Giving to Man

But the people gave the money to God, so it's ok:

For nearly a decade, members of Ripon's First Congregational Church bared their souls to Pastor Randall Radic. But clearly it didn't work both ways. There were certain things he wasn't telling them.

That became obvious a year ago, when Radic pleaded guilty to betraying his flock and secretly selling the church and its rectory out from under them. He used the money to buy himself a brand-new black BMW and a laptop -- exploits he later chronicled in a cheeky, almost gleeful blog about his double life as a sinner.

southflorida.com

This is why all the "I've given it to God" stuff has to stop. When you give to the church you are just as accountable as the gentlemen in the parable of the talents. If the pastor can look and see who's giving how much, then you should definitely know and care about how the money you've given is being spent.

Free will

If certain Christian sects are correct and God has elected some people and there is no way for them to not be elected, then wouldn't it mean that both the elect and non-elect are doing God's will?

In other words, if God says that one person will do good and another will do bad, then isn't the bad person doing the will of God?

To Grow a Church

I used to go to one of the best churches I've ever known. What happened to change that?

Modern churches are focused on one thing; to grow the church. In order to grow the church you must enact certain rules and behaviors to keep it running. Now, this is where modern churches begin to lose focus. All events become centered at the facility and all programs are organized to support the facility.

"by all means that we might save some"

What's the best way to keep young people involved?

The modern church answers this by getting them involved in anything and everything from music to games to events.

Well, in order to accommodate all that is needed takes a lot of money. It is natural then that we find most modern churches drowned in debt. I understand that the Bible has something to say about usury and the like, but never mind that.

Praying before service my pastor mentioned that we "needed" about 6 more classrooms and that it would take about $100,000. This on top of all the money we've already spent on fixing up the place.

We'd all like chandeliers of gold, toilet paper of silk, and pews equipped with back message equipment, but its just not going to happen. Not while I'm doing the spending anyway. Sure, give it to God they say, but aren't I responsible and accountable for what and where I give. Can I give a homeless pimp money knowing that he's going to use it for cab fare to beat his b*tches? No, that would be irresponsible.

So no, we do not need to spend 100 grand on new classrooms. We need to pay off what we have and make due with it. Its not about the facilities and money. Else, in poor times not built up by the easy credit Americans have been bred to love, then no one would be saved.

For example, anyone can get beautiful women by flashing 100 dolla' bills around, but once the monies are gone so are they. Better to attract people with character, then a bunch of hoes searching for the latest taste of excitement.

Life After Death

Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion
by Alan F. Segal (professor of Jewish studies at Barnard College)

I found this book in New York while waiting for a Knickerbocker's (yes, that is what it says on the ticket) game. I actually got through quite a bit and was really fascinated with what the author found in his research.

For one he shows the difference in the Jews belief of the afterlife during the first temple, then how their ideas changed towards the second temple and finally how they began incorporating the pagan ideas of reincarnation and transmigration of the soul. Finally, he reaches into the New Testament and digs up some pretty nice information regarding the Christian development of both heaven and hell.

Got to put the wife through school, but you can be sure that this one will remain at the top of my list when I get some free cash.

Big Daddy's Belt

"Love Jesus or Burn Forever in Hell." I first saw this wonderfully encouraging statement emblazoned on the roof of a barn in rural South Carolina. Actually just about where I would expect to find it.

Boy does this little bit of encouragement say reams about the either/or mentality that goes with many fundamentalist teachings...

What part of eternal punishment in a lake of fire is the Good News? The Good News is what we are commanded to preach, not eternal torment. The Good News is reason people are to come to God. Paul preached the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and how to apply it to our lives. Not the eternal torment we incorporated from the pagan folks.

For instance, the apostle Paul never mentioned hell in either his speeches in Acts or his letters. And there is more just about everywhere you look on the subject: tentmaker.org, bible-truths.com and so on.

Christians have been sold a bill of goods for so long that we've come to believe in it more than the most wonderful news we've ever had in 6000 years. It's time to do away with this concept and preach the real Gospel.

Pollution

If it can be shown that an incorporeal and reasonable being has life in itself independently of the body and that it is worse off in the body than out of it, then beyond a doubt bodies are only of secondary importance and arise from time to time to meet the varying conditions of reasonable creatures. Those who require bodies are clothed with them, and contrawise, when fallen souls have lifted themselves up to better things their bodies are once more annihilated. They are thus ever vanishing and ever reappearing.
~Origen

A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, P. Schaff and H. Wace editors

What a messed up period in time. One of the most frequently quoted church "fathers" believed in reincarnation. Is there anyone we can trust from the 2nd century? My guess is no. About the best we can surmise is what the prevailing beliefs of the period were and try to match them against what's in the Bible.

Difficult to say the least. Who can say what effect these guys had on modern Christianity and what heresies of theirs are still incorporated within our own churches?

Symptoms of disease

Usually, the first question a doctor asks when one visits for an affliction concerns the symptoms of the sickness. Hopefully, the symptoms will lead to the problem and from there a solution.

