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Division at Southern seminary concerning the #NeverTrump positions of Al Mohler & Russell Moore

I wrote this on Facebook a few hours ago: Finally someone with clout speaks out on Al Mohler and Russell Moore's nonsensical stance as advocates of #NeverTrump, a position he says will put Hillary in the White House. A member of the Foundation Board of Southern Seminary for years, currently an associate of the foundation, and a financial supporter who's donated thousands as well as given annual grants to professors. Louisville, KY attorney, Jack Richardson says, "I and others on the board could not disagree more with Mohler’s position on... Read more →

Joe Carter, the ERLC and Division over Donald Trump (Part 2)

Below is Part 2 of my critique of Why Evangelicals Are Divided Over Donald Trump written by Joe Carter, a staff member at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (ERLC). As we argued in Part 1, to suggest as Carter does that come November 9, evangelicals can just shake hands and go back to being co-belligerents in a worthy cause is too naïve for words. Russell Moore and the ERLC (which obviously includes Joe Carter) have been too verbally offensive to just forget about it... Read more →

Joe Carter, the ERLC and Division over Donald Trump (Part 1)

Joe Carter, Communications Specialist at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (ERLC), recently posted a piece on The Gospel Coalition website where he also works as editor. Entitled, Why Evangelicals Are Divided Over Trump, Carter claims the divide over Donald Trump within the evangelical wing of conservatism is clearing new ground since, according to him, up until the present presidential election cycle, “there has been a general sense of unity” among social conservatives. Carter blames Trump’s polarizing persona as the chief culprit: “Few people could... Read more →

Evangelical spokesmen still broadly condemning anyone thinking of voting for Donald Trump as POTUS

In no political election of which I've either participated or followed since I began voting in the mid-seventies do I recall such publicly negative emotion being spewed toward Christian believers. Let me qualify that a bit, for I've certainly observed and, at times, personally experienced, the fiery wrath from those both to the political left of me and unbelievers outside the church. There was a time when those who did not know me would conceivably assume "fascist bigot" was my middle name since it was spoken so often about my... Read more →

Al Mohler is spot-on about Donald Trump but dead-wrong about evangelicals

Within the brokerage world a generation ago, it was said "When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen." Hutton was highly influential among brokers. Albert Mohler, Jr. is arguably the most influential Southern Baptist today. Similarly, it might be said in the evangelical world generally and the Southern Baptist world particularly, "When Al Mohler talks, people listen." Well, Mohler talked in the Washington Post yesterday. He talked about the latest news buzz surrounding Donald Trump and the video in which the presidential nominee was heard using explicit and undeniably demeaning sex-talk... Read more →

John Gano--an alternate description of an early American Calvinist missionary

John Gano (1727-1804) remains a hero among Baptist Calvinists for his role in evangelizing the heathen in mid-18th century. picture source For example, Baptist pastor and historian, Tom Ascol, highlights Gano's role as a gospel preacher commissioned by the Charleston Association to show how Regular (Particular) Baptists were "thoroughly evangelistic:" ...the [Charleston] association commissioned John Gano to preach the gospel at the Jersey Settlement on the banks of the Yadkin River—not far from Sandy Creek—in what is now North Carolina. Far from being a dividing point, Sandy Creek actually became... Read more →

Joshua Harris rethinks his views in bestseller, I Kissed Dating Good-bye

graphic source First published in 1997 and updated in 2003, Joshua Harris's I Kissed Dating Goodbye still garners heavy sales on Amazon.com where readers have piled up almost 877 reviews over the last two decades, reviews averaging 4/5 stars. Overall, that's just under one review per week since publication. Pretty impressive for a 21 year old author, I'd say. The relationship perspective between male and female which Harris embraced and non-negotiably insisted constituted the biblical view was what he called "courting" rather than "dating," a fairly provocative notion in evangelical... Read more →

Why do so many young evangelicals hate America so much?

