Taking a Month to Pray and…

Posted on January 6, 2012
Filed Under Personal | 11 Comments

I’m taking a month off to pray and fast and mourn;
to study, prepare and grieve;
to seek His Face.

See you mid-February.

Soli Deo Gloria!
Galatians 6:9

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The Christmas Seed

Posted on December 22, 2011
Filed Under God and Man, Theology | 20 Comments

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” Genesis 3:15

When God spoke the earth into existence, it was formless and void—a lump of clay, so to speak, ready for the Hands of the Craftsman to begin the creative work of fashioning a garden teeming with flourishing delights: birds and fish, animals and plants, things that flew and swam, wriggled and ran, or simply stuck their roots into the perfect soil and brought forth fruit and vegetables, nuts and berries, nectar and flowers and shade and…well, all kinds of beautiful and life-enhancing stuff. But more than all of this, each of these living things was given the privilege and responsibility to recreate themselves. Birds laid eggs that brought forth baby birds that would grow up to lay their own eggs; animals gave birth to baby animals that would grow up to give birth to their own babies; plants produced seed that would fall onto the soil and grow into mature plants that would, in turn, produce their own seeds.

This was the grand plan of God.

But, something happened…something bad, something evil. Now, the garden produced weeds and thistles and thorns. Rather than delight in life, the Evil delighted in death; rather than beauty, it loved the vile; rather than fruit, it bore poison. It is hard to imagine how instantly a garden filled with light could become so cold and so dark so very, very quickly. And it appeared as if there were no remedy, no fix, no hope to get it back to the way it was before the darkness descended…descended upon everything…everything.

That’s when God told us about the Christmas Seed. Read more

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Taking No Pleasure in the Death of Christopher Hitchens

Posted on December 18, 2011
Filed Under Community, Worldview | 6 Comments

“Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” Ezek 33:11

On December 15, 2011, one of the most vocal opponents of Christianity walked through the door that separates mortal life from the immortal.

Christopher Hitchens book, “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” was one of many openly hostile atheistic books that have become popular in recent years. “Hitch” as he was called, was one of the champions of the “New Atheism” although he personally tagged himself as an “antitheist” because an atheist, as he saw it, could deny God but wish he were wrong, whereas an antitheist is one who delights in finding no evidence for Him.

Hitch stated that the Bible “was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals.”

He didn’t soften or hide his hostility to religion:
“We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid.”
“Organised religion is violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children.”

Dr. Mark Roberts analyzed Hitchen’s book “God is Not Great” and found that just in the areas where Hitch made truth claims about the New Testament (all derogatory), there were 15 errors and 16 distortions. For example, his claim that the four gospels couldn’t agree on anything of importance is blatantly false by even the most hostile of literary critic’s examination.

But this isn’t surprising in many ways. Hitch had a deep hostility toward religion and hostility can cloud observations and stimulate gross overstatements and false charges. It would be very good for Christians to keep this in mind when writers hostile to a biblical wordview speak or write. The same goes for most of the media.

It should also temper us when we write about our own opponents.

It may surprise people that one of my favorite quotes actually comes from Hitch:
“[O]wners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.” The Portable Atheist

That won’t win me any friends with cat-people, but I think it is actually quite a good observation of the stark difference between cats and dogs!

This is also the man who deeply loved his daughters and said that he would calmly and unquestionably lay down his life for them. Read more

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The Art of Bickering Versus the Witness of Unity

Posted on December 12, 2011
Filed Under The Church | 16 Comments

“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me…” John 17:22-23

A few years ago, I had the blessing of traveling to Israel. Part of that trip included a visit to Bethlehem where we met with a group of absolutely awesome brothers and sisters in Christ. They know the deep cost of being a disciple.

While there, we visited the Church of the Nativity, where tradition holds that Jesus was born. It is built over a cave…a stable cut into the rock. Both Justin Martyr in the 2nd century and Origen in the 3rd, attested to this site as well as the birthplace of Christ being in a cave. I suppose our modern nativity depictions of a stable are easier to construct than caves.

As best we can tell, the original basilica was built in 333AD by Constantine’s mother, Helena, destroyed in the Samaritan Revolt of 529, and then rebuilt in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian I.

