Praise God for blessing my new blog, God is NOT Imaginary with success! In less than a month, we are coming on 1000 page views already, with a record day yesterday that tops anything this blog has ever seen!
Keep praying out there! I can see the results!
Three Christians, Ante and Kathy Pavkovic and their daughter Christen Sugar, were arrested Thursday by the Capitol Police when they disrupted the Senate hearings they were attending. The opening prayer was being offered by a Hindu chaplain, Rajan Zed. The three Christians were shouting Bible quotes, first Psalm 33:12, then from John 14:6, and finally Exodus 20:3.
DefCon is all over the story (of course) and posted the video here. TheHill.com has the story here, as does RNB. The Pavkovics represent Operation Rescue/Operation Save America, and their parent organization’s statement is found here.
So, where do I stand? I don’t know. I think I’ll sleep on it for now.
I’ll blog on this issue later, once I’ve had some time to pray some more about it.
Comments(3) One of the unfortunate side effects of having a hierarchy built into your priesthood is the gross display of politics that comes with it. Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair has decided to reassign St. Rose parish pastor Thomas Leyland.
Regular readers know that I grew up Catholic, and I attended St. Rose parish in Perrysburg until I fell away from the faith. I still follow Catholicism, even if only to refute its unbiblical traditions. Whatever my theological differences with Father Leyland may be, it is painful for me to see an honest man of God be treated this way.
St. Rose was a large parish when I attended, but it has since grown larger. It is now 8,100 strong. Father Leyland, pastor since 1999, is loved by all parishioners and well respected in the community. My mom works at that parish, and has been under four pastors. She has liked them for the most part, but she appears to have much more respect for Father Leyland.
So why would the Bishop arbitrarily reassign such a well respected man? Answer: because this well respected man criticized a boneheaded decision.
The Bishop has decided to open a new parish within a few miles of St. Rose. This has the chance to take half of the membership, and eventually, quite a bit of the students in the school. Father Leyland spoke out against this move, stating that the new parish is much too close and that no one in the pastorate was consulted when the decision was made. The Bishop consulted only developers.
Now, the diocese office wishes to reassign Father Leyland, stating that the reassignment is for his benefit and has nothing to do with the criticism.
Yeah, right.
Father Leyland plans to appeal to the Vatican. I’m going to follow this story and see how it pans out. I will keep Father Leyland in my prayers.
Oh, and by the way: for you baseball fans, and Detroit Tiger fans in particular, that think the name “Leyland” sounds familiar, yes, Tom Leyland is the brother of Jim Leyland, current manager of the Detroit Tigers. Leadership runs in the family, apparently.
I will be out of town this weekend to visit my new niece, Allison Lynn, who shares my wife’s middle name. I love that my family is growing, but I hate that all of the additions seem to live so far away. Therefore I may not answer my comments or my e-mail in a timely fashion, as I assume that I won’t have Internet access while I’m there.
One last thing: I put my e-mail address on this page for seekers to ask spiritual questions anonymously. I want to minister to people, I want to speak God’s truth to all who desire to hear it. So quit using that link for phishing expeditions. I will report you. If your late husband really deposited $2.7 million in a foreign bank account and you absolutely feel led by God to donate the full sum to my ministry because you’re dying of cancer, please use the PayPal links under my “About Us” tab. Technology is wonderful thing. It will protect us both–no one has to trade financial information.
I’m sure that PayPal will find a way to broker a transaction of that size for a small piece of it.
I have yet to comment about Jerry Falwell’s death. Though I mourned the passing of Bruce Metzger, since he did much more work in apologetics and textual criticism closer to my own passion for the Word of God, more than I did Dr. Falwell’s, it is still sad to see any man of God and brother in Christ leave this earth, even though I know it means that God is calling them home.
Dr. Falwell once told a graduating class from Liberty, of which my church’s youth pastor was a part of, that if Liberty ever stopped teaching the Scriptures properly that he wanted them to return under cover of darkness and burn the entire place down.
Of course, as our youth pastor points out, that only means that Dr. Falwell recognizes that the true legacy of Liberty isn’t the buildings but the teaching of a biblical theology from Scripture. Though he may have said that in a rather run-around fashion, it was only one of many things that Dr. Falwell said that got people’s attention.
But the best attestation to Dr. Falwell was perhaps delivered by N.T. Wright (HT to Daniel from Anchor for the Soul):
Within the strange, large economy of God’s grace, which filters the truth of scripture through all of us imperfect interpreters, it may be that I make just as many mistakes as I think he did, but we are each called to be true to what we find in scripture and I have no reason to suppose he was not as obedient to that imperative as I struggle to be. May he rest in peace and, with the rest of us, rise in glory where we shall look back on present disagreements like an adult looks back on childhood squabbles in the playground.
