Melinda Stevenson

Melinda Stevenson has an awesome testimony. I heard a snippet of in tonight on the 10 o'clock KFOR newscast.

I visited her website, www.melindastevenson.com, and it is replete with scripture and on the first page she sets forth a beautiful gospel presentation. I praise God for her testimony. She would be an asset, and a wonderful speaker, for any

camp meeting, revival, conference, and etc. Praise God for her life and testimony.

Baptist Distinctives Pt. 1 - Believers Baptism by Full Immersion

 As Baptists, we have certain beleifs and practices that considered to be distinctive and believer's baptism by full immersion is one of these beliefs and practices. In fact, our denominational name is dirived from the fact that we practice only believer's baptism by full immersion.  Believer's baptism is the Christian ordinance of baptism in which the participant publicly professes his/her faith in Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.  Believer's baptism is also, at times, referred to as credo-baptism,  from the Latin word credo, meaning believe. We , as Baptists, practice believers baptism in contrast to those denominations and sects that practice infant, or padeo, baptism.  A key concept in believer's baptism is that a credible profession of faith must be given by the recipient before baptism. 

Our belief,of course, is not without its biblical support, Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22,  John 1:29-34,  Acts 2:37-38 & 41, Colossians 2:11-12, & 1 Peter 3:21 all support believers baptism by immersion. Also, the word baptism its self comes from the Greek meeaning to dip or immerse. In addition, many theologians hold that their is no conclusive evidence of infant baptism in Scripture, thus indicating that baptism is reserved for those who have believed on Christ.

The Gnostic Heresy

Gnosticism is a heresy which is made up of a diverse set of beliefs. It is the teaching based on the idea of gnosis (a Koine Greek word meaning "secret knowledge"), or knowledge of transcendence arrived at by way of internal, intuitive means. While Gnosticism thus relies on personal religious experience as its primary authority, early "Christian" Gnostics did adopt their own versions of authoritative Scriptures, such as those found at Nag Hammadi in Egypt.
What we know about Gnosticism comes from Irenaeus who studied twenty of the most influential Gnostic writers and defined and criticized their beliefs. Other early church father, such as Tetullian and Origen also provide information regarding Gnostic beliefs. Lastly, many Gnostic writings were discovered at the Nag Hammadi Library, Nag Hammadi is a town in Upper Egypt near ancient Chenoboskion and 13 codices were discovered about 1945.

General beliefs

The following information is taken from Olson, The Story of Christian Theology, p. 37.

Matter or materiality
Gnostics believed that matter, whether it be the physical universe or the humany body, is evil. It is obvious that there is a great tension between spirit and matter. This effects many of their beliefs and especially the way they perceive(d) the world and God's interactions with it.

God

God is wholly transcendent, that is, he is far removed from his creation. He did not create the material universe because it was instead created by an evil or lesser God, sometimes called a "demiurge". God is thus too perfect and pure to have much to do with the evilness of the material universe.

Humanity

Gnostics believed that human beings were "sparks" or "droplets" of the very same spiritual substance (or essence) that God is. Somehow we we became trapped in our physical bodies from which we are to escape.

The Fall

All Gnostics agreed that The Fall was identical to the fall into matter. In other words, creation and The Fall coincide. "As long as spirits are trapped in physical bodies and materiality, they will be subject to sin, which is caused by ignorance of their true nature and home."
Salvation
Gnosticism commonly held that "salvation is to escape from the bondage of the material existence and travel back to the home from which souls/spirits have fallen." God initiates salvation because he wants to draw back the stray bits and pieces of himself, and so he sends forth an emanation of himself - "a spiritual redeemer" - who comes down from heaven and gives an attempt to teach some of the "divine sparks of Spirit" what their true identity is and where their real home lies. Once they are awakened by this redeemer they can then begin their journey back home. "Salvation is by knowledge - self-knowledge."

Jesus

Lastly, as far as most scholars know, Gnostics considered themselves Christians and saw Jesus as a heavenly messenger. However, they rejected the idea of God becoming incarnate (God becoming a man), dying and rising bodily. "These beliefs were considered unspiritual and against true wisdom because they entangled spirit with matter." Most Gnostics believe that whoever entered Jesus at his baptism left him before he died on the cross.

Gnosticism's present existence

This heretical view is still in existence today, both in various secretive cults and in such pop religious movements as astrology or alchemy.
The masonic movment has been referred to as a Gnostic movement. The popular book The DaVinci Code (2003, Doubleday) by Dan Brown promotes Gnostic ideas as it attempts to undermine orthodox Christianity

Southern Baptists: Who Are We?

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is term referring to both the denomination and its annual meeting of delegates, both at the national level and local levels. The SBC is the largest Baptist group, and the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, claiming 16 million members. According to the Religious Congregations Membership Study, the Convention had 15,922,039 members in 41,514 churches in the United States in 2000.
Because Baptist churches believe strongly in the autonomy of the local church, the SBC is a cooperative organization by which churches can pool resources, rather than as a body with any administrative control over local churches. It maintains a central administrative organization based in Nashville, Tennessee, which has no authority over its affiliated state conventions, local associations, or individual churches or members. Its "confession of faith", the Baptist Faith and Message (2000 edition), is also not binding on churches or members.

