Month: March 2012

$1 abortion surcharge decried by pro-lifers

WASHINGTON (BP) — A new federal regulation that includes an “abortion surcharge” and a secrecy clause further confirms the abortion-funding agenda of the Obama administration’s health-care reform, pro-life advocates say.

In a Wednesday (March 21) news conference on Capitol Hill, members of Congress and leaders of pro-life organizations decried the latest rule regarding the 2010 health care law, dubbed by critics as Obamacare. Since the rule’s March 12 release, pro-lifers have pointed to two particularly objectionable aspects in a document that is more than 640 pages in length:

— Health insurance plans in state exchanges are prohibited from specifically publicizing the fact they provide abortion coverage. They can disclose such coverage “only as part of the summary of benefits and coverage explanation, at the time of enrollment.”

— Every person enrolled in an insurance plan that covers abortion must pay a separate, monthly fee of at least $1 as an “abortion surcharge.” 

“So there will be millions, and perhaps tens of millions, of pro-life Americans who won’t have a clue that abortion coverage is in their package until the day they sign on the bottom line,” Rep. Chris Smith, R.-N.J., said at the March 21 news conference.

The “surcharge” and secrecy clause in the new rule are only the latest to be confirmed in a series of provisions protested by pro-life advocates and objectors to government funding of abortion. 

Pro-lifers have decried the fact the law will permit federally subsidized abortions. Religious liberty advocates have joined pro-lifers in also objecting to a January rule — like the latest one, also from the Department of Health and Human Services — that requires all health plans to cover contraceptives and sterilizations as preventive services without cost to employees. The contraceptives, as designated by the federal government, include some drugs that can cause abortions of tiny embryos. That rule has a religious exemption critics find woefully insufficient.

The “surcharge” and secrecy clause are “really a sideshow,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), at the news conference. 

“It is a diversion from what’s going on in the main tent, which is the federal subsidies,” he told reporters. “We’re talking about a massive new program, so-called tax credits. This is money coming straight out of the federal treasury which is going to subsidize the purchase of these plans for tens of millions of Americans.”

The cost to the federal government could be $80 billion a year, Johnson said.

Smith said, “Now, under Obamacare, taxpayer subsidies in the form of what’s called refundable, advanceable credits paid directly to the insurance company — that is to say, taxpayer funds — will subsidize insurance plans offered on the exchange that include abortion on demand — even late-term abortion.”

There are no restrictions on the reasons for abortions or how late they may be performed under the regulation, according to NRLC.

Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, told reporters, “[A]s we predicted at the time that Obamacare was passed, the state exchanges do cover abortion and will force many Americans to pay for abortion regardless of their own personal, deeply held beliefs. That’s not American. That’s not the country that we live in. Many Americans will be compelled by law into an insurance plan that covers abortion.”

Fifteen states have enacted laws barring abortion coverage in health plans that are part of the exchanges, but those “opt-out” measures fall short of fully protecting pro-life citizens, according to NRLC. 

“A state legislature may forbid coverage of abortion in the exchange-participating health plans in that state — but under ObamaCare, the taxpayers who live in that state may not ‘opt out’ of subsidizing the abortion coverage for other Americans, perhaps numbering tens of millions, who live in other states that do not enact opt-out laws,” NRLC reported in a March 16 analysis.

In addition, the health-care law also empowers the Office of Personnel Management to offer “multi-state” health plans that could permit federal health plans that cover abortion, according to NRLC.

In the last 15 months, the House of Representatives has passed three bills that would repeal the health-care law or bar funding for abortion under the law. In each case, Obama has threatened a veto, and the Senate has either defeated or refused to vote on the proposals.

It appears repeal of the health-care law or reversal of its abortion-funding provisions will require the election of a Senate and a president supportive of such changes — or action by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court will hear oral arguments March 26-28 on the constitutionality of the health-care law.
–30–
Tom Strode is Washington bureau chief for Baptist Press. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).

Building like a Berean

PAIGE—The Berea Builders of Ridgeway Baptist Church in Paige broke ground on their rebuilding efforts on Jan. 6, and the better part of a new house was up by Feb. 15, plus a foundation for a second home.

Paige is a small community 11 miles outside of Bastrop, the scene last fall of the worst wildfire in Texas history.

“Berea Builders is a vision I had while our church served as a shelter for fire evacuees,” said J.R. Hopson, the pastor of Ridgeway. “Talking to people who had no idea how they were going to start over because they did not have insurance and lost everything broke my heart.”

It is those without insurance that the church is intent on helping, Hopson said.

Sprawling east out of Austin’s backyard, Bastrop County used to be a beautifully wooded area. The Lost Pines forest—a Texas treasure named for its mysterious cluster of pines surrounded by miles of oak—is within its borders and the Colorado River winds through its center. It was a beautiful vacation spot for many and home for more than 74,000 people.

But that was before the September wildfires. Labor Day weekend changed the landscape of Bastrop County. Three major fires burning through the area merged into one massive blaze 16 miles long and six miles wide that devastated nearly 40,000 acres of land. Hopson estimates 60 percent of the pine trees in the area were either burned or had to be cut down.

“I’m still amazed when I drive back out there and I’ve seen it a hundred times,” Hopson said. “When you drive into an area where this fire came through, there’s nothing. There’s absolutely nothing but charred remains and trees that are no longer green, but just sticks in the air. Whereas after a hurricane or a flood or a tornado even, there’s visible debris, there’s stuff still standing. Here there’s nothing. It’s absolutely gone.”

By the time the blaze was officially contained on Oct. 10, two lives and more than 1,600 homes were lost.

“The physical appearance of it is not ever going to be the same,” Hopson explained. “But as people realize that it’s not about trees and houses and material things, I think they will begin to recover. Sure there will be that long-lasting mark, but they’ll begin to regain some normalcy.”

As soon as the fires broke out, Ridgeway Baptist Church sprang into action. Paige Community Center became a shelter for evacuees from the surrounding area, and Ridgeway decided to provide food for them at the church. The community center quickly became overwhelmed and Ridgeway opened its doors and started taking in evacuees just a day or two after the fire started. The church continued sheltering and feeding people for the next two weeks.

