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Prayer of Thanksgiving from The Didache

picture source The Didache remains of the earliest descriptions of worship from the sub-apostolic church (circa AD 120). Apparently, The Didache was a manual of how Syrian churches were to be ordered in their various liturgical activities, activities especially including baptism, preaching, Lord's Supper, fasting, and prayer.1 Below is a thanksgiving prayer the church recited after partaking the sacred supper. The prayer may also be a suitable reflection on this our Thanksgiving Day. We give you thanks, holy Father, for your holy name which you have made to dwell in... Read more →

H. Ray Newman, Georgia Baptist statesman, dies Nov. 25 by Joe Westbury, Managing Editor, The Christian Index

The story below is posted courtesy of Georgia's Christian Index and written in full by Managing Editor, Joe Westbury. Our dear brother Ray Newman, a Georgia Baptist icon passed away to be with his God and ours on Monday morning, November 25, 2013. Only recently did Georgia Baptists honor him at the annual Georgia Baptist Convention for the service he rendered for our Lord through the local church and both state and national convention assignments. Mr. Westbury's article nicely captures and summarizes Brother Ray's gospel ministry as a lifelong Southern... Read more →

Does Gender Egalitarianism reduce to a 'false gospel'?

I remain hopelessly convinced that a correct and consistent reading of biblical revelation inevitably leads one to embrace some form of gender complementarianism. Hence, I tend agree with the broad biblio-theological contours of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW). I say "broad" because just as there is hard Calvinism and soft Calvinism so there is hard complementarianism and soft complementarianism all of which have representatives in the Southern Baptist Convention. For at least the last decade or so, the CBMW has increasingly tilted toward the hard side of... Read more →

If the Top Men take over, who will ask the hard questions? - Reformed theologian and author Carl Trueman on Reformation21 Blog

The Mefferd-Driscoll controversy points to another aspect of celebrity culture: celebrities are routinely allowed to behave in ways which would not be tolerated in ordinary mortals. For example, being drunk on the job and hurling abuse at an employer would make one unemployable in the real world. Not for Charlie Sheen. A conviction for rape would be enough to have you characterized as a monster in the real world who had forfeited the right to sympathetic media exposure. Not for Mike Tyson or Roman Polanski (just ask that champion of... Read more →

Thoughts on the Court Ruling on the Ministers’ Housing Allowance

Dr. Thom Rainer, President of LifeWay Christian Resources, offers his thoughts on the impact of the recent ruling on housing allowances for ordained clergy: Though it is still too early to gauge the full implications of this ruling, there are several questions many are asking. I will somewhat randomly try to respond to those questions I’ve heard. The housing allowance law was passed by Congress in 1954. Subject to certain guidelines, ministers are able to declare a portion of their ministry income as a housing allowance that is not subject... Read more →

Mark Driscoll peeved at Janet Mefferd and hangs up--"you're rude and unkind"

Seasoned journalist and Christian Radio Talk Show host, Janet Mefferd, interviewed Mark Driscoll on his stop-by attendance at John MacArthur's Strange Fire Conference. She especially queried him concerning whether Driscoll's books he was giving away free were confiscated by security police his tweets suggest. As Mefferd went on in the interview, she also questioned Driscoll about a section in his newest book, A Call to Resurgence: Will Christianity Have a Funeral or a Future? (Tyndale House Publishers, 2013. $19.99), where Driscoll allegedly has a section 14 pages long reflecting the... Read more →

Spurgeon on faith’s necessity

Some golden nuggets on faith's necessity from Charles H. Spurgeon: "Faith is the foot of the soul by which it can march along the road of the commandments. Love can make the feet move more swiftly; but faith is the foot which carries the soul." "Faith is the oil enabling the wheels of holy devotion and of earnest piety to move well; but without faith the wheels are taken from the chariot and we drag along heavily." "With faith I can do all things; without faith I shall neither have... Read more →

