Triablogue – Engwer writes, “I’ve been having a discussion with an agnostic at TheologyWeb about issues like the empty tomb and whether non-Christian Jews were apathetic about Christianity in its early years. See here, especially starting with post 44...” This is helpful for dealing with those who say Christianity was able to make false historical claims and on account of its enemies’ apathy attain their buy-in early on. Apathy And Hostile Corroboration Of The Empty Tomb
Triablogue: “The End of Christianity in America?: "As sociologist R. Stephen Warner points out, 'What many people have not heard . . . and need to hear is that the great majority of the newcomers are Christians. . . . This means that the new immigrants represent not the de-Christianization of American society but the de-Europeanization of American Christianity.' Contrary to popular opinion, the Church is not dying in America; it is alive and well, but it is alive and well among the immigrant and ethnic minority communities and not among the majority white churches in the United States."” The End of Christianity in America-
Looks useful: Research Tips for Unfamiliar Topics
James White has some cautionary and potent words on the danger of the Romanist gospel, and the fundamental contradiction between the truth of the Gospel and Romanist teachers. “when speaking of spiritual things, even in areas where we would have a surface level agreement (say, in opposing homosexuality and the destruction of marriage) the fact is that on a deeper and even more important level, we are light-years apart from one another.” He interacts here with Lisa Robinson’s rather ecumenical post on Parchment and Pen, which pleas with Protestants not to dismiss what they can learn from Catholics, seemingly softening the dangers and differences by appealing to the development of tradition. White corrects her, saying that Rome does, in fact, produce a "works-based system of merit," once you strip away the pretense of Rome's use of the word "grace." He notes that contemporary synergism in Protestant thinking blurs the concept of grace as well: Sola gratia is mocked when that grace is controlled by the autonomous will of man, and rendered ineffective by that will. He also lists several key areas of blasphemy practiced by Rome, such as prayers to Mary and priests as ‘other Christs’, and the elevation of the bishop of Rome to the Vicar of Christ. White points out the naivety of Lisa’s statement, “It is important to recognize that the first few centuries of the Christian church experienced a universality of doctrine and church practice.” He goes on to ask, how does ‘historical development’, provide a defense for the fundamental alteration of, and addition to, and contradiction of, apostolic teaching as recorded in Scripture? Rome's claims to infallibility constitute a schism from the primitive church, not a mere "development". White points out a number of Robinson’s historical missteps. She is sounding rather Romanist at many points. “If, as she will say later, she is attracted to the desire to maintain the apostolic tradition, why not recognize how often Rome has done the exact opposite? What is the only sure record of apostolic teaching in our possession? Scripture.” http://aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?itemid=4113
Turretinfan, comparing this “Psalm 62:5 My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.”, to this, “Great indeed is Our trust in Mary… Set up between Christ and His Church, Mary (Ubi Primum, Pius IX)”, writes: “The bottom line, dear reader, is this: in whom do you trust? through whom does your salvation come? If it comes through Mary - if you are trusting in her like Pius IX did - you are not properly trusting in Christ, and you will face judgment on that dreadful day of the Lord.” In Whom Do You Trust- Through Whom Does your Salvation Come-
A MacArthur Study Bible ESV. MSB ESV
Some interesting archaeological and textual stuff posted by Wallace here, including Meteora. Stairway to Heaven by Daniel B. Wallace
Parchment and Pen: Patton looks at the question of whether dogs go to heaven, briefly discusses some Scriptures that may have relevance, notes that the text says nothing one way or the other, and concludes that while you could hope that your pet will be in heaven, and the new heaven+earth will likely have animals of every kind, we cannot say with any assurance that it will be your animal. Patton is hopeful that God would restore beloved animals. Fringe Q&A- Do Dogs Go to Heaven-
B2W: CS Lewis on technology+magic: "For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue… For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men; the solution is a technique.” The Connection between Magic and Technology
B2W: JT cites Nancy Guthrie from an interview on helping the church to be a safe place for people to grieve: “They have intense sadness that is lonely and lingering that needs to be respected. They have significant questions that need to be addressed in light of Scripture. They have broken relationships that need to be healed and normalized. They have a deep desire to discover some meaning and purpose in their loss.” It is important to walk with people in expectation that God will do a work of healing in their lives. Trueman notes to loss of the cries of lamentation from the churches: “Perhaps the Western church feels no need to lament—but then it is sadly deluded about how healthy it really is in terms of numbers, influence and spiritual maturity... A diet of unremittingly jolly choruses and hymns inevitably creates an unrealistic horizon of expectation which sees the normative Christian life as one long triumphalist street party—a theologically incorrect and a pastorally disastrous scenario in a world of broken individuals.” Is Your Church a Safe Place for Sad People-
B2W: JT says Peter Kreeft’s The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind The Lord of the Rings is both fun and edifying. The Philosophy of Tolkien
Kinda neat. Byzantine Reader's Edition Is Out! See also here. Interview with Maurice Robinson
“Reports continue to show that vital cell processes depend on finely-tuned proteins and RNA molecules. Most of the papers that discuss these specialized molecules fail to mention how they might have evolved, as shown in three papers in the recent issue of Science.” The post lists three papers as ‘examples of many that are continuously being published in leading journals that (1) explore highly-specific molecules involved in vital cellular processes and (2) say nothing about evolution. Examples could be easily multiplied.’ The post lists papers on muscle motors (myosins, with molecular properties inherent to their assembly leading to high efficiency); ‘junk’ - “It wasn’t long ago when any non-coding region of the genome was considered junk. No longer; lincRNAs are emerging as stars of regulation and control.”; and DNA interstrand cross-link repair. Specialized Molecules Make Cells Work
