Wednesday, September 8, 2010

2010-09-08

  • Hays has some comments on the Qur’an burning. i) First, this is one of those intrinsically unimportant events that only assumes an artificial importance because some people act as if it’s truly important. Like celebrity scandals. ii) We shouldn’t go out of our way to be offensive, hence this pastor is wrong-headed. Giving offense seems to be his only goal. iii) There’s a long tradition of protest art in the USA. Yet we don’t hear high-ranking gov’t official denounce these calculated impieties when Christianity is the target of sacrilegious art by ‘radical’ artists. iv) We’ve also been hectored and lectured by the chattering classes on how anybody who opposes the Ground Zero mosque is a racist or bigot or both. v) Gen. Petraeus is rightly concerned about the impact on American forces abroad. Yet it also exposes the dilemma of our counterterrorism strategy. We’re trying to recruit moderate Muslims to defeat militant Muslims. The distinction between Muslim allies and Muslim enemies is exceedingly tenuous. “Our Muslim “allies” will turn on us in the blink of an eye if a small-time pastor of a small-time church in a nation of 300 million inhabitants does something to inflame the hypersensitive feelings of the Muslim world. ”  Allies or enemies-

  • Here’s another post on Hawking from Columbia. “Steven Hawking has a new book out this week, called The Grand Design and written with Leonard Mlodinow, in which he effectively announces that he has given up:” Formerly he argued that we were quite close to a final unified theory. Now, he is signing on to the notion that “M-theory” is the theory of everything. Hawking’s book makes the argument that i) Our TOE must contain gravity. ii)Supersymmetry is required to have a finite theory of gravity. iii) M-theory is the most general supersymmetric theory of gravity. Ergo, M-theory is the unified theory Einstein was hoping to find. But this isn’t exactly airtight. Hawking describes a good model: “1. Is elegant 2. Contains few arbitrary or adjustable elements 3. Agrees with and explains all existing observations 4. Makes detailed predictions about future observations that can disprove or falsify the model if they are not borne out.” He doesn’t note though that M-theory satisfies none of these. The book contains rather little substantive science. There are no references of any kind to any other sources. The discussion of supersymmetry and M-theory is often highly misleading. The book’s rather conventional claim that “God is unnecessary” for explaining physics and early universe cosmology has provided a lot of publicity for the book. The author writes, “I’m in favor of naturalism and leaving God out of physics as much as the next person, but if you’re the sort who wants to go to battle in the science/religion wars, why you would choose to take up such a dubious weapon as M-theory mystifies me…. the kind of pseudo-science going on here and being promoted in this book isn’t obviously any better than the faith-based explanations of how the world works favored by conventional religions.” http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=3141

  • Solapanel has a post on Preaching hell from the Bible, which springboards of the 9Marks e-journal.

  • White writes, “Meanwhile, I was reminded today of the fact that the US military had "taken into custody," and, we are told, burned, an entire supply of Bibles that were translated into the local languages in Afghanistan. I did specifically protest that absurd act---but unlike Muslims in Indonesia and elsewhere who are threatening to kill and maim and burn and destroy, I did none of those things. I simply recognized that any government that would burn the Bible so as to attempt to pacify Muslims is unwise, and should not be asking for God's blessing upon their actions. ” OK, Enough of the Small Congregation Bashing!

  • Some thoughts from Reformation21 on the Qur’an burning, and how a pastor of a church of 50 is a world-wide lightning rod: “First, Islam has a seat at the table. Would NPR care if some unknown person in a suburb of a college town leads a handful of people in burning of The Wiccan Book of Ceremonies and Rituals? Probably not. But attack the revered book of Islam and heads of states take time out of their day to address the world. You may not know how to respond to Islam, but you cannot ignore it.”  ii) There are no purely private actions and ideas. iii) Although media on every side is in agreement about the pastor's plan, that should not give us reason to think we are all on the same team. Yes, we all shake our heads at this poor, misguided, unthinking, disrespectful, uncouth, uninformed - call him what you will - but to think that thoughtful evangelicals and the cultural establishment are buddies is to demonstrate an uncritical naivety. Some Thoughts on Book Burning (Jeremy Smith)

  • Burk writes that not one more second of media attention should be granted to the Koran-burning pastor in Florida. The pastor doesn’t represent evangelical Christians, mainline Christians, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, or any other mainstream religious group that calls itself “Christian.” In fact, every “Christian” leader that I have seen to weigh-in on the topic has roundly denounced this plan to burn Korans. He adds, “I agree with Al Mohler that this will not serve the purposes of the gospel. I agree with Trevin Wax that this is a faux controversy that has been manufactured by the media. I agree with Tony Reinke that Acts 19:11-20 in no way supports burning Korans…. Why comment on a crackpot pastor’s publicity stunt that in no way represents how American Christians feel, much less how Americans in general feel? Nevertheless, the media has been playing this story as if Koran-burning were an evangelical pastime.” I agree with Hillary Clinton

