Dawkins is coming to Town

Richard Dawkins is coming to Auckland in December. It comes as no surprise really. William Lane Craig described New Zealand as a society more secular than Great Britain. It would be interesting to hear his arguments (or polemical bigotry against Christianity), but unfortunately I won’t be able to attend. Anti-religious sentiments seem to be big business for publishers these days. People seem to be open to spiritual things, but agains the idea of organised religion. A year ago I attended a very popular debate at Auckland university between William Lane Craig and the head of the Auckland Rationalist Society. The topic “Is belief if God a delusion?”. The main lecture theater which held approx 300 people was filled to capacity, and so were 5 other overflow lecture theaters with video links. So a conservative estimate puts attendance at around about a thousand. Whether Mr Dawkins can draw a similar crowd remains to be seen. 

The evolution theory has been around for some time now. It’s nothing new, and from what I can gather, neither are Mr Dawkin’s arguments for it’s supremacy as the meta-narrative that governs the world. However one cannot escape the feeling that interest in ultimate questions  never dissappeared. Whatever one believes about Atheism, and Evolution, a Christian response must be full of Grace and Truth. I like apologetics. Something about it strikes an urge within me to win arguments, and defend the truth. I used to be on the debating team in school.I’m a self confessed super nerd in this area. But there are times when I realise I can win the argument but lose the person. It’s been a hard lesson to learn. Jumping on the polemical diatribe wagon and denouncing Dawkins with with the same polemical force he uses, is to use the weapons of the world to fight God’s battles. Something Scripture is emphatically against. Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says Jesus. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood says Paul. But putting our heads in the sand and pretending that the Gospel has nothing to say to this situation is not the way forward either. If Jesus is the true Lord of the world, then what Mr Dawkins offers is a competing gospel for human salvation, and that deserves an answer.

It will be interesting to see how NZ responds to Dawkins.

Recovering the Sattelites

Counting Crows’ best album ever is Recovering the Sattelites.
I must have listened to the album a million times 10 years ago. Today the songs still sound just as fresh and creative as the day I first heard them. Sadly, I learnt later that the album was written when the lead singers wife had died of cancer.

When I saw them in Durban it was one of the first live concerts I had been to, and what a gig it was. Still remember it vividly.

Well what else have I been doing lately? I’m not reading GEP like it says on the side. I really should change that. I’m reading N.T. Wrights Jesus and the Victory of God again. It makes so much more sense the second time around. Wading through the history of the first, second and third quest was tiresome! Glad to be on more meaty matters of Biblical interpretation.

I wrote my exam on Biblical theology last week. Haven’t got any marks back for it, nor have I got any marks back for my essay either. But life goes on. Semester starts up again next year in March. I’ve got a fair amount of reading I hope to accomplish in that time, including my first puritan paperback.

Also heard my first Christmas joke today….its not worth repeating. But it is strange to think how close the end of the year is.  Another year passes by.

N.T. Wright’s latest book

From the Wrightsaid Forum:

As we await Tom’s latest book in the Christian Origin’s series (which he is writing on sabbatical/writing leave as we speak) I was informed at our Diocesan Synod that his latest book was finished in the Departure Lounge at Heathrow on the way out. It was then e-mailed to the publisher!

In a strange way this seems very Pauline (other than the technology)? Paul finishes off a ‘letter’ just before boarding a boat for wherever!

Every blessing,

Mark

Revd Mark Worthington
United Benefice of Harlow Green and Lamesley
The Vicarage, Gateshead, UK

Save my home (but don’t really)

Last night I had the unusual displeasure of watching a local reality TV Show called “save my home”. The show featured a host, a financial advisor and a couple in financial dire straits. I must confess at times I feel a certian pull towards these shows, but not that often. However something that this financial advisor said certainly got my attention.

The couple were in debt via a mortgage and various other personal loans. They were getting deeper in debt on a weekly basis, and had no option but to sell up, pay off all their debts and move into a smaller place. Then the unthinkable happened. Someone made an offer on their house that enabled them to do just that. They would be able to move into a smaller house, which would still have been awesome, and save an extra $300 per week. Not to mention that they would be debt free in 10 years, instead of filing for bankruptcy.

BUT this is the thing that gets me. They went all the way to signing the conditional offer, but refused to sell the house. The wife had too many emotional objections. Even when confronted with all the facts she spent her time yelling at those trying to help her, telling them that it was none of their business as they had no vested intrest in the house.  All the while her husband stood by and let her carry on like this (which is a story for another time see my post yesterday).

