July 31, 2000

Texas Baptist Forum
Odd fellows
___Years ago, we attended a convention in Miami Beach, Fla. The bulletin board of the headquarters hotel proclaimed: "Welcome! Baptist World Alliance Independent Order of

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Odd Fellows."
___Most of us think of ourselves as being independent. Some are too independent andseem to think they are independent of God and his inspired word.
___Real Christians are not odd, but they should be different. The Apostle Paul wrote, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world" (Titus 2:11-12).
___Conformity may be convenient, but we need convictions and courage in our witness and work for our Lord.
___ Paul & Joy Stephens
___ Elgin

Join together
___With all the politics in religion now, it's plain to see why so many are wandering away from God. We need to join back together as Christians and remember what and whom we are living for. It's God, not what we think or interpret or have an opinion about.
___The Bible is what we should follow. We should grasp it and hold onto it, teach it, listen to what comes out of it, and have faith that God, not man, is in control of it.
___Yes, may God help us!
___ Brian Caldwell
___ Houston

Source book
___The whole discussion of Jesus versus the Bible is ridiculous. Everything substantive we know about Jesus, in matters of faith and practice, we know solely from the Bible. If the Bible is replete with error, then we can have no confidence in the Scriptures about Jesus, what he did, what he said.
___Yes, Christ alone. But the Bible alone is our source of him.
___ Steve Williams
___ Blossom

One question
___Brett Stair (July 10) precisely sums up what I heard at the Southern Baptist Convention. Reacting against the statement that "Jesus should stand over Scripture," he tries to use the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message to argue that "instead of viewing Jesus as superior to the Scriptures," we should emphasize the "equality of the written word and living word" and view "Jesus and the Bible as inseparable."
___Another letter in the same issue suggests all this conflict is over semantics. Asserting that Jesus and the Bible are "equal" and "inseparable" is not a problem of semantics; it is heresy.
___Al Mohler was right. It all does come down to one question. But the question is not, "Is the Bible just a book?" but rather, "Is the Bible God?"
___It is a question you better be ready to answer.
___ Van Christian
___ Comanche

Strong stance
___I'm pleased SBC messengers accepted the amended Baptist Faith & Message (June 19, 26).
___The 2000 version takes the good 1963 statement and makes it stronger. I'm pleased the SBC is continuing its conservative stance and maintaining theological orthodoxy. Many mainline denominations have drifted into theological liberalism, and the SBC, at one time, was headed in the same direction.
___The liberalism that the mainline denominations thought would attract people has actually caused them to lose a tremendous number of members in the past 30 to 40 years. The moral is this: Why go to church when its views are no different than the world? Liberalism takes us on a gradual slippery slope that is hard to stop.
___The SBC should continue to take a strong stance on the infallibility of the Bible. Once we begin to question the reliability and sufficiency of the Bible, the slippery slope begins.
___I'm thankful for men like Al Mohler, Paige Patterson, Adrian Rogers, etc. who are leading the SBC in a rightward direction. They are not perfect men--they make mistakes--but they are men of conviction.
___ Jeff Hancock
___ Mesquite

Equal parts
___Isn't it wonderful that God--who pre-ordained certain people to heaven and the riff-raff to hell--also placed them in positions of authority over their little kingdoms? Then he gave them the wisdom to correct the misconceptions of ignorant country boys such as I, who thought everyone placed varied degrees of usefulness on different parts of the Bible.
___Now that I know 1 Chronicles 26:18 is of equal value to John 3:16, I can rest easier. Instead of using the long "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" in witnessing, I can substitute the easier to remember "At Parbar westward, four at the causeway, and two at Parbar."
___Since Al Mohler literally lives Ephesians, he can also comply with the Song of Solomon. The catch is our despotic American government might not condone his kidnapping the fiancee of one of his subjects to add another concubine to his harem.
___ Donald Windham
___ Bay Springs, Miss.

Falling asleep
___Jack MacGorman taught me a principle while studying at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary that should be applied in Texas Baptist rhetoric today. He said, "The only way to accurately assess the theological position of another is to state your understanding of that position and give the theologian the opportunity to say, 'Yes, that is what I said.'"
___I am absolutely certain that not even the most conservative Baptist preachers worship their Bibles or regard God as a "quad-unity" rather than Trinity. It is inflammatory and deceitful to suggest such a thing.
___Just because your semantics are different doesn't mean your brother is a heretic. Personally, I tried to read the Baptist Faith & Message Statement a few times, but I kept falling asleep. Funny, that never happens when I read the word of God.
___ Dan Wooldridge
___ Georgetown

Everybody's job
___When it comes to presenting the gospel, it is all our jobs. We take our job to preach the gospel too lightly at times.
___I just want the chance to preach, because that's what I've been called to do. Some women feel the same way.
___We are not the judge of who has called each of us. God is.
___ Ron Cobb
___ San Antonio

