Posts by Jeff Robinson

Spurgeon Awards celebrate God’s work in SBC churches October 29, 2003

“Shock and awe” has an all-new context for David Dixon.

Dixon, who serves as associate pastor of evangelism and church growth at Englewood Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, N.C., said he was intensely surprised when the church was named “Church of the Year” at the second annual C.H. Spurgeon Awards ceremony Oct. 23 at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The only advanced notice Dixon and other staffers at Englewood received was a letter informing the church it had been nominated for an unspecified C.H. Spurgeon Award.

“It was shocking and surprising,” Dixon said. “The letter said we had been nominated for an award but it was not specific as to which award. We had no idea. We are excited about winning it but we certainly give all the praise and glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because that’s why we are here, for His glory.” The C.H. Spurgeon Awards ceremony and conference debuted last year. It is sponsored by the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth and was conceived by the school’s dean, Thom Rainer.

The Spurgeon Awards honor top churches in a number of categories including global missions, evangelism, prayer and innovative ministry, among others. Rainer had been sending certificates of recognition to top SBC churches for several years prior to his founding of the Spurgeon Awards.

“The purpose of the Charles Haddon Spurgeon Awards is to bring glory to God by recognizing His work in His churches,” Rainer said. “Although the churches do get rightful recognition, we are very clear that we do not seek glory for the churches, but to encourage and exhort them in the manner of the apostle Paul.”

Both objective and subjective criteria determine finalists and award recipients in each of the 12 categories. All finalists receive a recognition letter from Rainer and the Graham School. A winner is selected from among the finalists.

The Spurgeon Awards have broadened their scope since their inaugural year.

Last year, only Southern Baptist churches in the Midwest were eligible for the awards. This year, nominees came from SBC churches nationwide and the event will continue on a national scope in the years to come, Rainer said.

This year’s top church, Englewood, has experienced profound growth in recent years. The church averages 1,250 in attendance for Sunday morning worship and 800 for Sunday school. Sunday school attendees have increased by nearly 200 in the past two years and have climbed by a greater percentage of late, Dixon said.

“The past two months we have averaged 950 in Sunday School so the Lord is continuing to grow the church,” he said. “We just moved to two worship services in October.”

The Spurgeon Awards are named in honor of the famous 19th century British Baptist pastor, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He lived from 1834-1892 and served as pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle in London which underwent such meteoric growth during Spurgeon’s ministry that the church built a 5,000-seat sanctuary.

“We use Spurgeon’s name for these awards for several reasons,” Rainer said. “He was a Baptist who had a high view of Scripture and believed that no church could be healthy without firm theological convictions. He had an evangelistic passion as clearly evident in his book, `The Soul Winner.’

“He was a pastor’s pastor, evident in the pastor’s school he started at Metropolitan Tabernacle... He insisted on churches having some type accountability beyond themselves. That is why he urged churches to report records of attendance and baptisms. He had no interest in numbers for numbers’ sake, but he did believe in congregational accountability through numbers.”

Rainer said the response from participating churches has shown that the Spurgeon Awards are accomplishing their goal of celebrating God’s work and encouraging congregations and leaders.

“We have had countless church leaders, staff and laypersons, tell us that they rarely, if every, have received encouragement as they did through the Spurgeon Awards. They tell us that they are now more motivated than ever to press on for the sake of the Gospel and the glory of God.”

Other winners were:

* Evangelism, Canaan Baptist Church, Bessemer, Ala.

* Prayer, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga.

* Worship, Valley View Church, Louisville, Ky.

* Discipleship, First Baptist Church Thayer, Thayer, Mo.

* Ministry, Word Tabernacle Baptist Church, Philadelphia, Pa.

* Church planting, Eastwood Baptist Church, Haughton, La.

* Global missions, Calvary Baptist Church, Elko, Nev.

* Sunday School/small group, Holgate Baptist Church, Portland. Ore.

* Innovative approaches, The Country Church SBC, Marion, Texas.

* Preaching, Olive Baptist Church, Pensacola, Fla.

* Fellowship, Brown Springs Baptist Church, Mosheim, Tenn.

* Most comprehensive programs, First Baptist Church Brandon, Brandon, Fla.

* Church of the Year, Englewood Baptist Church, Rocky Mount, N.C.; First runner up, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga.; Second runner up, Long Heights Baptist Church, McKenzie, Tenn.

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Mohler calls Christians to be on high alert in war for hearts and minds October 28, 2003

Christians are not called to a life of self-absorbed ease, but to one of militant spiritual warfare in which they deploy the Gospel as a weapon to overthrow the false worldviews of the modern age, R. Albert Mohler Jr. said during an Oct. 15 sermon at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Mohler, Southern Seminary president, said the Gospel has many enemies in the contemporary culture just as it did in the early days of the Christian church. Mohler preached from 2 Cor. 10:1-6 during Southern Seminary’s annual Heritage Week celebration, held Oct. 14-16.

