Comments on: What is the Biblical nature of the Church?

By: Dr. James Willingham

Dr. James Willingham — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:50:47 +0000

Brethren, I spoke twice in that church which once was an arm of Sandy Creek Church and which produced the minister who would set the tone to train ministers for the SBC. I refer to Basil Manly, Sr. I preached twice for that church (2/8 & 2/15). Today, they are as they have been for yrs. just a small country church with no one farming any more. The members are employed in other ways. My heart's prayer is that God would raise up people to pray in every church for a visitation from God that would move the whole earth. My call to every one who reads this column is to give yourself every day to sometime for prayer for another Great Awakening. We are facing the possibility of terrible times, if the Lord does not intervene. I have read where some people have planned and worked for the whole world's economy to collapse in order to institute policies designed to reduced the world's population by some 4 billion people (I have since heard they intend to reduce it by 5.5 billion). C. S. Lewis was aware of this conspiracy. He even gave the answer to it in terms of pulling down deep heaven on their heads in his sci-fi novel, That Hideous Strength. There is a glorious consummation spoken of in Holy Scripture. Can it be that in the end we will experience the fall of such Heavenly power on the face of the whole earth that every last soul on the face of the earth at one time will be savingly converted. In short, a whole generation! And if one generation, why not a 1000 generations? After all, the promises to Abraham are that his seed are to be as numerous as the sand by the sea shore and the stars of heaven.Perhaps, the promise was a hyperbole as to the numbers involved, but they could be as literal as the grains of sand by every sea shore of the whole earth and the stars of seemingly infinite space. God help us to get a better vision of our opportunities. Dr. James Willinghams last blog post..A preternatural and invisible hand

By: Dr Paul W. Foltz

Dr Paul W. Foltz — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:18:46 +0000

WElcome Dennis Tuazon to the ranks of those praying for a Spiritual Awakening and A Revival. May God add to the ranks those who are committed in seeing these things brought to pass soon.

By: Dennis Tuazon

Dennis Tuazon — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:56:12 +0000

I am joining the in invitation to pray for a world wide awakening. This is what we need in our churches in order to reach the goal of success for the world wide awakening program. When we pray something happens!

Oh, that God’s people would fall in love with Him and each other.
Oh, that the lost were awakened to their lost condition…
Grant it, Oh God.
Dennis Tuazon

By: Dr. James Willingham

Dr. James Willingham — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 01:51:57 +0000

An awakening reaches all areas of society, including, and especially, the church. In Feb., d.v., I will speak in a church that was one of the centers of the Second Great Awakening in 1801. In that revival that church is said to have head 500 converted in one Sunday morning service or in a revival (different sources). In any case, out of that awakening within 20 years will come the Great Century of Missions. That Awakening and that Assn., Sandy Creek, and that church will produce along with other churches the great impetus to missions of Southern Baptists. The man who will suggest the founding of the Southern Seminary comes from that church, the theology of Sovereign Grace will come from the Assn. and Luther Rice and the man referred to along with the Charleston tradition. In deed the Sandy Creek and Charleston traditions had already united in Richard Furman (he was a Separate Baptist), and it continued with Basil Manley, Sr. who would follow Furman at FBC Charleston. So for about 60 years, FBC Charleston had Sandy Creek or Separate Baptist ministers. But it has been years since I stumbled over the facts about Furman's background, so I will only assert definitely that the Sandy Creek and Charleston traditions flow together for sure in Basil Manley, Sr. And note the Sovereign Grace Faith is explicit in te 1816 Confession of Faith of Sandy Creek Assn., drawn up by a committee on which Manley served, as well as Hezekiah Harmon who was the founding pastor of Gum Springs, the church I once served, and who served the church in which that Awakening seems to have been focused (like the rays of sunlight through a magnifying glass). Now the chairman of the Confession committee was the Father of Missions among Southern Baptists, Luther Rice, who in his Memoirs declared, "Predestination is in the Bible and you had better preach it." Manley was a delegate of the church and clerk of the assn. in that year. Later, he would be licensed to the ministry by that church. God have mercy upon us all. Thank you, Dr. Foltz. Dr. James Willinghams last blog post..A preternatural and invisible hand

By: Dr. Paul W. Foltz

Dr. Paul W. Foltz — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 09:09:16 +0000

DR, WILLINGHAM-38
Iam joining you in praying for a world wide awakening. unless we get it, it’s about over. We need a revival in our churches also.

