Tag: Theology

The Debate is On!

It seems there’s a bit of a fight brewing in the Christian Blogosphere over the gifts of the spirit, one of my favorite topics.

[Adrian Warnock](http://www.adrian.warnock.info/) and [Tim Challies](http://www.challies.com) seem to be the primary spark on this debate. Adrian has apparently been getting into it with cessationists for a while now (witness him calling [pyromaniac](http://phillipjohnson.blogspot.com/2005/11/rubber-prophecies.html) on [“charismatic-bating”](http://www.adrian.warnock.info/2005/11/rubber-prophecies-prove-nothing-except.htm)), and apparently he didn’t notice that Tim Challies was one too (a cessationist, that is). Continue reading “The Debate is On!”

More on Belief

Which is truth? Propositions or experience?

Ever have an argument with somebody that, months or even years later, you just can’t get out of you head? I do. Lots of ’em. Usually they keep surfacing until I win (at least in my head… 🙂 ).

[One of those arguments](http://www.neumatikos.org/essay/by-faith/#comment-299) happened almost a year and a half ago on this site between me and a guy named Zac on a part of a series I did on [faith](http://www.neumatikos.org/essay/by-faith/). We had some… philosophical differences.

It’s common enough to encounter the hyper-liberal suggestion that “true knowledge” excludes propositional truth and only includes experience and understanding. That is, that real truth cannot be condensed to consise statements. Continue reading “More on Belief”

Thanks be

Pulling my head out of the water long enough to give praise where praise is due:

Greek has been consistently kicking my butt. You know that [verse in Collossians](http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians%202:15;&version=31;) where Jesus is depicted as a Roman general returning from battle, bringing back disarmed powers and principalities as a “public specticle”? Well, replace the principalities with me and Jesus with Greek, and you’ll get a pretty accurate gist of how I’ve been feeling about that class lately. I *love* languages, and Greek is pretty fascinating to me, but rote memorization has never been my strong point by any stretch of the imagination. (Remind me sometime to tell you about my experience in fourth grade with the multiplication tables…) I suck at it. I’ve got to have some interrelated network of ideas to hang things on, or they just slip right out of my mind. And with this class, the pace is just so fast that learning feels more like cramming – constantly. It just doesn’t let up for a minute.

I was getting to the point where I absolutely hated it. I was getting to the point where I was, you know, destitute; broken; desperate.

I was getting to the point where it actually occurred to me to pray. Continue reading “Thanks be”

Corpse Bride

Have you ever noticed that in Tim Burton’s world, the macabre is… *cuddly*?

Since we got our financial situation squared away a few weeks ago, Fridays have been movie day for Valerie and me. We both have Friday off, so we can go into town for lunch and a movie and get matinee prices to boot. Finally we can see all those movies we’ve been missing on the big screen! We’ve done this twice so far; Valerie’s paid for the movie and I”ve paid for lunch, each of us out of our newly alotted allowance. Unfortunately, with matinee priceing, I’m losing out. Each week I’ve been totaled, and this week, Valerie had enough left over to buy a pair of gloves. I think next week, *I’m* paying for the movie.

Last week we saw *[Wallace and Grommit](http://www.wandg.com/)*, which was excellent, and today we saw *[Corpse Bride](http://corpsebridemovie.warnerbros.com/)*, which was… excellent. What is it with stop animation these days? Continue reading “Corpse Bride”

Ministry

You know, I’m beginning to dislike the word “ministry.”

I just finished a conversation with a fellow student in my Greek class, and she said to me,

> “You know, I think the Lord is calling me to minister to Koreans.”
“Well,” I said, “There certainly are a lot of Koreans in the area.”
“Do you know xxxx in our class, he’s Korean, and we’ve been driving to class together. Well he ministers at a Korean church.” (I nodded. There *are* a lot of Koreans in the area.) “And the other day I saw the movie [Seoul Train](http://www.seoultrain.com/), and it really touched my heart. And *then*, the school where I work told me they had someone to tutor who is Korean and doesn’t speak a word of English. So I’m thinking, Lord, what are you doing here? Eh?”