“The Gospel has its enemies,” Mohler said. “Why do we delude ourselves into believing that the Gospel had its enemies in the first century and we can be at peace now? Why do we harbor the narcissistic illusion that the apostle Paul had to deal with the reality but we can be freed from this?

“We can go on and make our decisions and plans and plot the future of our churches, our denomination, our institution, and our ministries as if we will not have enemies. But that is delusional...We should not be any more militaristic than the Scripture obligates us to be...but we had better not be any less.”

Believers must realize what it means to be “in the world but not of the world,” Mohler said. It means that they must not try to win the spiritual battle by worldly means in building a cult of personality or employing persuasive, but unbiblical, rhetoric, he said.

“Charisma [in personalities] can’t be the center of our ministry,” Mohler said. “Powerful personality [and] self-aggrandizement [or] pragmatism; that’s what it means to walk according to the flesh.

“There is [also] the pitfall of persuasive rhetoric. There are people who can sell almost anything, especially ideas. That is what is so dangerous in this society...Persuasive rhetoric was condemned for the church once for all in 1 Cor. 2.”

Christians must not fight the spiritual war “according to the flesh,” Mohler said. The enemy is not the people who believe or proclaim false worldviews. Rather, the enemy is the one who stands behind all unbiblical ideologies--Satan, Mohler said.

“We must keep ever before ourselves [the fact] that the enemy, even in the battles we fight on this earth, will not be the human beings we will engage,” Mohler said. “We must engage them. But the enemy is behind them...If the enemy were limited to those we engage in debate and in confrontation...we could deal with them in the flesh.

“But the problem of course is, they are not really the enemy. They are the mouthpieces of the enemy and they will answer for that...Because we realize this is a spiritual battle, we have to understand we must fight in a spiritual way.”

The Christian’s weapon is to be the Gospel, which alone is mighty to destroy competing belief systems, Mohler said. In the 20th century alone, two great worldviews—Nazism and Communism—both of which loomed as might fortresses on the sociopolitical landscape, were taken out by truth, Mohler pointed out.

There are scores of modern-day “fortresses” that have established themselves in opposition to the Gospel, Mohler said. Among them are moral relativism, secularism, postmodernism, hedonism, false tolerance, individual autonomy, and a culture of death, he said.

It is the authentic biblical Gospel that possesses the power to explode all competing worldviews, he said. And ultimately, this destruction is God’s work and must be done God’s way—through proclamation of His Word, Mohler said.

“The tearing down of fortresses in our day is going to have to be God’s work,” he said. “In the Gospel, we have God’s weapon of mass destruction. In the preaching and in the teaching of the Gospel, there is the power of God and that alone is the weapon of worldview destruction.”

In preparation for the battle, Christians must study and know the content of the faith to a degree that it becomes a comprehensive worldview. But they must wed this knowledge of God’s truth with undying obedience to it, for authentic Christianity is bound up in two commands, Mohler said: “believe” and “obey.”

“Christian truth is the power of the Gospel. We must stand by our Christian cognitive statements in the Gospel but [also] know that this truth is a transformative truth,” he said. “There is a moral character of knowledge that we as Christians must ever have in mind.

“The transformative vision of the church [is that] it is the church after all. We are to be part of an army, not lone warriors. We are called to be the soldiers of Christ, not mercenaries. We are called to be the church militant until by God’s grace, when the Lord comes and claims His church, we are the church triumphant. The triumph will be His, not ours.”

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Seminary faculty and trustees adopt proclamation on open theism October 23, 2003

Members of both the board of trustees and the faculty at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary unanimously adopted a resolution affirming “God’s exhaustive definite foreknowledge” and condemning open theism as “an egregious biblical and theological departure from orthodoxy.”

Trustees acted on the resolution at their fall meeting on Oct. 14, adopting a statement penned by a committee of seminary faculty members. The faculty unanimously passed the resolution earlier this month.

The statement reaffirms the historic Christian teaching on God’s foreknowledge as set forth in both the seminary’s confession of faith, the Abstract of Principles and the Southern Baptist Convention’s statement of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message. Proponents of the so-called “openness of God” deny that God exhaustively knows the future, and that God can know only possible future outcomes.

Scripture clearly teaches otherwise, seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. said. If open theism is correct, then the plan of salvation through the person and work of Christ only took place through God’s “good intentions” and not as His saving act, he said. It also undermines biblical prophecy, he said.

