Civility & Good Advice From the Past

A couple of questions:
-Were people just more civil and discerning in the past?
-Why can't we have politicians that have this type of character?

Independence Appears To Have Leanings Towards Dependency

Enjoy the 4th my fellow Americans!
Here is a question for you: How do you celebrate Independence Day on July 4th?

Martyrdom

As a consequence of professing their faith, early Christians were persecuted mostly during the Roman Empire and were often tortured to death for maintaining his or her religious belief. Many deaths were inspirational for other people and increased the fame of the Catholic religion, although several of these stories are unhistorical and are purely legendary. Meet ten of the most excruciating martyrdoms of early christianity...

1. Saint Hippolytus: torn apart by horses

2. Saint Ignatius Of Antioch: sentenced to be eaten by lions at the Coliseum

3. Saint Lawrence: grilled and toasted alive

4. Saint Agatha of Sicily: had her breasts cut off

You can read the stories and the rest here.

Some questions:
-Would you really, I mean really die for what you say you believe as it relates to your world view?
-If you are not a Christian, how do historical Christian martyrs effect your understanding on Christianity?
-If you are a Christian, how do things such as this effect your faith? Does it strengthen it or cause you to shrink back?
-Why do you think suffering plays an integral part in the Christian faith?
-Is persecution still alive and well today?

Joining The Revolution? Moving To Texas?

Today American taxpayers in more than 300 locations in all 50 states will hold rallies -- dubbed "tea parties" -- to protest higher taxes and out-of-control government spending. There is no political party behind these rallies, no grand right-wing conspiracy, not even a 501(c) group like MoveOn.org. You can read more on this here.



“I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state,” Gov. Perry said. “That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution..."
You can read more on this here.

Some questions:
-Are we heading for another civil war- this time people vs. government officials?
-Do you think the politicians are listening?
-Did you participate today in a tea party?
-Do you think what Texas is looking to do really means anything in the grand scheme of things?
-Would you support a revolution? If so, what would be your cause for rallying?

Inerrancy: Is It True?

If you don't believe that the scriptures contained in the Bible are inerrant, read a couple of the books from the link below then come back and we'll talk.  

You can read more here.

Some questions:

-Do you hold scripture as being without error?

-Should inerrancy matter?

-Where are the errors?  Who decides them and on what basis?

7th Anniversary Of 9-11

I've been hearing that phrase a lot over the past several days. For some reason, the word anniversary just doesn't seem appropriate. What do you think?

Since we are on this topic (as today is the day) do you think 9-11 should ever be an official US holiday? Should we celebrate attacks on the US by closing up shop and taking the kids to the park to play?

Just some questions and thoughts I had.

Only One Thing

If you could only do one thing today, what would it be? Why would you choose that over everything else you could have done?

Each day Christians are imprisoned and suffer persecution and even death for their faith in God and the work of Jesus the Christ on the cross. Each day they still have freedom they must live it as if it was their last. Sometimes, the blessings of religous freedom without fear of persecution obscure the imminence of judgment and the uncertainty of the timing of death or imprisonment. Sometimes this freedom even causes us to think less on the sufferings of our brothers and sisters because of their faith... so, if you could do only one thing today, what would it be?

Noah's Flood Explained by Science?

Two distinguished marine geologists have published a book offering scientific proof that a catastrophic flood struck the Black Sea region 7 600 years ago and was the basis of the biblical story featuring Noah, his remarkable ark and God's promise of redemption for humanity.

Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event that Changed History, by William Ryan and Walter Pitman of New York's Columbia University, has reached bookstores in Canada and is to be released in Europe next month.

The book traces the history of the notion that a Great Flood actually occurred on ancient Earth and then details a series of scientific discoveries – many made by the authors themselves during a 1996 Black Sea expedition aboard the Russian search ship Aquanaut – that suggest a geophysical basis for flood stories.

Using sound waves and taking core samples from the ocean floor, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Pitman and a team of Russian, Bulgarian and Turkish oceanographers found evidence that the salty Black Sea had once been a freshwater lake lying hundreds of feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea.

The ancient freshwater lake would have covered territory now divided between modern Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania – the nations that today border the Black Sea.
(more here)
Some Questions:
~Does this seem like a viable explanation to you?
~Are these Scientists on to something?
~Does this take away from the inerency of the Bible?

One Of The Oldest Churches Found

“We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33AD to 70AD,” said Archaeologist Abdul Qader Hussan, head of the Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies.

