Saturday, May 31, 2008

The frying pan or the fire?

For a number of years I have been impressed by the continuity between conservative thought and biblical doctrine. As I was finishing my reading of Francis Schaeffer's "How Should We Then Live," I was brought up short by something he said.
"...the words left or right will make no difference. They are only two roads to the same end. There is no difference between an authoritarian government from the right or the left; the results are the same. An elite, an authoritarianism as such, will gradually force form on society so that it will not go on to chaos. And most people will accept it--from the desire for personal peace and affluence, from apathy, and from the yearning for order to assure the functioning of some political system, business, and the affairs of daily life. This is just what Rome did with Caesar Augustus."
Frankly, conservativism still marries closely to what God's word says, but that's not Schaeffer's point.

Our government for years has had a conservative form because that is what was imposed upon it by the founders. It was the natural form because the people of America were a deeply religious (in the good sense) people. There was a deep devotion to the God of the Bible, and that manifest itself in all aspects of their lives to include the founding of a new nation. That's why George Washington said,
"Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
Here's the friction: we are no longer a Christian people. I know that's not a new revelation, but it bears upon what is happening around us.

Bob says conservatism is best. Joe says liberalism. Who's to say? Who will win? The stronger (or the majority) will always win and impose their position upon the other. That is the authoritarianism of which Schaeffer speaks.

When our nation was founded, the debate in the first century was over varying degrees of rule with the overwhelming majority bending their knee to Christ. The people were already ruled by a far greater Motivator than any government could ever be. In submission to Christ and His hand, the people essentially governed themselves.

As we (America) has rejected God, government has exploded in size, laws have increased in quantity, and we have shaken off any constraint within.

And so the conservative forms of our founded government no longer exist within the hearts of the people. For them to be implemented again, they would have to be imposed upon a people who do not want them. Tragic.

What will become of our nation? Left or right? Unless we recognize our rebellion against our Creator and submit ourselves under His hand through the finished work of Jesus Christ, government that should come from within will be imposed from without.
"I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them."
George Washington, March 11, 1792

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Cheap imitations

As I read through Augustine's Confessions, my soul stirred reading so intimate and passionate a love letter of one man to His God.
My mind had been released--from dreams that ate at it, dreams of pride, of greed, of filth, of lusts inflamed with scratching. I was giddy with addressing you, my purity, my riches, my rescue, my Lord God.
Wow. Within the pages of Confessions, Augustine explodes with adoration for God and what He has done in his life. He experiences, and shares, the deepest love a human can know, the restored intimacy between the creature and his Creator. It is a love that surpasses the familial, the fraternal, and the marital. There is no draught as deep, as delicious, and as satisfying.

And it is only a glimpse of what we will know when we see our God and Savior face to face.

That is why I am disappointed with the end of the film version of Prince Caspian. Most reviews have been favorable (to include those of my chil'uns). Some have not. In full disclosure, I have not yet seen the film but most certainly will.

I have read The Chronicles to my children a number of times. If you are a parent, you will thrill the hearts of your kids if you read these wondrous tales to them (be sure to use different voices). While Prince Caspian is not the best in the series, the end of the book is superb behind only The Last Battle and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

**SPOILER WARNING** For those who have plowed through these books, you know full well that after the climax, the most poignant part of the book follows, the home-going of the Pevensie children. The heart-ripper is that Peter and Susan know that they will not return to Narnia. With that knowledge, departing from the majestic Lion is more than they can bear. As they are about to cross over to their own land, they stop and tear back to the mighty King and embrace Him with their whole being. I've not read a more vivid account of wholesale agape love than this.

The problem is that it is missing from Prince Caspian. In its place? The consummation of flirtations between Susan and Caspian throughout the film. Before stepping through to her dimension, she runs back and plants a big wet one on Caspian.

When I heard that, my heart broke. Once again, we have substituted a cheap imitation for the real thing. Our appetite for Turkish Delight is never satisfied, and that is the problem.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Muzzling the freedom of speech

Six miles south of McConnell AFB, just southeast of Wichita, Kansas, sits Mulvane, population 5,155. It seems Mulvane, in keeping up with the Joneses, is looking to erect a casino in or near their township.

As would seem prudent, the town's leadership called a townhall meeting about the proposal. Problem was, citizens weren't allowed to voice concerns. They could only ask questions about the proposal. Seems the deal was already done.

Check out what went down from this Alliance Defense Fund article:
When Jacque Farnsworth, a resident of Mulvane, attempted to address the city council about her economic concerns about the casino’s impact on her town, she was told by the mayor that her question was out of order. When she inquired as to why she was out of order, the mayor ordered that she be escorted out of the meeting by two armed police officers. Later, when another resident tried to speak against the casino, she was silenced by the mayor as well. Residents in favor of the casino were allowed to present their viewpoints without interruption.
Seems like a bit of syndicate strong-arm in middle America. Who says casinos aren't good for the community???

