seeing in a mirror dimly

Pilgrim’s Podcast #35: Richard MaeGraith, Jazz, Church Plant in Marrickville, and Good Times

2010-08-30T14:35:00.001+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/08/30/pilgrims-podcast-35-richard-maegraith-jazz-church-plant-in-marrickville-and-good-times/

Blocher, D.B. Hart, and the Will of God

2010-06-23T13:05:00.002+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/06/23/blocher-d-b-hart-and-the-will-of-god/

CBE Reflections :: Why I’m still a Complementarian

2010-06-16T10:33:00.002+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/06/16/cbe-reflections-why-im-still-a-complementarian-with-hierarchy/

CBE International :: 12th June 2010 :: Kevin Giles – The Most Important Text: Gen. 1-3

2010-06-13T15:57:00.002+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/06/13/cbe-international-12th-june-2010-kevin-giles-–-the-most-important-text-gen-1-3/

Blogging through the CBE International Conference (11th – 14th June 2010).

2010-06-12T15:09:00.002+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/06/12/blogging-through-the-cbe-international-conference-11th-14th-june-2010/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #35: Andrew Thorburn, SRE vs. Ethics, Church Planting thoughts

2010-06-08T01:08:00.002+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/06/08/pilgrims-podcast-35-andrew-thorburn-sre-vs-ethics-church-planting-thoughts/

Is the church still serious about hell?

2010-06-02T00:40:00.002+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/06/01/is-the-church-still-serious-about-hell/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #34: Seumas MacDonald, Christology, Impassibility, and Haggis!

2010-05-31T09:41:00.003+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/05/31/pilgrims-podcast-34-seamas-macdonald-christology-impassibility-and-haggis/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #33: Adrian Foxcroft, The Nugget, Youth Ministry

2010-05-17T15:50:00.002+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/05/17/pilgrims-podcast-33-adrian-foxcroft-the-nugget-youth-ministry/

Sursum Corda (Lift up your Hearts)

2010-05-15T00:16:00.002+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/05/14/sursum-corda-lift-up-your-hearts/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #32: Dr. Bill Salier, Moore College, The Gospel of John & The Manly Sea Eagles!

2010-05-10T00:50:00.001+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/05/10/pilgrims-podcast-32-dr-bill-salier-moore-college-the-gospel-of-john-the-manly-sea-eagles/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #31: Angus Courtney, History, Theology & Dwarfs and Giants!

2010-05-03T20:32:00.000+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/05/03/pilgrims-podcast-31-angus-courtney-history-theology-dwarfs-and-giants/

Pilgrim's Podcast #30: Col Marshall, MTS, The Trellis and the Vine, and Cricket!

2010-04-27T00:37:00.000+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/04/27/pilgrims-podcast-30-col-marshall-mts-the-trellis-and-the-vine-and-cricket/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #29: Steve Gardner in the Holy Land!

2010-04-20T00:06:00.001+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/04/20/pilgrims-podcast-29-steve-gardner-in-the-holy-land/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #28: Dave Miers, Youth Ministry, Humble Orthodoxy & Snoring on Trains

2010-04-16T13:15:00.001+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/04/16/pilgrims-podcast-28-dave-miers-youth-ministry-humble-orthodoxy-snoring-on-trains/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #27: Steve Chong, Kirkplace, Spiritual Gifts, Mentors and Bruce Lee!

2010-03-20T01:36:00.002+11:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/03/20/pilgrims-podcast-27-steve-chong-kirkplace-spiritual-gifts-mentors-and-bruce-lee/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #26: Rev. David Ould, The Gospel, Liberalism, and Current Theological Battles.

2010-03-18T02:03:00.001+11:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/03/17/pilgrims-podcast-26-rev-david-ould-the-gospel-liberalism-and-current-theological-battles/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #24: Jeremy Halcrow, Media, Journalism & SydneyAnglicans.net

2010-03-09T13:03:00.002+11:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/03/09/pilgrims-podcast-24-jeremy-halcrow-media-journalism-sydneyanglicans-net/

Pilgrim’s Podcast Season 2 is here!

2010-03-05T00:37:00.002+11:00

http://www.earngey.info/2010/03/04/pilgrims-podcast-season-2-is-here/

Calvin’s Contemporaries: Bullinger, Musculus & Vermigli

2009-12-30T18:27:00.002+11:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/12/30/calvins-contemporaries-bullinger-musculus-vermigli/

Calvin was not a "Calvinist"...

2009-11-04T23:26:00.001+11:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/11/04/calvin-was-not-a-calvinst/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #21: Counselling Series Wrap-Up, A Multitude of Shoutouts, and Speeches

2009-11-02T18:54:00.002+11:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/11/02/pilgrims-podcast-21-counselling-series-wrap-up-a-multitude-of-shoutouts-and-speeches/

Pilgrim's Podcast #20: Helen Blake, Bullying, Vulnerability, Self-Awareness & How to Change.

2009-10-26T09:56:00.002+11:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/10/26/pilgrims-podcast-20-helen-blake-vulnerability-self-awareness-and-how-to-change/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #19: Helen Blake, Feeling & Thinking, Shame and Bullying

2009-10-20T11:25:00.001+11:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/10/20/pilgrims-podcast-19-helen-blake-feeling-thinking-shame-and-bullying/

Pilgrim's Podcast #18: Jenny Brown, Family Systems Counselling, Anxiety and Emotional Maturity

2009-10-12T19:29:00.002+11:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/10/12/pilgrims-podcast-18-jenny-brown-family-systems-counseling-anxiety-and-emotional-maturity/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #17: Rev. Allen Cook, Jan Corbett-Jones, Pastoral Care, and How to Help

2009-10-05T03:19:00.002+11:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/10/05/pilgrims-podcast-17-rev-allen-cook-jan-corbett-jones-pastoral-care-and-how-to-help/

God's Will: 2 Aspects

2009-09-30T17:44:00.001+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/09/30/gods-will-two-aspects/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #16: Richard Glover, Christ on Campus, Church in the Graveyard and Inspiring Stories from Cambodia!

2009-09-28T09:20:00.000+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/09/28/pilgrims-podcast-16-richard-glover-christ-on-campus-church-in-the-graveyard-and-inspiring-stories-from-cambodia/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #15: Dr. Ashley Null, Humility, Don’t Re-Invent a Broken Wheel, and Learning from our Elders

2009-09-07T01:48:00.002+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/09/07/pilgrims-podcast-15-dr-ashley-null-humility-dont-re-invent-a-broken-wheel-and-learning-from-our-elders/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #14: Dr. Ashley Null, Denominations in a Post-Denomination Age, Thinking about Worship, and being a Lapdog for Jesus!

2009-08-31T10:07:00.002+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/08/31/pilgrims-podcast-14-dr-ashley-null-denominations-in-a-post-denomination-age-thinking-about-worship-and-being-a-lapdog-for-jesus/

Dr. David Virtue and Michael Horton discuss the Future of Anglicanism

2009-08-25T00:14:00.002+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/08/24/dr-david-virtue-and-michael-horton-discuss-the-future-of-anglicanism/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #13: Chris Ashton, SMBC vs. Moore, Church Planting Vibes, Learning from Reformed Dudes, and Cabernet Merlot

2009-08-24T10:41:00.000+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/08/24/pilgrims-podcast-13-chris-ashton-smbc-vs-moore-church-planting-vibes-learning-from-reformed-dudes-and-cabernet-merlot/

Pilgrim's Podcast #12: Bishop Glenn Davies, Reformed Theology, Baptism, and Good Banter!

2009-08-17T00:18:00.000+10:00

http://www.earngey.info/2009/08/16/pilgrims-podcast-12-bishop-glenn-davies-reformed-theology-baptism-and-good-banter/

Pilgrim's Podcast #11: Andrew Katay, Missional Church Planting, Transformational Preaching, and Tips for Young Preachers!

2009-08-10T01:22:00.000+10:00

Well, this was a fantastic podcast! Steve and I headed out to Fivedock – the HQ of Christ Church Inner West (CCIW) and interviewed Rev. Andrew Katay. It was a real highlight to think together about how to preach in order to help people change to be more like Christ. Andrew’s been blogging a bit about it under the term ‘Sanctification by Faith‘.

Head over here:

http://www.earngey.info/2009/08/10/pilgrims-podcast-11-andrew-katay-missional-church-planting-transformational-preaching-and-tips-for-young-preachers/

Pilgrim’s Podcast #9: Alfred Olwa, Revival in Uganda, Idi Amin, Festo Kivengere and Preaching Tips for Young Punks!

2009-07-13T01:33:00.002+10:00

On the new site here!

Pilgrim’s Podcast #7: Kate Haggar, Re-Guided Youth, Westies, North Shories and Anglicanism!?

2009-06-29T00:44:00.000+10:00

Download Podcast.

Pilgrim’s Podcast #6: Justin Moffatt, NYC to SYD, Younger Evangelicals and Birth in Perth!

2009-06-24T00:31:00.000+10:00

On my new blog here!

Pilgrim's Podcast #5: Matt Moffit, Blogging, CMS, and Bob Hawke! Check it out:

2009-06-16T01:17:00.002+10:00

http://ping.fm/lO5dn

2009-06-14T00:06:00.001+10:00

Is more excited about RICE training and HSC study camp things coming up, than his exams. That's gotta change. Just for the next two weeks!

2009-06-10T00:52:00.001+10:00

missed the online submission by 15 minutes.... flippin' bibliography.

Pilgrim's Podcast #4: Ruth Lee, RICE, EQUIP and Shnouncements.

2009-06-07T23:57:00.002+10:00

Pilgrim's Podcast #4: Ruth Lee, RICE, EQUIP and Shnouncements. Check it out: http://ping.fm/JFQKE

2009-06-06T15:00:00.001+10:00

is Moore College's website totally outdated? http://ping.fm/jjFZ8

2009-06-03T00:35:00.001+10:00

Pilgrim's Podcast reaches the 'New and Notable' section of iTunes! Bam. http://ping.fm/9wBZY

Pilgrim's Podcast #3 is live!!

