Posted: 6/27/03

Updated 7/03/03

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM

Matched set

Marv Knox and Hillary Clinton have a lot in common.

Hillary Clinton blames the “right-wing conspiracy” for all her problems.

All of Europe is free from right-wing Christian influence. In fact, Christianity is almost non-existent in all of Europe because of the little silly games the liberal has pushed on humanity.

E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

Ed Holmes

Sanger

Incessant dribble

Only because I know several individuals whose lives have been gutted because of the Southern Baptist Convention mess over the years, I will stop short of calling the continuing babble I read in the letters to the editor section comical.

What bothers me about the incessant dribble that masquerades for intelligent argument is that all of it is mere redundancy. Each letter follows as predictable a formula as “Law & Order” but with much less entertainment (and shall I say coherence?).

Anti-fundamentalists (who fool themselves into thinking they are theologically moderate) either bash the SBC directly or with a rhetorical question, and then proceed to quote Scripture like they were taught to do in Sunday School. The Scripture, because Baptists are “people of the book,” is either left on its own as if it is sufficient enough to win the argument, or it is followed by some quip that supposedly offers a succinct and obvious closure to the “argument.”

The fundamentalist relics who write in are no different except they don't seem to have any qualms with equating politics with hermeneutics. (The anti-fundamentalists are far more subtle yet no less guilty.)

Though I realize that the content of the banterings will necessarily be recycled due to the nature of the controversy and goings on in Baptist life, would someone at least, for the love of God (go ahead and pull out Exodus 20 here), find some creative ways to express them?

Billy Jackson

Waco

Wonderful ministry

Brentwood Baptist Church in Houston answered “What Would Jesus Do?” when they started their wonderful ministry to AIDS victims and their families.

At last, a church that practices what they preach. May God bless this wonderful, obedient congregation.

Frances Brown

Kerrville

Factual reporting

Thank you for setting the record straight regarding the early retirement of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Ken Hemphill (May 5).

It is sad when the Southern Baptist Convention's “trusted leaders” go to such detrimental extremes to eliminate (via force) so many tried and true servants who have done so much for so long for our denomination. These leaders then attempt to cover up their apparent shady deeds. When will our leaders stop dealing under the table, behind closed doors, and stop attempting to hide the truth and be honest by telling the truth?

How is it we continue to tolerate our leaders kicking out so many missionaries when they are aiding our denomination in carrying out the commands of the Great Commission? (May 19) Most of them were in their place of service long before the manufacture by man of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message. Sad!

Your reporting helps us to truly understand the facts surrounding the removal from the classroom of the two outstanding veteran Southwestern professors, Karen Bullock and Stephen Stookey. A grave misjustice!

Thanks for digging out the facts and reporting them to your readers.

Garette E. Lockee

La Grange, Tenn.

New president

I have just read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that Paige Patterson is being considered for president of Southwestern Seminary. To say the least, I am angry!

As a graduate of both Southern and Southwestern seminaries, I feel betrayed by Southern Baptists who have permitted academic freedom to be squelched at these institutions through the selection of men like Patterson to head them.

I am thankful that I was able to study at Southern with Frank Stagg, who challenged us to think deeply on the Scriptures, and at Southwestern with Leon Marsh, who challenged us to think outside the norm but within the bounds of Scripture.

I can only hope that one day we will see a turn-around. I dread to think what the future of Southern Baptists is with the influence of Patterson now at a second seminary. God help us!

David C. Long

Monterrey, Mexico

Back in Texas

Paige Patterson back in Texas?

Good grief!

Alvin Burns

Dallas

Baptists' mission

My husband and I just returned from 10 days with two of our finest missionaries on a mission trip. After a time of worship, construction and renovation, three new souls were brought into the kingdom.

It saddened me that signing a man-made document, the Baptist Faith & Message, seemed to be on their minds often. It was very evident that these missionaries really have a strong commitment and hearts for the lost.

Our prayers are needed for them as they minister–as they do many things to reach lost people that many will never know about. Reaching the lost is our mission.

Linda Jones

Lubbock

Israel's identity

How is it people like Mark Borofsky still make the mistake about the identity of Israel and the people of God? (June 9)

Would I become one of God's people were I to convert to Judaism? Blasphemy! God's people are those who are “in Christ.”

There is only one light unto the world: Jesus. Only one in whom the nations are blessed: Jesus. Only one who is God's Son in whom God is pleased: Jesus. Only one who is the Suffering Servant: Jesus. Only one who bore our sins and transgressions: Jesus. Only one saved person in the history of the earth: Jesus. There is only one hope by which we might share salvation, victory and eternal life: by being in Jesus!

Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the promises to Abraham. Jesus is Israel, the vine, the olive tree.

Pray first, then read Hebrews and then Romans. The Old Covenant is obsolete because it is fulfilled by Christ.

If you are not “in Christ,” you are not saved, for he alone is the fulfillment of God's salvation plan.

I love Israel because it is a democracy. I love Israelites because they are God's creation. Fleshly peace may or may not come by treaty. But God has a better plan for peace–conversion to Christ. If all the Arabs, Persians and Israelites were “in Christ,” fleshly peace would have a chance.

Evangelism should be our focus to announce they can have peace “in Christ.”

Ben Macklin

Fort Worth

Bathroom humor

I have to say I was not amused at the bathroom humor being a part of the cartoon titled “Adam and Eve, Day 2” (June 9).

The strategic placement of the tree to “cover” Adam is an insinuation beyond the mental needs of Christians. (Although, after the fall, they supposedly covered themselves.)

I just think bathroom humor and insinuation do not belong in a Christian worldview.

Joe Phillips

Granbury

FMB requirement never implemented

Pete McGuire claims, "In ‘The Baptist Heritage,’ Leon McBeth writes, ‘In 1920 the Foreign Mission Board drew up a 13-point doctrinal statement to be signed by all its missionaries’" (June 9).

If this is an accurate quote, it apparently never was implemented.

We were appointed in 1952 and served for 41 years as missionaries in Uruguay. At the time of appointment, we were simply asked to write up our principal doctrinal beliefs. I believe mine was very simple and brief, less than one page in length.

Occasionally, the personnel department would question the doctrinal statement presented by a candidate, but once he/she arrived at this stage, it was almost a given that the appointment would be approved.

I never heard of a 13-point doctrinal statement that all missionaries had to sign. We did not have to sign any list of doctrines prepared by others. I have talked with numerous veteran missionaries, and they say the same.

So, I think it is important that McGuire’s statement be challenged. He attempts to use the quote from Dr. McBeth’s publication as the basis for saying that the present requirement of signing the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message is nothing new. If the present requirement can be justified, other grounds that are valid must be found for supporting it.

James Bartley

Waco

Missions suffers

What I admired most about the Southern Baptist Convention was the missions program. Now that they have substituted confrontation for love, it appears weaker, and the program suffers.

What a shame.

R. Terry Campbell

Big Canoe, Ga.

Texas church could cover missions shortfall

As a director of missions, a former International Mission Board missionary and now a trustee of the IMB, I would like to challenge Texas Baptist churches.

The Standard reported on the financial shortfall the IMB is facing. I was in the Framingham meeting of the IMB where we were discussing how to address the $10 million dilemma.

Visiting our committee meeting was a missionary recuperating from injuries his family sustained by a terrorist attack. In the midst of our discussions, this missionary demonstrated Christian values when he observed that we have about 5,000 missionaries. He stated that if we as a board would cut the salaries of the missionaries $2,000 per year we would cover the shortfall in one year. While our board would never entertain that suggestion, our committee noted his commitment to the Lord’s work.

Leaving the meeting, it occurred to me that in Texas we have as many churches as we have missionaries on the field. If a missionary would be willing to make such a sacrifice, how much more should we who enjoy churches like "Ivory Palaces" be willing to sacrifice?

If each church in Texas gave $2,000 more too the Lottie Moon Offering, in one offering the shortfall would be covered.

What a tragedy to turn away or delay the people God is calling because we must build bigger buildings or remodel our palace instead of caring for God’s called.

I challenge every church to increase their offering this year.

Kyle Cox

Galveston

Which BIble is inerrant?

