Oklahombres

heard a request for prayer at church yesterday that says it all concerning this weeks annual Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis: “Pray they don’t do something stupid.” Now, what on earth might this year’s messengers do that could be considered stupid? Oh! What couldn’t they do? Can you say “Disney?”

Alcohol
This issue will never go away so long as bright young men like Dr. Nathan Finn use it as a prime illustration for the need for the sufficiency of Scripture, and so long as sectarian fundamentalists who write posts like this intimidate bright, young seminary professors into revising their posts on sufficiency. Pray that the messengers “keep a cork” in this issue this week. Above all, the last thing we need is another resolution on alcohol.

Regenerate Church Membership
It is very interesting that in past years Pastor Tom Ascoll couldn’t get his resolution on the program even to be voted on, and this year there is at least one other, maybe more similar resolutions, and they appear to be coming from previous year’s opposition side of the argument. I think, at least in part, many who have opposed this resolution in the past don’t want to look like they are in favor of unregenerate members and have put forth an effort to contradict that opinion. Let’s pray that Pastor Ascoll’s resolution gets its day and is voted on. Better this one is passed by the messengers than some other, or questions are likely to be asked.

The IMB and a Big Tent
I know that Wade Burleson has been silent for longer than anyone can remember, but don’t think that the various elements concerning the IMB and big-tent inclusion are dead issues. I’m not sure, but just maybe this will be the one that blows the roof off. Let’s pray that cooler heads (on both sides) will prevail.

Presidents and Saviors
I have read a number of endorsements of some of the men running for SBC president this time around. It saddens me not to see anyone described as a man who strives after righteousness. There is always talk about baptisms, cp giving, etc., but nothing about personal holiness. Pray that we don’t elect a man “to stand in the gap,” but a man who seeks the face of God.

ow here is a much-lacking and much-needed quality in the SBC today (probably in all of evangelicalism: careful, logical thinking. Maybe there wouldn’t be this endless merry-go-round on issues such as alcohol (actually the sufficiency of Scripture), private prayer language, and a clearer understanding of the actual gospel message. Here is brief teaser from a short must-read post by Mark Dever on the use of video technology in corporate worship.

“[A]s a word-centered faith in a video-craving age, we demand the immediate impact of the visual. Is it wise to try to meet those demands in corporate worship?” In the next paragraph he writes “Immediate impact doesn’t always lead to lasting awe. In fact, it can work against it.

ell, the SBC 2008 is history. In reading around I found a couple of eye-witness reports that I found interesting. My major interest was in the fact that two men with similar theological vantage points gave conflicting reports. Or did they?

I have been reading Dr. Nathan Finn for a good while. He is a young, thoughtful, reformed-leaning professor of church history at SEBTS who expresses himself very well. I believe he has a firm grip on the current state of affairs in the SBC. His convention wrap up was an over-all positive report. His main emphasis was upon the passage of the Resolution on Regenerate Church Membership, and the election of Johnny Hunt. The main thrust of his assessment was that everybody played well together, which in and of itself is a good thing.

Ben Wright is a young, reformed-leaning blogger of whom I have not read much, but what I have read seems sound and to the point. His initial report was not at all positive, but he began, not with the convention, but with the pre-convention pastors conference, which began that Sunday evening. His emphasis was on the anemic and non-exegetical nature of the messages delivered therein.

So why the difference? Is one view right and one wrong? I don’t think so. I believe what is going on here is that these two men are reporting from two different categories, one organizational, and the other theological. Dr. Finn is reporting as a part of the institutional framework of the SBC while Brother Wright is not. I would be remiss not to state that Dr. Finn expressed reservations in his (and previous) posts, and Ben Wright made positive points in a subsequent post.

I guess what makes these two perspectives interesting is that they compliment at one level, and contradict at another. The reason this is so is because of the Gospel. We certainly need cooperation as an organization to get the job done. That seems to have come together this year, at least to the casual observer at a distance. But do we all understand what the job description is that needs to be done? I’m not saying that Dr. Finn doesn’t know what the Gospel is. I’m sure he does. I’m thinking maybe he’s saying to himself “Baby steps, baby steps,” while Brother Wright is saying “Run, baby run!”

I’m reminded of the sermon by the late E.V. Hill titled something like “What Do You Get When You Got Jesus?”, only I’m thinking “What Do You Get When You Ain’t Got Jesus?” The answer is “Absolutely Nothing!” It doesn’t matter how organized you are. Organized pragmatism is still pragmatism.