“When Peter and John were dragged before the Sanhedrin and Peter in his day of Pentecost sermon, he made clear, ‘these things happened by the plan and predetermined will of God in order that Christ would die,’” Mohler said.

“If you take this position of open theism seriously and begin to look at it, the entire plan of salvation comes down to God’s good intentions rather than His saving act.”

The resolution reads as follows: “Open theism’s denial of God’s exhaustive definite foreknowledge constitutes an egregious biblical and theological departure from orthodoxy and poses a serious threat to evangelical integrity. In accordance with our confessional documents—the Abstract of Principles and the Baptist Faith and Message—the Board of Trustees of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary affirms God’s exhaustive definite foreknowledge including the knowledge of all future free choices and actions of his creatures, and thereby denies that open theism is a viable evangelical view.”

Faculty members wanted to make a statement on open theism in light of a pending action on the issue at the upcoming meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS).

At the society’s annual meeting set for Nov. 19-21 in Atlanta, the membership of ETS—composed of scholars and theologians from across the evangelical world—will likely vote on whether proponents of open theism may remain within the society.

Southern faculty members have been active in the debate over open theism with theology professor Bruce Ware publishing two major books on the subject. In 2001, the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology devoted an issue to the topic.

“I think [it is] an extremely powerful statement from an institution to have a unanimous action by the faculty and by the board affirming this,” Mohler said.

“It’s not as if this is an open question for us, the answer is absolutely and explicitly given to us in the Baptist Faith and Message and the Abstract of Principles. So it’s not like we are coming up with a new doctrinal statement. This is a specially-timed resolution addressed to an issue that is not, by name of course, mentioned in our confessional documents.”

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Trustees approve master plan to meet seminary growth October 21, 2003

To accommodate continuing growth at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the school’s board of trustees Tuesday approved a revised master plan that will add classrooms and parking spaces within the next year.

Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr., told trustees the seminary’s growth requires difficult decisions regarding campus facilities. Because of the need for classroom space, Southern will renovate and reassign two existing buildings for academic use.

Rankin Hall, which now houses the seminary’s Child Development Center, will be transitioned into a classroom facility for Boyce College, Southern’s undergraduate school. The center, which provides daycare to 72 student, faculty, staff and community children, is scheduled to close at the end of the academic year in May 2004.

The seminary will also convert a 76-year-old gymnasium into two high-technology classrooms.

Mohler said the changes are necessary because the seminary must keep its mission of preparing Gospel ministers as the main priority.

“The moves reflect a concentration on our core assignment,” said Mohler. “We are forced by enrollment gains to make difficult choices and must look to other options for child care needs. We are very concerned for the well-being of the children and families currently using the Child Development Center. We will work with staff and families over the next several months to develop a transition plan.”

Southern Seminary’s enrollment exceeds 3,500, including more than 600 students at Boyce College.

Mohler told trustees that Southern must remain on a “wartime footing” because of the urgency of its call to proclaim the Gospel amid a culture that is becoming increasingly secularized, he said.

“An institution that is called to a wartime footing will make different decisions than an institution that thinks we are at peace with the world and our future is secure,” Mohler said.

“It means as we look to the future and as we are operating in the present, we have got to insure that we are doing what the churches have called us to do. Actually, our assignment is not just to mobilize students. It’s not just to build a seminary. You need to re-conceive this seminary as a West Point or an Annapolis [whose purpose is] to train those who will go out and lead the church for the battle.”

The master plan includes several projects, totaling more than $3.2 million in the first year. The entire revised Master Plan is scheduled for completion by December 2006. Under the plan:

* Levering Gymnasium, built in 1927, will be converted into two high-technology classrooms in 2004. Each of the two classrooms will seat 160. The gym currently serves as an auxiliary to the Honeycutt campus center, which features a modern gymnasium facility.

* Rankin Hall, which houses the school’s Child Development Center, will be converted into eight new classrooms for Boyce College.

* Parking capacity will increase with the addition of 136 spaces in 2004 and an additional 86 in 2005.

* Twenty-four residential units will be added to Fuller Hall in 2005, along with cosmetic improvements, a sprinkler system, and other amenities.

* Alumni Memorial Chapel will receive an upgrade in technology.

* Sprinkler systems will be installed in Carver and Mullins halls. Mullins will also receive a cosmetic renovation.

* Boyce Library will receive improvements including high-density book shelving and floor-by-floor refurbishing. Dated or worn aesthetics will receive a cosmetic facelift.

* Village Manor Apartments will be sold to a “friendly buyer” in 2004. The private entity buying Village Manor will renovate the 251-unit complex and maintain it as a low-income facility. The renovated apartments will continue to be available for student occupancy under private ownership.