History

Baptists arrived in the southern United States near the end of the 17th century. The first Baptist church in the south was formed in Charleston, South Carolina under the leadership of William Screven, a Baptist preacher and shipbuilder who arrived there from Maine in 1696.
The first associations formed in the South were the Charleston Association (org. 1751) and the Sandy Creek Association (org. 1758). Baptists in the South participated in forming the first national Baptist organization in 1814 known as the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions or the Triennial Convention which met every three years.
The Southern Baptist Convention was formed May 8-12, 1845 in Augusta, Georgia. Its first president was William Bullein Johnson (1782-1862), who was president of the Triennial Convention in 1841. The immediate, though not the only, cause for forming the SBC was the controversy over slavery between Northerners and Southerners within the Triennial Convention and the Home Mission Society. Though the bodies were theoretically neutral, some Baptists in the South did not believe the assurances of neutrality. They knew several leaders were engaged in abolitionist activity. To test this, Georgia Baptists recommended James E. Reeve, a slaveholder, to the Home Mission Society as a missionary in the South. The Society did not appoint Reeve, presumably not on the basis of his being a slaveholder, but because the Georgia Baptists wished his appointment specifically because he was a slaveholder. Baptists from the South subsequently broke from this organization and formed the new Southern Baptist convention.
Another issue that disturbed the churches in the south was the perception that the American Baptist Home Mission Society (org. 1832) did not appoint a proportionate number of missionaries to the southern region of the U. S.
It is also evident that Baptists north and south preferred a different type of denominational organization: the Baptists in the north as a whole preferred a loosely structured society composed of individuals who paid annual dues, with each society usually focused on a single ministry, while the southern churches preferred an organization composed of churches patterned after their associations, with a variety of ministries brought under the direction of one denominational organization.

SBC Beliefs

The general theological perspective of the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention is represented in the Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M). The BF&M was first drafted in 1925, then revised significantly in 1963 and again in 2000, with the latter revision being the subject of much controversy.
The BF&M is not considered to be a creed along the lines of historic Christian creeds such as the Nicene Creed; members are not required to adhere to it nor are churches required to use it as their "Statement of Faith" or "Statement of Doctrine" (though many do in lieu of creating their own Statement). Despite the fact that the BF&M is not a "creed," missionaries who apply to serve through the various SBC missionary agencies must "affirm" that their practices, doctrine, and preaching are consistent with the BF&M; this affirmation has also been the subject of controversy. For more information about our Southern Baptist identity visit WWW.SBC.NET .

The Doctrine of Hypostatic Union

Hypostatic Union, what in the world is that, you may be asking yourself. Put very simply it is the doctrine that states that Christ,when on earth, had both a human and divine nature. Now on the surface it may seem to be a simple doctrine with a long name, but this particular doctrine is far from simple. Hypostatic Union teaches that Christ's two distinct natures, divine and human, co-existed substantively and in reality in the single person of Jesus Christ. The aim,or goal if you will, of this doctrine is to defend the truth that Christ was simultaneously truly God and truly man. Athanasius and other early church fathers were the ones that dubbed this doctrine with the name hypostatic union.


The doctrine of the hypostatic union (the two natures of Jesus) was adopted as orthodox doctrine at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Three major schools of theology were involved at the council: Alexandria, Antioch, and the West. The consensus of these three schools in the Chalcedonian Creed illustrates the catholicity (i.e. universality) of the ancient church. The creed asserted two distinct natures, human and divine, and affirmed the one person of Jesus Christ.


One of the clearest passages in Scripture concerning the two natures of Jesus comes from John 1 . The Word (i.e. Jesus) "was with God, and the Word was God." Moreover, the Word took on human flesh (John 1:14). Luke also says that Jesus "increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52).


"Some conclude that when Jesus took on his human nature he possessed two minds, a human mind and a Divine mind, with the human mind responsible for Jesus' knowledge rather than the Divine mind. Others hold that Jesus had one mind but while in his mortal body he chose to have a subconscious mental part that was inaccessible to the conscious mind and then, after his resurrection, his humanity became dominated by the Divine so his subconscious became accessible."
For an example of the "two minds view", see The Logic of God Incarnate, by Thomas Morris. For the "divided mind" view, which speaks of "two systems of belief [in one mind] to some extent independent of each other", see Richard Swinburne's Christian God, p. 201 For a critique of these, see "The Inclusion model of the Incarnation: Problems and Prospects", by Tim Bayne.
The view that Jesus only has one will is called Monothelitism

Here are some contrasting views pertaining to the Doctrine of Hypostatic Union:
Apollinarianism
Apollinarians argued that in the incarnation the Son of God assumed a human nature but not a human soul. Instead, his divine nature took the place of the soul. This view diminished the full humanity of Jesus and was condemned at the Council of Constatinople in 381. This view is similar to docetism.

Nestorianism
Nestorianism insisted that there were two natures but that there were also two persons: one divine and the other human. Rather than unifying Jesus, this view separated the person of Jesus along with his two natures.

Eutychianism
This view essentially absorbed the human nature into the divine nature. In an attempt to unify the person of Jesus, Eutychianism denied the two natures of Jesus and affirmed a new, or third, nature. This issue is also similar to that of monophystism (mono - one; physis - nature).

All of these views have been condemned as heretical.

In Conclusion, Hypostatic Union is a doctrine held to by all orthodox Christians, but as with all orthodox doctrines it has not been without debate, and at times very heated argument.