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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Apollo 11: Aldrin celebrated Lord’s Supper on the moon

By Will Hall, Executive Editor ALEXANDRIA (LBM) – The world is set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of man’s greatest achievements: the landing on the moon by an American astronaut crew. But few know that God was exalted in the lunar module before the historic “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” took place on July 20, 1969. Mission commander Neil Armstrong made this grand declaration, broadcast to the world, as he became the first human to walk on the lunar surface. But minutes earlier, lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin asked the television audience watching on earth “to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way.” He turned off communications and pulled out a package containing the elements of the Lord’s Supper. Then Aldrin read the words of Christ: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Aldrin later explained in a number of publications that the blackout was the result of NASA’s heightened political sensitivity due to a lawsuit by atheist Madelyn Murray O’Hare. She had filed an objection to the televised reading of Genesis 1, months … [Read more...]

Beth Moore charges SBC conservatives with ‘sin’, recants 2009 statement on ‘homosexual sin’

By Will Hall, Executive Editor HOUSTON (LBM) -- LifeWay’s best-selling author, Beth Moore, created more controversy in June and July, accusing Southern Baptists in the Conservative Resurgence of “sin” while recanting a 2009 statement she made about “homosexual sin.” Moore stirred controversy when it was discovered that she had revised her decade-old book, “Praying God’s Word,” to delete a paragraph she said, July 6, “exceeded Scripture and singled out same-sex sin as particularly satanic.” In 2009 she wrote in the book that “He’s showing me” some things about “sexual strongholds” and then cited promiscuity, pornography and homosexuality as undermining the “sanctifying work of Christ.” Now she has deleted a passage from the electronic version of her book that called homosexuality “another deadly assault of the evil one in our society.” Moore said she made the change because she “heard from some heartbroken mothers about their kids who were having a hard enough time feeling ostracized as it was.” Among the changes she made, she deleted the statement that “God indeed can deliver you” and removed another part that said “complete transformation is possible … because God’s Word says so … [and] because I have witnessed it … [Read more...]