Last post at this blog! But, not to despair...

As most of you have seen I have changed the name of the blog recently from "Just thinking..." to Theo-Enthumology. I just found that the name Theo-Enthumology was a more apt name for the blog.

However, the time has come to close this blog!

But, that does not mean that I am ceasing from my blogging activities! You see, the reason I am closing this blog is simply to stop posting at this old blog, which has my name in the URL. I have decided to move my blog to a new URL, that coincides with the name of the blog, Theo-Enthumology!

So, even though this blog is now closed, by exiting from this blog, simply scurry over to the new blog and follow the exit sign below and you will enter the new blog at the new address. Please notice that the feed at the new blog is also new, so please update your feed reader.

Exit here to go to the new Theo-Enthumology!

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader coming this Christmas!

What is the state of the western church? by Ravi Zacharias

Twitter updates - 09 Aug 2010

Twitter updates - 02 Aug 2010

Twitter updates - 26 July 2010

Founder of SATS debunks Brian McLaren heresy

Dr. Christopher Peppler

Dr. Christopher Peppler wrote a very thought provoking, yet straight analysis of Brian McLaren's heretical book "A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions that are Transforming the Faith."

Dr. Peppler takes each of the ten questions that McLaren posed in his book and analyses them for truth and clarity. Peppler shows that while McLaren may have clarity in certain cases, that clarity has nothing to do with Scriptural truth, or at least does not contain the primary nature of the truth of the Scriptures and the gospel. In this blog post by Dr. Peppler, it is also shown how McLaren sets up straw men, just to knock down what does not exist!

In his conclusion, Dr. Peppler writes:

"It is good to ask questions and to seek deep and satisfying answers. It is reasonable to agonise over a Christianity that has so often presented itself as harsh, loveless, and power mad. It is evidence of a tender heart to wonder how a loving God could consign the bulk of humanity to eternal conscious torment. But, it is neither good or reasonable to attempt to recast the biblical narrative, redefine the nature of the Bible, and reformulate the principles of interpretation in order to create answers that the seeker finds acceptable. This is what I think Brian has attempted to do."

To read Dr. Peppler's accurate assessment of McLaren's book read his blog post here.

Tree63 front-man throws in the cross, um, towel

Christian entertainment doesn't seem healthy, yet it also does. I know, it seems contradictory, and on the one hand it is, but on the other hand it isn't. There are Christian musicians, actors, painters, and others who see their art not only for the art itself, but for the purpose of glorifying God and spreading the gospel message. For them, there is no ceiling to reach because, how do you reach a ceiling in glorifying God?

There are others who experience dissatisfaction when they either cannot make headway in their respectful arts and become the next big thing, or they have made it to the top and found that their dissatisfaction remains, despite having "record deals, [being] on planes, tour buses, in green VIP rooms."

Of course, recently we saw Jennifer Knapp come "out" to reveal that she is a lesbian, and before that Ray Boltz dropped the bomb that he was gay!

Twitter updates - 19 July 2010

Evangelical gullibility fuels the flames of "fairy tales as truth"

It has happened to all of us. Some person with a so-called testimony akin to Paul's Damascus experience visits your church and tells you his story. The story is extremely well told, interspersed with tear-jerking sad stories and side-splitting funny anecdotes, with a smattering of heroics.

The person seems to be so nice that we just can't help ourselves liking and believing this person. If we don't believe him, then our subjective ideas of salvation to Christianity will not be confirmed. So, we believe, because it is so great that a satanist or a Muslim had come to Christ and now have such an awesome testimony for Christ! Surely, this is the person God had been waiting for to get those amazing in-roads among satanists and Muslims!

Men and women pastors, or not?

Have you ever thought whether women may be pastors in the church or not? Most modern Christians have.

Kevin deYoung, senior pastor at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan, has written an analysis of chapter 12 (“Women, Men and God”) of John Stott's book, Issues Facing Christians Today (4^th Edition, Zondervan, 2006).

Kevin tackles the issue in Go Big or Go Home: Why Complemegalitarian Doesn’t Work, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

How to find a church

For those who are serious about what they are fed from the pulpit, it becomes a daunting task to find a church where the truth is preached unadulterated. Here in South Africa there is a proliferation of churches that merely skim the Scriptures and never get to the meat. They keep on feeding their people fast-food, and hence their people can no longer handle the true meat of the Scriptures.

