Bird at ETC notes a slightly humourous variant, wherein king Joachin in 1 Esdras, who did evil in the eyes of the Lord, is recorded as being 8 years old, instead of 18. He notes the plausibility, if you’ve ever been to an eight year olds birthday party. A Very Naught Eight Year Old
Bayly notes a blog devoting to poking fun at white Christians. Stuff white Christians like
Swan has some quotes from a Roman Catholic debate over prima scriptura (whether it has authority over tradition), and the role and constancy of tradition. Note the lack of unity in light of Rome’s charges against Protestantism. Scott Hahn and Prima Scriptura
While Peter’s words to Simon the Magician in Acts 8:20-23 may seem harsh to our modern ears, they are full of grace. But Simon loved the adoration and respect he had from the crowds as ‘the Great Power of God’, and Simon sought and loved self-glory, a spiritually fatal condition, leaving him in the ‘bond of iniquity’. Both Peter and John themselves had benefited from Christ’s straightforward rebuke; perhaps Simon would as well. When Harsh Words Are Kind
JT posts a quote from Alan Jacobs on the willingness of CS Lewis to be delighted, to be enchanted. C.S. Lewis's Willingness to Be Enchanted and Openness to Delight
Harris links to Regina Spektor’s music video - “Laughing with” – which seems to, wherever she is coming from, speak of the way that suffering strips away a flippant attitude to God. No one is laughing at God in a hospital. Regina Spektor Laughing With Video, Lyrics and Song Meaning
DeYoung posts points from James K. Hoffmeier’s book The Immigration Crisis: Immigrants, Aliens, and the Bible., on the issue of immigration. Book Log- June 2009
Burk writes that Mike Cosper and Sojourn Music have just released another CD, and it is a block-buster: “Over The Grave: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, volume one.” Sojourn Music- The Hymns of Isaac Watts
Mark Strauss has high praise for John Calvin’s commentaries, for, though they are nearly 500 years old, their exegesis and application is still excellent today. Calvin did hermeneutics the way Strauss would teach students to do it, seeking the author’s intent in its own historical and literary context but with an eye on the larger biblical context and the sweeping drama of redemption. Though devotional in character, they are exegetical, not speculative. John Calvin- His legacy in commentaries, not just the institutes by Mark L. Strauss
JT points to the books, Baptism: Three Views (Bruce Ware (Believers' Baptism); Sinclair Ferguson (Infant Baptism); Anthony Lane (Dual-Practice Baptism)), and Understanding Four Views on Baptism (Thomas Nettles (Baptist view: baptism of the professing regenerate by immersion); Richard Pratt Jr. (Reformed view: infant baptism of covenant children); Robert Kolb (Lutheran view: infant baptism of covenant children as a regenerative act); John Castelein (Church of Christ view: baptism of the regenerate by immersion as the occasion for justification)) Baptism- Three Views
JT explains that one reason eh is credobaptist is that a key difference between the old and new covenants is that in the former, the elect/redeemed/remant/spiritually circumcised are a subset of the covenant community/physically circumcised, while in the latter, by definition one is a covenant member if he is elect/redeemed/remnant/spiritually circumcised, for entrance is based on new birth, marked by baptism passing from life to death. He cites Carson, who points out the promise that there will be a time when the people will not say “the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (Jer. 31:30), which under the Mosaic covenant is a picture of the history of Israel. "They will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest" doesn’t mean no teachers, but no mediators: “The nature of the new covenant not be overlooked: as foreseen in the prophecy of Jeremiah, it is the abrogation of an essentially tribalistic covenantal structure in favor of one that focuses on the immediate knowledge of God by all people under the new covenant, a knowledge of God that turns on the forgiveness of sin and the transformation of the heart and mind.” The entire covenant community will have personal knowledge of God. What's So New About the New Covenant-
T-fan argues that we know God through the external ministry of the word and the internal ministry of the Spirit. He argues that faith is necessary for the knowledge of God, and that downplaying this for the sake of a more persuasive apologetic is sad. It’s largely right, T-fan says, to ask people to just believe that the Bible is God’s word, although there are reasons for it – but not proofs (proof would remove faith, in his view). He argues from 2 Cor. 13:1-6 that Paul’s proof that Christ was speaking in him for the believers is the testimony of the Spirit in the life of those believers. Second, arguing from the promises of the new covenant, regeneration, and so on, T-fan writes that it is the Spirit of God that permits us to hear, to know, and to remember the Word of God. It is by faith in him that we can know anything with absolute confidence. Knowledge of God
Hays (who has in this discussion argues that 1 Cor. 10 and the promise regarding temptation is particular to apostasy, and has support from non-calvinist commentators; i.e. if Corinth persist in idolatry/immorality common at social events, they would apostasize from Christ, but God won’t let this happen), in responding to an Arminian, points out that the Arminian claims to quote “Calvinist” commentaries, yet does so against perseverance of the saints, which is rather odd, since by definition a Calvinist holds perseverance of the saints to be true. Much of the post is pointing out the rhetorical posturing of the Arminian. Some other points: i) It’s a false dichotomy to drive a wedge between exegesis and defending a position. ii) Marginalizing material rather than interacting with it is not an argument, but perhaps a tacit admission of defeat. iii) One should not assume that just because a response interacts at the level of an argument that this is all that there is to be said. iv) Again, the context of 10:13 is idolatrous apostasy, and the connection between the two, which forms the background for the promise to believers. Grumbling and complaining have an OT context in relation to apostasy – they illustrate a common motif, as historical precedents for idolatrous apostasy. v) To the argument that a person, the weak believer, can be destroyed eschatologically (i.e. the same sense as idolatry in chapter 10) by eating foods sacrificed to idols (the dichotomy alleged is: “Either deny that such a case of idolatry necessarily constitutes apostasy (contrary to his prior claims), or affirm that one for whom Christ died can be ‘destroyed’ (contrary to his Calvinistic