Recently, I came across an online discussion concerning the relationship between prophets, preachers and teachers, as biblically defined. By some verbal sleight of hand, one of the participants had accepted as valid the proposition that preaching is the functional heir to the prophetic gift.
The question naturally followed: since there were female prophets (prophetesses) in both Old and New Testaments, why can’t women be preachers today?
Our family’s Shih Tzu wore a harness 24/7 during his younger years. We had originally gone with the traditional dog collar until one sunny summer afternoon in the backyard when he blithely shucked off his cute, leather pet store circlet with a single energetic twist of his muscular little neck. He disappeared through an impossibly tiny gap between the boards of the fence faster than a speeding bullet on the heels of a terrified squirrel.
My daughter, who was probably nine at the time, wept her way through the neighborhood looking for him until some observant elderly gent pointed to her pup sitting in a nearby yard basking in his newfound freedom.
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“Following up on an older post, did the Canadian government ever admit COVID vaccines have injured or killed some of its citizens?”
Not sure which older post that might be. There were a few. This one linked to a news piece confirming England has started making reparations to people injured by the vaccines and/or the families of those killed up to £120,000 per person.
Canada is definitely not doing that.
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Written some time back in response to a brother’s email observation that he ought to be a better person than he believes he is.
Dear Fellow Pilgrim,
Well, that’s all very dark and depressing to wake up to. To be honest, if I am thinking only about my own personal state, I might say something similar, though of course I would put it much more eloquently. J
The third letter of the Hebrew alphabet is gīmel [ג], which means “all”. Gabriele Levy’s Alefbet says gīmel signifies “a dynamic balance between opposing powers … constant transformation, change and motion, and translates literally as camel, an animal we associate with motion and travel between faraway places”.
I think that image may help with these next eight verses of Psalm 119, which, as I read them, are all about sojourning, an obsession with truth and otherworldly priorities.
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
Rachel Held Evans, who is post-evangelical herself, documents dissatisfaction among those she calls “defenders of the marginalized” in U.S. evangelical churches. In some quarters, it appears, the fact that so many of their fellow pew-occupiers voted for Donald Trump is not going down well.
Brandi Miller tweets, “I drafted my divorce papers with evangelicalism a long time ago. Tonight I serve them.” Glennon Melton asks, “Does a Love Warrior Go? YES. If that’s what her deepest wisdom tells her to do.”
Tom: What do you think, Immanuel Can? Imagine your fellow churchgoers voted for an immoral, bigoted incompetent with no regard for the dignity of women, as Rachel so delicately puts it. Something worth leaving your church over?
This morning a new video appeared on YouTube.
To my surprise, it had arch-atheist Bill Maher in admiring conversation with Dr. Jordan Peterson, the pro-Christian conservative.
This is Bill Maher, who personally coined the insult “religulous” to describe all religions. But here he was, literally stumbling over himself to give a platform to someone who claims that understanding religion, and particularly Christianity, is vital to the survival and future well being of Western culture.
Amazing.
“You lack one thing,” said the Lord Jesus to his wannabe disciple. “Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Oops. Remember now, Mark says Jesus loved this fellow. Whatever we might think about the effectiveness of the Lord’s method of qualifying potential followers, we would not accuse him of making it too easy on them. Sorrowful and disheartened, the man went away without accepting the offer. He had “great possessions”, and he returned to them.
Would you have taken the Lord up on that deal if it cost you your lifestyle and status for the rest of your days? I’m not sure what I would have done. I’m glad salvation wasn’t offered me with a price tag on it.
Doug Wilson has a little encouragement over at his blog for Christians worried about the US election next week.
That would not be me. No fussing and fretting in this corner. I can cheer for a particular outcome I believe to be best, pray for it and even get emotionally invested in it without spiraling into depression if in the end it doesn’t go my way.
That’s either the work of the Lord in conforming me to
However it shakes out, we are in for interesting times as we head into the new year.
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“What’s the difference between contentment and stoicism?”
I was recently thinking through how believers ought to deal with change. Denial is obviously not a Christian option, though it’s a very natural one. Intransigence is also generally unhelpful; there are situations in which no movement is good movement, but these are rare. Stoicism is a third common reaction to change, even among followers of Christ.
