What is Satan? Who is our advesary?
Somehow the search term "Clay pigeon blazer" generates this post alot of hits.
Are you looking for some clay pigeons? Here is are my favorites...Clay Pigeon
We will study the myths and biblical interpretations about Satan. Christianity has no one concrete answer, but we will do our best to uncover more knowledge of our main adversary.
On Thursday Feb 26th, 7:00am we will meet at Wild Joe's coffee and search Scripture to uncover truths.
Are you looking for some clay pigeons? Here is are my favorites...Clay Pigeon
We will study the myths and biblical interpretations about Satan. Christianity has no one concrete answer, but we will do our best to uncover more knowledge of our main adversary.
On Thursday Feb 26th, 7:00am we will meet at Wild Joe's coffee and search Scripture to uncover truths.
THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL SUBJECT IN CHRISTIANITY
Recorded June 27th at Trinity Parish Episcopal Church in Seattle, The Reverend Doctor Stephen Sizer, from England, spoke to a small group consisting mostly of area clergy. His remarks related to his latest book, published by InterVarsity Press, Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armegeddon?
Rob Bell Likes His Art Chocolate and Ryan Likes His Thorny Bushes
Rob Bell is a pretty cool dude. I loved reading his comments in this interview.
In relating Rob's thoughts on creation and art to my own personal interests, I found myself retorting a hearty "AMEN BROTHA!" while reading this interview. I have always been a sort of creative person and I love art. I also have seriously studied our natural world from the perspective of a Rangeland Management Specialist. I have spent a lifetime marveling the natural beauty of our setting in the mountains of Montana; I've spent weeks and months out in the prairies and hills of the Western US doing meticulous rangeland surveys for management purposes, monitoring, and Ecological Site Descriptions, or ESDs. The more time I spend studying the creative nature of our Creator, the more I realize the "beautiful poetry about a God who gets off on things just cause they are and that to me is central to any sort of living, breathing spirituality is going to be plenty of room for things that don’t have any purpose other than their own beauty, design and order." As Rob mentions the passage in Job where God is like, "HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THE STORK?," my education and experience points me to the question, "have you considered the graceful bluebunch wheatgrass? how about the lowly slender phlox? What purpose does the indian paintbrush flower serve other than looking pretty? How beautiful is the wood's rose?
If you all are not familiar with wood's rose, most Young Earth Creationists will scowl when they observe this plant. This plant is a self-serving contradiction to their philosophy of the fall of man. The low to mid-sized bush has beautiful red flowers that produce a fleshy, red, globose to ellipsoid fruit called rose "hips". The real kicker to this plant is that it has those "cursed" thorns! Ha! Sometimes the imagination of a YEC perplexes me... Last year at a Creation Science Conference held here in Bozeman by our local Grace Bible Church, a very educated looking man tried explaining to me the proof that he had that these thorns magicly appeared on these once beautiful flowers after Adam decided to piss God off. He pulled a very professional looking book off his table and illustrated the "hyper-evolution" of thorns that took place once the entire Creation was deemed "cursed." It was at this same conference that I sat through a lecture that described that our beautiful Montana hilly landscape is a result of "water gaps" that formed as the world wide flood waters of judgement subsided. With this narrow and twisted perspective that many Christians have about our natural world today, the intrinsic beauty around them is lost as they fit their worldview into a simple mis-interpretation of scriptures. That is pretty sad.
It was at this same conference at GBC that I tried passing out some free copies of "Beyond Creation Science." Of course, the people in charge of the book table did not want me and my censored books anywhere near their stash of doctrinally homogeneous material causing controversy. Nevertheless, I succeeded in placing about a half-dozen copies in the hands of respective truth-seekers.
Rob Bell says at the end of the interview, "I think you have to cry out to God and and asked to be delivered from a system. American culture in the year 2008 is an oppressive system. It tells you to just buy, to follow the rules and be happy. I think you have to ask whether or not you want to be delivered from the system because that’s what it is... People have to ask themselves questions about what they even want or desire. Because it all begins with a deep dissatisfaction of how things are. And we do not change without pain. So a person would have to be in enough pain and despair to say “I do not want to be a part of this anymore. God, please show me another way of understanding things.”
Just as Rob Bell's "My Sweet Lord" chocolate sculpture serves as a commentary on the church in America and as a brilliant and provocative piece of art, the unmistakable beauty and creativity found in a little thorny bush out in my Montana backyard can be just as provocative.
In relating Rob's thoughts on creation and art to my own personal interests, I found myself retorting a hearty "AMEN BROTHA!" while reading this interview. I have always been a sort of creative person and I love art. I also have seriously studied our natural world from the perspective of a Rangeland Management Specialist. I have spent a lifetime marveling the natural beauty of our setting in the mountains of Montana; I've spent weeks and months out in the prairies and hills of the Western US doing meticulous rangeland surveys for management purposes, monitoring, and Ecological Site Descriptions, or ESDs. The more time I spend studying the creative nature of our Creator, the more I realize the "beautiful poetry about a God who gets off on things just cause they are and that to me is central to any sort of living, breathing spirituality is going to be plenty of room for things that don’t have any purpose other than their own beauty, design and order." As Rob mentions the passage in Job where God is like, "HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THE STORK?," my education and experience points me to the question, "have you considered the graceful bluebunch wheatgrass? how about the lowly slender phlox? What purpose does the indian paintbrush flower serve other than looking pretty? How beautiful is the wood's rose?
