Archive for the ‘ Akouo ’ Category

Theistic Determinism

Recently, I’ve been doing a good bit of study on issues of the will, desire, and their relationship to God’s sovereignty.

As a result of that study, I’ve moved (I believe) toward a position of Theistic Determinism, instead of my previous (self-defined, perhaps out of ignorance) soft compatibilism. However, to be completely honest, I saw quite a few different definitions for each – so this may fit better than I think.

Why’s that? Mostly because I’ve never really followed the presupposition of God’s Sovereignty to it’s philosophical conclusion before, in my thinking. Here’s my definition of what I’ve come to, as a result.

God has (Sovereignly) decreed all that will occur (i.e. all of history that ever will be), and how it is to occur . God has decreed in accordance with His intrinsic desires. God can decree whatsoever history he pleases, and by whatsoever means that history will be accomplished, as he pleases. Man’s will is in accordance with his own desires; those desires are influenced and generated by external and internal circumstance(s), environment(s), and natural inclination(s). These desires and influences are always in accordance with the decree of God; Thus, every will of man is in accordance with the decree of God. Man’s will is contingent upon God’s will, and can be said to be “free” in only a contingent manner, and with no autonomy possible. Man’s will is always in accordance with his desires, so man can never be said to be forced, or coerced into any action against his will. Man is responsible for his actions before God, regardless of his opinion of the justice of God, or the “fairness” thereof. The only valid concept of “Justice” proceeds from God’s intrinsic nature; He decrees from that Just nature, when He says that all His works are Just; Thus, God is just in declaring men responsible for all of their contingently free desires and actions.

So, let’s break that down.

1. God has (Sovereignly) decreed all that will occur (i.e. all of history that ever will be).
1a. God has decreed also how history will occur.
1b. God has decreed in accordance with his desires.
1c. God’s desires are intrinsic to Him.
1d. God can decree whatsoever history he pleases, and by whatsoever means that history will be accomplished, as he pleases.
1e. Whatsoever occurs, is contingent upon God’s decree.
(Eph 1:11, Isaiah 46:10, 48:3, 55:11, Acts 4:28, James 1:17, Prov 16:33, Numbers 23:19, Acts 2:23, Deu 28:63, 1 Sam 12:22, Jer 5:22, 18:4,6, Jon 1:14, )

2. Man’s will is in accordance with his own desires.
2b. Those desires are influenced and generated by external and internal circumstance(s), environment(s), and natural inclination(s).
2c. Those desires and influences are always in accordance with the decree of God.
2d. Every will of man is in accordance with the decree of God.
(Romans 6:12,16, Gal 5:17, Eph 3:23, 2 Ti 4:3, Jam 3:4, 4:15)

3. Man’s will is contingent upon God’s will.
3a. Man’s will can be said to be “free” in only a contingent manner, and with no autonomy possible.
3b. Man’s will is always in accordance with his desires, so man can never be said to be forced, or coerced into any action.
3c. Man is responsible for his actions before God, regardless of his opinion of the justice of God, or the “fairness” thereof.
3d. The only valid concept of “Justice” proceeds from God’s intrinsic nature.
3e. He decrees from that Just nature, when He says that all His works are Just.
3f. God is just in declaring men responsible for all of their contingently free desires and actions.
(Romans 8:5, 9, Prov 11:6, Eph 2:3)

Questions, comments, objections? (Spiritual proofs would be helpful, especially.)

Big thanks to Tur8inFan for helping me gather my thoughts – and for contributing greatly to the first section. If any error exists, it belongs to me, however… Thanks also to all of the folks who have debated me lately… you’re represented in this somewhere!

God is so, so good to me.

I found out early last week that… my wife is pregnant!

No, we don’t know whether it’s a boy or a girl. She’s like… 3-4 weeks along. So, no idea.

So, needless to say, lover of children that I am… I’m ecstatic. Beyond, actually. I really don’t have much to say, really, other than that we’re very excited.

To top it off, the day *before* that, my ex-wife (that I haven’t heard from in years – literally) contacts me, out of the blue, after searching for me on the internet (finally) – to tell me about our daughter – who I also haven’t seen or heard from in years. She’s now seven. She’s adorable! I got a picture of her last night, and she’s absolutely precious.