Paige Patterson told me in a conversation I had with him in Gloucester, Va., that he did not believe inerrancy applies to today’s translations of the Bible—only the original autographs.

A few weeks later in "The Baptist Banner" Patterson was quoted as saying to students at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, "The Bible you hold in your hands is inerrant."

Which is it? If inerrancy applies only to the autographs, then which parts of the translations are in error? If inerrancy applies to the translations as well, then how do you explain contradictory passages in the translations?

For example, who killed Goliath? Was it David or Elhanon? Or did Elhanon only kill Lahmi, Goliath’s brother? The translations do not agree with themselves on this question, and others—a point Patterson conceded to me in our conversation about the translations. The best he could come up with to reinforce his argument was, "Well, the translations are close enough to inerrant to call them inerrant." By definition "close to perfect" is still imperfect.

Patterson became the president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary by misleading people as to his real belief about the nature of the Scriptures, in order to attack dedicated Bible-believing Christians like Russell Dilday, who will not lie to keep (or get) a job!

The thought of him sitting where Dilday used to sit makes me sick!

Mark S. Johnson

Macon, Ga.

Chosen by his own search committee

What value is there in an award given to oneself? Paige Patterson chose his own search committee. Every Southwestern Trustee owes his seat to Paige. No one serves as a trustee of any SBC institution without Paige’s tacit approval. Prayer and God’s will are trivialized by incidents like this.

Phil Lineberger

Sugar Land

Lost sight of morality and godliness

I regret our Supreme Court justices have no theological education toward knowing that God has no blindness to "privacy of persons" and nothing can be hidden from his vision.

How did they miss the point that this is a Christian democracy under God and Immanuel called Christ who destroyed the city of Sodom, from which the satanic behavior derives its name?

Freedom without discipline breeds a heathen, but this nation was set aside by God to await the "coming of Christ/Immanuel," and it was by him that this landmass could become a Christian anything!

These supreme justices have lost sight of God’s precepts of morality and godliness, and they need to be removed. America’s blessings have always been under satanic attack, but we do not need it legalized.

B.D. Norman

Dallas

Never reading this paper again

I know I am late in writing this, but there are a few things that I want to say.

First, I do not feel under pressure nor intimidation to speak my mind. I am a student and part-time worker at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Second, I have gotten to know Dr. and Mrs. (Ken) Hemphill well. They are good people ,and I believe them.

Third, I have also become familiar with many Southwestern trustees. They did not force Dr. Hemphill out nor force him to remove Dr. (David) Crutchley as the dean.

Fourth, while it is sad to be losing Dr. Hemphill and possibly losing Drs. (Stephen) Stookey and (Karen) Bullock, there are still many top-notch professors here whom I have learned a great deal from.

Fifth, I used to take what was written in this paper with a grain of salt, but not anymore. You do not want to report the facts of stories. You seem too eager to forget about grace and love. You would rather cause strife. I am never reading this paper again.

I look forward to getting to know Dr. (Paige) Patterson and finding out what he is really like before I make any judgments about him. I feel more concern here for the students than I do now at my alma mater, East Texas Baptist University, whose focus is sports, not education. You can quote me an all of this.

Thomas Smith

Fort Worth

When will this madness stop?

Only God knows and eternity will attest to the number of lives that could have been impacted by the amount of funds and energy that has gone into the "ruining of the Southern Baptist Convention."

I have a notice that this publication must cut back on printing because of a shortage of funds; headlines ‘Tight budget taps out church funds,’ and our own little church had to cut down the size of our new building because the pledges were not sufficient. Missionaries have been displaced because of a silly rule about signing a creed and now women desiring to enter the ministry will be disenfranchised by our seminary. It is no wonder that women are leaving this denomination to find a place of service. The new president of Southwestern has proclaimed no women faculty members will be allowed.

There was a time when you had to go to the secular world for politics, but no more.

When will this madness stop?

Betty Westbrook

Plano

Trustees will be held accountable

As a graduate of both Southern and Southwestern Baptist seminaries, I’ve seen firsthand the change wrought in God’s name.

Jesus called such doctrinal "purists" hypocrites. They sought their own interpretation of God’s word and destroyed those who did contrary. The Apostle Paul would have had another word for what Southwestern’s trustees have done: "anathema!"

Karen Bullock was right stating one of the "viruses" infecting the church is ministers being god rather than showing God.

The effect of the change of leadership, choosing Caiaphas, will undermine the ministerial integrity and capability of the seminary’s mission.

Speaking of integrity, I give you a definition, not mine: "Integrity is a choice. It is constantly choosing the purity of truth over popularity." The trustees have sought man’s popularity and glory rather than God.

The rigid doctrinalism coming from Southern Baptist leadership denies any grace and academic freedom.

The world is dying and going to hell while these trustees seed to serve themselves and their position. They should heed Jesus’ words, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice," before they condemn the innocent. Already, the wounds from this coup d’etat are manifesting themselves in mean-spiritedness.

The trustees should beware. God will not share his glory with any other. They will be held accountable by God for their actions. God is more powerful than the Southern Baptist Convention.

C.S. Lewis wrote, "They that have despised the word of God, from them shall the word of man also be taken away."

May God have mercy on Southwestern Seminary.

Austin R. Robinson

Arlington

What do you think? Submit letters for Texas Baptist Forum via e-mail to marvknox@baptiststandard.com or regular mail at Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267. Letters must be no longer than 250 words. They may be edited to accommodate space.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/27/03

A PAIGE FROM HISTORY:
Paige Patterson in his own words

Paige Patterson, who soon will return to Texas as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, burst into national prominence in 1979 when he teamed with Paul Pressler to organize ultra-conservatives to control the Southern Baptist Convention. Below is a review of some of Patterson's more notable quotes as recorded in the pages of the Baptist Standard. The dates given are dates the quotes were published in the Standard.

May 9, 1979:

Paige Patterson confirms to Baptist Standard Editor Presnall Wood that he and Paul Pressler attended meetings in at least 15 states aimed at gaining control of the Southern Baptist Convention presidency for the cause of “biblical inerrancy.” Patterson characterized the meetings as not a radical departure from the procedure previously followed in electing SBC presidents–“unique but not different,” he said.

May 30, 1979:

Patterson said he is “thrilled beyond any possible way of expressing it that the six seminary presidents have reaffirmed their full faith in the infallibility and inerrancy of the Scripture and that they assure us that this is true of their faculties also.” His statement was made in response to a news conference held by the six SBC seminary presidents to respond to Patterson and other critics of the seminaries.

See related articles: Patterson elected unanimously to lead Southwestern A Paige from History: Patterson in his own words Paige Patterson Profile Enrollment trends at Southwestern Seminary

June 20, 1979:

Upon his election as SBC president, Adrian Rogers said he hoped the kind of political organization that led to his election would not be a pattern for the future. “I was not a part of this campaign. I never went to a single meeting. I don't belong to Paige Patterson or Judge Paul Pressler or even to this convention,” Rogers said. He added: “I love Paige Patterson and Judge Paul Pressler, but if I can't be the president of all Southern Baptists, then I don't want to be here.”

April 23, 1980:

In an interview with Baptist Standard Associate Editor Toby Druin, Patterson said he knew of no movement to change the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message. “I wouldn't change the 1963 statement myself,” he said. “I am perfectly happy with it because, as you know, it says the Bible contains truth without mixture of error. Whether you say inerrant or truth without mixture of error for its matter is inconsequential. In fact, our whole deal is not the necessity for changing the statement of faith. Our whole concern is not to continue to make a mockery of it. Let's admit what it means … .”

A young Patterson at the helm of Criswell Center.

April 23, 1980:

Patterson also explained in the Standard interview his definition of inerrancy meant there were no errors in the original copies of the Scriptures–which no longer exist. He acknowledged belief there are grammatical mistakes–“transcribal inadvertencies or whatever you want to call them”–in Bibles today but added, “We can now arrive at a 98 percent accurate text.” The remaining 2 percent, he said, are “scribal problems that can be worked out gradually.”

May 14, 1980:

After Baptist Standard Editor Presnall Wood wrote an editorial demanding that Patterson give specific examples of alleged liberalism in SBC denominational posts, Patterson released a list of seven names–six seminary professors and one pastor. The seven denied the charges.

