Total Life Journal

Our 50th Wedding Anniversary

One look at this campus beauty and you do not need to ask how she captured my undivided attention. Now, 50 years later, she is still the most beautiful lady that I know. I am awesomely blessed to be able to call Robbie my best friend, lover, encourager, ministry partner and beloved wife. Today, August 25, we will celebrate our Golden Wedding Anniversary. It seems fitting that after days of watching Olympic competition we are going to get our own gold medal. We are in Rogers/Bentonville, Arkansas, with our son, Rob, our daughter-in-law, Sarah, and our exceptional grandson, Andy. We are here to combine our anniversary celebration with an early celebration of Andy's first birthday. It cannot get much better!

We met at a youth rally where my Wayland roommate, Bobby Lacey, was preaching. Robbie was the secretary to Dr. J. H. Wright at First Baptist Church, Levelland, Texas, and the program chairperson for the associational youth rallies. She asked me to preach at the next one, and that started a friendship that has gotten better and better. During the summer before our wedding, Robbie, worked as a secretary at Trinity Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas, and I preached during youth-led revivals in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Robbie met me for student week at Glorieta Baptist Assembly in New Mexico and we returned to Texas for the big night at First Baptist Church in Levelland.

As we walked out of the church, we were too young and crazy to worry about anything. We were madly in love and certain that God had brought us together. We were off to New Mexico for our honeymoon, driving my parents' new car. Our first meal together was a wee hours of the morning breakfast at an all-night cafe in Roswell, New Mexico. The next day, we drove to the Lodge at Cloudcroft for a perfect honeymoon. After that, reality set in. We went immediately back to the Wayland campus for study, work and coping with married life in a converted army barrack, where we shared a bathroom with another newlywed couple. We could write a book about that!

When we prowl through the old pictures, we keep asking, "Who are these people?"

Whoever they are, God has allowed them to see the world together. Robbie knew when I proposed marriage that God had called me to a life of itinerant evangelistic preaching. Neither of us could have imagined that this would take me to five continents and almost every state. We have been privileged to be together in Europe, Africa, our beloved Brazil, Central America, Jordan, Israel, the Caribbean and Bermuda. We have held hands overlooking the Grand Canyon, the Golden Gate bridge, under the giant redwoods, in the Rockies, the Smokies and the Blue Ridge. We have seen Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, the magnificent Oregon coast, and we have driven the road to Hana on Maui. We have crossed the Mississippi more times than we want to count. While more traveling is not high on our list right now, we can sing Bob Hope's old theme song, "Thanks for the memories!"

On September 4, 2007, our grandson, Andrew Loyd Bristow, was born in Rogers, Arkansas. Now, his mom and dad, Rob and Sarah, are expecting the arrival of his little brother or sister in February 2009. Whatever the years ahead have in store for Robbie and me, we anticipate many more trips to the Ozarks. For some reason(s) that destination beats out anywhere in the world on our preference list. Did we tell you that our grandson is exceptional?

 

Commentary on the Shack by Alan Day

Dr. Alan Day is the senior pastor of Edmond, Okalhoma's First Baptist Church, and my wife, Robbie, and I are delighted that he is our pastor.  I have the privilege of serving as our church's evangelism coordinator under his leadership.  He is an outstanding theological scholar and has wise spiritual insight.  He embraces the Bible as God's fully sufficient inspired word.  Recently, he wrote a review of a book that is getting an unusual amount of attention, The Shack by William P. Young.  With his permission, I am glad to share his thoughts with you.  They first appeared in our church newsletter, The Clarion, on August 20, 2008.  -WB

Since several of you have asked my opinion of the novel, THE SHACK, I decided to give a brief review of the book in this article.  There is a continuing stream of favorable reviews, and many are claiming that the book has revolutionized their lives.

The main character of the novel, Mack Philips, has lost his daughter.  She has been murdered, her bloodied dress found in an isolated shack.  Four years later Mack receives an invitation from God to spend time with the Trinity in the very shack where the dress was found.  He goes back to the shack and meets the Trinity.  Papa is a large, African American woman. Jesus is a carpenter, and a rather homely one; and the Holy Spirit is an Asian woman.

