Posts by Jeff Robinson

Naval chaplain ministers amid war’s individual victories and casualties April 9, 2003

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) – Ron Nordan is not wielding arms on the front lines as American soldiers fight to wrench Iraq from the death-grip of a dictatorial regime.

But the U.S. Navy chaplain and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary graduate deals daily with both victories and casualties within the lives of those who are engaging in the war.

Nordon, who holds two degrees from Southern Seminary, serves aboard the USS Camden, a ship that equips other vessels with ammunition, fuel, and food to actively engage in battle. Since the Camden left for the Gulf last July, he has witnessed 35 Christian conversions among those on board.

He averages 17 counseling sessions per week, preaches twice each Sunday, and holds Bible studies each Wednesday. Yet, his toughest task has been delivering the news to a female soldier that her 2 ½-year-old daughter had been murdered back in the states.

“I spent over a half an hour in prayer before going to find her and telling her the tragic news,” he said in an e-mail interview.

“Looking back over the whole situation, I can see that the Holy Spirit stepped right in, giving me the words to say and guiding my thoughts and actions. Within eight hours, she was on her way home, which is highly unusual given the fact we were in the Persian Gulf at the time.”

While he has seen numerous conversions and “rededications,” Nordan says the USS Camden is a mission field.

“For about 20 percent of our ship, this time has provided a challenge to improve our relationship with God and with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ,” Nordan said. “Unfortunately, I would estimate that over 65 percent on our ship are not born-again believers.

“It is a challenge for every born-again believer to work and live in an environment where a Christian is in the minority. Pray for those Christians on board that they would continue to grow closer to their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that they would effectively witness both in word and deed.”

Nordan received two degrees from Southern Seminary. The Washington, D.C. native graduated in 1992 with a master of church music degree and again in 1998 with a master of divinity in theology. While working on the second degree, Nordan served as a grader for preaching professor Hershael York. He joined the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps in 2002.

There are concerns both without and within the USS Camden for Nordan. While the ship is not launching Tomahawk missiles or scrambling F-16s on bombing missions, the presence of floating mines, enemy air and boat assaults are ever-present dangers, he said.

Among Nordon’s chief concerns – and prayer requests – is for the marital relationships of his shipmates. Several marriages have begun to crumble beneath the immense weight of the long-term physical separation of soldier and spouse.

“The stress of having been out here for so long with no set return date has take its toll on every person aboard,” Nordan said. “To date, there are at least 10 marriages that are heading for divorce when we return. There are bound to be more challenges for our married couples to face, not to mention what our single sailors will be going through.”

Nordan has been away from his family for almost nine months and is not certain when he will return home. He said God has given him the grace to endure these lonely months. Consistent communication with his wife and kids helps, he said.

Nordan speaks with his wife, Cindy, 3 to 4 times per week by phone and exchanges e-mail with her several times each day. He also swaps e-mail with his children, Grace, 10, and Timothy, 7, numerous times during the week. Cindy Nordan works as a music teacher outside of Bremerton, Washington, where the family lives.

“My wife does an outstanding job with both of our children, while at the same time affirming me in my ministry and letting our children know that their father loves them very much,” Nordan said. “I am very blessed. God has brought us close even in the midst of this separation.”

One great source of encouragement for Nordan has been the response of chapel attendees to his expository preaching. Careful verse-by-verse teaching from Scripture is a new concept even to soldiers who have attended church for years, he said.

“Several shipmates shared that they had gone to church their whole lives without hearing a sermon that came from the Bible,” he said. “I thank God that He has me here at this time and in this place. That really demonstrates the great truth of the power of God’s Word.”

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Sovereignty of God key to joy in turbulent times, minister says April 3, 2003

LOUISVILLE, Ky (BP) – The sovereignty of God as presented in the book of Revelation should remind Christians that God is in control of all the events of history, even those that such as warfare that result in suffering, Scottish minister Eric Alexander said recently at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Alexander, a noted Presbyterian minister, said chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation paint three pictures that should give believers assurance during uncertain times.

Rev. 4-5 unpacks God’s kingship, His guidance over the history of creation, and the central act of history—God’s redemption of sinners in Jesus Christ, he said.

