Jesus the Jew and Christian Practice

"(. . .) What all of this gets at (...) is how difficult it is for Christians to simply take the "Jesus of history" (itself a problematic notion) as normative for their faith and practice in any straightforward way.

First, as Derek also points out, the church has never confined Jesus' influence to the example set by a historical figure 2,000 years ago, much less to the latest scholarly reconstruction.

For Christian faith Jesus is first and foremost the living Lord whose Spirit continues to guide the church. Of course, that faith would be a mirage if the Jesus of history didn't do and say the kinds of things recorded in the gospel accounts.

But Christians aren't committed to slavishly imitating all the details of Jesus' life, even the religious details. That much was made clear at the Council of Jerusalem. (. . .)"

Read more of this quality posting at verbum ipsum .

The truth of the final paragraph above can also be seen in the Risen Lord Jesus's message to the Seven Churches of Asia Minor (all located within the borders of modern Turkey). More particularly see 2:9, 2:14, 2:20, and 3:9 .

Christmas in Iran

H/T
The Spirit of Man

Rick Warren on Meet the Press (Psalm 72)

The TV was on this morning while we were waiting to go to church. So while flicking the channels I came upon a programme called "Meet the Press". It's one of those political interview programmes they have on Sunday mornings, a bit like the one David Frost used to have (and maybe he still does?).

I decided to stop there in my channel surfing mainly because I was intrigued that Rick Warren (Pastor of a mega-church and author of a mega best seller called "The Purpose Driven Life") was the guest.

The programme became even more intriguing when, in the context of explaining what he called the stewardship of influence, he referred to Psalm 72 . It was a mini sermon. And as you rarely get that on such Sunday morning political programmes I was listening even more intently.

He pointed out that in Psalm 72 Solomon prayed that God would magnify his influence throughout the world so that he might help the helpless. His point was that he was taking this as his model for social action.

It was time to go to church. When we got there can you guess which passage the preacher introduced as his text ? Yep, that's right : Psalm 72.

So now was my chance to get a fuller exposition.

We learn that this is a messianic psalm so that the person who will have the expansive influence and do all the great things is in fact the Messiah Himself. Solomon in this Psalm functions as the type of the Messiah.

I'm not saying that Warren was wrong in making a personal application of Scripture for his own situation but of course the primary focus of the passage is not Warren or even Solomon but the Messiah.

Christian Anarchism

". . . Instead, Clark adopts what he calls "anarcho-conservatism," an anti-revolutionary commitment to expanding the organization of the civil or economic means of social cooperation, side-by-side with, and gradually replacing coercive means. He concedes that such a conservative stance risks being insufficiently sensitive to present injustice, but argues that change which grows organically out of a people's past is preferable to the kind of sharp break with it that revolution often brings. Nevertheless, he admits that the anarcho-conservative requires a certain kind of patience:

and that may be easiest for those who can trust in God. If the God of justice will bring the Empire down, and we, God's people, will be there to see it fall (even if I, in this mortal body, never do), we can afford to wait, and not attempt to rule the world by force. (p. 90)

This last quote reminds me of John Howard Yoder's argument that Christians aren't called to make sure that history comes out right. That's God's business. The job of Christians is to be faithful to a certain way of life in the midst of the dawning of the new creation and the death-throes of the old. And certainly non-coercion looms large in Yoder's vision of what the Christian life is about. "

(Read More)

FAQ - Sunnis & Shiites

H/T Hugh Hewitt

Ayman Al-Zawahiri Christmas Message

Why Keep a Diary ?

I couldn't have put it better myself.

Click HERE

Thanks to Paul for linking to this gem from Bill.

A Christmas message from Celal

Happy Christmas to you all from America where Celal is at a family reunion.

America is seeming more like a foreign country to me now.

I have been identifying myself as Turkish- American and now this identity might be starting to disolve irretrievably from my psyche as a result of this visit.

Hey, maybe the good news is that my identity in Jesus will now outshine them all.

Was just watching CNN where the editors of TIME magazine have declared YOU and ME -- user generated media moguls as we are with our fine blogs as "Persons of the Year" .

On other news Celal is no longer working at Oak Hill College having (finally) been made redundant from a job that was going nowhere. Hope that will not prove to be the case with this fine biblical training institution.