So, looking for a church is not easy. Dan Phillips has written a blog post that helps us to search for a church. Unfortunately his post is written very much for the American scene, but there is much to gain from his post.

Love is perpendicular

Love isn't easy. Especially love to those that irritate us. One of my pet peeves here in South Africa is the way people drive, especially the taxis. They are just plain dangerous. I find this very irritating and I truly find it difficult in those situations to show love to people that drive without following the rules of the road and drive like maniacs.

As Christians, we are called to love one another, because this is how the world will know that we are His disciples (Jn 13:35).

The question is, what about those that are not Christians?

Profaning the gospel for the sake of 'contextualization'

Wanting to be relevant, the church has become sick beyond repair! That is, repair driven by the church itself.

Pastors, wanting to 'contextualize' the gospel have turned to profanity ('swear words') in their sermons. These contextualizers, or relevantizers, simply do not believe that the gospel is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." (Rom 1:16)

Phil Johnson writes about these types:

"See, I think this whole approach to ministry reflects a fatal lack of confidence in the power of the gospel itself. If we really believed the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, why would we think it necessary to dress the message in such shabby rags?"

Preachers such as these simply bring disrepute to the gospel of Jesus Christ and show what they truly put their trust in for the salvation of their hearers!

Providence Theological Seminary: New Covenant Theology based

Providence Theological Seminary was started specifically to educate pastors from a New Covenant Theology perspective, since there was no seminary that catered for NCT.

Providence Theological Seminary from Jerry Downs on Vimeo.

To learn more about New Covenant Theology (NCT), start with this introduction.

Help others see more of your blog

Being on the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog (31DBBB) project certainly has its advantages. Every day there is something new to learn, and on other occasions it is a case of discovering that I have done at least some things right. We are now at day 8, and one of the ideas being brought forward is to link between your posts as a blogger. That way, readers of your blog can discover more about your blog without really doing a search.

The Biblical languages in life and ministry

Because this blog includes commentary on the modern church and how it relates to the Biblical pattern, I would like to highlight a blog post by Bill Mounce called "The Biblical Languages in Life and Ministry."

In his post, Dr. Mounce warns ministers especially not to use their knowledge of the Biblical languages from the pulpit in such a manner to seem like the "elite few" who have special knowledge that the people in the pew don't have. He also flips up the coin to the other side to reflect on the value of studying the original languages, which he then leaves us to do!

Tips on making your blog better [31DBBB]

I have been taking part in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog project with Paul Steinbrueck. Today's lesson is called "31DBBB Day 6: Must-Read Tips and Tutorials for Bloggers." While the list of blogs to get these must-read tips from are quite exceptional, I am not so sure that all these tips are applicable in every situation. Which of course is an acceptable claim to make. There are very few rules that work in every environment they are tested in. If you are interested in seeing what tips are in the 31DBBB book for this lesson, I have created a Google Bookmark List for the links to these tips. I have divided the links into 5 broad categories: Blog Content, Design, Marketing Your Blog, Miscellaneous, Monetize.

Wazzat! - 2010-05-07

How many can remember this one?

• Comedy Central to launch anti-Christian cartoon series in fear of Muslims
• You may not wear your American flag t-shirt in America! Others may become upset!
• Anti-abortion sentiments in U.S. at a high
• Whoopi Goldberg whoops at death of the unborn
  

So, you've been encouraged to blog! Where to start [31DBBB]

Yesterday I gave you 9 Reasons (or more) why Christians should be blogging. Then, in your mind you thought, "Great, but where do I start?"

Well, the first thing you must do is visit Blogger, and register as a user. If you have a Google account of sorts (GMail, etc) then you will be able to register using your google account. Once you have set up your account and have sorted out your template, you will be able to publish your blog posts using email. Therefore, if you know how to email someone, you can become a blogger.

Before you sign up, you can first see how things are done at the the Blogger site. Here are some links to assist you:

9 Reasons (or more) why Christians should be blogging [31DBBB-2]

Ok, you have probably asked yourself why you, as a Christian, should blog. Perhaps you think you do not know enough, or you have nothing to say. Don't believe that for a moment! You are a human being, with the Spirit of the living God in you; of course you have something to say!

