It's Been Too Long

Two of my readers (is that 67% of them?) have been clamoring (that's an overstatement) for me to write again. I've been very busy lately, and haven't had time. The trip to Chile (I promise to write a post about that) was great, but I came back very tired. I think it took 2 weeks to recover.

Baseball season started, and the Cubs have broken my heart already. I hope it will get better. My Cardinal friends heart is more broken, as they have yet to win a game!

We have been in pre-enrollment, which is always a busy time. Also, it is Easter Week. I will teach tomorrow morning, dismissing my OT class just a few minutes early to go to the chapel for our All Campus Good Friday service.

When that is over, Rose and I will go to Little Rock, Arkansas. That's right. I used Hotwire to get a room at the La Quinta Inn in North Little Rock for tomorrow night. Roger Powell (University of Illinois, 2005) plays for the Arkansas RimRockers, who have just two remaining home games (Friday and Saturday night). We'll be there at the Friday night game. They play at Alltel Arena in North Little Rock. I called the team today, and there will be plenty of tickets available.

Roger was just named the winner of the 2006-2007 Jason Collier NBA Development League Sportsmanship Award. I played basketball with his father back in the 1960s. His father was a 4-year starter at Illinois State (top 25 team for a while), while I was relegated to intramurals :). Roger Powell Jr. was called Rev at the University of Illinois. He is a licensed preacher in his church. I am trying to find a way to make contact with him so that we can actually meet him, and talk to him.

I promise I will write a serious piece about my teaching trip to Chile before too much longer.

May the blessings of the risen Christ be with you!

DGF

On the Road (I Mean, In the Air) Again

I'm writing these words from the Kansas City Int'l Airport. I took the 6:00 AM flight from Joplin (more like the 6:35 AM flight), and am waiting the next flight. From here I will go to Dallas, then to Miami, and finally on to Santiago, CHILE. By the time I arrive there, I will have been traveling about 24 hours. I will preach Sunday morning at the Libertad church (I hope I don't put myself to sleep). I will have the remainder of Sunday (nap time, I imagine), and Monday & Tuesday to visit as many friends as I can. On Wednesday, I will fly to Temuco, then travel about an hour north to Lautaro, where I will teach an intensive course in Principles of (Bible) Interpretation.

My colleague, Larry Pechawer, will start teaching a course on Psalms at the Santiago Institute this morning. I will look forward to seeing him there. I think he will be teaching mainly at night, so maybe I can show him around Santiago during the daytime.

I'm thankful that the Kansas City airport decided to provide free wi-fi. I have already responded to a student blog, and now am working on this entry. The trip from Joplin to Kansas City was pleasant, despite the small plane. John Mouton (from CIY) was on the same flight, ready to meet up with a group of Ozark students already in Kansas City. They will be going to New York City to work with a new church plant this week. I tried to check my baggage from Joplin all the way to Santiago. The Joplin-Kansas city portion was on US Airways Express/Mesa Air Group/operated by Air Midwest. Their routing paperwork only had enough spots for 3 destinations. I told them that if it would be easier, they could check it to Kansas City, and I would pick it up and re-check it. That wasn't a problem. Here you can see a photo of the plane from Joplin. The pickup truck was off-loading the luggage. From the time the pickup truck left the side of the plane until the time my bags rolled off the carousel was only about 2 minutes. I didn't have any trouble identifying my two bags. They were the only two that were sent to U.S. Airways Baggage Claim (all the other bags on my flight were connecting to other U.S. Airways destinations). I got my bags, took the red bus to Terminal C, checked them in at American, had a bite of breakfast, and decided to post this.

Hope that you all are well. I'll be back in Joplin (Lord willing) on Tuesday the 20th in the afternoon, after another marathon trip.

See you later!

DGF

On Combining '60's Pop Culture and New Testament Greek

One of the joys of my life is the privilege of teaching New Testament Greek. My Greek class is kind of like a small discipleship group. After class this morning, one of the students asked me what the Greek word for believer was. I had never thought much about it. We don't have a Greek vocabulary word for that. I thought about it a while, and responded that it must be the participle formed from the verb: ὁ πιστεύων (literally "the one who believes").

