Here's a few examples that Bayly gives of Apple's anti-competitive business practices. One is that the new iPod shuffle is protected by hardware DRM. Another is that Apple will not allow anyone to make a MagSafe car adapter. And they won't build it themselves. Apple's sneaky anti-competitive measures
JT points to two sources that aim to bring the richness of hymnody to modern music. Page CXVI and Reformed Praise. Old Hymns in New Ways
JT points to author Yuval Levin, who points out four myths that the public and the media believe about embryonic stem cell research and policy: Obama has restored federal policy to what it was prior to Bush’s 2001 stem cell policy announcement. The Bush policy was a ban on embryonic stem cell research. There are no viable scientific alternatives to the destruction of human embryos. The promise of pluripotent stem cells is quite certain. Four Myths about Embryonic Stem Cell Research. Read here for the full article: http://www.moralaccountability.com/obama-on-embryo-destructive-research/obama%E2%80%99s-embryo-destruction-extremism-time-for-obama%E2%80%99s-pro-life-supporters-to-face-the-facts/
Challies provides a quote from Ryle where he decries the 'jelly-fish' Christianity and 'Christians' of his own day, those who reject any dogma, and especially the young people, who, armed with second-rate philosophy, think themselves clever to not hold to any religious opinion dogmatically. These are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Never was it so important for laymen to hold systematic views of truth, and for ordained ministers to "enunciate dogma" very clearly and distinctly in their teaching. They are so afraid of extreme views they have no view at all. Dislike of Dogma
Wilberforce wrote Real Christianity to help people discern between true faith and false beliefs; true faith from mere moralism. Where Christianity is assumed, moralism prevails. Real Christianity forms itself from the study of the Scriptures while this fraudulent Christianity forms itself from commonly received maxims of Christendom. Listening to the unreserved private conversation is a key ways to examine the heart, for, unlike in public, it is laid wide open and bare. He seems to run with the idea that the word of God does not reveal its secrets to sluggards. Reading the Classics - Real Christianity (II)
Here's a powerful prayer from Spurgeon. The Wings of Prayer
Speaking of blocking ads, skipping commercials, etc: "So I've wondered if this an ethical issue? Speaking personally, I stopped using ad blocking software quite a long time ago for this very reason. I just couldn't reconcile reading the sites while blocking all of the ads; I also became aware of the irony of using ad blockers on other sites while selling ad spots on my own." A Question about Advertising
Harris points out that while the Scriptures record things, such as David's adultery, it doesn't go into graphic detail about the event, and then focuses on the horrid consequences (something which is the reverse of TV's approach). Christians, Television and Sordid Bible Stories
Kauflin offers some advice for multi-lingual congregations and praise. Praising God in a Multi-Language Congregation
Challies briefly reviews Rauser's Finding God in the Shack, which is favourable to The Shack, and then provides a chapter for each area, its depiction of God, its portrayal of the Trinity and its view of authority. While in many cases he does offer firm and biblical views on theology, he also shows a proclivity to asking questions he does not answer. He goes after Calvinism (since many of the books critics are Calvinists), but erects an inaccurate, offensive and almost libelous straw man. Challies personally challenged Rauser in a combox to provide evidence, which, of course, he hasn't done. "No Calvinist I know of believes what Rauser claims to be true of Calvinists." Rauser does show that the atonement is missing from the Shack and proceeds to explain it (ironically quoting Calvin). Finding God in The Shack (II)
Piper gives a real-life example, in the fall of Bernard Madoff, of how the desire to be rich will pierce one with many pains. Bernard Madoff- How Are the Mighty Fallen!
