Artifacts of a Life Once Lived

Research Topic Cont.: My case is essentially this: Modern Evangelical method of interpretation as a result of adopting a scientific approach to scripture rejects (not outrightly, but the proof is in the pudding)the reading, and thus interpretation, of scripture with predisposed confessions to doctrinal statements in hand(such as creeds or confessions which were the result significant church councils). In my case for maintaining a confessional/creedal interpretation of scripture the point will surely be made that the Reformers attempted to free us from the bondage of Tradition for after all, it is that Tradition which empowered the abuses and disasters of the Catholic church. What about the reformation? Were the Reformers set on freeing the people of God from the "Church" and thus its tradition because they had found their method of interpretation to lead elsewhere, away from the "Church's" traditions? Or said differently, were the Reformers rejecting Tradition o...

What is the good life? In America it generally means one or a combination of the following: money, career, success, influence, power, prestige, luxury, affluence, etc. Here is A MUCH NEEDED REMINDER on the current ideal of the American dream contrasted to a biblical portrait of the "good" life.

Research Topic Cont.: Does maintaining Sola Scriptura negate the appropriation of the confessions/creeds in exegetical study? Did the reformers have methodology in mind when they stated Sola Scriptura ? Said differently, Does 'proper' exegesis require the setting aside of confessional allegiances of faith in the act of interpreting the text? If no, then to what confessions or creeds do exegetes/interpreters alike confess? There are so many creeds and confessions today! Just pick up John Leith's "Creeds of the Churches" and you will find several hundred pages of creeds and confessions. That is the question I will engage next. But for the moment, take creeds/confessions to mean that which has been agreed upon at Nicaea and in the Apostles Creed/Rule of Faith . How does contemporary evangelicalism generally view the creeds/confessions? My own encounters and experiences with evangelicals over the years have confirmed that most people (in non-denominational/independ...

Research Topic: Methodology has replaced the confessions within the broader evangelical community's hermeneutical pursuit. The evangelical community will not deny that it carries with it the long standing tradition of Christian history, however it has denied the rightful place of the confessions as being a lens through which the scriptures are read. Fascinations with "objectivism" and "empiricism" has diluted the strength of modern scholarly interpretation. (Though much of that can be attributed to the fact that many modern "interpreters" are unbelievers without the eternal Spirit of God.) The interpretation of scripture in the evangelical community must embrace the confessions in its dialogue with the text as normative. "We have, however, the catholic faith in the Creed, known to the faithful and committed to memory, contained in a form of expression as concise as has been rendered admissible by the circumstances of the case; the purpose of which...

Non Fui, Non Sum, Non Curo Somtimes I wish it were true.

IN RESPONSE TO: What Is A Submissive Wife, Anyway? http://drjimwest.wordpress.com/2008/01/12/what-is-a-submissive-wife-anyway/ English Versions which include “cooperate” in the NT: 1. The Message (Mt. 5:9) - “cooperate” for “peacemakers” This word is not semantically related to “upotasso.” 2. Amplified Bible (1 Cor. 16:16; 2 Cor. 1:11; 3 Jn. 1:8) *** HIGHLY IMPORTANT - PLEASE NOTE:1Cor. 16:16 is interesting because it contains “submit” and “cooperate” in the same verse (NET). Submit translated from “upotasso” and cooperate translated from “sunergeo”. “Sunergeo” has the idea of “to engage in cooperative endeavor, work together with, assist, help, etc” (BDAG). This verse might demonstrate that Paul (even though he was a first century ignoramus, misogynist, sexist pig) knew the distinction between submitting and cooperating. Jim, you might want to check this one out. The same author (we think, at least I do) who wrote Ephesians (St. Paul) had a keen awareness for the usage of words as i...

Crazy for God Some reflections on the book. I'm glad to have read it, if nothing for the fact that Franky found what I am looking for and came to despise it. Greatness. Fame. Influence. Popularity. He had it all. He came to realize that mainstream evangelicalism is not a faithful body, but a fruitful business. He found that politics drove the "evangelical engine" more than sincere life-in-in-your-face faith. He points out some significant sweeping generalizations. Evangelicals are money driven. Evangelicals are independence driven. Evangelicals are activist driven. Evangelicals are make-me-feel-good-about-myself driven. If these are true (and I am sure they are to an extent) does he not need to face them? Do I not need to face them? Am I not "socially engineered" to a degree by the communities that I have run in? His story of his life is stunning. He finds freedom to share, with unashamed honesty, the brokenness of his family. How his father Francis beat his mo...

