The Blasphemy Challenge

The following video is disturbing, so if you decide to watch it, do so with caution. A man named Brian Flemming, who may best be described as an evangelical atheist, is openly encouraging people (more accurately teenagers) to film themsleves denying the Holy Spirit and then post their videos on You Tube. The concept is to show scorn for the reference in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus gives a specific warning about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit being an unpardonable sin. Furthermore Flemming believes that Christianity is oppressive and absuive to children. Here is a short newscast about Brian Flemming and his project. (again, the content is disturbing)



This is not the final word. In response to this video many people have begun posting their own videos, affirming the life giving king Jesus Christ. I would encourage any of you with a video camera to do this. Make a short video reciting the apostles creed and post it on you tube.

Modernity and Theology

To understand modernity, and its affect on modern theology, we have to understand where it came from. In the early 20th century most people believed that the march of scientific advancement would eventually deliver man from all his ills. As we discovered such miracles as labor-saving devices, mass transportation, flight and medical technology people began to believe that death, disease and suffering were things of the unenlightened past. This belief is the very definition of modernism and its affect was felt across disciplines. In government modernism gave birth to Marxism, Fascism and Communism. In psychology it was believed that in a matter of years the secrets of the mind would be unlocked and all people would live free from mental disturbances. In science, the epitome of faith in modernism was the atomic bomb. People believed that discoveries would only further humanity, never destroy it. So when the atom's power was harnessed many thought of it as free energy. Even the potential for the bomb was heralded as a way of promoting peace. Its power would be a deterrent to armed conflict, and would end wars forever. Or so it was thought...

The high hopes of modernity came to a crashing end in the aftermath of two world wars and the development and deployment of the miracle atom in the form of bombs over Japan. The use of modern science to claim lives with unprecedented efficiency showed a vicious and dangerous side to our technology. People saw through the fog of modernism and realized that it would not solve all the problems of humanity, rather it just complicated the playing field.

Fanatical modernity disappeared, but the ideas of modernism remained. Modernity would not offer man ultimate answers but modern methods were still useful tools. These pockets of modernism remained more entrenched within some segments of society than others. In art and poetry modernity was dead, but in biology it still thrived. Infact the most infected part of society after the collapse of modernism was theology.

Theologians have for years attempted to use modernity to prove God. It seems as if they assume God may be harnessed and brought beneath the inquisitive eye of our microscopes. Once poked and prodded for a bit, then the theologian can either declare God not to exist, or prove infallibly that he does. What the theologian who practices modernism fails to remember is that faith not certainty is what pleases God. God is beyond our ability to quantify him.

Theologians prodded on in the 20th century; asking what could "truly be known" about God. They assumed (wrongly) that when a thing is "truly known" it is known by the abilities of mans logic. And so it went. Twisting downwards in two separate streams; a double helix of idolatry. One one side were the liberals, who affirmed the natural, but then had to deny the attributes of God. They contended that there was no resurrection, no miracles, and they denuded the power of God to affect change in his creation. On the other side were the conservatives, who denied the natural in favor of the supernatural. They held to the "fundamentals" but only at the cost of being totally unable to communicate with the world around them. They became sequestered and ineffectual. Both sides have become something which is not profitable; both landing far afield from what God called His Church to be.

As believers, we must begin to address the concerns of this world, without sacrificing the substance of the God we serve. As God's people we must do both because we are called to be both holy people and salt and light to the world around us. It is the middle way and it is the narrow path which Christ spoke about. This is a frightening and difficult way, a dark path across a steep mountain with treachery only footsteps away. While this is the case, we should not fear. We have a sure lamp to guide us which shines from the truths of the scriptures and if we falter we have a good shepherd to lift us up.

How the mind works...

Watch this short video and count the number of times that someone in a white T-shirt throws the basketball to another player. At the end of the video how many times did a white t-shirted player throw the basket ball?

http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/15.html

Now, watch it again, this time don't count and see if you missed anything the first time around.

By Way of Reminder

Our first service will be on January the 7th at 10:00pm. John and I are encouraged at the large turnouts, and hope to see you all back there. The message of the gospel is a life transforming one, both in the lives of those who do not yet know Christ and in the lives of us who have been redeemed. There is no limit to the things which God can do through us in the cresheim valley area.

Hope to see you all soon.

Let My People Think

The military association for atheists and freethinkers writes the following as a guide to other atheists in the service about participating in public prayer...

"you have been forced into an uncomfortable position by having to choose between betraying your beliefs (by bowing your head) and identifying yourself as someone who is 'different' (by not bowing). Consider addressing these events, either before or after the fact, to leaders, EO Representatives, and chaplains as indicated below."

I find the two terms in this odd. First the author of this page calls her atheism a set of "beliefs." This seems utterly inconsistent with the idea of being a "freethinker" in which, presumably, one has not beliefs...but facts. I find this horribly Freudian. The inconsistency belays the double hubris of claiming true "free thought" (with the assumption that non atheists are not freely thinking about their beliefs) and at the same time adhering to a set of doctrines and beliefs..."isms" as it were.

Redeeming Slaves

Most of us, when we think about the issue of slavery, we think of it as a 19th century American problem that ended with the armistice at the close of the Civil War. The reality is that slavery is alive and well in the developing world. In the Sudan, for instance, chattel slavery is rampant. The current militant Muslim regime allows the practice of the enslavement of Sudanese Christians. The vast majority of the victims are women and younger girls who are sold to Muslim men as sexual and labor slaves.

There is hope, however.

Over the last several years many Christian organizations have begun actively redeeming slaves. These groups raise funds in the west to buy slaves and either return them to their villages of origin, or helping them to defect to neighboring refugee camps. In our culture black Islam claims many disenfranchised African American youths who are looking for answers for their situation and for a sense of purpose and history. Often they are told that Christianity is the religion of oppression towards blacks, but that Islam is a religion that understands and can fulfil their needs. The story of Christian organizations redeeming slaves out of the hands of militant Muslims can be a powerful apologetic for the message of the Christian faith.

For more information check out these sites
http://www.iabolish.com
http://www.csi-int.org

Cresheim Valley Church and the sounds of NachtMusik

This blogsite is for connecting and communicating with those of you who are in the cresheim valley area and are interested in the new 10th church plant. Rather than just being a bulletin board for meeting times and casserole lists, the purpose of this board is to discuss issues of faith, questions of philosophy, humor and any other topics which seem relevant. Please feel free to post in comments section on any of the blogposts you find interesting. The picture of the left is called "nachtmusik" and is by a woman named Dorthea Tanning. I like the surreal quality and how it actually appears to be a dream sequence. The strangest dream I ever had was when I was a small child. I would walk down a long stone corridor, and the longer I walked the farther away from the end I seemed to be. I could hear this loud noise, not so much a sound; but something like all possible sounds together. Then I would appear at the end of the corridor, and a large knight with ashen red armor and a hammer would appear. The knight would say something to me which I could not understand and then the dream would be over. Pretty strange stuff! So quid pro quo...what is the strangest "nachtmusik" you have ever experienced?