July 22, 2002
TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
God & time
___Come on, you people still debating open theism versus predestination (June 24), don't you realize that time is a physical phenomenon created by a supernatural God? Do you really expect the Creator to be subject to his creation? Or worse yet, to your own distorted view of that creation?
___You who support open theism, do you not recognize that God has authority over time? He is not constrained to move forward through time along with us,but can move freely back and forth as he chooses. You know that God is smart enough to project current trends into the future to determine "What would happen if ... ?" Don't you also realize that God is powerful enough to visit the future to determine "What will happen because ... ?"
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
___You who support predestination, do you really believe that God almighty and the destiny of a sinner are subject to your concept of cause and effect? Because you cannot imagine the future affecting the past, you cannot understand how our future decisions affect God's current knowledge. Because of your temporal mindset, you believe that God's foreknowledge must cause the elect to be saved. But the exact opposite is true. It is the Christian's free acceptance of God's salvation that causes God's foreknowledge.
___So let's put aside this vain argument about time and causality and start witnessing to the lost. Otherwise, they will never repent, God has predestined them for hell and their blood will be on our hands.
___ Donnell Hewett
___ Kingsville
Below heresy
___Thank you for your very fine article on open theism (June 24). I did want to emphasize, however, that in my statement that open theism is not a "heresy," I do not mean that it is therefore harmless. Bad theology is always harmful.
___Heresy of the kind that has plagued the church from its early days--such as Christian gnosticism and Pelagianism--is an energetic and seductive statement of an error, one that is deceptive but admirably creative: It always states the truth--but a truth taken in isolation from other truths.
___Open theism does not rise to that level. Rather than being seductively aimed at energetic minds, it is perfectly suited for lazy minds, for the kind of bourgeois temper that afflicts the American middle class.
___It does not engage the best thinking in Christian history. Typically, the open theists allude to Augustine and Aquinas but do not quote them or analyze their work in detail. Instead, they engage the theology of popular maxims and the surface notions of "classic theism."
___Perhaps later writers in this genre of theology will take their task more seriously; but so far I have not seen one come up to the level of those serious heretics of old, much less to the level of those theologians who have made it possible for us to love God even with our minds.
___ A.J. Conyers
___ Waco
Simultaneously true
___Closed theism is blasphemous because it accuses loving, gracious God of creating people for hell. He intended man to repent and only fallen angels to occupy hell (Ezekiel 18:22-23, 33:11; 1 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9; Matthew 25:41).
___The future is "open" from man's perspective. An individual freely chooses from the possibilities available to him, within the limits imposed by others' decisions and the providence of God, to determine what becomes fixed history here and his eternal state.
___The future is "closed" from God's perspective because he predetermined all of the fixed possibilities for creation from beginning until everything is burned up (2 Peter 3:10). Sovereign God does not know what he chooses not to know, despite the traditions of men (Hebrews 8:12, 10:17).
___True theology allows all statements in the 66 books of God's holy Bible to be true simultaneously. The thing that simultaneously makes the future "open" for man and "closed" for God is that God is no respecter of persons as stated 10 times in his word. Since all who are saved will be made perfect like him when they get to heaven, God does not care who these true lovers (not robots) will be.
___The way of eternal salvation is offered to all who ever live (Psalms 107, 145:9, 14, 18-21; Romans 2:6-11, 5:18; 1 Timothy 2:4; Titus 2:11; 1 John 2:2).
___ Dale M. Presley
___ Sour Lake
Humanist theology
___Open theists might as well worship Zeus by the time one works out their theology to its logical conclusion (June 24). Their emaciated "God-who-is-surprised" is certainly not the God of glory revealed in the Scriptures.
___Open theists' concept of this "God-who-learns" denigrates his awesome transcendence and reduces him to some sort of super VCR that records the present exhaustively, but not knowing the future, works feverishly in real time to sort out the free-will decisions of us silly humans.
___Open theism is humanist to the core, making man the center of the universe and bringing God into dependence on us.
___The concept of this God who does not know the future (much less control it) is yet but another relentless attack by the enemy of our souls to plant seeds of fear and doubt among the saints.
___Instead, God is the great I Am. Not the I Was or the I Will Be, but the I Am. Even a cursory contemplation of this particular revelation given to us in this unique name of God would silence most open theistic observations.
___As King David said, "In your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them" (Psalm 139:16).
___God's omniscience has been a rarely disputed tenet of the faith for more than 4,000 years (by both Romanists and Protestants in the Christian era, interestingly enough) and will certainly survive this 21st century johnny-come-lately heresy known as open theism.
