Think Wink.

Look at this picture and now read the following article posted by BW3. I just cannot fathom anyone who supports abortion and I must repent of my using “right to life” vocabulary. It just isn’t the way the Bible speaks.

BW3: God and “My Rights”

Prayer

Trouble in the SBC

The Gospel of the Glory of Christ pt 3

On Wednesday-nights, my pastor has been preaching through a series on Christian liberty. This past Wednesday the topic under Christian liberty was the Sabbath. Here is the sermon:

Here is my response to this sermon so listen to it before reading on.

First, Pastor Tim’s introductory remarks were quite comforting because he was willing to express his discomfort with men in the faith who are GIANTS. Spurgeon, Edwards, and many others he was willing to voice disagreement with and that speaks volumes. It tells us that not every Christian has it right, that we must continually check our position against the text of the Scripture. Pastor Tim’s growth and change in position says that he did that.

Second, Pastor Tim’s exegesis of Romans 14 and the other passages were, as always, spot on. Pastor Tim has an uncanny and can-only-be-explained-by-the-leading-of-the-Spirit (My inner comic nerd says, hehehehe) ability to get in and behind the text to its intent. He has the gift of διδάσκαλος, teacher (cf. Ephesians 4:11; 1 Timothy 2:7).

However before one can get into issues like Sabbath, one must understand the role of the Law of Moses and the Old Covenant in the life of the New Covenant believer. Before he went to Galatians 4, he needed to go to Galatians 3. Because the issue of are we obligated to the Old Covenant Law in someway must be understood and addressed first. And under a Covenant and Dispensational reading of the text, one gets two very different answers that are based upon faulty hermeneutics. I wish he would have taken the time to show us that the Old Covenant has passed away and been replaced by the New Covenant. It was only a temporary covenant and a pedagogue for Israel until the Messiah and faith came (cf. Galatians 3:23-25). Thus the Sabbath command is no longer in effect as prescribed by Yahweh through Moses.

My second critique is that he did not delineate between what is done by the Christian on Sundays and the Sabbath day. He did a good job of arguing against going to church because it is the Sabbath moved to Sundays. Because we don’t go to Sabbath, it isn’t necessarily a sin to go watch the Chiefs play (…wait as bad as they are it might be). But why should I go to church on Sunday mornings? Why would he look unfavorably at my forsaking to gather together with fellow believers to encourage and be encouraged to do good works of love in faith? Is it just because Hebrews 10:25 says so? Can that be done on any other day than Sunday? Couldn’t I just get together on Thursdays with some Christian friends, have fellowship and some time in the Word and we all exhort one another to love others? This is a looming question that I hope to be answered in the coming weeks.

The Gospel of the Glory of Christ pt 4

A Key Term

Puritan Wisdom and Sin

So far, I have been enjoying Geoff John’s Action Comics arc on Brainiac. As you can see from the art, the characters look like the Chris Reeves and Margo Kidder characters from the 1970s and 1980s movies. That is only the icing on the cake for the beautiful job done.

My main point though is that I am thinking that for a reboot of the Superman franchise by WB, this story might be a great story to utilize. It would help bring in Krypton and Superman’s alien past as well as bring in a villain that isn’t Lex Luthor in Brainiac. It would help to bring out a more realistic hero, not a dark one like Batman, that is easier for contemporary audiences to identify with. One of the themes so far in the arc is that Brainiac criticizes Superman for considering himself human instead of embracing his alien heritage. This story arc even works in Lord Zodd from Superman II.

The one glaring difficulty is Supergirl. She plays a central role in the story as Johns is diving into her origins as much as Superman’s. If the movie writers could somehow remove her without compromising the story’s awesomeness or place her into the movie without being a distraction from Superman, I’d be fine with that. This is one of the problems that was encountered by adding Robin and Batgirl into the Batman movies–and to a large degree the Joker in The Dark Knightmovie (To be fair, some of that distraction was caused by Heath Ledger’s untimely and unfortunate death). They distracted the audience from Batman, the person they wanted to see on the big screen in the first place! Supergirl would probably do this in a reboot movie.

Warner Bros. I hope you seriously consider this eight-part(?) series by Geoff Johns as a possible script for your Superman reboot. While I liked Superman Returns, its time to see a real Superman villain that will put Superman in a situation where Superman has to fight his way out. Brainiac will present an intelligent nemesis as well as one that Superman will need all of his super strength and super powers to beat. It’s what Superman fans want and it’s what Superman fans deserve. No more movies that would have worked in the 1970s, give us something that works today!

Transformers: The Movie

Who Are You?

It’s Very Familar

On Thursday’s Dividing Line (09/04/08) James White and Allan Kurschner discuss the textual variant found in Luke 23:34,

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Below the video is a link to a blog post where James White provides some graphics that will be discussed in the text. Enjoy.

