgiveness.”

Preaching from Matthew 6:14-15, Rainer highlighted three principles related to forgiveness.

First, forgiveness begins with an understanding of the cross.

“Humanity’s greatest problem is sin, and our greatest need is forgiveness,” he said. “You know that sin separates men and women from God. But through the cross Christians have received judicial forgiveness. We’ve been declared not guilty by God, the judge.”

We can only comprehend forgiveness fully by looking at how God forgave sinful men at the cross, and our obligation is to extend the same type of forgiveness to those who wrong us, Rainer said.

“We look to the cross because it is our example of the perfect act of forgiveness,” he said. “And in that act of forgiveness we learned how to forgive others.”

Second, forgiveness has no conditions.

Rainer learned how to grant unconditional forgiveness himself when, as a young adult, he finally forgave a high school football coach who had mistreated him, he said. Forgiving brought a new freedom in Rainer’s life and even contributed to the beginning of a revival in the small church he pastored, he said.

“The sin of an unforgiving heart and a bitter spirit forfeits the blessings of God and invites God’s judgment,” Rainer said.

Third, forgiveness not given means fellowship with God forsaken.

Believers’ salvation is always secure, but fellowship with God can be broken when Christians have an unforgiving heart, he said, adding that every Christian should examine his heart to see if there is a refusal to forgive anyone.

“Is there anything ... that hit home with you?” he said. “Are there any people for the smallest of reasons, by our standards, to the largest of reasons that we need to forgive?”

When Christians forgive others, it gives the world a testimony about our salvation and strengthens the church to carry out its mission more effectively, Rainer said.

“Even though the unsaved world cannot declare us unsaved in God’s eyes, they have the right to look at us that way if we are not loving one another,” he said. “And perhaps in this passage, and perhaps even more powerfully in your lives, God is saying, ‘Forgive him, forgive her because I went to the cross to forgive you.’”

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Church health about distinctness from — not relevance to — the world, Dever says at SBTS November 8, 2007

The health of local churches depends not on being relevant to the world and viewing success in terms of numbers, but on reflecting the character of God and upholding His Word, Mark Dever said in a presentation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Oct. 9.

Instead of spending great amounts of time and ministry on relating to the culture, Dever said church leaders should channel their energy toward maintaining purity in the church. Dever serves as pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church and is a member of the board of trustees for Southern Seminary. He is also the founder of 9Marks Ministries.

“The main problem in our churches today is that the church is reflecting far more of the world’s characteristics than they are of God’s character,” he said.

“I would like to suggest that the most fundamental problem in the church is not that we are not relevant enough in relation to the world, but that the church is not distinct enough from the world. Our churches must reflect the character of God.”

Dever said the idea that the Gospel must be made relevant is a liberal assumption, which -- if taken to its end -- can result in the theological liberalism of Friedreich Schleiermacher, the father of Protestant liberalism. Dever said numerous church models seek to be relevant and do not reach the unorthodox conclusions of liberalism, but remain unhealthy because they are based on an unbiblical definition of success.

“The problem with the seeker-sensitive model, emerging church model and even the traditional model that says, ‘get as many people into a room as possible and share the Gospel with them’ is that they view success in light of visible fruit,” he said. “All three of these approaches say, ‘change your techniques and let’s get some numbers.’

“Instead of being directed by [visible] success, we should be directed by faithfulness. We should say ‘if the Lord doesn’t like our product we will change the product.’ We shouldn’t take the idea that if we don’t have X-number of conversions in our church, then we must be doing something wrong. I am glad Jeremiah didn’t think that. And I am glad that Jesus Christ didn’t think that. Let us remember that we are following the One who was crucified as a revolutionary.”

Dever offered nine elements that should characterize a healthy church, derived from his book “Nine Marks of a Healthy Church,” at the event, which was sponsored by the Korean Student Fellowship.

Expositional preaching must first characterize a church that will be able to withstand the pressures of an increasingly secular culture, Dever said.

