Remonstrance

In researching the popular Richard Dawkins crusade against (primarily) the Bible, I ran across this amazing video in which Dawkins displays a rather mean-spirited attack against some poor college girl for asking the question: “What if you’re wrong?”

Why didn’t he answer the question? I’ve asked myself if I’m wrong. Someone can ask me the same. Is it forbidden?

He displays the dogmatism of the Dark Ages: dare not ask if I might be wrong! Geesh. The Vatican dealt with Galileo this way.

The crowd’s reaction was scary: they loved his hatred! It was reminiscent of Adolf’s crowd-pleasing outbursts at Nuremberg. He degrades the girl (was she a Christian as he claimed?), and then he rails angrily against the “the joo-joo monster” and “flying spaghetti monster”, but it wasn’t scientific reasoning. It was an incoherent outburst against imaginary beasts. Hitler employed this tactic against Jewish people: lashing out against monsters he labeled “Jews” which don’t exist in the real world.

Just FYI: it’s called the “Straw Man Argument” which is an crude logical fallacy, but it’s also mean-spirited. He pretends the silly “joo-joo monster” is in the Bible, which is unreasonable. It is the classic language of racism.

Filed under : folly // 6 Comments »

Tags: apologetics, atheism, dawkins

It’s been on the “Best Seller” list for the New York times now for weeks. It’s forbidden to be read by Mark Driscoll (my fundy-hero). It’s a modern-day “Pilgrim’s Progress” …

What do you think about it? Have you heard about it? I’m interested to get some feedback on it. Read the USA Today article. If you’re dealing with Christianity, you’ll be asked about it, I’ll bet.

All the controversy is caused by this crazy little book, “The Shack”, where God is depicted as a black woman, and according to Christianity Today it poses a “Modalist View” of the Trinity (Modalism views the Trinity as one person who takes three different “forms” or “modes”, and it was denounced as heresy at Nicene and other church councils.)

the author -sexually abused (USA Today)

Says Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle: “If you haven’t read The Shack, don’t!” According to USA Today:

Driscoll, whose multi-campus non-denominational church is packed with 6,000 people each weekend in the least-churched corner of the nation, says he is “horrified” by Young’s book. He says “it misrepresents God. Young misses the big E on the eye chart.” - USA Today article.

Anyone come across other reviews about the book? Let me know!

Filed under : strange // 3 Comments »

Tags: reviews, theology

I just gotta blog about Michelangelo’s painting in the “Sistine Chapel” showing God creating Adam:

click the picture to see the details

Does anyone other than me see a problem with this picture?

Well, I’ve changed the diapers of three boys now, and I’m telling you I’ve never seen anything that small except, maybe, in the first six months. Now, I don’t presume to tell God what he’s doing, but I just gotta believe He would do a better job than that thing.

Then it hit me why Michelangelo drew it that way: some pope in the dark ages declared sex was the “original sin” that caused “The Fall.” Since Papal Bull (as the Catholic church labels it) is axiomatic and rarely deprecated, this weird view of human sexuality permeated everything back then–and still is Catholic dogma!

So of course this explains why Michelangelo thought God gave Adam only something big enough to pee with. They came up with so many wacko beliefs in the dark ages!

Now if Papal Bulls were wrong about Galileo (the Vatican admitted recently), wrong about the Spanish Inquisition (never reversed), wrong about all non-Catholics are doomed to hell (Vatican-reversed in ‘64),¹ and wrong to ban private reading of the Bible (also reversed in ‘64), is it not possible this is the ‘Wrong Schlong’ after all?

Far less humorous but equally non-biblical was the Papal Bull that stipulates salvation requires good works. But it isn’t the exclusive purview of Catholicism, because many Protestants also think salvation requires good works. Weird the way that works.

(As an aside, I asked a couple of the leaders in Greg’s CG what they thought was wrong with the picture, and, well, let me just say it took a while for one of them to figure it out…hmmm.)

1. From Vatican II, Wikipedia: the Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christ, but who do not however profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter.” [↩]

Filed under : humor // 13 Comments »

Tags: history

Christian hope turns failure into a profound mystery waiting for revelation.

With the “eyes of hope” I see the problem with failure lies in my fallen plans which were doomed from the outset, so brain-dead they were. Yet despite my fallen folly, hope says, “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28). When I see with the hope of Christ, it produces spiritual maturity:

But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. Romans 8:25

This happened to me once…

The Tar-Pit

In 1994 I plunged into a black, sticky tar-pit and dragged my family and the poor Yoergers along. Greg and his buddies had the brilliant idea that somehow we might stop the bleeding while his little Cleveland Bible study (about 30 shell-shocked bodies) remained alive.