2009-06-01T16:25:00.002+10:00

It's up! Pilgrim's Podcast #3 is *live* now! Newtown Mission, Social Action and Christian Anderson: http://ping.fm/iQjup

Download the Pilgrim's Podcast now!

2009-05-26T00:12:00.002+10:00

In case you hadn't updated your link to Seeing in a Mirror Dimly, here's the latest and greatest news!

Steve Gardner and I have launched the Pilgrim's Podcast: interviews with all sorts of people walking the Christian walk with us! Check out the latest episode with Sam Russell where we discuss Church Planting, Coffee Roasting and more!

http://www.earngey.info/podcast-2/

Seeing in a Mirror Dimly v2.0! Come and visit the new home!

2009-05-01T13:55:00.003+10:00

Well, the time has come (the walrus said), for this little blog to be put to bed.

I've been nerding away, and have gotten quite excited about the prospect of setting up a whole new site and blog, and here it finally is. I've tried to get a funky featured content bit up there, and there'll be a podcast in the near future too. Giddy up!

Check it out: Seeing in a Mirror Dimly v2.0

Richard Dawkins and John Lennox Debate

2009-05-01T08:56:00.000+10:00

Check it out - Dawkins and Lennox head to head. I had the privilege of hearing John Lennox speak at my church last year, and I was very impressed with his intellectual might and ability to think on his feet. It'll be great to hear this.

So, I'll be loading it up now, all ready for after chapel this morning!

Knowledge and Abandonment of the Son

2009-04-30T08:25:00.004+10:00

Some food for thought! Seamus, an ex-Moore College student has posted up a few good thoughts on some aspects of Christology. These are a stimulating bunch of short readings, and quite helpful too!

What Does the Incarnate Son Know?

What the Son Knows, part II

Thoughts on Patristic Exegesis and Trinitarian Debates

Did the Father abandon the Son?

Here's a short excerpt:

"I want to affirm that the punishment Jesus endures involves separation in terms of fellowship and favour of the Father, but not 'presence', because God is omnipresent, neither 'ontological' separation - the Son cannot be separated from the Father because they are one Substance. Thus, when Jesus dies on the Cross, and dies in his human nature, the Divine Son experiences, mysteriously for the Living God, Death in his Human Nature for sin."

New Themelios Out Now!

2009-04-27T23:53:00.000+10:00

The latest Themelios is out now.... In case you haven't heard of it, it's a theological journal sponsored by the Gospel Coalition. And as a theological student - it's a great resource! This issues articles include:

Editorial | D. A. Carson
Minority Report: A Lesson from Peter the Barber | Carl Trueman
The Embattled Bible: Four More Books | Robert W. Yarbrough
How Far Beyond Chicago? Assessing Recent Attempts to Reframe the Inerrancy Debate | Jason S. Sexton
Divine Retribution: A Forgotten Doctrine? | Andrew Atherstone
Calvinism and Missions: The Contested Relationship Revisited | Kenneth J. Stewart
Pastoral Pensées: Power in Preaching: Decide (1 Corinthians 2:1–5), Part 1 of 3 | Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.
Book Reviews | 38 reviews
1. Old Testament | 5 reviews
2. New Testament | 10 reviews
3. history and historical theology | 6 reviews
4. systematic theology and bioethics | 10 reviews
5. ethics and pastoralia | 2 reviews
6. missions and culture | 5 reviews

Check it out - it comes in PDF and HTML format.

UN opens up a global treasure of ancient documents

2009-04-22T17:33:00.003+10:00

This looks simply amazing. It's a website which offers digitally scanned images and information of books, manuscripts, maps and artifacts from ancient places. Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Oceania, the Americas - it's all there. Looks pretty cool and there might even be some finds for my Church History essay.... Let's hope so!

Here's what the BBC are reporting:

"Unesco says the World Digital Library will help to promote curiosity and understanding across cultures.

Among the artefacts are a 1,000-year-old Japanese novel and the earliest known map to mention America by name.

About a tenth of the 1,200 exhibits are from Africa - the oldest an 8,000-year-old painting of bleeding antelopes.

But this is an ongoing project in its early stages, and the collection is expected to grow substantially."

Check it out: http://www.wdl.org/en/

Request for thoughts: What makes a good blog?

2009-04-22T15:14:00.000+10:00

At the prompting of Dave Miers, I'm toying with the idea of revamping this old blog...

It's been a few years since I've worked in the online IT world, but I think now's the time to resurrect some of those skills. My area of expertise was in the realm of online adverting at Sensis (Yellow Pages, White Pages, Whereis, Bigpond, Telstra etc) and am keen to see what sort of interesting things I might be able to conjure up.... And thus, I'm going to try and step this site up a notch and see what happens. But I really want you to tell me what you think makes a good blog site or website generally:

- Layout - do you like a 2 or 3 columned look?
- Audio/Video/Text - What do you mostly scour the net for?
- Blog posts - Do you like short or long posts?
- Other sites - What other sites do you really enjoy visiting? Why?

Basically, any thoughts on what you like in blogging websites, I'd love to hear!

Much love in Christ,
Mark

Technorati's State of the Blogosphere

2009-04-20T23:12:00.004+10:00

I stumbled across the Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2008 report tonight, and it's fascinating. I'm not sure whether I'm surprised or not in the general volume of blog traffic, but there are some interesting statistics to be taken note of.

Firstly, some stats from other sources:

comScore MediaMetrix (August 2008)

Blogs: 77.7 million unique visitors in the US
Facebook: 41.0 million | M
ySpace 75.1 million
Total internet audience 188.9 million

eMarketer (May 2008)

94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet users)
22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12%)

Universal McCann (March 2008)

184 million WW have started a blog | 26.4 US
346 million WW read blogs | 60.3 US
77% of active Internet users read blogs

From reading over some of these stats, I really do feel like this is a great thing to do in

service to our Lord. Perhaps some of these stats might shape the direction of our blogs and link into what's going on in the blogging world around us!

Rice Youth Sydney 2009

2009-04-20T22:28:00.005+10:00

After another encouraging night at a RICE gathering, I'm convinced that this is a truly wonderful ministry!

Two weeks ago was the RICE Vision night held at MTC. They packed the house! Steve Chong opened, Sam Mak delivered, John Woodhouse endorsed, and a whole host of other people chimed in with introductions to the many different facets of the RICE ministry (Marriage Counselling, Conferences on Desires and Giftings, Theological training etc!).

And tonight a gathering of nearly 60 leaders of differing youth groups arrived to join together in thinking through how to reach the youth of Sydney with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm very keen to see our youth from St. Anne's, Strathfield joining in this Gospel work with the hope of seeing many from the local area coming to a saving relationship with our Lord. And I'm praying that our Sovereign and Almighty Father might send His Spirit powerfully in order to do this!

Slashdot News

2009-04-19T12:50:00.002+10:00

2 good articles from every techie's favourite: Slashot.org

Antarctic Ice Is Growing, Not Melting Away, At Davis Station

"A report from The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research says that Antarctic ice is growing, not melting away. Ice core drilling in the fast ice off Australia's Davis Station in East Antarctica by the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-Operative Research Centre shows that last year, the ice had a maximum thickness of 1.89m, its densest in 10 years. The average thickness of the ice at Davis since the 1950s is 1.67m. A paper to be published soon by the British Antarctic Survey in the journal Geophysical Research Letters is expected to confirm that over the past 30 years, the area of sea ice around the continent has expanded."

Comic Sans, Font of Ill Will

"The Wall Street Journal profiles Vincent Connare, designer of the web's most-hated font, Comic Sans. Not surprisingly, the font's origins go back to Microsoft Bob, where he saw a talking dog speaking in Times New Roman. Connare pulled out Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns for reference, and created the comic book-style font over the next week. 'Mr. Connare has looked on, alternately amused and mortified, as Comic Sans has spread from a software project at Microsoft Corp. 15 years ago to grade-school fliers and holiday newsletters, Disney ads and Beanie Baby tags, business emails, street signs, Bibles, porn sites, gravestones and hospital posters about bowel cancer. ... The jolly typeface has spawned the Ban Comic Sans movement, nearly a decade old but stronger now than ever, thanks to the Web."

Gotta love the old Slashdot!

Social Networking with the Gospel Coalition

2009-04-18T14:03:00.002+10:00

Now this is interesting!

Adrian Warnock announces the public opening of The City for the Gospel Coalition - and yes, there's an Australian subsection!

My friend Lynne, who was working over at Mars Hill earlier this year told me all about this fantastic tool. Apparently it's used by pastors, laymembers, and has all sorts of groups which dialogue and meet to discuss things - and it seems to work there very well. Basically, it was developed over at Mars Hill for their own networking - both administratively, and socially.

Here's what Adrian Warnock says:

"Whenever this [The City] is spoken about, the thrust behind it is to build real community not just an online "virtual" community. Thus, in the life of Mars Hill Church it is where people connect to small groups, interact with each other, share prayer requests, share practical needs, and many other things.

It seems that a similar philosophy is behind the version of the network developed for the Gospel Coalition. If you attend one of their conferences, you can use this tool to keep in touch with friends you meet there. If you want to find other gospel-focused Christians who live near enough to you to make face-to-face meetings a possibility, the tool can also help you find them."

I'm not really sure how it all works yet, nor how it'll work in Oz, but I've signed up, and I'll see what happens!

For the Australian signup page: Click Here

Schaeffer on the Unease of the Next Generation

2009-04-17T15:48:00.002+10:00

Over at the Sola Panel, Andrew Barry has written a gracious and thoughtful short piece on some of the dangers in the current wave of Unease in the Next Generation. If you haven't read them, can I encourage you to. In fact, I think they are applicable to the current generation too!

