Censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and others. Their fear is only their inability to face what is real. Somewhere in their upbringing they were shielded against the total facts of our experience. They were only taught to look one way when many ways exist.
Charles Bukowski
To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves.
Claude-Adrien Helvetius
The problem of freedom in America is that of maintaining a competition of ideas, and you do not achieve that by silencing one brand of idea.
Max Lerner
You are welcome to join us at Bible Baptist Church where the saints are exhorted, The Saviour is exalted and the sinner is encouraged to receive Jesus Christ. (Isaiah 55:6).
March 16, 2010
Hate Speech” in 2010
If you really want to take a look at some “hate speech” then purchase a copy of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and read 126 curses pronounced on all Baptists and Protestants alike, and don’t give us any bologna about this council being absolved, old, or out of date. The contents of the Council of Trent have never been rescinded and in fact, were affirmed by Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI. The current Pope Benedict XVI called the Council or Trent “the most important Catholic catechism” while he was still a cardinal.
March 7, 2010
In a seminary missions class, Herbert Jackson told how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that would not start without a push.
After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years. Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, "Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable." He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson's astonishment, the engine roared to life.
For two years needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work.
February 22, 2010
Furthermore, if Jesus Christ were not “God manifest in the flesh,” He was a sorry excuse for a religious leader simply on the grounds that He accepted worship (Matthew 8:2; 9:18; 28:9). No good religious leader would ever accept the worship of human beings. This all hinges on the fact that He was not just a “religious leader”. HE WAS AND IS JEHOVAH!
February 4, 2010
Now some folks will argue and say, “Well, the Deity of Christ is found in other places in these bibles.” I can’t for the life of me understand a Christian that would tolerate some “scholar” changing one verse into something that would rob his/her Savior of being recognized as Jehovah, “I am”!
January 20, 2010
January 16, 2010
JUDGMENT
I read this past week of a couple (let's call them Carl and Clara) whose twenty-five year marriage was a good one. Not the most idyllic, but good. They now had three grown children who loved them dearly. They were also blessed with sufficient financial security to allow them room to dream about a lakeside retirement home. They began looking. A widower we'll call Ben was selling his place. They liked it a lot and returned home to talk and plan. Months passed. Last fall, right out of the blue, Clara told Carl she wanted a divorce. He went numb. After all these years, why? And how could she deceive him...how could she have been nursing such a scheme while they were looking at a retirement home? She said she hadn't been. Actually, this was a recent decision now that she had found another man. Who? Clara admitted it was Ben, the owner of the lake house, whom she inadvertently ran into several weeks after they had discussed the sale. They'd begun seeing each other. Since they were now "in love," there was no turning back. Not even the kids, who hated the idea, could dissuade their mother. On the day she was to leave, Carl walked through the kitchen toward the garage. Realizing she would be gone when he returned, he hesitated, "Well, hon, I guess this is the last time--" His voice dissolved as he broke into sobs. She felt uneasy, hurriedly got her things together, and drove north to join Ben. Less than two weeks after she moved in with Ben, her new lover, he was seized with a heart attack. He lingered a few hours...and then died.
January 5, 2010
NEW YEAR
Another year is dawning,
Dear Father let it be,
In working or in waiting,
Another year with thee.
Another year of progress,
Another year of praise,
Another year of proving
Thy presence all the days.
Another year of mercies,
Of faithfulness and grace,
Another year of gladness,
The glory of thy face.
Another year of leaning
Upon thy loving breast,
Another year of trusting,
Of quiet, happy rest.
Another year of service,
Of witness for thy love,
Another year of training
For holier work above.
Another year is dawning,
Dear Father, let it be,
On earth, or else in heaven,
Another year for thee.
Frances R. Havergal.
THE STORY OF JESUS CHRIST TOLD BY RONALD REAGAN
Meaning no disrespect to the religious convictions of others, I still can't help wondering how we can explain away what to me is the greatest miracle of all and which is recorded in history. No one denies there was such a man, that he lived and that he was put to death by crucifixion. Where...is the miracle I spoke of? Well consider this and let your imagination translate the story into our own time -- possibly to your own home town. A young man whose father is a carpenter grows up working in his father's shop. One day he puts down his tools and walks out of his father's shop. He starts preaching on street corners and in the nearby countryside, walking from place to place, preaching all the while, even though he is not an ordained minister. He does this for three years. Then he is arrested, tried and convicted. There is no court of appeal, so he is executed at age 33 along with two common thieves. Those in charge of his execution roll dice to see who gets his clothing -- the only possessions he has. His family cannot afford a burial place for him so he is interred in a borrowed tomb. End of story? No, this uneducated, propertyless young man, for 2000 years, had a greater effect on the world than all the rulers, kings, emperors; all the conquerors, generals and admirals, all the scholars, scientists and philosophers who have ever lived -- all of them put together. How do we explain that?...unless he really was who he said he was."
