As you may have noticed there has not been a lot of new content published here over the last six months - quite a contrast from the early days when Adam and I were publishing new material almost daily. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which has been a reassessment of my responsibilities and commitments, causing me to reconsider the destiny of this blog which began in October 2006.

Then in November 2009 I got an unexpected call from Mathew Hamilton to see if I’d be interested in joining him and another Christian thinker and writer to initiate a collaborative blog; something that Mathew had been reflecting on for quite some time prior. In the meantime, David Smart had recently created a new site with the ambition to co-author it with like-minded Christians who would be able to provide insights on a variety topics that expound and defend a Christian worldview. When Mathew also contacted David to ask him what he thought of the idea, it turned out to be a fulfilment of his vision - not to sound prophetic or anything.

And so it has been that over the last 2-3 months, Mathew, David and I have been busily preparing a new blog which we plan to launch with our first co-authored post on 1^st February 2010. The name of the site is called The Aristophrenium (Aristo). The details behind the name of the site and more information on the writers will be available once the site has launched. Having three writers I hope will take the pressure off all of us to produce regular fresh content and our special interest topics just happen to be dissimilar enough to make the content extremely broad.

What will become of this site?

As most of you will be aware I have not blogged alone here for the past 3½ years. Adam’s contributions have been a vital part of the content, partnering with me to give you our perspective on the world through the lens of a Christian worldview. And it is in part for this reason that I have not yet made up my mind on what to do with the site after Feb 1. I also know that Adam still has some ideas for new posts and this site provides one outlet where those thoughts can be heard, (although he is quite welcome on Aristo also). But after well over 400 posts and nearly 2400 comments from believers, skeptics and atheists alike on a vast range of topics, I am seriously considering putting this site into cryo. If it does remain, it will likely serve only to provide a place to post teasers to articles already published on Aristo.

Housekeeping

Regardless of what happens to this site, I suggest that anyone currently receiving my feed or linking here, redirect their readers and/or links to the new site as soon as possible. This site may shut down at short notice.

Closing Comments

Setting up this site has been very beneficial. I discovered, thanks especially to the comments by informed intelligent non-Christians, that the Christian worldview is able to provide the best answers to the toughest challenges anyone can pose. And it is my testimony that the experience of dealing with these challenges, while not always easy, has been extremely faith building. We can trust in Christ and we can trust in the Bible as the inerrant authoritative God-breathed source on which to build all our thinking about the world.

Another benefit to come from having this site has been the opportunity to write and improve my thinking skills. And while these skills are still far from the standard I expect of myself, I really do believe that the experience has contributed to making me a better writer and thinker. And for that I am thankful to all who have contributed.

I wish I had something more profound to say in closing, but the truth is this is not the end. I am really excited about the launch of Aristo, where - as the opportunity presents itself - I will continue to post on the same kinds of topics with like-minded others, defending a Christian worldview and demolishing arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. I also hope to continue there in the same vein that I began here in giving you a piece of my mind and I hope that you will give me a piece of yours. I can’t wait.

In Andrew Kulikovsky’s book, “Creation, Fall, Restoration”, he discusses the changing philosophy among most modern day interpreters of Scripture, that has resulted not from “… conclusive contradictory exegetical evidence, but [is the] result of accepting the truth claims of scientists over the propositional revelation of Scripture.” He continues, “Many interpreters have uncritically accepted scientists’ claims of superior knowledge, precision, and objectivity, and naively placed their faith in the verification and peer review process.” (p 162)

I was privileged and very thankful for Andrew’s contributions to this blog about this time last year, where he addressed the issue of peer review (among other things) with a skeptic, pointing out that peer review worship is “totally misplaced”.

From the footnote (also on page 162 of Andrew’s book) I was reminded again of his article in the peer reviewed publication, Journal of Creation, and have provided the link for any who are interested in becoming more informed about the realities of peer review.

