theology in pencil

Many tender-minded Christians fear to sin against love by daring to inquire into anything that comes wearing the cloak of Christianty and breathing the name of Jesus.  They dare not examine the credentials of the latest prophet to hit town lest they be guilty of rejecting something which may be of God.  They timidly remember how the Pharisees refused to accept Christ when He came, and they do not want to be caught in the same snare, so they either reserve judgement or shut their eyes and accept everything without question.  This is supposed to indicate a high degree of spirituality.  But in sober fact it indicates no such thing.   It may indeed be evidence of the absence of the Holy Spirit.

Gullibility is not synonymous with spirituality.  Faith is not a mental habit leading its possessor to open his mouth and swallow everything that has about it the colour of the supernatural.  Faith keeps its heart open to whatever is of God, and rejects everything that is not of God, however wonderful it may be.

‘Try the spirits’ is a command of the Holy Spirit to the Church.  We may sin as certainly by approving the spurious as by rejecting the genuine.  And the current habit of refusing to take sides is not the way to avoid the question.  To appraise things with a heart of love and then act on the results is an obligation resting upon every Christian in the world.

AW Tozer

Two Roman Catholic priests have been accused of stealing $800,000 from the collection plate of their church in the US state of Florida.

They allegedly planned to spend the money on property, holidays, gambling and to meet the expenses of mistresses.

It could be the biggest embezzlement case to affect the Catholic Church in the United States.

via BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US priests ‘in $800,000 theft’.

It would be very easy to look down on these guys but I’m posting this here not for that but because I’m just gobsmacked at the sheer scale of the embezzlement.   Last night one of the guys at a meal we were having said that he doesn’t touch other people’s money unless someone has counted it first.  It also shows why it is wise to have two people counting money!

It brings up the importance of transparency and accountability in every day life – we all have our price at which we’d cave in and are becoming better at managing our weaknesses but no-one is beyond falling which is why we are exhorted to flee temptation: we’re so ill-equiped for dealing with it.

The key, I think, is to recognise that it is very hard to make appetites just disappear.  But you can choose how to feed them – you can either drink from “earth’s broken cisterns” by caving into temptation – though that never satisfies and only ever increases the appetite – or you can drink from the living water Jesus speaks of in John 4 which not only satisfies but puts other appetites into their lowly perspective.

Many a coward has been bolstered in his conviction against challenging tyranny by not reading too deeply into the Scriptures. Yet, nowhere does the Bible ever suggest evil rulers are to be obeyed. When the rule of men conflicts with the commands of God, the Bible leaves no doubt about where we should stand.

That’s why I do not hesitate today in calling on godly Americans to pray that Barack Hussein Obama fail in his efforts to change our country from one anchored on self-governance and constitutional republicanism to one based on the raw and unlimited power of the central state.

via Pray Obama fails on wnd.com.

Interesting, very interesting.  There are some rather strong views held out there about the new president! The author goes on to say that Obama’s plans are 100% opposed to God’s plans.  100% is quite some statement.  What do you think ?

There are lots of theories about Creation and Genesis.  Many Christians hold what is known as a “young earth” view – that Genesis 1 is a literal account of how the universe came into existence around 6000 years ago.  Other Christians hold an “old earth” view – that Genesis 1 is either a metaphorical (or picture-language) account that helps us understand why we were created without explaining how we were created, or that Genesis 1 is explaining another event altogether (!) and that the universe is probably about as old as the scientists think it is.

Personally I fall into the 2nd category but I’ve never been comfortable with the gap in the fossil record (if we and every other species have evolved into their present state surely the world should be full of transitional fossils?  There aren’t many and there are almost no complete sets), nor have I been happy to interpret Gensis 1 metaphorically just because it suits current scientific understanding.  So whilst I think it is obvious that the universe is billions of years old I have always been on the lookout for a way of satisfactorily interpreting Genesis 1.

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