Anonymous Asks (319)

“Where is the increase in anti-Jewish sentiment coming from, and how should Christians respond to it?”

It should be evident from the long history of worldwide antisemitism that there is no single, definitive answer to this question. “The Gazacaust”, as critics labeled the IDF’s siege of Palestine in the wake of the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, is just one more in a long line of excuses for virulent Jew-hate. Plenty of others exist. If they didn’t, dedicated enemies of Israel would simply make them up.

A Meaningful ‘You’

“I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”

Human beings long for transcendence.

The Bible teaches it. God has “put eternity into man’s heart”. Paul says God rewards those who through patience in well-doing seek immortality, and that reward is the eternal life they are seeking.

Observation also confirms it. Death is a universal reality, but few men welcome it, believers or unbelievers. I’ve seen the panic in their eyes. I’ve heard it in their voices. The idea that there might be no more “me” in the universe is intolerable.

Mining the Minors: Malachi (6)

As we noted last week, the last half of chapter 2 has been Malachi speaking on God’s behalf. As we move into chapter 3, God will return to directly addressing the nation in the first person. Prior to that, we receive a remarkable look into the future announcing the coming of both John the Baptist and the Word made flesh.

“Where is the God of justice?” the people have been asking. God is in the process of providing his answer: “Behold, he is coming.” The manger in Bethlehem might still be 400 years away, yet “the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness”.

First, the fourth of God’s five complaints against Judah and its priests.

Too Hot to Handle: The Great Reset

In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.

The only substantive difference between the Great Reset and other conspiracies is that the Great Reset is right out there in the open, more or less declaring itself for what it is in hope that the generation has finally come along that will take up its ideas and make them successful. The movement has its own websites, branding and literally trillions of dollars in backing. If you haven’t come across it yet, you probably will shortly.

Tom: The Great Reset idea is the product of eighty-something German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab, whose detractors refer to him as “the new Karl Marx”, and an organization he founded called the World Economic Forum. Schwab has been pushing his utopian vision since the early ’70s, but the outbreak of COVID-19 across the world this year is the latest pretense for finally implementing it. IC, maybe you can give us a quick executive summary of the concept.

Zombie Church

I’ve always really liked Caspar David Friedrich’s painting, “Cloister Graveyard in the Snow”. In it, we see a crumbled cathedral with only a bit of the porch and chapel remaining amid twisted, dark trees. But if you look closely, in the middle ground, you’ll see a trail of monks still marching into the ruins, presumably to continue their monkish duties.

The painting has both a positive and a negative message about religiosity. On the one hand, it suggests faith can persist even when, socially speaking, religiosity is generally perceived be in ruins; but on the other hand, it also reminds us that ritual can persist even when the life of a church is gone.

I guess the message you take depends on the perspective with which you view it.

What Does Your Proof Text Prove? (32)

The purpose of this series is to show how conclusions drawn from an isolated proof text may lead you astray theologically. Today’s post illustrates just how far this can go when you add unsupported supposition to supposition. The result is the theological equivalent of a house of cards. By the time you work your way up to the attic, you find yourself asking questions for which there cannot possibly be any definitive answers.

The remedy is to say, “Let me think about that some more” way back in the basement, where there’s still a chance to construct a solid foundation for future inquiry.

Semi-Random Musings (38)

Exodus 6:2 plainly states that while God appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty (El Shaddai), he did not make himself known to them by his personal name YHWH. This confuses some readers. One asks, “Why does God say he didn’t reveal his name ‘Yahweh’, when he obviously glaringly did so in Genesis, many, many times?”

Some of the answers one gets to such a question on a public forum like Stack Exchange are truly horrendous. One respondent suggests the writer of the Exodus passage believed it, but the writer of the Genesis passages believed differently. Let’s just say the apostle Paul would beg to differ, as would the Lord Jesus.

Anonymous Asks (318)

“Why isn’t the obvious obvious to everyone?”

This isn’t an actual question. It’s my way of summing up the confusion of a number of different friends and other Christians who are frustrated with their fellow believers. One is frustrated because his church keeps recognizing elders who do not qualify by the standards set out in Timothy and Titus. Another is frustrated because his Christian friends are contemplating not voting in November’s election, thus increasing the likelihood of a Democrat win. Another is incensed that none of the Christians who heaped online abuse on the vaccine-hesitant during COVID have ever apologized for the foolish, uninformed and unchristian things they said. Yet another is frustrated by a pastor who believes the unwillingness to use a gun to defend one’s wife from rape is a biblical virtue.

Each sees the obvious and cannot understand why others don’t. The result is a potential breakdown in fellowship between believers.

Half a Bible

Just out of curiosity, I did a blog search for the word “sovereign” before starting this post. According to Google, the words “sovereign” or “sovereignty” are used in 110 of approximately 2,800 posts written by IC or me since 2013, roughly one in twenty-five. That’s not the total number of occurrences, only the total number of posts in which one or the other of these words occur. You can pretty much take it to the bank that every one of those references either explicitly affirms or harmonizes with the sovereignty of God as taught in the Bible.

That may seem odd for two students of scripture who expressly reject the doctrine of divine determinism.