me
Barry Kenneth Creamer.
I am a follower of Christ.
I earned my BA in English at Baylor, my M.Div. at Criswell, and my Ph.D. in Humanities (Philosophy, History) at UTA.
I teach at Criswell College. I have also taught a few classes at other colleges, most often Bioethics at Texas Woman’s University and Introduction to Philosophy at The University of Texas at Arlington.
I have been blessed to serve as interim pastor at: Bethany Baptist, Dallas; Glen Meadows Baptist, San Angelo; Cornerstone Baptist, Corsicana; First Baptist, Madisonville; and First Baptist, Dean. Listen to audio of some messages from my interim ministry and other speaking engagements on the sermons page.
I also pastored Woodland West Baptist Church in Arlington, now Grace Baptist, for many years–seventeen to be precise.
I am currently the host of Live from Criswell with Barry Creamer, a Christian worldview radio program on the Criswell Radio Network weekdays at 5pm. More information about the program is available at the “Live from Criswell” site or on my radio page.
For a bit more detail, here’s my faculty page at criswell.edu.
Hey, I’m thrilled to see you are blogging again. I’m very excited to be able to read your thoughts.
Thank you kindly, brother. I always learn when I check in on yours! You’re the greatest.
Dr. Creamer:
I sent you an email a few days ago concerning the book list for your Ethics class as well as the Philosophy of Language class this fall. I would like to go ahead and get reading.
Thanks,
Josh
We were doing a background check on you while at camp.JK. We stumbled across this website! We just wanted to tell you how fortunate and blessed we were to have you pour your heart and passion for the gospel on us this week! Thank you for all your hard work and effort this week!
Love in Christ,
Brian and Colt
Hey Dr. Creamer!,
This is Rachel, from SLT camp. Just doing some information on Criswell College. My dad and I are both really loving it. Thank you so much for all your sermons at camp. The last one has helped alot. By your pictures, you have a beautiful family! Have a good week in the Lord!
Love in Christ,
Rachel
Barry, this is Matt Roberson from the SPRNGBoard Ministries…I lead worship at the Servant’s Edge conference, and met you there. Just trying to get in touch. Be blessed…
I listened to your program this afternoon concerning the Green movement. I am slightly concerned that my Christian radio was so negative to the notion that we need to conserve our resources. I believe that the Lord has blessed us with our home and we are to perserve and maintain his precious gifts to the best of our ability. You have a platform to do good and promote the basic knowledge of conserving for future generations and not abusing nature and our supply of energy. I know that some issues go over the top, but the basic concept of being green is good and I believe this is not against God……Christians can find good in this movement. I encourage you to recycle, conserve energy, produce less trash, and not to be a glutton to the enviroment……is that not the Christian way??? Please do not turn into a Rush Limbaugh…..turned him off years ago… too negative and promotes hate. I think that you took the Mother Earth thing too far, it just promotes your negative, when we all know that (Earth Day) it is just about conserving our resources!
I am a new listner and supporter, I hope that you continue your other positive spiritual uplifting programming. I need your program to promote God and his love.
Thanks
I sent you and email, but am not sure it made it out of my computer. Here is the body of text in case it got lost.
I would like to address your beliefs about the basic moral beliefs by Baptist about a higher calling for pastors and other leaders of the faith.
Apparently, God made many mistakes when He chose leaders for his church and nation. Starting with Moses who was a killer and also took matters into his own hands, to Abraham who gave his wife and half sister to a harem to David (who we all know about his moral lapses) and so forth down through history. God is in the reclaiming business, with which I’m sure you agree, and as I’m sure you understand, has only one unforgivable sin. He delights in restoring those who fall. But I believe what the admonitions that are mentioned in the selection of elders has to do with their current conditions. I think it is more likely the propensity of man to try to elevate himself in regard to others with an attitude of “I’m better than he because I didn’t give into that sin.” Many of God’s choices are least likely to be the perfect candidate in order to display God’s handiwork rather than man’s ability. No doubt man is called to trust God and refrain from sin, but not because in his ability to restrain himself, but in his ability to put his life in God’s hands. God called the Pharisees the most humanly sinless people on earth, yet they were rejected. Do we think we are better than they?
dickdowd@windstream.net
PS: If you want to look and a person’s life, try looking at 1) Is he married? 2) Are his children grown and under the Lordship of Christ? 3) Are his finances in order? 4) Is his wife an example of purity and self control? …etc.
