Recent contributions

Thanks for your appends this week!

+++ On "Discpleship" +++

On the "great calling" mentioned in Matthew 2:19, it's interesting that Jesus told his disciples to make discples of others - but we assume that those second generation discples must they themselves convert others. Not an unreasonable assumption, but still an assumption nontheless.

Reading your preferred Luke 14, I noticed in 26:

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple

What is that all about? How can hate be a necessary prereq to becoming a discple of Jesus when the message is all about Love (see: New Covenant commandment #2).

That Revelation scripture you pointed at is indeed sobering, reading on to 3:17 - this one resonates a great deal to me and we often do realize this as our lives draw to a close, but I believe that to live in the conscious knowledge of it is not healthy. Certainly not healthy without a saviour anyway:

You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

You also wrote in that same append:

As I mentioned, I am not this type of Christian.

Isn't it odd that there are different "types" of us Christians? And of course there are. There are pastors and congregation for instance and Church Elders and sheep. Each to his ability and each to his needs? Or, are all Christians equal but some are more equal than others?

+++ On "Comment?" +++

Spot on, thanks for that reference. Yes the "club" atmosphere of Christian Fellowship groups and Sunday outings to the Church is something I have commented on before. English middle class comfortable tea parties. A long way away from Beirut on a Saturday night, or children starving in Africa. I think original article goes a bit far, if children were jeering at a funeral this is down to their lack of education from their parents, not the Church. The general lack of belief in Jesus is more to do with the lack of evidence of Him I believe. Yes maybe science has helped close our eyes to Him.

+++ "Darwinism vs. Intelligent Design" +++

Here you asked:

Honestly ... I'm not trying to assert one position or another ... I'm just trying to understand how someone can be both at the same time. Logically, they seem incompatible.

If one is a Christian and one refutes ID then one is saying that Yahweh has no intelligence. Or, that when He designed the Universe, he did so without using any intelligence. Maybe Yahweh indeed did use zero intelligence when designing the Universe, after all who can know the mind of God?

For us normal Christian mortals though, we would expect that He did indeed use intelligence to create the Universe. BUT, if one does buy into ID, the one thing Christians cannot answer, to my satisfaction anyway is, "which intelligence created God"? If one does not buy into ID then one does not have to answer this question, which I think is why a lot of people do not subscribe to ID, to avoid this question.

+++ On "Miscellaneous stuff " +++

The article, and your post contained ..

We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs ...

I think this is too wide ranging. I often take the side of science when it predicts things successfully, and I always remember that science expouses theories. I am not happy with the multiverse theory for instance, because there is little evidence for it. I am happy with Bernoulli's equations, and so is everyone (little do they know it) who at this moment is flying in an aircraft! If the author is a Christian then I could easily say back to him ..

We take the side of Jesus and The Bible despite the patent absurdity that there is a watching and caring Father when babies die of cancer and 300,000 people die in a Tsunami.

Earlier we agreed that these things are part of the mystery. I think it's best not to argue in such a fashion against something that you do not happen to agree with, due to a lack of understanding of it (which I believe the author is doing).

And yes it is nice to have structure in the working day, but maybe the office environment for one day a week is enough, I really do get much more done at home, but maybe this is just how I like to work so assume everyone else does too?

In a previous post you mentioned a CS Lewis (I think) story where in the afterlife everyone moved further and further away from eachother - didn't want any contact etc. I was shopping in Tesco's today and thought that maybe I was becoming like that. I am starting to put people into boxes and thinking "I don't want to be friends with that person" (this particular individual was talking in a very loud voice to another person with regards to directions to a particular place. They both seemed agressive, had lots of tatoos, and were disrupting my harmonious shopping experience).

But then I got to thinking that I do actually like most people and wish to get to know them. And don't we all have a right to choose our friends? But no, a Christian must love everyone ... that's hard to do - as "miserable old b'stard" syndrome sets in, I am beginning to appreciate that more and more.