A little blog from an upstart theologian that will do its best to exemplify Christ while sharing a thing or two along the way.
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| Preachin's Blog A little blog from an upstart theologian that will do its best to exemplify Christ while sharing a thing or two along the way. |
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Tuesday, December 14, 2004 the integration of tomorrowyou have to watch this first:Click HERE!This is exactly what I've been thinking and talking about for months. Absolute and complete integration of all aspects of life, available for each user in a customized, individualized, sanitized stream. Imagine if when we (notice its when not if) get city wide wifi networks where we can walk around the park and read our individual handheld computers which are constantly updated with media streams. Imagine when we can enjoy tailored media saturation, and don't even realize it, as we walk through the mall. Friends the age of the print newspaper and 6 o'clock evening news are long gone. Think of the opportunity ahead...and the roadblocks. This is what the culture is going for and this is where they are being pushed. Read this article from NYTimes.com (sorry registration required) about Google offering digital libraries over its mainframes: click here! I'm going to think on this and write up something in the next several days. Forward the link and watch this piece. Its a gripping analysis of our future destiny. posted by Preachin Jesus | 4:31 PM | Monday, December 13, 2004 thoughts on my seminary experience Well I have officially graduated from SWBTS and am happily moving forward towards vocational ministry service. As I look back upon my time at my beloved seminary I must say that leaving it is a bittersweet experience. I have truly benefited from my time at SWBTS and shall ever remain committed to promoting her virtues. As I leave I am a little less rigid, more committed to Christ, and wondering if I will ever get to talk with Kate T. when I get to Heaven. When one goes to seminary they know that this is a formative time for our theological, educational, ministerial, and relational development. Choosing the right seminary brings a host of factors, the most important is the question of where God desires us to be. I firmly believe that God intended for me to attend SWBTS and I have been greatly blessed because of His will. A seminary is a place where those who are called into vocational ministry are trained according to the calling. Most all seminaries (actually all the ones I know of) have been started as institutions dedicated to the theological training of pastors (both serving and called.) While we have joined together other portions of the seminary educational life (such as music and educational ministry tracks) the seminary remains devoted to theological training as a primary point of its purpose. As I considered a seminary I desired to find one that was conservative, held to strong biblical authority, situated in a place where I would have access to a large swath of ministry paradigms, a sound academic theology faculty, where I could develop meaningful ministry relationships, and a place where God wanted me to go. In Southwestern I found all of these components.I had heard so many stories and words of encouragement about going to seminary and finding like minded people who I could develop lifelong friendships with that I really looked forward to my time at seminary. Also the academic rigors were such that I knew I would be stretched. In both of these I can say that I found what many had, though I was a bit disappointed at some points. Southwestern will forever be endeared to me as the place where, not only did I meet my future wife, but I also further developed and refined exactly what I am called to do by God. I had sat down in my early days at my undergraduate alma mater and laid out my goals and vision for my life. While at seminary all of these were further focused and I am more committed to that which God has called me to years earlier for He has worked mightily in my life. Southwestern has been instrumental in my development as a pastor-theologian and I hope she continues to produce ministerial progeny who will trumpet the sound Gospel truth based on biblical authority. The faculty of Southwestern is comprised of wise and learned individuals who, for the most part, strive to connect with their students and train them to be the best ministers of the Gospel available for God's use. I have found in this faculty a group of individual dedicated to advancing the Kingdom and refining the called so, together we can impact the world. Out of this faculty come scholars and educators who stand ready to aid the church and perform for her a might and valuable service. They stretch the minds and enhance the hearts of their students. A fine collection of servants of our Lord and Savior. The students of Southwestern might be a bit of a different story. Being that Southwestern is one of the largest seminaries (if not the largest) in