May 14, 1980:

In a letter sent to the Standard, Patterson said: “No political party will emerge from among the various groups of concerned Baptists. No 'takeover' is planned, desired or possible. Baptists who believe in the full trustworthiness of the Bible are exchanging information and encouraging participation in associational and convention life. This is the full extent of what is transpiring.”

May 14, 1980:

W.A. Criswell, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas and founder of Criswell Center for Biblical Studies, where Patterson then was president, announces that he and other church and school leaders have asked Patterson to withdraw from leadership of the movement aimed at electing SBC presidents.

June 18, 1980:

Speaking at Tower Grove Baptist Church in St. Louis on the Sunday prior to the SBC annual meeting, Patterson declares that accepting the Bible as inerrant is the only course that can lead to spiritual revival, which in turn is the only thing that can “stave off” World War III.

Jim Jones of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram interviews Patterson during the height of the SBC controversy.

Sept. 24, 1980:

At the Virginia rally where Paul Pressler said conservatives are “going for the jugular” in their campaign to control the SBC, Patterson also spoke. He decried a proposal by the Baptist General Association of Virginia to tie a church's qualification to send messengers to the state convention to undesignated Cooperative Program gifts. Patterson advocated that conservative churches should send their gifts designated to avoid funding institutions or agencies they did not favor. “Clearly, this is taxation without representation,” Patterson said. He called such a tactic “extremely unbaptistic and contrary to everything that has been done heretofore in Southern Baptist life.”

June 17, 1981:

In a debate with Kenneth Chafin before the Religion Newswriters Association, Patterson called the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message “very adequate” but said there are two phrases he would delete which he characterized as “code words” for “neo-orthodox theology.” One called the Bible “the record of God's revelation of himself to man.” The other said, “The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ.”

June 17, 1981:

In the debate before the RNA, Chafin accused Patterson and others of executing a “ruthless reach for personal power” in seeking to control the presidential elections in the SBC. Patterson denied the charge, asking: “What power do I have? What office have I been elected to? What office have I sought?”

Nov. 24, 1982:

Patterson and 39 others participated in a dialogue on problems within the SBC, held at a hotel in Irving. Patterson presented a paper in which he outlined six questions he said must be answered. One of those concerned his desire for “parity” or representation of inerrantists on seminary faculties and in denominational structures. Another concerned finding a way for conservatives to support the SBC Cooperative Program without violating their consciences. “Is there a plan by which all Southern Baptists may participate together in a cooperative way without the necessity of supporting that which is morally and theologically repugnant to them? … There is either going to have to be a revision of the Cooperative Program–not an abolition, merely a restructuring–or it will suffer some enormous trauma.”

May 18, 1983:

In an interview with Dan Martin, then news editor of Baptist Press, Patterson said his group did not intend to take over the seminaries and agencies of the SBC but sought to achieve “parity” so that their views were given fair treatment in publications and classrooms.

Dec. 7, 1983:

Interviewed by Dan Martin for a story on a debate about what constitutes a creed versus a confession of faith, Patterson cited a “historical distinction” between the two. “In terms of strict definition, there is no difference, but historically, a creed has represented an iron-clad definition of a doctrine to which all initiates had to subscribe in order to be a part of that particular order,” he said. “Generally, creeds are ecclesiastical laws while confessions are consensus statements.”

June 27, 1984:

“I don't think anybody in their right mind can really conceive of two or three people or a small coalition actually gerrymandering and commanding and determining the course of 8,000-plus votes. You can't know that many people,” Patterson said after the 1984 SBC annual meeting in Kansas City.

Sept. 5, 1984:

When Roy Honeycutt, then president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, declared “holy war” on those attempting to gain control of the SBC, Patterson responded hotly, calling Honeycutt's speech “a demonstration of denominational fascism which is determined to brook no criticism and will do whatever is necessary to squelch and suppress it.”

Sept. 5, 1984:

Honeycutt also referred to an alleged “war room” in Dallas in which Patterson had gathered “information banks” on up to 400 SBC figures. Patterson responded that “historical archives” did exist at Criswell Center for Biblical Studies, with information gathered over the previous 25 years. The collection of 5,000 to 6,000 items included news stories, books, tapes of sermons and tapes of seminary class lectures, he said.

Feb. 20, 1985:

In a speech to pastors at First Baptist Church of Lilburn, Ga., Patterson criticized the “top-heavy bureaucracy” in the SBC, which he said was becoming more hierarchical.

April 17, 1985:

In an interview with the Standard, Patterson defined what he believed the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message meant by describing the Bible as “truth without any mixture of error.” He said: “As the Scriptures came to men mediated through the Holy Spirit, they contained no mistakes or errors of any kind. Even the process of inscribing God's words was superintended by the Holy Spirit in such a way as to protect the human authors from any mistakes or errors–thus they wrote 'truth without any mixture of error.' By any acknowledged canons of human logic, 'inerrant' is simply a one-word summary of the phrase 'truth without any mixture of error.'”

April 17, 1985:

In the Standard interview, Patterson was asked to identify pressing issues facing the SBC. One of four he cited was “the limiting of a growing, insensitive and sometimes self-serving bureaucracy in Southern Baptist life.” He also reiterated his position that requiring churches to give to the Cooperative Program without opportunity for excluding some causes was “coercive and tragically unbaptistic.” Said he: “One cannot be called uncooperative and non-supportive if he finds support of some convention activities or institutions unconscionable.”

April 17, 1985:

Later in the Standard interview, Patterson was asked if he believed there had been “overt, organized attempts in recent years to gain control of the institutions” of the SBC. His answer: “Emphatically not! There have been efforts to get evangelically minded Southern Baptists acquainted with one another to bring to an end the 'control' of a bureaucracy which C.R. Daley (editor in Kentucky) admits easily exercised its will, dominating convention life for 35 years.”

Patterson receives a certificate noting his service as a trustee of the Foreign Mission Board from then-President Keith Parks. Patterson resigned from the FMB after one term, when he became president at Southeastern in 1992. As he left the FMB trustees, Paul Pressler went on the board. Parks resigned the same year.

Jan. 7, 1987:

Patterson criticized the SBC Foreign Mission Board as too restrictive in its requirements for missionary appointees. Specifically, he cited the FMB's requirement that candidates who had not attended one of the six SBC seminaries must spend a year at one of the SBC schools before becoming eligible for appointment. The comments were made upon announcement that Patterson served on the board of a new independent missions-sending agency called the Genesis Commission. “If they (the FMB) persist in the present policy, they had better get ready for a proliferation of organizations for appointing and sustaining missionaries, because if a man is called to foreign missions and the Foreign Mission Board says no, folks are going to find a way to go.”

June 20, 1990:

“That was where this all started. We think they should put a plaque there,” Patterson told the Wall Street Journal, referencing Café du Monde in New Orleans, where Patterson and Paul Pressler were feted June 13, 1990, for their successful effort to gain control of the SBC.

Oct. 3, 1990:

When trustees of Baylor University voted to revise the university charter to create a self-perpetuating board of regents in order to stave off an alleged “fundamentalist takeover” of the university by people tied to Patterson, the Standard asked Patterson for a response. He said: “I hope now that however much some might disagree with what we have done, they will at least see what we warned about is in fact now happening, that we would eventually lose our institutions if we didn't move to save them.”

June 26, 1991:

When trustees of the Baptist Sunday School Board fired President Lloyd Elder in 1991, Patterson was considered a top contender for the job that ultimately went to Jimmy Draper. After Draper's nomination was announced, Patterson told Associated Baptist Press: “It's hard to believe that any agency in Southern Baptist life would call me because of the baggage I carry from the Southern Baptist controversy.”

Compiled by Managing Editor Mark Wingfield with research by Beth Campbell

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted 7/02/03

Seek Long Range Control of SBC Boards

By Toby Druin,

Associate Editor

(Originally published April 23, 1980)

The organization that last year pushed the inerrancy question at the Southern Baptist Convention is active again, this time seeking lay participation from every association and state convention. Their goal is to determine who is elected SBC president for at least four consecutive years and maybe as many as 10, and through presidential committee appointments try to control nomination of trustees of SBC agencies.