“We have evidence to believe this church sheltered the early Christians: the 70 disciples of Jesus Christ,” the scholar said.
The early Christians, described in the mosaic inscription on St. Georgeous floor as “the 70 beloved by God and Divine”, are said to have fled from Jerusalem during the persecution of Christians, to the northern part of Jordan, particularly to Rihab, he added.

You can read more here.

Some questions:
-What does this mean to today's church? Society?
-Is this find important for Christendom?
-What do you think about the remarks found here?
-What do you think about their plans to use this to attract tourism?

St. Louis Over Memorial Day Weekend

Over Memorial Day my wife and I went with another couple to St. Louis and spent the weekend. It was a great time. We stayed downtown with a great view from our 15th floor room overlooking the Arch; right across the hall on the other side you could see the new stadium built for the Cardinals. Needless to say, the hotel was in a great location.

Our plan was to not be rushed and feel bound to an itinerary, so we had a few places we wanted to visit and anything else was bonus. We got in Friday night/Saturday morning and went to bed and spent all of Saturday at Six Flags St. Louis. If you are planning on going, I recommend looking online for tickets as you are almost guaranteed to get them cheaper anywhere other than the park. We stopped Friday night in Cape Girardeau to pick up some at Schnuck’s but the “Courtesy Desk” was closed and no one could get us tickets until 7.30am the next morning. The next day before leaving the hotel we printed off some from SixFlags.com and gained admittance for what was normally a child’s fare.

Six Flags was great. Roller coasters in general are great. The Boss, a wooden roller coaster, is at the top of my list (and in the top 5 in the nation for wooden roller coasters). We stayed until the park closed and headed back to the hotel to turn in for sleep.

The next day we spent some time at Forest Park, at the Science Center, the Jewel Box, and the Zoo and topped it off with a great dinner at a local restaurant downtown. We saw some amazing things at all of these places and I will post a link on this post at some point in the near future to show off some of the things we saw- just can’t do it today.

Then on Monday we left out and went to the Botanical Gardens and The City Museum. The Botanical Gardens really make you pause to think on the creativity of our God. It is a great, peaceful place that is nothing short of beautiful. Finally, before we left for home, we spent the last two hours of our trip at The City Museum. We did not bring any cameras [I think you can see why] in except for my phone with which I snapped the photos above. This place has been around for 10 years, housed in an old 7 story factory building, and everything in it came from the St. Louis area (including all of the art and items used to construct it). And, don’t let the name fool you, it is not your typical museum. This place was like a giant playground where nothing was off limits (by that I mean you can interact however you wish with whatever is there). They had giant ball pits, a humongous “monkey bar’ set (if you can even call it that) as well as a cave system, giant slides, tunnels, an aquarium, tube systems, as well as art intertwined with the design of the setup. It was the icing on the cake of our trip. If you have ever went to a fast food restaurant and wanted to play on the playground equipment but you were too old and too tall, this is a great place to fulfill that desire! It will be on my list of to do’s when I go back to St. Louis.

So, what did you do over Memorial Day weekend?

***Click the picture below to see the other pictures I said I would post***

Religion: A Figment Of Our Imagination

Humans alone practice religion because they're the only creatures to have evolved imagination.

That's the argument of anthropologist Maurice Bloch of the London School of Economics. Bloch challenges the popular notion that religion evolved and spread because it promoted social bonding, as has been argued by some anthropologists.

Instead, he argues that first, we had to evolve the necessary brain architecture to imagine things and beings that don't physically exist, and the possibility that people somehow live on after they've died.

You can read more here.

Some questions:
-So, is religion just a figment of our imagination?
-Do you agree Bloch? Why?
-Do you agree with the other theory: Religion evolved and spread for social bonding purposes? Why?
-Or, do you agree with the vast majority of the human population that believe religion (at least 1) is true? Why?
-Why are those in academia so inclined to focus time, money and effort into "explaining away" religion?

Closet Christianity?

Mr Gorbachev's surprise visit confirmed decades of rumours that, although he was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist, he was in fact a Christian, and casts a meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1989 in a new light.

Ronald Reagan, the former United States president, allegedly told his close aides on a number of occasions that he felt his opponent during the Cold War was a "closet believer".

Mr Reagan held deep religious convictions himself. However, until now Mr Gorbachev has allowed himself to express only pantheistic views, saying in one interview "nature is my god".

You can read more here.

Some questions:
-Is there such a thing as a "Closet Christian"?
-Does this fall into the "If you deny me before man, I will deny you before the Father" category?
-Do you think Mikhail Gorbachev's claim to be a Christian had influence as to how he approached the cold war and the subsequent break up of the Soviet Union?

