The Alfred Murrah Bombing's 25th Remembrance

Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, April 19, 1995

25 years ago this morning, April 19, 1995, I retrieved my luggage from the airport carousel at 8:30 am, having flown on a red-eye flight from Phoenix, Arizona, to Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City.

The night before I had spoken to a group of pastors and leaders in Prescott, Arizona, in preparation for a Franklin Graham Festival that was coming to Prescott later that year.

 For the previous two years, I'd flown all over the country on behalf of the Billy Graham Organization, laying the groundwork for Franklin Graham Festivals in cities around the United States.

After retrieving my luggage, I went to my car in the airport garage and proceeded to driving home to Enid. I was driving on Highway 74, just west of downtown OKC, when I felt my car shake. I thought a gas explosion had occurred in downtown OKC. A few minutes later, Rachelle called me on my car phone (a fairly new invention in 1995) and informed me that the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City had been destroyed by an explosion.

As a chaplain for various police departments over the years, I worked for several days after April 19 at the morgue for victims, temporarily set up at OKC's First United Methodist Church. I would make trips from First Methodist to OKC First Christian Church where the victims' families had gathered for news about their loved ones, making death notifications. At first, we thought there would be survivors. As the hours went by, we realized no medical triages were needed. Only a morgue.

I can't begin to describe the stories I heard those few days, or the people I met, or the inspiration I received from the "Oklahoma Strong" atmosphere that was all around. Though I can't describe it, I will never forget it.

The Oklahoma City Federal Courthouse (and flag)

On the day after the bombing, Governor Keating ordered all flags to be flown at half-mast. Most people don't realize that the Oklahoma City Federal Courthouse is located just across the street, south of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The Federal Courthouse was badly damaged, and so two Federal ATF agents and I made our way into the Courthouse, and climbed to the roof, avoiding debris and kicking open doors when needed, all with the purpose of lowing the flag.

When we finished our mission, we stood on the railing and looked north toward the Murrah Building. The sight was gruesome. As we pondered what had happened, the two ATF agents began telling me about the friends and fellow agents they lost in the bombing. I remember the tears in my eyes as they pointed to the floors where their friends had been killed.

It's hard to believe it's 25 years since Timothy McVeigh blew up the Murrah Building. In 1995, I did not know the Enid attorney who would eventually be appointed by the Federal government to defend Timothy McVeigh.

Since that time, Steven Jones and I have become friends, and he has told me some incredible stories of his time defending McVeigh.  I have the utmost esteem for Steven Jones and have learned to love liberty even more through the principles he cherishes.

In an age when principles are often neglected, Steven Jones continues to believe in some  bedrock principles upon which our country was founded, including "the right to a fair trial," and "innocent until proven guilty." Timothy McVeigh was guilty of a heinous crime, but what makes America great is the protection of our liberties for all citizens, including the Timothy McVeighs of this world.

The tragedy of April 19, 1995, has made  Oklahoma a strong state.

I'm a better man because I've seen firsthand how God can take the vilest and most despicable act of man and turn it for good for an entire community.

God is powerful enough to take our darkest moments and make something great from them (see my friend Berry Tramel's story in today's Oklahoman on the revival of Oklahoma City since 1995).

There's no such thing as a happy anniversary for the Murrah Building bombing.

 But there is such a thing as humble respect and gratitude for what Oklahomans have become because of what happened 25 years ago today.

THE REAL CURSE OF COVID by Dr. Joel Gregory

Thus says the Lord:

"Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord.

They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places in the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land" (Jer. 17:5-6).
__________________

The curse of covid is not a tiny, invisible virus. The curse of covid is misplaced faith. Jeremiah’s generation placed its faith in political alliances and the presence of a mere institution, Solomon’s temple. Both vanished. We might get a clue from them. Where does our ultimate confidence rest? What are you depending on in all honesty?

Do you put your ultimate trust in government? Daily you hear the harangue against the President or the Speaker of the House. It sounds as if millions think the ultimate solution in life is only political. Please pardon an observation. I have known politicians. A few of them are godly. The rest of them are as vain, self-seeking, and pretentious as I am. They do not deserve your ultimate dependence for life itself.

