The Ohio Bible Fellowship Visitor

One of today’s popular hobbies is genealogies. I am thankful for some godly and stalwart relatives in the generations I have known, but I am not tempted to go beyond that. If I did, I am certain I would find ancestors who were famous and more who were infamous. The only two ancestors of whom I am dead certain are Adam and Noah.

Despite my view of genealogy I recently came across a family tree I was interested in. The October 2006 issue of Christianity Today, its fiftieth anniversary issue, arrested my attention with an article titled, “Where We Are and How We Got Here.” A subtitle, emphasized in red, proclaims, “Here’s a look at the influences that shaped the movement.” The article is by Mark A. Noll, a prominent and prolific new evangelical writer. I thought, “He is going to talk about the family tree of new evangelicalism and I’m interested.”

Continue reading ‘The Family Tree of New Evangelicalism’

In one of my books I have used a quotation from Dr. Theodore Cuyler, Pastor of the Lafayette Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn in the last half of the 19th century:

“For one, I care little for the government which presides at Washington, in comparison with the government which rules the millions of American homes. No administration can seriously harm us if our home life is pure, frugal and godly. No statesmanship or legislation can save us if once our homes become the abode of ignorance or the nestling place of profligacy. The home rules the nation. If the home is demoralized, it will ruin it.”

Today we can do little about “the millions of American homes.” However, I would like to give some guidance to hundreds of Christian homes. I would like to direct your attention to the first great Bible text on the government of the home.

Continue reading ‘The Government of the Home’

It is no secret in 2006 that everything which can be traced back to God is under attack. Creation is under attack. The sanctity of human life is under attack. Morality is under attack. The local church is under attack.

Continue reading ‘The Local Church’

“Church Endorses Same-Sex Marriage.” So screamed the head-line of the Cleveland Plain Dealer on July 5, 2005. The accompanying story went on to tell that the 884 members of the United Church of Christ General Synod, meeting in Atlanta, had spent the fourth of July adopting a resolution endorsing same sex marriage. The resolution is rather lengthy, consisting of thirteen “whereases” and seven “let it be resolveds.”

Continue reading ‘Perverting Marriage’

The Cleveland Plain Dealer for June 26, 2005 carried a three-column picture of Evangelist Billy Graham preaching at what we assume will be his final crusade in New York City. His appearance in the picture, and the list of ailments given in the paper, bear out that probability. As I looked at that picture and read about its setting I thought that his ministry was truly a story from New York to New York in forty-eight years. The world in general, and new evangelicals in particular, would consider that course as a triumphal
march through the world’s major cities. To the fundamentalist that march has been a tragedy in modern church history.

Continue reading ‘From New York to New York’

We sat at the breakfast table discussing the hurricanes which have devastated our Southeast and the Caribbean islands. We were particularly concerned about missionary relatives on Jamaica. They had been warned by the U.S. Embassy to leave the country. However, they were staying. They felt that leaving would be a poor testimony to the Jamaicans who had to stay.Before we prayed for them I opened the Bible to read. Our passage that morning was Psalm 148. My jaw dropped in surprise as I read the last phrase of verse 8: “stormy wind fulfilling His word.” I stammered to my wife, “How apropos is that this morning?” We had been talking about stormy winds. The verse clearly proclaimed to us that the stormy wind was doing the will of God. That stormy wind meant devastation of homes, loss of property, hardship for many, and death for some. How could that stormy wind be doing the will of God?

All of this led me to think about God’s part in nature, and natural catastrophes in particular. As I thought about that with my Bible three things seemed to stand out.

Continue reading ‘Stormy Wind Fulfilling His Word’

I began my educational career at Wheaton College in the happy days before new evangelicalism. One of the favorite dates for upper-class men was to take their girl friends to St. Charles, Illinois and go canoing on the Fox River. One of the campus leaders became famous on such a date. He paddled his lady up the river on a spring afternoon, pulled in the paddle, and lazily enjoyed good conversation. Unaware of the slow current, he and his lady love were suddenly awakened when they went over the dam. They became folk heroes on campus.

Ineluctable Drift
I was reminded of that incident when I read a paragraph in the May, 2004 issue of the Calvary Contender. The paper quoted John Leo from the U. S. News and World Report who wrote: “Many advocacy groups start out straight, then drift ineluctably left.” [I had to look up ‘ineluctable.’ It means, ‘not to be resisted by struggling; not to be overcome.’] He also said, “Call this ‘mission creep.’ A group starts out with a clear mandate that commands respect across most of the political spectrum. Gradually it moves to a broader and vaguer agenda, typically headed left.” Leo calls this, “O’Sullivan’s First Law,” after a former National Review editor who said: “All organizations that are not actually right wing will over time become left wing.”

The thesis of this article is: Unless a church, school, or movement is militant in its teaching of biblical separation it will inevitably drift toward new evangelicalism.

Continue reading ‘Drifting Down the River’

Official Tolerance of Immorality
Let me begin with a simple statement: Homosexuality is the ultimate sin of a decadent society. Two things are true of that statement.First, it is biblically defensible. It is the truth which was demonstrated by the fire of God’s wrath at Sodom. It is the truth set forth in Romans 1:26, 27 when God said:

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

Second, it is politically incorrect in the twenty-first century. To make the statement is to be considered criminally intolerant.

Continue reading ‘A Potpourri of Problems for Pastors’

One of the methods recommended by the church growth gurus is the policy of preaching to felt needs. Men and women feel the need of comfort, companionship, self-worth or acceptance. Therefore, a pastor is to tailor the Gospel to meet these felt needs.

I would like to address a different kind of need. You may call it an unfelt need. Modern man has the need but does not know it. Hence, my title, “The Day Man Needs.” I will proceed by asking four questions about the day man needs. Let’s address the first of these.

Continue reading ‘The Day Man Needs’

Wheaton College
The Chicago Sun-Times for February 20, 2003 carried a story headed, “Wheaton College Relaxes Strict Conduct Code.” The story reported that the college would now permit campus dances and that the faculty and staff would now be allowed to smoke and drink off campus, as long as no students were present. A college representative, Pat Swindle, reported that the College trustees had decided that, “Drinking and tobacco use are none of the college’s business.” In those classroom discussions, which always come, the teachers could simply say, “There is nothing wrong with smoking and drinking; but you have to wait until you are as old as we are.”

Continue reading ‘Schools on the Slippery Slope’