You’ve heard that apparently humans evolved big brains by eating meat or caring for animals. Paleoanthropologist John Hawks has had enough of this tale-telling: “How did meat make us smarter? Is it a magical meat property? If I fed enough meat to the local deer, would they get smarter?” He did not reject the evolutionary tales outright: “These are serious hypotheses with literature and evidence supporting them,” he claimed. “I just wish that they could be reported in a way that made it sound like paleoanthropologists are skeptical scientists!” Down with Human Evolution Just-So Stories
Challies notes that while the amount of communication in this world is massive, and what has changed is the sheer dominance of modern forms of communications, the scope, the speed, the reach of it, what has no changed is that we do not NEED to communicate all the time – nor is it wise. He says the benefits of technology always come with a cost, and that cost is tied to idolatry (e.g. the idol of sex finds a tool and a boost in the computer). “Idols are typically good things that seek to become ultimate things.” (e.g. the near constant attention to Facebook recent studies have shown). Today teens cannot even shut of a cell phone to sit through a two our movie, obsessions which resemble any other form of addiction. A Japanese study found children with cellphones do not tend to make friendships with those who do not have them. “By all appearances we have made communication into a kind of cultural idol.” Facebook and the cell often serve as enablers to idolatry. We ought then to reckon with the power of words, wither to draw to God, or to distract and destroy. “In an age that can be almost unbearably light, frustratingly anti-intellectual, woefully unspiritual, words have the ability to draw people to what matters most.” The Idol of Communication
Challies points to an interesting editional from the Times on pastoral burnout, which says, “The pastoral vocation is to help people grow spiritually, resist their lowest impulses and adopt higher, more compassionate ways. But churchgoers increasingly want pastors to soothe and entertain them. It’s apparent in the theater-style seating and giant projection screens in churches and in mission trips that involve more sightseeing than listening to the local people.” A La Carte (8/9) ; Congregations Gone Wild
a’Brakel, against Roman Catholicism, which “answers that we must believe it because the church says that it is so,” affirms that while the church is a means by which the Spirit brings man to God’s word, it is not the foundation upon which the faith rests – Scripture is. By virtue of the nature of the Scriptures and the Spirit speaking in them, they are the foundation. The task of persuading someone fully of the truth, especially on account of intellectual corruption, is the Spirit’s (2 Cor 4:13; 1 Cor 12:9; 1 Cor 12:3; 1 John 5:6). a'Brakel on Scripture's Authority
Bayly: This post comments on an all to common event – a practically androgynous wedding. Many Christian weddings today aren’t Christian at all. No command to the wife to obey, no command to the husband to love his wife. God’s word is not spoken, and pastors comply with the world’s desire, becoming ‘nostrums for androgynous persons’. The “wedding made explicit the androgyny evangelical weddings normally leave implicit: the Presbyterian pastor was a woman and one of the two scripture lessons was a reading from Goodridge v. Department of Public Health--the 2003 case of record legalizing same-sex marriage in the state of Massachusetts.” Wedding liturgies- having sown the wind
Turns out heels are bad for women. "Wearing high heels puts extra pressure on the inside of woman's knee, upping her risk for osteoarthritis later in life. Heels also alter muscle and tendon structure. If you choose to wear heels, try not to wear them all the time and do regular stretching." High Heels Cause Long-Term Damage
Young girls in the US are hitting puberty significantly earlier than past generations (or even 1997). “Negative impacts associated with early puberty in girls include increased risk of breast or endometrial cancer later in life, and psychological troubles ranging from low self-esteem and eating problems to depression and suicide.” Interestingly, the article also cites a doctor who says that these girls are more likely to be influenced by ‘deviant’ peers and thus become sexually active earlier – [a rather moral assessment for discovery channel!]. The reasons aren’t understood for why this is happening. http://news.discovery.com/human/girls-puberty.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1
AiG: The phrase, “I believe in evolution!”, uttered passionately at a United Methodist Church annual conference, indicates that the Darwinian Evolutionary worldview is fundamentally a belief system. That and the evolutionary establishment is not as unified as it would like. A petition was put forward to remove the term evolution from the United Methodist Book of Discipline. Over time there have been many hoaxes, outright lies, and substantial changes within the evolutionary model (e.g. almost all evidences at the Scopes trial have been withdrawn by evolutionists themselves). Even today, the notion of gradualism is slipping, as some evolutionists have switched to the mechanism of punctuated equilibrium (relatively “fast evolution”). As for those who take Genesis as poetry [untenable from a literary point of view], or pre-science, Exodus 20:8–11 stands as a brick wall against adding billions of years to the Genesis account. “So is evolution observable science? No, evolution falls under the realm of historical science; it is a belief system about the past. How can an evolutionist believe these things without rigorous scientific proof? The answer is that he wants to. Evolutionists are quite sincere in their beliefs, but ultimately these beliefs are based on their view that the world originated by itself through totally naturalistic processes. There is a term for this type of belief system—that word is religion.” http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2010/08/09/evolutionary-belief-system?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AIGDaily+%28Answers+in+Genesis+Daily+Articles%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
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