That’s it?

Dean over at Townhall talks about Fred! again, saying he’s just not cut out for President….  again.  Now, I’m not a “Fred is the Messiah of politics”, but judging the man based on how many “uh”s he had in his speech is a little bit…. shallow isn’t it?

Gleemax? Huh?

Say what?  What in the world is Gleemax?  I know what they say it is, but no way.

I can even forgive non-functional, planned features…. but the idea that it’s going to be about WOTC stuff and then they have the balls to claim it’s for “gamers”…

See, “gamers” is tabletop RPG, pen-and-paper gamers.  Not Magic.  Not Chainmail.  Not pogs or whatever other crap they think of throwing in there.

It’s not that I’m necessarily against those kinds of games ( although I hate them with a fiery passion ), but they don’t need a socnet site, and they even more need to NOT think they are going get this to work for RPG gamers.

I would love to work with people on creating a true socnet for RPGs.  All the cool features, friends lists, blogs, pictures, etc. but with specific features that are aimed directly at RPG gamers.  Sort of like an actual working version of AccessDenied ( if anyone remembers that ).

Some Things Never Change

Here’s a special rule for all of you out there. The longer a post someone makes on their blog, the less likely it is that they will listen to any comment you might have.

I hope I never get that way.

The Dreaded MSM

Paris Hilton

Oh my! The MSM is doing a horrible job! Call out the guards! Serious topics require our attention!

Just… stop. Trying to take the “Media” to task for obsessing over a celebrity story is like trying to take a clown to task for honking his nose too many times. It’s what they do; it’s what we pay them to do. Get over both it and yourself.

Not Being Satisfied….

http://aomin.org/index.php?itemid=2033

Here’s something.  I am not anywhere near the level of study and intellect as James White.  Not that I don’t read the Fathers and books on church history, etc.  but I find that as I read them I am only reaffirmed in the things I already believe.  Perhaps I am willfully contrary, or what have you, but I see quite a bit of this to be the proverbial pearls.

I see that he “answers them according to their folly”, which is both praised and condemned.  Hopefully he sticks to the praiseworthy section of that….   I suppose, in some sense, someone has to answer them in depth.  They see themselves as above the requirement to understand their own position.

A bit of advice:  Don’t take a position that you don’t understand.  Just admit that you don’t know the answer.  It goes much better for you in the long run.  For instance, I very honestly admit I have no idea what the sequence of events will be at the end times.  Not for lack or reading all that Scripture has to offer on the subject, mind you.  I cannot honestly take a position on it when I don’t know.  That’s simply how it is.  I could stake out a position, but it would be a dishonest one at best, or a completely ignorant one at worst.

I see White basically taking Beckwith to task for this very fault… whether born of ignorance or merely intellectual dishonesty.  Good on him for it, I suppose.  In my mind I need no other accusation against Rome than that it sets up a man as the stand-in for God.  Hailing any human being as the “Substitute for Christ” ( Vicar of Christ  ) is plain heresy.

The NetFlix / Blockbuster wars…

So, in the never ending struggle for my movie-related entertainment dollar, Netflix has upped the ante again by adding something called “Watch Now”. It delivers the movie in a streaming format to your PC, which is an important feature since it starts the movie playing almost instantly.

However… it only works on Windows and Internet Explorer. Well, I guess they could have done more to alienate me on this feature, but I’m not sure exactly how. Yes, yes, I actually have a machine that this would work on, and an output from the video card that I could send to my TV if I wanted. But no. I won’t. I refuse to use IE. I use Windows at home for playing games, and that’s it. It’s just another game console AFAIC.

When it works on Mac, then I’ll use the feature. Otherwise, thanks but no thanks.

(In other news, I’ll buy a hydrogen or electric car when they are less than $30K, get cable when it is the same price as satellite, and purchase a new PC when it becomes as stable as a Mac. )

Internet firestorm

Apparently, I ordered a book because it sounded like exactly what my son needed.  It’s called The Dangerous Book for Boys.  All the info I could gather on it at the time pointed toward the Greatest Book Ever status.  And I have not been disappointed in other people’s thoughts on the book either.  It seems to be just right.

