If ever there were a non-event, it would be this announcement (but we thought we’d make the announcement anyway): BtT will allow for ”comments” on many of its posts. Alvin Reid’s post, “We Have Reached a Tipping Point” is the first post to do so. For those of you who read the blog, thank you for taking the time to do so and we look forward to your comments.
I wanted to be the first . . . and likely the only person to comment on the comment post. Thanks for giving me this opportunity.
Comment by George Robinson — April 2, 2009 @ 10:33 pm
I am one who is grateful for this decision. Conversation and at times even debate is helpful in issues. Thank you.
Comment by Debbie Kaufman — April 2, 2009 @ 10:44 pm
[...] by the providence of God, at least one of those two has become a “real” [...]
Pingback by Comments On Between The Times - We’ll Take Credit | Southern Baptist Blogs - SBC Voices — April 5, 2009 @ 9:59 pm
This should give a real opportunity for communication between the seminary people and the ministers and members in many church fields – eventually all of them.
Communication could serve to keep the churches and the institution current, thus, resolving some problems on the one hand. On the other, it can also present new problems. The real need of our hour is for an awakening. Our society is beginning to break down. Witness the mass killings by individuals obviously cracking under the strain of being unemployed in a severely contracting economy. The jobs that have left are unlikely to come back (due to automation, computerization, and robotics), while the ones that are created will really be make-work, meaningless paper-shuffling positions which will contribute to the increase in suicides along with the unemployment problem. There is also the factor that the whole of civilization is in an immense struggle with evil forces (I do not refer to the ostensible struggle with Islam)determined to establish a world-wide hegemony designed to rid the planet of excess population and preserve the necessities, etc. for the elite. See C. S. Lewis’ sci-fi trilogy, esp., That Hideous Strength, where he actually named a real conspirator. References will also be found Lewis’ The Great Divorce (footnote) and Letters To An American Lady. The answer to the problem of such struggle with such evil is also in That Hideous Strength in these words, “they pull down deep Heaven on their heads.” The coming of such a Heavenly presence in conjunction with the theology of the Great Awakenings (First & Second) and the Great Century of Missions which is SOVEREIGN GRACE is the key to the Third Great Awakening. Even John Wesley appears more sound than many of our day. While he resisted calvinism, he did wish to work to whatever extent possible with Mr. Whitefield. Thus, he declared, for example, “With regard to .., Unconditional Election, I believe, That God, before the foundation of the world,…has unconditionally elected some persons to eternal glory….With regard to .., Irresistible Grace, I believe, That the grace which brings faith, and thereby salvation, into the soul, is irresistible at that moment: That most believers may remember some time when God did irresistibly convince them of sin: That most believers do at some other times find God irresistibly acting upon their souls:….That in some souls the grace of God is so far irresistible, that they cannot but believe and be finally saved….With regard to..,Final Perseverance, I incline to believe, That there is a state attainable in this life, from which a man cannot finally fall. And That he has attained this, who can say, ‘Old things are passed away: all things in me are become new.” The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. I(London: J.P. Dent & Sons, Ltd.;NY: E.P. Dutton & Co., 19o6, reprt., 1913), pp.429-430. Seems Mr. Wesley out did many of our own ministers of today!Since the faith of Mr. Whitefield and Mr.Edwards was clearly Sovereign Grace, it is clear that the theology of the Great Awakenings was the same. My Wesley’s comments prove the point.
Comment by Dr. James Willingham — April 6, 2009 @ 11:03 pm