This post discusses Gideon’s fleece in its ANE context. While many today even take it approvingly as a practice to be emulated, at the least it is idiomatic now as a sign from God by which He’ll reveal the course of action. i) Gideon already knew God’s will. ii) The fleece is an effort to escape that will. iii) It tests God (contra Deut. 6:16) and comes very close to divination (Deut. 18:20-22). iv) The action has much in common with ancient divination (military crisis looms, binary answer, lack of confidence in a single sign). While God’s word was clear, seeking a sign indicates a desire for a change of mind. Gideon’s actions represented a common way of thinking at the time whereby people sought to manipulate deities in order to get the information that they wanted: Though God was gracious, we should not think we can use similar things to back God into a corner. Gideon's Fleece by Daniel I. Block
Hays writes that apologetics falls into offensive and defensive categories, the former generally for the benefit of a believer, the latter directed to unbelievers. Dogmatic apologetics fails on both counts because it begs the very question at issue - “God said it” is not a way to defend the claim that “God said it,” and false prophets employ this. we need defensive apologetics because some Christians are racked by doubts, and the very point at issue is whether God said it, so simply reasserting it is unhelpful. Appeals to objective truth fail to explain how the subject of knowledge is privy to it. There’s a difference between a statement that claims to be self-warranting, and a self-warranting claim. Clarkian rejection of sense knowledge only serves to make the gap between the object and subject of knowledge bigger. Hays gives his own position: i) Absolute certainty as a criterion for knowledge is an artificial standard, going back to the Greek deification of the human mind. Why should we accept it? Why aim for a God’s eye view of the world? ii) What’s wrong with probabilities? If God doesn’t equip us for more, than there is nothing wrong with believing something because it is probably true. iii) Certainty is a belief about a belief. Say some beliefs can rise to the level of knowledge. “As long as I’m not wrong in what I believe about God or God’s word, then certainty is a comforting accessory, but hardly a necessity.” The psychological state of certainty is not the same as knowledge, since it can be wrong. Better to have knowledge than certainty. v) We can argue transcendentally that God limits the amount of misperception/misrecollection – global skepticism, the result of having no grounding for knowledge, is self-refuting, so we can reason backward from it. Likewise we can argue that the elect are so preserved. The task of apologetics
Turk has agreed to discuss this thesis with iMonk: "Because Mark Driscoll's sins are public, made as a pastor, it is right to rebuke him in public and seek his public repentance." If a pastor sins, he must repent; Driscoll has sinned, therefore he must repent. He aims for a global influence, so this is a concern for any elder in a church influenced by Driscoll, not just a local elder. Public sins require public fruits of repentance. Turk points out that those who take issue with this because it's not explicitly mandated in Scripture don't seem to take issue with Driscoll's deployment of crude sexual jokes, imposing personal commitments to enthusiastic marital sex on the Scriptures, and so on. Eph. 5: “sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.” In Titus 1, an elder must be blameless, and not maturing, but mature. Claiming 'rookie' for someone who's been an elder for ten years and writes books is empty. "It seems to me that the guy who gave a global exhortation in a Desiring God conference about the value of prophetic hard words has the essential pastoral moxie to get it that nobody owes him a private lunch and a sorry tone of voice when he talks like a frat boy at spring break on national television." Paul confronting Peter, the caution to would-be teachers in James, the superapostles in Corinth: those who have a spiritual responsibility to others have an obligation to address the spiritual influences on those in their charge. Right to Rebuke-
Turk: Turns out yet another report is being suppressed which undescores the hoax which is global warming. The sky has unfallen
Chan provides an excerpt by an Ian Hamilton on the reality of a life of sore providences touching our lives. Never does the Bible indicate that a Christian will be shielded from the hardships and disappointments in life, indeed, it promises persecution. Yet, Christ is with us, His Spirit indwells us, His sovereignty works all things for our good (it isn't a complex mystery to be unraveled so much as a comfort to be embraced!), every woe is planned for our refinement and betterment and for the flourishing of grace in our lives, and He will make you more than a conqueror. A servant is not greater than his master. Though we might well be perplexed, we are never in despair. Even if we are persecuted, we are never abandoned. (see 2Cor.4v8-9). The faith-shaped life
