You Supply the Caption #118 – purgatorio

You Supply the Caption #118

ChurchReport.com

America’s 50 Most Influential Churches

The Church Report is pleased to once again announce this year’s 50 Most Influential Churches in America. Each year, we look forward to working with Dr. John Vaughan and appreciate the input of pastors from throughout the country that provide their insight as to who is really influencing America’s churches.

WORLD Magazine | Weekly News, Christian Views

Remember the Alamo

RELIGION: Is the battle for the Bible really over?

It was America’s bicentennial year, but not all the fireworks were about the nation’s birthday. That same year, Harold Lindsell, then editor emeritus of Christianity Today, lit a fuse of his own with the publication of The Battle for the Bible.

Lindsell’s book was an exposé of a spreading liberalism within evangelicalism—and with special reference to the Southern Baptist Convention. “At this moment in history the great bulk of Southern Baptists are theologically orthodox and do believe that the Word of God is inerrant,” he advised. Even still he warned that if Southern Baptists committed to inerrancy did not act soon, “the rougher the battle will be, the more traumatic the consequences, and the less obvious the outcome in favor of historic Christianity.”

Southern Baptists did not hesitate. In 1979 they elected Adrian Rogers, pastor of the famed Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, as president—and the battle was joined. What later became known as the “Conservative Resurgence” in the SBC began in earnest, and conservatives eventually captured the boards of all of the denomination’s national institutions. The “Battle for the Bible” was won by those who insisted that biblical inerrancy is so vital to the health of the church that it was worth dividing the Convention over the issue if necessary.

This week the Southern Baptist Convention convenes for its annual meeting in San Antonio. The last time the Convention met here, the voting “messengers” elected Jerry Vines of Florida as president—by 692 votes out of 32,727 cast. Those were days of constant controversy and contested elections.

This year’s convention will be different. SBC President Frank Page, a prominent South Carolina pastor, is expected to be elected to a second term without opposition. Page represents a new generation and is marked by a low-key style. There will be no long lines of buses from across the Convention idling outside the convention center, waiting for decisive votes to be cast.

So much has changed. Adrian Rogers died in 2005. Jerry Vines retired last year as pastor of Jacksonville’s First Baptist Church.

The SBC’s seminaries, now under the control of conservative trustees and presidents, enroll a record number of young ministers, drawn to the conservative theology. But most of these students were not born when Adrian Rogers was elected in 1979. They were toddlers when the Convention made history in San Antonio in 1988. They are the generation without a living memory of the controversy and what was at stake. To them, the election of Jerry Vines in 1988 is almost as remote as the struggle of Davy Crockett and the brave Texans at the Alamo.

A group of younger pastors and bloggers is now openly asking the question, Is the “Battle for the Bible” over? Some go further, arguing that the theological issues are settled, health has been returned, and the SBC should move on from theological preoccupations. Are they right?

The SBC is certainly in no danger of an organized liberal takeover. The more liberal elements have largely moved on to other groups and have little to do with the SBC. There will be no re-match on the question of biblical inerrancy in San Antonio.

Still, all is not well. The denomination is losing many of its young people, especially at the crucial transition between adolescence and adulthood. New controversies have emerged even as older fissures have been reopened. A generation that was playing Little League as the “Battle for the Bible” raged now includes some who loudly claim that the Conservative Resurgence has gone too far.

Not hardly. The incipient controversies of the present serve to remind Southern Baptists of what was at stake when we last met in San Antonio—and of where we would be if the Convention had headed in a very different direction. The issue of biblical inerrancy is as important today—and as in need of defining and defending—as it was then.

Southern Baptists will do well to remember what every Texan remembers when reminded of the Alamo: There are some battles worth fighting, some stories worth remembering, and some causes that never die.
— R. Albert Mohler Jr.

Alex Chediak Blog: ETS Response To Beckwith Resignation

Man, what a classic example of a Hebrews 6 and 10 situation… I wonder what this means to those in the hypothetical camp…

SermonCentral.com: Aubrey Malphurs on A New Kind of Church: Should we be concerned?

