Wonderfully Wasteful

This article is an awesome telling of God's "lack of discernment." Enjoy:

Solar Frolic

The Coming Idiocy

The following is from a facebook site set against gay marriage. This was a comment posted on one of the site's discussion groups. I will not give the person's name, but they are a highschooler (which probably explains alot).

Read carefully:

"I, though, am not here to disprove the Bible's stance. I'm here to disprove the Bible.
It was not. based. on. historical. fact. I cannot stress this enough. It is no more based on historical fact than The Chronicles of Narnia. Granted, the Bible may contain some worthwhile moral lessons, teachings, and parables, many of which have concrete applications to our modern lifestyle.
However, most of it is 2000-year-old superstition that has no place in this century. The Bible, which was written approximately 80 years after the death of Christ, and not by any of his apostles or their relatives, has not only been extremely diluted from its ORIGINAL incorrect message, is not a book to base your life on.
God has not presented himself to anybody here, I am willing to fairly say. (If you have seen God, please submit yourself to the nearest hospital for medical care. You very well may be insane.) They have accepted his book based on faith and practice, nothing more. If you were not raised Christian, I'd bet fairly that you would not be today. (If you converted, it makes you that much stronger. You are still incorrect, though.)
You have accepted God and the Bible based on faith. (I.E. blind trust.) Not perception, reason, rational thought, or fact.
I surely cannot disprove God. But you cannot disprove invisible unicorns, or dragons living on other planets, or flying spaghetti monsters that have divine power. Yet I worship none of these things."

Thus is the next generation. Thus is The Coming Idiocy, i.e., the legitimizing of Dorothy Sayers' criticisms in her essay "The Dogma is the Drama". I'm sure anyone with a knucklehead's understanding of history or theology could blow this kid to pieces. That, however, is the problem. Christianity has so terribly dropped the ball of apologetics and basic teachings of dogma over the last century that the common man can now sound like a fool and get away with it. Shame on us, the salt and light of the world, for allowing foolishness to pass so far as wisdom. Shame on us all.

The person who posted this coment is part of the next generation, folks. Maybe they're not of the majority...maybe. But they're there, and the idiocy is coming. We must stand against it where'er its floods try to rise.

A Eulogy for Jerry Falwell

Say what you want to about the man (he could put his foot in his mouth on occasion), but it would be most evil of us if we stayed under any delusions about his character and what he stood for. This article will help bring out the man behind the media driven myth.

A Bit of Wisdom from Mr. Chambers

This can be found in Oswald Chamber's book The Highest Good. One could say this is his take on "chronological snobbery." Enjoy:

The reason we do not see the need to be born from above is that we have a vast capacity for ignoring facts. People talk about the evolution of the race. The writers of today seem to be incapable of a profound understanding of history; they write glibly about the way the race is developing; where are their eyes and their reading of human life as it is? We are not evolving and developing in any sense to justify what is known as evolution. We have developed in certain domains but not in all. We are nowhere near the massive, profound intellectual grasp of the people who lived before Christ was born. What brain today can come near Plato or Socrates? And yet people say we are developing and getting better, and we are laying the flattering unction to our souls that we have left Jesus Christ and His ideas twenty centuries behind. No wonder Jesus said that if we stand by Him and take His point of view, people will hate us as they hated Him.

Will the Real Gospel Please Stand Up?

Last Sunday, my Sunday School teacher (that's right, Sunday School...it's not a curse word, people) gave a simple yet very important (I believe) message about the gospel. The message basically was about setting the record straight in regards to what the good news really is. Going through The Roman's Road, he revealed four simple yet key components that make the gospel what it is. What he was implying, and what I am now saying, is that if what someone preaches is missing any of these key elements, then it ain't the gospel:

1. We are lost. This is a statement of condition. Sin has placed us in this condition, i.e., separate from God.
2. We are headed to hell. This is the consequence of the condition. Apparently, our condition merits some sort of response, and that response is damnation. Sin has placed us in a state of damnation, i.e., permanent separation from God
3. We have a way of escape. This is a statement about Christ. Apparently, the consequence to our condition is not inevitable. Christ has given us a way out. That is what His death basically means, i.e., bringing us back to God.
4. We must believe in Christ to be saved. This is a statement about choice. The ball is now in our court, i.e., what will we do with Christ, with His way of escape?