“You must have preaching that makes the point of the text the point of the message and where the Gospel is always present,” he said. “In the Bible, the people never create God’s Word. Instead, God’s Word always creates the people. That is how God has always worked. And that is how we should preach. That is how people are saved, and how people are sanctified. God’s Spirit works with His Word.”

Second, sound theology will go hand-in-hand with expositional preaching, further helping people view the world through God’s eyes, Dever said. Biblical understandings of the Gospel, conversion and evangelism will also promote church health, he said.

Church membership and church discipline each must be expounded and practiced by church leaders to maintain purity within local churches, Dever argued. Church membership and discipline fulfill Jesus’ command to love one another, Dever said, and church leaders will give an account for the people they allow to be into their congregation.

“The basic idea of practicing a self-conscious allegiance to a certain group of people and to a certain group of elders is taught in the Bible,” he said. “Our church membership should capture what it means to be a Christian through people’s actions. Jesus said that they would know that you are Christians by your love, not for the people in the community, but for each other. Somehow what happens in the community of a congregation is more powerful even than your individual honesty and kindness to others. I think we (church leaders) will give an account to God for the membership of the church in which we pastor.”

Finally, Dever said a concern for discipleship and Christian growth, and a biblical church leadership structure will promote healthy churches.

Patience and courage are needed to correct a situation where the number of church members greatly exceeds those who faithfully attend and participate in the life of the church, Dever said.

“You must very clearly preach the Gospel, Sunday after Sunday, making it very clear what a Christian is [in such a situation],” he said. “Second, you must be very patient. It took me two years to finish dealing with that issue, in a very stable, Bible-believing congregation. Get counsel from older men who agree with you theologically.

“And when the time comes, what is typically lacking in pastors in many cases is courage. You do have to have courage to look at a man twice your age and tell him that he has been doing things wrong all his life. You must keep making it very clear what a Christian is.”

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Abel preached “the only sermon that has never been preached,” Michael Youssef tells SBTS audience November 5, 2007

By offering a sacrifice that was pleasing to the Lord, Abel gave the greatest sermon that was never preached, noted pastor and author Michael Youssef said during a chapel service Oct. 30 at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Hebrews 11:4 says the sermon of Abel, thought not preached, still preaches today by pointing people to the only way of salvation: through faith in Christ alone, he said. Youssef is the founding pastor of Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Ga., and is host of “Leading the Way,” a radio program heard on hundreds of stations daily across the globe.

“Why was the Abel’s sacrifice accepted and not Cain’s? The answer is really more simple than you think. Abel wanted to worship God God’s way, but Cain wanted to worship God Cain’s way. Abel trusted in God’s plan for his life, but Cain trusted the consultants and the experts.

“We have no evidence that Abel was any more perfect than Cain. In fact, every evidence from Scripture indicates that both were conceived after sin had entered into the heart of mom and dad—Adam and Eve. Both had the same sin nature and both had the same inclination toward sin and disobedience. Both knew there was a right way and a wrong way to relate to God. Cain decided to worship God his own way, but Abel worshiped God’s way.”

Youssef said Abel’s one-verse sermon in Hebrews demonstrates three eternal Gospel truths:
· Man can only come to God by faith, and not by works.
· Man must accept God’s revelation and not his own wisdom for salvation.
· Obedience will be rewarded and rebellion will be judged.

“This is the only sermon that will endure for all of time and eternity,” Youssef said. Sermon audio for Youssef’s message is available at www.sbts.edu.

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Fall SBJT studies significance of Paul’s epistle to the Romans November 1, 2007

Like a trumpet in a symphony orchestra, the book of Romans stands out among the annals of God’s inspired words in Scripture, Stephen Wellum wrote in the Fall 2007 Southern Baptist Journal of Theology (SBJT).