North America you would expect to get a diverse mixture of students in her hallowed halls. While this is the case the majority of the students are still married, white, males who have some sort of ministry position somewhere. In the mixture of students you will find people passionately devoted to their calling and training according. You will find missionaries patiently awaiting deployment into a dynamic ministry environment. You will pastor-theologians noisily sifting through difficult Greek lectures refining their knowledge. You will find slightly aloof budding scholars dealing with  difficult theological matters in hopes of better grasping the golden nuggets of thought which attempt to elude them. You will find music ministers pining away at a keyboard to deliver a performance worthy of their Lord. Youth ministers crafting some contemporary example of God's grace out of construction paper and computer animations. You will find international students joining with American students in fervent prayers for souls of those they don't even know. This is the hope that is at Southwestern. Yet in this hope it seems that far too many Southwestern students are hopelessly drawn into themselves and wish not dare great things for Christ while at seminary. The spiritual lives of some of these future ministers are as cold as the ice dawn after a February ice storm. You would do better to talk to the various statues of Jesus in the prayer garden than consult some of these about their lives. Deeply shrouded in a cloak of self-absorption they plod off to their classes, complaining about the immoral world around them but failing to offer their cloaks to the shriveled homeless sitting beneath their pathway. But this is only some, for even in spite of these few there is a growing population of driven and visionary students who go longer and reach higher than their surroundings seem to permit. I love all my Southwestern compatriots, I pray God's blessings and imparted passion into their lives.While the great halls of the legendary buildings which occupy her campus are often filled with profound theological discussion, Southwestern still sits in the heart of a state convention torn asunder by controversy and selfish motivations. It is sad that the internal war of various Baptist conventions of the state of Texas have marred this proud school. While attending classes in her classrooms I have seen a score of my professors leave or be "released" from their positions. In the midst of my studies I have watched the tenuous relations between old school and new school politics attempt to tear the heart of Southwestern apart. I have seen selfish men outside of the school proclaim vitriol against her chosen and appointed leaders. I have heard senseless lies spread about these leaders. Yet while people from both portions of the political landscape of Texas have attempted to tear down and reform what God has crafted Southwestern has stood as a stalwart beacon of His grace. Remembering days of past when arrogant preachers such as J. Frank Norris proclaimed Southwestern heretical and worthy of nothing but the torch, I know that Southwestern still will endure the harshest criticisms and survive to the next day. I know Southwestern will continue to train ministers for generations to come, and I know with great certainty that her greatest days are ahead of her. I learned early on that Southwestern exists to train up the called out ones, and they do an excellent job. Yet I also learned that Southwestern does not exist for the students but for those who run her and attempt to live out some strange existence of shouting between ivory towers. I have seen some who would attempt to question the leadership of this brave school smashed under a hailstorm of innuendo and false analogy from people who should be above these types of actions. When some have questioned the "resolved" theological absolutes of documents surrounding her heritage and source of funding they have branded all sorts of evil. As some have sought theological insight outside of the normal, established scholarly consensus of several of her highest ivory towers they have been derided and given veiled threats for all to see. In spite of all of these I know her best days are ahead of her. My time at Southwestern, though hard (as seminary should be) has been rewarding. The  loneliness which burdened me down at times has been lifted and replaced with such a beauty that I certainly do not deserve. I have indeed found friends with whom I share a common bond and a lasting friendship. Through the blood, sweat, and tears of working through difficult (dead) languages I plumbed a deep faith which I love and crave day after day. Inspecting my life before Southwestern and after Southwestern I have benefited from my time here. I am proud to be a Southwesterner and will forever carry that moniker the humility of knowledge of those far greater than I who also carry that title. Is Southwestern perfect? Certainly not, but neither am I. We are simple servants of great and mighty King.