Do you depend finally on institutions? This current crisis will permanently close some institutions. Colleges will disappear. Brands will vanish. Ask Sears, Kodak, or Oldsmobile if that can’t happen. If you put your ultimate trust in any human institution you will be disappointed every time. They change beyond recognition or they vanish.

At the end, do you depend on family? The tragic scenes of dying spouses isolated in critical care and insulated from their beloved has horrified the nation. Most of us thought that at the least someone we love would hold our hand when we die. Beyond that, lawyers in New York City have claimed a 25% increase in divorces filed during the quarantine. Folks who could not stand one another have been locked in a room together and one of them wants out right now. Family can disappear.

Are you prompted to say your friends will always be there? You are to be pitied if that is the case. Some of us can testify that friends of a lifetime can disappear at your hardest moments. People you helped get into high positions forget your existence. Human friendship is not a rock; it can quickly vaporize.

Are you leaning on your own ministry? Those of us who are certain kinds of ministers have watched the scaffold of our ministry collapse in a month. No more trains, hotels, conferences, or seminars. Poof. What seemed inevitable and sturdy is liminal and wobbly. There is a difference in trusting the Lord of the ministry or the ministry of the Lord.

I know. You may be saying to yourself, “Joel sure is in a minor key today.” Not at all. I have read the next verse: “Blessed are those whose trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” Note, it is not just trust in the Lord but those whose trust is the Lord. In 1834 Edward Mote, a preacher and carpenter, wrote On Christ the Solid Rock. Do recall the unusual words, “I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name”? Mote knew shaky buildings. He warned against putting your weight on a frame that collapses. These covid quarantines have given me, and I pray you, the moment to be certain that every other frame can collapse except the LORD. “My hope is built on nothing less.” Not politicians, institutions, or even ministry itself. Lean on the right frame.

I'm Doubling Down on COVID-19 Because of Lives

Released April 16, 2020, by Gov. Kevin Stitt (Oklahoma): Missed projections and actual hospitalizations

Last week I posted on Facebook that I believed it was time for our city (Enid, Oklahoma) to begin the transitional process of opening up economically. I said this:

"I respect our city leaders. Their emphasis on increased personal hygiene, being cautious around others, and the encouragement to "think of others" have been marvelous ("Thank You" city leaders!). That said, I believe it's now time to think of those losing their jobs, being furloughed, and missing paychecks to pay rent, to put food on the table, and to take care of bills. I'm requesting our Mayor and Enid's City Council announce Enid is OPEN THE CITY FOR BUSINESS at midnight Thursday, April 30, 2020, so that the Emergency Order is not extended into May."

The response I received by some to what I wrote made me out to be the true Tiger King who actually succeeded in murdering people. I was being blamed for impending deaths.

One person wrote:

"This is absolutely irresponsible. I would hope that a man of God would care more about people than sacrificing their lives for the sake of business. You do also realize that there are such things as asymptomatic carriers who can transmit the virus without showing symptoms? Your attempt at shaming those individuals who are genuinely concerned about this is repugnant.

I never take anything personally, so I took no offense toward those who accused me of being more interested in money than peoples' lives.

However, America's response to COVID-19 is not a "lives vs. economy" issue. It's a "lives vs. lives" issue.

It is entirely possible for more lives to be ruined by our response to COVID-19 than by the disease itself." Wade Burleson

At first, I listened to our government leaders because they were telling us that the "surge of patients" in need of hospitalization would overwhelm our medical system. We would not have enough beds to care for the sick, we were told.

My wife, Dr. Rachelle Burleson, understands public health. We want to be part of a solution to help our nation, not part of the problem. Out of love for our country and our leaders, I totally supported the recommendations of the CDC to shelter in place and isolate.

I obeyed government mandates to isolate and shelter in place, to cancel all corporate worship services for six weeks, and follow the mandates of a government Emergency Order.

Then reality hit.

The number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 was skewed.

Hospitals built to deal with the surge remained "empty," having never seen even one patient. 

The coronavirus death rate much was much lower than previously reported.

Then, certified government epidemiologists in Sweden began saying "we've got it wrong about the lockdown."