From the many young Christians I've worked with over the last years, I've not seen many putting substance over style, or commending rather than contending - though I must admit that some I've come across do those things. Actually, some of the most passionate advocates of this New Calvinism are serious readers and thoughtful Christians. And where there is a disdain for previous generations (and I know that exists), perhaps a healthy dose of some of Robert E. Webber and a short trip to L'Abri UK might help...? I've found that using the Prayer Book in creative ways is seriously appreciated by the younger evangelicals!

Anyway, I'm not so sure that the current movement of younger Evangelicals is just reacting against Evangelical culture, but mainly acting from the external forces coming from society at large. Whether it's an anti-institutionalism, or anti-simplistic-meganarratives, or anti-propositionalism - the last thing we want to do is to convey a message of "Shut-up and sit-down, Billy." That's why I think it's a great start that Moore College has tried to listen to some of the younger evangelicals and enable them. Wouldn't it be great to see this energy and enthusiasm channelled in a good direction for the Lord!

This quote of Francis Schaeffer from The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century, is helpful here:

"One of the greatest injustices we do to our young people is to ask them to be conservative. Christianity today is not conservative by revolutionary. To be conservative today is to miss the whole point, for conservatism means standing in the flow of the status quo, and the status quo no longer belongs to us. Today we are a minority. If we want to be fair, we must teach the young to be revolutionaries, revolutionaries against the status quo."

Jelly and the New Calvinism

2009-04-16T22:51:00.005+10:00

There's a certain slipperiness and jelly-like quality to what's being called The New Calvinism. Terms like Reformed and Calvinist are wobbling around like they've been served up for dessert. But is this a bad thing?

Even Brian McLaren's getting in on the act and calling out the Calvinists (there must be some low-flying pigs - he's even citing John Frame!). Why?

Well it seems that with the growth in the Young, Restless and Reformed types, there's an umbrella-like movement rising with seismic results - just ask Time magazine. Embracing Baptists, Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed types, other traditions, and even Anglicans (yep, that's me) - this movement seems to have a fairly large theological scope. The main bounds are the 5 points of Calvinism (Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistable Grace, and Perserverance of the Saints). So, the main ingredients are the same for these types, but it wobbles around a bit depending on things like baptism etc.

Others, like R. Scott Clark, have preferred the more stable dessert of Calvinism. It's a solid jelly (and no, I wouldn't go as far as to say a frozen chosen jelly!), a one size and colour fits all jelly. In the above-linked article, Clark says:

"If Mark Driscoll presented himself for membership in St Peter’s in Calvin’s Geneva, he would have been rejected. Why? He doesn’t believe the faith confessed by the church. He would have been rejected by the consistories and synods in the Netherlands, France, and by the sessions in Scotland. They would not have recognized his confession as Reformed.

The ugly truth is that too many Reformed folk are too excited that a prominent leader in evangelicalism, someone with increasing visibility in the media, identifies himself as Reformed. Pastor Driscoll feels comfortable co-opting the adjective “Calvinist” because real Calvinists, those who actually believe and practice what Calvin believed and practiced, let him use it."

So, should the New Calvinism be a hard or soft jelly? A wobbly, yet palatable dessert for many - or a harder and more refined treat? Or bluntly, must one go beyond TULIP and sign up to a certain bunch of confessions in order to use the word Calvinist or Reformed?

Personally, I like John Frame's (as usualy, such a helpful and gracious theologian!) stance towards these sorts of issues:

"I look forward to the time when God will equip his church to write new confessions. The Reformed confessions of the 16th and 17th centuries are wonderful documents that have served the church well. But we need confessions that speak to the issues of our own time: abortion, postmodern ideology, egalitarianism, new spiritualities, ecumenism, the gifts of the Spirit, common grace, the precise role of the Mosaic law the status of non-Christian religions, the obligation of Christians to the poor, the nature of worship, biblical standards for missions and evangelism, and, indeed, the nature of confessional subscription. We need confessions also that can state the old Reformed and biblical doctrines in contemporary language and support those doctrines with the biblical scholarship that has developed over the last 400 years. Perhaps we are not ready yet to write new confessions, granted the spiritual immaturity of the contemporary church and the proliferation of denominational division. But if we are ever to reach the point at which new confessions can be written, we need to train pastors and teachers for the church who are able to develop doctrinal formulations from the Word of God itself. And we need to graduate students who understand that the 16th and 17th century confessions are not the final word, that there is much more that God calls us to say to the church and to the world."

Perhaps we can settle for a slowly hardening jelly?

Supporting some OzHipHop

2009-03-19T21:06:00.004+11:00

After posting a few videos up on Dave's blog about hiphop, I thought I'd share something in the way of Australian hiphop. True to the accent, not much MTV backing, and no bling = Australian hiphop. This is one of the best and oldest hip hop crews in Australia, the mighty Brethren.

Wizdm is a married father of three, and is an amazing popper and emcee.

Mistery is a great all round fella, and excells in graffiti (Bounty Hunterz Crew), bboying and emceeing. Check out this interview done with Maya Jupiter, Wizdm, Mistery and Chez done on ABC's Compass. Also, if you live around Marrickville, Petersham or Newtown you're sure to have seen Mistery's murals on walls. Here's a few photos you might recognise.

Oh, and did I mention they're committed Christians? Yes, these guys are great witnesses to Christ in the Australian hiphop scene.

Here's the clip, Intercepta from their last album, Beyond Underground:

INTERCEPTA by brethren from Mustard Empire on Vimeo.

Anti-Abstractionism

2009-03-18T23:36:00.003+11:00

What's with the following phrases?

"X isn't Christocentric enough"

"X isn't Trinitarian enough"

"X is too Aristotelian"

"X is too systematic"

"X is too Scholastic"

"X is too intellectual"

These examples are different from one another, but I've been thinking a bit about this sort of rhetoric lately.

What are the following turns of phrase are getting at? What're they trying to preserve? What sort of assumptions lie behind them?

"You can't see the atonement in abstraction from the trinity"

"You can't see Holy Scripture in abstraction from God's redemptive acts"

"You can't see revelation in abstraction from history"

"You can't see election in abstraction from redemptive history"

I'm going to have a crack at throwing some amateur thoughts down on the topic of theological method soon, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this sort of thing!

Alice Russell - Hanbury Ballroom

2009-03-18T08:59:00.001+11:00

Somehow, doing NT Greek seems easier with a bit of Alice Russell in the background! In case you haven't heard of her, check her out - she's amazing!

Exiled Preacher: An Interview with John Frame

2009-03-13T02:06:00.002+11:00

Just came across this wonderful interview in which John Frame gives brief thoughts on topics like: blogging, systematic theology, Kevin Vanhoozer's work, Inerrancy, classical music, and Scripture. Check this one out for sure!

He's a great and humble theologian, whose book on the Doctrine of the Knowledge of God has been really helpful for me this year at Bible college.

Here's a few small quotes to get you started, and I've bolded out a few things which I found interesting:

"GD: Why should pastors be interested in systematic theology?

JF: As I said, systematics, rightly understood, deals with the real questions about thought and life that pastors have to deal with. This includes questions about theological controversies, but also about ethics, evangelism, church order, contemporary religions and ideologies, social order, and so on. Now of course if you understand systematics as a more abstract and academic discipline, its connection to the pastorate is less direct. But even then the pastor should be able to draw on the writings of traditional systematicians to draw applications for his own ministry and his own people."

"GD: In both Peter Enns' Inspiration and Incarnation and Andrew McGowan's The Divine Spiration of Scripture, serious Reformed theologians have called into question the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. Is the inerrancy of Scripture still worth fighting for?

JF: I would not live or die for the term “inerrancy,” which is an extra-biblical term and is often used in confusing ways today. But as I understand it, the main idea behind the term is that Scripture, being God’s word, is completely true in everything it teaches. Scripture explicitly affirms that it is true (as in Ps. 119:160, John 17:17). So when God speaks to us, we dare not find fault with anything he says. Our responsibility is simply to believe what he says and to do what he tells us to do. That principle is still worth fighting for. In fact it is the watershed issue of our time: will we believe God, or will we follow human wisdom? This is nothing less than the question of whether God in Jesus Christ is Lord."

The Blues Brothers

2009-03-09T17:41:00.001+11:00

I got a chance to watch the Blue Brothers over the holidays and was once again reassured that this has simply got to be one of the top 10 movies of all time! This is my favourite scene!

The Church's One Foundation

2009-03-08T13:56:00.003+11:00

I was really struck by this beautiful hymn at church this morning, and was so blown away by it, that I thought it absolutely necessary to blog it!

The author - Samuel Stone - wrote it in response to the unorthodox teachings of Bishop of Natal, South Africa - Bishop Colenso. Now, what really blew me away was that I had recently been reading the history of the Anglican Church in SA from a great book, A Candle Burns in Africa which mentioned exactly this story of Bp. Colenso!

These 3rd and 5th verses really got me longing for the day when the Lord would put everything aright. I hope they leap out at you too!

Though with scornful wonder

the world sees her oppressed,

by schisms rent asunder,

by heresies distressed,

yet saints their watch are keeping,

their cry goes up, "How long?"

and soon the night of weeping

shall be the morn of song.

Yet she on earth has union

with God the Three in One,

and mystic sweet communion

with those whose rest is won.

O happy ones and holy!

Lord, give to us the grace

like them, the meek and lowly,

in heaven to seek your face.