My daughter, Kimberly, has John 3:16 in the Greek memorized. Though in an earlier post I diagrammed John 3:16 in the Greek, I must confess that I don't have it memorized in Greek. In order to test my theory, I went to John 3:16 in the Greek, and found this:

οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλʼ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.

Thus, I confirmed my suspicion. The present participle of πιστεύω is used 115 times in the New Testament in that manner.

Where does the '60's Pop Culture come into the equation? Well, the student, armed with the Greek rendering of "believer" made up a Greek sentence:

ἔβλεψα δὲ τὸ προσωπὸν αὐτῆς, νῦν εἰμὶ ὁ πιστεύων.

You may remember the lyrics like this:

And I saw her face, now I'm a believer.

Hope you all have a great day!

DGF

Honor to Whom Honor is Due

I've just come back to my office from College Hts. Christian Church, and decided to write some thoughts about what I saw there. I will write about two separate events that took place in the building simultaneously. I would like to give honor to two people, that showed me what a life of service is all about.

MOPS program. I have never been tempted to volunteer as a MOPS babysitter, and after seeing what I did this morning, I may be less inclined to do such a strange thing. My wife, Rose, though, works in the afternoons, which has freed up her time in the morning. Twice a month, she works with the MOPS program our church sponsors. Since our daughter-in-law, Emily, is in town, I knew that our grandsons were going to be at the MOPS program today. I canceled a class late this morning, to attend the second event of this post. I was told to arrive early, and swing by where Rose would be watching the MOPS kids, so I could see our two grandsons (we have a 3rd one, but he is a 3-month old baby, so he wasn't there). I made it on time, found the room where the kids were. It seemed like there were forty-leven (that's a huge number!) of kids there, and only 2 volunteers. There was a cacophony of toddlers screaming and crying (because they missed their mothers) as well as a malodorous aroma rising from the breeches of several of the toddlers. The other volunteer was a retired man, so guess who got the job of changing the diapers? Rose looked at me, with one of those "I'm so glad you're here" looks, and told me to take off my suit coat and help. My grandsons were behaving. If one of them had been crying bloody murder, I could have handled it better, but to bring comfort to a toddler who is screaming for no apparent reason? I felt very ill-equipped. The one who was screaming the loudest was a boy named Cory--I don't know his last name. I picked him up and sat down on a rocking chair and tried to console him. I would much rather parse Greek participles. After a while, a toy musical instrument seemed to settle him down. Rose was working away at what seemed to be a conveyor belt process of changing dirty diapers. I take my hat off to her, as that labor of love probably provides some mothers of pre-schoolers some much needed relief from their toddlers. It kind of makes me proud to have such a servant as a spouse.

Jon Lantz Funeral. The reason I canceled my class was to attend the funeral of Jon Lantz. You can read his obituary here or here. You can read what area journalists have written about him here, or here, or here. I first heard about Jon shortly after coming to Joplin, that the head football coach of the state university
in town was not only a member of the church, but was a Bible school teacher. I enjoyed knowing him. After he left his coaching position, he worked for Ozark Christian College for three years as the director of student development. His wife, Charlene, started working part-time in our bookstore at that time, a position she has held until the present. Recently, he has worked in the administration of North Eastern Oklahoma A & M (in Miami, OK), where he made an indelible impression as a man of character. He has graduated into the presence of God Himself. The inspired words of the Apostle Paul can truly be his:

⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Tim. 4:7-8)

So long, dear brother. See you again some day in glory!

Giveaway of the Day

My esteemed colleague, Terry Chaney, introduced me to Giveaway of the Day, a site that gives software away, one package each day of the month. These are full programs that can be registered for free, provided that they are downloaded and installed/activated during the day that they are offered. I have downloaded several of their programs over the past couple months. Today's offering has a registration fee of $119, and is a Mind-mapping program, for creating charts & diagrams.

It looks pretty nice. You might give it a try:

Skiing is Easier than Snowboarding . . . When You're Past 50!