And God has been good to Celal and his family having him back in the saddle with another permanent full time position in less time than it took for his redundancy cheque to clear the bank !!! Halelluia and Amen !!!!

Do me a favour and enjoy some fine mulled wine during my absence from the country.

Love and Blessings to all men and women of good will : the Saviour has come.

Celal

Awesome Snowboarding Video

215,884 views

Turkey : Papal Visits Boosts Beleaguered Catholics

Celebration Outside Holy Spirit Cathedral


“I was very worried by all the negative news,” said Antuan Ilgit, a Turkish Jesuit seminarian studying in Rome who traveled to Turkey for the pontiff’s visit.


“Nobody wanted me to participate in the papal mass, because they thought there would be a bomb,” Turkish Catholic Teresa Tuzun told Compass in the courtyard outside the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Istanbul.


Joining a spontaneous Turkish folk dance in celebration of the pope’s coming, Tuzun said she had thrown caution to the wind. “I told them, ‘If you hear a bomb, know that I exploded with the pope.’”


Recurring anti-Christian media coverage and social discrimination against converts to Christianity from Islam had compounded fears among Turkey’s Catholics that the pope’s trip could end poorly.


“Unfortunately, people aren’t able to accept the fact that we are both Turkish and Catholic,” said one convert from Islam who requested anonymity for fear of losing his job. “They treat us as if we are traitors to our country. But we are Turks and we will stand by our state and our people until the end.”

Full Report

Islam Bashers And The Judgement of Matthew 7:21-23

Islam bashing sites tend to fall into the following categories:

• Base hatred and racism


• Jewish sites uncovering the hypocrisies and lies of their Islamic enemies


• Sites defending ‘western civilisation’ against Islam

In this context I’m thinking more of the third category of which THIS BLOG is a particularly good example.

So what might the people behind such sites have to do with Matthew 7:21-23 ?

In the passage, the people who are standing before the terrible judgement of Jesus Christ appear to have been performing the most visible, the most high profile and even the most spectacular acts of ministry.

Why?

Perhaps it was for personal gain. But I think it is important to note that the Lord is not accusing them for any pecuniary motive in particular.

I think this gives us room, therefore, to think they may have been performing these spectacular acts of ministry in order to convince others of the truth of Christianity.

It’s a bit like the third category of blogs above which actually also use Christian apologetic material against Islam but the person using it has not himself bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus in this life .

It is conceivable to me that such a person might stand before the Lord Jesus and make a similar defense.

It is possible we will see the numbers of such people continue to grow in the current climate of ‘Clash of Civilisations’. Sadly such people will have turned to out have deluded themselves.

Negatively, we have to beware of acting like mercenaries of the Kingdom of God without first having become its’ citizens of good standing.

And more positively this underscores the fact that Christianity is not an ideology or a religion but an individual and personal relationship with the Risen Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Anything less is subject to terrible judgement.

Quote of the Day

"I know the best deadly sin.
And what do you think that is?
Sloth, because that means lazyness.
And if you're not doing anything, you won't commit any of the other deadly sins." Frank McCourt

Converts’ Trial Shows Tensions Before Papal Visit

“We don’t use force to tell anyone about Christianity,”

Tastan said.

“But we are Christians, and if the Lord permits, we will continue to proclaim this.”


Describing himself and Topal as “citizens of the Republic of Turkey who love its democratic, secular system,” Tastan stressed they had nothing to hide in defending themselves in court. “We are not ashamed to be Turks. We are not ashamed to be Christians.”

Full report
Why Jesus said this would happen

The Narrow & Broad Road - Youtube Style

H/TFide-O

Pope To Visit Turkey Nov 28-30

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes by way of "interfaith dialogue" as a result of the papal visit to Turkey next week.

But, I won't be holding my breath. I reckon both sides will be playing it safe and keeping close to protocol and issuing meaningless diplomatic platitudes.

I have to say that even as a Christian I thought the Pope's controversial lecture was philosophically clumsy.

If he wanted to make a thesis about the Hellenization of faith vis-a-vis Islam he would have been better advised to have contrasted Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Al-Ghazali, two Islamic thinkers of the 12th century.

Ibn Rushd was recognised by Christian and Muslim thinkers of his day as one of the greatest authorities on Aristotle. Al-Ghazali saw the influence of Aristotle as harmful to the Islamic faith and wrote against Ibn Rushd. And Islam, I am led to understand, has largely followed Al-Ghazali.