So, after ordering from my most hated enemy on the Internet, Amazon, I still have yet to receive my copy.  As well, an apparent firestorm of activity has broken out all over the Internet praising the book as “super awesome”.  And, honestly, how could one not like a book that teaches boys how to hunt, kill, skin and cook a rabbit;  how to tie a proper knot;  how to make awesome paper airplanes.  Sweet.

I can’t wait.

On A Lighter Note

Three Accusations About The Church, Part 3

So we come to the last.

This accusation is specifically aimed at the SBC.  I will attempt to generalize it later, but I will start with this statement:  You have forgotten why you are called Baptists.

Let me propose this thesis as the basis for this accusation.  Baptism of those who cannot consciously acknowledge Christ’s redemptive work and commit themselves to God is the first step toward an irrevocably secular church.

This harkens back to my complaint that no one reads history for themselves anymore, and the large majority don’t even bother to remember what they were force-fed.  However, if the church is to continue as the Bride of Christ, then it must pay attention to its history and learn from it.

It so happens that baptism is the basis upon which the Apostles accepted new members.  It is without doubt that the base unit required of those who might be baptised was that they confessed Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Their belief was the key to their baptism.  It did not take very long for the tender-hearted Christians to fall into the trap of baptising those who had “questionable” commitment to God.  In fact, it happened so quickly that there is mention of those pretenders and false teachers among the churches even in the Scriptures themselves.

Moreover, as time went on, those loyal and committed to Christ and to his church began to plead that there be some evidence of faith before baptism.  Tertullian suggested a sort of probationary period.  This was definitely a reaction to the tendency of kind and loving Christians to accept people without a lot of questions.  I certainly understand that tendency.  We are all susceptible to it.  Yet, we have let it run rampant and have allowed the church to fall into disorder and confusion.

There has always been a “Baptist” movement in the church.  The apostles certainly were of that mind.  And those loyal to the cause have always existed in the churches.  There had come a tipping point just prior to something called the “Reformation” where everyone had begun to have doubts about the very reality of the church.  It was at this point that some began to “re-baptise”.

Unfortunately, at this point the church organization had become largely a secular and political entity that had very little connection to the actual church.  So ingrained were the benefits of infant baptism to the business and political aspects of the church organization that any deviation was seen as an assault on the power (the secular power) of the church.  And so, the organization of the church, both the so-called Catholic and the Protestant, began to murder those who practiced the baptism of believers.  (When I say murder I mean things like drowning, burning, locked up until they starved to death, etc )

It is against this backdrop that I point the finger at the current church.  Remember your past and don’t make the same mistakes.  Do I think that we are one generation removed from burning at the stake those who oppose us?  No.  But don’t start down a road that will lead there.

Scripture warns us about this.  When we replace God’s way, that is “Believe and be baptised” with our way “Be baptised and maybe believe if you want to later on”, we are unintentionally setting up the suffering of others.  We think that it is compassionate, or that it is modern, or that it is more appropriate to assuage the trepidation of parents, to baptise those who either are incapable ( as is the case with infants ) or haven’t been thoroughly examined ( as is the case in the majority of SBC churches ).

Where, one might ask, is this warning?  Glad you asked!

There was a man by the name of Uzzah.  He was an Israeli.  He lived in the time of David.  His name is etched in history for a tragic reason.  He was basically a good guy.  Your average church-going Christian.  Well, see, Israel lost the Ark at one point and it had been captured by their enemy.  However, God punished those unbelievers until they sent the Ark out away from them.  The Ark ended up at some guy’s house in Israel, and it stayed there a while.  Then King David had a great idea to move the Ark back where it belonged.  It was the right thing to do.

Now, before I go on, you need to know the rules about the Ark.  One of which was “No touching”.  Only people who had just gone through a special ritual could touch the Ark safely.  Also, for carrying it around God gave them a rule that said to carry it on two poles with dudes at the four corners.  He gave them this rule for a pretty good reason.

So it turns out, the leaders have this genius idea.  “You know in modern times we use carts to move stuff around, and it would be so awesome if we made a super-special cart for the Ark.”  So they did.  And they put it on the cart in order to bring it back.  Well, Uzzah ( remember him? ) was one of the guys walking next to the cart and helping to guide it along the road.  There was a bump in the road.  The cart started to tip over.  Uzzah, being the nice guy he was, didn’t want the Ark to fall over and so put out his hand to steady it.  He died instantly.  Right there on the spot.