Piper writes, on Friday the 13th, that there is no jinx or hex that sticks to God's people. "There is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel; now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, "What has God wrought!" (Numbers 23:23)" In Christ, There Is No Bad Luck
Some estimate that there are 130 million Christians in China. There is a growing house-church movement, unregistered, and not part of the underground church. Christianity appears to be sweeping China. Piper points to the need for teachers and material in China. China's Changing Church
If you want to know God more, it will be costly, since knowledge reveals your own ignorance, brings awareness of suffering, and so on. But it is worth it. A Vexing Jewel- The Price and Pleasure of Knowledge
Here's two things that Piper wants to say to an engaged couple in premarital counseling: 1) Be joyfully, brokenheartedly, shaped by the death of Christ for you. 2) Get really clear the meaning of headship and submission. A Marriage Advice Moment with John Piper
Here's a song that Piper exhorts the unbeliever to pray or sing, to become a Christian. If You Want to Become a Christian
God loves His people. And in His love, in this age, God rescues his people from some harm. And in His love, he doesn't rescue them from all harm. That's comforting to know, because otherwise we might conclude from our harm that he has forgotten us or rejected us. 2 Stages of God’s Care for Us- Fettered and Freed
Pointing to 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, Piper observes that God's power to fulfill your good resolves is grace. You get the help. God gets the glory. That's why Christian living, not just Christian conversion, is good news. It keeps us humble and happy and God supreme and glorious. Good News! Relying on Grace Gives God Glory
Ehrman asks, what are the odds of one person in the whole world walking on water? Hays points out that Ehrman is so blinded by his own infidelity that he cannot even properly frame the question. Christ isn't just one in a billion. He isn't the ordinary doing the extraordinary but extraordinary Himself. Ehrman cannot even approach the text on its own terms. One in a billion-
Hays writes concerning Jesus, Interrupted that the basic problem with the book is that Ehrman is recycling a lot of hackneyed objections to the Bible that have been repeatedly addressed by conservative scholars. And he’s either too ignorant or too dishonest to engage the opposing argument. Hays quotes Ehrman several times regarding his skepticism of miracles, and his assumption that they are the least probable explanation. But his skepticism of miracles effectively presupposes a purely mechanistic process. Hays draws an analogy from a card-dealer and an automatic shuffling machine. Basically, the personal card-dealer can cheat. This cheating would show up in patterns. The automatic shuffling machine can't, unless it is reprogrammed. And the probability of it being reprogrammed is different than it dealing a royal flush every game. God has designed nature to be highly predictable, having a mechanical quality. But He is a personal agent: History is simply the record of what happened. Certain patterns indicate intelligent direction or personal intervention. While it may be impossible for natural forces to do certain things, that doesn’t mean a rational agent is just as limited in his sphere of influence. Just as there can be probative evidence for cheating, there can be historical evidence for miracles. A history of miracles
Berny of Triablogue offers some thoughts on MMA (mixed martial arts), pointing to the observation that the sin is in the man, not the sport (e.g. a chess player may hate his opponent more than an MMA fighter), that one should consider whether a sport is conducive to sinful habits (and then consider this with respect to football, etc. as well), and that much of this is a matter of individual conscience. Fight Club
White points out that what is missing from Michael Spencer's article in Christian Science Monitor is the wrath of God upon western civilization. It isn't merely due to 'evangelical failure'. "I truly believe that what we are seeing today with the perversion of marriage, the exaltation of deviancy, etc., is not what will bring the wrath of God, it is the wrath of God." He quotes Spencer affirmatively: "We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture," The Coming Evangelical Collapse
Carolyn Mahaney exhorts women to prize their husbands, keeping them first in the heart and care. Prize Your Husband
The island of Surtsey, formed in 1963 by volcanic activity, has quite the mature landscape. There were wide sandy beaches, gravel banks, impressive cliffs, soft undulating land, faultscarps, gullies and channels and ‘boulders worn by the surf (see picture left), some of which were almost round, on an abrasion platform cut into the cliff.’ And all of this despite the ‘extreme youth’ of the island. In 1967, when the eruptions stopped, Surtsey’s surface area was 2.7 square kilometres. It’s now only half that size. While the hard basaltic core that forms the island’s 154-metre summit should prove more resilient, geologist Sveinn Jakobsson of the Surtsey Research Society estimates that Surtsey’s ash plains will be totally washed away within a century or so. And there’s a lesson in that, too—fast erosion means the world is young. http://creation.com/surtsey-still-surprises