Oh, that God’s people would fall in love with Him and each other.
Oh, that the lost were awakened to their lost condition…
Grant it, Oh God.
Dr. Paul Foltz

By: Dr. James Willingham

Dr. James Willingham — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 03:34:11 +0000

While I believe in the eldership, I am also painfully aware that it is abused just like the diaconate and the pastoral leadership and congregational government are abused. For instance, I know a place where the Pastor/Elder was retiring. The next Sunday a Pastor/Elder from another place was in the pulpit. When a former elder andmember asked, when is the congregation going to voe on the new Elder, the one retiring said, "Ask him. He's your new pastor."!!!!! Gentlemen, I suggest that, while a plurality of elders is a NT norm, the real issue lies in the hearts of all concerned in the local congregation. There must be prayer, providence, and participation by every one concerned. Even then, there can be and will be problems, God-given problems along with a few that He allows Satan to throw in. Think of Job. Think of Corinth and the churches of Galatia, etc. The churches then were just as problematic, etc., as our churches today. Let us pray for the ultimate visitation, a Third Great Awakening, one that awakens the whole earth. Dr. James Willinghams last blog post..A preternatural and invisible hand

By: Barry Wallace

Barry Wallace — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:44:42 +0000

Matt, You're welcome, brother. Let me know what you think about the articles. You've got my email address. I'm glad you raised the issue. It's an important one. For whatever it's worth, I agree with Jay's main point--nothing that most of our churches do on a Sunday morning even remotely resembles the dynamic participatory ministry of 1 Cor. 14. And, as Darby pointed out, a strong plural eldership is needed to provide oversight and direction for that sort of dynamic gathering. Barry Wallaces last blog post..I’m more talented with the sword

By: Dr. James Willingham

Dr. James Willingham — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:49:49 +0000

I believe in congregational church government and ministry. Every member of the ekklesia is on an equal basis with every other member. No one is the superior of another. Every member of the body has a ministry which no one else can perform. Like the human body each part must function, if one is to have an effective life. It was baptist and congregational churches which provided the people with a means of training that made the Republican Democracy that we have in America work so well. Most other countries lack that acclamating agent to help their citizens get the kind of experience that can function in a free government. Consumerism in any form is anathema. Years ago I came across a Sunday School Quarterly of the Brethren; it was interlinear Greek, published in 1880. Wow! I have a Greek Analytical Concordance which I have used for 50 years; it was prepared by a Southern Baptist layman from Mississippi. He had owned a motel and sold it to give himself to the task of preparing a concordance that could be used to locate each word in the Greek New Testament. He was a Greek American. I say, "God is good." I was the product of a broken home, raised on a sharecropper's farm, saw an old country Baptist preacher pastor the church where my grandfather attended. I look back on griefs that were so great and yet see God's absolute greatness displayed in such sorrows. I say, "Jesus doeth all things well." Nay, He does them perfectly. His goodness is so great that we find it hard to believe. Study I Cors. I remember preaching from that epistle a lot in one church long ago and far away, which had fired the pastor before me for an unmentionable sin. They were ready to take their frustration out on the next pastor, and they did to some degree. But God was good, better than either they or any one had a right to expect. Brethren, if God saved a wretch like me, he can work out the most severe disappointments. He can save preachers who fail, churches that fail, societies that fail, mankind that is falling, a falling world. Save such, and bring joy in to lives of misery. That is the glory of God. Dr. James Willinghams last blog post..A preternatural and invisible hand

By: Matt Svoboda

Matt Svoboda — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:09:54 +0000

Barry, Somehow I just saw the links you gave me. Thanks again! Matt Svobodas last blog post..Bell and Luther: Same side of Reform?

By: Darby Livingston

Darby Livingston — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:20:47 +0000

Jay,

Then we are ready for tea and crepes. I agree with your agreements.

Darby Livingstons last blog post..Should Men Work Outside the Home?