Overcoming Sin & Temptation: John Owen Style

Some of you may or may not know this, but I hold John Owen in high esteem. It was from The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (it is free to sign up to read the pdf or word documents. The tex file is free without signing up) that I first understood the importance of theological undergirding. Until that point, application was king and theology was left for those who wanted to be stiff-necked. Through God using that book to convict my soul of the importance of having good, correct doctrine, I am now able to correctly apply scripture via my theological foundation rooted in the very words of God (this is the same way scripture is set up as well. Look at the epistles or letters in the NT. First comes the theological foundation and then the ethic/applicatoin). I owe a great deal to John Owen and the labors of his pen for he helped me to work out for whom did Christ die and to what extent did His death reach.

With that being said, Tim Challies started a reading challenge going through the classics. One of Owen's other works is on the list. It is called Overcoming Sin & Temptation. Challies breaks down chapter 11 in his most current post and it is well worth the read. Do stop by and take a look at it.

If any of you are thinking of picking up a work by Owen, let me quote for you the first thing I ever read by Owen. This is in the "letter to the reader" section of The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.

To the reader.

Reader, If thou intendest to go any farther, I would entreat thee to stay here a little. If thou art, as many in this pretending age, a sign or title gazer, and comest into books as Cato into the theatre, to go out again, — thou hast had thy entertainment; farewell! With him that resolves a serious view of the following discourse, and really desireth satisfaction from the word and Christian reason, about the great things contained therein, I desire a few words in the portal. Divers things there are of no small consideration to the business we have in hand, which I am persuaded thou canst not be unacquainted with; and therefore I will not trouble thee with a needless repetition of them.

It is a difficult read, but well worth the time invested; again, it changed my whole Christian world view. It took me over 2 years to read through The Death of Death in the Death of Christ due to the english verbage and Owen's style of writing (Passive Voice) along with the fact that I wanted to learn from it and not just read through it.

You can read more on Challies here.

Some questions:
-What are some books that have shaped and formed your world view?
-Did you ever read a book, agree with it and years later come to the realization that it was wrong?
-What do you think of Owen's statement to the reader? Do you think it would be beneficial if we all approached reading with that high of a regard?
-Isn't it great that resources of this caliber are available for free to us? All we have to do is read them.

Does This Change Things? Will It?

With the present state of popular opinion concerning our President, and given that elections are less than a year away at which time a minority (but in all probability a large minority) will be dissappointed at their loss and at who was elected, I thought I would post these two links below.

Link one can be found here.
Link two can be found here.

Some questions:
-Does this change anything for you?
-Will this change anything for you if you are in the minority?
-Did you know this truth existed?
-How does knowing this affect you in other areas that do not involve the Presidency?

Dead Bodies Piled High, Holocaust Float To Appear On Parade Route

"Really, it makes no sense addressing this theme with drums and dancing girls," said Sergio Niskier, president of the Israelite Federation in Rio de Janeiro state, referring to the slaughter of Jews by Nazi Germany in World War Two.
"There are still survivors of that horror who have the marks of that tragedy on their skin," he said.

Rio's Carnival is famed for the parades by samba schools with glitzy floats and costumes and street parties where costumed revelers drink and dance all night.

The elaborately decorated floats are a key part of each samba school's presentation, along with thousands of dancers and drummers led by near naked Carnival queens.

When questioned concerning the float's appropriateness in the parade, Viradouro said that it is done respectfully and will be the only float that does not have dancers on top. After all, the theme of the parade is "shockers".

You can read more here.

Some questions:

-Is this appropriate?

-Do you think a venue of another nature would be better suited to handle such a message?

-Do you see any good coming out of this?

-What are your thoughts concerning the holocaust?

-Why do you think the Roman Catholic Church does not allow for Mary or Jesus to be displayed during the parade but they have yet to deny this float entrance into the parade?

The Potentially Oldest Human Skull Fossil Found

An almost complete human skull fossil that could date back 100,000 years was unearthed in Henan last month, Chinese archaeologists announced Tuesday.
"It is the greatest discovery in China after the Peking Man and Upper Cave Man skull fossils were found in Beijing early last century, and will shed light on a critical period of human evolution," said Shan Jixiang, director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

You can read more here.

Some questions:
-How do we know we can trust the dates ascribed to Fossils?
-Are there instances where a fossil was found but it was known to be of a different date than what was assigned to it?
-Can humans be 100,000+ years old?
-Are they referring to micro-evolution in the statement above?

Old Earth, Young Earth: Which is it?