AiG asks, what evidence is there for ape to human evolution? "Though many similarities may be cited between living apes and humans, the only historical evidence that could support the ape ancestry of man must come from fossils. Unfortunately, the fossil record of man and apes is very sparse. Approximately 95% of all known fossils are marine invertebrates, about 4.7% are algae and plants, about 0.2% are insects and other invertebrates and only about 0.1% are vertebrates (animals with bones). Finally, only the smallest imaginable fraction of vertebrate fossils consists of primates (humans, apes, monkeys and lemurs)." Due to their rarity, many evolutionists have not even seen them or handled them. Their access is restricted to a privileged few. Due to the prestige in finding an ancestor of man, there is immense pressure on paleoanthropologists to declare almost any ape fossil to be a “hominid.” Now, there are large differences between apes and man. The problem in declaring a fossil ape to be a human ancestor (i.e., a hominid) on the basis of certain humanlike features of the teeth is that some living apes have these same features and they are not considered to be ancestors of man. Orangutans have relatively thick enamel, yet teeth enamel is often the criteria for declaring an ape fossil to be a hominid. The size of the normal adult human brain varies over nearly a threefold range. These differences in size in the human brain do not correlate with intelligence. Adult apes have brains that are generally smaller than even the smallest of adult human brains. As to legs, it is assumed that fossil apes with a high carrying angle (humanlike) were bipedal and thus evolving into man. But high carrying angles are not confined to humans-they are also found on some modern apes that walk gracefully on tree limbs and only clumsily on the ground. There are living tree-dwelling apes and monkeys with some of the same anatomical features that evolutionists consider to be definitive evidence for bipedality, yet none of these animals walks like man and no one suggests they are our ancestors or descendants. Neanderthals, found throughout the world, was characterized by prominent eyebrow ridges (like modern Australian Aborigines), a low forehead, a long narrow skull, a protruding upper jaw and a strong lower jaw with a short chin. They were deep-chested, large-boned individuals with a powerful build. It should be emphasized, however, that none of these features fall outside the range of normal human anatomy. Interestingly, the brain size (based on cranial capacity) of Neandertal man was actually larger than average for that of modern man, though this is rarely emphasized. Evidence of compassion, music, tools, etc. exist for neanderthals. One of the world’s foremost authorities on Neandertal man, Erik Trinkaus, concludes: “Detailed comparisons of Neanderthal skeletal remains with those of modern humans have shown that there is nothing in Neanderthal anatomy that conclusively indicates locomotor, manipulative, intellectual or linguistic abilities inferior to those of modern humans.” http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/wow/did-humans-really-evolve
Here's one answer for the apparent discrepancy in Matthew's genealogy, which claims to have 14 generations in each section. http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2009/02/16/contradictions-problems-with-basic-math
Turretinfan responds to the challenge that [A consistent Calvinist must be] A liberal higher critic, since Luther can slice up the canon, it follows so might anyone. 1) Calvinists accept the 66 books of the Bible, and even if one thinks that the myth that Luther removed a book from the canon is true, he rejects 'Luther's' opinion here. 2) Calvinists aren't Lutherans. 3) Liberal higher criticism, in the sense of extreme skepticism, is rejected by Calvinists. 4) Some forms of higher criticism (investigations respecting the genuineness, authenticity, and integrity of ancient literary works especially the various books of the Bible) is the apologist's role in defending the genuineness, authenticity, and integrity of the various books of the Bible. Although the ultimate answer for why we accept the books of the Bible as genuine and authentic is the persuasion of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit uses means, including (in some instances) historical evidences. 5) Trent affirmed the old Latin vulgate: If the "Celementine Vulgate", named after pope Clement VIII who promulgated it (a correction on Pope Sixtus V's erroneous translation), must be accepted as to "its parts" then it would seem that it would be a violation of the teachings of Trent for people in Catholicism to deny the authenticity of the "Johannine Comma," which is included in it. Of course, that does not stop the modern textual critics with Catholicism. The Nova Vulgata, promulgated by pope John Paul II, omits the Johannine Comma. It also makes numerous other changes to the text. 6) Modern Romanist textual critics don't seem to feel so limited, nor do modern Catholic apologists appear to feel bound to Trent here. Practically speaking, they are exercising higher criticism, as they don't rely on the Latin textual tradition. Response to Jay Dyer on Calvinism (Part 11 of 13)
