Revision29.com - The Place of Oddity

Our Kingdom

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:56:03 CST

As I reflect on the results of the presidential election, I want us to be reminded of a few key principles.

1) Our primary focus and energy resources need to be directed toward the Kingdom of Christ. We are first and foremost members of that kingdom and must show absolute allegiance to it. Our country is exhibiting symptoms of deep spiritual illness (greed, prevalence of sexual sin, racism, oppression of the poor). From what Scripture tells us, God is against any such nation. Why should we be so concerned over a nation that is really not our home?

2) God is Sovereign. Even when nations rebel against him, and when things do not go according to our plans, God is still in control. When all is said and done God will have his way. He will defeat all of the enemies of his people and as long as we remain faithful to him, we will share that victory.

3) Societal change does not come from government. It comes from the Church. If we want to solve the economic crisis, let the Church be the ones who will set aside greed and do not take advantage of others. Let the Church be willing to feed and clothe the needy. Let those who are in the Church support and provide for one another. Let the Church help people find jobs (I have my job because of a few key people in my church). Let the Church make in impact in one person at a time, and then the government will reflect the changes we make. The government is only a reflection of the society that it rules over. If you don't like what you see, make changes for the sake of Christ in the live of others.

4) We are called to pray for those in authority over us. Such commands were given in the first century where those ruling over them persecuted Christians in one form or another. If the first century Church could pray for Nero, I think I can pray for Obama or George Bush.

5) Our country will not last forever. Only Christ's kingdom is guaranteed to last forever. The Roman empire thought it could last, but it is no longer here. That is a stark reminder that our country cannot last. It especially cannot last when it condones the sort of sin we allow to go on. The culture of america will the the downfall of the nation, not some outside force. When that happens are you prepared to trust God for every last thing in your life? Do you trust in this country and what it offers so much that you would have no security if it all went to pot?

6) Trust in Christ. When you trust in him, there is security when everything in the world is crumbling. Governments and economic systems will disappoint every time no matter if it is communism or democracy. Christ will provide what we need when we need it? Can you picture him doing that if America ceased to exist tomorrow?

7) We are peace makers. We are to bring the peace (gospel) of Christ to all. We are to help remove difference amongst us as we conform to Christ. Even when we disagree, Christians can still remain united and strong. Instead of complaining about politics, let us be humble, gentle and peaceable.

Summary : Let us be the king of people who seek not only Christ's kingdom first, but let us seek only it.

Congratulations Obama

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:09:18 CST

Know that though I do not support you political opinions, I will be praying for you.

It Is About Time!!!

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:59:25 CST

A Florida TV station put Joe Biden's feet to the fire about some stuff Obama has said. IT IS ABOUT TIME!!!! The media has been worshipping Obama and Biden and it is about time someone asked them real questions and held them accountable for their reckless words. Check it out for yourself.

Education and the Election

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:53:43 CST

The other night during the debate, both candidates quickly disappointed me when they spoke on education. The moderator asked about their plans to improve education in the U.S. in light of the fact that the U.S. scores much lower than other coutnries in math and science. I liked what both of them had to say, and wish they could mesh their plans / ideas in a way that reduced the cost. But keeping in mind, I do not like the idea of the government forcing people to be educated in public schools (i.e. California), for I feel that is primarily the role of parents. If parents can / will find a way to educate their students apart from themselves, that is fine. If they use the public schools for that end, that is also well.

I like the idea of reform, giving parents choice, and not retaining teachers who perform poorly. We can all name teachers who were not good at what they did, or disliked the students they taught.

Our educational system is actually doing what it is designed to do : not be objective. The prevailing educational method that has been propagated heavily in the last 15 years or more is one based on post-modernist ideals where the teacher is not an "expert" teaching students to learn what they know. Instead, a teacher is to help students learn and create knowledge and reality for themselves. This is of course a very subjective way of education, and thus de-emphasizes courses in math and science because they claim to have certain absolute, objective knowledge about our universe. Post-modernism espouses that no one can have any grasp of absolute, objective truth because none of us can remove ourselves from our culturally shaped view of the universe. Thus there is no way we can know objective truth and should not teach that such a thing can happen. This is why we are to create our own knowledge and reality, since all I know is what I know / experience.

When this happens, "objective" measurements that compare us to other nations will fail miserably. We don't care about objective truth of science and math, and so we don't teach them as we used to.

Obama has been educated in institutions that teach this philosophical system. So when he says we are not measuring up to international standards, he really does not care. He only says that for political purposes, to gain power. Power is what post-modernists would claim is the driving force of the universe, not knowledge. Even if Obama wants to improve the situation, it will only be to increase the power of the marginalized. From his theological camp, that would be the poor black people of the country. Thus poor black communities would be supported / helped and poor white communities probably would not get the same, if any, attention.

The problem with this election is one of philosophical mindset about epistemology. McCain comes from a modern heritage, whereas Obama comes from a post-modern / liberal perspective (post-modernism is different than liberalism in many ways). Since the culture has shifted to post-modernism and beyond, Obama will certainly have an upper hand, unless McCain packages his views in post-modern language. That will not happen.

Site Design Tweaks

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:20:38 CST

I have been tired of my site's look for a while. So I took a little time to tweak it.

Edit : My inspiration for this was the default interface for MintLinux. Said distribution is based on Ubuntu, but is made to work and look nicer. I had the striped background laying around from something I had previously done. Also, the font was on my computer as I downloaded a while ago from a free font repository. I wanted bright colors, such as the orange, but could not make it look as I desired (I have a hard time with picking orange on computer) and went to Adobe Kuler to find a color scheme that was close.

Duh!!!

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:01:16 CST

This morning there is a cool story on the front page of foxnews.com [url]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,436435,00.html[/url]. This story shows the reason why a total reliance on the stock market it a really stupid idea.

Excerpt:
"Robert Shiller, an economist at Yale, puts it bluntly: The notion that you lose a pile of money whenever the stock market tanks is a 'fallacy.' He says the price of a stock has never been the same thing as money

Revelation and the OT

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:09:31 CST

One cannot understand Revelation without knowing the Old Testament. The visions that John was given by God is described in various images that John's readers would understand. Why is this? He describes the visions he sees in terms of visions God had given the OT prophets. Without understanding the OT passages that he alludes to, the images make no sense.

So, this semester in Revelation we are being pressed hard to look at the passages John may be alluding to. Some are obvious, whereas others are not. In addition to checking allusions, a student of Revelation must check how certain words are used in the OT. Since the OT is written in hebrew and the NT in greek, the Septuagint becomes a great, though imperfect, mediator between the two. Today I got my hands on a plain text version of the LXX complete with parsing info and will be running the import script I built to put that data into a database. Thus I will be able to to a concordance like search of where words are used in the LXX and how that helps understand Revelation.

Remember context is king. Context in pericope, chapter, book, OT/NT and Bible as whole.

Converter Box Coupons

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:37:19 CST

A while back I requested my 2 coupons for digital converter boxes so I could be ready for February 2009. Unfortunately I tucked them away until I had the time to shop around for a good box. Thus, they are now expired. The coupon website said that once they expire, they expire 90 days after you request them. Why would a government funded coupon expire within 90 days, when they could just expire on the day of transition? I know they want to pace things out, but this is ridiculous! They don't have a way to get new ones. I would suggest allowing us slackers the opportunity to send back the original, unused ones in place of new ones. Or perhaps, not let them actually expire.

One Problem with Black Liberation Theology

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:36:47 CST

Black liberation theology uses Israel's exodus from Egypt as an analogy for their own emergence from slavery. I can understand the power of being a slave and seeing a future time when God would free them. However, contemporary black liberation theology uses that to prop up a false, divisive racist agenda. It is used to equate white people with the Egyptian captives. Do you see it?

The strangeness of this comes when one considers the continent which Egypt lies upon. More specifically, the color of people who lived in Egypt at the time before there was an influx of muslims into the region. Egypt is a region in Africa, the continent from which slaves were sold by their own people to a people who were driven by greed. Thus black people use the story of blacks oppressing Israel and God's deliverance of Israel from blacks as the driving force of black liberation theology.

