Is the Bible inerrant?

Interesting blog series by Chris Tilling discussing that question.

can we have truely objective theology?

"Sometimes we dream fondly of a 'purely objective' knowledge of God - a knowledge freed from the limitations of our senses, minds, experience, preparation, and so forth. But nothing of this sort is possible, and God does not demand that of us. Rather, He condescends to dwell in and with us, as in a temple. he identifies himself in and through our thoughts, ideas and experiences." -John M. Frame

a major problem with many Christians including myself

Christians today, in my experience, seem to not know how to be brutally honest. I am one of those people. I bet every person who has ever named the name of Christ has had times in life where they simple felt angry at God, confused, and wronged by Him. But yet this isn't something that we tend to talk about openly. My question is, Why not?

Job is a great example of a healthy anger against God. I just read this blog post that does a good job of explaining what i am talking about.

God taking responsibility

"The gospels thus tell the story, centrally and crucially, which stands unique in the world’s great literature, the world’s religious theories and visions: the story of the creator God taking responsibility for what’s happened to creation, bearing the weight of its problems on his own shoulders. As Sydney Carter put it in one of his finest songs, ‘It’s God they ought to crucify, instead of you and me.’ Or, as one old evangelistic tract put it, the nations of the world got together to pronounce sentence on God for all the evils in the world, only to realise with a shock that God had already served his sentence." (N. T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God, 94)

Spirit lite

Interesting Sermon

follow up

Here is a more favorable review of Expelled.

I am still pondering the issue of the "Intelligent Design movement." In light Romans 1, I think it is valid to assume, looking at creation, that life was designed by a divine creator. But I still think we need to be clear when dealing with atheists that we define what we mean by God as a being that is far more than a scientific hypothesis.

I still feel like an amature in this discussion so please take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

Darwinism, Creationism, Intelligent Design, Evolution, what a mess

I have the past few months been continually looking at these "scientific" issues. I still have yet to come to any firm conclusions other than that God created the heaven and the earth according to scripture. But how does this all work together with science and the natural world where nature seems to be bound by a beautiful system that runs things. Are the modern day evolutionary atheists correct in saying that the natural world can run itself and there is no need for a divine creator, especially the God of the Bible?

I recently saw the movie Expelled which is a documentary by Ben Stein (remember that good old teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off?)examining the reasons that intelligent design is a valid theory and should be taught in our classrooms. I was very disappointed in the film. I am afraid that the movie didn't do a decent enough job of explaining the issue. The film was more propaganda than it was objective reasoning. The Intelligent Design (ID) proponents, for the most part, attacked and ridiculed the atheists and Darwinist which only made the IDers look stupid themselves.

Due to this blog and some great conversations with my girlfriend (who is currently reading Dawkins' The God Delusion), I am being to question whether Christians should be pushing ID. I am being to believe that ID is a weak counter argument to Darwinism because it reduces God into a simple hypothesis that can easily be taken apart by any astute thinker.

My other thought is that observable evolution is the only thing that should be considered if one wants to simply look at the facts and at science only. Intelligent Design, Creationism, and Darwinian Evolution are all dealing with metaphysical ideas that are somewhat apart from scientific inquiry. These three ideas, though one might call them "scientific", are really ideas that belong in the realm of philosophy.

But then again...

Someone I know asked: "How can you separate the natural from the spiritual?"

Good question.

It seems to me the answer to Atheistic Darwinism is not a simple one. I think the task of the Christian to "defend the faith" on this issue is incredibly difficult.

If you want to read more, Check out this review essay

God and the problem of evil

There is a great (though far too brief) dialogue between the brilliant New Testament Scholar N.T. Wright and Bart Ehrman. Ehrman is a former "evangelical" who now claims to be agnostic and does not believe in the Christian God anymore partially because of the strong presence of evil in this world. I found it to be very interesting as I have been pondering this issue in conjunction with reading Wright's book Evil and the Justice of God


Click Here

Good Ol' Snoopy

There Will Be Blood (of Christ)

parody of the film, There Will be Blood, from Princeton Theological Seminary. Very funny.

Google Reader

I recently was introduced to this amazing tool for blog fanatics like myself and it has made blog reading so much faster and easier

Quote I read today: "Defend the bible? It needs about as much defense as a lion!"

a holy prayer

Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:
Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.

Proverbs 30:7-9 (ESV)

Dear God...

I came across this interesting web site where anyone can go on and write out their prayers to God or Allah or whatever. It contains some stuff that will almost bring tears to your eye and other stuff that will bring joy. I have quite enjoyed reading it the past few days.

First century christianity brought to the 21st century?

