11.21.09
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 »
04.18.09
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 »
03.23.09
. . . 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.
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).
01.29.08
Can Authentic Community Even Exist
The self is a gravity, a motivation of selfishness and personal agenda. We reason and we observe from our self-centeredness. There is no possible way for us to avoid this. It is a body which has its own gravitational pull. It is a very strong gravitational pull. I believe that our deepest need is community with God and others. As we are motivated and driven by illicit passion toward this end, we in fact, create its opposite—a deep solitude. Read the rest of this entry »
Graffiti Station, Next Stop, Home
Nobody talks while riding a New York City Subway. Me? I talk to anyone. I own New York and the trains that tie it together underneath. I’d tell ‘em that I had just returned from the ancient city of Rome-I had just conquered the world. New York was not as big anymore.
It’s a long ride from Kennedy to the GWB. I’m traveling backwards. My seat faces the other commuters. Yesterday, I was in Rome. Last night, I looked through the window of Alitalia flight 7604 and saw our moon painting pastel blue light on the snowcaps of the Swiss Alps. It’s August.
Platform 9-B: To Trains
Two days ago, I danced in a bus terminal in Milano with a homeless drunk who speaks only Italian. Today, an ocean away, I ride beside him on the train in New York-except he doesn’t speak at all. I had conquered civilizations, eras, oceans, mountains, deserts, languages, cities, cultures, climates, and currencies, all at the age of 20.
This journey would have been impossible before May 21, 1927. The whole experience of leaving Europe by sea was long and often life-threatening one century ago. In the sum of human history, our time here is unnoticed and silent, but we feel immortal and without limits.
Platform 8-A: To Busses and Taxi
I am fourth of six siblings-raised in government subsidized housing in economically-depressed upstate New York. It seems to me that I’ve climbed to the crest of the known world, taken my picture, and now I was going to get swallowed up again into average life. Where do go once you leave Catanzaro Lido? Last week, I ate a dark chocolate-covered coffee ice cream on a stick while watching a pizza-colored moon rise above the Mediterranean Sea. I had become new friends with Franco, Franco, and a most-affectionate Simon Pietro. We shared wine, pasta, and watermelon. I had mixed mortar in their arid summer sun and sat beneath a single orange porch light in the evening rain. None of us had any money, and it would seem we were better off for it.
I stood reverently in St. Peter’s Cathedral two days ago. Suddenly, I am whisked away at breakneck speed through congested and dirty airport customs, to train, and then to bus. I’m still in the same clothes. Sand from the ancient city is still in the tread of my boots. Use to being out under God’s canopy of stars, I pull out a fresh shirt from my duffle and change.
No one notices.
Someone has cast a terrible hex on the city. I’m gone 8 weeks and everyone’s become zombies. Am I alive nor dead? I own the city. It was all running smoothly just for me-right on schedule. Everyone played his or her roles just for me-to land, to travel, to eat. I even felt patriotic seeing Lady Liberty from the plane window. I was glad to be home, but terrified that such a godless place not only exists, but also had become my home. Do I belong here?
Afraid of what I may have become, I grabbed my notebook and listed all of the ways that I was not like my surroundings. In a crisis of identity, I scribbled what I am by naming what I am not.
Platform 19-A: No Pedestrians Beyond This Point
My back slides left and right against the seatback and my shoulder bumps the graffiti scratched into the Plexiglas window every couple of seconds-rocking with the city beat around imaginary street corners. Our express train takes center lanes at full speed through stand-still stations. This passing sends strobe lights on my page like I were a flying insect in a thundercloud-all of it moving at terrible speeds. Sometimes the rate of the strobes would double as a southbound train passed us traveling the opposite direction, missing us by inches.
I feel frail. I feel mortal again. I don’t believe I can conquer this city, or any other city, anymore. In fact, I am the city. I didn’t rise to the top of the world. I am the sand of ancient cultures stuck in the tread of someone else’s sole. Not only am I just another silent commuter on the A Train, I am invisible. This machine operates independent of me, back and forth over the same iron rails, regardless of whether I am even on board. The city does not run for me. I am a mere observer, a participant, a supporting cast member at most-maybe an extra.
Stoic and zombie-like, I looked again at the list of words that I had just written- identifiers that I had just made. The qualities that define my surrounding were suppose to set me apart from them. I must know myself, independent of where I am. Instead, however, it was like reading an exact description of myself. It was as though I were trying to look through the Plexiglas subway window, but because of the darkness outside, I only saw a reflection of my own face-”frail,” “frightened,” “alone,” “invisible,” and “moving at breakneck speed.”
The sum of my life is seemingly immortal and without limits. Instead, my time here is unnoticed and silent.
