Always am challenged by Ronnie’s posts, but this one is especially special!
Amen, my friend – “Jesus as a bullet…” God help us.
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Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
“If your hand causes you to sin,” Jesus said, “cut it off and throw it away.” That’s a pretty tough surgical intervention if you ask me, and he doesn’t stop there. He goes on to name other body parts as well. “Cut off your foot. Gouge out your eye.” He just can’t be happy with a single loss of limb. Yes, we could debate for the next few decades how literal or metaphorical Jesus was being. Such a debate would serve to only distract us from putting into practice the spirit of what he said. No, I don’t think Jesus was endorsing personal dismemberment. Rather, he was emphasizing, in rather dramatic fashion, the need for life-saving, future-salvaging initiative.
Better to lose an arm than lose your whole life. Better to throw away something you consider incredibly valuable, than to throw away your future. So it seems best to accept Jesus’ words…
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Thinking About Death
This is my first post with my new eye-tracking computer. This computer is a real blessing; it feels like I’m making a fresh start, like I’ve been given a new lease on life. How ironic it is that I felt that this post should be about death.
When I was a kid, I had a friend I’ll call “Bubba.” (There were no kids called Bubba where I grew up so I figure that’s a safe name to go with). Bubba was a high-maintenance friend that never called before coming over and always seemed to show up at my house when I was in the middle of doing something important, like watching Gilligan’s Island. He was hyper and never stopped jabbering on about stuff I wasn’t the least bit interested in. No matter how disinterested I acted, he would stay for hours and would even invite himself to dinner. To my immature and…
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An exchange on purpose from one of William Lane Craig’s early debates
Why existence?
The full transcript
of this 1991 debate is here on the Reasonable Faith site. Keep in mind that this is young William Lane Craig against old, experienced Kai Nielsen.
Nevertheless, here is an exchange I wanted to highlight.
William Lane Craig:
The chief purpose of life is not happiness per se, but the knowledge of God. One reason the problem of evil seems so puzzling is that we tend to think that the goal of human life is happiness in this world. But on the Christian view this is false. Man’s end is not happiness as such, but the knowledge of God–which in the end will bring true and everlasting human fulfillment. Many evils occur in life which seem utterly pointless with respect to producing human happiness, but they may not be unjustified with respect to producing the knowledge of God. Innocent human suffering provides an occasion for…
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What We Carry
We all carry something, sometimes it feels like we will be crushed under the weight.
Words of hope here…
Accumulate. It’s a dangerous little word that is employed to describe gently falling snow; the harmless growth of lint on the top bookshelf; or the inevitable gathering of ragged boxes, rusty tools, kits and caboodles found inside our garages. But those things that slowly accumulate can become merciless blizzards, a horde of cascading dust bunnies, and a backlog of space-stealing, flea market junk. Indeed, accumulate is a dangerous word.
What the Bible calls “trials and tribulations” accumulate too. Gradually, imperceptibly at first, the flakes fall silently down. A setback here. A disappointment there. A protracted illness. A wayward child. Deep, wordless pain. Anxiety about tomorrow. Without a sound, the weariness of life gathers until one day a look out the window reveals drifts the size of sand dunes crushing against the soul.
And sometimes it’s not the accumulation of various difficulties that grows so heavy; it’s the accumulation of time…
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The Scars of Forgiveness
Highly recommended: The Scars of Forgiveness.
Is there a “Defense” for the “Terror Texts” of Joshua?
Is there a “Defense” for the “Terror Texts” of Joshua?
Atheism specifically (and culture generally) seeks to incite scorn against the biblical narrative via the commands, especially in the book of Joshua, to exterminate the inhabitants of the promised land.
How do we answer this? Is there a defense we can utilize that doesn’t on the one hand sentimentalize, or on the other, sanction “Jihad”?
Michael Horton is sensitive to the layered, more dimensional approach to answering this concern. His appreciation of the covenantal, progressively revealed and Christocentric nature of the biblical narrative is crucial, and in my opinion, accurate.
The shallow evangelical, Dispensational and neo-Zionist approach is nearly as intolerable as is Islam in an effort to seriously and satisfactorily address the issue.
