Voddie Baucham....

A Voddie Baucham Interview

September 19, 2009 Broadcast: To Marry My Daughter
Segment 1; Segment 2; Segment 3; Segment 4

If you have an unmarried daughter, you won’t want to miss the next show. Dr. Voddie Baucham joins us to talk about “What He Must Be...If he’s going to marry my daughter.” It’s encouragement for fathers to become involved in your daughter’s life, and some help and hope for the next generation.

Voddie Baucham on Biblical Womanhood

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Voddie Baucham: If God is so powerful and so good, why do bad things happen?

What He Must Be...if he wants to marry my daughter

It was a cold winter night. Jack was sitting in front of the fire carefully lining up the pieces from his gun cleaning kit. He had cleaned his guns before, but tonight was different; tonight the cleaning had a dual purpose. One purpose was to see that his weapons were all in working order; the other was to scare the living daylights out of the sixteen-year-old young man who was scheduled to arrive at his door in the next half hour.

Jack was a tall, athletic man who kept himself in good shape. He often joked that he worked out constantly in preparation for this moment. He knew the day would come when a young man would come calling. that day had finally arrived. Jack's mind flooded with images. He smiled as he remembered the day he brought her home. No man had ever been happier or more proud. Now, in just the blink of an eye, young men had begun to come knocking.

At 6:59 the doorbell rang. It was Scott. He was right on time. Jack opened the door and greeted the young man, who had to wipe the sweat from his palms before shaking Jack's hand. "Come in," Jack said. There was more bass in his voice than usual. "Can I offer you something to drink?" Jack asked as he pointed to the chair across the room from his work station. "No thanks, I'm fine," Scott replied as he looked nervously at the assortment of firearms lying on the table in front of him.

Jack sat down, picked up his two-tone Kimber Custom .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol, and proceeded to field-strip and clean the weapon. As he ran his bore snake through the steel, matchgrade barrel, he asked Scott, "Do you have any idea how much she means to me?" Scott, mouth hanging wide open and eyes as wide as saucers, could only manage to nod his head. "Good," Jack continued. "I just want to make sure we're on the same page." Scott shook his head more vigorously. "Do you remember what time I told you to have her back?" "Yes, sir- 11:30," Scott blurted out, finally able to produce audible sounds. "Don't worry, sir. I'll take good care of her and get her back long before that."

Jack stood up, walked up the stairs and disappeared. Moments later he reappeared. This was the moment Jack had waited for. He could barely contain himself. Resolved that he had done everything he could do to impress upon this young man the importance of taking freat care and showing the utmost respect for his baby, Jack turned around, reached into his pocket, and handed the young man the keys to his brand new 6.5 liter, 12 cylinder All Wheel Drive, $354,000 Lamborghini Mucielago. "I want her back without as much as a scratch," he said as the young man started toward the garage.

Of course, the story above is completely absurd. Who, you ask, would give the keys to a brand-new Lamborghini Mucielago to a sixteen-year-old young man? Well, I have a better question. Who would be foolish enough to think their daughter was worth less than any car? It should be unthinkable for us to turn our daughters over to this young man as it is to contemplate giving him a depreciating piece of metal. However, we have come to prize sports cars much more highly than we do daughters these days.

I believe modern dating is no more than glorified divorce practice.

an excerpt from Voddie Baucham's newest book "What He Must Be...if he wants to marry my daughter"

I urge all parents to read this book!

What's wrong with the world today....a Voddie Baucham sermon jam

"What is wrong with the world?" - Voddie Baucham Sermon Jam from Wretched Sinner on Vimeo.

(there are a few spelling errors, if you can past those, you're good!)

A Personal Perspective on the SBC from Voddie Baucham

The SBC and Calvinism: A Personal Perspective
Wednesday, November 12, 2008


Those who know me have probably asked me at one time or another why I am part of the Southern Baptist Convention. To tell you the truth, I’ve been thinking that a lot myself lately. I am especially disturbed by events at the recent John 3:16 conference sponsored by Jerry Vines Ministries, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, Luther Rice Seminary and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The conference represents a growing antagonism in Southern Baptist life toward those who embrace the Doctrines of Grace. Unfortunately, this conference lacked some of the the balance and tact of the Building Bridges Conference. See critiques here, here, and here. The last link is especially revealing since James White was labeled a hyper-Calvinist while he was in London pressing the claims of Christ among Muslims! Hyper-Calvinist? “You keep using that word... I do not think it means what you think it means.” (Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride)

For a ‘lighter’ take on things look here. I only post this because I have been bombarded with questions as to where I am in this ‘fight’. Of course, it is not much of a fight. The SBC establishment is firmly and openly anti-Calvinist. There is no question about that. There is but one question. How long before the SBC realizes that defeating Calvinism would represent a Phyrric victory at best. Anyone paying attention sees the stark contrast between ministries like T4G, 9Marks, Desiring God, and the SBC Annual meeting. One of these groups is known for being 1) anti-Calvinistic, 2) highly politicized, and 3) void of the youth and vitality needed to sustain it in the future (hence, that ubiquitous question, “Exactly why are you in the SBC?”).