“We are conscious that these are critical hours in which we live,” he said. “We are aware of the question, ‘Where is the hand controlling the events we are passing through?’

“The relevance of the Bible at such a time as this, and the relevance of Revelation is that it takes us to this throne of God. It (Revelation) is not there to satisfy our curiosity, but to give us a perspective on the world in which we live and the whole of history, so that we are able to see it (history) from a different vantage point from the rest of the world.”

The apostle John presents the throne as the central feature to his vision in Rev. 4. This is highly significant because the eternal kingship of God is evident by John’s pointing out that the throne is constantly occupied, he said.

John penned Revelation while suffering in exile on the island of Patmos, which Alexander described as “a kind of Alcatraz in the ancient world.” His audience – the seven churches in Asia – were also undergoing intense persecution. John shared his vision to encourage the churches and to remind them that God was still on the throne despite their suffering, he said.

Alexander recalled where he was when terrorists attacked New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001. He was in the clubhouse at St. Andrews golf course in Scotland when the news that America was under attack scrolled across a television screen.

Alexander remembered how a fellow golfer reacted to the news after discovering Alexander to be a minister. The man’s words echo the very thought that sometimes enters believer’s mind during seasons of suffering, he said.

“He said to me, ‘I guess your God has gone for a holiday,’” Alexander said. “And that is the deep fear that lies even in the hearts of some trembling, faithful souls: ‘Is God really on the throne?’ And John clearly gives us the answer in the outset of his vision.”

In Rev. 5, John’s vision includes an angel holding a scroll. This scroll is the record of human destiny and divine purpose for the world, Alexander said. The scroll is both complete – it contains no blank spaces – and is sealed or closed.

This points to the fact that, while every event in history is in God’s hands, it is sealed from the sphere of human speculation or knowledge, he said. It also shows that there is God-ordained purpose for every event in life and that all God’s purposes in the world are a closed book to human beings.

“John weeps. It has made him deeply sad and the mystery of life is beginning to engulf him,” he said.

Believers should note that John points to the climax of history in Rev. 5:6. The “Lamb looking as if it had been slain,” is Christ who is the key to history.

During times of war and suffering, Christians must look to the Lamb and take comfort in the fact that His purposes – even though mysterious from a human perspective – will not be thwarted, he said. This should lead Christians to worship God in awe and wonder, he said.

“That Lamb is the crucified, risen, exalted, and now reigning Lord Jesus Christ,” Alexander said. “He is the key to history, the key to life. Christ is the key to every mystery that life brings to us because He was slain and with His blood purchased a people for God.

“That is the central thing about the whole of history. It is the building of the church which is the central element in history. When that work is done and when the church of Jesus Christ is complete, that is when God will bring down the curtain on the affairs of this sad world. May God help us that we may have that special view of the world which comes from dwelling near the throne.”

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NY Times columnist’s ‘discovery’ of evangelicals draws Mohler reply April 1, 2003

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--A New York Times columnist’s “discovery” of evangelicals demonstrates just how far out of touch the media elite are from mainstream America, R. Albert Mohler Jr. wrote in the March 22 edition of World magazine.

Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote a response to a column by Nicholas D. Kristof in which the longtime journalist took his media colleagues to task for being “completely out of touch” with evangelicals.

Kristof called on his media brethren to take into account the growing influence of evangelicals and stop sneering at them, though Kristof made clear his own alarm at their clout. “I tend to disagree with evangelicals on almost everything,” Kristof wrote, “and I see no problem with aggressively pointing out the dismal consequences of this increasing religious influence.”

As evidence of an upswing in evangelical influence, Kristof cited a December Gallup poll in which 46 percent of the respondents described themselves as “evangelical Christians” and the faith of President George W. Bush.

The “elite national news corps,” Mohler observed in response, “is so far removed from ordinary Americans that evangelicals seem to have emerged from a forgotten ‘fringe’ into the national spotlight.”

“The fact that something like 100 million Americans claim to be evangelicals is almost unbelievable to journalists.

“They simply don’t know any evangelicals. Who are these conservative Christians anyway? And why don’t they just go home, and leave public debate to journalists and their liberal friends?