No details yet, on when I get to see her – but, I will get to keep my youngest all this summer. All I can say is that God is really, really good to this former prodigal son.

I hate to do meme things…

But, this video Joe Carter linked to is absolutely awe-inspiring.

I don’t know what you know about ukeleles, but they have some very, very, very tiny strings, and very, very little space to play them.

This guy… he makes it look absolutely easy. He is also incredibly good. Forget all the conceptions you have about ukeleles and hawaiian music. This is awesome.

Just some filler, but cool filler.

When Jeff Downs contacted me to do this review, I was excited. I’ve always had an interest in Eastern Religions, but the majority of my exposure to what they believe has been through historical novels, Kung-Fu movies, and just a few apologetic materials. Needless to say, my first choice, out of the list of books he gave was this one. I’m weak on the East, I must admit.

A short overview:
The author is John Renard, who is also known for his scholarly treatments of Islam. (Which, personally, I believe to be a just a bit over-sympathetic. I digress.)

It is published by Paulist Press, an American Catholic publishing house, founded by missionary priests. It is the fourth in a series of “101 Questions” books from Paulist Press, which cover Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, as well as the Church, in other volumes.

This book is a very short, very concise Q & A format study of Confucianism, Shinto, and Daoism, as the title suggests. It is arranged in nine sections, with most terms indexed for easy reference. The sections are fairly clear-cut, if pedantic.

1. Beginnings and Early Sources
2. Development and Spread
3. Doctrines and Practices
4. Authority, Law, and Ethics
5. Spirituality and Popular Piety
6. Religion and Artistic Expression
7. Internal Diversity and External Relations
8. Women, Family, and Society
9. Chinese and Japanese Traditions Here and Now

One thing you’ll notice, while crusing through this book, is that the writing style is extremely dry. It reads like a textbook, and is as interesting as most textbooks are. Which is to say, of course, not very interesting at all. It is not that the subject matter is not interesting – it is. The style the author gives to it is very much academic, and not at all engaging. I found it tough going, if quick – and I’m an omnivoracious reader, averaging 2000+ pages a week – on a slow week.

The second thing you’ll notice, if your tastes in literature are similar to mine, at least, is that the “101 Questions” style of the book does not lend itself well to a straight read-through. I found that it will work very nicely as a reference book, if you are looking for the answer to a specific question about the religions he writes about – but that it comes across quite disjointed, otherwise.

Apart from writing style and formatting, the book is very informative, despite it’s faults. It gives you quite a bit of background, history, and detail about the questions it examines. I enjoyed learning, although I didn’t enjoy reading it.

My suggestion is very simple. Use it for reference, if you get it. It has a glossary, index, subject listing, and a very exhaustive bibliography. It seems to be a good ‘beginner’s” book, or a book for general readers. Like most textbooks, it works better for reference than it does for regular reading material.

It’s not a long book. Including all of the references in the back, it is only 243 pages. It has 3 1/4 pages listing the various schools of the 3 religions, 3 pages of glossary for Chinese and Japanese terms, 6 pages of timeline, 6 1/2 pages of bibliography, and ten pages for an index. For such a short book, that’s some serious reference material.

It is fairly indepth, although concise, quickly readable and referenced.

Family Shakespeare

Check out Amanda’s post, about reading Shakespeare to her children.

Be Still, My Beating Heart – indeed.

Good stuff.

I remember why…

…I read Joe’s comments section.

From btdhguy:

And praise God for your spectacular conversion story! Saved from years of going down the dark lonely road, being a blind prisoner of sin! Saved from having an art gallery in your mind filled with scenes of years of fulfillment of past passions and pleasures! Saved from years of living in malice and envy, being hated and hating others! Saved from years of being in the habit of gratifying the cravings of your sinful nature and years of following its desires and thoughts! Saved from all those years of sexual immorality, lust, and greed, and being an object of God’s wrath! What an awesome display of God’s power and mercy and grace that you did NOT have to go through ALL THAT! What an awe-inspiring tale you have of the kinds of things that surely would have happened were it not for Jesus saving you. What a great and merciful Lord Jesus Christ we have in that He often chooses to glorify Himself in what He prevents as much as He glorifies Himself in what He redeems.