Oh, we wouldn’t call it that. Most of us haven’t read the stoics to know what they believed.
Billy Graham once asked, “Is AIDS a judgment of God?” He then answered, “I could not say for sure, but I think so.” Allegedly, he later apologized and retracted the tentative connection. Big surprise. I’m sure he got major heat for that line.
The wrath of God is a concept usually identified with flood, fire, famine or pestilence on such an epic scale we may attribute them to little else. When fire falls from heaven, for example, it’s difficult to come up with a more convincing explanation than “God’s angry”, especially when a prophet calls it only seconds earlier.
It’s one thing to intellectually acknowledge the benefits of regular Bible reading and meditation. It’s another to actually do it day in and day out. That requires a consistent application of the will. Those who make the word of God their daily companion will reap the benefits of it. Dabblers, dilettantes and occasional readers will not.
On to section 2 of 22 in Psalm 119, where each line begins with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which looks like this: בּ. It is pronounced “bet” rather than “beth”. Put it together with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and you get “aleph-beth”, from which we get “alphabet”.
The influence of Hebrew on the individual units of the English language is not profound, but its overall impact is considerably greater, as discussed here.
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
Tertius drew my attention to this three-year-old blog post written by a self-described “twenty-something Christ follower” who says he is same-sex attracted.
That makes him a member of a small but disproportionately influential group. Infogalactic has this survey of the various attempts made to measure the demographics of sexual orientation. The numbers are all over the place, but nowhere do they exceed 5% of the population.
I like to fish.
I’m very fortunate. In the town where I live, a river runs nearby. It starts above the town, and it meanders its way through, coming out at the far end and continuing for some distance. I live in the upstream end, very near the river. In a few moments I can be out fishing on any summer’s day; and the fishing is pretty good. The river’s clean, flowing and healthy.
The obsession with unlimited freedom of choice that we considered in yesterday’s post is nothing new. Mankind has always desired to dine from a menu of infinite possibilities. The apostle Peter even writes about false teachers who invaded the church of the first century, defied spiritual authority, and drew off followers after themselves. What was the attraction of such men? “They promise them freedom.”
Ooh, look, more options!
Some people reject the Christian faith without ever giving it a proper hearing. The distractions of the world keep them from ever getting around to it. Some reject the faith because the way it is presented to them makes it unappealing. Others understand what they are hearing, and even see the appeal, but refuse to give up a besetting sin to which they are in thrall and so come to Christ.
These are reasons I understand, though I don’t agree with them.
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“Is it a bad sign when lots of people leave a church in a short period?”
You cannot judge the value of a cause by its worst day in the public square, and you cannot judge the spiritual state of a church by the number of people spilling out its doorways, never to return. A great deal more information is required to pass judgment intelligently than simply “people are leaving”. We need to understand why they are leaving, or else our conclusions will be mistaken.
Departures may be an indicator something is wrong with the shrinking church. Equally, departures may indicate serious spiritual deficiencies in those making their way to the exits.
“I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is … a reviler …”
To say churches these days are full of unhappy people would be saying way too much: some are, some are not. To say most churches have their resident sourpuss, however, is no exaggeration. Spend a year anywhere and you will almost surely meet at least one man who disagrees with everything his elders are doing and can’t wait to tell you all about it. The question is this: When does a man’s personal unhappiness with his local church reach the point where his congregation is better off without him?
That one’s a little harder.
Hebrew proverbs frequently involve line pairs, with the second line being some kind of restatement of the idea expressed in the first, or else providing a contrast, clarification or correction to it. In an extended series of these, such as we find in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, context is generally irrelevant, though there are occasional exceptions. The subject may change twenty times in the course of a chapter.
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
The Autumn 2016 edition of City Journal is home to a lengthy but remarkably even-handed piece entitled “The Real War on Science”, in which author John Tierney points out that it’s actually Progressives rather than right-wingers who are holding science back.
Tierney reveals that academia has become what he calls a “monoculture”, much like the media, that is in danger of losing public trust because so many scientists insist on mixing politics with their jobs.
Tom: We’ve documented this trend here a number of times, Immanuel Can. [Way too many times to link to, in fact; click “science” in the topic sidebar on our main page to view all our articles on the subject.]