05.20.09
“Missing Link” Ida and Today’s Google Homepage Agenda
Today, May 20, 2009 the secularists at Google (and many other media outlets) believe that they have lobbed a hand grenade into the laps of believers in Creationism and I.D. The homepage at Google today depicts “Ida,” a fossil dated to be as old as 47 million years. When you click on the fossil, you are essentially doing the equivalent of a “Google Search” for “Missing Link.” The first link to appear in the list of results from that Google search brings you to this site; NY Daily News, US/World News. I have cut and pasted the last portion of that article here:
The unveiling of the fossil came as part of a carefully-orchestrated publicity campaign unusual for scientific discoveries. Read the rest of this entry »
04.28.09
Seven Pounds (Redemption at the Cost of One Life)
Writer Grant Nieporte and director Gabriele Muccino have stirred my hornets nest. We’ve been offered another wonderful tragedy in the package of excellent writing and art. The moral dilemma and the treatment of altruism is reminiscent of Gone Baby Gone.
Altruism is a universal theme. The popularity of this film is a testimony to this. Am I doing what is right or am I merely serving my own ego? Is there such a thing as a good deed or am I in fact putting others into my debt as a way to control, master, own, or use them to redeem myself? (Albert Camus)
Two important matters are addressed here:
1a) Are you a good person? (such as the conversation with Ezra Turner (Woody Harrelson), a blind meat salesman who plays the piano).
1b) Am I a good person? [such as the way in which Tim Thomas (Will Smith) wrestles with the guilt of causing a car accident by using his Blackberry, which claims the lives of seven people].
2) Can I redeem myself? (am I able to become a good person, or to at least have other people believe that I am a good person?) “In seven days, God created the world, and in seven seconds I shattered mine.” Read the rest of this entry »
04.19.09
My Responce to Senator Palpatine, Dawkins, or Harris
Part 2: My interpretation:
(Go here for Part 1)
If I were to connect what Senator Palpatine is saying to Anakin with what Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris are saying to today’s Christian Church, I would interpret it like this:
The narrow, dogmatic view of religion is both 1) limited because it considers only one half of the knowledge available and 2) holding you back from realizing your full potential, the potential to be immortal and rid the world of struggle.
The agenda of the new-atheist, those who are evangelistic and antagonistic about eradicating the world of religion (i.e. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and their disciples) is exactly the same thing. Read the rest of this entry »
04.18.09
Anakin Skywalker and Senator Palpatine On Knowledge and Power (and what it says about modernism)
Just before Anakin surrenders to the dark side (depicted in the video clip), a fascinating conversation takes place between he and Senator Palpatine. If you know anything about grace, modernism, and gnosticism, you too will find this fascinating: Read the rest of this entry »
Subdivision and Unity (an oversimplification of the stuff that use to spin my head)
There are a hundred thousand different ways to approach money, medicine, education, immigration, business and leisure, foreign policy, natural disasters, faith and morality, crime and tyrannical governments, yet we all end up doing the same things in the same ways; democratically.
This means that ultimately, it is popular mood about these matters that steer politics on these matters. What steers popular mood? Read the rest of this entry »
04.07.09
Short Shelf Life
It amazes me how quickly ideas expire. This post will expire before my bananas or a gallon of milk. Intellectual knowledge is old at the moment it is sold. In the case of the printed news, the many newspapers have been dubbed “wastepapers” overnight–many of them are bankrupt or currently going under. Our culture moves so fast that the news at 7 am is old by the evening news at 6:30 pm that very same day. It’s worse than technology or automobiles. I’m referring to ideas, inventions, conversations, movements, nationalities, currency, music and the arts, etc.–everything from talk show episodes to ways in which we catalog, access, and reference libraries of information. Read the rest of this entry »
03.30.09
Glory of Creation
I spent a few hours hiking in the Ocala National Forest today. Among other wildlife, I came across a family of three raccoons, and most interestingly, I spotted a crawfish on the floor of the forest. I thought that a bird had dropped it from its beak as it flew overhead because I wasn’t near a stream. I came home to read up about him online.
His name alone clears it all up; Procambarus clarkii. This is the Latin name for the “Red Swamp Crawfish.” Read the rest of this entry »
Nothing “New” About Jim Bakker
While I was eating a tuna fish sandwich, I scrolled down the channels and found “The New Jim Bakker Show.”
For becoming an Amber Builder’s Club Member (which I figure would set you back about $1000), you will get a stone from a brook on their new 600 acre property. On one side of the stone will be written the word “Jim,” and the word “Legacy” is written on the other side. You will also get TWO–not one, but two–membership cards. They call it their “double partner membership.” With each card, you may shop for 12 gifts from their “Partner’s Shop.” In it are things that belong to the glory days of the Bakker past–items of personal ownership or made to give the impression of ownership by Jim and his family.
