There is an interesting talk here about Bible prophecy, specifically focused on genetics and the Antichrist. As part of the discussion the matter of sin and maleness came up, and I’ve examined that issue before. But I’d like to once again highlight the problems that arise from concept of sin passed through only the Y (Continue reading…)
Seed of the Woman
February 21st, 2012Soul, Spirit, Mind, Heart
February 19th, 2012Today I glanced at yet another well-intentioned article drawing sharp lines of distinction between body, soul, and spirit, based loosely on a few proof-texts. There are many such articles, some of which at least note that these terms are often figures of speech and not a dissection of human life. But since such articles/sermons/questions keep (Continue reading…)
Another FYI
February 16th, 2012This is for “the two of you”, and you know who you are. Sorry to everyone else for this bit of a scolding for them. I like closure as much as the next person, and I long for fellowship with civilized, rational people. But I draw the line at people bringing their issues here from (Continue reading…)
Push Through The Pain
February 14th, 2012When I gave birth the first time, I had no epidural. I felt everything. And my labor was 31 hours. (I was 37, fer literally cryin’ out loud!) But the nurse told me to do the most unintuitive thing: “push through the pain”; that is, the time to push is when it hurts the most. (Continue reading…)
FYI on Tech Issues
February 13th, 2012Just a note that I’m trying to reinstall Disqus for comments and having problems with the database update. Hopefully that will be resolved soon. No comments have been lost, but Disqus won’t let the more recent ones show at this time. Also: I don’t know when the “previous/next” links stopped working and will see what’s (Continue reading…)
Does It Help?
February 3rd, 2012In my previous article I wrote about the plight of the people of N. Korea and how this impacts our faith. Today I’d like to explore a related issue of oppression as it relates to international business. In the article Apple, China, and Doing The Right Thing, macstories addresses the question/accusation concerning Apple outsourcing to (Continue reading…)
Where Satan Has His Throne
February 1st, 2012History is littered with tyrants and the trail of suffering and death they left behind them, but I can’t imagine anything could ever have been worse than what exists today in North Korea. This video shows us why (link), and it is probably the mildest of most videos you’ll see on this topic. There is (Continue reading…)
Train Up A Child
January 31st, 2012“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it” is the very familiar text of Prov. 22:6. Many sermons have been preached, and some (awful) books written, on what exactly that means for parenting. But all seem to treat it as some kind (Continue reading…)
Ya Got Change?
January 28th, 2012Just an FYI regarding blog features: I’m simplifying and reducing the number of avenues through which hacks and spam can find a foothold, so I will be dumping the Feedburner and Networked Blogs services. This means that if you are subscribed via Feedburner you may have to resubscribe through the RSS feed link in the (Continue reading…)
By That Logic…
January 24th, 2012Almost two years ago I wrote one of several posts about fallacies, and today I came across a prime example of “illegitimate totality transfer” and/or “one meaning”, and possibly a few more. Though the premise of the article is easily dismissed on its face, it’s always good to give specifics and know why something is (Continue reading…)
Appeasement
January 20th, 2012This past year (I think) there was a viral video of a big Australian kid being picked on by a scrawny one. The latter had been tormenting the former all year, and finally the victim snapped, slamming his tormenter to the ground. Most comments were supportive of the big kid, because it finally put an (Continue reading…)
The Hamster Roars
January 15th, 2012Back in November I wrote The Hamster Wheel, wherein I ranted about the poor treatment some Christians give others for disagreeing with them, and this being one of the reasons I no longer join their message boards. In the comments at that article, a particularly obnoxious member using the pseudonym “nobdysfool” was mentioned. Today I (Continue reading…)
Defining Terms
January 3rd, 2012There’s a good and concise treatment of the issue of apostle regarding Junia here, including a list of all the other links in the series. I’ve written before that the essential meaning of apostle seems, from the examples we see in scripture, to be primarily that of what we now call a missionary, but more (Continue reading…)
Impostor
December 29th, 2011One thing I’ve learned from watching online conversations is that a lot of people are hungry for some kind of awakening to a new consciousness. They are disillusioned with the world’s leaders and long for someone to step up and fix things. They want to believe, but in someone or anyone but God. Many who (Continue reading…)
The Return of the King
December 25th, 2011Yes, that’s the title of one of the Lord of the Rings movies, but of course I’m referring to a real King and a real Return. Last year I wrote of the reason for the season (list of all my Christmas posts), and this past Easter I wrote about the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13)— and (Continue reading…)
Lord Willing
December 17th, 2011This oft-uttered bit of Christian jargon comes primarily from James 4:13-17 about people being too self-assured. But it has become an excuse to go to the other extreme: we do nothing, we decide nothing, we control nothing, we are responsible for nothing. It’s the ultimate fatalism, bearing its most ripe and obvious fruit in the (Continue reading…)
Poor Logic Makes Poor Scientists
December 11th, 2011What do you call faith in a person or entity that no amount of contrary evidence can shake? Religious or blind, and certainly unscientific. Yet many, mostly atheists but including many professing Christians, have a blind faith that no matter what scientific evidence may be lacking for (or having evidence against) the Theory of Evolution (Continue reading…)
Say What?
December 6th, 2011I read this LinkedIn article today about unclear communication. It’s a great example of something George Orwell wrote about nearly 70 years ago: The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, (Continue reading…)
Grateful to Know
November 24th, 2011My previous post referred to my having left a certain message board. And as I often do after leaving such a place, I keep checking back for a while to see how debates in progress have turned out, as some kind of “closure” I suppose. And for the most part my decision to leave was (Continue reading…)
The Hamster Wheel
November 21st, 2011I just left my last “Christian” board, and I’m not the only one. People no longer know how to discuss anything of importance, follow a train of thought or argument, disagree with civility, or separate the argument from the person. The boards run rampant with double standards, gossip, and betrayal, not to mention heresy and (Continue reading…)