Pray for Liberty University, student body, and family members

A school shooting took the life of a student on an off-campus dorm. Reports NBC news: A campus security officer shot and killed a male college student at an off-campus women's dormitory Tuesday in Lynchburg, Va., after the student attacked him with a hammer, authorities said. The student, identified as Joshua Hathaway, 19, of Lubbock, Texas, a freshman at Liberty University, told the security officer about 4:15 a.m. that someone had stolen his car, police said in a search warrant affidavit filed in Lynchburg District Court and provided by the... Read more →

Neo-Calvinism proposing the definitive statement on Limited Atonement

A new volume is scheduled for release on November 30, 2013: From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective (Crossway, $50.00). Edited by David Gibson and Jonathan Gibson with the Foreword by evangelical icon, J.I. Packer, the 700+ page volume is purported to be the definitive volume on T.U.L.I.P. Calvinism's most vulnerable petal, Limited Atonement. While dissent within Reformed theology from Limited Atonement remains one of neo-Calvinism's widely held historio-theological secrets (or perhaps denials is a better term), From Heaven He Came... Read more →

Georgia Baptists adopt resolution on the sexual abuse of children, Kentucky and Alabama too

click for larger image The Georgia Baptist Convention met in Dacula, Georgia November 11-12. Without edit or opposition,1 Georgia Baptists passed the resolution I submitted to the resolutions committee for consideration in September of this year, a resolution almost identical to the resolution passed by the 2013 Southern Baptist Convention back in June.2 In addition, Kentucky Baptists adopted a very similar resolution submitted by Kentucky pastor, Jon Carter. Dr. Rick Patrick, pastor of First Baptist Church, Sylacauga, Alabama proposed a resolution on the sexual abuse of children which Alabama Baptists... Read more →

The Georgia Baptist Convention meets in Dacula, Georgia today and tomorrow...

Looking forward to the GBC this week. Hope to see some of my buds there and meet up for coffee and chat. Some good preaching this afternoon With that, I am... Peter Read more →

Weekend funny: small church pastor preaches as thousands across the Southern Baptist Convention listen

Times exist when I take myself much too seriously. It happens less now than when I was younger but it still happens nonetheless. Paul's words come to me as an inspired reminder: "I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment" (Romans 12:3 ESV). Perhaps strict Calvinist, J. D. Hall, might want to join me in remembering the Apostle's humbling words: Hall's full sermon may be found here. UPDATE #1: Piratechristian radio logged on and... Read more →

ObamaCare enrollment up--just passed five to enroll six people!

ObamaCare gets spoofed at the Country Music Awards: Related articles Associated Press retracts a doctored Obama quote Surprise: ObamaCare will likely increase food stamp enrollment Surprise-Obama Says He Will Not Enroll In ObamaCare Why Is The Left Silent On ObamaCare ObamaCare Continues To Be Massive Failure; Only 51,000 Enrolled Maher: Sure Obama Lied But He Had to or ObamaCare Might Not Have Passed ObamaCare enrolls unborn babies, then pays to abort them Read more →

James Denney on the proper motive to missions

Below is an excerpt from a sermon entitled “Propitiation” preached at the annual meeting of the Baptist Missionary Society, April, 1911 by 19th century Scottish theologian, James Denney (1856-1917). Denney taught at Glasgow's United Free Church College, first as Professor of Systematic Theology and then from 1900, as Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, a post he held until his death in 1917. According to Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership lecturer, Jason Goroncy, it was during those final decades that Denney’s theology reached its full maturity – drawing... Read more →

Earl Blackburn at 1845 Conference--'I can work with a flaming Arminian'

According to Louisiana Southern Baptist pastor, Earl Blackburn, Arminianism is not rampant in the Southern Baptist Convention. Rather Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism is and has crept into Southern Baptist churches and institutions. After rehearsing a brief historical sketch of the Pelagian controversy in the fifth century A.D. in which Pelagius's teaching on human depravity was condemned as being "outside the bounds" of orthodoxy, Blackburn laments in his sermon "A Historic Southern Baptist View of the Fall of Man" (beginning at the 54:50 mark): What is sad today...What is sad as I... Read more →