Have a listen to the song and you think about the lyrics:

http://media.songsandhymns.org/mp3/TheChurchsOneFoundation.mp3

"I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not overcome it" - Jesus. Matthew 16:18

The Eyes of Your Heart

2009-03-04T23:15:00.009+11:00

"that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know" Eph 1:18

In preparation for the sermon I'm preaching at St. Anne's this Sunday, I've been struck again by the way that God's word speaks of heart-knowledge. The phrase "eyes of your heart" is an Old Testament way of referring to the seat of your whole person. And for you to experientally know things - and Ephesians 1:15-23 certainly speaks of incredible things to know.

Have a look at what Jonathan Edwards has to say in his A Divine and Supernatural Light sermon:

"There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former that knows not how honey tastes; but a man cannot have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mind. So there is a difference between believing that a person is beautiful, and having a sense of his beauty. The former may be obtained by hearsay, but the latter only by seeing the countenance. When the heart is sensible of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels pleasure in the apprehension. It is implied in a person’s being heartily sensible of the loveliness of a thing, that the idea of it is pleasant to his soul; which is a far different thing from having a rational opinion that it is excellent."

And later in the sermon: “As for instance, the notion that there is a Christ, and that Christ is holy and gracious, is conveyed to the mind by the word of God; but the sense of the excellency of Christ by reason of that holiness and grace, is nevertheless immediately the work of the Holy Spirit.”

And this work of the Holy Spirit is what Paul is praying for - that the saints in Ephesus might know God with the eyes of their heart.

Dr. John Frame - Going to Seminary

2009-03-02T00:50:00.002+11:00

Well, at the start of 2009, I had another watch of John Frame's thoughts on studying at college. This is just a small portion of the full video. And here are some more of Frame's thoughts on Bible college at: http://www.frame-poythress.org/frame_articles/2003Learning.htm

To my mates at Bible college - I hope this is really helpful and strengthening. And for everyone else, enjoy the thoughts of a truly brilliant servant of the Lord Jesus.

Doug Groothuis on Schaeffer

2009-01-14T13:18:00.003+11:00

Douglas R. Groothuis reviews two recent Schaeffer biographies (which I haven't yet read) and provides an interesting commentary on how Schaeffer speaks to contemporary society as it looks for "authenticity":

"I fear that the younger generation of evangelicals do not know enough about the remarkable life and achievements of Francis Schaefer; instead they are opting for the trendy but intellectually barren hype of much of the emergent church movement-which claims to be "authentic." ("Authentic" often means little more than emotional, unconventional, and obsessively autobiographical.) Many older evangelicals may have forgotten many of the salient lessons from his life and teachings as well. Reading these two new biographies can help rectify this problem."

http://www.denverseminary.edu/news/francis-schaeffer-and-the-shaping-of-evangelical-america-and-francis-schaeffer-an-authentic-life/

Christmas: A time to keep silent?

2008-12-24T09:56:00.002+11:00

Merry Christmas all! Hope you have a wonderful time with friends or family over Christmas. And I hope that Christ is all the more beautiful to you at this time.

Paul Helm has written a great post about the incarnation this Christmas which I'd highly recommend. With his typically brilliant biblical and philosophical presentation I really do like the way he helps us understand Christ! Here's a sample:

"Take the case of Jesus’ embodiment. Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, sat on the side of Jacob’s well at Sychar. (John 4) Jesus is God. Jesus is weary. Is God weary? No, God is not weary, nor can he be. So maybe we should say: as God Jesus was not weary, but as man he was weary. Similarly, with the passion of Christ. In Mark’s gospel we have ‘And he said, “Abba, Father, all thing are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will”’. (Mark 14) Does Jesus, who is divine, have a will that is even fractionally at odds with the will of the Father?’ No, not possible. So should we say, perhaps, as God his will was entirely at one with that of his Father, for he has the same will as his Father, God’s will. But as man his will could deviate from that of his Father, and that (though for only one dense, intense, moment) on this occasion he had it in mind to deviate from the will of his Father? (We might then go on to discuss how it can be that such a deviation is possible in one who is without sin.) As God he was one with his Father; as man his will could deviate from that of his Father; it was not perfectly aligned."

The full article is at: http://paulhelmsdeep.blogspot.com/2008/12/taking-line-iv-time-to-keep-silence.html

Merry Christmas!

John Donne, Holy Sonnet XV: Wilt Thou Love God

2008-12-19T12:14:00.002+11:00

Wilt thou love God, as he thee? then digest,
My Soule, this wholsome meditation,
How God the Spirit, by Angels waited on
In heaven, doth make his Temple in thy brest.
The Father having begot a Sonne most blest,
And still begetting, (for he ne'r begonne)
Hath deign'd to chuse thee by adoption,
Coheire to his glory, and Sabbaths endlesse rest;
And as a robb'd man, which by search doth finde
His stolne stuffe sold, must lose or buy it againe;
The Sonne of glory came downe, and was slaine,
Us whom he had made, and Satan stolne, to unbinde.
'Twas much, that man was made like God before,
But, that God should be made like man, much more.

On Baptism

2008-11-14T00:25:00.005+11:00

I've recently been trying to work through what baptism means. Big, tough questions indeed! Anyway, it was a nice distraction from Church History study tonight, but then I came across a funny quote from one of the Cappadocian fathers on baptism (which qualified the distraction as study!):

"In whose name were you baptised? In the Father's name? Jewish, but good. In the Son's name? Good; no longer Jewish, but not yet perfect. In the Holy Spirit's name? Excellent! This is perfect."

- Gregory of Nazianzus

Do Not Be Afraid of Past Sins Remembered

2008-10-20T00:35:00.002+11:00

This is a letter from Francis A. Schaeffer to Eleanore, she was a radical student in the 1960's. She has moved from drugs, to free sex, to terrorist politics, to Eastern religion. She tried everything before coming to Christ, and now her past ideas and actions are giving her a sense of grief and guilt. This is a beautiful reminder of a) the application of the cleansing blood of Christ, and b) how to lovingly write a letter!

January, 1975.

Dear Eleanore:

Thank you for your recent letter. I am glad that my previous letter was helpful to you. I cannot write a long letter this time as i just got back from the State and I am drowning in correspondence, but I did want to to write to you without too long a gap.

I do want you to know that I read your letter with much interest, and I was touched by it. I am so glad that the Lord has led you along as He has. You are so right that when we get started in non-Christian framework, whether it is in our thought form or in our life form, we rapidly get into very deep waters.

The sixties was a hard time, and of course we here at L'Abri have seen so many who have been wiped out through drugs, through Easter religious thought forms, and through the promiscuous sex life. Yet we have seen many here whom the Lord has touched and healed, and we can only be thankful.

On the other hand, it seems to me that with many young people it is even worse now, with apathy ruling everywhere and then not even having the hope of answers.

Coming back to your letter, I do want to say again that it deeply touched me, and I am glad that you felt like writing your history to me. The Lord really is so gentle to us. He certainly makes His promise more than true - that when we ask Him, He is gracious in putting His hand upon us.

Do not be afraid because these things regurgitate in your mind. (I wonder if you have read my book True Spirituality? If you have not, I would urge you to do so.) Each time these things come into your mind, bring the specific thing under the blood of Christ and know that, because His death has infinite value, you have a new beginning and can begin again. I too understand your sentence about "willing that you have faith." I really understand that, and I would just say, do not be afraid. On the othe hand, be sure to do what I have said - and this is in each case to bring these things udner the work of Christ that, on the basis of His finished work, He might forgive you for what is wrong. Then you can have a quiet mind, knowing that whatever [temptation] is left over is a matter of weakness, and by claiming the Lord's promise that He understands because Christ was tempted in every point like as we are, yet without sin.

You are totally right that the greatest test of faith is not the acceptance of Christ for justification, but living like this moment by moment throughout our lives (As I say, if you have not read True Spirituality, please get hold of a copy and read it.) . . .

I am glad you do feel free to write as you did, and would especially say that I will be glad if you would pray for me and for Edith in the midst of our work.

With warm personal greetings in the Lamb,

Francis A. Schaeffer.

Masculinity (ii)

2008-10-06T01:10:00.005+11:00

Ok, well thanks for the good comments people - appreciated your thoughts: have been using them in my preparation, and will most likely use them next Sunday. It's been fascinating to read different people's thoughts on gender and the masculinity issue. Guys like Steve Biddulph and Hugh Mackay have been particularly interesting. Here's sociologist Hugh Mackay's summary on the present state of gender understand in his great book, Advance Australia Where?*

"Vive la diffference! was never about superiority and inferiority; it was always about complementarity... For men, the goal is authentic masculinity. The New Bloke believes it's perfectly all right to be a 'bloke' - to acknowledge the legitmacy of masculine urges, masculine images and masculine culture - as long as you understand the real point about the gender revolution: men and women, for all their obvious differences, are equal. Thirty years after it began, the gender revolution has brought new life, new richness to the word 'person'."

Here's what God has to say about the past, present and future state of gender understanding in his great book, The Bible**:

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Genesis 1:27 and Adam's reaction to the sight of his beautiful Eve: "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Genesis 2:23

There is equality (mankind created with equal worth in the image of God - this equality is so deep, that it touches the bone and flesh), and complementarity (they're different but work together. Now, what does that look like...?). No wonder Adam was pretty stoked with her! :)

So, thanks for your help - I'm writing the sermon tomorrow, and I'll let you know how it goes!

* PS - this book is fantastic by the way. Read it!

** PPS - this book is even better. Read it first!

Masculinity

2008-09-29T19:06:00.002+10:00

I'm preaching on masculinity in a couple of weeks time at church, and have been thinking through a whole bunch of things. Especially off the fact that Mark Driscoll really provoked a good deal of thought about this lately, it's something which I'm keen to reinforce in our hearts and minds.

So, with that in mind - I'm keen to do a bit of a survey. I'd love it if you could simply reply with a few thoughts on the following:

1) Are you male/female?

2) What do you think are the biggest blindspots for men today in their being masculine? (Ie, what are the big challenges you'd put to men today?)

3) What things in our current culture fight against what being masculine is? (Ie, what cultural things are causing men to drop the ball?)

Much appreciated! :)
Mark

Some Thoughts on Old Testament Scholarship

2008-09-26T00:31:00.007+10:00

A couple of weeks ago I engaged in a comparison of Daniel 7-12 and 1 Enoch. It was an amazing journey into the world of academic scholarship. So many interesting views flying around, yet so little voice from the conservative corner. I wondered what happened to the reformed evangelical voice...?

Well, tonight I read something encouraging from EJ Young from an old Themelios journal in 1963 entitled: "Some Thoughts on Old Testament Scholarship". Here's a really, really interesting and encouraging passage:

"One cannot take too seriously the claims of Scripture to be the Word of God. Hence, the exegete must always take into consideration the biblical theological significance of the passage which he is studying. Now, Biblical theology is a term that is bandied about quite frequently these days; there is good biblical theology and there is bad, and the bad, of course, is not really biblical theology at all. True biblical theology is concerned with the study of divine revelation in the various epochs or periods of redemptive history. It is this basic point which must be kept in proper emphasis. Even some conservatives seem principally concerned to find Christ everywhere in the Old Testament. In a certain sense, of course, Christ is everywhere, but we must certainly be on guard against a reversion to allegorical interpretation. Concern for biblical theology in biblical proportions, however, will prove a great asset for interpretation of the Scriptures.

Not only is concern for biblical theory essential, but it is also essential that we consider in our interpretation each verse in the wider context of the entire Scripture. In true study of Scripture the analogy of Scripture must ever be brought into play. To state this in slightly different terms, we must study and know systematic theology. With the advent of the neo-orthodox emphases genuine systematic theology has fallen into disrepute in some circles. This, of course, is to be expected, for in its very nature systematic theology presupposes that the entire Bible is the Word of God, and that is a position which neo-orthodox, despite its frequent assertions, does not really take seriously. Possibly systematic theology has fallen into disrepute because it is not really understood by many. We are not concerned in the true study of systematic theology merely to state that a certain doctrine was held by Calvin and Luther - but to discover what the Bible has to say about these doctrines. What, for example, is the teaching of the Bible on the doctrine of justification by faith? To answer that question is to engage in the study of systematic theology. Systematic theology is no less biblical than is biblical theology. It is, indeed, the queen of the sciences, and if our exposition is truly to to justice to the Scriptures, we must know what the doctrines of the Bible are. This is certainly one of the reasons why Calvin’s commentaries have so greatly excelled. The same can be said for Luther’s Commentaries and for those of Charles Hodge. These men were theologians, and they knew what the Word of God taught. A knowledge of systematic theology will protect one from going astray doctrinally, for when isolated parts of the Bible are studied apart from the context of the entirety of Scripture, error is likely to creep in. We tend to emphasise one aspect of truth at the expense of others, and when we emphasise one verse or section of Scripture to the neglect of others, our exposition is likely to be faulty. Systematic theology can keep us from falling into this error."

He says earlier: "Nor need we really be afraid of the term fundamentalist. Better to be called a fundamentalist than to be found in the ranks of those who deny the Bible. In the long run the truth will prevail, and if Christian scholarship continues in devotion to God’s Word, it need not fear what man can say. Its purpose in the last analysis is the glory of God, and in seeking to accomplish this purpose it may well expect opprobrium."

Praise God for men like this. I'm praying tonight that I can have the same guts in my studies.

Systematic Theology

2008-09-25T17:37:00.003+10:00

From the latest issue of the Themelios journal: a great article by the historical theologian, Carl Trueman (visiting Australia next year), who writes about the great defender of the faith, J. Gresham Machen:

"For Machen, however, the Bible contains truth, and as such is ineradicably doctrinal. Indeed, one overarching concern in Christianity and Liberalism is simply the vital importance of Christian doctrine to the church: doctrine, he makes clear, is the very heart of Christian testimony. Claiming to honor the Bible without synthesizing the Bible’s teaching into doctrine, into systematic theology, is not really honoring the Bible at all, for the Bible teaches truth, truth which is coherent and can be articulated; and regarding with indifference those things which the Bible clearly sees as important is, in some sense, the worst sin of all."

This I think, would be a helpful addition of understanding in circles which prize biblical and exegetical theology. Away with the fear of extra-biblical categories. Away!

Salvation History article in the ESV Study Bible

2008-09-09T00:14:00.002+10:00

Vern Poythress is an excellent NT professor at Westminister Theological Seminary. He and John Frame have their work up at http://www.frame-poythress.org.

Anyway, Vern has written the "Survey of the History of Salvation" for the new ESV Study Bible. He's got some great things to say about Biblical Theology in the following interview. I particularly like the way he handles the covenant vs kingdom of God theme in Scripture. As per the Frame/Poythress brilliance, he notes the shared content and the differing perspectives on them. Anyway, it's a good interview - check it out:

http://beginningwithmoses.blogspot.com/2008/09/esv-study-bible-interview-with-dr-vern.html

J.I Packer on Unconditional Election

2008-09-07T17:19:00.002+10:00

Unconditional Election is one of the reformed doctrines which I am amazed to hear so little about - even at a reformed Bible college! (Perhaps it's something to do with Karl Barth's bizarre take on election?)

But here is a good, clear, reformed and biblical explanation of what Election is. Michael Horton of the White Horse Inn website interviews J.I. Packer on this reformed belief: link here

Here's an excerpt:

"MR: Dr. Packer, why do we need an election?
Packer: Because we will never be saved unless God chooses to save us. Election leads to the saving action of God in his lordship, and if we were left to ourselves we would never respond to God on our own at all. This is what people don't seem to appreciate, that all of us by nature are anti-God in our deepest instincts (see Romans chapter 3). We don't always realize this because many of us think we are seeking God, and frankly, people want a God they can manage and manipulate and have as a safety net. Those are facts about human life, and very familiar facts. But when it is a matter of responding to the real God and responding in a way that he calls for --that is by humbling ourselves before him, learning to trust his word absolutely, turning from sin, taking our hands off of the reins of our own life and letting him be in control --we wake up to the fact that we don't like this at all and we shy back from it. That is our nature. So you see, God has to take action otherwise we shall never come to him at all because that is the state in which fallen humans find themselves."

Francis Schaeffer Video - A Christian Manifesto

2008-09-04T18:47:00.003+10:00

"Where have all the Bible-believing Christians been in the last 40 years?" asks Schaeffer.

This snippet of video is from his "A Christian Manifesto" sermon preached only a few years before his death.

You can really appreciate his passion and zeal for God, and His creation!

What an encouragement and exhortation to live for Christ in all vocations of life!

Mark Driscoll puts out an 18-point challenge to Sydney

2008-09-03T23:56:00.001+10:00

Read the notes from Mark Driscoll's talks at St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney here: link to Gordon Cheng's notes.

An Interview with John Frame on the Problem of Evil

2008-08-20T22:56:00.002+10:00

A great interview with John Frame on the Problem of Evil:

http://theologica.blogspot.com/2008/08/interview-with-john-frame-on-problem-of.html

John Frame has been a significant influence on me, and I really have appreciated his brilliant mind and am grateful to God for his writing ministry. If you're looking for a serious contemporary systematic theologian to read who engages brilliantly with current and ancient theology and philosophy, he's your man! Here's a bit of background on him, from Between Two Worlds:

John Frame (b. 1939) is professor and chair of systematic theology and philosophy at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, where he has taught since 2005. He previously taught for thirty-one years at Westminster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania and was a founding faculty member of Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California. He has earned degrees at Princeton University (A.B.), Westminster Theological Seminary (B.D.), Yale University (M.A., M.Phil.), and Belhaven College (D.D.). His website lists (and hosts many of) his voluminous publications and includes a blog.

He has written on the problem of evil in at least the following publications:

1994: “Apologetics as Defense: The Problem of Evil.” Pages 149–90 in Apologetics to the Glory of God: An Introduction. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed.
1995: Cornelius Van Til: An Analysis of His Thought. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed. [See pp. 83–86.]
2002: “The Problem of Evil.” Pages 160–82 in The Doctrine of God. A Theology of Lordship 2. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed.
2008: “The Problem of Evil.” Pages 141–64 in Suffering and the Goodness of God. Edited by Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson. Theology in Community 1. Wheaton: Crossway.

No Little People

2008-08-18T23:12:00.001+10:00

From Francis Schaeffer's No Little People:

"We must remember throughout our lives that in God's sight there are no little people and no little places. Only one thing is important: to be consecrated persons in God's place for us, at each moment."

I Like Burritos

2008-08-17T14:59:00.003+10:00

I'm probably in a small minority of bloggers who actually aren't taking too much notice of the US Presidential race. But, I was reading the liveblog of the McCain/Obama meeting with Rick Warren at his Saddleback church. Within a matter of seconds I was pleasantly surprised that in between all the 'God-pronounced' judgments on the candidates, one bloke had the humour to proclaim to the cosmos what food he liked:

"One woman carried a large picture of an aborted fetus that said "Barack Obama Change This." Others read "Obama Mama" and "Enough Dead." The requisite Ron Paul and Ralph Nader supporters made an appearance. Two people held three signs that read "God Hates Obama," "God Hates McCain" and "America is Doomed." And one man, inexplicably, held a sign that said "I Like Burritos.""

Haha! Good on him!

The use of law for the believer

2008-08-11T21:53:00.004+10:00

I've recently read through Michael Horton's excellent book, God of Promise (2006) in which he discusses the covenantal structure of the Bible. Of particular interest to me were the continuity and discontinuity of the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants, and the question of how do God's commandments (OT and NT) apply to Christians.

