Thoughts about the term "Fundamentalist" - A Response to Ken Fields

Over at The World from Our Windown, blogger Ken Fields has asked an interesting question: "Should I Continue to Embrace the Fundamentalist Label?"

Similar comments have been made for various reasons over the years. Even Dr. Bob Jones, III asked the question about the term in one of his columns in a BJU Review a few years ago.

However, Ken's comments are not geared so much in regards to the term as it is in regards to the Fundamentalist movement. (For some of my previous comments along these lines, see my article, "The Best and the Brightest: The Idea of Fundamentalism and the Movement of Fundamentalism.")

I have chosen to respond here to his post, rather than just in the comments section of his blog for a couple of reasons. One reason is that I have found that sometimes long comments get lost in the comment sections of blogs and I did not want to spend time on this only for it to disappear. A second reason, however, is that I don't believe that Ken is the only one with these thoughts and I thought I would attempt to address at least the main points of his thoughts here.


I would also like to clarify that I have nothing against Ken and this is not meant to be an attack upon Ken. I do not know Ken except through his blog. He seems to be a smart guy with a desire to please Christ and he is a much better writer than me.

Ken comments that he has been thinking about this for several months, and has decided to "articulate my concerns over the tendencies of those who embrace the Fundamentalist term."

Ken has every right to take whatever label he feels like he should take and I am not arguing that he should keep the label. In fact, I would encourage him and others who do not like the label to abandon the label, but that is a completely different issue. I think there are entirely too many people who claim the Fundamentalist label but don’t hold to its principles (on both sides of the label). I am not saying that Ken necessarily fits into this description, since I know little about Ken other than reading his blog occasionally. I do not have time to address everything in his post. I would, however, like to briefly address some of his reasons that he gives for asking that question.

The first reason Ken gives is that the label (and movement) is unpredictably liquid.

Ken states it this way:

From the lengthy treatise that commenced the movement ('The Fundamentals'), to prohibitionism, to dispensationalism (which many of the original 'fundamentalists' were not), to KJV-onlyism, to the de-pantsing of women, to the nixing of mixed bathing, to third and fourth degree separation ... fundamentalism seems to change with the latest cultural and ecclesiastical fads and tides, as does its very definition.

A little later, he adds:

It is a sad fact that many who embrace the term cannot agree on an accepted definition. Some describe themselves as fundamentalists simply because they ascribe to the five aforementioned statements. Others find it necessary to add a separation clause. Still others claim secondary separation (others even go further) is a must for any and all who embrace the fundamentalist label.

I will agree with Ken that it is often frustrating that there is no standard definition of fundamentalist that all will agree upon. Part of that is the problem of those who intentionally choose to hijack the term and part of that stems from those who would use the term out of ignorance.

The reality is that there is no "fundamentalist pope" to be able to lay down the law regarding the definition of the term. While this may lead to frustration (I know I have often been frustrated with needing to clarify that I do not identify "that person" or "that group of people" as Fundamentalists - or that I am not "that kind" of Fundamentalist).

However, the nature of language and labels is such that there is no authoritative language police that can dictate a terms meaning - as much as we may wish that were the case in some areas.

However, to abandon the label "Fundamentalist" because it is "to liquid" leaves us with a question about other labels as well. If this is a valid reason to ditch the label, can not the same argument be made regarding the term "Christian"? Surely there are a multitude who use the term "Christian" to describe themselves who would not come close to matching an accurate reflection of what the Bible says is true of a Christian. The same thing could be said of many other terms, such as "Evangelical" and even "Reformed".

The second reason that Ken gives is that the term seems to be characterized by an elitist attitude.

Ken’s comments here include the following:

Too often fundamentalists have elevated secondary doctrines to the level of primary doctrines. Do we separate from those who practice paedo-baptism? Do we
break fellowship with those who may be of differing eschatological persuasion?
Should I invite a trichotomist to preach in our church, or how about one who
believes in three dispensations rather than seven? And what if he supports the
Gideons or Samaritan's Purse? Why are present day Fundamentalists not able to
differentiate between primary and secondary doctrines and practices? An
unwillingness to do so emits an aroma of superiority. It smacks of elitism. It
needlessly ostracizes. It divides the body of Christ.

I actually agree with part of what Ken is saying here. There is definitely an aspect of any type of separation that comes across as elitism. After all, if we refuse to have fellowship with someone, we are generally saying that we believe that they are wrong in the particular area of doctrine or practice that has led to this separation. Many would say that being a Christian who believes that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to heaven is elitist - in fact, this is so true that many supposed spokesmen have compromised the truth on this very question when faced with it in public venues such as Larry King Live (see the LKL interviews of Billy Graham and Joel Osteen in the last couple of years).

It is interesting to me that this same charge of elitism is one that I have often heard that same argument used (wrongly, imo) against the very Reformed doctrines that Ken holds to so dearly. (Again, for clarity sake, I am not criticizing him for holding to these doctrines.)

Traditionally, there has been latitude in Fundamentalism regarding eschatology, mode of baptism, church government, and many other issues. Existence of such groups as the American Council of Christian Churches show that these are not areas where the disagreements exclude one from being a Fundamentalist.

It is ironic to me, however, that Ken speaks about a failure to differentiate between primary and secondary doctrines and practices when he seems to have a similar fail to understand the difference between different levels of fellowship. I will grant him that there are some who do focus on the secondary issues (the IFBx groups seem to be particularly skillful at this), but judging by some of Ken’s other posts, part of the problem he has is that more narrow groups of fellowships (such as a fellowship of churches) will not allow the same latitude in their membership that is permitted in broader Fundamentalism. I think Greg Linscott has done a good job at trying to point out this issue in some of his comments to Ken in various posts, but it does not seem to me that Ken "gets" what Greg is trying to say. Perhaps what I am reading as a failure to understand Greg's point is merely a disagreement with Greg's point.

If a church or a group of churches chooses to join together, they often do so because they have similar doctrinal, theological, denominational or philosophical views. For instance, Ken is attending the upcoming Founders Conference. If Ken chooses to be a part of this movement and have his church listed on their website, he must click a button declaring that he wholeheartedly subscribes to some particular confessions that are listed on their website. The nature of the fellowship would not only make it acceptable to refuse fellowship with Ken in that level if he did not agree with those confessions (say Ken was a thorough-going Arminian instead), but would actually make it necessary for them to refuse Ken fellowship at the level of being listed on their website. This does not mean that the group would be declaring Ken as unsaved, but rather would be acknowledging that on this particular level of fellowship they do not walk together.

It seems to me that some of the frustration that Ken speaks against often stems from the fact that a particular group that have joined together for fellowship is not as broad as Ken would like in some areas (see his recent post on Edwards, etc.). In my view, a fellowship has the right to set their own guidelines for inclusion and a person (or church) has the right to reject that fellowship if they disagree with those guidelines.

The third reason that Ken gives for possibly abandoning the label is that the label and movement seem to be characterized by an unhealthy reactionism.

Ken states this:

Does it not seem ironic that fundamentalists are known (and this is a reputation they have brought upon themselves) for what they are against rather than what they are for? The clarion call of the original fundamentalists was an affirmation of five clear and concise theological statements.

The reality is that Fundamentalism has always been a reactionary movement. Even in Ken’s own article he makes a couple of comments that indicate this in regards to the early Fundamentalists.

For instance, he states:

It is my understanding that the fundamentalist movement began in response to the modernist's higher criticism (emphasis added)

He also quotes from Wikipedia (an interesting source that is in need of some revision in regards to its article on Fundamentalism).

A movement in American Protestantism that arose in the early part of the 20th century in reaction to modernism and that stresses the infallibility of the Bible not only in matters of faith and morals but also as a literal historical record, holding as essential to Christian faith belief in such doctrines as the creation of the world, the virgin birth, physical resurrection, atonement by the sacrificial death of Christ, and the Second Coming.

Notice the words that I have highlighted in both of those quotes. Fundamentalism has always been reactionary - and that is okay - and that is also why there has been a legitimate shift in some areas over the years. As new problems arose and new departures from the faith take place, there is a need for a reaction against those departures.

When Ken speaks of "current fundamentalist infatuations," I take exception to both the terminology and the list that he uses to qualify the terminology. While I may actually be fairly close to him on some of those issues, I object to his list and terminology here for a few reasons.

1. I don’t think it is fair to describe them a "current fundamentalist infatuations." Most of these issues are much broader than Fundamentalism. Think about it - the "big debate" that never came was not between Fundamentalists. The King James Version Debate by Carson was not written to or for Fundamentalists.

2. I think that some of these issues are legitimate reasons to have a lack of fellowship at some levels, although I will grant that there is a lot of extremism in some of these issues as well.

3. I don’t find mainstream Fundamentalism (such as the AACCS or the ACCC) making these official areas of separation.

I would also comment that to say that the Fundamentalist framers did not deal with the "current fundamentalist infatuations" is to be anachronistic. To say that these men did not have/would not have had concerns in some of the areas that are "current fundamentalist infatuations" just because they lived in an era when these things were not issues is to unfairly read back into history our own views. Would Spurgeon have issues with some of the modern church music? I believe he would have, but we cannot know because the issue was not an issue in his day. You cannot argue that the Fundamentalist founders would not have taken a strong stand on some of the issues raised today just because they were silent on them back then. For instance, I cannot imagine Machen remaining quiet against Open Theism if he were alive today.