It wasn't Colorado, and the snow wasn't really even white, but we skied on Friday, at Snow Creek Ski Resort near Weston, MO, just north of the Kansas City airport. My daughter Charissa and I went there last year, and Greg planned to go skiing on his vacation trip back to Missouri. On Thursday and Friday (last week and this week) adults ski for child prices. Griff covered my OT History class for me (thanks, Griff!), so I could do this family thing.

The five of us, Rose, I, Charissa, Greg, and Kimberly started this ski trip thing together probably about 19 years ago. We did it again on Friday, not in the majestic Andes mountains, not on any mountain, on artificial snow, but it was still fun. Snow Creek allows one exchange on rental equipment, from skis to snowboards, or vice versa, so late in the afternoon, we switched our skis for snowboards (that is, all except Rose). Somehow, Greg and Kim made it up the chair lift. Charissa and I were more sane, and ventured up a rope pull lift, not making it very far up, but stayed safer. Charissa and I were struggling, and a woman gave us some advice, but seemed astonished that we had never been on one before, nor had taken a class. God takes care of fools and children, they say. Our snowboard experience only lasted a short time, but we expended quite a bit of energy. Skiing is safe, I think, compared to snowboarding. I'm told that a snowboarder can become a good snowboarder in a shorter time than a skier can become a good skier. If I were younger, I might give it a try. For now, I like the skis. I can make them do what I want them to do!

DGF

Roger Powell Jr. Named Performer of the Week (Feb. 12) in the NBA D-League

I try to check the Arkansas RimRockers website, especially after a game night, and he has done very well there. He leads the team in scoring most games, in rebounds as well other games. His 46 point game on February 2 is the best single-game scoring performance of the NBA D-League this season. Congratulations, Roger!

NBA D-League News:

Roger Powell of the Arkansas RimRockers is the D-League Performer of the Week for February 12, 2007.

Powell thrice led the RimRockers in scoring as they compiled a 2-1 record last week. In the first game of the week, he recorded his second double-double of the season with 26 points and 14 rebounds in Tuesday's loss to Austin. Over the weekend he sparked a two-game sweep of Fort Worth, posting 22 points, five rebounds and five assists on Friday and in Sunday's win scoring 33 points and grabbing six rebounds.

For the week, Powell averaged 27.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, and shot .545 (30-of-55) from the field. Since joining the RimRockers on January 19th, he has averaged 24.9 points and 7.5 rebounds in eight games while posting the best single-game scoring performance in the D-League this season when he scored 46 points on February 2nd against Fort Worth.

Powell, a 6-6 forward from Illinois, was acquired after being waived by the Utah Jazz on Jan. 4th, where he appeared in three games.

Honorable Mention:
Randy Livingston, Idaho
BJ Elder, Austin
Dijon Thompson, Albuquerque
Elton Brown, Colorado

The Great Latin American Hope

In things spiritual, I echo the words of the hymn writer Edward Mote: "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness."

In things temporal, however, especially regarding baseball, my hope springs eternal (every spring that is, though for many years is had waned during the dog days of summer) for the Chicago Cubs to become (to quote Rob Dibble), "World Champions of the World."

On a Cubs message board, I found this cool photo of the Cubs' Great Latin American Hope, Alfonso Soriano:

Surprise! Kerry Wood Starts Spring Training with Injury!

All is well with the Cubbies! The pitchers and catchers have reported to Spring Training, and Kerry Wood is injured. Here is the AP version (as reported on Sports Illustrated's website):

MESA, Ariz. (AP) -- Oft-injured Kerry Wood is out again -- this time because of a flub in a hot tub.

The Chicago Cubs pitcher is not expected to throw off the mound for a few days after he slipped this week getting out of a hot tub at home. Wood landed on his stomach and chest.

"It was just a little spill," Wood said Thursday. "I didn't think anything of it. Nothing's wrong. It's just going to be a few extra days. My arm feels great. My body feels good."

Wood said he probably would not have thrown off the mound until Friday had he not gotten hurt. He participated in most drills on Thursday when pitchers and catchers worked out for the first time.

Bothered by an injured right shoulder the past three seasons, Wood is being converted to a reliever after being limited to four starts last year.

All players report on Monday. Eamus Catuli!