___ John Hughes
___ Houston
Gifted to preach
___As an ordained minister who is just appalled by the incident of plagiarism at the Baptist Women in Ministry meeting, I must point out one critical fact: Reba Cobb is not an ordained preacher.
___Preaching is a gift, and she obviously relied heavily upon the words of one who has been gifted to preach. Perhaps people will be a little more appreciative of those who are Spirit-inspired preachers. Not just anyone can do it.
___ Joy Heaton
___ Enfield, N.C.
Legalistic majority
___The Baptist General Convention of Texas may be rejected from the Southern Baptist Convention if the SBC votes next year to accept the motion that each state be limited to one convention.
___Similarly, in the first century, the Christian majority were Judaizers who opposed the Apostle Paul's message of faith vs. law.
___Again, the legalistic majority is wrong. Individual priesthood was born at Calvary but pronounced dead by the SBC's 2000 Baptist Faith & Message. Drafting committee member Al Mohler explained why: "Baptists believe in the priesthood of believers, but it is dangerous to say the priesthood of the believer ... because it leaves too much freedom for the individual."
___Paul called legalists "... so-called Christians (who) came to spy on us and see what freedom we enjoyed in Christ" (Galatians 2:4.) Individual priesthood is freedom to do God's will as the Holy Spirit governs and not as the SBC governs.
___When one missionary dared to complain of receiving disparaging remarks against those opposing the Baptist Faith & Message (June 3), the SBC clobbered all missionaries to sign their "golden image of Nebuchadnezzar"--the Baptist Faith & Message--or endure the fiery furnace.
___We need true conservative SBC leaders who will heed old men's advice to Jeroboam: "Be a servant unto these people."
___ Rex Ray
___ Bonham
Sad, not surprised
___We were saddened but not surprised to read of the resistance to the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message presented by Japanese Baptists (June 24).
___Texas Baptists should know it is tragically common for Japanese Christians to say, "I know the Bible says such and such, but we just can't do that in Japan." Theology that is many times weak in Japan has produced a staggering percentage of weak churches where universalism, evolution, tolerance for alcohol and a rejection of the Bible as 100 percent accurate are taught. Pray for stronger theology in Japan.
___Also, the general missiological principal is that missionaries should not press other nations to hold to Christian views that are "extra-biblical" and came from the missionary's culture rather than the Bible.
___That is not the case here. Southern Baptists in America didn't make this up. Nor did Paul make this up for the Ephesian church (of which Priscilla was a member). No, in 1 Timothy 2:13 (directed first to Ephesus and then to us all), Paul tells us that the principle of male leadership goes all the way back to the order of creation.
___How we thank Southern Baptists for giving official affirmation to the biblical doctrines that many of us still hold to and often receive criticism regarding. In a land like Japan, we need just the kind of support the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message provides.
___Pray for Japan, where only four-tenths of 1 percent believe in our Lord.
___ Ronny and Kathy Cooksey
___ Saporro, Japan
Claim to Palestine
___Regarding Richard Land's biblical defense for a Christian backing of Israel (June 17), the promise of God to bless those who bless Abram (Genesis 12:3) comes before Abram has any children. Genesis then twice refers to God's covenant with Abram and his descendants.
___Then, at Genesis 17:8, after giving Abram the name Abraham (father of a multitude) God once more covenants with "you and your descendants." It is then at verses 19 and 21 that God says that the covenant will be fulfilled through Isaac, leaving the older brother Ishmael in a bit of a lurch.
___Taking God's covenant with Abram to mean all his descendants is what gives two peoples a claim to Palestine.
___But what is Palestine? Genesis 15:18-21 says it is from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates. Does this mean that Ishmael's descendants in western Iraq are sharing in God's covenant, or should they be moved out to make way for Isaac's offspring? Does the Stand for Israel campaign have a working map of the Genesis 15 borders?
___Land also says God doesn't negotiate. At Genesis 18:22-33, God and Abraham negotiate over Sodom and Gomorrah. What if Abraham finds 50 good men, 45, 40, 30, 20 and then finally 10 good men?
___By extension, if God could negotiate with the father of Ishmael and Isaac, then perhaps their descendants can negotiate with one another.
___ Randy Stevens
___ Dallas
Alarming control
___I applaud LifeWay's decision not to carry the Today's New International Version translation of the Bible (June 17).
___However, I do have serious concerns regarding Al Mohler's statement to Baptist Press regarding the new Holman Christian Standard Version: "When I first heard about the Holman Christian Standard Bible, I was not excited about it. I think in many ways there are too many translations, and having one more translation is not necessarily a great thing. (However,) the changes in the last several months have convinced me that in the end this is an important thing for Southern Baptists to do--if for no other reason than that we will have a major translation we can control."