Cleanup started immediately after the area was safe to re-enter. Disaster relief teams from the SBTC, Texas Baptist Men and other states—12 conventions in all—began work in the area on Sept. 6, two days after the blaze broke out.

“Southern Baptists were instrumental in providing shower and laundry units and a massive volunteer force to help with cleanup,” Hopson said.

Volunteers converged on Bastrop from as far away as California and Tennessee. By the time the clean-up efforts ceased, over 5,000 volunteer days had been served, 450 homes had been cleaned, the gospel had been presented 256 times and 79 people had made professions of faith. Most important, the wave of help and support by volunteers touched the all people of Bastrop with the love of Christ.

FALLING THROUGH THE GAPS
“Now most of the cleanup has been done,” Hopson said. “It’s moved into the rebuilding phase. For the people who had insurance, you’re immediately seeing their houses going back up. Or they’re moving a trailer in. But the people who didn’t have insurance, who were barely making it in the first place, they’re at a temporary location or in a FEMA trailer because they don’t have the money to rebuild.”

That’s where Berea Builders has decided to step in and make a difference. Their mission is to build houses for those people who were caught without insurance and don’t have any alternatives. They developed an application process where each case is reviewed and the family’s circumstances considered to see if they are eligible.

A month after work began, one house was partially finished and the foundation for another had been laid. In one month nearly 100 volunteers gave their time and efforts to help build more than just the physical foundation of the home they worked on.

The biggest weekend for the building project occurred on Jan. 27, with 50 volunteers from as far as Oklahoma and as close as their neighboring communities converging on the building site. In those two days they were able to nearly finish the first home and begin work on the second.

“We had the first one painted, roofed, plumbed, and began to hang sheetrock before everyone left,” Hopson said. “After all is said and done, it will have taken just a little over five weeks to have completed a 1,500-square-foot house.”

The team intends to continue building as long as it has the funds to do so. Hopson sees the rebuilding as a long-term ministry, one he would like to take wherever there is a need for it.

So far, the plans only extend as far as two houses, but they have also built several storage buildings for other families and hope to be able to help many more in the future.

“It provides a new start for these families,” Hopson said. “They have their dignity back. But they have also gotten to experience the love of Christ through others.”

The biggest challenge facing the builders is funding. The cost of building one of these houses is around $40,000—relatively inexpensive but a hefty cost for one congregation.

“To put it in perspective,” Hopson said, “if 400 people gave $100 that’s a house for a family who is still living out of a FEMA trailer. So churches with 300 or more members could easily build a house by taking up a love offering. It’s that simple.”

The rewards for their efforts are such that people who would never have allowed a ministry team to enter their homes now have a new openness.

“People are making themselves more vulnerable because of their need,” Hopson added.

Inquiries about Berea Builders may be directed to Hopson via email at rebuildbastrop@ridgewaybaptistchurch.org.

To donate to ongoing DR efforts or learn more about the work of SBTC Disaster Relief, visit sbtexas.com/dr.

SBTC president appointed to African-American advisory council

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—An African American Advisory Council has been created to communicate the perspectives of black churches and their leaders to Southern Baptist Convention entity leaders, Executive Committee President Frank S. Page has announced.

“Part of the work of the Executive Committee is … to provide quality connections and relationships,” Page said in a statement to SBC LIFE, journal of the Executive Committee. “I am very excited about working with the members of this council, which includes Dr. Ken Weathersby who is helping with all of our ethnic groups in raising awareness and involvement of our ethnic brothers and sisters in Cooperative Program promotion and development.”

Weathersby is the North American Mission Board's presidential ambassador for ethnic church relations.

The African American Advisory Council will be a three-year initiative (2012-2015) established by Page, as EC president, and Kevin Ezell, as NAMB president, in an ongoing effort, as SBC LIFE described it, “to engage the many faces of the SBC in meaningful dialogue about working together as full and equal partners in the harvest.”

Page first noted the council's formation in addressing the Executive Committee's Cooperative Program Subcommittee on Feb. 20. Last September, Page announced the creation of a Hispanic Advisory Council, which held its inaugural meeting in early February in Fort Worth, Texas. Other ethnically-oriented advisory groups may be named as deemed appropriate.

Among the African American Advisory Council's chief aims is to help the EC, NAMB and other SBC entity heads understand the perspectives that African American Southern Baptists bring to the common task of reaching the United States and the nations with the Gospel.

“The council is representative of the regions of the country and reflects the cultural diversity of the African American population,” SBC LIFE reported. “Its purpose is consultation, communication and cooperation. It will neither launch nor execute ministries. It will provide information, insight and counsel through NAMB and EC staff to the broader Southern Baptist community relative to the special needs and concerns of African American churches and church leaders in the Southern Baptist family of churches.”

The council will use surveys, phone conferences, Internet communication, personal meetings and other means to gather and communicate information from consultative African American groups and leaders. Among those with whom it will communicate are key African American pastors and laymen; the National African American Fellowship, SBC; the Black Southern Baptist Denominational Servants Network; the Black Church Leadership Network; and African American leaders serving in elected roles in state Baptist conventions and on state Baptist convention staffs.

“… [T]he council will enable the presidents and staff of the EC and NAMB to maintain vital contact with the African American Baptist family through participation in strategic meetings and personal conferences,” SBC LIFE reported. “One of the council's goals is more fully to incorporate African American Baptist churches and church leaders into the total fabric of Southern Baptist life and ministry.”

The council will be chaired by K. Marshall Williams, pastor of Nazarene Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pa.

Also serving on the council, in addition to Ken Weatersby, will be:

Roscoe Belton of Middlebelt Baptist Church, Inkster, Mich.

Chandra Bennett, Greater Grace Temple Community Church, Nashville, Tenn.

Mark Croston, East End Baptist Church, Suffolk, Va.

James Dixon, El Bethel Baptist Church, Fort Washington, Md.

Leroy Fountain, Philadelphia Baptist Church, Lithonia, Ga.

Mark Hammond, Village Baptist Church, Norwalk, Calif.

Kim Hardy, Connections Community Church, Ypsilanti, Mich.

Keith Jefferson, Parkway Baptist Church, Moseley, Va.

Dennis Mitchell, Greenforest Community Baptist Church, Decatur, Ga.

