He is Risen!

 

 

He is risen indeed!

Choices and Changes

Actually, this is not a political post despite what the title may have suggested in light of previous campaign slogans.  It is an information post regarding the future of this blog.  I’ve made no secret of the fact that blogging is merely a hobby and not an obsessive profession, or anything in between.  As life goes on, changes happen that force choices to be made in response.

Some of you may have noticed a decrease in the frequency in my visits to your blogs, and an even greater drop in the frequency of my own posts.  Moreover, the content of my posts has devolved to, in many cases, selected editorial cartoons with my commentary restricted to the title and perhaps a few choice words.  There is a reason.

I am approaching one of those significant life altering events with some twists and turns that are demanding more and more of my time and thought, as they should.  The situation may be briefly described in the following bullet points thus:

• my adult daughters have moved out not only of our house but out of state and are happily ensconced in South Carolina teaching at a Christian liberal arts university;
• my house is on the market here in Chicagoland (if you or anyone you know wants to move to the north suburbs of Chicago, they have my condolences, but by all means, put them in touch through my email);
• once my house sells, I will be retiring from my job of 25+ years as a research biochemist here in the land of Lincoln to join my daughters;
• where I actually already have a job awaiting me in the same university, if I can get there in a reasonable timeframe.

I trust y’all (practicing my Southern already) can see that this is introducing a modicum of stress into my life that squeezes out blogging at the quality level I try to achieve here at the Interface.  I hope to be able to continue as I have two series still to complete (one on Creation/Evolution and one on Christian apologetics, both of which are nearing their terminus), but my output at least for now must decrease.  And there are a few other considerations as well.  (Be forewarned, what follows is applied theology of a decidedly Christian nature.  Liberals are encouraged to inoculate themselves with whatever reality bender they normally use to ignore such information.)

Over on the top right of this blog, you will note that one of my goals for this blog is to be “like…the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do…” (1 Chronicles 12:32).  Now I ask you, how did the sons of Issachar acquire this wisdom and insight, this understanding of the times?  They had no Internet, no TV, no radio, news was word of mouth and severely limited to what people could carry with them from point A to point B at the pace of how fast their donkey, camel, horse, or own two feet could travel.  The answer is actually not a great mystery if you are familiar with their primary textbook, the Old Testament of the Bible.  There we find:

Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.  You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; For they are ever with me.  I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.  I understand more than the ancients, Because I keep Your precepts.   (Psalm 119:97-100 [NKJV])

Or consider:

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.  (Josh 1:8 [NKJV])

What is the prerequisite for success? for wisdom and understanding?  Daily meditation on God’s Word.  And for those who think this implies Bibliolatry (making an idol out of a book), realize you must incorporate the totality of Scripture (a finite volume so not an impossibility) into your model of reality with which you are trying to rationalize your own intransigence, cover your ignorance, or otherwise disagree (see my page on how to truly disagree intelligently).  For example, how else does one explain:

I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.  (Ps 138:2 [NKJV])

or

The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.  More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.  Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward.  (Ps 19:7-11 [NKJV])

God gave us His Word as an owner’s manual for His creation.  We are fools indeed to ignore it and use it as He prescribes.  What I’m trying to say here is that I personally need to be spending more time doing the above and less time surfing the web.  The providential circumstances imminent in my life require this of me if I am to meet the challenges coming my way in a gracious and efficient manner.

So…this post is a forewarning of things to come, or not come as the case may be.  I will still post here, and visit your sites as time allows.  Perhaps the best way to be sure to catch new material is to subscribe.  And future posts will probably be taking a more theological tack (although the interface of theology with life has always been a part of this blog).  If you have subscribed with my more political posts in mind and don’t want the theology, I will not be offended if you unsubscribe.  That said, I truly hope you will stay as anything I post I hope will be of some benefit to any readers thereof.

Here’s the most critical question for you…

From an old dead white guy who’s still as relevant today as he was in his own:

How are you using your time? Life is short and very uncertain. You never know what a day may bring forth. Business and pleasure, money-getting and money-spending, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage—all, all will soon be over and done with forever. And you, what are you doing for your immortal soul? Are you wasting time, or turning it to good account? Are you preparing to meet God?

This from J. C. Ryle in his tract, Thoughts on Immortality.

