Theology in the News

I’m involved in a thought provoking conversation over on the Premier Forum. I know it’s not like me to foray into these areas on this blog, but just for once, especially as I’m listening to music that makes me somewhat wistful.

The question posed in the opening post revolves around the use of the terms: “rebel, controller, manipulator”, for Jesus.

The author is not happy with this and posits:

I can see Him as revolutionary, but not a rebel, not rebellious. Perhaps it is because I see rebellion as a sin.

I think semantically this is correct, but feel the author is viewing these terms as pejorative, which if applied to man is accurate, but not for God.

One commenter (Iggy) commented:

I think to describe our Lord as a rebel or as rebelling against the world (or the Pharisees) is to look through the wrong end of the looking glass. It is mankind that is is frequently in rebellion against God, not vice versa.

To which I responded:

Yes agreed. This is of course to view through the theological grist – which is accurate – however, from an unregenerate human perspective, Jesus was a rebel in informing us that God is topsy turvey to the world, or of course – more accurately – visa versa.

I note however, he paid his dues to the authorities at every turn.

In summary, I’m happy for the term “rebel” to be applied to Jesus.

But what about the terms: “Controller” or “Manipulator“?

Again, I’d posit these terms are viewed in the main pejoratively, and when applied to man this is essentially accurate.

But when applied to God these terms are not at all pejorative.

I’m not going to offer a sophisticated Biblical exegesis, as I’m simply not qualified, but will attest to experience. I believe that God is both “controller” and “manipulator“, and I’m thankful that he is.

As an avowed social scientist and atheist, I would never have come to, and accepted, Jesus on my own intellectual steam, and do attest to a God that broke through into my life, without acquiescence to me.

I can also attest to a God, who has manipulated people, circumstances, and the world around me, to save my life and soul, and I’m eternally grateful he did.

Does this make him egotistical? Certainly not, and frankly if anyone has a right to be the same, then it is God.

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As promised this is my weekly “few links of interest”.

These are links which I found personally interesting for one reason or another. It’s always going to be an eclectic mixed bag from a wide range of sources. Some we may agree with, and some not, as always feel free to comment on any of them.

So without further ado.

Paleojudaica – Ancient church of Laodicea discovered in western Turkey?

First Thoughts Joe Carter – Experts on Bias Exhibit a “Statistically Impossible Lack of Diversity”

Ottawa Citizen – Are creative people more inclined to be immoral?

Undercover Nun – Mental health has a way of cutting down our pride like no other illness can.

Sultan Knish – Egypt What if the Problem Really is the People

Watcher’s Lamp – Video: has Revelation’s pale rider shown up?

Standing on my Head – The Problems with Possession

This one’s just for fun:

Faith in Hand – What Normal People Do During a Zombie Apocalypse

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Meditation

First they came for the Communists and I did not speak out – because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out – because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Pastor Niemoeller, in prison and concentration camp for eight and a half years

Prayers

Let us pray for God’s ancient people, the Jews, the first to hear his word – for greater understanding between Christian and Jew for the removal of our blindness and bitterness of heart that God will grant us grace to be faithful to his covenant and to grow in the love of his name.

Let us surround our worship and our community with stillness, stillness to remember all those who died in the Holocaust; those before or since whose lives were brought to an end by genocide, and those still suffering or dying. Amen

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It’s my intention to bring you a few links each week, that I found interesting for one reason or another. It’s always going to be an eclectic mixed bag. And so without further ado….

Telegraph – The Earth could find itself with a ‘second sun’ for a period of weeks later this year when one of the night sky’s most luminous stars explodes, scientists have claimed.

The Wall Street Journal – Missing for a half century, a cache of photos spurs sensitive research on Islam’s holy text

Christian Telegraph – Wikileaks exposes torture of Christians in Eritrea

First Things – Anglicans to Offer Drive-Thru Baptism

Accepting Abundance – “Pro-Choice” Jargon and Incorrect Objections to Correct Words

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There is a very interesting article in Christianity Today which articulates the secular form of hope encapsulated by Steve jobs, the Chief Executive of Apple.

I read this article in the context of a program I watched recently on Quantum Mechanics. Humans have taken this knowledge – which I openly admit I do not understand – and have constructed primitive Quantum Computers.

