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Joshua 7:1-26 - Don’t Steal? 2007-05-27 14:31:08 Although the Bible says in numerous other places that stealing is wrong, I would not make that application from this passage. I would not say that Achan was punished for stealing. He was punished for not following the orders of God, knowing he was not following the orders, and trying to hide his disobedience from his fellow Israelites. What Achan realizes, though, is that one cannot hide ones sins from God. God knows all, even the things that we do in secret. Steal
ing may be a subset of the order not to possess the banned items, but it is not the main issue in this passage; disobedience is.
Joshua
7()
7:1 But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.
2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.
Pomo or Psychological Perception? 2007-05-26 14:43:39 I have been having a conversation with a co-worker recently regarding postmodernism. This is a topic that I’ve had some exposure to through my studies at Biola University, especially in courses taught by R. Scott Smith, author of Truth and the New Kind of Christian: The Emerging Effects of Postmodernism in the Church.
As we were discussing this topic, it became clear, however, that our understanding of the topic differed. As my friend kept describing postmodernism, it kept sounding to me like psychological perception. Let me explain.
Each example seemed to revolve around how words influence our perceptions of reality, not that the reality itself is somehow influenced or restricted by words (as is my understanding of postmodernism). One of the examples was that as we begin to place importance on something, it becomes important in peoples’ minds because the importance placed on the item by our talking about it affects how people feel about it. I completely agree with this.
I Read more:Perception
Moral Relativism Failure #4: Self-Refuting 2007-05-24 19:53:01 Another argument against moral relativism is that the position is self-refuting. This means that when it is tested against its own criteria, it fails to pass. If I were to write “I cannot write a word in English,” the statement would be self-refuting because I had just written the statement in English. Likewise, the claim of the moral relativist refutes itself. If the moral relativist states “there is no absolute morality,” he just made an absolute statement about morality which, by his own definition he is not allowed to do.
Here, however, the moral relativist may interject and make the claim that, because the statement itself, “There is no absolute morality,” is not a moral statement, it is not self-refuting. But, even if the statement is not a moral statement, surely the implication that the moral relativist draws from the statement refutes itself. Since the moral relativist does not believe that any culture’s morality has any more value than another’s, he also bel Read more:Moral
, Relativism
Moral Relativism Failure #3: Consistant Moral Constructs 2007-05-23 19:44:51 Because there are moral concepts that have appeared in every society, regardless of their contact with each other, there must be a source of morality that is distinct from these individual societies. Although the moral relativist claims that morality is a human invention, morality is not something invented by human beings at all. Instead, there are “absolute” moral concepts that are true, regardless of whether you are living in Manhattan in the year 2004 A.D. or in Egypt in the year 2004 B.C. Noted anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn has written:
Every culture has a concept of murder, distinguishing this from execution, killing in war and other justifiable homicides. The notions of incest and other regulations upon sexual behavior, the prohibitions on untruth under defined circumstances, of restitution and reciprocity, of mutual obligations between parents and children—these and many other moral concepts are altogether universal.
Clyde Kluckhohn, “Ethical Relativity: Sic et No Read more:Moral
, Relativism
Moral Relativism Failure #2: A False Assumption 2007-05-22 20:01:04 Moral relativism is based on the false assumption that the existence of differences of opinion equates to the nonexistence of any “correct” opinion. A moral relativist may argue that we cannot know which version of morality is right, and so none of them can be wrong. But does the alleged existence of multiple moral belief systems necessarily mean that all of these belief systems are correct, regardless of whether or not we can know which is right? It seems to me that this is the same as saying “Since we cannot agree, and we really can’t know who is right, we both must be right.” But two sides holding conflicting views about an issue cannot both be right (although they can both be wrong), regardless of whether or not we know who holds the right view.