The point is, it doesn’t take much of a misstep, something that seems reasonable and a good idea at the time, in order to lead to tragic consequences.  And Uzzah wasn’t the one who came up with the idea, he was simply the victim of those who thought they knew better than God.

Remember this one command from God as it relates to baptism:  “Repent and be baptised”.  I’ll repeat that, “Repent and be baptised”.  Unless you are ready to repent because of your belief in Christ, then you are not ready to be baptised.  So, leaders of the church, please remember Uzzah the next time you receive someone for baptism, whether they be an infant or an adult.  Can they pass that test?  Can they repent?  Can they confess that Christ is their Lord and their Savior?  Do they even know, in the most basic of terms, what it means?  Are they aware that they are sinners and that it is God himself who sent his son to be punished in their place, punished to the point of death?  That he was buried and raised again on the third day?  If not, then you have an obligation not to baptise them.  If you do, then you are just as complicit as David was.

Three Accusations About The Church, Part 2

I’m already ambivalent about the title of this post. However, I still feel it’s a good title because it says “Hey! Listen up, you need to know this.”

To proceed to the second accusation, You don’t read your Bible enough. That’s right. If you read Scripture everyday, then you know this is not about you personally. So just hang on.

You know who you are. There ought to be a certain minimum amount of regard for Scripture in the life of every Christian. In fact, I know that there is, even among those for whom this accusation is meant. Every real Christian has a certain fondness for the Bible, even if they neglect to read it regularly. Like love letters kept in a box, sometimes we treat the Bible that way, to be brought out on special occasions, or read when are feeling particularly depressed or frustrated. When we need to be reminded that someone loves us, we turn to our favorite passages and read them again, skipping the rest.

Someone has used the term “AWANA method” to describe a kind of bible study method. I am only vaguely familiar with AWANA and so I can’t know what he meant. However, I like the phrasing and I detect a hint of the accusation of naivete in it. A naive but, more importantly, a casual attitude toward Scripture is damaging to the church. This isn’t just some book. It is the very words of God.

I mean that. Look, he didn’t do all this, and write out all these books so that we could use it on the weekends. All of the time and effort that went into this alone shows his love for his children. The very fact that he explains what it is that’s wrong, and what he has done to save his people from among the masses shows a care and concern for us. That he would condescend to explain it to us, to reveal what it is that he has done, is doing and will do. This is God we’re talking about.

All those Christians who complain that they don’t understand what God’s will is, you are 99% likely to be the ones who don’t read God’s own words that he has written to you. You don’t know what you should do? Well, he wrote instructions about it. Now that you’ve tried to put the bike together and have some unusable monstrosity, maybe you should try reading those instructions. Every problem, whether relationships, addiction, sex, music, entertainment, or even in your job, God has already laid down all the information you need to make the right choices and he did it in writing so you would be able to refer to it.

What about the Holy Spirit, you ask? Indeed, that’s what makes the Bible understandable. The masses that don’t believe don’t understand what’s in the book. The Spirit that God has given you helps you to understand what is written there. He also helps you to apply it to the situation you are in.

Let me tell you the signs that let me know you either don’t read the Bible enough, or you aren’t listening to what it’s saying:

• You think that Sunday is a holy day.
• You think it is wrong for a church to have a lot of staff members.
• You think that drinking alcohol is evil.
• You think that dancing is “un-Christian”.
• You think of deacons as leaders in the church.
• Your worship service ends with “bow your heads, hold up your hand” type invitations.

These are all signs that you aren’t following God’s directions, but just making up your own rules as you go along. There’s more than this short list, but you get the idea. Instead of reading the Bible and using it as the basis for living your life, you make up your own rules instead. You see a need for having rules and some order, you know it’s the right thing to have a guide that you live by. But instead of going to the very words of God on a subject, you just do whatever you think feels right. “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.”

Instead of spending all your time worrying about how sinful the Lottery is, maybe you should spend some time reading God’s word, since he took the time to write it. In fact, it took some thousands of years to write it. Will a few minutes each day be so much to ask?