pic source Take a look at Russell Moore's latest piece on religious liberty entitled, "Religious Liberty for All." There's much in his brief commentary with which we may agree. I find it more and more frustrating, however, to follow Moore's thinking on freedom of religion. Consider the following: A government that can shut down mosques simply because they are mosques can shut down Bible studies because they are Bible studies. A government that can close the borders to all Muslims simply on the basis of their religious belief can do... Read more →

Philadelphia Baptists dealt with the eternal generation of the Son as early as 1736

The Baptist Church of Montgomery County1 began June 20, 1719 and became a member of the Philadelphia Baptist Association. Its organizing Pastor was Abel Morgan who not only preached the inaugurating sermon, but remained a guiding light for the new congregation. Other pastors who served the Montgomery church included John James, David Evans, and Benjamin Griffith. In 1727, the church called Joseph Eaton as pastor who continued his service until his death in 1749. During Eaton's tenure, a doctrinal dispute arose which threatened the Montgomery church's membership in the Philadelphia... Read more →

New Orleans Baptist Association calls for censorship of Baptist state paper

On July 12, a group of eight Baptist leaders from the New Orleans Baptist Association (NOBA) who were apparently fed up with what they called "buzzard politics" from The Baptist Message, wrote, signed, and posted an open complaint on the NOBA website. Entitled "Which Way Forward: Unity or Division?" the eight men noted specifically, "We are troubled by the critical editorials in our state Baptist paper against SBC agency heads David Platt and Russell Moore." Making the complaints into a call for unity, the associational article indicated what appears to... Read more →

It's settled. Women can't vote in a Baptist church. No wait. COULDN'T vote in a Baptist church

Below is a snippet from an association meeting in Hallifax County held at the Kehukey [sic] Meeting- House August 5, 1771. The quote is selected from many questions posed to the association for comment. --James Sprunt Historical Monograph No. 5. Minutes of the Kehukey Association (BAPTIST) With Letter of Joel Battle Fort, and with Introduction and Notes by Kemp Plummer Battle, LL.D, PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY 1904 Read more →

Al Mohler on Heresy: Let’s show humility…sometimes

Al Mohler's anticipated response to the latest theological square-off concerning technical points of Trinitarian doctrine among evangelical academics is finally here. One theologian promoted with pleasure Mohler's latest piece: Mohler's statesmanship is specifically mentioned. Yes, Mohler indicates more than once—not including his title—humility remains a key factor in these sorts of theological exchanges. While it's true there's a danger in ignoring real heresy on the one hand (Liberals do this), there exists a second danger like with the boy who cried wolf. Some genuine doctrinal disagreements have nothing at all... Read more →

Both Al Mohler and Russell Moore agree: #NeverTrump #NeverHillary. Both also dead wrong.

No surprise in Drs. Al Mohler and Russell Moore's position: both commit to either a third party or write-in candidate come November. What is surprising, however, is the simplistic reasoning both leaders offer as to why they will step into the 2016 voting booth in perhaps the most significant presidential election in my lifetime and cast a ballot that guarantees at least one of the two candidates they judge unworthy to serve as president of the United States will, indeed, serve as president of the United States. Furthermore, it seems... Read more →

Had Al Mohler gone to Southeastern seminary and not to Southern seminary, what would have become of Southern?

On April 21, 1992, Baptist Press ran an article announcing the trustee decision for the new president of Southern Baptists' seminary in Wake Forest: Paige Patterson, an architect of the "conservative resurgence" in the Southern Baptist Convention, is the nominee for the next president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. Within the same article, another paragraph reads: Two other candidates had been interviewed by the trustees' executive committee acting as the search committee, Ellsworth said. R. Albert Mohler Jr., editor of the Georgia Baptist newsjournal, The Christian... Read more →

Zwingli on the fate of Baptists--"Drown the dippers!"