To further understand this concept, consider the following scenario: If Johnny’s mother asks him where his piggy bank is, Johnny will tell her a location that either does or does not correspond to where it actually is. Not Read more:Moral
, Relativism
Moral Relativism Failure #1: No Standard to Judge 2007-05-22 00:23:08 Moral relativism does not provide us with a standard to judge the actions of other cultures, leaving us with no intelligible difference between the good or evil actions of other cultures or individuals. If moral relativism is true, we cannot judge other cultures as morally wrong.
A moral relativist might respond by saying that the world would be a better place without its Bonnie and Clydes, Manson’s followers, and the Nazis, but we cannot say that these groups were “wrong” for doing what they did because, as one moral relativist, Gilbert Harman has written, “they are beyond the reach of the relevant moral considerations.” In other words, since they are outside of the group that we have formed, we cannot place our judgment upon them. What was wrong for the world might have been right for the Nazis and we have no place to say otherwise. They can only be judged by their own version of morality which, by the way, made their actions perfectly legitimate. There exists no ul Read more:Moral
, Relativism
, Standard
, Judge
Hebrews 12:15-16: How to Worship 2007-05-19 23:21:50 Hebrews 12:15-16 (Listen)
15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. (ESV)
This passage tells us that worship is not to be limited to just a worship service. Although corporate worship is a biblical Christian activity, we must remember that worship is not limited to Sunday mornings. We are to continually worship God. It is also important to remember that the Bible lists many ways which God is to be worshipped. All of these activities please God and, since God has wired us all differently, it is acceptable for us all to favor different methods of worship. Some of us may feel that we are fully worshiping God when in the middle of a highly charismatic worship service while others feel that they are giving more to God by worshipping in quiet solitude. Some migh
Spritual Gifts - Tongues or Vacuuming? 2007-05-30 21:50:12 In the book of Acts, the apostles were baptized in the Holy Spirit after they already believed in Jesus Christ. Some churches have taken this to mean that being saved is a two-step process. What they forget is that the apostles were living in a unique time; the transition time between when Jesus ascended and sent the Spirit in His place to be with us on Earth. Since the event itself was a two-stage process, anyone living during that time would have experienecd it in this way. All believers after this era, however, receive the Holy Spirit at once, as they already live in the time of the Spirit. There is no need to wait for the Holy Spirit to come down from heaven and fill the new believer. He is already here.
The Holy Spirit gives the believer spiritual gifts to equip the believer for ministry. Some churches think of certain gifts, such as speaking in tongues, as symbols of spiritual maturity but this is not necessarily the case. Although it is true that mature believers are usually gi Read more:Gifts
, Tongues
, Vacuuming
Who is the Holy Spirit? 2007-05-28 22:28:26 The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, has all of the divine aspects of God, since He is God. The role of the Holy Spirit is to mainifest the active presence of God in the world and in the church. It is the Holy Spirit that leads the unbeliever to Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that regenerates the new believer more and more into the likeness of Christ each and every day. It is through the Holy Spirit that God accomplishes His shaping of believers in the church today.
The Holy Spirit gives life, power for service, purifies, reveals, gives evidence of God’s presence, guides and directs God’s people, provides a Godlike atmosphere, gives us assurance that we are children of God, teaches and illumines, and unifies. With such a long list, one may wonder what the Holy Spirit does not do. Since the Holy Spirit is God’s current presence in the world, taking the place of Christ when He ascended into heaven, it is through the Holy Spirit that the current believer i
Increase Traffic to your Christian Blog: Part 3 2007-06-03 11:46:46 In this post I will discuss the benefits of combining two sources of blog traffic: Top Sites lists and Blog Traffic Exchanges.
Top Sites lists are great, but only if your site is at the top. I am a member of BlogTopList and TopBlogArea, but since I am a new member, my site appears pages deep into the lists of bloggers who have been using the sites for longer. These sites use either just the amount of unique visitors your site receives in the case of TopBlogArea or a combination of the unique visitors your site receives and the number of visitors who vote for you in the case of BlogTopList. But the problem is you won’t receive much traffic from these sites unless you already have traffic. How do you find traffic in order to increase your ratings? That’s where Blog Traffic Exchanges come in.
