Implications of the Sovereignty of God
The Golden Compass: Al Mohler gives some opinion on how Christians should deal with the movie based on the popular atheistic Children’s books.
Syncretism: An Anglican parish in Seattle is offering a workshop on how to use astrology.
Artistic Expression: Mark Steyn wonders at the artistic silence surrounding Islam in the west.
Teddy Bear Controversy: The woman found guilty of allowing Children to name a beloved Teddy Bear Muhammed is pardoned by the Sudanese government.
Anglicanism (in Canada): The Vancouver Sun actually prints an editorial descriptive of the Anglican debacle from a conservative point of view
The Gospel of Judas: a NY times op-ed claims the misrepresentation wasn’t the Church’s doing, but the Scholars’.
Weather: Last night our Bible study ended with power going out. I guess weather is still more powerful than our technology.
History: Consultants have reported to the government of Newfoundland and Labrador on how to commemorate pre-confederation history.
Theology: Are some evangelicals Bible-idolators? J.P. Moreland has some thoughts (read carefully).
Anglicanism: As the Anglicans react to the theological differences now becoming apparent in the communion, Lambeth publishes a scorecard of primatial responses.
More Anglicanism: Is the Catholic Church preparing to benefit from the problems?
Iraq: Some Iraqis are returning home. (Note: this is a big deal if the beeb is actually reporting it).
Anglicans: Seems the Church of my birth is inching towards full schism. Unfortunately, neither side of the schism would be an acceptable choice of a Church for me (if you want reasons, you can buy me a coffee and we can talk).
Law: Defamation law too difficult for you here in North America (making you prove real harm, etc.?) Sue in the UK!
Freak Dancing: I may be officially old now, but I’m with Al Mohler on the concept of “Freak Dancing”.
It’s interesting how some people characterize the Gospel. We all know that “gospel” means “good news” (or at least we all know it now), and Christians know this is somehow central to their religion. The problem is that there are a lot of different gospels out there, and people need to think a bit on a given formulation of the Gospel before they know how close to the actual gospel we see in scripture.
One of these permutations of the Gospel is the “God is love” camp. Of course, the statement that God is love is true. We have it on scriptural authority that it’s true (1 Jn 4:16), God reveals himself as love. When we think a little, though, we recognize that the statement on its own may be a little questionable. After all, we live in a society that thinks “love” includes everything from sexual attraction to a particular fondness, to sentimentality. God thus becomes either a freaky stalker boyfriend (really freaky for heterosexuals like me) or a giant amorphous care-bear. This is definitely not good news, especially if one notices that we humans are quite adept at evil. It also assumes that the only object of God’s love is me.
The camp that focuses on God as love as the Gospel tends to minimize the problem of evil in the world. It seems to them that whilethe world is messed up, we ourselves are mostly okay. That’s simply not true from a scriptural perspective (Rom 3:23), and its manifestly not true if we reflect a little on how we treat others and think about them in our hearts (of course, maybe you, dear readers are far more noble than I…… I am a sinner, and become more convinced of it daily).
There’s something in me that wants the wrongs righted, that wants to see evil punished and justice prevail. The Bible promises us that God will do this, but that means there’s a problem for me, and anybody else who sins. If God is not just love, but also just and righteous, to fix the world and punish evil, he’s going to have to punish me somehow. I get the feeling my sin is a far bigger deal than even I imagine. If I am to come to God as I am, for God to be just to those I have wronged (including himself) I need to be punished. If God loves justice, and loves righteousness, and loves the people I have wronged, I cannot go unscathed before the throne of His glory.
The good news is that a just God has found a way to deal with my sin, taking the punishment on himself in Christ. That is true love, but it is neither a care-bear or a nutty sexual thing. Nor is the wholeness of that Gospel contained in the (true) phrase, God is love.
(considering) 8:28 