It made me wonder about the nature of humanity. So often we are confronted with all the facts, the evidence against us is overwhelming yet we dig our heels in and refuse to budge. We get backed into a corner, the argument is already lost and our best defence is diversion. In this case the couple got what the advisor had said was coming. The buyer withdrew his offer, and the couple are now deeper in debt. How often do we do this? How often do we ignore the facts that are plain to see? Why do we want to fight to be right even when we are clearly wrong and why oh why do we hate accepting help from people when we can’t manage things ourselves?

For me this serves to confirm what the reformers were talking about when they used terms like Total Depravity and Irrisistable Grace. Humanities nature is so tainted by sin, that faced with choosing God, or choosing sin unrepentant humanity will always choose sin. Here we must be careful to say sin = doing bad things, and choosing God = doing good things. Life isn’t that simple. Rather sin is open rebellion against God’s rule, a denial of the image of God and a colluding with the forces of evil against God. We are bound to this sin until God removes our heart of stone, and replaces it with a heart of flesh. This is the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

Apologetics and rational arguments have their place. But as N.T. Wright so eloquently says, there is much more to this world than imagines by post-elightenment and rationalist philosophers. God did give us a brain, and we are to use it. But without recognising this as the basic stance of humanity we run the risk of letting rationalism set the agenda.

Only the Gospel shows humanity for what it truly is, and only the Gospel has the power to change that. Let us hold fast to the Gospel.

Kate Hudson

Apparently Kate Hudson has men figured out - all they want is sex and someone to make them a sandwhich. A spin off of the old joke:

“How do you turn a man on?”
“Show up naked and bring food.”

Well if we take Kate’s logic then all women want are shoes and handbags. Hardly fair to either side I’d say. But what gets me is the double standard. Has anyone called Kate Hudson a female chauvenist pig for those comments yet?  I bet there would have been a public outcry if George Clooney or Brad Pitt had uttered something similar about women. Perhaps their studios would have cancelled any further movies planned with them remeniscent of Kanye West?

Why is it ok to degrade men, but not women?

Two scary articles in the Paper

Tamaki’s 700 son’s swear an other of Loyalty 

Tamaki’s Church becoming a Cult

Both scared me a little this morning, as well as giving me a bit of a laugh.
When did we start swearing allegience to anyone other than Christ? This is insane. If people are prepared to swallow this, then they truly have not spent enough time in the Bible. The Church needs to stand against this type of behaviour. It is not edifying to the Church at large, and takes away from the sufficiency and centrality of Jesus Christ. We are not here to worship and deify our leaders.

What a difference the Gospel would make to that Church.

New Heavens and New Earth

I caught myself feeling something strange yesterday as my wife and I were talking about the new heavens and earth. I had to ask myself “Do you really believe this?. Could this honestly be true? Would a rational person accept this kind of thing. I realised that to the everyday person this would seem like sheer nonsense, and even to some people who profess to be Christians for a few reasons. Firstly it may be because the world we live in in either so hopeless that we can’t imagine what a cosmic redemption would look like, or we’re too happy where we are and don’t want anything else.

For me the problem begins whenever I start to see God in impersonal terms, that is whenever I talk about God without ever talking about Jesus. This is the major problem with the world today. They are hostile towards Jesus. Many are happy to accept the idea of a God (or host of gods) who made the world, but if you want to talk about Jesus as the fullest revelation of that God you’re crazy. For a long time I’ve noticed that the kids in my youth group are happy to talk about God, but seldom if ever mention Jesus, and for me thats a concern.

When I start somewhere other than Jesus I’m in trouble. My Christianity quickly seems like a farce to be abandoned in favour of new evidence from science and reason. Jesus gives God eyebrows, kneecaps, saliva glands and a spleen. He brings God into the ordinary, and personal.  We must resist all efforts to depersonalise the Gospel, God, and Christianity. Our Gospel will be co-opted into the current cultural story and eventually will look no different.

Hope in the Headlines

Just a thought – Don’t make Christianity your “high” religion, and consumerism your “folk” religion. Happiness is not another purchase away. We must place our trust and hope in the God who makes all things new. For us that means following Jesus with all our hearts, allowing the Gospel to work its way into our thinking at the deepest level so that it becomes our default setting, our way of life.