Dr. Shiva Avyadurai, Ph.D., M.D., MIT, began telling Americans a different narrative about COVID-19.

Then I began hearing from small business owners from Enid, Oklahoma, members of the church I serve. They were questioning why "big business" and national chains were allowed to remain open, but their small businesses were shuttered by the government.

Then I began hearing from people (other than my wife, Dr. Rachelle Burleson), how hospitals in Oklahoma, including Deaconess in Oklahoma City, and Integris throughout Oklahoma, were laying off people and facing bankruptcy because hospital rooms were empty.

I began to change my mind. There seems to be an agenda that goes beyond public health.

I think some people wish to fundamentally change America.

COVID-19 becomes the means through which people begin to rely on the government than their active work to sustain their families.

I am NOT a conspiracy theorist (with apologies Ed Stetzer).

But when I saw the volatile, hostile response to my recommendation that we begin to "open up Enid, Oklahoma" to small businesses, I realized that the driving force of many is political hubris,  not public health.

Way back in the 1960s', the moment a child got "chickenpox," all the kids ran to the house of their friend so they could "get chickenpox." God has built into your body the greatest biological immunization system in the history of the world. Natural immunity is what protects the population, not Big Pharma vaccinations. If you wish to guarantee a dangerous and deadly spread of COVID-19, then shelter healthy people continuously..

In the history of the world, only the sick and the susceptible have been isolated. 

For the first time ever, the healthy are being isolated.

If it is argued that you must isolate the healthy to prevent people from "catching" the virus, I would argue, along with the leading epidemiologist of Sweden, that we should be doing the very opposite.

Let the healthy go about their lives, taking all recommended personal hygiene precautions, and tell the elderly and those with pre-existing health problems (obesity, lung disease, heart disease, etc...) to shelter and isolate.

Then, when the healthy get COVID-19, many of whom will have mild to no symptoms, we can then donate and give our naturally immunized blood to help heal those who are very sick.

“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of a doubt, what is laid before him.” (Leo Tolstoy, 1897).

I don't consider myself a Republican or a Democrat.

COVID-19 has turned me into a libertarian.

Libertarian - def. "an advocate or supporter of a philosophy that advocates only minimal state intervention in the free market and the private lives of citizens."

Our church will not open for our normal schedule on Sundays until June 7, regardless of what the government says. We'll take time in May to transition and do things differently and cautiously (as small businesses should as well).  But the fact we've shut down our economy for COVID-19 is an unwise response to a serious disease. You don't burn down the house to kill a mouse. 

If you wish to know how I've changed over the last six weeks about COVID-19, watch the video below.

This is a "lives vs. lives" issue, and our country is going to destroy MORE lives than COVID-19 the longer we stay shut down.

All Things for Good, Easter 2020, Emmanuel Enid

COVID-19 Book Recommendation: Radically New

During our "shelter in place" times for this historic 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, many are rekindling their love for books.

May I selfishly recommend Radically New. My wife, Dr. Rachelle Burleson, told me the other day, "Wade, your book Radically New changed my life." When she told me that, I thought she was just being a kind, supportive wife. I thought she believed her husband would be encouraged by her words. In other words, I discounted what she said.

She intuitively saw what I was thinking and said, "Listen, Wade. I'm not just saying that because you're my husband. I read Radically New and it opened up my eyes to the deep riches of God's grace in Christ Jesus in ways I never dreamed. I wish every follower of Jesus could read it."

That got my attention. When Dr. Burleson speaks about something she's learned, her husband listens.

Recently, a professional editor named Brenda Kay Coulter sent me an email saying similar things about Radically New and what the book meant to her. Brenda suggested some changes in formatting to make the E-book more pleasing to the reader's eye.

I took Brenda up on her editorial offer, and today we've released a "new and improved' formatted E-book of Radically New. It's the same content, just more pleasing to the eye.

You may buy the E-book on Amazon for $3.95, or you may "read it for free" if you are a member of the Amazon book club.

If you choose to read the book during COVID-19, please post a review and let me know what you think of it.

I've always scratched my head over the fact that my book Fraudulent Authority has far more reviews than Radically New.

Radically New can change your perspective on life.

