Category: General

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
—Col 2:13-15

Sex and Romance vs. the Glory of God

It looks like my blogging is going to go way down for a while, since my new job doesn’t involve sitting much at a desk, where I might type up a few thoughts now and then as I work. However, I did have this little nugget to share:

As I was talking to one of my new coworkers, I noticed that he had a copy of Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God sitting on his shelf. I made some comment on it, since it was probably given to him by a Sovereign Gracer (which it had been – another coworker). But the guy had a strange response – he said he wasn’t very happy about it, and it sounded like the book brought down his opinion of CJ Mahaney (the book’s editor). The issue was the title: Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God. After a little discussion, I made out that his problem was related to the likelihood of dishonoring the glory of God by associating it with things like sex and romance. He understood, he said, that the goal of the books contributors was to explore how things like sex and romance could be related to the glory of God, but that Christians need to be aware of what a title like that might imply, namely that sex and romance could somehow be put on the same level as the glory of God.

I’m really not quite sure what to make of such a position.

Morning Links

And the search for employment comes to a close. At least for now. On Monday I will start work as a processing manager for KARM Thrift Stores, where every $2.00 of profit buys a meal at the Rescue Mission. Be sure and stop by – you can see me if you are making a donation. 🙂 I will leave to the patient mind the thoughts of how it is I have been confined to the non-profit sector.

And now, links:

  1. I don’t think this is really what Seth Godin was talking about.
  2. Objective vs. Subjective
  3. Frankly, I’m all for a global currency. But I think it won’t happen until currency can be measured on a peer-to-peer sort of basis. Just get Visa, Master Card, and AmEx to use “grams of gold” as their account measurement.
  4. On the divine attributes of Dr. Pepper.
  5. An excellent song choice, considering the medium.
  6. Cool hotel? A little too cool for me, I think.
  7. Flash fiction: excellent choice to name him Robbie.
  8. Not necessarily supporting this view of baptism, but my what a different perspective.
  9. I’ve had similar thoughts
  10. Can’t… do… plaid!
  11. More of the flash fiction. Excellent.
  12. If you’re going to include the culture in your bible study (and you should), be careful! This is really in the vein of my biggest beef with every amateur theologian (including me).
  13. Outraged over AIG bonuses. In the opposite direction.
  14. I’ve been really itching to read this book for a while, but unwilling to pay for it. Now the audiobook is available for free.
  15. Duh!
  16. Give to the uncharity! Or rather, don’t because it’s not really a gift…
  17. I would have written something like this, except I was never brave enough to go there.
  18. Dan Phillips does his link farming on a weekly basis, and the photos are way better.

Radical discontinuity

My meeting with the Mormon evangelists didn’t go all that great yesterday. I don’t mean that anything catastrophic happened, or that my objections were swatted out of the air like so many flies. I still think I have good objections, but my delivery was weak. I stumbled. Frankly, I think I was too conciliatory and put the ball too often in their court. I didn’t want to attack, but neither did I want to stand “as a man at a mark”. And of course, they had their own agenda they wanted to push through in the conversation. Doesn’t it bother you that there are so many different churches that claim to be right? Actually, no it doesn’t. But adding Mormonism to the mix doesn’t help your argument.

However, in conversation, I came across another Mormon distinctive that undermines their position where they expect to support it. The Mormon “gospel,” that is, the story that they’re announcing, is one of apostasy and restoration. The church lost the plot and God replaced it with the church of Latter Day Saints. Here Joe Smith is taking a page from John Nelson Darby’s Dispensational theology. The concept comes from the biblical concept of dispensations – different time periods in which God has set up different systems for relating to man. For instance you could talk about about five major dispensations: Before the fall, from the fall until Abraham, from Abraham til Moses, from Moses until Christ, and the Christian era.

I’m not a scholar of Darby’s dispensationalism, but I believe he had a system that allowed for seven dispensations before the new heaven and new earth were created. And my understanding is that a key aspect of Darbian dispensationalism is that, whatever system God set up for us, we voilated the terms of the covenant, and then God created another one. So you have this flow: God establishes a new dispensation, the covenant community thrives, the covenant community falls into apostasy, God establishes a new dispensation. It’s the book of Judges writ large.

Now at some level, the concept of dispensations, especially the King James phrase (from Ephesians 3:1) “dispensation of grace”, is completely biblical. But for the orthodox, you have to keep two key concepts in mind, otherwise dispensationalism can lead you straight to heresy. Continue reading “Radical discontinuity”

Morning Links

Good morning. Things are moving steadily on the job market, which is good, because Valerie’s loans are coming due. Because God has never ceased to be faithful in this way, I fully expect to start getting a check about the time our bills start to go up again.

Links:

  1. Nostalgia kick: You Can’t do that on Television was definitely on that list of TV shows I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to watch if we ever got cable. But I loved it anyway, and consoled myself that I hadn’t been barred from watching it when the opportunity arose, because my parents didn’t know it existed. Now it’s all on YouTube. Here’s a clip of Alanis Morisette getting permission from her mom to be a Rock Star. The irony abounds.
  2. On economics:
  3. The sin of infant baptism. I like Mark Dever’s perspective. We’re all too jumpy about that “sin” word, almost as if we wanted to deny that people are sinners.
  4. My favorite email option ever.
  5. Pilots no longer allowed to carry weapons. I wanted to say something about the second amendment here, but this stoops lower than that. More like forbidding armed police.
  6. Makes my mouth water.
  7. Praising Mr. Rogers with faint d…
  8. Sweet ‘n’ Low daddy. I Won’t go into whether non-profit work is more like Equal or Splenda.
  9. Note to self: don’t talk like a pirate to a pirate.
  10. Outrageous salaries are the last resort of the incompetent hiring exec (with due respect to Asimov).
  11. Best Flight Attendant announcements ever.
  12. Twitter can get you fired. A concept I’m very sensitive to.

