Kevin T. Bauder The state of Israel is in the news at least weekly, sometimes daily. The United States is still the greatest supporter of Israel, but public perception is that the Obama administration’s backing is less than enthusiastic. In spite of this assessment, the Obama administration was the first to sell bunker-buster bombs to… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder One of the best periods in the history of Central Baptist Theological Seminary unfolded during the first two thirds of the 1960s. With Richard V. Clearwaters as president and Warren Vanhetloo as dean, the seminary assembled a cluster of amazingly bright young professors. These included men like Ernest Pickering, Robert Delnay, and… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) was founded less than a week before the invasion of Pearl Harbor. Its purpose was to use general aviation (light planes flown by civilian pilots) to supplement the domestic operations of the United States military. The CAP proved its worth by helping to patrol the borders and… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder This weekend I am traveling to Lake Benton, Minnesota, to address the southwestern fellowship of the Minnesota Baptist Association (MBA). The MBA is the current permutation of what used to be the Minnesota Baptist Convention. It is the organization that W. B. Riley and Richard Volley Clearwaters managed to separate from the… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder According to 2 Timothy 3:16, all scripture is God-breathed or inspired. In other words, inspiration applies to the scriptures themselves, not to the process by which they were produced. The word inspired is a result word, not a process word. The writers were not inspired. The thoughts were not inspired. The various… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder When people think about the inspiration of the Bible, they tend to imagine it as a process. They think of inspiration as a way of stating how the Bible got to be what it is. Trying to answer the how question is one of the reasons that we are surrounded by so-called… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder We all oppose something, but there’s opposition and then there’s opposition. I can think of at least three levels at which our opposition can be pursued. Which level we employ is not simply a tactical or even strategic decision. It is a moral choice. Though the phrase seems antiquated now, we used… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder My friend Dave was ordained in the mid-1980s. The offering for his ordination was supposed to go toward his library. To make the most of it, he decided that he wanted to visit the Christian publishing houses and used bookstores in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He invited me to go along. We lived… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder Proverbs 22:7 says that the rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender. This counsel runs contrary to North American sensibilities. The most recent figures (for 2020) indicate that household debt in the United States totals $14.35 trillion, for a mean household indebtedness of $145,000. Of that… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder Last week I began listing the “most interesting books” that I read last year. As you can tell, the list is eclectic. While I read mostly in my discipline, much of the reading that I find interesting is outside it. Here’s the rest of my list. Lansing, Alfred. Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage.… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder Lots of people produce recommended reading lists. Typically these are bibliographies of the books that the compiler found most useful. The lists are often labeled something like “Best Books of…” or “Best Books about….” I do my list a bit differently: I give you a list of the reading that I found… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder Last week I wrote about foods that I’ve sampled as I’ve traveled around the world. As it happens, I missed a favorite: Wienerschnitzel, which I have enjoyed right in Wien (Vienna). Did you know that it’s sold as a fast food there? International travel is no longer part of my agenda, but… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder During the years that I was president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary I did a good bit of traveling. While traveling I also did a good bit of eating. I’m not exactly what you’d call a gourmet—I can enjoy a good hamburger as well as I can enjoy a steak. Nevertheless, one… Continue Reading
My father’s first pastorate was in Cambridge, Iowa. Other fundamental Baptist churches were located nearby. Slater had one less than ten miles to the west. Both Ames and Nevada had churches of like faith and order, each about twelve miles away. Ankeny had a regular Baptist church about twenty miles down Interstate 35. Skip ahead.… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder The old dictum says that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I disagree. A friend is someone who values and honors what I value. An enemy is someone who destroys or debases what I value. It is quite possible for an enemy of my enemy to destroy or debase what… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder [This essay was originally published on January 18, 2013.] Christians often make mistakes in the way that they think about temptation. On the one hand, they sometimes see any temptation as an evil in itself, as if to be tempted were already to commit the sin. On the other hand, they can… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder If the ghost of Christmas past is composed of the memories of our earlier Christmases, then I am haunted by a splendid one. When I think of Christmas celebrations during my childhood, every memory shines like a Christmas candle. I remember decorating the tree in our big, country home: stringing lights and… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder God made humans to rule the earth (Gen 1:28–29). Conversely, He made the earth to be ruled by humans (Psalm 8:6–7). When humans flourish the earth will flourish, and because humans have sinned the earth suffers (Rom 8:19–22). Human rule has been partly thwarted by sin (Heb 2:8). God’s purpose, however, has… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder Old-line liberals used to argue against the virgin birth of Christ. They saw it as an unreasonable and unscientific theory that was, on their view, completely dispensable. Whatever was special about Jesus they held to lie in His unique but quite human God-consciousness, not in His actual deity. These old liberals and… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder At the end of 1990 I left the church that I had pastored for six years and moved my family to Dallas so I could pursue doctoral studies. I had no source of income, no friends in Texas, and no family nearby. After a few weeks I found a job in a… Continue Reading