2009-03-22

Bayly isn’t so excited about Tullian Tchividjian as pastor of new two-become-one Coral Ridge PCA church: “Tully was on staff at Knoxville's Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church when they had a woman preach in their pulpit during a worship service and, being disciplined for it, thumbed their nose at the PCA and walked. Where? Into the Evangelical  Presbyterian Church where women are freely permitted to teach and exercise authority over men--even to be ordained and serve as pastors and elders (a step Tully's New City Church had not taken). When Tully left Cedar Springs, he planted a church--not in the PCA, but the EPC. ” He points out how megachurches are supradenominational, how many show partiality to mega-church pastors, and hopes that those in the PCA pushing for female leadership will repent and return to the Scriptures. You sit here in a good place

Bayly doesn’t like the appearance in evangelical commentaries of statement that tacitly dismiss the fact that the Scriptures are inspired, seemingly to attain academic credit before unbeliever’s with whom they interact. Minced confessions

A creationist scientist corrects misrepresentation, and makes this comment: “ Does a high degree of similarity mean that two DNA sequences have the same meaning or function? No, not necessarily. Compare the following sentences: ‘There are many scientists today who question the evolutionary paradigm and its atheistic philosophical implications.’ ‘There are not many scientists today who question the evolutionary paradigm and its atheistic philosophical implications.’These sentences have 97% homology [similarity] and yet have almost opposite meanings! There is a strong analogy here to the way in which large DNA sequences can be turned on or off by relatively small control sequences. The DNA similarity data don’t quite mean what the evolutionary popularizers claim!” http://creation.com/a-skeptic-falsely-accuses-creationists-of-lying-about-human-and-ape-similarities

Here are some tips on leading interactive Bible Studies. One is, “The role of the leader is to ask questions, not answer them. Even when the group asks questions, the leader ought not answer them, but ask another question instead. The principle is: don't tell them what they can work out for themselves. When you give answers, you relieve tension: the adrenalin stops and so does discussion. Try asking other guiding or probing questions” such as extending, clarifying, justifying, re-directing, and reflecting questions, as well as valuing every contribution, but not equally, interacting with the text of the Bible continually, and encouraging questions. Leading a good Bible study discussion (Factotum #6)

Walton briefly discusses the use of the terms, ‘milk and honey’ in Exodus, which refer to Canaan and to Egypt. ‘milk’ probably refers to animal husbandry and the use of animal byproducts for food and clothing, while honey refers to the cultivation of fruits and vegetables. This is supported by the use of the term in other ANE literature. It evokes the image of a prosperous land, though not a paradise. These are rather the products of the good life. The Land Flowing with Milk and Honey

Bird thinks that Paul shows elements of both cosmological (evil powers have taken over, led people into idolatry, and God will wage war against them to free His people from their evil) apocalyptic eschatology and forensic (man has rejected God and brought corruption, death, and perversion) apocalyptic eschatology in Galatians, arguing that “part of the problem of the Galatian intruders was that they lacked the eschatological framework of Paul and saw the Mosaic/Sinaitic era as continuing on into the era of the Messiah, whereas Paul infers a far more radical and abrupt disjunction between these two eras.” He also adds that ‘apocalyptic’ is an adjective, not a noun. Martyn on Galatians (2) Paul and Apocalpyticism

To take comfort in providence, you need to believe in it (God working general and personal history to His ends, a work which may seem tragic and puzzling at times). To believe in it, you need to believe God is sovereign. Providential Care

Turretinfan brings up a T-blog post (summarized previously at this blog), where Manata points out that God has appointed the day of man’s death, some men choose when they’ll die (so they can biblically choose that which is predetermined), they are morally responsible for that choice, and yet God appointed it, therefore, granting inerrancy, all Christians should be compatibilists, since freedom and moral responsibility are biblically compatible with determinism. Determined Choices

CotW writes: “both creation and evolution are built on fundamental assumptions. Young-earth creationists do not deny having a starting point of Scripture and interpreting any scientific evidence in that framework. But evolutionists have a starting point too; their materialist assumption that miracles are impossible and that all phenomena must be explainable through natural processes forces them to interpret facts in a certain way. So both sides have biases; evolutionists just normally fail to acknowledge theirs. Origins science, trying to figure out how things happened in the past, is completely different from operational science, which is testable and repeatable. No one can test fish turning into tetrapods, or duplicate the big bang to see if these evolutionary hypotheses hold true. In fact, although these attacks are ostensibly against bringing ‘religion’ into public schools, evolutionary philosopher Michael Ruse agrees that evolution is a religion, so shouldn’t we be excluding this from government schools too? It’s notable that Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman (1912–2006), despite being agnostic himself, stated in What’s Wrong with Our Schools?: ‘Public schools teach religion too, not a formal, theistic religion, but a set of values and beliefs that constitute a religion in all but name.” http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/6001/

Here’s a good reminder that there is much humility in learning to be served, where you need it, not merely in serving, and recognizing the ‘service’ this affords to others. Ageing beauty