I not expect my post to change Ken's mind, but I did want to at least attempt to answer some of his comments.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

2007 National Leadership Conference - Panel Discussion

In my last post regarding the National Leadership Conference I wrote about the Panel Discussion that was held on Friday morning.

As I mentioned in the last post, the members of the Panel were some of the General Session speakers. Dr. Dave Doran of Inter-City Baptist Church and Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Kevin Bauder of Central Baptist Theological Seminary (MN) , Pastor Ron Jones of Faith Baptist Church of Sellersville, and Pastor Danny Brooks of Heritage Bible Church of Greer, South Carolina. Dr. Sam Harbin, conference co-ordinator and President of Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary served as the moderator and questioner for the Panel Discussion.

A question was asked near the end of the Panel Discussion that I wanted to highlight as its own separate post.

Dr. Harbin asked the panelist (specifically addressing the three Senior Pastors - Pastor Brooks, Pastor Jordan, and Pastor Doran) about what kind of schedule they have on a typical week and what kind of planning do they do.

Over the last year or so, I have heard similar questions asked of a number of men and the responses have been interesting to me. For instance, Jason Janz has asked this question in some of his interviews at SharperIron. It has been interesting to me to hear some of the answers. For instance, I was surprised to hear from the interview that he did with Dr. Mark Minnick that he does much of his preparation for Sunday night on Sunday afternoon. (Having sat under many of those Sunday night messages when I attended Mt. Calvary, I would never have guessed that these messages could have been completed in the time between Sunday morning and Sunday evening.)

Pastor Dan Brooks commented that one of the great things about expository preaching is that you know what you are going to be preaching next week. He also commented that he tends to block out his mornings for study. He also commented that a good secretary who can keep away unnecessary interruptions is a great help.

Pastor Jordan also commented that he is also a firm believer of expository preaching and that to do this well will take work and time and times of significant effort. He also indicated that if you believe that it is important, you will get it done - you will find a way. He also comments that he likes to have a block of significant time at the beginning and again at the end of the week for study.

Pastor Doran then asked the question that I was waiting for - what is a typical week? The reality is that those animals don’t tend to exist. He did comment that with planning there is an ideal that is different than reality.

Dr. Doran also made a comment that I had not thought about previously. He said that he started some time ago to think in steps or stages of sermon development. While you may not have the time you need for extended study, you can often do sections of sermon preparation in smaller sections of time. For instance, he said that you can identify the theme of a passage anywhere you have a Bible. I have occasionally found myself doing this, but not intentionally. (In other words, I have found myself studying out particular terms in what I knew was going to be a limited amount of time or what became a limited amount of time.) I think the idea of thinking of this preparation in stages can be especially helpful in situations when you recognize that your study time is going to be spread out rather than concentrated in a particular week.

He also commented that he tends to work in three Sunday segments. If I understood him properly, this would indicate that three weeks before the message he is working on the theme of a passage. Two weeks before the message his is working through interpretational issues. The last week before the message he is pulling together the sermon homiletically.

Dr. Bauder, who does not currently Pastor, has been a Pastor previously and he added some thoughts as well. After commenting that he never had such a large congregation as the other Pastors on the panel (he said that he never had a big church like Calvary where this many people can fall asleep all at once), he did address the issue that a lot of guys are leaving the seminaries and are expecting a larger staff and a larger church when this will not be the reality for most.

Dr. Bauder also addressed the question of how long it takes to prepare a sermon - 30 years.
He also commented that those who are concerned about mentoring in the context of a small church. Sometimes guys wonder about who will mentor them if they go to a small church, when in reality they will be mentored by the people in the church and will find themselves mentoring folks in the church.

It was also discussed (I did not write down by whom) that there are some additional issues of time that come up due to technology. For instance, the ease of communication has made unnecessary communication a bigger distraction. In the old days, for instance, you had to get on a horse and ride or walk a distance to even see a Pastor, so, unless it was something serious, you did not generally make that trip. Now, it is easy to "drop by" or call, etc.

Another issue that came up (again, I did not write down from whom) was the issue of the fear of men. Many times we find ourselves ministering out of a fear of man. This is seen when we respond to needs with the mentality of "if I don’t visit this person, it is going to put me on the wrong side of them or their family, etc." Sometimes this mentality causes us to have a schedule that is not best for us or the church.

Anyway, I find hearing from these men about their schedules is encouraging to me - and sometimes provides a little help in my own scheduling.

Well, I need to go for now.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

2007 National Leadership Conference - Final Day

On Friday, the National Leadership Conference is only a half-day. This actually works really well since it allows most people who come from the area to get back to the office a little on Friday afternoon for things that need to be done during business hours.

Since Friday is only a half-day, there are no workshops, there are just general sessions instead (and a panel discussion this year).

The First General Session on Friday was one by Pastor Ron Jones, who serves as an Assistant Pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Sellersville, Pennyslvania. Pastor Jones, in keeping with the nature of the general sessions, preached on "Our Unique Community" from Colossians 3:1-17.
Pastor Jones dealt with three ways that we are a unique community.

I. We are a Unique Community because we hold an eternal perspective and focus

Our living here and now must reflect where we are going.

Where the Head is, there the members must be.

He used an illustration about visiting his grandmother - there is evidence you are there, but there is also evidence that it is only temporary. The same thing should be said in regards to our sojourn here.

II. We are a Unique Community because the transformation of our character

We are to make a corpse of our life.
If we have a transformed character, why do we have so much covetousness, which is idolatry?
People ought not to see covetousness in the lives of Christians.

III. We are a Unique Community because of the unique character we display

The new man that we put on is drastically different than the old man.
The new man understands that we are one community - neither Greek nor Jew, etc.

After the 1st General Session, there was a short break and then a Panel Discussion. The members of the Panel were some of the General Session speakers. Dr. Dave Doran of Inter-City Baptist Church and Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Kevin Bauder of Central Baptist Theological Seminary (MN), Pastor Ron Jones of Faith Baptist Church of Sellersville, and Pastor Danny Brooks of Heritage Bible Church of Greer, South Carolina. Dr. Sam Harbin, conference co-ordinator and President of Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary served as the moderator and questioner for the Panel Discussion.

Many of the questions that Dr. Harbin asked were related back specifically to points and comments made by the speakers in their General Sessions and the questions covered a pretty wide range.

Pastor Ron Jones (who is African-American - a fact only mentioned because it is relevant to the question) was asked about diversity in our churches. He commented that we have made some good progress, but that there are still some hurdles that we need to clear.

Pastor Tim Jordan, who had started off the conference with communion, was asked about the practice of "tacking on communion" to a service, which he does not like. He also commented that the Lord’s Table is one of the few commanded aspects of worship and that we should take it more seriously. (By the way, for a great communion hymn, our church uses "We Gather to Remember" written by Pastor Scott Annoil of First Baptist Church in Rockford, Illinois. The stanzas deal with different aspects of communion - the body, the blood, examine yourself, etc. I would link to it, but the site is temporarily down for maintenance.)

In regards to expository preaching, Pastor Dan Brooks commented that since God’s word is quick and powerful (Heb. 4:12), we need to get out of the way and let God’s word do its work. He also commented that we are merely table waiters delivering what God has prepared for His people.

In regards to a question about dealing with people of this post modern age, a comment was made by a panelist about establishing an understanding of the Bible as God’s Word and Dr. Doran jumped in with "I am a thorough going presuppositionalist" (which got a good response). He also commented that when Paul referred to the poets (for instance), he did not do it to gain credibility, but he did so in the sense, "You already know you don’t have the answers." He also added, "I don’t see any Biblical warrant for us to use external evidences as part of pre-evangelism."

In dealing with a question on the nature of Scripture, Dr. Bauder pointed out that the sufficiency of Scripture does not suggest that the answer to every question is in the Bible, but that all we need is in the Bible.

He illustrated this concept by talking about jumping out of an airplane with a bad parachute. The Bible does not address the question of "how do I survive this fall?", but it does address the issue of being prepared to die, etc. (There was a humorous moment in this that I will share in my overall evaluation post to come later.)

When asked about staying in touch, Dr. Doran spoke about the fact that exposition is key - it allows you to unfold the Word of God so that the various needs are met. We should remember that the transformation of the mind is a slow process. Even if people don’t remember specifics, if we are expositional in our preaching, they can see that the base is in the Bible and know where to go.

Dr. Jordan commented on the need to getting to know more and more of your people and Pastor Brooks reminded us that the point is that their faith would rest in God, not in the Pastor.

In regards to pastoral authority and to preaching a comment was made (by Doran?) that the two keys of a pastoral authority is exposition and example.

Dr. Doran commented that "the best preaching is the extension of extended reflection on the text" and listed some key developmental questions. These developmental questions included "What do I need to explain?" "What do they need to be convinced of?" and "Where does this show up (in living)?

