The most recent version of this post is available here.
“The flesh fights the awful truth about self, which is a major reason that so many turn to psychology for the unbiblical comfort it offers.” — Dave Hunt
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Friday, March 31, 2017
Thursday, March 30, 2017
Under Collective Judgment
I am not my dad. I don’t
make quite the same mistakes. I make different mistakes. Likewise, I don’t do many things half as well or
half as spiritually as my father does. We’re very different in many ways.
I’m definitely not my dad’s father. I never
knew him. Many of his ways seem foreign to me. He lived in another era,
one characterized by different assumptions and habits.
And my great-grandfather? You gotta be kidding.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
A Horse Plunging Headlong
I’ve been listening to unhappy people this week: people that
have sinned, have hurt others and have hurt themselves.
It’s refreshing when someone gets it; when they realize that
their own choices and desires took them places they do not want to be, and that
these patterns need to be changed. It’s a good thing to see correctly the
relationship between cause and effect, between actions and consequences.
But it’s even better when it dawns that our most significant
sins are the inevitable consequence of refusing to take the Lord at his word.
Labels:
Jeremiah
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Proverbs
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Recycling
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Repentance
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Sin
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
False Unities and Lines of Division
As Christians living in a
day in which we have every possible advantage in
understanding what God has revealed of himself to mankind down through the
centuries, the importance of having our hearts and heads thoroughly marinated
in the word of God cannot be overstated.
There is no area of
human investigation that matters more. None.
But in a fallen world,
the word of God divides. The more we read it and follow it, the more we will
find ourselves separated from those who don’t.
Labels:
2 Kings
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Church
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Denominationalism
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Division
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Word of God
Monday, March 27, 2017
Inbox: The ‘Stealth Pastor’
After reading our recent
post on “The Role of a Senior Pastor”, David B. asks a perfectly legitimate question:
“From the ‘brethren assemblies’ perspective, what is your opinion on the ‘full time worker’?”
From any perspective, denominational or
otherwise, there’s a point well worth considering here, and that is that “a
rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. Things are what they are at their core, not merely what you label
them. A garbage dump smells like a garbage dump even if you call it a Post-Consumer Product Management Initiative.
Sometimes your nose tells you what your
eyes may not.
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Recommend-a-blog (22)
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The Tel Gezer calendar (Attribution) |
Bible Chronology Studies is a refreshing change from that sort of thing, though not necessarily in an area of study all
believers will embrace with enthusiasm. Some of us are deeply interested in
what’s “under the hood” of our Christian faith; others are just happy to turn
the key and take it up to the (legal) limit.
The website is the work of what I estimate must be thousands upon thousands of hours of
independent study by a thus-far-anonymous Christian writer (not that there’s
anything wrong with that) apparently obsessed with getting it right.
Labels:
Genealogies
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Genesis
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Kings
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Numbers
/
Recommend-a-blog
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Living Under the Blade
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Forgiveness
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Guilt
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Sin
Friday, March 24, 2017
Too Hot to Handle: Not Quite What They Expected
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Culture
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Donald Trump
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Of Trees and Floods
“Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.’
For he thought, ‘Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?’ ”
I have no clue what you’re thinking about right now. Not a one. That’s normal, I think.
Despite this, when we read novels and the writer tells us precisely what is on the mind of the protagonist, we barely notice how bizarre that is. After all, it is the author’s
story and it is his prerogative to drive its narrative or provide insight into its characters via whatever literary technique he chooses.
Not in the real world. If a news reporter presumes to inform us
what President Trump really intends when he thumbs his latest tweet into his iPhone for the nation, we rightly think she is overstepping her role just a bit. How could she possibly know for sure?
Bible history is a little different.
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
That’s MY Mail You’re Reading
RationalWiki is basically a repository of unbelief designed to show people how and where the Bible is (in their view) untrue. Somebody has gone to a lot of effort to attempt to debunk scripture and compile evidence of its alleged irrationality.
Possibly the coolest section of all is the page on ‘failed’ prophecy, which begins this way:
“Some Christians claim that fulfilled prophecies prove the Bible’s inerrancy … mainstream Christians will actually claim that, for example, the Gospels are historical evidence of Isaiah being accurate prophecy (rather than works written with a copy of Isaiah to hand to claim fulfilment of prophecy), therefore the Bible is accurate and Jesus is Lord.”
You know, I think they’re probably correct about Christians claiming such things, though they don’t provide specific examples. But they have a bigger problem: they’re reading my mail. Small wonder they’re a bit confused.
Labels:
John
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Matthew
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Prophecy
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Recycling
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Revelation
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
The Message You’re Sending
The line was penned by Sir Bob Geldof way back
in 1979, long before personal computers with memories that the average person cannot easily erase, long before the Internet, before the NSA was on your hard drive and tracking your every movement through your cell phone, before your TV started watching you while you watch it, and
before the unblinking eye in the sky that is Google Maps. It seems more than a little
prescient, but Geldof had become (briefly) famous, and the world was paying more
attention than he would have liked.