AOMIN.ORG: Graphics for the Dividing Line of 9/4/08

Luke 15 and Lostness

This Thanks Giving

Presuppositional Aplogetics and James White

In the previous posts in this series we have seen the prophet’s complaint about the injustice (violence) that Yahweh has allowed to take place within his home country of Judah. His fellow Judeans are abusing and misusing their kinsmen. To make matters worse, the Law covenant of Yahweh with Israel through Moses in not only powerless to stop it, the Law covenant is actually a tool to advance the injustice (Habakkuk 1:1-4)! Then we looked at Yahweh’s response to Habakkuk’s complaint. His solution is to let loose the Babylonians upon the nations of the earth, and Judah is one of those nations (Habakkuk 1:5-11). Habakkuk stands in disbelief of the fact that Yahweh would let this happen to the Judeans. They are the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Habakkuk and the Jews are more righteous than the Babylonians so how could they be God’s instrument of judgment upon the wicked Judeans (Habakkuk 1:12-2:1)? And we come to Yahweh’s answer in Habakkuk 2:2-20 Read more

Redemptive-Historical Preaching and Charles Dennison

Habakkuk 2:4 Part 5–Righteous by Faith

Habakkuk 2:4 Part 6–The Galatians Controversy

One of our first assignments in the “Illuminati” (I would like to consider myself the Iron Man and Pastor Tim the Prof. X but I think I’m more Namor/the Submariner) is to examine what does it mean to be “called.” With the gift of my new NET Bible I couldn’t wait to start investigating the issue. I chose to examine passages in the Bible where it is said that one is “called” by God to ministry. They were Abram, Moses, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Barnabas and Saul/Paul (both in Acts and in his epistles). Here are some of the observations that I’ve come away with.

Nearly all of the passages that I examined involved an imperative, namely that of “Go!” Abram (Genesis 12:1-3 NET), Moses (Exodus 3:10 NET), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5-10), Ezekiel (Ezekiel 2:1-3:11), and Jonah (Jonah 1:2 NET and Jonah 3:2 NET) were all told to “Go.”

When Acts speaks of Paul being called (Acts 13:2 and Acts 16:10), the term there is προσκαλέομαι, proskaleomai (the word comes from the preposition πρός meaning towards and the verb καλέω meaning to call or summon or invite), and the force is more like “chosen” or “summoned.”

In Galatians 1:15-16 the verb καλέω appears. However it is difficult to discern if καλέω refers to Paul being called to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, to his task as the apostle to the Gentiles, or if καλέω isn’t either/or but is both/and and that there is only one call that we are gradually awakened to over time. Note also that there are striking parallels between Paul in Galatians 1:15-16 and Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5-10.

In Acts 26:15-18 and 1 Timothy 1:1, Paul’s being made an apostle is done in the same manner as the OT prophets are made prophets, by command, by an imperative to go.

I’m not sure what to make of this yet. I have only just started this investigation. What really catches my attention Paul’s use of καλέω in Galatians 1:15-16 simply because I’m not sure how to read it. I know that for Paul, in a salvific context, καλέω is an effectual call. But I’m not 100% certain that καλέσας in Galatians 1:15 is referring to his salvation, or solely to his salvation. Could it be that there is only one call in the Christian life? But that call isn’t just to salvation, but the call is to a vocation and to a marriage (or to singleness as I am still very much single) and to having children and to minister at a particular church. I have really become very curious about this possible notion. I challenge you, my reader, to think over what it means to be called as a Christian. What does it mean?

About Think Wink

Who And [He] Predestined These Also [He] Called

Those Whom He Called He also Justified

This past weekend I had the awesome privilege to go to NYC. It is a beautiful city and I really enjoyed my time there. My love for the theater and the for musicals and Broadway has increased three-fold; I saw Les Miserables, Beauty and the Beast, and Wicked. While there, I had one goal in mind: go to Ground Zero. Well I did.

I am still shocked at what I saw. There was a huge hole in the ground where two massive towers once stood. Buildings in the area still are not repaired. I saw the list of all of the people who died in 9/11, I believe it was the rescue workers on the list. I saw the pictures put on display of all of the firefighters, police, and citizens there. I read the timeline and recalled my own memories of that awful day. I mean, I cannot forget the face of my business teacher, Mr. Leon Morrison, and superintendent, Mr. Carl Hibdon, as the towers had both been struck. I remember basically canceling that business class, we had no lecture and just took our quiz, so we could watch the coverage. I remember seeing the towers collapse live on national TV.

I remember being asked in class, since everyone knew I was an outspoken Christian, “Why would God has allowed this” or why did God do this.” I couldn’t answer those questions. My answer today wouldn’t help many non-Christians. But I have seen the glory of God in this. I saw how people came together in love for each other. I saw the swift justice dealt out by the state both here in the states and in Afghanistan with Taliban who supported the terrorists who perpetrated.

I am more proud to have President George W. Bush as my president. I think that, even though Iraq is now tripping over itself, he was right in his actions against the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, even though there were no weapons found he was a threat to the region and to our citizens. Pres. Bush has led this nation masterfully through this period. I am proud to be an American if being American was what happened in the aftermath of this tragic day, the unity and the love and the race to see justice done and the struggle to prevent another 9/11 from happening again.

Hopefully after this weekend I will be able to post some of the pix from Ground Zero

Justice Mercy and Homework

Mid September Debate of James White

I AM HE