2012 Preview

January 2nd
Oklahoma Baptist University
Guest Lecturer for J-Term Session
Shawnee, Oklahoma


January 9th
Oklahoma Baptist University
Guest Lecturer for J-Term Session
Shawnee, Oklahoma

January 10th-11th
"Defend The Faith 2012"
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
New Orleans, Louisiana


January 16th
Oklahoma Baptist University
Guest Lecturer for J-Term Session
Shawnee, Oklahoma

January 20th
Homeschool Honors Society Meeting
Houston, Texas


January 21st
i31 Young Women's Ministry
Southern Hills Baptist Church
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma


January 30th - February 1st
Baptist Convention of New Mexico
State Evangelism Conference


February 3rd-4th
SBTC Women's Forum
Bellevue Baptist Church
Hurst, Texas


February 10th-12th
TBD
Texas


February 17th-19th
Youth "Collide" Weekend
Nassau Bay Baptist Church
Houston, Texas
Nate Jordan, Associate Pastor of Students


March 9th-10th
Apologetics Canada Conference
Surrey, B.C.


March 24th-27th
Michigan Baptists State Evangelism Conference


March 31st
FBC Bosque Farms
Bosque Farms, New Mexico


April - B&H Publishing Group: BOOK RELEASE!
"Come Let Us Reason" edited by Paul Copan & William Lane Craig


April 13th-14th
Greer-Heard Forum
Shermer-Habermas
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
New Orleans, Louisiana


May 8th
CONFIDENT CHRISTIANITY ANNUAL FUND RAISER


June 8th-9th
Smart Faith Student Conference
Arizona


Kregel Publications: BOOK RELEASE!
Title Forthcoming
Author: Mary Jo Sharp


September 13th-15th
SBTC Women's Leadership Team Meeting


September 28th-29th
W Conference - Keynote Speaker
Southern Seminary Baptist Theological Seminary
Louisville, Kentucky


October 1st-2nd
Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma
Missional Ministry Conference
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma


November 8th-10th
Lifeway Event
National Women's Ministry Leadership Forum
Keynote Speaker
Nashville, Tennessee


November 14th-18th
ETS/EPS Annual Meeting
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

New Apologist Feature: Yaser Makram

Today I am highlighting Christian apologetics blogger, Yaser Makram. I met Yaser during my second summer residence in Biola University's apologetics program. He has a blog titled "Reasoned Defense" that you can check out here. To wet your appetite a little, here's his latest post; the first in a series exploring God's aseity. (If you are new to the term "aseity," Yaser explains it at the start of the article).

God’s Aseity in John’s Prologue

By Yaser Makram

Aseity, from the Latin a se, means by itself. When spoken of God, it means, “The self-existence of God denotes that the ground of his being is in himself.”[1] Simply stated, God’s existence is found in himself. To examine the case for God’s aseity, it is necessary to offer some preliminary insight into the language of existence. This will be followed by arguing the case for God’s self-existence from John 1:1-3 utilizing the tools of grammatical insight.

Existence, God’s Aseity, and Man’s Contingency

What does it mean to say that something exists, let alone, God? Is it meaningless to say that God exists? What of ourselves; certainly, we do not doubt our own existence, do we? Consider the following statement: Geckos exist. (My son has a leopard gecko). At the minimum, it would mean that there is some property of being a gecko and this property of being belongs to something.[2] This belonging relation is known in metaphysics under the terms of exemplification, predication, or instancing, which simply means that some thing is exemplified, predicated, or instanced in something else. In the case of our gecko, “The claim that [geckos] exist is the claim that the essence of being a [gecko] (the what of being a [gecko]) is actually exemplified by or belongs to something (the that or fact of an individual [gecko] existing).”[3] Thus, our statement that “Geckos exist” means to refer to the essence or nature of being a gecko and this expresses reality or existence.