Baptist Press Archive

Tuesday, March 08, 2016

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  • WEEK OF PRAYER: Planting a church in his childhood neighborhood
    by Jim Burton, posted Tuesday, March 08, 2016 (8 years ago)

    Photo by Mark Sandlin/NAMB
    NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- Ryan Rice once despised the church. Then he found love.

    Growing up in greater New Orleans, an aunt read the Bible to him. Rice found the stories about Jesus fascinating.

    "I was the kid who raised his hand to answer every Bible question," Rice said of his early exposure to Sunday School and Vacation Bible School.

    When he turned 8 years old, his mother married a man who was an abuser and drug user. As a child just discovering the Bible, he learned about the dark side of life, and he asked a big question for a child, "Where is God?" Read More

  • EZELL: Don't wait to say 'Send me'
    by Kevin Ezell, posted Tuesday, March 08, 2016 (8 years ago)

    ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) -- Not long ago I had the privilege of visiting with 1,200 college students for the weekly meeting of The Salt Company, a ministry of Cornerstone Church in Ames, Iowa, near the campus of Iowa State University. Cornerstone was birthed from The Salt Company 21 years ago. The goal of The Salt Company was to reach students at Iowa State for Christ and today this ministry keeps that as its primary goal. Read More

  • NYC bathroom order called 'one-way tolerance'
    by David Roach, posted Tuesday, March 08, 2016 (8 years ago)

    NEW YORK (BP) -- A New York City executive order underscoring the requirement that city agencies allow transgender persons to use any restroom they choose is among the latest round of cultural challenges to which believers are responding. Read More

  • Erasmus' Greek NT changed history 500 years ago
    by David Roach, posted Tuesday, March 08, 2016 (8 years ago)

    Photo from Wikimedia Commons
    HOUSTON (BP) -- A conference and museum exhibit at Houston Baptist University helped mark the 500th anniversary of a Greek New Testament edition the exhibit's curator said "spurred the Reformation" and "continues to be important" for biblical studies.

    On March 1, 1516, a Dutch priest named Desiderius Erasmus published the Greek New Testament's first ever "critical edition" -- a version that drew from all available Greek manuscripts to compile a text with wording as close as possible to that of the original inspired authors. That work, which went through four revisions, was the first published Greek text available to the public. It is credited with changing Bible translation, preaching and even the course of church history. Read More

  • Language proves God's existence, prof says
    by Benjamin Hawkins, posted Tuesday, March 08, 2016 (8 years ago)

    CLEVELAND, Ga. (BP) -- Evidence for the existence of God is, quite literally, on the tip of your tongue, says Southern Baptist professor Jeremy Lyon.

    Lyon, associate professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Ga., and John Baumgardner, a geophysicist who teaches at Southern California Seminary in El Cajon, Calif., argue the existence of language points to the existence of God. Read More

  • Archivist Taffey Hall named SBHLA director
    by Abby Davis, posted Tuesday, March 08, 2016 (8 years ago)

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- An archivist with more than a decade of experience researching Baptist history has been named the new director of the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, the Council of Seminary Presidents has announced.

    Taffey Hall, previously the library's archivist, will replace Bill Sumners as SBHLA director when he retires in July. Read More

  • Marriage & family's Gary Smalley dies
    by Art Toalston, posted Tuesday, March 08, 2016 (8 years ago)

    BRANSON, Mo. (BP) -- Gary Smalley, a self-effacing yet prolific author and auditorium-packing speaker on marriage and the family, died March 6 in Branson, Mo.

    A cause of death for Smalley, 75, had not been reported at Baptist Press' mid-afternoon deadline March 8.

    "Gary Smalley was a tremendous communicator and personality," said Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and senior pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas. Read More