There was also a pretty good discussion in regards to planning and schedules that I will include separately (since this is getting so long).

The Last General Session of the day was by Professor Doug Finkbinder of Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary and dealt with "Our Unique Story."

Dr. Finkbinder commented that a lot of what could be said in this session had already been covered by Pastor Brooks in the session on "Our Unique Savior" and by Pastor Doran in the session on "Our Unique Gospel."

The emphasis on Dr. Finkbinder’s presentation (which, unlike the other General Sessions, included a full set of pre-printed notes - 6 pages worth) was upon the idea of using God’s story line in our presentation of the God’s Story. He dealt with the idea of the Creation, Fall, Pursuit and Culmination and the way these things work together. Since these notes are available (or will likely be available) for downloading, I won’t bother to rehash the specifics here.

One of the challenges that Dr. Finkbinder mentioned in this presentation is one that I may actually do - preach a series on Major Movements in God’s Story. (To be fair, I have been thinking along doing something like this after reading about how Don Johnson’s "through the whole Bible" series that he mentions on his blog.) He also challenged us to consider getting up and telling the whole Bible storyline in one message and to connect the text to the Bigger Story.

There was a closing song and things were wrapped up for the conference. I have two more general posts (an overall evaluation post and a post on the planning and scheduling section of the panel discussion) before getting into specific workshops.

Just my thoughts (feel free to add your own),

Frank

2007 National Leadership Conference - Day 3

As I mentioned on my last post, Thursday started off with Dr. Dave Doran’s presentation on "Our Unique Gospel."

Thursday also included two other General Sessions and some workshops.

The second General Session of the day was a presentation by Dr. Kevin Bauder of Central Baptist Theological Seminary (MN) on "Our Unique Authority."

As Dr. Bauder himself acknowledged, there was nothing new in this presentation, but he did do a good job of some important ideas for review.

His proposition was "We must submit ourselves to God’s Word" and he gave three reasons why we must submit ourselves to God’s Word from 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

I. The first reason we must submit to God’s Word is because God breathed it.

Key term: Authority

Whatever is Scripture is the product of God’s creative breath and therefore has God’s authority.

"You cannot claim to be loyal to God if you are not loyal to what He says."

The doctrinal implication of this truth is that everything that Scripture affirms must be true.

The label for this, of course, is "Inerrancy"

It is not that the Bible contains the Word of God or that the Bible becomes the Word of God, but rather the Bible is the Word of God.

While there is no division of authority in the Bible, not all of Scripture is equally relevant in answering the same questions.

II. The second reason we must submit to God’s Word is because it has the Power to change lives.

Key term: Profitable
A doctrinal implication of this truth is the perspicuity of Scripture

When you knock down the perspicuity of Scripture, you knock down the authority of the Bible.

The power and utility of Scripture is seen when we grasp it.

The Holy Spirit is capable of illuminating the text when we don’t understand it.

An implication of this is that the Bible is not useful and powerful when we let it sit on the shelf.

III. The third reason we must submit to God’s Word is because the Word of God gives us all that we need.

If we were going into a physical battle, we would want to be as equipped as possible. In the spiritual battle, we need the Bible if we are to equipped for battle.

A doctrinal implication of this deals with the Sufficiency of Scripture.

The Bible is our sole authority, yet people will turn to all kinds of external authorities today.

While he did not use this term, it is important that we understand the difference between sola Scriptura and noda Scriptura. While the Bible is our sole authority, it does not tell us everything about the world in which we live. It is not the sole source of information.

As an illustration of this point, he gave an illustration of a woman feeding arsenic to her husband. "The Bible does not say you ‘no arsenic’ - you legalist!" (You probably need to hear the presentation to appreciate this comment in its context.)

Dr. Bauder dealt with a familiar text and familiar topic, but, as usual, did so in an excellent way and this session is also worth listening to if you can.

Thursday Evening’s General Session was more of a testimony than a General Session. Evangelist Mike Redick, who is a graduate of International Baptist College in Tempe, Arizona and serves as a missionary evangelist in Southeast Asia.

Mr. Redick gave some incredible testimonies and connected them loosely to Matthew 9 and the idea that "the harvest is plenteous." He also stated that there must be an Acceptance of the Promise (I know this is probably nitpicking, but it seemed that Mr. Redick was indicating that the idea that "the harvest is plenteous" as a promise, rather than a statement of fact, but maybe I misunderstood him.) He also stated there must be an Awareness of the Problem - the problem is not the harvest or the seed, the problem is with the harvesters.

One thing that I that I thought was interesting in regards to the testimonies that Mr. Redick shared was that after the Gospel meetings that they held in the Philippines many of the converts were immediately part of a two-week discipleship camp. The first week of the camp focuses on teaching the basics of the Christian life. The second week of the camp focuses on teaching the new believers how to present their new faith. Having two weeks of intensive training for new believers would seem to be a great blessing and I wonder if it is part of the reason for the apparent effectiveness of some of the ministries of which Mr. Redick spoke.

Tomorrow I plan on adding a post (or two) regarding Friday (including the Panel Discussion) and then a general summary before moving on to individual workshops.

I hope this information is helpful to others out there.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

2007 National Leadership Conference - Notes from Dave Doran's Presentation - "Our Unique Gospel"

And now we return to our regularly scheduled program - reports on the National Leadership Conference at Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.

As I indicated on my last post, Thursday at the National Leadership Conference started off with a great presentation by Dr. Dave Doran of Inter-City Baptist Church and Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.

Dr. Doran’s text was 1 Corinthians 15:1-6 and the topic was "Our Unique Gospel."

Dr. Doran started off by reminding us that "the easy targets are not the dangerous ones" and that "it is the erosion of the Gospel that poses the greatest threat to our commission."

Considering a recent discussion over at Pastor Chris Anderson’s My Two Cents (here - including the comments - especially the interraction from Pastor Mark Perry), I thought Dr. Doran’s take on the issue of the nature of this passage provided some helpful clarity. Dr. Doran commented that since Paul is dealing with a specific departure from the Gospel - namely, false teaching regarding the resurrection - the passage starts with a summary of the Gospel before focusing on the area of the departure.

The following are some additional notes from the presentation:

I. The Priority of the Gospel - "first of all" (v. 3)

A. It is a message of Essential Content

There is a departure today that would claim that we should take the Bible
and put it aside and go after Christ instead. However, what we know about Christ
we know through the Bible and when you put aside the Bible to go after Christ,
you are not going after Christ. Christ is revealed for us through the Bible.

Repeatedly, our faith is linked to the word (e.g. Romans 10:17, 2 Timothy
3:15, etc.)

We must have a Gospel full of Gospel truth.

B. It is a message of Eternal Consequences - "by which ye are saved" (v. 2)

"The faith that saves is a faith that clings to Christ."

"Either you have the Biblical Gospel or you don’t have the Gospel at all"

"As a Pastor, I must give my life to guarding that Gospel and proclaiming it and teaching it."

II. The Purity of the Gospel

A. The content of the Gospel

Dr. Doran pointed out that while there is a summary statement in the beginning of this chapter, it is simply a summary statement and that summary statements must be expanded and explained to arrive at a full understanding.

Paul is not writing a systematic theology in these verses, he is doing pastoral work.

Dr. Doran also commented that the idea of Brian McClaren that someone can become a follower of Jesus without becoming a Christian is a departure from the faith, not a
defense of the faith.

It is essential that we do not assume an understanding about Scriptural truth on the part of the people to whom we witness. How can we say "trust in Christ" without defining Who Christ is? What sin is? etc.

B. The character of the Gospel

1. Apostolic
2. Scriptural
3. Historical

C. The context of the Gospel

The context of the Gospel is man’s alienation from the true and living God - Our Creator.

Again, we cannot assume that our hearers have this context, so there must be an announcement of man’s rebellion if the call for repentance is to have any effect.

D. The center of the Gospel - Jesus Christ

In Philippians 1:12-18, Paul weds "gospel" and "preaching Christ"

Repeatedly in Acts "preaching Christ", "preaching word", etc. are intertwined.

Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the O.T. promises. This includes details regarding the life, death, and resurrection and culminates in the exaltation of the Lordship of
Christ, etc.

Other selected approximate quotes.

"We must not take a reductionist stance on the Gospel."
"We take the Gospel and drop it down to a sound bite and wonder why it never bites."
"We cannot ignore threats to the Gospel."
"We must strive to make the Gospel central to fellowship."
"We must do more than just argue about the Gospel, we must give it out."

*All quotes are approximations. I tried to get things as accurate as I could, but I have three pages of notes from Dr. Doran’s presentation and there was so much said that was good that it was hard to write down everything that I wanted to write down. I have ordered the CD from CBTS, but the quotes are from my notes, not from the CD. (Of course, I recommend that you go over the www.cbs.edu and order your own copy of this presentation. :) ).

National Leadership Conference Reports to Resume after Sunday

For those of you visiting to read more of my reports on Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary's National Leadership Conference, I plan on resuming them after the weekend. (Sometimes life and ministry get in the way of blogging - go figure!)

