Geoff's Miscellany

A few days ago, I read that an article had been published in a peer-reviewed journal two years back which argued that post-birth abortion wasn’t really infanticide. I thought that things were surely exaggerated. I really hoped that the article was written as a piece of speculative ethics meant to say, “If we accept ‘a’, then ‘b’ must surely follow.” It is not speculative, I fear. I found the article on Ebsco (thankful to be back in college, an ebsco article a day keeps the boredom away). Here is the abstract:

Today I read Proverbs 24:6:

...for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.

In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.

I thought that in the military setting mentioned, the meaning of 24:6 is clear. If you have help from people who understand the terrain, the weapons in use, and the other military then your victory (or quick surrender) are more likely to succeed. If you read your Von Clauswitz and Sun Tzu, you’ll be more likely to succeed. If you’re a martial artist, but you only know boxing and a jiu-jitsu guy gets a grip on you, have a nice nap. But if you’ve learned from both styles, then your chances of success increase.

I think a lot of young Christians in their desire to be radical apply certain verses of Scripture in really extreme and naive ways. For instance, “Love…believes all things (1 Cor 13:7)”.

If you go back and read 1 Corinthians, this is not an indicator of how love always handles everything. It is a description of how love handles disagreement and misuse of gifts in church meetings and why love is superior to any ability that can help the church (it mediates between abilities). Thus, love believes the best of people that you find grating or irritating. Does love actually believe “all things” in all circumstances? Check out this paragraph from Proverbs:

In a wonderful little essay, Jesus the Logician, Dallas Willard observed:

To be logical no doubt does require an understanding of what implication and contradiction are, as well as the ability to recognize their presence or absence in obvious cases. But it also requires the will to be logical, and then certain personal qualities that make it possible and actual: qualities such as freedom from distraction, focused attention on the meanings or ideas involved in talk and thought, devotion to truth, and willingness to follow the truth wherever it leads via logical relations. All of this in turn makes significant demands upon moral character. Not just on points such as resoluteness and courage, though those are required. A practicing hypocrite, for example, will not find a friend in logic, nor will liars, thieves, murderers and adulterers. They will be constantly alert to appearances and inferences that may logically implicate them in their wrong actions. Thus the literary and cinematic genre of mysteries is unthinkable without play on logical relations.

Introduction Certainly, the problem of evil is philosophically persistent and even more certainly is it emotionally difficult. I think that the problem of evil has multiple solutions many of which are true and many of which are entirely compatible with one another. And though I find the problem interesting and though the problem in some way bears upon this post, I think that it can be put aside for the purposes of what follows. Whether the problem of evil has a solution or not, here we are and we face struggles, trials, unfair horrors, and nature-inflicted deformations of personhood and body. The question is this, “How shall I respond?” I don’t mean this in some insensitive way, where I claim that all difficulties are actually a good thing. Evil is evil. I mean it in this precise way:

John Gill’s thoughts on what it means of have knowledge of the Son of God or faith in Christ:

…and of the knowledge of the Son of God; which is but another phrase for faith in Christ, for faith is a spiritual knowledge of Christ; it is that grace by which a soul beholds his glory and fulness, approves of him, trusts in him, and appropriates him to itself; and such an approbatory, fiducial, appropriating, practical, and experimental knowledge of Christ, is here intended; and which is imperfect in those that have it, and is not yet in many who will have it; and inasmuch as the Gospel ministry is the means of it, this will be continued until every elect soul partakes of it, and arrives to a greater perfection in it: for it follows…

On Being Radical David Platt, in his book Radical, challenges Christians that if they would do five things over the course of a year, they would find themselves “coming alive like never before (Platt 186).” Here are the five things (185):

1. Pray for the entire world;
2. Read through the entire Word;
3. Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose;
4. Spend your time in another context;
5. Commit your life to a multiplying community.

At least people who do that list are doing something right? Many genuine Christians never thought about doing some things on that list. Platt’s pastoral concerns are valid in that respect. So what if some of them don’t really make sense? Why care? Well, as a minister to college students and a student returning to college, I find that concern for excellence in studies and in the workplace is at an all-time low. I also find that college age people can have a tendency to be yes-men and yes-women. If you’re a college student who is interested in understanding the Bible and being Jesus’ disciple, watch out. Ten different ministry leaders will probably come ask you to sign up for this or that cause. Many of these causes and ministries are good things. But the question is this: are these the things to which you should dedicate your time at this stage in your life?

As somebody who teaches Bible to college students at my local church, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated by popular misconceptions about Christianity that seem merely to confuse people for the sake of sounding novel. For instance, the claim that Jesus didn’t come to make people good confuses people who do not read theology books for a living.

In a post over at Reknew, Greg Boyd makes the claim (by title and content) that Jesus and by extension the New Testament do not teach ethical behavior. Here are some quotes:

One of the weirdest features of life that I’ve noticed since going back to college is that the tone of several aspects of life has radically changed. For instance, criticism of student work is taken personally far more often than it ever was ten years ago when I first attended college. I’ve also noticed that people are far less likely (this is by observation, so I could be wrong) to admit fault when they receive a bad grade.

Why Do People Not Go to Church? It is very easy to find church attendance unpleasant.

I have enjoyed going to church services since my early teenage years, but mostly because my bent has always been toward the philosophical and sermons offer (when done well) a great deal of food for thought.

But I still remember being in high school and finding the singing, the hugs, and the other bits unpleasant. Some people feel that being there Sunday morning is a waste of time, some would rather watch sports, do chores, sleep off a hangover, or make money on Sunday.