source Melancthon smiled when Servetus was put to death by Calvin. When the magistrates of Zurich consulted Zuinglius on the fate of some poor Baptists, " Drown the dippers" —said the Reformer. --"Historical Sketch of the Baptist Denomination" Midland Association, England, 1832 Save Save Read more →

According to Jonathan Merritt: Evangelicals risk everything to reclaim cultural and political control—even if that means defying their own beliefs

I started to respond only briefly to Jonathan Merritt's piece entitled, "The Awkward Love Story of Trump and American Evangelicals" and post it on Facebook. My commentary grew larger, however; much too large to be effective on that platform. Thus, below are my initial thoughts to Merritt's piece: @jonathanmerritt writes a stinging critique on 1K evangelicals meeting with Trump this week. There exist several weaknesses in his critique, however. Among them, some are listed below (Merritt's words and contextual quotes are embolden with my response following): 1) "Many evangelicals who... Read more →

Must answers from the platform to questions from the floor of the Southern Baptist Convention be ostentatious?

pic source UPDATE: Arkansas Baptist News published a letter to the editor from John Wofford, pastor of Armorel Baptist Church in Blytheville, Arkansas, the messenger who questioned ERLC's president, Russell Moore, at the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention (video below). I appreciate my brother Arkansan's explanation and thank him for offering further context to his question. I also agree with Pastor Wofford that Dr. Moore failed to answer exactly the question he posed. Platform respondents are notorious for bloviating rather than speaking to direct questions. Indeed many times I've observed them... Read more →

Religious Liberty, Islamic Terrorism, and Balthasar Hubmaier

Gerald Harris, Editor of Georgia's Christian Index, recently published an editorial which proved to be quite provocative. Entitled "Do Muslims Really Qualify for Religious Liberty Benefits?" Harris questioned whether modern terrorist Islam is more a "geo-political movement" engaged in a violent aggressive goal to invade American borders and kill American infidels rather than a peaceful religion protected by first amendment rights. Harris was clear he was not questioning the historic Baptist notion of universal religious liberty—that is, religious liberty is not limited to Christian believers, but religious liberty is inclusive... Read more →

On Learning to Write from a Martyred Anabaptist: Balthasar Hübmaier

The ethical tone of Hübmaier’s writings also marks him for distinction among the writers of his age. He is scrupulously fair to his adversaries—always fair in intention, and usually fair in deed. He never charges misconduct and heresy upon his adversaries with that light-hearted carelessness of fact which is characteristic of his age and of most of its writers—of Luther and Zwingli, for example. And the difference in tone between his controversial writings and those of the period is marvellous. To read an average pamphlet of Luther’s, written to confute... Read more →

Calvinism: Essential or Non-essential?

Aaron Menikoff is presently senior pastor of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Sandy Springs, Georgia (metropolitan Atlanta). Menikoff holds a PhD from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is author of Politics and Piety (Pickwick. 2014). He also served as an aide to United States Senator, Mark O. Hatfield, and occasionally blogs at The Gospel Coalition. Menikoff's latest piece entitled "When Grace Hurts the Church" addresses churches that find themselves possessing different theologies among the members and how they might navigate successfully through the often treacherous waters. Menikoff profiles his own... Read more →

Nineteenth Century Mississippi Baptists not strictly Calvinistic

According to Mississippi Baptist historians, Z. T. Leavell and T. J. Bailey, the first attempt by Mississippi Baptists to form a statewide convention failed.1 In 1823, three Baptist associations—Pearl River, Union, and Mississippi—proposed a meeting for all Mississippi Baptists for "preserving and continuing the ties of brotherly love"; for "union between sister associations; for "the propagation of the pure doctrines of the gospel"; and finally to prevent "innovations in practice and heresies in doctrine'" (p. 1321). After five to six years of ups and downs, the initial convention appeared to... Read more →

Georgia Baptists' Bethel Association Articles of Faith display no strict Calvinism