As for me, the SBC is still home. I am still a Baptist by confession and conviction. However, the is not the welcoming place it was for me earlier in this decade. In 2001 I had the privilege of being appointed Chair of the ‘Teller’s Committee’ at the Annual Convention in New Orleans (unfortunately, flooding in Houston prevented me from attending what would have been my first Convention). In late 2002 I got a call out of the blue from LifeWay/Broadman & Holman (the Southern Baptist publishing arm) offering me --an unpublished, unproven author-- a three-book publishing deal, which I accepted. I wrote The Ever Loving Truth (B&H, 2004), and The Ever Loving Truth Bible Study (LifeWay, 2004), before parting ways. During the same period, I received three invitations to preach at the SBC Pastor’s Conference (the event that kicks off the Southern Baptist Convention) in 2002, 2004 and 2005 (a family commitment prevented my participation the first year). This was, as we say here in the South, high cotton! Not many guys in their early thirties who have never pastored a church get a shot at preaching in the Pastor’s Conference. As my dear friend and brother, Derry Hodge said at the time, my “star was on the rise.”

However, things have changed drastically since then. That change is due in large part to three main issues that left me on the outside looking in. First, many of my brethren and I do not agree on the urgency of Christian parents giving their children a Christian Education. Though the Baptist Faith and Message seems to state the matter plainly (See Baptist Faith & Message, 2000, section XII: Education), my view is deemed extremist, un-evangelistic, and unwarranted. My partner in crime Bruce Shortt and I discovered that government education was a sacred cow not to be messed with in the SBC. In 2004, our education resolution created a firestorm, but fell to defeat. In 2005, we rang the bell again and gained a victory. However, while the Associated Press, and thousands of other publications (including Ethics Daily) covered the 2005 story incessantly, there was a virtual blackout over at Baptist Press. A look at the stories they wrote about ‘yours truly’ before vs. after 2005 makes for an interesting search to say the least. Not to mention the fact that we were taking on the homosexual agenda and received international coverage, but the BP blackout concerning my part in the resolution persisted.

My second SBC faux pas was going public with my position on Youth Ministry/Family Discipleship. While I voiced concerns for years, these were not “public” until I began to blog about them, then preach about them on the SBC stage. In February of 2006, I preached the message, The Centrality of the Home in the Evangelism and Discipleship of the Next Generation at the SBTC Evangelism Conference. I began to call Youth Ministry into question, not just for its shallowness, or ineffective track record (as did Christian Smith, George Barna, Mike Yakonelli, Alvin Reid, Allen Jackson, Richard Rossand scores of others); I had the audacity to point out the fact that it wasn’t even biblical in the first place. This, coupled with the release of Family Driven Faith, and planting Grace Family Baptist Church, set off a chain of SBC events that would culminate in the SBTC Youth Ministry Forum, and (some would argue) the recent “Patriarchy” rant at Midwestern Seminary by Cynthia Kunsman.

However, neither of these constituted fatal infractions. I co-sponsored an education in 2004, but preached at the SBC in 2005. I stood against YM for years and while many were uncomfortable, I was still part of the gang. That is, until I came out of the closet. No... I’m not gay. It’s far worse than that. I’m a Calvinist! That’s right, I’m a fire-breathing, TULIP believing, five-point Calvinist. That, my friends, is the unpardonable sin in contemporary Southern Baptist life (unless your name is Al Mohler and you’ve been President of the flagship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary since you were in your early thirties and happen to be the most intelligent, articulate, winsome public face the Convention has).