A Blog Traffic Exchange is a site where, quite frankly, blog members exchange traffic. For every site that you view on the exchange, someone will view yours. Some sites have different rat Read more:Christian
Increase Traffic to your Christian Blog: Part 2 2007-06-02 14:38:29 In this post I will discuss the value of Blog Community Sites. There are three main sites: MyBloglog, Bumpzee, and Blog Catalog. I have posted a link to a site reviewing these three in a previous post and a comparison of the first two can be found here. I will leave the comparisons to the other sites and focus only on my experience with the three of them.
MyBloglog is the oldest of the three and, as far as I can tell, the originator of the idea of creating blog communities. This was such a successful idea that this site was purchased by Yahoo!. My experience, though, has not been that rewarding as of yet. The moment that I posted the MyBloglog widget on my site I started to see the little pictures of my recent visitors. My Web server logs revealed, however, that these visitors did not originate from MyBloglog. Instead they just happened to be MyBloglog members who found my site from other sources, mostly Technorati and Google. This seemed like a promising concept, though, so I continu Read more:Christian
Increase Traffic to your Christian Blog: Part 1 2007-06-01 19:16:14 I have a background in internet marketing. I have been successful at creating referral sites which only existed to drive traffic to people who would pay me to send people to their products. I did this a few years ago when I had a lot of time and, quite frankly, it was quite profitable. But now I’ve created a Christian
Blog and want to use some of the same techniques to draw new visitors to my site. The only thing is that the internet has changed a lot in the past few years and the techniques that I used do not even work well for the types of products that I used to market. But you found this site so I’m doing something right.
I have been experimenting with multiple sources of blog traffic which is why, if you are a regular reader of this Blog, you probably notice the links in the right columns changing quite frequently. This is all part of my experimentation, but I feel like I have been learning and want to share this information with you. Keep in mind, though, that I&rsq
Inerrency: What is It? 2007-05-31 19:48:36 The doctrine of Inerrancy simply states that Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact: all of the Bible is true, from book to book, chapter to chapter, verse to verse, in every way, concerning everything that it talks about. This does not mean that the Bible contains all there is to know concerning a given subject but, with regard to what it does mention about that subject, it is absolutely factual.
Sometimes claims are made against the factuality of the Bible based upon what appears to be scientific errors, such as statements of the Sun moving around the Earth but these statements are describing an event through the eyes of an observer using everyday speech. For someone standing on the surface of the Earth describing a sunset, it is quite common for them, even today, to describe the “Sun moving.”
Sometimes the Bible gives different quotations for the same speaker for the same phrase but we must remember that all cultures do not
The Ancient Near-Eastern Setting of the Mosaic Law 2007-06-09 19:28:41
The ancient Near Eastern
setting of the Mosaic
Law further justifies that the specifics of the law were for a specific people in a specific time. The parallels between the Mosaic Law and the other laws of the time period show that there were common things occurring in that society which required specific laws to address. Examples of these types of laws are those relating to the theft of animals. Animals are not a significant part of many of our lives today (with the possible exception of pets), but the animals during this time period were either the owner’s livelihood or next dinner. Both are directly related to survival. Therefore, the penalty for stealing animals is severe compared to the value we would place on animals today. Exodus 22:1-4 states:
Exodus 22:1-4()
22:1 [1] “If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. 2 [2] If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so th Read more:Ancient
, Setting
Non-Biblical Documents from the Ancient Near East 2007-06-08 22:16:32
While reading non-Biblical
ancient Near Eastern documents I could not help but to notice the apparent lack of multiple manuscript support as evidenced by the numerous gaps in the narrative accounts. These stories were not well preserved. A guess as to why might be that these stories were not accurate portrayals of history so they were not treated as history. The Old Testament, however, has at least enough copies in existence to show us the full story. I do not know how many copies that we have for each ancient Near Eastern text nor do I know how many copies we have of the Old Testament, but this argument does not depend on specific numbers. It depends on motivation. The Old Testament was preserved because it is true. The ancient Near Eastern documents were partially lost because they were not. I still have copies of important books I read many years ago because they are important to me in some way and helped to shape my life, but I couldn’t begin to tell you where my childhood copy Read more:Ancient
, Documents
Contemporary Implications from Comparing the Old Testament with Ancient Near-Eastern Documents 2007-06-07 20:54:15
When God created us we were perfect. Then sin entered our lives through our own fault. This caused our nature and the nature of the world to become a perversion of the original perfection. What was once good was good no longer. Evil came to exist as good gone wrong; perfection twisted.