Mounce points to the proliferation of vulgar, profane, slanderous language and gossip in the churches, and especially in blogs. He points to the tendency to justify sin, to justify unholy anger and ungraciousness. Rather, language is to be built up, and never the product of anger flowing from a lack of forgiveness. He concludes with the following: 1. Take every thought captive to Christ. In other words, think before we speak and write, weighing everything we say and write against the teachings of our Lord. 2. Feel free to disagree when it is appropriate to the situation, but always do so as an expression of grace. 3. When wanting to encourage, write it. 4. When wanting to criticize, if possible, do so face to face. If it is not possible, write only what you would say face-to-face. 5. No matter how angry or justified you feel, there is never a place for cruel or vulgar speech. Does Eph 4-29 apply to blogs- (Monday with Mounce 25)
Here's a quotation of a Romanist source supporting partim-partim. Quotes on Tradition (partim-partim)
Discussing Lightfoot's errant definition of a textual variant, Wallace gives the actual definition: A textual variant is simply any difference from a standard text (e.g., a printed text, a particular manuscript, etc.) that involves spelling, word order, omission, addition, substitution, or a total rewrite of the text. The Number of Textual Variants- An Evangelical Miscalculation
Here's a quote from Stephen Wellum's Believer's Baptism. "In truth, the baptismal question is a major test-case for one’s entire theological system since it tells much about how one puts the entire canon together. The Reformed paedobaptist argument is grounded in an explicit view of the covenants; if this understanding of the “covenant of grace” can be sustained, it provides a strong warrant for the position. However, if this understanding is inaccurate, then the entire biblical and theological warrant for the practice of infant baptism evaporates. In this chapter, albeit in a preliminary way, I have argued that the latter is the case. At the heart of the paedobaptist problem, I contend, is a failure to understand correctly the proper relationship between the biblical covenants. In fact, a truly covenantal approach to Scripture, preserving the proper biblical emphasis on continuity and discontinuity between the covenant communities of the old and new testaments, as well as between the covenant signs, demands an affirmation of believer’s baptism (pp. 168–69)." http://andynaselli.com/theology/a-test-case-for-how-to-put-the-bible-together-baptism
Turretinfan responds to the criticism, [A consistent Calvinist must be] an agnostic, in that human reason is so damaged by the fall and total depravity, it cannot accurately reason about God and ever attain certainty. No Calvinist is agnostic, for he does not deny the existence of God, and the Calvinist denies that unregenerate man comes to God of his own abilities, rejecting this Pelagian error. The Scriptures teach that God changes the hearts of men and opens their spiritual minds to see the truth. However, in regeneration, there is a restoration of the spiritual faculties of man: this is variously described as giving site to the blind, making the lame walk, curing the leper, and raising the dead to life. Response to Jay Dyer on Calvinism (Part 12 of 13)
Grimmond of SolaPanel rants about the use of statistics, which are really descriptive in nature, as prescriptive, in looking at what the stats 'tell us to do'. Stats don't tell you what ought to be, but only what is. They don't tell you do do anything. But now, moral choices are based on stats. The problem is sin, at the heart of it. Without God, where do you go to know what should be? according to a scientific world, there is only one authority—‘what is’ (Empiricism)—all moral arguments now begin by quoting statistics. To summarize, because of sin (the rejection of the authority of God), we have turned to faulty logic (we pretend that ‘what is’ tells us ‘what should be’). Lies, damned lies, and … (#1)
Here's an article on the Calvinist comeback - from 1947. It's interesting to see that good reporting, like today, was lacking back then too. Here's a gem of a statement: "But the faith of ascetic, heretic-burning John Calvin was stern, hard and alien to a boisterous young country in a nature-taming age. Calvinism insisted on 1) the total depravity of man, 2) a God who, for His own good reasons, irrevocably divided all mankind into the Elect and the Damned, 3) strict "blue laws."" http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,801853,00.html
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