Bruce Metzger Dies

Bruce Metzger, who was perhaps the most widely renowned textual critic of the New Testament, passed away yesterday at the age of 93. Here is the AP obituary:

PRINCETON, New Jersey: Bruce Manning Metzger, professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and an authority on Greek manuscripts of the Bible, has died. He was 93.

Metzger died Tuesday of natural causes, according to The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home in Princeton.

At the time of his death, he was the George L. Collord Professor Emeritus of New Testament Language and Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Metzger earned a bachelor's degree from Lebanon Valley College in 1935, a bachelor of theology degree from Princeton Seminary in 1938 and a doctorate in classics from Princeton University in 1942. He became an ordained minister with the Presbyterian Church in 1939.

Metzger began his teaching career at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1938, where he stayed in the New Testament department for 46 years. During his time at the seminary, Metzger developed 25 courses on the English and Greek texts of books in the New Testament.

In 1986, Metzger was elected to the American Philosophical Society in the class devoted to the Humanities. In 1994, he was awarded the F.C. Burkitt Medal by the British Academy for his contributions to biblical studies.


Metzger would be most widely recognized by OCC students (especially students of Greek) for his book The Text of the New Testament, Oxford University Press, 1968, and for his Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek, and his A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament.

I have written earlier about Metzger's disciple, Bart Ehrman, who walked away from a conservative view of Scripture, I would think much to the dismay of Dr. Metzger himself. Ehrman's book, Misquoting Jesus claims to be earth-shattering, and new, but does not really present anything really new. I studied the essential characteristics of New Testament Textual Criticism as a freshman in college thirty six years ago. Our text was by J. Harold Greenlee, Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism. When I began reading Ehrman's book several months ago, I was distressed by what I interpreted as theological arrogance. It seems to me that he totally ignores conservative evangelical scholars with academic pedigrees at least as prestigious as his, as though they and their arguments don't even exist! I will likely finish Ehrman's book, but am distressed that many might read it, and conclude that there is no basis on which to put faith in the Biblical text, when there is much reason to do so. Ben Witherington, Daniel Wallace, and others have written reviews of Ehrman's book, and have done a much better job than I could do. I offer links to their reviews.

On a happier note, I found a a quiz on another site. It is called the Ultimate Bible Quiz. If you know much about the Bible, you ought to be able to score 100%!

You know the Bible 100%!

 

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

Shawn Sealy Ordination

This morning I traveled to Park Grove Christian Church near Lowry City, MO to participate in the ordination service of Shawn Sealy. I rode with Mark Scott, my boss (OCC's Academic Dean). Shawn introduced us as professors who had made an imprint on his life. In 2001, when I went to Barbados to teach a short course, Shawn and his fiancée were students of mine. Shawn came to study at Ozark in 2004, graduating last May. At OCC, I had him in Old Testament History and in Greek I. He was an excellent student, and is an excellent preacher.


Mark Scott gave the traditional charge, and I spoke about Leadership Across Cultures. There was also an ordination/commissioning service for three elders from the church. I preached a 3 or 4 day revival meeting at that church in 2002. I think in the time after that, the congregation went through quite a bit of turmoil. A member there told me that when Shawn first went there to preach (nearly 2 years ago) that the church was very sick, and that he had brought healing.


Shawn will be married to Anastasia Charles on July 14 in Florida. Anastasia came to the U.S. to do a master's degree in education, and is currently teaching in Florida. Unfortunately, she was not able to be present at the ordination today. The people at Lowry City obviously love Shawn very much, and he serves them diligently. Seeing former students do well in ministry is extremely satisfying.

God's best to you, Shawn! Serve Him well!

Miscellaneous Stuff

The last two days I conducted a Seminar in Educational Technology. This year I had three students in the seminar, all very capable upperclassmen. Two of them will graduate. One of them has kept the scorebook for OCC Ambassador basketball games for several years, and other than being an insufferable Kansas Jayhawks fan, is a really nice guy. That seminar class will keep a blog for the next couple months.

