charlesnestor: "Can We Know Anything?"

Great blogpost from Charles Nestor here regarding the "knowableness" of truth RE: the Emerging/Emergent Church Movement.

Sign of Jonah: Top Ten Most Dangerous Teachers

The dudes at the Sign of Jonah strike again. The blogpost Top Ten Most Dangerous Teachers is a very interesting list of the top ten theological nut-jobs that the SOJ readers nominated (...anointed...?) for the title.

I can't think of a single one that's on the list that I don't think should be. I of course would have added some of my own...

In no particular order (except perhaps #1):

1. Rob Bell
   
   • Mr. Velvet Elvis himself
   
   
2. Scott McKnight
   
   • Mr. I-Never-Met-An-Absolute-Truth-That-I-Did-Like, claims not to be a liberal then promptly expounds upon liberal concepts (both theological and political) while sparing few words lighting into us iggnit' theological conservatives...
   
   
   • Dangerous because he claims to be "not liberal" and has wound up becoming quite influential among the current batch of Emerging/Emergent pastors and... beyond
   
   
3. "Pastor" Fred Phelps
   
   • The "God Hates Fags" wingnut who has taken to protesting the funerals of American soldiers.
   
   
   • His websites favicon is an upside-down American flag.
     
   • Look, I'm not one to argue in favor of the "just war" theory; but come on...
   
   
4. Berten Waggoner
   
   • Lady pastors. 'Nuff said.
   
   
5. Andy Stanley
   
   • "One Point Preaching.
   
   
   • I believe it was Nathaniel Van Cleave who said, "sermonettes for Christianettes." He was the Bible college teacher who heavily influenced Chuck Smith
   
   
   • OPP is a recipe for disaster as it trains God's people to become relatively satisfied with as little of the Word as possible. And it's a very popular book/concept; even many Calvary pastors are jumping on the OPP bandwagon. The end is near.
   
   
6. George Eldon Ladd
   
   • Ladd's works on the Kingdom are the de facto eschatological underpinning of the overwhelming majority of the ECM. Even theological conservatives like Driscoll pour out oblations at the altar of Laddian eschatology.

There's more, but it's Friday, and Sunday's a-comin'.

Oh, that brings up Tony Campolo.

Anyway, I have to head to the hospital, and then try to grab some sleep; tomorrow's going to be a very full day, and I still need to get to serious studying for Sunday...

Read the Sign of Jonah blogpost.

charlesnestor.com

Great post at charlesnestor.com regarding the ECM and parallels with Gnosticism. Whereas this will almost certainly be regarded as "unfair" and "broad brushed" and "you never dialogged with us" and "why didn't you just fingerpaint your feelings onto a hemp-fiber canvas and choreograph an interpretive dance so that we can all dialog about how it makes us feel" blah, blah, blah... it is quite insightful regarding the large (just about overwhelmingly large) liberal wing of the ECM - guys like McKnight, MacLaren, Bell, et al...

Anyway, worth the read...

The Captain's number is retired.

I wasn't able to watch the Steve Yzerman tribute on Tuesday; but thankfully, on the eight billion two hundred thousand three hundred twelfth day, God created the DVR.

I watched the tribute; I just finished getting that thing out of my eye which somehow mysteriously became lodged there sometime within the first five minutes or so... The Captain's number has been retired - only the sixth Wing to have been honored so.

Had to go up to YouTube and get the actual raising of the number.

Christians have a tough row to hoe in "moderate" Syria

Recently, Ricky Warren kicked up a storm during a visit to Islamic Syria by meeting with the president and speaking favorably about conditions there for Jews and Christians. Even before his return to the States, his and his church's PR corps jumped into high gear to spin everything as a "why is evaboddy always pikkin' auhn maaeeeee?" thing. Much like many Emerging/Emergent types, when his statements were analyzed, he cried foul and claimed he was "taken out of context" and that those who took umbrage at what was stated and left unstated are big mean meanies who are meanly being mean. The bullies.

Anybody who has a heart for the persecuted church knows that while Syria isn't exactly Saudi Arabia or Turkmenistan or Indonesia, it's not precisely Club Med for Christians and Jews, either.

WorldNetDaily (one of the big meanly mean meanie bullies who are just mean) just published a great article that helps put it all into perspective.

Some specially salient specifics:

While Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Iran and other Middle East nations are well-known for persecuting Christians, Syria's actions are of a lower profile. But it is listed among those nations around the world that persecute Christians by everyone from Jacobson's organization to the U.S. government.

In Syria, the constitution requires the president to be a Muslim and specifies that Islamic jurisprudence is a principal source of legislation. And sharing your Christian faith with someone – anyone – is discouraged as "posing a threat to the relations among religious groups" and carries a penalty of up to life in prison, he said.

"For Christians, one of the core tenets is the ability to share your faith, but in Syria that can lead to arrest (and) persecution," Jacobson said. "We list Syria as one of the top … countries where Christians are facing real persecution."