Let’s all pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to be made much of in the witness, preaching and teaching of God’s people, and that more Southern Baptist preachers will find 1 Corinthians 2:2 and take it to heart.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. . . . By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

Hebrews 11:8, 11 - ESV

Here’s a new(ish) song I heard the other day that tells part of the biblical story of Abraham and Sarah. Careful, it’ll make you cry. If it doesn’t, you’re probably not regenerate. But then maybe the tune was a factor when I heard it, so just reading the words may not do you like it did me the other day when I heard it sung. The tune is one of those lonesome Irish/Celtic type tunes. The author/artist is Andrew Peterson and you can find the song at the iTunes Store, where you can hear a short sample for free and buy the song for ninety-nine cents; it’s called Canaan Bound. Here’s the words:

Sarah, take me by my arm
Tomorrow we are Canaan bound
Where westward sails the golden sun
And Hebron’s hills are amber crowned

So bid your troubled heart be still
The grass, they say, is soft and green
The trees are tall and honey-filled
So, Sarah, come and walk with me

Like the stars across the heavens flung
Like water in the desert sprung
Like the grains of sand, our many sons
Oh, Sarah, fair and barren one
Come to Canaan, come

I trembled at the voice of God
A voice of love and thunder deep
With love He means to save us all
And Love has chosen you and me

Long after we are dead and gone
A thousand years our tale be sung
How faith compelled and bore us on
How barren Sarah bore a son
So come to Canaan, come

Where westward sails the golden sun
And Hebron’s hills are amber crowned
Oh, Sarah, take me by my arm
Tomorrow we are Canaan Bound

Good stuff, huh? It made me think of our relationship to Abraham, and how we are part of that blessing of being sons and daughters of Abraham by faith, the same kind of faith that they had all those many, many years ago.

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”

Romans 4:16-18 - ESV

listened to Steve Brown’s podcast earlier today, where he was interviewing Daniel Radosh about his new book Rapture Ready! Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture. The book is basically a humorous look at evangelical Christians from an outsider’s vantage point.

I’m not sure if the book would be a good read or not. I’m sure it wouldn’t be humorous to Christians grieved over all of the evangelical nonsense, but one thing in the interview caught my attention. While discussing the variety of silliness in an industry grossing 7 billion dollars annually, Mr Radosh included the purchase of Bibles. I was amazed to discover that non-evangelicals average four Bibles per household, while evangelical Christians average 10.

Americans may be buying 25 million Bibles each year, but you sure can’t tell it by their theological literacy.

After Steve Brown I listened to Dr. Mohler’s radio show from Wednesday, in which the first caller asked for study-Bible recommendations. Dr. Mohler responded with six suggestions: The McArthur Study Bible, Reformation Study Bible, Apologetic Study Bible, Ryken’s Literary Study Bible, an Archaeological Study Bible, and an upcoming ESV Study Bible.

How ironic.

y daughter is struggling with preschool Sunday school that she helps teach in her SBC church. The director finds Scripture memorization of a lesser value than “Bible thoughts” and “conversation” with the children. I fear greatly  that this is the case in too many of our Sunday-school programs. We are too busy teaching morality from Lifeway to understand the logic of learning.

The Poll-Parrot stage is the one in which learning by heart is easy and, on the whole, pleasurable; whereas reasoning is difficult and, on the whole, little relished. At this age, one readily memorizes the shapes and appearances of things; one likes to recite the number-plates of cars; one rejoices in the chanting of rhymes and the rumble and thunder of unintelligible polysyllables; one enjoys the mere accumulation of things.
Dorthy Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning; a paper delivered at Oxford, 1947.

The essay from which this quote is taken sparked the home-schooling movement in America. At least one man, Douglas Wilson, picked up on the idea and wrote a magnificant book on classical education called Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning. Dorthy Sayers’ essay is reprinted in the appendix of Wilson’s book.

Oh that more Southern Baptist preachers, teachers, and parents would understand that morality lessons from the Bible cannot take the place of simple memorization of critical passages of Scripture; passages that may one day - by God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit - I say may one day take root in the heart of a child to the lasting benefit of their immortal soul. Wilson’s book would be a good start towards that understanding, but God has to change the mind set of many - most in the SBC.