Marvin Parker, Broadview Baptist Church, Broadview, Ill.

Kevin Smith, Watson Memorial Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky.

Bucas Sterling III, Kettering Baptist Church, Upper Marlboro, Md.

Terry Turner, Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church, Mesquite, Texas.

Alton B. Vines, New Seasons Church, Spring Valley, Calif.

Frank Williams, Bronx Baptist Church, Bronx, N.Y.

GuideStone marks history with top investment award

DALLAS—GuideStone Funds has become the first ever Christian-based, socially screened fund family to win the prestigious Lipper trophy for Best Overall Small Fund Group in the United States, ranking No. 1 out of 182 eligible companies. (Lipper classifies fund families with up to $40 billion in assets under management in its Small Fund Group.)

“The Lipper Award for Best Overall Small Fund Group recognizes a standard of excellence that we pursue every day as we seek to honor the Lord and enable our faithful participants to invest according to their biblical principles,” said O.S. Hawkins, president and chief executive officer of GuideStone Financial Resources, which received the honor March 8 in New York at the annual Lipper Award dinner sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, Thomson Reuters and Investment News. The firm was honored for its consistently strong investment performance across broad asset classes.

“People often think that they have to compromise biblical integrity for investment performance,” said Roddy Cummins, vice president and chief investment officer of GuideStone Funds. “We are dispelling that myth, which is evidenced by the Lipper trophy,” added Cummins, who was quick to first thank the Lord for his favor, and then recognize the daily collaborative efforts of the 450 employees at GuideStone, as well as the team of outside sub-advisors to the fund group.

GuideStone Funds has achieved its leading level of excellence through a sophisticated, proprietary manager-of-managers investment strategy that leverages what GuideStone believes to be the best possible intellectual capital worldwide. The 27 funds in the GuideStone Funds group are managed by more than 20 professionals dedicated to GuideStone’s investment process and committed to GuideStone’s biblically based, social-screening guidelines.

“Lipper is pleased to recognize GuideStone Funds as this year’s recipient for the Best Overall Small-Group Fund award,” said Jeff Tjornehoj, head of Americas Research with Lipper. “This is the first time that a socially responsible investing fund group has won the award. Twenty-eleven was a challenging year for the industry; GuideStone and all our winners should be congratulated for their achievements.”

“The Lipper Award is a very meaningful accomplishment professionally for our team, but most importantly it brings honor to the Lord and encouragement to our client base that is faithfully fulfilling their call to Christian ministry or raising their family on biblical values,” Cummins said. “It’s a joy to receive this award on behalf of the pastors, church workers, missionaries and others who are invested in GuideStone Funds. While they are out there living their lives and doing their work for God’s kingdom, we strive to enhance their financial security by delivering the highest quality investment program that reflects their biblical values,” Cummins concluded.

THE CHURCH: Practicing Believer’s Baptism

The sight of a large man sitting in a kiddie pool near the road caused quite a stir in the community. Cars were slowing down to take a look. Kids on bicycles stopped to watch. I was baptizing one of the first converts at a church plant in a heavily French Catholic Louisiana city. I pronounced the baptismal formula over him. I dipped him under the water and then lifted him back to a seated position. There was excitement that day for friends and family but also for the neighbors that witnessed a public baptism.

The baptism of that man, one of more than 100 new converts in the first year of the church's existence almost 40 years ago, was a novelty for the community. Though it was no doubt a curious site for those who had never seen immersion baptism, it was a powerful, visual introduction to the significance and symbolism of this vital church ordinance.

Baptism is an important act of obedience for the follower of Jesus. Jesus was baptized to express His Sonship and launch his Messianic mission. Our baptism is an act of identification with Him, the One who saved us by His mercy and grace. Put another way, baptism is an outward expression of our inward experience of faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

Living in what some pollsters and pundits call a post-denominational age, the need to know the Bible's teaching about baptism is heightened by those who seek to downplay the differences between various Christian groups. When people come to our churches from non-Baptist traditions, how should we receive them? Should we allow people from other denominations to become members without submitting to scriptural baptism? Though all believers are brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord does not give us permission to ignore Scripture's teaching on baptism in the interest of Christian unity. Believer's baptism by immersion is a Baptist distinctive that we may be in peril of losing, so it is imperative that we turn to the New Testament to determine what it says about believer's baptism.

THE PROPER CANDIDATE
Jesus' Great Commission introduces the divine order for baptism (Matthew 28:19-20). After people become disciples (the main verb in verse 19), they are to be baptized and are then to be taught to grow in spiritual maturity. Saved people, and only saved people, are to be baptized. This practice confirms God's plan for a regenerate church membership.

Despite the fact that many Christian groups regard baptism as necessary for salvation, the Bible is clear that only a person who has already confessed his or her faith in Jesus Christ and been saved should be baptized.

The book of Acts provides many examples of baptism following immediately after an individual had experienced Christian conversion. In each instance, the qualifying requirement before baptism was administered mirrored that of the Great Commission—the candidate was first a genuine believer in Jesus Christ.

This order is seen in the very first recorded conversions in the book of Acts. The 3,000 souls who were saved on the day of Pentecost received the Word of God, then they were baptized, then they were added to the church (Acts 2). Similarly, in Acts 8, Philip permitted the Ethiopian to be baptized after he confessed Jesus as the Son of God. Two chapters later, when Peter and his traveling companions saw that Cornelius had received the Holy Spirit just as they had, Peter instructed them to be baptized (Acts 10).

Only after the business woman Lydia believed was she baptized (Acts 16). The same holds true for the Philippian jailer (also in Acts 16) and the religious but lost disciples at Ephesus (Acts 19). In each instance, these believers came to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ before being baptized. Neither infant baptism nor pre-conversion baptism is found anywhere in the New Testament.

Baptism is an act of obedience in the life of the Jesus follower. It does not save; but it does give the believer a clear conscience toward God. Baptism identifies the believer with Christ.

THE PROPER FORM
No other form of baptism demonstrates the gospel as accurately and powerfully as immersion. The word baptize (transliterated from the Greek verb baptizo) means to “dip, plunge, or immerse.” Neither sprinkling nor pouring is found within the sacred text of Scripture as an appropriate symbol for believer's baptism.

