2008-11-20

Phillips responds to those who provide reasons for not attending church. He goes for the heart of the matter - that we are slaves, and Christ is our Lord, and if we make ourselves lord, then He is not. God said obey. The excuses all say, "God said it, but ..." This should be "There are these difficulties, but God said obey." If we aren't a slave of Christ, then we are a slave of sin. http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2008/11/thinking-like-slave.html

Phillips adds over here: "See, what never fails to dishearten me — and what I try to battle just as mercilessly in myself, is this: we can show such creativity in excusing ourselves from simple obedience; but we can't muster half the creativity to find ways to obey." http://bibchr.blogspot.com/2008/11/random-thoughts-112008-romney-post.html

Probability isn't going to be an excuse on judgment day. "Lord, there was a probability that your word was true and that you existed, but it was only 80%, etc." First, Romans 1 isn't talking about probability and apologetics. Second, if you drove away and killed someone after your mechanic told you that there was a 90% probability that your brakes would fail, it is self-evident that you are culpable. http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2008/11/probability-inexcusability.html

Patton argues that Calvinism is the more biblical but less rational option than arminianism because it doesn't seek to resolve the tension between the Bible's teaching on predestination and man's free choice. He argues that Arminianism compromises the former to resolve the tension, but Calvinism doesn't feel the need to do so. [I would point out a few problems with this: 1) It is not intuitive that LFW is "free" or "praise/blameworthy. 2) The tacit assumption that LFW is rational is the source of the supposed tension in the post. 3) I don't think that there is an antinomy at all because my experience accords with a predestinarian scheme, not an LFW scheme. etc. 4) the 'tension' is merely a product of cultural conditioning, not reason or common sense observation of experience.] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ParchmentAndPen/~3/459217580/

Well, al-Qaeda already hates Obama. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/19/mideast/qaeda.php

Challies briefly shows the weakness of Scientific America's Shermer as he tries to say that evolution is good theology, among other things. "Michael Ruse, a well-known evolutionist, speaks truthfully when he says “evolution came into being as a kind of secular ideology, an explicit substitute for Christianity…Evolution is a religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and is true of evolution still today.” Evolution is not mere science, but is religion dressed as science. Evolution, and the naturalism that lies behind it, is a full-blown worldview, and in reality, is a religious system that stands in direct opposition to Christianity. " http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/challies/XhEt/~3/459612244/darwin-on-the-right.php

Hays writes that while universalism claims superior empathy, since it boasts that all relations are present in heaven, it could really foster a spirit of indifference and procrastination in relationships - since everyone is 'in,' what's the rush? It could actually foster a callous outlook on life. http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2008/11/lost-loved-ones.html

Mohler: While eastern religion is becoming mainstream, and their form of meditation is increasing in popularity even among Christians, the idea of emptying your mind is thoroughly unbiblical. Doing so denies that the word of God is to be our meditation all the time, and we are supposed to rid our minds of sinful things. Chanting, etc. is of a different religion and has no place in Christianity. That, and it is profoundly selfish to do this to avoid 'stress,' since we are to live with our minds to the glory of God, not first for our own comforts. [that and I would argue that setting your eyes on the glory of God is the key to escaping stress.] http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=2782

JT recommends a potentially promising book that urges Christians to not stop believing and that it isn't enough to just live like Jesus. Right belief and right living are both essential to being Christian. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BetweenTwoWorlds/~3/459748094/dont-stop-believing-why-living-like.html

JT points to numerous observations of Obama's heterodoxy - he is not a Christian, in any meaningful sense of the term. Here's one comment: "Given the muddled way in which most Americans approach religion, and the pervasiveness of heterodoxy, I suppose I'm basically with Alan Jacobs: I think that figuring out exactly what sort of things Obama believes about God and Christ and everything else, and how those beliefs may affect his Presidency, is ultimately a more profitable pursuit than arguing about whether he should be allowed to call himself a Christian. Or put another way: I expect my Presidents to be heretics, but I think it matters a great deal what kind of heretics they are." http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BetweenTwoWorlds/~3/457970512/obamas-heterodoxy.html

Why bother proclaiming and defending the truth when God blesses and loves and works through those who even hold substandard doctrine? The first reason is that God has proclaimed it in his word. Second, the worthiness of Christ and His glory. Third, for the sake of needy men who need the truth. "Because the orders which the Holy Spirit gave to Timothy two thousand years ago have never been rescinded!"  http://reformedbaptistfellowship.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/why-bother/

Phillips: He gives more indications and links regarding the insane rage of proposition 8 opponents. http://bibchr.blogspot.com/2008/11/people-worth-patronizing-prop-8.html

Hays has some interesting comments on how Jesus' response to the Sadducees in Mark 12 may more likely refer to levirate marriage than creation-ordered marriage. http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2008/11/family-life-in-afterlife.html

Here is more evidence put forward by evolutionists that at their own admission means they must 'rethink' early cell evolution. [this actually supports CREATIONISM.] "It wasn't a gradual development of complexity," Matz said. "Instead these things suddenly seemed to burst out of a magic box."http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/11/20/gromia-cambrian-02.html

Various megachurches and "Christian" ministries are racked with financial problems following sex scandals, overspending, and so on. http://kimriddlebarger.squarespace.com/the-latest-post/2008/11/20/should-christian-ministries-get-in-line-for-a-bailout-from-c.html

Bayly: The mayor of Los Angeles, in a disgusting twisting of Scripture, denigrates the Lord's name by suggesting that he would be for gay marriage. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BaylyblogOutOfOurMindsToo/~3/459826185/mayor-villaraigosa-jesus-and-tolerance.html

Bayly pulls up an interview with Obama and some other groups. Obama is far from orthodox, he's a relativist, he's a univeralist, and he's an emergent to the core.  http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BaylyblogOutOfOurMindsToo/~3/459919269/presidentelect-obamas-religion.html

CBMW: Bruce Ware, a member of CBMW, has been elected president of ETS. "Ware said he is encouraged by a movement he sees developing among younger evangelicals that embraces robust orthodox theology that was recovered during the Protestant Reformation. ... Ware said he is troubled by a trend among Christian colleges and some evangelical seminaries toward a wholesale embrace of egalitarianism. " http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/genderblog/~3/458949554/Ware-Elected-President-of-ETS

Turretinfan points to fringe groups in Catholicism as evidence of the fallacy in Romanist accusations that sola scriptura should be rejected because it causes disunity. http://turretinfan.blogspot.com/2008/11/not-because-of-sola-scriptura.html

Here's a reading plan to get through Calvin's institutes in one year. http://reformedbaptistfellowship.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/a-year-through-calvins-institutes-of-the-christian-religion/

Gilbert gives a good list of characteristics of one who should be an elder because he is 'elderly' - he is known, because he's there, he is known as confident, loving, knowledgable, wise, putting the interests of the church first. "All this makes you a center of gravity in the church. Not a loyal opposition center-of-gravity, but a person whom the people of this church are already gravitating to as a pastoral figure." http://blog.9marks.org/2008/11/what-were-loo-1.html

CotW: This article points out a number of huge theological difficulties between the Bible and evolution, and how the Bible must be rejected in evolution is true.Among notable ones: Death is the last enemy abolished by Christ, yet death is part of God's good design to form life! Moreover, survival of the fittest is part of God's good creation order, so there is no problem with the strong among us taking advantage of the weak. Moreover, the new heaven and earth will apparently have all the same death and suffering as now. http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/6071/