posted by Preachin Jesus |
2:57 PM
| quick hitsWew! I'm GRADUATED from seminary! Now I can be a real minister...oh wait, I already am one. Well then...sorry for the delay in posting I've been super busy with wedding plans and with graduation stuff. Here are some quick hits. I'll be posting something substantive soon. 1. Why is it that we pay numbskulls millions of dollars to play a sport thousands would pay money to play and they cavort around like a bunch of elitists and protect each other when caught breaking the rules? If an english teacher showed up to school with some marijuana and said it was a performace enhancing drug (expands the mind man) they would be resolutely fired and imprisoned. 2. My beloved seminary is indeed a safe place, though it is bittersweet in leaving it. 3. I run into people who have lost their passion/motivation to fulfill their calling. I pray that I never lose my passion and vision. 4. I am extremely excited about having someone with whom I can spend my life, delight in our blessings, find solace in our sorrows, and share our further successes. I love my fiance! 5. I heard the Jeff Dahmer accepted Christ while in prison, before he was murdered. While I rejoice if this is true, I have to wonder aloud if he believes in transubstantiation. Posting soon! posted by Preachin Jesus | 8:29 AM | Friday, December 03, 2004 Open Theist dialougeI'm posting here a dialouge I've been having with some proponents (or at least curious parishioners) of the Open Theism camp. This is some happy theobloggy for the soul...so without any further avail: On the other hand, isn't omniscience just knowing all that there is to know? What if the future, by definition, is unknowable? Is it therefore any slight on God's knowledge to say that He doesn't know that which it is impossible to know? i don't think so. So God is a temporally located, future vision limited God who cannot guarantee that tomorrow will come? How does this work in the face of prophecy throughout the Bible? How can a perfect God say that thus and such will happen thus and such way fully knowing that this may not actually happen as He has said. This makes God a liar and a cheat. This does not allow God to guarantee His or humanity's existence since some cataclysmic event might happen that He doesn't know about? This is a foolish and extremely limited/ing view of God. If God is the sovereign, complete, absolute, perfect God as we are told and example by the Bible and the creation around us than how is it that He does not possess absolute omniscience over all things. One of the great separating features of the true God is He is everything that all other human created gods are not. This God, this YHWH, is the absolute consummation of all perfection and completeness which cannot be found anywhere else. This God, YHWH, is able to create not only the land and creatures but the sea and skies and universe...something which no other mythical god created by humanity could do. The open theist would have us to believe that our God is not this great, sovereign, perfect, most powerful thing I can begin to imagine and that we are left with a God that is contingent on creation for His worth, wealth, substance, and existence. This is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jerusalem He doesn't know that which it is impossible to know? i don't think so. To use a common illustration, think of the attribute of omnipotence. If we say that God is all powerful, that He can do anything, does that mean that he can create a square circle? No. Why? Because it is logically impossible, by definition, to create a square circle; they are mutually exclusive. God's inability to do that in no way takes away from his omnipotence. This is a horrible argument and one used by atheists worldwide to dispute the greatness and perfection of God. Please tell me you are not actually positing that God cannot do anything He wishes. If you are we need to have a loong talk about your view of who God is. To respond to this point: God will not do anything that violates His nature and will Can God make a rock so big that He can't lift it? Can God make a square circle? Is His inability to do so limiting of His omnipotence? The first two are loaded questions and not awfully good argumentation...actually they are logical fallacies but I'll leave that point alone. The matter on each of these is within my answer above, God cannot do anything that violates His nature and will. Thus God is unchanging in His ability to do anything that does not violate His will and nature. God's omnipotence is final and absolute, God can do anything He wishes and is indeed all powerful in being able to do that. Being all powerful means God's power is perfect and undiminished by anything. Likewise this same qualification is attached to His omnipresence...God has casual access to anywhere at any given time. His omnipresence is perfect and absolute, God can be anywhere and everywhere while still being selectively present in certain circumstances. God can be in multiple places and still be in a single place. Funny isn't it that omnipresence is never really debated...nor understood awfully well by most people. This leads to God's perfect love and will for His creation, God wishes for His creation to be in His will for them and within His love for them. God is omnibenevolent. Certainly understanding this we can see that God's perfect and absolute benevolence for His creation is seen not only in the continues existence of this creation in spite of itself but also in the various pleasure accorded to that creation. Keep in mind that benevolence is not just feel good happy joy joy emotions but is a holistic thing in that God has allowed pain receptors in our brains to keep us from injuring our frail bodies when we touch a hot stove...He watches out for us. A final point it God's omniscience. If all these other attributes are final, absolute, and perfect than likewise God's ability to know and have knowledge is perfect, final, and absolute. Now this is going to take a moment to hash out so follow me because it is at the crux of this argument: Omniscience is the ability to have knowledge