1. On a British comedy T.V. program in 2004, Jonathan Ross stated that a Muslim extremist suicide bomber was expecting to be taken to heaven where he would be rewarded with 72 virgins. Instead he was given a 72 year old virgin.
Everlasting hell for radical Muslims?
Soccer dives to the piece from Platoon. Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings
2. John Calvin in my view held to a concept of free will similar to my own, and he has influenced my theology. He wrote in 1543 in The Bondage and Liberation of the Will.
If freedom is opposed to coercion, I both acknowledge and consistently maintain that choice is free and I hold anyone who thinks otherwise to be a heretic. If, I say, it were called free in this sense of not being coerced nor forcibly moved by an external impulse, but moving of its own accord, I have no objection. Calvin (1543)(1996: 68).
Salvation is not done by force or coercion, but through the use of soft determinism/compatibilism as human beings are chosen, regenerated and changed to a belief in Christ through the Holy Spirit.
3. Thoughts
Honk if you love peace and quiet. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm. Always try to be modest, and be proud of it! Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.
I realize the original Scriptural autographs are missing, and it is not my place here to discuss Greek manuscripts, but there is a consistency in manuscript evidence which can be found, and within the Scriptural message there is philosophical consistency.
Something which is eternal according to Simon Blackburn is not moving, and is beyond time, whereas something everlasting is running within time. Blackburn (1996: 126).
According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, the same Greek word can be defined in English as either eternal or everlasting. The Greek word aíwvios (aionios) is explained as meaning perpetual, used of past time or past and future as well, eternal, for ever, and everlasting. Strong (1986: 8). Strong provides only one word for eternal or everlasting from the New Testament.
6. Twelve Pack
I am so muscular, that I have a twelve pack. (satire and theology)
7. My friend Bobby Buff announces that he has retired from body-building (i.e. ignoring his friends). He participated in two local natural competitions.
Natural, not naturist.
The body-building world mourns... (satire and theology)
8. How to build a religious empire with the use of cultic manipulation and false doctrine.
9. The joy of Russian scammer virtual 'love' from Yana. We had not met, and did not meet. She would send me scripted letters.
'hi My love.I did not receive your letter. I very strongly worry. Whether all at you is good. You were not ill. I suffer for you. I ask you calm of me, write to me the letter. Now it so is necessary for me your letter. I strongly love you also I wait from you for the letter. Always yours Yana.'
She also sent me this...or rather sent Mark this:
'mark.Today on April, 1 day of jokes and laughter.Today I would like to congratulate you on this holiday.Tell and you mark this holiday at you in the country and as you do it to me it would be very interesting to know.I hope to hear more detailed story about it in the following letter.'
Sorry, Yana, I will never give you cash for your written rehash.
10. Sceptic James Randi is not a Christian, but it is still interesting how he debunks Popoff.
Although these healing ministries appear fraudulent, they still preach some type of gospel message. Philippians mentions in 1:17-19 that some preach Christ out of selfish ambition, and not from pure motives, but Paul rejoices that Christ is still being proclaimed.
Jesus and the Apostles did not attempt to perform phony healings for selected people, but from Scriptural evidence were empowered by God. I believe that God can empower someone to perform a healing, but so often I think certain people want to make supernatural things happen and for this reason I think scepticism is healthy in regard to healing and miracles.
BLACKBURN, SIMON (1996) Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
CALVIN, JOHN (1543)(1996) The Bondage and Liberation of the Will, Translated by G.I. Davies, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.
STRONG, JAMES (1986) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Pickering, Ontario, Welch Publishing Company.
Notice how Canada is more peaceful than America. At least according to the cited site.
Sure I would like to live in a more ideal world without the military. In that regard I can relate to my Mennonite friends (I attended a Mennonite Bible School for my BA). But, I am thankful that the military spending of the United States and the United Kingdom, for now anyway, contributes to my personal freedom to state my mind relatively freely on Blogger and Facebook.
2. Some philosophical theology from a guy that tries to do it.
Got questions.org summarizes their work using writings from incompatibilist Norman Geisler and compatibilist James White.
'Infralapsarianism puts God’s decrees in the following order: (1) God decreed the creation of mankind, (2) God decreed mankind would be allowed to fall into sin through its own self-determination, (3) God decreed to save some of the fallen, and (4) God decreed to provide Jesus Christ as the Redeemer. Infralapsarianism focuses on God allowing the fall and providing salvation.
Sublapsarianism is very similar to infralapsarianism, putting God’s decrees in the following order: (1) God decreed to create human beings, (2) God decreed to permit the fall, (3) God decreed to provide salvation sufficient to all, and (4) God decreed to choose some to receive this salvation. The only difference between infralapsarianism and sublapsarianism is whether God decreed to provide salvation through Jesus Christ and then decreed to choose some to be saved, or vice-versa.