All Fraudulent Authority does is change your perspective on your preacher!

I'll take the transformation of my "life" over the correction of my "preacher" any day!

Reviews for Radically New:

Pastor Burleson's book, Radically New should be read by all who claim to be New Covenant believers. We know that we are living in New Covenant times, but our thought patterns betray our Old Covenant understanding of God. The New Covenant is not a better version of the Old Covenant, it is radically different at its core, the person of God. I have a good understanding of the new covenant, but this book has challenged me to put that understanding into practice in my daily life. Some of the chapters were uncomfortable for me to read because they betrayed the fact that my living does not really reflect the way I speak. Do I really trust in Christ's righteousness "alone",or do I fall back into the mud of shame, in the hope that if I feel bad enough about myself, "I" will be able to change my behavior. Pastor Wade points out that this is bondage to something that has no power. And the real shocker is that self effort is not of faith and that of course is sin. Wow! This is an important book for every church member. It is a call to be what we are, forgiven, loved, and at rest. Thank you Pastor for reminding me that the true gospel is Jesus plus nothing! (Tim T)

 From W.T. Standard:

With so many churches coming under fire due to abuse of power by the leaders of churches, this book is very much needed... This book should be mandatory reading for every Protestant church member, including Pastors. The key teaching of this book is that we are to be led of the Holy Spirit. A teaching that is sorely missing in most every church today. We have left out the Third Person of the Trinity. No wonder churches aren't growing, especially in Grace, and church attendance is on a downward spiral. This book will greatly encourage you to KNOW --- God is just waiting for His Church to turn back to the One He gave us to lead us into All Truth if we truly desire a Spiritual Awakening.

 From L.T.

Reassuring, brilliant, transforming, worth many, many re-reads.

Get your "shelter in place' copy today.

It's Never Too Late and You're Never Too Old To ...

Dr. Otto Loewi (d. 1961)

In 1936, Austrian scientist Otto Loewi and his lifelong friend, British scientist Sir Henry Dale, were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work on the chemical transmission of electrical impulses in the human body. 

Otto, a Jew living in Vienna, received a sizable cash prize upon being awarded to Nobel Prize.

You think you have it rough during these COVID-19 days? 

Listen to Dr. Loewi's story.

Less than two years after being awarded the Nobel Prize, on 12 March 1938, Germany invaded Austria. 

Neighbors informed Otto Loewi that afternoon that the Nazis had taken over Austria. Otto, preoccupied with his research, ignored the significance of this news.

At 3:00 am the next morning, a dozen SS troops burst into his home, dragged the Jewish scientist out of his bed, and carted him off to prison,   Anticipating he would murdered by the Nazis, Otto managed to scribble the results of his latest research on to a postcard, 

Addressing the card to a scientific journal (Die Naturwissenshaften), Dr. Loewi persuaded a prison guard to stick in the mail. 

Otto felt indescribable joy that his results would not be lost, and he anticipated death to come soon. 

But two months later Otto Loewi was released from his Nazi jail, and told he could leave the country IF he gave all his assets to the Nazis including his Nobel Prize money. The SS listened as Otto instructed his Swiss bank to transfer the funds to a Nazi-controlled bank. The money became Otto's  ransom for his life. 

Dr. Otto Loewi escaped to England without a penny to his name.

After spending time with Sir Henry Dale in London, Loewi held temporary appointments in Brussels and Oxford, before setting sailing to the United States in 1939.

He came to the United States to hold a research professorship in pharmacology at New York University Medical School. But when he arrived in New York in June 1940, at the age of sixty-seven, all he had in his possession were the clothes on his back, his visa, and his doctor’s certificate. While waiting to see the immigration officer, Otto grew horrified when he discovered the Visa had stamped on it ‘Senility, not able to earn his living’.

Fortunately the officer chose to ignore this questionable handicap, and Loewi was allowed into the United States. 

Otto Loewi was never bitter about the upheaval to his life. 

In fact, he considered that fate had been kind to him. In the United States he was able in the USA he was able to pursue his scientific endeavors during a time when his native Austrian government would have forced him to retire. 