Why I find this important is because these simple yet key elements can help one distinguish the true gospel from other mainstream "gospels" out there, i.e., Prosperity, Social, and Love. All three of these "gospels" do the exact same thing in regards to these four key components: they omit components "1" and "2". Of course, when this happens they create a vacuum that must be filled, for "3" and "4" logically follow from "1" and "2". If Christ did not come and die to redeem us, to destroy the works of the devil, to go through death so that He might destroy the one who had the power of death, then what did he die for? The three mainstream "gospels" fill in the blanks in their own way:

• Prosperity-Jesus came and died to make us healthy, wealthy and wise because before He came we were sick, poor and foolish, and sickness, poverty and foolishness have nothing to do with God.
• Social-Jesus came so that he could cure diseases, end world hunger, and give everyone a good education. His death marked the tragic end of His good works and marked the beginning of our good works. Again, sickness, poverty and foolishness are not of God.
• Love-Jesus came and died because...well, because God loves us...and that's it.

The part of the gospel we must redeem from Modern Christendom and mainstream "gospels" is the truth about our condition and its consequence. Side notes can be the redeeming of sickness, poverty and foolishness (Christ was acquainted with grief and had no place to lay His head, and foolishness is God's weapon of choice against the wise), but we must above all else drag the truth of (if I may say so) "hellfire and damnation" back into the public mind. We are sinners, and we must be saved. Salvation is what a savior does, and if Christ is not a savior, then He is nothing but the same old running gag played over and over again from aesthetic pagans and righteous heathens--be good and help those who are hurting.

I've said it once and I'll say it again: health, wealth, wisdom, a new house, freshly upholstered furniture, new clothes, good stock portfolios, fat bank accounts, social amiability, good hygiene, and a bass boat are nice and all, but what good are they towards curing the soul? How do these things make you unlost? How do they save you? Tell someone that you know who can fix their broken home or liver or bank account, and they will rejoice and be glad, but they will still have lost their souls in the end. Tell someone that you know Who can fix their broken souls, however, and you will have given them truly good news. You may have been unfaithful to the institutions and their advocates, but you will not have been unfaithful to your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Testimony

As the semester finally ends and life slows down from suicidal pace to snail pace, I think it would be misguided of us to look back at this (or any) semester with disdain.

Oh sure, things could have gone better, perhaps. Or maybe things went well? Or average? Regardless of how things went, the important thing (I believe) is to recognize that things went, i.e., they are gone, over, done, finished, closed for the day. Do not underestimate the importance of such a thing.

The assignments you thought were too big, they are done. The papers too monstrous, they are done. The exams too byzantine, they are done. The Dr. J final that loomed like the Shadow of Morgoth, it is finished. On all accounts there is closure, release, freedom.

And to whom does the credit belong for such freedom? You? Don't make me laugh: you were the one who was all panicky in the first place. To whom does credit belong? Your Father in Heaven.

This is not cliche; it is a most often overlooked fact. When the semester (or any trial) that seemed so unbearable is passed through, we should not merely huff and say, "Glad that's over." We should fall on our knees and praise our Father in Heaven: "Not one assignment overdue, not one paper late, not one exam missed." The past is more than pains, my friends; it is testimony.

Treat each passed trial (school semesters or otherwise) as testimony to the awesome presence, power, peace, and love of God in your life. The end of a trial will no longer be a time of disdain for the trial; it will be a time of praise to your Father.

We do not live in this sense of constant awe, we do not live life as though God is ever present in every aspect of our lives. We are (as one Lutheran pastor put it) "functional empiricists," and (as John Eldridge put it) "practical agnostics." We do not truly account for God in our day to day existence. We go through the fire and flood and act like we accomplished something special when all we did the whole time was hang on to the mighty and intimate sovereignty of our Father and screamed like a little girl.

Look back and see the testimony of your Father. Look back with fear and trembling as you realize that the same God who exists in three-persons and spoke all things into being is the same God who, with all His terror and beauty, is intimately connected to your life. Look back, be awed, and fear no more.

A Chant for Master Jenkins

In praise of his excellent comments on Social Gospel:

"Jenkins, Jenkins!
Way to go!
Thinkin', thinkin'!
Like Plato!
Beard is, beard is!
Like bulrush!
Brain is, brain is!
Not just mush!
Reminds, reminds!
Us of Lent!
Jenkins, Jenkins!
For president!
GOOOOOOOOOO JENKINS!"

Rah rah.

A Suggestion to Master Jenkins

In regards to Pop Prot novelists and the "Buechner center."

Perhaps it would do Pop Prot writers some good to go to this "Buechner center." Maybe we could start a fund of some sorts?

"Props for Pop Prots: Help send poor, artistically and sacramentally starved Pop Prot writers to school! Just 35 cents a day helps the potential of Prot writers!"

Yeah...it could happen.

The Roots of Social Gospel

This is an excellent article on the origins, impacts, and flaws of Social Gospel. Its title sums it up nicely.

Christianity without Salvation.

More Nostalgia

More nineties merriment! Enjoy.

Bit of Nostalgia: II