Lay involvement is being sought because "many pastors lack the courage to deal with the problem," it was charged, and because it is the lay church members who control the money going to denominational agencies and who through their contributions ultimately determine the paths those agencies follow.

Paige Patterson, president of Criswell Center for Biblical Studies in Dallas, revealed the plan and made the charges in a meeting April 3 seeking lay volunteers to organize the effort. He reiterated them in an interview with the Baptist Standard on April 14.

A year ago Patterson and Houston appeals court judge Paul Pressler were the key figures in a plan to elect an SBC president committed to biblical inerrancy and to ending an alleged drift toward "liberalism." They organized meetings in most state conventions and then supported Adrian P. Rogers for president. The Memphis pastor was elected on the first ballot.

This year, it was revealed at the meeting April 3 at the Spurgeon-Harris Building which houses the Criswell Center in Dallas, that Pressler has organizations in all state conventions. He is attempting to enlist laymen in every association.

Dallas attorney Edward J. Drake, a former chairman of deacons at First Church, Dallas, presided over the April 3 meeting, explaining that Pressler had requested he serve as North Texas organizer, responsible for seven Texas counties. Drake has been named by Rogers to the SBC committee on Resolutions.

Two other Dallas men, attorney August Boto and accountant J. Keet Lewis, were presented at the meeting as being responsible for organizing laymen in Dallas Association. Fourteen attended, including three pastors, although at least 560 "concerned laymen" had been invited.

The object is to enlist laymen from each Southern Baptist church, encouraging them to become more involved in their associations, state conventions and the SBC, especially attending the upcoming meeting of the SBC in St. Louis. The organization is offering assistance in getting rooms at Ramada Inn South or at Concordia Seminary, Patterson said.

Drake said the object was to enlist laymen to help stem, as he charged, the drift away from the Bible which had resulted in the evangelistic ineffectiveness.

Patterson, principal speaker at the meeting, said last week "the issue still is truth — is the Bible in fact totally and completely true? Are we really in substance reduplicating the faith of our founding fathers — are we true to the Anabaptist vision? Do we believe today what Hubmaier, Marpeck, Helwys, Smith, Richard Furman, Judge R.E.B. Baylor, B.H. Carroll, J.B. Tidwell … believed?"

"I am of the persuasion that most Baptists do" still hold such beliefs, he said in his office at the Criswell Center. "But I am also of the persuasion that a very large contingency in significant denominational posts do not in fact believe that any longer."

In the interview he declined to identify those "in significant denominational posts" or any of the seminary or college professors he charges are not teaching according to his historic Baptist beliefs.

"Our objective has never been to get anybody fired," he said. But he acknowledged that has happened in the past when similar charges have been made.

Their "preference" is twofold, he said — first to see genuine revival sweep all SBC agencies so the historical beliefs that have characterized Southern Baptists could "manifest" themselves and second that those who hold views contrary to those beliefs voluntarily go elsewhere.

For now, he said, the matter is in the hands of the trustees of the SBC institutions and agencies.

He quoted B. H. Carroll, president of Southwestern Seminary, who before his death in 1914, Patterson said, told his successor, L. R. Scarborough, that Southwestern was the "last bastion of orthodoxy left."

"He told Scarborough he was to keep Southwestern in its orthodox position and he said, "If liberalism develops on the faculty take it to the faculty. If the faculty won’t hear you, then take it to the trustees. If the trustees won’t hear you, take it to the convention that appointed them. And if the convention that appointed them won’t hear you, then take it to the people — the people will always hear you."

Even though "a number of months have gone by" since his organization first leveled its charges, Patterson said, "We do not feel we have given sufficient time yet to various boards of trustees involved to go beyond that and take it to the convention itself or again beyond that to the people themselves."

But the effort to determine election of the SBC president is aimed at ensuring future boards of trustees agree with the Patterson position. The SBC president appoints not only the committee on resolutions but also the committee on committees which names the committee on boards, which nominates trustees. The trustees then are elected by the convention.

Patterson told the April 3 meeting that they could depend on Adrian Rogers naming a committee on committees sympathetic to their views. Explaining that statement in the April 14 interview, he said he was referring to Rogers’ reply to a reporter shortly after his election that he would not knowingly appoint anybody to any committee who was not completely solid in his confidence in the scriptures, the infallibility of the Bible.

He said he had not seen Rogers’ nominations and has tried to avoid discussing convention matters with him, because he didn’t want to place an "albatross around his neck in me and whatever I was doing."

Rogers, contacted in Memphis last week, said he knew nothing of the current political moves, dissociated himself with them, and said he was "amazed and mildly disappointed" at the news.

He said he was almost through with his committee nominations, and that he would always try to name persons to committees who believed in the integrity of the scriptures. "That is where I have been all my life, Paige Patterson notwithstanding. And I don’t think anybody would want me to be otherwise," he added.

He said he was unaware of Drake’s involvement with the organization effort, that his only knowledge of him was that he was a member of First Church, Dallas, was a former chairman of deacons there and "loved the Lord."

Patterson also told the April 3 meeting that SBC Executive Committee Executive Director Harold C. Bennett could "be depended on." He explained he had met with Bennett to explain what they were doing, seeking whatever advice or warning Bennett might have.

"By ‘he could be depended on,’ I meant he could be depended on theologically," Patterson said later. "Dr. Bennett has reaffirmed not only to me personally but also on television and elsewhere his total confidence in the scriptures. He is a man of absolute and undying integrity. I have never seen anything in him that would give any reason to suspect anything other than total integrity."

It would be erroneous to imply Bennett had encouraged him or his efforts, he said. "He was very neutral, as a good executive probably should have been."

Bennett confirmed last week he had met on March 6 with Patterson in Bennett’s office in Nashville. It was his understanding that Patterson had meant his group intended to elect an SBC president for five consecutive two-year terms, he said, but he said he tried to be neutral in the matter, giving neither encouragement nor warning.

"I have tried to listen to whoever calls and wants to talk to me," he said.

Patterson said he would favor no change in the 1963 statement of Baptist Faith and Message and knew of no movement among his friends or followers to accomplish it.

"I wouldn’t change the 1963 statement myself," he said, "I am perfectly happy with it because, as you know, it says the Bible contains truth without mixture of error."

"Whether you say inerrant or truth without mixture of error for its matter is inconsequential. In fact, our whole deal is not the necessity for changing the statement of faith. Our whole concern is to not continue to make a mockery of it. Let’s admit what it means, which, of course, was done by both Herschel Hobbs and Wayne Dehoney at the Houston convention. They said what was meant by the writers."

Hobbs, chairman of the committee that drafted the statement, and Dehoney, pastor of Walnut Street Church in Louisville, both stated in Houston they felt the writers of the statement held to the inerrancy of the original autographs — the actual writings of the prophets and apostles — when they drafted the "truth without any mixture of error for its matter" portion of the statement on scripture.

Patterson said his definition of inerrancy would be that there was no mistake in the original autographs of the scriptures. There are grammatical mistakes and "transcribal inadvertencies or whatever you want to call them" in Bibles today, he said, but "we can now arrive at a 98 per cent accurate text." The remaining two per cent in question are "scribal problems that can be worked out gradually," he said.

The current controversy is not new, he insisted, citing others in the past, and saying the present move was brought on "as much as anything else by the unwillingness of certain groups to really deal with the Broadman Commentary issue."

The commentary issue erupted at the SBC meeting in Denver in 1970 over interpretation of Genesis. Volume I subsequently was revised in 1973.

Patterson said emphatically he felt what he is doing is not divisive and should not be branded as "politics."

Liberal tendencies have emasculated other previously orthodox denominations, he said, when they ignored warnings. "I think the real question is do you help anybody by pretending that serious disease is not present" he said.

"What we are doing is not politics," he said, responding to the mention of the convention action last year decrying overt political activity.

"And I just wonder how some other people feel about it who are on the other side. It is no secret Jimmy Allen publicly politicked for the office of president. He called a meeting in St. Louis (before his election in 1977) and one of our St. Louis brethren was at a microphone in Houston asking for permission to speak to remind the president of the fact and that he was at the meeting. But he was not recognized.