Here are 9 reasons why you should be blogging:

31DBBB started!

With all of us, there is always room for improvement. Hence, I joined the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog project (31DBBB). The first day has launched in the form of an Elevator Pitch. To see the result of this, go to the About Theo-Enthumology page on my blog.

Become a better blogger in just 31 days

Yes, the claim is that you can become a better blogger in just 31 days! However, you will need to participate in a practical blogging project for 31 week days. You will get a break over weekends. I am seriously thinking about doing it myself. As you can see here at my blog, there is ample room for improvement!

So, if you are interested in being part of this "better blogger" project, join Paul Steinbrueck at Christian Web Trends as he guides you to becoming a better blogger! BTW, this project starts on 3 May 2010.

My different blog feeds

As most of you know, I maintain several blogs, and of course, it is not necessary to always go back to them to see if I have written anything new. There are two ways to keep up to date on what I write on my 3 blogs.

1. RSS Feeds.
2. Email subscriptions

I have 3 blogs:

• Just thinking... (dealing with Christianity and theology and Christian news snippets)
• BiblioPolit (mostly political in nature, covering South Africa and the U.S.)
• William’s Life & Trials (more of a personal nature)

You can subscribe to them individually or as a combined subscription. If you subscribe to them individually, you will get updates only of the blog(s) you have subscribed to. If you subscribe to the combined publication, you will be updated on what I write at each of them. Don’t worry, I don’t blog every single day at each of them.

RSS Feed Subscription
If you do not know what this is, then don’t bother using it. For this you will need a feed reader. Some browsers can subscribe to feeds these days, but you will have to open your browser’s feed reader to read them. A very good feed reader is Google Reader.

• Just thinking… feed.
• BiblioPolit feed.
• William’s Life & Trials feed.
• Combined feed.

Email Subscription
Receive updates via email to your email inbox! Simply click on the link and you will be taken to a page where you need to enter your email address to subscribe.

• Just thinking… subscription.
• BiblioPolit subscription.
• William’s Life & Trials subscription.
• Combined blogs subscription.

I hope you make use of this! If you like what I write, pass this on to others!

Wazzat? - 2010-04-23

• How about that Thugabe, er, Mugabe
• Obama fights for Muslim women to cover up, but not for those who don't want to.
• Funny, these Islamists blame America, not the Jews, for their own violent attacks against others!

Amazing images of volcano Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland

How would you pronounce the name of the erupting volcano in Iceland, Eyjafjallajokull? E%jaf$alla*&ull?

Anyway, check out these amazing pics of the event. Simply click on the image.

Jennifer Knapp: another Christian artist comes out

Jennifer Knapp, a former Christian artist comes out among rumours to admit that she is a lesbian. Must be fun to stab God in the back, telling Him that He doesn't know what kind of lifestyles these people want to live! Never mind what God demands!

Two years ago, another Christian artist, Ray Boltz, also "came out."

What does it mean to come out? It means that they will now live their immoral depraved lives in God's face and claim that He sanctions it!

All that we can do is pray for these people!

Wazzat! - 2010/04/16

• Historical profiles of Christian apologists
• Douglas Groothuis apologetics course audio feed
• Phil Johnson "On the Piper-Warren Connection."
• Islam poised to take the West without firing a shot!
• So, you think Bono is a Christian?
• Very "old" wasps were no different from ours!

HT: Dan Philips

John Piper and the Rick Warren invitation

It is amazing, no, sickening, how so many Christians can turn on one another based on one single piece of evidence. These people are as fickle as sports lovers.

John Piper invited Rick Warren, who has proven himself to be a bit of a chameleon when it comes to religion. He literally is all things to all people. When he is with Muslims or Jews he keeps his Christianity very private. He changes his message depending on who he is with.

I do not agree with John Piper for inviting Warren to the national Desiring God conference for 2010. However, does that mean I must now lump Piper with the rest of the heretics like these intrepid finger pointers do? I do not think that Warren is a true heretic either! He is terribly misguided and does not stand up for the gospel clearly in all situations, but that does not make him a heretic. It makes him weak!

