Mike @ L2 Today

We’ve moved… Visit the new blog at www.mmcgirk.blogspot.com

In the Introduction to The Reason for God, Tim Keller says, “There is a great gulf today between what is popularly known as liberalism and conservatism.  Each side demands that you not only disagree with but disdain the other as (at best) crazy or (at worst) evil.  This is particularly true when religion is the point at issue.”  Honestly, I’m not above that.  For the most part, I take what I intend to be humorous jabs at what seems to me to be silly, absurd, or just plain wrong (and adamant about it).  At times, however, I do swing for the bleachers - hey… if you’re going to just hang it in the strike zone I’ll swing at it.

The tendency to take the position (or expect/instruct others to take the position) that it isn’t enough to disagree with others but that you must disdain them as well is just simply not on solid biblical ground.  Consider Paul’s instruction to Timothy (1Ti 2:24,25):

“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.  God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth…”

This obviously does not mean that we can’t know what’s true or that everything is true.  It simply means that we hold our positions but we hold them humbly and are gracious in our dealings with those with whom we disagree whether they reciprocate or not.  But… sometimes people need to take themselves less seriously.  If they’re not going to laugh at themselves, they should at least let me do it.

I guess there’s a new website where you can leave emails for loved ones that will be delivered after the Rapture.  You can also upload, according to what I was told, pertinent critical financial records so those left behind will be able to cash in on your good fortune (or maybe their bad?).  It’s called www.youvebeenleftbehind.com.  Wouldn’t a better name be www.itoldyouso.com?  As far as uploading your pertinent records - won’t all the lawyers still be here anyway?

I’m thinking of signing up and leaving an email for my friends that says “Oh man, my eschatology was wrong!”

 According to an article on Breitbart.com (and elsewhere - it’s like a grass fire) Albert Einstein described belief in God as a “childish superstition” in a letter to be sold at auction this week.  Oh, ok, well I guess that settles it.

OK kids, one more time… Worldview 101… Everybody has a worldview through which they view “facts” (thus, of course, rendering conclusions about “facts” anything but neutral).  The worldview you have you may not even be able to articulate.  It is the product of upbringing, culture, education (or what passes for it), etc.  Your worldview is like the lens of your eye - it isn’t always apparent, you aren’t always conscious of it, but you see everything through it.

A true biblical worldview (which, sadly, evades many Christians) isn’t childish, moronic, or simple.  A truly biblical worldview is an intelligently held position based on a thorough examination of Scripture, its sources, its authors, its history, etc.  It is also, at its best, the result of rigorous self-examination (e.g. presuppositions and biases). Don’t ever let anybody get away with shrugging it off and saying ‘the Bible is full of contradictions.’  That statement is as facetious as it is fallacious. It is the sure sign of a position that is not held intelligently.  It is also a lazy position thrown out by those unwilling to put in the work of examination - both external and internal, horizontal and vertical.

Belief in God may be child-like but it certainly isn’t childish.

Recommended Reading: Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey

The 2008 Convocation of the Fellowship of Mere Christianity is being held July 17-19 at Church of the King in Corpus Christi, TX.  If you are interested in the fellowship you are invited to participate.  For more information on the fellowship, check out www.fellowshipofmerechristianity.com or call 361-852-1810.

This isn’t about Barack Obama (other than to use his public comment as an illustration), nor is it a about the subject he was addressing when he made his comment.  It isn’t about Jeremiah Wright other than the inescapable observation that Wright was Obama’s pastor for 20 some years and apparently Sen. Obama shares the pervasive biblical confusion that is so common in our culture, even among some of those who profess to be followers of Christ.

Sen. Obama defended a position he held by pointing to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and said, “If people find that [position] controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.”

Really?  If that’s the best you’ve got after 20 years in any church then you ought to get your money back. If the best scriptural defense you can give for any position you hold is to pit Jesus against Paul, throw the clarity of scripture under the bus, or imply that scripture is neither coherent nor cohesive then don’t refer to the guy who taught you for 20 years as a “scholar.”  Just leave the Bible out of it, give us a pithy Walt Whitman quote, and let it go. 

I know now how the writers of SNL felt - the primaries were underway and they were on strike.   The current primary season is probably at once both the most exasperating and entertaining in many years.  You can’t buy or make up material this good.  It’s a target-rich environment.

My blog has been out of service for some time but now it’s back and I’ve got plenty to get out of my system.  Thanks to Alisa Bard who got this thing working again. 

And so it begins…