Colleagues at Southern Seminary pay tribute to Honeycutt’s life and work December 22, 2004

Colleagues of Roy Honeycutt praised the eighth president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for his gracious character, commitment to students and tireless service for Southern Baptists.

Honeycutt, who served as president of Southern Seminary from 1982-1993, died Dec. 21 from head injuries sustained the previous day in an accident in his Louisville, Ky. home.

Known as a prominent voice in Southern Baptist conflict of the 1980s, Honeycutt balanced service to the convention with service to the Southern Seminary community.

Born Oct. 30 1926 in Grenada, Miss., Honeycutt was a two-time graduate of Southern Seminary, receiving his Ph.D. in 1958 and his master of divinity in 1952. He served as academic dean at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1971-1975 and chairman of Midwestern’s Old Testament department from 1963-1975 prior to joining the Southern Seminary faculty as a professor of Old Testament.

Honeycutt served as dean of the school of theology at Southern from 1975-1980 and provost at the Louisville, Ky. campus from 1976-1982. After retiring as president, he was Southern’s chancellor from 1994-1997.

Southern Seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr., who served as an assistant to Honeycutt from 1983-1989, praised Honeycutt for his leadership during a tumultuous time at the seminary.

“Dr. Roy Honeycutt was a Christian gentleman,” Mohler said. “He gave so much of his life to the Southern Baptist Convention and to Southern Seminary in particular. He led during difficult times and was not afraid of controversy. At the personal level he was as gracious a human being as you could ever expect or hope to meet.”

Mohler also cited Honeycutt’s statesmanship during the years of transition. “Roy Honeycutt proved his character and his love for this institution during the presidential transition of 1993 and years of redirection on this campus. Clearly we disagreed on some very basic principles and led in different directions. Nevertheless, he was always gracious, kind and deeply committed to Southern Seminary. For all his years of leadership and committed service, he is rightly honored by Southern Baptists.”

Former professor of Christian theology Wayne Ward, who was an instructor at Southern when Honeycutt arrived as a student, praised his friend’s leadership during his tenure as president.

“I would call him a courageous leader of the seminary at a most difficult time of conflict and transition,” Ward said.

Ward also extolled Honeycutt’s legacy as a husband, father, minister and teacher.

“He was a wonderful family man and wonderful church man,” said Ward. “He was a pillar in our church—Crescent Hill Baptist. ... He was also a very good teacher. He loved students, prepared his lectures well, and he mentored students.”

During his tenure, Southern Seminary grew in student enrollment and faculty positions. Known on the campus as a friend to students, Honeycutt was responsible for leading the seminary to build a state-of-the-art student center and athletic facility in 1990. The “Roy and June Honeycutt Campus Center” was named by seminary trustees in the couple’s honor.

Andy Rawls, who has been at Southern since 1968 as a student and subsequently director of media services, pointed to Honeycutt as a gifted leader.

“He was really and extraordinary person and he guided the seminary through a very difficult and tumultuous time,” Rawls said.

Throughout his life, Honeycutt showed humility and gentleness, Rawls said.

“When I first met Dr. and Mrs. Honeycutt in 1975 they were just thoroughly human with no pretensions,” he said. “He was thoroughly welcoming and approachable and genuinely friendly and interested in people.”

Mohler also cited Honeycutt as man of strong commitment to his church, his family and Southern Seminary.

“He and his wife June were married for 56 years and were a model of commitment to each other and shared commitment to this institution,” Mohler said. “The entire Southern Seminary family grieves with June Honeycutt and the Honeycutt family and is praying for them at this time.”

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Mohler on MSNBC: Evolution an intellectual pacifier December 17, 2004

The theory of evolution has become an intellectual pacifier for the secular left in America, and the desire of a Pennsylvania school system to teach Intelligent Design is a signal that parents are fed up with standard liberal teaching on the origins of humanity, R. Albert Mohler Jr. told viewers of MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country,” Thursday night.

Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said parents of children who attend America’s public schools have become wise to the secular left’s agenda in teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution as fact.

Mohler appeared on the show along with David Silverman, communications director for American Atheists, Christian music artist Natalie Grant, and Republican strategist Jack Burkman. Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan served as guest host.

“America’s parents have more common sense,” Mohler said. “The American public has seen through the theories—that’s right, there are multiple theories, there’s not just one theory of evolution—and I think America’s parents are waking up and they are not going to rest until the schools do the right thing.”

Debate centered on the teaching of human origins in public schools. The topic returned to the news on Dec. 14 when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit against a school board in Dover County, Pa., after the board voted in favor of teaching high school students Intelligent Design (ID) alongside the theory of evolution.

ID argues that the complex nature of the universe points to the existence of a supremely intelligent creator. The ACLU, however, claims ID is a Trojan horse for biblical creationism and that teaching it violates the separation of church and state.

Silverman said Darwinian evolution is a theory supported by scientific fact and it alone should be taught in public schools. He dismissed in condescending terms the concept of a supreme intellect that created all things.