I had a discussion with a fellow church member and friend of mine concerning his view of creation as he is an old earth creationist. For the record, I do not come down on either side as I have yet to study it at a length to form an informed opinion on the subject and I do not view it as a salvation issue. I then was reading a fellow blogger's blog post on a literal six day creation and this peaked my interest a little more on the topic.

Here are some links to arguments presented to me for the Young Earth model.
-Answers In Genesis as to why 6 days.
-Answers In Genesis deals with Death.
-Prayer Thoughts as to why the Bible should usually be taken literally.
-Answers In Genesis.

Here is a resource I found for the Old Earth model.
-Answers In Creation Deals with the problem of death before sin.
-Answers In Creation Rebuts Answers In Genesis concerning evolution.
-Answers In Creation.

Here is a neutral resource that lays out the pros and cons in a short synopsis.
-Third Mill weighs the pros and cons of both.

From what I have above, it appears as if the Answers In Creation links make more sense and logically flow while the Answers In Genesis links appear to resort more to emotions.

Again, I have not studied this in depth and I am not going to form a world view concerning the age of the earth based just on these three sources above but I would like your input and thoughts on the subject.

Tunguska Event: The Threat Of Small Asteroids

BEWARE the blast from above: small asteroids that explode before they hit the ground may be more dangerous than we thought.
Asteroids a few tens of metres in diameter rip through the atmosphere at between 40 and 60 times the speed of sound, and many explode before they hit Earth. Extreme friction and heating can cause these asteroids to flatten into pancakes, which increases drag even more and eventually tears them apart. The resultant "airburst" is thought to be behind the 1908 Tunguska explosion in Siberia, which levelled 2000 square kilometres of forest.

Currently our equipment used in tracking meteors and astroids can only detect those objects that are bigger than 140 meters across. According to new research published in New Scientist concerning the 1908 Tunguska event, an object as small as 30 meters across cleared over 2,000 square kilometers and that same 30 meter wide astroid could easily wipe out a million people and we currently have no way of tracking objects that small.

You can read more on the new research here.

You can read more on the Tunguska event and its many theories here.

Some questions:

-Do you think that events like this should concern us?

-What should we, as people, do to prepare for such events?

-Do you think this is what happened at Sodom and Gomorrah?

-Do you think such an event as this could change the history of the world if say Washington D.C. was hit?

-What can we learn from the Tunguska event?

Thoughts On Old Ads And Feminism

In this 1961 Kenwood ad, you can definitely tell times were different back then. This was from a time when women kept the flame far from their bras and family and marriage was a thing to be honored and respected. I'm not saying that it is not now, but it sure does not seem like the norm of our current culture. Feminism entered the scene shortly thereafter and a revolution began. Since then abortion has become an acceptable practice, birth control is looked upon favorably and independence is valued over and above any family model. "You got to get yours" has become the banner statement.

Now, do I attribute this to feminism? No. I attribute it to a fallen world that seeks to rebel against its Creator. Do I think that women should be treated as second rate citizens? No. I believe they should be loved and cherished- especially by their husbands and fathers. Do I believe things were better back then? Yes and no. I believe we stripped away our family values as a culture in exchange for liberation, but the cost of that liberation has yet to be fully realized. I believe that we should have treated women as we knew we ought and maybe the burning of the bras and an ushering in of a new era would have been exchanged for better marriages, better society and children who value and respect those in authority over them.

You can see more ads here.

Some questions:

-What are your thoughts on feminism and what it brought to America?

-Do you find it to be an improvement or the lesser of two evils (or the greater of two evils)?

-Do you think the mindset of the culture that made this ad was any better than the mindset of the culture of feminism?

-What does this ad say about how women were treated back in the 50's and 60's? Are they treated any better now?

Mitt Romney In His Younger Years

He left for France a 19-year-old freshman at Stanford, a sheltered child of privilege full of ideas about how to shake up the French mission. He could be goofy, quoting Snoopy or Donald Duck in letters to friends and was considered the free spirit of his crowd, the one who sneaked off to movies (discouraged for missionaries) and ate coq au vin (controversial because of his church's prohibition on alcohol). He was a half-hearted Mormon whose beliefs, as he recalled in an interview, were "based on pretty thin tissue."
His sojourn through Paris and Provo, Utah, though, redoubled both his faith and his ambition. His missionary work gave him his first taste of power and responsibility, eventually overseeing the work of 175 peers. As president of the premier social club at BYU, he first displayed a knack for fund-raising, bringing the school more than $1 million.

You can read more here.

Some questions:
-What do you think of Romney as a president?
-Does his mormon belief system give you room for pause? If so, why?
-Do you think it is wise to judge a candidate by their college age years?
-What are your thoughts on Mormonism?