Alcohol

The Angry Prophet

/ Tim A. / 1 Comment

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.  And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, ‘I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.  Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”  Jonah 4:1-3 (KJV)

This prophet who despised the people to whom the LORD had sent him, did not want to see this people forgiven, but rather his desire was to see this mass of people destroyed.  The LORD was having mercy on Nineveh, when He saw their repentance.  Due to their sin Nineveh was destroyed about 100 years later.

Of all things for a preacher to become angry about.  People getting right with God, and changing their hearts and minds about the way they were living.  That is why preachers preach.  There are things worth getting angry about for the preacher.  The murder of the innocent unborn.  The slavery of women and children around the world.  The captivity of drugs, alcohol, gambling, and pornography; and its destruction to our society.  There are many other things for which the preacher to be angry.  Rejoice, however, when people repent of their sins and get right with God.

To give us little bit of background on Jonah; he was a patriot of Israel.  He loved his nation.  He loved his God; and Nineveh was the enemy to himself, his nation and his God.

Let me just end by asking this question:  Is patriotism; love for one’s country more important than following the call and will of God?  I leave the answer with the reader.

-T.A.

Letter From a Director of Missions

/ Tim A. / 1 Comment

The following is the monthly letter our Barry County Southern Baptist Associational Director of Missions, Jerry L. Williams, wrote for the Monthly Newsletter. I pray you will hear his heart.

“Look not thou upon the wine when it is read, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” (Proverbs 23:31-32)

“I do not believe that our Lord contradicts Himself in His Word, do you?

‘I also believe that when His word states, “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright…” that that is referring to when the wine is fermenting.’

‘I am sharing this because it seems that today there are some ministers in SBC and MBC that believes it is alright to drink alcoholic beverages. I never thought that we would hae to deal with this issue in Southern Baptist life, but I guess I was wrong.

Now I know that there are some in our churches that probably drink and think nothing of it, but that doesn’t make it right and I feel that they are wrong in doing it. Look at what he alcohol industry has done to the lives of so many; deaths, ruined families, homes, marrigaes and on and on I could write.

The Acts 29 and Emerging Church movement claims to be “theologically conservative and culturally liberal.” Alcohol, Acts 29 and the Missouri Baptist Convention…, below is an excerpt from the St. Louis Post Dispatch:’

“As Tolliver (MBC Interim Executive Director) was speaking, another group of pastors gathered at a lake house a couple of miles away, drinking Red stripe and Fat Tire beer, watching football and talking shop: the influence of music in their worship services, their inner-city social justice efforts, the challenge of having so many new babies in their congregations.”

“The young men are part of Acts 29, a network of more than 100 emerging churches across the country that have a conservative theology but a more liberal take on some aspects of the culture than do traditional Southern Baptists. The group’s focus is on starting more new churches. The Journey in south St. Louis is one such church, and there are others in the State — St. Charles, Eureka, Hannibal, Columbia and Ozark.

Our MBC Executive Board met last Dec. 10, 2007 in part to discuss their concerns about alcohol use and alcohol-based evangelism strategies within the greater Missouori Baptist family. They concluded by taking significant action on the issue.

In an historic move members of the board voted by a nearly 3-1 margin to cut off state convention Cooperative Program support to Acts 29 Network churches/church plants in Missouri. The vote does not impact MBC churches who, on their own are assisting Acts 29 churches.

The controversy over Acts 29 began when one church, the Journey, started holding regular discussion sessions in a bar where some participants drank alcohol. The “Theology at the Bottle Works” (the name of the bar).

I agree with Roger Moran when he stated, ‘One of the most dangerous and deceptive movements to infiltrate the ranks of Southern Baptist life has been the Emerging/Emergent Church Movement”.

I will be bringing a message this month at our worker’s conference dealing with this issue. May we as Barry County Southern Baptist stand firm on our doctrine, the Word of God, and the teaching of abstinence when it comes to the use of alcohol beverages.

My we send our number of messengers to this years MBC in October and stand with our State Executive Board Members and what they did in Dec. 2007. Let’s go and vote with them to hold the line on this movement within our convention.”

Bro. Jerry

The Barry County Southern Baptist Association has sent a letter to the Executive Board of the MBC voicing the approval of their December 2007 actions.  We do fully support this action of the Board, and will continue to do so.

-by Tim A. Blankenship

The Missouri Baptist Convention

/ Tim A. / Leave a comment

Baptist people love getting together for worship, fellowship, and Baptists meetings.  We are blessed by great singing and good preaching.  I don’t say great preaching because that is a matter of opinion.  Any preaching that faithfully expounds the Word of God is great preaching.  It is the Word of God which is central, not the style, or whether the preacher is loud, or soft.

The MBC was a good meeting this year, but to me it was disappointing.  With some controversy going on in the  MBC over alcohol, the variance of opinion of what Christian freedom and legalism is is responsible for the diversity in the meetings.  The meetings were all done with Christian accord to one another.  There was no fighting, no shouting in disagreement with one another, and I can whole-heartedly say that I believe the Lord was glorified in the demeanor of the people at the meetings.

Now what went on behind the scenes may be a different story.  I heard none of it, nor did I care to hear any of it.  Others, however, evidently did.  I know this only by the comments on “caution we should take while speaking in the hallways”.

I do want to add to this that the people for which I voted for the officers of the Convention were not elected.  None of them.  According to Baptists polity the majority rules, and the majority of the messengers present and voting had their way.  I accept the four men who were elected, and they have my prayers and support for the will of the Lord to be done.

There was a resolution against the sale, and use of, etc. of alcohol as a beverage.  I am thrilled to say that this resolution passed, though there was discussion, and though the president ruled it passed after a show of ballots, there was a call for a vote by ballot, and it still passed.  We Baptists have stood opposed to alcohol for years, and in my opinion it is even more important that we do so today.  Rather then giving in to our society and the world in which we live, we must stand on the principles of Scripture and never approve of anything which destroys homes, children and peoples lives.  Not only does beverage alcohol do that; it also destroys the mind of clear and able thought.

The alcohol resolution which passed was word for word the same which passed at this past June’s Southern Baptist Convention in San Antonio, Texas; with exceptions being the State Convention [MBC], and the time and place. With the passing of this resolution I could leave the annual meeting rejoicing in this at least: that the majority of Baptists that were present at this meeting were still opposed to beverage alcohol, and its detriment to people, their marriages, children, homes and communities.  Let’s pray that God will truly be glorified in the people who call themselves Baptists.