December 22, 1999

Texas Baptist Forum
True love
___Bumper stickers proclaim, "I love my dog," "I love soccer" and "I love to shop." We hear, "I love your dress," "I love that song" and "I just love your house."
___What has happened to the word "love"? Is it just an expression in today's world?

Email the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

___God tells us, "Love your neighbor as yourself" and, "Love the Lord with all your heart." Many Scriptures tell us what true love is and how it can be expressed.
___Have we as believers lost sight of this love, just as the world has?
___An article in the Baptist Standard says faith in Christ drops sharply after the age of 14. Why?
___We as believers must pray and seek for that true love that can only come from God. When we put it in our lives again, the Lord will add daily to the church as he has in the past.
___ Fred Grice
___ Corsicana

God's priority
___The dissension among Baptists breaks my heart. The easiest thing in this world to do is criticize others. Are we glorifying God?
___May we spend that wasted time in prayer for the lost and then go on to carry out the Great Commission.
___May we focus time and effort on God's business of letting him have priority in everything.
___ Oleta Porter
___ Fort Worth

Proud of leaders
___As a colleague of Paige Patterson for nine years and Al Mohler for over three years, I am able to respond to Kenneth Chafin's letter (Dec. 8).
___Both men are committed to historic, evangelical Christianity and the full truthfulness of God's word. While differing on some matters of interpretation (very few), they stand united in their affirmation of Scripture's inerrancy and sufficiency.
___Both men are committed to world missions, personal evangelism and the proposition that Jesus Christ saves all who come to him in repentance and faith. After all, Mohler founded the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Patterson's zeal in these areas is well known.
___Both men believe all the biblical miracles as historical, factual events.
___Both men affirm Jesus is the only Savior. Does Chafin still believe his rabbi friend does not need Jesus, as he clearly stated on "Donahue"?
___I know both men believe all children dying in infancy are saved by God's grace and will spend eternity in heaven. Mohler and I addressed this in SBC Life (May 1998).
___I am proud and grateful these exemplary Baptist statesmen lead two of our fine institutions. I believe the vast majority of Southern Baptists feel the same way.
___ Daniel Akin
___ Dean, School of Theology
___ Southern Seminary
___ Louisville, Ky.

Strong Texans
___Clark Dunlap's letter (Dec. 8) claims the Baptist General Convention of Texas' leaders are no better than Southern Baptist Convention leaders.
___It is the leadership of men like Charles Wade, Clyde Glazener and others that has made the BGCT stand strong for what Baptists believe.
___While he was BGCT president, Wade made every effort and offer of cooperation with the SBC, but none came forth.
___May we always have strong leadership in the BGCT.
___ Bill Lane
___ Granbury

Hero of faith
___I take exception to the letter by Russell Hale (Nov. 24). I have never known a more godly, sincere Christian gentleman than Russell Dilday, a true Texas Baptist son.
___I left a law practice to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in the early '90s, and he quickly became one of my heroes of the faith. It was a pleasure to attend the seminary under his presidency.
___Nothing infuriated me more than did the un-Christian, Gestapo-like tactics associated with his firing from the seminary by fundamentalist-controlled trustees. To malign a man of Dr. Dilday's character is both unfortunate and unfounded.
___Texas Baptists owe Dr. Dilday a great big "thank you," not continued criticism and dogma nitpicking. His track record, and our Lord's commands, demand differently.
___ Randy Dale
___ Abilene

Negative image
___Over and over, we have hung our heads in embarrassment, shame and sorrow at the antics of SBC leaders. The latest antic concerns plans to send 100,000 Mormon-style missionaries to Chicago to convert Jews, Hindus and Muslims.
___Jesus' emphasis was directed to individuals, not to "people groups." Fitting people into such groups leads to stereotyping, bias, prejudice and hatred and is damaging and insulting. Bishop Joseph Sprague of Chicago was accurate when he indicated SBC leaders' approach "smacks of a kind of non-Jesus-like arrogance."
___SBC leadership has established a negative image--one that is truly non-Jesus-like and arrogant, highly judgmental, prejudicial and detrimental to the cause of Christ. May God help us overcome arrogant leadership and negative influences, so that we can go on bringing people to Jesus Christ--not by stereotyped "people groups," but one-by-one as Jesus himself exemplified.
___ Fred Teague
___ Fort Worth

