2009-01-18

Hays comments on an atheist who appears jaded that a counterargument to atheism is its meaningless outlook - but it's hard not to think this when prominent atheists keep reminding us of it! Ironically, the atheist goes on to rail on about the insignificance of one life and the egotism of making the objection (lending credence to the meaningless charge), a rant that is predicated on shaming the non-atheist - which ironically seems rather egotistical.  Secular sandcastles

Back in the day a church shared a sanctuary with a group of Jews. Hays writes, "We’ve all see Catholic churches with shrines enclosing statues and votive candles. And we’ve all see Hindu and Buddhist temples with shrines enclosing statues and votive candles. Why not use the same facilities, with adjustable signage? One minute it’s a statue of Mary, a minute later it’s a statue…I mean, idol…of Kali. One minute it’s an idol…I mean, statue…of Jude, a minute later it’s an idol of Krishna." It's all sort of interchangeable because Catholics and pagans don’t worship a different divinity using the same statues, but worship the same divinity using different statues. Ergonomic ecumenism

Chris Price points out that while the members of Debunking Christianity claim to have been accomplished Christians who found the path of reason through objective examination. However, "often in their disputes, on ground of their own choosing, they seem incompetent in judging the facts and hopelessly biased in their presentation of the material. How sad to throw your faith away on your own incompetent assessment of the relevant facts." The Background Of The Debunking Christianity Staff

Hays quotes Dawkins scolding people for feeling despair about naturalistic evolution, rather than just sucking it up. He then goes on to call this stiff-upper-lip atheism, whereas, once you make this an objection to atheism, atheists start yelling in the face of the bleak moral outlook, they become agitated, defensive, and start pleading misrepresentation - what he calls weak-knee atheism. Stiff lips atop weak knees

Here's a picture of the 'evangelicals' who voted for Obama. "Paul credits Obama's campaign slogan—"Be the change you seek"—with helping him realize his dream of starting his own congregation. He prayed on the decision for months, going weekly to the driving range to think. He found the theology at Southside too punitive, its social outreach too limited. He and his peers were still pro-life, he explains, but tired of the narrow lens through which his pastors viewed the world" ... "But Obama's speech on race resonated with Glisson's own view that there are many paths to God, and Obama's position on abortion—legal but infrequent—made moral sense." Not evangelicals at all. The Type Of Evangelicals Who Voted For Obama

Interesting quote from Mark Noll's new book, on how American democratic republicanism is comparatively among the best political systems ever seen, holding off the dangers of centralized power. He also comments on the positive effect of Christianity in America, but, how in all of it, "The American political system and the American practice of Christianity which has provided so much good for so many people for so many years, has never been able to overcome race." Noll Wisely Risks the Un-sensible

Piper points out that Obama's request that Gene Robinson, the first openly homosexual non-celibate bishop in the Episcopal church, deliver the invocation, means that Obama not only legally approves of it, but stands behind the church's approval of homosexual intercourse. "It means that Barack Obama is willing, not just to tolerate, but to feature a person and a viewpoint that makes the church a minister of damnation. Again, the tragedy here is not that many people in public life hold views (like atheism) that lead to damnation, but that Obama is making the church the minister of damnation." By blessing sins one is a minister of damnation. "One more time: The issue here is not that presidents may need to tolerate things they don't approve of. The issue is this: In linking the Christian ministry to the approval of homosexual activity, Christ is made a minister of condemnation." How Barack Obama Will Make Christ a Minister of Condemnation

Piper quotes a chilling statement that Mark Noll quotes to the effect of westerners, even having all the blessings they do, the ministry of the Gospel, flunk the test of the poor African man. How the “Fierce Caucasian-Gentile-Visigoths” Flunked

