Penn Jillette, magician and materialist, has a book recommendation: the Bible, a book, he suggests, “by a bunch of guys in the desert.” And, advises Penn, “if you’re considering becoming an atheist, read the Bible from cover to cover. No study guides, no spins, just read it.” The consequence, he says, is fairly certain: “Sometime between when God tells Abraham to kill his son and when Jesus tells everyone to put him before their families, you’ll be an atheist.” The problem is that if one is already considering atheism as a viable option, one is already predisposed to deny the truth of the Bible. When one reads it in unbelief,…
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I am a Heretic
Pastor, Kevin DeYoung writes: “at present, one of the worst heresies is to be in the same zip code with someone who takes a firm stance on homosexuality” (see here). Heresy, Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek claims, is no longer deviation from dogma or even reason, but deviation from the crowd. If holy text and universal truth go the way of the dodo, then the crowd is all that we have left. And, although no one is quite ready to burn the heretic (in this country, at least), there are many ready to silence him. But I am not yet faced with a death threat. And I am weak, fallible and prone to capitulation.…
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The Bible: A Problem for Whom?
Christianity is not the problem, the Bible is. So argues Amber Dillon from The Independent (read the full article here): I can’t help thinking that some of the Bible’s teachings are irrelevant to modern day life and I feel that it is time for Christianity to move on, and that Christians should accept the Bible as a product of its time… I think Christianity can progress by accepting that the Bible is a piece of History, taking from it what is still relevant (for example equality, treatment of the poor and elderly) and perhaps this could be the start of a modern, understanding religion that more people can believe in. None…
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Chalke Talk
Church leader, Steve Chalke, has released his opinion on human sexuality and marriage (here). Chalke is a well known evangelical leader in the UK. While I disagree with his view, what interested me was how he consistently said that his view is Biblical. Just what does he think of the Bible? This is what he said: “The Bible… doesn’t claim to be the word of God; it claims that Jesus is the word of God. It is a book that guides us to Jesus… A Christian’s way to understand the Bible should be to read both Old and New Testament through the lens of Jesus.” It appears that there is a more fundamental difference between Chalke’s view and…
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Why Actors Need Directors
Jodie Foster’s somewhat befuddling speech proves one thing: Actors need directors. Foster’s fluency, keen mind and sharp discourse are nowhere to be found when left to fly. Some can improvise, but most need a script and a director. And so to a point: so do I. I am mere actor and I need a director – a pastor. And, like an actor left to go off script, I too need a director who knows the script and can direct lives according to it. This is the admirable job of a pastor; he takes up God’s script and teaches the flock to follow and apply it to their lives. This sounds like…
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How does the Bible Function in a Christian Life?
Just how does the Bible function in the life of a believer? Clearly the Bible is, to the Christian, not merely a book, but is the very word of God. So, it has a different role than other books. First, the Bible is how God want’s believers to make sense of human experience. The Bible is God’s interpretation, his take on things, his view. The assumption the Christian makes is that God’s view should be our view, so it is the responsibility of the Christian to read experience through the lens of scripture, to think about things in the way God wants us to think about them. Second, the Bible is God’s…