So before espousers of black liberation theology oppress white people for sins of the past, they should look into their own past and see the sin there.

All ethnicities have sins and things they should be ashamed of. But praise be to God that Christ has died and risen so that such sins and hurts can be done away with. Praise be to God that mistakes of the past that caused groups of people to hate on another have been done away with. Praise be to God that we can once more have peace between people groups because of the same forgiveness from the same Lord and King.

My Fix for the Economy

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:15:15 CST

Our economic problem is complex. My proposed solution seems simple, which may make it wrong, but I think it is feasible and the best choice.

The solution comes in the problem. People were buying homes that they could not afford with adjustable rate mortgages because the initial payments were fairly low. Many people hoped to flip the house and sell it for a much higher price before the 3 year initial rate of the ARM was raised. When people stopped buying houses, when the housing bubble burst, people were stuck in their adjustable rate mortgages and when the new rates kicked in, they could not afford the payments and had to foreclose. With so many people foreclosing, banks have less credit to borrow from others, and the domino effect kicks in and the whole credit market slows and is close to a collapse.

Thus the starting of the downfall is the fact that too many people can't afford the ARMs. My solution is this : the banks need to refinance the loans themselves and convert them to fixed rate mortgages with low interest rates. This should bring the payments down to an affordable level for loan holders and the foreclosure rate will go down. The bank continues to get interest of their investment, the credit on their books turns from negative to positive and they can get and lend more credit.

If the government takes over the loans, the same payments will be demanded of the loan holders and they will still not be able to afford the payments. With the banks lowering the payments through refinancing (loan restructuring), they eliminate the problem of people having payments they can't afford.

Of course this does not take into account the vast number of people who bought homes that even at a fixed rate mortgage at a very low rate could not afford. I lived in Florida until coming to seminary and saw this first hand. People in their low twenties with fresh careers were buying $200,000 to $300,000 homes with no down payment-- 100% financing. When bills came due and they maxed out their credit cards, they had to pay those and their mortgages and thus could not pay either. People spending way outside of their income level is one major cause. For these people and the banks who were irresponsible for lending to them, they should face the consequences of their greed. For those who were suckered into ARMs and who could afford their homes, but at a fixed rate mortgage, the banks should refinance for them. Even for people who bought way outside their income level, refinancing may also be an option.

When I say refinance. I mean refinance the original loan amount, even if the home value has dropped below that. In the life of a 30 year loan, that value should slowly get back up and should be good. However, when one takes out a mortgage on a home, they will be paying at least double the original cost (or at least 170% of the value, I can't remember the exact figure).

The Economy

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:46:29 CST

I am shocked that the executive branch of our government is trying to take over the assets of very large corporations to stabilize the economy. This should be a wake up call for us that our federal government is too big and wields too much power.

The problem is complex and I do not understand it all. However, I can tell that the problem is greed. What makes it worse is that our financial system is based on a greedy system where money is not real. By not real I mean that there is nothing to back it. The value of money is based on calculations of GDP, debt, and the supposed value of stocks. When people think that some stocks are not worth anything, the stock price goes down and the money that backed that value vanishes.

Why don't we back our economy on something solid, like gold, rather than subjective value based on public opinion.

Cannibal Baby

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:07:11 CST

Apollos loves to grab things and stick them in his mouth. Such items include his rattle, burp cloths, and his pacifier. Never did we think he would eat our chins. You can see how mad he gets when he is unsuccessful.

Exegesis of Revelation

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:36:41 CST

Last week classes started at Lincoln Christian Seminary. One class that I am really excited about is Exegesis of Revelation. I love greek and exegesis, and have grown fond of the last book in the Bible. Of primary concern for us this semester will be looking at the many Old Testament passages that John alluded to. In understanding their original contexts, we can see how John uses that imagery to describe the visions he saw. It is also cool to see that some of the OT prophesies regarding Jesus that were only partially fulfilled will find their fulfillment when Jesus returns. It is also interesting to see how the message of the book ministered to the late first century church in Asia Minor that was enduring persecution under the Roman empire.

The passage I chose to exegete was chapters 17-18. It was chosen because we see the whore and the beast defeated. Babylon (Rome will fall)! The message for the first century Christians was that there would be retribution upon their oppressors, and if they remained faithful, they would be preserved. The message applies to Christians in all times who face such hard times. No matter the oppressor, one day there will be relief. Either it will be when we die and are in the presence of God, or if we live to see Christ's return. the work we do here matters, and will be rewarded in the end, even if it looks like it might not amount to much now.

Bible Search Parallel Versions

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:55:25 CST

Once again, I have made updates to the Bible search schema. This time the changes impact the way the parallel view is displayed. Now verses from each parallel resource are aligned in a row. This took a lot of head bashing and hard thinking due to the fact that I would dump the whole search for a particular resource into a single table cell. That meant I had to create markers in the returned text for each new chapter and verse (because sometimes versions leave out verses due to textual criticism). This proved to be crazy in the situations where the number of verses in the greek text was different than the english which would throw of the table alignment. The problem with that at the moment is if a verse is missing from the english but is present in the greek, the next verse will be put in the table which throws off the verse alignments, but is corrected by adding blank cells at the bottom. I am not sure how I am going to work around that, but I will come up with something.

With all that said, the parallel view works and looks much better.

Life on Mars!!! Or Not

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:46:29 CST

Today I read through my daily [url=http://www.slashdot.com]Slashdot[/url] email newsletter. There was an interesting article that suggests scientists have found something that indicates a definite possibility for life on mars. Apparently the president is being briefed on the findings. The only things I can think of is that Mars contains the right elements, including water which they found this week, to sustain life, i.e. if we were to send people to mars the minerals and such could be used by them. Well, that at least is my theory.

With the instruments on the mars observer, it is scientifically impossible to determine if there are any building blocks for life such as amino acids or proteins. Basically the observer scoops up the dirt and puts it in a small oven and super heats to so that it can run a spectrum analysis on the sample. The only results that they can get are the elements (types atoms, as apposed to various soils components) present in the soil and their amounts. There can be no way that scientists can say they have found life or amino acids or anything, only elements. If they were to fly a sample back, they could do more extensive tests, but that will not happen with the current mission. So if you hear that they say life on Mars has been found, keep in mind that is a interpretation of the data that is way outside of their current ability to test. They would need a microscope at the least to look and see the structure of the findings.

The article that /. linked to can be found : http://www.universetoday.com/2008/08/02/the-white-house-is-briefed-phoenix-about-to-announce-potential-for-life-on-mars/

Does Voting Work?

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:08:07 CST

Why vote? Seriously, why should we? I have a small theory why our voting really does not matter in America.

Think about how we pick our candidates. We choose the lesser evil from among a short list of people who have some political, social, and religious commonalities with us. Once they get to Washington (or whatever city they govern from) they forget the people who voted for them. The cheers of people who really believed in them at the conventions and rallies around the country are silenced. The will of the people stops at the voting box. From there, the will of special interest groups or the stubborn pride of the elected official take over.

You are probably wondering, what the heck is wrong with a person having his/her own beliefs in politics and such? Nothing, as long as the elected official are willing to bend and mold some as the voice of the people speaks out. Such bending should be within the basic political philosophy of the candidate, but he or she needs to be humble enough to know when his or her policies are wrong.

The only time when we see any bending is during an election year. John McCain is sounding a little more conservative, especially in his economic and energy policies, but he is only 75% conservative based on his voting record (at statistic that I heard several times that is compiled based on the person's voting record and is the same that indicates that Obama is the most liberal of all Senators). Two years ago we were promised tougher border enforcements along with a wall, but nothing has been done because that election year has come and gone. Instead, congress today decided to apologize for slavery.

What I am not espousing is that a candidate change with the wind of popular opinion. Instead he should stick to his fundamental political ideals, even when the other side is applying too much pressure and the more outspoken americans get the major media outlets on their side.