Mohler said the master plan’s current projects are only the beginning of changes the seminary will undertake to allow continued growth. The changes will not only allow more students to benefit from the seminary, but will also increase Southern’s ability to carry out its stewardship in the way it uses campus space, Mohler said.

Churches are seeking ministers from Southern Seminary at a rate that exceeds the number of graduates annually going out from the school, Mohler said. The master plan is aimed at meeting that demand, Mohler said.

“We’ve had the opportunity over the last several years, in a number of very different ways, to make certain we are doing what the churches want us to do,” Mohler said.

“But the proof is always in the pulpit. And the good news is that churches demand our graduates. We have no trouble placing our graduates. We have more requests for our graduates than we yet have graduates.

“The time is short. We need to do everything possible to equip those who are currently studying at Southern Seminary to be readied in every way that we can possibly make possible for them to go out in the churches to be faithful servants of the Word and under-shepherds of the flock.”

In other business, trustees:

* Elected with tenure Duane Garrett to the faculty. Garrett presently serves as Old Testament professor at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass. He will begin as professor of Old Testament at Southern in the fall of 2004.

* Unanimously approved a resolution denying that open theism is a viable evangelical view. Open theism contends that God does not have exhaustive definitive foreknowledge (see accompanying article).

* Approved the repair of Southern’s swimming pool. The pool has been out of service since earlier this year and will undergo extensive repairs. The project will cost $215,000 and is expected to be completed by summer.

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Mohler: Church must remain supreme concern in church and state discussion October 9, 2003

Baptists must relate issues of church and state by understanding the supremacy of a believer’s church over all other concerns, R. Albert Mohler said during a Sept. 18 symposium at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Mohler detailed 10 principles—which he called “radically Baptist”—that should govern the argument of the relation of church and state. Mohler, president of Southern Seminary, made the presentation during a symposium on the separation of church and state held at the seminary.

The principles that Christians in general and Baptists in particular must use when wrangling with the interaction of church and state include:

* The concept of citizenship. Believers are citizens of both this world and the world to come, Mohler pointed out, but a Christian’s heavenly citizenship must take first place. “But at the same time, we are to render unto Caesar those things that are Caesar’s,” Mohler said. “But Christians must be ever mindful that...we are aliens wherever we may find ourselves and there are thus limitations on Christian allegiance to any political structure, political ideology or even nation or king.”

* The autonomy of the church. The church is a spiritual entity and derives its power from God and not any government or human authority, Mohler said. The charter for the church is not the U.S. Constitution or any other human document, but the inspired Word of God, he said.

* The gift of freedom. God has endowed humans with certain freedoms such as liberty of conscience, speech, worship and assembly. However, the word ‘liberty’ must not be loosely defined, but must be understood as a “positive good that is given [by God] as our birthright,” he said. God-given freedom means freedom of religion, he said. “We believe that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be legislated,” he said. “It cannot be coerced [or] mandated. It is a matter of the individual soul claimed by the sovereignty of God. The question is obedience or disobedience...regeneration or the absence of regeneration and the state cannot be that agent.”

* A free church in a free state. The church can only be free when the state is free, Mohler said. For the church to be free, the state must allow it the liberty to assemble and worship according to the mandate of the Gospel, he said.

* The recovery of constitutional sanity. Mohler argued that the establishment clause in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution has begun to eclipse the free exercise clause. Free exercise of religion as established in the First Amendment has been undermined by the current Supreme Court’s commitment to a radical understanding of the separation of church and state, he said. The court sees most any governmental acknowledgement of religion as a violation of the First Amendment contrary to the founding fathers’ intent, he said.

* The First Amendment must be rescued from Thomas Jefferson’s metaphor of “a wall” separating between church and state. Most Americans think of Jefferson’s famous words—which he penned in an 1802 letter—rather than the actual words and meaning of the First Amendment, Mohler pointed out. The meaning of Jefferson’s metaphor is uncertain because Christian services continued to be held in government buildings after Jefferson’s metaphor became public. Even Jefferson’s own practices did not adhere to the radical separation advocated by the modern courts, Mohler said.

* A secular state is profoundly dangerous. This is true because there is no such thing as religious neutrality and a secular worldview is opposed to Christianity, Mohler said. Every worldview is religious or irreligious, he said. “There is either allegiance to or hostility to the truth claims of various spiritual, religious, theological arguments being made at any time,” he said. “We need to be rid of the notion of a neutral state. No state has ever achieved neutrality. Those who have most vociferously claimed neutrality have often demonstrated the greatest tyranny over the human soul.”

* The church must be protected from the state. The church must refuse to take government money or support even when it is constitutionally legal, Mohler said. The church must maintain its autonomy by giving its allegiance to the Jesus Christ alone, he said. “Where Caesar’s money goes, so do his accountants, so do his lawyers and his rules,” Mohler said. “We must not take Caesar’s coin.”