(HT:  JCRyleQuotes)

Much ado about Mormonism vs. Christianity

Much ado has been made about the status of Mormonism given Mitt Romney’s affiliation with that religion as a practicing member.  Now press and liberals are up in arms because a pastor of a major Baptist church in Dallas has said point blank that Mormonism is a cult, not Christianity.  (If I understand the situation, his “endorsement” of Rick Perry was personal and not in his role as pastor, but he certainly clouded the issue the way he did it.  I think using that venue was unwise, but he does have a right to express his opinion in these matters.)  This has also brought others out of the woodwork to spout their opinion, e.g., one Joel Osteen.

Really, in context, this should be much ado about nothing since Article VI of the United States Constitutions clearly states, “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

Having said that, however, there is likewise a clear definition of Christianity if you are talking about biblical Christianity, i.e., the Christianity defined in the Holy Bible.  For a much more detailed description, I invite you to read my page on the theology of this blog.  Suffice it to say that historically and biblically, five distinctives or fundamentals of Christianity have been derived from the Scriptures.  Failure to adhere to and embrace any of these five disqualifies a position from the adjective “Christian” despite how it might make the practicioners thereof feel, and regardless of how close they are to Christian behavior otherwise.

Those five distinctives are:

1. The inspiration and authority of the Bible;
2. The virgin birth of Jesus Christ;
3. The deity of Jesus Christ;
4. The substitutionary atonement achieved by Jesus Christ; and
5. The truth/reality of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Mormons do not hide their doctrine.  The history of Mormonism is well known.  It is a simple fact that it has been considered a cult by mainstream Christianity since its founding.  In point of fact, to quote the Reformation Theology post on this point:

Mormonism is not Christian at all – it is not Christian doctrine to deny the Trinity, to proclaim that the god who rules this earth (and who we are to worship) was once a man and who lives now on a planet encircling a star called Kolob; that Jesus was conceived by a sexual union between God and Mary… that the Bible has been superseeded by the book of Mormon; that Jesus’ death and resurrection merely secured an opportunity to be saved if people will work for it.

Every Mormon needs to hear and embrace the true Gospel, not be affirmed as already being a Christian, especially by someone as prominent as yourself Joel [Osteen]. If you dont know what you are talking about say nothing – admit that you have not studied what Mormonism teaches – but PLEASE don’t affirm the Mormon faith as Christian. Mormonism is the most polytheistic faith on the planet.

A close examination of that brief overview shows that several of the fundamentals are denied by Mormonism.

Now some of you may be saying, now wait a minute, this means that not only Mormonism, but a host of other allegedly “Christian churches” are not really Christian by this definition!  Yes, sadly, that is true.  There is an important distinction to be discerned here, and that is the distinction between “Christendom” and “Christianity.”  You see, as the Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon once said, “Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather it is telling the difference between right and almost right.”  Many claim to be Christian but deny critical parts of the faith and so fall into the category of Christendom rather than Christianity.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’

“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”  (Matthew 7:21-23 [NKJV])

So the bottomline is, Mormonism is not Christianity although it may be considered a part of Christendom.  But again this is irrelevant relative to the question of whether or not Mitt Romney is fit to be president of these United States.  While his religion may inform his ethics and the way he does his politics, our Constitution requires that his religion not form his policies.  This is true for every President, for every human has a religion, even  the materialist atheist.  I, for one, prefer a competent atheist to an incompetent Christian for critical matters like leading this country (or, e.g., brain surgery on yours truly).  Remember Jimmy Carter was a liberal Southern Baptist and turned out to be one of the most feckless idiots to ever inhabit the Oval Office.  (And I say that as an independent fundamental Baptist who spent considerable time in a conservative Southern Baptist church in which I was even married.)  Thus, it is much more important to ascertain whether or not he is a true conservative, and to date the evidence seems to strongly suggest otherwise.

As of right now, I may even have to go back to endorsing my candidate from 2008!

The Ultimate Arrogance

Originally posted 11 July 2008 but just as applicable today as ever (edited only to read from a more contemporary viewpoint):

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (Isaiah 14:12-14)

This passage with all its “I will” statements is usually assigned to Satan himself in his rebellion against his sovereign Lord and Creator. The declaration expresses an extreme pride and ultimate arrogance, forming an unbounded hubris that proclaims a created being will be like God.