By the way, the proposal was put on by Harrah's and MGM, to of the establishments that light up the Vegas strip and various other increasingly (sadly) similar locales throughout our nation.

Ten tribes

An interesting tidbit from overseas. Like most daily e-periodicals, the on-line version of the Jerusalem Post (certainly not a Christian periodical) has a poll its readers can take. Today's question:
Do you believe the descendants of all ten tribes will eventually be discovered?
Most interesting because prophecy indicates that during the time of the tribulation that there will be over 100,000 witnesses of Jesus Christ...many from those specific lost tribes (Revelation 7:1-8).
When we say "we support our troops," we must support it all.

You see, this little fracas in the Middle East has been going on long enough for the youngest folks who took the oath of military service to fully understand into what they were getting themselves. In other words, they supported the cause of our government or they would not have raised their hands. To say they didn't understand or that they didn't comprehend insults their dignity as Americans. To say they had not alternative diminishes their dignity as humans.

If we don't support a war, we cannot support the troops for they are complicit. They follow to the death the orders of their commander in chief (read: President of the United States). You can't support soldiers but oppose the war or support the troops and oppose the commander. That's just goofy. Forgive the Nazi references but hyperbole often best illustrates a point; that would be like supporting the soldiers who fired the ovens at Bergen-Belsen.

So why the dissonance? It prevents those who don't support a particular conflict from sounding unpatriotic on days such as these. This is particularly the case for politicians, pacifists, and university professors. Were they to come out and boldly state their position in the current situation, you wouldn't see a blue-state president through 2050.

And so on the day after Memorial Day, I proudly support our troops, I support the fight against the Islamic purists that would seek to destroy Western civilization, and I support the commander who leads them...as I will support whoever that commander is beginning in January 2009 should they continue our defense against those who seek our demise.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Exercising trust

"I know God can heal me but it's really hard to have faith that He will when I know that He might not."

The life struggle of my hospitalized son. His life is not in danger, but his body, for the moment, has stopped behaving like it's supposed to. And so after three days in bed (a pittance by the measures many have endured), the natural frustrations bubble to the surface. He's not sick enough for drastic measures. He's not well enough to go home.

Between IV's and NG-tubes, x-rays and ill-sleep, his soul bubbles with theological anxiety. "Do I ask for healing or do I rest content in His will?" Wow.
  • Godliness with contentment is great gain... And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. - 1 Timothy 6:6, 8
  • I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content - Philippians 4:11
  • Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." - Hebrews 13:5
On the flip side of that, it seems that most of the healings in the Gospels took place upon those who besought it. Jairus for his daughter, the centurion for his servant, Mary & Martha for Lazarus, blind Bartimaeus, and the ten lepers to scratch just the surface. Now if it were only these, we might simply dismiss them as discontents, folks unwilling to abide the cards that God had dealt, but Christ Himself while on the earth and God Himself in the word pleads with us to ask.
  • Give us this day... - Matthew 6:11
  • Ask! - Matthew 7:7-12, John 16:19-26, Ephesians 3:20, James 1:5-6, 4:3
  • Cast your anxiety upon him because he cares for you - 1 Peter 5:7
  • Make your requests known unto God - Philippians 4:6-7
And so abide these together. God calls us to trust Him completely. He is God; we are not. His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9) and much that He does is beyond knowing (Job, Deuteronomy 29:29).

At the same time, He calls us to ask, to ask the One who is the Provider. The world is broken. Blindness is not normal. Deafness is not normal. Paralysis is not normal. Cancer is not normal. Name the malady...it...is...not...NORMAL! Our loving God calls to those who will hear His voice to come to Him out of the abnormality. He loves us. One day, He (only He) will restore all things. And only He has the power to restore things in the middle of the fallenness. Even though He might not, we know that amidst the fallenness, His good, glorious, and gracious work continues to the completion of all things.

So we ask knowing that He can heal and knowing that He might not. And we trust Almighty God for whatever outcome He deems best.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Just another day? Twister version

China's experiencing aftershocks touching 6.4 on Herr Richter's scale. Aftershocks!

Eight more dead in our country from twisters today. The video shot of yesterday's tornadoes provided such graphic detail of the phenomenal power behind such storms. On live television we witnessed a huge farm warehouse turn to debris easier a child would sweep away Lincoln Logs.

Am I alarmist? Here's a graphic from NOAA showing the tornado count over the last four years:
We're 250 tornadoes ahead of the highest previous three seasons...with no signs of abating.

Alarmist
? I do know that God controls the winds and the rain. God has seen fit to unleash meteorological and geological calamities in the last few years of magnitudes that I've not seen. Things seem to be packing far more tightly than in times past. Is it a portent of Christ's return? Possibly. At the very least, it should cause serious examination about whether we, our families, and our nation are right with God.