While all of Scripture is crucial for understanding God’s saving plan in Christ, instruction and edification, Paul’s epistle to the Romans has proven to be one of the most significant books of the Bible throughout the history of the church, Wellum wrote.

“One cannot help but think of the incredible influence Romans had on the thinking of Martin Luther, which helped the spark the Protestant Reformation, or its influence on John Wesley, which was instrumental to his understanding of the gospel, or even its influence on the Swiss neo-orthodox theologian, Karl Barth, who, by reading Romans, turned from his classical liberalism to discover, in his own words: ‘the strange new world within the Bible,’” wrote Wellum, SBJT editor and professor of Christian theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“Undeniably, the Epistle to the Romans has played a huge role in the thinking, practice, and life of the church.”
Seven writers contributed to the Fall 2007 SBJT, “The Epistle to the Romans,” including three faculty members at Southern Seminary and one Southern graduate.

John Polhill, senior professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern, addressed the debate of whether Romans is written to address a specific occasion, or situation, or if it is a more general theological treatise.

Polhill urged readers to not fall too sharply on either side, as much of the epistle deals with theological concerns, while other sections are more clearly of an occasional nature. The last three chapters are particularly occasional, and were the focus of Polhill’s article.

“In a sense it (the epistle to the Romans) could be entitled ‘a tale of three cities,’ as the epistle involves three distinct locales: Corinth, from which Paul was writing; Jerusalem, to which Paul was preparing to travel soon; and Rome, which was Paul’s ultimate destination,” Polhill wrote.

“If there is one thing that ties these [final three] chapters together, it is the theme of unity of all believers in Christ. Paul’s reason for delaying his visit to the Romans was his concern for the unity of the church as expressed in the Jerusalem collection.”

Benjamin Merkle, Southern Seminary Ph.D. graduate, made a threefold argument for Romans as the greatest letter ever written. Merkle asserted that Romans is valuable because of its historical impact, theological importance and practical instruction.

Historically, Augustine, Martin Luther and John Wesley have been greatly affected by Paul’s letter to the Romans, Merkle wrote.

“No one can deny the great impact that these three men had in the history of the Christian church,” he wrote. “What we will learn from our study if that the conversion of each of these men is directly linked to Paul’s letter to the church at Rome.”

Romans also possesses profound theological and practical significance, Merkle asserted.

“Romans contains the clearest and most complete expression of the gospel in the Bible,” Merkle wrote. “For eleven chapters Paul systematically explains the sinfulness of mankind, the means by which sinners can be justified, and the certainty Christians can have in the promises of God.

“This letter not only gives us clarity regarding important doctrines, it also gives us unparalleled implications of what such theology means for our daily living. God is not only concerned about what we think but also how we live. Thus, Paul does not stop at the doctrinal level, but also gives us practical admonitions and advice.”

Paul understands the proclamation of Jesus Christ to be the message and interpretive key to the whole of Scripture, Southern professor Mark Seifrid wrote in his article “The Gospel as the revelation of mystery: the witness of the Scriptures to Christ in Romans.”

“As a reading of Romans shows, Paul’s hermeneutic is essentially and profoundly material in nature, bound up with the incarnation, cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ,” wrote Seifrid, Ernest and Mildred Hogan Professor
of New Testament at Southern.

The SBJT contains a sermon by Thomas Schreiner, associate dean for Scripture and Interpretation and James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament at Southern, from Romans 13:8-10.

Discussing Paul’s teaching that loving one another fulfills the law, Schreiner noted that such Christian love includes the keeping of commandments.

“Why is it so important to have commandments in order to love one another? Because love without commandments so easily descends into vagueness or sentimentality,” he wrote. “We can so easily deceive ourselves into thinking that we are loving because we have warm feelings towards other people. Love is easily confused in our society with being ‘nice.’ But ‘niceness’ does not necessarily mean that one is acting in a loving manner. A person can be ‘nice’ and at the same time be guilty of blatantly violating God’s commands.”