We will fail repeatedly. But its no excuse not to try. Where sin abounded Grace super-abounded.  I encourage you to get into the word and see all of scripture through the lens of the Gospel. Without Jesus this world has no Hope.

You cannot go back in time

Lately a few events have reminded me ever so slightly that I cannot go back in time. The first was watching a TV show I used to enjoy as a pre-teen kid: Sliders. A friend of mine gave me all 5 seasons to watch, and after the first episode I was ready to give it all back to him. The CGI was terrible. The
“worm hole” that sucked people in looked like a Windows 95 Screensaver. The acting was even worse. How could such a terrible show could run for so long? I hear somewhere in the 3rd or 4th season the main actor was replaced and the show continued as if nothing had ever happened. It was painfully clear to me that I could not return to a time of innocence in my TV watching. Sliders was no longer cool. The world of TV had moved on.

The second incident was last night at a punk-rock show. My brother in law had a spare ticket to see NOFX and Bad Religion. I had grown up on punk-rock (but gravitated more towards metal as it usually meant better guitar solos) and NOFX was quite frequently on playing on my friends stereo when we were hanging out. I never got into Bad Religion for obvious reasons, but I went along anyway as I always love to see bands I know. I was dissapointed by a few things last night. While both NOFX and Bad Religion had been going for over 20 years. The lead singers of both bands looked terribly old, and their attitudes towards other people disgusted me. How could these bands still promote drugs and alcohol to kids when they probably had some of their own? How could they be so bigoted against Jesus and Christians? How could these grown men behave worse than teenagers tasting alcohol? Surely they would have grown up? The show left a bitter taste. I cannot go back to the music I liked when I was 14. My tastes have changed over the years.  Going back would not be anything remotely like reliving “the good ol days”. It would just be sad.

My advice to you, do not try to relive the past, instead forge new ground in the present and work for a better future. Grow up, and enjoy growing up. Don’t fight it. Fighting it looks like that scene from the wedding singer where Adam Sandlers character is in the Bar with his best friend, who is quite the player when it comes to the ladies. But for some reason all his philandering had left him deeply unhappy. Both Sandler’s character and his friend idolized Fonzie and Vinnie Barbarino growin up, and to some extent had modelled their lives on them. But what Sandlers character didn’t know was that their TV shows got cancelled. Why? “Because no one wants to see a 50 year old guy hitting on chicks.” If we’re honest, no one wants to see a 50 year old man trying to sing punk rock tunes to 15 year olds either.  

As a Christian anticipate God’s work to renew the existing creation, making all things new, in the present. Study the past, learn from your own past, but don’t live there. Trying to go back in time means ignoring all the good things God is doing right here and now, and if you are keep trying to live in the past then you will miss out on everything now!

Has anyone said it yet?

I thought Kanye’s interruption of Taylor Swifts victory speech was old news, but I guess not after I got an email from Betterworld.com this morning with a Fiction book interrupting a Non-fiction book. The punchline was
“Hey Non-Fiction I’m real happy for you and I’m going to let you finish but the bargain bin category has some of the best value of all time. OF ALL TIME !” One blogger commented on Kanye’s point of view:

“Has anyone actually watched the Beyonce video? I just did, expecting something amazing – and its just three women in their knickers pelvic thrusting non-stop for 3-plus minutes. So not only is Kanye West a douchebag he’s also a pervert with an odd concept of creativity.I’m amazed it was even nominated, let alone the object of such contention.”

I had a small chuckle to myself, but couldn’t help thinking of if it had been the other way around. What if somebody with white skin had interrupted Kanye’s award? I bet there would be a huge outcry denouncing the racist behaviour of the that artist. I’m speculating here of course, but its something that often rings true. Perhaps its time to drop the double standard and call a spade a spade. Anyone from any race can be racist against another race. Its not a sin reserved exclusively for white people.

But even more shocking is the disgusting replies from some other celebrities. Katie Perry said “F*** you Kanye….” and Kelly Clarkson wrote a nasty letter stating that she liked her cheating ex-boyfriend more than she liked Kanye.

The line between good and evil is not an us and them thing, it runs through each of us. We are all sinners in need of saviour, Kanye included. We have all fallen short of the Glory of God. All of us like sheep have gone astray. The old addage to fight fire with fire only results in….more fire. We cannot claim to follow Jesus and use the weapons of the world. We must be Christians of the means and the end.