Dear Dr. Creamer,
I appretiate your show and am thankful for this forum to be able to present a Biblical worldview to issues that confront us today. I hope that you continue this good work, knowing that your labor is not in vain. Today you talked about reparations, and I wish I was able to call in because I would like to have expressed my opinion on the subject, but since I could not do it on air, I’ll use this venue. I was not surprised at your your response or the responses of several listeners, but I was a bit apalled at times by the lack of understanding of the plight of Blacks in the U.S. and lack of Biblical principles of love and compassion that were absent in the whole discussion. I think that the profound effect of slavery was not really dealt with or grasped. It was not merely the systematic theft, rape and murder of millions of people during the time of slavery, it was also what followed. There was sharecropping, which was like slavery in that released slaves with no money nor education couldn’t find employment except at the hands of their former slave owners in the south, working the land and using the tools for a price that made ever owning one’ s own land and tools nearly impossible. Not to mention, that the whole 40 acres and a mule thing never really happened for nearly all former slaves, hence sharecropping. Furthermore, there was the missing of wealth gaining opportunities in America like the 1865 Homestead act where people got free land if they farmed it, which few blacks received, as well as loans for buying a house during the time of and after the invention of the Federal Housing Administration which enabled people to get loans for buying houses, which is where most American’s wealth lies. Not only that, Blacks were discriminated against in education by being denied equal access to education until and even after Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954. Then there was voting rights act of 1965 that officially said Blacks could no longer be discriminated at the voting booth, which they commonly were, and that was merely extended another 25 years back in 2006! Not even to begin to talk about Jim Crow Laws and the KKK>
What’s more, the most concerning thing to me as a Christian about the whole ordeal, was the lack of compassion expressed by so many “Christian” listeners. As everyone was so convinced of their ‘rightness’ in denying Blacks reparations, I didn’t here anyone talk about Godly principles of justice, fairness, and restitution. I wonder how many listeners have ever read one book on the plight of African Americans or even two. How many have read even one work by a Black author? How many Christian listeners in LOVE have ever tried to understand their brothers in Christ who happened to be Black, and challenge their own assumptions? Yes slavery is over, but the scars from it remain heavy in the Black community that was divided, considered less than human and certainly less than Whites, had the entire family structure destroyed, and was made to feel not only to be second-class citizens, but altogether ignorant, dumb, and worthless. The mental anguish and emotional damage is uncalculable, not to mention the economic benefit that the U.S. received. How could the U.S. have sprouted up so quickly and so economically successfully as a nation? We produced the most cotton in the entire world at one time because of slavery. All that being said, I challenge White listeners and Black alike to read more on Black history to better understand the modern plight.
What my hope is for this great nation which I love so dearly, is that we can walk together in unity as brothers and sister in Christ. For Whites especially I challenge you to read about the history of Blacks from Black authors and try to understand what it would be like if you as a White person were torn away from your family, made to believe you were less than human, had your family structure completely ravished, were disconnected from your past, and denied for hundreds of years at the hands of another race all the rights that the Constitution granted. Can you imagine what it would feel like to know that your people were slaves, and to have people constantly looking at you and discriminating against you because of something that you couldn’t change? What my challenge for Christian Black listeners, or readers I suppose, is to forgive Whites for all the wrong that some of their ancestors committed, and it was certainly not all seeing as many fought for the abolition of slavery and equal rights for Black citizens, and look to try to understand them better. Ask yourself what it must be like to be born White and not knowing what it feels like to be part of a minority group, to perhaps feel sad about what happened with slavery but to know that it wasn’t you and you couldn’t have done anything about it, although you may benefit from it.
Sadly, what we have here as Christians is a failure to try to make more of an effort to love one another. Where was all the talk of love and compassion? It was completely absent from our discussion. Isn’t the greatest commandment to love God and others? “Love is patient, love is kind…” says the word of God in 1 Corinthians 13. How can we be loving in talking about reparations, or any subject for that matter? Personally, I don’t think the question of reparations is one of “IF” but “HOW”. It’s not about economics alone, but how to right the emotional damage of the past as well. I agree that there is no perfect way to right the wrongs of the past, and I’m not all together convinced that merely throwing money at the problem will help. What’s needed is a new education of the history of Blacks, one much more intertwined with the history of our country in its proper context. If we can make computers that process at the speed of light, put a man on the moon and send satellites outside of our galaxy, certainly we can find a creative way to try and right the wrongs of the past toward an entire people group. More importantly, in God’s strength and with His wisdom, we can come together as brothers and sisters in Christ to worship the only living God and show the world that skin color doesn’t interfere with unity in the Christian Church, for “the whole world will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” John 13:35. At the end of the day – Where’s the love?