Recently, retired church history professor, Thomas Nettles, purported on the Founders Ministries blog that Baptists of the south were virtually all strict Calvinists, an historical proposition I contend can only be demonstrated by looking through the lens of historical reductionism. Nettles cited several confessions held by Baptists in the south to illustrate his point. For over ten years, I've logged relevant sources to prove mine; namely, that while 19th century Baptists in the south were largely influenced by strict Calvinism, it's hardly demonstrable that 19th century Baptists in the south... Read more →

Southern Baptist Convention presidential candidate J.D. Greear refuses interview with Louisiana Baptist state paper

What's up with Southern Baptist Convention presidential hopeful, J.D. Greear, refusing an interview with Will Hall, Editor of Louisiana's Baptist Message? According to Hall Despite making an appointment for a phone interview and after a substantive conversation, J.D. Greear declined to participate in a live question and answer session with the Louisiana Baptist Message about his run for the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention. James David "J.D." Greear is lead pastor of The Summit Church, a mega-church in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. Greear also is Visiting Fletcher... Read more →

Early Baptist disputes over Limited Atonement in Post-Colonial America

source Baptist historian, Robert Baylor Semple (1769-1831), published the minutes of the first Separate Baptist Association held May, 1771 in Orange county, Virginia.1 Samuel Harriss was chosen moderator, and John Waller, Jr. was elected clerk, both ministers of whom, according to Semple, were strong advocates of the "Arminian" stream flowing into the Baptist river of theology. In the May 1773 associational meeting in Goochland county, Elijah Craig offered the motion to divide the association into two districts, one north of the James River and one south. Semple indicates that while... Read more →

Gregory A. Wills: "Arminianism did not prosper in the Netherlands"

Gregory A. Wills summarily writes about the Synod of Dort's response to the Remonstrants, followers of Jacob Arminius. 'The Arminian Remonstrants summed up their doubts [i.e. concerning the purported teachings of John Calvin by Theodore Beza, et al] in five points. The Dutch church hosted the Synod of Dort, a gathering of the leaders of Europe's Reformed churches, which answered each point…These became known as the "five points of Calvinism."'1 Wills then writes, "Arminianism did not prosper in the Netherlands but attracted many followers in England and America." So far... Read more →

Mark Dever is (or was) a slobbering five point Calvinist

Though acknowledging about his church that he doesn't "for a moment care if they call themselves Calvinists" but instead cares whether they are Christ's disciples, Capital Hill Baptist Church pastor and founder of 9Marks, Mark Dever, reportedly said in a two-decade old Baptist Press article (7/30/96) he was a "slobbering five-point Calvinist." I describe myself to my congregation, though not on Sunday mornings, as a slobbering five-point Calvinist... Interesting indeed. I wonder if Dr. Dever is as publicly embolden concerning being a self-described slobbering five point Calvinist today as he... Read more →

Alabama Baptist association circular letter--"Christ Jesus made an atonement, general in its nature"

Below is a snippet from a circular letter published in 1843 for the North River United Baptist Association in 1843. Beginning in 1832, David Andrews an "Arminian" pastor was ousted from Bethel Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa and eventually led in the formation of the North River association. In the 1843 minutes, the circular letter is printed in full: But Brethren, pause and think back, and take a view of the situation of the churches in this section of country, some ten or twelve years ago, and contrast the condition of... Read more →

The Republican Washington establishment may have just made Hillary Clinton's day

Well. It's happened. The Republican Washington Establishment bought its domain for a soon-to-launch Third-Party website. As Bill Kristol indicates, all they need now is a candidate. My own guess is, they've already got their puppy-dog politician selected...from the local DC pound of course...politicians they can promote as cute, adorable puppies to the American people. There's any number of adorable but do-nothing Republican dogs from which to choose. They can began with Speaker of the House and move on from there... What does Washington's Establishment Third-Party mean if it actually takes... Read more →

