After getting fed up with an ever increasing number of Blogger options that do not work (the latest being the spell check feature), I've decided to head over to Wordpress to see what the fuss is all about.
My new blog URL is http://rhettsrants.wordpress.com/
Please update your bookmarks and blogrolls.
You'll have to pardon my dust over there. It's still a work in progress!
Silas Rhett Owen KelleyMy new son was born this afternoon at 4:07 pm!!
Mom and baby are doing well.
He weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz.
His name is Silas.
Contest results:
Kelly Jack of Statesboro, GA. is the winner of the book contest! He guessed an even 8 pounds.
I really appreciate everyone who participated.
For those who didn't win, you may still obtain a free copy by clicking here! They currently have about 2000 in stock and they are giving them away -just pay postage!
What on on Earth could a new baby, eschatology, and a book contest have in common?
Let's see if I can tie them all together...
As I write this, my wife is pregnant with our fourth child (our 3rd son) and she's in the early stages of labor. She's already experiencing minor "birth pangs" so our child's arrival is immanent. In fact, the doctor has said that if the baby isn't here by Monday morning, they will be taking her in for an induction procedure. 
To celebrate the arrival of my 4th child. I want to give away a book called The Day And The Hour by Francis X. Gumerlock. This book contains hundreds of false predictions of dates for the Rapture and Christ's 2nd Coming, myriad speculations of the identity of the Antichrist and the Beast of Revelation, as well as a host of other eschatological tomfoolery that has been taught within the church by prophecy prognosticators of the past and present.
The chapters chronicle the details century by century. Of course, when the reader gets to the 20th century he will encounter the cream of the date setting crop with the rise of Dispensational Premillennial eschatology.
How can you win a copy of this book?
I will mail a brand new copy of The Day and the Hour to whoever guesses the exact weight of my new son, or comes the closest to the correct weight. It's simple as that!
You may leave your guesses in the comment box or email them to me at rhettswhips at yahoo dot com. Whatever method you choose to use, just be sure I there's a way for me to get in touch with you if you should happen to guess correctly.
Keep this in mind: Our smallest child weighed 7 lbs 12 ounces at birth and the largest was 9 lbs, 9 ounces. So I think the safest bet would be to stay above 7 lbs.
You've got to hurry if you want to have a chance:
The contest ends when the baby is born, so get your guesses in soon!
Surely he comes quickly!!
(If you are a Dispensationalist, you might have interpreted that the "immanent" arrival of my next son means that the baby could arrive within the next 5 minutes or in the next 5000 years, but I assure you, he really is coming quickly so get your guesses in ASAP!)
Did you know that the Presbyterian theologian R. L. Dabney admitted in his Systematic Theology that he was not a member of the visible church and that Immersionists (those who baptize by immersion) are the only real ministers in the world?
He sure did!
It's in black and white in chapter 41 (p.774)!
I have the volume open and I'm looking at it right now with my own two eyes!
Here's exactly what he says:
"Again: it is preposterous that a man should receive and hold office in a commonwealth where he himself has no citizenship; but this unimmersed paedobaptist minister so called, is no member of any visible Church. There are no real ministers in the world, except the Immersionist preachers! The pretensions of all others, therefore, to act as ministers, and to administer the sacraments, are sinful intrusions."
