http://www.huffingtonpost.com/walid-zafar/ex-muslim-evangelical-exp_b_582225.html
2) The Catholic claim that Jesus handed Peter the reins to the church via Matthew 16: 13-20 is not accurate in my reading of the passage and, at best, a questionable thing to build so much extra-scriptural doctrine on.
It seems most likely that Jesus was refering to Peter's statement "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God" as the thing that will build the foundation of the church.
If Peter was suppossed to be "tha man" - why did he get called "Satan" by Jesus in the next few verses...why did he deny Christ at the hour of his trial...why was James the head of the Jerusalem Council and not he...why was he in such error that Paul had to rebuke him in the early church scene? If his seat as Bishop of Rome was to be supreme, why was the subsequent Bishop of Rome not even present at the Council of Nicea?
There is too little in these few verses to base so much doctrine and tradition on. Seems odd to me.
http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matthew+16
3) The toughest apologetical question for me to answer in my conversations with my Muslim co-worker this past week was "How do you know that the Bible was inspired?"
Maybe I am not well versed enough on this one, but all I had was "The sheer number of different books and different authors over 2500 years all telling the same story of redemption is too much to be coincidental & the profound impact that the book has had on millions of people across the ages."
Anybody got anything better? I know that no answer will be sufficient without the inner working of the Holy Spirit in this co-worker's life, but I want to be prepared to give an answer nonetheless as I pray for that supernatural regeneration to take place.
4) Once I was thinking of writing a book titled:
Did Adam Fart Before the Fall?
100 Humorous Theological Ponderings
I often wonder if I still should some day. I don't wite well, but I doubt that I would have to be terribly proper in my grammar and syntax as I am putting that book together.
5) At work recently we took down 2 large framed prints of the Constitution, which were hanging in our public area, to make room for some new images...the official portraits of President Obama and VP Biden - draw your own conclusions.
6) I think that the Republican party of the late 70s and early 80s made a deliberate attempt to pander to Christians and paint themselves as the "party of values"
I think that in reality they were committed to their capitalist economic platform and could have largely cared less about social issies, but they needed more voters to secure their dominance and so they created a facade of virtue.
I think that unthinking believers bought into the claims 100% and got taken on a ride. Not to say that the Dems are the party of values by any means, just bringing this up for discussion.
Also...this is just my gut, no research. Maybe one day I'll look into it more.
7) Gods Battallions...Rodney Stark—the eminent sociologist and historian of religion—has a new book out, God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades, making the case that the Crusaders were not “greedy, colonizing, brutal barbarians” but rather that the Crusades were just, defensive wars designed to repel the Islamic conquest of Byzantium and to prevent the Holy Land from being destroyed.
That should prove to be interesting and controversial.
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/05/20/but-what-about-the-crusades/
[here's what I just read on the web. Jane]
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of evangelical scandals and Liberty University in the same breath, readers can Google “Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal” (line-by-line proof that THE Jerry Falwell’s 1981 “Fundamentalist Phenomenon” book was a huge plagiarism of George Dollar’s 1973 “History of Fundamentalism in America”!). Also Google “Thomas Ice (Bloopers).” Ice is a prof at LU whose “Ph.D” was “obtained” from a tiny Texas school that was fined by the state of Texas for illegally issuing degrees! When “Dr.” Ice reproduced in 1989 Margaret Macdonald’s short “pre-tribulation rapture” revelation of 1830 (Margaret originated this 180-year-old escapist endtime view which had made millionaires of Lindsey, LaHaye etc.!), he somehow left out 49 words when copying it - the same 49 words LaHaye left out in the same sections when a book of his reproduced it three years later! (LaHaye has been one of LU’s biggest donors.) Ice, BTW, also had the same distinctive copying errors Lindsey had when he had reproduced MM’s revelation in his 1983 book! Since Liberty University is one of the top promoters of the same fringe-British-originated pretrib rapture fantasy, interested readers can also Google “Famous Rapture Watchers,” “Pretrib Rapture Diehards,” “Pretrib Rapture Secrecy,” “Letter from Mrs. Billy Graham,” and “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty” (documented plagiarism and other dishonesty since 1830 by some of the best known names in evangelicalism) - all uncovered by the author of the bestselling book “The Rapture Plot.” (Evangelicals should take some tranquilizers before reading the above!)