Calvinism on the rise in Southern Baptist

The number of gradates who affirmed Calvinism rose steadily between students who graduated in 1998 and those who graduated in 2004, Stetzer said.

"It would be difficult to say that Calvinism is not a growing influence in SBC life – and certainly a growing influence in the graduates of our seminaries," he told the conference crowd.

However, the steady growth may be a growing issue for Southern Baptists.

"I recently read that one key Southern Baptist leader was quoted as saying the two biggest problems in Southern Baptist life are contemporary churches and Calvinists," Stetzer said. "So there is obviously a growing concern but we're here to talk and build some bridges."

“Calvinism has generated a lot of interest in recent years in Southern Baptist life,” Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Seminary, noted. “Unfortunately we have often talked at and not with one another. Unhealthy rhetoric and misrepresentations from all directions have led to confusion and even ill will among brothers and sisters in Christ."

That last bit sounds famliar.

So is it a bad thing...

...that the first class that I teach, I'm already behind on the schedule that I planned? My class is supposed to last 6 weeks. And that means this week we're supposed to be at the midway point after this Sunday. We're no where near it. I made a powerpoint presentation for my class and its currently at 248 slides. And it keeps growing because I keep adding things/editing/breaking slides up into two and I already am going to add about 5 to 10 slides to the beginning of this Sunday's presentation. We're currently at slide number 64 which means we would need to do 60 slides this week to get to the halfway point. Last Sunday I only got through 20 slides. The first week I did 44 as the match probably showed.

I look at the material and it seems possible to get to slide 96... Of course I would probably cause their heads to start spinning.

And I keep getting the feeling that my pastor wants me to cover the documentary hypothesis because both weeks he's brought up the names of God and the way liberals do scholarship, and he said Gary can tell you more about that... which I gave a fairly limited overview of the different names of God: El Shaddai, Elohim, the different El titles, and of course Yahweh. Although it became a topic because one of my reasons I listed for studying Ancient Egypt was Liberal scholarship's tendency to not put much emphasis on Egypt... so I'm debating whether or not to add it to my class at some point. Maybe near the end.

The Error of the Anti-Federal Vision group

The other day, I posted where I feel the Federal Vision proponents are in error. Now I'm going to post where their opponents are wrong. Look at what is going on in this debate. The entire Presbytery of Louisiana (PCA) is now on trial because they did not find a minister guilty. When this entire argument is done, the proponents of Federal Vision are going to have to leave the denomination. Some might say this is good. Those that do are the people that are not doing this for the glory of God. They are doing it for the glory of being the one that sent others packing. They are doing it for their own names rather than God.

Why is that?

Because they are not following the Lord's directions when dealing with controversy. You do not start proclaiming the wrongness of someone's beliefs to anyone that will listen.

Matthew 18:15-following shows exactly what you are supposed to do.

Face them alone and tell them why you feel they are wrong. Then they can explain their view. If you still feel they are wrong, then go back with several others and tell them again and then they can explain themselves to the group. Now if they still feel they are right, and your group is unswayed by their arguments, then you go to the church.

But instead, this has become drive the "heretics" away. And abusive language is used against them by the majority of their opponents. Now over at Greenbaggins that used to not be the case. It was civil and debate was a useful dialogue. But that was before Lane was chosen to be one of the prosecutors in this trial of Louisianna presbytery. Now its become a find mud on someone and proclaim it regardless of its source. And biased source is an understatement.

These type of issues are supposed to be done humbly. Do you see much humbleness?

I believe the theology of Federal Vision to be in error but the actions of the opponents are also very much in error.

The Error of Federal Vision

I looked at this when it was first released but never commented unless my memory is wrong. But I just read the Federal Vision joint statement again. I find things I can agree with other times wondering if their words aren't meant to hide thier true thoughts. But then I got to the section of Assurance for Salvation and read this quote:

We affirm also that though salvation is granted through the
instrument of faith alone, those who have been justified will live progressively more and more sanctified lives until they go to be with God. Those believers for whom this is true look to Christ for their assurance—in the Word, in the sacraments, in their fellow believers, and in their own participation in that life by faith

Sounds good. Except...

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Everyone sins every day by the Sermon on the Mount. Not doing something is not enough. We have to not want to do something and then when we do it confess our guilt in prayer and ask for forgiveness. Have you looked at a beautiful person of the opposite sex and not been attracted? Not thought s/he looked hot? Wished s/he would notice you? Have you not seen and wanted the newest fad? Wanted something because "everyone" else has it? Have you ever taken advantage of driving over the speed limit because you know you can get away with it? Thought about it? Then you are guilty. Not following the just laws of men is also sin. So all sin and all fall short of the glory of God.

The difference is in your reaction to your sin. If you think your sins are nothing, then you really are not part of the elect. If you however, feel guilty and try not to repeat them then God is merciful to those that believe in him.

