SAN ANTONIO (ABP) — The United States faces twin dangers of radical Islam and radical atheism, Chuck Colson, the former Watergate-conspirator who founded Prison Fellowship Ministries, told pastors at the Southern Baptist Convention.
“No time in history have we looked around and seen greater danger,” Colson said at a pastors conference prior to the SBC annual meeting in San Antonio. “We have a danger from the East and a danger from within. We are fighting a form of Islam married to facism.”
There is a second threat, “a culture war” emerging in Western society, Colson continued: “Two-thirds of Americans say there is no such thing as moral truth.”
Neo-atheism has set the stage for an all-out war, he said, noting Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion. “We are under a vicious attack by neo-atheists. Christians have got to be able to speak up and give a reason for the hope that is within us.”
Colson insisted Christians should know that Christianity is a way of seeing all of life from a specific viewpoint. He said they should also understand a biblical worldview and revitalize the gospel.
“The job of the church is … to take [the] gospel into every single walk of life to bring the righteousness of Christ to bear on every single aspect of this world, which he created,” Colson said. “As we Christians do that, the gates of hell can't stand against us because we are on the attack.”
Furthermore, baptisms are decreasing in Southern Baptist churches because church members are “not doing evangelism God's way” author T.W. Hunt declared during a prayer time at the conference.
“God cannot use our arrogance,” he said, asking the assembly to “pray that God will reveal what in us is arrogant enough that it impedes his work.”
Another guest speaker, former SBC president Jerry Vines, said divine encounters are “scripted in heaven, produced on earth and choreographed by the Holy Spirit” to give believers the opportunity to share Christ with the lost.
Preaching from the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, Vines said Philip — a “prompt, observant soul-winner” — listened to God's command and met the eunuch on the road as he passed in his chariot.
“He could have said, ‘not me, not now, not there,' when God told him to arise and go,” said Vines, the former pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla. “But he went with no hesitation and no complaint.”
The chariots of opportunity that come today are changing from what they looked like in the past, Vines said.
“They're changing racially; they're changing with their religions; they are changing technologically,” he said. “Amidst those changing chariots there are two constants that do not change. People have the same needs and the same holes in their hearts that people have always had. And the same gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ can meet the need in that heart.”
Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, offered encouragement for pastors and their families facing opposition. Look for the victory in spite of opposition, he said.
“You may not see it right now but there is coming a day when the just God will reward you for every heartache,” he said. “Tribulation, yes, sorrow … heartache, it is OK. The glory that shall be revealed shall be greater than all the suffering.”
But no matter how much opposition one has or how much suffering one experiences, always remember that “mine is infinitesimal in comparison to what others in the world are suffering. We never suffer as much as others,” Patterson said.
The final thing to remember while facing opposition is that “in those trials, God gives us the opportunity to develop Christian graces otherwise we would not have.” The only way to appropriate “the Christian graces” is for opposition to come, he said.
“The wrath of man is not the righteousness of God,” he said. “I do not come by any of that naturally. God has used difficulty in my life to try to teach me some virtues.”
Also offering testimonies were O.S. Hawkins of GuideStone Financial Resources; Al Mohler of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.; and Jimmy Draper, retired president of LifeWay Christian Resources.
Newly elected pastors' conference officers include: President Michael Catt; Vice President Steve Dighton; and Secretary-Treasurer Roy Crowe.
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