During the past few months campaign signs of every color have littered leaf-covered yards, slam campaign ads have littered airways, and bumper stickers have touted the driver’s candidate of choice. I have grown so callous to all of this campaigning that I almost don’t even notice the signs and stickers anymore. Yet, one bumper sticker successfully caught my attention. This …
An Examination of “The Cross and Christian Ministry” with Implications for Southern Baptist Life, Part 2
The first post in this series can be found here. Carson’s “Cross and Christian Ministry” should don the library of every gospel minister or aspiring minister. I commend this book especially to those of us (like the Baptist 21 writers) who are preparing for gospel ministry. In addition, it should don the bookshelves of pastors who have been along the …
Why Scholars don’t Understand Amos? The Gospel.
Most scholars agree with Julius Wellhausen that the conclusion to the book of Amos (Amos 9:11-15) is not authentic and was not written by Amos. The reason they believe it cannot be authentic is that the tone of Amos’ message changes drastically from merciless judgment to merciful blessing. He spends nine and half chapters aggressively promising his wrath to Israel, …
Baptist21 Podcast: Interview with Pastor James Merritt
From our Purpose Statement: Baptist 21 is grateful for a Southern Baptist heritage where the Gospel has been faithfully passed down and effective Great Commission ministry has been undertaken. Many believe there is a crisis ahead for Baptists, particularly Southern Baptists, in the 21st century. Our commitment is to work diligently in the present by honoring the Gospel faithfulness of …
What do SBC Churches in the 21st Century Need Most in Order to Fulfill the Great Commission? [Part Two] With Insights from E. M. Bounds’ Power Through Prayer
[This post is part two in a two-part series. Part one was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd at Baptist21. Please check it out before reading on as this post will probably not make much sense to those who haven’t read the first one!]. The great need of our time, as I suggested in part one of this series, is for …
Baptist21 Podcast: Interview with SWBTS President Paige Patterson
“Baptist21 exists to contend for ‘the faith once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3). We embrace our past, believing this faith has been proclaimed in our Southern Baptist heritage. We work in the present, believing the Kingdom effectiveness of Southern Baptists will be in proportion to our fidelity to the Gospel. We cooperate for the future, believing the …
What do SBC Churches in the 21st Century Need Most in Order to Fulfill the Great Commission? [Part One] With Insights from E. M. Bounds’ Classic, Power Through Prayer
Whoever you are in whatever station you might be as you sit down to read this post, let’s play a game of pretend together. Let’s pretend that you are a young man in your mid-twenties. You have just graduated from seminary and have been called to your first pastorate at a small rural church. The church to which you have …
Reading the Bible Christocentrically: Rescuing the Ark Narrative from Enlightenment Reductionism
Interpreting OT history is often a confusing task for the church. How do you apply Israelite history to the modern church? There have been two dominant attempts to resolve this tension: allegory and historical-grammatical method. Allegory arose mainly with people who deeply believed the OT was of value to the church and about Christ, so they struggled to read it as …
Baptist21 Launches Podcast: Interview with SBC President Johnny Hunt
Baptist 21 has been working to launch a podcast that is available through I-Tunes. The Baptist 21 podcast is now available through the I-Tunes directory. The podcast’s main focus will be interviews of SBC and Evangelical leaders. These men will be asked questions about who influences them, what should our focus be in the 21st century, and are there new …
The Politics of Jesus
The First Baptist Church of Durham hosted a conference last week entitled The Politics of Jesus. Here is an excerpt describing the questions addressed by the conference: The modern church finds itself riddled with internal contradictions between the teaching of Jesus and politics. The demands of caring for the poor, the elderly, and children fiercely interact with the issues of …