Scriptural baptism by immersion symbolizes death, burial, and resurrection. When a person is baptized, the candidate is immersed under the water to depict the death and burial of our Lord Jesus (Romans 6:3-5). Coming up out of the water, the candidate depicts the power of the resurrection. Jesus is alive, never to die again. Baptism proclaims the truth of this powerful gospel story using a graphic illustration.

Baptism is also a picture of the believer's personal experience of faith, picturing the spiritual transformation that happens when a person receives Jesus as Lord and Savior. The person without Christ is physically alive, yet spiritually dead. Being lowered beneath the water represents the death and burial of the old self. Being raised portrays that through faith there is new life in Christ (Colossians 2:12-13). Water cannot effectuate the remission of sins; it merely conveys the message of the gospel and the testimony of new life in Christ the new believer has received.

The Apostle Paul compared baptism to wearing a garment (Galatians 3:27). The new believer identifies with Christ through baptism like a soldier wears a uniform to declare which army he serves. By “putting on” Christ through baptism a believer is showing his or her willingness to enter into spiritual warfare as a soldier of the Cross. Immersion is the proper form for demonstrating this allegiance most clearly, the only mode of baptism that reflects full identification with the gospel message.

THE PROPER ADMINSTRATOR
Jesus gave the command to baptize new believers to the church. The entire church, however, cannot actually perform the ordinance of baptism. Only a person can, one authorized by the church to baptize converts. It is interesting to note that Jesus did not baptize anyone. While John the Baptist received his directive to baptize directly from heaven, the disciples were commissioned by Jesus, administering baptism on his behalf (John 4:1-2).

Baptists for years have followed the pattern of Acts 10 by asking consent from other believers before proceeding with baptism. In that passage, Peter asked his traveling companions before he baptized Cornelius and the other Gentile converts, “Can anyone withhold water and prevent these people from being baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” (Acts 10:47).

Following the resurrection of Jesus, the apostles baptized those who received Christ by faith under the mandate given by Jesus in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), a mandate that still applies to the church. To this day, the administrator of baptism derives his authority to baptize from the commandment Jesus gave to the church.

THE PROPER AUTHORITY
I have already stated that the church has been given the authority to administer baptism. The Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) affirms this position, stating in article VII that baptism is a church ordinance. This indicates that baptism is to be performed under the auspices of a New Testament church. With that in mind, it is important to understand what makes a church a New Testament church.

A New Testament church will bear certain characteristics. First, it teaches salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. This position would understandably include a belief in the security of the believer, as Article V of the BF&M affirms. Other characteristics that describe a New Testament church are listed in Article VI of the BF&M. These include:

  • The church's two ordinances are baptism and the Lord's Supper.
  • The Word of God is its final rule of faith and practice.
  • Each congregation is independent and autonomous under the Lordship of Christ.
  • The church's recognized scriptural offices are pastors (bishops or elders, as an older version of the BF&M states) and deacons.
  • Ultimately, the church will seek to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.

If these are the marks of a New Testament church, as Baptists generally and Southern
Baptists specifically have affirmed across the years, then only churches that embrace these distinctives have the authority to administer scriptural baptism. Some churches with Baptist in their name do not bear these marks, while some that do not have Baptist in their name do. It is what a church believes and teaches that makes it a New Testament church, not the name on the sign out front.

CONCLUSION
The ordinance of baptism is a symbol of genuine conversion for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It is not a sacrament that provides saving efficacy to infants or unbelievers. When we practice scriptural baptism, it is a joyous celebration of our Lord's resurrection and the believer's new life in Christ. Only immersion of the new believer portrays this accurately. With the authority for baptism residing in the local New Testament church, only a proper administrator, a person authorized by the congregation itself, should perform baptism.

It was a momentous day many years ago in South Louisiana when an adult man was baptized as a believer. Due to his public expression of faith in Jesus Christ in a kiddie pool near a road in our community, a number of other precious people came to faith in Christ. So, make much of baptism. Do it right and do it well. God will honor the obedience of the new believer and the church.

—Jim Richards is the executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and is a member of First Baptist Church in Keller. This article appears in the spring 2012 edition of SBC Life, magazine of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, online at sbclife.org. Used by permission.

Chinese Bible translation led by LifeWay projected for 2014

Nearly 100 years after translators finished the Chinese Union Version (CUV) of the Bible, a newer version in Mandarin Chinese and translated directly from Greek and Hebrew has almost reached completion—thanks in part to a $200,000 grant from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention back in 2007.

Jim Cook, senior vice president for international sales at B&H International, a branch of LifeWay’s B&H Publishers, said the New Testament of the Chinese Standard Bible (CSB) has already been released and said the entire Bible should be finished and available by the end of 2014.

The project is part of a LifeWay gospel initiative called “A Defining Moment” and done in conjunction with The Asia Bible Society, B&H International publishing group, Holman Bible Outreach International, and GrapeCity, an Asia-based software company.

“The translation that they are basing it on is the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB),” Cook said. “The teams are working from the original Greek and Hebrew into Mandarin using the same philosophy as the HCSB used. This is the very first Chinese translation that’s ever been done where every word can be traced back to the original Greek or Hebrew words”

Colleyville resident Jimmy Draper, LifeWay’s president emeritus who spearheaded the Mandarin Bible translation as part of “A Defining Moment” gospel initiative during his presidency at LifeWay, said the new translation comes as Chinese language culture has changed and shifted from a century ago.

“The CUV is very hard to understand,” Draper said. “It can be used, but it takes highly educated Chinese theologians to use it.”

Cook said many Chinese people do not read the older version, released in 1919, because of its lack of readability.

“The old [version] was done basically by the government,” Cook said. “It was not done with theology in mind. The people that worked on it were not necessarily even Christians. It makes a big difference.”

Draper said the new version, which is being translated by Chinese Christians, theologians and scholars, will act as a complement to the CUV and in the finished product, both translations will lay side by side on two-column pages in the Bible.

Chinese native Louie Lu, a booster of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a long-time member of Birchman Baptist Church in Fort Worth, said the Mandarin translation would allow many more Chinese people to read and understand the Bible.