All that is just to say that we should not pick the least offensive candidate for an office hoping he will do better than guy on the other side of the line. We should pick a candidate that will best fit out political, social and moral ideals and who is willing to listen to us throughout his term. One who is willing to admit he can be wrong and is able to make changes in his policies when the people who elected him sound their voices. He should not bow to pressure from the other side or trade his integrity for the appeasement of the masses. He should stick to his fundamental beliefs with the humility that informs him that he does not have all of the answers, and the ones he has may be wrong at times.

Voting in America is broken because we cast our vote based on a person's persona at the time of an election with the assumption that who he is now will be the voice for us in government. Voting in America will work when not only do we choose a candidate whose beliefs more precisely mirror ours, but when he listens and acts according to our opinions and voices instead of special interests, appeasement of the masses, political forces or out of selfish ambition.

Update 2: Major Backend Changes

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:38:51 CST

I have rewritten the Bible search code so that its results are more reliable. There were some kinds of searches such as Matthew 28:5-Mark1:3 that simply did not work. I have worked and worked and worked at getting my algorithm so that it would properly detect each kind of search(es) being done by the user. Beyond that I had to maintain support for keyword searches which is a somewhat different beast altogether. But it is good to say that one can search with things double quoted if an exact match for that phrase is desired. This can be coupled with other search words such as: "Jesus replied" depart.

Beyond the Bible search capabilities, I have re-written much of the back end code for the site. That means nothing to you, unless something is broken such as my rss feed. Please let me know if something is off with the pages or if you run into problems with the Bible searching.

Comments work again :)

I do Notice that I need to fix my URL parses to include commas and &

Apollos and Music and Kicking

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:11:24 CST

Apollos Kicking

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:51:42 CST

We have added some pictures of Apollos on the Gallery page. There are sub-galleries for various themes, and one is for him.

Also, Sarah and I thought you would appreciate seeing this video of him kicking in his chair so that he could get the toys to move.

EOS

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:00:11 CST

The semester is finally over. Actually it has been over for more than a week, but I had yet one final project to turn in. Apollos has taken a lot of my time, which I do not regret, but only makes getting things done that much more difficult.

Summer is here, but my mind will not rest. I plan on studying 1 Timothy by exegeting from the Greek text. At several points in the summer I will be able to use my study in pulpit supply opportunities. This book really excites me as it presents lots of great leadership principles describes how God intends churches to be lead. Of great interest is the study of elders and deacons. As as I have been reminded, these are not offices in the church but are descriptions of roles that people have in the church. Guidelines for those roles are fairly clear and concrete, but I look forward to seeing which are so and which ones are to be handled with more flexibility.

Meet Apollos

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 10 May 2008 01:01:00 CST

Here he is. 6 pounds 6 ounces and 19" long.

Baby Update

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:23:52 CST

Today we went to the doctor and found out that our baby is breech (his butt is down instead of his head). The doctor is going to try to turn him after 6:30PM cst. If she cannot turn him, a c-section will be performed.

A Sad State of Affairs

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:21:27 CST

My power adapter is on the fritz. My battery life is slowly fading away as it apparently can't get a good enough charge from the power adapter. I don't have enough money to buy a replacement power adapter ($25 from a reputable Apple replacement parts seller) and a $130 battery. So now I am stuck with a battery life of about 30 minutes. Very annoying when trying to do some homework and the computer wants to go to sleep. I guess I will have to live with it. Besides, would it be worth it to pour $155 into a computer that is 4 years old?

Barak's Preacher

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:22:27 CST

The now former preacher, Jeremiah Wright, at Barak Obama's congregation is an extremist looking out only for black people. As a Christian, he should be looking out for Christians, no matter what their skin color. He should decry all of the evil that the people of this world has done to Christians, not how rich white folk have oppressed the blacks. Instead of preaching that whites are oppressing blacks, he should be angry that rich black people in his church are letting poor black people go hungry. He should be angry that when he or his church bought a gold plated microphone a poor black person in his congregation had to go to a loan shark to pay the bills. IN the you tube clip below, you can see just how radical this guy is. He said that Jesus was black. jesus was not black, neither was he white. He was a jew with olive toned skin. But it does not matter what color Jesus is, or what color I am. Jesus died so that all races could be equal. As long as people of different races keep playing the blame game nothing is going to happen. Only when we come in the unity of Christ can there be peace and reconciliation.

Son, Put Down That Candy!

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:00:00 CST

There apparently was an incident in Connecticut where a kid was suspended for buying Skittles from a classmate. The school district had banned the sale of candy so when he needed to have his candy fix he got booted out of school, kicked from his class VP post and a couple of other things. That is what you get when you put a government in charge of food and the sever consequences of going against elected officials. Now what will happen when they socialize healthcare?

[url]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,337419,00.html[/url]

New Sins?

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:58:56 CST

The Vatican has published a list of new sins. I guess you can just make sins up and enforce them on your people. We all do it when we say we have to have this style of music or that style of dress (rockin music and flip flops for us youngins). It makes us sound so stupid we we say there are new sins. God has always had a set moral code for us to follow, but we must apply that morality as new situations arise. We need to acknowledge things like environmental pollution and cloning but we don't have to make up new sins to outlaw them. The Bible was written so as to be applicable to all time until Christ returns, thus its contents should be sufficient for governing our morality in the 21st century. So mr pope, is the Bible so irrelevant that you have to make up new sins? I don't think so.

[url]http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL109602320080310?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true[/url]

This Would Not Bother Chet

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:54:11 CST

In Minnesota a lawmaker is trying pass a new law that would make schools smell free zones. That is students could not wear strong perfumes and colognes. This is absolutely stupid. This is a teacher responsibility, not a government problem. They seriously want to create a law against teenagers who douse themselves with junk they think smells good in order to get a date for the valentines dance. If a kid's fragrance is bothering other kids' allergies call his/her parents and send his little butt home. Don't waste tax money on a campaign and enforcing laws for things parents and teachers are well enough equipped to handle. Just don't get on their backs when they do send a kid home because he put on too much of his dad's aftershave.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080310/ap_on_re_us/fragrance_free_schools

MacSword and Hebrew

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:45:49 CST

For anyone who is a fan of the Sword Project and Biblical languages, this post may be of interest. I had downloaded the Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC) and was disappointed at the lack of Hebrew vowel points, accents, and punctuation. Thus I set out to find a digitized version of the Biblia Hebraica Stuggartensia (BHS) the standard edition of the Leningrad Codex for doing OT translation. Such a digitized version is on Logos, but I am on Mac. There are some excellent web editions such as tanakhml.org but that does help me since there is no internet access at my apartment due to technical limitations of the wireless equipment at my school.

One day I was playing around with MacSword the Sword project interface for Os X and noticed that I can actually turn on and off the accents, vowels, etc of the WLC which are off by default. Not I can see the Hebrew OT as it is in my BHS with some exceptions (such as the inclusion of textual variants without being able to hide them). This comes in real handy as I can copy and past a section of the Hebrew text into my word processor, search for consonants without the vowels being in the way so that I can find words that may have only 2 original consonants and other oddities. Then I can go into MacSword, turn on the vowels and copy/paste the text into my exegetical notes.

Sadly, I can't find a module like this for Greek. So if you know of an accented Greek module for the Sword Project, add a comment below.

Maintaining The Essentiality of Baptism When It Literally Can't Be Done

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:24:12 CST

Currently I am taking a class which seeks to help us use some social sciences to understand a culture that we are trying to reach. One thing that we have talked about is how certain cultural elements obtain their meaning and how to translate that meaning into another culture. Sometimes this requires directly transferring the cultural form or finding something within the target culture which has the same meaning and use that form instead. Within our class discussion we brought up certain cultural forms within Christianity which may or may not need to be translated in to other cultures. Specifically we discussed the Lord’s supper and baptism.

With the former, I could understand using elements other than flat bread and wine, especially since we have already translated the use of wine to grape juice. The reason for the easy translation to using different elements is that the meaning of the Lord’s supper is not directly tied to the exact elements used. Of course, the obvious exception is that the elements were used in passover which has theological significance in that Jesus is our passover lamb who causes God’s wrath to pass over us. However, the main meaning has to do with Jesus breaking the bread, that the bread as a whole symbolizes the unity of the Church from which each person participates. The wine gains its significance from both the Old Testament imagery as wine as God’s wrath as well as being similar in color to blood. As far as God’s wrath imagery is concerned, it is more about the wine being made by stomping and smashing the grapes. So in translating Communion to another culture in which flat bread and wine are not available, finding food and drink which can carry this same imagery can make the meaning come out.

