CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW TACKLES "INTERRACIALMARRIAGE"

With the inauguration of President Barack Obama, a new era of race relations has begun in America. This child of a racially mixed marriage has captured the highest office of the land and the imaginations of people around the world. One cannot help but notice the complexion of America is changing. The face of our nation is transitioning from a predominately white one to various shades of tan.

The church, however, still struggles with interracial relationships, if not in theory, at least in practice. While Jesus loves the little children without distinction—red and yellow, black and white—his church, for the most part, reflects an equal but separate model of worship. Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour of the week; but, things are slowly beginning to change.

As the racial identity of the nation becomes more blurred, so will the racial make-up of the church. Therefore, it is incumbent on seminary professors to equip future pastors to become effective leaders of a hybrid church. Additionally, those currently in ministry will soon find themselves dealing with matters for which they were not trained. Issues such as racially-diverse worship styles, multiracial leadership, interracial dating and mixed marriage are but a few of the challenges ahead.

The Spring 2009 edition of Criswell Theological Review focuses on the issue of interracial marriage. We have invited a group of experienced scholars to address the topic, including Craig Keener, Danny Hays, and Edwin Yamauchi, among others; plus, we feature an exclusive interview with Rodney Woo, pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church in Houston, TX, who tells of the joys and difficulties of taking a declining white congregation and transforming it into a thriving multiracial church.

You can order the issue at" Criswelljournal.com

John Updike on the Resurrection

Most Christians have heard of John Updike, the famed Pulitzer Prize author of poems and short stories, but few have ever read him. Fewer still know of the profound influence that Karl Barth had on his understanding of God and his perception of reality. Updike died yesterday in hospice after a bout with cancer. He was 76. Here is a poem he wrote nearly five decades on the resurrection.


SEVEN STANZAS OF EASTER


By John Updike

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His Flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that — pierced — died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck's quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

From Updike, John. "Telephone Poles and Other Poems" (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,1961).

NEW CTR COMES OFF PRESS

The Spring 2008 Criswell Theological Review (CTR), of which I am editor, is now being mailed to subscribers. This edition of CTR deals exclusively with the explosive issue of "The Christian and Alcohol." Recently, the Southern Baptist Convention has had to address this matter at its annual meeting because so many of its pastors view social drinking as an acceptable practice among their parishioners. What do you think about the issue? How does the Scriptures handle the issue? CTR presents all sides of the controversy from a theological, historical, social and biblical perspective.

To get a glimpse of the Spring 08 CTR, go to: www.criswelljournal.com

Watch Video Streaming on Exegesis of Luke

My Sunday morning exegetical messages on the Gospel of Luke can be viewed on the web at www.presidentsclass.org

These verse-by-verse teachings, which examine the text from an historical-critical perspective, show how Jesus' proclaiming and demonstrating the kingdom of God was central to his eschatological mission.

The website features about eight messages. Each Monday afternoon we place a new video online, and the oldest one is removed.

We offer these for your education and edification. Please tell other pastors and theological students about the website. We hope the messages will stimulate your thinking and motivate you to do further research on each passage.

After listening to the messages, please give me some feedback.

UPCOMING SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

March

2, 9, 16, 23, 30 -- Teaching the Presidents Class, First Baptist Church (Dallas), 9:30 a.m. each Sunday

25 -- Criswell College chapel service, 10:00 a.m.

April

6, 13, 20, 27 -- Presidents Class FBC (Dallas), 9:30 a.m.

6 -- First Baptist Church (Dallas) evening service (6:00 p.m.).

Annexation, A Kingdom Perspective

Last night the City Council of Rockwall, Texas, held public meetings to discuss annexation of 234 acres of land. Since my acre is included, I attended the hearing.

After many property owners voiced emotional pleas, asking the Council to exempt their property from annexation, I rose to speak. In a moment of clarity, I saw that the real issue was a clash between two kingdoms. The city had the legal right to annex our land and boost their tax base, and by golly they were going to do it whether we wanted them to or not. Forced annexation is a manifestation of governmental power and differs very little from the Roman system of domination. Therefore, I decided to approach the issue from a kingdom perspective.

Here are my comments:
____

Mr. Mayor and members of the Council. I can’t add much more to what has already been said; so, I wish to address the basic issue of justice and fairness. Sometimes what is legal is not fair or just.

When our forefathers declared their independence from Great Britain, they stated, “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

By adding the adjective “just” to “power” they were making a moral argument, not a legal one. There is a different between “raw power” and “just power.” The latter is derived only from the consent of the governed.

When my wife and I moved to Rockwall County 15 years ago, we chose to live outside the city limits. Now our rights and desires are in jeopardy by this council who wants to annex us into the city without our consent.

Our precious next door neighbors were retired and on a fix income when we moved into our home 15 years ago. They no longer drive at night and are not here. Annexation will place an undo burden on these good people. With the current drop in property values and the anticipated recession will this couple, who still lives on the same fixed income as before, be able to pay the extra taxes and $10,000 sewer hookup required by annexation?

The city of Rockwall may exercise its legal power, but one must question whether it is “just,” since it is being done without the consent of the people? The issue is a moral one.

When the Republic of Texas was annexed (1845) into the United States of America it was done only with the consent of the citizens of Texas.

Consent is the founding principle upon which our nation was established and upon which “just power” is derived.

I appeal to your sense of fairness and justice. Annexation without consent is un-American and it is certainly not the Texan thing to do.

Speaking Schedule For Dec, Jan, Feb

DECEMBER

Sunday Morning (9:30) Dec 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 Presidents Class, FBC (Dallas, TX)

JANUARY

Sunday Morning (9:30) Jan 6, 13, 20, 27 Presidents Class, FBC (Dallas, TX)
Sunday Evening (5:45) Jan 13, Baptism, FBC (Dallas, TX)
Wednesday Evening (6:15) Jan 9, 16, 23, 30 Midweek Bible Study, FBC (Dallas, TX)

FEBRUARY

Sunday Morning (9:30) Feb 3, 10, 17, 24 Presidents Class, FBC (Dallas, TX)
Monday Evening (7:00) Feb 25 Annual Expository Preaching Conference (Plenary Speaker), Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Fort Worth, TX)