“The idea that Darwinistic evolution has happened is fact,” Silverman said. “The idea that the universe was created by an invisible magic man in the sky is fiction. It is mythology and it should not be taught. There is no way around it.”

Mohler pointed out that ID is not the same thing as creationism and that a majority of Americans want it taught in public schools. Furthermore, Darwinian theory has gained such a foothold in academic circles, one must be an evolutionist to be considered a genuine scientist, Mohler said.

“I believe in creation and the full biblical doctrine of creation,” Mohler said. “I am a Christian theologian. But when I am speaking about Intelligent Design as a scientific theory, I do not expect the teacher in the public schools to come out and argue for or against creation.
“But the theory of Intelligent Design comes down to this: in the entire complexity of the universe as we know it—from something as complex as the human eye to the glory of the sky, all the cosmos, all of the planets and their proportion—there is more information necessary there than the theory of evolution can explain.

“According to even evolutionary theory, the information has to be there. That theory can’t account for how the information gets there ahead of the mutation or the change. The evolutionists are scared to death. They are circling the wagons. They are defining science so that you have to believe in evolution to be a scientist.”

Grant, who is also a mother, said most Americans believe in God and do not see evolution as being true. Teachers should present students with both views, she said.

“If my child has to sit in the classroom and be taught [evolution] as an option that is held in the world, why is it that my child cannot also sit in the classroom and be taught about Intelligent Design as a theory, as an option, so that a child can have a balanced education?

“David (Silverman) says it (creationism) is mythology... but the bottom line is that it is a theory that is held by a majority of Americans who believe that there is a god.”
Silverman said creationism is nothing more than a myth the religious right is using as a crutch to deal with scientific advancement in the 21st century.

“I must hand it to the right wing here,” Silverman said. “This is pure genius. They’ve got a theory, they’ve got a mythology—Christianity or creationism as you call it—and they’ve got absolutely no basis in fact. And they’ve got the 21st century, which is barreling on in with its science and its knowledge and they say, ‘Oh my goodness, how are we going to combat that?’ So they repackage their old stuff.”

But ID is a scientific theory that presents a credible alternative to evolutionary theory, Mohler said. He pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Darwinism is a religious truth claim.

“It (evolution) is just the religion in which there is no god,” Mohler said. “Or as others would say there is nothing left for god to do. It is an inherently anti-Christian religion, but it is a religion and that’s why they are holding to their dogma so tenaciously. That’s why they are so scared to death and paranoid, insecure, about the rise of Intelligent Design. It scares them to death.”

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Mohler to graduates: do not become a religious professional December 16, 2004

Ministers must consider their work a calling from God rather than an opportunity for professional advancement, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. said during the school’s fall graduation ceremony Dec. 10.

Preaching from John 1 and John 3 at the school’s 194th commencement, Mohler told the graduating class of 125 students that John the Baptist serves as a model of ministerial faithfulness.

John the Baptist “was not a religious professional,” he said. “The professionalization of the ministry is not a recent development, but it is one of the most tragic developments to befall the church. Ministry is not a profession. It’s not a career, and it’s not a job.”

Many pastors in postmodern America see themselves as media moguls, political negotiators, therapists, managers and activists, Mohler said. But the true minister of God must see himself as a servant of Jesus Christ.

“Professionalism kills,” he said. “The spirit of the professional is not the spirit of Christ. The talent of the professional is not the gift of the ministry. The aim of the professional is not the mission of the true servant of Christ. The professional would not say, ‘In the cross of Christ I glory.’ But the minister of God must.”

Mohler drew three lessons from the life of John the Baptist for ministers seeking to live a life of faithfulness of Christ.

First, a minister must model humility.

“In a New Testament perspective [humility] is a non-negotiable necessity,” Mohler said. “Know that it’s not about us. It’s all about God. It’s all about the glory of God.”

Underscoring the distinction between true and false humility, Mohler said that true humility causes a minister to live out his calling by proclaiming the Word of God.

“True humility is assuming the responsibility God has invested in us and knowing it is to God’s glory and burning ourselves out with passion to see God’s glory demonstrated in that calling. Ultimately it is all about God. It’s not about us. But God uses human servants as vessels for His Gospel.”

Second, a minister must model clarity.

While many preachers speak about Christ indirectly or obtusely, the true minister of God must declare the message of Christ with theological specificity, Mohler said.

“We need a generation ready to tell the truth and to be very clear and very specific about what the truth is,” he said. “This is no time for almost saying something. The Christian minister is not to be known for angular speech but for directness. Whatever gifts God has given you, direct them to clarity for the cause of Christ, the glory of God and the mission of the Gospel.”

Clarity requires ministers to preach the offensive message of the cross rather than preaching what people want to hear, Mohler said.

“The Gospel is just so clear—clear about who Christ is, clear about why He came and what He did, clear about what sin is. Clarity will certainly get you in trouble because we live in a day of itching ears. May you in your ministry be used as an agent of clarity,” he said.

