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Richard Dawkins has gained what I see as an unenviable sort of fame. He is known for what he does not believe. Specifically, he has formed a sort of cottage industry in debunking all things Christian, especially the plausibility of the existence of a personal God.  In his signature book, Dawkins characterizes belief in an omnipotent Being who creates, sustains, and ultimately will hold the world to account as The God Delusion. This British skeptic is noted for his acerbic, no-holds-barred style of writing which seems especially to stoke the fires of resentment and scorn in modern secularists toward people of faith.

Ever observant for an opening to attack Christianity, Dawkins recently found one in the wake of the Haitian earthquake. The Washington Post (See Article Here) featured Dawkins’s latest diatribe against Christianity, entitled “Haiti and the Hypocrisy of Christian Theology.” In this withering attack on Christianity, Hawkins pounced upon Pat Robertson’s now well-worn words to the effect that the earthquake might be linked to certain events occurring in the 18^th century Haitian quest for independence from France. The professor dismisses this perspective as the blathering of Robertson’s “hick, sub-Palinesque ignorance.” But Dawkins is equally critical of Al Mohler’s more biblical and sophisticated theodicy, in which he reminded his readers that “The earthquake in Haiti, like every other earthly disaster, reminds us that Creation groans under the weight of sin and the judgment of God.” The entire cosmos, freed from the constraints of a Creator in Dawkins’s mind, is a sin-free zone. So he corrects Mohler by saying that the Haitian earthquake is a “force of nature, sin-free and indifferent to sin, un-premeditated, unmotivated, supremely unconcerned with human affairs or human misery.”

Dawkins plainly despises the doctrine of sin in all its forms. He ridicules any who would dare believe in a moral Creator to whom they must someday give an account of their lives. But Dawkins reserves his greatest loathing for the doctrine of the Cross, which he calls “an obnoxious doctrine that the central purpose of Jesus’ incarnation was to have himself tortured as a scapegoat for the ‘sins’ of all mankind. . . .” The professor sees the “ugliness of Christian theology” in what he calls its “celebration of suffering: suffering as payback for ‘sin’—or suffering as ‘atonement’ for it.” Truly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Countless Christians have affirmed their reverence for the Cross when they recognized that the agonizing death Jesus endured on it absorbed the wrath of God their sin had incurred.

Dawkins’s article is a snapshot into the thinking of the modern mind. It reveals a worldview built without God, where sin is neither to be feared nor atoned for. In such a universe, the Cross is a useless, throwaway doctrine. Recognizing this same worldview in the lives of the people we interact with every day is essential if we would be instrumental in helping them come to the light of Christ. Dawkins has it half right: there is a God delusion, but it runs counter to his thinking. The delusion we must work and pray to reverse is the delusion that cannot see God, cannot feel the awful weight of sin, and therefore cannot come to love Christ and His Cross.

Paul Brewster Ph.D., pastor, Ryker’s Ridge Baptist Church,. Madison, Indiana

FIRST-PERSON: Is TV to blame for a murder?

By: Paul Brewster

Original article can be found here, http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?Id=32024.

MADISON, Ind. (BP)–No place in America is exempt from the violence that saturates our society. That point was made forcefully to me several weeks ago when 17 year old Andrew Conley, hailing from a small town just up the road, allegedly murdered his helpless 10 year old brother, Conner. Our local newspaper, The Madison Courier, reported that the killer ignored his little brother’s repeated pleas to stop and took 20 minutes to choke the boy to death in their home. He then covered his head with a plastic bag before striking it several times to ensure the younger boy was dead. That’s where this sickening tragedy takes an even more bizarre turn. After dumping his brother’s body at a nearby park, Andrew Conley went to visit his girlfriend and gave her a promise ring. She reported that he was in a giddy mood, happier than she had seen him in a long time.

It turns out that Andrew did not kill Conner because the brothers hated each other or were in perpetual conflict. Instead, by his own admission, Andrew killed him to satisfy a long-unfilled craving to murder someone. According to documents filed with the court, the teen attempted to explain the killing to authorities by comparing the murder to a hungry person eating a hamburger. He was also transparent about his inspiration: He said he identified with the “hero” of Showtime’s sadistic television series “Dexter,” which chronicles the exploits of a serial killer by that name.