Monday, March 20, 2017
Always Ready?
The faithful are
always to be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks us why we hope in God. The apostle Peter says this is especially true when we are being attacked for our beliefs.
But some questions are
not really questions. They are not sincere inquiries. They are rhetoric,
intended to demoralize and destroy belief.
I point this out
because it’s easy not to notice. For the enthusiastic or pedantic among us,
everything is a witnessing opportunity ... even when it isn’t.
But sometimes it’s better
to be silent and let God speak.
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Saturday, March 18, 2017
Friday, March 17, 2017
Too Hot to Handle: The Role of a Senior Pastor
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Elders
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Leadership
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Pastors
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Shepherds
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, March 16, 2017
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
The Statsman Cometh
I am an obsessive
statistician, a very slightly annoying quality for which I would apologize if
anyone who knows me at all would take such an apology seriously.
Okay, I am an unrepentantly obsessive stats nut. I love numbers, and I love what they tell
us about people and about life. If we know each other well, you may think you
are keeping to your diet, but I probably have a better idea than you do whether
you’re kidding yourself about your eating habits. Likewise, you may think you
are characteristically timely for your appointments, but I can tell you
precisely how often you aren’t.
Some people are more
fun to know via the Internet than to put up with in real time.
Labels:
2 Kings
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Providence
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Statistics
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
A Day Without Me
If you missed “A Day Without a Woman” last week, don’t feel bad: I didn’t notice it either until I read about it
online. Women were encouraged to take the day off and not to spend money to
show their economic strength and impact on American society. Most did not.
Perhaps our U.S. readers will tell us if they felt the impact of some sort of message being sent.
Cassady Findlay, spokeswoman for the protest, says, “We
provide all this value and keep the system going, and receive unequal benefits
from it.”
Labels:
Economics
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Godliness
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Government
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Women's Role
Monday, March 13, 2017
The Commentariat Speaks (9)
![]() |
Most of the time someone else chooses what ends up on these. |
Twenty years ago, Charles
Murray’s The Bell Curve was a semi-controversial but methodologically orthodox exploration
of the links between intelligence, class and race. In addition to providing
hard data, Murray and his co-writer made public policy suggestions intended to
mitigate socioeconomic differences in IQ, birth rate, crime, fertility,
welfare, and poverty.
The book sold well enough, but failed to genuflect
to the progressive racial narrative, and Murray was roundly taken to task
for it.
Old news, right? Not so much. Last week,
Murray and a professor who had invited him to speak at Middlebury College were
attacked by rioting Leftists on campus.
Labels:
2 Kings
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Charles Murray
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Hazael
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The Commentariat Speaks
Sunday, March 12, 2017
The Wrong Way Round
In a previous post I pointed out that Christ’s disciples,
unlike many modernists, were seekers after objective truth.
But the process of discovering that truth was anything but
easy or natural. The disciples made some pretty entertaining mistakes.
Not that I would’ve done any better, I assure you. But they had an uncanny knack for getting things the wrong way round.
Labels:
Allegory
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Disciples
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Figurative Language
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John Piper
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Law of Non-Contradiction
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Literalism
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Recycling
Saturday, March 11, 2017
The Needs of the Many
I suppose my subject
may require at least a rough definition, but sometimes there’s only one word
for a particular job. So the word of the day is solipsism.
The solipsist is not a
narcissist; that’s a pathology. The solipsist is not merely selfish; that’s
childish and natural in a fallen world, and even unbelievers may learn unselfishness as they age and experience life. Solipsism is
actually a philosophical theory that the self is all that may be known to
exist, but I’m not here talking about mere philosophies or theories. Practical solipsism is a phenomenon in
which adults — particularly Western adults, I think — automatically and
reflexively view every issue before them first and foremost from
the angle of how it affects them.
It’s kinda like empathy ... except it isn’t. Empathy feels your pain. Solipsism feels its own imaginary pain that has been triggered by yours.
And solipsism is absolutely epidemic in our culture.
Labels:
Sacrifice
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Star Trek
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Substitution
Friday, March 10, 2017
Too Hot to Handle: Lies Lies Lies, Yeah
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
Once in a while everyone, no matter how trusting, comes across a news story that just
doesn’t smell right.
Now, thanks to U.S. declassification protocols, we know that
Fake News has been a real phenomenon since prior to 1975. President Trump is not huffing and puffing on Twitter over nothing. In fact, we now know the CIA is primarily to blame. The biggest
names in media have a lengthy track record of publishing false stories actually written for them by the CIA: The New York Times, LA Times, Fortune,
Newsweek and even the venerable Saturday Evening Post. Other news services would then pick up these stories from sources they believed were
trustworthy, and the disinformation game was afoot.
Tom: Was it the Boomtown Rats who sang “Don’t Believe What You Read”, Immanuel Can?