Third, a minister must model rightly-ordered priorities.

The first priority of the minister must be to increase the glory of Christ while decreasing his own glory, Mohler said.

“There can be no shared glory in the ministry,” he said. “Whatever glory we have will be the glory we are given on that day when Christ shall claim us as His own. In this world we will not see glory. Whatever glory we see is more dangerous than profitable.”

The moments of greatest joy in ministry will come when God’s glory is reflected through the conversion of sinners and the spiritual growth of believers, Mohler said.

“You get to see God’s glory in the broken made whole, in the crooked made straight,” he said. “But it is not our glory, and for us there is no glory in it except the glory we get to see and the reflected glory that comes to us because of the work of God.”

Mohler concluded, “Today we declare God’s glory in you and God’s purpose for you. God forbid that you should be professionalized or think that today you are being certified for a profession. Burn yourselves out in the calling of the ministry. Aim for the hereafter. Earth and its careers will sink into insignificance, and God’s glory will be in it from beginning to end.”

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Current and former Southern Seminary professors disagree in debate on embryonic stem cell research December 15, 2004

A recent debate on stem cell research highlighted the worldview differences between a current professor and a former professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

William Cutrer, who is a medical doctor, serves as the C. Edwin Gheens Professor of Christian Ministry at Southern, and Paul Simmons, who served as professor of Christian ethics at Southern from 1970-1992, were among the panelists in a discussion entitled “Stem Cell Research: The Science and Ethics” hosted by the Louisville Forum Dec. 8.

Cutrer advocated adult stem cell research because it does not involve the destruction of human embryos, but condemned embryonic stem cell research as destructive of “a valuable human life.”

Simmons, who is currently a clinical professor in the department of family and geriatric medicine at the University of Louisville Medical School, disagreed, arguing that science has a moral obligation to pursue embryonic stem cell research. Simmons also argued that an embryo is not a person and is of “disputable value.”

Appearing on the panel with Cutrer and Simmons was Scott Whittemore, vice-chair of the department of neurological surgery at the University of Louisville Medical School.

According to Cutrer, adult stem cell research has great potential to alleviate medical conditions ranging from orthopedic problems to leukemia and spinal cord injuries.

“Embryonic stem cell [research] requires the destruction of a human being at its earliest stages,” he said. “...Whereas the adult stem cell research ... has demonstrated remarkable success.”

The root problem with embryonic stem cell research is that it fails to recognize the value that God assigns to human life, Cutrer said.

“Human beings are of inestimable value,” he said. “They are made in the image of God.... From the one-celled individual, I see that as a valuable human life worthy of protecting. Whether it’s in a petri dish, whether it’s frozen, I see that in the continuum of God’s creation.”

Simmons said that the arguments of those who oppose embryonic stem cell research “don’t hold water philosophically, biblically or religiously or even biologically.” An embryo is not a person and should be recognized as a tool for research, he said.

“One cannot substitute an entity of questionable or unknown value for one that is of known and indisputable value,” Simmons said. “You cannot claim, ‘We must protect an embryo’ when you’ve got a person to deal with. The person requires attention. The embryo is of disputable value. That is a basic norm, a rule in ethics, law, and common sense.”

When asked about creating embryos for the sole purpose of destroying them for embryonic stem cell research, Simmons responded that such a proposal makes him “nervous” but is not immoral.

“One of those things that makes me nervous is actually creating pre-embryos for the sake of research,” he said. “Now against that nervousness is the fact that even if you create it, it’s not a person.... So while I‘m nervous about it, I don’t think that amounts to anything like an absolute prohibition based on moral objection. It’s an emotional nervousness.”

Whittemore noted that adult stem cells are less versatile than embryonic stem cells. Although embryonic stem cells present some difficulties for researchers, their great potential for curing diseases should encourage scientists to purse further research in embryonic stem cells, he said.

“This is a very important issue, and I would just ask you all to keep a very open mind and think about how you’d feel if your 14-year-old child had juvenile diabetes or your grandfather had Parkinson’s disease,” he said. “These are very complex and crucial issues ... for us to knee jerk and jump one way or the other.... It is a very difficult issue that requires careful thought and input from all sides.”

Cutrer noted that there are currently 400,000 frozen embryos in the United States. One of the best ways for Christians to show compassion on frozen embryos is to adopt them through agencies such as the Snowflake Adoption Agency, he said.

“Couples that are desirous of pregnancy can adopt these unwanted frozen embryos,” he said. “...Those couples that are heroically offering to try to give them a chance to survive, that to me is an ethical response to what is a challenging situation.”

Christians must bear in mind that Jesus began His life on earth as a one-celled embryo and had the hand of the Holy Spirit upon Him from the beginning of His life, Cutrer said. Remembering the embryonic beginnings of Jesus’ human life should encourage believers to protect all embryos, he said.