The tragedy of this story is so intense that most people want to turn away from it quickly. While understandable, that would be a mistake. Events like this one are becoming more and more common. Only weeks prior to this particular murder, a 15-year-old Missouri girl brutally murdered her 9-year-old neighbor for similar reasons — just to have the thrill of killing. It is past time we face these violent acts and draw appropriate conclusions that lead to actions. I would suggest three.

First, the morality of this situation is clear. Showtime is profiting by airing a program that is dangerously corrupting. I cannot speak to the legal matters involved in the question of whether they have criminal or civil liability in Conner’s death. But in any event, the producers of this program have the blood of a child on their hands. Hiding behind cherished rights to freedom of speech or artistic expression cannot excuse the immorality of profiting from a program that celebrates a depraved view of life and turns a serial killer into a figure to be identified with by its viewers. By extension, those who tune in week by week are also complicit in this crime. They have helped create a market for such disgusting programming. “Dexter” just completed its fourth season, with at least another planned, so the market for the product is plenty wide and deep. Those who have been watching and sponsoring the series need to consider the consequences of such programming and turn away from it immediately.

Second, let this tragedy stand as strong reminder to parents about one component of our calling today. It is imperative that we take control of the forces that shape our children’s worldview and value system. Education and entertainment options we allow will have huge impacts on our children. No child should ever be allowed access to programs like “Dexter.” Whatever steps a parent must take to prevent such access are justified. If complete supervision is not possible, then get rid of the television, cable packages and Internet connections that make it accessible. To assume that as long as we raise our children in a loving home, we can be “hands off” in terms of their educational curriculum and entertainment choices is to court disaster.

Finally, there are theological lessons we must take away from this awful tragedy. What God said to Israel long ago is applicable to America still: “For they sow the wind and they reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7). In so many ways and for such a long time, we have turned our backs on God and His values. The results of those decisions are, as the prophet Hosea indicates, predictable. We live in the midst of a culture for which human life is not sacred and has no intrinsic value since we deny our creation in the image of God. As those ideas percolate further and further into our society with the passing of time, horribly violent acts on our fellow men are becoming increasingly common. America, is this the kind of world we really want? Hosea experienced the same downward spiral consuming his people until he was led to conclude that the loss of the knowledge of God had resulted in an explosion of swearing, deception, murder, stealing, adultery and violence. In other words, societal ills had a theological component. They still do today.

The good news about this situation is that repentance can lead again to renewed health and wholeness. Let us pray that God quickly grants an outpouring of repentance in our churches and across the land.
–30–
Paul Brewster is pastor of Ryker’s Ridge Baptist Church in Madison, Ind.

Copyright (c) 2010 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press. Visit www.bpnews.net. BP News — witness the difference! Covering the critical issues that shape your life, work and ministry. BP News is a ministry of Baptist Press, the daily news service of Southern Baptists.

Bro. Paul

Link to article entitled, “The Bible and Giving”

Brother Paul shares with us an article he wrote for the Baptist Press in 2008.

The true focus of Thanksgiving

By: Paul Brewster

Original article can be found here, http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?Id=29411.

HAMPSTEAD, N.C. (BP)–Few things reveal the hollowness of American Christianity with any more clarity than the collapse of Thanksgiving. In this age of contention over the role of Christianity in the public square, Thanksgiving has survived at all only because it has been emptied of its true spiritual and religious significance. Many have deemed it a “secular holiday,” the blatant contradiction built into the linguistic root of “holiday” notwithstanding.

Just how far have we moved? One Amazon.com customer has compiled a list of secular Thanksgiving children’s picture books, to which the customer offers this preface: “It can be difficult for parents and teachers to find picture books that approach Thanksgiving in a secular way. This is a list of titles that do not interpret the holiday in a religious manner. Although several of these books mention characters being ‘thankful,’ they do not depict anyone saying grace/giving thanks to a higher power.” In other words, these books go out of their way to obfuscate the truth about Thanksgiving in America.