Horton's covenantal theology is based on good exegesis of Scripture within a biblical theological context, conversing with historical theology (Augustine, Irenaeus, Cocceius, Perkins, Ursinius, Beza just to name a few!) along the way. He interacts with all the who's who of covenantal research also: from Mendenhall, Kline, Vos, and von Rad through to O. Palmer Robertson and N.T Wright. All up, there's no wonder that Jim Packer endorsed it as a 'masterful survey of the covenantal frame of God's self-disclosure'.

Horton explains that to determine the role of the law in the new covenant, we must distinguish between the three uses of the moral (the cermemonial and civil laws pertain exclusively to the Mosaic theocracy) law:

1) The Civil use of the law. "Sometimes in Scripture the law is regarded as a curb to criminal behaviour. Even a pagan emperor known for his persecution of the church can be called 'God's servant,' as in Romans 13... Because this law is known at least in a framentary way by unbelievers, it can cause evildoers to think twice in the light of civil penalties."

2) The Pedagogical use of the law. The law shows up our sin, and drives us to Christ. "It is in this sense that Paul says [Romans 7:7-13] even though it brings only bad news and death because of our sin"

3) The Normative use of the law; that which provides norms for the Christian life. "No longer capable of condemning us, the law sees us in Christ as those who have fulfilled it, and instead of standing over against us, it is written on our heart. The law becomes a delight even though we continue to offend in though, word and deed."

I could go on, and perhaps I will! The continuity and discontinuity between the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants is quite a key issue I think, so I might post about that soon! But all in all, this book is a short, but excellent read for anyone grappling with the biblical-theological shape of the Bible!

Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)

2008-08-04T19:57:00.002+10:00

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian novelist, playwright, historian--a man of truth and courage--is dead at the age of 89.

His famous and controversial Harvard commencement address can be read online: A World Split Apart.

Undoubtedly many commentaries and tributes to come, putting the man and his vision in context.

(H/T: Between Two Worlds)

Here is an excellent segment from A World Split Apart:

Not a Model

But should someone ask me whether I would indicate the West such as it is today as a model to my country, frankly I would have to answer negatively. No, I could not recommend your society in its present state as an ideal for the transformation of ours. Through intense suffering our country has now achieved a spiritual development of such intensity that the Western system in its present state of spiritual exhaustion does not look attractive. Even those characteristics of your life which I have just mentioned are extremely saddening.

A fact which cannot be disputed is the weakening of human beings in the West while in the East they are becoming firmer and stronger. Six decades for our people and three decades for the people of Eastern Europe; during that time we have been through a spiritual training far in advance of Western experience. Life's complexity and mortal weight have produced stronger, deeper and more interesting characters than those produced by standardized Western well-being. Therefore if our society were to be transformed into yours, it would mean an improvement in certain aspects, but also a change for the worse on some particularly significant scores. It is true, no doubt, that a society cannot remain in an abyss of lawlessness, as is the case in our country. But it is also demeaning for it to elect such mechanical legalistic smoothness as you have. After the suffering of decades of violence and oppression, the human soul longs for things higher, warmer and purer than those offered by today's mass living habits, introduced by the revolting invasion of publicity, by TV stupor and by intolerable music.

All this is visible to observers from all the worlds of our planet. The Western way of life is less and less likely to become the leading model.

There are meaningful warnings that history gives a threatened or perishing society. Such are, for instance, the decadence of art, or a lack of great statesmen. There are open and evident warnings, too. The center of your democracy and of your culture is left without electric power for a few hours only, and all of a sudden crowds of American citizens start looting and creating havoc. The smooth surface film must be very thin, then, the social system quite unstable and unhealthy.

But the fight for our planet, physical and spiritual, a fight of cosmic proportions, is not a vague matter of the future; it has already started. The forces of Evil have begun their decisive offensive, you can feel their pressure, and yet your screens and publications are full of prescribed smiles and raised glasses. What is the joy about?

Machen's Worrier Children

2008-07-04T14:08:00.003+10:00

This article by Carl Trueman is excellent. If you're interested in the current resurgence of Calvinism (a la, the Young, Restless and Reformed), then you'll this careful and typically tongue-in-cheek review of current trends by Carl Trueman.

http://www.reformation21.org/counterpoints/wages-of-spin/a-little-bit-of-comfort-for-machens-worrier-children.php

H/T JT

Peter Jensen Interviewed by Christianity Today

2008-06-21T11:05:00.001+10:00

In this good and plain article, Archbishop Jensen explains all the plans and purposes for the GAFCON conference which is currently taking place. Definitely worth a read, and definitely worth getting your head around if you haven't yet.... Article on Christianity Today here.

I'm Converting

2008-06-18T23:42:00.003+10:00

.... to the Fox! Firefox 3 that is.

Having been a Fox (and of course the attendant Linux and Thunderbird kit) fan from way back, I'm really struggled to be content with my Windows usage since getting this darned laptop. As a side note - I had two years of no PC, and that was pure bliss. Anyhow, after bumbling around with IE on this new laptop for a while, I've come back to the good side and have installed 'THE FOX'. The new version of the fox too! Copied straight outta compton... *ehem* straight out of Between Two Worlds (www.theologica.blogspot.com), here's a couple of cracker quotes from the nerds at PCMAG:

"Three years in development, over 15,000 bug fixes and feature improvements, a new page rendering engine, remarkable performance gains, multiple OS integration — you could say the several hundred engineers working on Firefox have been busy. And their work has paid off.

Speedy performance, thrifty memory usage, and, in particular, the address bar that now predicts where you want to go when you start typing (what Mozilla insiders refer to as the Awesome Bar) firmly plant Firefox at the top of the Web browser hill, flying the flag of our Editors' Choice for browsers."

In particular:

"The top new feature has to be the address bar, what Mozilla types call "The Awesome Bar," but which the development team has officially dubbed the location bar. As you type into it, a list of suggested Web destinations based on your browsing history pops up.

It uses what Mozilla's phenomenologist Mike Beltzner has coined "frecency" — a combination of frequency and recentness — to determine the best suggestions. And, as icing on the cake, the search bar is now resizable, so you can divvy the space between the location and search bars to your taste.

When I tried it, the location bar's first suggestion was right on the money most of the time. Knowing that hitting the down arrow and Enter will usually get you where you want to go — not to mention save you untold keystrokes and time — will change your browsing habits."

So, now I'm just trying how best to configure my RSS Reader and I'm interested - what readers do you use? Help!

An Interview with Kenny Lloyd, South Africa

2008-06-16T19:00:00.006+10:00

I've (far left) just recently asked a few questions of Rev. Kenny Lloyd (far right) of Emmanuel Church (Port Elizabeth, South Africa) about pastoring and challenges in South Africa. Having been mentored by, and having worked with Kenny for a few years I am glad to share his thoughts with you. Kenny is the most pastorally gifted man I have come across. I have caught a mere few things from him, and am deeply thankful for Him. Here's a short interview with Kenny:

1) Kenny, welcome to Seeing Through a Mirror Dimly! Thanks for doing a short little interview with me. Tell me, as a sports-lover who's spent time in Australia and South Africa, how do you decide who to support in the big matches between these great teams?

I'm rather divided these days so in Cricket I shout for the South African Proteas, in rugga I cheer on the Wallabies, in fact I'm wearing my Wallaby jersey as I type! There again in the Rugby World Cup I shouted for England, I think I'm confused Mark! Help.

2) Who has been the most influential person in your life?

One tends to give different answers at different stages. At this stage Simon Manchester and Simon Flinders, pastors at St-Thomas North Sydney, have affected the way I teach the Gospel and the way I relate to people more than anyone else in a long time. Paul Dale has got me thinking about training people for ministry. They've affected the way I operate - that's influence.

3) What book has most impacted your life?

Funnily enough the Bible. The Bible introduced me to the Holy and Merciful God. Books have started to play a major role in my thinking. At the moment, Calvin's institutes of Religion as well as a good book on mission like Samuel Escobar's "A Time for Mission," have helped me think systematically & outside my normal frame of reference.

4) Kenny, you and your family live in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Can you give us a short picture of what your current ministry in PE looks like?

We currently serve at a predominantly White evangelical church called Emmanuel, half the week, and spend the other half amongst young Black African students in the university context. Emmanuel church currently supports the student ministry.

5) How do you keep your devotional life with the Lord fresh, and your zeal for Him strong?

At the moment I am reading Peter O'Brien's commentary on Ephesians in preparation for a series of talks on Ephesians in 2 months time. Its that kind of demanding reading as well as my own current quiet time reading in Genesis that is giving fuel to my praise and gratitude to God. I also have a very simple prayer program for the days of the week which gives the praying some structure. I don't know if getting quiet with God & reading his Bible is going out of fashion but Michael Cassidy is right when he says "We need solitude with God and his Word."

6) You grew up in SA, recently spent 3 years in Sydney, and are now back in South Africa - what seem to be some of the major differences between your church experience in AUS and the church experience in SA?

One of the obvious differences is that the Sydney Anglican Diocese is a highly organized well taught resourced church with clear goals. You'll find patches of that in South Africa (SA) but a lot of what I've seen, particularly amongst our younger Black people, is a zeal that lacks knowledge. The beautiful thing is so many of the younger poorer Black Christians are crying out for real Bible truth, more so than the younger White people (in my experience.)

Another difference is that here in SA we face the reality of poverty, crime, injustice and instability and so Christians need to work out how to live for God and neighbor in complex situations. The Australian challenges were different, more Post Christian and Post Modern.

7) Does post-apartheid South Africa face any major challenges within the Church in particular?

Yes. One real issue facing South Africa is Apartheid (again). Recent xenophobic attacks (over 60 foreigners killed, many thousands displaced) have reminded us how close to the surface, deep problems lie. The challenge for the church will be to show SA that there are 3 groups of people in South Africa: Blacks, Whites and Christians.

8) Kenny, later this year you're moving into University-based ministry - what are your hopes and dreams for this ministry?