___This statement seems to reek of propaganda-mill material. I am all for freedom of the press, but to speak of controlling a translation of the Bible is, to me, very alarming.
___ Kirk Davidson
___ Fort Worth
What God means
___The great W.T. Connor (longtime professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) raised his voice slightly in my theology class: "The Bible doesn't mean what it says; it means what it means." (Actually, that is true of everything ever written or spoken.)
___We want the world to read the Bible and understand what meaning God had for everyone when he inspired its writing. Those rejecting inclusive translations assure us that usually when the translation says "he," God means "anyone" or "whoever" or some such inclusive word. Then why does anyone want it to say "he" when that isn't what God means? Is it shameful sexism?
___If the "he" means "he or she," it would be just as accurate to translate it "she" as it is to translate it "he."
___How would men feel if that is what they read or heard read in church? Excluded. (Should we say, Oh, you shouldn't; you know the "she" means both "she and he"?) They would feel excluded. So why should women not feel excluded when it always says "he"? God didn't mean for his word to mean exclusion to women.
___You and I want everyone to understand what God told the world in his word. So surely we never want a translation deliberately to say something different from what all know God means. Then don't we wish every Bible that does not say what all know God means could be replaced by one like the TNIV that does?
___ Bruce Lowe
___ Dallas
Investigate position
___I believe the vast majority of Texas pastors to be pro-life. I would therefore like to challenge all BGCT pastors, especially those dually aligned with Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, to research the BGCT position on abortion.
___While BGCT professes to be against abortion, I find them to be very weak in their position. I find the Christian Life Commission to be even weaker to the point that I could not call them pro-life.
___It is the duty of every pastor and Christian to be sure their associations are of good report. Please don't take my word, but investigate this for yourself.
___ Jeff L. Paul
___ Magnolia
No joke
___I have been reading the Standard for many years, and have been a deacon over 30 years. If the July 1 cartoon was meant to be a joke, this is one deacon who is not smiling.
___I feel hurt that you would print this. I think you owe an apology to all deacons. I hope that there are many pastors who will object to this kind of journalism and write to let you know about it.
___I apologize for the tone of this letter, but I am upset.
___ Ken Greene
___ Houston
Won't sign the BF&M 'pledge'
___I would not prostitute my faith in Jesus or my intellect by signing the Baptist Faith & Message on God (June 14).
___To me, it shows the ambition of man to go beyond the teachings of Jesus. His was too weak, evidently. Of course such must be done if the intent is to build an identification for aclub, a denomination or a fraternity.
___And it cites too much of the Hebrew Torah, which Jesus in his kindness only mildly attacked. Any other one who did not have the love of the quality he had for his Father’s creation would have scratched it off.
___Also, Jesus wanted to save the Jews, not kill them as they tried to do to the natives of the land they wanted.
___So, I would not sign that pledge of allegiance for a salary unless I were an Iago in "Othello."
___Otis Patrick
___Loveland, Colo.
Open Theism absurd
___The doctrine of open theism is absolutely absurd (June 24). It tries to make God like man.
___The Bible teaches us that with God a
___Kevin Stanley
___Texarkana
Puzzling assertions
___Jack Newton is certainly both sincere and passionate in his letter Standard on Calvinism (July 15). However, he raises more questions than he answers.
___He asserts, "Calvinism is a mean, hard-hearted, anti-mission, anti-witness philosophy." Let's give him the point for the moment and assume that he means that "Calvinists" are mean, hard-hearte
___His assertions still raise the following questions: If Calvinists are "mean" and "hard-hearted," why do so many of them, once you get to know them, turn out to be kind, generous people who show an uncommon love for others? If they are "anti-mission, anti-witness" people, why do they produce so many missionaries and passionate witnesses for Christ? It is very puzzling.
___ Again, Newton asserts that Calvinism "appeals especially to the unmotivated among us." Why then are so many Calvinists in our midst some of the most highly motivated Christians I know? Again, very puzzling.
___Fred Smith
___Fort Worth
Appreciates Bible studies
___The Bible studies in the Baptist Standard have helped me with my
___Please continue using these wonderful people who write these Bible studies so that those of us who are at home may study about what God has done and continues to do in the midst of such turmoil.
___Angie Vallejo
___San Antonio
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