A New Kind of Church: Should We Be concerned? by Aubrey Malphurs I suspect that you as pastors and church leaders won’t be surprised when I say that the new-model churches aren’t without their critics, mostly from those who make up the ranks of established, traditional churches. That’s to be expected, as change comes hard for established, tradition-minded people. However, they also consist of people within and outside new paradigm churches themselves. And some critics are well-known Bible teachers and pastors with a national reputation. Some have come down very hard on the new models and even challenge their orthodoxy. It’s imperative that we as leaders pay attention to what they’re saying as no one is above error. None of us must be so protective of our churches that we overlook false teaching of any kind. To do so is to violate Scripture. Also, there are numerous warnings throughout the Scriptures against false teachers who promote and practice false teaching

You Can Trust the Bible – Grace to You

Excellent article / booklet about the Holy Scriptures and our culture

You have to be kidding me…

The Blasphemy Challenge

BibleMap.org

Wow! Now this is something.

Pulpit Live Takes on the King James Version debate and seeks to clarify their position

http://www.sfpulpit.com/2007/01/18/a-short-kjv-detour-part-1/

http://www.sfpulpit.com/2007/01/19/a-short-kjv-detour-part-2/

http://www.sfpulpit.com/2007/01/22/a-short-kjv-detour-part-3-2/

http://www.sfpulpit.com/2007/01/23/a-short-kjv-detour-part-3/

Excellent well-researched article on the Ellison hubbub by David Barton

http://www.wallbuilders.com/resources/misc/ellison.pdf

Top Ten Stories of 2006 | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Top Ten Stories of 2006 The events, people, and debates of the past year that Christianity Today’s editors and writers believe have shaped, or will significantly shape, evangelical life, thought, or mission. posted 12/27/2006 08:53AM

Barna�s Top 12 for 2006

Barna Research has released their most significant findings of the past year. The following dozen were selected:

�        Only 15 percent of those who regularly attend a Christian church ranked their relationship with God as the top priority in their life. On average, pastors believe that 70 percent of the adults in their congregation consider their relationship with God to be their highest priority in life.

�        Three out of every four teenagers have engaged in at least one type of psychic/witchcraft-related activity with fewer than three out of every ten churched teenagers receiving any teaching from their church about elements of the supernatural.

�        Just 21 percent of adults consider themselves to be holy; by their own admission, large numbers have no idea what �holiness� means and only one out of every three (35%) believe that God expects people to become holy.

�        The growing movement of Christian Revolutionaries in the U.S. distinguished themselves from an already-select group of people�born-again Christians�through their deeds, beliefs and self-views. Revolutionaries demonstrated higher levels of community service, financial contributions, daily Bible study, personal quiet times each day, family Bible studies, daily worship experiences, engagement in spiritual mentoring and evangelistic efforts.

�        Involvement in a house church is rapidly growing and four out of every five house church participants maintain some connection to a conventional church.

�        The only measure of spiritual health used by at least half of all pastors was the extent of volunteer activity or ministry involvement.

�        Tracking of young people showed that most of them had disengaged from organized religion during their twenties.

�        A comparison of people�s faith before and after the September 11 terrorist attack showed that after five years, none of the 19 faith measure studies had undergone statistically significant change.

�        Seven out of ten parents claim they are effective at developing the spiritual maturity of their children, but the survey among 8-to-12-year-olds discovered that only one-third of them say a church has made �a positive difference� in their life; one-third contend that prayer is very important in their life; most of them would rather be popular than to do what is morally right.

�        Just one out of every six people believe that spiritual maturity is meant to be developed within the context of a local church or within the context of a community of faith.

�        Five of the highest-profile Christian leaders�Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, James Dobson, Tim LaHaye and T.D. Jakes�were unknown to a majority of the population.

�        The proportion of adults who are born-again has risen dramatically in the past quarter century, from 31 percent to 45 percent.