Of 25 such titles for sale at Amazon.com, one is entitled “Thank-You, Thanksgiving.” The title gives away the absurdity of the proposition. If there is no personal God who has intervened in American history, then there is no one left to thank — so let’s thank the day itself. Another book is “Thank-You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving.” Since we can no longer thank the God we have forgotten, this book redirects thanks to Sarah Hale, a writer and woman’s magazine editor who prevailed upon Abraham Lincoln to use his influence to turn Thanksgiving from a states-based event into a true national holiday. Never mind the unsettling fact that the real Sarah operated from a Christian worldview and that her true desire was to ensure that all Americans were involved in giving due reverence to God for his many blessings.

Every effort to redefine Thanksgiving into a holiday that suits the secularist agenda is destined to fail. The true Christian origins and intentions of Thanksgiving are unmistakably revealed in a mountain of historical and literary evidence. The Protestant Reformation gained steam in part from its cry to return ad fonts — that is to the biblical source itself, not the layered interpretations built up over centuries that had effectively hidden the biblical meaning. Thanksgiving is a time when American Christians need to return to the sources themselves.

For example, the Continental Congress issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1777 that could arguably be considered the first such national decree. Printed in The Journals of Congress, it reads:

“It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the 18th day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor; and that together with their sincere acknowledgements and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please him graciously to afford his blessings on the governments of these states respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole; to inspire our commanders both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States the greatest of all human blessings, independence and peace; that it may please him to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase; to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, under his nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.”

Where, I ask, is “thank-you Thanksgiving” or “thank-you, Sarah” in all of that? To paraphrase what Charles Spurgeon once said about the Bible, the true roots of Thanksgiving do not need so much to be defended as they need to be turned loose.

Thanksgiving is a time to recognize the blessings of God on this nation. It is also a time to repent of sin and seek forgiveness through the work of Christ. It is a time to pray for wisdom for our leaders and protection over our military personnel. In the present economic malaise, Thanksgiving is an opportunity to ask God to ensure the future prosperity of the nation.

The pulpits of America once resounded with sermons built around these themes during the season of Thanksgiving. Like the Founding Fathers before them, men entered the pulpit and drew attention, especially, to the Psalms of thanksgiving found in the Bible. They recognized that the active hand of God in American history called for similar offerings of praise and thanks from our people. May God grant that a remnant of Christians in America cherish and preserve the authentic meaning and practice of Thanksgiving for future generations.
–30–

Paul Brewster is pastor of Ryker’s Ridge Baptist Church in Madison, IN.

Copyright (c) 2009 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press. Visit www.bpnews.net. BP News — witness the difference! Covering the critical issues that shape your life, work and ministry. BP News is a ministry of Baptist Press, the daily news service of Southern Baptists.

————————————————————————

Those in our congregation have heard me mention my friend Finny Mathews and the Indian-based ministry he leads, Alpha International Ministries (AIM). Finny will be with us in the Spring of 2010 and explain firsthand some of the exciting outreach work ongoing in India. Below is an article I wrote for AIM which explores the connections of AIM’s missionary strategy to the ideas of first generation missions pioneers, like William Carey.—Bro. Paul

“The Hope of Every Land”

            Alpha International Ministries recognizes that the key to evangelizing India is to train native Indian pastors for the task. To some, this seems like a distraction from the work of missions, which has come to be understood by many as almost completely accomplished when western missionaries are placed on foreign fields. In reality, AIM’s vision only recaptures what was part of the original missionary vision for India but has become obscured with time.