* Chartered liberty, governmental respect and negotiated pluralism provide the answer to the church-state dilemma. Mohler argued that the constitution should define liberty as its framers intended. This would best protect the liberty of all Americans and would promote a governmental respect for religion that has been a reality throughout American history, he said. Every president in U.S. history has given some statement of respect for religion and the modern-day judiciary should do the same, he said. American citizens should then be able to negotiate and define pluralism—within constitutional boundaries—through the legislative process, he said.

* Christianity must be recognized as a public Christianity. Christians must be ready to clearly and cogently argue their worldview in the public square, he said. They should use their worldview as a foundation for arguments focused on changing public policy, Mohler said. “The law is not a neutral thing,” Mohler said. “Abortion will either be legal or illegal. Homosexual marriage will either be recognized or not recognized and there are serious theological arguments on both sides of that issue. Both need to be articulated, both need to be acknowledged and we need to be vociferous, faithful, aggressive, respectful agents of the Christian Gospel to make this case in the public square.”

The symposium was co-sponsored by the seminary’s Carl F.H. Henry Institute for Evangelical Engagement and Boyce College, Southern’s undergraduate school.

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SBTS publishes new Gospel tract October 3, 2003

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has published a new witnessing tract that gives full and robust treatment to the Gospel of God’s grace.

Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. unveiled the tract during Southern’s chapel service on Sept. 25. The tract, which was developed by evangelism and church growth professor Timothy Beougher and two students in the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth, uses the acrostic “G.R.A.C.E.” to outline the Gospel. It is titled “Experiencing God’s Grace.”

“It is so rich in Scripture,” Mohler said. “It is so clear in its Gospel presentation, it uses the right vocabulary, it defines and explains the right vocabulary and it leads person to the cross. It is a very effective Gospel presentation, is theologically correct and I believe it is evangelistically potent.”

At 28 pages, the work is meaty. It begins by asserting God as the Creator and Lord of the universe. It fleshes out God’s moral character and His claim upon human beings whom He has created in His image.

The next points in the acrostic sequence include “R” which stands for “rebellion” and addresses the fall and man’s sinfulness, followed by “A” which speaks of Christ’s atonement, “C” which speaks of the necessity of repentance and faith in conversion, and “E” which deals with the reality and meaning of eternal life. Each section contains numerous Scripture verses and sections of text that explain each Gospel precept.

The idea for a new tract arose in the fall of 2001 while master of divinity student Bryant Glisson was taking Beougher’s personal evangelism class. Glisson proposed using the acrostic G.R.A.C.E. as a means of summarizing and presenting the Gospel.

Beougher and Glisson worked together and developed the first draft of the booklet and doctoral student David Bell assisted in writing and editing. The tract was then circulated among 25 members of the Southern Seminary faculty for comments and suggestions.

The tract intentionally begins with the character and attributes of God. A weakness of some tracts is that they risk confusing the reader by beginning their Gospel presentation at a place that leaves the reader confused as to why he needs forgiveness, Beougher said.

A person does not understand his sinfulness and need of redemption until he has first grasped the holy and righteous character of God.

“Richard Baxter, the great [Puritan] pastor of the 17th century made an interesting analogy of this truth,” Beougher said. “If a messenger from a king were to come with a pardon to a convicted criminal, about to be hung on the gallows, that man would receive that pardon gratefully and humbly. He knows he deserves to die but the king has pardoned him.

“But if that same messenger from the king were to deliver a message of pardon to an innocent bystander in the crowd, that person would be confused, perhaps even angry. That person would not see himself as in need of a pardon [he would say] ‘it is the man on the gallows who is guilty, not me.’

“I believe God must be the starting point for people to see the full picture of sin and salvation. There is a strong emphasis on God’s character of holiness and love, and on our necessary response of repentance and faith.”

Students attending chapel each received two copies of the tract and Mohler challenged them to give away the booklets within seven days and to disseminate 52 additional copies within the next year.

“I think of this tract as a pocket-sized Power Point presentation of the Gospel,” Mohler said. “It will help you share the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe the Lord will bless this.

“And what better representation can there be of our determination to be evangelists for the Gospel than we are willing to put it into form where we will put it into hands and put it into voice and put the Gospel to feet.”

Anyone wishing to obtain a free copy of “Experiencing God’s Grace” may send a self-addressed stamped envelope along with 60 cents postage to: The Billy Graham School, SBTS, 2825 Lexington Road, Louisville, KY, 40280.