Grace and peace
Chris
P.S. If you could at all read this on air I’d be extreemely grateful and you can email me with any questions (Dr. Creamer or people who read this at luuvchrist1@gmail.com)
Chris,
I have never posted on this site before, but reading your post has brought a desire to hopefully show a non minority point of view. I hope that you feel that this is not in rebuttal of your post, but more of another way of seeing God’s blessings on what seems to be amazing opportunity for you and the Black community.
You have some exceptionally well thought out and passionate views and you sound an educated and Godly man. Your ancestors were treated with disrespect and given an inhumane plight (to say the least). There is no possible way that another could feel the true affects of this either as an ancestor of a Black, or an ancestor of a White. Do you feel that God’s hand was not in control during the enslavement of Blacks in America? Do you see that Blacks in Africa have had a far more oppressing history than your American ancestors could imagine.
You are also correct that I, and I can imagine the majority of Whites, have not read much from a Black historian regarding this subject. I would ask, as well, if you have ready anything from a White Historian who too felt the Black’s treatment was an atrocity. I believe that there would be some very interesting differences that even though they were writing with similar points of view. If you ask a Jew to write their history of the holocaust and a German to write the same, expect some very large differences.
No people in history have been through more atrocities than the Jewish people, and they continue to thrive. Is it because they are God’s chosen people, or because they continue to never give up? If you look at your other ancestors who are still in Africa, you see that they are in centuries of civil wars with leader after leader trying to kill their own people through genocide, and they have some of the poorest and enslaved conditions imaginable on this earth. Are you and other Black descendants victims, or are you blessed that your ancestors were delivered out of this and given an opportunity (albeit a generation later) to thrive. Would we have Barack Obama or Colin Powell if these atrocities did not occur in an earlier time? At what point does a race stand up and take responsibility for an obvious injustice and say to themselves, “we will not let this define us”. We have more government programs to help Blacks, and still Blacks continue to have the highest dropout rates, teen pregnancies, rates of imprisonment, Black vs. White crime and Black vs. Black crime. Racism from a White person to a Black person is very much alive. However, this cannot be said to be the majority of thought, by any means.
I truly believe that as a society, so many things are being done to help, when so many are not willing to help themselves. I hope that you are right, and we can turn this all around and find a way in Love as Brothers and Sisters, but if you look at so many influential to the Black Community like Bill Cosby or Collin Powel, they are not looked up to or respected because they are not on the radio spurting obscenities.
Not being a minority (from the accepted definition), it is hard for me to imagine being oppressed and pushed down to where I could not succeed. It is hard to imagine, (even in the well thought out way that you did) continually looking for something more, when you yourself see what is being done to your own, by your own. Being a minority to reverse racism, it is interesting to watch so many things being given to, what seems to be, a society that doesn’t want what is given. Job opportunities, grants, scholarships, government assistance. All being given with preferential treatment based upon race. If you look at current events where the firefighters tested for advancement, and the only people that passed the test were Whites and Hispanics. They were not given the opportunity, specifically because they were not Black. Would you, yourself, go to fight in court for the justice of those men that passed and did not get the earned position?
What is your suggestion on how to reverse this trend? How do you help those that choose to not want to help themselves? At what point do you see this long line of atrocities, and don’t even see the hand of God in all of it? How can one look at what could have been a life in Africa with all that is, has, and still continues to be far more of a scary and unimaginable oppression. Do you conclude that you, your family, your ancestors, and your loved ones would have been better off in that sort of an atmosphere? Do you think that you would have been the educated and God fearing man that it sounds like you are today?
Where does it turn from blessing to consistent requests of more to be given for an injustice that you are 100+ years away from?
At the end of the day – God’s love seems to be right with you, and if you are wanting more than that, then you are missing what is truly being meant for you from Him.
Justin
jts2890@gmail.com
Hey Barry,
Thought this would bless the socks of everyone who checks iit out. I call it “Anointed Reality TV” : http://www.hulu.com/watch/89358/extreme-makeover-home-edition-mccully-family
In regaurd to your show on Christian entertainment/reality TV. Watch this and try not to be moved to gratitude to God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ for the many blessings that he has bestowed on you, I guarantee you will not be able to resist! May the Lord continue to bless you and your show. Keep up the good work!
Anthony (Arlington/Dallas)
Mr Creamer,
I am a regular listener of you program and I think you have pretty good discussion on a variety of topics. But I have not heard you talk much about the works of Holy Spirit, how many churches today are so far from the guidance of the spirit. I have not heard you talk much about speaking with the gift of toungues. There is a lot of talk about knowledge(which usually is noise to a layman), but it “lacks the power thereof”. I challenge you to talk about the role of Holy Spirit in churches today and see where we stand in allowing the spirit of God to contol our churches and lives.