Baptism, however, is a different matter. The meaning is tied directly with the form. That is, the washing that Christ performs is symbolized by the washing of the water. The physical orientation of the baptizee’s body is symbolic of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. The fact that one puts on clean clothes after a good bath is again symbolic of having put on Christ and put away the old flesh.

How does one bring baptism to a culture which has no river lake or bathtub to immerse a person into? How can the meaning be withheld if the only water source is the family cistern that would only be made unclean by immersing the person into to? How can the true meaning of baptism remain if all one has is a polluted river that causes disease and death? Sprinkling does not get the meaning across because it is not a total washing, which is what the soul needs. Neither does the person imitate Christ’s death burial and resurrection. Giving a person a sponge bath would not get the image across either because not only would you be exposed to shameful parts, but also that the cleaning is not instantaneous as is Christ’s forgiveness. Praying Jesus into one’s heart does not have any elements related to baptism except for having faith in Christ. So in these occasions, which are far more common in other countries than America, what do we do? How do we maintain baptism in those circumstances?

Internet Anonymity Is Almost a Thing of the Past

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:19:48 CST

There is a lawmaker from Kentucky who is trying to pass a law requiring people to register with sites using their real name and contact information so as to cut down on internet bullying. That would then mean I would have to create a registration system which would have to make sure the person is real and their information is legitimate. This is absolutely retarded. We don't require people to wear name tags just in case they bully someone and the victim can properly identify them. That would be asking too much.

There are many reasons why such a law is irrational.
1) It violates the free speech amendment for those who want to post. It is my responsibility as a site administrator to make sure my standard of language and content of comments are maintained.

2) It would be impossible to enforce. The internet is world wide, not USA only. I could shift my website to be hosted in Paraguay making it outside of US jurisdiction. Tracking down the millions of websites and determining which ones are in violation of proposed law would require the hiring of thousands of people or writing an expensive computer program to discover violations.

3) It violates my right to free speech. The internet is my mode of getting my writing out there and is a form of written speech. For me to not be able to post something or making me ban certain things from being said creates mandatory censorship of my free speech and my allowance of others to voice their own opinion.

4) It opens the door for censorship of the web in general. One day when Christianity is outlawed or severely oppressed by the US government, I will loose my right to speak out against that tyranny and proclaim the Gospel of Christ.

5) The time and cost with creating a registration and verification system would be prohibitive to many people. Mandating that people restrict this free speech and pay for it themselves is socialist in method.

6) It is another example of Big Government getting bigger and reaching way outside of its bounds.

Check out the story yourself at http://www.wtvq.com/content/midatlantic/tvq/video.apx.-content-articles-TVQ-2008-03-05-0011.html

Old Testament Textual Crticism

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:30:53 CST

Over the last few weeks, we have been doing a lot of deep digging into the text of Deuteronomy 6. In the process, we have been introduced to how to study textual variants of the Old Testament, which is different from the New Testament. With the OT, there are several manuscript traditions in the history of its transmission. That is just to say that in different geographical regions, different variants arose.

What is astounding to me is the reason for all of the minor variations in the Hebrew text. At some point scribes undertook to do their own textual criticism to attempt to correct grammatical errors or errors in spelling that had crept in over the many years of copying copies. The cool thing is that the Old Testament text has gone through some revision not to change the plot or by the will of later editors who added to the history of Israel, but to preserve the text. Scribes over time have sought to recover/maintain the integrity of the Old Testament not change it to fit what they wanted to portray as Israel's history as liberal textual critics would have us believe. So the textual variants themselves actual provide evidence of the genuineness and uniqueness of the Hebrew Old Testament.

SPAM!

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 12:38:20 CST

No I am not talking about that nasty canned ham, rather something even more disgusting: e-mail spam. I have received this in many different forms, but today I got very annoyed. Not that I got spam, but the method used is very aggravating.

What the spammers did was send out e-mail messages to a bunch of fake email addresses for real websites such as randomlettersandnumbers@hotmail.com, with a fake e-mail address from my website such as crackhead@revision29.com. The result is that the server receiving the message says that that e-mail can't be delivered because the e-mail address is invalid, thus it sends out a message to my web server saying that the message can't be delivered and puts the contents of the original e-mail after the error message. The result is that I had about 215 of these in my inbox this morning, and will lead to the other web servers reporting my website as a spam host. What makes me mad is that I have to deal with the spam and my website gets a reputation as being a spam site, which then affects how my email is treated by some websites and Outlook as mail coming from my server is automatically marked as spam and placed in the recipient's Junk mail folder.

Copyright

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 23:31:04 CST

I was reading an article, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122800693.html, about how the RIAA is saying that even ripping a CD into MP3's without distributing them is illegal. What is really annoying is a lobby group is going around saying what is legal and not, instead of using legislation to actually make certain activities illegal. Within the article, the part that really makes me mad, is that someone was fined $220,000 for distrubuting 24 songs. That is $9,250 per song! Wether or not one thinks distributing MP3's is immoral/illegal, it is immoral to penalize someone beyond what is necessary. The person should be required to pay exact restitution for the songs that were distributed, not almost 10 grand per song. The punishment far outweighs the "crime." Using iTunes prices, the 24 songs would be $23.76, so the person should be asked to repay that amount. Perhaps the person would have to pay $.99 for each time the track was downloaded by someone else. That would certainly be much less that $220,000!

It is far more immoral for the RIAA to sue someone for so much money than for the person to actually distribute the songs. The big record companies and rich rock stars don't need the money "lost" to "pirating," but look at how they cripple those who can't afford to pay the fines. They RIAA and recording artists make it sound like they loose so much money from the lack of record sales due to pirating, which is probably true for smalltime independents, but the big names make most of their money from concert tickets, t-shirt sales, advertising on their websites, etc. The artists should be thankful that they get more fans (through the distribution of ripped MP3's) who love their music who shell out ridiculous amounts of cash for overpriced concert tickets and who have to spend outrageous prices for concessions at the venues. "Pirating" increases popularity which drives up sales of merch and concert tickets.

Of course let me say that we may not agree that ripping and distributing MP3's is illegal, but we still much respect the artists who work their butts of to give us music that we enjoy. Also, we must respect the law of the land so far as it honors God. Beyond that, we must stand up for the little people that the RIAA and greedy artists are oppressing through excessive and unnecessary fines.

American Health System

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:05:46 CST

Today I got distracted by the Scientific American website. specifically I was being entertained by the trivia section. Aside from interesting scientific facts, I was being bombarded by subtle political messages. Namely that global warming is caused directly by humans and that that Canada has a cheaper healthcare system but has the same results. Actually let me quote the question and answer:

Q: Which country spends a little more than half what the U.S. does on health care but, according to a recent study that looked solely at mortality, has comparable health outcomes?

A: Canada

I will give you a minute to digest that. Concentrate of the population of Canada and the baseline for their argument.

You see it don't you? The population of the United States is 9 times larger than Canada. So they should be spending 11% of what we spend, not 50%. So person they are spending more than we are. But they are not getting any more bang for their buck. Think about this: their baseline was mortality. The number of people who die. Last I checked the death rate of Canada is the same as anywhere in the world, namely that 100% of the population at some point will die. Not a good standard to base things on. So no matter what, if you get health coverage from America or Canada, you are eventually going to die.

I actually think that the question may refer to a study that shows per person, each Canadian spends 50% less than an American on healthcare, but the wording makes it sound different. But still, the message of the question is ridiculous: If you are still going to die, why pay twice as much in America to get the same result?