For another twenty-one years (1940-1961), Dr. Otto Loew continued to inspire successive generations of students and spend his summers in ever-animated discussion at the Marine Biological Laboratories at Wood’s Hole.

It's never too late, and your never too old, to begin again. 

(Adapted from The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body by Francis Ashcroft, (pp. 83-84). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition)

Hamburgers, Toilets, and Past Global Pandemics

A Hamburg, Germany sanitation team (1892)

The West is soft.

We've lost connection with our history, become cavalier about our faith in God, and grown comfortable with our false belief that economical, medical, and social progress steadily moves - without interruption - toward utopian perfection.

A virus that kills between 1% to 2% of those infected has shocked our world.

But COVID-19 shouldn't shock us.

Not if we know our history.

Let me take you back just a little over one hundred years ago.

Hamburg, Germany, August 1892

Hamburg is the picturesque German city from whence we get our word "hamburger."

Hamburg (er)

Just like "wiener" comes from Vienna (the "w" is pronounced with a hard "v" in German) and frankfurter from Frankfurt, we get the name for cooked meat between two pieces of bread from Hamburg.

On  Tuesday, August 16, 1892, it was reported to city officials that two people - that's right, two people - had become critically ill with symptoms of cholera.

Cholera was the COVID-19 of the 1800s.

There were SIX global pandemics of cholera during the 1800s.

Hamburg became ground zero of the FIFTH global pandemic of cholera (1892-1897).

Nobody at the time knew how cholera spread among people. Most thought it was caused by "breathing air" or living in "filthy conditions." Thus, any neighborhood "infected" with cholera was banished by the healthy.

On August 23, 1892, one week after the first two cases of cholera were reported in Hamburg, officials declared a city-wide emergency. Cholera had spread to multiple neighborhoods.

But it was too late.

By August 27, 1892, cholera claimed the lives of 1,000 people per day in Hamburg, Germany.

The death rate was 57.5%. That means that more than half of the people who contracted cholera in Hamburg died.

For perspective,  it is roughly estimated that COVID-19 claims the lives of between 1% and 2% of those infected.

Imagine living during the 1800s when cholera swept the world. There was a 50/50 chance that if you contracted it, you would die.

Death by cholera was gruesome.

The victim had constant, watery diarrhea; nausea and vomiting; and unbearable cramps that led to human dehydration and physical shock, and then death.

The city of Hamburg had been attacked by an epidemic of cholera 14 times during the 19th century (prior to 1892). But this last time, the beginning of the 1892 global pandemic of cholera, was the worst.

From August 16 to November 14, 1892, 8,605 persons died in Hamburg of cholera.  Millions would die around the world before the 5th global pandemic of cholera came to an end.

People fled Hamburg. Business shut down. Churches closed. Streets were filled with the dead and dying.

Seven vessels loaded with residents of Hamburg made their way to the United States, bringing cholera with them.

A few of those Germans made the 1893 Land Run in Oklahoma.

Mark Twain

Mark Twain, the author of Tom Sawyer, visited Hamburg during the cholera epidemic and wrote a The Cholera Epidemic in Hamburg (1892).

Remember, an epidemic is local. A pandemic is global.

Twain's pamphlet about the epidemic in Hamburg is a scathing indictment on social inequality that he saw first-hand as he walked the barren streets. He wrote:

"A physician in Hamburg stated that everyday numbers of poor people are snatched from their homes to the pest houses, and that is the last that is heard of a good many of them."

The rich were treated well by physicians, but the poor were banished to "pest houses" to die.

Why the disparity?

Listen to Twain:

"We have heard rumors that the force of workers at Hamburg was too small to cope with the pestilence; that more help was impossible to get; and we have seen statements that confirm these sorrowful facts; statements which furnished the pitiful spectacle of brave workers dying at their posts from exhaustion; of corpses lying in the halls of the hospitals, waiting there because there was no worker idle; of a wagon going along the street with five sick people in it, and with them four corpses!" 

Sound familiar?

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

A by-product from the discovery of the cause of cholera

The germ theory of bacterial infection had not yet been formulated in Twain's day.

People in the 1800s didn't know that cholera was caught by drinking infected water. Human fecal matter was often deposited in the ground near streams or freshwater wells where people came to drink, and that is how cholera was spread.

