Obedience to the Faith

Acts 6: [7] And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

When these priests were obedient to the faith, they repented, believed, and confessed Christ in baptism. They did not repent, believe, and fail or refuse to be baptized.

This is how people are obedient to the faith today.

-- John Kohler, New Covenant Christian Forum, Wed, 29 Aug 2007

Love constraining to obedience

Love constraining to obedience.

No strength of nature can suffice
To serve the LORD aright;
And what she has, she misapplies,
For want of clearer light.

How long beneath the law I lay
In bondage and distress!
I toiled the precept to obey,
But toiled without success.

Then to abstain from outward sin
Was more than I could do;
Now, if I feel its pow'r within,
I feel I hate it too.

Then all my servile works were done
A righteousness to raise;
Now, freely chosen in the Son,
I freely choose his ways.

What shall I do was then the word,
That I may worthier grow?
What shall I render to the LORD?
Is my enquiry now.

To see the Law by CHRIST fulfilled,
And hear his pard'ning voice;
Changes a slave into a child,
Rom 3:31
And duty into choice.

William Cowper (1731-1800)
Olney Hymns, 1779.

Sacred Harp Convention

This weekend (d.v.) Bethel Primitive at McMahan, Texas will host the 108th Annual Southwest Texas Convention. For times, map, etc. click the link.

United response Search: Missing Persons

United response Search, Missing Persons: Robert Brown of Fort Worth has been missing since March of 2007.

"The Performance of History"

The Performance of History: Motivations for Revivalist Participation in Sacred Harp of the Chesapeake Bay Area. Brigita Lee Sebald, Master of Arts thesis, University of Maryland, 2005

I think this goes well with Kiri Miller's new book, and might be an interesting read before you buy Kiri's book.

The thesis is about the folklore revival setting of Sacred Harp in the Chesapeake Bay area, which includes parts of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Brigita Sebald looks at Sacred Harp in this setting and views it in its relation to the national Sacred Harp scene.

In recounting the history of Sacred Harp, Sebald picks up a few historical inaccuracies that are not correct (in my opinion). I discuss some of these inaccuracies in Rethinkin our thinkin (though independently of any relation to this thesis). I highly recommend that you read this if you are interested in Sacred Harp. Just click on the first link to go to the pdf document.

Note: I originally intended to write more in detail about The Performance of History, but it was so long after reading it until I got around to writing this, some of the "energy" had worn off.

Church History links

The Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary's Kellar Library has compiled a number of Church History links that are posted HERE.

Brief information on the Welsh Tract Baptist Church, Newcastle Co., DE, is HERE.

The story of "Gospel Missioner" T. P. Crawford and his wife Martha Foster Crawford begins HERE. I have this link for photos of the Crawfords, but I believe you must have a RootsWeb account and be logged in.

He rose

Today is a day the world and many Christians celebrate Easter -- bunny rabbits and eggs for most, though many Christians also include the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The resurrection is among the most important of doctrines of Christianity, and also one of the most attacked. No resurrection = no Christ, no Christianity, no gospel, no hope. But Christ is risen from the dead, proving He is both Lord and Christ, with the power of the gospel unto salvation, and the power to give hope to His people. His resurrection assures the resurrection of His people, who are looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Lord is risen indeed! Hallelujah!
Now is Christ risen from the dead,
And become the first fruit of them that slept.
Hallelujah, hallelujah.
And did He rise? Did He rise?
Hear it, ye nations! hear it O ye dead!
He rose, He rose; He burst the bars of death,
And triumphed o'er the grave.
Then, then, then I rose.
Then first humanity triumphant
Passed the crystal ports of light,
And seized eternal youth.
Men all immortal hail;
Hail, heaven, all lavish of strange gifts to man,
Thine's all the glory, man's the boundless bliss.
("The Resurrection," from The Sacred Harp, 2006 Cooper Revision, p. 235)

Jesus fulfilled three nights and days,
Then He arose and left the grave.
"He is not here," the angel said,
"Why seek ye Him among the dead?"
R. L. Vaughn

The LORD will provide

OLNEY HYMNS, Book 1. Hymn 7
John Newton
10.10.11.11.

The LORD will provide.

1 Though troubles assail And dangers affright,
Though friends should all fail And foes all unite;
Yet one thing secures us, Whatever betide,
The scripture assures us, The Lord will provide.

2 The birds without barn Or storehouse are fed,
From them let us learn To trust for our bread:
His saints, what is fitting, Shall ne'er he denied,
So long as 'tis written, The Lord will provide.