“[It is important] to have an accurate translation in a language that today’s generation can understand and feel relevant to their lives,” Lu said, explaining that the CUV has become difficult for many to understand.

Lu said the language differences between the CUV and the CSB would be similar to the differences between the King James Version (KJV) and the New King James Version (NKJV), except more pronounced.

Cook and Draper both said the New Testament of the Mandarin translation, which has already been released, has so far been well-received among Chinese people, and since it acts as a complement to the CUV, they say they have not seen hostility toward it.

“They’re actually pirating it in China,” Cook said, “Which is good, because otherwise they’d be burning it. Their copying it is actually a compliment.”

While translators have completed drafts of every book of the Bible, Draper said scholars would spend the remaining months editing, revising and refining the drafts.

“It will be gone over with a fine-tooth comb to make sure there is nothing inaccurate in it,” Draper said.
Aaron Ma, director of Bible translations for the Asia Bible Society, said, “We have found the HCSB to be very accurate and literal to the original texts yet fluent, a well balanced translation. The HCSB has taken the middle road in a very optimal way and is neutral in its handling of textual criticism issue while respecting heritage.

“At the same time,” he said, “it is not overly academic nor does it follow recent trends such as gender inclusiveness. All of these principles are very consistent with those of the CSB.”

Yet presenting a new Bible translation to a field as large as China will be challenging, Ma said.

The translation project, which involves numerous native Chinese-speaking Greek and Hebrew scholars, includes many phases of editing and review, cross-checking and unification checking, testing and evaluation.

“In addition, our approach and methodology is constantly reviewed and revised from a quality control standpoint,” he said. “We are determined not to compromise in any way in terms of the quality.

“God is at work in China and in the Chinese-speaking community worldwide,” said Ma. “We pray that he will use the CSB in a powerful way to bless Chinese speakers, those who are Christians and those yet to be saved. All of this is for his glory.”

The SBTC’s $200,000 gift toward the multi-million dollar project was earmarked from surplus funds that year.

Cook said anyone who wishes to contribute to and support the project could still help by contacting Steve Drake at steve.drake@lifeway.com. n

—With additional reporting by Russ Rankin of LifeWay Christian Resources

Five generations deep in ministry

A preacher once complained to a fellow preacher that despite his pleading prayers and efforts at modeling godliness, neither of his sons became preachers.

“Then there’s Wilson Welch,” the man marveled, “mean as a snake and his son is in the ministry and his daughter and son-in-law are foreign missionaries. I just don’t understand it.”

That old anecdote has provided more than one laugh around Welch family gatherings. It’s also a source of pride, the good kind.

But you’d have to know Wilson Welch.

The family ministry bug, which pre-dates Welch, keeps perpetuating itself to this day. Go figure. Wilson, at 83, is pastor at Ironton Baptist Church in the tiny community of Ironton, near Jacksonville.

“I went out to Ironton to preach for two weeks. That was nine years ago this past October,” Wilson Welch said with a half grin. “My two weeks haven’t run out yet.”

Wilson Welch’s giftedness includes his ability to relate to everyday working folk, “because that’s what he was,” said his son-in-law, Johnny Hailes, pastor of Park Street Baptist Church in Greenville.

Bivocational most of his ministry, he supported a family doing so many things that “if I told you all of it you wouldn’t have enough paper to write it on,” Welch said. The oil field was a source of income for many of those years.

He would often work a graveyard shift in the oil field. It wasn’t uncommon for him to leave late Saturday night for work and get home bone tired and just in time to clean up, don his Sunday best and arrive at church in time to preach. From all over Texas and New Mexico, to Kansas when it was uncharted territory for Southern Baptists, the Welch family answered the call, with the support and organization of Wilson’s late wife, Merle, and the kids in tow.

As he got older he sold life and health insurance.

“Oilfield work gave him a rough exterior, but his heart has always been tender, especially to those without Jesus as their savior,” Johnny Hailes said.

Ruth Ann Hailes, Wilson Welch’s daughter and Johnny’s wife, said her dad might have been misjudged at times, but his influence was bolstered by the fact that “he was the same at home as he was at church. He lived what he preached.”

Welch’s father, Olen, was a Southern Baptist preacher, as was his father-in-law, Luther Hood. And the ministry bug kept spreading.

Wilson’s son, Lee, is director of missions at Dogwood Trails Baptist Area in Jacksonville and pastored previously. There’s daughter Ruth Ann and preacher son-in-law Johnny. The couple’s son Adam Hailes is in his first year as an International Mission Board missionary with his family in Madagascar, working with an unreached people group. Before heading overseas, Adam pastored Ridgecrest Baptist in Commerce and served on church staffs in Fort Worth and Mount Pleasant. Not all of the Welch kids went into full-time ministry. Mark, the younger son, is a banker, and Ruth Ann’s younger sister, Debbie, lives in Tyler.

The first great-grandchild to join the ministry ranks is David Thorman, student minister under his grandfather at Park Street Baptist in Greenville. And other great-grandchildren, some too young to be bothered, might well hear the same call.

Wilson Welch said he felt called to preach early on, but in his teens “the devil told me I was trying to be like my daddy.” He tried to shake off God’s leading, but at age 19 while serving in the Army Air Corps at First Baptist Church of Anchorage, Alaska, he surrendered for good. That was 1948, and he’s been preaching ever since.

Wilson Welch said seeing his father’s dedication to pastor churches through thick and thin made a lasting impression on him. As for his family’s legacy of ministry service, it’s harder to pinpoint a reason, he said.

“For me, it was seeing my dad’s ministry and dedication, when in my ministry I’ve run across several preachers who after two or three troubled churches, they threw in the towel,” Wilson Welch said. “Of course, when the devil started showing me all the things my dad had gone through, there was a three- or four-year period where I decided God hadn’t called me.”

In fact, he said he wasn’t even sure he was saved. Things began to sort themselves out after that revival service in Alaska, when he sought out prayer for clarity regarding his salvation and his calling. Out of the Army Air Corps not long after that, “God carried back to White Flat, Texas,” Wilson recalled.

“‘You’re out of my will,’” Wilson said, recalling his impression of God’s message to him. “‘You are to do what I told you to do.’ That’s when I was definite about what God had for me to do. And I was fortunate enough that he blessed me with a perfect wife.”