Supralapsarianism puts God’s decrees in the following order: (1) God decreed the election of some and the eternal condemnation of others, (2) God decreed to create those elected and eternally condemned, (3) God decreed to permit the fall, and (4) God decreed to provide salvation for the elect through Jesus Christ. Supralapsarianism focuses on God ordaining the fall, creating certain people for the sole purpose of being condemned, and then providing salvation for only those whom He had elected.'
Unlike the website, I would theologically lean more toward the concepts of supralapsarianism, BUT, I have serious problems with putting God's eternal decrees within time.
I stated in the comments of the Thoughts and Theology blog of Jeff Jenkins in links:
Yes in a timeless state, and not in any type of linear time where there would be the problem of vicious regress as in if God always had an eternal relationship in time past God would never arrive at the present. There is a similar problem faced by those that postulate that the universe and time is eternal and by those that reason there is a eternal regression of gods, as in a god causes a god and there is no first god, or a choice causes a choice with there never being a first choice and nature as cause.
God simply is and is simply relational.
God did not have to reason out in time in eternity what to do but simply knew as a relational infinite being.
I do not pretend to completely comprehend it but too many evangelicals fall into the trap of putting God in a vicious regress.
As well, when I read of God's decrees in Calvinism, one must be careful not to state that in eternity God decreed one thing in time before another. No, God willed all things as God in eternity, as he is, they did not take place in the mind of God in time, although he can will that they take place in time in our reality.
Anyone willing to take a class from me here while sitting on the grass?
I do support strong security measures in airports.
Now, my Mom can really relate to this one.
With our last trip to AZ (also via NV, UT) one pilot from Dallas in the cue just shook is head as the security people literally had to hold Mom up to perform the checks on her. He stated to me along the lines that it was ridiculous to put her through that procedure. Well stated.
'Of course' theologically I have been told off online:
From my post: Rough Notes on the Incarnation, thekingpin68, Dec 2005.
An apparently rather angry gay activist type from California states in comments out of the blue:
'what an absolute perfect blog of spiritual self indulgence... I have NEVER read so much INTELLECTUAL TWADDLE in my LIFE [ and i have beem around a LONG time. whew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you are TRULY a legend in your own mind!!!!!! thanks for sharing.'
I answered:
Please feel free to critique what I am saying on the blog. You have made assertions without arguing against anything that I said.
End quote.
I must state I am very glad he messaged me on my Blogger blog and not on a Christian dating site...
I do live in the Vancouver area, you know.
Some like to challenge me away from the blogs and my supporters by email.
Yea, that will help you...
Yes, I know I have much to learn.
I have been called a knee-jerk Christian for calling a practitioner of Eastern Religion with a guru, a person that follows an Eastern Religion. Yes, I was way off there.
A few people, including a LDS blogger have attempted to take me on concerning Biblical Christianity. I spent two hours on a nice academic reply to a letter which contained some personal attacks against me and the man simply avoided answering my research and evidence and changed the subject in the next email and goes on to more ad hominem attacks.
Apparently he had gone at Rick B. previously and even scrappin' Rick wanted to get away from this guy. Rick stated I should get rid of the guy and I heartily agreed.
The Charles Manson of blogging, perhaps? Helter Skelter.
Okay, I get it, you like Mormon theology and not Biblical theology, but so what? You cannot back it up.
Bye Bye, Mr. Church of Jesus Christ blocked on my ladder day Outlook Express application.
On Christian Cafe a few years ago while I was in Manchester a young woman told me that I should take the Alpha course because it taught that it was okay to have premarital sex. She figured a relationship was no good without it.
I stated that she needed to study her Bible more and that I doubted very much that the Alpha course taught what she was stating.
Is there a liberal Christian version called the Omega course?
I have since dumped Christian Cafe.
Okay, beware when someone via the Are You Interested? application on Facebook, does not want to be a Facebook friend and instead wants to be Yahoo Messenger chat buddies. Now, I saw this women's Facebook profile photos after we were Yahoo Messenger contacts. She claimed to be American but lived in the UK. Our Messenger discussions were pretty limited but she did not come across as an outright scammer at first. Once I saw her Facebook photos, she looked like a model, but the wrong type of model. Red flag.
So, I deleted her off of Yahoo Messenger. So, then once and awhile over the next few months she kept messaging me as she could still see my Yahoo profile but I could not see her. I do have the concept that I should be a good witness and so I chatted with her the other day when she messaged, and she told me that she was a Christian and looking for a Christian man, blah, blah, blah. It actually was not a bad chat. So after the chat, I went and dug up her Facebook profile and saw the 'iffy' photos and in reply to her sent a somewhat sarcastic email stating that as a theologian I was looking for a good Christian chat with her.