“Every few years the secular elite rediscovers evangelicals,” Mohler wrote, “and then treats conservative Christians like National Geographic announcing the discovery of an exotic new tribe. ‘These people are very interesting to watch,’ the secularists explain, ‘but just don’t let them get close to public policy and influence. They look dangerous.’”

Kristof chided journalists for mocking the faith of evangelicals and accused his colleagues of “showing more intellectual curiosity about the religion of Afghanistan than that of Alabama, and more interest in reading the Upanishads than in reading the Book of Revelation.”

Kristof wrote, “I cannot think of a single evangelical working for a major news organization.”

Mohler pointed out that Kristof’s obvious shock at evangelicals moving from the fringe to the mainstream reinforced the stereotypes the columnist has set out to dismiss.

“Well, elite journalists may take secularism to be normal, but that just demonstrates how distant they are from Main Street America -- the country outside the elite schools, clubs and newsrooms where reporters and editors decide what ‘normal’ is,” Mohler wrote.

“Some evangelicals see the Kristof column as a step forward. After all, his column asks fellow journalists to show conservative Christians some respect. But it’s hard to see how Kristof’s approach is anything but a well-intended failure. He ends up reinforcing all the stereotypes he sets out to dismiss.

“Nevertheless, his column is noteworthy,” Mohler wrote, “because such an influential journalist is now on the record in The New York Times accusing his colleagues of being ‘completely out of touch’ with evangelical Christians. But when it comes to this kind of bias, America’s elite journalists and news executives are not only out of touch -- they’re also out of excuses.”

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Southern Seminary prays world will look to Christ amid war March 20, 2003

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) – Even as war heats up in Iraq, Christians must continue to look to Christ and pray that God will bring eternal peace to the hearts of the Iraqi people, a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said this morning.

During Southern Seminary’s regular Thursday chapel service, professors and students held a special time of prayer for America’s war with Iraq which began Wednesday night.

Herschael York, professor of Christian preaching, said believers should continue to focus on the gospel as the only force that will ultimately liberate the Iraqi people and recreate their nation by giving them new hearts. He prayed that the outbreak of war would also lead to revival of the faith among American soldiers and citizens alike.

“As God’s people, we are aware that apart from Him we can do nothing,” York said in the opening prayer. “We realize that only the Lord is our comfort. All war is an admission of our depravity. I pray that this might cause us to yearn and to long for the return of Jesus Christ. Make us truly, one nation under God.

“I pray that this might even be the beginning of a time of national revival. We have seen the images from the desert of American soldiers turning to Christ and being baptized in makeshift baptisteries there on the sands, we are reminded that salvation is from the Lord.”

Jim Orrick, professor of literature and culture at Boyce College, Southern’s undergraduate program, prayed that God would help Christians to realize that no nation is saved by its multitude of weapons but through Christ alone.

“A horse or a tank or a bomb is a vain hope,” Orrick said. “We know that your all-seeing eye is upon those who fear you so our hope is in you. Our soul waits for the Lord and (He is) our strength and shield.”

Don Cox, professor of evangelism and church growth, prayed for the soldiers and President George W. Bush and reminded those gathered that God is the ultimate sovereign power.

“In this great time of uncertainty, there are two things we do know: (God’s) unlimited power and (His) immeasurable love,” Cox said. “We pray that our soldiers would make their call and election sure and that they war might end quickly with a minimum number of casualties. We pray for President Bush not only as our leader but also as our brother.”

Kathryn Webb, associate professor of leadership and church ministry prayed that God would comfort the families and friends of soldiers fighting in Iraq. She also prayed that Christians would project a dynamic witness before a world torn by the war.

“We are here for such a time as this,” she prayed. “I pray that we might be enabled to love those who may be called our enemies.”

Dr. Daniel Block, professor of Old Testament, prayed that Christians would have a deep love for the Iraqi people even though the country may be seen as America’s enemies in the war. He also prayed for peace in the world and for eternal peace in the hearts of all lost men through Christ.

“We pray that love would triumph over hate, that compassion would triumph over ambivalence,” Block said. “We long for the day that swords would be beaten into ploughshares, that missiles would be beaten into tractors, when nation will not take up sword against nation and never again will have to learn war.”