Patton comments on Spiritual formation describes a process or path to spiritual wholeness though a practice of specific disciplines including prayer, meditation, study, fasting, solitude, confession, and worship. The end goal is that the person would be more Christ-like," saying that his vehicle doesn't run on that gas, and then he lists some issues: i) Rote routines fail to account for individuality. Imposing one's own spiritual structures upon another may not be beneficial because we are different people. ii) It can set up false expectations, when after several months, the methods for spiritual formation have not attained the results the person hoped. Then, it's the prayer that's failed in the practitioners eyes, not the legalized structure! iii) It can hinder the 'erratic movement' of the Spirit ('the wind blows where it wishes') so we shouldn't impose an implied path for God to follow, and we don't know what the Spirit will do [personally I don't think you can 'hinder' the Spirit'... I think you should align your expectations (see point 2) with the reality of the 'erratic' movement of the Spirit, not fear that a sovereign God can't do something.] iv) It can be a replacement for belief, faith, trust: Business is not belief: Belief is the foundation for the action, not the other way around. Doing stuff is easy. Believing truly is not. Why I Don’t Think to Much of “Spiritual Formation”
Challies notes Sproul's argument that man is the enemy, criminal, and debtor to the Father, who is the Creditor, Violated One, and Judge, yet Christ is the Surety, Mediator, and Substitute. The Truth of the Cross
In the midst of suffering, Christian common sense should also remind us that divine revelation is always a far more reliable barometer of reality that our personal perceptions, distorted as they are by how we think a moral and upright God is obliged to behave in this situation or that. Should we not trust God, rather than assume something is wrong with Him?? Even when God doesn't seem good, wise, or powerful, we must know that He is good, wise, and powerful. Discount Personal Feelings
Adams writes that if you aren't living out your faith, how can you expect joy in it? A Truly Blessed Life
Piper notes that the meaning of the leftovers in the feeding of the 4000 and 5000 is that God will care for His people when they are caring for others: there were twelve baskets and twelve servers one time, and seven baskets the other - the number of complete abundance. The leftovers are for the servers. The Loving Meaning of the Leftovers
Bird thinks that a unified theology of the Catholic Epistles (the Apostolos, as it was called), has been neglected compared to the Gospels and Paul's epistles, and that this would make a good thesis for some brave soul. A Theology of the Apostolos-
John Bell writes of evangelizing in the Toronto's LGBT-oriented community [LGBT stands for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender). One of his duties as an intern pastor was to coffee-shop/pub evangelize for three hours a week, which he found to be unhappy news and quite intimidating (lots of complexities - women think you're hitting on them, and men too where he lives, looking like a mormon, etc.). So he decided to evangelize in gay coffee shops, where he correctly inferred that men would want strangers to talk to them. Many of the gay men he has since talked to came out of the closet after having been married with kids. 85% have come from a Catholic background! He asks them questions, listens to them, and they love to talk and talk about 'spirituality', and when he gets a chance to talk, he tells them the Gospel, and grounds everything in the authority of Scripture, the revelation of God that applies to all people in all places. They seem to have some degree of respect in that they recognize that he genuinely cares for all of them, since he's willing to go somewhere like a fish out of water to tell them this. How many Christians actually know and act as friends to those in the LGBT community? Too few, in truth. Sharing the Gospel in the Gay Village
T-fan notes that a kabbalist rabbi took the position that the Messiah would be named Jesus. T-fan notes that Justin Martyr argues for this, and he points to a number of passages that provide support in this direction. Messiah's Name is Jesus
Payne talks about emotions and the Christian life. He contrasts what appears to be a call for a particular set of charged emotions like passionate intensity, joyous celebration, and sweet victory, with the biblical gamut of godly emotions which covers a whole spectrum that depends on a variety of circumstances and is unique to each individual. With the former, the assumption seems to be that experiencing these emotions is an indicator of, or even a path to, spiritual maturity and intimacy with God. He will argue against this in a future post, and in so doing articulate the difference between affections and emotions. Thinking about emotions