Mormon Trilemma

I have a meeting this afternoon with a couple of Mormon missionaries who stopped by some time last week and asked to talk with me about their, um, gospel. So I’ve been thinking for the last few days about how to get to the heart of the matter with them as quickly as possible.

The difficulty with Mormons is that they appear so much like ordinary evangelical Christians in their culture and lifestyle that it’s difficult to point out something that is blatantly un-Christian, and at the same time, they have distinctive views on history and biblical texts that make it’s easy to point out errors in their beliefs without ever coming to the issue of the gospel. In other words, it’s easy enough for a committed evangelical Christian to see that Mormons aren’t, and so avoid the possibility of being converted accidentally. But it’s very difficult, in polite conversation, to point out to a committed young Mormon that his religion is different from yours even in its essence, and dangerously so.

Questions of Kolob and ancient Indian civilizations notwithstanding, there are actually two theological errors that Mormons partake in. One is a kind of Arianism, which sees the trinity as three separate entities who are unified only in as far as their personal agreement, rather than three persons of the same substance, eternally experiencing a perichoretic unity. In other words, it’s difficult to explain.

The other error is easier to deal with, because the nature of the gospel hinges on it. The Mormon position is that any human who makes an attempt at self-reform according to God’s law can in time improve to a level of perfection. It is a gospel of self-improvement aided by the power of the Holy Spirit, and God’s gracious repeated revelation of the plan for this self-improvement. In other words, Pelagianism.

Mormon Pelagianism isn’t something that Mormons try to hide, though the true doctrines of grace may escape them. How hard is it, really, to hear that you are saved by God working a heart change in you, to which achievement you yourself make no actual contribution? It’s difficult!

I suppose a more thoroughly indoctrinated Calvinist than I could bring the distinction home through a rigorous application of TULIP, but as for myself, I have a hard time remembering what the letters stand for. And the last thing I want to do is to frighten them by appearing like an enraged madman attempting to throttle them with the gospel.

And besides, I think I have an easier way. Continue reading “Mormon Trilemma”

Morning Links

Just barely still morning. The interview went fine. We’re in the process of setting up another one.

Links:

  1. A man bag I could use.
  2. Against alternatives to the singular they.
  3. On untrustworthy faces. And they didn’t even include a single picture!
  4. Handwork/Headwork. Makes me look good, since I’m all head and no hands, but doesn’t shine so well against 1 Thessalonians 4:11 & 12.
  5. I never was very good at shadow puppets.
  6. Agents and value added. I’d love to find a realtor who specialized in “starter” homes and modest houses in need of some repair.
  7. Obama Sushi. Looks more like Bill Cosby from Picture Pages to me.
  8. Where did that silly idea come from that X people group has no concept of private property? The first commenter is most astute.
  9. Having flashbacks from Wild Wild West
  10. Star Trek like you’ve never seen it before. Also, an “outtakes” remix that almost had me falling out of my chair.
  11. Funny financing. Not a problem I need to solve, but I sure do love those dollar coins.
  12. It’s not always about learning your lesson.
  13. Building on what God has done, vs. what God might do.
  15. Building better breakthroughs through history. And American revivals seem to be happening about every 6-8 years.
  16. By “brick house,” I think he means “stacked.” Neither word brings to mind the image I expect they intend.
  17. So? There are so many things wrong with this perspective, it becomes tedious to attempt to list them.

Poor Judgement?

I had two immediate thoughts on the AIG bonus scandal:

  1. What on earth are these bonuses linked to? Obviously not the success of their ventures.
  2. Re: “cannot attract and retain the best and the brightest…” There is no clear indication that the bonuses they offered previously were successful in attracting “the best and brightest”, so there is no indication that bonuses will work in the future.

    3. However, from listening this morning to clips from AIG Chairman Edward Liddy’s testimony yesterday before the House, it seems to me that Congress has the shoe on the wrong foot with this one. Continue reading “Poor Judgement?”

Morning Links

Good Morning. My parents were in town, so we spent the day yesterday in Gatlinburg. We had a great time, despite the fact that we forgot to bring a stroller for David, so we spent the entire time holding him. At least Valerie and I had really sore backs last night!

Links:

  1. Actually, Great Expectations would be greatly improved with time-traveling robots.
  2. Peculiar
  3. In other words, TULIP is all right as far as it goes, but it doesn’t actually completely cover Calvinism. I’m fifty-fifty on this one. I’d say the Nicene creed does a pretty good job of describing orthodox Christianity. If anything, the only caveats I’d make would be to narrow the options, rather than widen them.
  4. On the other hand – Heresy = Good.
  5. So far, I pass.
  6. Not really sure about this.
  7. Hope for helpless gamers.
  8. Tilt, not bias.
  9. Really the way bureaucracy works.
  10. I think I read about this idea first in Speaker for the Dead. But it brings up some questions – is recording somebody without their notice legal? It isn’t over the phone.
  11. So glad I’m not a Hindu.
  12. cluster-fluffle
  13. Rhet!
  14. The term “Jesus is my girlfriend” really ruined a lot of songs for me.
  15. Trap!
  16. Spell Check poetry.