Life!

It’s alright, I’m still alive. Sorry for the three week absence. It’s a combination of having too much to do, being lazy and loving procrastination. So, how shall I get back into it? There is so much out there that is so rich. There are deep theological mysteries out there in the midst of a world falling apart and my cat was giving birth this morning. The well is deep. - Obviously, I’m going to write about my cat.

Now Autumn is a Flame Point Himalayan. Further, she is a Baby Face Flame Point Himalayan - sans pug face - or whatever the official name is for such a face. We mated her two months ago with a beast named Cinnamon Bear. Now you can’t possibly be more handsome that someone named Cinnamon Bear, right? Anyway, Autumn kept the tradition of the family alive in that she gave birth between the hours of 12 midnight and 6:00 a. m. Why be civilized? All day yesterday she was acting “funny”. We knew that she was ready, and so at 1:30 this a.m. she started having the first of five. Whatta gal! Her first time, and she knew exactly what to do.

Even though she was surprised by the first one, from that point on she knew to lick the membrane off of each baby, eat the after-birth, let them nurse, etc. etc. We were worried before this when we observed that for approximately 24 hrs she stopped eating. I now wonder if that was not God’s way of preparing her to eat all of that “stuff” that is so nourishing for her and for her kittens. Folks, the planet can’t evolve this instinct into an animal. This kind of “instinct” has got to be programmed into the genes. This is divine information. God blessed our family with LIFE this morning.

Thank God for life, and thank God for restored life.

Christianized or Rescued?

I will start teaching a class on The Eschatology of the Bible in the Light of Current Events soon. So, I thought that I would dust off an old book that was a classic on the subject several years ago, namely, Contemporary Options in Eschatology by Millard J. Erickson (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994). I don’t think that it is still being published. In his section on “Background Views” he states this:

The kingdom that Jesus brought is different in nature from anything that preceded it. In this sense it had come once and for all. Its nature would not change with passing time. Its growth was one of degree, not kind. As man extended the kingdom to yet more and more areas of society, he would progressively Christianize society. This belief and hope were vividly illustrated in 1908 when a new religious journal was named the Christian Century. Behind this name lay the belief that the twentieth century would be the Christian century. The kingdom of God was here, or it would be shortly. It would be introduced progressively through the efforts of Christians, not through a cataclysmic event such as the second coming of Christ. The nature of the kingdom now is no different from what it will be at any time in the future. Some who hold this view of the kingdom emphasized God’s role in its achievement; others emphasized the role of human institutions and programs. (p. 5 - my emphasis)

I thought - while pondering this tension between the thought that we will Christianize our world culture by the sincere efforts of our community and the polar opposite thought that that same Christian community of ours will, instead, be in need of a cosmic rescuing - that this eschatological choice demands a far more sobering reflection than the majority of our community is currently engaged in. Our eschatological position should not be lightly formed. This should not be an academic exercise only. What if the current world community is gravitating towards an anti-Christian and godless mindset? It seems to me that the preponderance of vigor in the world community is thrusting towards violence and suppression of the Christian community, certainly not in a Christian-like healing of the world condition. I know that commitments to Christ are robust throughout the world. However, such revivals do not seem to be healing the nations and certainly are not turning the information flow of the secular community around from a worldly propaganda towards any kind of Christian light. If it turns out that we will be in need of “a second coming of Christ”, then two questions arise:

Will our faith withstand the events leading up to that coming, and does a “Christianizing” belief system tend to blunt preparedness for just such a series of events? It’s not a small matter is it? I will probably blog much concerning such matters in the future.

No Transitional Forms

Just in case that you were wondering, - I’m back - I haven’t evaporated away to somewhere unknown. Got back from my trip with the boys. We went fossil hunting near Delta, Utah (50 miles northwest - not too near, I guess). It was great fellowship, and we did find fossils, namely, trilobites. Creationists rightfully make a big deal that the fossil record gives no tangible evidence of transitional forms. Always when fossils are found, they are fully formed as a species. I was surprised at how struck I was at that fact when I first looked at those little fellows. These animals were fully formed, and in all of their intricacies and functional complexities were demanding intellectual reflection. The empirical data is on our side folks.