I was ‘outed’ in 2006 when I preached at the Desiring God National Conference. Prior to that I had preached at Alistair Begg’s conferences, but Desiring God was the fatal blow. After that the questions began to swirl. After preaching a message in a Pastor’s conference in 2006 a dear friend approached me (he is a well-known Calvinist whose name I won’t mention... TOM ASCOL ...and I was going to be preaching in his church the next day). He was laughing about a debate he overheard between two pastors. The issue? Whether or not I believed regeneration precedes faith! These brothers had begun to put two and two together but they just knew it couldn’t be four. It was as though I had contracted AIDS. These guys were actually mourning! “I had him in my church!” one of them lamented. I could have done a lot of things and been just fine. However, the dreaded “C” word has become a death sentence in “mainstream”

Southern Baptist life. Some may say that’s not it at all. Perhaps I’m simply too controversial, or vitriolic. Really? Then explain Ergun Caner (whom, by the way, I consider a friend even though we differ on this issue). Caner has been on of the most vitriolic voices in recent SBC history. However, his vitriol has been pointed at the enemy, Calvinism. Jerry Vines called the Prophet Mohammad a “Demon-possessed pedophile” and brought scorn on the entire Convention, but he hosts conferences with some of the top names and institutions in the SBC. Jerry Fallwell made a career out of vitriol and controversy and the SBC gave him the Keys to the Kingdom when he joined. No, I don’t think vitriol is my crime. My crime is being a part of a movement the SBC sees as a threat to evangelism, and our already declining baptismal numbers.

Calvinists can be an easy target when it comes to evangelism and baptism. Never mind names like Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Adonirum Judson, William Carey, Charles Spurgeon, Richard Baxter, Matthew Henry, John Bunyan, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Arthur Pink, Boyce, Andrew Fuller, Luther Rice, J.L. Dagg, Daniel & Abraham Marshall, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, J.I. Packer, Ian Murray, D.A. Carson, John Piper, James White, Tom Nettles, Tom Schriner, Tom Ascol, Timothy George, Mark Dever, and Al Mohler. The strawman (who doesn’t believe in evangelism because he believes in election) that was beaten about the head and shoulders at the John 3:16 Conference is a much easier target. Can you imagine that conference with the living members of the aforementioned list sitting there defending themselves? I’d pay a pretty penny to see that!

Instead, guys like White get hammered for not believing in evangelism while out doing evangelism! Good thing we’re protecting the Convention from the likes of him. If not we might start having bus tours with slogans like “Everyone Can”. Convention leaders with churches that boast memberships of 10,000 when their actual attendance (resident, participating, regenerate, ‘real’ members) is well under 2,000. Or fire engine baptistries to coax children into the sacred waters (Paige Patterson called this “blasphemy” right before calling Southern Baptists “some of the worst paedo-baptizers there are”). If we don’t rid ourselves of guys like White, we may end up adding a category in our baptismal reports for “Under Age 6,” or have a pastor join the Youth Ministry at the beach and have himself and staff ‘re-baptized’ in an effort to ‘prime-the-pump’ and get the baptismal numbers up for the annual beach retreat (true story!). Or who knows, if the likes of James White are not stopped, we may have non-Trinitarians like T.D. Jakes come and teach at our conferences.

Of course anyone paying attention knows these atrocities are actual occurrences in our beloved Convention and they are the types of things Calvinists (like White) bemoan. Moreover, our Arminian and Amyraldian brethren also despise these things (funny how people berate Calvinists for “following doctrine named for a man” when the various other positions are named for men as well). Unfortunately, they don’t despise these atrocities quite as much as they despise Calvinism. So where does that leave me? Still here. Sill lovin’ the brethren. Still holding to the Doctrines of Grace. Still in the SBC. No longer considering a future of any significance in the Convention. Praying for reconciliation, revival and reformation. Grieving over the status quo. Still holding to the Fives!

The Five Solas
Sola Scriptura
Sola Fide
Sola Gratia
Solus Christus
Soli Deo Gloria!
The Five Points
Total or Radical Depravity
Unconditional or Sovereign Election
Limited Atonement/Particular Redemption
Irresistible or Effectual Grace
Perseverance of the Saints

VB

Voddie Baucham Ministries

What He Must Be...If He Wants to Marry My Daughter

Voddie Baucham has written a new book! It's available for preorder from Amazon.

Here is a brief description:

All parents want their daughters to marry godly young men. But which qualities, specifically, should they be looking for?

What will you say when that certain young man sits down in your living room, sweaty-palmed and tongue-tied, and asks your permission to marry your daughter? What criteria should he meet before the two of them join together for life? What He Must Be… If He Wants to Marry My Daughter outlines ten qualities parents should look for in a son-in-law, including trustworthiness, a willingness to lead his family, an understanding of his wife’s role, and various spiritual leadership qualities.

Author Voddie Baucham follows up on his popular book Family Driven Faith with this compelling apologetic of biblical manhood. By studying the principles outlined in his book, parents who want their daughter to marry a godly man—as well as those who want their sons to become godly men—will be well equipped to help their children look for and develop these God-honoring qualities.

Voddie Baucham on Sarah Palin

I can't say that I disagree with him.