May God bless everyone who proclaims and defends His word. Even those with whom I’m starting to disagree with on stylistic choices, such as J.P. Holding, Crystal (aka Little Pixie of Terror), “Mountain Man,” “Razorphreak,” and the others I’ve talked to in the course of this ministry. God can use all of us imperfect humans, and that both humbles and amazes me. It’s a stern reminder to “judge not, lest ye be judged.”
It appears as though the greatest stumbling block to the fight against the AIDS pandemic in Africa is, in fact, spiritualists and faith healers claiming to be able to cure the virus. Several folks in rural areas opted for faith healing instead of taking the anti-retroviral (ARV) treatments to slow the progress of the disease.
Prior to this, the article states, poverty had been the greatest stumbling block to fighting the disease. Now, it is a religious culture of faith healing.
This is the point where the atheist reader would expect me to hop on my soapbox and start into the whole religious thing about prayer really healing and not to discount miracles, and how God will work in His time.
While all of that is true, I think that it is simply ridiculous not to take advantage of modern medicine if it is made available to the person. Here the atheist and I see to eye to eye: religion is harmful and must be set aside if we are to contain this pandemic.
I would be in good company in declaring this. I believe that Christ would lead the battle in putting aside religion and taking advantage of modern medicine. Why? Because Christ very often did tell people to set aside religion for similar purposes.
Consider the commandment “Honor your father and mother” (Ex 20:12). The Pharisees had ruled that money paid as tithes or any other money that was used in worship offerings did not have to be used to care for an elderly parent. Put another way, worshiping with a tithe or offering trumped that commandment, and thus did not incur God’s wrath. So many Jews actually used this as a loophole to avoid caring for their parents or other family members in their time of need.
Did Jesus encourage us to follow tradition here, or to set it aside in order to bring our actions closer to God’s will? He told the Pharisees
You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, “Honor your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.” But you say, “If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” (that is, given to God)–then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. [Mk 7:9-13]
If your religion is causing you to lay down your life prematurely or to spread a terrible disease, then it is time to stop clinging to the traditions of men and return to the Word of God. I cannot imagine that Jesus would want us to decline treatments designed to prolong and improve your life to simply rely upon prayer.
I’ve already dealt with the issue of prayer here. Answers don’t necessarily come in ways we think or expect them to. Oftentimes the answer comes in a way that seems perfectly ordinary. The ARV treatment is, in my humble opinion, the very answer to prayer that these people are looking for. And they are turning it down, because they think that it is what is demanded by their religion. Very sad.
Comments(1) I had the privilege of reading this item on the Rational Response Squad website:
MAY 9th 1:00 pm EST, Rational Response Squad responds to Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron as they try to prove scientifically without invoking the Bible or faith that their god exists. Martin Bashir will moderate. View the entire discussion at ABC.com website! May 9th, 11:35 pm (check local listings) ABC Nightline will recap the entire discussion!
Well, I’m pretty geeked about this. This may surprise people, but I’m personally looking forward to the RRS tearing Cameron and Comfort a new one. I’ll probably have to work during the live broadcast, but I’ll download the discussion, and read the analysis later on the various blogs that will undoubtedly carry the news.
After the RRS destroys these guys in the debate, hopefully they’ll realize that the deck is stacked in atheism’s favor here. Cameron and Comfort must leave the Bible and faith (and by this we probably mean “blind faith,” not saving faith; but the RRS makes no distinction I’m sure) at home. These are theism’s greatest weapons! But will the RRS leave their scientific journals and research at home? Of course not! That’s atheism’s greatest weapon!
That is why this battle is lost before it is fought. At least it will be good for a laugh and some hefty analysis on what not to do when debating atheists. Leaving your Bible and your faith at home in a debate on the existence of God is roughly the equivalent to bringing a rubber knife to a gun fight. You may as well try to stop a freight train with a toothpick.
Granted, you can’t use the Bible to prove that there is a God. Once you prove the existence of a supernatural creator, you need the Bible to contextualize this being, for it is His Word. If Cameron and Comfort succeed in proving the existence of God (which I have no doubt that they can do), they can’t succeed in proving that this god is the Christian God without using the Bible.
Hopefully, these two well-meaning folks will realize their error through this debate. That is my prayer for them.
Now all I need is an RRS hat and paint to make some cool banners:
Go Sapient! Give ‘em no Comfort!
And:
Rook takes Kirk. Checkmate!
Any chance someone’ll start the wave? (I’m such a fair-weather fan!)
I have begun to work on the initial research for writing the third and final portion of my response to the Jesus Family Tomb special that aired on the Discovery Channel last month. I have also begun footnoting a final article that will combine all three blog posts, supplemented with new information and theological perspective, that will permanently adorn my Articles tab.