Labels:
Donald Trump
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Media
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, March 09, 2017
Too Clever For Our Own Good
“And for this hope I am accused by
Jews, O king! Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?”
There is tremendous irony in Paul’s
statement here that he is “accused by Jews” over his belief in resurrection.
Jews, who claimed the Law of Moses
as their inheritance and the prophets as their own. Jews, who claimed there was
one God and that he belonged to them exclusively. Jews, who claimed to believe
in YHWH but many of whom balked at the concept of resurrection. To be accused
by Greeks, Romans, Syrians or Asians, sure: their gods were
not like YHWH, much less powerful and more human in their interpersonal dynamics.
But accused by Jews for hoping in
resurrection? There’s cognitive dissonance for you!
Labels:
Asaph
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Hebrews
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Resurrection
Wednesday, March 08, 2017
A Change Is Gonna Come
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Change
/
Church
/
Modern Christianity
Tuesday, March 07, 2017
The Change Is Gonna Do Us Good
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Change
/
Church
/
Modern Christianity
Monday, March 06, 2017
To Jezreel By Chariot
Both Jehu and David
were anointed king of Israel at God’s command. David chose to serve King Saul
faithfully until forced to flee for his life, then served God and country as he
was able while on the run until Saul met his end in battle. It took
approximately 32 years to establish David’s kingdom.
Jehu, on the other
hand, sniffed the political winds, discovered his fellow commanders all had his
back, then promptly drove his chariot to Jezreel at speed and killed not just
the king of Israel and his entire family, his friends, his priests and his inner circle, but
the visiting king of Judah to boot. His kingdom was established in a
matter of hours.
The similarities end with the anointing oil.
Labels:
2 Kings
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Donald Trump
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Elders
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Jehu
/
Leadership
Sunday, March 05, 2017
The Word, Uncontained
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“It’s got to be in here somewhere ...” |
Oh, he calls himself a Christian, make no mistake. But he insists
the Bible is “the words of men that have recorded some words of God sometimes”. So much so that the caps come out again:
“Our focus and our trust must be in Jesus, WE MUST BE LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD.”
Being led by the Holy Spirit with our focus on and trust in
Jesus seems a pretty good deal to me. It’s his understanding of what that means
that’s the problem.
Labels:
Apostle Paul
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Authority
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Peter
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Recycling
/
Scripture
Saturday, March 04, 2017
Antiquated Ways of Thinking
If feminists want to minimize their own joy
in life, that’s one thing. God bless ’em and have at it. But it’s another thing
entirely when they set out to trash the culture so comprehensively that nobody else enjoys their lives either.
If you are driving into Winston-Salem from
Kernersville, about 85 miles northeast of Charlotte, N.C., expect to encounter
a billboard that reads, “Real men provide. Real women appreciate it.”
Better drive fast though: last Sunday at 11:00 a.m., the owner
of a Winston-Salem women’s boutique called Kleur organized a demonstration
against the billboard’s message and its “antiquated way of thinking”.
If that’s their metric, I’m an antique and
proud of it.
Labels:
Family
/
Men's Role
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Titus
/
Women's Role
Friday, March 03, 2017
Too Hot to Handle: Just Another Bump in the Roe
In which our regular writers toss around
subjects a little more volatile than usual.
![]() |
Next! Move ’em on through! |
Tom: You also might not know that by the time the
Supremes actually ruled on her case, the baby Norma McCorvey went to court to get the State’s permission to murder in her own womb was 2-1/2 years old and had been adopted. That’s
the legal system for you.
Labels:
Abortion
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Forgiveness
/
Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, March 02, 2017
The Divine Veto
Lately I’ve been
wondering how much latitude God gives his servants in choosing how they go
about doing his work. If you read either Testament carefully, it seems like it
could be an awful lot.
Now, bear in mind that
from John Calvin’s perspective, it is really God doing everything that is done
in the universe. I don’t think he ever used the word “pawn” (which might have
been the most honest way to describe how he thought God treats his creatures), but in
effect he taught that sentient beings, good or bad, cannot really act contrary to
the will of God. God’s determinate counsel initiates and controls every transaction in the universe — “all events whatsoever”, as Calvin put it.
I’m not operating on
that wavelength at all, so disciples of Mr. Calvin may want to take a
pass on the following musings.
Labels:
2 Kings
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Calvinism
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Determinism
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Elisha
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Prayer
Wednesday, March 01, 2017
A Non-Binary Proposition
God took a nation for
himself from all the peoples of the earth. If you’re Israel, that’s what you might
call a mixed blessing.
On the one hand, there
was lots of good stuff that came with being uniquely God’s. As Paul puts it to
the Romans, “to [Israelites] belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises”, and he goes on to mention the patriarchs and Messiah. Being a Jew was a
tremendous privilege.
On the other hand, as another Jew once put it, “With great power there must also come — great responsibility.”
Labels:
2 Kings
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Chosen
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Israel
/
Sovereignty
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