This is precisely what man does when he thinks he can make judgments on the so-called “quality of life” of other individuals. Ultimately, to make such judgments even about one’s own life is a proclamation of one’s own godhood and a denial of the wisdom and sovereignty of the true and living God. The slippery grounds of the bioethics arena are slippery precisely because man thinks he has the wisdom and knowledge of God and thus the ability to make decisions for himself and others that are, in fact, not within his jurisdiction at all.

I am sick of euthanasia advocates whining about people’s “quality of life” as a justification for murder, to give “assisted suicide” its true name. I am sick of the arrogance that decides to starve and dehydrate someone who is inconvenient to maintain physically (usually related to monetary expense) all because they think/believe/conclude this loved one has no “quality of life” and on that basis should be terminated. “Oh, it’s the only humane and dignified thing to do!” Really? How would you know, since your decision is based on your emotions and peer-pressure rather than objective principles rooted in reality and God’s Word?

Let’s examine this for a moment with this hypothetical thought experiment:

The grandmother is an alcoholic and the father spends his evenings out drinking in the taverns. His mother has tuberculosis. She has already given birth to four children. The first child is blind, the second child died, the third child is deaf, and the fourth child has tuberculosis. Now the mother is pregnant again. Given the extreme situation and the “obvious low quality of life” the fifth child is sure to experience, would you recommend an abortion?

Think carefully and make your choice before reading on.

Doug Phillips on Steve Jobs

Many have offered up analyses and opinions and eulogies on the recent death of Steve Jobs.  Doug Phillips, the president of Vision Forum Ministries, has provided a balanced perspective from the Christian worldview that I submit for your consideration.  (Emphases added)

 

On the Death of Steve Jobs

by Doug Phillips

The fifty-six-year life of Steve Jobs has ended. What is the message?

1977 – Jobs introduces
the Apple II
(AP Photo/Apple Computers Inc., File)

First, this was the full life of one of the greatest innovators and marketing giants since Edison. He was a man who understood that the computer revolution provided an unprecedented opportunity in history to shape culture. Over the last thirty years, American culture has been shaped by Hollywood, by music videos, by Madison Avenue, by the government schools, and by Steve Jobs. It is time for Christians to take inventory of these influences and consider our response.

1984 – Jobs introduces
the Apple IIc
(AP Photo/Sal Veder, File)

Second, Jobs lived a type of aggressive life which thrived in controversy. This may be one reason why public opinion of this man unwisely tends to run from gushing idolatry to utter detestation. He showed us that businessmen could have the popularity of rock stars and the contempt of fallen politicians. My perspective on his life is different-appreciation, gratitude, disagreement, sadness. His life is a reminder that whether your name is Alexander the Great, Leonardo da Vinci, or Steve Jobs, in the end, your physical body becomes food for worms. More importantly, your eternal soul faces the same Judge that every human must stand before. This is just one reason why human idolatry is folly. We must never worship men (future worm food), but only the Lord. But it is also folly to be unduly disgusted with leaders like Steve Jobs, especially if such disgust shows a lack of appreciation for the fact that God used this man who was made in the imago dei to accomplish His providential purposes.

1984 – Jobs introduces the new “Macintosh” Personal PC
(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

Third, Jobs reminds us that men of influence must be creative, have some understanding of aesthetics, work hard, and take initiative. Jobs was a college drop-out whose calligraphy-inspired love of minimalist art would help to shape the aesthetic tastes of an entire generation, not through art, but technologies-Steve Jobs made computers elegant. He was the Wunderkind who took a financially devastated company called Apple and turned it and the business world upside-down using innovation, moxie, and creativity. He was the CEO of Pixar who gave the world some of the more memorable digital films in history. He was even once a twelve-year-old boy who demonstrated initiative by calling Mr. William Hewlett, President of Hewlett-Packard, to ask for help on a school science project. He not only got the help, but a job offer.

1990 – Jobs introduces the new NeXTstation
(AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

Fourth, Jobs gave us practical tools of dominion. That may not have been his purpose, but he did it nonetheless. For these tools I am thankful. Creating clever tools was the mark of his life. Consider that long before Jobs gave the world iPods and iMacs, he was the visionary who introduced the world to the mouse. This being said, the coming of Steve Jobs’ wonderful machines did not mean that the world would become wiser or full of more knowledge. Society may have unprecedented access to information, but this does not mean it has greater understanding. Only the fear of the Lord brings knowledge and wisdom (Proverbs 1:7; Psalm 111:10-there is a strong argument that we have become stupider and less wise because of our unprofitable use of these devices.) So while the world has changed greatly because of Apple and Jobs, we are not necessarily better off in any ultimate sense. It is righteousness and the very Spirit of God, not existence of technology, which ultimately prospers a people.

