2010-08-28

Dusman points to a fascinating article which provides an analysis of religious teenagers. The article cites a prof at Princeton, and says “more American teenagers are embracing what she calls "moralistic therapeutic deism." Translation: It's a watered-down faith that portrays God as a "divine therapist" whose chief goal is to boost people's self-esteem.” Dusman comments that while the article intimates that those who come from evangelical backgrounds are better grounded in their faith, this isn’t what he sees on campuses in Greensboro NC. He can’t tell, based on content, whether a kid grew up in the liberal UMC or the SBC. More Teens Becoming Fake christians

In light of critics who claim that the reported suicide of Judas in Matthew and Luke reflect independent and divergent traditions, Hays argues that both reports contain allusions to the death of the Saulides in 2 Sam 21. He then enumerates the common motifs. Numerous motifs intersect with these ones from 2 Sam. 21: i) Bloodguilt ii) Hanging iii) “Falling” iv) “Mountain” v) Silver coinage. vi) Numerology (7 sons) vii) David. Individually these may be coincidental, but the number of intersections suggest both NT accounts were written to evoke the cautionary OT precedent. The would in turn reflect a common historical and hermeneutical tradition for Luke and Matthew. The fate of Judas

Hays has a reflection on 2 Tim 4:6-8. He discusses the paradox – the journey of the Christian pilgrimage is long, but we’re usually young and strong when we begin, with much energy. The aging running has less ground to cover, though. But he’s bone-weary. Every step is hard. He’s fallen many times, been injured, used to sprint, etc. Some of his companions have gone on ahead. Others fell behind. Others dropped out. He doesn’t quite know where the end is. There’s no going back, but there’s no skipping ahead. Sad experience has taught him that short-cuts take longer. Whenever he feels like collapsing, something unexpected keeps him going. But one morning he gets up, and as he heaves his way up another hill, he catches a glimpse of the heavenly spires. A cloud of witnesses is standing at the finish line to welcome him. Running the race

Has has a satire here involving a snowglobe, and I think materialism, which is just hilarious. Well, I thought it was funny. The view from the snowglobe

Hays writes, “Catholic revert Francis Beckwith walked out on Mass last Sunday after encountering something “worse than you can imagine.” The offending event was nothing short of an “abomination,” which left him duly “scandalized.” And what was the unimaginable abomination, you ask? Was it the prospect of receiving communion from the hands of a child molester. Was it a syncretistic homily, a la Vatican II? No. It was some bubblegum music performed by teen celebrants.” Good to see returning to Rome hasn’t dulled his keen sense of moral priorities. A hill to die on

Piper: “I hope that everybody will be discerning whether John Piper has positioned himself in their heart as a faithful minister of the gospel to them or as an icon of whatever inappropriate kind. Let the church be cleansed and purified in my absence and say, "OK, it was nice to have John for these reasons, but God is God, and the Spirit is the Spirit, and the gospel is the gospel, and there are other people who can communicate those truths to us."” He wants Bethlehem Baptist to grow in their mature freedom from an excessive dependence on anything about Piper that’s not Gospel, humble and Godward. More faith in a sovereign God and less faith in John. John Piper's Desires for Bethlehem During His Leave

Challies posts a prayer for public worship from puritan Matthew Henry. A Prayer for Public Worship

AiG comments on the recent news that the sun is interfering with the decay rate of isotopes [By the way, I’ll interject at this point and say that I remember creationists saying this in 2005]. “Stanford physicist Peter Sturrock said of the discovery, “Everyone thought it must be due to experimental mistakes, because we’re all brought up to believe that decay rates are constant.” Now, the scientists have hypothesized that the sun is, in a way, “communicating” (to use Fischbach’s word) with radioactive isotopes on earth. This may occur through the transmission of solar neutrinos, which the sun radiates toward earth, although the science behind such an effect is unknown.” Radioactive decay is not as constant, nor as understood, as old-earth creationists and evolutionists have insisted. Nevertheless, radiometric dating of rocks won’t fall out of fashion yet; as long as one assumes a relatively constant fluctuation in solar activity across millions of years of history, the old-earth conclusions of radiometric dating hold up. But once again, the issue is which assumptions one begins with. News to Note, August 28, 2010

CMI has a helpful corrective against the unnecessary inference or argument that the world is at the centre of the universe: “it does not necessarily follow that we are at or were at the exact centre physically. Certainly we are at the centre of His attention, but our planet Earth is not at the centre of the solar system either, that would not be a good place to live, neither is our solar system at the centre of the galaxy etc. To force some preferred notion of perfection by being at the centre could well be similar to the Aristotelian notion of perfect circles in astronomy of the solar system 2000 years back, which proved to be quite incorrect.” http://creation.com/is-earth-universe-centre

Challies cites Nancy Pearcy: While Christians are often accused of being prudes, the truth is that Christianity has a much more respectful view of our psycho-sexual identity. The Bible elevates sex to the position God wishes it to have while Liberalism lowers it to something so much less than God wants it to be. Scripture offers a stunningly high view of physical union as a union of whole persons across all dimensions. (e.g. Matt 19:6). Liberalism treats sex as instrumental to extrinisic goals, such as physical pleasure or expressing affection. Liberals don’t object to any form of sexual relation as long as it meets extrinsic goals. A biblical worldview treats sex as intrinsically good in constituting the one-flesh relationship. In Scripture, the marital metaphor, such as Israel as the unfaithful wife, or the church as the bride of Christ, means that our sexual nature possesses a “language” that is ultimately meant to proclaim God’s own transcendent love and faithfulness. Prudes and Puritans

DeYoung posts an interesting video on the composition of congregational Christian music. DeYoung writes, “Considering the sad paucity of Psalm singing in our churches, this is an album pastors and music leaders  should seriously consider purchasing.” New Parish Psalms

Trueman has another article on Luther and the Jews. He writes, “while we today find Luther's 1543 work, On the Jews and their Lies, extraordinarily vile and offensive, it was, sadly, in many ways a rather conventional piece for the time.  I also noted that Luther was also not operating with racial categories: he consider Jews evil because they opposed the gospel, not because they were racially inferior.” The road between Luther and Auschwitz is a complicated one which defies direct and simplistic attempts to make him one of the primary historical culprits. Trueman draws the application that the whole matter should be a salutary warning that Christians need to pray continually that they will finish well. The sins of youth are terrible enough; for some, the sins of old age are even worse. Luther and the Jews III- Lessons (Carl Trueman)

T-fan shows here that Thomas Aquinas did not believe that Mary's conception was immaculate. He provides a lengthy quote from Aquinas and highlights clear points which deny the immaculate conception. He then shows how early church fathers also didn’t except Mary from original sin. Thomas Aquinas (and the Fathers of the Church) on Mary's non-Immaculate Conception

Beggar’s All: Luther's contrast between philosophy and theology is an exhortation to study the Scriptures as divine revelation. He passionatley appeals to his students that no one makes a prey of them by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition. Luther says elsewhere, Philosophy does not understand sacred things, and argues against mixing it with theology. Rather than persuing philsophical speculation, Luther exhorts his pupils to "undertake new studies and learn Jesus Christ, 'and Him crucified' (1 Cor. 2:2)." Luther-Philosophy Should Be Learned To Be Refuted

Helm discusses whether the idea of the eternal covenant of redemption tends to tritheism. He begins with the economy of redemption and works backwards. “If the relations between the persons of the Trinity in the economy are in harmony with the mutuality of the persons of the Trinity, then it is hard to see how the eternal covenant of redemption could fail to be an expression of the same sort of relationship.” “What of the pre-temporal situation? We may say this: if the economic relations between the persons are compatible with full Trinitarianism, then so must the pre-temporal arrangements be.” [Historically] it seems that ironically the tendency was entirely the other way, the expunging of the mystery of the Trinity in rationalistic Unitarianism.  The Covenant of Redemption and Tritheism

Helm continues discussion Vanhoozer’s Remythologizing Theology and The Drama of Doctrine. “we’ve been asking if the Bible itself is a theological book, or simply raw data to which we come with our theory-laden agendas.” “Vanhoozer strongly conveys the impression that is characteristic of the modern theological mood, that in regard to the theologian’s relation to Scripture, the theologian always has the initiative.” But it is impossible for the modern theologian to retain the initiative consistently. “For example, according to Vanhoozer what we need is an account of God as engaging in triune communicative agency. But how has that small word ‘triune’ slipped in?” The trinity, is that a theory? Does the Bible teach the trinity, or not? The answer is obvious. The theologian cannot start from scratch not only because there is a history of theology that we inherit, but also because the Bible itself presents us with a theology. Helm notes that the Drama of Doctrine an advance on the earlier book, one reason for which more recognition is given to the creedal language of Scripture than earlier. But it’s not enough. “His present proposal is meant to provide a theological framework in which doctrine as dramatical direction is understood, but it still goes nowhere near enough to acknowledging and giving importance to the fact that the Bible is full of what I have called‘one liners’.” Vanhoozer V - Don't Forget the Oneliners