C.S. Lewis may not have coined the term trilemma, but his thought process brought about what we know as the term trilemma. Lewis, after examining the validity of Christianity astutely remarked that one must decide for themselves if Jesus, “was a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord.” Lewis presented three choices for an individual to contemplate and ultimately choose from. Accordingly, Lewis believed in the third choice, as his personal belief was that Jesus is Lord. Every person who has heard the gospel of Jesus in the past, present, and future has faced this trilemma and has also had to choose accordingly. Not all have chosen to accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God, their Savior, and their Lord. There is only one choice here and that choice when logically investigated and thought is that Jesus was and is in fact, who he said he is.

Next week Southern Baptists will be faced with a trilemma. Not in the same way as an individual whose eternity hangs in the balance, but a trilemma nonetheless. The trilemma is that there are now three men who will be nominated to the SBC Presidency. According to Baptist Press Jerry Sutton, pastor of Two Rivers in Nashville is throwing his hat into the SBC President’s race. I do not know Jerry Sutton and I am sure that he is a godly man. I did grow up in Knoxville, TN. and was there until 1998 and I am familiar with Jerry through the TBC and his service to the SBC. I found it interesting that BP reported that Two Rivers did not give to the Cooperative Program at all in 2005, but gave designated gifts to CP causes through the TBC. I am curious to see if this will cause an uproar and if the SBC Bloggers pick this up and run with it.

The good delegates of the SBC will have to decide between Ronnie Floyd, Jerry Sutton, and Frank Page. A definite trilemma! Letters of recommendation have been written for each from among some of the best known leaders of the SBC. I believe all three men are excellent choices and we will not go wrong with any one of the three. This election will boil down to a matter of how high the Cooperative Program is held in our denomination. As I wrote elsewhere today, I believe that the CP is not the Holy Grail as some would have us to believe. It is one tool of many that we as Southern Baptists have to do kingdom work. I am afraid that we have created a subculture within our denomination that everything we do has to go through the CP, NAMB, IMB, LM, AA, etc… If we don’t support and vigoursly use all of these tools does that make us less Southern Baptist? I don’t think so.

I wonder who Adrian Rogers would have recommended?