Amazing.

But from the program I watched, two facts struck me with force.

Firstly, physics has elements that physicists simply don’t understand, such as Young’s experiment with particle beams.

Secondly, mathematics is the defining mode – or true descriptive language – of our [physical] Universe.

I know the following is an obvious point to many, but I wish to articulate it nonetheless. Many non-Christians today appear to put their “faith” in our sciences and technological advancements, and at the wonderment of our achievements and knowledge, but these are the very by-products of us uncovering an ‘ordered’ created universe and being made in the image of God.

Humans really are amazing as they are the pinnacle of creation, and we see in men the glory of God.

Anyway, enough of me, here’s the article, let me know your thoughts:

Steve Jobs’s medical leave of absence is the top story in today’s newspapers. The Wall Street Journal says his brief and poignant memo raises “uncertainty over his health and the future of the world’s most valuable technology company.” These two questions—Jobs’s health and Apple’s health—are the focus of almost all the coverage today.

But I’m interested in the health of our culture, and what will happen to it when (not if) Steve Jobs departs the stage for the last time.

As remarkable as Steve Jobs is in countless ways—as a designer, an innovator, a (ruthless and demanding) leader—his most singular quality has been his ability to articulate a perfectly secular form of hope. Nothing exemplifies that ability more than Apple’s early logo, which slapped a rainbow on the very archetype of human fallenness and failure—the bitten fruit—and made it a sign of promise and progress.

In the 2000s, when much about the wider world was causing Americans intense anxiety, the one thing that got inarguably better, much better, was our personal technology. In October 2001, with the World Trade Center still smoldering and the Internet financial bubble burst, Apple introduced the iPod. In January 2010, in the depths of the Great Recession, the very month where unemployment breached 10 percent for the first time in a generation, Apple introduced the iPad.

Politically, militarily, economically, the decade was defined by disappointment after disappointment—and technologically, it was defined by a series of elegantly produced events in which Steve Jobs, commanding more attention and publicity each time, strode on stage with a miracle in his pocket.

….continue reading

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It would seem that the Vatican is throwing their hat in the ring of reality TV. Maybe this is just a first step, but Rome is going to turn on the lights concerning the reality of exorcisms to the public. A new Discovery Channel television program called “The Exorcist Files” will soon give historic accounts of the Catholic Church’s dealing with the demonic.

Find out more here.

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The more we learn about this Universe, the more I marvel at the God who created it.

The Hubble Space Telescope got its first peek at a mysterious giant green blob in outer space and found that it is strangely alive.

The bizarre glowing blob is giving birth to new stars, some only a couple million years old, in remote areas of the universe where stars do not normally form.

[......]

Parts of the green blob are collapsing and the resulting pressure from that is creating the stars. The stellar nurseries are outside of a normal galaxy, which is usually where stars live.

That makes these “very lonely newborn stars” that are “in the middle of nowhere,” said Bill Keel, the University of Alabama astronomer who examined the blob.

The blob is the size of the Milky Way, the galaxy that includes the Earth, and it is 650 million light years away. Each light year is about 6 trillion miles.

The blob is mostly hydrogen gas swirling from a close encounter of two galaxies; it glows because it is illuminated by a quasar in one of the galaxies. A quasar is a bright object full of energy powered by a black hole.

…..read all

And in this created Universe is of course mankind, created in the image of God, and I for one often marvel at man. Our abilities to develop instruments such as the Hubble Telescope, our new insights into the created order, or even our ability to achieve unusual tasks, such as engraving a periodic table on a human hair using nanotechnology, causes me to pause and wonder at the God who created us.

Psalm 19:1

The heavens declare the glory of God;  the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

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It is said that Martin Luther came to his epiphany about Justification by Faith Alone while “on the toilet.” Though there is some debate about whether this was an idiomatic “in the dumps” type statement, most believe that he was actually using the restroom. This would not be surprising as it is well known that Martin Luther suffered from constipation.

Though this is an old story, I found it quite interesting. I need a picture of his toilet to put up in the men’s bathroom at the Credo House. Once I find one, I am going to supply the caption: “Take heart: Often, the greatest reformations happen on the toilet.”

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