Hays quotes some useful observations on the 'supernatural' from a Roman Catholic scholar. Here's some clips. After observing that most historians just dismiss the 'metanormal, he says: "The reason they do this is the dominance of another mode, materialist skepticism, common since the arguments of David Hume against miracles. This view, later strengthened by logical positivism, Marxism, and Freudianism, both arises from and reinforces the mentalité of late twentieth-century Western culture. This mode has the advantage of discarding naive literalism and credulity about metanormal events, but the disadvantage of forcing us to ignore a priori the enormous quantity and quality of actual reports of metanormal events observed by respectable witnesses." ... Commenting on another mode, "deconstruction is counterintuitive, and everyone eventually resorts to some version of `we have to assume.' The advantage of deconstruction is that it confirms that any world view is precarious (including deconstruction itself), and that therefore what historians define as {normal} is simply a definition based on the convenience and tradition of historians and has no claim to {truth} in any but a practical sense." ... "We have no choice as to which kind of cosmos it is. If the cosmos has no miracles, we are simply wrong to believe that it does; if it does have miracles, we are simply wrong to believe that it does not. We have no way of knowing intellectually which sort of cosmos it is." ... "Approach A assumes that intelligent purpose works in the cosmos and that events may occur that are beyond naturalistic explanation." "Does not history deal with {facts}? Only if {facts} are defined as propositions with a high degree of probability. If epistemology is reconstructed as the study of {understanding}, then historians can indeed deal with the metanormal and rate such events according to degrees of possibility. This leads beyond reductionism." "The rule used by historians following approach B is that the more unusual an alleged event, the more evidence is required to make it believable." "Bias is taking a position and forcing the evidence to fit it. Point of view is engaging the whole human being with the question and therefore being willing to change--not only one's scholarly position but one's own life." Miracles and the Metanormal

Challies continues his reading through Mere Christianity. On behavior, Lewis basically points out that Christianity does not require us to reduce our hatred for what is evil, but it does require us to hate properly--to hate the evil but still hope that the person who has committed evil may be cured from it. He says that "That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him [the enemy]: wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not." Lewis is brutally harsh on pride. It "leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind." It is an essentially competitive sin which "gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man..." The cure is to forget yourself in viewing God in correct proportion. On love, he thinks it a state of will: "Do not waste time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor; act as if you do. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him." On heaven, "Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither." This quote is great, concerning caricatures and stereotypes of heaven [but it works in extension to other things!] "The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them. ... People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs." Reading Classics - Mere Christianity (V)

Challies writes on the spiritual gifts, dismissing the notion of 'I have a gift but don't know how to use it' and saying that the way to properly exercise spiritual gifts is not to be willing only to do what you've determined is your gifting, but to do anything that the church needs to have done, and to do it with joy and excellence. And as you do that, you may find that God gifts and equips you for something far outside your comfort zone. He thinks we should recognize gifts by praying for wisdom, looking at the passions of people, asking others, and trying them - remembering that it isn't about our comfort zone, as many today are only willing to serve where their talents lie. Searching for the Spiritual Gifts

Here's a striking letter from missionary Adoniram Judson asking John Hasseltine for his consent in permitting his daughter to come with him to India, potentially to great suffering and death, for the sake of the Gospel. What It May Cost

Phil Johnson talks about why he doesn't rail against Arminianism as a horrible heresy. It isn't. He prefers a patient approach with Arminians, and while he believes that the Scriptures are plain and clear about God's sovereignty, and that there are errors that must be anathematized and dealt with sharply, Arminianism isn't one of them. He also points out that Calvinists don't follow Calvin. "I do think Arminianism is a profound error. Its tendencies can be truly sinister, and when it is allowed to go to seed, it does lead people into rank heresy. But what I’m saying here is that mere Arminianism itself isn’t damnable heresy. It’s just grossly inconsistent with the core gospel doctrines that Arminians themselves believe and affirm." Clarifying Calvinism (Part 1)

Johnson continues to defend Spurgeon's statement, "Calvinism is the Gospel" - in the sense he meant it, he is very correct. As Spurgeon said, "“Salvation is of the Lord.” [Jonah 2:9.] That is just an epitome of Calvinism; it is the sum and substance of it. If anyone should ask me what I mean by a Calvinist, I should reply, “He is one who says, Salvation is of the Lord.” I cannot find in Scripture any other doctrine than this. It is the essence of the Bible." Some even tried to charge Spurgeon with rehashing the Calvinists/Arminian debate in the downgrade controversy, and he replied saying that many Arminians affirmed the Gospel truth and were his brethren, on his side. "Spurgeon did not regard Arminians as hell bound heretics. He regarded them as brethren. Did he think they were in error? Yes? Were they guilty of gross inconsistency in their own theology? He would have answered emphatically, yes. Was their main error significant? Spurgeon did not shrink from referring to it as “heresy”—meaning unorthodox doctrine, heterodoxy, serious error. But he was very careful to make clear that he did not regard Arminianism per se as damnable heresy or utter apostasy from essential Christianity." Arminianism is an attempt to reconcile the sovereignty of God with human responsibility—and the Arminian method of reconciling those two truths involves a view of human free will that is inherently inconsistent with certain gospel truths every Arminian actually affirms. Clarifying Calvinism (Part 2)