"That is one of the great injustices. We were labeled with politicking and calling meetings. Nobody else calls meetings? It’s just not true."

Allen, contacted in Richmond where he was involved in a "Follow Christ Crusade," said he had spoken to a regular pastors’ conference at the invitation of St. Louis pastor Cleveland Horne who said in introducing Allen that he would be nominated to succeed James L. Sullivan who had recently indicated he would not serve a second term. "There was a lot of discussion about the SBC there that day," Allen said, "but no political strategizing."

The big difference, Patterson said, was that his group did not have a candidate." We do not have a candidate; we shall not have candidates. Our whole thing has been issue-oriented, not candidate oriented."

Drake said, however, to the laymen April 3 that Judge Pressler would remain in contact before the convention with his association and state organizers and during the sessions in St. Louis, determining the issues and keeping them informed about them.

But, Patterson, insisting "eternal vigilance" is the price of a "God-honoring denomination," said such maneuvers are not "politics." "I don’t see any difference in that and in what B.H. Carroll instructed Lee Scarborough to do when he said he should be sure the people who what’s going on.

"We are not running a candidate. We are concerned Baptists, and if that is politics then what state paper editors do when they write is also politics. Any time an editor editorializes he is in politics. He is giving his viewpoint and he has an entree to the people that even pastors don’t have."

Of those pastors, he said at the April 3 meeting, "Let’s face it, most lack the courage to deal with the problem."

In the interview later he said he probably should have said "many pastors" instead of "most pastors," however. "When you are talking to a group you don’t always say exactly what you want to say," he explained.

But he said that his investigations over the last few months had led him to believe that in the eyes of many pastors the convention has become "big brother."

"And I would not hesitate to say that many pastors fall into one of two categories. Either they have not investigated for themselves and out of a false sort of loyalty refused to investigate, do not want to know or don’t want to be bothered with it.

"Or they know it and understand it and have admitted to us they see it and understand and yet do not have the courage to stand up for it."

He doesn’t find such problems among laymen, he said.

"We have found that when a layman has it put in front of him and he looks at it, he says, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ He is not trying to go to a new pastorate. He is going to be right where he is from now on," Patterson said.

The laymen also control the money, he noted, "And apparently that is the only thing some folks understand," implying laymen who support SBC programs, especially those who are big givers, can get things done when others cannot.

Patterson expressed his love for the convention and said he intends to stay with it.

"I love our Southern Baptist people and think we are — as far as I can tell — the best opportunity this old world has for hearing the gospel before Jesus comes.

"My commitment is to stay and to love it and work for it and I will do that whether or not I am accepted by leadership or rejected by leadership. It won’t make any difference.

"I have done what I have done without antagonism and with love for everybody. And if God will help me I intend to keep it that way."

Posted: 6/27/03

“I really felt bad for me this morning as I delivered that sermon on self-pity.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/27/03

LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for July 13
Freedom brings possibilities and responsibilities

Galatians 5:16-26

By Jim Perkins

Madison Hills Baptist Church, San Antonio

Freedom brings possibilities and responsibilities. Citizens enjoy the freedoms we have inherited and also the responsibility to engage every opportunity for service to his or her fellow citizens. Our greatest challenge, perhaps, is to know where and how best to invest our lives and energies to become this type of citizen.

Reason

The Galatian Christians faced a similar challenge–they had gained freedom from the obligation to observe the law in order to be justified before God. They still faced the opportunity and responsibility, however, to fulfill God's perfect spirit and intent of the law by serving one another in love (5:13-14). Paul addressed how that could be accomplished in 5:16-18.

Paul's simple and yet profound solution is introduced in verse 16–“live (literally “keep on walking”) by the Spirit,” which means to live with your conduct directed and energized by the Spirit. As they were guided and directed by the Holy Spirit they would not be distracted or tripped up by the designs of the Judaizers or the libertine tendencies of their “sinful natures.”

This address by Paul is to the Christian community, and in verse 17 he described the ongoing conflict–a veritable war–in the life of the believer. This is no evenly matched struggle between the flesh and the Spirit, however, for the Christian following the leadership of the Spirit will experience victory in this intense and unrelenting conflict.

Warning

Paul chose to include two lists in this discussion of life by the Spirit. This first list (5:19-21) is a catalog of vices chosen because by their very nature they could provide an appropriate example of the “acts of the sinful nature” (literally “works of the flesh”) Paul insisted could not be a part of the Christian's life.

While we do not have the space here to define and discuss each vice listed, two aspects of this list should be noted. First, lists of vices and virtues were common in the ethical literature of Paul's day. The apostle did not attempt to replicate those lists in his letter or to provide an exhaustive list of all probable vices–he admits to that impossibility in verse 21–“and the like” (or, “I could go on and on”). Instead, perhaps Paul chose to include many of the acts of moral rebellion against God that were prevalent in the Galatian communities, especially as pertained to their present situation where the activities of the Judaizers had prompted infighting (5:15).

Second, Paul closes this section with the forceful warning of verse 21: “Those who live like this” will be excluded from the kingdom of God. One should not interpret this as a reversal of Paul's position in chapters one through four (salvation by faith in Christ alone). See this, instead, as a statement of the obvious: One who chooses daily to walk according to the flesh and habitually perform the acts of the sinful nature demonstrates that his or her life is not marked by the new life of Christ within (2:20; also 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 19-20).

Evidence

The list of the works of the sinful nature Paul included seemed to scatter in a chaotic dispersion of life decayed and separated from God. The list of the “fruit of the Spirit” (note the singular) in verses 22 and 23 represents the life of the Spirit in the believer, which causes remarkable virtues or graces such as these to flow naturally as an outcome of the Christian's life. It is not surprising that Paul chose to list love (agape, or God's type of love) first here, for some would suggest that it is the fountain from which the other graces flow.

Paul's statement in verse 23 that “against such things there is no law” does not mean that he researched the matter and found no law against the fruit of the Spirit. Here we deal with that which is not prescribed or proscribed by any law; instead, it is the natural outflow of the presence of the risen Christ.

Remember here also that Paul probably did not intend for this list of graces to be exhaustive (note the “such things” of verse 23). Instead, see it as representative of the results of belonging to Christ and crucifying the sinful nature.

Results

Paul returned in verse 25 to the indicative/imperative construction with which he began chapter 5. The very life we live is because of the presence of the indwelling Spirit; therefore, we must “keep in step” (march in line) with the Spirit. Living by the Spirit is the inner reality, then, while walking by the Spirit is the outward manifestation of that reality. Again, the life-giving root for life is the presence of the Spirit, while walking daily by the Spirit is the fruit that results from that life.

Life in the Spirit will have a practical, ethical outcome in everyday life. Still cognizant of the strife mentioned in verse 15, Paul now exhorted the Galatian believers in verse 26 to forsake the jealousy, envy and divisiveness of the sinful nature and instead allow the fruit of the Spirit to grow in the midst of their fellowship(s).

Questions for discussion

This section of Scripture speaks to Christian discipleship. What spiritual disciplines would you need to include daily in your life to grow in your discipleship to Christ?

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/27/03

LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for July 6
Use your freedom for the benefit of others

Galatians 5:1-15

By Jim Perkins

Madison Hills Baptist Church, San Antonio

As this week of celebration of the Fourth of July recognizes, citizens of the United States of America enjoy unique and greatly cherished freedoms. We will be appreciated and considered a wise people, however, as we express that freedom in responsible service to our country and others.

Stand firm

The Apostle Paul was a master at expressing Christian truths and encouraging Christians to live out those truths. Such is the case in verse 1 of this passage. Paul encouraged the Galatians to “become what you are;” to celebrate the freedom they had in Christ by standing firm against any who would make them a slave again to the law.

Remember, Christian freedom is freedom from the ravages of sin and the hopelessness of attempts to be justified by works of the law, and also then, freedom to serve God and others with a pure, Christlike love.

The “yoke of slavery” (5:1) that threatened the Galatian Christians most certainly was the opposite of the honorable and empowering “yoke” of Christ (Matthew 11:29). Here that yoke was the empty path of the powerless legalism promoted by the Judaizing interlopers–a kind of legalism akin to the “weak and miserable principles” (4:9). Paul cautioned the Galatians that their freedom in Christ was endangered by the temptation they now faced.