Anyway, my comments on the National Leadership Conference so far are found in the following posts:

2007 National Leadership Conference at Lansdale
National Leadership Conference - Day 1
2007 National Leadership Conference - Day 2
2007 National Leadership Conference - Get this Presentation!

For those who want to look at some of last year's comments while you wait for me to continue the 2007 National Leadership Conference Reports (I am sure you are sitting their on pins and needles), last year's reports that I completed are found in the following posts:

National Leadership Conference
One More Quick Lansdale Note
Separation from Professing Brethren
Shaping the Future - Pastoral Internships

Reading over my initial post from last year's conference reminds me that there were a couple of things that I really wanted to discuss that I never got to - at least one of them is still in blogger in "draft" mode.

Anyway, I hope to have more stuff by Monday night at the latest.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

2007 National Leadership Conference - Get this Presentation

I hope to post a full report about Thursday at the National Leadership Conference soon, but I wanted to briefly state one simple thing:

I would urge everyone to purchase either a CD or an mp3 of Thursday morning’s General Session at the National Leadership Conference. Dr. Dave Doran of Inter-City Baptist Church and Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary gave the opening session on Thursday morning on"Our Unique Gospel" and the message was dead-on.

I will try to add more details later, but I wanted to at least post this the first time I had internet access.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

2007 National Leadersip Conference - Day 2

This is the second in a series of posts regarding the National Leadership Conference at Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary in Lansdale, PA. The first report can be found here.

For those of you who have never been to a National Leadership Conference, Wednesday and Thursday are the two big days of the National Leadership Conference, with Tuesday only having an evening session and Friday only having sessions up until lunch.

One of the nice things about the National Leadership Conference is meeting up with other friends in ministry. For lunch, Matt Jury and I joined a group from Hardingville Bible Church including Pastor Mark Franklin, Pastor Dave Field and John and Rocco. We had an interesting meal. I won’t comment much regarding lunch because it was probably one of those "you had to be there to understand" type of moments, but imagine a group of six big men in a lady-like health food cafe and you will get the start of the picture of us at lunch on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the day began with a General Session by Dr. Doug McLachlan, Pastor of Fourth Baptist Church of Minneapolis, Minnesota, former President of Central Baptist Theological Seminary and author of Reclaiming Authentic Fundamentalism.

In General, the General Sessions are running around a common theme - Our Unique (... fill in the blank...).

Dr. McLachlan’s General Session focused on Isaiah 6:1-8 and dealt with Our Unique God in a presentation entitled: No One is Holy Like the Lord - a reference to the truth expressed by Hannah in 1 Samuel 2:2. Dr. McLachlan focused on five graphic stages regarding the encounter of Isaiah with "The Holy One of Israel."

The first stage dealt with "The Prophet’s Vision" and dealt with the fact that Isaiah saw God in His holiness - on His holy throne, with His holy angels, etc. He also reminded us that John 12 indicates that Who Isaiah saw was Jesus. (Kind of interesting considering a recent online conversation I had in which a lady was trying to claim that Allah and Jehovah God were the same.)

The second stage dealt with "The Prophet’s Conviction" and dealt with the fact that seeing God’s holiness brought about in Isaiah a utter sense of his own sinfulness and ruin.

The third stage dealt with "The Prophet’s Confession" and dealt with the response of Isaiah in admitting his own sinfulness and confessing this before God. (It seemed to me that the second and third stage were very closely linked in the presentation so that it was hard to distinguish them - but considering the context of Isaiah 6, that makes sense.)

The fourth stage dealt with "The Prophet’s Redemption" and dealt with the fact that the solution to Isaiah’s problem was taken care of by God, not by Isaiah. "Once it was God’s holiness that kept us from God, now it is God’s holiness that brings us to God" - the Holy Sacrifice reconciled us.

The fifth stage dealt with "The Prophet’s Commission and dealt with what Isaiah pledged - that he would go and proclaim the unique God.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good presentation of a very familiar passage.

The second General Session was on "Our Unique Savior" by Pastor Danny Brooks from Heritage Bible Church in Greer, South Carolina. Pastor Brooks had one of those sessions that you never want to have as a speaker at a gathering like this - he had the dreaded after lunch session.
Pastor Brooks dealt with John 1:1- 18 and focused on the Uniqueness of Christ as Our Savior.
By way of introduction, Danny dealt with the three terms in his title - Our (which reminds us of the closeness of association we have with the Savior and with one another) Unique (one of a kind) Savior (someone who rescues from harm or danger).

As Dan continued his introduction, he reminded us of the uniqueness of Christ in regards to the founders of the various religions of the world and then began to deal with John 1.
The focus of the message was on the fact that Our Savior is Unique in His Person and Our Savior is Unique in His Ministry.

In dealing with His Person, he spent some time dealing with the fact that Jesus is God and Man.

In dealing with His Ministry, he reminded us that the Savior Who resides with man (v.14) ministers grace and ministers truth.

Pastor Brooks is one of those guys who always looks young. He still looks pretty much like he did back in the days when he was in The Printing. He also has a great memory. He still remembers my name even though I am a nobody who he has only seen on a few occasions since college and even in college I was a nobody in Inter Society Council when he was the President of ISC.

The presentation was well-done (despite the bad time slot) and the connection of the Person and Ministry of Christ reminded me of the connection to what Christ taught the disciples on the Emmaus Road in Luke 24 (regarding His Person and Work).

The evening General Session on Wednesday night was by Dr. Stephen Jones, the President of Bob Jones University (my alma mater).

I am not sure that I have ever heard Dr. Jones preach before. I sat next to him in chapel back when he was a Senior in the Academy and I was a Freshman at BJU and I have seen him at some other functions over the years, but I can’t remember having heard him preach.
Dr. Jones preached on Psalm 51 and did a good job of handling the text and encouraging us to consider the Merciful God that we serve.

After reminding us of the situation of David’s sin and the distance between David and God because of David’s sin, he encouraged us regarding God’s Great Mercy.

Psalm 51 points out for us the Sinner’s Appeal - David had finally come running back to God and his only appeal was for God to have mercy on him. David’s appeal was not based on David’s position or anything in David - but rather on the character of God and God’s lovingkindness.

Psalm 51 also points out the Sinner’s Acknowledgment - looking at the different meanings for the words "sin", "transgression", and "iniquity" in the passage and being reminded of the utter inability for David to handle things on his own.

Psalm 51 also encourages us because of the Sinner’s Restoration. David was to have his joy restored, his ministry restored, and his testimony restored.

Overall, the General Sessions on Wednesday all dealt with familiar passages, but were encouraging in their nature.

National Leadership Conference - Day 1

Tuesday night was the opening night of the National Leadership Conference at Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.

This is my seventh time attending the National Leadership Conference and I have been looking forward to attending. Mr. and Mrs. Rohe have been gracious hosts to me at their house about 30 minutes away from the conference. Pastor Matt Jury of Fairview Bible Church in Lewistown, Pennsylvania is their nephew and was gracious enough to be offer me the opportunity to stay with him at the house of his aunt and uncle.

One of the things that I enjoy about coming to the National Leadership Conference is that the material covered usually seeks to have a good balance between academic topics and practical topics. This year looks to be a little light on the practical, but it should be a good conference.
The theme of the National Leadership Conference this year is "Changeless Truths for Challenging Times." As I mentioned in my last post, this is the first conference in which Sam Harbin has been the Conference Coordinator.

It is still too early in the week to give any kind of overall evaluation, but there have been a couple of interesting things at the National Leadership Conference, so far.

When I picked up my notebook on Tuesday evening, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the notebook was once again filled with all of the workshop notes (or at least most of them - a few presenters apparently did not get their notes turned in on time for inclusion in the notebook). THIS IS A GOOD THING. Some of you may remember that I commented after last year’s conference that I was disappointed that they had done away with putting the notes in the notebook last year and it left me (and others) attempting to scramble for notes from the sessions that we did not attend. By having the notes in the notebook, it accomplishes at least a few important things - 1) it helps in our evaluation of which workshop we want to attend, 2) it helps in evaluating whether to purchase the CD/mp3 of a particular workshop, and 3) it makes the notebook a valuable resource well after the conference. (I generally like to keep my notebooks together, but in order to remind myself that I have a presentation on a particular topic in one of the notebooks, I slip a full piece of paper in the appropriate file folder referencing the workshop session and which notebook. For instance, when I get back to my office, I will add a sheet of paper that says, "No Other Gods: The True Nature of Idolatry Yesterday and Today by Steve Horine - National Leadership Conference 2007 - Workshop Session 1 #1" to my hanging file folder that is labeled "idolatry" so that I remember that I have it when I am working on a sermon or paper regarding idolatry.)

