“… contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”
Numerous passages in our English Bibles refer to “the faith”, as in the sentence fragment from Jude I have quoted above, which may be the most familiar case in all of scripture. Even the casual reader can quickly see Jude means something slightly different than James does when he says, “Faith without works is dead.”
That is to say, he is not talking about the act of believing, but rather about the things believed.
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From Doug Wilson’s Tuesday letters column, J asks what Doug’s “ideal Christendom” might look like for convicted criminals:
“In your ideal Christendom, where we have God-honoring laws, what would you do in cases of theft where the criminal cannot pay? How would they make restitution? And would that be considered a form of slavery?”
Hmm.
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“My (saved) parents seem uninterested in their grandchildren. Is there anything I can do?”
Anonymous, you have the opposite problem many of us encounter, and that is that our children (saved or unsaved) may not have the level of interest in their grandparents that we would like them to have. Alternatively, many grandparents are overly invested in pursuing relationships with their grandchildren and complicate the lives of their parents by meddling.
In short, this is a new one for me among Christians.
My church is working its way through the names and titles of Christ at our weekly prayer meeting. The idea behind the series is that a variety of speakers will study one name or title and take twenty minutes to present a summary of scripture’s teaching about it. I think it’s a terrific plan, but one that may take until the return of the Lord to execute. The Lord Jesus has a great many names and titles.
Last week’s title of Christ was “advocate”.
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In 2017-18, archeologist and historical geographer Dr. Chris McKinny published articles arguing that modern Bible scholars ought to rethink the purported location of Lehi, an ancient Israelite town prominent in today’s reading from Judges.
For fifty years prior, many considered the ruined Arab village of Khirbet Beit Lei the probable location for Lehi on the basis of a specious similarity in names advanced by Israeli anthropologist Joseph Ginat in a Brigham Young University academic symposium. Absent any better suggestions, many accepted Ginat’s conclusions about the town’s location.
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
The man who would be president, former nominee Mitt Romney, is troubled that a minister from Dallas has been asked to open the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem with a prayer.
Romney’s objection?
“Robert Jeffress says ‘you can’t be saved by being a Jew,’ and ‘Mormonism is a heresy from the pit of hell.’ He’s said the same about Islam.”
Tom: Oh dear. Let’s talk a little bit about so-called religious bigotry, IC. What do you think: is “pit of hell” maybe a tad strong?
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So sang Sam Cooke.
I guess he’d know. He was writing his soulful anthems back in the ’50s and early ’60s in places like Mississippi and Chicago — not the easiest places for a young person of his particular shade of skin to be. But things were changing then, and in retrospect, those who didn’t know they were changing and who thought they could keep things the way they were forever were just spitting into the wind.
Yes, change is gonna come. And you can’t change that. You’ve just got to be ready and react smartly when it does.
The phrase “praying in the Spirit” or “praying in the Holy Spirit” appears in both Ephesians and Jude, and is much misunderstood in Christian circles. Some associate it with a sensation of being caught up or carried along, like riding a bike down a slope instead of pushing uphill.
Maybe it’s just me, but I get edgy when anyone starts talking about feelings or sensations when we are discussing the faith and its practice.
True confession: I haven’t actually written 88 previous instalments under this title in our blog’s history, but I may as well have: 89 is more approximation than exaggeration. If we count the entire 13-part Language of the Debate miniseries, add in more than half our 38 “COVID 19” posts, 90% of our 30 “Media” posts, a few Too Hot to Handles, a few “Technology” posts, and no small number of our 57 “Government” posts, we are probably closing in on the century mark.
In one way or another, these posts reference the growing untrustworthiness of all mainstream information sources. If your Spidey-sense doesn’t tingle at just about everything you see in the news cycle at this point, you are not paying sufficient attention.
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“Is there an NT equivalent for sackcloth and ashes? If so, how should we practice it?”
The expression “sackcloth and ashes” occurs in only three Old Testament passages in precisely that form. In another two places both words appear in the same context separately. Both words are common in the OT, and both were well-known signs of public mourning. The mourner would wear the sackcloth and sit (or sometimes roll) in the ashes, and/or sprinkle them on his head.
