Everybody Loves Chris

...Elrod, that is.

And by "love," I mean that only if you're Biblically conservative.

Theological "moderates" and those leaning even further leftward aren't going to be too happy with his latest blogposts.

Which means, he's my new hero.

Check 'em so far:

1. Love Doesn't Win, which I referred to in my previous blogpost


2. Jesus Wasn't A Social Worker, and


3. The Mythical Jesus

All I can say is: OH, MY...

I'm ruining the last blogpost for you (go over and read it anyway), but this quote is absolutely priceless:

The Mythical Jesus came not to be a Savior…but some kind of ancient Mother Teresa…with a little Al Sharpton thrown in for good measure. He didn’t like the rich…or the Republicans…or war…or church…or corporate worship…or pretty people…or absolute Truth. He only came to hang out with prostitutes, homeless people, sick people, rebels and liberal people…and shunned everyone else. He staged protests against the Roman Empire, loved to pray in labyrinths and only read Scripture in the confines of a communal home environment with zero accountability. He questioned all that His Father stood for and only asked questions without ever giving answers…in order not to offend anyone. He was a pacifist that never got angry and practiced tolerance…except with those that disagreed with Him. He used a lot of big words to describe what He did…words that nobody else understood…but made Him look cool. He also spent a lot of time drinking beer and talking about all the stuff He was going to do different.

The Biblical Jesus…was none of the above!

Chris Elrod: TRUTH Wins

Chris Elrod of Compass Point Church, has some interesting and timely things to say RE: the whole "Love Wins" thing that we see a ton of here on the Lakeshore, being as we are in Rob "Jesus' Dad Was Larry" Bell's backyard.

My favorite quote from Chris's blogpost:

Christ said…”I am the Way, and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Love wasn’t mentioned. God can love us a bunch…but that love won’t get us into Heaven. We can love God a bunch…but that love won’t get us into Heaven. We can love people a bunch…but that love won’t get them into Heaven. Only true repentance of our sinful nature and total acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Savior will get us into Heaven. There is no other way. It is not love that wins…it is solely the knowledge and total acceptance of truth that wins.

Good stuff - read it.

D-Week

I'd like to ask both of my readers for y'all's prayers for my family this coming week.

We are in the process of trying to adopt a wonderful baby boy, whose birth mom made a series of particularly unwise decisions while she was thirteen years old leading up to, nine months afterwards, Masen's birth - which was about ten weeks ago.

Birth dad, who just got out of jail for the statutory rape of birth mom, is fighting the adoption.

He failed to appear for a deposition last week, his last chance for that is Monday. Then he has his hearings before a judge on Wednesday, and then again (if needed) on Friday.

So this is going to be a very stressful week in the Macon household - "D-Week". We will find out, by the end of this week, whether or not we can proceed with the adoption... or have to give Masen up.

To add to it all, I'm not even at home at the moment; I'm in High Point, NC, for "tentmaking," to pay the bills (oh, those lawyer bills...)

So, I'd really covet y'all's prayers...

---

UPDATE:

Yesterday sure was a full day. That morning, I was in High Point, NC, finishing up teaching a class on CNC programming for my day-job-to-support-my-habit. That evening...

My lovely and gracious wife called me from the courthouse as I was heading home from the airport in Grand Rapids to pick up my guitar and head back to GR to fill the pulpit for a brother in that city (which works, since their mmidweek study is on Wednesday, while ours is on Thursday). It seems the whole court proceeding took all of 15 minutes. The longest part of it was the judge's explanation of his ruling.

He ordered the termination of birth dad, which means after 21 days (the time frame for appeals), we can proceed with formal placement.

Thank you, all of you who prayed...

Bit of "Ha Ha"

Holy Firestorm, Batman...

Okay, looks like I've gone and kicked myslef up a hornet's nest.

For all of my readers (the both of you), to bring y'all up-to-date:

1. I put up a blogpost commenting on one of the more amusing ongoing discussions over on the super-increasingly-aptly-titled open source theology blog.


2. Andrew Perriman, moderator of said blog and author extraordinaire, responded here.


3. I responded back.


4. He responded to my response.


5. I responded back.


6. He responded to my response to his response.


7. After a few rounds of the same, John Doyle responded...


8. I responded...


9. Andrew responded...


10. ...and after several more rounds, John posted his summary of the discussion thus far...