Where did I get my ideas about love from? What is love? Is it a feeling? Is love an action? Is love perfect? Do you "fall in love" or does it "find its way to you?" Will I never have doubts about a lifelong love? If I love a person will I always have intense feelings of passion for that person? Should love be based upon commitment or based upon affection? Why do people say "when you know, you know." What do they mean by that? What is it that they know? Is it just so obvious that you will know with complete certainty, the type of certainty that you get in lab tests? Surely love doesn't come softly, at least it hasn't in my case. Why is love so hard? I care significantly for a girl. I cared so much for her that I broke up with her. Ya, exactly. I don't understand either. I doesn't seem to make sense, any sense at all. I found a girl who loves deeply, I found girl who demonstrates significant selflessness and loyalty. I found a girl who likes...

Why am I so consumed with myself? Never is there a day where I do not lavish myself with some form of self-indulgence. If I eat, I eat to filling. If I drive, I drive to my advantage. If I walk, I move at my pace. If I sit, I choose the luxurious chair. If I speak, I choose language that will improve my standing. If I love, I love to the end that I may be loved. My days are filled with "me". Where is the worship in that? Is not my day to be an act of worship? Is not worship inherently an act of giving rather than taking? I suppose there are some necessary elements of this self-seeking phenomenon. Right? Must I not must be concerned about my health, my safety, my well-being in general, but have I come so far that trivial matters are just as important as vital matters? Is it really necessary that I speed around the "grandma" in front of me only to exit the freeway in 1/2 of a mile? Is "supersize" a necessity? Must I defend my reputation for the sake of perso...

Relationships are hard, so I have learned. Relationships are powerful avenues of energy, both good and evil, so I have learned. Relationships are not made in movies, so I have learned. Relationships involve two hearts, not one, so I have learned. Relationships never conform to the pretty little pictures conjured up in my head, so I have learned. Relationships turn intense passion for good into intense experiences of harm, so I have learned. Relationships demand complete transparency, so I have learned. Relationships require two hearts to be aligned towards the greater entity of "us" rather than "me", so I have learned. Relationships are a two-edged sword, so I have learned. Relationships are work, so I have learned. Relationships are delicate, so I have learned. Relationships are more than love songs and chic flicks, so I have learned. Relationships break, because the people involved are broken people, so I have learned. I am a man of many passions, walking about as...

Feeling the aftershocks of Fundamentalism's quake From a friend: "I feel as though I am at place in my life where i need to make an important decision regarding the scriptures. Last night I had a long talk with my sister Sheri about the KJV. She is very ardent in her belief that the KJV is the only actual Bible translated into English. She is actually in the Ruckman camp on the issue. I read the KJV and trust it more than anything, but I dont necessarily know if it is the only English Bible... Now, I know the many of the KJV-only reasons for why they believe what they believe, but I don't know if it is a battle worth emphasizing or fighting to the extent that they are willing to take it." My Response: "I am really proud of you for approaching this "difficult" issue with an honest and open heart. The scriptures are, besides our relationship with Christ, the most important place to which we can go. Because of that it is very important that we take the scr...

"You are born mortal, you have given birth to mortal beings and have you yourself, a decaying and slack body filled with illnesses, hoped that you had borne something stable and eternal in such a weak material?... The saying inscribed at the site of the Pythian oracle, "Know Yourself", means this: what is a human being? A vessel that can be broken in pieces by any shock at all, by any blow at all. No great storm is required to make you crack; you break up whenever you bump into anything at all. What is a human being? A weak and fragile body, naked, provided by nature with no weapons, needing the help of others, exposed to all the ill-treatments of fate... Woven out of weak and flabby elements, handsome only in the external outlines of the figure; incapable of bearing cold, heat and exertions... Do we then find death something surprising, the death that is the work of one single sobbing breath? The human being considers undying and eternal things in his heart and makes pl...

The church and her scriptures: The scriptures are divine. The scriptures are human. These may seem like two mutually exclusive statements. Theologically, we call this idea "confluence." So it is that though the scriptures were written by man with human minds and human pens, the scriptures were given, god-breathed, by the ever moving Spirit of God. This has been the statement of faith (tradition) of the church for two thousand years. As a community, the church body has agreed upon the supra-human origin of the scriptures, this being understood, orthodoxy must claim the authority of the scriptures as final. What exactly comprises the complete canon of the scriptures is another subject altogether, however, again the church has commonly agreed upon the divine origin of the 39 books of the Old Testament as well as the 27 books of the New Testament. Can the divine origin of the scriptures be "proved?" Obviously not. Do the scriptures themselves claim divine origins? Obvio...