The opening general session on Tuesday night was a little different than anything I have ever experienced at a conference. Dr. Tim Jordan (Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church of Lansdale and Conference Host) led us in partaking of the Lord’s Table on Tuesday night. I am still evaluating that idea in my mind. I tend to believe that the Lord’s Table/Communion is to be done as part of a church service ("when ye are come together"). Of course, Dr. Jordan mentioned that this was still a church, but I tend to think of a church service and a conference hosted by a church are actually two different things. Anyway, it was definitely different. It was also interesting being on the other end of things since, as a Pastor, I am usually involved in the serving of the Lord’s Table instead of receiving the Lord’s Table.

Anyway, those are some initial things that I wanted to post about regarding the first night of the conference. I plan on doing a post regarding each day and the general sessions and then doing a series of posts regarding the individual workshops.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

2007 National Leadership Conference at Lansdale

Today I leave for the National Leadership Conference at Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. I have had the privilege of attending this conference for the last six or seven years and have found the conference to usually have very good general sessions and some very good workshops, as well.

Dr. Dave Burgraff did an excellent job with this conference over the years, but as he left to go to Clearwater Christian College in Florida, this year the conference (as well as the seminary) is under new leadership - Dr. Sam Harbin.

I am looking forward to the conference and I plan on making a number of posts regarding the conference.

If you can't wait until the reports from this week, you may want to check out some posts I wrote regarding last year's National Leadership Conference.

National Leadership Conference

Some additional comments about the National Leadership Conference

Separation from Professing Brothers (notes from Kevin Bauder's General Session)

Shaping the Future - Pastoral Internships (some comments about two sessions on Pastoral Interships - one by Pastor Mark Franklin of Hardingville Bible Church in New Jersey and one by Pastor Dan Brooks of Heritage Bible Church in South Carolina)

Because of the timing of the closing on our church building and moving into the new building last year, I did not go through and discuss each of the workshops and sessions like I had hoped to do. It is my hope that this year I will be able to give overviews and comments from more sessions.

If you are going to be there, I would love to meet you. If you are going to be there and would like to make some comments about things from the sessions, please feel free to do that, as well.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

All God's Children (Post 2)

Last week, I mentioned in a post that I was going to be posting some quotes from the book All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes. Below is today’s installment.

It may seem an extreme assertion at first, but I believe that the challenge
of living with popular culture may well be as serious for modern Christians as persecution and plaques were for the saints of earlier centuries. Being thrown to the lions or living in the shadow of gruesome death are fairly straightforward if unattractive threats. Enemies that come loudly and
visibly are usually much easier to fight than those that are
undetectable.

Living with popular culture is indeed a challenge for modern believers. I am frequently reminded that as believers we are to be "in the world, not of the world." I am also challenged by the fact that we are are to "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1John 2:15)

It seems that in many discussions we are finding that modern believers are advocating following popular culture and pursuing the world.

The temptations to follow the world are definitely strong. I don't know if those temptations really compare with the ones of saints under persecution such as Wycliffe, but I think that his point deserves attention.

When dealing with active persecution, it is easier to see the enemy. It is when the enemy is concealed that the fighting becomes more difficult.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes

No, I haven't gone suddenly contemporary or compromising.

All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes - Christians and Popular Culture is the name of a book that I have recently been reading. (I tend to read multiple books at a time, rather than going through one book and then starting another.)

I recently came across a book that feels like it is an essential part of the Scott Anoil library. Our Salisbury Branch of the Wicomico County Library has an area where they usually have a small selection (from ten to one hundred) of books that are available for purchase. The books only cost 50 cents for a hard back and 25 cents for a paper back, so I usually check the area whenever I am in the library to see what I might find that is work a quarter or fifty cents.

Recently I picked up a copy of a book entitled, All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians and Popular Culture written by a Kenneth A. Myers. This book is part of the Turning Point Christian Worldview Series which is edited by Marvin Olasky. I regret to say that I know very little about those involved in this series and I have only read the first part of the book, but I find some of the comments being made by Mr. Myers (who produced and edited programs for All Things Considered on National Public Radio for eight years) to be very interesting.

The chapter titles alone tell you that this book is going to take you on an interesting journey. Here is a listing of the chapter titles.

1. Of the World, But Not in the World
2. What is Culture, That Thou Art Mindful of It?
3. Would You Take Jesus to See This Planet?
4. Popular Culture and the Restless Ones
5. Accounting for Taste
6. Better to Receive
7. Before the Revolution
8. Where Have All the Standards Gone?
9. Popular Culture's Idiom: Rock Around the Clock
10. Popular Culture's Medium: The Entertainment Appliance
11. Where Do We Go From Here?

As I make my way through the book, I am going to be occasionally posting some of the thought- provoking comments from Mr. Myers' book on this blog. In some cases, I will comment on the quotes. In other cases, I will simply post the quote and see what you think.

From the Introduction:

Christian concern about popular culture should be as much about the sensibilities it encourages as about its content.

...popular culture's greatest influence is in the way it shapes how we think and feel (more than what we think and feel) and how we think and feel about thinking and feeling.

Popular culture is in many ways a very trivial matter...but its triviality , while making it seem innocuous, also enables it to be extremely pervasive, and that is its most toxic quality.

What think ye, O ye thinking men (and women)?

Frank

What was preached on Sunday?

Over at My Two Cents, Chris Anderson used to ask folks about what they preached or heard preached on Sundays. Since he seems to have discontinued that practice, I guess I will start it up over here.

SOOOO, What did your Pastor preach about on Sunday? Post a topic, comment, or even outline below (for those who listen well to a Pastor who outlines well). If you are a Pastor or Preacher, what did you preach this past weekend?

Frank

Good service with the Bob Jones University Sacred Sounds Musical Ministry Team

Last night, Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury, Maryland, the church where I serve as Pastor, hosted the Bob Jones University Musical Ministry Team.

While we were down a little in attendance, the service went very nice as the team sang, played their instruments, and gave testimonies regarding God's working in their lives. Mr. Jon Reddick also delivered a short sermon on 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 and the value of love.

I appreciate the fact that the various Fundamental colleges and universities are willing to send their teams to small churches like ours. Since I have been down here in Salisbury, we have had the privilege of hosting teams from Bob Jones University, Maranatha Baptist Bible College, and Northland Baptist Bible College. Each time they have come it has been a blessing to our church and they have all represented their schools well.

While some might say that because we do not have a lot of teenagers, yet, in our church that these teams are wasting their times (after all, surely the justification for teams like this comes in part from the fact that they help to recruit teens to their respective schools). However, I appreciate the fact that the teams have not given that impression, but have instead taken an interest and talked with our folks and took the opportunity to minister to those who were there.

While we do have a few teens (and I praying that God would lead them towards a good solid Fundamental college), the reality is that by coming to a church like ours with very few teens, these teams are also helping to form a positive view of their schools in the lives of the parents and younger children - something that may indeed help in their enrollment down the road.

Anyway, I just wanted to take the time to encourage Pastors out there to host these teams when they are in your area and I wanted to say "thank you for coming" to Jon, Deb, Katie, Kimmy, James and Joey. Have a safe tour.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Visit the New FFBC Blog

Today marks the official launching of the FFBC Blog. I have been working on this off and on for awhile now and I am glad that it is finally up and running.

The FFBC Blog is a group blog by Pastors and members of the Fellowship of Fundamental Bible Churches. I have explained the concept in more details in my introductory post on the FFBC Blog - "Introducing the FFBC Blog - The Messenger for a New Millenium".

Please take some time to stop by and see what is up over there.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Christianity Today is the answer to the "Who Said This" Question

Recently, I ran a post in which I asked, who made the following statement regarding the situation regarding Episcopal priest Don Armstrong of Colorado Springs, Colorado who has been accused of misusing church funds.

No one is talking about the details of the allegation except to say that police have not been contacted. The Colorado Springs Gazette frames the story as similar to the resignations of New Life Church ministers Ted Haggard and Christopher Beard, but the connection is problematic. If the allegation against Armstrong had been about sexual immorality, the Episcopal diocese probably would not have put him on leave. More likely, they would have made him a bishop.

The answer to that question might surprise some - I know it surprised me when I read it.

The post actually comes from the blog of Christianity Today (also known by at least one blogger as Christianity Ashtray). It comes not from the comments section, but from the actual post itself - posted on 1/04/07.

Not to beat a Man-O-War (a dead horse), but this again points out something that I said in regards to Joel Tetreau's A-B-C posts at SharperIron. If this statement had been made by a conservative Fundamentalist (isn't it sad that we now have to add an additional descriptor to Fundamentalist?), it would have been blasted as being "harsh" (at least).

Now, I am not saying it would not be characteristic of a conservative Fundamentalist to make such a statement - I can hear myself of Don Johnson making that comment rather easily, but when even a publication as "wishy-washy" as CT makes such a statement, it is clear these things that Joel is using to describe the "Types" really are more dispositional issues rather than positional issues.

Anyway, no one guessed, so no one wins.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Who said this?

The following comment was made recently (within the last week) regarding Episcopal priest Don Armstrong of Colorado Springs, Colorado being accused of misusing church funds.

No one is talking about the details of the allegation except to say that police have not been contacted. The Colorado Springs Gazette frames the story as similar to the resignations of New Life Church ministers Ted Haggard and Christopher Beard, but the connection is problematic. If the allegation against Armstrong had been about sexual immorality, the Episcopal diocese probably would not have put him on leave. More likely, they would have made him a bishop.

