A Little Something Called Context

Sam Harris, aspiring scientist and indignation impresario, is promoting this project, in order to advance the sweet voice of reason. You can look at a really cool graphic they have put together here. The base line represents all the verses of the Bible, and the red lines all arch, like so many mortar shots, to the location of another verse, with which it is supposed to collide. You can then tell at a glance that the Bible is just full of contradictions. The night sky is lit up with them. A really cool graphic is necessary to illustrate this because today’s street smart youth know that iPhone apps have dispensed with the need for actual arguments and textual study, you know, the kind with books.

I took a random sampling of just a couple of their contradictions, and addressed them below. I will perhaps be forgiven if I don’t work through them all. You don’t need to drink the whole bottle to tell that it’s vinegar.

via A Little Something Called Context.

The Bible and Science

Albert Mohler, responding to BioLogos yet again, offers the best short overview of a Biblically inerrant, Evangelical, Christian view of science I have seen yet:

I am willing to accept the authority of science on any number of issues. I am fundamentally agnostic about a host of other scientific concerns — but not where the fundamental truth of the Gospel and the clear teachings of the Bible are at stake.

As I have stated repeatedly, I accept without hesitation the fact that the world indeed looks old. Armed with naturalistic assumptions, I would almost assuredly come to the same conclusions as BioLogos and the evolutionary establishment, or I would at least find evolutionary arguments credible. But the most basic issue is, and has always been, that of worldview and basic presuppositions. The entire intellectual enterprise of evolution is based on naturalistic assumptions, and I do not share those presuppositions. Indeed, the entire enterprise of Christianity is based on supernaturalistic, rather than merely naturalistic, assumptions. There is absolutely no reason that a Christian theologian should accept the uniformitarian assumptions of evolution. In fact, given a plain reading of Scripture, there is every reason that Christians should reject a uniformitarian presupposition. The Bible itself offers a very different understanding of natural phenomena, with explanations that should be compelling to believers. In sum, there is every reason for Christians to believe that the cosmos appears just as it does as graphic evidence of the ravages of sin and the catastrophic nature of God’s judgment upon sin.

via AlbertMohler.com – No Buzzing Little Fly — Why the Creation-Evolution Debate is So Important.

Ryle on Perfection

The plain truth is that there is no literal and absolute perfection among true Christians, so long as they are in the body. The best and brightest of God’s saints is but a poor mixed being. Converted, renewed and sanctified though he be, he is still compassed with infirmity. There is not a just man upon earth, that always does good, and sins not. In many things we offend all. A man may have true saving faith, and yet not have it always close at hand and ready to be used (Eccl. 7:20; James 3:2).

from J. C. Ryle, Holiness

Tolerance? Nah, Too Easy

One good definition for tolerance is Webster’s: “the act of allowing something; sympathy or indulgence of practices differing or conflicting with one’s own.” In practice, it usually means letting others do and be as they wish without interfering with them. That’s where its weakness lies. In letting others alone, and not interfering, really means separating ourselves from one another. We sanction differences without engaging meaningfully with them. “Live and let live” is a euphemism for “Don’t criticize, ignore.”

via Tolerance? Nah, Too Easy » Evangel | A First Things Blog.

Colson on the Culture Wars

…secularists berate Christians for the culture wars, claiming that we are trying to impose our bigoted agenda on them. Often intimidated, Christians fear raising controversial questions.

But someone should ask: Who started the divisive culture wars in the first place? Far from being the aggressors—as the press would have us believe—religious conservatives have simply been responding to the relentless secularization of American life.

via We Must Not Despair | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction.

Trusting: What It Is and Isn’t

So that is what faith is: it is trusting an explicit word from God. We could say a lot more about it, but we must say at least that much, and shouldn’t let ourselves stray far from it.

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But — as with Schuller, as with Chan, as with random anonymous Charismatic-types, as with the Blackabys — I think we should ask questions. I think we must.

via Pyromaniacs: Trusting: what it is and isn’t.

Is It True That “1 in 10 Teens Has Had a Same-Sex Partner”?

You may have seen this amazing news headline: 1 in 10 Teens Has Had a Same-Sex Partner.

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Wow! Who knew? 1 in 10 American teenagers has had a same-sex partner?! That’s really terrible/terrific (depending on your point of view). What a revelation!

The only problem with this revelation is that it’s false.

via Is It True That “1 in 10 Teens Has Had a Same-Sex Partner”? – Kevin DeYoung.