After the seminar was over, I watched the visiting Grace University (Omaha, NE) lose to OCC's women, and humiliate OCC's men on the basketball floor. Wait a minute, maybe what occurred to our men's team should be called auto-humiliation. I actually ran the shot clock for the men's game, so that my colleague, Monte Shoemake, could sit in the stands an watch his son's Senior Night (sic) with his wife. About the same time, the visiting Kansas Jayhawks were humiliating the Missouri Tiggers (intentional misspelling), cf. Andrew's post on the above-mentioned blog.


Roger Powell continues to do well with the Arkansas Rimrockers. He has played 7 games for the team, starting 5 of them, and in 5 of the 7 games he has played in, has either led the team in scoring, led the team in rebounds, or both. Go Roger!

Nice Game, Rog!

The headlines say, "Powell Explodes for 46!" Last night, the Arkansas RimRockers got a Win down in Ft. Worth, TX. Last year's CBA Rookie of the Year is getting a chance to play again, after being waived by the Utah Jazz.

Here is a link to the boxscore.

Remember to give glory to God, Roger!

Roger Powell Jr. Resurfaces in Arkansas

I have written earlier about Roger Powell making the Utah Jazz roster. Later, when he was cut, I lamented about what I was going to do with my Utah Jazz T-shirt. Now I know where Roger ended up.

I got this information from a true Illinois fan. Last weekend I was in Greencastle, IN, representing Ozark Christian College at a Missions Conference. Ed Nichols, long-time friend, former missionary to Africa, and representative of ACM International was also present. On Saturday afternoon, while I was participating in a scavenger hunt around Greencastle, IN titled The Amazing Race (my team came in 6th, out of 6 teams!), Ed Nichols hid in the church office with a radio so he could listen to the Illinois-Purdue game (Purdue slaughtered the Illini). Finding a kindred spirit, I talked to Ed about how happy I had been that Roger made the opening season roster of the Jazz, but that I was saddened by his release. I told him that I had not been able to find any information about what happened to him. Ed provided the information that he was playing in the NBA's Developmental League. He could not tell me which team, but that he had heard that he was playing in that league.

I made a trip to the website (linked above), and found out that Roger is now a member of the Arkansas RimRockers. A visit to the transaction page says the RimRockers acquired Roger on January 19. So far he has played in only three games (they play tomorrow night), but is averaging 16.7 ppg.

As an aside, the RimRockers play in North Little Rock, AR. I considered going to the Illinois game vs. Arkansas on December 4, 2004. OCC basketball player, Marcus Moeller was there, watching his friend, Steven Hill, play. I had been in Little Rock the week before, as my brother-in-law, Mike Gage, underwent surgery on a brain stem tumor. On that trip, as I drove past the Alltel Arena (where the RimRockers play their home games), I saw the promo for the then-upcoming game with the Fighting Illini. I chose not to make the trip. Illinois won 72-60. Roger led the Illini in both scoring and rebounding, with 19 points, 11 rebounds. Steven Hill (who played for College Hts. Christian School in Jr. High) scored 1 point, had 4 rebounds and 6 blocks.

(Some Not-So-Random) Thoughts on Baptism

After my first year of college (was it that long ago?), I spent the summer trying to sell Bible study books in a poor county in North Carolina. I located a church related to the Stone-Campbell Movement within ten miles of the small town where I was working. The first Sunday there, the preacher (a graduate of one of our loyal Bible Colleges) was beginning a sermon series on the book of Acts. I was thrilled, because as anyone that knows anything about Ozark Christian (Bible) College knows, the study of the book of Acts is a staple of the freshman curriculum. I knew the book of Acts very well, and I was looking forward to hearing about two and a half months worth of sermons from it!

The first Sunday I was there, the Scripture text read for the sermon was from Acts 1. I really can't remember which verses were read (I've slept on a number of different continents since then.) What I do remember about the sermon, though, was that it had nothing to do with the text that was read. He may as well have closed his Bible, because he preached on baptism. I can't find baptism in Acts 1. The second Sunday the text was from Acts 2. Unlike the first week, even after all these years, I can remember exactly which verses from Acts 2 he read (he picked the correct ones, given the dominant thought of the sermon to follow.) The second sermon I heard was strangely similar to the one the week before, but, at least I couldn't complain that it was disconnected from the meaning of the text he had read. During ten weeks of that summer, I heard sermons allegedly taken from selected texts of the first ten chapters of the book of Acts. However, in a real sense, I heard the exact same sermon each week. The sermon (should I call it a harangue instead of a sermon?) each and every week was on baptism. And the ironic thing (as far as I could tell) was that probably 94.8% of the sermon listeners were immersed believers in Jesus.