It was a mess, I knew that, but I didn’t notice the tar-pit or the bleached bones scattered everywhere. I plunged ahead.

The meeting was held in an old, run-down, dumpy house which was soon condemned (as pictured below).

The 1994 meeting place - 'it ends up being burned' (Heb.6:8)

This was ministry in Cleveland: growth that doesn’t grow.

It was mysterious. The work was fruitful and we doubled in size, but suddenly everything got stuck. We were excited by high conversion-growth, but the group stopped growing. We fluctuated around 50 to 60, stuck in a tar-pit, and we continued to see salvations. Why is this?

[Read more →]

Filed under : character // 18 Comments »

Tags: brokeness, hope, leadership, missions

I won’t spoil our opportunity at CT to dig into the details of this, so I’ll just summarize it:

The Identity of Hope

The role of spiritual hope in sanctification is so vital that God anointed a special prophet, New Testament-style, to write the definitive book on hope. Weaving through all the great themes in Hebrews, hope is the “New Covenant life.”

“Christian! Your new identity is hope,” Hebrews says. This hope is eternal: it transforms, overcomes, and produces.

The flow in the book of Hebrews (top to bottom)

Here’s how Hebrews builds hope:

The hope of our amazing identity in God’s Eternal Plan, firmly established by Jesus (chapters 1-2). The person, authority and victory of Jesus adopts us into the family of God as heirs.

Live in hope today! (Chapters 3-6.) The road is open, the way is clear, all is ready but the only barrier is unbelief and unwillingness to follow Christ “behind the curtain” into new life.

Hope supercedes the Mosaic Covenant and replaces it (chapters 7-10). Established long ago, this hope is the superior, substantive, God-designed road to life.

Hope overcomes anything and changes everything (chapters 11-13). Hope produces a victorious, joyous and fruitful lifestyle despite the worse opposition in a way the Old Covenant never did.

In short, New Covenant Hope is fixed on our new identity in Jesus, while the Old Covenant was driven by works and rituals and all about receiving forgiveness. New Covenant Hope goes far beyond forgiveness, was fully obtained by placing our faith in the finished work of Jesus at the cross. What remains unfinished is obtaining our inheritance, and therefore it is a superior hope. This is the argument made by the author of Hebrews.

Think about it. Check it out. See if it’s true.

Effects

As the writer intended, the effect of his letter is life-transforming to those with a spiritual heart open to change:

• When burdened with guilt or failure, I am living under Old Covenant hope (7:19; 10:1-3).
• When I am consumed with my own self-worth, I am still living under Old Covenant hope and struggling with “Milk Truths” about the finished work of the cross (5:13; 6:1).
• When worried about the future, I am fixing my hopes and dreams on something uncertain which cannot possibly be my real hope (12:26-28).
• New Covenant hope builds substance in my life (6:10-12) and I become useful and significant to people God has placed in my life (6:7).
• People are scared of me or shun me if I’m living under the performance and works of Old Covenant hope (12:18-21).
• People enjoy being around me when I am pursuing New Covenant hope (12:14).
• When I “settle down” I’ve lost sight of New Covenant hope (11:9,10).
• I cut the ties to my past living under New Covenant hope (11:15-16).
• My sinful habits become boring and dissatisfying under New Covenant hope (11:25-26).
• I experience real joy even in the midst of terrible suffering under New Covenant hope (12:2).

Here’s the big question: does anyone else see “hope” mentioned in Hebrews?

Filed under : worthy Purpose // 16 Comments »

Tags: central teachings, exegesis, hope

“Driven and courageous” describes a Christian living in hope:

So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. Hebrews 6:18 (NLT)

Courageous Hope

“Great confidence” is knowing that I stand right here, held by the “unchangeable” oath of God, knowing “it is impossible for God to lie!” With “great confidence” Martin Luther stood alone against the Holy Roman Empire and stood before a throng of menacing Cardinals at Worms to declare, “Here I stand. I will not recant, so help me, God.” His hope was tied to God’s character, not the powerful armies of the Holy See.