The SBJT also includes essays by A.B. Caneday, professor of New Testament studies and biblical theology at Northwestern College in Saint Paul, Minn.; Robert W. Yarbrough, chair of the New Testament department and associate professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill.; and Douglas Moo, Blanchard Professor of New Testament at Wheaton Graduate School in Wheaton, Ill.

For more information or to subscribe to the journal, e-mail journaloffice@sbts.edu.

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SBTS lectures feature renowned philosopher Alvin Plantinga October 31, 2007

Science and religion should not be incompatible, but the two are often at odds because science falsely demands a purely naturalistic universe, renowned Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga told students at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on Oct. 23.

Plantinga serves as the John A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He was the featured speaker for the annual Norton Lectures Oct. 23-25 at Southern Seminary. Plantinga is the author of numerous books, including God, Freedom and Evil, The Nature of Necessity and Warranted Christian Belief.

Evolutionary biologists such as Richard Dawkins, an atheist and author of the recent book The God Delusion, use faulty arguments to show that the biological theory of evolution is incompatible with theism, Plantinga said. From there, scientists in the mold of Dawkins reject the possibility of Christianity and its supernatural worldview, Plantinga said.

“Dawkins utterly fails to show that the facts of evolution reveal a universe without design,” Plantinga said. “Another source of the continuing debate [between religion and science] is the mistaken claim on the part of such writers as Dawkins that the scientific theory implies that the living world and human beings in particular have not been designed and created by God.”

Plantinga said there is great concord between Christian belief and science on the issue of God’s divine action in the world.

The traditional Christian definition of divine action is any work of God in addition to creation and the conservation of the world, such as miracles, answers to prayer and the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of people, he said.

While many secular philosophers, theologians and scientists alike argue that such divine action is contrary to the laws of science, Plantinga said such apparent conflicts are only superficial.

Some opponents of special divine action, including Rudolf Bultmann and Langdon Gilkey, argue that Newtonian laws of nature leave no room for divine action beyond creation and conservation. Bultmann (1884-1976) and Gilkey (1919-2004) were liberal Protestant theologians who rejected a supernatural worldview.

Newton’s ideas about laws of nature, however, do not preclude special divine action, for Newton himself only applied the ideas to a closed system, Plantinga asserted.
“Newton thought God regularly and constantly intervened in the world,” he said. “Newton’s idea was really this, that his laws applied only in a closed or isolated system. Systems in which there is no causal activity from the outside. There is nothing here to prevent God from changing the velocity or direction of a particle, or from creating ex nihilo (out of nothing) a full-grown horse. There is nothing in Newtonian mechanics or classical science to declare that the material universe is indeed a closed system.”

With the development of quantum mechanics, which has largely superseded Newtonian mechanics in the field of science, there is even more obvious agreement between science and special divine action, Plantinga said.

“Quantum mechanics argues that laws exist that are probabilistic, but not deterministic,” he said. “Given a certain system, quantum mechanics assigns probabilities to the possible outcomes in different situations. Miracles are clearly not incompatible with this approach to science.”

Despite this obvious concord between science and special divine action, many modern-day philosophers, theologians and scientists -- such as Philip Clayton and Arthur Peacocke -- still reject the idea of special divine action. However, Plantinga said they have no coherent basis for their objection, as quantum mechanics easily allows for special divine action.

Holding to both naturalism and evolution at the same time is self-refuting, Plantinga argued. Naturalism denies the existence of the supernatural and asserts that all events can be explained by purely natural causes.

Naturalism and evolution “are often thought to fit together very nicely,” he said. However, “there really is a religion-science conflict. But it’s not between Christian beliefs and science. Rather it’s between naturalism and science.”

According to naturalistic evolution, the human abilities to think and reason evolved to promote survival and not to produce true beliefs, Plantinga said. Therefore, if a person assumes naturalistic evolution to be true, it doesn’t make sense to assume that human reasoning produces true beliefs, he said.