Simmons responded that the life of Jesus cannot teach modern believers anything concrete about the value of embryos.

“When you deal with the conception of Jesus, you’re dealing with something outside our ability to find out,” he said. “We don’t know what went on there. I do know that in Christian mythology, the way we put it is that this was a virginal birth. But Matthew and Luke disagree. Was this a virginal birth or was this a virginal conception? Even the Scriptures disagree.

“We can’t prove anything about the virgin birth with regard to the current debate about abortion or stem cell research or anything else. In religious circles I affirm the traditional stories about Jesus. When I preach in a Baptist church, that’s my frame of reference. But when I deal with stem cell research in med school, that has nothing to do with the question about stem cell research.”

Cutrer concluded that adult stem cell research is a proper application of God’s command to exercise dominion over the earth, but embryonic stem cell research must be prevented because God has not given human beings dominion over fellow humans.

“As I understand God’s relation to us, He have given us authority and dominion over the plant and animal kingdom,” he said. “So the marvelous research that [scientists are] conducting [with adult stem cells] is totally ethical. I totally support that. The things that we will learn from that will help us in many ways.”

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New book by SBTS dean unpacks significance of the Kingdom of Christ December 10, 2004

Is the Kingdom of Christ a present or future reality? Is it spiritual or material? Is it the church or the world? Or is it neither or both? Is it to be found in evangelizing the lost or in reclaiming the culture?

Christians for centuries have debated the answers to these questions and a new book by Russell D. Moore provides an in-depth look at the consensus that has quietly developed within evangelicalism over the past century or so regarding the kingdom of God.

In “The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective” (Crossway Books), Moore—who serves as dean of the School of Theology and senior vice president for academic administration at The Southern Baptist Theology Seminary—examines these questions through the prism of evangelical political action. But the Kingdom of God is about far more than politics, Moore asserts.

“But that is not because the Kingdom is a tool to equip evangelicals for politics,” Moore writes. “It is not even because evangelical politics is all that important, in the greater scheme of things. Instead, it is because the failure of evangelical politics points us to something far more important that underlies it—the failure of evangelical theology.”

The failure is that of contemporary evangelical theology to engage politics. In the book, Moore calls evangelical Christians to shape their identity by convictions about the Kingdom of God in Christ.

“The new perspective on the Kingdom of God can define evangelical theology along the lines of the central themes of the Old and New Testament canon,” Moore writes. “In the end, a renewed focus on the Kingdom is essential if evangelicals are ever going to grapple with the evangel of a crucified, resurrected, and enthroned Messiah.

“As such, evangelicalism ought to become both more and less political. Evangelical theology will not serve an activist agenda to be an identity caucus in someone’s political party. But evangelical theology will remind Christians that the call to Christ is not a call to ‘go to heaven when you die,’ but instead a call to be ‘joint heirs’ with the Messiah who will inherit an all-encompassing Kingdom.”

The book includes more than 300 pages and is broken down into four chapters and a conclusion. The chapters deal with evangelical theology and evangelical engagement, the Kingdom as ‘already and not yet,’ salvation as holistic and Christological, and the church as a kingdom community.

In an interview for Crossway’s monthly newsletter announcing the book’s publication, Moore said evangelical beliefs on the Kingdom have tended toward two opposite extremes. His book seeks to draw a more integrated and biblical picture of the Kingdom of God.
“Evangelical theologies of the Kingdom have led to two polar opposite approaches to political engagement: withdrawal or triumphalism,” Moore said.

“One side persistently calls on evangelicals to withdraw from the public square and prepare for the coming of Christ. It beckons evangelicals to an alternative universe of evangelical sub-culture-a ‘Bizarro America’ where evangelicals have our own distinctly Christian popular culture, complete with Christian boy bands, Christian cartoon television networks, and Christian romance novels. “

“On the other hand, some evangelicals have spoken as though America could be ‘claimed’ for Christ through enacting ‘Christian’ political legislation-complete with a ‘Christian’ view on everything from congressional term limits to the line item veto. These evangelicals have often vested political processes with so much hope that they are befuddled when political victories fail to stem the tide of the sexual revolution or the abortion culture.”

Moore says a Kingdom theology must inform the social and political engagement of Christians as well as their view of the world’s future.

“Both evangelical withdrawal and evangelical triumphalism must be measured against a biblical vision of the Kingdom of God—a Kingdom the New Testament tells us is both “already” and “not yet,” present and yet future,” Moore said.

“The Kingdom informs us about what our priorities should be-personally, socially, and politically, and also tempers our expectations about what kind of change we can see, and where we can expect to see it. Accordingly, an evangelical Kingdom theology ought to reorient the way we think about both the church business meeting and the Iowa caucuses.”

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Moore to TV audience: Election was a statement from grassroots America December 6, 2004

The re-election of President George W. Bush represented a grassroots rejection of a radical leftward shift in the culture, Russell D. Moore said in a television debate on Nov. 22.

