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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Paris attacks: ISIS trying to goad Jesus’ return and the apocalypse

By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor PARIS (LBM) -- Ironically, the deaths of 130 civilians as well as the related stepped up air attacks against Islamic State militants in Syria are both successes for ISIS. On the one hand its strategic objectives have been enhanced by the terror and chaos created within Western nations it considers enemies – France, Belgium, Germany and the United States among them. On the other hand, the severe military response ISIS has provoked fits into the bizarre end time prophecies that are prompting the group to be so barbaric in its atrocities against the countries it has incited. TERRORISM & THEOLOGY Paris was placed under curfew, the first since 1944, after gunmen and suicide bombers coordinated separate attacks targeting restaurants, a rock concert and a sports stadium Nov. 13, killing 130. France’s President Hollande also ordered the country’s borders sealed and lawmakers voted to extend a national state of emergency through at least February 2016. Brussels officials, meanwhile, declared a terror alert Nov. 22, closing schools and putting troops on patrol in the streets while conducting raids (21 arrests so far) to locate suspects connected to the Paris terrorism. The … [Read more...]

Egyptian church, destroyed by terrorists, rebuilt by Egyptian army

By Gregory Tomlin, Christian Examiner CAIRO (Christian Examiner) – A Coptic Christian Church in Minya, Egypt, burned down by the Muslim Brotherhood in the wake of the Arab Spring riots, has been rebuilt by the Egyptian military, the Egyptian news source Watani has reported. Parishioners gathered at the church of Amir Tadros, or St. Theodore, to celebrate the church's reopening Nov. 14. It was one of 100 Christian churches, houses and Christian establishments firebombed in the country during riots there in 2013, shortly after the Muslim Brotherhood took power – and then lost it after failing to provide essential civil services and wreaking havoc on the nation's non-Muslim minority communities. Muhammad Morsi, who led the Muslim Brotherhood, was recently charged with torturing his political opponents, but he also has been found guilty of helping more than 100 militant Islamists escape from prison during the 2011 revolts that ushered him into power. For that crime, Morsi has been sentenced to death. Morsi deposed then President Hosni Mubarak, a long-time ally of the United States and a peacemaker with Israel. In August 2013, the Algemeiner, a Middle East news source, said its Investigative Project on Terrorism had … [Read more...]

Indonesian churches closed, burned, demolished by Muslim extremists

By Kelly Ledbetter, Christian Examiner ACEH SINGKIL, Indonesia (Christian Examiner) – After Muslim hard-liners burned churches in Aceh Singkil on the island of Sumatra, over 8,000 people fled religious violence that has been building in Aceh province since a 2006 law discriminated against religious minorities. The religious harmony law requires signatures of the religious majority, which is Islam in Indonesia, before a church may be built. Conflicts about church permits, which few possess, have escalated into discrimination involving mobs burning and looting in violence that has killed at least one person, according to World Watch Monitor. Erde Burutu, a pastor of Pakpak Dairi Christian Protestant Church, which was burned in October, said temporarily displaced Christians who are returning to Aceh are afraid. "There is no guarantee of safety from the state," he told WWM. "For us, safety goes beyond the physical; it means that we can have our church back and exercise our freedom to worship." After burning the Indonesian Christian Church on Oct. 13, the mob circulated a message that read: "We will not stop hunting Christians and burning churches. Christians are Allah's enemies!" Since the 2006 law was passed, thousands … [Read more...]

Obama is importing Muslims, deporting Christians

By Todd Starnes, Christian Examiner The nation was forced to endure yet more pious prattling from President Obama this week who spent time berating Americans who are worried about Islamic jihadists hell-bent on blowing us all to kingdom come. “When individuals say that we should have a religious test and that only Christians – proven Christians should be admitted – that’s offensive and contrary to American values, the president said – just one day after he called such behavior un-American. What’s offensive and contrary to American values is refusing to properly investigate those wanting to come to our nation – especially those coming from regions that are hotbeds of Islamic extremism. “Those of us who fear that Islamic radicals might be lurking among the refugees have been called every name in the book: bigots, Islamophobes and un-American. But the cold hard reality is that Protestants, Catholics and Jews aren't the ones beheading people,” said Obama. But the president says such prudence only further enflames the Islamic jihadists. “ISIL seeks to exploit the idea that there is a war between Islam and the West,” he said. “When you starting seeing individuals in positions of responsibility suggesting that … [Read more...]

IMB Commissioning service highlights a world in need

By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter NEW ORLEANS – In a moving service focused on God’s faithfulness in a world dangerous and desperate without Christ, thirty-five International Mission Board missionary candidates were commissioned by IMB trustees at First Baptist Church, New Orleans, Nov. 8. The event came at the end of the annual IMB board of trustees meeting held this year on the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary campus and coincided with the annual NOBTS Global Missions Week. During the week, IMB personnel spoke in the NOBTS chapel, classes, and in focused breakout sessions. John Edie, IMB board of trustees chairman and member of Second Baptist Church in Springfield, Mo., introduced to the near-capacity crowd the “next wave” of Southern Baptist missionaries and noted the board’s unanimous approval of their appointments. He then turned to the appointees. “What I never cease to be amazed at is the look in your eye when you tell me you are going to the farthest, most remote, most difficult places in the world. And there’s no fear,” Edie said. “The reason is because of the One we serve, the One who’s still in charge.” Addressing the appointees’ family members in attendance, Edie said, “I assure you that in … [Read more...]