of all things past, present, and future. It is final, that is it has nothing further to grow into or learn about. It is absolute in that it is not contingent, arbitrary, or subjective, God's knowledge is not wavering since He already has all the facts. It is perfect in that God needs no more additional information or experience to have knowledge and comprehension of everything. Now this is a particular point to bring up because many people often wonder whether or not God's knowledge is covering everything in creation...including what sin is. God's possesses what is called de se knowledge in that, unlike humanity, God does not need to experience something in order to fully comprehend it. God already has full knowledge of pain, pleasure, pride, and promise without ever having to experience those things. This is an attribute of God's omniscience. It further proves my point that since God's knowledge is perfect, final, and absolute that His knowledge is all encompassing. Thus it is not at all difficult to suggest that in understanding all of God's attributes as seen in Bible and creation that God possesses perfection including all His various attributes bonded together and are all holistic. To the point which we are talking, God's has perfect knowledge of all things past, present, and future and He has the ability know all things absolutely and finally in the whole scope of creation. This simple point quashes any attempt of the open theist to posit that God doesn't know everything. If that is the case, certainly God could (and would) allow the free actions of humans to inform His course of action. This is scary...very scary. Suggesting that God's actions are both contingent and only permissible through the actions of His creation is both invalidating God's sovereignty and God's perfect character. Do we actually think that God sits around in Heaven with a divine instant messenger awaiting humanity's actions in order to act? What kind of a God is this? Sounds like a wimpy God to me. If God is the most perfect being I can begin to comprehend than He is as far above this as He is far above the creation He put into existence. Do we believe that God created all this because He was lonely? This is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. This is not the God who reigns supreme yet is still concerned with caring for the sparrow in the tree outside my window. This is not a God who is transcendent of His creation, occupying the atemporal space outside of creation, yet still intimately personable to humanity to the point of restoring their destroyed imago Dei. This is not the God who holds together our delicate lives by His perfect will, yet makes available His tender leadership for each of our lives. To suggest that God sits in the dock, that is God sits in the seat of the witness in our courtroom while humanity prosecutes His character and person by wishing Him to act in accordance to our wills. This is not the God of the Bible. This is a wimpy, nonsensical version of God which is an idolatrous intrusion onto His character. i would refer to a previous post of mine on this thread regarding the difference between having an unchanging character, and yet at the same time, because of that unchanging character, changing "tactics" or plans. Okay, so the writer of Hebrews doesn't deal with the holistic person of Christ? By "Greek idea" i was referring more to traditional, classic Greek philosophy in the vein of Plato and Aristotle than to any Greek god. From my understanding, the idea of immutability and impassability really came into Christian thought with St. Aquinas (who gave us the idea that God was "that of which nothing greater can be thought" in his ontological argument). Uh actually its Anselm that gave us that thought...but I digress. BTW you'll notice the ontological argument is part and parcel to my case here. I'd be interested to hear an argument from anyone on this forum to dispute my claim that God is the greatest being I can begin to imagine. Anyhoo...don't classify it as the "Greek idea" since there is a pantheon of mythical gods and various philosophies that go along with such a route classification. Now my answer to the objection that Augustine (and seemingly all the church fathers...) is too influenced by Plato and Aristotle is that in light of the vast pantheon of Greek philosophical thought that Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy might actually be the most coherent and God given philosophies which help to cohere the Christian philosophy and theology. Why is it wrong to suggest that Plato and Aristotle are right and should be used by us to better understand God? Could it be that God would have used these two men to craft philosophy which not only gives God glory but also acts to cohere the forthcoming Christian thought which God had already put into motion? I suggest this is actually the case and further suggest that it is compelling to consider this since out of all the other options available to Augustine and all the church fathers they chose this one particular view when it certainly wasn't the most widespread philosophical belief of their day. So your overly Greek accusation is moot since I say Platonic thought is God inspired and God breathed and useful for understanding and bonding Christian philosophical thought. i don't propose to argue that this means that view is wrong, but more to argue that there can be other views that are maybe more outside that world view that aren't necessarily unbiblical. Actually I'll go ahead and say that there are indeed other worldviews out there which are unbiblical and shouldn't be used. But enough on that. posted by Preachin Jesus | 10:50 AM | Thursday, December 02, 2004 Tis the SeasonApologies for the lack of posting. As my semester is wrapping up with papers and finals...and impending graduation!...my time is neither available nor stretchable. I just got back from my two day trip to Atlanta and will post some thoughts and observations on that soon. I'll get something substantive up soon. Blessing to you all! posted by Preachin Jesus | 9:23 AM | |
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