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Man on island needs a missionary, Southern prof tells collegians March 17, 2003

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--If a man spends his entire life alone on a desert island and is saved because he never heard the gospel, then Christians should stop missions and evangelism so the whole world will eventually be saved, a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said.

In addressing the question of the so-called “man on the island” at the seminary’s “Give Me An Answer Collegiate Conference,” Russell D. Moore, assistant professor of Christian theology, asserted that Scripture teaches the only way persons are saved is through the proclamation of the gospel. Contrary to much popular teaching, if “the man on the island” failed to hear the gospel, he would go to hell for his sins upon death, Moore said.

“If the apostles had believed pop evangelicalism’s version of what happens to the man on the island, you and I would be in hell right now,” Moore, also the executive director of the Carl F.H. Henry Institute for Evangelical Engagement, said. “They understood something from the resurrected Jesus Christ that there is more at stake here than we think. The only hope for the man on the island is preaching.”

The third annual conference at the Louisville, Ky., campus drew more than 1,000 college students from across the nation. Fifteen speakers from the Southern faculty explored various aspects of the exclusivity of salvation in Christ by seeking to answer the Feb. 21-22 event’s theme question, “Is Jesus the only way?”

Many within Christendom teach that the “man on the island” will go to heaven when he dies because he never heard of Jesus and did not have an opportunity to believe, Moore said.

This teaching falls within two theological designations: inclusivism and pluralism. Both views hold that all or most expressions of religion lead to God and, ultimately, eternal life.

If those views are correct, Moore said, then Christians should cease missions and evangelism so that, eventually, nobody will know about Christ. This will ultimately result in the salvation of all because they will be redeemed by the excuse of never having heard the name of Christ.

“If pop evangelicalism is right -- that the man on the island is going to be okay because he has never had an opportunity to believe -- and God is going to say, ‘I’ll give you a pass because you never rejected Christ and you never really had an opportunity anyway,’ then let me suggest to you what you should do as the next generation of evangelical Christians: shut up.

“Stop witnessing, evangelizing and putting out tracts. And plan right now that when you have children you will never sing ‘Jesus Loves Me.’ And let’s band together as a church with the idea that what we need to do is cancel [the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions.] Bring all that money back here.

“[We should] gather together and never speak the name of Jesus again, with the hope that in several generations his name will be forgotten from the face of the earth, and then the entire world will be a bunch of men and women on the island who are innocent before God. And the entire world will be saved.”

Moore pointed to numerous passages in Romans, however, that depict Christ and the preaching of his gospel as man’s only hope. The gentiles faced a similar plight to that of the “man on the island,” Moore said, which the apostle Paul addresses in Romans 15:8-12. Paul was urging the church at Rome to send missionaries to the gentiles who had not yet heard of Christ.

Moore said Christians will see the Bible gives a clear answer to the “problem” of those who have never heard the gospel when they consider three questions: Is the man on the island ignorant of God’s existence? Is he innocent? Is he important?

The first three chapters of Romans answer the first question and show that man knows about God through the existence of the created order. Romans 2 shows that all men know about God by their conscience through “the law written upon their hearts.”

Those same passages in Romans also show that the man on the island -- like every person who stands outside the grace of Christ even if they have not heard the gospel -- is not innocent. Paul’s writing shows that all persons will be held accountable for breaking the law written upon their hearts, he said.

“You may say, ‘How is it fair if the man on the island wakes up in hell tomorrow?’” Moore said. “If you are asking that question, that tells you something about what you believe about yourself and what you believe about God.

“Basically, what you believe is we’re more or less okay and God really owes us every opportunity we can have to make the best of it. That’s not what Paul says in Romans 1. Paul says [we] make an idol out of anything.

“We don’t want [the true] God, we want something else. We want an idol. Scripture says because of that the man is going to be held accountable before God.”

Further, Moore said mankind continually sins. He paused for five seconds during his presentation and said afterward, “In that five second period you and I sinned enough to send us to hell for an eternity. You say, ‘Well, maybe you did, but I‘m sitting here and I‘m not thinking any impure thoughts or coveting anything.’

“But during that pause did you or I love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves? No, you didn’t and neither did I. God says that is what is expected of you as someone who is created in the image of God.”

