Follow-up on Sunday's message:

Last Sunday, 10/25, we looked at the defeat of the Egyptian goddesses and gods, in the ten plagues God used to bring about the relaease of his people. Here is a video that does a good job creating the mood of the Exodus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl8dazS0FeQ

Covington Bible Church, once again, presents the Live nativity:

If you live in our area we hope that you will join us one of the evenings, September 18-20.

The LIVE NATIVITY is a presentation of the birth of Christ, and what it means to us. Be our guest in the Village of Bethlehem and view scenes including:

• The Annunciation to Mary,
• The Stable where Christ was born,
• The Visit of the Magi, and more.

Visiting the Life Nativity will take about hour, but many people choose to stay and visit in Bethlehem or find out more about what these events mean to each of us.
It is a great family outing--help your children understand the real meaning of Christmas.

To find out more, write.

With apologies to Handel:

This is a hoot!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU&feature=related

Enjoy!

Here we go again: Why would a Baptist pastor want to burn Bibles?

You have probably heard it by now, but if you haven't gotten the news about the church in North Carolina that is planning to burn Bibles on Halloween, go to the following link and watch the video: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2009/10/13/VI2009101301831.html

Or you can read the story here: http://www.mercurynews.com/weird-news/ci_13567852

Nearly four decades ago when I began ministry, I knew about the King James Only movement. My hope was that when that generation died we would be done with them. We aren't. They have multiplied like rabbits--yeah, verily they hath been exceeding prolific in the spread of their view of scripture.

A couple of folk from the church where I pastor ran into some of these King James zealots recently. Thankfully, these devotees of what they call the "Authorized Version" aren't planning a Bible-burning, though I figure they wouldn't do much to talk the North Carolina pastor out of his event. One accusation, among others, is that modern translations like the NIV or NASB somehow downplay the Deity of Christ. Jesus Christ and Who He is are at the core of my faith, so I don't take those accusations lightly.
Here are a couple of good articles, if you want to read further:

• This article does a good job refuting the accusation that translations other than the KJV are substandard in regard to Christology:
  http://contenderministries.org/biblestudy/kjodeityofchrist.php
• Here is an article understandable to the layman that discusses the Greek manuscripts:
  http://www.onenesspentecostal.com/kjvevaluation.htm
• Here is an article that begins with a brief statement about why we need an English translation other than the King James and then goes on to do a good job of presenting, in essentially bullet-point format, a brief description of the popular modern translations and paraphrases.
  http://www.firstpresb.org/translations.htm
• While this article needs to be updated, it is still useful in making a decision as to which Bible translations are dependable and useful:
  http://covingtonbiblechurch.org/DevotionalAidsResources/HelpinChoosingaBibleTranslation/tabid/235/Default.aspx