Wisdom needed
___While the vote on the Baptist Faith & Message is getting all the attention, a greater issue awaits. Next year, Texas Baptists will consider an amendment, which, if ratified, will allow non-Texans to affiliate themselves with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___If that takes place, for all practical purposes, we will cease to be a state convention and then be a national convention, with our own statement of faith and publishing arm.
___What would be our motive? How will this help the local churches and communities come together for the cause of Christ? How will this help me fulfill Acts 1:8 in my own life, reaching not only my fellow Texans, but also the others of the world who do not know Christ? Will doing this free up our pastors and other ministers so they can lead local churches in reaching the lost, or will their focus become deciphering how their local church relates to this new convention and others?
___I am afraid we already know the answer to this last question. Once again, it is those who have not heard the gospel who will suffer. May God grant us wisdom.
___ Dwayne McCrary
___ Lubbock

Hearts, not arms
___I wonder if we would be having all of this controversy if all of our so-called Southern Baptist leaders wore their WWJD bracelets on their hearts instead of on their arms.
___ Betty Bradford
___ Arp

Dyed-in-the-wool
___I was saved, called to the ministry, ordained, pastored and served as a director of missions all in Texas Baptist churches. All of them are Southern Baptist churches. For 50 years, my ministry has been fulfilling, satisfying and filled with the blessings of God.
___I may not have always agreed with every action of either of these organizations, but I have always agreed in principle with both of them. I am a dyed-in-the-wool supporter of both of them.
___Fifty years of my life have been invested in the service to the Lord in these churches and associations. As long as God lets me live and serve him, I will do it in Texas Baptist associations and Texas Baptist and Southern Baptist churches.
___ James E. Lafferty
___ Cameron

Jesus' truth
___Did not Jesus say, "I am the truth"? That's what the Scriptures say in John 14:6. It's what the hymn "Here, O Lord, Your Servants Gather" celebrates with words, "Jesus, Master, be our Truth." It's what our Baptist heritage says when it affirms with John Tombes, "Jesus Christ is the personal truth ..." It's what Frank Louis Mauldin says in his book, "The Classic Baptist Heritage of Personal Truth."
___When Baptists emphasize "the Truth," we grow. When we major on truths, we lose ground and our soul. The engagement of "the Truth" is the core of our Baptist identity and integrity.
___Disturbed by the misplaced emphasis upon doctrinal and experiential truths, Mauldin calls us out of the wilderness of truths to the focus of the earliest Baptists, who identified with the "truth as it is in Jesus." Truth is someone real, not something true. Truth isn't truths about the gospel; it is the gospel story of Jesus Christ, holy Trinity and a fellowship shaped by the Scriptures, love, liberty and reason.
___ Clyde Majors
___ Brownwood

Luther, Wesley, Calvin used secular music
___Earl Newsom states he would not attend a church that sang only praise choruses (Nov. 24). He also states that when praise choruses sound just like the music of the world, then we have gone too far in trying to reach the lost. Well, many "great hymns" sung in traditional worship services had worldly origins? Does he not realize that Luther, Wesley and Calvin all used secular music and added Christian lyrics to form the "great hymns."
___If a person feels he can't worship God with contemporary praise choruses, then don't attend a church with that style of worship. But, please, when did "great hymns" become "the" biblical means of worship? In fact, if we really went biblical, wouldn't we sing the lyrics of the Psalms to the sound of harp, lyre, tambourine, trumpets, cymbals and stringed instruments? Or perhaps Psalm 150 would sound too similar to today's secular music.
___It's past time for the church to stop bickering about worship styles and start developing relationships with the lost to lead them to Christ!
___ Lee Hoy
___ Georgetown

Phillips should be on list
___Any discussion of the most influential Baptist musicians of the 20th century should include the late Evelyn Marney Phillips, whose teaching career at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary spanned from 1948 into the 1990s. President Russell Dilday once referred to this pioneer of children's choir ministry as "its leading expert in the world today."
___ Because of a distant kinship, I had the privilege of spending time with her while a student, despite being a non-music major. In conversation with her, one might learn more theology than from any class. She was adamant that children and teens learn about and participate in worship leadership, even on Sunday morning.
___She also grieved over those she believed to be fostering divisions within the Baptist family. "They have stolen some of the joy from my final years," she once said.
___I vividly remember the time I sat with her before she was to lead congregational singing in seminary chapel. "This always makes me a bit nervous," she said, "because some of our preacher boys don't even think I should be standing up there."
___Such a concern was soon forgotten, as she announced: "We are going to antiphonally sing a hymn that asks the greatest questions that have ever been asked, but also gives the greatest Answer that has ever been given."
___Then, as the audience sang "Ask ye What Great Thing I Know?" the men's choir responded in magnificent harmony: "Jesus Christ the Crucified!"
___Mark Ray
___Decatur, Ala.

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