Heretic began Louisiana Baptist state paper

Louisiana Baptists' first denominational paper began in 1855 at Mount Lebanon, LA. Named Louisiana Baptist with Hanson Lee as its first editor, the paper was reportedly "ranked with the ablest religious journals of the south." Nonetheless, the paper suffered fatal ups and downs over the next two decades, changing owners several times, until it was sold to J.R. Graves in 1869 and subsequently discontinued. Almost ten years passed when Louisiana pastor, S.C. Lee heeded the call of Louisiana Baptists the state over of the need for a weekly newspaper to... Read more →

Alternate Presidential Candidate for #NeverTrump supporters Denny Burk, Russell Moore, and the ERLC

It's no secret that some high-profile Southern Baptists are pushing evangelicals toward a #NeverTrump position. Among the more aggressive top-tier influencers (especially among younger evangelicals) stand Denny Burk and Russell Moore, both Southern Baptists, both #NeverTrump members, both employees at entities owned by the Southern Baptist Convention--The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission respectively. Many Southern Baptists think their posturing toward #NeverTrump to be either misguided or unstudied. Below is one response to the third-party, write-in candidacy both Burk and Moore have recently promoted. First,... Read more →

Denny Burk: Principled if you don’t vote Trump, Unprincipled if you do

At least two high-profile Southern Baptists just can't get enough bashing Donald Trump supporters. One, obviously, is Russell Moore, who seems to fan the flame he's set to hotter and hotter temperatures. The latest piece Moore posted unexpectedly drew friendly fire from one of his own soldiers in the young, restless, and reformed base camp. It also solicited responses from what some may call more hostile critics (my own contribution may be found in a piece entitled "Is it time for Southern Baptists to get new leadership in Washington?"). The... Read more →

Is it time for Southern Baptists to get new leadership in Washington?

A new president of the greatest nation on earth will be sworn into public office in just over eight months. It's time. Eight years of Barack Obama's butchered policies and broken promises have choked to death the American spirit. He promised he'd unite us both racially and politically. However, only the most obtuse observer could deny that racially and politically, the United States of America has perhaps become more hostilely divided than in any known era of American history. Why Washington's Oval Office needs a new leader The President's latest... Read more →

Clinton Predictable. Trump Unpredictable. Ergo Clinton for President

Baptist pastor in Washington D.C., Thabiti Anyabwile, argues in a piece on The Gospel Coalition blog that it is apparently better to vote for predictable evil than unpredictable evil, the two evils represented by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump respectively. In the current presidential election, that means since only two viable candidates exist, the defacto choice is between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.1 And, for Anyabwile, it comes down to him voting for Hillary Clinton. "At this point, assuming Trump and Clinton are my only options, I'd vote for Clinton."... Read more →

Denny Burk on Russell Moore--"he has a way with words"

Trump criticizes Moore for being a bad evangelical! Boyce professor, Denny Burk, asks an interesting question(s) pertaining to Donald Trump's recent tweet questioning not only whether Russell Moore is a good representative of evangelicals, but also claiming Moore to be a "nasty guy with no heart." Burk rightly denies the latter but strangely affirms the former. Question: how can Russell Moore accurately represent a body of people (i.e. evangelicals) about which he emphatically claims he wants no part? Did Moore not publicly distance himself from evangelicals and evangelicalism? Did Russell... Read more →

"A soteriology without Calvinism is a path to bad religion and compromised churches." --Tom Nettles

"A soteriology without Calvinism is a path to bad religion and compromised churches." --Tom Nettles Claims like the above from aggressive Calvinists among Southern Baptists is precisely why I began this blog in 2006 posting non-Calvinist sources throughout the history of the Southern Baptist Convention, sources that High Calvinists like Nettles routinely ignore. For Nettles, the chief causal reason for the theological compromise on Scripture addressed by the Conservative Resurgence beginning in 1979 appears to be the loss of High Calvinism (i.e. T.U.L.I.P.) in the convention. And, too, according to... Read more →

Is Racism embedded all over the Southern Baptist Convention?

