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THE BIBLE Miniseries: My Perspective
One of my co-workers, a Muslim, kept asking me if I had been watching the Bible miniseries. When I told him that I had not, he said, “You should, you would like it.” “I usually don’t like it when Hollywood does a Bible movie,” I told him. “They usually add all kinds of stuff to it that’s not in the Bible. Like in the movie The Ten Commandments, they made it as though Moses and Pharaoh’s wife had once been in love, which is completely extra-biblical. I mean, the Bible is the best-selling book of all-time, it’s not like they can improve on it.” “No, man, you’ve got to see…
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What Can We Make of Jesus, but God Incarnate? (A Christian Conservative Goes to College, part 17)
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58).[1] The World Religions’ Professor’s assignment read as follows: What’s the best word to describe Jesus? Prophet, Avatar (of the Hebrew God), or Bodhisattva? Well, I was not going to be forced into the professor’s definitions….
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A Christian Conservative Goes to College, part 16 (World Religions Class: Silent No More)
“…knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel…” (Philippians 1:16, NIV). When asked, “How can we foster the encounter of people with Jesus Christ?” C.S. Lewis replied as follows: “You can’t lay down any pattern for God. There are many different ways of bringing people into His kingdom…. As Christians we are tempted to make unnecessary concessions to those outside the Faith. We give in too much. Now, I don’t mean that we should run the risk of making a nuisance of ourselves by witnessing at improper times, but there comes a time when we must show that we disagree. We must show our Christian colours…
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Thoughts Inspired by My IPOD Shuffle (How Caedmon’s Call, Adam Lambert, Judas Priest, and Enya Started Me Thinking)
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end" (Ecclesiastes 3:11, NIV).
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A Christian Conservative Goes to College, part 15 (World Religions Class: Obfuscating the Old Testament)
“For those who guide this people are leading them astray; And those who are guided by them are brought to confusion” (Isaiah 9:16, NASB). It was verbal professorial blitzkrieg. Seven weeks of World Religions Class with a textbook that listed seven major world religions, but the professors had spent at least four weeks trying to dismantle the Bible, the God of the Bible (i.e. the only true God), and Christianity. They attacked and attempted to undermine from every angle, appealing to feelings, to subjectivity, to modern “understanding”, etc. They questioned everything, led the witnesses, and sat as judge and jury. They prosecuted, but never defended. And I was…
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Insights and Ideas to Enlighten and/or Offend Everyone…
At the very least, I hope these columns challenge Christians to think. You can disagree with me and my opinions. You can disagree with my approach. I’m certainly fallible. But for your own sake think, study, seek understanding and pray for wisdom (Proverbs 3:13, James 1:5). After all, all truth is God’s truth. Having said that, I think this column will be challenging. In my last column, a general review/overview of Carl W. Wilson’s book Our Dance Has Turned to Death, I wrote: “[Be] forewarned—men, women, Christian, secularist, leftwing, and right wing—you will probably be offended in some way; no matter what group you identify with, Carl W. Wilson will…
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Book Review: “Our Dance Has Turned to Death”
“[The main thesis of this book] is that the family, with traditional religious roles for men and women in a life-long monogamous marriage relationship, is the abiding natural foundation for social order, happiness and stability. When that view is abandoned for selfish individualism the society will collapse and die.” – Carl W. Wilson, Our Dance Has Turned to Death.[1] Carl W. Wilson’s book, Our Dance Has Turned to Death, examines the causes and effects of the disintegration of the American family. Published in 1979 (Yes, 1979!) it stands today as a prophetic voice from the not-too-distant past. This social theory still stands because it is well within a biblical framework.…
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A Christian Conservative Goes to College, part 14 (World Religions Class: Documentary Hypothesis)
“Although they see they do not see, and although they hear they do not hear nor do they understand. And concerning them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: ‘You will listen carefully yet will never understand, you will look closely yet will never comprehend. For the heart of this people has become dull; they are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes, so that they would not see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them” (Matthew 13:13-15). “The superiority in judgment and diligence which you are going to attribute to Biblical critics will…
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A Christian Conservative Goes to College, part 13 (World Religions Class: Attack on the Bible)
The assigned textbook for the seven week World Religions Class was Huston Smith’s The Illustrated World Religions. The book listed seven major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Seven weeks, seven major world religions, one week for each religion, right? Wrong! We spent the first two weeks with Professor Yu making a joke of Christianity, Judaism, and the Bible, confusing and mangling the facts… Then we students sat in class for the next two weeks as the professor attempted to deconstruct the Bible, Judaism, and Christianity. Four out of seven weeks spent attempting to erode Christianity and its foundations? Does this sound like a World Religions course…
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Would God Actually Sentence People to Eternal Hell?
“I don’t think a just God would punish people eternally for their sins.” Have you ever heard or said such a thing? I use as an example something written by USA Today columnist Oliver “Buzz” Thomas:[1] “I can guarantee if one of our daughters turned out to be a murderer, neither [my wife nor I] would respond by setting fire to her. We wouldn’t torture her for a second, much less… eternity”.[2]