TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM
Satan's success
___I just read "The year in review" (Dec. 31). I found it interesting how there were so many more items referring to division and strife than there were on positive things done for the kingdom of Christ.
___I can't help but won

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der whether or not the divisive incidents really did outnumber the positive ones or whether we just chose to focus on the bad ones.
___Sounds like Satan is succeeding.
___Phrases like "continuing deluge of misinformation," "denounce reports ... as 'lies'," "labeling the motion partisan politics" make us appear like just some more political organizations that are bickering at each other.
___No wonder the world is going to hell. They don't see any difference between us and the rest of society.
___All of this strife between Baptists is doing more for Satan's kingdom than for Christ's.
___We are a wicked and divisive people.
___ Randy Decker
___ Whitewright

Handling differences
___It was with great sorrow that I read the opinions of David Crutchley--only mirroring the treatment that so many other dedicated men of God have received over the past few years (Dec. 10).
___I have heard that Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is sometimes jokingly referred to as the "cemetery" instead of the "seminary." I am beginning to believe it.
___I don't begin to say that I understand any of what has been going on with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the seminary or the Southern Baptist Convention. I can only observe that what's going on is not good. I have felt personally what can happen to a person when a "fundamentalist" decides he knows what is best and that "the end justifies the means."
___ I also read with pride the column by Jerry Raines, "Don't toss the baby ..." (Dec. 31).
___He happens to be my pastor, and his leadership in our church (Hampton Road Baptist in De-Soto) should be an example for other churches struggling with the dilemma of "what to do about" BGCT and SBC.
___He sees beyond the issues to missionaries on our home and foreign fields who are out there doing what God has commanded us all to do--take the gospel to all the world.
___Even so, I am afraid that eventually we will all have to decide if the end justifies the means--in our methods, our treatment of each other and in how we handle our differences.
___ Jo Ann Goforth
___ DeSoto

Above reproach
___The real tragedy of Jerry Rogers' "harsh temperament" description of Miles Seaborn (Dec. 31) is that he built a straw man.
___Miles Seaborn is a beloved missionary and pastor whose humble spirit and godly life are above reproach.
___It is rare to find a sweeter spirit than in the servant's heart of Miles Seaborn. He was my pastor through my seminary years, and I know him well. It hurts me to see him savaged by political wolves.
___In fact of matter, his church, Birchman Baptist in Fort Worth, is an oasis of love. May their tribe increase!
___ Steve White
___ Dallas

No credit
___It seems to me that those who have reacted to the harshness of the fundamentalist resurgence have not usually done so in a Christ-like spirit.
___To outsiders and to many of us insiders, this argument or family feud does no credit to the cause of Baptists as purveyors of the gospel of truth and love. It is, I think, perceived as a power struggle for control of the vast sums of money which have been entrusted by God to Southern Baptists for the spread of his kingdom around the world.
___As a now "retired" former missionary, it hurts to see so many resources used on ourselves and our precious viewpoint while missionaries struggle to gain the resources they need to share the gospel in meaningful ways with a lost world.
___When will we learn that there are no power structures in New Testament Christianity?
___We are to be structured for service and not for power. Where is the mutual submission that the Apostle Paul urged on us in Ephesians 5:21?
___It seems our pride has puffed our pates so large that we can no longer see our one and only true Head, our blessed Lord, Jesus.
___ David King
___ Marshall

Delayed benefits
___I have just reread Walter Shurden's "Not A Silent People: Controversies that have Shaped Southern Baptists."
___It had been more than 20 years since I had read it.
___It would be helpful if every Southern Baptist of every stripe would read it again, if not for the first time.
___His conclusion is certainly worth study and reflection.
___He quotes John Clifford, the British Baptist preacher, from an 1888 sermon, "The evils of controversy are all temporary, and its benefits are all permanent."
___This was preached during the British "Downgrade Controversy" of the Spurgeon years. Clifford is quoted as saying: "Controversy is far better than stagnation. Even strife is a sign of vitality--uncomfortable, irritating vitality, perhaps: exceedingly disagreeable to fossil theologians and actual tyrants; but still it is vitality."
___Well, that was 1888, and Shurden's book was written in 1972, and now we are in 2002.
___I am anxious for the benefits of controversy to show themselves--soon!
___ Bill Dudley
___ Lebanon, Mo.