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Commentary: Song of Songs celebrates husband-wife intimacy October 2, 2003

The Old Testament book Song of Songs celebrates the joys of physical love between a husband and wife, Daniel L. Akin argues in a new commentary.

Akin is co-author of the commentary with David George Moore, who is founder and president of Two Cities Ministries. The volume, which is part of the Holman Old Testament Commentary series (Broadman & Homan), also covers Ecclesiastes, which Moore handles.

“The Song of Songs is an important part of the Bible because it displays the beauty of human love in freedom and spontaneity,” Akin writes. “Its neglect has been the church’s loss. At a time when marriages are struggling more than ever to survive, its recovery and study would be a significant move forward.

“The speakers in this beautiful Song are dramatic and captivating throughout. The highly figurative phrases of the work have caused much disagreement concerning interpretation, but it is best to understand the Song as the dialogue between two lovers with all their feelings and emotions for each other.”

Readers of the Song of Songs must take interpretation of the book a step further, Akin said. While it applies to a love relationship between two persons, the message of Song of Songs also illustrates the love union between the believer and Christ in His redemption, Akin points out.

Akin authored a book that was released earlier this year based on Song of Songs entitled, “God on Sex: The Creator’s Ideas About Love, Intimacy, and Marriage” (Broadman & Holman). “God on Sex” is similar to the commentary in focus.

The commentary demonstrates how particular passages are directly applicable to the contemporary husband-wife relationship. For example, in applying Song of Songs 2:10-14, Akin poses a question to the husband: “Is he tender with his words?” Akin lists three things one might listen for in a potential lifelong spouse: praise, particulars, and passion.

In the same passage, Akin unpacks the importance of a mate carefully choosing his or her words while conversing with theirs spouse.

“How we say things can be as important as what we say,” Akin writes. “A kind attitude and a tender tone will foster receptive ears on the other end. For the third time Shulammite referred to Solomon as her ‘beloved,’ her ‘lover.’ With gentleness and tenderness in his voice, he spoke and she listened.”

In dealing with 3:6-11, Akin unfolds God’s word on a Christian’s wedding day. Contrary to the extravagance and man-centeredness of most modern weddings, Akin argues that the day is to be God-centered. A great wedding will be a celebration, should contain a promise of protection, a pledge of commitment and the approval of others, he says.

Akin defines Christian marriage as “a divine covenant between God, a man, and a woman...a time of celebration and commitment...the covenant is a binding commitment for life testified to by a public ceremony (Song of Songs 3:6-11) and a private consummation (4:1-5:1).”

Writes Akin,”Marriage, after all was [God’s] idea. He has a pattern. He has a plan. Marriage can be different when we invite the holy Trinity to honor the wedding and direct the marriage. Our expectations, hopes, and dreams can and will be radically altered and transformed, and all for the better.”

The commentary concludes with a teaching outline, an example of a marriage covenant and a number of discussion questions.

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Seminary student leading local Hispanic church September 23, 2003

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Brad White pastors a church in which many of the parishioners are still learning English as well as Baptist polity.

In July of 2002, White was named interim pastor of New Dawn Baptist Church, a Hispanic church in Ballardsville, Ky. Last May, ‘interim’ was dropped from his title and White—a master of divinity student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary—became the church’s pastor.

“There are several baptized believers in the church now and most of them have a Roman Catholic background,” White said. “They are not familiar with a Baptist understanding of the local church and of church membership.

“I am preaching a series now on the church and have just finished writing material for a new members class, so we will be able to give people an opportunity to join the church.”

New Dawn has eight members and averages 25-35 adults and 5-15 children in attendance each Sunday. The church still relies heavily on its sponsor church, Ballardsville Baptist Church, so the first goal is to help New Dawn become an autonomous church, White said.

The church is also helping its members to learn the English language. It holds English classes one day a week.

A native of Paducah, Ky., White graduated from Union University in Jackson, Tenn., in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and a minor in biblical studies.

White studied Spanish throughout high school, but it was a mission trip to Peru following his sophomore year at Union that sewed the seed of desire for missions in White. It also caused White to change the focus of his studies.

“I came back with a passion for Hispanic missions,” he said. “My major at Union up to that point had been biblical studies and Spanish had been my minor. After that trip, I switched and made Spanish my major and biblical studies my minor.”

Upon graduating from Union, he took a full-time ministry position in Jackson, serving in the Hispanic ministry of Poplar Heights Baptist Church, where he remained in 2000-2001. He worked part-time at the church in 1999.

Brad’s wife, Cassie, also a Paducah native, shares his love for Hispanic people and culture. Cassie studied Spanish for three years in high school and majored in the language at Union University, where she met her future husband.

Like her husband, a mission trip proved pivotal in shaping Cassie’s future. She traveled to Nicaragua the summer after her senior year in high school. It sparked an interest in missions and an appreciation for Hispanic culture.