11. and on it goes.

Yeesh.

Now all my readers (you both, over there) are up-to-speed on the fracas thus far.

To summarize my summary above: The issue really boils down to a question of authority.

In other words, what is the basis for truth? If you jettison inerrancy, you are left with... well, nothing.

Andrew is maintaining that his "trust is not in the supposed perfection of a text but in the God who is revealed through the testimony of the text, through the historical experience of the community." My contention is... no, he's not. If that was in fact true, he'd agree with the doctrine of the supposed perfection of a text, since the Church Universal has always believed that (to varying degrees, it is to be admitted) - the point of contention really being a matter of whether or not that Perfect (read: "Inerrant") Text is self-illuminating, or whether there must also be magisterial authority vested in a separate entity (i.e., the Church). But the perfection of the Text itself is not in question, within the context of the "historical experience of the community."

Either way, sola scriptura or sola ecclesia, the (liberal wing of) the ECM evaporates. What the (liberal wing of) the ECM really believes is solo mio.

But that's just my opinion. Which along with $.50... oh, nevermind...

Anybody else care to weigh in...?

True, dat...

From the Stand To Reason blog.

Holy Cow...

HOLY cow, have I (apparently) stirred up the proverbial hornet's nest with the "Perfect Example of Pomo Epistemology" post over on the Wordpress mirror of this blog...

It appears that some ruffles have been feathered, and that rather severely...

...and on that subject...

...that is, the subject of theological refinement: though this goes more to the issue of a refinement of praxis (as in, getting back to actually believing what you teach and acting as if it were really true), this blogpost by Corby of Stephens is well worth the read.

Though it is a bit long.

And there are no candles.

DARN IT!!!

The Chalcedon Preacher

Okay, so maybe not.

I am, of course, in the title of this blogpost obliquely referencing The Blog Of Which We Do Not Speak. Heh. Get it?

...anyway.

One of the subjects that often arises on said blog heretofore aforementioned before previously above, as well as on simplemindedpreacher, is whether or not the Calvary Chapel movement will fracture, should the Lord tarry and Chuck go to his reward.

To put just a bit of perspective on this, I give you a rather good article by the Chalcedon Foundation regarding a very similar issue regarding the UMC.

Change is good, as well as theological refining, so long as we change and theologically refine towards greater Biblical fidelity, and not further away from it.

We honor our roots and history, while at the same time refraining from the urge to ossify.

The discussions on both blogs (the previous two, not the latter) is (generally) good and needful. We take the best of what has been delivered to us by our forebears, while continuing to strive to be Bereans.

Rock on...

Thursday is for Thurs

Again, taking a cue from the oft-pretentious, semi-narcissistic blog-offerings from many in the ECM (like "Phriday is Phor Photos", where the ECMmer shows his sensitive, arts-and-croissants side)...

...I give you a list of articles I've been reading recently which have piqued my interest, in no particular order whatsoever, and likely of no lasting value, either.

• This article about the need for space settlements to mitigate human nature and make war a thing of the past (yep; worked real well when the Old World colonized the New, now didn't it...? Just can't outrun that darned sin nature, no matter how far we run...)


• One about a new drug to delete bad memories. I dunno, I'm with Captain Kirk on this one; it's our experiences - good and bad - which make us what we are...


• And in the "Resistance Is Futile" department, it appears that Windows Vista is the mark of the Beast - or, at least, Medium-Sized Brother...


• GREEEEEAAAAAAAAT article by the Persecuted Church Weblog, "But Is It Biblical?"


• Brian MacLaren's online annotation of a CT article. Yes, he's gracious. But to quote the premise of the previous article, "but is he Biblical...?" Again - as with just about everything else in the ECM, self-rebutting...


• A rebuttal by LiftPort about the subject of making a space elevator - very similar to the "Beanstalk" of 2300AD


• Interesting concept of a steam-powerd car


• Babylon 5 The Lost Tales trailer has been posted


• More tantalizing stuff on Quantum Teleportation


• Some neat tricks to teach Windows XP


• Linux Journal discusses Open Source 2.0


• A possible solution to the black hole information loss paradox


• Seven Benefits to being a Bivocational Pastor

So, there you have it. Rock on.