By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor   JIGGER – Five years ago, a half-dozen people talked about disbanding Shady Grove Baptist Church.[img_assist|nid=7646|title=Shady Grove|desc=Twenty-five years after voting to do away with Vacation Bible School, and five years after talking about disbanding, Shady Grove Baptist Church is alive and growing. Today, at least 80 people each week gather for Sunday morning worship at the church where Kent Nugent is pastor. There’s a full band – fiddle, mandolin, drums, 12-string, rhythm and bass guitars – and the youth group has performed twice at the Youth Evangelism Conference as well as at Christ Christ in Brownsville, Tenn., and elsewhere.|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=404]   Located a rural quarter-mile from the end of a dead-end road, in a town too small to even have a gas station, there seemed little reason to continue for the church started in 1918 in a one-room schoolhouse.   Matter of fact, the church voted in the late 1980s to no longer have Vacation Bible School.   “That was the beginning of the end,” said Neka Williams. “I was part of the mistake. I voted to do away with VBS. What I want to tell people now is, don’t stop VBS. Don’t … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor   FORT POLK – At least 90 soldiers returning from Afghanistan this month will sleep easy, their first nights back home in America.[img_assist|nid=7648|title=Sheets for Soldiers|desc=Threcia Green buys sheets for First Baptist Dry Prong, which took up a special offering and donated $350 to the Sheets for Soldiers project.|link=none|align=left|width=478|height=640]   No sand. No bullets. No bombs. Just new sheets, provided through the efforts of Charleen Kennedy, a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Alexandria.   “I am thrilled that God blessed us so much,” Kennedy said. “We were able to meet a very specific need for our troops returning home.”   The Army provides items such as a bunk, desk and chair for returning soldiers who stay in barracks. No linens. No pillows. Nothing “personal.”   “If you are wondering why the military does not supply the sheets, sheets are a personal item,” Kennedy emailed in her plea for sheets. “If you are wondering why the soldiers do not have their items: They will arrive before their gear and they will not have full size sheets.  They usually only have twin size. And, 90 of the soldiers will be housed in … [Read more...]

By Kelly Boggs, Editor   Yousef Nadarkhani, a Christian and a pastor in Iran, has been imprisoned since 2009. His crime according to Iranian clerics: converting to Christianity and preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Muslims. His sentence is death by hanging, which could be carried out at any time.   The White House has condemned Iran’s plan to execute Nadarkhani and so has Speaker of the House John Boehner. However, conspicuously absent from the voices denouncing Iran are America’s death penalty opponents.   News stories about Nadarkhani’s plight are also few and far between.   Recently a cacophony of cries were being lifted by U.S. celebrities denouncing the State of Georgia’s planned execution of Troy Davis, who was convicted of murdering a Georgia police officer in August 1991. He was executed Sept. 21, 2011.   As Davis’ execution date drew near, news stories appeared in abundance offering countless reasons he should not be put to death. Celebrities like Alec Baldwin, Sean Diddy Combs, Kim Kardashian, Sandra Bernhard, etc., lent their voices to Davis’ cause.   Hundreds of thousands signed a petition calling on the State of Georgia to spare Davis’ life. … [Read more...]

By Mark Coppenger, Professor of Christian Apologetics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary   Since  Sept. 11, 2011, we’ve all been in school, so to speak,  studying up on Islam.   But we’ve been to two different schools. In a nutshell, one says that Islam is a great religion with awesome accomplishments, now wounded by misfortune and embarrassed by extremists who’ve perverted its basically wholesome message.   The other says that Islam is a false and dangerous ideology, bad to the bone, flawed from its founding.   The first is led by the likes of Joseph Esposito and Karen Armstrong; the other by Robert Spencer and Mark Durie (and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Bat Ye’or, Nonie Darwish and others).   Having “attended” both schools, I’m not convinced the first should be accredited and I’m urging folks to matriculate in the other.   Of course, both schools grant the other a point here and there (“Yes, that’s an unfortunate verse in the Quran”; “Yes, the Moorish Alhambra palace in Spain is impressive.”)   But the differences are substantial and critical. (And yes, the majority of Muslims aren’t aggressive and oppressive, but the majority of Baptists aren’t evangelistic … [Read more...]

By Bill Warren, NOBTS Professor of New Testament and Greek   Question: When I read my Bible, some of the New Testament quotations of Old Testament books do not match exactly the wording that we have in our Old Testaments. Why is this?   Bill Warren responds: This insightful question obviously comes from a good Bible study practice of looking up the New Testament (NT) quotes in the Old Testament (OT). Keep up that type of study! As a beginning point, let’s remember that the OT was written almost totally in Hebrew and the NT in Greek, so right away we have to think about the impact of translating from Hebrew into Greek when considering the OT quotes in the NT.   Indeed, the vast majority of differences in the quotes are due exactly to these language issues. The NT writers primarily used the existing Greek translation of the OT for their writings instead of making their own translations. This makes sense when we think about it: There was no need to reinvent the wheel by making yet another translation when one was already available and acceptable.   This translation began most likely in Egypt in the 3rd century B.C. The reason for Greek was because of Alexander the Great’s impact, which … [Read more...]

By Michael Shepherd, Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Louisiana College   Throughout the history of biblical interpretation, readers of the Bible have struggled to come to the text on its own terms.   Theologians want the Bible to address doctrinal issues.   Preachers want the Bible to speak to “practical” matters. Scientists, ethicists, et cetera all have an agenda for the Bible. They all claim to be “biblical” because they have found texts to prove the particular point they want to make.   But if the word “biblical” is to retain any distinctive meaning at all, it must describe something specific to the given shape of Scripture apart from the plethora of questions its readers bring to the table.   There are basically two types of readers of the Bible: (1) those who want to see what the Bible says about something and (2) those who want to see what the Bible says. It almost goes without saying that the first type represents the vast majority of Bible readers.   People have their own concerns, and they want the Bible to provide insight into what they consider to be important in life.   Relatively few readers reach the point where they are content to … [Read more...]

By Philip Timothy, Message Staff Writer   [img_assist|nid=7631|title=Mike Walker|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=72|height=100]WOODWORTH – ‘The guys in the pews’ can expect a little something different at this year’s annual Pastors’ Conference.   Mike Walker, pastor of East Bayou Baptist Church in Lafayette and president of the 2011 Pastors’ Conference, has decided to forego a lineup of ‘big-time’ speakers, and instead will bring in men who have shared similar experience as the ‘guys in the pews.’   The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Fill my Heart’ and comes from Nehemiah 2:12 “… what my God had put in my heart to do …”   The conference, which will be held in First Covington’s auditiorium, will begin Sunday evening and will finish up at 2:30 p.m. Monday, so the auditorium can be prepped for the LBC Annual Meeting.   Speakers will address topics such as, fill my heart for church planting; fill my heart for the rural area; fill my heart for the city; fill my heart for Louisiana; fill my heart for the nation, and fill my heart for the world.   “I wanted to get speakers who have first-hand experience with each of these topics,” Walker said. “I think each speaker … [Read more...]