3 We may, like the ships, By tempest be tossed
On perilous deeps, But cannot be lost.
Though Satan enrages The wind and the tide,
The promise engages, The Lord will provide.

4 His call we obey Like Abram of old,
Not knowing our way, But faith makes us bold;
For though we are strangers We have a good Guide,
And trust in all dangers, The Lord will provide.

5 When Satan appears To stop up our path,
And fill us with fears, We triumph by faith;
He cannot take from us, Though oft he has tried,
This heart-cheering promise, The Lord will provide.

6 He tells us we're weak, Our hope is in vain,
The good that we seek We ne'er shall obtain,
But when such suggestions Our spirits have plied,
This answers all questions, The Lord will provide.

-- As posted by Stephen Conte on the PB-MB forum, 20 Dec 2007

Word of the day

Instauration -- [in-staw-rey-shuhn] noun. restoration; renewal; renovation

Example. "The love of truth, of God's Word, has all but disappeared in our time. We are committed to and pray for a great instauration." -- From The Crisis of our Time, by John W. Robbins.

Bye Paths in Baptist History

Goadby's Bye Paths in Baptist History is online HERE.

Justified by His grace

“In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:14.

"Having redemption through His blood is synonymous with the forgiveness of sins. We are said to be justified by grace—by Christ—by faith; and here believers are said to be justified by His blood—His sacrifice, which is at once the great object of faith, and the channel through which faith and every other spiritual blessing is imparted to the people of God. It has been already observed, that nothing but guilt prevents the love of God from flowing to His creatures. Christ cancelled the guilt of His people—redeemed them from the curse, and the never failing consequence is, their inheriting a blessing; their guilt is expiated, and, being justified BY HIS BLOOD, much more shall they be saved from wrath through Him; for all power in heaven and in earth is committed to Him, that He may give eternal life to those whom He has ransomed with His blood. For He is seated on His mediatory throne, and in their successive generations He calls them by His grace, guides them by His counsel, and afterwards receives them to His glory." -- James Haldane

New book, available in July (d.v.)

The following title is currently being offered at a special prepublication price.
List price $21.99
Prepublication price valid until May 30, 2008 $15.99
You save $6.00 + shipping & handling

Forthcoming new book
Materials Toward a History of Feet Washing among the Baptists, consisting of Historical References to the Practice among the Missionary Baptists, including miscellaneous notes on other groups By R. L. Vaughn

About the book
Materials Toward a History of Feet Washing among the Baptists compiles data on the relationship of the rite of feet washing and Baptists, particularly as practiced in Missionary Baptist churches. Arranged in a chronological and geographical format, Materials allows the reader to see records, controversies and variations of washing the saints’ feet in Baptist churches. The idea is debunked that only Free Will Baptists and Primitive Baptists practice feet washing, but that it is not practiced by the Missionary Baptists.

Publication Date: 2008
Available: July 2008
$21.99 soft cover. 8 ½” X 11”
Pages: 230, including bibliography and index
Categories: Baptists – History
ISBN: 978-1-60458-249-9
DDC: 286.09
LC: BX 6235

What others say
Vaughn did an excellent job researching an obscure subject of which contemporary Baptists have little knowledge. This book is a needed contribution to Baptist historiography. I know of nothing like it. – C. B. Anderson (retired), Jacksonville College , Jacksonville , TX

The volume by R. L. Vaughn, Materials Toward a History of Feet Washing Among the Baptists, is an exhaustive compilation of source materials on feet washing as practiced by Baptists and even others. The work covers practically every aspect of the subject, including definitions of the rite, its biblical and historical roots, its manner of observance past and present, its practice by group and geographical location, and even arguments of those opposed to it. Although the work focuses on Missionary Baptists in the USA and abroad as over against Primitive Baptists, it nevertheless includes all Baptist parties and even bodies outside the Baptist fold. An extra bonus is its appendix that includes a listing of Baptist groups and subgroups in the USA and British Isles , a comprehensive and detailed listing not found elsewhere. This work is an excellent study, providing a most valuable list of sources on a practice, although bypassed by a great many today, that is observed by others as an observance with a biblical mandate. – Albert W. Wardin, Jr., Professor Emeritus of History, Belmont University, Nashville, TN; author of The Twelve Tribes of Baptists in the USA: a Historical and Statistical Analysis

Brother Robert Vaughn has painstakingly assembled a massive amount of historical data about the practice of washing the saint's feet. He has taken great care to give the reader a reference for each statement made concerning the history of feet washing. In addition, he has taken great care to arrange the material so that one can easily access the material by time period or geographical region. This is a great help to one who is going to use this book for research.

