Cross Examined: An Unconventional Spiritual Journey by Bob Seidensticker is an easy book to sum up: it’s a novel about apologetics. Such an undertaking has intriguing possibilities, but unfortunately Seidensticker can’t quite pull off this combination. Apologetics is mostly about telling; good fiction is about showing — and in this novel the two make for uneasy bedfellows.
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Amid the unfolding news of yesterday’s Boston marathon bombing, I saw this message on Facebook:
Really!? This is the sort of question that pops into the mind of some supposed “Christians”? People are dead and injured and scared and traumatized and panicked and you dare to question the sincerity, motivation and consistency of their prayers? And regarding the comment appended to that post, you dare to make a horrendously distasteful joke when there are still bodies and body parts strewn across the street? That’s what you, a self-proclaimed Christian, choose to say while people are still crying out and wondering where to turn for answers? This sort of self-righteous theological arrogance and uncaring smugness makes me embarrassed to be even nominally associated with Christianity.
From Surprised By Hope by N.T. Wright:
[Easter] ought to be an eight-day festival, with champagne served after Morning Prayer or even before, with lots of alleluias and extra hymns and spectacular anthems. Is it any wonder people find it hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus if we don’t throw our hats in the air? Is it any wonder we find it hard to live the resurrection if we don’t do it exuberantly in our liturgies? Is it any wonder the world doesn’t take much notice if Easer is celebrated as simple the one-day happy ending tacked onto forty days of fasting and gloom? It’s long overdue that we took a hard look at how we keep Easter in the Church, at home, in our personal lives, right through the system. And if it means rethinking some cherished habits, well, maybe it’s time to wake up. That always comes as a surprise. (more…)
In light of Pope Benedict’s abdication, it seems relevant to take a look at one of the verses often understood as relating to the papacy, Matthew 16.18: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
The NIV note provides some helpful clarification: “The Greek word for Peter means rock.” You can see this in the Greek: κἀγὼ δέ σοι λέγω ὅτι σὺ εἶ Πέτρος, καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέτρᾳ οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν καὶ πύλαι ᾅδου οὐ κατισχύσουσιν αὐτῆς.
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It’s nice to see that my site is on the first page of Google search results for “list of biblical principles that twilight the movie is against.”
So, since you asked, here’s the list (it’s a short one):
In case that’s not clear enough, the principle here is that just as what God made was very good, we also, as bearers of the imago dei, should also strive to create what is very good. Twilight, in both its written and cinematic forms, is not “very good” and thus violates that foundational biblical principle.
I hope you, whoever you are, found that list helpful. And should you ever need more guidance on such issues, please don’t hesitate to ask.
In my post Baptism in the Holy Spirit, I discussed the Biblical basis for understanding Spirit baptism as an initial experience that occurs at conversion. In this post, I’d like to briefly discuss the passage that Pentecostals often refer to first when defending their understanding of baptism in the Holy Spirit:
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the disciples had gathered together and locked the doors of the place because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. Just as the Father has sent me, I also send you.” And after he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained.” (John 20.19−23)
Tony Jones, as part of hit #progGOD challenge, asks: why a Crucifixion?
There’s a whole lot of theology wrapped up in such a simple question, but rather than delving into all the varying views of the atonement or tediously exegeting Scripture I’m just going to share some thoughts that come to mind when I think about the crucifixion.
Why a crucifixion? So there could be a resurrection! The crucifixion is all about the resurrection. When we stop at Christ’s death on the cross, we’ve cut the story short — we’ve turned the TV off at the final commercial break, we’ve left the movie theater mid-film to go get more popcorn, we’ve dozed off in bed a few chapters shy of the novel’s end. (more…)
In his post Secrets and lies and the deeper scandal of the evangelical mind, Fred Clark poses this hypothetical exchange:
Question: Who wrote the second epistle to Timothy in the New Testament?
Fundamentalist preacher: Paul.
Biblical scholar: We don’t know, but Paul was long dead by the time it was probably written, so not him.
Evangelical pastor: (glances over both shoulders warily, leans in, whispering) Who’s asking?
The point he’s making here (and in the rest of his post) is important, and one that I generally agree with. However, in his eagerness to draw distinctions between varying approaches to the Bible, Clark oversimplifies the issue of the authorship of 2 Timothy. (more…)
Lately there have been a few blog posts critiquing the notion of evangelical education and drawing attention to some of the problematic aspects — and even the potential futility — of such an undertaking.
I agree that this is an important issue and that so-called Christian Education faces a unique set of systemic challenges — but I’d like to respond to such critiques with my personal experience at Wheaton College. This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive defense of evangelical education; nor am I claiming that my experience was typical. But my time at Wheaton certainly isn’t consistent with the head down, blinders on brainwashing that many seem to think necessarily takes place at Christian institutions of higher education. (more…)
I recently heard a Christian author promoting his book, and in doing so he claimed that the book’s message must truly be from God since it had sold far more copies than anyone had expected. In essence, unexpected book sales equaled evidence of divine inspiration.
Churches often use a similar metric. Attendance up? We must be following God’s plan. Conversely, churches that are struggling to fill the pews are often looked at askance: that’s what you get for failing to preach the Bible and properly minister to your flock.
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