Moore argued that the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage animated conservatives and led them to vote for a life-affirming president and for constitutional amendments protecting traditional marriage in 11 states.

Moore, who serves as dean of the School of Theology and senior vice president for academic administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, appeared on the “Kentucky Tonight” program on Kentucky Educational Television.

Three others appeared with Moore to debate the “moral divide” in the United States: state representatives Stan Lee and Kathy Stein and Albert Pennybacker, chair and chief executive of the Clergy Network.

“I think abortion and same-sex marriage were preeminent (issues in the election),” Moore said. “I think the reason for that is because they are so clear in terms of issues that the American people are looking at and saying ‘that doesn’t represent who we are as a nation. We don’t represent the kind of nation that would attack our most vulnerable through something as barbaric as partial-birth abortion.

“’We’re not the kind of nation that wants to say we are going to do away with 5,000 years of human civilization in terms of the definition of marriage. I think that these issues were really defensive as evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics said ‘we don’t want that kind of radical societal change.’”

Moore and Lee were the two conservatives on the panel while Pennybacker and Stein represented the liberal viewpoint. Host Bill Goodman asked the four participants to define moral values and their answers demonstrated the sharp distinction between the worldviews.

Moore said people do not define the moral order but must recognize an unchanging pattern of morality that has been sewn into the fabric of the universe by a sovereign Creator. Since morals transcend human definition and are based on an objective standard, institutions such as marriage are defined by the ultimate Lawgiver and not by autonomous persons, he said.

“We don’t decide what marriage is, we recognize what marriage is,” Moore said. “We don’t decide what is murder, we recognize and condemn that which is murderous. And so I don’t think it is something that we simply gather round and decide.

“I think the term ‘values’ sometimes obscures that because it makes it sound as though we are just talking about the things that we tend to value rather than these things that are objectively true and right.”

Stein listed fairness and equality as values that must always be cherished but challenged Moore’s basing of marriage in terms of absolute truth. Marriage has “evolved over the past 5,000 years,” she said.

Pennybacker also attacked Moore’s definition of truth as holding propositional content. Truth is not about doctrine but about universal love, he said. Therefore marriage must not be defined according to objective truth but in terms of whether or not those within the relationship love each other, Pennybacker said.

“I believe in a God of absolute love,” Pennybacker said. “That means that the center of religious life is not proposition or doctrinal, it is relational because love is a relationship. And I believe that when the Bible talks about the love of God, it really means it. Love is always relational.”

While the panelists disagreed over whether or not America is a deeply-divided nation, both Lee and Moore agreed that grassroots Americans on election day demonstrated their distaste for the liberal ideology of elites in the so-called “idea centers” of the country. The red areas on the political maps and not the blue ones represent mainstream America, Moore said.

“The country is mostly red but when you notice what is blue, they are the idea centers of the country—Manhattan, Hollywood—these are very deep blue places that are really exporting a culture that I really think the nation was revolting against on Nov. 2,’” Moore said.

“The American people were saying, ‘we really don’t want imposed upon us the values of the Massachusetts Supreme Court dictating same-sex marriage; we really don’t want Whoopi Goldberg speaking for the American people’... They don’t represent the heart and soul of America as John Kerry said.”

Americans also sounded their voices on abortion by voting for Bush, Moore said. Bush will likely have an opportunity to appoint more than one justice to the U.S. Supreme Court during the next four years and his reelection sends a signal that Americans have grown weary of government by judicial fiat, Moore said.

“We have a Supreme Court that is probably going to be in major transition, perhaps even over the next year and I think the voters had that on their minds,” Moore said. “They want a president who is going to appoint justices who are not going to continue that kind of Massachusetts Supreme Court judicial activism.”

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Mohler tells ‘Good Morning America’ audience that controversial UCC commercial is ‘masterful propaganda’ December 2, 2004

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—A new TV advertisement promoting the United Church of Christ says that God is still speaking and at least insinuates that He is now affirming homosexuality.

But R. Albert Mohler Jr., appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday, said the commercial misrepresents biblical Christianity. Mohler is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“It is a piece of masterful propaganda but it is a diabolical misrepresentation of Christianity,” Mohler said.

“And Jesus Christ did indeed come to seek and to save the lost but as He said to the woman caught in adultery, ‘Go and sin no more.’ He did not invite persons to stay in sinful lifestyles. Rather, He came to save us from our sins and to make us what we otherwise could not be -- and that is victorious over all the sins that entrap us. Homosexuality is one of those.”

The 30-second spot began running on several cable channels on Dec. 1 and is part of the UCC’s two-year campaign toward an inclusion that affirms “all persons who feel rejected” by the church, said Robert Chase, director of communications for the UCC, who appeared with Mohler.

The ad depicts a pair of bouncers, clad in black and wearing dark sunglasses, standing behind a set of velvet ropes as a long line of people attempt to file past them into a church that looms in the background.

