Are You Happy? (part 1 of 2)
“I’m really starting to think that nobody is happy,” says an old and trusted friend on the phone. “I think that everyone who is married is just sticking it out, maybe faking it. They are hoping to be happy one day.” Read the rest of this entry »
11.21.09
Calvin’s Spectacles
It seems that according to the doctrine of election, it is God who gives me spectacles in order that I may interpret reveled truth rightly. But not everyone has been given spectacles.
We don’t really change anyone’s mind in our apologetic method do we? It seems as though we are actually either talking to someone with or without spectacles. We are proclaiming to them something that they either can or cannot see, regardless of whether or not they are “suppressing the truth” (Rom. 1:18).
Verses for reference: Read the rest of this entry »
The Universality of Revealed Truth
I am fascinated with Dr. John Frame’s comments in Unregenerate Knowledge of God: “In some senses, knowledge of God is universal and otherwise it is not” (paragraph 2).
In paragraph 7, he write: “Scripture tells us that this revelation is found not only in the natural world, but in their own persons . . . so God’s revelation is inescapable.”
I am in complete agreement with the statements above. At the same time I recognize an apparent limit to that revelation according to a reformed epistemology.
Thus, at the same time we “give an answer” we are also reminding them of what they know to be true. Right? (forgive me for sounding neo-Platonist)
They may not reason that because God made the cosmos, therefore, Jesus is God, or experience an obedient biblical response to that knowledge (which requires God’s Spirit and special revelation), but they will already know innately that they are in need of a god or a savior other than themselves. Right?
11.16.09
Why Apologetics? (part 2 of 2)
In so many ways, we only enter into the discipline of apologetics to teach and to be heard. It is because we are invested in the worldview that we are defending, that we prepare to exhort–to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks [us] to give the reason for the hope that [we] have” (I Pet. 3:15).
If I am honest, I seldom care what my subjective neighbor has to say about empirical or existential faith. To be fair, my neighbor doesn’t really want to know what it is that I subjectively place my hope in–nor why. More likely than not, he has spotted something that he can easily diagnose. He’s likely going to be writing my prescription while I’m still talking. I may then become his project, and for the rest of our conversation(s), he wants to enlighten me to greater truth. Likewise, I am only interested in what he thinks in order that I might change it. This is the arrogant and naive position taken by both of us. Read the rest of this entry »
Why Apologetics? (part 1 of 2)
Why think apologetically?
I heard someone say that you never need to defend yourself. Your friends don’t require it and your enemies won’t believe you anyway.
I’m in the middle of a class in Apologetics with Dr. Frame, and I’m reading sections of William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, John Frame, Kelly Clark, and Paul Feinberg. All the while I am reading apologetics, my mind desires to take a step back. I can’t help it. I think that in order to think apologetically about anything, you have to step back from the thing you are defending.
[I wrote a very exhaustive paragraph here that sums up my impression of apologetic method. I decided that no one cares and eliminated it. However, the basic gist was this "It seems that no one has that much patience, fairness, honesty, or humility. We want to speak, not listen. We want to teach, not learn."]
10.15.09
Sameness
Our party generation is preoccupied with who is and who is not boring. The reality is that we are all the same:
We learn the same subjects in school, go to the same movies, shop in the same stores, and eat in the same restaurants. To admit that you have found someone interesting is also to admit one’s dullness. The curse of being interesting yourself is to find no one else interesting.
In order to stand out in a consumer culture, you must both be a consumer and the consumed. Even the exceptional will rise from and return to obscurity. Society affirms itself—only itself. We are all dull, and we point it out to one another every day.
The entire goal of suburbia is to make everything the same. Our goal is ultimately to be an individual, but we go about it in the same ways. Our ultimate goal is to be as unique as possible, but it is masked in our effort to be comfortable and content most accessible, available, convenient, and affordable as possible. When suburbia is successful, we live in the same homes, learn in the same schools, and worship in the same churches. Because we eat, sleep, and breathe the same way, we are all thinking the same thoughts—Oprah’s thoughts.
We are ridiculous.
08.22.09
What’s Going On? (Lost in the Cosmos)
This is the question of the decade: “What the heck is going on?” We ask this question of the housing market, health care, geo-politics, global climate, education, marriage, church culture, and religion in general. This could either be a long and non-conclusive blog thesis or a brief and still inconclusive post. I’ll bet, given the pace at which society operates, you’ll prefer the brief and inconclusive version: (legal disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this post reflect very accurately the opinion of the masses. Don’t call us.)
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 »