Contaminated drinking water was the cause of cholera.

But that would not be discovered until the 1900s. After germ theory became accepted, cities began developments in wastewater treatment centers, especially throughout the United States, Great Britain, and Europe.

When you know your history, you know that humanity is not immune to trouble.

We live in a world often interrupted by social, medical, astral, and personal catastrophes.

"All people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment." (Hebrews 9:27)

Or, as I like to say it, "You're never ready to live until you're ready to die."

"But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Corinthians 15:57).

So next time you eat a hamburger or use a toilet, remember that the panic associated with COVID-19 isn't something new to humanity.

The Keys of Life and Death Are Not Held by Science

The United States is officially in a panic mode via a pandemic.

Pandemic means "pertaining to all people." The word "dem(os)" means people. "Pan" means "all."

The COVID-19 crisis is a real problem for all people.

People are dying.

The COVID-19 death rate is over 2%. Death comes to men more than women, the obese more than the thin, the older more than the younger, and those with pre-existing health conditions more than the healthy among us.

Americans are freaked out.

Don't be.

Realize that a pandemic typically leads to a God-demic.

It is possible to see God at work, even in a pandemic.

When we feel out of control in an unpredictable situation without a solution to change our situation, fear and anxiety abound.

But God is in control. God is unchangeable. God is never taken by surprise.

One of the advantages of knowing Christ - while at the same time being a student of history - is that both things - history and Christianity - bring a sense of calm to any current situation.

The world has been here before.

In ancient times, mankind never presumed the power of life and death.

In modern times, we wrongly think we have the power of life and death.

But Jesus said...

"I hold the keys of death and the grave' (Revelation 1:18)

The reason we're in a panic is that we wrongly believe we hold the keys to life and death.

We do not. 

Mankind has never been the One in authority over life and the grave.

Jesus Christ holds those keys.

And a pandemic leads people to a God-demic.

The Kingdom of Jesus Christ is being built, and the gates of hell shall not prevail.

Some Baptists More Roman Catholic than Baptist?

Pope Francis

On March 20, 2020, during the midst of a global pandemic, Roman Catholic Pope Francis issued the following proclamation.

"People who cannot get to confession because of the coronavirus lockdown or another serious reason can go to God directly (without confessing to a priest), be specific about their sins, request pardon and experience God’s loving forgiveness,"

It is amazing how a global epidemic has a way of exposing doctrinal errors.

Official Roman Catholic dogma teaches that "ordained priests" are the intermediaries between God and man.

From the beginning, Roman Catholicism has taught that God’s forgiveness only occurs through the sacrament of reconciliation (confession to a priest).

Listen to the Roman Catholic explanation of the doctrine of confession (emphasis mine):

This power to forgive sin which Jesus conferred upon his Apostles was not, of course, to die with them; no more so than the power to change bread and wine into his Body and Blood, which he conferred upon his Apostles at the Last Supper.

It is evident then that the power to forgive sins is a part of the power of the priesthood, to be passed on in the sacrament of Holy Orders from generation to generation.

It is the power which every priest exercises when he raises his hand over the contrite sinner and says, “I absolve thee from thy sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” These are called “the words of absolution.

Good for the Pope to set aside official Roman Catholic doctrine and truthfully tell the people that they have the right to go to God directly.

 9 Marks, Mark Dever, and Reformed Baptists

Mark Dever

Mark Dever is the pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington DC.

Mark is the founder of 9 Marks,  close friends of Tom Ascol (Founders Ministries), Al Mohler (Southern Seminary), CJ Mahaney, and a host of other Reformed Baptists in the Southern Baptist Convention.

I like Mark. He's personable and smart.

But the movements he's either founded (9 Marks) or supported (Founders) are more Roman Catholic in some ways than Catholics themselves.

Let me illustrate.

During this Covid-19 crisis, Mark Dever sent a letter to his church stating that "temporally cease all our public gatherings." So far, so good. That's smart.

But then Mark goes on to say that there will be no on-line worship services, nor will there be any on-line ministry by Capitol Hill Baptist Church during the Covid-19 crisis because...

