Understanding Christ: Discourse on The Faith

Here is a blog created by my Brother-in-Christ: Understanding Christ: Discourse on The Faith.

More on James

And another thing about the Epistle of James: it wasn't accepted into the Scriptures until the 4th Century AD. Think about it: for 250 years there were letters and stories circulating that Christians took as their Scriptures, every bit as inspired as the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. But we have no record of anyone--Polycarp of Smyrna, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian of Carthage, the Muratorian Canon, or Origen--accepting James as Scripture. Check it out at http://www.ntcanon.org/table.shtml. These people either shaped, or reflected the shape of, the early Church. Maybe they recognized that James and Paul don't mix.

If they didn't consider it part of Scripture, why should we?

Notes from Norman

Notes from Norman: "God Only
by Norman P. Grubb


We do not find ourselves as the liberated, spontaneous new selves until we have first disappeared to reappear! We have to know ourselves - of course, by the INNER KNOWING OF THE SPIRIT, as replaced I's. It is I yet not I it is He! It really is He in place of me and yet here I still am! What a paradox! I turn up again all right, but only on the other side of a fixed conscious replacement. And it is the coming short of this replacement realization--OR INDEED OPPOSITION TO IT-- that blocks us right the way through from that TOTAL 'SEEING THROUGH' which goes on to seeing HIM ONLY, not only in the personal but in the universal."

Norman Grubb on Smoking

"What about the Smoking Habit?" says it all regarding Christ being formed in us.

Notes from Norman

Norman Grubb is a genius. Here's a sample.

Where has he been all my life?

Yay! Someone else had this thought, too!

I thought I was the only person who had this idea. Hooray!

Terri Schiavo is Being Murdered before our Eyes

And Governor Jeb Bush could stop it. Why hasn't he already done so?

If Eisenhower in 1957 could call in 1,000 paratroopers and 10,000 National Guardsmen to Little Rock to allow nine black students to enter Little Rock High School, why can't George Bush send people in to reinsert the feeding tube. Are the Bushes all talk and no action?

Michael Spencer: I Just Couldn't Look Away: The Crazed, Cranky, Captivating Christianity of Dr. Gene Scott

Thanks, Michael, for a moving Eulogy.
Michael Spencer: I Just Couldn't Look Away: The Crazed, Cranky, Captivating Christianity of Dr. Gene Scott

Bob & Kelsey's Adoption

May God bless my friends Bob & Kelsey and their soon-to-be-adopted baby.Bob & Kelsey's Adoption: "Rec'd Employement Verif. - notarized
Wrote Family Desc. - B & K
Ordered Birth Certs. - B & K
Ordered Marriage Cert. "

Dr. Gene Scott Went Home

I feel like the Earth's pole just shifted, at 4:30 today. The man has been my teacher, and the Body of Christ has benefited from him in ways few can imagine. I'm sure he's having a great time now! Thank you, Dr. Scott, for all your years of service to us and to God. And God bless and comfort Melissa Scott.

President Bush, what are you saying??

In President Bush's Second Inaugural Address, he praises "the words of the Koran" as character-building and society-building. Is this the same Koran that says to slaughter and subdue the Infidels (i.e., any non-Muslim)? The same Koran whose lone prophet was a pedophile, rapist, terrorist, etc.?

LENT - The 40 days of Weeping for Tammuz

I just saw someone with ash on his forehead.

Repeat after me: "Lent is not found in the Bible."

And why does this 40 day period, which is supposed to commemorate Christ fasting and being tempted in the wilderness, culminate in the Passion/Resurrection? What happened to Jesus's other 3.5 years of ministry?

This is an excellent compilation of the stupid roots of Lent. The things we put up with...
LENT - The 40 days of Weeping for Tammuz

Ante-Nicene Fathers

This moved me today:
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. I: "And what had become of the disciples who were the first-fruits of the apostolic ministry? St. Paul had said, 'The same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.' How was this injunction realized? St. Peter's touching words come to mind, 'I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.' Was this endeavour successfully carried out? To these natural and pious inquiries, the Apostolic Fathers, though we have a few specimens only of their fidelity, give an emphatic reply. If the cold-hearted and critical find no charm in the simple, childlike faith which they exhibit, ennobled though it be by heroic devotion to the Master, we need not marvel. Such would probably object: 'They teach me nothing; I do not relish their multiplied citations from Scripture.' The answer is, 'If you are familiar with Scripture, you owe it largely to these primitive witnesses to its Canon and its spirit. By their testimony we detect what is spurious, and we identify what is real. Is it nothing to find that your Bible is their Bible, your faith their faith, your Saviour their Saviour, your God their God? 'Let us reflect also, that, when copies of the entire Scriptures were rare and costly, these citations were 'words fitly spoken,-apples of gold in pictures of silver.' We are taught by them also that they obeyed the apostles precept, 'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing,' etc. Thus they reflect the apostolic care that men should be raised up able to teach others also. "

Are We in The Matrix Already?

I used to think Lincoln was my favorite President, but now I'm not so sure. Is everything we learned wrong?
The Greatest Presidential Reflection Since Lincoln? by Thomas DiLorenzo

Morning Star Ministries Special Bulletin #43 - The True Heroes of Liberty

For those who think George Bush is stupid...

Special Bulletin #43 - The True Heroes of Liberty

"James -- A Right Strawy Epistle"

Paul and James are not 'soul-mates'. Paul said we're not made righteous by works, and James said we are. You can't start doing exegetical gymnastics and say stuff like, "Paul was taking an outside view, and James was taking an inside view. They're really saying the same thing." No, they're not.

And the word is not "justified", it's "made righteous". It's the whole ball of wax, from the declaration of the sinner as righteous, to the actual making him righteous by degrees throughout his life, with the process completing when we meet God at death.

So throw James out. Keep it as some inspirational (not Inspired) literature if you want to, but it doesn't belong in the Canon.

A Brilliant Mind

Daily metaphor: Most of the intellectual world is like John Nash, making brilliant connections and recognizing all sorts of patterns, which have no real significance.

"Ask your doctor if Rip-it-off(TM) is right for you."
"The data suggest that our universe is spawning inflationary baby universes."
"The AMA/CDC/BFD has linked saturated fat to an increase in toenail cancer in White Male Accountants over the age of 40 but under the age of 53."

Gotta dig for the relatively simple solution and hold onto it.

While America Slept ... Islam Attacked

I'm listening, Craig.

While America Slept ... Islam Attacked