  • In light of the impending publically announced burning of the Qur’an by a church in the USA, this post has six points: i) The Ephesian Christians burned their own books. ii) No Christian leader encouraged this burning – there is nothing indicating that they advised people to burn or sell the books. iii) The books posed no threat to the Gospel. The gospel overcame the magic power of the books. The gospel is like a hurricane and nothing will stop its wind, certainly not a book of demonic spells. iv) God’s display of power convinced the people that their books were worthless. There was no need to address the value of the magic books directly. v) The book burning was a display of godly sorrow. The high value of the books highlights this.vi) The burning illustrated the victory of the Gospel. These points should make us very hesitant about burning other people’s religious books. If we take our eyes off the Gospel, we will be tempted to settle for the sparks of a small bonfire in a parking lot. http://spurgeon.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/on-burning-religious-books/

  • The Universe says that Hawking doesn’t exist. "You humans naively assume that 'physicists' exist, who discover theories," said the Universe. "But I did it all. Me. The transitory entity known to you as 'Stephen Hawking' is merely an epiphenomenon of the laws of nature, otherwise known as Me, the Universe itself. Mindless physical stuff, the only thing that ever really existed, or ever will exist." … "I wrote this article, for instance. Interviewed myself. Wrap your minds -- which you don't possess, actually -- around that, you bits of unreal cosmic debris." http://www.evolutionnews.org/2010/09/hawking_not_needed_to_explain037911.html

  • Bayly writes, “Like Joseph Smithism, Mohammedanism is not all it's cracked up to be. The best way to understand it may be to think of an heretical polar opposite to dispensationalism. With Islam, it's not the Old, but the New Testament that's thrown out. And yet it's not the Old Testament left intact, but the Old Testament eviscerated of the Fatherhood of God, with only a terribly perverted law and justice remaining.” In Islam it is the Judaizers run amock without the ministry of the Holy Spirit to apply God's grace to our hearts leading us to repentance and faith, and no power of the Holy Spirit to make us holy. Bayly notes that what remains is the morality of men who fight their enemies by blowing their women and children to smithereens with suicide bombs; who replace the women in bondage at home with young effeminate boys who dance dressed as women and then, later in the evening, are taken to a hotel room where they're gang-raped (the practice of ‘bachabaze’). This practice is growing throughout Afghanistan. And the moral here is not that perversion is at the heart of Islam, but that perversion is at the heart of man. Only the grace and mercy of Jesus can defeat it. Too ashamed to admit that it even exists

  • Oh priceless. Instead of Burning A Qur'an, Why Not Actually Read It-

  • Paul Tripp writes to those who struggle with God’s sovereignty; i.e. why has He ordained the things that He has? Tripp draws an analogy with parents and children, in that children simply don’t have the categories to understand the plan and command with which parents operate. Indeed, they think they know better! But real rest is found in trusting the Person who is in control of the things you don't understand. He is willing to have the conversation with you again and again, and he has made sure that his Word assures you of his rule again and again. (For just a few examples, see 1 Chronicles 29:11-12, Psalm 103:19, Psalm 115:3, Proverbs 21:1, Isaiah 46:9-10, Daniel 4:35, and Ephesians 1:11.)Real Lasting Rest

  • Challies discusses the question of when to leave a church. He breaks it down into when you must leave (drawing from MacArthur’s teaching) and when you may leave: i) Most reasons one must leave have to do with the leadership. If the teaching is heretical, the leaders tolerate error from those who teach, there is utter disregard for church discipline, or the church is marked by utter hypocrisy. “Reformed churches have typically spoken of three marks of a true church: the faithful preaching of the Word of God, the proper administration of the sacraments and church discipline. We can find each of these represented above. If these marks are missing, if there is gross hypocrisy or heresy, if there is no demand for holiness among the leaders or membership, if there is error being tolerated by those who preach, the Bible tells you to separate yourself from that church.” ii) You may leave (with much care/prayer), if you desire better teaching, to use your gifts, a more convenient location (i.e. ttending one church may save you a lot of time or allow you to serve in a local community instead of a distant one), or if it better serves your family. There are many more. But be very slow to withdraw your membership and leave a church only with the greatest of care and the utmost humility.  When Should I Leave My Church-

  • Girltalk has some tips on how to help your young children stay in bed. Q&A - Bedtime Routine

  • DG links to the man crisis video. There is a transcript here as well. The video calls for pastors who are real mature godly men, not boys. “But let Darrin also encourage us that one of the best ways for each of us not to waste our lives—whether we are pastors or not—is to invest in men who are younger than us, and to pass on to them a passion for the glory of God in the face of Christ.” The video describes the disturbing stats on how men are prolonging adolescence. Keeping the Men in Mentoring:

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