Freaking awesome. Oh, and the post is great too. Joe’s too hard on himself, by the by. RLP has nothing on him as a writer.

“The Family”: The Osteens

If you read their doctrinal statement, on their website, you’ll notice what they say.

WE

BELIEVE…

  The

Bible is the inspired and only infallible and authoritative Word of God. Salvation

has been provided and is available for people through Jesus Christ. Through His

sacrifice on the cross, we can die to our sinful nature and be born again to a

new life of purity and power.

  Water

Baptism is a symbol of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ and a testimony

to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

  The

Baptism in the Holy Spirit, according to Acts 2:4, is given to believers who ask

for it, provides power to live a sanctified and holy life and to be effective

in service to God.

  As

children of God, we are overcomers and conquerors and have authority over the

devil and his works.

This sounds great. However, as you’ll come to see, “sounding Biblical” is different than “acting Biblically.”

They even have an answer for why they don’t really present the Gospel, during sermons: “The proclamation of the Gospel comes after individuals have opened their hearts to God and turned from themselves to others. Only then are they truly ready to hear and benefit fully from the Word of the Lord.”

Sounds reasonable, right?

Before every sermon, Joel leads his congregation in the following response:

This is my Bible.
I am what it says I am.
I have what it says I have.
I can do what it says I can do.
Today I will be taught the Word of God.
I boldly confess my mind is alert, my heart is receptive.
I will never be the same.
I am about to receive the incorruptible, indestructible, ever-living seed of the Word of God.
I will never be the same.
Never, never, never.
I will never be the same. In Jesus name.
Amen.

What I have for you is something interesting. My parents went to his Lakewood Church last year. My mother has lymphatic/breast cancer, and was going to Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center.

They had heard about how large, and how great Lakewood was. So, they went to visit.

This was in the old building, before they moved to the arena. Outside, there are rows of flags. Inside, there is beautiful granite lobby. For new members, there is a room, with 12-foot ceilings. Very large. On the back wall, is a picture of “The Family”. The recently deceased Pastor John, his wife Dodie. Joel and Victoria. Paul and Jennifer. Kevin and Lisa Comes. (Lisa is John’s daughter). This picture is huge. It covers the entire back wall. The receptionists, the tour guides – they refer to the Osteens as “The Family”.

“The Family”? Hrmm. This sounds a bit Baker-like, doesn’t it?

When they asked about the flags – the 50+ flags outside – they asked: “Are those for the missionaries you support?” In many churches, they put out flags for each country they have missionaries in. The church I grew up in did that. So have several other churches I’ve attended.

The answer? “No… we have some missionaries in those countries. That’s not what they are for”.

Hrmm. Well, Lakewood prides itself in being “multicultural”. Which is fine. Their old building was located in the heart of the Houston ghetto, too. Well, a bad neighborhood, at least.

The tour guide gushed: “When visitors come, “The Family” stand right over there (in the lobby), and meet everyone, and talk to them. She points at a raised dias, well above the rest of the floor. Well, that sounds like putting them up on a pedestal to me. Literally.

Joel is the former media pastor of the church. Image, and marketing is where he comes from. Inside the sanctuary, there are riding camera pods set into the roof, which can zoom down, around, and everywhere, to film the services. The choir risers come up out of the floor. The band is arranged around a spinning globe of the world, to one side. They have Cindy Cruse-Ratcliff, Israel Houghton (or, if you prefer: here), and Marcos Witt to lead their worship. As a Music Director’s son, I can tell you – that’s an impressive lineup. She says so, as well.

But, now we come to doctrine.

“Listen folks, most of you here are born again Christians. But what I want to say to you is this is when you share your faith, don’t talk about the preacher, don’t talk about the church, talk about the fact that their sins have already been forgiven. That’s the good news. Listen; don’t dangle people over the fires of hell. Lisa and I always kid about you know we’re going to dangle them over the fires of hell. Listen, that doesn’t draw people to God. They know what kind of life they live. They know how bad they’ve lived. What you’ve got to do is talk about the goodness of God. Listen, it’s the goodness of God that brings people to repentance. It’s the goodness of God.”

