February 24, 2003
TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
Unacceptable activity
___I am a conservative pastor who has seen the damage the Baptist controversy has caused in the churches and our witness. Baptists appear more like the Hatfields and McCoys than the body of Christ.
___I am disappointed the Southern Baptist Convention, through its chief executive officer, would be party to this battle and join sides, pitting one legitimate organization against another and calling for local churches to do the same. I do not believe our political fighting is a Cooperative Program function.
___Morris Chapman's recent letter to the churches and his accompanying advertisement for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (Feb. 17) was offensive to me and our church, as I imagine it will be to hundreds of other churches. This was not a simple information flyer! Even their choice of colors is inflammatory--green for the SBTC and red for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The wording of Chapman's letter is as blatantly anti-BGCT and pro-SBTC as is his glossy advertisement.
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
___I ask the SBC Executive Committee and the BGCT to hold Chapman accountable for his actions. The only purpose of his mailing is to create division and strife in our state and in our churches. This type of activity is not acceptable.
___ Bob Alderman
___ Rio Grande City
Logical letter
___As a pastor, I am heartsick over all the finger-pointing and name-calling going on between the BGCT and the SBC. "Chapman seeks to influence Texas churches" (Feb. 17) was written in poor taste and divisive in nature.
___The BGCT is the one who has gone through a gyration of budget changes and funding of the Cooperative Program. As such, it seems only logical that the letter be mailed to BGCT churches. The churches giving through the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention were unaffected and didn't need to be made aware of the changes.
___There is no way that this type of reporting can go on and the BGCT be seen as "neutral," regardless of desire. For instance, in regard to Becky Bridges' statement as to the cost of Chapman's letter, someone in defending the position of the SBC could easily point out that the 6 percent being retained by the BGCT "is a lot of money that could have gone to international missions."
___By the way, we are a BGCT and SBC church and proud of both affiliations.
___ Jim Bulin
___ Hereford
Revised Golden Rule
___When I read about the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican appealing to the Roman Catholic Church to reverse its stand and bless our planned "preventive" strike against Iraq, I recalled King Henry VIII appealing to the archbishop of Canterbury to sanction his plan to divorce the queen and remarry.
___When he got no green light, he started the Church of England and got the blessing of the new archbishop.
___I suspect President Bush will do what he has planned, whether the Vatican will call it a "just war" or not.
___We just need to rewrite the Golden Rule: "Do violence unto others just in case they might otherwise do violence unto you."
___Is that compassion, or what?
___ Carroll Johnson
___ Douglassville
Doctoral delay
___In recent letters to the editor, confusion has surfaced over a report in the Dec. 9 Baptist Standard. As was accurately reported, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has stopped admitting new students into three doctoral study areas in the School of Theology on a temporary basis.
___We are proud of the rich heritage of our Christian ethics department, and our goal is to maintain the high quality for which this department has been known. To bolster this and other study areas, we are recruiting professors with academic excellence and a passion for Jesus Christ and the church.
___We will again admit students into these areas as soon as those faculty positions have been filled.
___ David Porter
___ Director of public relations
___ Southwestern Seminary
___ Fort Worth
Revelation revelator
___Yes, Al Rosenberger is right in commenting on the lack of preaching on Revelation (Feb. 3), but thankfully there are a few exceptions, such as the words preached by our pastor, Clyde Glazener, at Gambrell Street Baptist Church at Wednesday night meetings.
___He currently is giving out words of wisdom not found from such as Hal Lindsey or Jack Van Impe, but is at chapter 18. So, hurry if you want to hear more about things written for people of those times and now for us. However, perhaps we can prevail on him to start over once he finishes chapter 22.
___ I.T. & June Winter
___ Fort Worth
Revelation being fulfilled?
___The vision of Revelation 7:1-8 is being fulfilled. One gets the feeling that all hell is about to unleash on the world.
___Everywhere from the four corners of the world, the winds of strife and death are blowing. It seems that they will all blow simultaneously.
___Let us pray that we come to proper understanding of the gospel that leads to a saving relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. The final sealing has begun.
___Pray for your children, family and friends that they may not be found sleeping without the oil of the Spirit when our God makes his triumphal entry back to this world to execute judgment for life or death
___Hector Marroquin
___Pope Valley, Calif.
MacGorman inspired
___Tears welled up in my eyes and my heart began to grieve as I read that Jack MacGorman is no longer teaching at my alma mater, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Feb. 10).
___ When the things that matter most to God and traditional Baptists have not changed about him, how can anyone change lesser things that exclude him?
___I do not remember near what I should from his lectures, but I can never forget his life teachings. In his decision not to teach at Southwestern Seminary, he teaches and inspires this Texas Baptist again.
___Lynn McMasters
___Kansas City, Mo.
Do we need Powerpoint to worship?
___I have been playing the piano in Baptist churches for over 40 years. I get calls all the time, and most of the time they tell me they can't use me because they will call me at the last minute and give me songs and choruses I have never heard and there's no way I can learn them in two days.
___One church last had no preacher, no song leader and no pianist, and the person who was going to lead gave the songs to the church secretary before he called me about them. When I called and asked them to change two songs I did not know, they said they had the PowerPoint already in place and they could not change it.
___What has happened to our Baptist churches? I think they need to listen to the Hemphills' song: All you need to have a revival is a songbook and a Bible.
___There are hundreds of people who feel the same way I do. I talk to the older members wherever I play, and they feel their opinion does not matter in the church. They usually are the ones who support the church, but they think they need to let the younger ones take over.
___Gloria St. John
___La Porte
Who had changed?
___While studying the Gospel of John, I discovered a comment in the Broadman Bible Commentary, published by the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board in 1970. It is interesting in light of present Southern Baptist Convention leaders' contention that
___The comment is found in the discussion of John 1:1-2, written by William Hull, then dean of the School of Theology and professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and edited in part by J.W. MacGorman, then and now professor of New Testament at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
___This is the comment: "As the eternal Logos, Christ is the norm by which to measure all of the biblical revelation."
___Now, I ask, "Who has changed?"
___T. W. Thompson
___ Dallas
Apocryphal books were part of canon
___A letter writer recently observed, "My Bible (King James Version) says we shouldn't add or subtract from it. Tell me why Baptist preachers will not preach on Revelation?
___Good question, indeed. However this same question may be applied to books beside Revelation. The original
___References to these books appear throughout the New Testament. Indeed, these books were part of the original Hebrew canon that Christ himself studied and preached.
___David Walker
___Wylie
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