Of course, the amazing thing was that she managed to convey all this information, I think, in a single breath. But it’s the word “minister” that get’s to me sometimes. Continue reading “Ministry”

Catechesis

I expect to really enjoy my classes, but I’m picking up a decidedly post-modern strain in almost all of my education texbooks, which is a little odd, considering the decided squeamishness about postmodernism I’ve gotten from everything else at GCTS. Comparatively speaking, in this class, judging from the texts, I’m going to get post-moderned to death.

A quote:

> Catechesis is not simply accidental, but implies intentional, mindful, responsible, faithful activities; is not only for children, but implies life-long sustained efforts; is not indoctrination, but implies the necessity of open, mutually helpful interpersonal relationships and interactions of persons within a community; is not concerned with just one aspect of life, but with all of life — the political, the social, and the economic. Catechesis implies the presence of something we can only call “wholeness”, that is, it involves the entire person, the totality of his or her life, and it affects all of that person’s relationships — with God, self, neighbor, and the natural world.

Catechesis is 42

Is He Serious??

Rusty at [New Covenant](http://newcovenant.blogspot.com) has a post up criticizing a song he doesn’t like about being [so in love with Jesus](http://newcovenant.blogspot.com/2005/05/jesus-i-am-so-in-love-with-you.html)

> You are God in heaven
> And here am I on earth
> So I’ll let my words be few
> Jesus, I am so in love with You

> The simplest of all love songs
> I want to bring to You
> So I’ll let my words be few
>Jesus, I am so in love with You

“What is it about our culture, here in America, that motivates us to emphasize a *personal relationship* with this Jesus who loves us…” Rusty asks, “Is this a pattern that is modeled in scripture?”

Is he serious? He can’t find a single reference in scripture that talks about a passionate, personal relationship with the Godhead? Hoo boy. Continue reading “Is He Serious??”

Thoughts on Abortion

I don’t know why my mind is turning to this particularly, but since it is, I thought I’d post some thoughts:

The debate over abortion tends to revolve around the issue of when and if the preborn become separate alive individual humans. This seems obvious because the morality of killing something revolves around whether it’s human. If it ain’t human, it can’t be murder. However, the argument that a fetus isn’t really human is a rationalization, not a reason. If there were no other precursive reason for getting an abortion, the argument that the fetus was nothing more than a ball of cells (or whatever argument) would have no weight at all: Even a formless glob of cells that will, if left uninterrupted, turn into a fully formed human being is a pretty impressive thing. Humans are by and large pretty wonderful, and there’s no reason not to let that process continue. If I had a wart on my left elbow which, if left to itself, would grow into a fully developed human being, I would have every reason to let it continue. On the other hand, if the fact that a fetus wasn’t human were a *reason* for getting an abortion, then it would be a reason to abord **all** preborn children. So there must be some other motivation before an abortion can occur.

As far as I know there are three actual *reasons* for an abortion: Continue reading “Thoughts on Abortion”

Education, Doctrine, Culture, and Apologetics

Pres. Bush delivered a [great commencement speech](http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050521-1.html) at Calvin College this weekend.

Two thoughts:

+ This is **exactly** what I’ve been trying to work toward.
+ Now how come we couldn’t get a guy like this to come speak at *my* commencement?

Actually, I know why. No community can extend itself very far beyond it’s own culture. Valerie’s commencement speaker was the president (or dean, I forget which) of the Charlotte branch of [Union Theological Seminary](http://www.union-psce.edu/), which is housed on the Campus of Queens University. UTS is a [PCUSA](http://www.pcusa.org/) Seminary, and I’m sure he gave a speech that was very moving to the modern liberal view, but it left something lacking for the evangelical Christian. On the other hand, Bush is evangelical, and it shows. He presents a worldview that allows for the individual, and calls for community which supports that which is right.

I think it was at my baccalaureate that it really clicked that I was probably in the wrong school, despite the wonderful wife I’ve acquired there. Continue reading “Education, Doctrine, Culture, and Apologetics”

Calvinism and the Problem of Evil

Victor Reppert at [Dangerous Idea](http://dangerousidea.blogspot.com/) has a lovely discussion up on the [Problem of Evil](http://dangerousidea.blogspot.com/2005/03/why-calvinists-cant-solve-problem-of.html) which could stand some looking into. It has a very narrow focus, and doesn’t by any mreans try to “solve” the problem of evil. Instead, he’s does a little work toward demonstrating that the traditional Calvinist solution has some problems.

Continue reading “Calvinism and the Problem of Evil”