The attraction of THE SHACK is its emotional appeal to those who are struggling with the most common of human emotions-grief and sorrow and anger and disappointment. And that's the danger.  It is so emotionally captivating that the theological content can be absorbed unconsciously.

I can only list the most glaring theological concerns.  Even though there are positive features, these can never redeem a book so full of error.

On p. 31, we learn that God is identical to the Great Spirit of Native American thought.

On p. 65, we learn that special revelation is still going on and that the Bible did not complete the revelation of God.  "God's voice had been reduced to paper" is how he describes the traditional evangelical position.

On p. 100, we learn that Jesus did his miracles only as a man depending upon God, not as the God-man who had authority in himself to forgive sins, heal the sick, open blind eyes, or for that matter, to obliterate the universe with the word of his power.  But the Apostle John calls Jesus' miracles "signs" and organized them to show that these miracles proved his divine nature.  He begins his gospel with the eternal deity of the Son of God who became flesh and pitched his tent among us (John 1:1-18).

On p. 102, we learn that Papa has scars on her wrists.  This attempt to identify the Father with the sufferings of Jesus opens the door to a view that was determined to be heresy by the early church.  Called "Patripassionism" it is the view that the Father suffered on the cross.  The church Fathers saw this as a confusion of the role of the second person of the godhead and condemned the view as heretical.

The scripture makes it very clear that it was the Son, not the Father, who bore our sins in his own body on the cross.  I know that the Trinity is a mystery, but we must keep our thinking biblical or we open the door to every kind of offensive idea.

On p. 105, Jesus makes a mess in preparing a meal and Papa calls him "greasy fingers."  Strange that the NT never speaks of Jesus making a faux pas, a mistake, a mess up, or whatever.  If the Holy Spirit had thought we needed to see Jesus break dishes and make a mess of supper in order for us to know and trust him, then we would have such accounts in the NT.  The author's attempt to make Jesus more like us and, thus, more likeable, is contrived and extreme.  Did Jesus ever try to walk on water and fail?  Did he ever attempt to heal and fail?  Did he ever say "Oops?"

On p. 110, the author has Jesus say that he is the "best" way to relate to the Father and the Spirit.  Jesus is not the BEST way, he is the ONLY way.  The author is inclusivistic and postmodern in his understanding of salvation.  This is dangerous and one of the greatest challenges of our day.

The author suggests that non-Christians are going to be saved (p. 182).  He says that God does not punish us for our sins (pp. 119-20). On pp. 192, he suggests that God has done everything he can do to reconcile mankind and now he is waiting for men to respond to him. This is extreme Arminianism.

On p. 225, he continues this idea and says that he (Papa) has already forgiven every one of their sins, even though not everyone chooses relationship.

On p. 206, Papa says that she never has any expectations of anyone; therefore they can never disappoint her.  She (he/it?) can never be disappointed in anyone.  Where did this idea come from?  It is pure postmodernism.

But the most disturbing idea is that God can be understood to be like an obese woman name "Papa."  This sexual confusion hardly interprets the nature of God, who is Father, Son, and Spirit.  And the feminine character, who represents the Holy Spirit, though emotionally attractive, hardly resembles the Spirit of Jesus in the New Testament.

God has the right to control how humans think about Him.  The ancient world was full of female deities.  Our contemporary world worships the spirit of Gaia and the feminine spirit.  Feminist theologians debate the feminine side of God and some even relate the Holy Spirit to the idea of femininity.  God could have revealed himself with feminine features if he had thought it wise and good and if that would have been true to his essence.  But he did not.  Therefore, in my opinion, we don't have the freedom to portray him with feminine characteristics.

God's purpose in revealing himself as Father, Son, and Spirit was not because God has male sexual characteristics, because he doesn't. His purpose is to faithfully describe his eternal nature.  He chose Father, Son, and Spirit because, as omniscient, he knew this best described his eternal essence.  The divine trinity is not mere allegory or metaphor.  God's eternal essence is Trinitarian.  He is eternally Father, Son, and Spirit.

The book is powerful, emotional, and attractive.  Its subtle heresies, not apparent to most baby believers, make it very dangerous and, consequently, disturbing to me.

