Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • Newsweek on Billy Graham

    Newsweek has a good article on Billy Graham in its current issue, titled Pilgrim’s Progress. It’s a fairly long article that presents some interesting points.

    While Graham is certainly not abandoning any essentials of his faith, he does admit to softening on some things. I believe that the things he indicates Christians can appropriately disagree on are well chosen.

    For example, he spends less time on political affairs:

    “The older I get, the more important the eternal becomes to me personally.” His mind is on the heavenly more than the temporal, on the central promises of Christianity more than on the passing political parade.

    . . . and . . .

    Others relish the battlefield; Graham now prizes peace. He is a man of unwavering faith who refuses to be judgmental; a steady social conservative in private who actually does hate the sin but loves the sinner; a resolute Christian who declines to render absolute verdicts about who will get into heaven and who will not; a man concerned about traditional morality

  • Bible Translation: ESV

    We pause briefly in these various Bible study series to call your attention to a comment on the English Standard Version (ESV). Wayne Leman has provided a little bit of history, along with some passages for comparison between the RSV and the ESV.

    Wayne does his usual thorough job, so I have very little additional comment here. I recommend his ESV Links as an excellent place to start your research.

    A couple of other Bible translation links amongst my own pages are:

  • Book: God After Darwin

    In this wonderful little book (God After Darwin [ISBN: 0813338786]), theologian John Haught looks at our concepts of God in the light of evolutionary theory, and in relation to intelligent design. My notes are more of a response than a review.

    This book is not an examination of each movement in great detail, but rather a look at theology, and how it might need to adapt in the light of what evolutionary theory has shown us about the universe. Haught does not believe that metaphysical materialism is an adequate view, because it does not support, in his view, the novelty of creation. He rejects the views of philosophers like Dennett and Dawkins who claim that science has shown that there is no purpose in the universe and that everything can be explained by mechanistic natural causes.

    But he also rejects intelligent design, not on the usual grounds that it is not science–after all, he’s discussing theology–but because it too fails to adequately deal with novelty in the universe. Haught postively embraces evolution, moving God from the Alpha, the God who pushes from behind, to the Omega, the God of the future. God, as Haught sees him, does not coerce his creation, but rather continuously invites it into the future. God gives the gracious gift of new creation to the universe continuously.

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  • Is the Trilemma about Jesus Useful?

    Yesterday I wandered by the The Evangelical Outpost just to see what was going on, and besides finding a current thread on which I want to comment, I found an older one, Jefferson’s Jesus: An Appreciation of the Trilemma. In this post Joe Carter undertakes to defend the trilemma, a much maligned and yet much used argument.

    First let me quote:

    Philosopher Peter Kreeft considers the trilemma to be the “most important argument in Christian apologetics.

  • Eleanor Swift on Cheney and Iraq

    Some time ago I blogged on the danger of using insufficient force and of not completing the solution to a problem. The result of that procedure, used all too often in goverment and international relations, is that people suffer and die, but there is no real cause and no conclusion.

    Now in a column Eleanor Swift (Holding Pattern — Rumsfeld’s Senate testimony underscores that there are no good options on Iraq. Meanwhile, where’s Dick Cheney?) evaluates Rumsfeld’s testimony before the Senate armed services committee as indicating that there are no good options:

    The best any of this trio of apologists could come up with is that U.S. forces need to keep doing what they’re doing to keep from losing. They offered no strategy for victory, only a holding pattern to prevent a worse defeat than that America is already experiencing. An honest reckoning would acknowledge there are no good options in Iraq and that the road to failure began with Rumsfeld’s bullheaded determination to keep the number of invading troops to a minimum.

    She’s right on part of this, but I actually think she hasn’t gone quite far enough.

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  • Freedom of Expression is Important

    Ed Brayton has a wonderful post today titled Answering Ancient Brit on Thought Crimes. I could not agree with Ed any more completely and forcefully. Europe’s response to “thought crimes” is itself extremely dangerous.

    I would add a note for my fellow-Christians. When you pursue religious liberty and the rights of religious expression, you need to also pursue freedom of opinion and expression generally, especially for those you dislike the most. You need protection from people who truly despise you and are willing to engage in violence to put their opinion into action.

    Christians should be front and center in fighting for the rights of Muslims, Jews, Pagans, and any other religious group. In fact, that effort should be extended to non-religious groups. Freedom needs to be protected for everyone. Freedom of religion is not the freedom for Christians to do what they want; it’s the freedom for everyone, Christians included, to practice their faith as they see fit.

  • Francis S. Collins on Religion and Evolution

    Courtesy of the Florida Citizens for Science blog, I found this article on Francis S. Collins, an evangelical Christian who sees no incompatibility between religion and science, including acceptance of evolution. The article can be found at Relgion Today (HeraldToday.com).

    I could add little to what Dr. Collins had to say. I came at the question from the other end, starting from a religious point of view and looking for compatibility with science.

    I do believe that the expectation that people reject evolutionary theory, which is supported by overwhelming evidence as Dr. Collins says, puts a stumbling block in the path of well-educated people who are considering the gospel message. Dr. Collins provides a good response to that problem.

    While I want consensus science, and that means evolutionary theory, taught in the public school classrooms of this state, I believe Christians should regard the “how” of creation as a non-essential, one that can be debated openly in the church without accusations of heresy.

  • Another Shift in the Kansas School Board

    It’s looking good for the teaching of evolution in Kansas public schools, as reported by MSNBC, Evolution’s foes lose ground in Kansas. The balance of power shifted from 6-4 in favor of the ID standards to 6-4 against. The general election could change things slightly, but that looks like the worst case scenario for science standards.

    Don’t miss Josh Rosenau’s comments on Thoughts from Kansas and his post titled Final Tallies: Science Wins in Kansas.

    Science standards will be coming up here in Florida soon, so keep your eyes open. We want to make Florida’s standards for science education first rate. For more information on this, follow the Florida Citizen’s for Science web site.

  • Is It About Mel Gibson?

    I’m not an early responder to stories, especially when there’s still a question as to precisely what happened. But this one has gotten pretty clear, and I think there are some things that need to be said. Before I do that, however, as a starting point, you might try looking at this: Arresting deputy didn’t want to ‘defame’ Gibson (AP news story via MSNBC). This brings up the simple question of whether celebrities are treated differently than ordinary people. Of course they are. The situation is different. If I got arrested for drunk driving (as a teatotaller, that’s unlikely) only a few people would be interested. No reporters would camp outside the police station, and nobody inside would be particularly interested in protecting my good name. For the contrast, behold Mel Gibson.

    But that’s an old story, repeated in the case of one celebrity after another. So I move on to what I think is a more important story–Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic remarks, and their relationship to The Passion of the Christ (the movie) and the passion of Jesus (the historical event). In all the debate over the historical Jesus, the movie, and anti-Semitism in connection with both, I think many important things have been left unsaid and undone.

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  • How to Waste $25 Million

    A $25 million creation museum is under construction in rural Kentucky, with the intention of challenging the scientific consensus view of origins. MSNBC tells us about it in a story titled High-tech museum brings creationism to life. They quote Ken Ham, of Answers in Genesis saying,

    “If the Bible is the word of God, and its history really is true, that’s our presupposition or axiom, and we are starting there,