We can mock the Hagee's, Falwell's, and Robertson's until the cows come home, but God does use "natural" disaster to get the attention of His people. But will we listen? And if we hear, will we understand?

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Count your blessings...

...Name them one by one.

Most of you won't care about this blog. That's okay. In light of current events, I just wanted to take a moment to thank my God and Savior for some very nifty things he's deposited into my life.
A family of greater quality than a man could ever imagine

Sisters. Sweet sisters.

Why?

As you can see from the post beneath this one, good families are facing unspeakable horrors. To a lesser degree (perhaps not so much lesser to the parents), our tiny church is facing sudden and unforeseen storms as well.
  • A baby boy has had an unbreakable fever. Not being able to find a vein in his arms, the IV was fastened to his scalp.
  • An eleven year old girl fainted. She's in a different hospital than the baby boy.
  • My eighteen-year old son has been hospitalized with a severe intestinal blockage and may be facing surgery.
  • Relationships are being buffeted on every side.
Then Job answered the LORD and said:

“I know that You can do everything,
And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.

You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

Listen, please, and let me speak;
You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You.

Therefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.”
Job 42:1-6
Why? I still don't know. What I do know? God is good.

"I will praise you in the storm..."

In Memory

Even while many of us are undergoing times of testing within our own families, we know that there are others out there who face fiercer storms. Today the Chapman's are having the funeral for their daughter Maria. It is directly because of the ministry of Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman that our daughters are with us today.

Maria Sue Chapman with her daddy

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

A fun video of daddy and daughter here. I don't quite do my dishes like that. :o)

Friday, May 23, 2008

Civilization's demise: American-style II

I'm generally not a Pat Buchanan fan.  I can't quite put my finger on it, either.  But like watching an athlete I don't care for work wonders the fields of athletic competition (i.e. Manny Ramirez), you have to give credit where credit is due.

In "Post-Christian America", Pat B. launches it over the Green Monster onto Lansdowne Street.  I provides a lucid look at the implications for California's example of judicial fiat.  Notice near the end of the article how he gives examples of the checks and balances used against the judiciary.  Who has such Jacksonian courage today?

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Egg beaters?

No, potato-beaters in this case.

I have a son. Actually, I have four. One of them in particular was racing through the house last night and was upended by a door jam that leapt from the shadows. That son.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, he and a fair lass were cooking dinner in our kitchen. To make myself unobtrusive, I remained in the office pecking away on the computer. Then I heard the moans. "Aanngghh. Oooooh. Owww!! Aaagggghhh!!!!" They weren't wails of utter agony (there was a lady present, don't you know), but you could tell the man was in a serious way and didn't quite want to let on. I had to go and see.

On rounding the corner I witnessed his fingers wedged to the third knuckle within the beaters. You see, this was his first attempt at mashed potatoes. A craftsman always checks his tools. A wise craftsman does not stick his finger in them to slow them down.

Content that the beaters were working, specified son released the power button during his test run. Not satisfied with their deceleration, he decided to provide a bit of an assist...with his fingers. GGRRRRNNNCCCHH! Understand that most kitchen beaters have an anti-rotation lock on them so that when the power is off, the beaters will not turn. As hard as he pulled, the beaters would not release my son. The mixer just crunched the fingers harder.

I almost called the ambulance. No, not for him, silly! You see, his kid brother was rolling and laughing on the floor so hard I thought surely a seizure was imminent. The lass who was cooking with my entrapped son leaned against the refrigerator, covered her mouth, and discretely giggled.

Let's try and slide them out away from the machine. That locking mechanism on the beaters that my son wisely ops checked to ensure the beaters would remain in place now came back to haunt him. The beaters would not come out. Now where was that rascally release switch? Ah. Sweet relief.

No blood, good potatoes, and a good laugh. What more could a father ask for?

(Told with permission from the chef)

Time for a booster shot

Repeat after me:
"We are a constitutional republic. We are not a democracy."
"We are a constitutional republic. We are not a democracy."
"We are a constitutional republic. We are not a democracy."

The virus is out there. If we do not keep ourselves inoculated with the truth in healthy doses, we will likely succumb to Democracy Dementia.

If you hear your friends or loved ones refer to our nation by the d-word, immediately apply CPR (constitutionally proper resuscitation). As first aid, point out that our Constitution established us as a republic. If they continue to rave, bring them face to face with founding documents like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Be brave. Let them see the actual words. This may be their first viewing. Apply liberally (yes, you heard me).

Lastly, take them back to their childhood. Digging deep into their past might drive the disease from their souls. Have them recite the Pledge of Allegiance. See if they stammer across "republic" or are able to handle it fluently.

Some may be roused from Democracy Dementia with no lasting consequences. Some cases sadly cannot be cured.

Lex rex!

Civilization's demise: American-style

Okay, it's already here (reference blog below).