"The odious ecclesiastical consequences of the Immersionist dogma should be pressed; because they form a most potent and just argument against it. All parties are agreed, that baptism is the initiatory rite which gives membership in the visible Church of Christ. The great commission was: Go, and disciple all nations, baptizing them into the Trinity. Baptism recognizes and constitutes the outward discipleship. Least of all, can any Immersionist dispute this ground. Now, if all other forms of baptism than immersion are not only irregular, but null and void, all unimmersed persons are out of the visible Church. But if each and every member of a pedobaptist visible Church is thus unchurched: of course the whole body is unchurched. All pedobaptist societies, then, are guilty of an intrusive errors when they pretend to the character of a visible Church of Christ. Consequently, they can have no ministry; and this for several reasons. Surely no valid office can exist in an association whose claim to be an ecclesiastical commonwealth is utterly invalid. When the temple is non existent, there can be no actual pillars to that temple. How can an unauthorized herd of unbaptized persons, to whom Christ concedes no church authority, confer any valid office? Again: it is preposterous that a man should receive and hold office in a commonwealth where he himself has no citizenship; but this unimmersed pedobaptist minister so called, is no member of any visible Church. There are no real ministers in the world, except the Immersionist preachers!(R.L. Dabney, Systematic Theology p.774)
The pretensions of all others, therefore, to act as ministers, and to administer the sacraments, are sinful intrusions. It is hard to see how any intelligent and conscientious Immersionist can do any act, which countenances or sanctions this profane intrusion. They should not allow any weak inclinations of fraternity and peace to sway their consciences in this point of high principle. They are bound, then, not only to practice close communion, but to refuse all ministerial recognition and communion to these intruders. The sacraments cannot go beyond the pale of the visible Church. Hence, the same stern denunciations ought to be hurled at the Lord’s Supper in pedobaptist societies, and at all their prayers and preachings in public, as at the iniquity of "baby sprinkling." The enlightened Immersionist should treat all these societies, just as he does that ’Synagogue of Satan,’ the Papal Church: there may be many good, misguided believers in them; but no church character, ministry, nor sacraments whatever.
But let the student now look at the enormity of this conclusion. Here are bodies of ministers adorned by the Lord with as many gifts and graces as any Immersionists; actually doing the largest part of all that is done on earth, to win the world to its divine Master. Here are four fifths of Protestant Christendom, exhibiting as many of the solid fruits of grace as any body of men in the world, doing nearly all that is done for man’s redemption, and sending up to heaven a constant harvest of ransomed souls. Yet are they not churches or ministers, at all: Why? Only because they have not used quite enough water in the outward form of an ordinance! What greater outrage on common sense, Christian charity, and the spirituality of Christ’s visible Church was ever committed by the bigotry of prelacy or popery? The just mind replies to such a dogma, not only with a firm negative, but with the righteous indignation of an incredulus odi. When we remember, that this extreme high churchism is enacted by a sect, which calls itself eminently spiritual, free and Protestant, the solecism becomes more repulsive. Only a part of the Immersionists have the nerve to assert this consequence. But their dogma involves it; and it is justly pressed on all."
I've been the Youth Director of our church since early August.
When I was first hired, I told the youth that they would be tested on their knowledge at some point. From the reaction I got from the group, the idea of being tested on what's taught during the youth meetings must be a radical idea!
Since this is the start of a new year and I have been working with them for a few months, I decided now would be a good time to administer the test. So during the past couple of weeks I've been trying to catch up to everyone to test them.
I have wanted to do this so I can see what they know -and what they don't. I am using a simple test I found on CARM.org. (My 8 year old son aced it on his first try!) Maybe I'm a lunatic, but if they are being tested on what they learn in school, why not test them on what they're supposed to be learning at church? I figure it can't hurt!
The majority of my group is made up of younger teens, most have just recently moved up from AWANA and are currently in middle school. Once I finally get everyone tested, I am going to give back their graded tests and we will be going over them in class. Overall they have done fairly well, but I have noticed there's a few questions which most of them are marking wrong, so I definitely want to address those questions in detail.
One question that several have been getting wrong is about evolution: many have marked "God used evolution to bring man into existence"! (For that I'd like to thank the public education system!) Not to worry, we'll be killing that myth very soon!
They don't know it yet, but there will probably be many more tests to come. I want to see how well they are paying attention and how well I am conveying the information to them.
You've probably heard about the New York window washer who survived a 500ft fall when his scaffolding collapsed. Even though he should have been splatted like a bug on a car windshield, doctors say he may even walk again!
While many people are calling it a miracle, at least one genius quoted in the article I read still wants to credit anything but God:
"Evolution didn't give us a body that could survive a drop from that distance but with a combination of luck and physics you can in fact survive one of these falls," said Michio Kaku professor of physics at City University of New York.
I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas! I pray that Christ dwells richly in your heart today!