I filed that experience away. When I returned to college, I became involved in weekend ministry. My sophomore year I served as a youth minister to a church in Oklahoma. Beginning the summer between my sophomore year and through the rest of my five years of undergraduate education, I was the preaching minister of a rural church about an hour north of Joplin. The point of this paragraph is that from the time of my sojourn in North Carolina, through the end of my undergraduate education, I was involved in the weekly preparation and delivery of Bible lessons and sermons.

Now, I must confess to a particular character defect. I recognize it as a defect, and yet, I enjoy this particular defect so much, that I persist in it, even to this day. By way of rationalization, maybe I could excuse myself by blaming heredity for this defect, since I also saw same defect in my father. To what defect do I now confess? Frequently I will state an untruth, trusting that the combination of verbal and non-verbal communication will provide the listener with enough information to deduce that what I really mean to communicate is the exact opposite from the commonly accepted meaning of the words spoken. I trust that the hearer is of sufficient intelligence to be able to decode what I really mean to communicate, disregarding the literary or rhetorical meaning of the words themselves. Among student preachers, it is common for one student preacher to ask another student preacher what he is going to preach on the following Sunday. I remember my good friend, Ralph Shead, would ask me weekly, "David, what are you going to preach on this Sunday?" In my memory of such situations, I gave him the same answer each week: "Baptism!" Ralph was, is and probably always will be unique (I really have never met anyone quite like him), but I always trusted that he was sufficiently intelligent enough to understand that I was exhibiting this confessed character defect. In reality, I may have preached on baptism once or twice during my three and a half year student ministry, but most times, I did not.

At an even earlier time in my life, I used to enjoy arguing with Baptists about the essential nature of Christian baptism. Though I presented excellent arguments, I cannot tell you that anyone with whom I engaged in such debates changed their mind on the subject. At the time I thought I was a pretty nice guy, but nobody would have used the term irenic to describe me.

We were recruited to go to the mission field by my current faculty colleague, Chris DeWelt, who had taken a hiatus from his undergraduate studies, and had spent a couple years in Chile. He told us (and he doesn't possess my above confessed character defect) that people in Chile were open to the Gospel, and were just waiting for someone to teach them God's word. We found that to be true and taught that when a person expresses faith in Christ, he should be baptized. We didn't argue with Baptists (in reality, we didn't really find that many of them) or anyone else about the meaning of the Greek preposition εἰς in Acts 2:38.We just pointed people to Jesus, and those who came to faith in Jesus were baptized.

I must tell you why I decided to begin this essay at this particular time. The subject has been popping up quite a bit this week:

• Last Sunday, the senior minister at the church I attend broached the subject, and admitted that he probably should preach on the subject of baptism more frequently than what he does. It was in the text (Col. 2:12), and he addressed some of the issues that critics outside of our fellowship of churches generally bring up.

• Tuesday, Dr. Robert Kurka (Lincoln Christian Seminary) taught in our Perspectives course. Through him I learned of a brand new book on the subject, published by Broadman & Holman, Believer's Baptism: The Covenant Sign of the New Age in Christ. The book includes a chapter on the understanding of baptism from the perspective of the Stone-Campbell movement. Though written by somebody from outside the Stone-Campbell movement, Dr. Kurka said that it is a fair treatment. Our bookstore received one advanced copy, which will go into our library. I asked ththe bookstore to order me a copy as well.

• On Thursday our (last-minute-substitute) chapel preacher, Kenny Boles, mentioned the essential nature of baptism as part of the plan of salvation. He was preaching about Elijah, who "was not afraid to proclaim what God required." He mentioned that many preachers from our churches no longer preach (or believe?) that baptism is a part of salvation. Elijah was not afraid to proclaim what God required. Neither should we.

• Later on Thursday, I received several e-mails from my daughter, who was exchanging e-mails with a colleague about the issue of baptism. She wanted me to explain to her the differences between what we believe and what the Baptist church believes.