Forgotten goal
___Another Baptist church closed its doors this summer in a small community in West Texas. They cried for help, and little was offered. This is a shame!
___While the Pharisees and Sadducees, our elected Baptist leaders, fought over the terms "fundamentalists," "moderates" and "liberals," the ultimate goal of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus has been forgotten.
___A friend summed it up best, "God has blessed the Southern Baptists and the the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and rather than humbly praising God, the elected leaders have said, 'Look how great we are, God, and, God, you are blessed to have us.'"
___Until all Baptists can realize the goal is to share the gospel and that only Jesus can save, then train up our people with a strong foundation of Scriptures and belief in God, we will continue to fragmentize as a denomination and politics will run our convention rather than the one true God.
___As for my church and me, we will follow the Lord.
___ Skip Hill
___ Fort Stockton

Full translation
___I believe the Bible (all of it). But I wonder if some have the full translation.
___After reading Charles Colson's scathing remarks about Charles Stanley (June 26), comparing this godly struggling pastor with a pedophile, I wonder if words such as "mercy," "compassion," "forgiveness," "encouragement" and "love" may be missing from the fundamentalist translation?
___ Robert Franklin
___ Sulphur Springs

Same advice
___I just finished reading online the editorial "Nothing a few funerals wouldn't cure" (July 17). I realize the message was meant for church members, but I have known a few pastors and staff members who would do well to follow the same advice.
___ Grover Clifft
___ Lamesa

A missed opportunity for ABC
___What a sad commentary by Peter Jennings! His ABC production "The Search for Jesus" was shot full of holes. It didn't stick to the real script. Instead, it relied heavily on opinions of agnostics and others, certainly not Baptists, to portray Jesus as strictly human. It did not accept as true the biblical accounts about him or who he claimed himself to be. It concluded many things foreign to the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament and omitted the Old Testament prophecies concerning Jesus.
___One example is where Jennings reflected on the probably very young age of the mother of Jesus and that Joseph pretty well dropped out of the picture after Jesus' birth. This could mean, he said, that Mary raised Jesus virtually by herself. According to Matthew 13:55-56, Jesus had a least four brothers and two sisters. Joseph was there all right, and he trained his firstborn to become a carpenter as well.
___ What a disappointing search for the real Jesus, and what a missed opportunity for Jennings and ABC!
___ Bob King
___ Grand Prairie

What context?
___ With all the uproar about context in regard to Anthony Sisemore's statements at the national convention, I have to ask: in what context is it good to say that the Bible is just a book?
___ While reading your explanation and defense of this man's statement (July 10), I was reminded of damage-control press conferences one might see during an election where the candidate had a slip of the tongue. Those who question the integrity of the Baptist Press should also point their fingers at the Standard. Both are guilty of portraying news in a way that favors their respective support organizations.
___ Regardless of context, or what "spin" you or the Baptist Press might wish to put on it, the words "just a book" should never be used to describe the Bible.
___ Scott Link
___ Fort Worth

Women pastors
___ I am embarrassed every time I see or hear some ignorant Baptist cite Galatians 3:28 as support for women pastors.
___ Read the entire book of Galatians! The Apostle Paul's topic of discussion is not the institution of the local church. He is discussing the role of faith in our salvation. Paul affirms gender equality with respect to salvation.
___ God would never save a male over a female, but when it comes to women serving as pastor of a local congregation, we should consult Paul's pastoral epistle of 1 Timothy. In Paul's prescription, not description, of the local church, he clearly reserves the role of senior pastor for men only.
___ I wish Baptists would be who they say they are, "people of the book," and do a better job of studying "the book."
___ Richard D. Piles
___ DeSoto

Submission to God
___ Velma Dickerman (July 17) makes her case for women pastors.
___ First, she says it is up to the local church--that's true. Local churches have autonomy to do as they please, reflective of "individualistic autonomy" infecting secular culture.
___ Second, she quoted Acts 2:17-18 and 21:8-9, which speaks of women who prophesy, "telling forth" divine things and indicating the gift of prophecy. Since pastors "receive their messages from the Lord and thus have the 'gift of prophecy,'" she equates the two. Logically, this is called a non sequitor. She cannot draw that conclusion.
___ A pastor is the shepherd of the flock. He is God's gift to the church (Ephesians 4:11). He will have the gift (among others) of a pastor-shepherd. Dickerman fails to make this distinction. She also fails to mention Scripture which states that a woman is not permitted to teach or have authority over a man (1 Timothy 2:12).
___ In Genesis 3:16, God reveals that one consequence of original sin is that the woman will seek to rule over the man. Is this related? I don't know. But I do know that God, in his providence, made the choice of giving responsibility in leadership to the man (Ephesians 5:21 ff). It wasn't men's choice to make, nor is it a woman's prerogative to unmake. We have to submit to God's will for our lives. And that is what this is all about--submission to God. Hard to do, isn't it?
___ Lain Teel
___ Waco




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