I said I wouldn't do it...
I had never even been tempted until after I had the DVD in my procession.
Though I figured it was going to sting a bit, I just couldn't resist it. The temptation was too much. I gave into to it. I just couldn't help myself. I inserted the DVD into the computer and then hit the play button...
Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
Two words: Painful Experience!
What was on the DVD?
Me.
It was a video of me preaching!
Here's a few things I noticed right away:
I've never thought I was God's gift to the pulpit, but I'll tell you, it's difficult to watch. I can't even stand to hear my voice being played back on a audio recording so this is especially humbling. I guess there's one good thing about watching this DVD: now I know what I need to do to improve.
Though we Southern Baptists don't baptize our babies, it's plain to see that we're really big on "baby dedications". Ironically, J.I. Packer has written that these dedications could be viewed as "dry baptisms".
Southern Baptists may decry paedobaptism as administering the ordinance of baptism to the unregenerate -and I agree. However, I also think the fact that the SBC has 10 million missing members should help us to realize that we have been busy baptizing our fair share of unbelievers too!
One paedobaptist theologian I enjoy reading is R.L. Dabney. Dabney was a committed paedobaptist. In his Systematic Theology, he writes at length on the issue. He had something interesting to say about us "Immersionists" and our "inconsistencies" on this subject. When I first read the following quote, I had to smile and chuckle a bit:
"The Immersionist says that our communion is only saved from utter corruption by our own inconsistency; that while our constitution calls our children Church members, we fortunately treat them, as they do, as not Church members. Whereas the Immersionist charges us with a wicked inconsistency, I will retort upon him the charge of a pious one: Those of them who are truly good people, while they say their children are not Church members, fortunately treat them as though they were. They diligently bring them under the instructions, restraints, and prayers of the Church and pastor. Happily, the instincts and influences of the Christian family are so deeply founded and so powerful, that a perverse and unscriptural theory cannot arrest them. These Christians discard the Bible conception of the visible Church, as an organized body whose integers are Christian "houses," and adopt the unscriptural and impracticable theory of a visible Church organized of regenerate individuals. But, blessed be God! the light and love of a sanctified parent’s heart are too strong to be wholly perverted by this theory; they still bring the family, as a whole, virtually within the Church. And this is the reason that true religion is perpetuated among them." (R. L. Dabney, Systematic Theology p. 795)
I had thought about writing an article to address the Georgia Baptist Convention's recently passed resolution on blogging, however, my good friend Josh Hitchcock must have used some kind of wild clairvoyant mind meld skills to see what I had planned in my brain and then decided to beat me to it...
Since Josh has addressed the resolution so well, I will simply refer my readers to his article instead of writing my own rant.
I will say this:
You'd think that a denomination that cannot account for 10 million of it's members might have bigger fish to fry...
As you can see, the deer walking behind the tree is about to get pounced by a large wildcat. This shows the incredible stalking ability of these awesome predators.
Some of my friends have motion detecting cameras set up in the woods and they have caught some interesting things, but nothing quite like this!
This picture was on the Way of The Master Radio homepage today.
That's right... And Bill Hybels -who's a big guru in the movement- admits the Seeker Sensitive Movement has been wrong. Click here to hear him admit it.
Every fan of the Seeker Sensitive Movement needs to hear this!
On October 31, Ligonier Ministries is doing a one day promo on the Reformation Study Bible!!
At $15.17, this is the absolute best deal I've ever seen on this Bible!
Even if I was an Arminian, I couldn't pass up a deal like this!!
Click here for more details!
Below is a video about the Reformation Study Bible:
Happy Reformation Sunday!
A Mighty Fortress is Our God, by Martin Luther.
Semper Reformanda!
My family and I just got back from Columbia, SC. a few hours ago. We attended the Way of The Master Transformed Conference at Trinity Baptist Church. Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron, Todd Friel, and Emeal Zwayne were the speakers. They all did a great job. (Todd's message was great!)
I'm too tired to really go into much detail right now, so if you ever hear of them having a conference near you -try to attend.
The price is always right: FREE!!
