This study attempted to describe a 56-year old history of the Baptist Mission in Vietnam from a Vietnamese perspective from 1959 to 2015. It also sought to identify the Baptist missionaries and Vietnam Baptist Churches ...

This study aims to describe the characteristics of the Holy Spirit and to interpret and theologically reflect on the content of Acts 2:1-13, 41-47. Specifically, this study analyzes the significant role of the Holy Spirit ...

"This book hopes to contribute to the writing of the history of the Philippine Baptist pastors from a point of view that emphasizes the Philippine Baptist pastors. This study aims at reconstructing a history of the Philippine Baptist pastors from the year 1898 to 2002. This reconstruction will find out who they are and highlight their significant contributions to the church and society. Specifically, this study will describe and analyze their pastoral identity vis-à-vis: a) Their theology and understanding of the ministry; b) Their Political and ideological perspective; c) Their Socio-economic status; d) Their reasons why they committed themselves to become pastors; e) And their significant strength and weaknesses that led to their present situation. This study attempts to portrait an image of Philippine Baptist Pastors (1898-2002) from a kaupod perspective using published and unpublished documents as well as oral testimonies obtained from interviews and questionnaires." -from the Introduction...

This volume, Managing Faith Resources, offers a variety of published and unpublished works mostly coming from the CBMA membership. Most of these theological resources are not yet disseminated to the CBMA members. Moreover, ...

The Need for the Study The Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches (CPBC) Board of Trustees formed a committee to study the issue of Local Autonomy. Unfortunately, the committee did not work as expected. Consequently, ...

One of the most significant developments in the Quest for the Historical Jesus is the continuing challenge posed by Lessing's ditch between faith and history or Bultmann's impasse on fact and significance. This timeless problem emerged over and over in the history of the church as it sought to respond to new challenges arising from every new age. Wolfhart Pannenberg is one of the modern Protestant theologians who attempts to bridge this gulf and break this deadlock. He seeks a converging point between christology and modern thought. He also pursues to mend the split between faith and history, thus making his christology eclipsed by rationalism. This governs Pannenberg’s christological approach in Jesus, God and Man which ignited extensive theological interests and criticisms after its publication. In dealing with the intricacy of Pannenberg's christological method, this chapter will survey Pannenberg's concept of history in relation to the factuality of confessions and plausibility of formulations of faith in the historical Jesus. Pannenberg's method is one which defines the historical basis of christological formulations in a language relevant and responsive to contemporary historical questions. This chapter will also explore the viability of his method. Lastly it will assess the logic of Pannenberg's apologetic approach of situating his christology in dialogue with contemporary intellectuals....

This dissertation describes and analyzes the effects of Filipino colonial mentality on the religious consciousness of the Filipino people in general, and on the constituency of the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches ...

This volume serves as a guide for the CBMA 61st Annual Assembly. This is a new and big breakthrough in the life of our association. We hope that this will serve as a reference for pastors in their ministry; and as a challenge ...

On January 19, 2000, College of Theology Students and Faculty/Staff members participated in the Central Philippine University Indignation Rally; and in the afternoon, they marched from Central Philippine University to Amphitheater, Iloilo City to force President Estrada to resign. Along the way they shouted: “Sobra na ang Pahirap – Palitan si Erap.” “Singgit sang Central Philippine University – Erap Resign!” “Pastor ng Bayan Lumalaban.” The Convention Baptist Bible College (CBBC) teachers and students also participated in the March-Rally of January 19 at Bacolod City. The Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches (CPBC) officials issued statements encouraging Baptist Churches to pray and rally against President Estrada. These events seem to signal a shift in the level of understanding among the Baptists. In contrast to the Martial Law struggles that led to “People Power II,” the struggle and protest against President Estrada became institutional. In a great sense, there is a shift of understanding among Baptists on the Separation of Church and State and religious liberty among others. Obviously, "People Power II” signalizes that the church will be there to criticize, protest, and force corrupt government officials to perform well otherwise they will be forced to resign or to be ousted by the people including the church. This paper will attempt to find out the Role of the Church in the present Philippine Society specifically on the concept of the church, on the principles relating to the separation of the Church and society on the response of church’s own understanding of its existence, and the writer’s Theological Reflection....

In 1963 Dr. Agustin E. Masa, former General Secretary and President of the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches (CPBC), in his nine-page Outline History of the Baptists in the Philippines, had endeavored "to set in writing the history of the Baptists in the Philippines" as a response to a "popular request". He emphasized that "without such organized written account of the activities of various Baptist groups in the country, there will be no basis for objective investigation of such activities or no way to assess their advances or lapses." In a way, history serves as a basis to understand and transform the present and a guide to plan for the future. Meditating on religion, politics and social transformation, Philippine Baptist scholar Dr. Lester Edwin J. Ruiz pointed out that "memory, narrative, and vision are decisive for transformation inasmuch as they mediate the possibilities of the 'fundamentally new and better. Without dreams - indeed, without the capacity to dream - the future is closed; without memory we are cut adrift in the present without any guiding stars to show the way; and without narrative - or the capacity to tell and re-tell our past and future - there is no possibility for meaning. Taken as a triadix structure, past, present, and future provides the context for human: life." The American Baptist missionaries were not unaware of the need to write history. In 1966 Elizabeth Chambers, librarian of the Baptist-owned Central Philippine University, was one of the participants in an Asian-wide conference on theological education attended by Asian church leaders involved in education, together with some theological school leaders from the United States. In that conference, Missionary Russell Brown affirmed that Chambers acknowledged that there are no historical materials available to help the Philippine people to know about their religious origins. Chambers stressed the importance for Protestant denominations to have a sense of their own beginnings in the Philippines and Brown requested the missionaries „to give serious thought to the possibility of the preparation of a Baptist Church History for the Philippines.” Not before 1976, however, the delegates to the annual assembly of Philippine Baptist churches had resolved to write a Philippine Baptist history. In succeeding years a number of committees were commissioned to do research and to come out with a written history. In June 1981 another committee was created to facilitate a Baptist historiography. That committee wrote a project proposal, "Historical Education and Research (HEAR)", to come out with a book on the history of the Philippine Baptist Churches. With a budget of 219,000 pesos it was expected to launch the book in 1985.4 In 1984, Dr. Domingo J. Diel, Jr., then CPBC General Secretary, announced that the CPBC would "come out with a Baptist primer, compilation of selected sermons, and selected biographies of selected Baptist pastors." The need to write a history cropped up again in 1990. During the 55th CPBC annual assembly, the delegates made two important recommendations: first, that "the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches asks the Central Philippine University College of Theology to include in its curriculum a subject of theology in the Philippine context." Second, that "the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches should encourage Filipino Baptist theologians to write books or Baptist Primer taking into account the Philippine setting and culture." Those endeavors, although they were not realized, could be regarded as efforts of Baptists to recognize the need to write a history. This study is an attempt to partly fill in that need....