To answer her e-mail, I spent some time looking at the subject. The labor of attempting to answer my daughter's questions prompted me in the decision to write this short essay.

Since then I have learned of another book, scheduled to be released next month: Understanding Baptism: Four Views (Zondervan, 2007). The Stone-Campbell chapter was written by John Castelein of Lincoln Christian Seminary. These works will certainly be valuable for continued reflection.

One of my favorite recent journal articles on the subject was written by Robert Stein, Senior Professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. In the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Vol. 2 (Spring 1998), Stein wrote an article (pp. 6-17) titled "Baptism and Becoming a Christian in the New Testament." When I first read it, I could not believe that it was written by a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It sounded a lot like early 20th century Stone-Campbell authors.

The crux of the matter is this. When analyzing accounts of conversions in the book of Acts, baptism is always present. When Philip was expounding the meaning of Isaiah 53 to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8), they passed a body of water. The eunuch noted the water and asked what prevented him from being baptized (v. 36). Philip did not tell him that baptism wasn't necessary, that he should merely believe and repeat the sinner's prayer. The content of his message to the African was "the good news about Jesus" (v. 35), which included (obviously) the need to be baptized. A favorite proof-text for faith only is Acts 16:31—"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, and your house." But the context there indicates that Philippian jailer was baptized the same hour of the night.

Once Alexander Campbell came to his position on the meaning and mode of baptism, he considered whether to extend Christian fellowship to the "pious unimmersed." From the perspective of the Scriptures, such a term is oxymoronic. The Bible does not even consider the possibility of a Christian who has not been baptized.

People locked in a "faith only" camp claim that those of us who believe that baptism is part of God's plan of salvation must adhere to a doctrine of baptismal regeneration. They correctly claim that one is saved through faith, not works (Eph. 2:8-9). Amen. I am saved through faith, no by any of my works. I AM saved by works though, not by my own work, but by the work of Christ. I am not saved because I "got myself baptized". The Greek word in Acts 22:16 is an aorist middle imperative (βάπτισαι). The only thing I did was believe and submit to God. In my submission I was lowered to a watery grave replete with spiritual significance. I died to my old life, and was raised to a new life in Christ (Rom. 6:1-4). I was not saved by my work, but I was saved by my faith in the work of Christ.

Several years back, College Press published a couple of excellent resources:
• Baptism: A Biblical Study (1989)
• Baptism and the Remission of Sins (1990)
The first, authored by Jack Cottrell, is a study of twelve different New Testament texts that teach on baptism. If one lays aside previously held presuppositions about baptism, and studies what the New Testament teaches on the subject, I believe that it would be impossible to persist in the idea that there is no connection between baptism and salvation. The second, edited by David Fletcher, includes a chapter by Cottrell, in which he gives some interesting quotes by Martin Luther (p. 33) about the nature of the work of baptism:
• "Yes, it is true that our works are of no use for salvation. Baptism, however, is not our work but God’s.” [Luther, “The Large Catechism,” IV:35; p. 441]
• “Although it is performed by men’s hands, it is nevertheless truly God’s own act.” [Ibid, IV:10; p. 437]

Cottrell did his Ph.D dissertation (Princeton University) on the work of Huldreich Zwingli, and places upon Zwingli the blame for the commonly held idea that baptism is merely a sign or seal of salvation previously received. Another variation on that idea is that baptism is "an outward expression of an inward reality." Cottrell's work shows that such an interpretation began, not with Scripture, but with Zwingli. That position, however, became the prevalent position for much of Protestantism. He summarizes this in the conclusion (p. 166) to his book, Baptism: A Biblical Study:

[t]he “other” view of baptism, the one that prevails in most of Protestantism now, is really not very old in comparison with the one presented here as the Biblical view. The understanding of baptism as the time when God bestows salvation was the nearly unanimous view in Christendom for nearly fifteen hundred years. It was a consensus shared by the early church fathers, Catholic theology in the Middle Ages, and Martin Luther. The “other” view, the one that now prevails, was the creation of Huldreich Zwingli in the decade of the 1520’s. It was adopted by his followers, including John Calvin; and mainly through the latter’s influence was spread throughout the bulk of Protestantism. Thus the “sign and seal” concept of baptism is the newcomer, not the usurper. We should have no qualms about abandoning a view whose roots go back no further than Zwingli. We should rejoice in the prospect of embracing a view that is rooted in the New Testament itself and which enjoyed a millennium and a half of unshaken dominance until the usurper arose.

