2009-02-19

Challies discusses whether smoking is de facto sinful. He points out that the common arguments against smoking, that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, so be careful what we put in our bodies; that smoking is an addiction and Christians are to guard against addictions; and that smoking has many harmful effects and can often lead to other addictions falter somewhat when extended to the rest of life. In Piper's church "they do not focus specifically on smoking; instead, they have a higher standard. "We engage to abstain from all drugs, food, drink, and practices which bring unwarranted harm to the body or jeopardize our own or another's faith." Some might argue that this is a lowering of standard, but I'm inclined to believe that it actually raises the standard. It removes the focus from specific pet sins and widens the focus to a wider range of sins that we may be willing to tolerate. We should give thought to everything we do, everything we eat, everything we breathe in." Is Smoking Sinful-

Phillips looks at the account of Balaam, and how despite the way people thought they could manipulate gods, as in paganism, Balaam knew that Yahweh could not be manipulated. Sure, the word-faith movement holds this pagan idea. But beyond them, where else does it appear? For example, in trying to get a pastor to pray for you because he has more 'sway'. "Or can we even see whispers in ourselves, as we (unconsciously) try this or that to get God to support our agenda?" He concludes with this: "Even as we plead, argue Scripture, press the promises, lay out our case, we must know: if we actually could manipulate God, it would be the most disastrous event in the universe.I've often said to God, in closing, after pressing my case to the best of my ability, "...but then, You get to be God — and that's a good thing!"" Pagan evangelicalism -

Piper writes that the essence of our evil is that we prefer anything to God (Romans 1:23; 2:23). Commands do not create the possibility of evil. Commands simply name the evil and its fruits, and tell us not to do them. This is important because it affects how we pursue change: either by commandment-keeping or by seeking a change of heart. Commandment keeping will fail because if we get good at it, we think we have changed, but the essence of our evil remains. If we can't get good at it, we despair and quit trying. But God promised, "I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 11:19). This is the new covenant that Jesus purchased with his blood (Luke 22:20). We receive it by faith. Knowing the Nature of Your Evil

Turretinfan comments on a Romanist argument that 'NT sacramental marriage' (that is, marriage validated by physical union) that attempts to say Mary and Joseph had a valid marriage without sex. But Genesis is the place where marriage is defined as physically dependent, and the natural sense of Matthew 1:18 is that Jesus did 'know' Mary once Jesus was born. Joseph and Mary's Marriage

A contributor over at Evangelical Textual Criticism has attempted to critique James White. The post is aimed at this post: A Very Telling Statement, where White says, "the arena has become predominated by post-modernists who have thrown in the towel on the "original text" and have openly and shamelessly said, "Hey, let's talk about what we can impute to nameless scribes based upon our mind-reading the reasons for their textual variations!" This is nothing less than an abandonment of the paradigm of the preceding generations, a hi-jacking of the discipline itself. While speculation about possible scribal prejudices may have its place, it will alway be just that: speculation." Of note, the author at ETC writes, "It is apparent that White knows very little of what he is talking about. Just because he happens to strongly disagree with Bart Ehrman's views of the transmission of the NT, which I am not trying to defend, he seems biased against everything associated with Bart Ehrman in a very unfortunate way" and "A lot has really happened in NT textual criticism in the last fifteen year period, which has very little to do with postmodernism." The post is here: James White Comments on Ehrman's Announcement. White responded, "he has misread the title of my blog entry, thinking that the "telling comment" is about the mere production of a new edition of The New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis. The telling comment to which I was making reference, in context, was that more had happened in the last fifteen years "than in any comparable fifteen year period" in the history of the discipline.... It is painfully clear from my comments that I was not addressing the mere publication of a second edition. I was very much attuned to the underlying claim from Ehrman: that past 15 years is a watershed period. Why? Because of the shift in the paradigm to which I make reference. " White points to Ehrman's own words for the context and understanding of this paradigm shift - Ehrman says "the most exciting thing about being a textual critic over the past 15-20 years has been seeing how textual criticism has moved beyond its myopic concerns of collating manuscripts and trying to determine some kind of "original" text to situating itself in the broader fields of discourse that concern an enormous range of scholars of Christian antiquity." Thus White says, "Wasserman misses the point. Let's say a lot has happened in fifteen years. No one would dispute the assertion. However, what I quoted did not say "a lot has happened." It said that the past fifteen years arguably represents the busiest period in the entire history of textual critical studies." See here A Response to Dr. Tommy Wasserman and here A Few Things I Have Learned Since...Yesterday, where White says, "So I am confused: is it OK to write "popular" books blasting the Christian faith as long as you have written "good scholarship" in the past? From whence comes this scholarly schizophrenia? And more importantly, why is it "wrong" to point these things out?"

Nifty; apparently DNA from manuscripts is being pursued as a way to determine when and where a manuscript was written. More on DNA analysis of parchment

ETC points to a collection of online digitized (digitised ;-) manuscripts at UCLA. See here. Catalogue of Digitized Medieval Manuscripts

"The Poet Laureate says it is becoming increasingly difficult to teach English Literature because students do not know the Bible or classical mythology.Andrew Motion told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the lack of knowledge made it "difficult to even get beyond go" when teaching some of his recent students. " http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7894563.stm

Bird quotes 1 Esdras 4 in honour of his wife. Here's a portion: "A man leaves his own father, who raised him, and his own country, and clings to his own wife. With his wife he departs this life, with no remembrance of his father or mother or country. Therefore, you must surely recognize that women rule over you! "Do you not work and toile, and bring everything and give it to women? A man takes his sword, goes out to travel abroad and to raid and steal and to sail the sea and rivers, he faces lions, and he walks in darkness , and when he steals and plunders and Robs, he carries it back to the woman he loves." [I do think that it is mildly ironic that many women today want to reverse this, and they want to become the 'servant' so to speak] Thank You Naomi Bird!

How do we avoid temptations with finances while worshiping God with our money? Giving to the Lord helps Christians overcome temptation - and stockpiling wealth breeds this temptation, while remaining quite fickle. Giving money to the Lord helps mitigate the temptation to forget God. (cf. Matt. 6:22-24; Prov. 30:9 - "the writer asks God to protect him from both the trials that attend abject poverty and the deceptive comfort that comes from wealth. The danger in the latter is that he will forget God and become too dependent on himself and his money"). Giving to the Lord helps overcome worry and anxiety by reminding us of God's control and provision, and that His kingdom is our priority. Citing Phil. 4:6-7, "Often, financial anxiety comes from trying to live beyond our means. The one who gives learns to be content and thankful for whatever lifestyle God has provided, even if it is a modest one (1 Tim. 6:7; Heb. 13:5)." Stewardship and Giving

Genderblog provides a list of books to teach biblical femininity to the next generation. Girls of Character- Teaching Biblical Femininity to the Next Generation through Literature, Part