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Yearly Archives: 2009
Call Me a Heretic if You Want x•x•x Trinity Doctrine Made Easy
One “kind” of being, three actual beings of that “kind.” That’s it.
The concept of the Trinity (God = one in essence and three in persons) is not hard to understand. There is no mystery to it. People just get tripped up with the semantics.
If I have human triplets (who would then have a human nature [nature x]) that each grow up to have the same moral character (character y), they would all be one in essence or nature (nature x + character y = essence). Three persons, one essence.
What’s so hard about that?
Here … I’ll make it even easier. The following letters have the same essence/nature as letters of written communication with the same size even, same shape, same everything, except there’s THREE of them:
X X X
What’s so hard about that?
So … God, as defined by the Nicene Creed teaches that there are three beings who are divine, and therefore each have all that is appropriate to that divine nature. Three persons … one divine nature. One “kind” of being, three actual beings of that “kind.” Simple. Easy. Fun. Yippee. Yay.
:: Johnny Hunt Talks About Calvinism and the SBC ::
Is there room for Calvinists in the SBC? Hear Johnny Hunt answer this question as he addresses the tension in the SBC over Calvinism with a personal story on the latest U R B A N G L O R Y podcast.
I appreciate the way Johnny address the issue. I, for one, think that when Christians start dividing over Calvinism, they need to repent by valuing the gospel more and our theological distinctive less. This is what I call having an affectional symmetry for doctrine.
::_:::__::::___:::::____HT: U R B A N G L O R Y
UPDATE: This podcast is not longer available, as the U R B A N G L O R Y project was terminated not long after it was launched.
:: Gay Bars Receive Death Threats in Seattle :: Same Sex Stuff
The Homosecular Gaytheist blog reports that
Eleven gay bars in Seattle have been targeted with ricin attacks.
The post displays a picture of the actual letter of threat, and Gaytheist laments
And Christians still say that they’re unjustly persecuted and that the gays are doing the persecuting.
____–___-__-_-_-HT: Homosecular Gaytheist
G O D changes his M I N D •::•::• Jonah 4:2
It’s part of God’s unchanging nature to change his heart and intentions whenever people repent from their evil ways. The following is my translation of the text.
So he prayed unto Yahweh and said, “Oh Yahweh was not this my word when I was in my land? Therefore I fled before you unto Tarshish because I knew that you are a gracious God and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding with kindness and relenting from calamity. –Jonah 4:2
I was pleased to find this excerpt from Robert B. Chisholm Jr. in A Workbook for Intermediate Hebrew: Grammar, Exegesis, and Commentary on Jonah and Ruth (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic and Professional, 2006), 83.
The appearance of the participle in this list of divine characteristics suggests that God’s capacity to change his mind with respect to sending calamity … is typical of his nature, like the other attributes listed before this. In this regard see Jeremiah 18:7-8. God’s immutability (the doctrine that he is unchanging in his very essence or nature) logically demands that he be flexible in his relationships with humans. In other words, because he is immutably compassionate and predisposed to be merciful, he is willing to relent from sending calamity when human beings respond properly to his warnings. God makes plans and announces his intentions, but human response can and often does impact God’s decision as to what will actually take place.
::: Tatoo’s are Okey Dokey ::: David Dunham
David Dunham looks at two verses that people cite to condemn Christians getting tatoo’s. Here is an excerpt from his discussion of Leviticus 19:28 which reads, “You shall not tatoo yourselves.”
Verse 27 states that men should not trim their sideburns or beards. Why is it that my critics are quick to cite verse 28, but do not themselves see a problem with breaking verse 27? We can both trim our facial hair and tattoo our bodies because these commands are part of Jewish civil law and therefore do not apply to Christians.
____—-___–__-_-_HT: Christ and Pop Culture
:: :: Paige Patterson’s Lifestyle Under Criticism :: ::
Celucien L. Joseph gives the following summary after reading Wade’s thoughts.
While SWBTS staff and faculty are being laid off and salaries reduced, the Pattersons continue to maintain a large personal staff. Mrs. Patterson has an assistant and a research assistant. Dr. Patterson has an executive assistant, secretary, personal assistant, and four interns. The Pattersons also have a large staff at their house. They have employeed at least one chef, though it is widely believed there are at least two chefs, possibly more, on the payroll. There are a minimum of four hostesses/servers, a director for the Presidential house, two people who are paid to walk their dogs, and other staff paid to clean their cars and do other household chores and errands for the Pattersons, Wade reports.
I would love to see the blogosphere discuss Patterson’s lifestyle, whether the claims are exaggerated and whether Southern Baptists (or other Christians) think such a lifestyle is reproachable or not.
_________–___–__–_-_____HT: Christ, My Righteousness
:: U R B A N G L O R Y :: Launched 05.01.09 ::
U R B A N G L O R Y is now launched. We are still troubleshooting with minor details. For example, there is no picture up for our second podcast interview with Johnny Hunt. Our search engine isn’t working yet for some reason. We will fix these soon, but for now, go and check out our bare-bones launch. We have two podcasts up so far, and will be attempting to post three times a week. For the materials of our upcoming podcasts see my previous post.
UPDATE: Windows explorer browsers are acting funny to our website, so if you can’t download the website yet, just hang in there and we will be trying to fix that soon. If your using other browsers they should work fine.
_____—–___—___—_-_–__HT: U R B A N G L O R Y
Kanye West Starting a New Genre? ::: Postmodern Negro Anthony
Check out this article I found about Kanye West.
___-_-_-_-_-__-___-___-___-_HT: Belief.net :: Tony Jones :::::
____-___-__-__-_-_-_-_-HT: Musing of a Postmodern Negro
T h e o • p h i l o g u e 