Along these lines, I was made aware of William Dembski’s new book Understanding Intelligent Design (Sean McDowell coauthor, Eugene: Harvest House) and was more than peaked in my interest when I learned that it was designed with the youth in mind. I have been wanting to probe in this area for more than two years now, but felt inadequate to the task. We need to be proactive in this area, and need to be methodical with our information. Our youth need to be armed. I’ll get back to you when I finish the book.

It was good to be in Utah; It’s good to be back. Let’s go to war.

The Dinosaur Next Door

The above named document was published in the current edition of Acts and Facts (Institute For Creation Research, June 2008, p. 13). This month’s edition was one of their better publications. If you are interested in the assault by Darwinian evolutionists against those in our community who are attempting to make a reasonable and scientific apologetic for Creationism/Intelligent Design, then please read this article. Go here if you wish to sign up for the monthly publication and if you wish to get involved in any way with the subject matter (www.icr.org). They will in no way insult your intelligence. These are world-class scientists who are unapologetic about their faith in the God of Genesis and in His having created all things ex nihilo. As I have alluded to before, the fossil record, when scientifically examined, is on our side.

While you are at it, you might consider ordering a book that I have mentioned before, namely: Evolution: the Fossils Still Say No! by Duane T. Gish (Institute for Creation Research. El Cajon, 2006). ICR offers this book. The back cover says it all: “…Evolutionists may invent ‘just-so’ stories, but they have been completely unsuccessful at showing any scientific evidence for macro-evolution, in the all-important fossil record. This book demonstrates that fact compellingly!” (bold added)

Again, if you are at all animated by the seriousness of the subject matter, read Never Stop Questioning (Beth Mull) in the current publication two or three times (pp. 4-5). The author has “hit the nail on the head”.

Am leaving Friday for Utah with my two grandsons to do some fossil hunting. Hope to have great fellowship and demonstrate that it was the Genesis Flood that laid down all of these (millions and millions of) fossils. Who knows when I will be back?

He's Lost It?

Was going to comment on the futility of the current Egyptian brokered "ceasefire" between Hamas and Israel. I thought that I would expose the Hamas Charter and their declared intention to destroy their newly found partner in the ceasing of fire; thought that I would muse about how many Chrisitans would applaud this sham and while I was at it would muse concerning how many Christians were applauding California's legalizing of homosexual marriages. Changed my mind. Let me ask a simple question, fold tent, and just drop the subject. To some this will appear as a feeble attempt to sober our Christian community; to others it will appear arrogant and to others just plain stupid. Nonetheless, here it comes?

To those of us who proclaim the great name of Christ, do we understand that that proclamation makes us all candidates to apostasy? (I Thes. 5:1-6)

And So With All Of Us

I’ll attempt to keep this one brief since I’ll need to get ready for church soon. As I arose and sat down to read a little this a. m. a thought (one that has vexed many people throughout recent history) surfaced within me and I thought that I would attempt to draw out from within me some kind of a conclusion. The book is “The Coming of the Third Reich” by Richard J. Evans (Penguin Press, 2005). When commenting that “I want to draw something out from within me”, I certainly did not want to appear dramatic. I simply am not sure as to what is going to be concluded. So let us just “bang on the keys” and see what comes out on the other end.

The vexation, of course, surfaces whenever one contemplates just who it was that perpetrated those awful atrocities appended to the history of the Second World War. This is Germany; the land of Goethe, Lessing, Schiller, Beethoven, etc. etc. This is “the land of poets and thinkers” the most cultured country in all of the world - as many have said in commenting on the subject matter. How in the world can such a cultured and educated people do such things? My thought while reading the book this morning surfaced this silent utterance: “But of course they did these things; we are sinful Man. Under similar conditions we all would have done the same”! Now I promised to keep this brief, so I’ll not support with details the culture thing.