Read the rest of this entry »
03.23.09
. . . Where Credit is Due
I don’t intend to label anyone else with any of my personal viewpoints and opinions, however, I want to recognize and acknowledge to the readership my influences. The holy and universal church of God is facing an unprecedented batch of challenges; religious pluralism, the test for absolute truth, moral scandal, & materialism to name a few. [Well, you're right, these aren't unprecedented at all.] Before I list my favorite writers and communicators, I make a disclaimer for the angst and radical nature of my blog posts. Read the rest of this entry »
03.21.09
The Coming Evangelical Collapse
Many of us have read “unChristian” and still maintain the status quo. Many of us have read the Gospel, and maintain the status quo. The status quo is not very Christo-centric. Check this out.
Here are the bullets from Michael Spencer’s Article:
The “Internet Monk” says, “I believe that we are on the verge- within 10 years- of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity . . . “
We are soon going to be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century in a culture that will be between 25-30% non-religious.
This collapse, will, I believe, herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian west and will change the way tens of millions of people see the entire realm of religion. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become particularly hostile towards evangelical Christianity, increasingly seeing it as the opponent of the good of individuals and society.
03.12.09
Amazing Quotes
Fresh from tonight’s class in what I call “Grace Training,” here are some great Steve Brown quotes:
- The people who use the term “Doctrines of Grace” don’t generally have any grace. They are likely the meanest people you’ll know.
- If this is our message, how come we still live in the prison of our mind? Why does religion eat us alive? Why are we so guilty? Why are we so mean?
- A lot of Christians believe that holiness is defined as meanness and that if I can be as mean as God, I too can be holy.
- “Guilty people make others feel guilty. You can always tell how guilty a person is by how guilty you feel in their presence. Free people make people feel free.”
- “God, I am not good, but I’m Yours.”
- “You wouldn’t be so shocked at your sin if you didn’t have such a high opinion of yourself.”
- “The default of a Christian is self-righteousness and the law–thinking that we can add something to the sufficiency of Christ.”
- Q: Why do we stay in our legalistic prisons? A: Pedagogy: there are those who teach holiness in an unbiblical way and sanctification in a way that keeps people in prison.
. . . and that was just hour 1
The Offensive Nature of Yahweh
I don’t want to remove the thing about Scripture that causes you the most trouble. You are wise to see something that counters our human understanding of “good” in the biblical God. Likewise, you are wise to challenge and wrestle with it. I merely caution that the nature of the Unmoved Mover is not likely to bend or break. The person fighting against Him, because he cannot fit the divine into his intellect and his definitions of “good,” is more likely to be bent–or worse yet, broken. My challenge to you is to face the offensive nature of Yahweh head on. Go here and read the last three verses of Isaiah. You will worship Him or hate Him–there is no middle.
03.11.09
Parable of the Spade and the Proper Messiah
As I look back, it seems that I am not the same person that I once was. I’ve heard someone challenge, “People don’t change.” I respond to that challenge, “Nobody stays the same.”
Religions are interesting, I guess, because their nature concerns man’s quest for improvement, a movement inward, outward, or both from a place of trouble to a place of peace.
In my dream last night, several of my friends and I decided to hurry up to see this peace-to see what was next. We decided that we were going to let someone kill us. The plan was that we would deliberately and peacefully lie on our backs in the grass and close our eyes and then the other person would shove a spade shovel through our throats and sever our heads.
Somehow, I was the one holding the spade-and I had no peace. Even after the rest were asleep, I was still awake.
It would only be appropriate that someone should learn of the killings and then kill me too, but that never happened. As it turns out, those who would sentence me had their own friends and they too were looking for peace.
When I woke up from my dream, I wondered about all of this in the back yard. To my relief, there were no severed heads or spade shovels lying on the grass. The moon was the most commanding celestial body that I had ever witnessed. It was exactly 4 a.m. Read the rest of this entry »
03.08.09
The Elect Are 2nd Place
I am not first. I don’t want to be first. If I am elect, I am always second place. The account of my name comes after the account of the non-elect who are always first. Then, Christ trades the first-place people with the last-place people and He becomes first and again I am second.
1. Most noteworthy about the structure of the Genesis is the presence of 11 toledots. It is a toledot narrative. A toledot means “account” or “generation.” For example, the story of x is actually about the descendants of x. i.e. The toledot of Adam actually introduces the descendants of Adam, such as those of Terra, Ishmael, Isaac, Joseph etc. The non-chosen, non-elect, non-covenant line is introduced before those of the chosen line.
2. Jacob comes after Esau, yet it is Jacob that God has chosen. The toledot of Esau comes first in Genesis. That of the elect follows that of the non.
Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad-in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12not by works but by him who calls-she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” (Romans 9:11-12, Gen. 25:23)
3. The old earth will be destroyed. There will be a new earth which cannot be destroyed.
4. The account of Christ, the second Adam, follows that of the first Adam.
I Corinthians 15:45-49
The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam-that is, Christ-is a life-giving Spirit. 46 What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. 47 Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. 48 Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. 49 Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.
5. From Christ forward, the spiritual family of God are no longer last. He takes the second place persons and calls them first. He takes the first and makes them last. He Himself is now the firstborn among many. His family is introduced last.
Mt. 22:8-10
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
6. In the “Parable of the Sheep and the Goats” the Sheep are addressed before the Goats. The toldot of Christ is now first and not last.
The Supremacy of Christ
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
02.22.09
Comparing Your Professor With a Satanist
Empiricists and Rationalists Are More Superstitious Than I Am
The basic tenant of humanism is the same as the basic tenant of Satanism-it puts man in the center. Man decides what is good, what is best for himself, what matters, what works, and what he wants. Man is the final rule and authority over himself. He is the existential norm, the ethical norm, and the starting point for all knowledge of himself and his world.
Scientific Positivism/Empiricism:
In many ways, any attempt by modern man to define intellectual truth as a case against religion has only resulted in producing another religion–a religion of science, nature, and experimentation. Any attempt to define God in empirical terms has produced in his place a religion of experience. The object of worship becomes the creation and not the Originator or First Cause that created it. “Scientific faith” is centered on the experimental and experiencing self first and the object of that exam, second. Faith in experience alone is more superstitious and deceitful than acknowledging the thing that created the experience.
An empiricist cannot speak about the nature of God because the nature of God is hidden from human experience until one admits that he cannot trust his experiences alone (or exclusively) to be valid. That individual is worse than the man with a brain tumor telling the surgeon how to kill the tumor. He is a man who pretends that there is no such thing as a tumor in his brain because he cannot find the cause of it.
Rationalism:
A religion of rationalism can offer a great deal to our understanding of metaphysics, but only after it is submitted to He who makes reason reasonable. Whether or not a God exists is above reason-it is the place where reason starts-it is the norm that makes reason possible. This human-first thinking is not submitted to an absolute, but an autonomous and subjective thinking individual. This is more than irrational, it is the most arrogant position a mortal can take on metaphysics.
For a Cartesian, not only is the passenger telling the pilot how to fly the plane, he is pretending that he himself is that pilot. “Nothing exists unless I can know it logically” + “I only know myself,” therefore, “I alone can fly this plane.” (also autonomy).
1) I am free, powerful, and limitless, and I did it all by myself. 2) Because I am free, I can go wherever I wish.
Satanism:
Most modernists don’t know that their faith is in line with Satanism. Satanism does not substitute the worship of God for that of Satan-only that of the self. Satanism and modernism are synonymous. From Wiki:
LaVeyan Satanism is a religion founded in 1966 by Anton Szandor LaVey. Its teachings are based on individualism, self-indulgence, and “eye for an eye” morality. Unlike Theistic Satanists, LaVeyan Satanists are atheists and agnostics who regard Satan as a symbol of man’s inherent nature. According to religioustolerance.org, LaVeyan Satanism is a “small religious group that is unrelated to any other faith, and whose members feel free to satisfy their urges responsibly, exhibit kindness to their friends, and attack their enemies”. Its beliefs were first detailed in The Satanic Bible and it is overseen by the Church of Satan.
Essentially, the modernist mind says this: Although I am in no way responsible for where I came from, nor am I able to contribute to my improvement, I will not submit to any power outside of the thinking and feeling self. Although there is order which implies meaning, and meaning implies ethics, and ethics implies accountability to something outside myself, I am going to pretend that none of this is true. Instead, I am not accountable to anyone or anything other than myself. I will do that which I believe is right to me. It is my self-religion.
02.12.09
The New Slavery (What is worship? Pt. II)
We have moved from bondage to bondage.
As a church, we see how Israel has moved from bondage to Pharaoh, to bondage to Yahweh.
For example, “Fear the LORD. And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? (Deut. 10:12-13)
As a New Testament church, Paul says that we were once slaves to sin, but now, we are slaves to righteousness. He refers to himself as a bond servant.
Similarly, when it comes to the study of knowledge (epistemology), we affirm that there are those of us who are in bondage to knowledge of the flesh. There are others whose thoughts are in service to the knowledge of the Holy. It’s a puppet show.
The irony here, is that the truth sets us free. (John 8:32) We are never free, however, until we recognize that our knowledge is in bonded servitude to the knowledge of Christ. Peter was asked by Jesus, “Who do you say I am?” His answer was the starting point for all knowledge; that of the world, others, and ourselves. It all starts with a knowledge of God and who He is.
Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:15f).