For more information on this year-end report, visit Barna.org

Good article on Jonathan Edward’s life

LeadershipJournal.net – Leader’s Insight: The Resolution Maker

Leader’s Insight: The Resolution Maker The story behind Jonathan Edwards’s long list. by Roll Moll, guest columnist New Year’s Day, as we know it on January 1, wasn’t adopted until in 1752. At that time, Puritans eschewed New Year’s celebrations. Rather, they encouraged their children to meditate on the year past and the one to come. And one Puritan in particular took to making resolutions. Resolutions, and a determined ability to keep them, fashioned the character of the leading pastor and promoter of America’s First Great Awakening. And, according to his biographer George Marsden, his revivalism helped to shape America as an independent country.

Recent Congressional Successes�(or, “Why Christians Must Vote in This Election!”)�

David Barton� October 2006�Despite the remarkable progress made in recent weeks on pro-faith and pro-family issues, virtually all the mainstream media news about Washington politics has been almost completely negative. Apparently, the liberal media does not consider progress on traditional religious and moral values to be newsworthy, but only news about the Mark Foley scandal, being bogged down in Iraq , conservative voter discouragement, etc. Unfortunately, highlighting the negative news while ignoring the substantial progress made in the culture war tends to disengage values voters (which, by the way, certainly might be part of the reason for their selective reporting). Nevertheless, many good bills have been signed into federal law in recent weeks:

• The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act closes down a huge anti-family industry. Four federal laws already prohibit Internet gambling, but since all major gambling sites operate outside the United States , federal enforcement is virtually impossible. This Act now requires financial institutions to block credit card and other payments to Internet gambling sites. The impact of the bill was immediate: the value of stock in Great Britain ’s online gambling companies dropped fifty percent upon passage of the bill; two Internet gambling firms sold their American operations for only $1; the directors of a major Internet gambling company simply resigned and walked off, leaving the company in the hands of creditors. Internet gambling � one of the fastest growing forms of addiction in America � is now dramatically curtailed, if not completely stopped.
• The Broadcast Decency Act imposes significant penalties on networks and stations for public broadcasts of indecent incidents (such as the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” at the halftime of the Super Bowl) and indecent speech (such as the egregious language used by Howard Stern on his programs). Instead of a maximum FCC fine of $32,500 per program, the fine is now raised to $325,000 per incident/word, with no cap on the amount of total fines per program. Already, Howard Stern has been dropped from broadcast TV, and many other programs and networks are also cleaning up their act.
• A religious liberty measure was signed into law that reverses the current Pentagon policy preventing military chaplains from praying according to their faith � a policy that specifically kept them from using words such as “Jesus” or “Christ” in their prayers. Military chaplains once again have the freedom to pray in the manner they choose � as they did during the first 230 years of American history.
• The Fetal Farming Ban prohibits the creation of fetuses solely to be aborted for research purposes. As embryonic stem-cell research continues to falter and persists in proving unsuccessful, researchers are seeking new sources of embryonic stem cells; this bill shuts off one significant venue by prohibiting the creation of human embryos for the purpose of harvesting their stem cells. (Incidentally, during the past decade, congressional leadership has allowed over 170 votes on pro-life issues, the overwhelming majority of which have ended favorably.)
• The Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act increases availability to patients of cord blood stem-cell treatments, a rich source of stem cells (a source obtained without destroying any human embryo) that has already successfully been used to treat at least 85 diseases.
• The Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act prohibits government at any level from using federal funds to confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens during emergencies (as happened in Louisiana after Katrina, when 1,300 guns were confiscated from law-abiding citizens, directly resulting in many of those specific homes and businesses being stripped by looters).
• The defunding of a $300 million grant to build a gay-lesbian center in Los Angeles.
• The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act ensures that an individual has the right to display the U. S. flag on residential property, even if condominium associations and homeowner groups object.
• The Child Pornography Prevention Act strengthens and enhances prosecution of child pornography. Previously, interstate pornography (i.e., instances where child pornography is transmitted from one state to another) was prohibited, but this Act now prohibits intrastate child pornography (i.e., material that stays within the same state). Additionally, it prohibits prosecutors from making additional copies to distribute to defendant’s attorneys, thereby limiting its use and exposure of exploited children even in appropriate prosecutions.
• The Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial Act transfers possession of a 29-foot high cross (part of a Korean War memorial in San Diego under assault from the ACLU) to the federal government. A federal judge ruled that the cross violated the California constitution and ordered it be torn down or the City of San Diego to pay $5,000 per day in fines until it was removed. With this Act, the Memorial will no longer be subject to that judge’s opinion of the California constitution and thus will remain proudly standing, as it has for the past fifty years.