Wazzat! - 2010-04-09

This week's Wazzat will not have stuff of the whole week since I will be on leave this whole week and I have no guarantee that I will ever have internet connection to keep this updated. So, you will only see some assortment of links and goodies.

• None of those burqas in public, says Belgium
• Apologetics bloggers stand up for Christianity through April
• Challies heads back to the Puritans in Reading the Classics Together. I'm in!
• Michael Horton writes about Rick Warren
• Ligonier's 2010 National Conference: Tough Questions Christians Face
• All about the Cross!

Book Review: The Making of an Atheist - Part 3

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of this review.


4. The Obstinacy of Atheism

Dr. Spiegel starts this chapter using the movie The Sixth Sense as an analogy for the doctrine of original sin. It is the idea of being dead and not even knowing it. We all need a person like the boy, Cole Sear, to bring our deathly situation to our attention.

"Then, and only then, can we glimpse the truth about ourselves and--to break from the analogy of the film--experience spiritual resurrection." p90

In this chapter Dr. Spiegel aims to show how "a person may become locked in the atheistic delusion" through his worldview and the influence of sin on the mind.

Book Review: The Making of an Atheist - Part 2

Read Part 1 of this review.


2. The Irrationality of Atheism

In this chapter Dr. Spiegel deals a fair amount with one of atheisms "leading champions of atheism" and his "conversion" to theism. Antony Flew.

"In this chapter we will look at the principal categories of evidence that persuaded Flew to become a theist, and we will see why any fair-minded person should be similarly convinced of the reality of God." p42

There were three evidences that moved Professor Flew from atheism to theism, and they were: "the laws of nature, the existence of the cosmos, and the presence of life." (p42) Nature's laws are very constant. The question is why? Scientists could formulize laws from the data they study, yet they cannot answer the question, "why?" Even though some scientists still deny God and believe that the laws of nature are as they are by necessity, "this only raises the 'why' question at a different level." (p43) What makes these laws necessary?

Wazzat! - 2010-04-02

Today we commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as a ransom for His people.

• Does the head of the Beast Pope have to cover-up sexual abuses in the Roman Institution? Abuses have been known about by popes for at least 50 years.
• Beck vs Wallis! Who comes out on top?Neither! It is a non-contest! Biblical justice counts!
• Don't work too hard as a census data collector, you'll be fired!
• It is amazing how those wanting tolerance are always so intolerant! It really advances discussion! Oh, yea! Only their own ideas are acceptable!
• The intolerance continues!

Interview with Dr. Jim Spiegel author of The Making of an Atheist

For those who have been following this blog, you would have been reading about The Making of an Atheist blog book tour.

It is my privilege today to interview Dr. Jim Spiegel on his book The Making of an Atheist.

1. Just thinking...: Hi Jim, welcome to Just thinking...!
Dr. Jim Spiegel: Thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts with your readers.

2. JT: Tell us a little about yourself, where you grew up, your family and how you came to Taylor University.
DJS: I grew up in Michigan and Mississippi.  I did my undergraduate work in Biology at Belhaven College in Jackson, then went on to do graduate work in philosophy at University of Southern Mississippi and then back up north to Michigan State University for my doctorate.  I arrived at Taylor in 1993 and have been teaching there ever since.

Book Review: The Making of an Atheist - Part 1

TITLE: The Making of an Atheist
SUBTITLE: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief
AUTHOR: James S. Spiegel
PUBLISHER: Moody Publishers, Chicago
YEAR: 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8024-7611-1
PAGES: 141 (including notes and acknowledgements)

Apologetics, especially in the face of blunt, dare I say "blind", atheism, is never
easy. The question of their "blindness" always intrigues me. How could they not see God's handiwork all across creation? How could any rational person believe the fairy tale of goo to the zoo to you? How could a thinking person deny that what so clearly looks like design is not design? If an alien (of the grey extra-terrestrial variety) lands on our moon, would their first thought really be, "I wonder how many million years it took for this flag to evolve on this moon?" (The flag mentioned here is the one that the Apollo 11 crew planted on the moon.) Why do these atheists not believe? Why are the New Atheists like Dawkins so acerbic towards any belief in God, especially Christianity?