Luther at the Diet of Worms

With “great confidence” we too can stand face-to-face with whoever may persecute us for sharing the love of Christ. This includes old relationships with long histories of defeat and intimidation:

For He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6 (NASB)

This courage is the outcome of biblical faith, and the proof of faith, as I wrote earlier. Cowardly Christians are still babes floundering with the elementary issues of faith and have not yet settled the issue of who to trust. [Read more →]

Filed under : character // 16 Comments »

Tags: faith, hope

So I’ve been rewriting and reworking our neoxenos.org Web, and what an education it was! There’s tons of ministries underway, and lots of activity, yet all goes quite smoothly compared to anything I’ve seen before up here. Every ministry group is not only growing in size, but the maturity of people and the number of real workers and leaders just keeps increasing. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like that with all the bumps and bruises along the way, but I’ll take those pains any day compared to the major surgeries and critical injuries I’ve seen in the past.

HOPE!

It’s a picture of the biblical concept of hope in-motion, which I taught at CT last week. Most people’s hope is merely wishful thinking, but biblical hope is rooted firmly in history. To watch God answer prayers, change lives, uproot past failures and plant new seeds of growth all create a hope with certainty. Additionally, our hope is rooted in God’s historical work with humanity as evidenced in the resurrection, prophecy and the profound nature of the Scarlet Thread woven throughout His Word from beginning to end.

Hope is what I see working in people’s lives around me, and it’s infectious. We get our motivation and courage from hope, and hopeful people keep pressing forward no matter what. This what God says:

This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us… Hebrews 6:19-20 (NLT)

But there’s also many Christians living on low levels of hope. Why is that?

[Read more →]

 

 Bridge of Sighs [5:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (139)

Filed under : worthy Purpose // 16 Comments »

Tags: central teachings, faith, hope

from SPIN Magazine

Apparently R.E.M. is “coming out” now. As one industry pundit said, “while their recent albums were a bit insular, Accelerate sounds as if it were made with the audience in mind.” So R.E.M. is “coming out” as the more extroverted band we loved in the 80’s. But Stipe is also “coming out” and acknowledging he’s gay, too. A coincidence?

Has anyone heard the new R.E.M. album? Is it any good? Leave a comment, let me know!

But what’s fascinating and potentially useful for those of us interested in word-craft is Michael Azerrad’s article about Stipe in Spin magazine. It’s Web-writing at its best, and worth studying. Web-writing is surely the next-generation of sweet prose, no doubt. As a lifelong aficionado of writing style and an OSU journalism grad, I’ve studied the sweeping changes in articulate style in the last two centuries, and this new Web-writing style deserves careful consideration. You see it in blogs, in a crude way, but it’s obviously reaching higher places, and English style is undergoing evolutionary change. I wonder if they teach the mechanics of this style in journalism or anywhere.

Azerrad’s style is economical. There’s no fat, not a single word. He conjures a whirlwind of fast-paced pictures like the MTV music videos, but Azerrad uses clipped word-pictures. Fascinating, somewhat disjointed, and reflective of the American psyche.

Anyway, the R.E.M. interview is a worthwhile read.

Filed under : strange // 6 Comments »

Tags: culture, music, reviews

My name is Keith McCallum, but for some reason they call me ‘Mr. Cool’. I don’t know why.

I’ve been teaching the Bible and planting churches since about 1981, beginning in Xenos in Columbus, and now in northeastern Ohio at KSU and Akron University. I’m an OSU Buckeye alumni (journalism), post-grad from Ashland Seminary, and a voracious student of life. Some of my work includes:

• Northeast Ohio Xenos senior pastor.
• Bible Teaching Podcasts
• The Scarlet Thread - a bird’s-eye view of the Bible from start to finish
• NeoZine writings on Love Ethics in the Bible.

Filed under : asides // 2 Comments »

It’s what people need - or they drift away to look somewhere else. Small groups or large, it doesn’t matter, people enter or leave groups depending on the substance.

Kyle told me about a group he visited recently. He was struck by the lack of substance in the conversations. The topics were meaningless, but people were engaged and opinionated about upcoming changes in a parking lot. No substance.

Parties grow less-appealing as people get older. A party means sipping a martini while Mr. Jones talks about the barking dog next door, and others have barking-dog stories, and we all agree we need more barking-dog laws for a barking-dog world of chaos.

“Wasn’t the babysitter supposed to be home…?” you say with a wink to your wife.

Singing Substance

Christian fellowship needs substance, too. Why hang around? Why come back?

Someone (nameless) voiced an interesting theory on the substance of Christian fellowship: singing.

Singing Christians, Xenos-style...

Singing Christians (at midnight, 2008!)

The conversation went like this:

[Read more →]

Filed under : character // 6 Comments »

Tags: events, love ethics, worship