Read Senator Rick Santorum's cogent article on the California Supreme Court's seamy decision on homosexual marriage this week.

Civilization's demise: British-style

"Fathers were last night effectively declared an irrelevance in modern Britain."

That's how the article opens, the article declaring that England's government has voted to no longer require or even make it necessary to consider having a father in the "family" before granting in vitro fertilization. As the Archbishop of York noted, they have echoed and amplified the death knell of the British family.

All of this on the heels of Parliament's official okey-dokey for creating chimeras.

Folks, it's all coming this way. Who will speak out?

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Man knows not his time

Yesterday when I shared with a young man that Senator Ted Kennedy's brain tumor was malignant, he responded, "I guess he's dead."

While the youth likely meant nothing disparaging against the Massachusetts senator, the comment slapped me in the face as rather crass. In full disclosure, I have never liked the liberal politician. He opposed everything I favored (and vice versa), and he did it with great passion. But in the past months I have read a number of articles by folks with my convictions that lauded him as a great friend or a very conscientious man. I was startled. And I considered the writers words and the Lord's words.

So when it came to light yesterday that the Senator's days were few, I was saddened. I responded to the young man by telling him, "Kennedy is no different than you or I. We are all dead. God has simply given him a clearer look at the hour glass than we have." We were driving at the time. "In fact," I continued while turning a corner, "he may have more sand in his glass than we do. No man knows the time when the Lord will call him home."

And so I pray for Senator Kennedy. May he savor his remaining days with his family. May he trust Christ's atoning work to completely cover his sin. May he wait with great hope to meet the Savior face to face. Perhaps we'll see him in glory. Perhaps.

God grant me the ability to better love those who oppose me, and thereby love them as you do.
LORD, make me to know my end,
And what is the measure of my days,
That I may know how frail I am.
Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my age is as nothing before You;
Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah
And now, Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in You.
Psalm 39:4-5, 7 (NKJV)

Monday, May 19, 2008

Six-day creation: What's the big deal?

In a recent column in World Magazine, Andree Seu recalled the turning point at Harvard University (I'd link the article but it costs to be a member of World's web-site unless you already get their magazine. I can e-mail you the article directly and legally if you'd like to read it. Just let me know).

Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield were pitted against two Boston pastors, Charles Chauncey and Jonathan Mayhew in the direction the venerable university would take. The former were concerned about the drift of secularism the university was taking. The latter felt the former were too ecstatic in their theological views and that their should "be freedom of inquiry and judgment in religious matters."

Harvard, the university founded to create missionaries for America, followed the direction of Chauncey and Mayhew and the rest is history. It's known within Christendom as "The Infidelity."

When we read Genesis one and two, why do we buck against what it says? If you ask a child unindoctrinated by evolutionary science to read Genesis chapter 1, you'll either get "six regular days" or "can I have peanut butter and jelly for lunch?" So to quote the movie Grinch, "What is the deal?!?"

Part of it, certainly, is the barrage of evolutionary science each one of us has received from the cradle to the present. We will follow the drift of Chauncey and Mayhew and side with the tides of evolutionary science.

I can hear the hue and cry now about how all science is not atheistic. I know and I agree. But many of the assumptions of science, that the universe is a closed and static system, are just that, assumptions. Has the speed of light been constant from the creation? That is not known (by science), but that is what is assumed. The Bible seems to indicate light before there were light-producers. Has the world gone on in exactly the same fashion since its birth? That is not known (by science), but that is what is assumed. The Bible seems to indicate that the world before chapter three and the world before chapter six of Genesis was vastly different than the world that came out of those two chapters.

There are scientific observations that point to a young earth that coincide quite nicely with Genesis, but those are wholly rejected by the scientific community as religiously-driven instead of "objectively-driven" science. Scientists who have observed evidence for a young earth keep to themselves in the intolerant halls of academia or are relegated to the Institute for Creation Research, Answers in Genesis, or similar organizations. They are dismissed as quacks.

So when confronted with an apparent contradiction between observation or scientific theory and the Bible, what do we do? Please don't go "Gallileo" on me either, because the church was using some lousy biblical hermeneutics (science of biblical interpretation) sprinkled with the humanistic ideas of the Greek philosophers when they made him recant his teaching. Galileo showed where the Bible actually supported his position.

Could I be making the same mistake? I don't think so. The medieval church erroneously used poetic language sections of the Bible to conclude that the sun went around the earth. Genesis 1 & 2 are historic narrative just like the rest of Genesis. It is the most objective language outside mathematics you could use. There is very little in Genesis that requires deep biblical scholarship to understand.

Back to my question: how do we handle apparent contradictions? Our only options are a) conform the Bible to modern scientific theories, b) reject the historic accuracy of sections of the Bible, c) hold to the Bible and reject modern science, or d) hold to the Bible and trust that the plain truth from the general revelation (nature) will not clash with the plain truth from the special revelation (the Bible).

Many churches have followed the way of Chauncey and Mayhew and bowed to the altar of science and followed pathway b). The churches have become, like Harvard, little different than an episode of Oprah.

Many sincere believers have followed pathway a) having not challenged the assumptions of some of the measurements, observations, or theories nor have they researched the evidence from the general revelation for the truthfulness of the special revelation.

Then you have the crowd that buries their head in the sand following the ignorance-is-bliss mentality of pathway c). That doesn't go a long way in sharing the truth with your neighbor.

Science is not God. It's laws submit to the God who created the universe in an orderly and knowable fashion. It is a dangerous thing to lean away from the plain understanding of what God's word says.

Homosexual marriage has become accepted in our land. It took less than fifty years. The American family (the noun is for the most part absent outside our country) suffers erosion every day pummeled by the elements within our culture, but the real travesty is the erosion being caused by our churches because pastors and men and women refuse to preach, teach and abide by God's delineation of what it means to be a man or a woman, a husband or a wife, a father and a mother.

Six-day creation? No big thing? No, it's a huge thing. We can know nothing with absolute certainty from science before recorded history. All is in the realm of the theoretical. Hear the first temptation of Satan, ironically, shortly after the creation, "Has God indeed said..." and then he had the audacity to counter Eve's hedging with "You'll not surely die...your eyes will be opened." Civilization can abide little more decay.

As such, I will stand upon a firm, unshakable, and unchanging foundation. I will stand upon the word of God. The cost and danger of doing otherwise is too high.

Yes, God did indeed say.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

It made me smile

In light of the recent release of Prince Caspian, Frederica Matthewes-Green gives us a glimpse of movies that bettered their original book in her recent National Review article. Her closing paragraph brought a smile to my face.
It’s entertaining to think of movies that excel their sources, if only because they aren’t that common. Most of the time, the book is better than the movie, if only because greater length allows for greater depth. That depth doesn’t always happen; sometimes there’s more potential than the author explored, as with Prince Caspian. But the names of movies that came nowhere near the achievement of the book are too numerous to list. I’ll close with just one example: The Greatest Story Ever Told.
What movies do you think excelled the book?
Image from Buena Vista Pictures

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Watch the birdie

The wonder of a child.

We all hear about it, but it's a precious thing to witness first hand.

As my bride and I enjoyed a lovely Texas evening on our patio, lost in our respective magazines, our daughter disappeared around the corner to honor God by sitting in wonder of His creation.

Yes, it was just a bird perched upon our neighbor's feeder. That's what my jaded eyes saw, too. But my little girl's heart tingled as she sat on her feet (how do they do that???) so near to such an amazing thing...a bird!!!

The camera captured the moment. I pray that through God's good grace, I might capture the attitude.

Art: Living out what you believe

Robert Rauschenberg's "Monogram"
(perhaps a better angle on the photograph would better help me comprehend it)

The linked article is an exclamation point to those who are going through Francis Schaeffer's "How Should We Then Live?" video series with me. In this elegy to Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Knight laments the artist's impact on modern art. Actually, Rauschenberg's just continuing in art what began with Picasso, Munch, and Duchamp.
"Very little of modern art would be worth anything without the critics (and sometimes the artists) explaining why we are supposed to appreciate it."

Knight's paraphrase of a Tom Wolfe quote
It's only, ever, and always an overflow of what's going on inside the heart. Looking at some of his art, that's a scary thought.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Six-day creation: Within biblical history

Simply, every reference within the Bible that looks back to Genesis 1-11 (the chapters speared most by Christians and non-Christians regarding whether they were intended to be historical narrative) refers to those happenings as historic occurrences. While oral tradition was common, the written word held final authority.

The Old Testament appeals back to the Creation as a historic event. None of these reference the six-day creation, but they speak back to the event as historical. In other words, what was received by them was received as history. Not allegory. Not man's best guess. Not God condescending to man because he would be too dense to comprehend what He really did. (This is not an exhaustive list)
  • Exodus 20:8-11, 31:17
  • Psalm 33:6-9 (whole psalm is great!), 104 (pretty much a creation psalm in its entirety), 136:4-9
  • Isaiah 44:24-26, 45:7, 46:8-11, 48:12-13
The New Testament is no less plain regarding these events (again, not an exhaustive list):
  • Matthew 19:45
  • Romans 5:12-14
  • 1 Corinthians 6:16, 11:8-12, 15:21-45
  • Ephesians 5:31
  • 1 Timothy 2:13-14
Plainly, Jesus (Son of God, Creator) and Paul understood these portions of Genesis 1 thru 3 to be historic events as written. Let me emphasize, this does not PROVE a six-day creation, but it gives us the sense of how the events were understood then and how we should understand them today.

Really, other than the "1000 year" misquotes already dismissed, there is no biblical indication of eons occurring at any time after the commencement of the creation.

Next, what's really at issue.

E'08: Endorsements

Folks on the left have gone through extraordinary gyrations to equate John Hagee's endorsement of John McCain with Jeremiah Wright's pastoring Barak Obama for TWENTY years. Both Hagee and Wright are Boy Scouts compared to Obama's latest endorsement.

The leader of Hamas, Ahmed Yousef, has come out and said, "We don’t mind–actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance."

What does it say about a presidential candidate who's picking up endorsements from those who would like to see the demise of our nation? I think our iPod's are up too loud.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

QotD: diligence

JFK wasn't much to speak of in the way of moral lifestyles, but when it came to oratory, the man could turn a word:
"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."
A nice, deep stab into my slothful heart.

Little green men?

We'll set the Creation aside for an evening. This should get the juices flowing. The Vatican's chief astronomer has no problem with the idea of other life in the universe. Some quotes from the USA Today article (or another article here):
  • "The Bible "is not a science book," Funes said, adding that he believes the Big Bang theory is the most "reasonable" explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter. But he said he continues to believe that "God is the creator of the universe and that we are not the result of chance.""

  • "How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said. "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation."
We're covering the first bullet in the discussion of the creation, and I'll ignore the second bullet as completely ignorant of the biblical distinction between Man and animal. I would like to pose a question to you: what would be the theological problem if there was life on other planets?

Talk amongst yourselves.
Image from Hanna-Barbera

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Six-day creation: days & eras - a grammatical look

Another loophole used to fit the Bible into the observations of modern science is whether the word day in Genesis 1 means day or whether it means era. In all honesty, that is an excellent question, but as always, context is the key. Here’s what grammatical context reveals

The Hebrew word for day (yom) can mean either a 24-hour day as in Joshua 5:11 or it can mean an era as in 1 Samuel 1:20 or Isaiah 11:10. A plain read of Genesis 1 would seem to point to the twenty-four hour kind of day. “So the evening and morning were the (nth) day.” The counter to that argument is that evening and morning could be signaling the beginning and ending of eras (the Hebrew day beginning at sunset). So let’s dig further.

Throughout the Old Testament when yom is used in conjunction with a sequence (first day, third day, etc.), the meaning is almost always a literal 24-hour day. Tying in the ordinal designation of the days with the evening and morning, the grammatical weight tips toward a literal day.

Finally, and the most powerful argument from a grammatical perspective would be the reference to this even that God Himself uses when He gives Moses the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). God said:

8 “ Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

With purposeful structure, in clear and careful language, God corresponds His six days of creation and a day of rest with man’s literal six days of work and the blessing of a day of rest. To stretch day in that passage to mean era or eon would require linguistic gymnastics.

Next, I’ll discuss how this passage was understood throughout biblical history, the era of the Bible.

Three good reads!

These will take you about five minutes each. Superb...for different reasons.
  • "Neural Buddhists" by David Brooks (NYT): And yes, it says "neural" and not "neutral." For those in my Sunday school class, you're going to think Francis Schaeffer didn't die in 1984 but has been writing for the NY Times. Bottom line: What we believe affects ALL aspects of who we are and what we do. Period.
  • "Has the US run amuck constitutionally?" This one will challenge conservatives in what they believe regarding the Constitution. Do we really believe what we believe about our nation? Most news media are clipping the final portion of his article because it is radical. I include it here for your edification.
  • "Questioning "An Evangelical Manifesto"" by Frank Pastore. This is a superb example of not accepting something at face value simply because it sounds good. Pastore shows us how to think through an issue and ask the tough questions. If you haven't heard of the "Evangelical Manifesto," you likely will.
Consider these calisthenics for your mind and soul.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Six-day creation: 1000 years and a day

One of the most used pseudo-loopholes to a six-day creation are the verses that indicate that with the Lord, "a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day." Here are the two verses (NKJV...the entire chapter is found in the verse links...or you can look 'em up):
  • For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night (Psalm 90:4)
  • But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8)
These verses echo the truth that God is outside the realm of time that He created. He is not bound by time. He is not constricted by time. God has no past, no present, and no future. That is what makes His covenant name YHWH, "I am," so profound. If you really want to cramp your brain, Augustine's "Confessions," Book Eleven (The Father) should provide you quite the spiritual and mental triathlon.

But the context and emphasis of these two verses are not meant to warp time. The psalm points to the issue that time is no big thing for God, but it is a huge constraint for man. Ultimately, the time of man's repentance, as described within the psalm, is very limited.

Peter's letter likewise deals with repentance, but the emphasis therein is God's patience toward His creatures.

So, is God outside of time? You bet. Time is a dimension in which He created man to exist.

Now here's toe-stub: those verses have no tie whatsoever to Genesis. Since neither passage deals with the creation and how God created the cosmos, the Christian cannot willy-nilly tie it back to the creation. Because God is not bound within the dimension He created does not mean that we can arbitrarily loose the constraints that He said He operated within in Genesis chapter one.

Simply put: that's horrid Bible scholarship. Actually, it's terrible scholarship within any discipline.

Still, that doesn't mean that "day" in Genesis one could not mean an eon. I'll hit that one next time.

(images property of NASA.gov)

Just another day? Mother's day + one

I thought it was some sort of April Fool's joke when I opened up Drudge this morning and saw 7.9 on the Richter scale in the heart of China. Then I realized it was May. Other tidbits:

-- China's earthquake with over 10,000 dead at this time.
-- Vlad Putin all the rage as the overwhelming Prime Minister of Russia.
-- 665 tornadoes already this season (highest since 1998) and 22 dead this past weekend.
-- Up to 1,000,000 dead from the cyclone in Myanmar as disease and starvation takes over.

I pray that God would quiet the earth. I pray more that the peoples of the earth would quiet themselves and humble themselves before their Creator.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Happy Mother's day!

Happy Mom's day to all you mom's out there. I have one, too, and she's a beauty (though she'll argue with you to that end until the year 2525).

My Mom and her boys

The mother to my children, my bride

Anyway, hugest appreciations to all you lassies who have taken up the foremost calling, that of a wife and mother! May God bless your homes as you seek to honor Him.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Six-day creation, Part 2: A plain reading

One of the reasons that newspapers have enjoyed such popularity through the seasons is that they are easy to read. The tone and placement of the article usually makes it clear whether your ingesting investigative reporting or if it's a just-the-facts news story. Most folks beyond the first grade understand that a movie review should be read differently from how the Twins did last night (beat the Red Sox, by the way, and are still one game up in the AL Central) from how Iron Man is doing at the box office.

So why do we have issues with the Bible?

Folks cry out that "you can interpret the Bible any way you want to," but they never do that to a newspaper. Why is that? Is it because if they read it plainly, they would be responsible to the God who created them? Perhaps. Really, though, the Bible is no more difficult to read than any other piece of literature. It's the content that troubles most folks.

When you begin "in the beginning" at Genesis 1:1, you find historical narrative, the telling of a story from days past. Apart from a few genealogical listings, that is pretty much all you find in Genesis. What's that mean? You'd read it as history. It doesn't read like poetry. There are no clues to take us in that direction. It doesn't read fantastic and mythological. It's very benign history.

As such, if you were to sit down and read the Bible generally and Genesis specifically, using common literary understanding, you come away with the creation in six literal days.

What about:
  • With God a day is like 1000 years?
  • The Hebrew word also meaning "era" or "during the time of?"
Those questions will be answered in the next couple of posts, but a larger and oft ignored question is the question I'll leave you to chew upon with your family and friends:

Does it matter?

I believe it does. We'll talk about it.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Six-day creation, Part 1

I'm a reader. I like to read reasoned articles about the world around me which is why I frequent Townhall.com.

In a recent article, a columnist I have enjoyed quite a bit, a columnist who is a Christian, took a big swing at fellow Christians who hold to a six-day creation and subsequently, a young earth by current evolutionary standards. Of note, it was an article decrying atheism.

The columnist stated (italics mine):

It is difficult to believe that Sam Harris has never heard of the distinction between “old world” and “new world” creationism. Archbishop Usher’s assertion that the world was created around 4000 B.C. is an antiquated idea from the 19th Century. Unlike the Darwinists, creationists have been willing to modify their ideas over the last century-and-a-half when the evidence calls for modification. I now believe the universe is around 14 billion years old...

Put simply, Harris’ assertion that all Christians believe the earth is six thousand years old (and are therefore stupid) is both patently false and patently offensive. It is on par with saying that all blacks believe whites invented the AIDS virus to kill blacks.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

While I consider myself reasonably read and well acquainted with God's word, and while I have made my living in a profession that calls upon a more than superficial knowledge of a broad array of sciences, I was mildly offended at being referred to as stupid. You see, I believe wholly in a six-day creation and I believe that Archbishop Usher probably wasn't too far askew.


Sooooo...in the days to come, I'll set global warming aside and take a look at why so many educated people (yours truly) still hold to a six-day creation. I'd like to specifically look at whether we need to modify our ideas.

I just hope I don't fall off the edge of the earth.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Global warming: Stewardship

I was going to hold off on this for a day or two, but a sister in Christ shot to the bullseye of the matter. Please take a moment to read her thoughtful assessment here.

Continuing on her thread: sadly, meteorology has never been a precise science, climatology even less so. What effect man (tiny) has on the climate of the earth (humongous) is even more debatable than what the temperature will be tomorrow or whether or not it will rain. Richard Lindzen of MIT is one of the experts trying to dampen the climate panic providing argument that our planet goes through temperature cycles, a little warmer here, a little warmer there.

Perhaps the greatest concern about today's eco-extremism (those who advocate no plastics, no fossil fuel, etc.) is that such measures are creating greater problems within civilization through unnecessary government constraints (notice what the bio-fuel mandates have wrought in national and international food stocks and prices).

Stewardship is HUGE! Why? Because God commands it (as pointed out in the linked blog). We must continue to be good stewards our our own private Idahoes. While we'll not affect the climate on a macro scale, we can certainly improve cleanliness, general aesthetics, and the overall productivity of our resources (note: stewardship does not mean leaving something alone or in its feral state).

And isn't it a tad arrogant for man to think he could destroy the planet thus derailing God's already delineated plan? We cannot conform the Bible to man's theories.

Beyond that, we trust God to unfold His plan while we tend to our gardens. It's like all of life's stewardship: we plan to live for 100 years but are prepared to go home with Him tomorrow.

Global warming: The worst Eco-terrorist of all

How's this for messing with the environment:
  • I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
  • The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
  • Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
  • Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.
  • And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.
  • Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living creature in the sea died.
  • Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.
  • Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory.
  • Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.
[All passages from Revelation 6 through 16 (NKJV)]
I haven't touched upon stewardship yet (it's coming...), and I am not encouraging a cavalier attitude toward our terrestrial home, but boys and girls, the onslaught that will be unleashed at some point future makes the gripes of the eco-extremists (and Christians and the average Joes who've bought their "sky-is-falling" rhetoric) sound just a wee bit silly.

And even after all of that, the earth will still be quite habitable...because we do not live in a closed system. God has the final say in these matters.

Just another day? The May 8th version

A Lebanese meltdown to highlight the day. It has been to quiet in the Middle East so Hezbollah decided to get things going again.

At least Alec Baldwin (is he still in this country?) is looking at a political run. Maybe he can bring peace in our time. Or perhaps it's just just more bluster from Left Hollywood.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Global warming: a carbon footprint

Perhaps one of the goofiest phrases I've heard concocted over the years resides in the title to this post, the carbon footprint. What do you think the carbon footprint is on this baby?

Photo from Drudge

It's from the Chaiten volcano in Chile. Apparently she belched to an altitude of 20 miles (100,000 feet or 2.5 times where most planes fly) in recent days.

How thoughtless of that volcano to disrupt the ecosystem with its billions of cubic feet of toxic greenhouse gases! Think of the eco-disaster unleashed upon the surrounding communities (go to this link and click through the pictures)! Who's to decry volcanic-made global warming (or cooling)!

In all seriousness, volcanoes are a disaster. They foul the sky and air. They blanket the ground with powdery grit that gets, quite literally, into everything. They testify to a world under a curse, a world groaning for its redemption and thereby they testify to the might of the God under who's hand they must move and shake, lie quiet or stand and shout (Romans 8:18-22).

And, wondrously, in a period of a few years, the ash will vanish. In less time the atmosphere will be clean.

How amazing, and what a blessing, that we live on a planet that has a built-in self-cleaning system! And no thanks to a prominent Pulitzer Prize-winning vice president.

Just another day? Revisited

...And Japan clocks in at 6.8 on the Richter scale.

...And estimates for Myanmar have climbed to 100,000.

...And Mahmoud Ahmadinijad (Iranian nutcase & presidente') states that he is governing Iran at the direction of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi, an Islamic messiah figure who will be revealed to set all things aright.

Are things getting goof or am I?

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

QotD: Time

If you track this the first time you read it, you got me by about three tries. It's worth thinking about, though, especially regarding the God who created time.
"The mind observes a present through which what is not yet runs into what is no longer."
Augustine



image from the little clockshop

Just another day?

A scan across the headlines:
  • Myanmar death toll passes 22,000 (another said it could reach 50,000...do you know where M. is? I had to look it up. Hint: formerly known as Burma)
  • Israel throws 60th birthday bash under cloud of uncertainty
  • Oil prices rise to record near $123 a barrel on prediction of $200 oil
  • Chile volcano eruption prompts total evacuation
  • Volcanic smog blankets Hawaii in toxic gas
  • 96 arrested in San Diego State U. drug raid
  • Tanks and rocket systems roll across Red Square in Moscow
  • New disease outbreak in China; 12k children infected
At least the Twins are in first place (but it is only May).


Monday, May 5, 2008

Global warming: Question

What does the Bible say about global warming, man-made or otherwise? Chat with your family and friends and see what they say.

Keep it civil. Keep it biblical!

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Changing Seasons

Twenty-one years ago today, I nearly passed out on the delivery room floor. Happy Birthday to my first-born son, a deep blessing to his father's soul.




I love you, J.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

In memorium

In honor of the service of Major Brad Funk and Lt Alec Littler

"High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee Jr.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.