Wazzat! - 2010-03-26

• Wouldn't this make you really want to do it?
• What was America's primary textbook in the early days of the Republic?
• Democrat ¿ prolife¡ That sets the world on its head, doesn't it?
• Voters are stupid enough to fail the do-over, again!
• It isn't about me! Is it about you? Don't kid yourself!
• Give 'O' peaches! Oh... that is impeach him!
• A day of infamy, again!

Virtual choir sings "Lux Aurumque"

HT: David Murray

The Making of an Atheist by Dr. Jim Spiegel book giveaway

It is almost time for Just thinking... to post its review of Dr. Jim Spiegel's book, The Making of an Atheist. I will also have an interview with Dr. Spiegel. This will all happen from 1-3 April. I have already written the review in 3 parts and I am waiting on the answers to the interview questions that I posed to Dr. Spiegel.

As a bonus to you, the readers of this blog, Dr. Spiegel and his publishers have made 2 copies of this book available for a free giveaway. So, if you would like to win one of these books, please fill out the form below to be entered into the draw. The competition is valid until 30 March 2010, 18:00, South African time. That is 12:00 EST in the U.S. and 16:00 in London, midnight in Perth, and 05:00, 31 March in Auckland. That should make it understandable... I hope!

Only those names and emails entered via the form below will be considered!

UPDATE (30 March 2010):
The book giveaway has ended and the two winners have been chosen. They are:
Eric Loynes
Eleanor Poulter

I made use of Random.org to determine the two winners.

I have emailed them to inform them, and as soon as they have sent me their postal addresses, I will inform Dr. Jim Spiegel of their postal information.

Congratulations Eric and Eleanor!

The Rage Against God: One Hitchens, unlike another

Preachers who don't believe: an apostasy

I am part of Dr. Jim Spiegel's blog book tour which started a while ago, and you will be able to read my 3 part review of his book on 1-3 April 2010.

Why do I start this blog post by the opening paragraph? Well, Dr. Albert Mohler wrote a commentary about the state of the modern church in an article entitled Preachers Who Don't Believe--The Scandal of Apostate Pastors. Dr. Mohler writes about the many preachers from different denominations that no longer believe in the Bible or in the existence of God.

One thing about Dr. Spiegel's book is that in it he writes on the issue of immorality driving atheism. The more a person gets into sin, the less likely he is to want to believe in God. In fact, some atheists have actually said that they hope that their is no God. Sin's motivation is to hide from God. That is how it started in the garden of Eden when Adam hid from God after he sinned.

It would be interesting to know how much these preachers' rebellion against God is driving their atheism.

Wazzat! - 2010-03-19

• Who would have thought? Oh, yes, I have been saying this all along! We are esteeming our kids into oblivion!
• Comrade God?
• Think your kid was born a genius? Not likely!
• Did you know of the KJV Bible's influence on literature and speeches?
• Gore gets Trumped.

Mark 14 by Max McLean

Mark 14 by Max McLean. Get the full DVD

Persecution of the church

For those Christians that are not being persecuted it is not always easy to remember those that are being persecuted and are living as Christians under very dangerous circumstances.

Just as a way of being reminded of the plight of the persecuted church, Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), is making complimentary copies of Richard Wurmbrand's book, Tortured for Christ, available in order to spread the news of the persecuted church.

You can request copies for you and our friends.

Remember our brothers and sisters in Christ that are being persecuted. Pray for them and support them. Visit the VOM website to see how you can help!

Voice of the Martyrs YouTube channel

Wazzat? - 2010-03-12

Martin Luther as a monkey, then God shaved him!

• Pastor thinks he deserves more than his rich lifestyle as a reward for decades of clean and righteous living. Heaven just doesn't cut it for some folk now, does it?
• Lost tribe of Israel in Zimbabwe? Just don't tell Mugabe. Who knows what he would do!
• There are some real weirdos out there. Here are some in the SBC wanting to get rid of Calvinist pastors from their churches.
• "Which baby should I feed?" The digital world gone wrong!
• Holy Subversion. 'Nuff said!
• Justin Peters calls a spade a spade, heresy a heresy!
• Revolutionary bungling!
• John Piper's preaching on the abortion and race connection.
• The Jesus you can't ignore!
• Audio concerning the Bible by Wayne Grudem.

"Meet the Puritans" book giveaway

You can win a free copy of Meet the Puritans by Joel R. Beeke and Randall J. Pederson. To enter, visit the J.C. Ryle Quotes blog today!