So if naturalistic evolution is true, it doesn’t make sense to place any trust in any human reasoning—including the reasoning that leads to naturalistic evolution, he said.

“The traditional theist, on the other hand, has no corresponding reason for doubting that it is a purpose of our cognitive systems to produce true beliefs,” Plantinga said.

The audio from Plantinga’s lectures is available at www.sbts.edu.

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SBTS student tells local TV viewers of God’s faithfulness in wake of encounter with tree October 25, 2007

Sean Gould usually returned home from work a certain way, but last Thursday evening, as a system of violent thunderstorms rolled through Louisville, he followed a different route, one that took him up Lexington Road near The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary campus.

A short distance up Lexington Road, Gould’s routine trip home turned into an opportunity to tell all of Kentuckiana about the sovereignty of God—the hard way. A massive tree, buffeted by storm winds, toppled onto Lexington Road just as Gould’s car passed underneath. The tree crushed the front of his car, but Gould was not injured. Three feet further up the street and the outcome might have been profoundly different.

“My first thought was, ‘there is no way that huge tree is falling down,’” said Gould, a master of divinity student at Southern. “I hit the tree and both airbags exploded inside.”

With the tree resting on top of his car, Gould remained inside the vehicle, a wise decision as it turns out, because the tree was also holding down power lines. Soon, firemen arrived and extracted Gould safely from his car.

A few minutes after he emerged from his vehicle, several members of the local news media arrived to interview Gould. The uninjured Texas native took the opportunity to tell several hundred thousand television viewers in metro Louisville about the God who had ordained every aspect of the incident, from the wind that blew the tree down, to the preserving of his life.

A few hours later, on its 11 p.m. news broadcast, WHAS 11 broadcast the full statement Gould gave to its reporter. “God is sovereign, he’s sovereign over the trees, weather, vehicles and life and I rejoice in him and that he chose not to take me home,” Gould told WHAS.

Several other local television stations ran part of his statement and the Louisville’s daily newspaper, The Courier-Journal, quoted Gould: “God is the giver of life. I am very thankful.”

Gould said he wasn’t expecting the media to converge upon the scene. Gould is thankful that God providentially ordained, through the means of a fallen tree, an opportunity for him to give a public witness to God’s mercy and His absolute control of all creation.

“I was very surprised to see that many TV crews there,” he said. “There were probably five of them. I was even more surprised that most of them used the exact words I spoke. Ultimately, I pray that what I said honored the Lord.”

Gould came to Southern Seminary in 2004, two years after completing a degree in finance from Texas A&M. Gould serves as secretary of Clifton Baptist Church and seeks to pastor a local church when he completes his education at Southern. Gould hopes that God will use the words he spoke to the news media to awaken others to eternal realities.

“With circumstances like that you really just want to make people think about biblical truth and eternal reality,” he said.

“You want them to think about life and death and the reality of not being in control of when God takes you home. You want them think less of luck and chance and more of the God who controls all things. You want them to think about if their worldview takes into account these matters. Ultimately, you want to lead them to the Gospel. If I could point them in that direction and show that my hope was in God, I would rejoice. Again, I just pray that what I said honored the Lord.”

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Romans reveals the gift of the Gospel, Schreiner says at SBTS January Bible Study Conference October 24, 2007

Romans reveals the gift of the Gospel, Schreiner says at At its core, the book of Romans is about the righteousness of God given to people in Jesus Christ, Thomas Schreiner said Oct. 15 at the January Bible Study Preview Conference at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

What is the righteousness of God? Schreiner, associate dean of Scripture and interpretation in Southern’s School of Theology, said when Paul uses this phrase in Romans he is typically referring to the righteousness of Christ given to those who believe in Christ.

“The righteousness of God is a gift from God that comes from God and results in right standing with God,” said Schreiner, who also serves as James Buchanan Harrison professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern. “It is a righteousness that is given to us by God.”