“After learning about the culture in my classes and after many more trips to Latin America, I knew that I wanted to be involved in ministry to Spanish-speaking persons in some capacity,” she said.

“Then, through dating Brad and being involved in the Hispanic congregation, my passion has grown. I found myself being drawn to Hispanics. I just really like them. I like engaging in conversation with them and I like participating in their culture. It is easy to be involved in ministry to people that I like so much.”

A missionary from Venezuela planted New Dawn in October of 2001. White planned on serving the church as interim until it found a pastor. After calling one candidate only to see him fall through, White was the natural choice.

While the church is growing in numbers, knowledge, and grace, the Whites still see their long-term future as existing on the mission field in Latin America.

“I knew after that mission trip my sophomore year in college that that was where God ultimately wanted me to be,” he said. “We have been happy to come here and meet a need. It is great to have an opportunity to do ministry here with these people.”

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“God” of open theism is not the God of the Bible, new book argues September 18, 2003

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)—The “God” of open theism is not the God found in Scripture, a new book by a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor argues.

In the book “Their God is Too Small: Open Theism and the Undermining of Confidence in God” (Crossway Books), Bruce A. Ware helps Christians understand what happens when they accept the “God” of open theism.

Open theism, often called “the openness of God,” asserts that God does not know in advance the free actions and choices of His creatures. God is not only surprised often by those actions, He is also unable to ensure that suffering and evil work for good.

Historically, Christianity has held that God’s foreknowledge is exhaustive and perfectly accurate, and that that He works in and through all events of history—even suffering—to His own glory.

As the title—a play on J.B. Phillips’ classic work “Your God is Too Small”— suggests, Ware argues that the deity of open theism is too small. Openness views are not only distorted, but also dangerous, he writes.

“Clearly, the proponents of open theism are commending their view as both biblical and enhancing of our understanding of how we should live as Christians,” Ware writes in the first chapter. Ware is associate dean of Southern Seminary’s school of theology and is also professor of Christian theology.

“But it is my deep conviction, and the conviction of many other evangelicals, that the open view distorts the Christian portrayal of God and his relations with his people so much that open theism must not be viewed as ‘just another’ legitimate Christian understanding.

“In other words, this issue is not like our differences over questions of the nature of the millennium and the timing of the return of Christ...No, the open view of God represents a departure from the church’s uniform understanding of Scripture and a distortion of the biblical portrayal of God.”

In the five-chapter work, Ware deals with open theism as it relates broadly to the Christian faith and specifically as it effects God’s foreknowledge, suffering, prayer and hope. Ware also authored a book on the same topic in 2001, “God’s Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open Theism” (Crossway). While that work interacted with openness literature on a scholarly level, “Their God” is intended for a popular audience.

Why do open theists seek to reformulate the traditional understanding of God? Ware offers three reasons:

· They view one’s relationship with God as being more vital and “real” when God does not know all their actions in advance.

· When suffering and affliction enter the lives of believers, open theists believe their view of God provides genuine comfort. This despite their argument that there is often no divine purpose for suffering, Ware points out.

· Open theists argue that their theology better accounts for Scripture’s teaching about God.

Best-known among openness teachers and authors are Clark Pinnock, who penned “The Openness of God,” John Sanders, author of “The God Who Risks,” and Greg Boyd, author of “God of the Possible.”

Open theists seek to establish a genuine “give-and-take” relationship between God and the believer, but Ware argues they rob God of His power instead. Open theism empties passages that admonish the believer to trust wholly in God of their meaning and leaves the Christian with no compelling reason to rest in God. If open theists are correct, then passages such as Prov. 3:5-6 make little sense, he asserts.

“What happens to these admonitions and assurances if the God of open theism is considered to be the true God?” asks Ware. “For one thing, the extent to which we can place our full trust in God, simply put, is demolished.

“Yes, the God of open theism will always want our best, but since he may not in fact know what is best, it becomes impossible to give him our unreserved and unquestioning trust? What are we to conclude?

“Can we say with confidence, ‘These hardships area all part of the plan God has for me by which his good purposes will be accomplished?’ If the God in whom we trust is the openness God, the answer must be a resounding no.”

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Mohler to students: “Don’t just stand there, do something” September 11, 2003

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Christian is not called to a life of peaceful passivity but to one of active “wartime” obedience in winning lost souls to Christ, R. Albert Mohler Jr. said Aug. 26 in his annual convocation address at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The annual address was Mohler’s 11th since being elected president of Southern Seminary in 1993. In his first convocation a decade ago, Mohler preached a sermon on the critical nature of a seminary’s standing firmly upon a confession of faith entitled “Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There.”