To enter, one must stoop and squeeze through “the Door of Humility”. Nobody really knows who made that small doorway or why. Once inside, any thoughts of finding anything close to your imagined “nativity” quickly evaporate. The church is heavily iconic. Winding stairs on either side of the sanctuary lead down to the “Grotto of the Nativity”, the supposed cave. But it doesn’t look anything like a cave. It is primarily an altar covering a marble alcove. The alter has lots of gold gilding, candles, rich tapestry, etc.

Quite honestly, I’m not into the gaudy, iconic structures that characterize many of Christianity’s historic places. I would rather walk through a quite shepherd’s field and look at THE cave…a plain, humble cave where Jesus was born.

However, all that being said, the Church of the Nativity is a very old and historic place.

It is also deteriorating. The roof leaks and the timbers are rotted. It has been 150 years since the last major renovation.

Why?
Lack of money?
Lack of professional restorers?
Security problems?
No.
It is the bickering of Christian sects. Read more

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Why Friday was Black and Blue

Posted on November 28, 2011
Filed Under Anthropology, Labor, Personal, Philosophy/Ethics, Worldview | 25 Comments

The AP headline on the front page of Sunday’s paper read “Why Friday was Black and Blue”. In case you haven’t heard, the biggest shopping day of the year had some ugly elements to it:
–a woman in Los Angeles was so intent on getting at a crate of Xbox video games that she pepper-sprayed 20 other customer “contestants” to clear her path;
–crowds in New York decided they had enough “mob” power to forget about the “paying” part and looted a clothing store, taking whatever they wanted as the shopkeeper was helpless to stop them;
–shootings at stores from the West Coast to the East Coast;
–stabbings in Sacramento
–police having to restrain customers who decided they didn’t want to wait for the store to open and stormed it early;

So much for the “holiday spirit”.

But remember, the article promised us an answer as to why all this was happening, “Why” Friday was black and blue.

This was the truly interesting part and why I continue to make my seminary students analyze articles for the underlying worldviews that exist behind the words and between the lines.

What caused this outbreak of greed and looting and shootings and stabbings?

Well, it turns out, believe it or not, Read more

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What are You Gripe-ful For?

Posted on November 23, 2011
Filed Under God and Man | 7 Comments

I have an awesome idea!

How about if we swapped out Thanksgiving for Gripes-giving? This would be a day where we sat around the table and asked everyone to share their gripes and complaints. Get ‘em all out on that day. You couldn’t gripe the rest of the year, just on Gripes-giving.

Just the opposite of what we have now.

Have you ever noticed that thankfulness is pretty much missing the rest of the year? Of course! That’s because we used them all up at the Thanksgiving table where everyone, in labored fashion, had to dig really deep to share something they were thankful for. You know how it goes: “well, I’m thankful for…ummm…well, for my dog…and…ummmm…for my iPhone…and, uh…next!”

Now, on the flip side, look at the rest of the year. You never hear someone at the water cooler pop out with a “you know, guys, I would like to just share something that I’m really thankful for…”.

That would be a weird moment, wouldn’t it?

No, the daily conversations that I usually hear are filled with gripes and complaints. It isn’t quite like the protests going on all over our country, where it’s 100-proof griping, but we have to admit that complaining is a major part of our daily conversations. Read more

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Pondering Presidential Selection Criteria

Posted on November 21, 2011
Filed Under The State, The Truth Encounter | 21 Comments

I just returned from a trip to Iowa that had two major objectives: conduct a Truth Encounter conference and attend Saturday night’s Presidential candidate forum.

I believe there was something providential about these two events coming back-to-back, for they provoked within me some serious thoughts and observations regarding the upcoming primaries and elections.

Basically, they all focused upon this one important question: What is the criteria we should use to select our next presidential candidate?
–appearance?
–eloquence?
–financial backing?
–testimony?

What is the key criteria?

I was struck by this question as I sat through the forum, listening to Paul, Bachmann, Santorum, Perry, Cain and Gingrich. Frank Luntz, who moderated the forum, was attempting to get past the sound bites and dig into the person, the worldview, the character of each candidate. That resulted in some emotional reflections about battles with cancer, divorce, addictions, birth defects in their children… And as I listened, I realized just how good all of these people were.