I have been reading Shane Claiborne's book The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical recently. It is my "back-pack" book, meaning that I carry around at school in case I am in a class with nothing to do (which is common in American high schools). Shane is what you might call a "liberal" Christian. He beliefs in living a type of monastic life and in, probably to the horror of the Religious Right, a type of redistribution of wealth (though it's not in the traditional political sense). His book is fascinating to me as someone who grew up in a very conservative tradition. The reason being that he is part of a Christian "movement" that I never thought would be possible in modern America. It is a way of living that tries to replicate the way that the early disciples lived in the book of Acts. For example, everyone puts all there money into a community pool and all money made by any individual goes to the community income. They try to live in a way in which money no longer holds value to them. I always thought that in the American economy this kind of thing would just plain never work, but here is, this small community in Pennsylvania. Now my mind now begs the questions: what would it be like if American Christianity or even Christianity world-wide would embrace this community and materialism-denying lifestyle? Is this is what God had in mind for Christianity even today? We do on one hand know that was his plan for the beginning of his church. Or maybe there is the reality that the Christian church needs to adapt the culture's system sometimes to make things work. Either way, Shane's story shows a functional attempt to go against the grain and do something different. I still haven't finished the book so these are only my preliminary thoughts and I will have to ponder this more and maybe do some research to truly come to a conclusion on what I should believe about all of this.

my life...

has been quite crazy as of late. I am finishing up my last few weeks of high school and preparing to go to college at Biola University in August. I just got back from a two day trip to Biola and am very excited to go there in a few short months. Many things are changing in my life and I am just trying to make sense of it all. I am coming to realize that I am going through a time of transition from being a boy to being a man and I am anxious to see what kind of person i will become in the next few years.

details of the murder that happened on 'good' friday

This is an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association

if you pee sitting down you are disobeying scripture

This man should not preach:


but he does give us someone to laugh at

Some great lyrics

There is a metal band that I enjoy to listening to called Extol. They writes some pretty deep lyrics that I thought I would share.

this song talks about the fall of humanity:

Inferno

The result of a failure
Genetic error
A system out of control
Creative energy
Transformed into hatred
A twisted perception of truth

Mankind breeds mortality
Sickness passes on through generations
The effect shows through genocide
Malfunctioning minds

A bite of the fruit
Termination activated

This creation destined for success
Now violated and raped by one
Given access to the heartland
Evil dominion over their spirits

Divorced from its creator
Crying out

I especially like that those last 2 lines.


Here is a song about the guilt that comes with falling to lustful desires:

Time Stands Still

Temptation

Time stands still
The whisper in my ear
The spirit within
A struggle destined to fail

Infested thoughts
Spirit contracts
Lust dominates
Fallen once again

Frustration accumulates
Anger towards the fraud of the world
Anger towards the lack of self control
Condemnation, immediate repentance

How much can you take?
The disappointment of my deceit
Pain
Disobedience to Your will

Of my weaknesses I'm desperately aware
Do I even dare
To repent again?
Why would you endure the pain?

Prisoner of filthy chains
Unclean, unclean

Help me God
Set me free

This song has a cool effect. The last part has someone chanting "unclean, unclean" with slow music. Then it picks up and the singer begins to scream "Help me God, Set me free." It really captures the emotion of it all.

wow

theological liberalism

american spirituality

"American spirituality has glorified 'searching' for spiritual meaning but de-emphasized 'finding.' In other words, it is good to be looking for spirituality, but it is intolerant to actually believe you have found a right faith."
- Ed Stetzer, quoted in Kane County Chronicle

something I have been thinking about

Recently, I have been fighting legalism in my life. But through that I have come to realize that I threw out holiness. I am afraid I have stopped the strive to be set apart. I fell victim to the belief that all rules without clear reason behind them are stupid and should not be heeded. This is not true. I have been going through Ephesians with my Thursday night bible study group and there are plenty of points where God sets up rules that seem at times frivolous. There is always a time to ask questions. But there is also a time when God calls us to simply trust and obey even if we do not know why. I think that even as christians we can still use our freedom to enslave ourselves. (Galatians 5:1)

dissatisfied

I am so dissatisfied with my life right now. I have become someone who I am embarrassed of. I have become lazy, complacent, comfortable. I have always been struggling with things like laziness but right now I feel like it is engulfing me. And When I say I feel comfortable I mean that I am content with the way I live. I hate being content in some ways. I love being challenged. I feel like Christ has called me to live so much differently then I have been. There is a famous saying that says "God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable." I find myself being a part of the latter category. I miss being daily challenged with deep things about life and God. The days when I am not I don't feel like I have been really living. I have had days were I have wasted every moment of it doing things like playing computer games or aimlessly surfing the Internet. Now I the love Internet because I love being connected to the world and culture. I also love how I can stay up on what is happening in American Christianity through blogs. But I have not used this tool in moderation. I have been involved in the world of online computer gaming and I feel like that stuff just sucks your time away and leaving me feeling so empty. I feel like I have not been making wise use of my time (Ephesians 5:15-16)


"Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."
-Ephesians 5:14 ESV

one way God gets the glory he deserves

I just got back from a retreat with the high school group at my church. It was an intense 3 days of a ban on cell phones and other common distractions. I feel like the Lord really moved in the lives of myself and others that came. I know the Lord convicted my heart about a great many things and I am sure he has done the same for most, if not all, of those who was part of the retreat. But I wanted to talk specifically about how I got to experience one way in which God gets the glory he deserves. Last night we had a time of worship as the last thing before bed. What made it special was that we had a time earlier to deal with some sin and guilt in smaller groups. I had a time with some a few good friends to just confess sin, pray for each other, and simply embrace the fact that grace is already ours. All this brought an overflow of emotions within a ton of people there. And this brought heartfelt worship directly to God as we sang some humble songs. That alone is a beautiful expression of people just giving God exactly what he deserves from screwed-up human beings. But there was more to it. I got to hear from two separate people that seeing people worship like that brought them to a place of humble gratitude toward God. So some sang out of their hearts, and some watched while praising God for what they were seeing. If that isn't a glimpse of heaven, I don't know what is.

why am I content with cheap pleasures?

I get so frustrated with myself sometimes. I am continually contented with mediocrity and laziness. I know in my heart that life is so full, that I have been set free through Christ. Yet I continually find myself just drifting, being happy and satisfied with cheap pleasures. I have partaken in the joy that is brought through pursuing my God, yet I tend to choose laziness when I know that my diligence to follow Jesus brings great reward. O How it puts spring into my step when I am seeking to understand with my mind an infinite God. To behold his mysterious beauty is the greatest pleasure I can think of. How often I forget the happiness when I can be part of someone else seeing God's beauty. All of this requires me to have a soul that seeks God until he is found and never gives up. I need to be more earnest and eager to see my God. I hate it when reading my bible becomes a chore but without it I become starved for powerful truth very quickly. I love it when the bible comes alive and cuts like a sword, I love when it brings tears of joy to my eyes, I love it when when it sends my head spinning, and I love it when it leads me to a place where I can just be in awe of God. My soul mourns for those who have not seen the living God yet I often catch myself living just like them. The difference is that I know the overflowing joy and they don't. I have no excuse, I am simply content with what I know to be the lesser path.

I am trying out mobile blogging so this is my first post that i am typing on my phone. This way i can blog when i am not at home.

the reality of hell

Dan Kimball summarizes his sermon on hell

reckless pursuit

Running earnestly after you
a glorious adventure,
captivated by mysterious beauty.

Scared of where you will lead me
yet not wanting to go back.

I learn to delight in you alone
the cheap pleasures I once sought
no longer satisfy.

It seems too good to be true
but my soul is finally alive

This is what I was made for
the reckless pursuit of you
the God whose love I do not deserve

the conversation continues

John Piper and Sam Storms share their thoughts

follow-up

Denny Burk responds to Ben Witherington's post

is God seeking his own glory?

Ben Witherington's post raises a lot of valid questions and it is an interesting problem of figuring out what motiviation God has for what he does. Granted this might be a question that can be answered here on earth but it poses some interesting debates. I myself have held the view that God does everything for his own Glory, but Ben makes a good argument against this idea. Make sure you read some of the comments on the post as they some of the other sides of the argument.

running for president but having fun doing it

we need to be loved

"We are never at peace with God till we resolve to be loved in Jesus Christ."
- John Calvin

the story of William Cowper

Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord

I started reading Ezekiel today. I am just awestruck by the description of God's beauty and glory found in the first few chapters of Ezekiel. I am very jealous of Ezekiel's chance to see the vision of God that he saw. I was having a rough afternoon trying to see God and I ended up just falling on my face before God and just giving it up. Then I grabbed my bible and just sat in silence reading it and when I read this my soul leaped within me.

Here is an artists interpretation of what Ezekiel saw:

sleeping is a waste of time

that is right. I hate my need to sleep. Sure it is nice to have a time of resting everyday, but all those hours add up. I looked up the data and here is what I found on a forum: "If you get about 7 hours of sleep per night, you're spending about 2555 hours sleeping! So, that means, every 10 years of your life, you will have spent 2.961 years laying in your bed unconscious!"

How much more could humanity accomplish without the need to sleep.

"Sleep, those little slices of death; Oh how I loathe them."
-Edgar Allan Poe

the need for relationships

"...relationships reflect God’s character and are a part of his design, there are so many implications. It means that valuing relationships is a good thing. It means needing relationships is a reality, not just some emotional response. One of my roommates mentioned the relief in realizing that it’s not “weak” to show your need for others." -Connie Jiminez

the Word, a sacrament?

an excellent post by Ben Witherington

come thou fount

I have fallen in love with this old hymn:

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

here is the David Crowder band performing it:

why Mark Driscoll hates religion

17,000 watt stereo

this is INSANE!


17,000 watts stereo

Add to My Profile | More Videos

seeing the gospel

"I guarantee there isn't a homeless person in Portland who couldn't tell you the gospel verbatim. They've had to listen to it three times a day to get a sandwich. They've heard about Christ, but they haven't seen Christ. Who will sit next to them while they panhandle, who will enter their world? I've had friends doing that for 15 years. That is seeing the gospel."

-Rick McKinley, pastor of the Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon.

if you don't think Jesus is God ...

Read Hebrews 1, especially verses 8-12

I am glued to this passage

to put it in modern terms, this basically says that Jesus is DA MAN!

Living Theology

sweet blog post

why christians?

I wish I could go up to every person I know and let them know that there is a God, a God whose image they were created in, a God who loves them, a God who wants to give them abundant life. I wish it were easier to do this without people looking at you as a freak. Obviously if a stranger came up to me and started talking about a god like that (and I had never heard of this god) I might think they were a little crazy. I feel like such an inadequate representation of that God. I continually wonder why God chose flawed human beings to bring his gospel to the world he loves. Wouldn't it be better if he made christians perfect upon their salvation so that they would never make Christ look bad? Paul tells a powerful truth to the Corinthian church, he says that he was sent "to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:17-18 ESV) Verse 18 brings me the greatest joy and the greatest sorrow. The fact that the wrath satisfying work of Christ on that cross is the power of God. It is the reason that souls will even have the chance to come near to the throne of God! I heard a preacher make the point that Paul, unlike people today, was not concerned about how God could allow bad things to happen but he was wondering how on earth God could allow a sinner to be forgiven. He was just amazed that God would give adulterous people the chance to get off scot-free! That is the joy of that verse. But the sorrow is in the first part of the verse when it shows that people that are created by God to love God and enjoy God see the saving work of God's son as foolishness. I just want to weep sometime thinking about how some people who are living right now and will never embrace the abundant life that is offered through Jesus. I want so badly to see people embrace the beautiful savior and it pains me to see them walk away. I also feel anger toward myself because of all the times I have make Christ look unattractive by the way I live and the words I say. I feel like part of the problem, I sometimes feel that it is Christians who are stopping this glorious life-giving gospel from getting to people.

I just want to scream: "why the heck would God want us to be his representation?"

EDIT

video games-a wise use of time?

I love video games, They are the way in which i keep myself entertained when i would otherwise be bored out of my mind. But I think that is just the problem, we try to keep from being bored out of our minds by doing something that leaves our minds behind. Most video games are in no way stimulating to the mind. Movies can make me think about deep issues, playing sports or hanging out with friends cultivates amazing relationships, and reading forces you to use your brain.

This is just what i have noticed. Maybe my generation's downfall is going to be all the wasted time playing games. Now I believe that someone could play some games and have their brains challenged, not all video game playing is a waste of time, and with the whole "online revolution" in gaming could somehow lead to some deep relationships between people. But I know from experience how empty I feel when I look back on my day and realize I have wasted hours of my day sitting clicking buttons on a screen or pushing buttons on a controller. And what do Christians have to throw into this equation when considering the glory of God and the unwasted life he calls us to? Scripture does us to "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (Ephesians 5:15-17 ESV). So the question is: is constant video gaming wise? is it part of the Lord's will for believers?

Something to think about
Pray about

a beautiful truth

"There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us."

- Richard Sibbes

i am excited

Donald Miller has a new book coming out!!

What if...

I had a conversation with a friend last night that got me thinking. In my "quest" to try to define the beauty of Christ I have begun to think more and more that Christ's beauty is first and foremost shown through God's creation and specifically through who we are as human beings, the image-bearers of God. Last week I was at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California. While I was standing in line, I kept looking at all the different people around me, I was pretty much staring so I probably freaked some people out. But I was just looking at them through new eyes, I was just amazed to see how everyone looked different yet everyone looked beautiful suddenly to my eyes. Even the people I would normal look at and consider them ugly were suddenly the most beautiful people I had ever seen! What if God's beauty is displayed in a greater way through us as image-bearers than we realize? Granted that we are no longer the "good" human beings of Genesis 1, but we still are amazing works of art. Not only are we a beautiful creation in our complexity, our emotions, our diversity but we are also the only living creation with creativity in which to make our own works of art. We are God's Work of Art that has the ablitly to use our inherient creativity to make our own art. What if art is meant to be a way in which we as human beings display God's beauty? My friend made this statement "art speaks to people." What if art is a way in which we can "speak" God's beauty and glory to those around us?

skit we did at my church