This righteousness can only be received by faith, Schreiner argued, for no one does the work necessary to earn God’s acceptance. Only Christ fulfilled all the commands of the law, and it is His righteousness that brings someone into right standing with God, Schreiner noted. Paul puts forward Abraham as an example of this in Romans 4, going against Jewish tradition that often viewed Abraham as being righteous because of his works, Schreiner said.

“How was Abraham right before God? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness,” he said. “What Abraham believed about God is what saved him, not his works.

“The Gospel is we, the ungodly, believing in Christ and our faith being counted as righteousness because faith unites us to Christ and the righteousness given to us at the cross. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to us.”

This year’s adult learner guide for the January Bible study, titled “God’s Amazing Grace,” was written by Dean Register, senior pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Schreiner noted that some people have said Romans is a treatise of Paul’s theology. While Romans does contain much of Paul’s theology, Schreiner said, it does not exhaust all of Paul’s doctrinal teaching. Schreiner cited Christology, ecclesiology and eschatology as doctrines Paul does not discuss in detail in the book. Like the rest of Paul’s epistles, Schreiner said, Romans is directed to a specific audience for a specific purpose, in this case to bring about unity between Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome.

To accomplish this purpose, Paul begins Romans by arguing that Gentiles (Romans 1) and Jews (Romans 2) alike stand condemned before God. Gentiles earn condemnation by suppressing the truth that God created all things and is worthy of worship, Schreiner said.

“All people, everywhere with the most elementary rational capacity know that there is a God who deserves their worship and honor and praise,” he said. “They have clearly perceived it from creation, from the world. The fundamental sin of human beings is to not honor and praise and give thanks to God. Every sin we commit has idolatry at its root.”

While Jews rightly condemn Gentiles for their ungodliness, Paul argues, the Jews are also guilty before God, for they do not keep the very law they thrust in the face of others.
“Paul says the Jews know the law, and even teach the law, but they don’t practice what they preach,” Schreiner said. “The Jews were guilty because they had a hard heart. They sinned and did not repent.”

Having established that all people deserve God’s just condemnation, Paul presents the beauty of the Gospel in Romans 3:21-26, which Schreiner described as one of the most glorious sections in all of Scripture.

“We are redeemed at the very cost of Christ’s blood,” he said. “God’s wrath is satisfied through Christ’s sacrifice. The cross is the greatest event in human history. Only someone who is infinite can satisfy the punishment necessary for the infinite heinousness of sin.

God is both just, through the sacrifice of the Son, and the justifier. At the cross, both the love and the justice of God meet.

“We come as children, we come as beggars,” Schreiner continued. “The great thing about salvation through Christ is that it gives all of the glory to God. We can say to anyone, anywhere ‘you are a wicked person, but I am also a wicked person.’ You can say to everyone, ‘come and worship with us, for we are a collection of wicked people who recognize that we are wicked people.’

“This is designed to evoke praise in our lives as we realize that we didn’t deserve this. We deserved to go to hell forever. If we are not grateful for this, we have forgotten that it is mercy. We are saved, not be doing, but by receiving. We don’t earn it.”

In both the introduction and conclusion to Romans, Paul says that the Gospel fulfills what was spoken of in the Old Testament, for Jesus is the Messiah.

“The Gospel is both prophecy fulfilled and a mystery revealed,” Schreiner said. “There are prophecies in the Old Testament that are fulfilled in Christ and there are mysteries in the Old Testament that are revealed in Christ. The Gospel is not contrary to the Old Testament, but is a fulfillment of what we read in the Old Testament.”

Finally, Paul says the point of the Gospel is to bring about the obedience of faith, which gives God the honor and praise He deserves.

“Faith gives glory to God. That is the theme of Romans,” Schreiner said. “Faith trusts God. I give glory to my mechanic when I trust him with my car. I don’t glorify my mechanic when I go in and say ‘did you cheat me?’ Now, mechanics are fallible. But God is infallible. And I glorify Him by trusting Him.”