1998 – Jobs introduces the new iMac
(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

Fifth, when men take initiative, exercise diligence, and fight very, very hard, they are often rewarded with temporal success. Jobs did this. He was the beneficiary of what theologians describe as God’s common grace. Christian men can learn much, both about what to do, and what not to do, from the life of this focused, hard-working visionary.

 

2004 – Jobs introduces the iPod Mini
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

Sixth, the death of Steve Jobs reminds us that to be wise we must understand the times-our technological times. We live in a world in which technology tends to master men, not the other way around. Furthermore, technology is so ubiquitous that it is nearly inescapable. That means we better become the masters of it. Ironically, Jobs may not have written his own epitaph or obituary, but he made the tools for disseminating them. The death of Steve Jobs may be the first time in history when it could be said that most people on earth learned about the demise of a leader on a device created by the leader himself. In fact, at this moment I am writing you on a computer that Steve Jobs designed, having just spoken to my wife on my iPhone 4, and having earlier today home educated one of my children with a teaching aid on an iPad which Jobs introduced to the world less than two years ago. His technological and marketing fingerprints have become ubiquitous.

2010 – Jobs introduces the iPad
(REUTERS/Kimberly White)

Seventh, the life of Steve Jobs reminds us of one of the great fatherhood questions of our generation: Is it worth it to win the whole world, but lose the hearts of the children that God has given to us? Now to be fair, little is known of Mr. Jobs walk with his children except what he said himself. But during one of his only and final interviews on his private life, Jobs offered some insights into his personal absenteeism as a father. Walter Isaacson, Jobs’ authorized biographer, explained:

A few weeks ago, I visited Jobs for the last time in his Palo Alto, Calif., home. He had moved to a downstairs bedroom because he was too weak to go up and down stairs. He was curled up in some pain, but his mind was still sharp and his humor vibrant. We talked about his childhood, and he gave me some pictures of his father and family to use in my biography. As a writer, I was used to being detached, but I was hit by a wave of sadness as I tried to say goodbye. In order to mask my emotion, I asked the one question that was still puzzling me: Why had he been so eager, during close to 50 interviews and conversations over the course of two years, to open up so much for a book when he was usually so private? “I wanted my kids to know me,” he said. “I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.”

Jobs won the world, but he needed a writer to reach out to his children on his behalf.

Finally, there is no evidence of which I am aware from the public record of Steve Jobs that he knew Christ or biblically sought to honor God. I hope that I am wrong. But if I am not, then this means that while he accomplished much in his life, none of it matters for eternity as far as his own soul is concerned. Zero. In other words, it is possible to lead a very successful life and even to be a tool of mercy for others used in the hands of God, and yet none of your philanthropies or business accomplishments earn you one moment in Heaven.

The death of all men reminds us of the brevity of life, the lost condition of our souls, and the uselessness for earning eternal rewards through human accomplishments outside of Christ.

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” —Romans 6:23

Only one life, ‘twill soon be past.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Persevero,

Douglas Phillips,
President, Vision Forum Ministries

The Guided Missle…God’s Version

The following has nothing to do with politics, but that can be refreshing!

I love the birds of prey.  Their capabilities are fascinating and, in some cases, astounding.  To say that they are the product of mere chance over millions of years stretches credulity to the breaking point.  I’m sorry…I don’t have that much faith.

The video below shows God’s creativity in the goshawk.  This particular hawk was created to navigate through thick forests to pounce upon its prey.  It makes man’s attempts at creating guided missiles look so pathetic.  Watch and wonder!

The Theology of Tragedy

Through the wonders of modern technology, our living rooms are connected to the rest of the world in a way undreamt of in the millennia past.  In the proverbial twinkling of an eye, events on the other side of the globe are visible in full color video within moments of their happening.  Recent months have seen the forces of nature unleashed, it would seem, to wreak havoc on scales to rival nuclear disasters.  Earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados have inundated our video screens with images of total destruction.  Hundreds have died.  Even more have been so thoroughly devastated that one can only marvel at the resilience of the human spirit to be willing to continue in the face of what many would call “evil.”  Certainly the fact that humans have suffered so calls to mind the suffering of Job at the hands of an evil adversary and allowed by God for His greater glory.