We're working more and more amongst younger South Africans. We hope to plant a church under the banner of the Church of England in South Africa where students and others will be discipled and equipped to serve and know Jesus wherever they go, beyond there student days. We also hope to see our Uni group called Bible Speaks Today, growing in its influence and numbers on campus here in Port Elizabeth.

9) If our readers (anyone!?) are keen to stop and just now pray for you - what would you love them to be praying for?

Thanks for praying friends - please ask our heavenly father to lead us by his Spirit and Word as we make lots of decisions in the next while, where to plant, how to be church, to provide everything we need. Please thank Him for opening doors for us to bring the Gospel of grace to people in Port Elizabeth, its been a great joy!

So, please do pray for Kenny and his family as they make decisions about how to serve our Lord in Port Elizabeth. He's a wonderful friend and a guy whom I know would be very grateful to God for your prayers.

"To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen." 1 Peter 5:11

Lauryn Hill - Def Poetry Jam - Motives and Thoughts

2008-06-15T00:42:00.001+10:00

I love hiphop and love poetry generally... so this is brilliant. Lauryn Hill's a queen, a poet, an inspiration - and this is a great piece of her poetry which I thought I might share!

Updates from Frame-Poythress.com

2008-06-14T10:14:00.002+10:00

There are three new editions at frame-poythress.org:

A Fresh Look at the Regulative Principle John M. Frame
Review of Peter Enns' Inspiration and Incarnation by John Frame
A Primer on Pers pectivalism (Revised 2008) by John Frame

I've had a read of the Primer on Perspectivalism and I think it's great! In it, Frame discusses knowledge, perspectives on knowledge and the application of perspectivalism to pastoral ministry, ethics, salvation, revelation, and the Trinity! Here's a short little introductory sample:

"God knows absolutely everything, because he planned everything, made everything, and determines what happens in the world he made. So we describe him as omniscient. One interesting implication of God’s omniscience is that he not only knows all the facts about himself and the world; he also knows how everything appears from every possible perspective. If there were a fly on my office wall, my typing would look very different to him from the way it looks to me. But God knows, not only everything about my typing, but also how that typing appears to the fly on the wall. Indeed, because God knows hypothetical situations as well as actualities, God knows exhaustively what a fly in that position would experience—if such a fly were present—even if it is not. God’s knowledge, then, is not only omniscient, but omniperspectival. He knows from his own infinite perspective; but that infinite perspective includes a knowledge of all created perspectives, possible and actual.

But we are different. We are finite, and our knowledge is finite. I can only know the world from the limited perspective of my own body and mind. The effects of this finitude, and even more of sin, should caution us against cocksureness in our claims to knowledge. I am not saying that we should doubt everything. Certainly my limited perspective gives me no excuse to doubt that I have five fingers, or that 2+2 = 4, or that God exists. Our finitude does not imply that all our knowledge is erroneous, or that certainty is impossible. But we do, in most situations, need to guard against mistakes."

Breaking the Chains of Narcissism

2008-06-10T15:56:00.008+10:00

Starting from Dave's post about Self-Harm, I tried to unpack how narcissism has crept into our culture and what it's symptoms are: posts, here and here.

In short, the cultural condition of Narcissism is the preoccupation with the self which distorts one's functional relationship to reality (my definition).

What answer is there to someone who has replaced the Self-Other relationship with a Self-Self relationship? What can take a person away from using the world around them as a mirror? How can we lift people out of the pit which keeps them trapped inside their heads? What hope does the Christian have to offer a world of people who are fast becoming disconnected from reality?

I believe that the Gospel - the good news - of the Lord Jesus Christ is the one and only true place of healing for person who is crying out for truth, beauty and goodness. The greatest weapon against narcissism is reality, and Jesus Christ is the only person who can open eyes to what is REAL. This is the starting point, and really, it is the only starting point. Without the shed blood of Christ, there can be no true and lasting healing.

Now, if the crux of the issue with narcissism is the loss of the Self-Other relationship, I want to suggest three key issues that must accompany our solution:

1) The Reality of God
As Francis Schaeffer used to say, there is an infinite-personal God who is there. The one who is completely other reverses the locus of our attention. This is a radical shift in thought in the sense that it is a return to the personal radix, God. True worship cannot exist in a self-centered cosmos, but a God-centered one.

2) The Reality of Man
There is a clear Creator-Creature distinction between God and man, and this is important. For man is wholly derived from and dependant on God ("in whom we live and move and have our being" Acts 17:28). We are rooted in his existence.

Futher, we are created in his image (Gen 1:27) are thus are meant to reflect Him. Thus, who we are meant to be isn't primarily derived from others around us (nor the advertising industry!) but from God Himself! It is only from the right standpoint outside of ourselves that we can truly find ourselves.

3) The Reality of Community
Since we are intended to image the Trinitarian God who is community, we are intended to live in community. It is only when we are living in community that we can truly be human the way God intended.

Which is why I believe that we need to make concerted efforts to foster community. Our modern, consuming society provides a framework which works against real, other-person-focused community and we need to work against this. In our homes, churches, schools, friendships, workplaces - we need to seriously think through what is required if we are to be in a community where we can "rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn" (Rom 12:15).

We need churches to be places where we can truly show love - not just have great teaching, nor lots of numbers, nor lots of ministries, nor miraculous signs and wonders, nor even hollow community just for community's sake! But Christ-centered, loving family churches.

I could say so much more, and this is a very feeble attempt at an answer. The Prophet Isaiah wrote in the 53rd chapter, that by the wounds which afflicated Jesus Christ - we are healed. This side of heaven, the healing will be impartial, yet substantial. By coming in filthy rags to the foot of Jesus, God says in the 55th chapter of Isaiah that your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

Jesus Christ undertook the least narcissistic of all acts, and gave his Self up for Others. Here's a beautiful prayer from the Book of Common Prayer that you might like to pray:

“Almighty and eternal God, so draw my heart to you,
so guide my mind, so fill my imagination, so control my will,
that I may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated unto you.
And then use me as You want and always to Your glory and the welfare of Your people
through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.”

The Sunday Summary!

2008-06-08T09:31:00.007+10:00

Well, Sunday's here. I love the Christian calendar and find it quite a lovely devotional help. So, for the lectionary-minded, it's the 3rd Sunday after Trinity. Here's the prayer (collect) for this week:

Almighty God,
who hast broken the tyranny of sin
and hast sent the Spirit of thy Son into our hearts,
whereby we call thee Father:
give us grace to dedicate our freedom to thy service,
that the whole world may be brought to the glorious
liberty of the children of God;
through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

In the week past, we remembered and thanked the Lord for Bishop Broughton (first missionary bishop to Australia) and the Anglican martyrs in Uganda (1886). But, that aside, what else can we say to round up the week?

- Archbishops Peter Jensen and Rowan Williamson make the front page of the Good Weekend in the Sydney Morning Herald in a piece entitled The Great Schism. The article isn't online, but is being discussed here and there's a related article here.
- John Frame's new book, The Doctrine of the Christian Life is almost out!
- For some strange reason, we're still concerned with the Presidential election race in the US. But we're not American.... are we?
- Dave Clancey's church is snowed-in. Update: church went ahead, and snowmen was executed afterwards!
- Dave Miers writes a thought provoking article on Self Harm and the Cross.
- The latest Indiana Jones isn't fantastic, but at least it's better than the Temple of Doom.
- The World Press Photo 2008 Exhibition was fantastic! Here's the Benizir Bhutto series, which I found very moving.

Here are some of the interesting ways of searching that people got here:
- seeing in a mirror
- sinner danger zone blogspot
- "l abri" greatham
- "james ka smith"
- postmoderns leithart
- teaching a calvinist to dance
- stalag three
- "n.t. wright"
- cruise the only ones who can help
- mark dever+bondage of guidance
- michael horton nt wright
- n. t. wright
- nt wright
- pow in staglag luft
- www.frame~poythress.com

On Narcissism

2008-06-07T15:32:00.003+10:00

Well, as the Lord's providence would have it, as found an absolute treasure in a Newtown 2nd hand bookstore today! It's a book by Christopher Lasch I've heard good things about entitled: The Culture of Narcissism.

In it, he draws two important distinctions: 1) a distinction between the clinical condition of narcissism and the cultural condition of narcissism, and b) a line of distinction between the all-time human condition of selfishness (which I would root in a condition called sin!), and the modern cultural condition of narcissism.

I really believe that this is a serious problem today, and it's that it's important to read the culture today in order to speak truth to it. So, here we go with a few quotes:

"A denial of the past, superficially progressive and optimistic, proves on closer analysis to embody the despair of a society that cannot face the future." (Preface)

"To live for the moment is the prevailing passion -- to live for yourself, not for your predecessors or posterity." (pg 5)

"'Love' as self-sacrifice or self-abasement, 'meaning' as submission to a higher loyalty - these sublimations strike the therapeutic sensibility as intolerable oppressive, offensive to common sense and injurous to personal health and well-being." (pg13)

"The mass media, with their cult of celebrity and their attempt to surround it with glamour and excitement, have made Americans a nation of fans, moviegoers. The media give substance to and thus intensify narcissistic dreams of fame and glory, encourage the common man to identify himself with the stars and to hate the 'herd', and make it more and more difficult for him to accept the banality of everyday existence." (pg 21)

"Theoretical precision about narcissism is important not only because the idea is so readily susceptible to moralistic inflation but because the practice of equating narcissism with everything selfish and disagreeable militates against historical specificity. Men have always been selfish, groups have always been ethnocentric; nothing is gained by giving these qualities a psychriatic label." (pg 32)

"In a simpler time, advertising merely called attention to the product and extolled its advantages. Now it manufactures a product of its own: the consumer, perpetually unsatisfied, restless, anxious, and bored. Its 'educates' the masses into an unappeasable appetite not only for goods but for new experiences and personal fulfillment. It upholds consumption as the answer to the age-old discontents of loneliness, sickness, weariness, lack of sexual satisfaction; at the same time it creates new forms of discontent peculiar to the modern age. It plays seductively to the malaise of industrial civilization. Is your job boring and meaningless? Is your life empty? Consumption promises to fill the aching void; hence the attempt to surround the commodities with an aura of romance..." (pg 72,73)

"Because the narcissist has so few inner resources, he looks to others to validate his sense of self. He needs to be admired for his beauty, charm, celebrity, or power -- attributes that usually fade with time. Unable to achieve satisfying sublimations in the form of love and work, he finds that he has little to sustain him when youth passes him by." (pg210)

"The best hope of emotional maturity, then, appears to lie in a recognition of our need for and dependence on people who nevertheless remain separate from ourselves and refuse to submit to our whims. It lies in a recognition of others not as projections of our own desires but as independent being with desires of their own. More broadly, it lies in acceptance of our limits." (pg242)

Again, I do want to stress that this is something which Christians should take seriously. Why? Well because we want to share the good news of the one who can restore relation to the ultimate Other, the others around us, the self within, and the other world in which we live. This post is coming!