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Southern Seminary Golf Tournament nets $40,000 October 18, 2007

The largest number of players ever turned out for the annual Southern Seminary Golf Tournament Oct. 11 at Fuzzy Zoeller’s Covered Bridge Golf Club in Louisville.

The tournament, which included 100 players, raised approximately $40,000 for Southern’s Annual Fund. The event is in its fourth year and featured long-drive and closest-to-the-pin competitions in addition to the tournament itself.

“It was a beautiful day, a lot of fun, a lot of excitement about the seminary,” said Douglas Walker, Southern’s senior vice president for institutional relations. “People enjoy the fellowship. I’m very grateful for the sponsors.”

In addition to the players, volunteers and sponsors took part in the event. Among the sponsors was LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, which provided lunch for the participants. Each team took a picture with Southern’s president, R. Albert Mohler Jr., at the start of the tournament.

Walker said the tournament builds a sense of community among donors and recruits new donors who use the event as an opportunity to learn about Southern.

“It’s a way for people to learn a little bit more about the seminary,” he said. “And we’ve had people in all four years now who don’t know that much about the seminary but who have played in the tournament and as a result have become friends and donors to the seminary.”

Will Smallwood, Southern’s director of development, agreed that the tournament had a great impact for Southern.

“The office of Institutional Relations exceeded the goals set for the golf tournament by increasing total number of players, total money raised and number of sponsors,” Smallwood said. “This event will have impact on our long-term relationships with donors to Southern. This will help us increase giving to the Southern Seminary endowment and help us to introduce more faithful givers into the Southern Seminary family.”

Though the $40,000 raised is significant in itself, Walker noted that the tournament has a long-term effect that far exceeds the immediate financial returns. As donors form closer relationships with Southern, they will be more likely to consider estate gifts to increase the seminary’s endowment, he said.

“This does have very long-term impact on the seminary—not just the $40,000, we raise for our Annual Fund for the current budget year at the seminary,” Walker said. “But it’s going to have long-term impact for years to come.”
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Southern Seminary celebrates a heritage of Gospel proclamation October 17, 2007

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary celebrated its rich history during the school’s annual Heritage Week celebration Oct. 8-12.

To mark the annual event, Southern held three worship services in Alumni Memorial Chapel that featured sermons by President R. Albert Mohler Jr., Theology School Dean and Vice President for Academic Administration Russell D. Moore, and Hayes Wicker, pastor of First Baptist Church of Naples, Fla. Audio from all three sermons is available on the seminary website.

Mohler also presented the Bruce Benton Distinguished Service Award to Ken Towery, president of Ken Towery’s Auto Care Centers in Louisville. Towery has served on the Southern Seminary Foundation Board since October 2006.

In his sermon on Oct. 10, Mohler continued a series on the essential Christian doctrine contained in the Apostles Creed by examining the phrase “born of the virgin Mary.” Mohler argued that the virgin birth fulfills promises first made in Genesis 3, and is a foundational and essential doctrine of Christianity. He examined the parallel but distinct accounts of the virgin birth in Matthew 1 and Luke 1.

“The most important truth that comes from these two passages is that this (the virgin birth) is God’s unilateral act, this is God fulfilling His promises, this is God redeeming His people,” he said. “For the One who is born of a virgin is the One who will die for His people’s sins. The One who is born of a virgin is fully God and fully man.”

To get to the beginning of the story of Christ’s virgin birth, you must go all the way back to Genesis 3, Mohler said, when God promised that there would be one who was the seed of woman who would crush the serpent’s head.

“From Genesis 3 onward, humanity knowingly and unknowingly has been looking for the birth of the child who would reverse the curse,” he said. “But this one would not come by natural conception. No child who was conceived as Cain was conceived would be without Adam’s inherited and imputed sin. The only seed of the woman who could reverse the curse was one who was conceived by the sovereign God.”