The bouncers stop a same-sex couple, saying, “No, step aside please.” One guard halts two black children with a hand and a terse statement, “No way, not you.” He turns away an Hispanic girl, dismissing her with two words: “No way.” The brawny gatekeepers remove the ropes only to allow a well-dressed white family to pass.

The written content reads, “Jesus didn’t turn people away ... Neither do we” and the soothing voiceover reassures potential parishioners that, “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” Chase says the ad must be interpreted allegorically.

“This ad is clearly allegorical,” Chase said. “There are no churches that have real bouncers out in front of their structures with velvet ropes. But the point is not from those of us who are inside the church but those people who feel alienated and rejected. For those people those barriers are very real and we’re simply trying to say, ‘You’re welcome here.’”
Host Diane Sawyer asked Mohler if his criticism of the commercial meant that he does not want gays to attend his church. Mohler pointed out that every true church is composed of sinners who have, by God’s grace, repented of and turned from their sins.
Biblical churches would by no means turn aside homosexuals, but would proclaim to them, as to all sinners, the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he said.

“Our church is made up, like every true church, of sinners saved by grace,” Mohler said. “But we are not to be left in our sin but are to come out of what the Scripture clearly identifies as sin. The apostle Paul spoke the church at Corinth, listing things, including homosexuality, and said, ‘and such were some of you.’ We are all sinners but we cannot remain in our sin and we can’t just bless a lifestyle by saying we accept it when the Scripture clearly condemns it as sin.”

Both NBC and CBS have refused to run the commercial but ABC will allow it to air on one of its affiliates, ABC Family, Sawyer said. According to the UCC website, other cable networks have agreed to use the spot, including TNT, TBS, FOX, Hallmark, Discovery, TVLand, AMC, BET, Travel Channel, Nick at Nite, and the History Channel.

The ad is a major component of the UCC’s “Stillspeaking” campaign that seeks to cast the denomination as a broad and ultra-inclusive body. The Stillspeaking website (http://www.stillspeaking.com/default.htm) asserts that “like Jesus – the United Church of Christ seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation.”

Central to the campaign is the theme “God is still speaking” followed by a comma. The punctuation mark is pivotal to the slogan, showing that God has not definitively spoken. The website includes a quote from the late comedienne Gracie Allen that serves to explain the campaign slogan: “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.” The UCC includes some 1.3 million members and more than 6,000 churches nationwide.

In concluding the brief interview, Sawyer asked Mohler if he would allow in his church the moneychangers for whom she said, “Jesus reserved His worst anger.” Mohler said the moneychangers would be urged through proclamation of the Gospel not to remain in their sin.

“They would not be welcome to remain as moneychangers any more than Jesus would just bless any kind of sin,” Mohler said.

“Remember, Jesus required the rich young ruler to sell all he had and give to the poor and he didn’t and he went away. Jesus doesn’t leave us as we are. He offers us His grace — salvation — but that’s a transforming grace to call us out of sin. Homosexuals would be welcomed. There would be no bouncers at the door at our church to keep them out but they would hear the authentic Gospel when they came inside.”

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ETS seeks to clarify doctrinal basis with Chicago Statement December 1, 2004

SAN ANTONIO (BP)--Members of the Evangelical Theological Society have passed a resolution to consider using the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy to clarify the organization’s position on the inerrancy of Scripture.

Adoption of the Chicago Statement would allow ETS to exclude members or potential members who hold aberrant theological positions -- such as “open theism” -- that undermine biblical inerrancy.

Members attending the 56th annual ETS meeting in San Antonio voted 234 (78.5 percent) to 58 to accept the resolution put forth by the society’s executive committee.

Greg Beale, the outgoing president of ETS, said many members felt a more precise definition of inerrancy is needed in the wake of the recent challenge presented by open theism.

At the 2003 annual meeting in Atlanta, ETS members voted against revoking the membership of two theologians who hold to open theism or the “openness of God,” a position which argues, among other things, that God does not know perfectly what will happen in the future.

The two theologians -- Clark Pinnock and John Sanders -- were acquitted largely because ETS members could not agree on a precise definition of the term “inerrancy” in the organization’s statement of faith. To join ETS, one must sign a statement of faith that affirms belief in two doctrines: the inerrancy of Scripture and the Trinity.

This year’s vote, on Nov. 19, on the Chicago Statement does not automatically enact it as an ETS bylaw but allows the executive committee to further examine the resolution at its next meeting in August.

The committee will take feedback from ETS members and then decide whether to recommend adopting the Chicago Statement as a proposed bylaw at the 2005 ETS national meeting in Valley Forge, Pa. Beale said the committee could bring the resolution before the ETS membership for adoption or could recommend further discussion.

If members vote to adopt the Chicago Statement, it will not become a part of the ETS statement of faith but will serve as “a useful instrument for interpreting” the article on inerrancy, Beale said.