Writer's Redaction Versus Jesus' Action

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:14:23 CST

This semester I am taking New Testament Eschatology. The format is intensive week, meaning that we meet for one whole week and throughout the rest of the semester we work on reading and other assignments. We have a major project which comes in the form of an oral presentation during intensive week. My assigned topic is Mark 13. You may be thinking, "Did you not already do a presentation on Matthew 24, you text's parallel?" And you would be right. We were asked to choose 3 topics which interested us. From there the professor, Dr. Lowery, would assign our topic or passage. For the record, I did not pick Mark 13. I picked three things that were nowhere near related. I though it would be unfair since I had done a lot of research already, etc., plus I did not want to do the same thing twice. But Dr. Lowery chose to give me Mark 13....

On to my real point. I have been attempting to discover the author's intended meaning. Mark's redaction is very interesting. He takes the events of Jesus' passion week and pieces them together for his theological purposes. The historicity of the events do not change. The meaning of Jesus' words do not change. From my vantage point, there is a very intricate dance between Mark's redaction and theological agenda with Jesus' original meaning. Mark formulates his narrative in a very thoughtful and precise manner. His verb and noun choices in chapters 12 and 13 make stark contrasts with what is perceived and what is actual. Jesus' genuine authority is contrasted with the false authority of the religious leaders The outward righteousness of the scribes is contrasted with the genuine righteousness of the widow who gave all she had to God. In Mark 13, the misconception of the disciples regarding Jesus' parousia and eschatological events, are contrasted with Jerusalem's destruction and the unknowable time of Jesus final appearance.

It is clear that Jesus is clearing up the disciple's misconceptions, but the way in which Mark redacted it, makes that fact even more clear. So it may be safe to say that a Biblical author's redaction was guided by the Holy Spirit who helped to preserve Jesus' original intent, while helping the author make his theological point.

Site Redesign

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 12:33:40 CST

I am in the process of redesigning my site. The basic concept as well as some css came from freecsstemplates.org. In order to make it work, there was much work done on the back end code, especially with the Bible search. Currently, the translation tool view is not working right due to some css problems, but that will be remedied soon. Check it out at www.revision29.com/remake.

What I did was use their basic layout, borrow some code and meld it with a lot of existing code. The reason why I did not rewrite my own code, is because I liked the colors as they go with my current color scheme as well as the header that I made from a picture taken at Mathiessen State Park. I really like the style, as it is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time, but I tend to overdo my site graphics and it does not look as simple.

Comments Should Be Working

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 09:40:16 CST

Thanks to Chet for pointing out that the new site did not allow for comments. The problem lied in page that processes comments and blog articles. I forgot to include the database function page, so when I called a particular function, php got mad and did not process the form.

[update] Please check though. I am doing a lot of code work and things might stop working [/update]

Bible Tweaks

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:53:41 CST

I have overhauled some code in the Bible search page. You will notice that the form input field names have changed. Also, I have added the ability to use shorthand in your browser's location bar to do a search without having to go to the search page then type in your search. Also, you don't need to add the file extension .php anymore when accessing the search page, as well as the other pages on my site. Thank you Apache and .htaccess.

To use shorthand just type in revision29.com/bible?s=1john1
You can substitute 1john1 for your normal search criteria. If you want to see it in greek add &gnt. Thus revision29.com/bible?s=1john1&gnt will show the greek for 1 John 1. THen if you append &tt to & gnt, you will be presented with the translation tool view.

Importance of Context

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:37:30 CST

I am currently reading a book on the history of various Old Testament peoples, and even of pre OT cultures. One section equated the Egpytian myth "Tale of Two Brothers" with one from Hittite mythology and the story of Joseph's refusal of Potiphar's wife's sexual advances. It is my interpretation that the author does not mean that the three are equal in myth but that they equally portray virtue as was exalted in mid eastern / egyptian cultures. Because virtue was a very important value, Moses, who wrote the story down, would have included it in the book of Genesis. Considering the wealth of information that Moses could have wrote, such detailed stories are important. He could have left that section out to save room to expound on the call of Abraham, but did not. Why would he do this?

Because virtue was a very important issue, at least at points in Old Testament history, it was important to show that Joseph, a very important person in Jewish history, was a man of virtue. It was Moses, perhaps by God's prompting, to appeal to the value system of the culture to show the superiority of God and his followers. To be held in high honor by the culture means that you have an "in"-- that you have a way of reaching them with the truth of God and the salvation he offers. Yes I use salvation to speak of the OT because God offered them salvation as realized in Messiah--Jesus.

When one finds paralells between Old Testament Judaism or Christianity with the culture of the day, it does not show our belief system to be flawed or weak. God had to reach the culture where it was and appealed to their values and ways of life. It also happens that cultures have at least some part of God's truth, which can be used by Him. Also, it so happens that God uses things from other cultures as the norm and requirements for his followers. This does not mean that some things are bound to culture, such as the practice of baptism, but that God wanted something to be used in how his people worshipped him so perhaps he moved to have it created in culture so he could integrate it into his people. God is the God of history, so he moves to bring things about so that his message and will can be known and spread by all. Consider the cultural, religious, political world of Jesus' day. God had moved history so that the situation was perfect for Jesus' ministry to flourish and for the gospel to reach the extent of the inhabited world.

Form / Source Criticism

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 14:39:01 CST

When I was taking a class on the gospel of Matthew, we were required to do a lot of reading on form / source criticism. In addition, these issues surfaced during research. One thing that astounds me about this area of textual criticism is that scholars tend to forget about the role of the holy Spirit. This is not just a phenomenon of the liberal scholars, but also conservative. I am a theological conservative, who believes that the books of the Bible are inerrant. That is to say the original manuscripts. But I also mean that the copies of the manuscripts that we have today are very close to the originals, with some slight modifications by scribes and others. What I don't mean is that the early Church made up or added to the original version of the cannonical books.

I do not, though, discount the fact that some Biblical writers used existing documents to aid them in writing. When you read 1 Kings, for example, you will find citations to other writings that are no longer in existence (1 Kings 14:19). Luke himself claims to have consulted people what they delivered to him in writing his gospel (Luke 1:1).

The apostles did, however, have special gifts of the Holy Spirit, who they could also pass to others, who in turn could NOT pass them on (follow the development in the book of acts). In reading 1 Corinthians we can see that such gifts included prophesy, speaking in various languages, understanding among others. So now the situation is very complex. There are eyewitnesses who saw what Jesus did and taught. You have the Holy Spirit speaking through people about things, only a very small amount of which we have about. You have people writing down various sayings and teachings of Jesus, which would have been refuted if in error. So you have Truth being communicated in a multitude of "medium." What many liberal scholars conclude is that determined by the form/source of a passage of scripture and how it is used in scripture, a passage may be genuine or added by the early church. That to me is ridiculous. That is playing favorites with the medium by which truth is proclaimed. God used the medium he did so we would have the knowledge we do so that we can know and serve Him. The media and use of it do not determine its validity. God does. for us to say it is invalid is to say that God is wrong. That puts me in a very veRY VERY bad place.

Retina

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 23:02:02 CST

Yesterday, Sarah had to have a follow-up exam after going to the eye doctor for contact lens prescription. She went to the Wal-Mart vision center here in Lincoln, because it is convenient and cheap. The optometrist had a new toy, and were giving people free tests with it. It is a machine that takes pictures of the retina with laser light. Since it is new, they give people free exams with it so that they can become familiar with it. After Sarah had her time with the doctor, we both were invited to have our retinas pictured for free. What I found out is that I have a small hole in my left retina. The doctor then proceeded to tell me that it was not a major problem, but that I need to be aware of the symptoms of a detached retina, which can be a serious condition.

What can happen is fluid can enter the hole and get behind the retina and detach it slightly, or completely. If I get the symptoms, then I have 3 days before it gets real serious. To fix it, they hit the area around the hole/detachment with a laser in order to re attach and to stop it from getting worse.

What is interesting is that she asked me if I saw floaters in my left eye, because that coupled with other signs, can be cause for alarm of the above said condition. Actually the interesting is that there were no problems with my right eye, despite the fact that I can see floaters all the time. It is a very annoying condition, especially when I am looking at anything white.