Division in Education: The inter-relation and division as seen in academic institutions (whether schools, colleges, universities, departments, etc) is obvious, but the West emphasizes division rather than the unity. So that Professor So-and-So is the professor of New Testament Studies, that is, he is the professor who is an expert in NT issues, but not an expert in Pastoral Ministries. Professor Such-and-Such is the professor of Pastoral Ministries, he is an expert in Pastoral Care and Relational Theory, but not and expert in New Testament Studies. Can the pastoral ministries survive without the New Testament Studies and vice versa? Why then is are schools set up around "hands off if your not an expert" mentality? Are we not all learning, though emphasizing different issues, we are all striving to the same goal? Aren't we? I don't know.

Love is a strange condition. It is your friend or it is your foe. Have you ever wanted to devote your soul's energy to the life and well-being of another human only to find your intentions are not welcomed? Truly, let me tell you that's a very difficult concept to grasp. But I have Christ. Christ, who suffered and was tested in all points as is common to mankind. Can it even be said that the rejection he experienced can compare to the rejection we feel in life? I assure you, it cannot. We look to Christ, a bruised and beaten Lord, a rejected and scorned King, a hated and mocked God, we turn to him and cry, "Lord, hear the hurting plea of my heart." I think it was C.S. Lewis who said something like, "Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours." I had a brief discussion about love and electricity. Though trite, we agreed - pouring your heart into someone is like electricity. You either get burned or you get light. It's true, if you neve...

IF I WERE A SOUTH PARK CHARACTER

The world destroys itself, and I am fading, far away, until silence falls upon a familiar absence of belonging. For shreds and pieces I give my heart away. Long days give way to longer nights. Breath escapes my struggling lungs. As young hearts mend and stay I am fading away. The sight of hope dances on the moonlit horizon, Yet degeneration clouds my mind. To whom do the sparrows fly? So as it is unknown, my heart cries alone. As powerful as the promise of rebirth a longing for the grave, smirking and chiding it mocks. An emptiness as deep as the sky crashes on my soul boasting that worth is never to be found. A few days ago I picked up an old journal/composition notebook, one in which I have not written for some time now. This poem (excepting a few changes), if it can even be called a poem, was the first entry on the first page. I was rather intrigued at the intensity to which these words and phrases reached. As I sat there reading, I wondered at what it meant and how I had come to wr...

From A Christian Critique of the University by Charles Habib Malik. He writes this in response to some of Socrates' discoursing on the understanding of life and meaning. Being developed in a chapter on the futility of Science to explain the world via materialistic empirical approaches such as the theory of Evolution, Malik demonstrates that Socrates, in his insatiable search for understanding pure causes, knew that physical causes could not explain the supra-natural elements of mankind such as Justice, Beauty, Love, Mind, etc. "Groping for the living God. Considering the existential circumstances under which it was said , and who said it, and who recorded the saying for all time, what Socrates is saying here is probably the noblest intellectual cry that has come down to us from the heathen world. Nothing closer to God then than his cry. There is unutterable, hidden suffering underneath. Total disenchantment with this world. The heart craves, demands, cries for ...

Religious Attractions: THE POWER OF YOU: only in America There is no denying that faiths (plural) evolve, but none is so agile, skilled, and societal-driven as the corporate-christian mentality scattered somewhere between cookie-cutter subdivisions and high-rise foreclosure institutions. This Faith (american religion) super-evolves with the current of popular American culture. Actually, it must, or this Faith will die (that is, that particular "brand" will shrivel as the funding will deplete and the monies find themselves in the pockets of other open-handed religious entrepreneurs). Since most Americans have cast aside any associations to Church Tradition and/ or Church Authority, professing Christian-lites, who are happy to exercise their right to wield the "power of the consumer", shop around until they happen upon "the right fit or feel." Where else in the world would someone travel 30 miles in one direction to a church when there are at least 50 churc...

Devotion of the Crucifix The crucifix, a symbol of sacrifice; the greatest sacrifice, the sacrifice of the divinity of God himself. The mystery of the the cross finds its theological, and thus human significance in this very fact, that God, rather than humanity, offered the sacrifice; in fact it was the sacrifice of his only Son Jesus Christ. Christ's death and suffering, as scripture and the church teach, bore the infiniteness of my sin, and all the sin of those who find salvation in the Christ. The mystery of the crucifix finds its strength in the reality of the event that it calls the penitent to remember. As a present reality of a real past I find freedom to share in the sufferings of Christ, I find comfort and hope for I know the resurrection of the Savior. My sufferings, which cannot compare to Christ's, are contented when I remember the shame of the cross. To find help I reach to hold his pierced and bleeding hands, for I cannot find help except by the power of his hands...