There have also been many other good bills passed during this Congress, including bills strengthening faith-based programs, limiting judicial powers and thus restraining judicial activism, etc. Furthermore, there have been some very, very close “near misses,” whereby only one individual has prevented complete success. For example:

• The “Child Custody Protection Act” prohibits minor girls from being transported across state lines for an abortion without their parents’ knowledge. This bill passed the House twice this session, and the Senate once; yet, despite the 4-1 margin of support from the American public, one member of the Senate has prevented a Conference Committee with the House on this measure, thereby effectively killing the bill. If not for the procedural maneuver, this bill would now be law.��

• The House passed a constitutional amendment to prevent flag desecration , and the vote in the Senate was 66-34 � one vote short of the two-thirds needed for final approval. This constitutional amendment would forever prohibit activist federal judges from addressing this issue.
• The House voted (for the fourth time) to abolish the immoral Death Tax , and the Senate came within one vote of passing the repeal. Only 50 Senators are needed to rescind this outrageous anti-family tax, and 59 Senators currently support the repeal; but the measure has been filibustered, and the vote to break the filibuster failed by one vote as anti-family liberals hung together to keep the filibuster alive.

Furthermore, one of the most significant (and unheralded) successes in this Congress has been the confirmation of scores of strict-constructionists to the federal bench � an achievement that may be directly attributed to increased Christian voter activity in the past two elections. Over the last four years, Christian voter turnout increased 82 percent, and the result of that increase has been apparent in the changed composition of Congress.

For example, of the 94 freshmen elected to the House in those two elections, 61 were pro-life, pro-faith, and pro-family (i.e., about two-thirds of the new members). Similarly, of the 19 freshmen elected to the Senate during that time, 15 were pro-life, pro-faith, and pro-family (about 79 percent of new members). These new Senators provided the margin of victory needed to confirm the appointment of two new strict-constructionist pro-life Justices to the Supreme Court; and the Court has already begun to change, including this year’s decision reversing a pro-abortion policy implemented twenty-five years ago in 1981. In addition to these two Justices, those Senators have confirmed dozens of other strict-construction judges to the federal Courts of Appeal.
These are just some of the many pro-faith and pro-family measures that have recently passed through Congress � measures very encouraging to most Americans, but measures almost completely ignored by the national media. Nevertheless, be encouraged! Good things are happening! Therefore, encourage your friends in states across America to stay engaged in this election! The results of this year’s contest will determine whether America will keep moving forward in winning the culture war, or whether we will start retreating. Be active this election! Much is at stake!
In closing, while I’ve approached this article from a positive viewpoint, allow me to offer a thought for those who are better motivated by negatives than positives: What will Christians say to themselves (and to the Lord) if: (1) they don’t vote this election, (2) we lose pro-family champions in the House and Senate, (3) after the election, a Supreme Court Justice announces his retirement (two-thirds of the Court is now older than 65), and (4) we no longer have the necessary votes to confirm a fifth strict-constructionist Justice to the Supreme Court and thus begin bringing the culture war to its well-deserved demise? I certainly wouldn’t want to try to explain that one to my friends or family (or especially to the Lord!). Just a thought for those who might need additional motivation!
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Good historical facts and wonderful pointed logic.

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Townhall.com::Legislating morality::By Mike S. Adams