I've been trying to stay away from denominational politics. Honest! At times, however, it's impossible to stay on the wagon. Indeed as my good friend, Chris Gilliam, indicated in the Facebook thread (see below), one gets tired of the simplistic rhetoric. Below is a brief commentary I pecked out on my cell phone in response to an article detailing Russell Moore's indictment of widespread racism allegedly embedded within the Southern Baptist Convention. A Facebook friend asked me to post it on my blog so he could point his friends to... Read more →

Majority of Baptist churches in United States in 1894 held to "evangelical anti-Augustinianism"

"Calvinistic and Arminian Baptists have both had periods of extreme development, the former sometimes scarcely escaping fatalism and antinomianism, the latter sometimes falling into Socinian denial of the deity of Christ and Pelagian denial of original sin. The great majority of the Baptists of today hold to what may be called moderate Calvinism, or Calvinism tempered with the evangelical anti-Augustinianism which came through the Moravian Brethren to Wesley and by him was brought powerfully to bear on all bodies of evangelical Christians" A. H. Newman, A History of the Baptist... Read more →

Russell Moore: 'evangelicals who back Trump are unchristian'

Below is a brief commentary I penned on Facebook concerning what I perceive to be a unilateral campaign by the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Dr. Russell Moore, to ensure Donald Trump is silenced as a presidential candidate. One of my good friends, Dr. Peter Wielhouwer, Associate Professor of Political Science at Western Michigan University, asked if I would place the piece on my blog so he could reference it. Hence, the commentary is pasted below in unedited format. ======================================================= Evangelical Leader Calls Trump's Christian Backers Unchristian... Read more →

Seminary president indicts Southern Baptists for funding shortfalls at International Mission Board

Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary president, Jeff Iorg, joins the chorus of high profile Southern Baptists (see here and here) who are publicly insisting the reason for the recent announcement of budgetary problems at the nation's largest and most prestigious missionary-sending agency in the United States, The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (IMB), is that rank-and-file1 Southern Baptists are "robbing God." In a short but pungent piece on the seminary president's blog entitled "Missionaries Are Coming Home," Dr. Iorg was anything but vague. "The basic problem causing... Read more →

IMB president's open letter and his "limitless" number of missionaries

Today, David Platt released an open letter to Southern Baptists. In it he described the process which led him to his "painful decision" announced this week about balancing the budget and the dismal spending patterns of the International Mission Board. "This is certainly not an announcement that I, in any way, wanted to make. At the most recent meeting of the SBC in Columbus, I shared with messengers how IMB spent tens of millions more dollars than we received last year. In our budgeting process over the last couple of... Read more →

Just what role did the trustees play in the International Mission Board's fiscal failure?

What role does the trustee board possess in overseeing an agency of the Southern Baptist Convention? Is the board primarily a support group for the agency's president and his administration? Do trustees of our convention agencies and/or entities function similarly to trustees of a local Southern Baptist church? A group possessing proxy empowerment to represent the church in real estate, banking, and other legal matters where the church's signature is required? Or, does the trustee body have more of an authoritarian role which includes writing, establishing, and maintaining agency policies;... Read more →

More dismissing fiduciary obligation of IMB administration and trustees

I recently expressed my lament over the recent announcement of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (IMB). Not only is it hard to accept that at least since 2010, our missions-sending agency has outspent its predictable income by close to a quarter of a billion dollars, it also remains gut-wrenching to know IMB both sold off tens of millions of dollars of real estate and properties and depleted its cash reserves just to keep the doors open. Adding insult to injury, IMB officials announced it expects seasoned... Read more →

Six to 800 missionaries must come home apparently due to apathy of Southern Baptists

source Recently, International Mission Board (IMB) leaders announced a plan to scale back Southern Baptists' global mission effort by cutting personnel by approximately 15%. The plan was presented by President David Platt and his senior leadership team during an Aug. 27 "town hall" meeting, a meeting which included missionaries and staff and was available both on and off site (i.e. digitally). According to Baptist Press "Platt said the urgency of the plan is based in the reality that while Southern Baptist giving through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon... Read more →

Is it OK for God to slaughter women and children anytime He pleases?

