geekery.of.all.sorts

I've been thinking about Jesus and his title 'The Word of God', for a while now...here's some notes. I was first introduced to this as a serious angle of study and major theme of the New Testament ( rather than a nice verse in John 1 ) when I read 'Prayer' by a German theologan named Hans Urs von Balthasar.  http://www.amazon.com/Prayer-Hans-Urs-von-Balthasar/dp/0898700744   This is probably as difficult a book as I've ever read - but it was transformative for me in a variety of ways.  I need to go back and find a copy and see if it stands up after 10 years. Jesus is represented in scripture as the Word of God - a title that needs to be understood 'as the scripture says', not from the definition our church culture has put on it.  Good evangelical protestant types tend to worship the Bible like it's part of the trinity (usually replacing Holy Spirit). When we say 'The Word of God' we usually are referring to the Bible.  Now, the Bible...

My good friend Will commented on my last post, sharing 3 essential problems that make studying eschatology. I can't speak to the first without further study, can't argue at all with the second - but the third I have thoughts on. Here they are: He said that regarding eschatology, it is the realm of mystery, and 'mystery remains mystery'. Here's my response: Mystery didn't remain mystery for Paul, who stated that the mystery of gospel which had been held since the creation of the world had been revealed, so that the Gentiles could share in the salvation that comes from Christ. See Romans 16 and Eph 3. Daniel was told to seal up his the words until the time of the end - it's spoken twice in Dan 12, the second time affirming that the mysteries shown to Daniel would be sealed until that time. The use of the word 'until' indicates to me that those mysteries would be UNsealed when the time came. It's consistent with the unfolding nature of divine re...

I'm a bit interested in Eschatology. For those of you who don't know what eschatology is, it's the study of eschat . Really, no, I'm just kidding. I don't even know what eschat is... But I heard some fairly convincing stuff from a preterist this last week. Preterists believe that the last days described in the Bible happened in the first century, and that it's all done. Well, I don't think that's right. So I've been thinking on that. Here's a bit of it: Preterists take the time words very seriously - the statements that are made in Matthew 24, Revelation 1-3, and elsewhere, where Jesus says that 'this generation' would see the kingdom, or that 'the time is near', or 'these things must soon come to pass'. I was challenged to take those seriously as well - I had not given them as much thought as other elements of those same passages...but I find the strict preterist interpretation simplistic, as I understand it. Ba...

Hi to all I'm sitting here in my hotel room, and thought I'd write a little about my trip so far. I'm having a really good time.  When I'm on a trip by myself that usually meansI  wander wherever I feel like going until I'm ready to keel over. Here's a map of my wanderings today... View Darren's Tuesday walk in a larger map   On the way home both yesterday and today, I emerged from the Metro just in time to get POURED ON by a huge thunderstorm.  I'm about 12 minutes or so from my hotel, so on Monday I waited the storm out.  But tonight, it was just drizzling, so I dropped into a 7-11 to buy some peanuts, and then about halfway home it turned into a cloudburst.  Yikes - thunder started happening more and more frequently, storm moved in closer, and I got SOAKED.  woo hoo.   So my jeans, socks, shirt and shoes are drying on the chair, and I'm relaxin'.    Later... Posted via email from dsayswhat's posterous

Testing out posterous.com cross-post to blog and facebook Posted via email from dsayswhat's posterous

Jennifer, Davin and I watched Julie and Julia the other day, just before Christmas. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a sweet movie about a woman who decides to spend a year cooking her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking . The film is about her self-discovery as she blogged her experiences cooking all these recipes, interleaved with biographical sections of how Julia Child wrote the cookbook during the 10 or so years she lived in France. It’s a neat movie, especially if you’re into food. Which I am. I made the comment to Jennifer that I’d never really experienced Julia Child firsthand, either on television or via her books, so I didn’t know much about her. I knew she was a big deal TV chef, probably the first one ever, and that she had a big, high voice, but that was about it. Well, Jenn went and bought me the cookbook for Christmas. Here’s my first status report: I cooked a ham on Christmas day, on Christmas day, on Christmas day…and ...

I've decided to throw a grenade today. I think I've been taught for too long that the Cross is the whole point of God's plan. I’m taking a stand today and saying salvation by grace through faith is not THE BIG TRUTH of Christianity. That rumbling you hear is Luther and thousands of protestant church fathers rolling over in their graves. Now, before you go siccing Hank Hanegraaff on me for preaching a different gospel, I'm not disavowing the cross, or the gospel, or anything. Jesus died on the cross to save me. His blood paid for my sins. His work on the cross is finished, sufficient, and total. I am saved by grace through faith in the Son of God. Now, what am I trying to do by baiting you this way? The gospel isn't about reconciliation to God. It's natural to think that salvation is the center of God's world, since we're the ones getting saved...but salvation isn't the main thing on God's mind. The gospel is about the Kin...