It is highly ironic that while some of our leaders are moving away from our historic position on baptism, scholars within the Southern Baptist Convention are moving toward it. I've begun reading Christopher J. H. Wright's new book, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative, IVP Academic, 2006. One of his themes is that the Great Commission is rooted in all of Scripture, in fact, that it is the key to unlocking the "Grand Narrative." I understand and agree with that. Let us not forget, however, that the traditionally accepted account of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20), calls for us to go, to teach, to baptize, and to teach. May those who come behind us find us faithful!

God's blessings to you all!

DGF

2007--Championship Year

I just had a thought. The Chicago Bears could win the Super Bowl and the Chicago Cubs could win the World Series in the same year!

What a thought!

Images from Our Recent Cruise

Now What Do I Do with my Utah Jazz Shirt?

I got a Utah Jazz T-Shirt for Christmas from Kim. It was a very nice thought. It was all because of Roger Powell, former star of my high school team, and the University of Illinois.

He was waived yesterday by the Utah Jazz, just before a deadline that would require them to pay him all of the minimum rookie salary. He appeared in only 3 games this season.

I won't be making a trip to Oklahoma City on March 4 to see the Jazz play the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets. I had even written him a letter asking him for tickets.

Here are links about his release from Salt Lake City's Deseret News:
Jazz Release Powell
Illinois pals upset Powell's gone

Another link from the Salt Lake Tribune:
Jazz waive little-used Powell

His official ministry site doesn't have word of his release from the Utah Jazz yet, but I did find this article titled Glory Ball.

God's best to you, Roger!

Biblical Studies Carnival Has Lots of Good Stuff!

There are some people that seem to have a lot more time than I do. I say that, judging from some of the serious Biblical studies blogs that I read (time available).

If you are interested, let me point out the Biblical Studies Carnival. Periodically, a Biblical studies guy out in blogosphere will host the Carnival, providing links and summaries to things other bloggers have written. There is a treasure of good stuff out there. Here are links to previous Carnival posts, beginning with the most recent:

Biblical Studies Carnival XIII
Biblical Studies Carnival XII
Biblical Studies Carnival XI
Biblical Studies Carnival X
Biblical Studies Carnival IX
Biblical Studies Carnival VIII
Biblical Studies Carnival VII
Biblical Studies Carnival VI
Biblical Studies Carnival V
Biblical Studies Carnival IV
Biblical Studies Carnival III
Biblical Studies Carnival II
Biblical Studies Carnival I

Links to all of these are found on Tyler Williams' blog. Tyler produced the most recent one (XIII), which was posted just yesterday.

Enjoy!

DGF

Well, It's Been a While!

Right after finals we took off for Brownsville, Texas. Our entire nuclear family was there. We had a condo in Brownsville, about 5 minutes from Greg's house. We had a great time, celebrated Christmas with the kids there on Dec. 22. We left Brownsville on the 23rd. Steve and Charissa went to Austin to celebrate the rest of the holiday with Steve's brother. We stayed in Allen, TX with David & Jennie Smith. I preached at Southwood Christian Church in Greenville, TX on Christmas Eve morning.


I've been busy since. Rose and I will leave tomorrow for Texas once again. We will be on a Caribbean cruise leaving from Galveston on Saturday. Upon hitting the shore, we'll make a mad dash back to Brownsville for just under 48 hours, then point it north. We'll arrive home on Sunday night, Jan. 14. I'll work the OCC enrollment on the 15th (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), and then classes begin on the 16th.


Greg just wrote and recorded a song, titled My Boys and put it on his blog. I recommend it. Click on the link. I'm not sure where he gets his talent!

I borrowed an idea from Greg's blog, taken from Slide.com, which I will use to publish some photos from our trip just before Christmas. Enjoy: