2010-01-05

Aristotle produced a work called Physics, which was a treatise into nature and motion, covering a variety of topics. His analysis includes the establishment of the ‘unmoved mover’ of the universe, a supra-physical entity without which the universe could not continue to exist. Philosophy Word of the Day – Aristotle’s Natural Philosophy

ETC reports that ‘Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams is involved in the search for "the real Jesus of the Gospels" as part of a new seven-part television series for BBC Channel 4 called "The Bible: A History."’ Adams was a former supporter of political violence (e.g. IRA). Though he intends to focus of Jesus’ teachings of love, forgiveness, and repentance, former Tory minister Lord Tebbit, injured in an IRA bombing, laughed as he said he hopes Adams comes across the doctrine of hell and judgment for unrepentant murderers. Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams in Search for Jesus and Papyrus 45

Bayly cites the NYT: “Avatar is Cameron’s long apologia for pantheism — a faith that equates God with Nature, and calls humanity into religious communion with the natural world, (leading us to) collapse distinctions at every level of creation.” Ross Douthat. A movie isn’t just a movie. [I would note that somewhat ironically even Cameron can’t actually stomach pantheism, as he has to explain it in scientific terms even within the movie as a massive planet-wide biological neural network…] The Gospel according to James (Cameron)

Phillips cites Matt. 22:34-40, noting that the universe would be turned on its head if a raging and all-consuming love for God was not the greatest commandment – a commandment chosen in the inerrancy of divine wisdom. What isn’t immediately transparent to us, but it is to God, is the second commandment. And this isn’t set as a contrast “A, but also B”, but rather, “A (love God), and B (love neighbour”). They are inseparable in God’s mind – you can’t love God if you don’t love your neighbour (1 John 3:17; 4:20); you can’t love your neighbour if you do not love God. The second commandment is like the first in that both have a personal object. The second grows from the first. The first command send us to God, who sends us to our neighbour (1 Jn. 5:3; 3:23). “A God-hating people-lover is under God's condemnation. A people-hating God-lover is under God's condemnation.” And the second is — not in competition with it, but rather... (Part One)

White comments on the angry, irrational protest to Brit Hume’s comments that Tiger Wood’s turn to Christ and find redemption. Hume is right; Buddhism offers no redemption or forgiveness, instead directing one to look inward for enlightenment and eventual freedom from suffering. Secularists are enraged that he would actually dare to express his thoughts in public, for secularism is an all-encompassing worldview, and it cannot tolerate the expression of dissenting views in its holiest place – the media. For them, it’s not what Hume, but that he said it. Freedom of speech is surely endangered. Brit Hume Incident Illustrates Secularism's Hatred of Christianity

Burk writes on the above, “For me, the story here is not the controversy surrounding Hume’s remarks. That’s to be expected. What’s notable here is the fact that a senior news analyst had the courage to speak of Christ in a difficult place. Would that more of us might be so bold.” He cites Hume explaining that speaking the name Jesus Christ has always been explosive, and that the Bible predicts that it will elicit strong reactions in those who do not accept the faith. In this case, the objections are that Hume was proselytizing and that he knocked on Buddhism in the process. Offering Redemption and Forgiveness

Challies has a glowing review for The Trellis and the Vine. “The Trellis and the Vine is a metaphor Colin Marshall and Tony Payne use to introduce a mind-shift in ministry that they insist will change everything. That is no small claim. A trellis, of course, is a structure that is used to support, to hold up, a vine. In this metaphor the trellis refers to the administrative work within a church, those tasks that, though important, are not actually directly related to discipling people. Vine work, on the other hand, is those tasks of working with the vine, drawing people into the kingdom through evangelism and then training them to grow in their knowledge of God and their obedience to him.” The Trellis and the Vine

Clint Humfrey discusses the disappearance of godly and biblically conservative Bible colleges in Canada (the list is very short). Even in the USA they are dwindling, especially under tough economic pressures. Now, it’s not mismanagement; most profs are paid ‘starvation wages’. There are few tenured ‘fat cat’ profs. Those colleges that come back from debt generally engaged in deep cuts and campaign style fund-raising and tuition hikes. One such effort was led by one who appears to be more of a savvy amoral politician than the head of a school aimed at serving churches. But is this a good way to save such an institution?  Who Laments the Vanishing Bible College- Part I

Phillips really likes the Christmas album, ‘The Greatest Gift’, by Alexis Cole. Read on for the musical details. The Greatest Gift, by Alexis Cole — music review

Piper writes, “you won't come to Bethlehem College to learn a trade or a profession. You come to learn how to learn for the rest of your life—with the glory of Jesus Christ at the center of every idea and every event. We want to impart "habits of mind" that fit students for life-long, Christ-exalting learning.” Thanking God for Bethlehem College

DeYoung posts a letter from a woman who learned the lessons of biblical womanhood and uniqueness the hard way. He incidentally notes that he rejects the idea that a young woman working outside the home is a sin ('i.e. 'what was ‘stay at home’ before the industrial revolution?’). Often stay at home moms are very busy with things that take them outside the home – don’t legislate what the Bible does not. Now God’s word instructs the young women to be busy at home (Titus 2:5) and a helpmate to their husbands (Gen. 2:18), and this means something, and manhood and womanhood are not interchangeable. Speaking of a blogger she likes in the letter, this woman writes, “she seems to have grasped, early on, some essential fact about gender relations that no one ever told my husband or me. Those brave and brainy revolutionaries who raised us – parents, professors, Self magazine – never so much as hinted that someday we might want to act like men and women. Having dodged that retrograde fate, we had turned into neutered freaks, mired in resentments and domestic dysfunction. Our lucky kids!” “Nothing Can Unsex Me If I Don’t Let It”

Another quote from Aquinas on the primacy of Scripture, and what virtues are known only through Scripture to us: “Such like principles are called "theological virtues": first, because their object is God, inasmuch as they direct us aright to God: secondly, because they are infused in us by God alone: thirdly, because these virtues are not made known to us, save by Divine revelation, contained in Holy Writ.” The Theological Virtues Only Known to Us Through Scripture

From Mohler: Hindsight — The Most Newsworthy Events of 2009

T-fan posts an index to his posts on Aquinas, including indices of his works, Sola Scriptura, and on other topics like the virginity of Mary. Aquinas – Index

Full-body scanners likely wouldn’t work against terrorist attacks like those on Christmas Eve. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/are-planned-airport-scanners-just-a-scam-1856175.html [This is what I have been saying – a man lights his underwear on fire, and what do our nations do? They call for full-body scanners (which wouldn’t have caught the explosives); they ban carry on (though the man didn’t use carry on); and they implement pat-downs for everyone (though this wouldn’t have caught the bomb either). All of the privacy violations, none of the security. Al Qaeda must be pleased, not in the least because of the deleterious economic effects of the slow-downs caused by all the ineffective security measures.] Consider this: Fixing Security Issue Isn't Always the Right Answer

Neat. Mark Dever’s study. If You Ever Wanted to Look in Mark Dever’s Study

CJ Mahaney tells his assistant and secretary, “We’ll try again tomorrow” when he leaves for the day, which is a statement embodying the inadequacy and failure of their efforts during the day, and the resolve to, Lord willing, come back tomorrow and by His grace try to serve Him faithfully to His glory. Carolyn thinks that’s some good advice for the new year (Phil. 3:13-14). Try Again This Year

Hays satirically illustrates some of the holes in Roman Catholic sacerdotalism as it relates to baptism. Pedal justification

“Evolutionists believe it is necessary to get chemicals up to the point of replication before Darwinian evolution can come into play to build them into giraffes and eagles (given millions of years, of course).  But because it is difficult to imagine a chance formation of nucleic acids (the “genetics first” theory), it has become popular in certain camps to change approaches and imagine metabolism coming into existence first.  These “metabolism first” scenarios envision self-perpetuating cycles of chemical reactions as the first stages in the origin of life.  A team of scientists just showed it won’t work.” The evolutionists who produced the paper also chastised their brethren for misapplying Darwinian terminology to chemicals. Moreover, aside from their false presupposition that life is defined by its ability to undergo Darwinian evolution; “what they really mean is that a lack of accurate genetic replication forbids Darwinian evolution.  But the lack of accurate genetic replication forbids life itself, too, so they lose either way.” Nature has turned naturalism against itself. http://creationsafaris.com/crev201001.htm#20100105a

Slovak police have planted explosives on eight unsuspecting airline passengers – one made it through. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8441891.stm

Patton discusses the lamentable state of the Evangelical mind, in the words of Mark Noll: The scandal of the Evangelical mind is that there is not much of an Evangelical mind.” Today, the children of evangelicalism bitterly pout about their heritage and demand that all things must change, without really knowing why or how. Bill Hybels has confessed that his seeker-sensitive approach is bankrupt. But still we haven’t seen much progress toward a reformation of the mind. People are crying out for truth, for something to believe – but not just anything. They want an understanding of the truth they have ownership in. Real, biblical, mind-stimulating to heart-satisfying, historically sound teaching. Many have never had a chance to really believe, beyond emotional persuasion. Many have never really known and have never had the scandal relieved in their minds. So Packer: ““It has often been said that Christianity in North America is 3,000 miles wide and half an inch deep.” People are biblically ignorant, because “the teaching mode of Christian communication is out of fashion, and all the emphasis in sermons and small groups is laid on experience in its various aspects.” “The result is a pietist form of piety, ardent and emotional, in which realizing the reality of fellowship with the Father and the Son is central while living one’s life with Spirit-given wisdom and discernment is neglected both as a topic and as a task.” “Christianities” that care more for experiences of life than for principles of truth will never strengthen churches nor glorify God. Packer is convinced recovery depends on the historical practice of catechesis, of systematic instruction. J. Gresham Machen says “False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the Gospel.” When did we forget that they are as much our enemies as Satan, poverty, and death? We must be preaching and teaching true doctrine with the result that everyone will be complete in Christ. When did teaching become secondary to everything else? How shall we escape if we neglect teaching? The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind Sixteen Years Later

If you haven’t seen Ignatius the Ultimate Youth Pastor at your own local youth conference, here’s a video. http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2009/08/27/ignatius-ultimate-youth-pastor/

An advice column in the UK is based on evolution. Here’s a sample of some advice given to a woman with two men in her life: “Some Darwinists might say your optimal strategy would be to pair-bond with the older male but surreptitiously allow the younger, sexy male to fertilise you.” http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2010/01/05/evolutionary-problem-column?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AIGDaily+%28Answers+in+Genesis+Daily+Articles%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Because the essence of total depravity is enmity to God, preachers pray, and they must not buy the lie that they should be doing something better with their time. This is also why there is nothing more humbling than evangelism. This is why we pray by Aaron Menikoff

Hays responds to the Romanist charge, “Protestantism of whatever variety has no way, even in principle, to distinguish consistently between propositions that call for the assent of divine faith and propositions expressing plausible opinions which might well turn out to be wrong.” i) This position means that whether we interpret NT Christology as Arians or in orthodox terms it comes down to an arbitrary choice between equally plausible or rationally defensible positions. ii) It implies that even sophisticated Catholics have no more theological discernment than the old ladies passing out Watchtower tracts. iii) Claiming that the JW’s interpretation is just as plausible/rationally defensible does nothing for one’s credibility, except to say ‘be a Catholic because your judgment is no better than a cult member’s’. iv) The elders at Ephesus would, by this Romanist reasoning, be unable to make use of 1 John to condemn antinomianism or docetism; these would be just as plausible as orthodoxy. Even though it’s written to authoritatively settle a theological controversy, it does not actually command our assent. v) That’s how far removed the Catholic mindset is from the NT. vi) Yet, ironically, the Romanist appeals to argumentation and interpretation of dogma. But “why is the interpretation of Scripture reducible to a variety of rationally defensible opinions, but the interpretation of dogma is exempt from the same pluralism?” Arian wolves in papal vestments

Genderblog has a review here. “While Julie and Julia was made with a secular world-view (often times even idolizing cooking), it survives only off of borrowed capital. Only within the worldview that presupposes God’s creative design for men and women does the love for Julia Child’s creative mind make sense.”: Reflections on Julie and Julia