Fun? Not really. But in ancient times, if you were in distress and wanted your neighbors to know it, that’s the way you told them. Sackcloth and ashes.
David French’s laughable assertion that US society has become increasingly fair and just as women have gained political power (presumably along with other nations traveling the social justice path) has gotten me thinking about the relative importance of autonomy and justice, and how the Bible speaks about these two goals our society claims to find most desirable.
We’d all like a little more self-determination, right? And who apart from criminals rejects justice?
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Othniel led an army to drive out Israel’s oppressors in his generation. Ehud used a successful solo mission to raise an army to do the same. Deborah’s general Barak, Gideon and Jephthah were all leadership figures behind which the nation (or parts of it) rallied and successfully defeated invaders.
In every case to date, a judge’s appearance on the scene meant Israel entered a period of rest and relief from its enemies.
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
Nate at PracticalWorship has decided to “terminate the Worship Team”. I believe he used the words “blowing up”, in fact.
I got all excited. This is radical Christianity, folks!
But to my personal disappointment, Nate doesn’t actually mean it. By “blow up the Worship Team”, he actually means “change its name to ‘the MilePost13 Band’ ”. He lists two reasons for the change: first, that an actual name gives the band a sense of identity, pride and ownership and makes them feel like professionals.
Where is Kodak these days? Remember that company? It used to have its name on most of the cameras and film that you saw around. Kodak was an empire, an institution. Now where is it?
And how about Blockbuster Video? Seen any of those stores around lately? They used to be on every corner.
Laura Ashley clothing? Napster music service?
Transitioning from one stage of life to another is never easy.
Aging is part of that, certainly, but it’s not the entire thing. For example, in a high unemployment society, aging may make me irrelevant to the work force. That will likely happen without my consent, and probably when I least expect or want it to happen. Tough luck. I’m now irrelevant in that role, and I had better learn to deal.
It also helps if I am willing to make myself relevant to the world around me in some other role.
“Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
I’d like to give some thought this morning to the phrase “rulers of this age” that appears twice in the passage above. It might be a little more interesting than it looks.
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“Is it unloving to confront somebody about his sin?”
As in so many situations Christians encounter in this life, motive is more important to the Lord than the actions it produces. Some people just can’t get their heads around that. We generally call these people legalists. They value actions and outcomes more than the heart and mindset that produces them.
The Lord just … doesn’t.
I said I would. Here it is.
There’s little point in referencing a controversial thesis, let alone siding with its author, if you decline to address significant arguments raised against it. Helen Andrews’ “The Great Feminization”, has generated considerable online debate. Her thesis is essentially “Women Equals Woke”. Our DEI woes on the job, she says, are all due to increasing numbers of women in the workforce.
Now, blaming everything that’s gone wrong on women sounds sexist, nasty and mean, even when it’s a woman doing it. But that’s not really where Andrews was going. Her critics disagree, and we’ll look at some of their objections today.
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Bible students online differ concerning the extent to which Samson was truly heroic or any kind of role model for believers. The four chapters that chronicle his life and death portray him as impulsive, turbulent and temperamental, driven by his whims and easily pushed off course by events around him. Rarely do we see evidence of serious devotion to the Lord, or the fruit of such a relationship in his life, though there’s absolutely no question the Lord used him, and used him in a major way. Like Jehu centuries later, Samson was a wrecking ball when Israel needed one.
The New Testament portrays Samson as a man who in at least one instance exercised remarkable faith. Even then, in typical Samson style, his faith basically amounted to the conviction that God would make an exception to his own rules by special request …
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
Editor’s Note: This post was our first together, presented over a decade ago. I thought it makes an interesting re-read in view of both the things that have changed since, and the things that have not.
Alex Awad is a professing Christian who leads a Bible school in the town of Bethlehem and wrote 2008’s Palestinian Memories: The Story of a Palestinian Mother and her People.
Tom: Mr. Awad believes the Old Testament promises to Israel are strictly conditional on Israel’s faithfulness and obedience and consequently that “Israel as a nation annulled its privilege as God’s chosen nation.”