Archive - June, 2011

Link Roundup (June 30)

I read a lot of websites and blogs. I bookmark a lot of the really good things I read and often never return to them. I’ve decided to start sharing some selections here to pass on some helpful, useful, or fun things. We’ll see how this works. I hope you enjoy them.

10 Principles for Church Music – I particularly enjoyed thinking about number seven, “The main sound to be heard in the worship music is the sound of the congregation singing.”

Tire-Kicker Christianity – Some helpful thoughts in faith, and the usefulness of and limits of apologetics.

I Disagree with Jesus –  Some wonderful thoughts on when we disagree with Jesus. What as Christians do we do, then? Unfortunately some people answer this question wrong and drift off into dark waters (and take people with them).

I Am Unalarmed – Many of our young men and women are leaving the church. Why, and what can be done about it?

Evaluating Bugliosi’s Case – “Former Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has written a book examining the case for Christianity and he finds it would not stand up in a court of law.  Bugliosi purports to make a logical, objective analysis so his conclusion seems to have some rational force. But it actually fails upon closer examination.”

The annunciation, the two Messiahs, and Divine Justice – “There is a certain type of sermon one hears from time to time that has always bothered me. It goes roughly like this: “The reason the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ own time rejected him was that their thoughts of the Messiah were earthly. They wanted a military Messiah who would set up a kingdom on earth. Therefore their minds were closed to recognizing and accepting Jesus for who he was. The problem with this is that it gives the entirely false impression…”

What Is A Pastor?

No Tolerance (134/365)During the peak of the Rob Bell controversy, I caught an interview where Bell made a point of describing himself as a pastor, not a theologian. I think I “get” the point he might be trying to make in saying such; he isn’t a trained scholar, Ph.D. level theologian, etc., however in doing so, I’d argue that Bell expresses outright a view which many of us have taken on when when we consider what a pastor is, or when we describe someone in a pastoral role. We assume that the role of the pastor is more than merely preaching, but caring for the flock whom the shepherd is responsible for watching.

In a sense, this is true. Yet what I think Bell has done, and in fact what many evangelicals do, is put the cart before the horse, elevating care above, and often in place of, instruction. Hence, when Bell avoids a question because as a pastor, his role is to care for people and not necessarily to answer questions, he’s taking a position on what a pastor is.

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When Reality and Confusion Collide, Children Get Hurt

In his great book, Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions, Greg Koukl employs a method he calls “Taking The Roof Off” (giving Francis Schaeffer due credit). The tactic is a simplified explanation of reductio ad absurdum, a method of argument that seeks to refute a view by taking a it seriously and watching what absurd consequences result from a false view as a starting point. If people live in a world that is a certain way, a world that God made, and if we have a nature and attributes that are inescapable, when people reject God, the order in the world, and the very attributes that we possess, consequences (and especially absurdities) will follow.

Demonstrating too well this principle in action comes a story that’s written like a story from The Onion rather than a serious news story.  And yet here it is, a story where parents are keeping secret the sex (gender) of their child from family, friends, and the public. Consider the note they sent out to friends and family.

We’ve decided not to share Storm’s sex for now — a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm’s lifetime (a more progressive place? …).

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The Friday Debate

Arguments Yard This post courtesy of Tony Wichowski at Christian FreeThinker with a hat tip to Lauren and Marc.

The Friday Debate

“It’s Friday because I can touch the calendar with my hands and see it with my eyes.” - The Apostle Thomas ‎”It’s Friday because God spoke it into being.” - The Apostle John ‎”It’s Friday for me but it may not be true for you.” - Oprah “It’s Friday because it evolved from Thursday.” - Charles Darwin “Your belief in how Friday came to be is absurd. Friday came into being through a progression of days, it wasn’t designed by some supernatural calendar maker.” - Richard Dawkins ‎ “It’s Friday because God actualized a possible world where it would be Friday.” - William Lane Craig “What Craig said!” – Luis de Molina “Friday is true, but we can all choose to accept or reject it.” - Jacobus Arminius “Friday was predestined.” - John Calvin “There are billions and billion of Fridays.” - Carl Sagan‎ “It’s Tuesday in another universe of the multiverse.” - Stephen Hawking “Even if it is every day in the multiverse, one needs a cause for the multiverse, and thus, every friday.” - John Lennox “I have a hard time rationalizing how a supposedly good Friday Creator would be so cruel to create Monday. I hate Mondays so I refuse to beleive in your Friday maker. Because I deem creating mondays evil, he cannot exist.” - Christopher Hitchens “However, it might be impossible for the creator to actualize a world with Fridays (6th days) without allowing Mondays (2nd days).” - Alvin Plantinga “In the next ten years, technology will have allowed us to jump from Monday to Friday at will.” - Ray Kurzweil “The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once. Yet still I know it’s Friday because I think, and I think. Therefore it’s Friday.” - Rene Descartes “The expansion of space and evidential cosmic cooling demonstrates the creation event. Friday did not always exist, but came into existence by a cause outside of space and time, and that cause must of necessity be God.” - Hugh Ross

Edit: More added!

My wife started believing in Fridays so I set out to disprove this Friday thing once and for all. Using my experience as an investigative reporter, and after following the evidence wherever it lead, I came to the conclusion that I have no other logical choice than to accept Fridays as a reality. - Lee Strobel (HT Greg West )

 

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