Moore said Scripture also gives a resounding answer to his third question regarding whether the man on the island matters. The man on the island matters immensely because that man represents all Christians before they trusted Christ as Lord and Savior.

There are millions of “men on the island” in the form of unreached people groups, Moore said. This reality coupled with Scripture’s mandate that sinners are saved solely through the proclamation of the gospel should provide believers with an impetus to surrender some of the comforts of middle-class American life to reach the lost, he said.

“If it is true that the man on the island is going to hell, then you and I need to give up our idolatrous fascination with SUVs and DVDs and the comforts of middle-class American life and say that there is something more pivotal than that, and that is the gospel,” Moore said.

“That means that some of you need to be preparing to be that person on the boat taking the gospel to the man on the island. That means the rest of you need to be preparing to get that person on the boat because [the man on the island] is going to hell. What is the hope for the man on the island? It is you.”

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Old & New Testaments unified on saving faith, Block says

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Persons were saved during Old Testament times by the same means as those in the New Testament -- by grace through faith in Jesus Christ -- a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary told a group of college students.

Daniel Block, professor of Old Testament interpretation at Southern Seminary, addressed the topic of salvation before the time of Christ, pointing to Christ as the only way for all time, during the “Give Me An Answer Collegiate Conference” which drew more than 1,000 collegians to the Louisville, Ky., campus Feb. 21-22.

Some Christians falsely believe that Old Testament saints were saved by keeping the law. Others say they were saved by “doing the best they could.” Still others believe those who lived during Old Testament times were not saved at all, Block said.

One of the keys to understanding salvation through Christ as being consistent with Old Testament teaching is in seeing that Israel’s covenant God “Yahweh” is the same eternal God as Jesus Christ.

“There is salvation by no other way than by the grace of God who revealed himself in person as Yahweh in the Old Testament and provided a way of forgiveness that was fulfilled and completed in the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, in the New Testament,” Block said. “The two names refer to the same person.

“The question, ‘What about before Christ?’ is an earthly question. With God, that question is irrelevant because there is no ‘before.’ God lives in the eternal present, and Jesus Christ was sacrificed in the eternal present (1 Peter 1:17-21). Thanks be to God.”

The most frequent answer Block hears to the question is that people in the Old Testament age were saved through obedience to the law. Most Christians say this even while quoting the apostle Paul in Romans 4:1-3, which says Abraham was saved by faith, Block said.

“Many of us wouldn’t believe [that Abraham was saved] unless it is affirmed in the New Testament. The witness of the Old Testament is rarely enough,” Block said.

When Scripture says “there is salvation in no name other than Jesus,” this does not mean the name “Jesus” by itself holds a mystical power that saves, Block said. Rather, it is the divine person behind the name -- God -- who saves. God is the same both in the Old Testament and New, he said.

A clue to seeing this truth is found in the meaning of the name of Jesus -- “Savior,” Block said. “Jesus” is the Greek form of the Hebrew name “Joshua,” which is short for “Yahweh has saved,” he said.

“But curiously the name is never used of God in the Old Testament. And when the angel tells Joseph that Mary’s child shall be called ‘Jesus,’ he is in effect affirming the saving action of Yahweh, though now it is not a matter of saving his people from the sins of others in Egypt but from their own sins.”

That the names are the same is even more apparent in John 18, Block said. There, Judas and a group of soldiers come to arrest Jesus, and when the men tell Christ that they are seeking “Jesus of Nazareth,” the Lord replies, “I Am.”

Most English translations render this “I am he,” but the pronoun “he” is not part of the Greek construction, Block said. A more accurate reading is simply “I Am.” The soldiers drew back and fell to the ground because the Lord’s answer echoes Yahweh’s self-introduction in the Old Testament. Jesus hereby claims to be the “I Am” of Exodus 3-4, he said.

Block said the fact that Jesus is the same as Yahweh of the Old Testament seems to be Paul’s point in Romans 10:1, 8-10 where the apostle begins in verse 1 by writing, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for [the Jews] is that they may be saved,” and goes on to say in verse 12, “The same person is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on him. And whoever will call upon the name of the Lord [Yahweh] will be saved.”