"A video of a sermon is not a substitute for a covenanted congregation assembling together and all the various means of God's grace in that. I think it would be healthier to respect God's strange providence in a period of abstinence from meeting together." (Mark Dever, March 13, 2020)

Allow me to translate.

"God's grace is only imparted as you gather in a covenant congregation to receive instruction from those men set aside ("ordained") for your oversight. It's better to abstain from going online for your spiritual encouragment than to risk minimizing the spiritual authority that God has placed over you (i.e. "pastors/priests").

Yikes!

Mark Dever's friend, Tom Ascol, put this view of sacramental grace even more succinctly.

I never dreamed I'd see the day when some Baptists are more Roman Catholic than they are Baptist.

Baptists have historically believed and taught that every individual Christian is a priest unto God. We need no intermediary between God and us or His grace and our lives.

During the Covid-19 crisis, Pope Francis set aside the false doctrine that a soul needs an intermediary to go to God.

But a few Baptists have doubled down on their unbiblical doctrine of pastoral authority and the need for pastoral piety over languishing laity before God's grace can invade our space.

Silly us.

Southern Baptist pastors often confuse our state-certified 501-C3 non-profits (plural) with Christ's church (singular)

Christ's Church has no buildings, no budgets, and no boundaries, local or global.

Baptists need to get back to being baptistic. Every believer is a priest.

The video below has an enlightening discussion on the subject of the government and "the church." Are some Baptists more Roman Catholic than Baptist in their views of the church? Maybe. There's nothing like a global pandemic to expose docrinal errors.

A Happy 80th Birthday Wish to Harold H. Holden

H. Holden

We held hands and prayed.

Oklahoma's greatest Western sculptor was dying.

It was 2010. With one hand, I took hold of the artist's hand. With my other hand, I took hold of his wife's hand. Before I prayed, I looked at them intently.

Frederic Remington once revealed the secret of his art by saying, "the more I looked, the more the panorama unfolded."

The artist from Oklahoma who most resembles Remington is a man named Harold Holden. His family and friends call him "H."

I remember that day when we held hands and prayed because, as I looked at H. and his wife Edna Mae,  the panorama of God's beauty unfolded before me.

We were in H's studio in Kremlin, just north of Enid.

"H" and Edna Mae had asked me to invoke God's grace on behalf of H.

H. had a fatal lung disease. They were considering closing his studio at his doctor's suggestion and getting his "affairs in order."

But the three of us weren't convinced that God was through with H - yet.

So I prayed.

H. and Edna Mae have faith a deep in God. It's not the syrupy, slap-stick faith that you often see in religious institutions.

It's the deep, abiding faith that is "shut-up" in a person's private closet or personal dwelling.

It's real.

Just a few weeks after we prayed, on July 2, 2010, H. received a lifesaving single lung transplant at the Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Center in Oklahoma City.

It's been 10 years since that day of panoramic beauty. H. will turn 80-years-old this Saturday, March 28, 2020.

Edna Mae was planning a huge party for Oklahoma's most celebrated Western artist and sculptor. But the Covid-19 global pandemic has altered her plans.

So she's asking people to write H. a note, letting him know how much he's been an encouragement to Oklahomans.

You may not know H. personally, but you know him through his art...

THANK YOU, LORD

Wade and H - with "Thank You Lord" mold behind (studio)

Every time you enter the west auditorium doors at Emmanuel Enid, and every time you visit the gardens outside the Emergency Room of the Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Center at Integris Hospital in Oklahoma City, you will see the six-foot bronze statue made by H. Holden called “Thank You, Lord.” The "Thank you Lord" statue is a self-portrait that H. created.

H. made this statue after his lung transplant as a visual demonstration of his gratefulness to God for His goodness. Every time I see "Thank you Lord," I am reminded that the English name for "God" is nothing but a derivative and contraction of the English word "Good." 

God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.

Thank You, Lord, at Emmanuel Enid (West Entrance)

Will Rogers International Airport

Every time you park your car and walk into the terminal of Will Rogers International Airport, you will see H. Holden's life-size statue of Will Rogers. 