George
Dallas
Mr Creamer, your theology is 100% what YOU believe not what scripture says.
LW,
I must be very disappointed with myself then, because I’m sure I intended it to be scriptural.
hope you know your are appreciated.i would like more bible less expination and narrative and more bible . if you have time you might explain hebrews 6:4-6 .in Gods lo9ve o.l. rodgers. Phil.3:9-10
Hi Dr. Creamer,
Approximately how much “air time” do you think Jesus would allow Mr. Smalley to have in order to spread his message against his Father?
It wasn’t your interview with Mr. Smalley that completely saddended me. It was your comments that Mr. Smalley was actually a “very nice guy” and you enjoyed your time with him.
The face of God is against Mr. Smalley and the spirit of the anti-christ is in him.
As a teacher of the Truth, you are held to a higher standard by God…as you know.
Satan is the master of deception. Under the cover of “tolerance”, Satan made his way into the studios of Criswell College and got a huge platform at the hands of KCBI.
Mr. Smalley is a fool. He can bow down now, or he can bow down later…but he will bow down.
One more thing, I cannot believe that so-called “believing” churches in our area are inviting this anti-christ to sit down amongst them and have a conversation concering his anti-christ message. Makes you think…who exactly is the fool here…
Rebuke Mr. Smalley in the name of Jesus and allow God to turn him towards repentance and complete trust in the atoning sacrifice of His son…or not. God is sovereign. Step out of the way before Satan pulls everybody in with “nice” Mr. Smalley.
David
I appreciate your comments and concern. I understand where you’re coming from, but of course disagree. It’s not like any of his ideas are new. neither is it like God hides any of Satan’s activities or arguments in scripture. I hope to share your comments on air, and give people an opportunity to respond, both yea and nay. Thanks again,
bkc
Unfortunately, I did not get to hear the show with Mr. Smalley, however, I have to believe that his prescense on the show brought about some great conversation. I think that others who are upset with you for giving him the opportunity to air his views are overlooking a larger picture. We, as Christians can’t “apologize” our faith without knowing how they are professing their false views. You can debate a point of view with no success if you don’t know both sides of the issue.
I went to see Jobe Martin speak when he was in town, and at the end of his presentation, a gentleman stood up in an effort to shake the entire believing population of Christianity. His age old question was, “If God is all powerful and all loving, why does he allow evil and sin”. He of course had a smugness about him that he had unraveled the fabric of belief.
What many do not understand (and if any disagree, this is entirely my understanding, minimal as it), we could never fully understand many aspects of God without evil. You can’t understand the beauty of health without having been sick. I say this, because hearing Mr. Smalley and (what I assume to be) very twisted and evil thoughts and beliefs, help us to never doubt the grace we have been given or the truth that we have been blessed enough to receive…
Justin
Dr. Creamer,
When I was in college (70′s) I was leaning toward Theistic Evolution. I wanted to somehow understand what all of the leading scientist believed and how I was taught in church. Later in life, I discovered men like Henry Morse and others that pointed out the flaws in evolutionary thinking and how much easier it was to believe in God’s Word than man’s attempt to explain how we evolved. It is a matter of faith in any case because God defies what science today can prove. As we discover the intricate details of life, to the cosmos, the more awesome we find our God and what He created. Do I have faith to believe that God created all things that exist, from the atom, DNA structure, cell structure, to reproduction of the species, within such a short span of time? If my God could not possibly have created everything in six literal days as stated in the book of Genesis, can He really cleanse the world’s sins with the blood of Jesus as stated in the book of John, or can He really exist as the Holy Spirit in all believers, and does he really know everything? Today I have come to this conclusion; it is not important how many days you think God took to create everything, as much as, do you believe He has the ability to create everything in six literal days.
These thoughts raced through my mind as I heard the discussion on your show the other day. I could not express my thoughts adequately on the phone nor would you have had the time for me to do so. God bless you, I enjoy listening to the show on my way home each day.
Dr.Creamer,
My name is Alyssa. I have called into your show a few times, but now I have a tricky question about something in Revelation. In revelation chapter eight it has all the different trumpets like when the vegetation struck and all that. Do you think we will actually hear the trumpets or what? Also does Mr.David Smalley have a website? I would want to E-mail him.
Thanks,
Alyssa M.
Poor Hawking:
God did not create the universe
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100902/lf_nm_life/us_britain_hawking