Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands (Rev 5:11-12). One of the sweet traditions in churches is the 5th Sunday night hymn-sing (a.k.a. 5th Sunday Sing). Or was. Some months will have five Sundays and many churches would gather that fifth Sunday night to, […]
A homosexual agenda is hardly new. By Genesis 19 there was already a community with a well-established homosexual identity. We then read in Genesis 19 about “the men of Sodom . . . both young and old . . . all the people from every quarter” (v4) who demanded their right to gang-rape who they thought were two of Lot’s hunky high school chums. This was no small contingent. It was a multi-generational […]
Every so often “the man on the island” gently stirs the waters about the necessity of evangelism in light of God’s sovereignty. He sends out a message in a bottle that reads, “What must I do to be saved?” Hopefully someone sends a message back to him saying, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!” The church has long debated his question. The bottle can easily wander adrift in a […]
If navigating the DMV wasn’t stressful enough, they force us to decide whether or not we will be organ donors. Of course, the DMV would not wish a fatal vehicular demise on anyone. But, in such an unfortunate event time is of the essence. If there are organs to be donated they need to be preserved and transported quickly. What better vehicle for that information than our driver’s license. I […]
“Honor widows who are widows indeed; but if any widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family and to make some return to their parents; for this is acceptable in the sight of God. . . . But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is […]
Is abortion a legal right the state is obliged to protect? The CEO of our local Planned Parenthood organization recently argued just that. Since abortion is “the law of the land,” then Tennessee must make safe abortions as accessible as possible to all its pregnant citizens. As the anniversary of Roe v. Wade approaches, she is lobbying to defeat any and all legislative efforts to restrict abortions. After all, “Ninety-four […]
God can be very frustrating. There. I said it. We like neat categories where every situation has a clear explanation. God is doing this for that reason. A friend insists on a destructive lifestyle because he is clearly unregenerate, and sin is what the unregenerate do. One plus one equals two. Another friend seems never to suffer anything wrong. She always smiles and raises her hands in church because that […]
Right field. Every kid knows what it means to play right field. It means you’re not a playmaker. You’re not fast or a good glove. Coach doesn’t entrust bottoms of fifth innings to the awkward kid whose uniform doesn’t quite match. Right field is where you play when you’re not a player. You’re not there to make a play but so that you won’t have to. It’s the little league […]
What exactly is a Baptist? What must one believe if he is to consider himself a Baptist? What makes the ordinary Baptist different from the ordinary Methodist, Presbyterian or Episcoplian? Parts 1 and 2 argued Baptists swim in the same stream of Christian orthodoxy flowing from the Protestant Reformation. There is no “Baptist” version, for example, of the nature of God, sinfulness of men, deity of Christ, his substitutionary atonement, bodily […]
Part 1 suggested Baptist distinctives are vitally important but relatively few. Baptists share the essential convictions of historic Christian orthodoxy. Given a variety of confessions on a particular issue, one would be hard-pressed to sniff out the Baptist from among them. For example, take the following selections from three historic confessions of faith on the authority of Scripture: “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not […]