Money Quote from the article: “As I have always counseled young people whose work was rejected, seemingly on improper or insufficient grounds, the system [of peer review] is a crap shoot.” - Robert Higgs.

http://aufiles.creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j22_1/j22_1_44-49.pdf

One saving grace has been the children that God has blessed me with. Although I find prayer quite a chore, as a Christian I understand its importance. So I have made every attempt since my children were very young to pray with them and for them, in the hope that I might begin in them the fondness for prayer that I apparently lack. The result so far is a five year old that is very much into the habit of prayer and will every evening without fail ask me if I can pray for him. When I am finished, he will then ask me to stay as he prays for me. My four year old also will often willingly pray at meal times and my one year old will sometimes hold her hands together and say “Amen” when the prayers are done.

I’m going to say up front that I am not necessarily discounting the usefulness of the Lord’s prayer as a means to give structure to my own misguided and unstructured prayers, but it’s just that I don’t know if there is such a thing as the perfect prayer. Every now and then though, I hear a prayer that articulates so well the things that I want to tell God, that I’m jealous, ashamed and amazed all at once. Jealous of the gift that some people have to so eloquently string together a series of words and ideas that represent my own heart and capture our relationship with God. Ashamed that I have not mastered the art myself, so that I can end my prayer time with a sense of having accurately conveyed the yearnings of my soul. And amazed at the ability of those with such a gift to convey so much in even the simplest prayer.

I believe Mark Driscoll is one with such a gift. And so I have determined to learn a new prayer which I recently heard him recite so I can teach it to my children.

Father, we thank you so much for being a good God, for being a loving God, for being a faithful God and a patient God, and by grace for being our God. Father, we thank you for the plan of salvation; for sending the Lord Jesus Christ into human history to live the life we could not live, to die the death that we should have died, and to rise in triumphant victory over Satan, sin and death. Lord, we ask that you would send your Holy Spirit to illuminate what you have done and who you are, that we might have a certainty and a passion within us for the truth of your gospel. And so God as we pray we ask that your Holy Spirit would work through us and in us; would work in spite of us and would work to build faith in us. And we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

I guarantee you that I do not have a hope of pulling off anything remotely like this on my own. God help me! And if you have any prayers that you think will be likewise helpful, I’d appreciate you posting them here. Thanks & Merry Christmas!

The November/December 2009 edition of The Good News magazine has some great articles. An interview with Jonathan Wells - author of ‘Icons of Evolution’ and ‘The Politically Correct Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design’ - on the Evolution v ID debate. A review of Richard Weikart’s 2004 book ‘From Hitler to Darwin’, demonstrating “…the gradual change in thinking that took place from Darwin to Hitler - a degeneration in appreciating the value of human life that continues to this day.” Another article considers “10 Ways Darwin Got It Wrong”, looking at the things such as the complexity of the cell, the Cambrian explosion, homology and the fossil record. And there is also some guidance on how we ought to talk with our children about evolution.

All of these articles and more are available at the magazine’s website: www.GNmagazine.org

And here is a link to the pdf version of the current issue.

Today, a guest Minister at our church spoke of a fire that struck his town when he was just a boy. His father, like most of the men, had gone off to fight the fire before it got to town. Next door to his house, an elderly lady who had lived in the town most of her life was convinced that the fire would not enter, so she refused to be evacuated. But the fire did enter and the house was burned to the ground with the elderly woman inside.

A similarly tragic story is told of an elderly man who lived near Mount St. Helens when it erupted on May 18, 1980. At the age of 84, Harry Truman refused to leave his home on the hill, where he had lived for 50 years. In the month leading up to the eruption the volcano started displaying warning signs of a potential eruption. But Mr. Truman insisted nothing much was happening. And so on May 18, 1980, Harry’s home was wiped out by the eruption and he along with it, presumably buried under approximately ten metres of debris.

This 1980 BBC report includes audio of Harry Truman, where it is clear that he can see the bulge in the side of the mountain that would later erupt to topple 390 square kilometres of forest in just six minutes. But not even the misshapen mountainous landscape was enough of a warning sign for him to take precautionary measures. In fact if you listen to the audio, he does not seem perturbed in the slightest.

I thought the parallel was instructive. As Christians we have acknowledged the problem of sin and recognised that we are under the judgement of God because of it. We recognised the warning signs, understood the course of action required to avoid the danger and responded in such a way to remove ourselves from it. It’s easier to rescue someone who knows they are in danger. It’s much more difficult though to rescue someone who thinks they are not, as we saw with Harry Truman and the elderly woman in the introduction. This is the cost of wrong belief.

