A Thin Line Between Right And Wrong

Last week I was at a Christian bookstore and I saw something that got me thinking. It was a little yellow rubber bracelet. The word "Jesus" was pressed into the rubber. I am not a trendy person. The fact that I have a blog often surprises me. However, I watch enough sports to know that Lance Armstrong has a bracelet that looked a lot like the "Jesus" bracelet, but all of the proceeds of Lance's bracelet went to Cancer research. I wonder where the proceeds of the "Jesus" bracelet went.

When I was in college, the Christian t-shirt phase was huge. You were not a good Christian unless you had a t-shirt that resembled a marketing campaign of a secular company. I think the most popular t-shirt was the "God's Gym" t-shirt. Another popular shirt ripped off the "Ford" logo and replaced it with "Lord".

Many Churches are performing a seeker sensitive worship service. I had absolutely no idea that seekers could worship the Lord, but this type of service is really popular. The basic idea is to use all the cutting edge technology, and the most popular music of the day, and have a service. Biblical preaching is replaced with a fifteen minute speech on "Living Your Best Life Now". The music is upbeat, but mostly fluffy and harmless.

I find myself struggling with the need for many in the church to conform to the things of the world. We find ourselves stealing the world's ideas and baptizing them to meet the needs of the church. I remember when "The Prayer of Jabez" became popular. Now folks, I have a problem with this book on a theological level, but for the sake of this post, I will deal with the book solely on a marketing level. "The Prayer of Jabez" was marketed to the Christian audience in the same manner as "Chicken Soup For the Soul" was marketed to secular audiences. "Jabez for Teens", Jabez for Adults", Jabez for Seniors", Jabez for Kids". Should we market like the world markets. The truth is, if "The Prayer of Jabez" was a good book, I probably would rejoice that it was marketed so successfully.

I believe that Christians need to think long and hard about who they are copying and why they are doing it. I believe that many things the world has given us falls within our Biblical guidelines. However, I believe some of the things we take from the world is nothing more than sinful and displeasing to God.

Let's take worship for an example. The Bible tells us that worship is for God and God alone. It also teaches us that Lost people cannot worship God. Nevertheless, Rick Warren teaches us in "The Purpose Driven Church" to create worship services to meet the needs of certain groups of people. For his church it was "Saddleback Sam". I find this appalling, and I do not think it honors God. For worship is not for man, it is for God. However, I also think that we should worship God with the best we have. We should have the best technology in the Church. We should use the best music. We should make certain that everything runs smoothly. So this causes me to search for the line of right and wrong.

I wrote this blog with the hope that it will cause us all to stop and think before we do something because the world is doing something. Just because something is affective doesn't mean that it is right. If numerical growth automatically means God blesses it, then the Mormons are being blessed by God.

Before we worship, advertise, write, or serve; let us ask ourselves if what we are doing is Biblical. There is a thin line between right and wrong. I would rather us always choose to do what is right even if it means we forfeit a neat idea. Pushing the limits of Bibilcal integrity is not a worthy thing to support. Before we rip-off the next popular logo, let us ask if stealing is wrong. Before we print the next bracelet, let us ask if Jesus would appreciate what we are doing. Before we plan our next worship service, let us seek Biblical understanding. We should always strive to do what is right. We should always avoid the appearance of evil.

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On a side note, I guess my idea of a Christian reality show "When Baptist Attack" probably doesn't hold to Biblical standards.

It Is Cold Outside

It is the day before Thanksgiving. I woke up this morning, and I looked out my window and I saw a dusting of snow on my sidewalk. It is cold out today. According to yahoo weather, the high temperature for today in to be 34 degrees. Tomorrow is to be colder than today. Overnight, we are to have a few snow showers which may bring an accumulation. According to the national weather service, the average high temperature for this time of year is 48 degrees. Our extended forecast predicts it to stay much colder than 48 degrees for the entire week. It sure is cold outside.

Last winter was one of the coldest and snowiest winters I have ever faced. Around Christmas time last year, I woke up and found 27 inches of snow on the ground. I have never seen that much snow at one time. My wife was 3 days overdue with our second child. I began to dig out. It took me all day. It was about the third hour of digging that I decided that I would buy a snow blower. A snow blower now sits in my garage waiting to be used once again this winter. It sure is cold outside.

When I was in eighth grade, I had a science assignment. I was to do a report on the weather. I am currently 34 years old. Eighth grade would have been 20 years ago this year. I read an article in Time magazine that caught my attention. It led me to other articles in other magazines. The title of my research report was "Global Cooling". 20 years ago, the scientific community was convinced that greenhouse gases would block out the suns heat and create a global drop in temperature. Being young and impressionable, I was convinced that the scientific community had to be right. We were headed for another ice age. If we did not stop polluting our air, we would all freeze to death and die.

Fast forward 20 years. We now are told that we have global warming. I am now not so young and not as impressionable. How could the same scientific community be so wrong 20 years ago? All I know is that it sure is cold outside. Today I think those scientists of 20 years ago may have been right.