But in the midst of all this, how can a Christian cling to the concept of an almighty and benevolent God?  Where is He in all this?  Is He powerless to stop such tragedy, in which case He is hardly omnipotent?  Or does He cause or allow such suffering, in which case He can hardly be considered good?

A careful reading of the Bible gives us the answers, but two quotes from men commenting on this topic are particularly useful in framing our understanding of this problem of evil (which has been debated, by the way, for centuries – there is nothing new under the sun).  First, from J. O. Buswell’s Systematic Theology (Vol. 1, page 63, Zondervan Publishing House, 1962), where he observes (emphasis added):

To show that the fact of evil is inconsistent with the omnipotence of God, one would have to show that a world in which evil could not come into actuality would be richer in moral and spiritual values than a world in which moral freedom may actually be exercised and the exceeding sinfulness of sin may be known in the concrete.

Underlying much of the controversy is the fallen human tendency to abhor any labor and pain for which we have no explanation.  As the center of our own universe, we want to know all the answers, and when they are not forthcoming, we will first blame someone or something else rather than admit that we are not in control and don’t know everything.  In other words, we assume in our pride that there can be no good in bad things.  This is a blatant fallacy, for biblical theology, not to mention our own experience if we were honest, repeatedly tells us both didactically (e.g., Romans 5:3-5; James 1:2-4) and experientially (1 Corinthians 10:11) that God uses the trials and suffering in our lives to burn out the dross and conform us into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).  Those who brandish this argument like some kind of talisman against God must prove the proposition Dr. Buswell sets before us above, or else they should remain in humble silence.

The second quotation is more for the Christian who has endured such a trial.

Did we believe that so potent and fearful a thing as sin had broken into the original holy order of the universe in defiance of God’s purpose, and is rioting in defiance of His power, we might well surrender ourselves to terror and despair.  Unspeakably comforting and strengthening is the Scriptural assurance of our Standards (Westminster Confession V:4) that beneath all this wild tossing and lashing of evil purposes and agencies there lies, in mighty and controlling embrace, a Divine purpose that governs them all.  Over sin as over all else, God reigns supreme.  His sovereign Providence ‘extendeth to the first fall and all other sins of angels and men,’ so that these are as truly parts and developments of His Providence as are the movements of the stars or the activities of unfallen spirits in heaven itself.  Having chosen, for reasons most wise and holy though unrevealed to us, to admit sin, He hath joined to this bare permission a ‘most wise and powerful bounding’ of all sin, so that it can never overleap the lines which He has prescribed for its imprisonment, and such an ‘ordering and governing’ of it, as will secure ‘His own holy ends,’ and manifest in the final consummation not only His ‘almighty Power,’ but His ‘unsearchable Wisdom’ and His ‘infinite Goodness.’

This is by E. W. Smith, The Creed of Presbyterians (page 177) quoted by Loraine Boettner in his book, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, (1965, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, Philadelphia, pages 240-241).  Here we find eloquently pointed out that even though we are not in control, the One who created the universe is, and still has, in His wisdom and providence, His hand on the shuttle weaving the tapestry of our lives.

Can God really deal with all the seemingly infinite threads of existence on this planet, let alone in the universe?  Remember, Scripture also asserts that His understanding is infinite (Psalm 147:5).  Thus, an infinite God can, by definition, handle infinite detail.

Let us rest assured that an honest student of the Bible will find there all the knowledge he needs to answer life’s questions, even those of skeptics seeking only to destroy the faith, whose destruction is sure.

He is still coming back

This last week has seen quite the brouhaha over Harold Camping’s well publicized journey into disobedient absurdity.  Many have undertaken to point out that absurdity, but my main concern is that Mr. Camping’s efforts have only “given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme.”  (2 Sam 12:14)  Cynical unbelief does not require much to pat itself on its back for its prideful rejection of anything to do with God.  Finding someone identified with Christianity who makes claims about Scripture in violation of Scripture only fuels their ridicule.

Now I was all prepared to add my two cents worth to the verbiage, but then I found two posts (by the same author, no less) that said almost all that needed to be said.

First, Dan Phillips, one of the Pyromaniacs, makes this important distinction here:

One more note: I know what people mean when they call Camping a "false prophet." He is not a false prophet, he is a false teacher. It may seem like an academic distinction, but it is an important one. Teaching falsities concerning prophecy does not make one a false prophet. Camping is not claiming to have direct personal revelation apart from Scripture, as far as I know. That is not what he does. Camping is not claiming to produce Scripture. What Camping does is to twist Scripture (2 Peter 3:16). There is a difference.