"Syria isn't Saudi Arabia, but it's one of the big untold stories out there," he said. For those who want to convert from Islam to Christianity, "you're disowned by your family, if the local mosque issues a death threat, no one is going to do anything about it, you'll just end up dead. Nothing is done, no police action, that's just understood.

For those who already are Christian, the government allows them to practice their religion – but within harsh and restrictive guidelines. A Christian is not allowed to proselytize – ever. And churches who want to hold an extra service must get a government permit. Sermons are routinely monitored, as is church fundraising.

WORLD Magazine cited the case of Samer, a Jordanian Christian, who was jailed in Syria for 50 days with no notification of the nature of his "crimes." He later was released from the Syrian court system and moved to the United States.

"I want [people] to understand that there is a false image of Islam as a religion of peace and compassion. Many countries of the Middle East have a good image here in the U.S., but their rules are not what Americans think … When [Islamic countries] talk about human rights and freedom, it's not true – unless you remain in Islam," he said.

Christian Solidarity International-USA also noted that "the historical process of Islamization has transformed Syria's once thriving Christian majority into a small frightened community. Its existence is under threat. Syrian's Baath Party dictatorship is not as violent in its persecution of Christians as some other regimes and extremist Islamist movements in the region. Yet, the odds are stacked against the country's intimidated Christians."

CSI spokesman Father Keith Roderick said Syria is a totalitarian state, and the Christian freedoms, or lack thereof, reflect that. "There are restrictions. It's not a free society, therefore religious express is not as free at it should be," he said.

He said one particular concern was Christian schools, which are required by law to have a Muslim principal. "It's a police state. Of course there are problems," he told WND.

Darn those nasty, mean meany facts! Oh, the meanly mean bullying bullyness of it all! Darn them! Darn them to heck!

I'm sorry, but the more I dig into this, the more I have to agree with my esteemed pastor friend from Bangor...

Geek Tools

Here at the end of the year, though completely unrelated to that auspicious occasion, I give you for whatever inscrutable reason a list of helpful online geek tools I use frequently.

Just in case you might find something helpful which herein you... ah... find. Here.

Anyway:

• Folder Share
  
  • I use this to keep different folders in synch between my home computer, my "tentmaking" computer, and my laptop. Namely, My Documents, and a folder which I use to drop files into that I want to transfer betwixt them - without the hassle of FTP'ing the files up to a web server... open FTP on my computer to transfer to... downloading the file via FTP... deleting the file(s) from the web server... closing FTP... kicking self because I actually didn't want to delete the file yet... re-open FTP... re-upload... you get the picture.
  
  
  • I also use this to keep Outlook synched between my three 'puters. I created a hidden subfolder ("_outlook_xfer_") and put my .PST files that I want synched into it. Obviously, Outlook should only be open on one 'puter at a time with this method; but it works real well. Also, so that you don't have huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge .PST files and the consequently looooooooong synch times, embrace the practice of breaking out your archives/inbox into several subfolders (and attendant .PST files).


• Log Me In
  
  • Free, secure, browser-based remote access service. I use this to access my home 'puter when away from it, and my work 'puter from home. Or either from the road. Works very well.
  
  
  • The free service does not permit file transfer - but when you combine Folder Share with Log Me In, you get the same thing in effect - all for free. Bu-wah. Bu-wah-ha-ha. Bu-wah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa...


• Xdrive
  
  • Free, easy-to-use online file storage - for stuff I not only want synched, but completely backed up somewhere other than my sundry assortment of 'puters. And with a 5GB limit with the free service this is a NICE supplement to the previous two...


• Flickr
  
  • Online photosharing. The free service offers you 200 photos. I got the premium service - all of $25/year, which has unlimited bandwidth, uploads, or stored photos. Plus, I can put a Flash badge on my blog (see pane to the immediate right) which shows a spiffy slide-show-ish whatever of random recently uploaded photos.
  
  
  • I like this better than Photobucket only because I saw it first.
  
  
  • Which brings up a trick if you're super-duper cheap: When you run out of space on one, sign up for an account on the other. Tee hee hee.


• Backpack
  
  • Great free online collaboration tool.


• And believe it or not, YAHOO! Groups
  
  • Another great free online collaboration/community tool. We use this on the Lakeshore here to keep our Servanthood and Children's Ministry volunteers in the loop. Has online file storage (limited, but still useful), online database, contacts, calendar, list-o'-links, and listserv-ish functions. We use it primarily to set and send reminders for events and stuff. I've sort of moved away from using it more in recent months since my "tentmaking" work hours have vastly ramped up ... but I think I need to get back into using it more.
  
  
  • I stole this idea from CC Sunset Coast, which used to host one for their youth group.


• Bloglines
  
  • Web-based (and free) RSS aggregator - allows me to track all the blogs and podcasts whose feeds I subscribe to in one interface.
  