Do you have questions for Dr. Jim Spiegel on his new book, 'The Making of an Atheist?'

My turn for giving my review and interview of Dr. Jim Spiegel on his new book, The Making of an Atheist, during his blog book tour, will be 1-3 April here on my blog.
If anyone would like to ask him a question on his book, you could leave a comment to this post and I will make sure that he gets it. Make sure that I get your questions NO later than 23 March 2010.
Unfortunately my blog doesn't have comments links for all new posts on my blog's default page, since I started using intensedebate's comment code. They are working at it so I am hoping it will work real soon. However, if you click on the subject of this post you will be taken to this post's own page which would have the comment section at the bottom.

Wazzat? - 2010-03-05

• So, what is the Law of Christ?
• With all the information of the world at our finger tips, why are our kids not being properly educated?
• Apparently Islam's 'god' cannot hear you pray in certain places. Bummer!
• Richard Dawkins incoherent? Never!
• The shepherds speak on the importance of seminary training.
• Ever wonder what makes a New Covenant ministry?
• Atheists have 'non-belief?' That's what they believe!
• R.C. Sproul interviews Stephen Meyer on ID.

MacArthur Study Bible now available in the ESV

MacArthur ESV Study Bible Promo from Crossway on Vimeo.

Finished reading "The Making of an Atheist" for the blog book tour with Dr. Jim Spiegel

Well, I have finished reading The Making of an Atheist by Dr. Jim Spiegel. As most of you know, I am part of a blog book tour by Dr. Spiegel. I can now start thinking about the review I will be writing on this book and the questions I would like to ask Dr. Spiegel in the bloggerview.

The review and interview will appear on this blog one month from today (1-3 April). To find out who is reviewing the book and interviewing Dr. Spiegel in the mean time, check out my post on the blog book tour.

"The Making of an Atheist" book has arrived

As you know, I will be part of a blog book tour involving Dr. Jim Spiegel's latest book, The Making of an Atheist. I explained how the blog book tour works at my previous post on this matter.

I must say, I was starting to worry, because up until yesterday, I had not received the book yet, and I am due to post my review of Dr. Spiegel's book and do an online interview with him by 1-3 April. I really didn't want to do a rushed job and so was concerned about the arrival of the book.

Well, I am glad to let you know, the book arrived today and I will start working through the book immediately. So, look out for my review and interview with Jim around 1 April.

I promise you, no April Fool's jokes!

Son of Islamic Hamas leader converts to Christianity

Read about this story at FoxNews or at WorldNetDaily.

Tell DSTV not to launch anti-family channel

I have just received an action email from Africa Christian Action. DSTV is in the process of surveying their subscribers concerning a possible new pornographic channel on their bouquet. Please act on this action mail. It is below in full. Please let them know that a pornographical channel is unacceptable. If they want a pornographical channel, then they need to include it in its own separate bouquet!

Survey for pastors on pastoral ministry

I have just designed a survey for pastors at my website on Pastoral ministry in the 21st century.

If you are a pastor, please complete the survey questions and encourage other pastors to also complete it. There are only 31 questions and should not take long. The survey was launched on 21 February 2010 and will most probably run for several months.

Grudem's new book, "Politics - According to the Bible" available September 2010

Wayne Grudem's new book, Politics - According to the Bible will be released in September 2010. I know that there are many Christians who have been waiting for this book.

Dr. Grudem did a series of classes based on his forthcoming book at the Scottsdale Bible Church. You will find some class notes and mp3s of the classes here.

Benny Hinn's wife files for divorce

Trouble in paradise! Suzanne Hinn filed for divorce in Orange County Superior Court on February 1, citing irreconcilable differences. They have been married for more than 30 years. They separated on 26 January 2010.

Where can this story be found?

USA Today

LA Times

Huffington Post

In a related post for South Africa see Pastor Ray McCauley to divorce... again!

The Doctrine of the Word of God

Many Christians today will probably not be able to articulate anything meaningful concerning the Doctrine of the Word of God. The blame for that I lay squarely at the door of man y of our churches today. They hardly ever broach theological subjects and as a result our "heavenly citizens" are theologically and doctrinally illiterate!