As Mr. Phillips correctly observes, Mr. Camping’s prediction was not in the form of an alleged new revelation, but an interpretation of pre-existing revelation.  Thus, the veracity of the original revelation is not necessarily diminished by his foolishness.  They are two separate things, albeit related.

But more importantly, Mr. Phillips shows us how this incident actually does bring glory to God and confirms the veracity of His Word in ways that are unintentional, unconscious, and in spite of Mr. Camping himself.  In fact, he delineates seventeen such ways!  For example:

Second, Harold Camping glorifies God because, by his refusal to repent for past false guesses and his insistence on "doubling down" and putting all his weight on yet another guess, he illustrates God’s wisdom in warning us: "Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly" (Proverbs 26:11).

This may sound harsh in a politically incorrect way, but truth is truth.

Or how about:

Fourth, Harold Camping glorifies God because his repeated false guesses about the future throw God’s exhaustive knowledge of the future — and inerrant declaration of the same through His genuine prophets — into stark and splendorous relief (Isaiah 41:22-23; 44:7 ; 46:10; Deuteronomy 18:21-22).

I strongly encourage you to look up those passages, particularly those in Isaiah.  Now one of my favorites:

Fifth, Harold Camping glorifies God because, by his repeated predictions despite past humiliation and exposure, he bears out God’s wisdom in warning that you can "Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him" (Proverbs 27:22).

While I would again encourage you to go to the above link and read them all for yourself, here is the last one:

Seventeenth, Harold Camping glorifies God by how his hopelessly (and oft-rebuked) muddled hermeneutics highlights the perspicuity of Scripture and the validity of a normal, grammatical historical theological approach — so much so that Christians of all traditions are publicly affirming the clarity of the dominical word, "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. …Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming" (Matthew 24:36, 42).

Thus, the bottomline is, God’s Word still stands.  One sinful man with his wishful thinking and false teaching does not invalidate the mass of evidence indicating that this particular book is uniquely “God breathed.”  (For those who doubt this, I invite you to fit the evidence I’ve presented in my other unfinished series on apologetics which starts here.  Deny the data at your own risk.)

Oh, and yes, Jesus will still return someday to call His own to Himself and usher in His millenial kingdom.  But we now know it won’t be next October!

Unworthy of the cloth…moral and biblical clarity lacking

From Aaron Goldstein over at the American Spectator (with emphases added):

Some clergy have come out to publicly condemn our "celebration" of Osama bin Laden’s death.

Father Edward Beck, a Catholic priest in New York City, has stated, "I am uncomfortable with the killing of Osama bin Laden being celebrated like a Superbowl win." Last night, he went on The O’Reilly Factor to discuss his views. When O’Reilly asked him how the response to the death of bin Laden was any different than the response to the end of WWII on VE Day or VJ Day, Beck replied, "But when you watch these people celebrating how does it make us any better than those in the Mideast who celebrate when America falls?"

Beck’s views of moral equivalence are echoed by George Pitcher, an Anglican priest in London. Writing in The Telegraph, Pitcher argues:

We have to be very careful about our response to the killing of Osama bin Laden. The West was appalled and deeply offended by the street celebrations in Tehran and elsewhere after 9/11, but how do rednecks in Washington DC chanting "USA! USA!" after the shooting of Osama and other members of his household compare with that?

Absolute rubbish.

Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States by telling Muslims it was their solemn duty to kill Americans be the military or civilian. Members of bin Laden’s organization carried out his fatwa on September 11, 2001. The response to the death of bin Laden was in part to praise the bravery of our soldiers and in part to remind evildoers that they reap what they sow. Those in the Middle East who danced in the streets following the attacks of September 11, 2001 chanting "Death to America!"did so out of hatred of people they deemed to be infidels. They delighted in the deaths of men, women and children.

I cannot help but think of the celebrations which broke out in the streets of Rafah following the murder of the Fogel family in the West Bank settlement of Itamar back in March. If neither Beck nor Pitcher can discern between the death of Osama bin Laden and the death of a three month old baby who had her throat slit and was decapitated because she was Jewish then I am left with no choice but to declare that both men are unworthy of the cloth.