1. People don't like to come to church.
2. People are bored when they do come and need an "exciting" preacher to make it intesting.
3. People need a plethora of programs so that they might not have need of the outside world. (modern day monasteries)

There are two ways in which the modern Western church meets these symptoms:

1. The programs and fellowship time revolve around keeping everyone entertained. Knowledged might be shared, but its rarely new or particularly deep.

2. Keeping people invovled so that they feel the need to come back again and again.

Why do we need a plethora of programs and projects in our churches to keep people interested. Could the spawn of these be linked to basic apathy of what the original intent was? If we preach the gospel and it is unaccepted they why do we try to keep people unintesested involved.

Is this not a drain? Allowing people to come back of their own volition allows for the very basic necessity of free will and determined choice.

Here's the crux: by constantly calling, inviting, and befriending we violate the very scripture itself when we re-witness to people who have already heard the gospel. It is because we are doing the choosing and not allowing God to make the call.

"Ye have not chosen Me, but I HAVE CHOSEN YOU…" (John 15:16)

Over and over again, the Bible tells that we can't choose ourselves. How then can another choose us?

To Grow A Church

I used to go to one of the best churches I've ever known. What happened to change that?

Modern churches are focused on one thing; to grow the church. In order to grow the church you must enact certain rules and behaviors to keep it running. Now, this is where modern churches begin to lose focus. All events become centered at the facility and all programs are organized to support the facility.

"by all means that we might save some"

What's the best way to keep young people involved?

The modern church answers this by getting them involved in anything and everything from music to games to events.

Well, in order to accommodate all that is needed takes a lot of money. It is natural then that we find most modern churches drowned in debt. I understand that the Bible has something to say about usury and the like, but never mind that.

Praying before service my pastor mentioned that we "needed" about 6 more classrooms and that it would take about $100,000. This on top of all the money we've already spent on fixing up the place.

We'd all like chandeliers of gold, toilet paper of silk, and pews equipped with back message equipment, but its just not going to happen. Not while I'm doing the spending anyway. Sure, give it to God they say, but aren't I responsible and accountable for what and where I give. Can I give a homeless pimp money knowing that he's going to use it for cab fare to beat his b*tches? No, that would be irresponsible.

So no, we do not need to spend 100 grand on new classrooms. We need to pay off what we have and make due with it. Its not about the facilities and money. Else, in poor times not built up by the easy credit Americans have been bred to love, then no one would be saved.

For example, anyone can get beautiful women by flashing 100 dolla' bills around, but once the monies are gone so are they. Better to attract people with character, then a bunch of hoes searching for the latest taste of excitement.

The Holy Fathers of Today

"In the early 1500’s a Catholic monk named Martin Luther tried to live a life holy enough to be accepted by God. Unlike most Christians of that time period, he could read the Bible. The Bible was off limits to the common people. Most Christians could not read, but even if they did, the Church forbid them from reading the Bible. Church leaders at that time (like many church leaders today) did not think the average Christian was capable of understanding it – they felt Christians needed priests to explain to them what God demands of them. Actually many Christian do not believe they can really understand the bible on their own. They attend churches who have trained ministers who tell them what the Bible really means. Things haven’t changed as much as we would like to think."


Gary Amirault

Every Christian starts at a place where they don't know much and must rely on the knowledge and learning of others. However, to remain at that place is spiritual death.

Sumaji

One particular thing among many has bothered about the birth of Jesus, the mysterious appearance of the magi. I mean, what the heck?!

Until now I had no idea what to think. Out of no where these magician/astrologer types show up and start worshipping a Godly incarnation which they had foretold. I was assured along the way by pastors and preachers alike that the Jews had the keys only. Everyone else was just dead wrong.

Well, I did a little digging and it turns out that the magi were thought to be last remnants of a created caste of Sumerians desperate to preserve their identity. This makes sense, since much of the Genesis account resembles that of the preceding Sumerian accounts of creation. Abraham came out of Sumeria so we can assume that he, too, knew of these ancient beliefs.

So if the Sumerians were the forebearers of the faith can we not conclude that their prophecies are also correct and given that they got a relatively large prophecy correct, namely the birth of JC, then we can also assume that they SHOULD be correct.

So what did they have to say?

Here we find ourselves amoung the stargazers, searching the skies for the past to speak to us of the future and what do we find...2012 and a return to the cradle of cizilization: Babylon or what is now considered Iraq.

The slings and arrows are conspiring against us. Who then can we turn to, for if history can only reveal preordained events, then prevention is not possible. What good is foreknowledge if we lack the power to do anything about it?

Even it the future is ours to know, then it still remains out of our control. The question is: does ignorance or knowledge of events favor man?

De-Posit

I'm sure someone has thought of this before, but I'll give it a go...

For those that believe we are the epitome of evolution and that our origin is of the ape allow me to posit this. What if evolution is taking a break and that we are not evolved from apes, but instead apes have evolved from us courtesy of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics?

A slight detour to be sure. Never the less, we assume that evolution evolves species a linear trajectory ever upward, but what if we get little hiccups along the way. Some species remain stagnent, but cognizant enough to survive for a few millenia. Thus we have ugly ape roaming around reminding us what a slight variation for the worse can lead to.

If ever there was a case to be made for abortion and euthanasia I've made it, sadly...