I cannot recommend this book too highly. If you are a feet washing Baptist (or if you are not, and are simply curious about the practice) you would do well to purchase and read this book to learn more of the history of a Biblical, but often neglected and despised practice. – Jason L. Skipper, Carriere, MS. Pastor, Wilmer Missionary Baptist Church/Centerville Missionary Baptist Church

CONTENTS
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Biblical Overview
Feet Washing in Early Christian Contexts
Feet Washing among the Continental Anabaptists
Feet Washing in the British Isles
Feet Washing in North America
Feet Washing in Other Regions
Final Thoughts
Appendices
Feet washing by Baptist Groups
Baptist Groups in the United States
Predestinarian Baptist Groups
Baptist Groups in Canada
Baptist Groups in the British Isles
Feet Washing in other Groups
Anglicanism, Catholicism and Orthodoxy
Foot washing by A. T. Green
My Story by Joyce Beaty-Shembarger
Mt. Zion Association report
Some debates on Feet washing
Letter from M. F. Wheeler
Pleasant Valley circular letter, 1898
Bits and Pieces
Bibliography
Further Reading
Index

Order from:
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Two Olney Hymns

#170 (BOOK II #29)
John Newton --- C. M.

Alas! by nature how depraved,
How prone to every ill!
Our lives, to Satan, how enslaved,
How obstinate our will!

And can such sinners be restored,
Such rebels reconciled?
Can grace itself the means afford
To make a foe a child?

Yes, grace has found the wondrous means
Which shall effectual prove;
To cleanse us from our countless sins,
And teach our hearts to love.

Jesus for sinners undertakes,
And died that we may live;
His blood a full atonement makes,
And cries aloud, “Forgive.”

Yet one thing more must grace provide,
To bring us home to God;
Or we shall slight the LORD, who died,
And trample on his blood.

The Holy Spirit must reveal
The Savior’s work and worth;
Then the hard heart begins to feel
A new and heavenly birth.

Thus bought with blood, and born again,
Redeemed, and saved, by grace
Rebels, in God’s own house obtain
A son’s and daughter’s place.

William Cowper (1731-1800)
Olney Hymns, 1779.

My soul thirsteth for God.

I thirst, but not as once I did,
The vain delights of earth to share;
Thy wounds, EMMANUEL, all forbid,
That I should seek my pleasures there.

It was the sight of thy dear cross,
First weaned my soul from earthly things;
And taught me to esteem as dross,
The mirth of fools and pomp of kings.

I want that grace that springs from thee,
That quickens all things where it flows;
And makes a wretched thorn, like me,
Bloom as the myrtle, or the rose.

Dear fountain of delight unknown!
No longer sink below the brim;
But overflow, and pour me down
A living, and life-giving stream!

For sure, of all the plants that share
The notice of thy Father's eye;
None proves less grateful to his care,
Or yields him meaner fruit than I.

Saint Patrick a Baptist?

Around this time every year, thoughts turn to “Saint Patrick”. Now, most people are thinking of parades and wearing green, but some Baptists wonder “Was St. Patrick a Baptist?” Here are links to some sites that discuss it, another Baptist site with St. Patrick quotes and other items. I do not know whether or not he was. I have read his writings and am convinced he was not Roman Catholic. Regardless, perhaps this will entertain through another St. Patrick’s Day season of the year.

St. Patrick a Baptist! by L. K. Landis
St. Patrick was a Baptist, by John Summerfield Wimbish
Was Saint Patrick A Baptist? by W. A. Jarrel
St. Patrick was a Baptist preacher, by W. A. Criswell
The Real St. Patrick, by Ted Olsen
The “Confessio” of Saint Patrick
St. Patrick quotes

Land of cornbread and buttermilk

A little while back a prominent blogger created a stir with cornbread and buttermilk. Seems in his world these two elements seemed to constitute a racial slur.

I grew up in the land of cornbread and buttermilk. There was nothing racial about it -- rural blacks and whites alike enjoyed the combination (maybe even some city folks, too). My 92 year old mother still loves cornbread and buttermilk. My paternal great-grandfather took two glasses of buttermilk for supper -- one straight and the last glass sweetened with ribbon cane or sorghum syrup. As for me, "water" my store-bought buttermilk down with about half sweet milk.