I can remember my pre-salvation days where I did a lot of things that I regret today. These were things that the culture said were okay. Nothing I did was either culturally or socially unacceptable. But they were all perversions of things God intended to be for good. I didn’t want God’s good, but my own. Most culturally-accepted perversions of God’s perfection are this way. Take sexual relations between a husband and wife as an example – one only need to turn on the television to see how culture has perverted this. Like premarital sex is a perversion of God’s intention, these stories from the ancient Near East are perversions of biblical history.
Many of the stories have surface similarities t Read more:Ancient
, Eastern
, Documents
, Contemporary
, Implications
, Testament
Genesis 6-9 vs. the Gilgamesh Epic 2007-06-11 17:32:02
The account of the flood is very similar in both of these accounts. I have often heard stories from non-Christians that the biblical accounts borrowed from other sources. I assume that this is an example of one of them. What I cannot understand, though, is why the Bible had to borrow from Gilgamesh
and not the other way around. Although both accounts have supernatural elements, the Gilgamesh Epic seems far more legendary and legendary accounts are typically the ones that are said to have borrowed when another similar account exists that is not so legendary/mythological. Gilgamesh is on a quest to find immortality. On his quest he meets Utnaphistim who found immortality through surviving a flood that has some characteristics common with the flood Noah survived. This is a hero story, not a historical account. Noah, however, is presented not primarily heroically, but as a normal man (and a naked drunk on at least one occasion) called for a special time. In man’s sin nature he is quick Read more:Genesis
Deuteronomy vs. Hammurabi’s code 2007-06-10 19:30:53
Many similarities exist in the laws presented in both of these documents, but I am not really sure what that means. I would assume that some scholars in the liberal or critical camps might claim, as they would in number two above, that since there are similarities, the laws of Israel had to be borrowed from this and other documents, but I do not see how that has to follow. Granted, I am not a historian nor have I had sufficient training in this area to give an expert opinion, but I can give a logical one. If God created men, then all men are instilled with God’s moral code; a common ethic. If this is true, then one would expect that man would produce common laws in common situations. Many of the laws of this time look odd to us, but we must remember their context. I am sure that many of our laws would look odd to people who lived during the time these ancient documents were written. If two nations have similar laws, that does not mean they borrowed from each other, but that somethin
What is the Atonement? 2007-06-19 19:16:38 Sin is defined as disobedience to the law of God. Just as modern medicine has taught us that children of parents are more likely to get a disease if their parents had it, sin spreads from parents to children. Unlike our medical example, however, the chance of inheriting the disease of sin is 100%–an absolute certainty. Every single person is born a sinner. Furthermore, the irrevocable law of God states that the penalty for sin is death and eternal punishment in the afterlife. Every single person who is born is subject to this fate.
But God created human beings for eternal fellowship with Him. Man was created to have eternal life with God but chose to sin in the Garden of Eden resulting in this separation. We no longer could be in fellowship with God because his holiness requires those around Him to be holy as well. He could also not revoke his laws, as such an act would contradict his righteousness. J. Gresham Machen said the reason for this is that
“God would be untr
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