Ouch!

Any guesses about where this comment came from?

2006 Family Christmas Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

"I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." So proclaimed the angel to the shepherds on the night of the birth of Jesus. As we reflect on this season, we are again thankful for the "good tidings" - the good news of God's gift of Jesus Christ to pay the price of our sins.

2006 has been a busy year for the Sansone family, but we are thankful for what God is doing in and through us and we are thankful to family and friends who support us, pray for us and love us.

On the family front, Josiah turned 10 in November and is in 4th grade, Christina turned 7 in April and is in 2ndgrade, and Rebekah turned two last January and is growing like a weed. (We won't bother to mention how old Missy and Frank are, but will hint that Missy will be having a new first digit next year that many would use to indicate she is no longer young.)

We are thankful for our children and enjoy watching them grow and learn - although we wish there was a way to slow down the process at times. It is hard to believe how quickly the time flies. Josiah and Christina are taking piano lessons - and Chrissy tries to teach Daddy what she has learned. Josiah has been playing soccer this year and Daddy has been his coach. We had a good outdoor season (we finished 8-4 and Josiah led the team in assists) and we are three games into our indoor season.

Missy is still working as a labor and delivery nurse at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury. She has also learned how to quilt and is working on her first quilt. In addition to serving as Pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church, Frank enjoys coaching Josiah and working on things on the computer. He has a personal blog (http://athinkingmansthoughts.blogspot.com) that he posts on regularly and a Pastoral blog for our church and a blog called Soccer Scribbles that he maintains for the soccer team. He also wrote an article on The Da Vinci Code that got published as an FFBC Spotlight article and distributed to many churches around the country.

On the ministry front, this has been a very busy year. In the beginning of the year, we were able to purchase a building and move out of our location next to the Red Door Sub Shop. In April, we celebrated God's provision for a new building with our Building Dedication Service. We also changed our name from Messiah Baptist Fellowship to Fellowship Baptist Church and began many new adventures, including our first Father-Son Camp Out, our first Vacation Bible School, Baptisms down at the Nanticoke River, and our first Youth Activities. In October, we began Sunday School and God has been working greatly through the Sunday School ministry.

In November, Frank's Mom was very sick and in ICU in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. God preserved her in a situation where both the heart and lung doctors thought she would not make it. I know that many of you prayed for her during this time, and we greatly appreciate your prayers for Frank's Mom. While the visit to Illinois was not for a fun purpose, Frank did enjoy seeing some family members that he has not seen in a long time.

As we celebrated the birth of our Savior, we rejoice in God's goodness to us for another year and look forward to what God is going to do in and through us in the next year. We pray that this year and this season has been a time of blessing and reflection upon the King of Kings. May God grant you a prosperous new year, as well.

In Christ,


Pastor Frank and Missy Sansone
Josiah, Christina, and Rebekah

Join us at Bible Community Church

UPDATE: The College and Career Retreat has been canceled. I will, however, be preaching at Bible Community Church in Painesville, Ohio on Sunday, December 31, although I imagine most of my readers already have a regular church that they attend.

Blogger Andy Rupert from Isle Kerguelen has directed the College and Career Winter Retreat at Peniel Bible Camp for a few years and will be directing the camp again this year.

I have the great privilege of preaching for this retreat and I am looking forward to being with the good folks at Peniel Bible Camp and with the College and Career aged young people that come.

The following quote was stolen from the Retreat Web-Site.

“Where are you going?” is our theme this year. Many young adults are making important decisions but will they be going the way God wants them to? We will consider this important topic as Pastor Frank Sansone speaks to us from God’s Word.

This year’s camp is scheduled for a Friday–Saturday combo, December 29–30, 2006. We will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Friday and will finish up at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.

This retreat is open to any "single adult who has completed high school, has never been married, and is under thirty years of age."

The cost of the retreat is only $45 and it should be a good time of fun and fellowship. I am looking forward to meeting some of you there.

Check out the Winter Retreat Web-site for more information - including some pictures from previous years.

I have heard many good things about Camp Peniel over the years and I am excited to be able to preach there. Even if you can't make the retreat, please pray that God would use His Word and this retreat in the lives of all of us who are there.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

2006 Church Christmas Letter

Dear Church Family,

Many years ago, the angel of the Lord told Joseph, "She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). The message of salvation that the angel proclaimed to Joseph is the same message of salvation that we must proclaim today. Jesus has come to save people from their sins. What a glorious truth to proclaim at this Christmas season!

We are excited about what God has been doing at Fellowship Baptist Church this year. When we take some time to look back over the year, it is with great awe that I echo the words of the Psalmist when he said, "O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever" (Psalm 30:12).

While I do not have the space here to highlight many of God's blessings this year, I am reminded of great things He hath done.

* In January, we took a building fund offering and the Lord blessed with $20,000 to help us complete the purchase of our new building.

* In February, we moved into our new facilities at 1308 Robins Avenue, but had to continue praying as there was some complications with the purchase.

* In March, we finally closed on the new building and began to get it ready for the building dedication.

* In April, we had our Building Dedication Sunday and over 100 people visited us for this special day as Pastor Mark Franklin and Pastor Steve Wagner preached the Word.

* In the summer, we had our first Father-Son Camp-out and our first Vacation Bible School.

* In September, we had our church picnic and baptisms in the Nanticoke River at the Insley's.

* In October, we began our Sunday School program with a great percentage of our people - both children and adults - coming out to study God's Word in Sunday School.

* In November, we had our second annual Pie N Praise service on Thanksgiving Eve.

This month, we are anticipating another good month of ministry and fellowship here at FBC and we pray that you will be a part of it.

On Saturday, December 16 at 6:00 p.m., we will meet at the church to go Christmas caroling and have a time of fellowship at our house after the caroling. There is also a ladies cookie exchange at 5:00 p.m. at the church before the caroling begins.

On Sunday, December 24, we will have a children's Christmas program as part of our morning service and a special Candlelight Christmas Communion for our Christmas Eve service.

On Sunday, December 31, Dr. William Woodhall will be our guest speaker during the morning service and we will be using our projector to watch a special film presentation during the evening service.

May Jesus Christ be exalted as we remember His birth.

In Christ,

Pastor Frank Sansone

The Whereabouts of Pastor Jim Schettler

During the NBA Playoffs, I made a post entitled, "?Dave Doran to Replace Jim Schettler as the Pastor of the Campus Church?" The point of this post was to highlight what I thought was a humorous conversation going on at Chris Anderson's blog - My Two Cents. In that conversation, Chris (Pastor of Tri-County Baptist Church in the Cleveland area of Ohio and a fellow former team captain for the Minutemen Evangelistic Team) was bragging, er, being happy about the fact that the Cleveland Cavaliers were putting up a good fight against the mighty Detroit Pistons. In the comments that followed, Dr. Doran (a Pistons fan) made a joke about submitting his resume to Dr. Horton at PCC to replace Pastor Schettler if Cleveland actually won the series. As the series wore on, Cleveland started to do even better and it looked like they may actually win the series and other comments that I thought were humorous were made on the thread, so I highlighted the thread.

Since then, it has been a very common thing for my sitemeter to register multiple hits to my page each day as a result of people finding my page while searching for information about Jim Schettler and Pensacola Christian College and the Campus Church. The last couple of days, this traffic has increased (I assume because of the fact that PCC has apparently named Lloyd Streeter and Neal Jackson as Pastor and Co-Pastor and people are now wondering again about Pastor Schettler.)

As a service to all of you who happen to find your way to my blog looking for information about Pastor Schettler and PCC/The Campus Church, etc., I have tracked down what I can find out.

Regarding Jim Schettler

My understanding is that Pastor Jim Schettler has accepted a call to become the Pastor of First Baptist Church of Santa Maria, California. I cannot find a church web-site, but I did call the church to confirm that he was coming to be the Pastor. The lady who answered the phone confirmed for me that the rumor I had heard was accurate. (By the way, I used to live "on the mesa" between Santa Maria and Arroyo Grande, California when I was in 10th grade and I am pretty sure that I had at least one camper from this church when I served as a counselor at Ironwood Christian Camp in Newberry Springs, California many years ago.)

UPDATE: The church now has a website: http://www.firstbaptistsantamaria.org (HT: MGROOP and KellyC from the comments section of my blog.)

Regarding the Pensacola Christian College Campus Church

ShaperIron has posted a letter from PCC to the Alumni that explains that Lloyd Streeter and Neal Jackson will be the Pastor and Co-Pastor. Further details can be found by following this link.


(For the record, I am not commenting one way or the other on either the ministry of Pastor Schettler or of PCC in this post, I am simply trying to help all the people who are looking for this information who keep getting directed to my blog by the various search engines.)

Anyway, I hope this is helpful to those of you who have come here looking for this information.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

The Problems with The DaVinci Code (rerun)

Below is the text for an article that I wrote soon before the movie version of The DaVinci Code was released. With the recent release of the DVD/Video of the movie, a couple people have asked me about this subject again. This article is written based upon the book. It is my understanding that the Robert Langdon character in the movie (played by Tom Hanks) is a little more skeptical in the movie than in the book, but other than that, I have not heard of many differences between the movie and the book.