  
  • Even has a system tray icon which notifies you at a preset interval of changes/updates to any of your blogs.


• Dictionary-dot-com and Thesaurus-dot-com
  
  • Not exactly geek tools per se, but I make heavy use of both.


• DEL.ICIO.US
  
  • Online bookmarking service. I never bookmark to my browser anymore; I always "tag with del.icio.us" when I want to keep a page for further reference. Why? Because when it's on del.icio.us, I can access my bookmarks from any browser on any machine. Plus, with the use of tags, I can use it for (and this is a huge one for me) research; say I find a great article that I know is going to be useful during our yearly prophecy update; I can del.icio.us it, with a (for instance) prophecy-update tag, perhaps add a quick bit of text into the description to remind me of why I found it so interesting (or highlight a part of the text of the webpage in question prior to clicking "add to del.icio.us") and viola! it is saved, and I can pull it up again anywhere. Sweeeeeet...


• The Blue Letter Bible Project
  
  • Even though I have Logos on my 'puter (and e*sword), I find sometimes that it's quicker just to jump up onto www.blueletterbible.org and do searching/word studies there - especially when I'm not at my home computer or laptop. Very convenient, and actually quite powerful.


• GMail Space extension for Mozilla Firefox (link to Firefox here.)
  
  • ...what? You're still using Internet Exploder? ...and you call yourself "culturally relevant..."
  
  
  • This Firefox extension allows you to use your GMail space as online file storage.

There's more, which I'll likely add to this list in the coming days, but this is a good start.

Orange County Choppers

Looks like today's going to be a blogposting day.

Yes, I know, "blogposting" probably isn't a word. My blog. My rules. Neener.

Anyway, a brother in the church just sent me a link to the OC Choppers website with a comment to the effect, "looks like they have a Red Wings bike..."

Oooooooh... preeeeetty...

So, here's the plan:

• Flip our small yet tiny house for an unholy-huge profit.


• Buy the Joe Louis Arena and make one of the suites our new apartment.


• Buy the Red Wings extended wheelbase four-door Jeep Wrangler/Scrambler.


• Buy one of these OC Choppers Red Wings bikes.


• Solve the problems of world hunger, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Green-versus-Orange-Irish spat, and figure out how many licks it does take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

...kinda figure that last one is about as likely as the first four.

doh.

Anway, nice bike...

MacArthur Shoots Himself in the Doctrinal Foot

Tee hee hee.

I love John MacArthur. Few expositors today exhibit a comparable commitment to Biblical fidelity, few are his equal in mastery of the Text. He is an adept of doctrine. I have used his commentaries, am currently reading his book Pastoral Ministry, and love reading his blog.

But he has two problems that make me giggle at him some times.

1. He's a stark-raving pinko-Commie Calvinist


2. He's a stark-raving pinko-Commie cessationist

On the subject of his deeply ingrained cessationism, he's written several books, delivered a number of talks, and written a plethora of articles all describing how the Holy Spirit took an extended Sabbatical way back at near the close of the first century A.D.

So it's highly amusing to watch him in effect negate his own argument on this point.

On his blog, he is posting a series of exceptionally good articles on the Fundamentals, titled "What Doctrines Are Fundamental?". Very good series, since a lot of "fundamentalism" ...well, isn't Fundamentalist. Much of modern "fundamentalism" has accreted an impressive mass of secondary doctrines and declared them to be Fundamental, as well (i.e., rock music is of the devil, long-haired guys are of the devil, short-haired chicks are of the devil, the NIV is of the devil, Billy Graham is of the devil, most if not all of the rest of Christianity today is of the devil, etc.), so it's good to take a step back and re-examine what the Fundamentals really are.

Technically, I am a fundie.

In the sense that I am a Biblically conservative inerrantist who unequivocally stands on the actual Fundamentals of the Biblical Christian faith.

Anyway, back to MacArthur.

In his latest blogpost, he makes the fatal (to cessationism) point that, "Every Doctrine We Are Forbidden to Deny Is Fundamental".

I agree with this statement a billion percent.

Now, combine that with the following verse:

Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. [I Corinthians 14:39]

...oooops...

Koinonia House's Year-in-Review

Chuck Missler and Koinonia House have issued their Strategic Trends: Year in Review for 2006. You can read it here.

Nineteen

I'm watching the Wings play the Wild again at home, awesome game - scored just sixteen seconds into the game. Since I am, after all, über-geek, I pull up www.detroitredwings.com, and see a great tribute for Stevie "Y"... actually choked me up. There are few athletes today with comparable class. Loyal to the team, a born leader, and a great player. The era of his wearing the "C" was, in my opinion, one of the greatest of this storied team; he unquestionably presided over the modern renaissance of the franchise, ending nearly a half-century Cup drought and putting the Wings back on the top of the league.

He will be missed.