Josiah Concept Ministries

Bruce Metzger, professor emeritus of Princeton Theological Seminary, board member of the American Bible Society, and a prolific scholar of Greek, Old Testament, and New Testament studies, died February 13 of natural causes.

Metzger’s contribution to manuscript studies cannot be underestimated. He will be sorely missed by everyone who followed New Testament textual criticism–including me.

Metzger’s work includes The Text Of The New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, And Restoration, New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content, his autobiography Reminiscences of an Octogenarian, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance, Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, The Oxford Companion to the Bible, and Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek.

Metzger was also the chair for the translation of the New Revised Standard Edition of the Bible.

The only dark mark against him is that he held the idea that a book could be inspired but not canonical, which earned him criticism from peers who believed that this played havoc with the concept of biblical inerrancy. But this should hardly even cast a shadow over a career that lasted over 40 years, culminating in him becoming one of the most respected New Testament scholars of our time.

As one blog commenter put it, Metzger showed us what it means to “love God with all of your mind.” Now he has gone to his reward, and may his example live on so that we can better love God with our minds.

I officially don’t get it. It is clear to me that the age of signs and wonders are over. The Bible exhorts us not to look for the signs and wonders of false prophets and apostles (cf. Mt 24:24, Rev 19:20, 2 Cor 11, 2 The 2:9). And yet, here we have another shining example of people doing just that.

This controversial piece, called “Cleansing of the Temple,” shows an angry Jesus with a whip ready to cleanse the temple of the merchants. It was done by Brian Burgess and is currently on display at the Liverpool Academy of Arts. A woman kneeled before it and prayed for half an hour, claiming that she saw sparks coming out of its eyes.

Let’s hope she prayed for discernment and a definition of false signs and lying wonders.

And on an unrelated note, this is an ugly piece. I think I’m going to be very bitter as I go to bed tonight knowing that this hideous thing will fetch more than my annual salary. I’m in the wrong business. Full time BK management and part time apologetics doesn’t pay as much as manufacturing hideous statues.

Is this really what passes for art these days? God help us all.

I have been studying the movements that gain a lot of ground in Christianity these days, and most of these contain aberrant or erroneous theology.  Take this, for example.  So I have decided to attract more people to my ministry, that I am going to need invent and teach a complete heresy.

While watching this year’s Superbowl, I was struck with the perfect heresy for me to perpetuate.  As the book of Ecclesiastes declares, rather than start fresh I will combine my own favorite heresies: papal infallibility, open theism, KJV Onlyism, and Latter Rain theology.  In five-fold fashion, I will therefore declare myself the first apostle, called by the will of Jesus Christ, to lay the foundation of Open Footballism.

Open Footballism is the belief that God divinely inspired the original writers of the NFL rulebook to create His game of choice from the foundation of the world: football.  Even though the college rules came first, the later NFL rules are the only truly divinely inspired version of the game’s rules, and anyone who follows college rules or teaches that those are better are part of the Alexandrian Cult.  College rules are corrupted by Satan’s minions, along with the NIV, the NASB, and NASCAR.

To make the game more exciting, God, in His divine providence, has chosen to not know the outcome or progression of the game prior to it being played.  From this, it also flows that He chose not to know any player trades, head coach hirings/firings, front office moves, or why the Lions suck so badly.  Football is truly the domain of human free will and choice, and God only watches it for His enjoyment.  And He routes for (dramatic pause) da Bears!  (Everyone raise your beer mugs and repeat: “DA BEARS!”)

But in order that football rules are properly interpreted, God has chosen that those officials with the white hats, the Referees, will possess Referee Infallibility during the game.  By the guidence and protection of the Holy Spirit, the Referee is unable to teach error regarding faith and … sorry! … fumbles and pass interference calls.  And any other such rule interpretation that may be called for by a coach’s challenge.

I will, of course, begin missionary journeys to Corinth, Phillippi, Thessolonica, and other such locales to set up churches and teach Open Footballism using my new status as apostle.  I will continue to pray for words from Jesus to expound on the doctrine already contained within this blog entry.

Scriptural support for this is pending.

My wife, Jody, is pregnant.  We just found out last night.  I give more details when I have them.  Right now, just know that we are both extremely happy, and that we are both giving thanks to God for choosing to bless us with the care of one of His special creations, one meant just for us from before time began.

It is simply unbelievable what I discover when I search online for religion news.  It seems that our lovely world sinks further and further into apostasy with each passing day, and the newspapers delight in chronicling this descent.

First, our friend Emmanuel Milingo is at it again.  The ex-communicated Roman Catholic archbishop who stunned the world by his marriage in 2001, and was excommunicated in 2006 for ordaining four married men as bishops, is now in Seoul, South Korea to study the theology of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Yes, the same Sun Myung Moon who said this:

Jesus Christ is trying to follow me, my footsteps, all the way. He stayed in Paradise, because he did not marry. But I gave him marriage. Don’t you want to meet the wives of Buddha, Confucius and Muhammad? They sent letters of gratitude to me from spirit world. They pledge that even if their religion disappears, they will follow me. Can you imagine anyone in this world claiming to have married those past saints? The rings I prepared for their marriage cost a great deal per couple. Did I do that because I am crazy? Did I ask you to donate to cover that? [source]

The article reports:

Milingo has said that there are around 150,000 priests that have married across the world, and that the Vatican needs to abandon its “no-marriage” policy in order to seek reconciliation with these married church officials as well as to secure enough members for its priesthood. [source]

While I agree with the archbishop that the Pope should lift the celibacy restriction, I cannot agree with his desire to study such an insane theology.  I had thought that this man may have been the leader of a new schism, but I sincerely hope that Catholics the world over have more discernment than to follow this man.

This is interesting only for the fact that, with the mention of “Sister,” most people automatically think “Roman Catholic.”  But, in this case, I’m willing to bet that this Anglican, since I know that the Church of England and its offshoots are very individualistic in their preaching.  They teach that you should have what is best for you, and that nothing should get in the way of this happiness.

In this case, a dying man’s wish was to lose his virginity.  So the hospice he stayed at helped him hire a prostitute for sex in order to fulfill his dying wish.  The article said that ”[t]he hospice staff, after taking advice from a solicitor, the clergy and health care professionals, decided to help him.”

Primairly by lending moral support, I think.  The article wasn’t very specific.  Neither did they seem to try to talk him out of it.  In response, Sr. Frances said “I know that some people will say ‘You are a Christian foundation. What are you thinking about?’. But we are here for all faiths and none.”

Still, did you even try to talk him out of it?  C’mon.

And, finally, with news of the weird sort everywhere, it is good to know that some people can still make me laugh.  Tominthebox News Network carries several amusing (but satiric) stories, especially this one.  It made me laugh out loud.  Which wasn’t the best idea, since I’m blogging from the library today.  My computer is down.