            From their earliest days, English-speaking missionaries in India recognized that to be successful, their role needed to be catalytic. William Carey expressed this view in a letter he sent to his Baptist friends and supporters in England:

The work of duly preparing as large a body as possible of Christian Indians for the duties of pastors and itinerants is of immense importance. The pecuniary resources and the requisite number of missionaries for the Christian instruction of Hindustan’s millions can never be supplied from England, and India will never be turned from her idolatry to serve the living God, unless the grace of God rest abundantly on converted Indians to qualify them for mission work, and unless, by those who care for India, these be trained and sent into the work. In my judgment it is on the native evangelists that the weight of the great work must ultimately rest.[1]

Carey’s vision of how to reach the millions became a veritable mantra in the first generation work of English and American mission-sending agencies. For example, The American Baptist Magazine and Missionary Intelligencer repeats the exact words cited above, only it claims they are found in letter from Carey’s associate, Rev. William Ward. Most likely, both citations are correct, because this was an oft-repeated part of the missionary strategy. Ward’s letter goes on to flesh out some of the reasons why only a national evangelizing force could hope to succeed in saturating India with the Gospel:

            1. Because only a few westerners could ever hope to attain sufficient fluency in the native Indian languages “so as to be able to become a persuasive preacher.”

            2. The Indian climate was too extreme for most missionaries to withstand. Ward said it “in great measure incapacitates an European for very active services in the open air.” Native preachers were not inhibited by the climate or conditions and were thus more productive.

            3. The native evangelist could “subsist on the simple produce of the country” and “find a lodging in almost any village.” Missionaries, by contrast, had to travel with a veritable pack train in order to survive in the wilds of India.

            4. Native preachers understood the varied cultures and taboos of their own people and could present the Gospel more effectively and with less chance of giving offense.

            5. Finally, Ward compared the costs of keeping a missionary on the field to those of supporting a native preacher and concluded that in view of the enormous work to be done, this factor spoke decisively in favor of training nationals.[2]

            What Carey, Ward and other first generation missionaries recognized has been seen again and embraced by the leadership of AIM. Western missionaries have an important place, but there can be no substitute for training and equipping national church planters for the task of reaching India. The Baptist Missionary Society of England celebrated one hundred years of missionary work in India by reminding it’s supporters of this strategic vision: “First and last the great pioneers [Carey and other first generation missionaries] regarded a native ministry as the hope of every land, and directed ceaseless prayers and labours to that supreme end; a pattern to which every missionary society must return.”[3] It is time for American Christians with a heart for the nations to recognize this truth again. We need to evaluate our missions funding to ensure that vital support is being given to training national church planters as the foundation of a missionary strategy. AIM provides a great avenue for just such a strategic investment in God’s kingdom for India and parts of Asia beyond.

Paul Brewster, Ph.D.

Pastor, Ryker’s Ridge Baptist Church

Madison, IN

[1]Letter from William Carey to John Ryland, 1817; cited by Samuel Pearce Carey, in William Carey (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1923), p. 325.

[2] Letter from William Ward to the board of the Baptist Missionary Society, June 26, 1819; edited by John Ryland and John Dyer and then sent along to The American Baptist Magazine and Missionary Intelligencer (May 1820, p. 331) as part of an appeal for help in raising funds for the “missionary college” at Serampore.

[3] John Brown Meyers, ed., The Centenary Volume of the Baptist Missionary Society: 1792-1892 (London: The Baptist Missionary Society, 1892), p. 68.

The fire escape is done and a big THANK YOU goes out to all the men that worked on this project. Most people won’t ever see it but it is an important safety feature and a definite must!  So take a look at the finished product:

Like many American small towns, my home of Madison, Indiana, will host its annual Chautauqua this weekend. Over 250 art exhibitors will grace what is already the “prettiest downtown in the Midwest” with fantastic fine arts and crafts displays. Great food and live music will combine with spectacular fall weather to make this event one that will draw thousands of people from nearby Louisville and Cincinnati. While I am glad for what the Madison Chautauqua will mean as a boost to the local economy, there will be a tinge of sadness in my spirit as I admire the artistic talents on display. That is because the history of the Chautauqua movement is a parable for the decline of fervent Christianity in America.