This was originally written for publication in the FFBC Spotlight and designed to fit as a bulletin insert in church bulletins, so the space was necessarily limited. Dr. Kevin Bauder, Dr. Darrell Bock, and Radio Bible Class (in addition to many others) all have good information and more thorough treatmenst of this topic as well. A .pdf version of this article was supposed to have made it for posting on the FFBC Web-site, but I do not think it ever materialized.


THE DAVINCI CODE by Pastor Frank Sansone

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown has become an international phenomenon. As a hardback book, it has been on the famed "Bestseller List" of The New York Times for over 160 weeks and has been declared to be the "all-time best-selling adult novel." Reports indicate that over forty million copies of the book have been sold and it has been translated into over forty languages. With the recent release of the book in paperback and a movie based on the book starring popular actor Tom Hanks, the conversation around The DaVinci Code may get even louder in the coming days.

The popularity of this book has earned the author a place on Time Magazine's list of "The World's 100 Most Influential People." A quick look reveals that this book has been the catalyst behind a whole range of other books, articles, web-sites, and documentaries which trumpet or expand upon many of the ideas promoted in this book. In addition, there have been a number of books and articles written which have sought to correct the "alternative history" that is presented in The DaVinci Code.

Why has The DaVinci Code warranted such attention? Aren't people - especially Christians - just overreacting to a fictional novel? Does Dan Brown actually hit on some deep, dark secrets that strike at the root of Christianity? Was Jesus really married to Mary Magdalene and did He have children that carried on His blood? Did the early church really think that Jesus was merely a mortal prophet until Constantine got them all together and made up the idea that Jesus was God? How should Christians respond to the claims of The DaVinci Code?

While the length of this article does not allow for a full treatment of all of these issues, it is the desire of this article to highlight some of the issues presented by The DaVinci Code and present some suggested responses for believers.

BOOK OVERVIEW

The plot of the book is rather straightforward. The curator of the Louvre in France is murdered by an albino monk and leaves a coded message for his estranged granddaughter, Sophie. Sophie, who is a police cryptologist joins up with Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor in religious symbology, as they seek to find out the meaning of her grandfather's coded message and escape from the police and others. During their escape, they must break a series of codes and follow secret messages throughout France and Britain. Central to these codes is the idea that the grandfather was the Grand Master of a secret society called the Priory of Sion, whose goal has been to protect the Holy Grail and keep its secrets. The twist ensues, however, when it becomes revealed that the Holy Grail, rather than being the legendary "cup of Christ" that supposedly held the blood of Christ and was sought in the Middle Ages, is instead actually Mary Magdalene, who held the blood of Christ by being the mother of His children.

As the book progresses, a wholly different world of alternative histories promotes as fact the idea that Jesus Christ was merely a mortal prophet, that Mary Magdalene was in reality the wife of Jesus Christ and the mother to His child, that Christ believed in a "sacred feminine" and that a sexual rite is needed for man to experience union with the divine, that there has been a vast cover-up by the Catholic Church and Christians about all of these things and that Constantine basically "made up" Christianity for political purposes in the 4th Century A.D.

If many of these ideas were presented in a non-fiction work, the outlandish nature of these claims would be subjected to critique and exposed as the bad and distorted history that they are. Unfortunately, the way things are presented in the book, it is not as easy to understand what is true and what is false. Mr. Brown gives his main characters an outstanding knowledge of art and history and often has those characters display that knowledge while mixing in the "alternative history" as part of the descriptions. This mixing in of the true history with the untrue "alternative history" is what leads to much of the confusion regarding this book. To add to the apparent credibility of his ideas, on the first page of the novel, Mr. Brown presents some "facts" and claims that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." In doing so, Mr. Brown makes an underlying claim of accuracy and then uses the shield of fiction to present his views, giving these radical view the air of authority by having his "enlightened" characters bring to the forefront his ideas and present those ideas as well-established fact.

For instance, consider these words from Sir Leigh Teabing, a "former British Royal Historian":
"the early Church needed to convince the world that the mortal prophet Jesus was a divine being. Therefore, any gospels that described earthly aspects of Jesus' life had to be omitted from the Bible. Unfortunately for the early editors, one particularly troubling earthly theme kept recurring in the gospels. Mary Magdalene." He paused. "More specifically, her marriage to Jesus Christ."
"I beg your pardon?" Sophie's eyes moved to Langdon and then back to Teabing.
"It's a matter of historical record," Teabing said. (1)

In addition to all the distortions presented as indisputable fact, he also makes a point that "history is written by the ‘winners'" and that therefore we cannot trust the history as recorded because it is biased against the truth that has been covered up and suppressed all these years.

EVALUATION

While Mr. Brown likes to claim that this book is based on fact and well-researched, in reality, Mr. Brown presents a work that is a lopsided presentation built upon faulty documents, personal bias, and inaccurate details.

Faulty documents
Much of the undergirding for the claims in this novel are based upon two sets of faulty documents. The first set is the Gnostic Gospels, in particular those found at Nag Hammadi in Egypt. Teabing speaks about these records highly, calling them, "the earliest Christian records" and uses them to support his claim that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married.

The reality is that these documents were not even close to being "the earliest Christian records." In fact, they were written well after the Gospel accounts and other books that make up the New Testament. They were rejected by the early church because of their lack of authenticity (e.g. written by people using fake names long after the named author was dead) and their departure from the Christian message as presented by the Apostles and those that followed them.

Another set of faulty documents at the core of this story is the Les Dossiers Secrets. This is the documents that Brown uses to support his list of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion - including Leonardo Da Vinci and Sir Isaac Newton. This list is referred to a number of times to give a picture of importance to this secret organization. The problem, however, is that these documents which are presented as historically reliable were actually a forgery. Pierre Plantard, the man who supposedly found the documents, admitted under oath to a French judge in 1993 that the documents were forged - yet Brown used these documents and presented them as historically authenticated.

Personal Bias

While it is not my intention to belabor this point, Dan Brown has explained in interviews that he actually believes the underlying views that are expressed in his book. The book therefore becomes a way in which he is able to get his bias towards this view into the mainstream.

Consider these statements from an article in The Washington Post.

"I was skeptical, but after a year and a half of research, I became a believer, " says Brown.
"Do you believe that Jesus was actually married to Magdalene?" "I do," he says. (2)

When Sophie declares that she does not know much about the Bible because she was raised by a man who worshiped Leonardo Da Vinci, Teabing responds, "An enlightened soul. Superb!" (3)

Inaccurate Details

Throughout the book, Robert Langdon and Leigh Teabing are presented as "experts", yet, in a number of cases, the information that they declare to the reader is actually inaccurate information - sometimes completely wrong and other times a distortion of the truth.

Robert Langdon describes the etymology of YHWH (the personal name of God) by explaining it being derived from Jehovah, when in fact Jehovah comes from a mixing of the Hebrew consonants YHWH with the Hebrew vowels for the word Adonai (another word for God or Lord).

Teabing mentions over 80 gospels, when, even with counting the very late ones written centuries after Christ, there were not anywhere close to that many.

Langdon describes Shekinah as God's "powerful female equal" rather than the cloud that represented God's glory.

Teabing claims that the idea of Christ being God came about at the Council of Nicea and was the result of a vote that was "a close vote." The reality is that the earliest Christian documents - including the books that make up our New Testament, clearly declared the deity of Jesus Christ more than two hundred years before the Council of Nicea. While it is true that the Council of Nicea affirmed the deity of Christ and stood against the heretic Arius, even that was not a "close vote" as only three of the over 300 bishops refused to sign the document affirming the deity of Christ that came out of the Council.

Many other instances like these could be pointed out in the writings.

CONCLUSION

There is much that The Da Vinci Code claims that makes for a great conspiracy theory. But, like most conspiracy theories, when confronted with the light of the truth and the facts of history, this great "alternative history" that Dan Brown espouses in the book does not stand up to scrutiny. His personal bias allows him to elevate unreliable documents to a place of primary importance and he weaves many inaccurate details into his writing to try to make his case look much stronger than it is.

As believers, we should be prepared to give an answer of the hope that lies within (I Peter 3:15). The nature of the size of this article does not allow for a full presentation of all the issues contained in The Da Vinci Code to be addressed. For a fuller discussion on these issues and other issues related to The Da Vinci Code, some valuable resources would be the book, Breaking the Da Vinci Code by Darrell L. Bock, a series of articles in the publication Nick of Time written by Dr. Kevin Bauder of Central Baptist Theological Seminary and found online at http://www.centralseminary.edu/index.asp?m=701 and a section devoted to this book on the Radio Bible Class web- site at http://www.rbcdavincicode.org.



(1) Brown, Dan, The Da Vinci Code, p. 244.
(2) Roberts, Roxanne, "The Da Vinci Code", The Washington Post, Aug. 2, 2003.
(3) Brown, Dan, The Da Vinci Code, p. 230.