H. Holden's Will Rogers Statue at Will Rogers International Airport, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Enid Event Center and BOOMER

Every time you park your car and walk into the Enid Event Center, you'll see H's lifesize statue of BOOMER, representing those cowboys who rode their horses to "stake a claim" of 160 acres of land in Oklahoma during the 1889 and 1893 Land Runs.

H. Holden's BOOMER in front of the Enid Event Center

BOOMER also grace the United States Postal Office 1993 stamp (very collectible). 

The U.S. Postal Service 1993 Stamp "Boomer" in Commemoration of the 1893 Land Run

The United States Federal Marshall Museum

Entering Fort Smith, Arkansas, driving over the bridge spanning the Arkansas River, you will see H. Holden's life-size statue of Bass Reeves. The United States Marshals Service National Museum is in Fort Smith, and the story of Bass Reeves is motion-picture worthy. It is H. Holden that made the art that commemorates the greatest U.S. Federal Marshal in history.

Bass Reeves Monument, Fort Smith, Arkansas, the National Museum of Federal Marshal's (H. Holden Statue)

This is a bronze that H. finished after his lung transplant. It was my privilege to be there at the dedication and to meet the grandson of Bass Reeves, now a U.S. Federal judge. 

Federal Judge Paul Brady, Wade Burleson, H. Holden at the dedication of the Reeves' Statue (Fort Smith, Arkansas (2012)

Remember the TEN

Every time you walk into Gallahger Iba Arena in Stillwater, Oklahoma, you'll see H's work in the lobby with the moving statue Remember the Ten.

T. Boone Pickens commissioned H for a bronze to commemorate the 10 people from Oklahoma State University's basketball team who died in a plane crash on January 27, 2001. 

Remember the Ten, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma

The Cherokee Strip Crucible, Representing the Pioneer Families

Every time you drive by the Smithsonian certified Cherokee Strip Heritage Museum on Highway 412 in Enid, Oklahoma, you will see another bronze that has been sculpted by H. Holden. It represents all the pioneer families that settled the Cherokee Outlet in the Land Run of 1893. 

The Cherokee Strip Crucible, Representing the Pioneer Families of the 1893 Land Run

The Vision Seeker, Enid High School

H. Holden's second Native American monument is called The Vision Seeker. The statue depicts a Native American Plains Indian in full headdress, sitting cross-legged while looking into the distance as he ponders a vision. The original Vision Seeker is located in Altus, Oklahoma and was commissioned by National Bank of Commerce. The original was unveiled in May of 1996. The second casting sits outside of Enid High School and was placed at the north entrance in 1998.

The Vision Seeker at Enid High School

H. Holden has many more works of art, both public and private. His commissions include:

National Bank of Commerce
United States Postal Service
Oklahoma Arts Council
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum
Oklahoma State University
American Quarter Horse Association
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Ranching Heritage Center
Ward Petroleum Company
Johnston Grain Company
Archer-Daniels Midland Company
City of Owasso
Air Force Association
Keystone Resort – Keystone Colorado
Hughes Drilling Company
Oklahoma Centennial Commission
City of OKC – Will Rogers World Airport
Oklahoma History Center
University of Central Oklahoma
Northwestern Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma Baptist University
Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association

H.'s great grandfather, Geoge E. Failing, invented the "bottle cap" that still sits on top of every glass beverage bottle. Every time I pop the top off a beverage or drive by a work of art made with the hands of H. Holden, I thank the Lord for His grace to H. and Edna Mae.

The H. Holden Art Studio is located in downtown Enid, Oklahoma, at 128 N. Independence. It's worth a trip to purchase some art from a man that is likely to be more known after the Lord calls him home than he is today. 

Tim Holden, H's son, is an exemplary artist himself, and Emmanuel Enid has supported Tim over the years as he shares the gospel of Jesus Christ through art to tribes that have no written language. 

H. - you've done well these 80 years. 

Happy Birthday to you!

And though we will not be able to celebrate with a large group of people because of this Covid-19 crisis, I'm inviting all those who've appreciated your art to wish you a Happy Birthday too!

80 is a blessed number.

It represents "superabundance" - and we pray this 80th year for you will be abounding in God's continued mercies and grace for you and your family.

Happy Birthday, friend!