The name “chautauqua” is taken from Lake Chautauqua in New York State. It was on the banks of this lake that the first such gathering was held in 1874. The brainchild behind this meeting was a young Methodist minister, John Vincent, then the editor of The Sunday School Journal. Vincent planned the outdoor meeting as a time to offer Sunday school teachers biblical and theological instruction in order to help them become better workers. It met with such success that the Chautauqua became an annual assembly drawing thousands of students. The effort was also extensively copied and chautauquas became all the rage across rural and small town America. Most of these early chautauquas featured Christian instruction, revivalist preaching, political speeches and lectures on historical, literary or scientific themes. One of the perennial favorites at these gatherings was the politician and orator William Jennings Bryan. He delivered his lecture “The Prince of Peace” thousands of times at chautauquas over a thirty year time span. While each chautauqua developed a life and tradition of its own, the one constant in these early meetings was the purpose of providing practical Christian instruction.

Most of the chautauquas died out by the late 1920s or early 1930s—victims of the Great Depression and the advent of radio and theatre as means of mass instruction and entertainment. But as in my hometown, the chautauqua movement is experiencing a bit of a renaissance. In Madison’s case, chautauquas were held annually from 1901-1929. The present series of meetings was restarted in 1970 as the Madison Chautauqua Festival of Art.

As the current name implies, the Christian component of most modern chautauquas has been eliminated. Where it survives at all, it is most likely to be found in the inclusion of Christian bands or quartets in the entertainment lineup. At the site of John Vincent’s original meeting, a large Chautauqua Institute survives. But it has drifted far away from the founder’s purposes. Instead of revival preaching and helps to Christian workers, the Chautauqua Institute claims to operate from “the perspective that inclusivity is the mark of faithful religious life and teaching.” True to that vision, their website reveals that they have a place for everything religious; except, of course, for biblical Christianity. Links are provided for “Hinduism/Yoga,” “Islam/Sufism,” “Judaism/Kabbalah,” “Sikhism/Yoga,” and “Zen Buddhism.” The link for Christianity actually is labeled “Christianity/Centering Prayer,” which has much more to do with eastern mysticism than biblical Christianity.

No doubt, technological advances and other factors have so transformed Christianity in America that rural Christian workers no longer are forced to rely on chautauquas for an opportunity to be trained in Sunday school work. Still, there is something of a warning in tracing the history of the chautauqua movement. When secular concerns are mixed with spiritual concerns, it is inevitably the Christian element that becomes watered down and pushed to the side. I’ll enjoy this weekend’s chautauqua for what it is—a great display of fine arts and crafts. But I will also let the nature of this chautauqua remind me of the ever-present leaven of secularism.

On Wednesday nights, our adults have been looking at the Apostle Paul’s admonition that Christians ought to “walk and please God” (I Thess 4:1). In the verses which follow, Paul fleshes out what a God-pleasing Christian walk looks like. I find tonight’s focal text interesting. Paul writes, “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands. . .” (I Thess 4:11). Glorifying manual labor in a city saturated with Hellenism would have been about as counter-cultural as one could get. Manual labor was seen as the domain of slaves and beneath the dignity of free men. But I Thess 4:11 hardly scratches the surface of Paul’s theology of work. He really expands on the theme in 2 Thess 3:6-15, which includes the biblical gem that Dads have used to motivate sons for generations: “if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.” (2 Thess 3:10)

The surprising thing is that a theology of work has been largely ignored by the field of biblical scholarship. Considering how much of our lives revolve around work-related concerns, this is a significant omission. I was encouraged to learn that the well-respected scholar Haddon Robinson  (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) is spearheading an effort to fill in the lacuna on a theology of work. He heads an organization called the Theology of Work Project. This research-oriented project has an ambitious and well-funded agenda to explore all facets of Christian teaching on work and work-related issues. Check out their vision and progress at www.theologyofwork.org.

The so-called “Protestant work ethic” reflected a biblical worldview that has been lost in more ways than one. God’s people need to remember that our sanctification is incomplete unless our work also has been submitted to the lordship of Christ.

Pastor Paul has has submitted an article, by the above captioned title, to the Baptist Press which was published on September 2, 2009.  You can read the article by going to:  www.bpnews.net and searching for his article using his name.