By now most of you have heard of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, long time pastor to Sen. Barak Obama and his comments that have become quite controversial.  I have no interest in discussing them here.  However, he did make one very interesting statement at his visit to the National Press Club a few days ago.  There is a Baptist Press article here that discusses the theology of it.

The gist of the statement was a response to a question about whether or not Jesus Christ was the only way (John 14:6 says he is).  The question directed at Rev. Wright was:

MODERATOR: Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father but through me.’ Do you believe this? And do you think Islam is a way to salvation?

Wright’s response was:

Jesus also said, ‘Other sheep have I who are not of this fold.’

The obvious implication was that he believes other faiths can be saved.  He is quoting John 10:16 in his response.  The truth is Jesus was not saying that other people can come to salvation even if they are not believers in Jesus.  He was telling a group of Jews that Gentiles will one day come to hear his voice and become his sheep.  He was talking about us … European, African, Asian, Hispanic, and all non-Jews.  And praise God for it.  But he is not saying that Muslims, Hindus, or Buddhists are going to be saved.  The label for this liberal theology is Universalism.  It is the notion that all people of faith will go to heaven.  You might have heard people say it this way: “All roads lead to the same place.”  That is just now what Jesus taught.  So to be a follower of Jesus Christ, one must reject Universalism.

UPDATE: Apparantly Sen. Obama has more strongly disassiated himself with Rev. Wright’s comments.  Here is one article I found from Google News.

Maybe you are here because you saw our link in the Logos Blog entry, “Who has Logos in their Blogroll?“  If so, welcome and I hope you enjoy it.  It is really a personal site, but you will notice off the right my preaching course blog from WordPress.com called “The Digital Pulpit”.  Give it a look see too.

I love Logos and  you can too.  Go there and download their latest free version and give it a try.

My Microsoft Word spell checker is a red neck as evidenced by this picture of a recent sermon.

Want to know what a real Revival looks like?  Look no further than Jena, LA.

You’ve been to them and so have I.  The typical four day, Sunday through Wednesday, planned Revival meeting.  A guest speaker is brought it along with some special musicians to sing extra songs.  Some add things like dinners before or fellowships after the services.  In preparation for them prayer meetings are held either in the church or in the homes or both.  And then we publish fliers and newspaper ads.  All for the result of maybe a few decisions during the Revival, but seldom much more.

Then along comes something special, as is the case in Jena, LA.  The town is best know for the "Jena 6" which were 6 black teens charged with the beating of a white boy named Justin Baker.  Read the Wikipedia article for more about them.  As a result of the racial tensions 20,000 people marched in the sleepy little Louisiana town to protest what they believed was lenient treatment of the white students involved in the situation while the black students were treated harshly.

Once again, what Satan intended for evil, God used for good (see Genesis 50:20).  When the Revival was started no one thought it would end up like it did.  Baptist Press has an interesting article that describes how Jena is experiencing a real revival.

My prayer is that I can be part of something like this; I want to see a great outpouring of the Spirit that changes my community in the same way.  The question is how much do I want to see it?  Prayer and personal holiness, I believe, are the beginnings of something like this.

I’ve found Facebook.  I actually signed up a long time ago, but then I read about how pastors are using it to connect with their church members.  So I decided to check it out again and it’s been interesting.  I have connected with one church member and a bunch of old college buddies.

Check me out on Facebook.

Ben Stein, yes that Ben Stein from the Comedy Central game show and from the film Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, has narrated a new movie called Expelled.  It is a documentary about the subject of Intelligent Design.  It has become quite controversial as it blows the doors off one of the least talked about scandals in American Education.  If you believe in the theory of intelligent design, which is to say you believe that a higher power designed and created the earth, then you are persona non grata in American Universities.  You will be "Expelled" which is to say derided and ridiculed and your life made a living hell until you either quit or do something else to get yourself fired. In some cases people are outright fired or merely do not have their contracts renewed.  If you want to see a trailer for the movie, then look below…

The persecuted church in many parts of the word is subjected to imprisonment, torture and sometimes death because of their faith. So far that is not really happening in America.  But the American church is facing another kind of persecution.

Case in point is a church in Carlinville,IL.  The local WalMart built a super WalMart and needed to sell the old, smaller building.  Carlinville Southern Baptist Church was growing and needed extra space.  You’d think it was a marriage made in heaven; maybe it was, but hell didn’t get its invitation to the nuptials and doesn’t know about it.

The problem is that like many cities across America as businesses close up or move out the tax base shrinks.  As churches grow and need more land they are taking up valuable, formerly taxable, land.  So some cities are not allowing them to build or buy property because they are tax exempt and therefore cannot help the city coffers.  The may or Carlinville said as much in defending its city in the press.  They need the money, so the church an have it but not as a church.  They have to pay taxes on it.  When church leaders sought to find a fair and equitable solution the city instead filed a lawsuit stopping the church’s renovation.  They filed a counter suit to keep the city from violating a law Illinois has to protect churches in such situations.

Now why do I call this persecution?  Because it is unique to churches.  Few other organizations need the space that a growing congregation does for worship, teaching, and administration.  And as churches grow they need more land.  But as cities grow they need more taxes.  Instead of finding ways to do things more efficiently thus allowing the taxes they already collect to last longer, they are targeting churches and disallowing them from expanding in order to protect the common good.  What they fail to see is that the greater influence of a church usually results in better citizens who are less taxing on the city in other areas like crime prevention and tax evasion.

This is going on all over the country and I predict that unless we as a church stand up and work harder at influencing the public square, then we will see our freedoms dissipate starting with our tax exempt status.

NOTE: facts from this post come from a Baptist Press article.

I was thinking this morning as I listened to all the talk about taxes yesterday.  April 15 is Tax Day in America, or as we call it around the Purcell house, Birthday — my older son was born on that day.

Some people have compared paying taxes to paying the tithe.  That is a fair comparison in once sense.  You are expected to pay it and it is money coming out of your pocket going into the coffers of an organization of which you are part and from which you derive some benefit.  Pay taxes and get roads.  Pay tithe and get Sunday school literature.  The government says pay taxes because it is the law.  God says pay tithe because it is his law.

But there is one similarity that is truly sad.  Many people run afoul of the law and fail to pay their taxes.  I saw on Fox News that O.J. Simpson owes the state of California 1.5 Million and doesn’t pay it because they have not recourse to collect since he no longer lives there and has no property there.  Other celebs have huge tax bills.

Also many church people do not tithe.  They are running afoul of God’s law.  He calls this "robbing God" in Malachi 3:8.  So what happens if you don’t pay your tithe v. not paying your taxes.  If you don’t pay Uncle Sam you could potentially go to jail, but since the IRS is so overtaxed (get the irony) and understaffed they don’t often push it.  But if you don’t pay your tithe, almost nothing will happen in this lifetime.  But we will have to stand before God one day and he is not struggling to keep up with his books.

God will reward you in this lifetime if you choose to pay the tithe.  He promises this and begs us to test him on it in Malachi 3:10.  Go ahead.  Pay your tithe for the next six months and see if you are not financially better off after that period.  But if you choose not to pay it, your pastor won’t show up with a sheriff to arrest you; the deacons won’t put a notice on your house or car to seize your assets.  But those treasures in heaven you sing about on Sunday will not be yours.

You’ve heard the term Generation X describing people born in the late 60s and 70s.  Now they are calling the generation of youth today Generation Y.  Is it because that’s the next letter after X?  Or is because of the picture below …

I am excited about the newest version of my favorite bible study program for my Treo 700w Pocket PC phone.  It is called PocketBible 4 from Laridian.  Here is a YouTube video highlighting the new features.