Where’s Waldo?

I’ll bet some of you are wondering – what the heck has happened to me?

Well, it’s a long story, actually. Yet, to be honest, it’s one I’ve been scrapping for time to tell you. In fact, I’m transcribing from a notebook that I wrote it in, for transfer to the blog 😀 (Which is how I often write posts. I jot them down in my ever-present notebook, and expand them on the blog.)

So, anyway, as I referred to in my previous post – I met a girl. My pastor’s wife played matchmaker, actually. She was referred to me, because she had a computer problem. Or three. So, I fixed her computer, and she got my email address through that – which ends in razorskiss.net… My pastor’s wife saw us talking, and decided we made a cute couple…
Read the rest of this entry

Daily Cut: A Guilty Edition :D

Ok, ok, I haven’t been blogging. At all.

I have a new girlfriend – who will soon become a fiancee. And who I am spending an inordinate amount of time with. At the expense of blogging…

Hey, the hours have to come from somewhere…

Conviction:

letters from babylon has this gem for us:

But one gray-haired lady didn’t buy it. She stuck a finger in his chest and said, “You’re fooling everybody but God and me.”

Go read the rest. I have, and we all have, a sort of double life. Who are we trying to fool? Yes, for a certain someone – this did convict me for that reason. We both know why – and I’m sure you agree.

Found

Blue Goldfish nails 21 Theses to his blog

View from the Pew awards a Clewie for conspicuous misue of a religious term….

A blog I think deserves mentioning: This is not for You – go check it out.

Matt Friedeman’s In the Fight always picks great articles to comment on. Take this one, for example…

Disgusted…

Mumon goes off the deep end again. Unsurprisingly.

Ok, I blogged something. And I’m back reading through The Great Evangelical Disaster.

So expect at least a little something from there, soon. I hope.

Oh, and Vox is up.

Move Complete.

Same domain, new server, new database.

And there was much rejoicing.

Vox Apologia XI

IS UP!

Now… I want to give a couple of shoutouts.

One, to my brother. He freaking rocks. His graphics, as usual, are insanely good.

Two, to Catez, from AllThings2All, and to Tim, from Church Voices. They both helped a great deal.

Three, to the rest of the Vox Team. They rock, too.

Now – the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Vox Apologia XI. Click on the graphic below – and get ready to have your freakin’ socks knocked off. Oh, and feel free to explore, after you read. That’s the idea.

Hear the bells ringing, they’re singing
That we can be born again!
Hear the bells ringing, they’re singing
Christ is risen from the dead!
The angel, up on the tombstone
Said He is risen; just as He said!
Quickly now, go tell His disciples
That Jesus Christ is no longer dead!
Joy to the world!
He is risen hallelujah!
He is risen hallelujah!
He is risen hallelujah, hallelujah!

Joy to the world, He’s risen! Hallelujah!
He’s risen, hallelujah!
He’s risen, hallelujah, hallelujah!

The angel, up on the tombstone
Said He has risen, just as He said!
Quickly now, go tell His disciples
That Jesus Christ is no longer dead!

Joy to the world, He has risen, hallelujah!
He’s risen, hallelujah!
He’s risen, hallelujah!
Hallelujah!

– 2nd Chapter of Acts, Easter Song (Album: With Footnotes)

Reminder: Vox Apologia XI

The subject is: Answering Objections: God’s Way?.

2 things I want to note.

First: These will be the inaugural posts in the new setup for Vox Apologia – which will be revealed this edition. The “suprise” is almost ready – and I think you’re going to like it. So, please, submit your entries, will you?

Second: I’d like to expand on the topic a bit.

The “objections” refers to objections to Christianity, to belief in Christianity, or objections to aspects of God which are barriers to the above.

ie: The Argument From Evil.

How do we respond to arguments about, or objections made about, God, Following Him, or the like – and do it in a way that honors God? This is a crucial subject – because it is something every apologist has to engage in, at one point – and when we do, it must honor God, or we are doing it in vain.

I’d like to hear your thoughts. I will certainly share mine.

Vox Apologia X

Welcome: To the Vox Apologia Symposium X. This is edition 10, which means the Vox Apologia Symposium has reached 2 1/2 months running now! I had no idea it would receive such an awesome response from you all – and I am grateful you’ve participated thus far! I look forward to many, many more great symposiums in the future, as well.

Today’s host is, unfortunately, me again.

I WAS going to have a surprise for you.. but I couldn’t pull it off just yet. However, like last week, the graphic is a preview of the surprise…

The graphic you see is by my brother, Paul, aka “BrainCatalyst”. I hope you stop by his site, when you’re through. I enjoy his work – in fact – it’s all over my site. Including the banner, you see above.

