Echoes in Eternity

I noticed that Obama is calling for a longer school year. Yes, because we want to hand our kids over to the brainwashing control of the State for even more time than it already has... right. It's no surprise that a nanny state enthusiast like Obama would pose a solution that involves more government intrusion in the lives of Americans. His mind is so twisted in that direction that he cannot consider other much more viable options. Like privatizing the entire educational system... GASP! I think some teacher's union lobbyist just fell over dead. I promise you, free market forces would dramatically overhaul all of the waste and intellectual degradation that has occurred on the State's watch over the last few decades. That would probably be one of the best (and most important) things this country could do for its future.

This is a great post on Zeal for Truth.

But ultimately, if believers simply went back to their bibles, they’d see that there is nothing “middle class” about Christianity. At all. It is radical in both belief and lifestyle. I don’t want to write or read that – because it is really challenging, and flies in the face of my own love for possessions and idols. Yet this is what my bible says. God is not seeking to make me more like like those in the world – he desire me to be more like his Son.

Doug Wilson has some great comments about Glenn Beck in the video below.

Greg Boyd, he of Open Theism fame, wrote a blog post yesterday which gives a hint to where his doctrine is leading him. And it ain't pretty. When someone slips into serious theological error, it seems like it isn't long before that error is merely the tip of the iceberg. I wouldn't be surprised if I heard Boyd preaching some deep heresy within the next five years, if he is so unable to discern the difference between good teaching and spiritual death now. May God pull him from that path.

This is an interesting piece in the Weekly Standard on the growing "childfree" trend among liberals (particularly those in the upper class). It seems all a bit drastic and peculiar, yet I know many people with larger families (like more than 3 kids!) who routinely face disdain and verbal attacks from other people in their communities. The white liberal intelligentsia may think up these ideas, but they eventually (and more quickly than you might imagine) trickle down into the minds of the masses. And you wonder why they love abortion so much. Just one more thing (along with the ENTIRE environmentalism movement) for Christians to speak truth into.

John 9:39-41

The above passage is the helpful line in determining how to deal with someone speaking false teaching. Does the person claim to "see" (profess Christ) or is he blind to Christ? In the case of the former, if he is unwilling to repent after being reproofed, you throw him out of your community of believers and avoid him. If the latter, you lovingly correct him and try to bring him to the Lord and INTO your community. A correct understanding of these verses could be quite useful to those who would like to burn a bunch of Korans.

I doubt it. But I was thinking recently about how Jesus conducted himself in His time on Earth and how He often tried to keep His identity a secret. For example, in John 2, we are told that at the Cana wedding, Jesus was reticent to let people know of His miracle-working power. And several times He told those He healed not to tell anyone. And elsewhere He appears to work very hard at avoiding Jerusalem until the right time. Yet throughout the Gospels, Jesus also consistently talks about everything going according to God's plan and timing. So if God is completely sovereign, why is Jesus worried that He might get arrested or killed too early?

I wonder if there is a lesson here for those of us who might drift into determinism, the idea that nothing we do is really under our control or that it doesn't matter since God's will always wins out. If Jesus, who knew better than anyone that God's will cannot be thwarted, could worry about events going contrary to plan, perhaps that speaks to the importance of and paradox involved in human free will. Ultimately, God IS in control and IS sovereign, but as agents of His working, it is still important that we act wisely and as if everything hinges on what we do or say. Sure, that idea doesn't fit well in any particular doctrinal camp, but maybe sometimes it's best to just affirm what the Bible says and leave the theological distinctions to others. In this case, the Bible says God is in control and is sovereign down to the storm on the seas, the beat of a bird's wing, and the hair on our head. But it also tells us that our actions matter and that even Jesus lived like they did.

Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl’d;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

Dalrymple has a thoughtful piece on the nature of evil and how modernity has been unable to shake its presence.

It strikes me as a tad bit inconsistent for Obama to spend his first two years claiming that we're not in a war against Islamic terror and generally avoiding any mention of said "war on terror," but then turn around and plead that a pastor not burn the Koran because it might endanger Americans. If he is right that we are not fighting a war on Islamic terror, then what are we supposedly afraid of?

"If he's listening, I hope he understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans," Obama said. "That this country has been built on the notion of freedom and religious tolerance."

Actually, the pastor is doing something completely IN LINE with the "American" value of freedom... in fact, he's putting it into practice. Thus, Obama's appeal to the ambiguous notion of some secular American value system is empty. The real reason the pastor shouldn't burn the Koran is it does nothing to further the Gospel or build bridges to Muslims.