Express your faith

Verses 2-6 of this passage contain the pivotal and forceful center of Paul's warning to the Galatians–and all Christians. The first half of the section focuses on the apostle's stern warning to the Galatians: If they added circumcision to faith in Christ as a requirement for salvation (5:3), they would have in effect adopted a new “Jesus-plus” gospel, which would be no gospel at all (1:7).

In fact, adopting the legal obligation for obedience to one point of the law (here, circumcision) would obligate them to obey every aspect of the law–which would be impossible and ineffective (2:16; 3:11). Effectively, they would be turning their backs on salvation through faith in Jesus, alienating themselves from him and God's grace (5:4).

Paul, however, hoped for and expected much better of them. By faith in Christ they had received the indwelling Spirit, who encouraged them of the surety of their salvation (5:5). As a result, Paul could state as a certainty that for the Christian circumcision was a nonissue–it truly did not matter whether a Christian was circumcised or not. What did matter was a true faith in Christ which expressed itself through acts of love (5:6).

Stay the course

In this portion of the text (5:7-12), Paul referenced two groups of people: the Galatian Christians and the Judaizing interlopers. Paul condemned the Judaizers, who had come to the Galatian churches with an evil agenda. The apostle employed an athletic metaphor in verse 7 to describe their activities–a runner in a race stumbles when someone steps in front of him and cuts him off. Likewise, the Galatian Christians had been made to stumble after the circumcision group threw them into a state of confusion with persuasive arguments concerning the necessity of circumcision to complete their salvation (5:8, 10).

Paul reminded the Galatian Christians, however, that no matter how the circumcision group disparaged his reputation, the fact remained that Paul the Christian did not preach nor support the “Jesus-plus” gospel of faith in Christ plus circumcision as a legal requirement to complete salvation.

The fact Paul was still persecuted–presumably by the Jews for preaching freedom from the law (Acts 14)–was ample evidence he preached the message of the cross exclusively (5:11).

Serve others

Paul concluded this section with an ethical exhortation to the Galatian believers (5:13-15). These “brothers” in Christ were called by God to be free from the principles of the world and the inadequate legalism of the law. Liberty in Christ, however, did not equate to license to live a life of moral rebellion. They were free, but that meant freedom to serve God and others in a life exhibiting the nature and life of Christ, not the “sinful,” fallen human nature of the unredeemed.

As a matter of fact, loving and serving one another in a Christlike manner could be seen as a type of fulfilling the total spirit and intent of the law (Romans 13:8-10). It was to that attitude and action, then, that Paul directed them–even though apparently at this time he was aware of other disabling and destructive attitudes and actions in their midst (5:15).

Their disagreements were probably the result of the theological turmoil introduced by the Judaizers. Paul reminded the Galatian Christians that if they continued to “bite” and “devour” one another (strong verbs descriptive of wild animals attacking one another), they would surely destroy the unity and fellowship of the community of believers.

Questions for discussion

What destructive issues could be or have been introduced into your fellowship? How can you proactively and redemptively address those issues?

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/27/03

Some Bush supporters
question his action for the poor

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–A group of Christian leaders–including some of the most prominent supporters of President Bush's “faith-based initiative”–is expressing frustration with Bush's record on issues of economic justice for the poor.

“I am within a hair's breadth of concluding that the faith-based initiative is a cynical cover for ignoring the poor,” said Evangelicals for Social Action President Ron Sider in a June 12 interview. Sider was echoing comments he made in a meeting with White House domestic-policy officials June 9.

“I don't want to reach that conclusion,” he continued. “I think in some important way, this president does genuinely care about the poor, but that's got to be demonstrated in funding for effective programs.”

Sider as well as other evangelical, mainline Protestant and Catholic leaders under the auspices of the Christian anti-poverty group Call to Renewal, concluded a week of prayer meetings, press events and lobbying visits with administration and congressional officials in Washington June 12. The meetings were intended to promote more of a focus on programs that assist in poverty reduction and less on tax cuts.

They came in the midst of wrangling in Congress over provisions of Bush's $350 billion-plus tax-cut bill. In May, shortly before the passage of the bill's Senate version, Republican leaders cut from it a per-child tax credit that would have benefited the lowest-income families.

When Democrats protested the omission, the chamber quickly passed another bill extending the credits to low-income people. But such a bill may get bogged down in the House, where Republican leaders have tied the child tax-credit bill to $82 billion more in tax cuts–most of which would benefit wealthy taxpayers.

“When money is being diverted to war and homeland security plus a big tax cut, there is little left for poor people,” Call to Renewal head Jim Wallis told reporters after meeting with congressional leaders June 10.

Wallis and 34 other Christian leaders signed a June 9 letter sent to Bush outlining their concerns regarding faith-based and other groups that provide social services to the poor, saying the tax bill was just one symptom of an overall attitude that doesn't prioritize poverty alleviation.

“Mr. President, the 'good people' who provide such services are feeling overwhelmed by increasing need and diminishing resources,” the letter read. “And many are feeling betrayed. The lack of a consistent, coherent and integrated domestic policy that benefits low-income people makes our continued support for your faith-based initiative increasingly untenable.”

Baptist leaders who signed the document included American Baptist Churches General Secretary Roy Medley, ABC President David Hunt, and Baptist sociologist and popular speaker Tony Campolo.

Sider, Wallis and many of the other leaders who signed the letter were among the earliest supporters of Bush's faith-based proposal–the centerpiece of which would expand government's ability to give grants to churches and other religious organizations to perform social service work. The initiative has met with major legislative opposition because of church-state and employment-discrimination concerns, but Bush has implemented much of it by administrative action and executive order. White House officials portrayed it as the centerpiece of what they regularly referred to as Bush's “compassion agenda.”

In the June 10 press briefing, Wallis told reporters his organization and others had lived up to their end of the bargain with government but didn't feel like Bush was reciprocating adequately on poverty issues.

“The president has said the faith and community leaders need to be at the table when social policy is talked about, and we haven't been,” Wallis said. “We're (only) at the table when faith-based initiatives are talked about.”

The administration understands these leaders' concerns, said Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and one of the administration officials who met with the group. In a June 12 phone interview, he defended Bush's record on poverty issues and said the White House and the leaders merely had differences on how best to go about eradicating poverty.

“I have a lot of respect for Jim (Wallis) and Ron (Sider); I don't have a critical word to say about either one of them,” Towey said. “I think the president has been trying to bring new resources to the table; the question is, 'What is the most effective way of doing it?' You look at government spending, but you also look at effective use of resources.”

Towey said Bush's policies ultimately will help the poor by creating jobs as well as providing more effective social services.

“When I go to homeless shelters, drug treatment programs in America, or prisons with inmates about to get out, one of their top concerns is 'I need to find a job,'” he said. “And the president believes the tax cuts will stimulate the economy and job growth. This ultimately will help the poor.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/27/03

LifeWay Family Bible Series for July 13

The law of Moses is not equipped for salvation

Galatians 3:10-14, 18-25

By Tim Owens

First Baptist Church, Bryan

Growing out of the historical context of Galatians 1-2, Paul addressed the question of the purpose of the Mosaic law in Galatians 3-4. Paul told what the law could and could not do.

The Mosaic law was never meant to be a way of salvation. The Mosaic law was never meant to be a means by which a person maintained a relationship of favor with God. Salvation is experienced by God's grace through a person's faith in Jesus Christ, not by striving to keep all God's commandments.

Even believers can begin to think that although they were saved by grace, they must keep all of God's commandments to maintain their relationship with God. To adopt such a view is the attempt to earn and maintain God's favor through one's own efforts. In Galatians 3, Paul is encouraging believers to reject all forms of legalism and to live by God's promise and gift of grace.

What causes legalism (trying to earn salvation and God's favor by keeping religious laws) to be so enticing? One would think a person would be attracted by grace, not legalism. There seems to be something in the hearts of all human beings that wants to play a major role in securing salvation for themselves. To acknowledge one cannot save himself/herself, or at least play a major role in it, demands humility. Many people are unwilling to admit their total dependence on God. That is why every other world religion, unlike Christianity, teaches that human works contribute to gaining personal salvation.