This is why continuing to live in sin and justifying it eliminates a person from ministry. They do not look for Christ to free them from sin but continue to live and relish it. One cannot live contrary to scripture and continue to do so unrepentantly and preach.

I think wanting to live a certain way is an important distiction from not caring. Those that live in sin and don't care but proclaim they believe are not of the elect. Those that want to live a certain way but fail but believe are part of the elect.

Romans 3:23 says that all fall short and I believe that it is impossible to live up to the demands of the Sermon of the Mount. But that doesn't mean some haven't tried. Those that try and believe are the elect.

If anyone of the Federal Vision advocates believe they have lived up to the Sermon of the Mount, I hope they will eventually explain how they do so in their literature. Until then, I think they have confused the modern world, with the world to come after the second coming.

Pharaoh of the Exodus

Most scholars believe that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was Ramses the Great aka Ramses II. Ramses had a reign of nearly 70 years. He had 52 sons and nearly as many daughters. It paid to be a Pharaoh with a harem.

There is a major problem with identiying him as the Pharaoh of the Exodus. The Pharaoh with at least a 40 year reign was not the Pharaoh of the Exodus. He was the Pharaoh before the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Because the 40 year reigning Pharaoh died while Moses was in Midian.

Now Ramses II's successor, Merneptah, left a stelae proclaiming how he went into Canaan and destroyed all kind of cities and one other thing. He destroyed the people Israel and cut off their seed completely. This indicates that the Hebrews had already left before Merneptah became Pharaoh.

So Ramses could not be the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Seti I only had a 13 year reign. Now you can say 40 just means a long time BUT I don't think it can mean 13 years. That is way to short.

There is only one other Pharaoh with a reign of at least 40 years that is in the same period as the Exodus. That is Thutmose III. He ruled from 1479-1425. Except for one little detail, his stepmother and aunt, Hatshepsut, seized power in 1479 and ruled until the 1450s. She was the daughter of Thutmose I and was forced by Thutmose II to marry him to legitimize his rule when she was 13 years old in 1493. Now wouldn't Hatshepsut who defied all traditions of Egypt and ruled as a woman on her own not be a good candidate to be the Pharaoh's daughter of Exodus 2?

If this is correct, this shows that there are actually 4 Pharaohs during the period described in the book of Exodus. Thutmose I is the one that issued the decree that all male babies be killed. Thutmose II didn't do much concerning the Hebrews, Thutmose III chased Moses into Midia. And the Pharaoh of the Exodus was Amenhotep II who ruled from 1425 to 1400.

So why don't the scholars accept this? Because archaeologists have decided that the dates of destructive layers in Canaan do not match this date.

Now it amazes me that a bunch of scholars that never read the Bible literally will take this as their argument against a scenario that fits the description of Exodus perfectly. So the Bible is not to be read as historically reliable except when it matches what they think it should be.

It is beside the point that I think the dating of the archaeologists is wrong.

I think the only reason these scholars refuse to accept Thutmose III as the 40 year reigning Pharaoh is because the conservative evangelicals do. They cannot possibly agree with the evangelicals so they come up with a Pharaoh that does not match the Biblical account but will match archaeology after they play with the dating data of the excavations. After all in the past, the same archaeology data put the destruction layers during the appropriate time.

New Design

After looking at some of the other blogs I read like Backwoods and Classical and they have new designs, I decided to change the look of my blog too.

I then just went and looked at Backwoods and thought for a second we used the same template. But its slightly different.

I'm following the crowd. A new thing for me.

Now if they'd be so kind as to give me google ads with the background on the side...

Sunday Adult School

Today I taught the first of several classes on Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament upto the the Exodus before church service today. I started the class with the general introduction given in most Ancient Egyptian classes. I started with how we know about Ancient Egypt which is the Hieroglyphs. And also how the Hieroglyphs came to be deciphered.

Which involves Napoleon, War with the Mameluks and finally A British invasion and them taking the Rosetta stone off the French.

The only bad thing is my hour long lecture came in at 45 minutes. Oops.

While this week was heavy on the Ancient Egypt side of things, next week is heavy on the Abraham story.

One thing for sure about Finals

Some are ridiculous and annoying. Its suggested as the terms runs down that we've seen all the questions for the previous sections of the course on the quizes and that if we study the quizes, we're good for the first three sections of the class. Not the case. There was at least 17 more questions on the previous sections that never appeared on the quizes. How do I know that? Because I went through and counted the questions I wasn't sure of. 17 was the magic number. Ok maybe a handful of those were from the fourth part of the class but... the majority wasn't. I suppose I shouldn't be too annoyed since each question was only worth half a point so we're talking about 8.5 points out of a 150 or something like that. And I most likely got a few of them right. Considering on quiz three I wasn't sure about 10 of them and only missed three.

Oh well, I got the OT books in the right order and the map.

I could get all the way to Hosea without trouble but the last few books refused to stay in my mind so I backed up two books and came up with three sentences:

Data has just about one joke.
Mexico needs hero Zorro.
Help Zorro Malachi.

Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habukkah
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi

Queen Jezebel's seal found

Discovered originally in 1964, doubts were cast on its true owner. But...

A new investigation by the Utrecht Old Testament scholar Marjo Korpel demonstrates that the seal must have belonged to the infamous Queen Jezebel. Korpel reached this conclusion after more careful investigation of the symbols that appear on the seal.

"Receiver let his teammates down"

Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette thinks that Troy Williamson was wrong for missing the game last week because his grandmother died. He thinks that he should have found a way to fulfill both obligations.

Williamson owed his teammates more than to bail on them for nine days.

Aren't they supposed to be his family, too?

But couldn't Williamson have rejoined the Vikings late last week, played against the Chargers and made it back to Aiken for the funeral? If not, couldn't the funeral have been pushed back a day until Tuesday?

No they aren't his family. They're his coworkers. That's all football is. His job. His family is his relatives. Ron Cook needs to wake up. What happens to someone's family is way more important then some stupid game. And coworkers are not family. Otherwise there wouldn't be trades. How many families trade family members? How many family members leave their family to sign with a new family thats going to give them more. Football is a business. And its only a business.

Society of Biblical Literature

I have finally become a member of the Society of Biblical Literature earlier tonight. I probably should have become a member before this.

Deer visits Polar Bears at Pittsburgh Zoo

A deer jumped into the polar bear exibit at the Pittsburgh Zoo. The bears chased it around for a few minutes until the zoo keepers could lure them into holding.

The deer went into shock and had to be euthanized.

One of these days I'm going to go down to the zoo now that I'm not that far away from it.

Pirates: John Russel

If its true that he's their selection, I think I was wrong that I was going to give them to the draft to prove to me they wanted to win. Falling back to their past third base coach who managed a last place Tripe A Team proves its the same old Pirates.

UK Establishes PC Dictatorship

Link

Students and teachers at a primary school in England were forced to dress up as Muslims to celebrate a belated Muslim festival although most were Christians.

All 257 students and 41 teachers at Rufford primary school in Lye, England, were ordered to wear traditional Muslim dress in an effort to promote multi-culturalism, reported the U.K.-based Daily Mail newspaper on Wednesday.

It is said that in the entire school only two staffs were Muslims – a part-time teacher and an assistant teacher.

“Staff have got to go along with it – or let’s face it, they would be branded racist,” reportedly said a relative of one of the staff, according to British tabloid The Sun.

“Who would put their job on the line?” the relative added. “They have been told they have to embrace the day to show their diversity. But they are not all happy.”

The Muslim dress up was in observance of Eid, the end of Ramadan. The school held a morning assembly to mark the event and an afternoon party only for women – in adherence with the Muslim tradition of wives not mixing with other men.

Perhaps next, women can be forced to stay at home and when there are house parties, the woman of the house can go into the inner workings of the house where only female relatives can talk to her.

Pittsburgh Episcopols say: We're outta here

Link

Members of the Pittsburgh Episcopal Diocese have voted overwhelmingly to break away from the denomination in the United States and align with an Anglican province in another country.

In today's vote at the 142nd diocesan convention, the laity approved the measure 118-58 with one abstention. The clergy vote was 109-24 in favor of breaking away.

For the break to occur, the diocese must pass the same measure next year and select which Anglican province to join.

Its ridiculous they have to go through this again next year since this gives the idiots a year to think up all kinds of wonderful things to do to the Pittsburgh diocese.

Episcopal Church threatens Pittsburgh Diocese

Link

In a letter to Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan on the eve of his diocesan convention, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church has warned that she will take "disciplinary action" if he persists, and the convention approves, a resolution that would permit the diocese to leave the American church and come under the aegis of a foreign, and more conservative, Anglican province.

The letter from Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was sent late Wednesday.

"If your course does not change," the letter read, "I shall regrettably be compelled to see that appropriate canonical steps are promptly taken to consider whether you have abandoned the Communion of this Church...and whether you have committed canonical offenses that warrant disciplinary action."

Isn't it amazing that the only offfenses that warrant disciplinary actions for the liberals seems to be if a church or diocese or presbytery decides to leave and take their money to another group. Otherwise you can pretty much do whatever you want as long as the money keeps flowing into the denomination's national offices. Who cares if you don't really believe anything as long as you pay your dues?

And if you pay your dues, you can pretty much tell the world that you don't care if God himself appears on your back porch and tells you you're wrong on an issue. Because you're quite capable of making your own decisions and God can mind his own business.

X-Files Movie to start filming December 10

Link

On Wednesday, Fox announced production will start December 10 on the sequel, which reunites the show's stars, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. The studio also picked July 25 as the U.S. release date.

Series creator Chris Carter will direct the still-untitled film. Carter also co-wrote the screenplay with "X-Files" veteran Frank Spotnitz. The duo also are producing. Shooting will take place in Vancouver.

It is about time. I didn't think a sequel was ever going to be made with there being rumors about one just about every year since the series went off the air.