How should readers of Scripture reconcile Old Testament sacrifices which individuals and priests carried out for the remission of sins with Hebrews 10:4 which says, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins”?

The sacrificial system took away sins by pointing to the true sacrifice, Christ, “the lamb slain before the foundation of the world,” Block said. While the sacrifices themselves did not remove sins, when they were brought in faith and by persons whose lives were pure and clean before God, God accepted them on the basis of Christ’s atoning death, which was foreknown by God. As the Book of Hebrews insists, this is the only sacrifice that could actually take away sins, Block said.

“There is no contradiction here at all between [the Old Testament declarations and those in the New Testament],” Block said. “There’s only one sacrifice for sin and that is the sacrifice of Christ slain before the foundation of the world.”

Christ came in New Testament times and both fulfilled and clarified the redemption typified in the tabernacle/temple ritual and anticipated in the Old Testament.

“For clarification we need to wait until the New Testament when the seed -- now capital ‘S’ -- of the woman defeats the devil and death itself on the cross,” Block said.

As in the New Testament, salvation was by faith alone, Block said. He pointed out that the law was given after the salvation of the Israelites when they miraculously crossed the Red Sea. God gave the law so that Israel might live as those set apart as the covenant people of God, he said.

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Influential leaders from years past draw seminary journal’s spotlight March 11, 2003

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Christians need to hear the voices of Christian history in order to be built up in the faith and to learn about major errors that must be avoided, writers in the winter edition of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology contend.

The journal, a publication of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., includes essays on historical Christian leaders penned by theologians D.A. Carson and John Piper as well as Southern Seminary professors Timothy Beougher, Tom Nettles and Mark Terry. It also includes more than 10 book reviews.

Journal editor Thomas R. Schreiner writes the lead editorial.

“We all need models and mentors in the faith,” Schreiner writes. “The Christian life may seem abstract and disconnected from reality unless we see others living it out in practical and concrete ways.

“I have never met a believer who loves Christ passionately who has not been shaped and influenced by at least one other believer. If we have grown as Christians, we can likely point to others who lived out the Christian life in such a way that we were inspired to live in a way that pleases Christ.”

John Piper calls pastors to be men of unshakeable character and overwhelming humility like John Newton, who lived from 1725-1790. The author of perhaps Christianity’s most famous hymn, “Amazing Grace,” Newton was a debauched sailor and slave trader before his conversion. Afterward, he was a devoted husband and beloved pastor in England.

Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, recounts Newton’s profound metamorphosis from a “sinful wretch” to one ablaze for the glory of God.

“So why am I interested in this man?” Piper writes. “Because one of my great desires is to see Christian pastors be as strong and durable as redwood trees and fragrant as a field of clover -- unshakably rugged in the ‘defense and confirmation’ of the truth (Phil 1:7) and relentlessly humble and patient and merciful in dealing with people.”

Nettles writes about John Clifford, a late-19th-century British Baptist minister and leader whose personality far outstripped his theology.

A contemporary of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Clifford led the British Baptist Union away from historical doctrine by rejecting the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture and holding to aberrations of other orthodox doctrines.

“The mid-nineteenth century brought a noticeable shift in the thinking of many Baptists,” Nettles writes. “Clifford’s success and popularity, whether a cause or simply an indictor, marked a revolutionary shift in the Baptist self-concept.

“The Baptist Union opted rather for ill-defined doctrine so that external unity might be maintained and chose the path of Clifford rather than that [orthodox path] of Spurgeon.”

Terry gives a seven-year snapshot of the storied life and ministry of missionary Luther Rice, who was born in 1783. Often spoken of alongside the better-known Adoniram Judson, Rice made perhaps a more indelible impact on missions in the early days of Baptist life, Terry notes.

“Writers always link their [Rice and Judson’s] names,” Terry writes. “... They ignore Luther Rice for the more sensational career of Judson. Perhaps their emphasis is natural, but it seems hardly correct.

“It could well be that Rice made the greater contribution to Baptist missions. His indefatigable journeying and heartfelt appeals awakened Baptists to their responsibilities to a world in need. Rice’s career may have been more mundane, but it was no less meaningful.”

