Cooling Twilight

Blog

  • N.T. Wright on Easter

    The Resurrection by Titian

    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…)

  • Kiva

    kiva

    I’ve been on a bit of a Kiva lending binge today, because for a limited time when someone joins Kiva through my referral link, we both get to make a $25 loan for free. Yep, that’s $25 for you and $25 for me to lend for free!

    If you’re not familiar with Kiva, it’s a micro-lending organization that connects entrepreneurs in the developing world with financing from people in the developed world. You get to invest in specific people and specific projects. It’s not a donation; it’s a loan that lets people build their businesses, betters their lives and enhance their communities.

    So please, if you can, consider making a loan through Kiva today!

  • Whither Have I Been?

    I’ve been away from this little corner of the internet for a few weeks, and while it’s tempting to say something pious like “I gave up blogging for Lent,” the truth of the matter is that I’ve just been busy with other projects and what-not. So my apologies to you, dear faithful reader. But you ask what else I’ve been up? Among other things:

    Hopefully I’ll soon get back onto some sort of semi-regular blogging schedule. I have a slew of working drafts, but it’s simply a matter of finding the time to make them suitable for mass consumption. Till then, I bid you patience!

  • Like A Rock

    Peter the Rock

    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.
    (more…)

  • And It Wasn’t Very Good

    Twilight

    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):

    1. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” (Gen. 1.31a)

    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.

  • The Johannine Pentecost

    john-pentecost

    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)

    (more…)

  • Why A Crucifixion?

    Crucifixion

    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…)

  • Who Wrote 2 Timothy?

    P46: You won't find 2 Timothy here!

    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…)

  • Does Your State Have An Official Rifle?

    Montana

    Last Tuesday in the Montana State Legislature, Representative Edward Greef put forth HB 215, which proposed designating the Winchester Model 1873 as the official Montana state rifle.

    Fortunately Native American legislators gave powerful and personal testimonies in opposition to the bill which ultimately led to its failure. Notable was State Representative Carolyn Pease-Lopez’s emotional appeal: (more…)

  • In Defense of an Evangelical Christian Education

    Wheaton College

    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…)