Supreme Court decides to hear GuideStone appeal in contraceptive case

By Roy Hauhurst, GuideStone Financial Resources DALLAS — The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 6 agreed to hear appeals by several ministries, including GuideStone, to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate that would require certain ministries served by GuideStone to provide abortion-causing drugs and devices or face crippling penalties. The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the appeal means that ministries continue to be protected from sanctions until at least June 2016, when a final ruling is rendered. The announcement is welcomed news, said GuideStone General Counsel Harold R. Loftin Jr. “We are grateful that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear our appeal,” Loftin said. “We trust the Court will provide a fair hearing of our arguments early in 2016 and look forward to the resolution of the case.” The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case was expected by legal observers after the St. Louis-based Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in September in favor of a group of ministries seeking relief from the mandate. The Eighth Circuit’s decision broke with decisions by most other circuit courts, including a three-judge panel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled against GuideStone in its … [Read more...]

Conservative columnist accuses SBC leader of seeking liberals’ approval

  By Will Hall, Message Editor ALEXANDRIA  – Conservative political and cultural commentator Ann Coulter has accused Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm of being “desperate for liberal approval” after publication of his editorial in the New York Times which took aim at evangelicals who support billionaire presidential candidate Donald Trump. Moore, president of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee, which, broadly speaking, is tasked with representing Southern Baptists’ views in the public square, published an opinion piece in which he alluded to Trump as “a cartoonish TV character.” “Donald J. Trump stands astride the polls in the Republican presidential race, beating all comers in virtually every demographic of the primary electorate,” Moore wrote. “Most illogical is his support from evangelicals and other social conservatives. “To back Mr. Trump, these voters must repudiate everything they believe,” he said. Listing Trump’s known moral failings, Moore was incredulous that “some self-identified evangelicals are telling pollsters they’re for Trump. Worse, some social conservative leaders are praising Mr. Trump for ‘telling it like it is.’” “In the 1990s, … [Read more...]

Election Night Surprises

Houston residents vote down LGBT equal rights measure...   And elsewhere in the country: Pot legalization loses big in Ohio COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio voters rejected a ballot proposal Tuesday that would have legalized both recreational and medical marijuana in a single stroke — a vote-getting strategy that was being watched as a potential test case for the nation. Failure of the proposed state constitutional amendment followed an expensive campaign, a legal fight over its ballot wording, an investigation into petition signatures — and, predominantly, a counter campaign against a network of 10 exclusive growing sites it would have created. It was the only marijuana legalization question on the 2015 statewide ballots. About 65 percent of voters opposed the measure, compared to 35 percent in favor. McAuliffe and Bloomberg Gun control flop in Virginia Republicans retained their 21-19 majority in the Virginia Senate on Tuesday, prevailing in a more than $43 million off-year election battle with Democrats for control of the General Assembly. With Republicans easily maintaining their 2-1 edge in the House of Delegates, the apparent victory by Glen H. Sturtevant in a key Senate race in the Richmond area … [Read more...]

Macel Falwell, Jerry Falwell’s wife, dies at 82

By Joni B Hannigan, Christian Examiner LYNCHBURG, Va. (Christian Examiner) - Macel Pate Falwell, 82, who described herself as "a prim and proper lady who'd been raised in the arms of a protective Christian family" before marrying Jerry Falwell, has died. The Falwells were married April 12, 1958, and were married for 49 years. The Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, died in 2007. They are survived by two sons and a daughter: Jerry Falwell Jr., Jonathan Falwell, and Jeannie Falwell Savas -- and their families. A memorial page appears on the website of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia today. To read the rest of the story, click here. … [Read more...]

REVIEW: ‘Woodlawn’ tackles racism & revival in the Red Zone

By Michael Foust, Christian Examiner HOLLYWOOD (Christian Examiner) - The best sports movies aren't even about sports. Instead, the best sports movies use sports as a backdrop to tell the story of something far more significant and important, something that even non-sports fans can embrace. Such is the case with "Woodlawn" (PG), which hits theaters this weekend and recounts the true story of a newly integrated high school football team in Birmingham, Ala., that is the source of racial tension until most of the players accept Christ and spark a city-wide revival. Set in the early 1970s, "Woodlawn" is the best sports movie I've ever seen, although that label really doesn't do it justice. That's because it's simply a great movie – even without the sports – and it's among the most inspiring and uplifting films I've watched. To read the rest of the story, click here. … [Read more...]