The Galatians seemed captivated by this idea. Paul wrote them to show the impossibility of relating to God on the basis of keeping God's law.

In Galatians 3:10, Paul quoted Deuteronomy 27:26 to show the law requires complete and constant obedience. If people want to relate to God on the basis of keeping his laws, they cannot choose only the ones they want to keep; they must keep all of God's laws. If a person obeys every law of God except one, that person is guilty before God.

Paul assumes the impossibility for any human being to give complete and constant obedience to all of God's laws. Since God and his law are perfect, it is therefore impossible for any human being to earn favor with God by obedience to his laws. God gives his forgiveness and favor to those who by faith receive what Jesus Christ did for them. Through faith in Christ a person is counted righteous in God's sight.

This is the very heart of the Christian faith: Jesus Christ has done for humanity on the cross what it could not do for itself. “He redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). Paul is presenting the substitutionary nature of Christ's death. Through faith in Christ's death, people can be set free from the penalty and slavery of sin. How? Christ paid the price for them. He suffered the punishment for sin that human beings deserved to suffer. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”

In Galatians 3:13, Paul quoted Deuteronomy 21:23 to confirm what he said about the cross of Christ: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Every criminal, who was sentenced to death under the Mosaic law and executed was then hanged on a tree as a symbol of God's rejection.

Hanging on a tree was an outward sign of a person who was cursed in God's sight. To be nailed to a cross was the equivalent to being hanged on a tree. Christ being crucified on a cross was the equivalent of having died under the curse of God. No wonder the Jews found it almost impossible to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. How could the Christ, the anointed One of God, instead of reigning on a throne, hang on a tree?

Such an act was incredulous. Jesus dying by hanging on a tree was an almost insurmountable stumbling block to the Jews, unless they saw by faith that the curse he bore was for them. Jesus did not die for his own sins; he became a curse “for us” (Galatians 3:13).

Christianity says only in the person and work of Jesus Christ did God act for the salvation of humankind. A person has to be in Christ in order to receive God's salvation.

How does a person become united to Christ? The answer is “through faith.” Paul quoted Habakkuk 2:4 in Galatians 2:11: “The righteous will live by faith.” He then says it himself in Galatians 3:14: “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”

Faith is receiving all of Jesus Christ personally. Faith is not a human work. The value of saving faith is not in faith itself; it is in the object of faith, Jesus Christ. Faith says, “Christ was lifted up on the cross for my sins. I believe it is only there that I am made right with God.”

Galatians 3:18-25 reinforces that the purpose of the law was to show a person's guilt before God and his/her need for Jesus Christ. Now that Christ has come, there is no longer a need for a tutor like the rituals of the Old Testament, which were designed to show people their sinfulness and guide them to Christ.

Does this mean that Christians are free to disobey the commandments of God? Of course not! The believer's freedom from the law is not a freedom to sin, but a freedom to serve and obey God even more completely–from the heart.

Questions for discussion

Does the law serve a purpose today, or did Christ replace the law?

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/27/03

LifeWay Family Bible Series for July 6

Nothing but the blood of Christ can save

Galatians 1:6-12; 2:15-21

By Tim Owens

First Baptist Church, Bryan

Someone once asked an evangelist how he accounted for the thousands of religions in the world. The evangelist stunned the questioner by observing there were not thousands of religions in the world, but only two. He said, “One religion says that we are saved by doing something, but Christianity says we are saved by having something done for us.” His statement sums up the message of Galatians.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians because certain preachers were perverting the gospel of grace and faith in Jesus Christ. As Paul began his letter, he did not follow his customary pattern of expressing gratitude for the readers after his opening greeting. Rather, he launched into a scathing rebuke against the Galatian believers and their desertion from the gospel of faith in Christ.

The book of Galatians answers the relevant life question: What is the true gospel? The answer is quite simple. The true gospel is the good news that people are made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 1:6 presents the issue leading the Galatians away from Jesus Christ–adding to “salvation by grace through faith.” Paul was amazed the Galatians, who had eagerly accepted his gospel message, could so quickly embrace another message that contradicted the gospel. To add to Christ's redemptive work on the cross was “deserting the one who called you.” The Galatians were guilty of deserting the true gospel that is rooted in the sacrificial death of Christ for a “different gospel” that was based on human works.

This other gospel was not really a gospel. The word “gospel” means “good news.” The Judaizers' “gospel” could not make a person right with God, so the Judaizers' “gospel” was no gospel at all.

Today many religions and religious denominations claim to preach “the gospel of Jesus Christ.” However, a closer examination of their message reveals the fact that they claim a person is saved by faith in Christ and by observing religious customs such as baptism, church membership or keeping laws, rules and regulations. Galatians 1:7 teaches that adding to the finished work of Jesus Christ in order to be saved perverts the true gospel.

Galatians 1:8-9 pronounces a divine curse on anyone who perverts the gospel of Christ by adding to it or subtracting from it. Anyone perverting the gospel is to be “eternally condemned.” Paul was stating a solemn warning: Anyone perverting the true gospel would be in danger of eternal destruction. Christians should be extremely careful to evaluate every message about Christ on the basis of Scripture, not on the basis of the personality or human credentials of the messenger.

Apparently, the Judaizers thought Paul was making it too easy for Gentiles to be saved. They accused him of reducing the requirements of salvation, because he was preaching the Gentiles were under no obligation to practice Mosaic rituals like circumcision.

Today one may hear the same charge against those who preach that salvation is by grace and not by works. Such teaching is often referred to as “easy believism” or “cheap grace.”

Galatians 1:11-12 strengthens the claim that Paul's message of grace was of divine, not human, origin. Had Paul invented the message, it would have been much like that of the Judaizers, since Paul was a Jew himself. That his message proclaimed salvation by grace alone indicated it was from God. It was on the road to Damascus that Jesus Christ intervened in Paul's life, at which time Paul embraced the grace of God.

Galatians 2:16 represents the heart of the Galatian letter–justification before God is only possible through faith in Jesus Christ. The word “justification” refers to God's action of declaring the sinner righteous on the basis of Christ's death on the cross. Keeping the commandments and the law of God can never make a person right before God. When Christ lived a sinless life and died on the cross, he fulfilled the law's requirements for every believer.

When men and women become Christians, they identify with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. To be “crucified with Christ” means to acknowledge that Christ died in the sinner's place on the cross. He suffered the punishment from God all people deserve. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is present in every believer to give victory over sin and ultimately over death itself.

Being united in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ means the old life of the believer is finished. In Christ, the believer has risen to a new life. Christ lives inside the believer, giving the believer new desires for holiness and obedience. It is not that believers do not sin again. They do, but believers do not delight in sin. The whole tone of life has changed. Everything is different, because through faith Christ has invaded the believer's life.

In Galatians 2:21, Paul brings his message to a sharp point: If any human works are necessary in order to be right with God, then Christ's death was incomplete and unnecessary.

Question for discussion

Does the phrase “a Christian wouldn't do that” indicate there are some things a Christian must do or some actions that would prohibit Christ from redeeming a life?

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/27/03

THREE ALARM GOSPEL:
Ministry to first responders

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

TEMPLE–Twenty years ago, when Michael Haynes left the pastorate to become an author, speaker and chaplain, he vowed he'd never go back.

“I swore I would have to have a stamped letter from heaven to even consider going into the pastorate of any sort,” said Haynes, who had served four churches in 17 years.

That letter recently arrived in Haynes' mailbox.

After a plane crashed into a house in Temple, firefighters arrived on the scene and saved three victims but lost two. One of the firefighters on the scene that day struggled to understand why he hadn't been able to save the other two.

Pastor and chaplain Michael Haynes (center) with Temple Police Chief Ralph Evangelous and Temple Fire and Rescue Chief Lonzo Wallace. Police and fire officials support efforts to strengthen the emotional and spiritual development of their officers, realizing they work under extraordinary stress.

As a chaplain to the Temple fire and police departments, Haynes was called in by the fire chief to help, which he did.