Those who do not recognise that they are sinners needing God’s forgiveness will not feel any need or urgency to repent and be saved. And if you’re a Christian who understands the importance of the gospel message and have tried to persuade others (whether they are friends, relatives or strangers) of their true predicament, you might know what it’s like to be confronted with people like Harry Truman, who simply refuse to be saved or will deny that they are in danger.

As Christians though, we continue to speak the truth of God’s saving grace through Jesus Christ, despite this continued denial (see also 2Peter3:3-7) and prepare ourselves to always be ready to give an answer to those who ask about the hope that we have in Christ (see 1 Peter 3:15). 

Painfully though, we cannot force anyone to accept this. It is a decision that every individual must make for themselves; and one that can only be made with the help of the Holy Spirit.

As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
All have turned away, they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Romans 3:10-12

God help us

Source: www.urbancartography.com

So consider yourself well-informed … that is of course if by “well-informed”, you mean up to speed on the best straw man arguments that a SSM advocate can fit into a pictogram.

Click here for larger image.

You can find my own submission opposing the Bill, in this published list - see Submission No. ea10.

Recent related article by Mathew Hamilton:
Record high submissions received by Senate Inquiry indicate 67% oppose the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill

But today I just wanted to draw your attention to a new addition on the blogroll. It’s called A Better Possession and is administered by one of the Ministers at my church, Craig Hamilton, whose conversation on a range of theological topics I value.

Actually It was Craig who gave one of the best and simplest analogies I have heard addressing our condition of death; that apart from Jesus we do not have life - not real life anyway. Although you may seem alive, according to Jesus you’re not, you’re actually dead. To paraphrase Craig:

Sometimes I buy my wife flowers. They look very nice, they’re colourful and look as though they’re alive. But when I take them home and give them to her, inevitably they begin to wilt and shrivel until finally, they die [i.e. have the appearance of being dead].  Was it my fault they died? Is it the water I put them in? Was it the environment or transportation? Was it the packaging?  While each of these things may have contributed to the prolonged appearance of life, none of these things killed the flowers. The truth is the flowers were already dead when I bought them. When you buy cut flowers, you’re buying dead flowers. They may look as though they’re alive, but they’re actually dead. It just takes a week or so for you to realise that what you bought was dead flowers. And the reason they’re dead is because they have been cut off from the source of life.  And in the same way, God says that if you have cut yourself off from him. If you have rebelled against Him, ignored Him, treated Him as irrelevant, then you have cut yourself off from the source of life. So even though you appear alive, in due time you will begin to shrivel and wilt, and then you too will die. [i.e. You'll be a corpse. Having been cut off from the source of life and died long ago, like the flower you will inevitably take on an appearance consistent with dead things].

Source - Real Jesus:Full Life

While I did not have a particular niche in mind when beginning my blog, I found myself wanting to write more about external challenges to Christianity (especially the evolutionary worldview) rather than discussing the practical aspects. Craig on the other hand, had a clear vision for his blog from the outset. I cannot possibly capture his vision here in a few paragraphs, so I encourage you to read his opening blog. Here is an excerpt:

The phrase “A Better Possession” comes from Hebrews 10:34 where the writer urges his hearers to persevere in the faith and not to shrink back. And his strategy at this point is to remind them of their earlier behaviour and to push them to keep acting like that. And their earlier behaviour has always been striking to me.

³²Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. ³³Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. ³⁴You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

Particularly the phrase “joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property”. That always jumped right out off the page. And the reason they could act like that was equally stunning.  They could joyfully accept the plundering of their property because they knew they had better and lasting possessions. Well that’s how the NIV puts it anyway. The ESV captures it a bit more closely when it says:

you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

…

Jesus himself is a possession better than every and any possession we might have or lose in this life.

…

The passage isn’t really a picture of where me and my heart are at. It’s more a a picture of a place I’d desperately like to live someday. Where Jesus is such a superior treasure to me that I could joyfully accept ridicule and insult and persecution and plundering because Jesus is so much better.

It’s not where I’m at but it’s where I’d like to be.

And that’s what this blog is really about.