Ronald Reagan
December 17,2009
Some gifts you can give this Christmas are beyond monetary value: Mend a quarrel, dismiss suspicion, tell someone, "I love you." Give something away--anonymously. Forgive someone who has treated you wrong. Turn away wrath with a soft answer. Visit someone in a nursing home. Apologize if you were wrong. Be especially kind to someone with whom you work. Give as God gave to you in Christ, without obligation, or announcement, or reservation, or hypocrisy.
December 09, 2009
Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Make thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.
My heart for very joy doth leap,
My lips no more can silence keep,
I too must sing, with joyful tongue,
That sweetest ancient cradle song,
Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given
While angels sing with pious mirth.
A glad new year to all the earth.
Martin Luther.
December 4, 2009
CHRISTMAS
The message of Christmas is that God intrudes upon the weak and the vulnerable, and this is precisely the message that we so often miss. God does not come to that part of us that swaggers through life, confident in our self sufficiency. God leaves his treasure in the broken fragmented places of our life. God comes to us in those rare moments when we are able to transcend our own selfishness long enough to really care about another human being.
On the wall of the museum of the concentration camp at Dachau is a large and moving photograph of a mother and her little girl standing in line of a gas chamber. The child, who is walking in front of her mother, does not know where she is going. The mother, who walks behind, does know, but is helpless to stop the tragedy. In her helplessness she performs the only act of love left to her. She places her hands over the child's eyes so she will at least not see the horror to come. When people come into the museum they do not whisk by this photo hurriedly. They pause. They almost feel the pain. And deep inside I think that they are all saying: "O God, don't let that be all that there is."
God's hears those prayers and it is in just such situations of hopelessness and helplessness that his almighty power is manifested. It is there that God leaves his treasure. In Mary and in all saved people, Christ is born anew within.
November 25, 2009
PROOFS FOR THE DEITY OF CHRIST
Jesus said in John 10:30, “I and my Father are one.” Notice, He never said, “I and my Father are identical.” He said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,” but, of course, that was the Father’s body. He never claimed that the Father was Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, Jesus does not say, “I am the Trinity.” He said, “I (one) and my Father (two) are one.” So we say, “Three in One and One in Three, and the One in the middle died for me.”
November 20, 2009
THANKSGIVING
To All Ye Pilgrims: Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings. (Ps. 26:7)
William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony.
November 10, 2009
November 2, 2009
THREE PURPOSES OF THE VIRGIN BIRTH
I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to “Fun Night” at Bible Baptist Church in Seymour. On October 28th we will begin around 6:30pm with our AWANA opening assembly and from there we will have games, inflatable maze and inflatable slide, prizes, races and much, much more. Everything is free of charge so come and have a great night of fun, fellowship and festivities. The church address is 579 King James Way in Seymour. Coming from Knoxville on 441S you will come into Seymour and take a left traveling east on Macon Lane. Go to the end of Macon Lane (only ¼ mile), take a right on east Nails Creek, stay on this road for about another ¼ mile and you will be in the church parking lot. We look forward to seeing you at Bible Baptist Church.
THE VIRGIN BIRTH
There is an important passage in Jeremiah 22 that puts the religious devotee in the position of having either to accept or reject the virgin birth. In this chapter the Lord prophesied that no man who came from the physical seed of Coniah and Zedekiah could ever sit down on the throne of David. When Christ was born (Luke 1:30-33), Mary was told that He would get the throne of his father David. In Ps. 110 the Messiah is said to get the throne of his father David. In Acts 2:30-31, Simon Peter prophesied that the Messiah will get the throne of his father David. In Matthew 19:28 this is called the “throne of his glory,” as it is found in Jeremiah – not Revelation 20. (The White Throne is never confused with the earthly throne of David.)
If, therefore, Jesus had a human father, and if Jesus Christ came from the seed of the Jewish kings who inherited the throne of David, He could not inherit the throne of David. Therefore, the seed had to be supernatural. One time when Jesus spoke about this to the religion leaders of His day, He said “How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord … how is he his son?” And the answer is that He couldn’t be unless His Father was God.