The author, William P. Young, stops short of affirming universal salvation; but he does raise the possibility and indicates some sympathy to the idea.

Beware of the coming flood of literature masquerading as biblical and evangelical which, in fact, advocates or at least sympathetically addresses the issues of inclusivism, universalism, and a kinder, gentler deity.

Tell someone.

Alan Day

To visit Edmond's First Baptist Church online click here.

   

Door to Door Evangelism Still Works

It is not difficult to find those who will tell you that going door to door in neighborhoods no longer works. Do not believe this.

Recently, I have been teaming with men from our church and going into neighborhoods in our growing community. We have done door to door taking a Spiritual Interest Survey. Every test of this approach has demonstrated that, if you go with a humble spirit, completely dependent on the Holy Spirit and sensitive to the needs of people, you will find individuals whose minds and hearts are open to the good news about Jesus.

Here are illustrations of the Holy Spirit in action through the combined ministries of Edmond’s First Baptist Church. Each began with door to door evangelism.

On Saturday morning, July 26, I was going door to door with one of our men. We met a friendly man who was doing yard work. We learned that he and his wife had moved to Edmond from another state just five days earlier. He answered our Spiritual Interest Survey questions and allowed me to share our church’s witnessing booklet with him.

This man and his wife visited our worship service on Sunday morning, July 27. 

On our July 29, a couple from our church visited with this husband and wife in their home.  They were warmly received, and heard the comment that it "was of God" that we met them when we did.

Sunday morning, August 10, they again visited in our worship service and responded to the “come      forward” invitation. That morning, they attended a small group Bible study where they heard a strong testimony about how biblical baptism follows a person receiving the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ.

On Sunday morning, August 17, I had the privilege of baptizing this wonderful couple. On Wednesday evening, August 20, they joined with our church family for our mid-week prayer and Bible study time.  They were glowing with spiritual enthusiasm!   

This is how it should work: Led by the Holy Spirit, we discover people through divine appointments. As He opens doors of opportunity, we share the good news about Jesus. People come under biblical preaching and teaching and meet God’ loving people. The Holy Spirit does what only He can do, revealing need and drawing people to Christ. We respond as people respond by welcoming them into our family and helping them to grow in their relationship with Jesus as their Lord.

There have been other positive experiences when we have gone door to door in our town.

On July 19, I spent 2.5 hours going door to door doing the Spiritual Interest Survey with another one of our men. We were able to share our church’s witnessing booklet with two young single men. The last young man invited them into his house and listened intently as I shared the entire booklet with him. He has an open mind and heart and will be lovingly befriended by our young single adults.

On July 26, in the company of a godly man, I was able to share the witnessing booklet with a university student and have a good witness to a Hispanic yard worker. As the Holy Spirit had arranged it, the brother who was with me speaks fluent Spanish.

On recent church visitation night, one of our staff members and his wife tested the Spiritual Interest Survey in a very nice neighborhood. At one house, the man responded by telling them that he is a Muslim. Our staff member lovingly said, “That’s okay. Would you still be willing to help us by answering a few questions?” They were invited into the home and were able to share a good portion of the witnessing booklet. Now, they have a standing invitation to return and talk more about our Lord Jesus Christ.

On our August 12 visitation night, two of our men went into a neighborhood to do the Spiritual Interest Survey. After going to eight houses, they met a wonderful young couple who have been married for less than three months. They are looking for a church in our town and indicated that they will with us for worship and Bible study soon. 

As we have gone into these neighborhoods, we have been reminded of the importance of two things:

Do not be discouraged by rejection and lack of response. In reality, one good sharing opportunity usually comes after eight or nine attempts. Many people will not be at home. A few will not answer the survey questions. Some of those who do answer the questions will not want you to share the gospel with them. Spiritually optimistic persistence will eventually result in opportunities to share your testimony and introduce people to Christ. These are people we might never meet otherwise.

Go with the right motive. We are the King’s “sent ones.” I remind our church members that, as we go, we are implementing the mission statement of our church: “Our purpose is to love God and others through Jesus Christ.”

Yes, door to door evangelism still works, if we allow the Holy Spirit to work through our availability and obedience. -Wayne Bristow - 08/22/08