Marie Welch, known as “Merle” to family and friends, played the piano, “which helped a lot,” Lee Welch said of his mother. “She was a sweet, sweet lady.”

A bivocational pastor with a piano-playing wife was a valuable combination in the far outposts where the family served, Lee Welch said.

“She was a Proverbs 31 woman,” he added. “She had a very quiet demeanor about her and was a service-oriented person.”

The couple celebrated their 50th year in ministry and their 50th wedding anniversary in the same year, 1998. Merle died in 2010 after battling Alzheimer’s.

Ruth Ann, the couple’s daughter, said her mother knew she was dying.

“‘I’m going to Heaven,’” she would say. “She would lay there and sing ‘Come on down, Lord.’ We know where she is and we are going see her again. She was a good pastor’s wife, bless her heart. She could pack in her sleep. Get ready to go to another place. Could turn any parsonage into a home, and she had some interesting ones.”

Like the church in Sedgwick, Kan., a few miles north of Wichita, where the Welches moved in 1959. The small church had a modest parsonage but no space for Sunday School. So Merle Welch, a woman with the gift of organization, Lee Welch said, would have the family up early on Sundays to make sure the parsonage could transition seamlessly into Sunday School space.

At Maljamar Baptist Church in Maljamar, N.M., the membership of oilfield workers and their families would change every eight or 10 months, Wilson Welch recalled. The ministry involved a few months’ investment into a group of souls, only to see them move away to their next work assignment.

Adam Hailes said his grandfather had a great balance of humor and bluntness, and his grandmother “kept him out of trouble.”

“Ministry gets ugly at times,” Adam Hailes said, “but he was always willing to be obedient to the Lord.”
Watching his grandfather care for his ailing grandmother as she deteriorated with Alzheimer’s “has been one of the great privileges of my life,” he said. “I pray that I will be able to love my wife Suzie that much one day.”

His grandfather also set an example as a soul winner and preacher. He recalled being in Wilson’s pickup truck late at night in the church parking lot as his grandfather led a couple to Christ.

“Most of all, he has always been willing to let the Word of God speak its truth clearly. I think that is one thing that he has set as a standard for all of us.”

It’s appropriate that ministry organizations often recognize the fruit of renowned pastors and leaders, Johnny Hailes remarked.

“But there are a lot of men like Wilson who have had a great influence on people’s lives in a way that only God has kept a record of.”

Land: Gov. ‘wilderness’ encroaching on church’s garden

Government establishing religion is not what concerns Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Richard Land. The danger he foresees is the government interfering with the free expression of religion—a threat he explained in a March 7 chapel message to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention staff.

Recalling the First Amendment guarantee that Congress “shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” Land said all of the restrictions in the First Amendment are placed on the government. 

“They’re there to keep the government from messing up the church,” he insisted.

Land recalled the position of noted Baptist preacher Roger Williams two centuries earlier in stating that there ought to be a wall of separation between the “garden of the church and the wilderness of the world.” Land described Williams’ conviction that the wall protected the church from the intrusion of the state.

“For the rest of your lifetime and mine, the greatest dangers to religious freedom are not going to be violations of the establishment clause with the government getting into the religion business,” Land said. “It’s going to be violations of the free exercise clause with the government seeking to confine and limit your ability to share your faith and to live your faith beyond your own home and your own church building.”

That attitude is reflected in a move away from the term “freedom of religion,” he said, in favor of “freedom of worship.”

“Freedom of worship is an emasculated, atrophied form of freedom of religion,” he responded. “Freedom of worship only protects the space between your ears and the space between your shoulders. It protects your home and maybe your place of worship, but it does not protect your Christian school, your Christian charity or your gospel outreach.”

In contrast, he said, “The free exercise of religion guarantees the right to live out your faith and to share your faith. That’s why it’s called the first freedom. It’s the freedom without which all of the other freedoms are meaningless.”

Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press are included in the First Amendment to protect the freedom of religion, he explained.

“Freedom of religion is under assault today in an unprecedented fashion by the federal government,” Land argued. “We currently have an administration that either fails to understand or rejects the clear meaning of the First Amendment.”

Recalling the recent Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission case involving ministerial exemption in hiring, Land told of a Lutheran schoolteacher who appealed her firing by complaining to the EEOC that her rights had been violated. “The Obama administration took up her case, arguing that a church school had no more special protections under the First Amendment than a country club.”

That position was so extreme that the Supreme Court rejected it on a 9-0 vote, he said. 

A similar mindset is behind the recent federal Health and Human Services ruling that reproductive services must be covered in all health insurance programs offered after August 2013—including those that can cause abortions, he said.

“In other words, it doesn’t matter if a Catholic charity, a Baptist hospital, a Catholic TV network or a Baptist college believes either contraception, abortifacient, or sterilization services are abhorrent and unconscionable, they’re going to force you to pay for them for your employees.”

President Obama announced Feb. 10 an accommodation that he said protects religious organizations by making insurance companies responsible for paying for contraceptives and sterilization, but critics contended his solution was insufficient. Some described it as an “accounting gimmick” that would still require religious organizations to be complicit in paying for employees’ abortion-causing contraceptives through their insurance companies. They have pointed out the president’s accommodation would not protect faith-based insurance plans or individuals who object to paying for such products.

“This shows a willful ignorance that many of these institutions are self-insured like us,” Land said, adding that the Southern Baptist-related GuideStone Financial Resources covers over 200,000 people with such policies. “We’re not going to pay for insurance that causes abortions,” Land insisted.

“We’re faced with a real problem. Either we violate our conscience and pay for insurance that covers reproductive services or we will refuse to do so and have to pay a fine for religious convictions in America and not have health insurance for our families.”

Land added, “We have a First Amendment protection against that kind of coercion from the government, but clearly the administration is acting like it’s violating the establishment clause as well as the free exercise clause and behaving like a secular Vatican granting papal indulgences to those it chooses.”

While advocates of the plan claim it ensures access to birth control and focuses on Catholic objections to contraception, Land said, “This debate is about coercion, not Catholics; conscience, not contraception, freedom, not fertility, and principle not pelvic politics.”