But then he got the letter–maybe not directly from heaven, but close enough to get his attention. The wife of the firefighter he helped wrote to thank the chaplain for his care, and she added, “Now, if we can just get him back in church.”

“I thought, 'Man, that's my stamped letter,'” Haynes said. “I couldn't run away from home on this one.”

In that letter, Haynes heard God's voice telling him something he believes he already knew: Firefighters, police officers, emergency medical technicians and other “first responders” need a church of their own.

The result is First Responders Fellowship, a mission congregation sponsored by Immanuel Baptist Church and Memorial Baptist Church in Temple.

The fellowship meets at 10:30 Sunday mornings in the chapel at Memorial, beginning with coffee and doughnuts, followed by worship and Bible study.

Haynes, having received his stamped letter from heaven, is pastor.

In addition to the two sponsoring churches, the mission is supported by Bell Baptist Association and the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

The spiritual and emotional needs of first responders are unique, according to those involved in launching the new effort.

Surveys show about 70 percent of police officers have no church affiliation, reported Roy Parker, pastor at Memorial and also a police chaplain. “Their divorce rate is the highest of any profession in the United States. They have built shells around themselves; they've got barriers; they don't trust people; they're suspicious; they are in high-stress situations constantly.”

“Traditional churches aren't meeting their needs,” added Haynes.

But what these first responders need is more than a visit from a chaplain or counselor, he added. “First responders will commit to structure. They won't commit to something that is not institutional. For the most part, they're structured people in their professions.”

The First Responders Fellowship offers a level of institutional structure while allowing enough flexibility to meet the peculiar schedules of emergency workers. Workers on duty can drop by for the initial conversation and refreshments, and those not on duty can stay for the Bible study.

And, more importantly, they're welcomed into a community of people who understand the occupational stresses they and their families live under.

The first service was held May 4, and average attendance is about 20, Haynes said.

Currently, he's teaching a series on controlling and conquering anger.

Haynes is well-equipped to minister to this subset of the Texas population.

In addition to his pastoral experience, he's been a police chaplain nearly 20 years. He got an intensive dose of experience in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing and then working at ground zero in New York City after the World Trade Center attack.

In New York, he worked with Texas Baptist Men and Victim Relief Ministries to minister to emergency workers and train others in how to minister and counsel.

Out of that experience, he wrote a curriculum for victim chaplains.

Haynes also operates a school called the Faith Based Counselor Training Institute that offers training for counselors in 35 states and a ministry called Crisis Chaplaincy Care.

First Responders Fellowship, he said, takes what he already was doing with emergency workers and applies it in a church-based context.

And it's a model he believes could be duplicated across the nation. He compares it to the highly successful cowboy church movement in Texas.

Supporting the mission work has brought new enthusiasm to the sponsoring churches as well.

Memorial is the church that lost five members in a bus crash on I-35 on Valentine's Day. Based on that experience that brought many members closer to the work of first responders, the church has enthusiastically embraced the outreach.

“They just felt like life has come out of tragedy, that light has come out of darkness,” Haynes said. “They got behind this like nothing I've ever seen.”

On Aug. 3, Memorial plans a “First Responders Appreciation Day.” The church has invited police, fire and rescue workers to attend its morning worship in uniform. After being recognized and thanked in the service, the guests will be served lunch.

Michael Harkrider, pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church, has walked with Haynes through the conception and launch of the new ministry. Haynes is a member at Immanuel.

“It's been received very well,” Harkrider said. “People are excited about it.”

Some, he said, questioned why the first responders couldn't just come to their existing church services. “We just had to tell them we are living in a day when specialized needs need specialized ministries,” Harkrider explained. “We're seeing all kinds of new types of churches that are doing that.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/27/03

Fisherman refuses to belly up to the beer

By George Henson

Staff Writer

NACOGDOCHES–When it came right down to it, Lendell Martin decided the priority of his life was being a fisher of men, not just a fisherman.

Martin balked last year when the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, commonly known as BASS, added Busch Beer as a sponsor. Part of the agreement between the brewery and the fishing federation was that all anglers would wear Busch patches on their clothing and sport the Busch logo on their boats.

“They made it mandatory that you had to wear that Busch beer patch,” Martin said. “Of course, I made a call, and they said it was what everybody was doing. They brought up the racing industry and said it would allow them to pay out more money.”

None of those things addressed Martin's concerns.

Lindell Martin

“BASS has these programs like 'Get hooked on fishing, not on drugs,' and then they want us to wear a beer company's patch,” he noted. “That's what wrong with a lot of our kids–we speak with forked tongues.”

Martin confessed, however, that even though he made his decision not to wear the patch even before he finished reading the letter, it was something he continued to think about.

“The flesh wanted me to wear the patch and just go on fishing, but I didn't think that's what the Lord would want me to do,” he said. “I had some problems with alcohol years ago, and the Lord took that away from me. I never felt like I was an alcoholic, but the problems I had in my life then were all related to the alcohol. I just didn't think I could sleep at night if I wore that patch.”

Most importantly, Martin did not want to do anything that would hurt his testimony as a Christian.

“In my heart, I knew that if I >put that Busch beer patch on I would jeopardize my testimony. Our job is to bring others to know Christ, and I don't know how that is going to help me do that. I've done enough I'm not proud of, but I'm not going to do any others that I can help. I've got too many black marks already.”

Martin's decision to reel himself in has not been painless. With the decision not to fish BASS tournaments, he lost about $100,000 in sponsorships this year.

“It has cost us a lot of money, but Scripture tells us he'll open doors and provide for us, and he does,” Martin said.

One of those doors God has opened for Martin is providing time to lead his congregation, Highway 259 Baptist Church, in constructing a new sanctuary.

“The Lord knows a lot more about what's going on than we do,” he said. “If it hadn't been for this, I wouldn't have had as much time to help with the building.”

If he has a little more time to give to his church, his church also has given him support during this time.

“Your church family gives you strength, and my church family has been a big asset to me while I've been going through this,” Martin said.

He said his pastor, Garrel Faulkner, didn't tell him what he should do, but asked him two questions–“Are you living for God, or are you living for BASS?” and “Are you willing to compromise?”

While Martin decided his walk with Christ wouldn't allow him to compromise, he doesn't belittle the Christians still on the BASS tour who elected to wear the Busch patch.

“I feel like a lot of them wear the patch because of the financial aspect, but they don't feel good about it because they pull that sticker off their boats as soon as it comes out of the water. They don't even want to pull their boat home with it on there,” he said.

After 20 years on the BASS tour, Martin said he feels like he's starting all over again, establishing himself on a new tour and finding new sponsors. But with his cattle and a few other things he has going, he believes he'll survive.

At least his witness remains intact, he said, which is important to someone who sees his job as reeling in the really big ones.

“The Lord has used me to witness to a lot of men,” he said. “While you're out in a boat, they pretty much have to listen to you. If I was wearing that patch, I just don't think my witness could have been as strong.”

Posted: 6/27/03

Baptist Health taps Gaston as v.p.

SAN ANTONIO–Baptist Health System has named George Gaston III as its vice president for ministry to oversee the spiritual direction of the system and its five San Antonio hospitals.

The new position was created by Vanguard Health Systems after acquiring the hospitals earlier this year. The system had been an institution of the Baptist General Convention of Texas before being sold to the for-profit corporation.

Gaston currently is pastor of First Baptist Church of Corpus Christi. He previously served as assistant vice president for spiritual development and community outreach at Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston.

At the Houston system, he supervised 15 chaplains and a Clinical Pastoral Education program. His major accomplishment there was to establish a comprehensive program for spiritual wellness.

From 1979 to 1983, Gaston served as assistant professor in pastoral ministry at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“In his new position, Dr. Gaston will take the lead in assuring that the faith-based nature of our system remains a vital part of the Baptist Health System mission,” said Baptist Health System President Kent Wallace. “He will support the pastoral care team of chaplains and oversee the continued development of Clinical Pastoral Education. He will serve as the chief liaison between BHS and the faith community, and in particular, with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. In addition, Dr. Gaston will provide pastoral support to the BHS leadership team and will bring his spiritual outlook into the decision-making process at the executive level.”

Gaston is a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Seminary.

He and his wife, Susan, have two children and four grandchildren.

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