Beougher examines the ministry of Puritan pastor Richard Baxter, who lived from 1615-91, commending him as a model of pastoral leadership in evangelism and church growth. Baxter served as pastor in Kidderminster, England, for many years and during his ministry saw virtually the entire town converted.

Beougher points to Baxter’s humble beginnings to show that great leaders often emerge from the most unlikely of circumstances.

“When viewed in light of his later influence, Baxter’s early years were far from auspicious,” Beougher said. “No one could have guessed that this boy, born to Richard and Beatrice Baxter, would amount to much of anything.

“He was forced to live until the age of 10 with his maternal grandfather because of his father’s gambling debts. His early schooling proved a great disappointment. In six years he had four different schoolmasters, all of them ‘ignorant’ or ‘drunkards.’”

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Missionary couple in Philippines were Southern’s first ‘2 Plus 2’ enrollees March 5, 2003

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Mark Terry has never lost contact with Mark and Barbara Stevens during the couple’s three years as missionaries to the Philippines.

Terry, professor of Christian missions and evangelism at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, taught the Stevenses during their years on campus in Louisville, Ky., and keeps abreast of the couple’s work by way of their monthly newsletter.

Barbara Stevens and the couple’s 10-month-old son Nathan and 4-year-old daughter Sarah were injured along with nearly 150 others March 4 when a bomb exploded at the airport in Davao City, Philippines. Bill Hyde, a Southern Baptist missionary in the Philippines since 1978, was among 21 killed in the explosion.

In 1998, Mark Stevens was the first to enroll in Southern’s “2 Plus 2” missions program which combines two years of classroom work with two years of service as a missionary apprentice. Stevens became the program’s first graduate in 2000. That same year, the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board appointed the couple as career missionaries to the Philippines.

Terry receives the Stevens’ newsletter about once a month.

“They are outstanding young missionaries, very dedicated, very sharp young people who are truly committed to the cause of Jesus Christ and to the Great Commission,” the professor said. “If I was going to hold up an example good first-term missionaries, they would be splendid examples.”

During the family’s time in Davao City, Mark Stevens has coordinated efforts to reach Filipino tribal groups with the gospel. The Stevenses were injured by a bomb placed outside the arrival terminal at an airport Terry had flown through numerous times. Terry served as a missionary from 1976-89 in Davao City. He knows well the unrest in the southern Philippines.

“They were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Terry said. “The Muslim separatists have been conducting a campaign of terror in the southern Philippines for the last several years. This is just one in a long series of explosions and terrorist acts perpetrated by Muslim separatists. They are trying to force the Philippine government to make the southern Philippines an autonomous or a semi-autonomous Muslim state.

“The missionaries know very well where they are serving is a volatile place. They understand that. The bomb wasn’t targeted at them. It was simply a random act of terror and they just happened to be there when it detonated.”

Terry also served on the mission field with Bill Hyde for more than a decade. Hyde and his wife, Lynn, came to the Philippines in 1978 to the capital city of Manila.

Hyde first worked as a music teacher at Faith Academy, a missionary boarding school. Later, he returned to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and obtained another degree before returning to Manila to work with the IMB in leadership development.

Terry said his path crossed with Hyde’s infrequently but remembers the late missionary for his personality.

“He [Hyde] was Mr. Personality,” Terry said. “He had an ebullient personality. He was very outgoing, very friendly. I didn’t see him very often. We were in Davao City and he was 500 miles north in Manila. Saw them once a year at the annual missionaries’ meeting, but I remember what a nice man he was.”

At Southwestern, Dan Crawford, professor of evangelism and missions, came to know Hyde and his family well.

Crawford said Hyde “would be the definition of servanthood. It doesn’t surprise me that he was the one who went to the airport to pick up other missionaries.”

David Porter contributed to this article.

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What about ‘the man on the island’? January 31, 2003

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--If a man is stranded alone on an island from infancy until death and never hears the gospel of Jesus Christ, where will he spend eternity?

Do the trees and rocks provide the man with enough evidence to point him savingly to Christ’s atoning death? Or will he be viewed as innocent because he was ignorant of the only way to salvation?

The answer to the question of the “man on the island” separates the pure biblical gospel from non-biblical expressions of it, argues Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Russell Moore.