“We can only continue to have these freedoms if we defend them. That’s part of what being salt is,” said Land, calling on Southern Baptists to follow Jesus’ instruction in Matthew to be salt and light to the world.

“Salt keeps a dead thing from becoming a rotting thing. It has to touch that which it’s going to preserve,” he said. “Light has to be close enough that people can see the light and feel the heat.”

America must have a revival that leads to spiritual awakening for real change to occur, Land said. “As the saved who have been revived and the lost who have been awakened apply the truths of Scripture, that’s called a reformation, and that’s what we must have.”

-30-

Preachers urge conference toward boldness

FRISCO—With a theme of “I Am Not Ashamed!” from Romans 1:14-17, the 2012 Empower Evangelism Conference was chock full of exhortations for gospel boldness from the lineup of pastors and evangelists at Frisco’s Dr. Pepper Arena Feb. 27-29.

The following is a sampling of those sermons.

Steve Gaines
Jesus Christ is the narrow gate and the exclusive way to Heaven, Cordova, Tenn., pastor Steve Gaines told the conference.

Using the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7 as his text, Gaines said the real invitation to potential disciples begins in Matthew 7:13 with the analogy of the wide and narrow gates.

“Jesus is not only the best way to go to Heaven, he is the only way to go to Heaven. He is the only way to God.”

Some will claim they know him by their works or by head knowledge, having what the Bible calls a form of godliness but denying God’s power. The issue when we stand before God is, “does Jesus know you?”

On that day, “it’s more important that he knows you than you know him.”

“It our job to tell people there are only two gates. . . . Destruction or life, Hell or Heaven.”

“When you preach, give people a chance, an opportunity, to say ‘yes’ to Jesus,” Gaines said.  

Jerry Pipes
“The more we know about God, the greater our faith is in God,” evangelist Jerry Pipes said in a sermon from James 1.

The trials of life are abundant, but God’s message is that the believer who grows strong will receive the crown of life.

“Ron Dunn made this statement: ‘Faith is the assurance that when you get to Heaven and see it from God’s perspective, you’ll agree with everything he’s done,’” Pipes told the audience.

“Apart from the testing, ladies and gentleman, we would never grow in Christ.”

God’s best for the believer involves the formation of godly character, and “God is never going to allow you or me to miss his best without a fight.”

There are no shortcuts to a vibrant faith and Christian walk, personally or in the life of the church body, Pipes emphasized.

Pipes said two commonalities are found in pastors who thrive in their ministries. Their walk with Jesus and accomplishing his vision and mission, and fulfilling who God created them to be, were their greatest aims. Also, those pastors knew that their commitment to spend time with God got them through, Pipes said.

Kevin Hamm
Preaching on the subject of worship that attracts God’s presence, Gardendale, Ala., pastor Kevin Hamm said the question that should be asked in our churches is, “Is God in the House?”

He used the story of the woman who anointed the Lord’s feet with ointment from Luke 7 to make his point.   

“The church of God is trying to do the work of God without the power of God,” Hamm said in describing the problem among Southern Baptist churches with ample resources but sparse spiritual and evangelistic fruit.

What does it take for God to move powerfully in a church body?

Luke 7:37 shows a woman who was desperate for God, Hamm observed, despite no invitation to the meal at the Pharisee’s home.

Described in the Bible as a sinner, the woman also ignored potential criticism to get to where Jesus was. And when she found him, “she gave the very best she had,” Hamm said.

Such desperation is a prerequisite for God’s power to be manifested in the local church, he added.

Robert Smith
“God hath given us a gospel that must be preached in spite of the shame associated with it,” declared Robert Smith Jr., Christian preaching professor at Beeson Divinity School.

“Paul shows up in Rome with a gospel that is ludicrous to those who do not believe. It takes faith to believe this gospel,” he reminded. Recalling that Paul arrived in shackles, Smith said the apostle turned his prison into a pulpit.

“There was a time when Paul was ashamed of the shame of the gospel,” Smith noted. “What a difference a chapter makes,” he added, contrasting the account of Paul ravaging the church in Acts 8 with his defense of the church in Acts 9. “I want everyone to understand that an unbeliever is just one chapter away.”

Smith explained that Paul’s purpose in writing to the saints in Rome was partly a reminder of the gospel’s power. “Why not address the letter to unsaved people?” he asked. “The truth of the matter is that we not only believe in the gospel to save us, we need the gospel to live by every day,” he answered.

“The same gospel that worked in Paul’s day will work in our day, too,” Smith insisted. “We know it looks foolish, but it’s still the power of God unto salvation to everyone who will believe.”

Don Wilton
Preaching from Acts 3 and 4, South Carolina pastor Don Wilton told the conference that people in need of the gospel are hurting on every pew, but that same gospel also offends people.

Before launching into his sermon, Wilton sent greetings from Billy Graham, noting that he spends time with the famed evangelist in weekly pastoral visits. He said God’s love is always on the heart and lips of Graham.

Wilton, describing the story of the lame beggar seeking alms from Peter and John in Acts 3, said the account gives an “absolute demonstration of what he does in the lives of all people who encounter his righteousness” as the man exuberantly celebrated his healing.

Peter didn’t have silver or gold, but he had Jesus to give. Likewise, churches must remember that facilities and programs can never replace the simplicity of the gospel and the power of Jesus.

But that message will be challenged and opposed because it offends, as Peter and John discovered in Acts 4 as they spoke before the priests, the temple captain and the Sadducees.

“God tells us that anger toward this gospel is going to come from the pulpit and it’s going to come from the pew.”

But thankfully, Wilton reminded, Acts 4:4 is evidence that many will believe when God’s message is proclaimed faithfully.

Marc Farnell
Preaching from Ephesians, Little Elm pastor Marc Farnell said Paul in his letter gave an example of how prayer should fuel evangelism and ministry.

Noting that the lost are dead in trespasses and sins and gospel is the power of salvation to those who believe, Farnell outlined three examples Paul left to the Ephesian believers in chapters 1, 3 and 6.

In the first and third chapters he notes his prayer for the believers in Ephesus, and he closes the epistle by urging them to pray for one another and for him in his chains.

In the same way, church leaders need the encouragement of prayer from others.

“Paul knew that the Christian life was no walk in the park. . . . we need to ask others to pray for us,” Farnell said.