A few years ago, theologian John Piper had this to say in response to the question, "Why was it right for God to slaughter women and children in the Old Testament? How can that ever be right?" "It's right for God to slaughter women and children anytime he pleases. God gives life and he takes life. Everybody who dies, dies because God wills that they die. God is taking life every day. He will take 50,000 lives today. Life is in God's hand. God decides when your last heartbeat will... Read more →

W.A. Criswell and Calvinism…Again

source When the Traditional Statement was released in 2012, it drew fire from many Calvinistic quarters across the evangelical spectrum not the least of which was Founders Ministries, then the largest network of Calvinists in the Southern Baptist Convention. Accompanying many of the criticisms of the document was an appeal for theological support from the late Pastor of First Baptist Church Dallas, Texas and Southern Baptist legend, W.A. Criswell. For example, Tom Ascol, the executive director of Founders Ministries, wondered aloud if Criswell would attach his name to the recent... Read more →

The future of SBC Tomorrow

I owe an explanation to those faithful few who follow SBC Tomorrow (www.peterlumpkins.com). I've fairly well neglected to systematically post on this site for over a year and a half. While my practice up until my taking the vice presidential role at Brewton-Parker College was to post at least three times a week, since then, my practice dropped to averaging perhaps one post every 14-20 days. Normally, that's death to a blog. Amazingly however, much of my readership has still hung around. Without posting new and current articles, the site... Read more →

J.B. Nicholson, Jr.: 'Confessions of a Zero-Point Calvinist'

Undoubtedly, one of the most well-known Brethren believers remains the late Dave Hunt (1926-2013) who founded The Berean Call. Hunt's specialty was in the area of sectarian Christianity (i.e. "cults"), broadly establishing himself as an expert in the field and often debating "cult" leaders of almost every theological stripe.1 Sometime in the early 2000s, Hunt entered the theological battleground outside his studied specialty of Christian "cults" and began to critique a movement making waves across the evangelical landscape, including causing quite a stir among Brethren believers.2 The theological movement was... Read more →

Former vice president for news services fills editor vacancy at The Baptist Message

Baptist Press released today that former Baptist Press chief editor,* Dr. Will Hall, was unanimously elected editor of the state paper of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, The Baptist Message. Reportedly, Hall indicated his excitement for the "opportunity to contribute to the strong legacy of journalism that defines the Baptist Message. I also look forward to working with our government officials to promote public policies that reflect the values and interests of Louisiana Baptists." Few understand Baptist history, theology, and polity more than Hall. Undoubtedly, he makes a great follow-up choice... Read more →

Are Baptist bloggers the true “Baptist Press”?

Iowa pastor and blogger, Dave Miller, claimed in a rancorous blog he directed toward the personal credibility of veteran, award-winning journalist, Joni Hannigan, that Baptist bloggers like himself and those at SBC Voices constitute the real Baptist news agency of Southern Baptist Convention. "We are the true 'Baptist Press,'" he claimed, "exposing what needs to be exposed, discussing what needs to be discussed, and keeping people informed about what is really going on." Miller's comrade in online arms, JD Hall, mirrors similar sentiments about the significance of their self-praised blogging... Read more →

No difference between strict Calvinism and "Mahometanism" in viewing sovereignty?

Below are two descriptive selections from two 19th century sources, one selection of which describes Calvinism's view of sovereignty and the other Mahometanism's view (or, in today's term, Islam's view). The first is from an essay in Review & Expositor by famed Southern Baptist historian, A.H. Newman, entitled "The Calvinism of Calvin." The selection to be compared is from an entry entitled "Mahometanism" in Buck's Theological Dictionary (1838). A.H. Newman on Calvinism: "Before the first man was created God had established (statuerat) what he willed should take place (fieri) concerning... Read more →