I grew up in the land of cornbread and buttermilk. I grew up in a land where couches were called divans, where women named Stella & Ella were called Steller and Eller, and where parents had convinced children that the leg was the best part of the chicken. Rural East Texas life was a good land to come up in. Imperfect. But good.

A look at Loewen's "...Women in the Bible"

Things that no one ever told you about Women in the Bible: Theory vs. Fact was written by Mona Loewen (a member of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Enid, Oklahoma) and posted on the Grace and Truth to You blog. You can click on the above link to read Loewen's writing. Below I give a few of my thoughts on it.

Loewen's thesis is "The real women who are the heroines of the Bible define the role of women by their real lives."

The logic appears to be:
1. The real women who are the heroines of the Bible define the role of women by their real lives.
2. Here are some real women, how they lived and acted.
3. These are the examples women should emulate, regardless of instructions on how women should live and act.

Mona Loewen does a service by calling attention to these women of the Bible. Chauvinists and feminists alike often mistakenly paint a bleak picture of all Biblical (and other ancient) women as mere chattel. Contrary to this, the Bible portrays historical women who had influence in their nations and in their families. I do not agree with some of Loewen's conclusions. But those who do not know about these women in the Bible need to start reading their Bibles.

Loewen paints a lop-sided picture (some of those in the opposition can be charged with the same). For example when she writes, "Tamar knew what was the ‘right thing’ for her father-in-law to do and made sure he did" she fails to address that the "right thing" was for her to obtain children from his other son, not pose as a prostitute and get with child by her father-in-law. Would she advocate that her daughter-in-law follow the example of Tamar, or her daughters act as did Lot's?

In her zeal to stress certain acts as examples for real women, Loewen writes, "Had [Tamar] not taken some leadership the lineage of Jesus would have fallen apart." To assert that Tamar saved the Messiah's lineage jettisons the Sovereignty of God, who works all things after the counsel of His will.

Loewen asserts the assertiveness of certain Biblical women is prescriptive, but makes no case to show why we should take the prescription. She does not present any case for the harmony of these assertions and apparent apostolic teaching to the contrary. To posit "real women who are the heroines of the Bible define the role of women by their real lives" (fact) versus "scripture from Paul's letters" (theory) creates an unbiblical dilemma. The actions of real women whom the Bible presents are heroines, when studied and harmonized with scriptural teaching about women, can help us understand the Biblical role of women. To do otherwise is to miss the full scope of Biblical counsel.

If her thesis is true, we could also say, "The real men who are the heroes of the Bible define the role of men by their real lives." Dispense with the theoretical will of God. The actions of men like Abraham, Jacob, David and Solomon define what men should really be like. Allowing your wife to be placed in another man’s harem, marrying two women and also having children by their handmaids, and having your lover’s husband killed were the actions of real men the Bible defines as "heroes". Do we really believe their actions define the Biblical role of men? Or should we perhaps compare their actions to the revealed will of God.

Two Baptists - two churches

Two Catholics, two Jews and two Baptists were stranded on a desert island. When they were found years later, the Catholics had started a cathedral. The Jews had founded a temple. And the two Baptists had started the First Baptist Church and the Second Baptist Church. -- first seen in "HERE a Baptist, THERE a Baptist; Plowing through the plethora of Baptist options can be intimidating, but it can be done," by Laura Lynn Brown, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Jan. 29, 2004

Tales from the Temple

Three chapters of The Texas Baptist Crucible: Tales from the Temple can be found HERE. A review of the book by Evan May is available on Triablogue.

Does private behavior matter?

Does private behavior matter for public officials? A "call-girl scandal" related to New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is big news today. Steven Cohen, a professor of public administration at Columbia University, said:

"This isn't Britney Spears we're talking about. This is the governor. The bottom line is, he controls the National Guard and the state police. He could have people come to arrest you and me tomorrow. So his private behavior does become a public issue."

What do you think? Does it matter?

Also from California

In Long Beach, California, an apartment building near two day care centers and a middle school is housing 12-15 registered sex offenders. According to some reports the building owner receives money from the Federal Government as an incentive to house them.

Perhaps California lawmakers can briefly tear themselves away from the pursuit of the evil home schoolers to see whether our Federal Government is using our tax dollars to place child sex predators in apartments near buildings where children are required to be.

[Note: compiled from several sources; if anyone has more details on this subject, I would be interested in reading them]