However, there are men out there who would rather see the church grow in its understanding of God and His Word. One such man is Dr. John M. Frame, Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, Florida. He has put a short  treatment on this subject on the web called The Doctrine of the Word of God. It is worth reading what Dr. John Frame writes.

Brian McLaren's A New Kind of 'Heretical' Christianity

I am not going to give a review of Brian McLaren's new book, A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions that are Reforming the Faith. The problem is not that these ten questions are actually reforming the faith, but that Brian McLaren is doing his darndest to transform the faith into the faith he has concocted in his own mind. The reason I will not be giving a review is that I have enough books to read already.

Anyway, Kevin DeYoung has started a multi-part review of the book with a blog post called Christianity and McLarenism. DeYoung writes:

STOP Human Trafficking now!

This is a cross-post from my other blog, but I think it is important enough to repeat!

Human Trafficking is picking up almost daily here in South Africa with the run-up to the 2010 World Cup Soccer tournament. Unscrupulous, evil and completely depraved people are stealing, confusing and conning unsuspecting women and children under false pretenses into becoming sex slaves, child labourers, soldiers and more.

STOP (Stop Trafficking Of People) kicked off their Public Service Announcement campaign recently against human trafficking. STOP's incredibly important campaign kicked off amid increased activity in the illegal sex industry in South Africa and abroad, especially with illegal brothels sprouting up in residential areas across the country.

STOP has created some videos that are available for viewing exactly to combat human trafficking.

"The Making of an Atheist" Blog Book Tour is now underway!

As I announced in my previous post about "The Making of an Atheist" Blog Book Tour, Dr. Jim Spiegel has reached out to several bloggers to be part of his Blog Book Tour to promote his new book, The Making of an Atheist.

The tour has started and it will be very enlightening to read each review/interview. Here is the complete schedule:

Raising pastors or leaders?

One thing that is really bothering me in the modern church is that pastors are no longer shepherds of the flock, but rather have become managers within a "churchy" corporate environment. There are all kinds of programmes to raise leaders in the church, and it makes me wonder what happened to the instructions of Jesus to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Mt 28:19-20)

Every week day afternoon a local Christian radio station plays a John Maxwell piece that is about 2 minutes long. I have been listening to this on and off for some time now, and I am yet to hear him quote the Scriptures or explain anything about the Scriptures. It is this constant droning about leadership principles and what good leaders are made of.

Misuse of words from the Bible

You have probably heard it before. God's power works like dynamite in and through us. Dynamite comes from the Greek word δυναμις, and so God's power is like dynamite.

Well, sorry to disappoint you, but when the writers of the New Testament wrote the New testament, they never thought of dynamite. The stuff wasn't even around yet. You see, dynamite comes from the Greek δυναμις and not the other way round! So, by assigning the meaning of dynamite to the Greek δυναμις is giving the meaning of a derivative to the original. That is backward and leads to real bad theology and doctrine!

Bill Mounce deals with just this type of an issue in his blog post Are We God's Poem? Find out what he has to say about the Greek term related to work!

Adrian Warnock interviews Sam Storms

Adrian Warnock has recently interviewed Dr. Sam Storms. He posted the interview in 3 parts:

INTERVIEW – Sam Storms on His Books About 2 Corinthians
INTERVIEW – Sam Storms Turns The Tables On Me
Sam Storms On Pastoring As A Reformed Charismatic

The truth and life

I have heard so many times that Christians would say that theology or doctrine has nothing to do with how we live. When finer points of doctrine are highlighted they would simply say: "That's just semantics!" Somehow there has arisen some kind of disconnect between doctrine and the way we live our lives.

Martin Downes has written a thought provoking blog post that addresses exactly this issue.

"Now, in reality, there is no gulf between truth and life because they never can be, and never are, divorced. The question is not whether we are living in the light of doctrines, but what doctrines are we living in the light of? What view of God, what view of the world, ourselves, sin, redemption, grace, the last things, are we being shaped by even when we are talking about separation between doctrine and life?"

Read Martin's post called Walking in the truth.

Do you feel misunderstood?

Have you ever been misunderstood? It happens to all of us at some stage in our lives.

Do you think Jesus was misunderstood? Sure He was! The Jews were convinced that He was going to physically break down the temple.

Of course, children are misunderstood all the time, especially when they are still small, before they have mastered the art of reasoning and explanation. Heck, some adults haven't learnt that yet.

This teacher obviously did not have a clue!

Making of an Atheist Blog Book Tour

Jim Spiegel, Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Taylor University has written a new book, The Making of an Atheist. In order to promote his book he will be doing a blog book tour in which his book will be reviewed and/or he will be interviewed by several bloggers from around the internet. Jim is a blogger himself and will announce the full schedule from his own blog as to when reviews and/or interviews will appear in the blogosphere. I am privileged to be one of the bloggers asked by Jim to be part of the blog tour for his book.

A preliminary blog book tour schedule has been made available to the bloggers, but these dates cannot be released yet since the participating bloggers must still agree with the schedule. As soon as the dates have been finalized I will make them available from my blog.

The following table contain the list of bloggers that will participate:

Blog Name	Blogger
Cloud of Witnesses	Chris Reese
Apologetics.com	Rich Park
Truthbomb Apologetics	Chad Gross
Triablogue	Peter Pike
Mike Austin's blog	Mike Austin
The Seventh Sola	Joel Griffith
EPS Blog	Steve Cowan
Doug Geivett's Blog	Doug Geivett
Apologetics 315	Brian Auten
Just thinking...	William Dicks
Oversight of Souls	Ray van Neste
Constructive Curmudgeon	Doug Groothuis
A-TeamBlog	Roger Overton

The blog book tour will start somewhere mid-February.

Pastor Ray McCauley to divorce... again!

I reported back in January 2008 that Ray McCauley and his trophy wife headed for a divorce. Although it did not happen then, it certainly seems like it is going to happen now. Before continuing this post, it would be good to read my January 2008 post first. I still stand by what I said there, so I am not going to say it again.

In my previous post on this issue with McCauley I dealt with the divorce issue. This time I would like to deal with the qualifications of an elder and how they apply to McCauley. I will probably get flack for this, but it needs to be said. It is time for Ray McCauley to resign as pastor!

1 Tim 3:1-7 spell out the qualifications of an elder (pastor) in the church. Verse 2 says: "Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach." Zelda McCauley is Ray's second wife, having sent his first wife, Lyndie, packing through divorce. Ray McCauley is clearly in violation of the qualifications for a pastor spelt out in 1 Tim 3.

In my previous post on the matter I dealt with divorce and what I believe is a Biblical divorce. Which means..., having divorced from Lyndie and marrying Zelda he was no longer a "one-woman man!" He therefore is in violation of Biblical principles on divorce and pastor's qualifications, and if he is a man of integrity, he should resign as pastor of Rhema Biblie Church in Randburg.

Is this what Jesus meant when He said to love one another?

This little stick drawing was drawn by my niece, Talisa, on her grandmother's kitchen notice board.

Liberal theology: the lie

Phil Johnson has written a short series on The Lie of "Liberal" Theology. There is nothing new about liberal theology. It was around in Jesus' time and so is it now.

Read Phil's posts here:
Part 1
Part 2

Latest books I acquired

It isn't always that easy to keep up the reading pace, in fact, my reading  pace is really taking a knock! At the moment I am reading Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" and "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson.

Then I have 5 books listed below that are lined up, in order that they were purchased, not necessarily the order in which I will read them, that I got as recent as today (last 2):

• God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades by Rodney Stark (the crusades interest me somewhat)
• Busted: Exposing Popular Myths about Christianity by Fred von Kamecke (I won this book via a competition from Zondervan)
• Christianity in South Africa: A Political, Social & Cultural History edited and compiled by Richard Elphick and Rodney Davenport (my church history lecturer from Bible school in the mid-80's, Allan Anderson, recommended this book on South African church history. Should perhaps read this one in conjunction with one of my other books, A History of South Africa by Frank Welsh)
• Disciplines of a Godly Family by Kent & Barbara Hughes (got this book at 30% off today)
• A Visual History of the English Bible by Donald L. Brake (picked this one up today at 50% off)

I just hope I can get to them soon enough. One of the reasons I take so long to read these days is because I am studying at night, and that takes up a lot of time.

Anyway, if you have actually read any of these books, feel free to leave a short review in the comments section.