File under Culture_War, Christianity_, Book_Reviews

My Case for Michigan

College Football is a unique sport in that the champion is not determined by a play-off system or by direct competition, but by a voting system instead. In recent years, there has been a half- hearted attempt to adjust this with what is known as the BCS (Bowl Championship Series). I am not a big fan of the BCS. I would have preferred to have kept the original conference tie-ins with the traditional bowls (e.g. Big Ten vs. Pac-10 in Rose Bowl) or to have went directly to a play-off system (although my idea for a playoff system is slightly different from the one that most people propose - something for an upcoming post).

This year, we find ourselves in an interesting position in regards to who will get to play in the Championship Game. The universally recognized number 1 ranked team is unbeaten Ohio State. The only other unbeaten team is Boise State - a school that plays in the very inferior WAC conference and who is generally discounted because they have not had to play very many good teams (in a relatively speaking sort of way).

Anyway, the current debate on this topic is whether Michigan or Florida should play Ohio State in Arizona for this year's College Football National Championship. My vote (if I had one) would be that Michigan has earned the right to have a second shot at Ohio State (sorry Gator and Buckeye fans).

Now, before you get too excited or concerned, I have to make three important notes and then give my reasoning.

3 Important Notes

1. I am not a Michigan fan. I am not a Michigan-hater like my OSU friends, but I am not a UM fan. I am an Arizona State University fan when it comes to college football and have a general Pac-10 bias from my years of growing up out west. My second favorite college football team is probably the University of Illinois, due to the fact that some of my earliest days were spent in Champaign, Illinois and much of my family still live in Illini territory - also, the first college football game I ever attended was a U of I football game.

2. I do not like the current system. I have what I believe to be a much better way, but don't have time to post that tonight.

3. I would not really be opposed to Boise State playing in this game, since they would still have to beat OSU to actually become the National Champions - unlike when BYU was wrongly awarded the National Championship in 1984 just because they were the last undefeated team standing - even though their bowl victory was only a 24-17 win over a 6-5 Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl.

My Case for Michigan

1. Michigan's loss is more forgivable.

Michigan has only lost one game this entire season. So has Florida. However, the loss that Michigan experienced is a more forgivable loss than the loss that Florida experienced. I view Michigan's loss as more forgivable for the following reasons.

a. Michigan's loss was to the better team (OSU is ranked number 1, Auburn is ranked number 11)
b. Michigan's loss was by fewer points (Michigan lost to Ohio State by the score of 42-39, while Florida lost to Auburn by the score of 27-17)
c. It is generally acknowledge that home field advantage is worth approximately 3 points, which means that Michigan's loss to Ohio State would have been a tie on a neutral field, while Florida's loss to Auburn would have still been a 7 point loss.

2. Michigan's wins are more impressive

Michigan beat every opponent but Ohio State by seven points or more, with the only seven point win a road win of 17- 10 over Penn State

Florida has five games that they won by 7 or less points. They only beat Tennessee and South Carolina by one point each (and SC was a home game), beat a pretty weak (4-8) Vanderbilt team by only 6 points and only beat Georgia and Florida State by seven points each (and again,
Georgia was a home game).

3. Michigan did better against the only common opponent.

The two teams only played one common opponent (the aforementioned Vanderbilt). When Florida played Vanderbilt, Florida beat Vanderbilt 25-19. When Michigan played Vanderbilt, Michigan beat Vanderbilt 27-7.

4. The strength of schedule is not that big of a difference.

The main argument that seems to be offered for Florida is that they had the nation's toughest schedule. While it is true that Florida is considered to have the toughest schedule, Michigan had the third toughest schedule according to the same criteria.

Also, I am not as impressed as some regarding Florida's strength of schedule when I consider the fact that two of their twelve wins were against University of Central Florida (4-8 as part of the mighty Conference USA) and Western Carolina (which won only two games playing against the likes of Wofford and The Citadel - and whose losses included a 42-7 loss against Furman and a 21-0 loss against Liberty).


Not that anybody in the sports world actually reads this, but I believe that these facts provide a compelling case that Michigan should get a chance at a re-match with Ohio State on a neutral field for the National Championship rather than Florida receiving that chance.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Update on my mom's health

As many of you are aware, my mom is currently in critical condition at St. Mary's Good Samaritan Hospital in Mount Vernon, Illionis. I am in Illinois with her and do not have good internet access. Below is the latest update in a series of updates that we (as a family) have been sending out to other family and friends.

Hello friends and family,

This is Frank Sansone. My brother Mike has been sending out the email updates regarding the medical situation of my mom, Sharon Kay Cheek, but Mike and Sue had to leave to get back to Colorado where he is undergoing a test for some heart problems he is having, so I will now be providing the updates.

We appreciate all your prayers as Mom has been making good progress today. She was able to get off of the ventilator (which Mike mentioned in a previous post) and is breathing well without the ventilator. She is still mostly sleeping, but we have seen some responses.

Just before Mike left, when he went in for one last time before leaving for Colorado, it looked as though she looked at him and smiled. This was soon after his last update that he sent out.

At about 2100 CST (9:00 p.m.), Aunt Linda came into the ICU waiting room and said that mom was starting to wake up some more.

Kelly, Rhonda and I hustled into the room to see her. She was moving around a little and we started to talk to her. She opened her eyes while we were talking to her. After that, she did something awesome. For years, we as a family have had a code - an unspoken way to say "I love you". It is not much of a code, but for years, we would squeeze each others hand or arm three times to say "I love you." I told my mom if she understood me to blink her eyes three times to say "I love you" knowing she would understand the significance of that in our family if she could understand. Then, as Kelly, Rhonda, and I watched, she blinked her eyes three times!!! We were ecstatic.

She still is not responding much, but this was a major encouragement. She still needs to rest more and we are hoping that in the morning, more of the sedative will have worn off and she will be able to respond more consistently.

In Christ,

Frank Sansone

P.S. Please pray for Mike and Sue as they travel most of the night and as he gets his heart tested tomorrow. Also, pray for Linda as she flies back out to Virginia tomorrow.

We appreciate all you prayers and ask you to continue to pray.

(I posted some additional information on this thread on Sharper Iron, for those who want to catch up a little regarding this request.)

On My Son's Tenth Birthday

Yesterday, we celebrated my son's 10th birthday (his birthday is today). It seems hard to believe that Josiah is 10 years old already. We had pizza and a birthday cake that mommy made to look like a soccer ball. Josiah got a lot of nice cards - including one from Mom Mom with a sweet poem about Josiah (I would post it if I were home and had the poem with me - maybe Missy can post it for me sometime this week).

For presents, Josiah got a desk for him to be able to study in his room (instead of trying to study at the kitchen table while there are all kinds of distractions around him). Missy picked up the desk at Goodwill and stripped it and painted. It looks really nice. She did a great job on the desk and he jumped up and down when he saw it. We also got him a number of things to go with the desk (desk lamp, pencils, pens, etc.) and a gift card to Staples so that he could pick out other desk supplies that he wanted. The other major gift that we got him was a Philadelphia Eagles Replica Helmet. He loved it.

As I am on a plane this morning on my way to Illinois to see my mom in the hospital, I have to be away from Josiah on his birthday. The following part is for him.

Dear Josiah,

I love you, bud. I am sorry that I have to be away on your birthday. Please continue to pray for Gramma Big Hug. I will see you soon.

It is hard to imagine that you are already 10 years old. That is a decade! You have been growing up soo nicely. You have outgrown "lizards and sharks" and while it makes me sad to think that you are getting older, I also realize that it is a good thing that you are growing and it is neat to see that growth in your life. You are a good boy and it is good to see you grow up in your maturity and physically, but it is even better to see you grow spiritually. This has been a big year. I love to see your sermon notes after a sermon at church. You usually do such a good job of paying attention. It is neat that Mrs. Tarr is going to let you take notes in chapel now, as well.

It was a blessing for me to be able to Baptize you this year. It was appropriate to me that you were the first one for me to Baptize as Pastor before baptizing the others. I love your zeal for God and your desire to see your friends come.

It has been a lot of fun coaching you and your team in soccer. You have turned into a really good soccer player. I appreciate the fact that you look for your teammates and pass the ball well. You led our team in assissts this year and probably could have scored more goals yourself if you had wanted to be selfish. I am gladfor what that shows about your understanding of the game, but I am even more glad for what that shows about your understnading of life. Life is not about what we can do or the glory we can get for ourselves. It is about loving and serving God first, and loving and serving others.

I wish I was there today so that I could sit next to you with your new Eagles helmet and your Eagles shirt and we could watch the Eagles cream the Tennesse Titans and yell E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles. (Much to Mommy's chagrin :) ). I wish I could be there tonight and pray with you and kiss you "North, South, East & West."

You be good for Mommy this week and grow up to love and honor God with all of your life.

Love,

Daddy

Missy, Chrissy, and Beka, I love you, too and miss you already. Please keep praying for Gramma Big Hug. I'll talk to you after I can get my phone charged again.

Just my thougthts,

Frank