I am always amazed that so many people in the church get all worked up over things like this. When I was in college, the scientific community decided to switch from scaring us with global cooling to scaring up with global warming. No one questioned this, because after all, they are scientists. We all know that scientists cannot be wrong. While I was at college, many of my Christian friends bought; hook, line, and sinker, the message of global warming. They demanded that we be good stewards of the Earth, or God was going to cook us all.

I am sure that you have figured out by now that I do not hold to a global warming theory. I will not deny that the overall Earth temperature has warmed. I am just not willing to blame us for the cause of it. I have two reasons why I do not hold to a global warming theory. The second reason I will deal with in the next paragraph. The first reason I will now summarize after writing about it already in this post. Scientists are often wrong. Theories change all the time. Many scientists have a need to keep themselves in the news by creating new things to be afraid of. Listen folks, the same people who cannot tell us accurately what the weather will be like on Friday, are now trying to tell us what the weather will be like 100 years from now. Twenty years ago it was global cooling. Today it is global warming. I wonder if twenty years from now it will be something else.

The second reason that I do not believe in global warming is Scriptual. I happen to believe that God is in control of this world. I know this is shocking, but nothing happens without God's permission. I believe it is awful arrogant for us to think that we are controlling the weather. Did not God stop the rain for three years when Ahab was King? Did not God keep the sun from setting during a war? Did not the Earth shake and the sky turn dark at the death of the Savior? Was there not a flood? So let us answer the question, Who is in control of the weather?

If God is not in control, then how foolish we are to pray for rain. We should never ask God to keep us safe in the storm. Simply put, global warming, as it is taught now, is a smack in the face of the sovereignty of God.

All I know, is that it sure is cold outside. Living in Northern Ohio makes me wish that I could trust the scientific community on global warming. However, today I am convinced that those same scientists were right twenty years ago. I think I will go start a fire to warm me up. Maybe if I burn enough fuel I can cause the Ozone layer to thicken and warm the whole world up a degree or two. Maybe I can convince everyone in the Cleveland area to recklessly release Freon gas into the air. I am needing a little global warming right now. It sure is cold outside.

Sorry, No Post This Week

I have tried to make it a habit over the last few months to post every Wednesday. My computer crashed, and that left me in a bind. I will begin posting weekly again on Wednesday, November 23rd.

I would like to thank those of you who take the time to read my posts. It means a lot to me to know that you do. See you next week.

What Is Wrong With Southern Baptist Colleges?

This has been a great week for news. I could be writing about elections across the country. I could be writing about rioting in France. I could be writing about ethic issues in Washington, However, I have chosen to write about Southern Baptist colleges. Why? Because I have more passion about this topic than all the others.

This week, Baylor University named John Lilly as their new President. John Lilly is a distinguished alumni of Baylor. His father was a Baptist Preacher. He has been successful every place he has ever served. He is replacing an embattled former President that lived through theological and ethical wars. Lilly is considered a man of harmony and respect. It sounds like the perfect man for the job. It is too bad that this Baptist institution elected a Presbyterian Elder as their new President. This would not have been possible 100 years ago.

This really shouldn't surprise anyone who pays attention to Baptist education. Most Southern Baptist colleges do all they can to run from their heritage and doctrines. They do not want to be held accountable to any church, and they often teach what is contrary to their associated beliefs.

John Lilly was an Elder at a Presbyterian USA church. This is the mainline denomination of the Presbyterian church. This is the Presbyterian church that supports most every left thinking social issue one can dream up. He says he is going to join First Baptist Church of Waco, Texas. FBC of Waco is no longer associated with the Southern Baptist Convention. On their website it states that since the "fundamentalist" take over of the national convention they will give all their cooperative funds to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. The CBF is the old liberal leadership that once ruled the Southern Baptist Convention in the 70's and early 80's. He basically is leaving one liberal church for another.

The difference between Southern Baptist colleges and Seminaries are vast. The Seminaries are run by the national convention. The colleges are ran by the state conventions. After the Scopes Monkey Trial, most educators looked down on those who believed in strict Biblical interpretation. Most schools began to drift away from Biblical principles. Both the Seminaries and the colleges all moved to the left. However, when conservative evangelicals took over the national convention they demanded reform in the seminaries. All six Southern Baptist Seminaries have returned to their Biblical roots. However, the state conventions have not moved as fast on Baptist Colleges, and when the do, the colleges often break away from the state convention.

Texas is a beast all in itself. The state convention split a few years ago over the issue of Biblical authority. The General Convention of Baptist in Texas is the old convention. This is the more liberal convention. Most Southern Baptist Churches are associated with this convention because they have always been. The Southern Baptist Convention of Texas is the conservative convention. It is new and growing fast. Baylor University is associated with the General Convention, and thus they will never be asked to be accountable for what they teach or believe.

Once great Baptist colleges all over the country have lost their Biblical roots. Most of these schools try their best to convince local churches that they can trust their children to them. Parents need to ask a lot of Biblical questions before they give their kids over to a Baptist college. They may not get what they are desiring.

