Rockport Systematic Theology Class Downloads

Why Study Theology? Bottom line: Because God is worthy to be known. Indeed, Jesus said that this, in and of itself, is what eternal life is really all about -- "that they may know You, the One True God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3). And so that is our goal at Rockport Baptist Church: to know God as fully as possible (as we make Him known to the world).

And when we say "to know God, we don't just mean to know him in a merely intellectual way. As Puritan Pastor William Ames once put it, "Theology is the doctrine or teaching of living unto God."That is what we want: real knowledge of God that is more than just knowing about God. It is knowing God as a Person who is real and who has revealed Himself clearly in the Scriptures (and most fully in His Son) so that we may delight "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" as the old catechism says.

That is our aim. And so we are meeting each week at Rockport to study God's wonderful revelation of Himself! We are using Dr. Wayne Grudem's excellent book, "Systematic Theology" as one of our guides. But of course, the Scriptures are our main and surest guide of all!

These studies are available for download here -- both the mp3 audio files as well as thePowerpoint slides that I use each week.

Our hope is that these may be a help to other travelers who desire to know God even more.

To the Praise of the Glory of His grace.

S. Scott Lee

The 180 Challenge

If you have not done so yet, please take time to watch this video.

Understanding What is at Stake in the Bible Translation Controversy

Take a look at this article by "World Magazine" on the Translation battle taking place today among missions groups that seek to bring the Gospel to Muslims. It is a devastating mistake tamper with the meaning of words so central to the Christian faith as "Father" and "Son" are. While I understand that those who are doing so may have the best of motives, it is a tragic misstep for at least two reasons.

First, as the article mentioned above demonstrates, pastors and Christians from the nations in question are begging missionary groups not to issue Bibles that have altered the words of Scripture in a misguided attempt to make the Word more palatable. They above all understand the confusion this will cause among their congregations and among those to whom they seek to bring the message of Christ.

Second, and even more important to understand, such a move plays right into the hands of Muslim apologists who have always claimed that the Bible has been "altered" by Christians. So how can actually doing the very thing they claim has been done help the situation? Not only will it not make the Gospel more palatable, it will actually erect one more barrier to the Gospel being clearly understood.

This move also ignores the fact that the Gospel actually is offensive. To remove the offense is to gut the Gospel. John Piper does a really good job making this point in a recent article that points out that the words "Father" and "Son" were also controversial in the first century. And yet the Apostle John did not flinch from using them. (You can find that article here).

No, the answer is not to alter the translation. Let the words of Scripture stand. Translate them faithfully. And then teach people what they mean. That is the way to overcome the offense.

May God direct those involved to maintain faithfulness to His Word.

Camp Meeting!

We're looking forward to this year's Camp Meeting at Rockport Baptist Church April 19-22.