And in evangelism, “God is not dependent on our cleverness or creativity” so that he can use us to reach people for Jesus Christ. “His word is powerful to save.”

“Prayer encourages us to boldly proclaim Christ. . . . Sharing the gospel is not an option. It is a commandment. It is a necessity.”

Byron McWilliams
John 3:36 contains the promise of the gospel and the penalty for its rejection, yet many Christians live as if they are ashamed of the message, Odessa pastor Byron McWilliams said.

The passage states that “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

The great promise of the New Testament is believe on Jesus and you will be saved. But the opposite is also taught. Apart from Christ, the “living God whom we serve is not pleased,” McWilliams said.

“If you go to Heaven, you go to Heaven through the blood of Jesus Christ or you don’t go at all.”
John 3:34 shows the message is empowered by the Holy Spirit, yet some worry about how it is received.

“Is it more important for you that you please those who are listening or that you please God?” McWilliams asked.

More than ever, America needs Christians who are willing to speak the truth, knowing that Scripture promises Heaven for those have passed “from death to life.”

Jay Lowder
Wichita Falls evangelist Jay Lowder asked his listeners to consider what they were doing for Christ and to focus on the eternal over the temporal.

Preaching from Revelation 2:1-5, Lowder said Ephesus, lauded in the text for its endurance in the gospel yet scolded for leaving its “first love,” was a powerful city in its day. Yet “the more prosperous they became they more wicked they became.”

America’s prosperity has also led to more wickedness, and the gospel is the only remedy, Lowder said.
Despite political concerns by many Christian believers, “sometimes it’s the worst leadership that brings people to their knees,” Lowder said.

Lowder noted that the church at Ephesus “was not on the sidelines. This was a church that was in the game.”

“Let me ask you today sir or ma’am, what are you doing for Jesus Christ? So often today the focus is on being prominent, but you can be prominent without being significant.”

The Ephesian church was enduring, but they had lost their passion.

“There is nothing more tragic than  that someone falls out of love with Jesus,” Lowder lamented.

Ted Traylor
Like Paul, we will bear the marks of Jesus if we follow him, Ted Traylor said during the closing session of the evangelism conference.

Quoting Galatians 6:17—“From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand marks of Jesus”—Traylor said the mark that Paul spoke of was the Greek word “stigma.”

Every believer and every local church is branded or marked by something. But when truly following Jesus, some marks will stand out.

First, believers will bear the marks of the gospel, Traylor said. “The gospel should mark our lives. We are branded for Christ.”

Also, Christians will bear the marks of persecution.

“Friend, if you preach the gospel this world will come against you. You can preach anything until you say he’s the only way,” which leads to trouble.

Persecution didn’t stop Peter and John, it hasn’t stopped the Iranian pastor facing a death sentence, and “God help us to be bold to preach the gospel in a land that is free.”

The true disciple will always bear the marks of boasting exclusively in the cross of Christ, Traylor said.
“He reaches to the up and out and the down and out and everybody in between,” Traylor said. “And we need to be branded with the cross.”

Junior Hill
Preaching from Luke 8:4-15 on the parable of the sower, Alabama evangelist Junior Hill reminded his listeners that Satan’s strategy is to remove the seed that is sown.

“Not only does the devil take the seed out of the heart of the one who has received it,” Hill said, “but he also tries to take it out of the hand of the one who scatters it.”

The devil will assault the believer and try to keep him from scattering seed by intimidation, observation, evaluation, and germination.

Intimidation goes with preaching, Hill said. “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me before it hated you,” and the “servant not greater than his Lord,” Hill said, quoting Jesus’ words.

“When God called me at 19, I thought everybody was going to like me.” But, “if you are preacher or a scatterer of the seed of the Word God, mark it down—you are going to be opposed by those who are born of the flesh.”

Satan also tries to divert believers by getting them to “observe” their difficult circumstances. If that fails, he may convince the sower to forego sowing by evaluating the soil and assuming failure.

“You don’t have the foggiest idea who’s going to get saved,” Hill said. “Let God determine which one of them is going to come up.”

Finally, when the germination of the seed looks stalled or slow, don’t assume failure. Only God can judge the sower’s work, Hill said.

“Don’t be weary in well-doing. Keep on scattering the seed.”

Salvations, mission response highlight evang. conference

FRISCO—Twenty-five professions of faith during a Spanish-language rally and 38 churches responding to a call to embrace unengaged, unreached people groups (UUPGs) were cited as high points of the SBTC’s annual Empower Evangelism Conference.

The Feb. 27-29 conference at the Dr. Pepper Arena in Frisco also featured a notable lineup of preachers and musicians, including Grammy winner Larnelle Harris and gospel quartet Signature Sound.

The Spanish-language rally and a series of breakout sessions the weekend preceding the plenary conference was well attended, said Bruno Molina, SBTC language evangelism associate.

The Sunday night rally with Freddy Noble, pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana Manhattan in New York City, drew about 1,000 people.

“We were very pleased with the turnout,” Molina said. “We were certainly thrilled that 25 lives were transformed and just that God would move in such a profound way.”

Also, the inaugural Rudy Hernandez Award for faithfulness in evangelism was presented to Lucy Hernandez, Rudy’s widow. Hernandez was a longtime Texas pastor, evangelist and denominational leader.

Molina said many people responded favorably upon hearing that Lucy Hernandez would receive the award. Molina said the award would be given annually “to honor his memory and to inspire other evangelists and other people to be faithful in evangelism.”

On Saturday prior to the conference, Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano hosted a series of Spanish-language evangelism seminars that drew more than 300 people.

“We drew more people than in past years because it was a Saturday instead of Monday, and we were able to equip  them for ministry and to be inspired by the preaching of the Word. So we are just thankful to God for his goodness in that,” Molina said.

During the closing session of the evangelism conference on Feb. 29, International Mission Board President Tom Elliff invited churches to answer a call to “embrace” a UUPG and to live a life of “obligation” to the gospel, modeling the apostle Paul’s burden “for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”  
The convention staff reported that 38 churches responded to the call to begin the process of engaging these lost people groups, where fewer than 2 percent of the people are Christians and where no gospel witness exists.