Bart Barber

You've heard some of the shocking statistics. As much as 30% of all Internet bandwidth may be delivering pornography to someone. People on Google search for porn-related terms more than anything else, by a huge margin. But within that broad category of "pornography," do you know what, exactly, people are trying to find? A recent news article caught my attention when it offered an answer to this question. This recent report (compiled by a pornography search site) identifies the three top pornographic search terms for each state in the United States. I read the entire list. What I found is … [Read more...] about Pornography and Pedophilia

I conducted a little experiment several months ago. I joined LinkedIn. LinkedIn is "a business-oriented social networking site…mainly used for professional networking." After I joined LinkedIn, the site instructed me to complete my profile. The profile included basic biographical information, the content of my C.V., and a listing of skills. I completed all of the requested information. Boy, did I! And this was the whole point of my experiment from the get-go. I listed more skills than you can possibly imagine. Everything I even remotely have the ability to do, I listed. Now—and this … [Read more...] about LinkedIn Lying (by Bart Barber)

That's what I'd like for this year to be for Southern Baptists: A Jonathan Edwards moment. A moment in which the Holy Spirit moved to do something remarkable among God's people. A moment in which the direction of the country was changed. A moment in which believers who trusted but little, hoped sparingly, and thought God powerless learned otherwise. Jonathan Edwards hoped for such a day and saw it. His yearning for it is best expressed, perhaps, in his work An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion … [Read more...] about A Jonathan Edwards Moment (by Bart Barber)

In this, the first in a series of posts articulating my understanding of the New Testament gift of tongues, I choose for myself a narrowly constructed task: The consideration of what the relevant non-narrative passages in the New Testament say to us about the essential nature of the gift of tongues. "Relevant non-narrative passages" because Alan Cross has rightfully insisted upon the primacy of non-narrative passages over narrative ones in the determination of doctrinal matters as a core principle of sound hermeneutics. I was thankful for Alan's emphasis here, since this principle is an … [Read more...] about The Nature of the Biblical Gift of Tongues: Consideration of Relevant Non-Narrative New Testament Passages

This is the first a series of posts I plan to author to explain, essentially, why when my fellow bloggers start vocalizing things other than English (or any other known language) I do not believe this to be a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. But before I go there, I want to start this whole process by giving a word to those of you who share my perspective on things. That word comes in the form of an exposition of 1 Corinthians 14:1. Chase love down unrelentingly, through the swamps and sloughs and briar patches and cane thickets, until you catch it, but be people who think the spiritual … [Read more...] about A Cessationist (of Sorts) to Fellow Cessationists

"Encouraging" is the best word I can find to describe the aftermath of the SBC Calvinism Study Committee. So encouraging, in fact, that I am emboldened to try something risky. One way to pursue a sort of "unity-lite" is to put aside soteriological discussions as off-limits. I regret that this approach has, for too much of our recent history, been the most reliable one and has probably corresponded pretty closely to the best outcome we could achieve. A more robust unity, however, occurs when we are able to discuss even our differences and to emerge from that completed conversation as friends … [Read more...] about Trying to Live Out the Calvinism Committee Statement

Of course, if you want something more full-featured, you can download the 2013 SBC App. But personally, although I was initially very excited about last year's SBC App, I found it to be a bit too obtrusive, constantly alerting me about things that did not merit an interruption in my opinion. So, I've entered into my iCal application all of the significant published details of this year's Annual Meeting and I've shared that calendar on iCloud publicly. This year's Pastors Conference has chosen not to give much in the way of a detailed itinerary on their web site (they give the start times of … [Read more...] about A Simple Online Calendar Feed for SBC 2013 Houston

This is the next installment of my previous post, For the Propagation of the Gospel. I had initially planned to give more than one item in this post, but my reasons for changing my plans will be obvious to you, I hope. Items 1 and 2 appeared in the prior post. I give you: The Southern Baptist Convention Helps People in Disasters As No One Else Does. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers are in Oklahoma. They have been working in Granbury, TX, and in West, TX. When a disaster shows up, the yellow caps will not be far behind. How well do you know SBC Disaster Relief? SBC … [Read more...] about For the Propagation of the Gospel, Part 2

At its formation in 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention was consecrated to the cause of "the propagation of the gospel." The convention existed to enable local churches to expand their common reach in the tasks of calling sinners to repentance and organizing new congregations of disciples. "We can do more together than we can do separately" is not just a Southern Baptist slogan; it is the Southern Baptist raison d'être. Dare I suggest that the health and value of the Southern Baptist Convention must be calculated along these same lines? Dare I opine further that the Southern Baptist … [Read more...] about For the Propagation of the Gospel