Greek New Testament

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 06:19:19 CST

Where to begin...
I got my hands on James Tauber's CCAT MorphGNT project http://jtauber.com/morphgnt/, which basically is a large text file with each word in the Greek New Testament in order as it appears in the text. The text file is set-up to give the parsing information and lexical form of each word. Needless to say this is very powerful. After much fighting with PHP and MySQL over proper text encoding, I finally imported the text into my Bible database and have tweaked the backend to properly display the text. The bottom line is that now you can display the Greek New Testament on my site. This also means that you can view it in parallel with english translations which are available from my site. Actual searching of greek words may not be possible unless you can type in unicode greek, and I don't have it setup to search transliterations.

But wait, there's more!!! You will notice that if you are displaying the greek text, you can click on a link towards the top of the page to display a translation help grid. It is formatted in the standard 4 line approach to translating scripture for the purpose of exegesis. The top line is for parsing information; the second is the greek word as it appears in the text; the third is for a rough translation; and the fourth is for a smooth translation. With the layout, there is plenty of room for adding additional notes. The purpose it to print out the table and work on it by hand, which is my preferred method. Eventually I may create a login system and make the table in such a way that you can type your translation info and save it to the database. This will require extensive programming and work with AJAX, with which I have heretofore not worked with, thus this might not come to pass.

Great Comission Thought

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 18 May 2007 17:10:37 CST

We all know the great commission very well. It was on that great mountain in Galilee that Jesus gave the mission of all Christians. Nestled within [bs]Matthew 28:16-20[/bs] is a statement which uses the names of all three parts of "the trinity."

What you may not know, as an aside, is that I lean in the direction of Barton W. Stone who said that there is no direct Biblical teaching of the trinity and thus we should avoid using the terminology. I am not opposed to trinitarian teaching, as he was, but do find the argument for it weak. God is hard to understand. His nature and being are incomprehensible. Because he has chosen to reveal himself in three forms, which we call the trinity, does not mean that there are three completely distinct parts of God. Yes, I do acknowledge that Jesus himself used language that made it seem that to some degree he and the Father are seperate. Especially when we declared that he would be at the right hand of God, though not God himself. However, on other occasions, he did say that he and the Father are one. It would be my assertion that God has chosen to describe himself to us in the way he has, because we could not understand his true form. The images the he uses to describe himself are metaphors taken from humanity and thus are only metaphors to help understand him better. being based on created things, the comprehensible descriptions of God in the Bible are very limited as we are limited.

Now back to our passage. Jesus told the 11 (Judas killed himself, remember) that as they went they were to make more disciples by a) baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and b) teaching them to obey all of his commands. If we believe that God exists in three persons, we should expect the greek to reflect that the names are distinct. What we really find is that name is singular, not plural. The three names given by Jesus are not descriptions of thee distinct beings, but are synonyms that are grammatically parallel. From my point of view, which may very well be wrong, God is not three persons, but one who has revealed himself in three forms that we can understand.

Another aside. The Old Testament has many great descriptions of God (judge, husband, counselor, king, etc.) that we don't emphasize much. We limit ourselves to the three names in Matthew 28, but the Bible is filled with tens, if not hundreds, more name which give a more holistic picture of who God is and what he does.

Grades Are In

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 14 May 2007 14:43:33 CST

Today I checked and my grades have been posted on the LCCS Student Portal. I surprised myself. I have two A's and one A-, which gives me a term GPA of 3.89 anda cumulative of 3.67. I had taken some classes at FCC that Dr. Shaw had taken, but in those I had only gotten a 3.5. The A- was in Matthew Exegesis which was pretty tuff workload wise.

Basic of Biblical Hebrew

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 14 May 2007 11:14:37 CST

I an selling a brand new copy of Basics of Biblical Hebrew for $27 on amazon. I bought it at the bookstore for that amount. A new edition is coming out in June, and we will be using that instead of this one, so I must sell it. If interested visit http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/exchange-glance/Y01Y6111887Y4535266 . I really need to sell it so that I can buy the new one for next semester. I also don't want to loose money on the deal.

Facing the Challenge

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 11 May 2007 13:52:38 CST

[NOTE] This is an article that I had to write as a requirement for my Matthew Exegesis class taught by Bob Lowery http://www.rlowery.com. It goes along with an oral presentation that I gave. The rough draft of which can be found in the archives to my blog. [/NOTE]

One thing that astounds me is that within the west, there is a pop-Christianity being sold on T.V. the Radio. It is comfortable. It is tame. It manifests itself on t-shirts and bumper stickers as a happy, bubbly, and almost arrogant. Is this the image that Jesus wants his followers to live by?
In the book of Matthew, there are many difficult passages, but none quite like chapters 24-25. Therein we find grandiose images of Jesus coming on the clouds, an abomination of desolation, angels blowing war trumpets, and the persecution of Jesusâ€™ followers. We find parables of ten bridesmaids, wise and foolish servants, and talents. Such images could be the subjects of many fiction novels and remind us of Old Testament prophets and things we may have glanced at in Revelation. With such awe inspiring images, understanding what they â€�"meanâ€ can be quite challenging.
Such was the case for the first disciples, whose presuppositions often clouded their understanding and got them into trouble. Peter assumed Jesus did not have to die. James and John thought they could receive high kingdom honor. They all longed for the day when Jesus would violently overthrow the oppressive Romans and exploitive religious rulers. These assumptions were rooted in their understanding of the Messiah as portrayed in the Old Testament. Moreover, exaggerations and additions to Biblical prophesies caused misinterpretation of Scripture. Perhaps greatest of which, was that Jesus would establish a physical nation, restore the Davidic throne and Israel's prominence over the gentiles. This expectation would skew Jesusâ€™ words as recorded in Matthew 23-25.

Questions
In Matthew 23 Jesus declared woes on the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy, misuse of the law and acting in accordance with those who killed the prophets of old, such as Zechariah. This was the indictment Jesus made against them as he declared their accountability for the blood of the prophets. He then alluded to the type of sentence that would be instituted, by announcing that Jerusalemâ€™s desolation, which was demonstrated when Jesus, the very presence of God, left the city.
As he walked away, the disciples came to him to point out the beautiful buildings. Their statement seems to have implied a question to Jesus: â€�"You canâ€™t really mean these buildings, which were built so beautifully to honor God, are going to be made empty, do you?â€ His response was that there was not one stone on another which would not be toppled (24:2). Their center of religious life, the place they loved and adored would be destroyed. How would you feel if some poor, itinerant preacher came and told your elders that your church building was going to be destroyed? You would not be happy either.
For some reason, Jesusâ€™ declaration caused some odd thoughts to enter into their minds. So they sent Peter, James, John and Andrew (Mark 13:3) to ask Jesus two very important questions, to clarify what was going to happen. The first was â€�"when will these things be (the destruction of the city and temple)â€ and the second, â€�"what is the sign that will indicate both your [messianic] coming and the end of the age.â€ (Matthew 24:3) They made a connection between the destruction of the city and the establishment of the Messianic age. Jesusâ€™ answer would challenge the disciples and their devotion to the one they knew as Messiah. In fact, the circumstances in Matthew 24:1-35 describe the horrific judgement of Jerusalem and the establishment of the true, spiritual kingdom. Events contrary to the discipleâ€™s presuppositions would cause this to happen, namely intense persecution inflicted upon them. By observing Jesusâ€™ challenges to the first disciples, we better understand true, Biblical discipleship.

Signs
The disciples wanted a sign to indicate when Jesus was going to come. Signs that Jesus promised included false messiahs, persecution, the abomination of desolation, and Jesusâ€™ coming on the clouds with great power. These would indicate the judgement against the nation through the Roman army and their destruction of Jerusalem in ad 70.
When looking back at these passages, we read eschatological meaning into them. This was not Jesusâ€™ intention. He wanted to give signs of the destruction of the city in order to give Christians a chance to flee and spread the Gospel as they went. In 24:36-25:46 we read Jesusâ€™ teachings that the day of his final appearance would be unexpected and no signs would be given.
Our pop-Christian culture, however, desires signs. World calamity, natural disaster or when a world power flexes itâ€™s military muscles, many declare that the end is near. Difficulty arises because similar to events have occurred throughout human history. God was again to work in human history to fulfill his divine purpose. This time Rome was to be the tool used to bring judgement. In 24:38, Matthew records Jesusâ€™ saying â€�"where the corpse is there the eagles will gather.â€ Jesus uses the greek word for eagle not vulture, which hints at Romeâ€™s use of an eagle as their national symbol. He also specifies that the events would happen within that generation, no more than 40 years (24:34).
The problem with looking for signs of Jesusâ€™ second coming, other than the absence of them, is that they are unnecessary. Disciples of Jesus, are called to live by faith. Looking for signs shows a lack thereof. The truth is that we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, who gives us strength and comfort in our time of need, such as persecution, political unrest, or natural disaster. Genuine discipleship requires that we rest on Jesusâ€™ promises regarding the Holy Spirit.