Perfect? No. They even talked about flaws in their lives. We all have them. But these were good people. I heard them express their faith in God, their submission to Him and their desires to help our country overcome some of our most difficult challenges.

I was proud of them.

Obviously mine was a different opinion from Rahm Emanuel, who was speaking at a Democratic fundraiser across town. He stated that the Republican event was “called the Thanksgiving Family Forum, which is fitting because I have never seen such a collection of turkeys.”

How sad.
How wrong.
These were good people.

But that observation kept raising the question: “How does one decide between them?”
“What is the proper criteria?” Read more

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On Writing Trip

Posted on November 9, 2011
Filed Under Personal | 28 Comments

Sorry to be absent, but I’ve secluded myself in a hollow in the middle of Tennessee to work on three things:

–the Truth Encounter (follow-on to the Truth Project);

–a draft of a book that could be the start of a 12-book series entitled “Worldview Tour Guide Books: Book 1: Veritology”–it would provide a combination of material that was in the Truth Project, that which will be in the Truth Encounter, and a bunch that got left out of both;

–and finally a teaching on the fascinating way God protected and directed the genealogical “seed line” from Adam and Eve to the birth of Jesus.

I’m writing this as I sit outside of the nearest large town’s library using their “hot-spot”.

Back in a week…Blessings to all of you!

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Response to OWS Comments

Posted on November 2, 2011
Filed Under Labor, The State | 33 Comments

Well, I certainly didn’t expect the emotional responses to my previous two blogs. A number of you took exception to what I was saying, and that is fine, when the rebuttals are respectful. Some were unprintable, name-calling, and by-the-way, “anonymous” which I don’t post.

But I wanted to respond to the general thrust of those who disagreed and then we’ll be done with the subject.

The main issues were the following:

1. “The OWS people aren’t really saying that profits and people are contradictory.” Well, I would agree that there are probably some who don’t think so, but I have spent years and years with university students and I can tell you truthfully that many have been infected with the common Marxist thinking that pervades our universities today. It may not always be on top, but it is certainly there underneath: corporations and profits are evil; the pie is fixed, if someone has become wealthy, it is because they have exploited someone else; one gains, another loses. That is why profits are evil, because it has been snatched out of the mouth of another. When the OWS folks chant “people over profits” I would submit that they are conveying directly or indirectly this kind of thinking. I wanted to address that.

2. “The OWS people are rightly pointing out that our economic problems have come from the greedy corporations.” I agree that there is greed in corporations. I also agree that there have been ridiculous compensation packages for CEO’s. If I were a stockholder in those companies, then I would have the right to speak out about that and I hope that I would. But I would contend that the OWS folks are barking at the wrong tree. Read more

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People Over Profits: Faulty Logic

Posted on October 24, 2011
Filed Under Philosophy/Ethics | 34 Comments

One of the consistent signs exhibited at the OWC (Occupy Wall Street) protests is the slogan: “People Over Profits”. If you hear them chanting anything, it will probably be this slogan.

It is intended to make the reader or hearer believe two things:
–1st that people and profits are a contradiction. That is, one can either support uplifting people or pursue profits, but obviously not both;
–and 2nd, given this horrible dilemma, one must choose people.

Now, if the 1st premise is true, then I would agree that choosing people is the better choice.

However, this is a much-used ploy in attempting to fool the opponent with faulty logic by setting up a false contradiction.

Actually, there are very, very few things in life that are truly contradictory. That is because contradictions can’t exist in the realm of reality—a light bulb cannot be both on and off at the same time in the same place. Humans, however, can, and do, introduce logical fallacies.

One that I hear all the time is the argument regarding evil and suffering. It goes like this:
1. Evil and suffering exist;
2. If God were good and all-powerful, He would prevent evil and suffering;
3. Therefore, God is either not good or He is not powerful or He doesn’t exist at all.

This is the classical fallacy of setting up a contradiction when there really isn’t one in order to cause the hearer to make a false conclusion.

Teenagers do this all the time:
1. I will be happy if I can go to Sam’s party tonight;
2. You won’t let me go to Sam’s party;
3. Therefore you don’t want me to be happy and you obviously don’t love me.

Now, a naïve parent can fall for this and say: “Oh, honey, I do love you and want you to be happy.”
With big crocodile tears, the kid says, “Then I can go?” Read more

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