In my research, I have noted that statistics expert Dr. Andrey Feuerverger, literary analyst Dr. Francios Bovon, and DNA expert Dr. Carney Matheson have all supplied the context in which their conclusions were given, and that shifts their meaning dramatically. All three experts were misrepresented by the filmmakers. The only scholar who remains firmly behind his conclusions is James Tabor, who insists still that this tomb is the tomb of Jesus Christ and His family.
But, in order to hold to a conclusion so flatly contradicted by the facts, Tabor has to resort to circular reasoning and fact-stretching. A blatant example, from a blog post on my birthday:
Although the names are “common” as is so often pointed out by so many, it does indeed seem to be the case that the statistical grouping of these particular names in this particular tomb is far from common. This is confirmed by the mathematical probabilities based on name frequencies, or more directly, by looking at the names in tomb after tomb of which we have record. Nothing like this occurs anywhere else.
Okay, the names are common. Got it. The grouping is the real issue. Got it. The next day, he posts this:
The name Jesus or “Yeshua” is a shortened form of the biblical name Joshua or Yehoshua. It is known of course, but to say it is common is incorrect. If you take all forms of the name Joshua known to us from inscriptions and literary sources as compiled by Tal Ilan (Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity: Palestine 300 BCE to 200 CE) one finds 100 examples of the name out of a total of 2538 male names, which is 3.9%. The specific shortened nickname “Yeshua” is of course much less common than that.
Okay, the name Jesus is . . . uncommon? Wait a minute! Yesterday, you said something different!
In order to remain in the argument, despite solid refutation from reputable scholars, Tabor has to resort to chasing his proverbial tail. It all stems from the initial rebellion in the Garden: now, instead of convincing us that God is simply wrong, enough time has passed and there are no eyewitnesses left to stop the enemy from convincing us that God just doesn’t exist. It started with the Father, but the Son has come under attack. Some deny His existence. Some deny His Resurrection. All deny His Lordship, and would try to convince us to do the same. They are unwitting pawns in a larger cosmic game, and they do not realize for whom they are fighting–nor where that leads.
They see death as the natural end to a natural life, not as the inevitable punishment for their sins against a just and holy God. We should pray for them, even though they persecute us. Perhaps thorough this mess they will see the truth.
Comments(0) This is great stuff! It brings me great joy to see God working in this world, and to know that He still uses us sinful creatures for His purposes.
A while back, I blogged on the Blasphemy Challenge, which is a disservice being done to the community by the oxymoronic Rational Response Squad. The challenge is to declare, on a YouTube video, that you deny the existence of the Holy Spirit. I’ve covered this in the past, but it bears repeating: the Unforgivable Sin is a sin of action, not of words. In committing this sin, you are continuously denying God by your lifestyle, thoughts, choices, actions, and condition of heart; not by making a one-time verbal declaration. Obviously, this isn’t what the folks who have taken the so-called challenge are actually doing–they are making the declaration, but we don’t know what they really believe or how they live their lives.
Well, now a series of websites has risen up to answer the Blasphemy Challenge. I love what they are doing in the name of Jesus, and so I provide their sites here.
Comments(0) For some work at Got Questions Ministries, I had to research the Catholic position on Mary as Co-Redemptrix next to Christ. I was a little nervous.
Fortunately, I am relieved to report that Mary as Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix of all Graces, and Advocate (the so-called “fifth dogma”) is not official Catholic teaching. I will, however, add the articles on the theological grounds for making such a claim to my reading list and post commentary on them here. There is an organization 7 million petitions, 550 bishops, and 43 cardinals strong called Vox Populi Mariae Mediatrici (the Popular Voice for Mary Mediatrix), who boasts the late Mother Teresa as a member, that is gaining ground in defining Mary those new titles.
There is also an organization that is trying to go even further than that and have Mary named as a fourth member of the Godhead, but I’ll bet everyone can see the heresy in that without requiring comments from me.
I am developing a sister site to God is Imaginary, called God is NOT Imaginary, which will have the same layout/look/feel as the former, but be based on my series of articles here that answer the claims it puts forth. What I’m praying for is a few more writers who can help me get the material together in time for a late-January 2007 launch. Of course, I want to produce material for it, but I also want to do management functions–editing the articles, tweaking the site design, finding an appropriate hosting service, and advertise.
My prayers: two or three more writers, funding for advertisement and domain registration, and the wisdom to select the correct hosting option. I humbly request everyone’s prayers in those regards, please.
The good news is that, with the launch of that site, this blog will get its own domain name too! God has provided a growing audience for this blog, and He has provided me with an inexpensive registration service (we can’t afford it right now because of Christmas), and I am confident that He will provide enough funds to take this ministry through its next few steps.
Yes, a new addition to the articles page is up and running. I am going to start an ongoing series of responses to a website that offers 50 “proofs” that God doesn’t exist. I have no idea how long a complete answer will take me. It will depend on how much time I have over the course of the holidays.
