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 …
The Passion of the Persecuted
On November 18, 1951, the United States Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, provided a collection of affidavits accusing the Communist Romanian government. He wrote that the peoples freedom of expression and the freedom of press have been “have been willfully, callously and systematically violated by the Romanian government.” That very same year, under the watchful eye of the Romanian government, …
Jihadist Suicide Bomber? The Gospel and Samson
I remember having a conversation with my brothers and a friend of theirs in which the subject of Samson’s salvation came up. Their friend exclaimed, “I don’t even know if that guy was regenerate!” Of course Samson broke his Nazarite vow on several occasions, made multiple rendezvous with pagan women, cohabited with one, and committed suicide in some vain attempt …
Understanding the Cross: Responding Godly in an Ungodly Age, Part 2
5 quick things that I use in my life to respond in a godly way and to fight back certain sins (I am grateful for men like Pete Schemm, Dwayne Milioni, and Danny Akin who have helped me compile this list, this is not exhaustive, but I believe it is helpful): 1. Dwell and meditate on what the cross has …