Did McCain Make a Pro-Family VP Pick?
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Conservatives are all aglow as John McCain pulled off an apparent coup d’état this week by naming Sarah Palin as his choice for Vice President. Bob Unruh, writing for the conservative Christian web magazine, Worldnet Daily may have put it best when he opened his column:

Pro-family advocates and Republicans are saying presumptive GOP nominee for president Sen. John McCain may have checkmated Democrat Sen. Barack Obama with his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate.

Everyone from Liberty Counsel to FRC is raving about the political genius displayed by Mr. McCain. It seems Christian conservatives have received the bone they were hoping McCain would throw their way in order to alleviate doubts about his conservative bona fides.

While I agree that from a political standpoint Mr. McCain made a brilliant political move, I am not so sure his pick can be portrayed as “pro-family.” It is true that Mrs. Palin is ardently pro-life –a distinction bolstered by the fact that she has five children, and chose not to abort a Down Syndrome baby—and she is also a fiscal conservative, a Washington outsider, and she hunts wolves from helicopters! What more could the Neocons ask for?

Unfortunately, Christians appear to be headed toward a hairpin turn at breakneck speed without the slightest clue as to the danger ahead. I don’t see this as a pro-family pick at all! Moreover, I believe the conservative fervor over this pick shows how politicized Christians have become at the expense of maintaining a prophetic voice. I believe that Mr. McCain has proven with his VP pick that he is pro-victory, not pro-family. In fact, I believe this was the anti-family pick. I say that for at least two reasons.

NOT A PRO FAMILY JOB

First, if Mr. McCain was pro-family, he would want to see Mrs. Palin at home taking care of her five children, not headed to Washington to be consumed by the responsibilities of being second in command to the most powerful man in the world (or serving as the Governor of Alaska for that matter). Let me also say that I would have the same reservations about a man with five children at home seeking the VP office. It’s not exactly a pro-family job.

FRC’s piece on Mrs. Palin links to a Wallstreet Journal article outlining her political career. While many Christian conservatives are highlighting Palin’s toughness, integrity and obvious conservative credentials (more conservative than McCain, in fact), they also seem to be ignoring several red flags.

For example, the Journal article, in an effort to highlight Palin’s ‘eco-friendly’ lifestyle, uncovers a disturbing trend that plagues far too many young women with families. The article refers to Palin’s habit of “driving herself to and from work every day from the Anchorage suburb of Wasilla, about 45 miles away.” Does this bother anyone else? Lets say the Governor averages sixty miles per hour on her daily commute (which I seriously doubt). That adds seven and a half hours per week to what one would assume is already a fifty to sixty-hour workweek (at least that if she is as driven as the article implies). This is supposed to be pro-family?

Perhaps the most disturbing revelation in the article is Mrs. Palin’s recent decision to travel for work (against her doctor’s orders) in the final days of her pregnancy. According to the article:

“Gov. Palin's opted to board a jet from Dallas in April while about to deliver a child. Gov. Palin, who was eight months pregnant, says she felt a few contractions shortly before she was to give a keynote speech to an energy summit of governors in Dallas. But she says she went ahead with it after her doctor in Alaska advised her to put her feet up to rest. "I was not going to miss that speech," she says.”

She put her child at risk, not for an official, necessary, or emergency duty as the Governor of Alaska, but because she simply “was not going to miss out on that speech.” A speech! The more I learn about the choices this woman has made, the less inclined I am to see Mr. McCain’s choice as pro-family. She may be the best working mother in America, but the evidence is questionable at best.

NOT A PRO FAMILY MESSAGE

Not only do I believe that a pro-family candidate would prefer to see Mrs. Palin at home taking care of her children, I believe a pro-family candidate would also avoid validating and advancing our culture’s desire to completely erase gender roles. Much of the discussion about Mrs. Palin’s candidacy centers around her opportunity to “break through the class ceiling” and be a “role model for young women.” The same was said of Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy in the Democratic primary. But what does this mean?

Are we really saying that we want to completely erase the distinctions between men and women. Do we really believe that it is good for our country to promote the view that women are merely men who happen to be biologically capable of having children (when it does not interfere with career advancement, of course)? I don’t think so. What do we do with the Bible’s admonition in Titus chapter two? Are Christian conservatives saying that Paul’s instructions concerning women’s duty to be “keepers of their homes” has somehow been overturned in light of recent discoveries? Or are we saying that pro-family means one thing when we’re in church, but something else when we’re trying to beat the Democrats?