Youth, Narcissism and Self-Harm

2008-06-04T23:29:00.010+10:00

Dave Miers writes a great article on his blog about Self-Harm. Pointing to an ABC article just released, Dave notes that there has been a 43% increase in the rate of youth hospitalisations due to self-harm in Australia over the last decade.

The two major methods of self-harm are firstly cutting closely followed by poisoning. This is a very sad and distressing thing indeed. From my limited experience with those who have cut themselves it seems like it's a common way of dealing with emotions which are quite difficult.

While lamenting this sad thing, and without wanting to be overly analytical about it, I'm curious as to the causes of this rising trend. I'll write some thoughts about the trend in this post, and I'll write a hopeful Christian response in the next.

In the ABC radio interview from the article, one of the contributing factors was described as a "Growth in individualism and loss of connection" and I think this could be onto something.

I've been thinking for a while about the culture of narcissism in which we live. That is, the preoccupation with the self. I believe that self-harm might be one of the outworkings of our culture of narcissism.

If the Other outside of the Self becomes merely a way to reflect the Self, then the Self-Other relationship becomes a Self-Self relationship. This can be illustrated by the modern loss of history, consumerist society and even total subjectivity in art! Ultimate Truth and Reality are totally self-referential. I'm lost inside myself. Trapped inside the cosmos.

What can make the ghost in the machine come alive? What becomes the criteria for what is real? That which impacts me existentially - the criteria of which is the sensational. The intense.

This can be seen in religion. The sociologist, Hugh Mackay writes in Advance Australia... Where?: "While many people express a yearning for clearer articulation of non-material values without resort to institutional religion, the whole idea of spirituality has acquired new currency. This may be an inevitable reaction to an over-cooked materialism, but it has also arisen from our sustained epidemic of anxiety and an associated desire to find a still point in the midst of swirling uncertainty." Is this any clearer than in the rapid growth of meditation, pagan worship, and experiential religion in western society today?

But now, what about self-harm? What is the link between the forementioned 'loss of connection' and self-harm? Well at that very moment of cutting yourself you cease to be a ghost. The intense experience transcends the self. I do exist in relation to something outside of myself. I do touch reality. I am connected to something out there.

Further, I believe that eating binges bring a similar physical sensation in order to bring the ghost alive. Not only that, but drug trips, bringe drinking, danger sports, eroticism, modern film (think Tarentino!) - all new and frightening heights of experience to feel alive. To bring the ghost alive!

Intense experience is something which I believe our narcissistic culture relies on like a positive reinforcement model to find the Self some point of contact with the Other. To be found inside myself and the cosmos.

There is a hope for reconnection to God, mankind and yourself in reality. The disconnection is in all of us, but there is a hope in the Christian cross. I'll write soon about this place of restoration.

The White Horse Inn and NT Wright

2008-06-04T11:09:00.004+10:00

Michael Horton and friends over at the White Horse Inn and turning this week's focus to NT Wright and the position known as the New Perspective on Paul.

I'm beginning to come to a better understanding of the issues at stake here, so this week at the White Horse is quite timely indeed.

Michael Horton is an excellent theologian from Westminster Theological Seminary and will certainly bring good light to shed on this important topic. I might even post up a few thoughts throughout the week.

Here's the place to check: http://whitehorseinn.org/index.htm

Things that fill the void of 'secular space'

2008-06-03T14:12:00.003+10:00

I simply cannot stand secularism. Nor the neutral, reserved territory that it attempts to carve out for itself. Basically, nothing is neutral and so things always fill the void. Sadly, as highlighted in the UK, pockets of Islam seem to have filled the void and shored themselves up to religious engagement. Here's a sad incident reported yesterday of two Christians who were barred by police from evangelising in a Muslim area:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1023483/You-preach-Bible-Muslim-area.html

And this converges with the front page of the newspaper my family brought home a few days ago from the UK. Bishop Nazir-Ali comments that in the face of secularism, 'instead of resisting this phenomemon, liberal theologians and churchleaders all but capitulated.'

The result? Again, Bishop Nazir-Ali, 'It has created the moral and spiritual vacuum in which we now find ourselves.'

It would seem that now is not the time for timidity. Especially for Australia who walks slowly behind the US and UK. Multiculturalism, 'Australian Value', the Secular State? Do we take these things for granted as good - or see the evil which lurks behind the lie of neutrality?

Clergy Burnout

2008-05-27T23:22:00.002+10:00

There's a good discussion just started on SydAng trying to explore some of the reasons why clergy are burning out in Sydney...

Have a read here: http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/forums/viewthread/3334/#84276

Rev. Tim Foster puts the question like this: "But the issue is, what are the underlying issues here, and what is it about our church culture that sees a dozen guys go in 12 months."

The Local Church and Cultural Transformation?

2008-05-25T13:12:00.004+10:00

From a recent article by John Frame (from http://www.frame-poythress.com/):

"The task of the church is The Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), to make disciples, teaching them “to observe all that I have commanded you.” By God’s grace, we train believers in obedience. That obedience inevitably transforms culture, as it has done now for nearly 2000 years. Christians have made huge contributions to learning, the arts and literature, the treatment of women, the abolition of anti-biblical slavery, the care of the poor, the sick, the widows and orphans. Sin, of course, has impeded our mission; but the grace of God working through his people has accomplished amazing things.

Now some have argued that cultural transformation is the work of Christian individuals, but not of the local church. They argue that the latter should be limited to the area of the “spiritual,” the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments. But the spiritual/secular distinction is not biblical. The gospel as proclaimed by John (Matt. 3:2), Jesus (Matt. 4:17), Philip (Acts 8:12), and Paul (Acts 19:8, 20:25, 28:23, 28:31) announces the coming of the kingdom of God, a new order of righteousness, peace, and joy (Rom. 14:17). In the kingdom, we do all things (not just “spiritual”) to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31), all things in the name of the Lord Jesus (Col. 3:17). It is plain that care for the poor, orphans, and widows is part of that.

Is a failing school system, then, for example, the responsibility of the local church? Education is part of our kingdom responsibility (Deut. 6:6-9, Tit. 2:12), part of the gospel of the kingdom. This may mean encouraging believers to educate their children at home, or in Christian schools. It may mean advocating a new commitment to excellence in the public schools. It is better that schools not be administered directly by the church: that is not necessary and it can be a distraction. But where there is no alternative, yes, the church may start a school, bringing to its children (and even to children of non-Christian parents) the riches of human knowledge within a kingdom-centered worldview. There are legitimate questions as to how best to handle such matters in different localities. But the question is not, whether the church has a responsibility, but how should it undertake that responsibility. The gospel of the kingdom is comprehensive—good news for every aspect of human life."

Teaching a Calvinist to Dance!

2008-05-23T22:26:00.003+10:00

Here's a thought-provoking article from a guy who I quite like to read, James K. A. Smith. In it, he affirms the goodness of embodiment, something which I'm quite keen on. Viewing the Christian person as a whole person who is saved. Breaking down those sneaky platonic dualisms between body and soul, by remembering the goodness of creation and it's implications. This is where Smith's pentecostal views (mind you, Smith uses the terms charismatic and pentecostal interchangably to refer to the pentecostal 'flavour', rather than any official position -b/g on the article here) meet the Reformed position.

I found this article something which raises questions, affirms important things such as the goodness of embodiment, and challenges me generally to think about how I think about practise within a church gathering. I'd be keen to hear what you make of it!

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/may/25.42.html?start=1

Are Meerkats Altruistic?

2008-05-21T18:52:00.002+10:00

These little critters are my favourite animals. They're quite amazing creatures.

So when I saw an article on HowStuffWorks.com entitled "Are Meerkats Altruistic?" I thought I might share it with the world.

Just a snippet:

"For centuries, there's been a debate over whether true altruism exists among humans. In philosophical terms, an altruistic act is one that a person performs for the benefit of others, but to his or her own detriment. Eighteenth-century Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant suggested that there's no such thing as altruism -- in every instance, the giver gets something in return for his or her generosity. This benefit can be as small as a sense of well-being for having helped someone else....

Meerkats have one of the most cooperative societies in the animal kingdom. These African desert dwellers are perfect subjects for an investigation into altruism...."

Here's the whole article: http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/meerkats-helpers.htm

For your enjoyment, here's a great video link to these fantastic critters!http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1213900614/bctid1379245042

I think they're altruistic!

Some amusing pics....

2008-05-17T23:17:00.007+10:00

I came across this site the other day which has a whole bunch of funny takes on the current buzzwords getting around the traps. Thought you might enjoy some. Whilst I DO like these words in certain uses, I did quite enjoy the tongue-in-cheek satire :)