The Hebrew People let God down. Had He gone to some place near Tuscany ca. 2000 BC and drawn out some guy named Luigi and formed a people from this guy, we Italians would have let God down; And so with all the peoples of the world. We would all commit atrocities under similar conditions. We are all slaves to our collective sinful natures. In the year 2008, in the midst of the exponential and information age, what atrocities await us – atrocities that we will all participate in? The implications lead us to the conditions uttered by the Lord as found in Matthew 24-25 and particularly by Luke 21. We will betray one another with all of the implications that that awful scenario requires.

But wait, you might say. We are Christians. We do not do such things. Exactly! We are Christians, we do not do such things! We are a “called-out” people. So what “thought from within me” shall I conclude? Perhaps it is this. As we attempt to heal the world in the name of Christ, and the world does not want to be healed, and turns and rends us, will we still be Christians? Will we keep the faith? The thought is this: Christ is in the process of calling us out just as He did Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans. Where is our heart, what is our ethos, where are our treasures? Are our affections and treasures still in Chaldea? We are living in 1933 beloved. There is a wave of evil with tsunami like conditions about to engulf us. The world does not want to be healed by Christ. Only a hungry, Abrahamic-like nature, one that yearns for truth will resist just such a temptation. The wave that currently drives much of the Christian community today may be the 21st century edition of the Third Reich in 1930s Germany. Let’s be careful here and terribly sobered by our current world condition - please!

OK, I lied. Not brief and more than one thought. Have patience with me. Believe me, I will pursue this subject much more in the future.

Blood-Bought?

OK, we’ve been bought. So what does that mean? Peter in addressing those of the faith had this to say about false prophets and teachers:

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. (2 Pet. 2:1-3)

I won’t go into the implied eschatology of this passage although I believe that false teaching has been robust throughout the history of the man-made edifice known as the church, and further that the conditions alluded to by the Apostle will be especially robust as we approach the close of the age. Rather, let us simply become somewhat sobered by just such a scenario. I was more than a little sobered as I read this passage recently. My thoughts particularly centered on that phrase that claimed that these false teachers will be “even denying the Master who bought them”.

The KJV uses the word Lord, whereas the NASB discriminates a little by using the word Master. I believe that the NASB is the more accurate. The Greek word here is not the usual word for Lord, that being kurios, rather it is the Greek word despotes wherein we get the English word despot. W. E. Vine explains by defining kurios as “a lord who exercises power”. Christ is certainly that. He goes on to define despotes as “one who has absolute ownership and uncontrolled power” over his slave. (Vine, III, 46) Some lexicons add “slave owner” to that definition.

Simon Kristemaker words it thus:

To Jesus has been given all authority and power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). In the Greek, the word is despotes, from which we have the derivative despot. It is closely connected with the verb to buy. In the New Testament, this Greek verb occurs twenty-five times in a commercial setting, “but on five other occasions it describes the ‘buying’ of Christians. This clearly reflects the contemporary terminology of the slave-market.” With his blood Christ has bought his people that they may do his will…Just as a master has bought slaves from whom he expects obedience, so Jesus as sovereign Lord has bought his servants and demands obedience. (New Testament Commentary: Peter & Jude, Grand Rapids: Baker 1993, p. 282)

Do you get the impression that most Christians think of Christ in these terms? I promise you that false teachers who are tending toward heresies and leading others astray don’t think of Him in this way. Does it offend you that you have been bought? Does it offend you that the One who bought you lays claim to be a despot in your life? I hope not. Either we have been “bought with a price”, or we have not. If not, then, we are bastards and not adopted children.

I fear that there are many pseudodidaskaloi (false teachers) out there right now doing exactly what the Apostle warned (is warning) us about, and that there are many who are right now following their sensuality. This is serious. Yes, we have been bought by a Despot, but One who is all-loving, all-compassionate, all-powerful and is soon to return in power. What sort of a servant (slave) ought we to be? We have been blood-bought. Thank God!!!