Sheep attack
___Another attack in America takes place month after month, year after year, and does not make the headlines or primetime television.
___It is the attack on the shepherds (pastors) of the flock (churches). It is not done by so-called terrorists but by ill-spirited sheep (church members).
___The other sheep stand by and watch their shepherd cut down, saying, "Oh, we have to live with the members," and out goes the shepherd.
___In recent weeks, I have watched two great pastors, along with their families, wounded.
___These men of God are being treated as pastor-things rather than pastor-persons who have feelings and can hurt like anybody else.
___They were forced to leave their churches with no place to go. They have feelings of loneliness and of being completely in the dark. They are faced immediately with no income and in most cases no house to live in.
___I appeal to the sheep: Pray for, support and follow your shepherd as he follows the Great Shepherd. A sick sheep will follow anyone; a well one will only follow the Shepherd.
___The sheep need to heed God's command: "Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm" (Psalm 105:15).
___ H.B. Graves
___ Knox City

What Bible?
___In reference to Al Mohler's statement that Jews worship a different God from Christians (Nov. 5), I wonder what Bible he uses.
___I was under the impression that Christians worshipped Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament as revealed there and more fully in Jesus Christ.
___Have I been deluded in my 62 years as a Christian raised and nurtured in Southern Baptist churches and seminary?
___Don't Jews worship the same Yahweh, just not accepting the fuller revelation of him in the Messiah Christ Jesus? Cannot it be logically deduced from Mohler's statements that Jesus is the true God and the Trinity (of the covenant God Yahweh and the Holy Spirit) is therefore a false doctrine? Is this where strict fundamentalism will lead?
___Where does the Bible speak of a Christian God versus a Jewish God? Cannot one reject salvation in the Messiah Jesus and still seek to know Yahweh? When Jesus said no one comes to the Father except through him, was he speaking solely of salvation or of any type of relationship with Yahweh? Why has the name of Yahweh been removed from the "English Christian" Bible? And the questions continue.
___ Lee Neal
___ Guadalajara, Mexico

Manipulative praise
___I wonder how the Lord feels about praise choruses that seem to demand that God make us obedient to his will, bless us with his presence and do all the salvation work or else we don't have to clean up our acts, and our trespasses are his fault.
___Are we teaching our children the truth when we harp on God's ability to save us without singing about our repentence and commitment and how good that feels?
___We sing praises as we should, but a worship service without commitment is like trying to live on the froth of whipped cream--too good to be good for you and not a way toward building strength in the Lord.
___Do adults in Christ please God best musically at the kindergarten level?
___And are we off the hook if our prayer/demand songs go unanswered? If God doesn't do all the work, it's his fault if I sin, according to most of the choruses.
___I don't think they really are praise choruses. They are more like hypocritical cover-ups, more like howling (Hosea 7:14).
___ Shirley Wright
___ Detroit

Women as deacons
___I agree wholeheartedly with most of Thomas Schreiner's findings about gender roles in church (Nov. 5), except his belief that women could serve as deacons if the church had elder-rule.
___First, it seems by my understanding of the Greek in Acts 6 that God told the church to choose seven "men," not people. Why would God set that as a pattern if he didn't really care one way or the other?
___What were these seven men commissioned to do? Serve. Yes, they had a separate ruling body, and, yes, all they were merely servants. Still, God wanted "men" to fill the role.
___Is God a bigot? Obviously not. Are men more important? Absolutely not.
___I can hear Phoebe coming. She was a servant in the church. We have to remember that even though this word "servant" has been chosen as the name for the office of deacon, it also is the Greek word for just that: "servant."
___Where patterns are available in the Scripture, we must pay attention to them. Deborah? A godly woman used by God as an indictment on Israel, not a pattern.
___How indebted I am to the countless godly women I have learned from in many ways in the church. However, we must not force our theology into the mold of what makes sense to us.
___Ronny Cooksey
___Sapporo, Japan

Open theism
___"Open theism" (Dec. 3, Jan. 7) is man's desire to make God our servant. It holds to the idea that God cannot know the future because we have not told him what to do yet. It is incomprehensible to me that there are some Baptists that hold to this view.
___Jeff Hancock
___Mesquite





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