If adopted as the “interpretative instrument,” the Chicago Statement then could be used for excluding members who hold aberrant views of Scripture, Beale said. One of the aspects of openness theology the resolution seeks to address is its teaching that some biblical prophecies will not actually be fulfilled in reality, a teaching which many evangelicals believe undermines biblical inerrancy.

ETS founder Roger Nicole, who brought the charges last year against Pinnock and Sanders, said adoption of the Chicago Statement would set forth precisely what the charter members of ETS intended when they included the term “inerrancy” in their statement of faith.

“In my judgment [adoption of the Chicago Statement] eliminates the claim by anyone that inerrancy is a vague term,” Nicole said. “The meaning of inerrancy is clarified and if there is any member who does not agree with that definition he should resign ... or be disciplined.”

The Chicago Statement was produced in the fall of 1978 during an international summit conference of concerned evangelical leaders. It was signed by nearly 300 noted evangelical scholars such as Nicole, Norman L. Geisler, Carl F.H. Henry, Harold Lindsell, J.I. Packer, Francis Schaeffer, R.C. Sproul and James Montgomery Boice.

It contains five short statements that define inerrancy, followed by 19 affirmations and denials that further define the doctrine. For example, the first article reads: “We affirm that the Holy Scriptures are to be received as the authoritative Word of God. We deny that the Scriptures receive their authority from the Church, tradition, or any other human source.”

One of the brief opening statements says of Scripture: “Being wholly and verbally God-given ... [it] is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God’s saving grace in individual lives.”

By contrast, the ETS statement on Scripture is brief. It reads, “The Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written, and therefore inerrant in the autographs.”

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Southern Seminary partners with KBC in ‘Reaching Out 2004’ November 19, 2004

Students and faculty from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary partnered with the Kentucky Baptist Convention recently to take the good news of Jesus Christ to the streets of Louisville.

Nearly 200 members of the Southern Seminary community participated in projects ranging from servant evangelism and urban outreach to international evangelism and prayer walking as part of Reaching Out 2004 in conjunction with the Crossover Louisville initiative of the Kentucky Baptist Convention Nov. 13.

Bill Mackey, executive director of the KBC, joined the event, partnering with two seminary students to conduct door-to-door evangelism in one of Louisville’s older neighborhoods.

“I just enjoy going out and meeting people for the first time and checking them out spiritually and ... looking for an opportunity for someone to be receptive to the Gospel,” Mackey said. “Working with seminary students is encouraging.”

For Jedidiah Coppenger, a master of divinity student from Greenville, S.C., sharing the Gospel along with Mackey was a reminder that truths learned in a seminary classroom can have a powerful impact in the world.

This outreach event “has put legs on those glorious truths and helped me see that they’re not just some abstract ideas,” Coppenger said. “But they are a rock for a tough community in a tough life. This has helped move [truths] from my head to my heart with greater impact.”

Brad Hughes, a master of divinity student from Blakely, Ga., said Reaching Out 2004 was a valuable opportunity for seminary students to see the KBC’s heart for evangelism and missions.

“It’s good to have Dr. Mackey with us,” Hughes said. “To see his heart and see that our leadership is committed to evangelism is pretty powerful.”

Twyla Fagan, Southern’s director of Great Commission ministries, reported that at least two people committed their lives to Christ as a result of the outreach initiative.

“These types of events open our eyes to the reality of what’s going on around the world,” Fagan said. “We heard reports about a couple of people who were saved. But even if there was just one, it’s all worth it.”

Doug Sleigh, a Boyce College student from Prattville, Ala., partnered with Ted Cabal, a professor of Christian philosophy and applied apologetics at Southern, for an international outreach project. Sleigh and Cabal encountered a man in one home who attended church but was concerned that he had never trusted Christ for salvation.

“He attended church, but he didn’t think he was a Christian and was worried about his sin,” Sleigh said. “So we led him to commit his life to Christ.”

Harry Zimmerman, a master of divinity student from Orangeburg, S.C. who participated in an outreach project to African Americans, said Reaching Out 2004 served as a reminder of the world’s need for the Gospel.

“We can’t force the Gospel on anyone,” Zimmerman said. “But there are a lot of people hurting and a lot of people that need to hear the Word.”

Mackey noted that in addition to encountering many non-Christians, he was encouraged to find a number of believers acting as lights in their communities. One of the believers that most encouraged Mackey was a woman who recently adopted two special needs children and was attempting to spread the love of Jesus throughout her neighborhood, he said.

“There are some wonderful witnesses in the community,” Mackey said. “It’s encouraging to see that God is at work.”

The receptiveness of people and the importance of the evangelistic task should encourage Kentucky Baptists to participate in further outreach projects, he said.

“The people have been amazingly open to let us talk with them in almost every case,” Mackey said. “The people are open to spiritual conversations. There is some ministry taking place in the community.”

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SBTS faculty participate in KBC annual meeting November 18, 2004

Two Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professors addressed Kentucky Baptists during the 167th annual meeting of the state convention Nov. 16-17 in Louisville.