So is there any Baptist colleges I would recommend to youth? Sure there is. I would like to recommend two Baptist Schools to you. If you are looking for a Southern Baptist school, let me recommend Union University. Union University has went through a wonderful transformation over the last few year. Under the leadership of Dr. David Dockery, Union has reclaimed its Biblical roots. Another school I would recommend is Cedarville University. This one isn't officially a Southern Baptist college, but the State Convention of Baptist in Ohio recognizes them as a school of choice. It is a wonderful institution that teaches from a Biblical perspective.

Of course there are other Biblical Baptist colleges, but the purpose of this post was not to tell you about them. The purpose this post was to tell you where most other Baptist colleges are theologically. State Conventions affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention should demand accountability from their colleges. I have never understood taking tithe money from a local church and giving it to a school that teaches contrary to that local church. Yet this is exactly what most state conventions do. It is time to demand accountability in Baptist education, or it is time that we pull funding from those institutions that refuse to be held accountable.

The Diminishing Role of the Bible in Preaching

I am never surprised when I hear unBiblical statements from preachers who are in the Word-Faith movement. People like, Benny Hinn, The Copelands, Joyce Meyer, and Jesse Duplantus have every right to preach things that our contrary to the Scripture. Why do they have the right to do this? Simple, they do not believe that the Bible is God's final revelation to man. They believe that God is still giving special revelation. They believe they are the receivers of special revelation. Thus, they can say all sorts of things that are not in the Bible and declare that it is revelation from God.

When your personal theology allows for specific prophesy you can play fast and loose with the scripture. I one time listened to a young student preach, and she said in the middle of her sermon that after she had a fight with her lost parents God spoke to her and said to her that her parents were funky and to pay no attention to them. She truly believed this is what God said. There are two basic problems with this type of reasoning. First, the Bible tells us to honor are parents; even when we don't like what they do. Second, her understanding of personal specific revelation gave her statement as much authority as Scripture. This is why the Word-Faith movement is so dangerous. When a preacher says that God told them this or that, then that statement should be written in the Bible. That statement has as much authority as John 3:16 or any other Bible passage.

What has disturbed me more than those in the Faith movement is the diminishing role of the Bible among Baptist preachers. I am hearing more and more sermons these days where the Bible is playing a secondary role to the preachers thoughts and objectives. Topical preaching is the cause of a lot of the problem. Topical preaching takes place when the preacher has a topic that he wants to talk about, and he then finds Biblical passages that relate to the topic. This type of preaching often leaves the Bible as nothing more than a reference book. The authority falls upon the preacher's thoughts not the Bible. Nevertheless, most preachers preach topical messages on a regular basis. Topical messages do not have to be unBiblical, and some are right on the money. However, topical preaching often causes preachers to take Biblical passages out of context to meet their sermon writing needs. This is dangerous, and should be avoided.

A more serious Biblical problem is the lack of proper Biblical interpretation that arises from poor study habits and lazy exegesis. Out of all the sermons I have heard from Baptist preachers,there are two that stick out in my mind as the worst. The runner-up is a sermon I heard from an evangelist preaching in Marion, Ohio. (I will not give the name of the evangelist because I do not want to cause his ministry any harm.) The sermon title was "God Will Burn Your Barley Fields". This evangelist used I Kings 14 as his text. Absalom was King David's wayward son. Absalom murdered a brother and was in exile. Joab, David's general, convinced David to forgive Absalom. David did, and Joab brought Absalom back to Jerusalem. David set some rules for Absalom, and Absalom did not like the rules. To get Joab's attention, Abasalom sent some of his servants to burn Joab's barley fields.

This text is fairly simple, but this is how the preacher interpreted it. If you don't do what God wants you to do, God will burn your barley fields. If you drink, God will get you. If you smoke, God will get you. I am sure you can figure the rest of the sermon out. According to his interpretation of the text, Absalom is the God figure. Joab represents us. I am still trying to figure out how the one who did what was wrong became the God figure in this message. This was the height of sloppy exegesis. The preacher should be embarrassed, but because a few people came forward he was happy.

The worst sermon from a professional Baptist minister that I heard took place in Mansfield, Ohio. It also was done by a full time evangelist. Shockingly, his sermon was about Absalom as well. In I Kings 18, Absalom is riding a horse through the woods running from a battle. Absalom has beautiful, long flowing hair. His hair gets caught in a tree branch. He comes off his horse, and is hanging by his hair. His enemy finds him and kills him. I will not explain to you the faulty interpretation. All I have to do is give you the title of the sermon and you can figure the rest of it out. The title of the message was, "When God Hung A Hippy".

These two sermons are extreme cases of bad preaching. However, I still hear many other sermons that teeter on heresy due to lazy and poor study habits. We must call all ministers to take the preaching of God's word seriously. We are not to use the Bible to get what we want. We are to preach the Bible, and let God do the rest. Biblical preaching is sorely needed in today's church. It is difficult and hard to do sometimes. It can be frustrating and painstaking. However, it is exactly what we should be doing, and there is no excuse for a preacher not to do it.