Phil Johnson recommends some books on Calvinism/Arminianism: Roger Olson's defence of Arminianism, "Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities." The Five Points of Calvinism by David Steele, Curtis Thomas, Lance Quinn. The Great Invitation, by Erroll Hulse, subtitled “Examining the use of the altar call in evangelism.” Clarifying Calvinism (Part 3)

Johnson recalls what led him to question Arminianism: "one Sunday, while this guy was taking prayer requests, a girl in the class raised her hand and asked, “Should we really be praying for our lost relatives? It seems like it’s a wasted effort to pray to God for their salvation if He can’t do any more than He has already done to save them." I vividly remember the look on the face of this Sunday School teacher. This was clearly a question that had never occurred to him. So he thought about it for a moment, and you could see the wheels in his head turning while he tried to think of a good reason to pray for the salvation of the lost. And finally, he said, “Well, yeah, I guess you’re right.” From that Sunday on, he never accepted any more prayer requests for people’s lost loved-ones." Indeed, he came to see this applies to any relational request - why would God violate the will of a person? Clarifying Calvinism (Part 4)

"Those who promote the prosperity gospel have fallen on hard times . . . and not just because of the recession. To quote from the article: 'Some of the high-flying icons of the prosperity gospel—the belief that God rewards signs of faith with wealth, health, and happiness—have run into financial turbulence.'" Points of Interest

Phil Johnson points out, "We love [Him] because He first loved us" as a massive statement of the grace of God in profoundly transforming us to love God - and how this truth simplifies the whole Calvinism/Arminianism controversy. "this verse isn’t speaking merely about the motive for our love. It is a profound statement about the grace of God that sovereignly secures our love and transforms us from God-hating enemies into adopted sons and daughters whose hearts naturally overflow with the purest kind of love—not only love for God, but also love for one another." He also says that before he was a Calvinist, he affirmed that God is God; that He does all His good pleasure; that no one can make Him do otherwise; that He is in control and in charge no matter how much noise evildoers try to make; and not only is He in charge, He is working all things out for our good and His glory, and that any Arminian who accepts this is already operating with Calvinist presuppositions. Clarifying Calvinism (Part 5)

Solapanel has a caution about distance education for theological development. "in many places around the world, full-time residential courses are not possible, and distance education is an excellent alternative. Excellent as it is, providing theological education by distance provides a great number of challenges for those who want to encourage both growth in knowledge and fruitful walking as the ‘community of learners’ can be spread all over a region, or even all over the world. Because of this, fellowship, and learning and encouraging in fellowship, may not happen, and studies can quickly become a pathway to a qualification or certificate, rather than to growth in maturity and ministry service." "as the potential for the ‘individualization’ of theological education increases, so does the danger of theological education becoming ‘qualification’-focused, rather than an exercise in increasing personal maturity and ministry service." Distance education and a fruitful walk

This quote about prayer ruts is striking: "Most Christian groups pray. Most Christian groups easily drift into prayer ruts. Our times of prayer become hurried intercessions, a quick vote of thanks at the end of the Bible study, prayers for the sick or ‘those who aren't with us’, or general prayers for more love and peace. Of course, these are all great things to pray for, but we usually end up praying for them by default, because we don't put in the time and effort to think about what to pray. Most groups find it easier to do Bible study (or have supper) than to pray. Prayer gets reduced to a minimum, sometimes included only to relieve our guilt about it." Factotum #4- Encouraging prayer (part 1)

Carolyn Mahaney exhorts women to make use of their time like they shop - getting the best deal. "The phrase, “making the best,” means to “buy up, rescue from loss, or improve” the use of time. It is a metaphor taken from the merchants and traders of the ancient Near East, who aggressively pursued the best deals when they would buy, sell, or trade." She says that often it is good things that keep us from the best things... [I'm not sure what she means by this from this post alone...] Good or Best- She continues on to say that our lives consist of changing seasons, and we should do that which is the best use of our time as each season requires. Changing Seasons.