Endurance
Another aspect of Jesusâ€™ discourse on the destruction of Jerusalem, was the need for endurance. Great persecution was to be inflicted upon his followers. Some would fall away and betray others. False prophets would arise and lead many more astray. Jesus promised that the one who endured these things to the end would be saved (24:13).
Such difficulties have occurred throughout Church history, as people reject Godâ€™s messengers. Such things would be precursors to the destruction of the Jerusalem, but must also be endured by disciples in all eras. Pop-Christianity lacks this quality, just as it lacks faith in God.
This has seriously handicapped the Churchâ€™s effectiveness in fulfilling the great commission and caring for the body. Long fights against feminist and liberal theologies are slowly being lost as Christians quit the battle. Instead of continuing the intellectual and spiritual battle, we have acquiesced to societal pressure.
Moreover, time and effort is required to win people to Christ and cultivate them into genuine disciples. Frustration and heartache are part of the process, but many are unwilling to withstand. Instead, we invite non-believers to church or a conference, hoping someone else will do the work. Even when a person is won, insufficient effort is put into growing him/her. Genuine discipleship demands that we expend whatever is necessary to bring people to Christ and strengthen their walk with him. It also demands that we continue our fight against heresy.

Sacrifice
Urgency would surround the events of Jerusalemâ€™s destruction. The man on his roof was not to go down and get his things. Neither was the man in the field to turn back for his cloak. (24:17-18). In fact when they would see the abomination of desolation (an occupying force that would cease temple function and erect an idol in the temple, as previously done by Antiachus Epiphanes in the inter-testamental period), they were to flee to the mountains. Jesus required that they be willing to leave behind all that they owned in order to obey his words. Such sacrifice would enable them to live through the slaughter and spread the gospel.
Jesusâ€™ challenge to the 12, and disciples to come, was to have a willingness to abandon earthly treasures in service God. This counters pop-Christianityâ€™s desire for riches and comfort. Too many words are being spoken from pulpits about gaining riches and improving health. These misspoken words oppose Jesusâ€™ frequent rebuke of those who would seek to increase their earthly treasure.
Pop-Christianity proudly proclaims, â€�"I will follow Christ as long as it is comfortable and does not threaten my lifestyle.â€ Words like these, though commonplace, are heretical. Jesus never called us to maintain our standard of living or enlarge our stock portfolio. In fact, I recall him telling a rich young man to sell his stuff and help the poor. How many people could we feed in Christâ€™s name, or how many Churches could we plant or many missionaries could we support if we went out to eat less, bought a used car or used a slower internet connection? God wants us to show mercy to those in need. But, only through making sacrifices can mercy be shown

Our Response
The type of discipleship that Jesus demanded in Matthew 25:1-35 is completely opposite of pop-Christianity. It requires faith, endurance and sacrifice, which lack in the lifestyles of many Christians.
The world, however, needs for us to be the kind of disciples that Jesus prescribes. We have a message of hope and reconciliation that needs to be spread in word and deed. Without both, our message will wither be lifeless or unauthentic.â€¨
Will you decide to be something more than pop-Christian? Will you be the kind of disciple that world needs to see? Will you be the disciple that Jesus calls you to be?

Perfection

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 07 May 2007 17:53:11 CST

I am currently outlining the Gospel of Matthew for my Matthew exegesis class. As I consider the many words spoken by Jesus, and futilely make a tidy outline of the book, things start making sense. The exercise is challenging me to consider each pericope and it's context. Connections are made that might be missed reading Matthew chapter by chapter or paragraph by paragraph. I will describe such an instance.

I am currently at the sermon on the mount. Jesus had taught about lust, divorce, oaths, vengeance, and moves onto loving our enemies. He counters the oral tradition which says to love your neighbors and hate your enemies (Mt. 5:43), by saying we should love our enemies and offer prayer to those who persecute us (vs 44). His argument is that even gentiles show friendliness to themselves. The point is that he says the gentiles, who are the scum of the earth, know how to do what you do. He then says to be perfect like your heavenly father is perfect (vs 48). What is the connection? It seems Jesus is off his rocker and just adding a non-related saying to his teaching. The connection is that in verse 45 Jesus indicates that God blesses all people, jew and gentile, with rain and sunlight which are symbols of his blessing. He is telling the people, "yeah you see that the gentiles are kind to one another, but you are to show kindness to all people, not just your own." Jesus was telling this group of jews to not hate gentiles, and not just tolerate them, but to extend blessing to them.

As the Church we are called to follow Jesus' teachings, which include this one. Jesus is telling us to look beyond our Christian subculture and see those on the outside who need blessing and give it to them. He had spoken a few words before about being the salt and the light of this world. How can we be salt and light if we never are placed in the world or venture into the darkness to shine the light?

AmigaOS

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:32:59 CST

Ok, there are some things odd about this world. Today I decided to take a look at my website stats. I have had several thousand hits this mnth. Most were for rss.php which is the xml version of my blog for, you guessed it, rss feeds. The other, still with thousand of hits, is addarticle.php, which is the page that processes comment posting / article adding. The thousand of visitors to that page tells me it is a blog spam factory trying to infect my site with viagra / porn adds, which I don't like. At one time they had added thousands of entries of that crap.

The oddest thing that I found was the breakdown of operating systems that have viewed my site. Most are Windows (Chet, a very good friend, and spammers, enemies), second is unknown (spammers), third is Mac (me, and probably some other friends), but forth with 69 hits is AmigaOS. I know one person with an Amiga, but he does not use it anymore (hmm I wonder if I could get Os X on it if he is not using it). I've had 3 people using Risc OS, 3 using an unknown flavor of Unix, 2 using FreeBSD, and 1 using CP/M. All of these are odd, especially CP/M which has not been used since DOS took over the planet. For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M. I wonder if that is an appliance in a spam factory?

Snake!!!

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:09:09 CST

Sunday afternoon was a beautiful day. It was in the 70's and there was a brisk wind. Great day for a walk. That is exactly what Sarah and I did. When we got home, we entered through the patio door because it was closer to where we came from and because the screen door was unlocked. As we entered, I immediatly went to kick off my flip flops while Sarah closed the screen door. She yelled a bit at something (not scream), and so that was odd, because she usually would scream. So I looked and there was a 4 foot snake. it looked cool, so I went to follow it. After grabbing my camera, I followed it as it made its way around the building trying to find some food. Afterall it has been a long winter and he is probably very hungry.

He was a very tame snake. He did not get frightened by my close proximity, but would only stop if I stood up in front of him. At first I thought he was a corn snake ('cause, hello, there is a corn field [though barren at the moment], and it was very docile), but the markings are not completely consistant. Specificlly, there is a lack of a stripe that runs from his eye to his neck. He does not appear to be an indignous venomous snake. It's underbelly is mostly white (most venomous snakes here have dark bellies) and its head was more rounded than you typically find in such a snake. Also, the shape of the end of the tale was more rounded, than tapering off which sort of clues me that it is a constrictor of some kind. It was pretty fat for its length and time of the year.

I really have no clue what kind of snake he is. No pictures I found matched his markings. Perhaps it is a pet snake run away. If you can tell from the picture, let me know.