The virgin birth affirms the true incarnation of Christ and the miracle that Jesus was conceived without sin, Mohler said. He also said the virgin birth fulfils Scripture, specifically God’s promise in Isaiah 7:14 that a virgin would conceive and bear a son who would be called Immanuel.

Must a person affirm the virgin birth to be saved? While it is not necessary to be aware of the virgin birth at conversion, once a person becomes cognizant of Scripture’s teaching on the subject he must then accept that teaching or identify himself as one outside the fold of Christianity, Mohler said.

“We must believe in the virgin birth, because if Christ was not born of a virgin then where does the story start? There is no other option,” Mohler said. “If Jesus is born of Joseph, then we are still dead in our trespasses and sins. If this child is conceived of any human father, then we are dead. Such a child could not reverse the curse. The problem is there are some people who know about the virgin birth and reject it and that is a problem. These people have placed their faith in something other than the Christ of Scripture.”

During his address on Oct. 9, Moore urged Christians to overcome their inaction in evangelism by fearing God and experiencing the power of God.

Preaching from John 12:16-43, Moore said believers often fail to fear the condemnation unbelievers face if they will not trust Christ as Savior.

“I wonder if sometimes we miss that the reason we’re not sharing Jesus is because we’re not fearful enough,” he said.

Another reason Christians fail to share their faith is that they fear being viewed as strange more than they desire God to be glorified, Moore said.

“Could it be that that’s the reason why so few of our churches are baptizing many people?” he said. “Could it be that we are clamoring for the glory of man—prancing preachers, happily successful lay people—instead of people who see and recognize the glory of God in a cross?”

Preaching from the parable of the laborers in the vineyard in Matthew 20, Wicker told chapel attendees on Oct. 11 that Christians must set their hearts on living for the glory of God. Believers must not answer the question “What’s in this life for me?” according to their selfish desires, but must see themselves as existing for God’s glory, Wicker said.

“The men in this parable thought mainly of themselves, but this is a parable of grace,” Wicker said. “If the reference point in your life is what you get out of it, you will see people ultimately as those you can use or as those who abuse you. You will see God as someone you can manipulate. You will see life either as a sweet deal or a raw deal. It will all be about you.

“Salvation is a gift of a sovereign God...Life and birth are a gift and death is a door and people are potential glorifiers of God...The bottom line is not what is in it for me, but what is in it for God.”

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New Graham School blog challenges churches with the Great Commission

The Billy Graham School of Evangelism, Missions and Church Growth at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has a new blog designed to challenge churches to reach unbelievers.

Biblical Church Growth is home to the blog of Chuck Lawless, dean of the Billy Graham School. In his inaugural post, Lawless called himself a reluctant blogger.

“I said I would never take on this task,” he writes. “Writing a blog takes time that I don’t have. It opens the door to controversy. It demands a willingness to respond to difficult issues. Given the incredible pace at which technology changes, blogs may soon be outdated. I said I wouldn’t do it, but now I am.

“Why? It’s really quite simple. The Lord has so burdened me over the Great Commission that at times I cannot sleep—and I trust this blog will be one means to encourage believers to take the gospel into their homes, to their neighbors, to North America, and the world.”

Lawless said he hopes to help evangelicals in general and Southern Baptist in particular to refocus their attention on the Great Commission while planting their feet firmly upon an inerrant and authoritative Bible.

“I want to address positively pertinent issues related to missions, evangelism and church growth, with the goal of challenging all of us to reach non-believers and make disciples of Christ,” he said.

The blog will provide resources for pastors and will include an e-mail newsletter that the Graham School has previously offered for church leaders. Lawless plans to post at least once a week and hopes to update the blog each Monday.

“The task of the Great Commission is hard work,” Lawless said. “My prayer is that God will use this site to encourage church leaders to accept the challenge of Matthew 28:18-20.”

The site can be accessed at www.biblicalchurchgrowth.com or www.chucklawless.com.

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