Today’s subject is “Presuppositional Apologetics: Target Audience”. I was very specific, because this is something I’m not overly familiar with. So… I figured that there may be others who are not, either.

There were some absolutely GREAT entries this week. Only two of them – but they were excellent counterpoints – and took completely different approaches.

Submission

Jeff Downs, from Counter-Cult gives us a few of his thoughts on “The Subject” He writes: “Presuppositional apologetics is a concrete all or nothing, worldview apologetic. The natural outworking will be for the believer to call the unbeliever (whatever form that takes) to repent of his “supposed” autonomy and give credit where credit is due – The Triune God of Christianity.”
Jeremy “Parableman” Pierce has a bit of a different take on The Subject.. His post argues that presuppositional apologetics (at least in its standard form) is both unwarranted and ineffective by its very nature (and especially so in a postmodern generation).
If you have a late entry, you are still welcome to send it in. As always, entries from a non-Christian perspective will never be entered as part of the Vox Apologia, as it is a specifically Christian defense, discussion of Christian doctrine, or the principles of Christian apologetics. Entries from that perspective, if you wish to send them, may be displayed at a separate location, once the central archive is complete.
Next Week!


The host will be at a surprise location. The subject is “Answering Objections: God’s Way?” Send entries HERE, no earlier than Thursday, March 24th, no later than midnight EST, Sunday, March 27th.
Graphics courtesy of:


My brother, and a graphics guru.
Got Defense?


Join Vox Apologia!

“being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence”

The Vox Apologia is a weekly symposium, conducted on a “thematic” basis. It includes blog entries based around a single theme, in order to garner varying perspectives – which will be assembled, as time passes, as a database of sorts. Each edition of the Vox Apologia is ‘guest hosted’ with commentary from the guest host, relevant to each submitted article, where possible, and a graphic – if desired. Participants need not be members of the Apologetics Aggregator, nor do the entry URLs submitted have to be those of the participant. Submission guidelines and a short FAQ are here.

Credit goes to Gary Cruse, of The Owner’s Manual, for the presentation concept. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.

The next Vox, unfortunately, will be hosted here once again. I’ll have it up tomorrow morning, once I get back from work.

I got tapped to work tonight… again. Which means that I worked Saturday night, had church this morning, had 3 hours or so of sleep between church services – and now have to go to work again. So, obviously… I haven’t had much time. (For those who don’t know, I have a new job, on graveyard shift – as well as a couple other projects and personal concerns which have severely curtailed my blogging. So, please excuse my lack of posting lately.)

Which was the time I WAS going to use to finish that surprise I talked about. I *should* have that surprise up and ready by the next Vox – and running how it’s supposed to be. Until then… please be patient, and thank you for your consideration! I do appreciate it.

I know several of you have left comments that I really should reply to… and I will. I have projects I *need* to get done – and they are my first priority at the present time. Blogging was, to be honest, supposed to be a part-time hobby to begin with. For a while, it became almost an all-consuming thing, due to the need I felt to organize and link together the apologetic bloggers, and to seek out and find as many as I could, so you could all meet each other. That has been my passion for the last few months – and still is. When my time constraints returned to normal, I had to set something up to continue the ministry I started, with a smaller time “budget” – and that’s what I’m trying to get set up. So… please be patient. In doing so, I’ve run into those time restraints (as well as discovering more…), while simultaneously trying to cover several other projects.

In other words… neither my available time, nor my time management skills have been up to the task. So, I apologize for not coming through on my promises on time.

Once this is done, I’m hoping we’ll have a newer, better Daily Cut style series, an awesome home for the Vox Apologia Symposium, and a reference library for apologetics blogging. Circumstances just haven’t let me accomplish everything I had planned to do, in the time I had to do them. I’ve barely blogged at all in the past few weeks! I will get back to blogging, and to “normal” (albeit with a bit less time, which, honestly, has been a long time coming :D) soon – but, in the meantime, please be patient. I really think you’ll like the results coming from my recent hiatus.

Once again.. stand by for updates. And thank you, as always, for visiting my humble abode.

Thanks!
~RK

Vox Apologia X

This week’s theme is “Presuppositional Apologetics: Target Audience“.

Presupposition Apologetics presupposes the existence of God. Who is this style of apologetics best suited for, and why? Who is it NOT suited for?

This is a strictly apologetical topic – which I know many of you have asked for. So, enjoy – and send ’em on in. Location will be announced in a post, and on the sidebar to your right.

Send submissions to: this address.

P.S. – Sorry about the wait, folks.

