2009-01-26

A 22 year old woman in Nevada is selling her virginity to pay for college. She sees a capitalistic world, and while at one time she wanted romance, now she wants to 'capitalize', citing feminist ideology for justification. Right now there have been 10000 bidders up to 3.7 million. ""Natalie Dylan" cites "the empowerment of a woman" as at least one component of her decision, but this action leads to this woman being pressed down, objectified and used by a man to satisfy his basest peccadilloes. This is the abuse of a woman of the vilest sort. I have never understood why feminism views sexual freedom as "empowering" for women. It does nothing of the sort; rather, it destroys them, and it is seldom the man who, no pun intended, pays the steep price of the fallout that comes with this alleged freedom." Turning True Womanhood On Its Head- Young Woman Peddling Her Virginity

Josh Harris has some points on how the recession can be good: 1) if it opens our eyes to the folly of greed and covetous; 2) resets our definition of need; 3) makes us more aware of our helplessness and God’s faithful provision; 4) helps us see that only King Jesus and His kingdom are worth living for; 5) encourages us to lay up treasure in heaven. Joshua Harris on the Good Recession

JT points to several good resources on the case for life. The Case for Life, Around the Web

JT briefly details the circumstances of Norma McCorvey, the "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade, who is now campaigning pro-life. She lies and said she was raped, she signed an affidavit that she never read, and the baby was put up for adoption. Roe No More

Obama's speech on abortion is sickening. He is concerned about the rights of our 'sons and daughters', by which, of course, he only means those who have moved the few inches out of the womb. "Politico reports this morning that today President Obama will reverse the Mexico City Policy, which prevents federally funded non-governmental organizations from performing or promoting abortion services in other countries." Francis Beckwith says, "Apparently, the only way our daughters can be successful is if they are permitted to kill our grandchildren. So, without surgery so that women can be like men, women are unequal to men. Thus, according to Obama, women are congenitally inferior unless they can have abortions. I don't even think the worst chauvinists in the world have implied anything so outrageous." Abortion and Obama's First Few Days

JT and Alan Jacobs don't like laptops in the classroom because of the distraction. "In my view, the costs of emailing, being online, instant-messaging when you are supposed to be listening, writing, engaging, etc. seriously outweigh any occasional benefits." [People were passing notes before there was instant messaging - tech isn't the problem. Notebooks are a fantastic addition to the classroom given the vastly more than 'occasional' benefit of superior note-taking.] Alan Jacobs- Internet in the Classroom

For those in the United States looking for a practical way to help the mother and baby in situations where the mother is considering abortion, here's one way: "Option Line is a national calling center (plus IM and email) fielding calls from women actively considering abortion, taking the time to understand the pressure or fear they face, and directly and immediately connecting them to the Pregnancy Help Clinic best able to serve them locally." One Simple, Practical Way You Can Make a Difference for Women and the Unborn

Phillips points out the bad things that it looks like Obama will do: 1) Strengthen hate crimes legislation, so that judges and juries become mind-readers, who punish beliefs, thoughts, and emotions. 2) Provide job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling to ex-offenders, so that they are successfully re-integrated into society, as opposed to restitution. 3) Remove more protection for the unborn while adding affording increased civil rights to the sexually perverse. 4) force business owners to fund sexual perversity to prove that they aren't 'biased', or hire homosexuals, even if the homosexuality was not the reason for not hiring, 5) In the name of being for honest, decent, hardworking Americans, Obama plans to make life far harder for honest, decent, hardworking Americans. Unfortunately, Obama may keep at least some of his wretched promises. Here's a bunch of links to various news articles touching on these things. 09. Oh, "President Obama "stared down" a reporter who dared ask a question he didn't like, provoking a testy little whine from the Commander in Chief. They will learn not to stretch out their hands against the Lord's anointed."

For those interested in textual criticism: "VK 908 contains the Acts and the Catholic Epistles (Apostolos) and the Pauline Epistles. Hargis explains that Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews have been displaced between the Thessalonian letters, with the result that these three epistles were copied a second time by someone who probably thought they were missing (hence "two new minuscules in one")." CSNTM Photographs Van Kampen Collection- Unregistered MSS

A new catalogue of the 800 Hebrew MSS in the Vatican has been published. Vatican Catalogues Its Hebrew MSS (via PaleoJudaica)

"Article 3: Total Inability - Therefore, all people are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin; without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform. " Fourth Head of Doctrine, Article Three

Turk gives a glowing recommendation of Total Church with a few caveats: 1) "it takes a swipe at Protestant models of Scriptural authority and salutes the "Anabaptist" model of "Gospel in community" over that." 2) it has a radical focus on a church without walls; Turk thinks that God's people still need a place to meet and a place to call home, at least for now. A book you should love

Here are some excerpts from prayers used at Capitol Hill church. Prayers at Capitol Hill by Greg Gilbert

Bird provides a quote from the Didascalia to exhorting and requiring believers to go to church, to learn the word, to gather with believers, and so on. Why Go to Church - The Didascalia (Eth.) View

Ben Witherington thinks that certain areas of Reformed theology, being all about sovereignty, have made NT ethics contemptible by their aversion to associating ethics with salvation, reducing it to acting out of mere gratitude. He adds, "there is a crucial epistemological issue to consider—how exactly can you ‘know’ a truth in the Biblical sense without living into and out of that truth? In the Bible, understanding often comes from doing or experiencing. Belief and behavior are not meant to be separated from one another into hermetically sealed off containers." Bird says in response, "this still strikes me as a Weslyan/Arminian caricature of Reformed Theology." Ben Witherington on NT Ethics

Bird writes that Bob Gundry asserts the presence of an angelomorphic christology in Revelation 10. After a quote to the effect that this is expected, Bird comments that while the NT certainly labours to show that Christ is much more than an angel, angelomorphic christology manifested itself without undermining His divine identity. Citing Gathercole, he says that these sayings function to demonstrate Jesus' pre-existence, his heavenly origins, and his transcendence of the heaven-earth divide. Revelation Bonanza - Part I- Angel-Christology

Commenting on the book The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, Bird says that the first commentary on the Apocalypse by Victorinus of Poetovis (ca. 260 AD) took a chiliastic interpretation (this is in addition to Papias, Justin, Irenaeus, and Tertullian), while the first amillenialist interpretation appears in the fourth century with Tyconius and Augustine (although symbolic interpretations are as early as Origen and Cyprian). Revelation Bonanza - Part 2- Reception History