If you all are not familiar with wood's rose, most Young Earth Creationists will scowl when they observe this plant. This plant is a self-serving contradiction to their philosophy of the fall of man. The low to mid-sized bush has beautiful red flowers that produce a fleshy, red, globose to ellipsoid fruit called rose "hips". The real kicker to this plant is that it has those "cursed" thorns! Ha! Sometimes the imagination of a YEC perplexes me... Last year at a Creation Science Conference held here in Bozeman by our local Grace Bible Church, a very educated looking man tried explaining to me the proof that he had that these thorns magicly appeared on these once beautiful flowers after Adam decided to piss God off. He pulled a very professional looking book off his table and illustrated the "hyper-evolution" of thorns that took place once the entire Creation was deemed "cursed." It was at this same conference that I sat through a lecture that described that our beautiful Montana hilly landscape is a result of "water gaps" that formed as the world wide flood waters of judgement subsided. With this narrow and twisted perspective that many Christians have about our natural world today, the intrinsic beauty around them is lost as they fit their worldview into a simple mis-interpretation of scriptures. That is pretty sad.
It was at this same conference at GBC that I tried passing out some free copies of "Beyond Creation Science." Of course, the people in charge of the book table did not want me and my censored books anywhere near their stash of doctrinally homogeneous material causing controversy. Nevertheless, I succeeded in placing about a half-dozen copies in the hands of respective truth-seekers.
Rob Bell says at the end of the interview, "I think you have to cry out to God and and asked to be delivered from a system. American culture in the year 2008 is an oppressive system. It tells you to just buy, to follow the rules and be happy. I think you have to ask whether or not you want to be delivered from the system because that’s what it is... People have to ask themselves questions about what they even want or desire. Because it all begins with a deep dissatisfaction of how things are. And we do not change without pain. So a person would have to be in enough pain and despair to say “I do not want to be a part of this anymore. God, please show me another way of understanding things.”
Just as Rob Bell's "My Sweet Lord" chocolate sculpture serves as a commentary on the church in America and as a brilliant and provocative piece of art, the unmistakable beauty and creativity found in a little thorny bush out in my Montana backyard can be just as provocative.
How do you know what you know?
Proverbs 18:13 "If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame."
Bodily Resurrection: Wright, Alcorn, and more
The current issue of Newsweek includes a commentary by Lisa Miller entitled "God's Miraculous Makeover." The piece discusses a renewed Christian interest in bodily resurrection, and is a worthwhile read.
Bruce's Latest Christian/American History Chroncile Piece
Requested by Ryan, here is the text of my latest letter to the editor in the Bozeman Chronicle.
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Blake Dunlop (Jan. 17) argues that America “was substantively a Christian society” in the 1770s, and that colonial theocracies did not exist.
Let’s examine these claims.
In 1740, H.F. Uhden published “New England Theocracy,” one of many volumes documenting colonial theocracies. He speaks of the “Expulsion of Roger Williams,” the Baptist who “first contested” the “established theocracy” (of Massachusetts Bay Colony). From Williams forward, Baptists who lived in theocratic colonies were beaten, whipped, jailed, exiled, and had their children and lands confiscated — all by order of the theocratic state for practicing their faith convictions. Some Quakers were executed for their faith. Only members of the established church had citizenship rights.
What of religion in the revolutionary era? Baptists were yet jailed and beaten in Virginia and Massachusetts. Approximately 15 percent of Americans attended church. And while most of the nation’s founding fathers had religious beliefs of some kind, most were deists. Only one, Samuel Adams, professed orthodox Christian beliefs.
In the colonial era a “Christian society” was one in which proper beliefs were enforced by edict. American politicians of the late-18th century refined this concept, rejecting theocracy yet speaking of a nation providentially blessed and mystically guided by a Creator or Supreme Being. Many years later, in the 1950s, specific references to God were added to the Pledge of Allegiance, currency, and oaths of office recited by federal justices and judges.
In short, the evidence is indisputable that theocracies existed in the colonial era. But the question of a Christian society is more complicated. In terms of church attendance and public God language, today’s America is much more “Christian” than that of the 1770s and 1780s. And in regard to human rights, American society today is much more Christian than during the slavery and Jim Crow eras.
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Blake Dunlop (Jan. 17) argues that America “was substantively a Christian society” in the 1770s, and that colonial theocracies did not exist.
Let’s examine these claims.
In 1740, H.F. Uhden published “New England Theocracy,” one of many volumes documenting colonial theocracies. He speaks of the “Expulsion of Roger Williams,” the Baptist who “first contested” the “established theocracy” (of Massachusetts Bay Colony). From Williams forward, Baptists who lived in theocratic colonies were beaten, whipped, jailed, exiled, and had their children and lands confiscated — all by order of the theocratic state for practicing their faith convictions. Some Quakers were executed for their faith. Only members of the established church had citizenship rights.
What of religion in the revolutionary era? Baptists were yet jailed and beaten in Virginia and Massachusetts. Approximately 15 percent of Americans attended church. And while most of the nation’s founding fathers had religious beliefs of some kind, most were deists. Only one, Samuel Adams, professed orthodox Christian beliefs.
In the colonial era a “Christian society” was one in which proper beliefs were enforced by edict. American politicians of the late-18th century refined this concept, rejecting theocracy yet speaking of a nation providentially blessed and mystically guided by a Creator or Supreme Being. Many years later, in the 1950s, specific references to God were added to the Pledge of Allegiance, currency, and oaths of office recited by federal justices and judges.
In short, the evidence is indisputable that theocracies existed in the colonial era. But the question of a Christian society is more complicated. In terms of church attendance and public God language, today’s America is much more “Christian” than that of the 1770s and 1780s. And in regard to human rights, American society today is much more Christian than during the slavery and Jim Crow eras.
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Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
We’ll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song
I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that’s all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed
‘Cause the banners, they are flown in the next war
I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
No, no!
I’ll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky
Though I know that the hypnotized never lie
Do ya?
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
There’s nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Are now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight
I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again
No, no!
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss