12.31.2009

A Mideast Bond, Stitched of Pain and Healing (NY Times)

Friendship often starts with proximity, but Orel and Marya, both 8, have been thrust together in a way few elsewhere have. Their playground is a hospital corridor. He is an Israeli Jew severely wounded by a Hamas rocket. She is a Palestinian Muslim from Gaza paralyzed by an Israeli missile. Someone forgot to tell them that they are enemies.
Read the rest on the New York Times.

12.30.2009

Avatar Movie Review

So, I really, really liked Avatar. It was an awesome movie with incredible visuals that I will probably watch again. It was also a movie that was chucked full of ideology, both good and bad.

Avatar spoke out against racism, much like District 9 did, but with much more emotion. It criticized the War in Iraq heavily, even using the phrase "shock and awe."

But the film did have one message that can be absolutely deadly. One of the central themes is the doctrine of pantheism. Pantheism holds that all creatures are connected in to one central being. That god is part of everyone and everyone is part of god. On the moon Pandora, the setting for Avatar, all creatures live in harmony with each other and their god, Erya. Erya is in all creatures, and all creatures are in Erya. Classic pantheism.

As with any kind of false theology, there is a false hell and false heaven. The false heaven is nature in harmony with itself. When there is balance there is peace, and all creatures can live happily in unity with Erya.

The false hell taught is, of course, the opposite. Humans come to Pandora and bring heavy machinery to mine, and guns to make the natives submit. The functional hell the movie creates is a life out of unity with nature. The savior that bridges the gap are the characters in the movie.
All they have to do is go back to nature to gain heaven.

Ok, that's really simplified but if you look its in the movie.

That's not in the Bible.

The Bible teaches that heaven is real, a place where one lives in eternal fellowship with God. Hell is the place of eternal separation from God. Sin is what separates heaven from hell. The only thing that can take us from hell to heaven is Jesus. That's the gospel.

I'm not saying Avatar is a bad movie. It's thoroughly enjoyable and I will watch it again. But it is dangerous. Christians have to be aware of and spot false theology, and not let it ruin a good movie.

Sweet Caroline

This Is Pretty Sad...

Check this out. Some guy actually named his kid after Barack Obama. I am scared.

The Bible on the Morality of Music

Is there anything that God created that is inherently evil? I've been told that there are. I've been told there are things that exist that are sinful. Sitting there, by themselves. They're just wrong. Things like marijuana, immodest clothes, and music with a back-beat.

Are they though? Didn't God say that all he created was good? I Timothy 4 says that there would come a day when men would teach that people need to abstain from stuff that God clearly meant to be good.

"Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving." 1 Timothy 4:1-4
The fact is that nothing God created is sinful. Worshiping the creature more than the creator is. Marijuna isn't sin, loving getting high more than God is. God created everything in this world with a purpose, and everything in this world should be used for God's glory.

Its been claimed by many that certain kinds of music are inherently sinful, that they naturally cause sinful desires. I have even heard that rap music can make one feel a sinful emotion.

All this is claimed without support from the Bible. Nowhere does the Bible say that any kind of music even can be sinful. The Bible is simply silent on that. What the Bible does say is that God created everything for his glory, and that nothing is to be rejected if recieved with thanksgiving.

12.27.2009

~the gospel changes everything~

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Doctrine In Children's Church

This morning I got the opportunity to speak in my church's children's church. I talked about Genesis 3 and the first sin. I tried, and probably failed, to link Adam and Eves first sin through Romans 5:12 to our sin. Because one man (Adam) sinned, we all are sinners and so must face death.

So often we use stories like the story of Adam and Eve to teach moralism. The things we do are emphasized, not to show the need for a savior, but to show the need to act better. For example, because Eve disobeyed God bad things happened, so we need to obey God so good things happen to us. That's not the point of the story at all. It's never about us. It's always about Jesus and the gospel.

The reason Genesis 3 is in the Bible is to show us our need for a savior. We all inherit Adams sin, so we all need something or someone to get rid of our sin for us. Only Jesus can.

12.25.2009

Oh the Deep, Deep Love

Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me
Underneath me, all around me
Is the current of Your love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To Your glorious rest above

Oh the deep, deep love
All I need and trust
Is the deep, deep love of Jesus

Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus
Spread His praise from shore to shore
How He came to pay our ransom
Through the saving cross He bore
How He watches o’er His loved ones
Those He died to make His own
How for them He’s interceding
Pleading now before the throne

Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus
Far surpassing all the rest
It’s an ocean full of blessing
In the midst of every test
Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus
Mighty Savior, precious Friend
You will bring us home to glory
Where Your love will never end

12.16.2009

Coming Home

Yeah, so I haven't posted anything here in a while. College does that to you. You get busy and soon it's exam week and you've lost and forgotten about so much.

Check out this article on ESPN. It was a really good read. http://ping.fm/akOjG

12.14.2009

~the gospel changes everything~

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