Let me be clear. I am not arguing that it is always wrong for a woman to be engaged in affairs outside the home. I agree with Albert Barnes who wrote:

This does not mean, of course, that they are never to go abroad, but they are not to neglect their domestic affairs; they are not to be better known abroad than at home; they are not to omit their own duties, and become “busy-bodies” in the concerns of others. (Barnes’ Notes on the Bible)

My point is simple. The job of a wife and mother is to be a wife and mother. Anything in addition to that must also be subservient to it. There is no higher calling. Moreover, I believe Paul’s admonition should lead us to reject any notion of a wife and mother taking on the level of responsibility that Mrs. Palin is seeking.

My heart breaks for her. She has been blessed beyond measure with five incredible children, but she is running hard after what the world says is ‘something more.’ I fear she will regret this some day. In fact, I believe she already does. I can’t imagine her going to sleep at night without a nagging doubt in the back of her mind as she thinks about the time with her children that she will never get back.

My heart breaks for her children. Their mother, by all reports, is an incredible, intelligent, energetic woman with a great deal to offer. Unfortunately, right now she is offering it to the people of Alaska, and the people of the United States of America when her first priority is to offer it to them. God designed them to flourish under the nurturing care of their mother, not some surrogate.

My heart breaks for her husband. Mrs. Palin is not even supposed to be the head of her own household (Eph. 5:22ff; Col. 3:18; Titus 2:5; 1 Peter 3:1-7), let alone the State of Alaska, or the United States Senate (The VP oversees the Senate). He should be shepherding her, but instead she is ruling over him (Rom 13:1-7; 1Pet 2:13-17). How difficult it must be for him to walk the fine line of bowing to the culture that is stealing his bride while still trying to love his wife and lead his family.

My heart breaks for the so-called Christian right. All the usual subjects have been falling all over themselves to praise Mr. McCain and justify their blind allegiance to the Republican Party in an effort to secure more “pro-family” judges. They want to protect marriage from redefinition by the homosexual movement, and they are willing to redefine marriage (and motherhood) to do it.

Ironically, the Neocons are merely using Mrs. Palin as a political pawn. She is beloved because she gives them the coveted “moral high ground” in the upcoming debates. Read recent articles and the goals become clear. We must win on abortion. She makes it hard to argue for it. We must win on the race/gender issue. She gives us a woman to their ethnic minority. We must win on being young and hip. Obama is 47; Palin is 44. We must win the “change” argument. Obama is new to Washington; Palin has never served there. Checkmate!

Unfortunately, this political pawn represents a fatal flaw worldview flaw. In an effort to win the pro-family political argument, we are sacrificing the pro-family biblical argument. In essence, the message being sent to women by conservative Christians backing McCain/Palin is, “It’s ok to sacrifice your family on the altar of your career; just don’t have an abortion.” How pro-family is that?

VB

From his blog

Voddie Baucham on CNN

Barack Obama: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

by Voddie Baucham

Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion candidate ever to run for President. He could not even bring himself to vote for the Born Alive Infant Protection Act which would have protected children born in the process of an abortion. That’s right, Mr. Obama cannot even bring himself to support a plan that simply says to doctors, “If they slip past while you are trying to kill them, you have to let ‘em live.” With this vote, Obama was more pro-abortion than the radical abortion group NARAL.

I am absolutely amazed that at a time when Margaret Sanger’s Darwinian, Eugenics inspired dream of eliminating the poor, the lame, and the inferior races through targeted abortion is being propagated at record rates, black people still support the man who epitomizes her murderous philosophy. Black and hispanic women make up less than 13% of the population, but account for nearly half of all abortions. The overwhelming majority of Planned Parenthood’s abortion mills are located in minority neighborhoods. Abortion is absolutely racist. Yet most blacks have no problem supporting people like Mr. Obama who want to make sure that the killing doesn’t stop.

In his article, “Shepherds Leading the Sheep to Slaughter,” Rev. Clenard Childress notes:

“Here are the birth statistics for African-American babies in the City of Philadelphia just a couple a years ago: 10,880 born, 9,259 aborted. Nearly half or 46% of all babies in the City of Brotherly love were dismembered and brutally killed by means of abortion. Moreover, there are twenty-five other major urban cities in America that report having a higher abortion rate than live birth rate.”

This is absolutely astonishing! The only thing more astonishing is the fact that black clergymen in Philadelphia are supporting Mr. Obama. Then there is the consistent mantra from black supporters of America’s first bi-racial candidate... “I’m just happy to see a black man in this position.” Amazing! That’s like Hitler hiring a Jewish doctor (on his father’s side) to run the human experiments at Dachau and hearing the Jewish prisoners hail the fact that ‘one of their own’ has ascended to such great heights in the Nazi regime.

I recommend reading the rest here: Barack Obama: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Are You an Emasculated Man?