I ordered a couple of books by John Rice recently. I enjoy reading his works. I find that his writings are very challenging.
As I was waiting for them to arrive, I received this newsletter in my inbox. The following paragraph really grabbed my attention:
In about 1927, the local affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention tried to control the ministry of the young preacher, John R. Rice. He had warned of the evolution being taught by Samuel Dow at Baylor University and had been affiliating with J. Frank Norris and preaching on Norris’s radio station, KFQB. A committee composed of two professors from Southwestern Baptist Seminary, plus the pastor of the Seminary Hill Baptist Church, visited Rice. They gave him an ultimatum to stop warning of error in the Convention and to break off his association with Norris or face being blacklisted in the county and the state. They said a notice would be printed in the state paper, The Baptist Standard, warning pastors not to have him in for revival meetings. “They told him he would not be able to continue his work as an evangelist, could not educate his children, and would be forced out of the ministry” (Robert Sumner, John R. Rice Man Sent from God, p. 100). Instead of ceasing to preach on Norris’s radio KFQB, Rice went on the air the next week and told the whole story to the public and announced that he had no intention of following the dictates of the Convention and that he was confident that the God who had called him would open doors for him and provide for his needs. That turned out to be true, of course, but the point is that the Southern Baptist Convention tried to blackball a preacher for no other reason than he was saying true things that Convention men didn’t like and was affiliating with men they couldn’t control.
https://www.wayoflife.org/reports/baylor_university.php
After reading that excerpt, I liked John Rice even more! It just amazes me to see how people will hang money or position over your head and expect you to be a marionette puppet. They are actually dumbfounded when you won’t let them control you.
Job 1:21,22
And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
Psalm 31:23,24
O love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.
Again, we have been warning for a while now about how bad the current state of the University system is here in America. But keep your guards up as well when it comes to any “Christian” college you might send your child or grandchild to. You have to check them out just as thoroughly as you would for a secular college. There is bad teaching everywhere at this time, and that includes any post-graduate work you might undertake.
We need more followers of Jesus who have a biblical backbone. Strong and won’t move no matter who besides God might be pulling those strings. Be that type of man or women who keeps pressing into truth and striving with the rest of their life to finish well for the Lord!
Until the Nets are Full,
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P.P.S.