belief in limited atonement and inevitable perseverance).”), Hays quotes a few more non-Calvinist scholars who reject eschatological ruin, taking it as an existential ruin, based on the verb being an ongoing process rather than a finalized destruction, and the fact that eschatological ruin makes no sense of conscience violation. He also points out that a warning says nothing of whether the warning will be violated. Also, idolatry involves idolatrous intent, so the dichotomy is false. vi) The Arminian has his own problem: If every sin represents a falling away (as he loosely construes 10:13), and if he denies that 10:13 furnishes a promise of divine protection against spiritual defection, then every Christian is hellbound since every Christian sins. vii) Hays describes the Arminian’s position as an Arminian form of deism in which God equips human beings in general, or Christians in particular, with certain abilities or potencies, then leaves them to sink or swim. viii) The idea that God does not tempt in James 1:13 is not that there will not be temptations, for God Himself brings about trials with temptations intrinsic to them (1:12), and this temptation is itself a test, but rather, God does not seek to induce sin in His people and destroy their faith. Thus, if God creating tempting situations is an argument against Calvinism, it’s an argument against Arminianism. ix) In mocking predestination, the Arminian ends up mocking the Biblical reality that God does put individuals or larger groups in tempting situations for the express purpose of subsequently delivering them from the ordeal which God himself set up – such as Abraham, Job, the Israelites, and son. x) Arminians who tout the real ability to choose between real legitimate alternative possibilities, saying a person is free to sin or not sin, neglect the reality that God uses sin to further His appointed ends, and that men like Pharaoh, Pilate, and so on, did not have the actual liberty to release the Israelites, not crucify Christ, etc. because God was using their actions to advance his plan of redemption. And yet they sinned. A ‘choice’ doesn’t have to be between polar opposites. God has closed the door on apostasy so believers are free to choose otherwise. Moreover, Corinthians is a public letter, and nominal believers have no guarantees. Faith, hop and charity, and the greatest of these is hop
AiG points out that a uniformitarian system is a belief about the past because the past cannot be reproduced and tested. Moreover, the only reason why they can hold such a belief is because the Creator is consistent and uniform in His character, and faithfully governs present processes in a consistent way. Creationists can, on the basis of God’s consistency, legitimately extrapolate the present to the past, while governing their understanding by God’s revealed word. Unbelievers dismiss the example of Mount St. Helens as ‘tired’ only because they fail to reckon with the implications of it. They usually aim to employ the scientific method to repeatedly test the past by using the present, and only naturalistic processes (no Creator God is allowed to interfere) are allowable in explaining the earth’s history. But the past is gone; so, it cannot be repeated and tested in the present. The scientific methods in operational science cannot be utilized in origins science, which is based on beliefs (yes, faith) about what happened in the past. http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2009/05/29/feedback-having-it-both-ways
T-fan links to an article detailing alleged findings of dinosaur proteins: Evidence for Recent Fossilization
Broughton Knox’s third principle of prayer is that it consists of requests (see the Lord’s prayer). We are often invited to bring our petitions to God. We pray that God’s name be hallowed, that God’s kingdom be inaugurated, for gifts, for forgiveness, for guidance, for deliverance. It is an eminently God-glorifying God-centred activity. “there is nothing more desirable than that men and women everywhere should acknowledge God as he really is, that is, should hallow his name. What a change it would make to our world! This should be the first prayer on our lips, for it should be the constant longing of our heart.” “Voiceless prayer is not Christian prayer because it has no place for requests, of which Christian prayer (as taught by our Lord) consists.” Knox’s seven principles of prayer (Part III- Request)
JT quotes Jowett: “I have a conviction that no sermon is ready for preaching, not ready for writing out, until we can express its theme in a short, pregnant sentence as clear as a crystal.” He exhorts preachers to discard all fluff, to aim at this. This singular sentence must emerge, clear and lucid, before preaching, or even writing the sermon. JT cites Edwards as a good example of this. The Connection between Clear Thinking and Good Preaching
Russ Moore continues his answer to the ethical dilemma, focusing on how to practically act with respect to the daughter of a man who has converted, but had a ‘sex change’ before, and whose daughter thinks he is a she. Simply put, honesty is the best course now, for either way, the daughter’s life is not normal, but traumatic. Continuing the illusion is more traumatic. The question is whether the people of Christ will be there to help through the trauma. Moore recommends that the father explain that he was confused, that he felt like a girl and tried to live like a girl for years, but now he is changed in Christ and has a new start – Jesus is putting his life back together, as a man. How the Gospel Ministers to the Transgendered, Part IV
Rooks (a type of crow) have demonstrated meta-tool capability – the ability to use a tool to use another tool to do something (for example, bending metal wire into a hook to be used to grab a bucket of food – on the first try). Note that it’s not only chimps that have incredible animal intelligence. Also, a ‘blob’ of rock seeping through the crust under Nevada reminds us the earth is far more dynamic than it seems to us on solid ground. Also, some scientists continue to grasp at straws, pointing to formic acid in a meteor, which hypothetically could maybe possibly help DNA form. http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2009/05/30/news-to-note-05302009
An advance has been made in the field of limb regeneration, in that the process by which salamander limb regrowth occurs is better understood. It is noteworthy, in terms of the embryonic stem cell debate, that the cells do not need to reach full pluripotency, but rather tissue specific cells regenerate the limb. Mystery of Salamander Limb Regrowth Solved
Keith Mathison at Ligonier blog has a list of his top 5 commentaries on each book of the Bible. Top Five Commentaries
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