That quote can be found here. This is his easter sermon.

Wait, wait… can I get a comparison to Jonathan Edwards? Anyone? Please, feel free to contribute.

*sigh*

I don’t want to judge, Joel, though. I want to point out two things.

1. He DOES preach Jesus. He mentions Jesus quite a bit, and he DOES say that Jesus is the savior, and that there are sins to be saved of. He gives the gospel – at least in some of his online sermons. Ok? He is NOT the antichrist, and he is not “our worst enemy”.

2. HOWEVER. His church, and much of his message are much, much, MUCH too man-centered. It is NOT repentance oriented. It is NOT “go, and sin no more” oriented. It is NOT spiritual meat. It is spiritual milk, being preached to thousands of spiritual babes. Because he doesn’t preach meat, he never creates spiritual adults. He keeps his thousands in their spiritual infancy.

THAT is what is dangerous. If he will not stand for doctrinal meat, if he skips over doctrinal “hard topics”, and he fails to teach, and only exhorts on a superficial level – he is failing in his calling. To teach the word of God, you need to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Which, incidentally, means dividing all of it. If he skips the meat, and stays with the milk, he will create a generation of spiritual infants, who teach other spiritual infants. Never will they grow up, and be “equipped” to fight the battle against the “principalities, and powers of this world”.

This is a problem. Joel, as I read him, definitely preaches the Bible. Unfortunately – he is too centered on himself, on “the power of thinking”, and on “faith healing”. Too much concentration on “the power of faith”. When my mother, who I mentioned was in Houston to be treated for cancer, arrived at this church – they gave her a pamphlet with detailed how she could be “miraculously healed”. Needless to say, friends – she was very, very upset. The receptionist prayer over her, and kept pushing on her back, as if she was supposed to “fall over in the Lord”.

Come now. I understand they are charismatic – but… skipping doctrine, encouraging man-centric theology/teaching, and promoting faith healing just is NOT mainline Evangelical thought. It’s not even left-leaning Evangelical thought.

He would be classified as a “charismatic” pastor, in my humble opinion. In no way should he be considered necessarily “Evangelical”, or even remotely so. He downplays too many fundamentals, and exalts too many man-centric concepts, despite the fact that he does preach, nominally, from the Bible.

So… that’s my story. And I’m sticking to it.

If you read this Joel… I love ya. But please… preach more doctrine, and less fluff, man.

Another look at the Ghetto

Short once-over.

Same (added one to the top 100, lost one. Close. Wittenberg and Adrian closing on the top 100 – Le Sabot _just_ dipping out, with In the Agora jumping in.

Lots of movement, and additions to the top 500 and top 100 ranks. I didn’t catch all of the additions – though I did catch some. I’ll do a full workdown of it over the weekend, with every current member Joe has listed. Steadily growing, with _some_ fluctuation.

Just as my twist.. “my” bloggers are bolded this time, to show the effect of large-scale aggregator/metablog + meta-niche blogging. I think it’ll be interesting. (Note: Ev. Underground has a new blog, I think. Not positive.)

(As an aside, I’ve gone from 5713 to 1018, as of this posting, since this started. So, yeah. OutPostings + meta-niching WORK. 😛 The newer/smaller blogs got _launched_. Really far.)

Numbers below.
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Updated blog numbers – 1/16

Now, this time – note how this is affecting the mid-level blogs – particularly how much they are moving. See what the “anti-ghetto” is doing? I just honestly didn’t have time to plumb the depths of the ecosystem yet again… so I just did up to 1000. We now have 50 (that I counted – I didn’t go over it that thoroughly) in the top 1,000. We were at 37 to start with.

(Links were updated for all in the top 500, and all that Joe annotated in the original. I added a |first week#| (+ /-) |second week #| to all of the link-annotated blogs.)
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Updated Blog numbers – 1/14

Oh Joe….

Look who’s the top Evangelical blog…

But, in other news… on the left is updated, on the right is the original.

Links were updated for all in the top 500, and all that Joe annotated in the original. I added a (+ #) to all of the link-annotated blogs.

Yes, Virginia… there is an Evangelical Blog swarm.
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