One of the most significant events of 2007 for Southern Baptists was, I think, the Baptist Identity Conference at Union University this past February. I was honored to give the Founders Day Address during this conference, largely because I think Union is the preeminent Baptist university in America under the leadership of President David Dockery. I must admit I was a little disappointed when I was given my topic, “Learning from the Life of T.T. Eaton.” Who even remembers Eaton, much less cares about his life and thought in the hyper-linked and hyper-active twenty-first century?
That disappointment was before I started spending time with Eaton. I don’t like everything about him, and I certainly don’t agree with everything about him. But the struggles of his day are eerily similar to the struggles of our own, and he did what he could to stand firm in the faith. He also had a sanctified pugnaciousness it is hard not to admire.
I have edited and posted a revised version of the paper on Eaton and the future of the Baptist past, which can be downloaded here in either PDF or Microsoft Word format.
A few things have changed since I delivered this paper. One is that my attitude toward blogging has softened a little. This isn’t because I’ve changed my mind about some of the “cyber-terrorist” or “celebrity gossip” type sites in the secular and religious worlds. It is instead because of the renaissance of some godly, pious, balanced, conservative “bloggers” out there. These are usually men and women who would never call themselves “bloggers,” because their ministries are defined by other things. Truth is, most of the blogs I read these days are edifying and thought-provoking. This is not just due to avoiding some of the more vitriolic sites, but also because there are many, many more good blogs available to read. I’ll post a list of some of my favorites here sometime.
T.T. Eaton is, bodily at least, just down the street from where I am typing this right now, in Cave Hill Cemetery. After spending some of my winter with him this year, I look forward to talking with him in the Kingdom of Christ, when Cave Hill Cemetery, and denominational life for that matter, are distant memories for us both.