Hays points to the incongruity of a Romanist calling it a devilish lie to say that the elements of the Lord's Supper were spoken of metaphorically by Christ, on the grounds that Christ didn't say it was a metaphor, while taking the woman in Revelation 12 metaphorically for Mary, among other things, when John didn't say it was a metaphor. Devilish lies. So too with the ark as a metaphor for Mary. Raiders of the Lost Marian Ark. So too with Jesus building His church on a rock: It's incumbent on the papist to prove that Jesus used a metaphor. To say “this rock” is a metaphor for St. Peter is a lie from the devil. Our Lord never said it was a metaphor. Upon this rock
Spurgeon reminds us to permit the perspective of God on the death of His people (it is precious in His sight) to colour our grief, so we should have tears, but hopeful joy. Death, too, we may be sure from this statement cannot be any serious detriment to the believer after all; it cannot be any serious loss to a saint to die. Precious in the sight of the Lord
Thabiti recommends a book: "Entitled Glory Road: The Journey of Ten African Americans into Reformed Theology, the book is a collection of ten personal testimonies from African-American pastors recalling both their conversion to Christ and their embrace of the doctrines of grace. I think this book has more potential for spreading and encouraging biblical truth to a predominantly African-American audience than any one I can think of. " A Book Plug by Thabiti Anyabwile
The biggest tax increase in US history has was voted on by lawmakers who didn't read it because it doesn't exist in yet in one copy. Whatever end of the spectrum you find yourself, whether left or right, this can't be a good thing. Big Bill, Unread
Bird lists five author's who have influenced him in different ways. Tagged - Five Influences
Phil Johnson has a bittersweet, sad post, with a pervasive overarching hopeful joy about it, regarding the death of a friend, who has gone to be with the Lord. At Home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5-8)
Here’s an update on Dan Wallace’s work with the CSNTM. New Testament Manuscripts- The Beat Goes On by Daniel B. Wallace
Lisa Robinson at Parchment and Pen, talks about the idea of God as a husband. She is herself a widow. She points out that while she understands the need for God to be our fulfillment, and we know God as Father, God as Provider, God as Protector, and God as Healer, God is not a substitute for a husband, in that God created the husband relationship uniquely between a man and a woman. Some point to the descriptions of God as a husband in the Bible, but this is in the covenantal context with the nation of Israel. Each relationship has a special place and should not be confused with each other. It’s not easy being alone but this isn’t the way to deal with it. God as My Husband-
JT links to Paul Copan’s new book, True for You, But Not for Me- Overcoming Objections to Christian Faith. “True for You, But Not for Me” 2.0
Swan highlights the abortion ambivalence within Roman Catholicism over abortion (i.e. liberal Catholicism, the seemingly straightforward catechism against it, and the answer of a Romanist apologist comparing Catholicism to a big family with adolescents who don’t like everything their parents think but still love them). Quotable Catholics #3- Mark Shea vs Liberal Catholicism
The Obamas apparently have a new pastor: “The Obamas' pastor will be Lieut. Carey Cash, 38 years old, the chaplain who leads the services at Camp David's Evergreen Chapel. Lieut. Cash is a conservative Southern Baptist (a graduate of SWBTS) and the great-nephew of Johnny Cash.” Pray that he would preach/minister the Word of God to them. President Obama's New Pastor (updated)
Genderblog writes that at the SBC, Akin pointed out that nearly 3.5 billion people worldwide exist with no access to the Gospel and three out of four in North America live outside of the grace of God in Christ. Many more women than men are willing to surrender their lives in missions. Akin was blunt: “You say, “Where are the men?” They are sitting at home in their boxer shorts and T-shirts playing video games—that is where the men are. The fact of the matter today is that the median age of those who are addicted to those things (video games) is 34 years old.” The blame falls largely on men. Men- Unplug Your Xbox and Plug Into Global Missions
Burk posts a sad quote from Michael Jackson on his deprived childhood. All I Really Wanted Was a Dad
Challies, commenting on The Third Reich at War, writes that “Whenever I read about Germany in the Second World War, I am amazed that so many normal people, people not unlike you and me, were involved in acts of astounding evil.” It wasn’t just those who were actively involved, but also those who, while disagreeing, lacked the will and courage to stand against the wickedness. Yet Hitler got to put a bullet in his head. Where is the justice? The due reward or punishment for an act? God must punish evil. And Jesus died for His people: We’re shocked that Jesus died in our place. See, we’re not categorically any different than those who most actively perpetrated the evils in Germany. It’s only by God’s grace that we’re not let loose to our evil. While we don’t look forward to the punishment of people with sick glee, we do look forward to justice finally being served. Death isn’t an escape from it. It’s the entrance to the courtroom where perfect justice will be dealt out. Death Is No Escape
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