And it will be one of the tough questions answered at Southern Seminary’s annual “Give Me An Answer Collegiate Conference” to be held Feb. 21-22 at the school. The conference will address the various aspects of the exclusivity of salvation in Christ, seeking to answer the question “Why one way?”

Among the topics addressed will be the necessity of the doctrine of hell, the truth claims of non-Christian religions, the confusion over the “all will be saved” passages of Scripture and the conundrum of “the man on the island.”

Moore will address the question of the man on the island. The question is vital to establishing a biblical view of sin, salvation and evangelism, Moore said, for evangelicals must assert that salvation comes through faith in Christ alone.

“The discussion exposes all kinds of hidden assumptions that we have,” Moore said. “What we think about ‘the man on the island’ tells us what we really believe about how sinful we are. It tells us what we really believe about the necessity of the Great Commission.

“I think this question is the most important question facing the 21st century church. If those who never hear the gospel are saved apart from the preaching of the gospel, then there is no reason to give one dime to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Unless we come face to face with the lostness of the ‘man on the island,’ we are going to lose the biblical passion for those who have never heard.”

Moore said that it is especially important for college students to know what they believe.

“The next generation is in grave danger of losing this central truth of the gospel -- that salvation comes only through explicit faith in Jesus,” he said. “All that the church needs to do to raise a generation apathetic to missions and evangelism is simply to say nothing. The culture will take care of the rest.”

In addition to Moore, featured speakers will include seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr., Thomas Schreiner, Ronald Nash, Daniel Akin, Thom Rainer, Thomas Nettles and other members of Southern Seminary’s faculty.

For more information on the Collegiate Conference, call 800-626-5525 (ext. 4617).

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New Southern Seminary women’s director seeks to encourage, affirm students January 30, 2003

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Heather King thought God had called her to overcome her “fear factor” long before the concept of reality television was ever conceived.

As a high schooler in Dallas, the now-32-year-old King knew she was called by God to minister for his Kingdom. Her assumption, however, was that God would require her to relocate to a land far away from civilization.

“I thought God was going to send me to a foreign country as a nurse where I would be required to utilize nursing skills on myself because I would be forced to eat goat eyeballs or some odd concoction I previously would have considered incredible,” she said.

That day may come, but King’s ministry currently is at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as the new director of women’s programs. King began the job on Nov. 1 after replacing former director Sharon Beougher.

She came to Southern Seminary after serving as WMU/women’s ministry director for the State Baptist Convention of Indiana for the past six years.

As the seminary’s women’s director, she plans to create two programs to equip women to minister to other women in the local church. She plans to begin a degree program as well as a certificate program.

The degree program will be a master of arts or master of divinity in Christian education with a 15-credit-hour focus in women’s ministry. The second program will be a women’s certificate program and will consist of eight non-accredited courses geared toward staff and lay women within the local church.

Above all, King hopes to provide encouragement for female students.

“By virtue of this position going fulltime, it communicates to students that the administration and faculty want to encourage and affirm female students in their studies and ministries,” King said. “I, too, desire to be an encouragement to students.”

King earned her bachelor’s degree in biblical studies from Criswell College in Dallas. She then earned a master’s degree in counseling from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. She has applied for the doctoral program at Southern Seminary and plans to begin working toward a doctor of education in leadership degree (Ed.D.) upon acceptance.

She became a Christian while in the third grade after becoming cognizant of her need for salvation while reading and memorizing Scripture verses in Vacation Bible School.

“I can vividly remember several elderly women teaching my Sunday School class,” she said. “They taught stories about who Jesus was and what he did for me. I understood my need for salvation due to the memorization of the famous VBS verse John 3:16. And most importantly, I remember seeing my father make his profession of faith public.”

After sensing the call to ministry while in high school, King decided she would attend seminary someday, still uncertain of the specific area of ministry to which she was called. Since then, God’s guidance has continued to unfold.

“In the area of women’s work,” King said, “the opportunities are almost limitless. Work within the local church provides [numerous] opportunities. There are many more opportunities [for women] in the area of state work, denominational work and mission fields, along with writing and speaking ministries and para-church organizations.”

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