Sinner's Prayer

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 23:26:20 CST

Sometime I think about weird things. Sometimes I think about important things. The other day, I had a combination of the two. Being a person who holds strongly to the authority of the Bible, baptism by immersion is what I understand as the vehicle by which a person is washed of their sin and filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not a contradiction of the Biblical teaching that salvation comes by faith, not by works to fulfill a system of law. Bible is clearly described as our identification with Jesus' death, burial and ressurection (Romans 6) as well as being the act of faith that God requires in order for our sins to be forgiven. Baptism is not an option is it a command (the imperative mode for those who know some koine greek). It is a command to be obeyed through faith. Faith requires action (see James). Abraham was told by God to leave his land and go to a land that would be shown to him. He acted out in faith by going. It is the same with baptism. We act our our faith in obedience.

That is actually an aside to the thought I had. Many people who say that baptism is not essential for salvation, often point to the thief on the cross as their rationalle and say that all we have to do is say a prayer. the interesting thing is that the thief on the cross never prayed. He simply demonstrated faith and repentance. When he had been initially crucified alongside Jesus, he hurled insults, but alter he realized who the person he was cursing actually was. There was not the opportunity to be baptized. Also, baptism for the remission of sins and for the gift of the Spirit was not instituted until the day of pentacost. Until this point baptism was commanded, but as a sign of repentance, and had not been given its full power until Jesus had ascended. Besides, that thief may have followed Jesus, or John the baptist, and could fully have been baptized but did not take Jesus' seriously until later. This happens a lot with "christians" who grow in their understanding of Jesus and theological issues, or perhaps were baptized under false motives who later came to a real understanding of what they did.

The thief never prayed. Prayer is something that you must do, yourself. Baptism is something that you choose to have done to you by someone else. Prayer for salvation is more of a personal work of salvation, than baptism. Baptism is a physical submission to the power of another in faith that through that act of obedience God will fulfill his promises (forgiveness, gift of Holy Spirit). There is no promise in regards to salvation by prayer in the Bible, except that prayer uttered through people of faith are answered.

This is somewhat rambling and not well constucted, but hopefully helps us to understand that prayer for faith is not a Bliblical command with promises attached. Baptism, on the other hand, is.

By the way, I chose to include a picture of a flower with this post as a symbol of new life. It is a picture of one of our plants that has blossomed this spring, which never blossomed the 2.5 years that we had the plant in Florida.

Climate Change

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 11:39:45 CST

Today I was looking at NOAA's site to check the weather for today. During my scanning of the site, I discovered a link to get a climate report for a given city. I selected Springfield, IL since it is closer than the other option. The information in that report is helpful for seeing trends in climate change and comparison to a baseline period. NOAA's data is used by people on both sides of the global warming debate to substantiate how hot the earth actually is. Recently, they issued a statement that last winter was the hottest ever (though .7 degrees [the exact figure escapes me but it was less than 1 degree] hotter than the baseline temperature).

What I find interesting is that the baseline for climate is the years from 1971 to 2000. This is the same period of time that scientists and ecologists said the earth was going to cool. There was a Time magazine article in the 70's declaring that the earth was going to get too cold and one of the proposed solutions was to cover the polar ice caps with black soot to prevent the earth from cooling. I am not sure of the link to the article, but you can Google it and find it. Many conservatives have mentioned it and have posted a copy of the article online. Glenn Beck had a link on his site a while ago, so that may be the place to start.

What is problematic to me is that we are comparing our current temperatures to the baseline between 1971 and 2000, which were supposed to be cooler. If our temperatures are warmer now, than during that period, should we be surprised? I have heard it said that the earth's climate changes in roughly 30 year cycles. So we should be expecting things to change, since the 30 years "are up".

Global warming science is flawed and should not be trusted. Consider their baseline years. Consider that we have been keeping climate records only since around 1890. Consider that scientists think the earth is billions of years old, which is different than what we Christians believe, and their only other source of climate data is in core samples from glaciers. Their data will be flawed since the actual dating of the "stuff" they find is off by millions or billions of years.

Let me also state, that despite the fact that global warming may be a farce, we still need to take care of our earth. We have been given stewardship of this place and God will hold us accountable as to how we use it. If we cut down the rain-forests because we waste wood and paper, that is bad stewardship. If we over farm our land and destroy the soil because the price of corn is up and we will make a huge profit, that is bad stewardship. If we want to release hazardous chemicals into the air which will cause us and our children to have higher rates of cancer, that is bad stewardship. If we take bribes from special interest groups or big business to ignore ecological problems, we are sinning in a big way. Let us look past ourselves, our politics, and out bank accounts and help our environment. We have enough in the Bible to motivate us, without the need to turn to bad science to scare the masses.

Minor UI Tweaks

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 18:54:32 CST

When you look at the comments for any article that I have posted, you will notice some minor UI tweaks. The comments are now displayed in a thought bubble. Ok. I know that is unoriginal, but I like it. The comments of a comment have a slightly different bubble (and is indented more) so you can see the flow of conversation. Check it out and enjoy.

PowerBook Picture Frame

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:26:14 CST

A very long time ago, a friend wanted to purchase my old PowerBook with broken hinges so that he could create a PowerBook picture frame, He had seen a blog post from someone who had done just that. Reluctantly, I said no. I just could not let go of my old reliable (except for the hinges braking), first Mac. That was a smart idea.

Fast forward the clock. I am now married to a woman who loves music. A year or so ago, she received an M-Audio Keystation Pro 88, which needs a computer to drive it via USB. We set-up her keyboard and placed a plastic box beside the stand and placed the PowerBook on that. Annoyingly, the screen had to be carefully propped against the wall to support it. Fast forward again. We are now living in Lincoln, IL so that I can attend seminary. I have a full-time class load, and was unemployed for a while. I got bored. I was not satisfied that my wife has to deal with the crappy laptop set-up. So I bit the bullet. I drove down to Dollar General and purchased a 6 dollar frame. Of course I had to cut the matting to fit the visible area of the screen.

I set the laptop on my bed and pondered how I was going to do this. Planing ahead is not my strong point, I just jump in and get to working. I think through it as I go. You can see from the pic that the computer is no longer its stylish gray. No sir. I had previously disassembled it and painted it black and green.

From there, I took off the outer covering of the hinges so as to give slack to the display cables, and put the covers back on.

Next, I carefully placed the screen on the frame/matting so as to not cover any visible areas of the display. Who wants to see only half of the menu bar? To affix the display, I used aluminum tape because it is strong, heat resistant and durable. I also, put spacers on the back of the display so that there could be airflow between it and the computer body.

The body of the computer was flipped up carefully so that it would rest on the spacers. More tape was added. Then I had to attach 4 L-brackets to the back of the frame to hold the computer in snug and provide a good location to mount to mounting string. After nailing in three nails (I could not find a stud where I needed for one good nail), I hung the computer on the wall, attached the cables and fired it up.

There you can see the finished product. My wife now has a Mac that she can use for her music, surf the web and do whatever else she would need to use mine for (MySpace). Unfortunately, it is an old Mac (though it does run great). We are too poor to afford a new one for her.

iClip Review

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 08:55:02 CST

One thing that gets really annoying when trying to multitask, is that you inevitably run into an instance where you are trying to copy and paste a billion things at once (ok, so that is a little over the top, but roll with me here). Eventually you will paste some real sensitive information (like social security number) which can then be exploited. It would suck to try and paste your credit card number into a Keychain note, but find out that you actually pasted it on your blog and discovered that you had a billion dollars worth of charges. 5555-1234-4231-4564:827 (awwww crap! It happened to me.)

Fear no more. The frustration is gone. iClip has come to the rescue! This great little app makes it so that you can have 99 items in the clipboard, rather than just 1. What is even cooler is that you can edit the text contained with a clipboard item. That is cool when you find out that you have been pasting a string of text, but have been finding that it was initially typed in wrong and you have had to fix the text every time you paste it. Now you can edit it once paste it with perfection.

The interface for iClip is decent. When you hover your mouse over the screen edge containing the app, it pops out at you displaying the clipboard goodness. Though the icons are a tad too big (but are that way for a reason), they are designed with a neat concept. There is a row of icons which are iris opening doors. When that clipboard item contains something, the iris will be opened and you can see what is inside. That is even cooler than randomly pasting from 99 different elements.

This is a great app, and I suggest that you pick it up from http://inventive.us/iClip/.

Sorry Chet, it is Mac only. But hey check out there site, it is awesome.