Playing off his first address, Mohler entitled his anniversary sermon, from John 9:1-7, “Don’t Just Stand There, Do Something.” He urged students to be rigorous in their study of theological disciplines while also doing the work of God by proclaiming the Gospel through missions and personal evangelism.

Mohler warned against “seminary syndrome,” which causes students to see the ministry as being temporarily put off until studies are complete. There is no such thing as “ministry on hold,” or “evangelism on pause,” he said.

“My concern is that we can get it all right and all wrong at the same time,” he said. “My concern is that we will teach the structure of the faith and miss its spirit [or that] we will be satisfied with a knowing left incomplete without a doing.”

Mohler said it is vital that ministers and all Christians understand biblical doctrines such as the sovereignty of God, justification by faith, and others tied to redemption. But he said a genuine understanding of the Gospel will by necessity lead to a compulsion to tell others about the “old, old story” of the saving grace of God.

He pointed to the myriad of New Testament commands that call Christians to action—go, teach, witness, serve, tell, preach, feed, endure, among many others—as evidence that the Christian life is not merely a lifeless “head game.”

“It (understanding doctrine) must lead to a compulsion to tell others, to see sinners come to faith in Christ or it is no true theology,” he said. “There really is no danger of being orthodox and [also] unevangelistic, because if so, your orthodoxy is no orthodoxy at all.”

In his inaugural convocation, Mohler addressed the necessity of a seminary adhering closely to a confession of faith. At the outset of Mohler’s presidency, the school was firmly in the hands of theological moderates.

In the decade since, Southern Seminary has undergone a reformation during which it has hired a faculty fully dedicated to believing, living, and teaching the school’s confession, the Abstract of Principles, Mohler said.

While the Abstract of Principles trumpets historic Christian orthodoxy, Mohler said the seminary’s founding fathers penned the confession with a “missionary theology” in view. The same is true for the Southern Baptist Convention’s confession, the Baptist Faith and Message, he said.

“The theology defined and confessed in the Abstract of Principles and the Baptist Faith & Message is a missionary theology that is transformed into Great Commission passion,” Mohler said. “If you lack that passion, you do not understand the theology. It is a head game and not a heart reality.

“It is so easy for us to live in this community and for us to be busy about our academic task and forget that there are people gong to hell around us. But we are witnesses who have to make the point clear: you will either obey the Gospel or you will disobey the Gospel. There is no neutrality.

“It [the Gospel] is not a product that is set out for consideration. It is the Gospel that saves. All who desire salvation will find it in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and none will be denied. But those who deny their salvation bring eternal judgement upon themselves.”

The church has fallen into a lethargic “peacetime footing” when it should be urgently waging spiritual warfare on behalf of souls lost in a culture that is decaying at a frightening pace, Mohler said.

The church has followed post 9-11 America in lulling itself to sleep with the notion of a false peace, he said.

“How much more so is the tragedy of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, falling into comfort in a culture such as this, playing war, while living at peace,” Mohler said.

“We need to get the church back on a wartime footing, for we are called to battle. We are called to transform. We are called to preach. We are not called to sit and merely to receive.”

Pointing to the brevity and uncertainty of life, Mohler exhorted students to make the most of every moment in the both classroom and the ministry.

“The shortness of time should be very much on our minds,” he said. “Every day ripped off the calendar is a day that cannot be lived again. We must work the work of Him who sent us while it is day.”

Mohler said Southern Seminary’s professors must lead students by example in personal evangelism. He warned students against viewing evangelism as something they are called to do only at some point in the future. Missions and evangelism are both urgent and non-negotiable, he said, because the glory of God is at stake.

“To those of us on the faculty, if we are not driven to lead our students into evangelism—then we must teach somewhere else,” Mohler said. “Students, if you think evangelism is something you are called to do at some point in the future, rather than the present, or something that someone else is called to do—go study somewhere else.

“And beloved, if your theology does not issue in a determination to see the glory of God in the salvation of the lost and [you do not] see that as a sacred privilege, then take your theology somewhere else,” he said.

“Southern Seminary must be an institution, and we must be individuals, known not only for what we believe, but for what we do. For it is in the believing and the doing that we behold the glory of God.”

Before Mohler’s sermon, two professors signed the Abstract of Principles: Charles E. Lawless, Jr., and Robert A. Vogel. Lawless is associate professor of evangelism and church growth and is senior associate dean of the Billy Graham School of Evangelism, Missions and Church Growth. Vogels is professor of Christian preaching.

Mohler also installed two to professors to endowed professorships. Lawless was installed as the William Walker Brookes associate professor of evangelism and church growth. George Martin was installed as M. Theron Rankin professor of Christian Missions.

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