Vox Apologia IX

Welcome to Vox Apologia IX! This week’s submissions were simply incredible. I applaud you for your excellent work.

I received two entries from antithetical worldviews this week – and I decided not to post them inside Vox itself. Counterpoint entries will be listed elsewhere – and I will let you know when/where that will be.

From here on out, I have an announcement. There won’t be any more roving hosting of Vox. I will explain why next week – and you’ll see why that is.

After all that is out of the way… Welcome: To the Vox Apologia Symposium IX.

Today’s host is yours truly – Joshua Whipps, aka “RazorsKiss”. The graphic you see is by my brother, Paul, aka “BrainCatalyst”. I hope you stop by his site, when you’re through. I enjoy his work – in fact – it’s all over my site. Including the banner, you see above.

Today’s subject is “Glory to Man in the Highest: Humanism’s Dangerous Lie”. I kept the definition and description purposely specific, to see the response. Several people took a similar approach, several people took “the road less traveled”. Both types of entries complement each other well.

This was an absolutely excellent Vox – as you are about to find out. Thank you once again.

Submission

Blogotionalreminds us that “Humanism is incompatible with religion and idolatrous for Christians” He writes: “Even those that hold moral relativism feel the need to somehow add some “authority” to it. So, it appears to me that they came up with a school of philosophy that attempts to do that.”
Mike, from The Jesus Freak brings us The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Man and the Root of Sin.. He writes:
“It is said that there have been more people killed in the name of God than anything. What a crock. Humanism has killed 40 million from abortion in this country. It has killed about 60 million in Communist China. Stalin killed about 100 million in the name of humanism. I could go on and on … I hope no one ever tries to treat me “humanely”, I can think of nothing more scary. If it is a question of whether the Godly way or the humane way is better it is no contest. Humanism is completely bankrupt.”
From John at Lucid Moments, we get The Lonely Humanist. He writes: Humanism in it’s most benign form desires to give comfort to its followers. Emptied of any religious or spiritual belief, it places humanity at the pinnacle of order on this world of dirt and blood. And that is humanism’s most dangerous claim. Isolated from God, the hopes of humanism to redeem humanity’s time on earth and give comfort to its adherents must by necessity create despair. It is lonely at the top.
Phil, from the inimitable Every Thought Captive, tells us about The Deadly Paradox of Humanism. He writes: Humanism has, all at the same time, glorified the potential of the human being and debased its nature altogether. This paradox is currently highlighted by the conflicting realities of frighteningly amazing medical advances capable of extending life well beyond a point which used to be considered ‘natural’, and the morally horrific circus which is the Terri Schaivo case.
My own post is titled “Humanism’s Dangerous Claim“. I write: “Humanism makes a dangerous claim. That there is no spirit, that there is no God, and that there is nothing outside of man to give him meaning.

It is a lie – and it is not even a clever lie.”

Dave, from Revenge of Mr. Dumpling has his own claim: Humanism is An Exercise in Futility He writes:
This, then, is Humanism’s greatest lie, and most dangerous claim, that humanity can make it on its own. Not only does this choke humanity’s progress by perpetuating its rebellious and self destructive behaviour, it only leads to despair… It is only when we make the hardest decision of all, to ask for help, that we can change and begin to progress, and in doing so make the world a better place. Despite its good intentions, Humanism has no answers, and until we realise that the world will never get any better, and we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
Rey, from The Bible Archive, gives us Humanism: You Will Be Like God. He writes: “Man has proven that although he can decide and can make choices for the good—he will repeatedly choose the wrong in direct opposition to the Eternally Good that does not change. Fault, now compounded, when Deity presented Himself and man shrugged off His authority and slew Him.

Now they do the same, not with nails but with the doctrine of their minds and empty ethics based on nothing but what is right in one’s own eyes.”

Next Week!


The host will be a surprise. A surprise I think you will like. Send entries
HERE
, no earlier than Thursday, March 17th, no later than midnight EST, Sunday, March 20th.
Graphics courtesy of:


My brother, and a graphics guru.
Got Defense?


Join Vox Apologia!

“being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence”

The Vox Apologia is a weekly symposium, conducted on a “thematic” basis. It includes blog entries based around a single theme, in order to garner varying perspectives – which will be assembled, as time passes, as a database of sorts. Each edition of the Vox Apologia is ‘guest hosted’ with commentary from the guest host, relevant to each submitted article, where possible, and a graphic – if desired. Participants need not be members of the Apologetics Aggregator, nor do the entry URLs submitted have to be those of the participant. Submission guidelines and a short FAQ are here.

Credit goes to Gary Cruse, of The Owner’s Manual, for the presentation concept. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.

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