Well, the sarcasm was lost on her, (perhaps English is a second language?) and she sent me the photos by email with some additional topless ones. Now, I emailed her back and stated that it was inappropriate and wrong for Christians to be involved in such activity and that she did not have to be nude (partially nude) to interest in me when in fact, as she knew, I was looking for godly Christian women to meet as friends presently in my situation. I mentioned Matthew 5 to her concerning looking at a woman with lust and therefore having already committed adultery/sin. She stated that she had not sent the photos to interest me but sent them just because they were hers.
I was thinking...scammer. Well, she stated she is a serious Christian and would take my advice and pull revealing photos from her Facebook profile.
I just checked her profile and she has not changed her photos...shocking.
I have 'of course' been contacted for years by web cam divas and scammers from Eastern Europe, Russia and Africa and recently a tall blonde from Atlanta that really gave a good conservation for awhile claiming to be a devout Christian and then went into a bunch of scammer script about me being the one which continued in emails and Yahoo Messenger quips.
Now do they really think that with my education I am just going to go for some 'babe' that pretends to slobber all over me online. Come on!
Clue: An honest, intellectual discussion with an open mind is more attractive than a stunning photo.
Bye Bye, bimbo (or at least you are acting like one).
I suppose this is a bit off topic, but in a sense is also bizarre. Baptist historical and sociological theologian Albert Mohler has previously on his radio show mentioned the persecution and plight of Baptists and Baptist homeschoolers in Germany. Thomas Landen in The Brussels Journal: The Voice of Conservatism in Europe mentions how the Baptists are persecuted in ways that Muslims are not.
I will be transparent here, I do have Reformed Baptist theological leanings and was educated at Canadian Baptist Seminary at Trinity Western University.
To quote some of the article:
In Germany It Is Better to Be a Muslim than a Baptist
'The Federal Republic of Germany is a democracy. It is no fun, however, to be a Baptist in Germany. For the past two decades, the German authorities have been clamping down on Baptists who want to raise their children in accordance with their own religious principles. In Germany, the state rather than the parents is considered to be primarily responsible for the well-being of children. Hence, the draconic measures taken against Baptists. When, however, it comes to meeting the demands of Muslim the German state is far more lenient.'
In my mind, Biblically from overall context parents have the mandate to guide children. The state is to be obeyed in the context of law and order (Romans 13).
The state is grossly overstepping its mandate in attempting to control the lives of children via the education process. This strikes me as cultural elitism and snobbery.
'In 1938, Germany outlawed homeschooling. The ban is one of the few bills introduced by Adolf Hitler that is still on the books in Germany today. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, hundreds of ethnic German families from Southern Russia and Kazakhstan emigrated to Germany. Many of them were Baptists who had been fiercely persecuted in the Soviet Union for their religious beliefs.'
Hmm, a totalitarian government outlaws homeschooling. I wonder what they were afraid of. Perhaps people that were actually educated enough to challenge what the state was teaching them?
'Following their arrival in the West, the Baptists soon became unhappy with what their children were learning in the secular German public schools.'
Perhaps they wanted their children not only to understand secular thinking but also a Christian worldview as well.
'They decided to homeschool their children. This move led to fierce repression by the German authorities who took the parents to court on charges of “Hochverrat und Volksverhetzung” (high treason and incitement of the people against the authorities). Some parents were imprisoned, some were robbed of their parental authority, some had their children taken away from them.'
High treason? No highly ridiculous.
'On 11 August, Germany’s Supreme Court ruled that “the religious conviction of a minority” is subordinated to “a contradictory tradition of a differently inclined majority,” even when the latter tradition is incompatible with the religious principles of the minority.'
That ruling really curbs religious rights.
'The Court stated that the right of religious freedom of the parents does not take precedence over article 7, par. 1 of the German Constitution which explicitly states that “The entire education system is under the supervision of the state.”'
'The relentlessness with which the German authorities consistently clamp down on Baptists who want to raise their children according to their own Christian beliefs, contrasts strongly with the leniency of the same authorities towards Muslims.'
'The difference in treatment of the so-called fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Muslims by the German secular school authorities and courts gives rise to the suspicion that in contemporary Europe some religious minorities are “more equal” than others. While Christians are prosecuted and fined, Muslims are appeased.'
I am shocked. No, not really.
'The answer to this question is probably “No.” Baptists are a peaceful minority, who want to be left alone and live according to their own values without trying to impose these values on others. Muslim fundamentalists are aggressive and demand that everyone live according to their values. Saying “No” to Baptist demands is not a security risk for a school; saying “No” to Muslim demands is.'
Yes, pick on someone that will not likely beat you back.
'Meanwhile, despite the Baptists’ hatred of German schools, Baptist violence against German school authorities is a non-existing phenomenon. Perhaps this explains why Baptists are bullied, prosecuted and fined by the German authorities, while the same authorities grovel to Muslims with ludicrous demands such as burqini swimsuits.'
Seems to me although I am not a religious right supporter in general terms, that in Germany and in Europe at least, Christians should be politically united and state that Germany has gone too far on this issue.
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