Landmark Baptist

I am posting this from a hotel room in Jacksonville, Florida. My wife and I have been attending the Pastor's Conference at First Baptist Church. This is our sixth year. I am always amazed by the expository BAPTIST preaching there is at this conference. From Jerry Vines, to Paige Patterson, to Emir Caner, to David Allen, and so on. I cannot encourage the listening to some of the speakers, but I have always been blessed, and challenged by the good ones.

Jim Whitmire is an amazing choir and orchestra director leading in the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. If you've never been I encourage every pastor friend I have to go. If you can filter through the calvinists, and the dual naturists, you will be blessed. This church of ten's of thousands is as conservative with their music and their approach to the sciptures as is any landmark backwoods baptist church as you will ever find.

If you are in the ABA you don't have to worry or squirm, because there are ususally many of us here. I won't name names, that's up to them, but if you choose to come to it next year, you will see several familiar faces and recognize many names.

We have just closed the evening with a message from Johnny Hunt on Matthew 6:25-33. Not one of his best presentations, but the Word of God was declared.

It does my heart good to realize that there are some preachers, who preach what we preach that have the attention of the outside world.

One of the blessings of this conference for me was to visit a few minutes with Bob Tebow about homeschooling, and hearing the testimony of Tim Tebow (who is a member of this church) on Sunday morning. (We also heard the testimony of Rusty Smith, the starting quarterback for the Florida Atlantic Owls.) One of the Sunday School teachers here told us that the night before the National Championship, Tim and some of his teammates couldn't sleep, so Tim held a Bible study in his room, and led a young man to the Lord. Hallelujah! Also, all year Tebow has written Philippians 4:13 on the eyeblack on his face. In his testimony he said that in the weeks leading to the championship, that the Lord began to put it in his heart to change his verse. He'd never changed it before and had no idea why he felt the way that he did. However he said, he just believed in his heart, for some reason that the Lord had "changed" his verse from Philippians 4:13 to John 3:16. The day after the National Championship, Google reported that John 3:16 was the single most googled item on the globe! It had 93 million, 200 searches. God's WORD will not return void.

What a joy to see a family that is on top of the world, and they clearly recognize that like a turtle on a fencepost, that someone has put them there, and that someone is the LORD.

I've just been blessed, and wanted to pass it on. If the opportunity for you to come is made available, I'd take it. Weed out the weeds, and you can smell the flowers. - God Bless

Interesting. Does this include many of the same speakers who were at the John 3:16 conference?

Bro. Haney, I am curious about this statement: "If you can filter through...the dual naturists." What do you mean by dual naturists? Of the person? Of the church?

Thanks.

Bro. Vaughn,

I was referring to the "dual naturists" of the church. The belief that there is a physical church that is a local visible body, and a spiritual church that comprises all of the saved in the age of grace.

Now I will say this of some of the dual naturists. While they believe in the spiritual universal body, some also believe that all authority on earth rests within the confines of the local physical body. How they can speak of two bodies I haven't figured out yet, but at the minimal, some of them at least have the issue of where authority lies settled.

As to your other question, Johnny Hunt, Jerry Vines, Paige Patterson, and David Allen, are the only ones here from the 3:16 conference. David Allen in my estimation is an expository scholar head and shoulders above the rest. His rebuttals of Calvinism that I have heard, and his work in the book of Hebrews is unmatched. Jerry Vines and Paige Patterson are still princes among preachers, but David Allen is the expositor extraordinaire.

The conference has ended, and we have been blessed. Thank God for expository preachers.

I don't really know anything about David Allen, but I enjoyed his chapter on baptism in Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches.

David Allen, in my opinion is worth the cost of going to the conference. He is one of the best kept secrets among baptists. He is considered, by those who have introduced us to him, an expert on the book of Hebrews, and after sitting through his sessions last year, and this year, there probably weren't 3 people who left not believing that Luke wrote the book. His montra is "the text is king." Text precedes theology, and therefore the bottom line of the text is to be the final thought of the theologian. (no one here would argue with that.)
He is a kind man with a gentle and very unassuming spirit. Broadman/Holman will be publishing his exegetical commentary on the book of Hebrews late summer, and his book on Lukan authorship of the book will be out spring '10. He is a dean at Southwestern seminary. Very much worth listening to, and learning from.

Maybe you would consider starting a thread on the Lukan authorship of the book of Hebrews and give your thoughts on it.

I decided to go ahead and start a thread. You will find it here:
http://landmarkbaptist.freeforums.org/the-lukan-authorship-of-hebrews-t513.html

I look forward to your thoughts on the matter.