Thom Rainer, dean of Southern’s Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth, led a workshop on “Baptism Trends and Recommended Strategies for Kentucky Baptist Churches.” Russell D. Moore, the seminary’s senior vice president for academic administration, spoke at the annual KBC Southern Seminary Alumni Luncheon.

Rainer exhorted KBC messengers to move beyond mediocrity in the area of evangelism and strive to reach increased numbers of Kentuckians for Christ.

Rainer and his son Sam presented a comprehensive report on the spiritual health of Kentucky Baptist churches and argued that successful evangelism requires a willingness to invest intentionally in the lives of unbelievers.

“We need to be a group of people ... that cannot help but speak about what we have seen and heard,” Rainer said. “Ask God how you can be obedient.”

Although Christians should not place their focus on numbers, surveying statistical data can help to gauge the spiritual health of churches, he said.

Citing a study conducted by the Rainer Group church consulting firm, Rainer noted that baptisms in Kentucky declined from 20,460 in 1980 to a low of 13,395 in 1994. Beginning in 1995 the number of baptisms began to increase, but the growth of Baptist churches in the state still lags far behind the growth of the overall population, he said.

“If the current trends continue, [Kentucky Baptist churches] will net a loss of 58 persons per year by the year 2025,” Sam Rainer said.

In order to reach the state’s population more successfully, churches must make sharing the Gospel with children and young adults a priority, Thom Rainer said.

Research reveals that the Bridger generation (those born between 1977 and 1994) is both the most unchurched generation alive today and the generation most receptive to the Gospel, he said. This data should encourage churches to increase their efforts to reach unchurched young people, Rainer said.

“We have had a decline in reaching young people, yet this generation [the Bridger generation] has 72 million young people—second only to the Boomer generation,” he said. “When we begin to test receptivity to the Gospel, ... the Bridger generation is the most receptive to the Gospel. This generation is both the most receptive and the least reached.”

The most effective way to reach the Bridger generation is not necessarily to launch new and creative programs, Rainer said. Instead, churches must make an intentional effort to build relationships with young people and lovingly teach them the good news of Christ, he said.

“It all boils down to intentionality,” Rainer said. “Are we being intentional? ... Can we not help but speak about what we have seen and heard? Those who are intentional about reaching young people tend to reach young people. Those that are not intentional don’t reach young people.”

Pursuing young people with the Gospel will require prayer, a willingness to change, a focus on children’s ministry and the development of high expectations, Rainer said.

He concluded, “Here’s the bottom line: we must speak about what we have seen and heard. If we do this, the KBC will have more baptisms than it will have ability to count. We will see revival, and the SBC will have an explosion of evangelistic growth.”

Moore, speaking to a group of Southern Seminary alumni, said that one of the seminary’s main goals is confront the forces of darkness with the light of the Gospel.

Preaching from Mark 1:21-28, Moore told alumni that the increasingly pagan culture in America drives Southern to produce students who will step out of their comfort zones and proclaim the truth of Christ.

“We’re preparing our students for the fact that the days of nominal Christianity in the United States of America are almost over,” he said. “... Increasingly, they are facing a culture that is more and more and more neo-pagan with people who have absolutely no concept of what the Gospel is all about at all.”

For some Christians the decline of American culture causes only sadness and consternation, but Southern Seminary views American culture as an environment with exciting evangelistic potential, Moore said.

“This is the most exciting time in history,” he said. “... We have the alternative between a very clear paganism and a very clear authentic Christianity. ... Our students are ministering in a world that has real questions about some very deep things.”

The deep questioning of many Americans calls for ministers who will proclaim a transformational, countercultural and authoritative message, Moore said. Because of the need for such a message, Southern Seminary is training young men and women to be bold witnesses for Christ, he said.

“The main burden that we have with our students is communicating that the Scriptures have authority and showing them how to proclaim the Scriptures with authority,” Moore said. “... They need to understand that their job in ministry is standing up before people whose lives are in peril, in terms of eternal darkness, and to proclaim clearly ... the authoritative Word of God.”

When students go out from the seminary and preach God’s Word faithfully, they will encounter resistance from demonic powers and principalities, he said.

“When Jesus is giving the revelation of God it is ... a threat to the principalities and powers, a threat to the powers of this age, and it is seen as such,” Moore said. “That is exactly what our students are facing.”

Southern is attempting to help students face demonic opposition by instilling within them a love for the local church and a passion for the Great Commission, he said.

“Our students, as they are here, in all their classes ... are understanding that this is for the sake of the local church,” Moore said.

“We’re sending students out of here ... with an authoritative message of Christ, and we know the result. The result is that principalities ... tremble and quake. And they ask the question, ‘Have you come to destroy us?’ We ... are attempting to equip an entire generation of students to be able to answer that question in exactly the same way Jesus did and with exactly the same authority that Jesus had: ‘Yes we have.’”

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