Of course, while the worldview of Aristotle was problematic as history later revealed with the Galileo incident, the methodology of Aristotle's philosophy survives and remains valid. Perhaps this is what the Pope wished to underscore in his reference to the Hellenization of the faith. Or perhaps Gypsy Scholar has captured the essence of the point the Pope was making in that :

"The Pope argued that Christianity itself integrates reason with faith because it trusts in a rational God who acts according to reasonable principles and whose divine rational nature is reflected in both human reason and the order of the universe, whence the Pope's insistence on the "real analogy" between God and human beings."

Aristotle's legacy can be seen in the scholasticism of Aquinas. Scholasticism, moreover, did not remain only with the Church of Rome but survived right into the Protestant reformation. The influence of scholasticism can, for example, be seen in the writings of John Owen and Francis Turretin, who have been among the greatest thinkers and theologians of Protestantism.

Saatchi : In Praise of Ideology

Lord Saatchi has apparently just published a pamphlet analysing the election defeat of the Tories.

I won't be parting with £7.50 to get my own personal copy; but, a BBC interview with Saatchi seems to underscore the common failure of both mainstream political parties in Britain.

Saatchi diagnoses the situation and suggests "four essentials" for a new leader :

• a noble purpose
• a sense of direction
• a fight against injustice
• a destination.

Neither mainstream party is currently exhibiting these "essentials".

Quote of the Day

"Mankind is threatened by the decline of morality of persons and states, demonstrated in the disintegration of the fundamental ideals of law and justice, in consumer egotism, the growth of crime, and the new international catastrophe of nationalist and political terrorism." Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989)

Source : TIME, November 13,2006 page 49

"I am fearfully and wonderfully made" Psalm 139:14

"The Inner Life of a Cell, an eight-minute animation created in NewTek LightWave 3D and Adobe After Effects for Harvard biology students (...) illustrates unseen molecular mechanisms and the ones they trigger, specifically how white blood cells sense and respond to their surroundings and external stimuli.

(...) “All of those things that you see in the animation are going on in every one of your cells in your body all the time,(...) [I]n the animation there’s a motor protein that’s sort of walking along a line, carrying this round sphere of lipids. When I started working on that section I admit I was kind of surprised to see that it really does look like it’s out for a stroll, like a character in a science fiction film or animation. But based on all the data, it’s a completely accurate rendering.” says XVIVO lead animator John Liebler

To watch the video go HERE.

H/T Telic Thoughts

Intimacy with God (Genesis 18)

"In this parsha, derivations of the word yada, know, are used to indicate intimacy. When G-d decides to tell Avraham of his intentions to destroy Sdom, he says Ki Yedaativ, for I have known him (Genesis 18:19).

The word Yeedativ is used here to mean love, Hashem is saying that he has known Avraham that through his knowledge of him Avraham is beloved to G-d.

When the men of Sdom encircle Lot's house demanding his guests, they also use a derivation of yada (Genesis 19:5). They demand that the guests be brought out to the mob, Veneida Otam. Here the word also involves intimacy but their intention is rape.

In both usages an intimate knowledge is meant but in the first case it involves love for another that comes through knowing another, in the second it involves an assault for personal satisfaction."

Source : Sultan Knish

Thank you JESUS !

Our New Friends in the Middle East

"Politics makes strange bedfellows"


Political interests can bring together people who otherwise have little in common. This saying is adapted from a line in the play The Tempest, by William Shakespeare: “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” It is spoken by a man who has been shipwrecked and finds himself seeking shelter beside a sleeping monster.

Source : Bartleby.com

The BNP Is Coming

With both mainstream parties looking a lot alike, it is only Nick Griffin's ineptitude which is keeping the BNP from making serious inroads.

But if things continue as they are with the supposedly "Conservative" Leader making speaches embracing, as it were, homosexual marriages and not making speeches about making government smaller, then parties like the BNP will become the only genuine alternative and therefore much more appealing to the electorate.

Britain Beware ! Remember how Hitler came to power.

It could happen here as well.

Music Video : "La Isla Bonita" by Alizee

Back in the 1980's when she had some good songs and, shall we say, a more positive image I used to be a fan of Madonna; but not any more. Actually I came across this clip on a Turkish blog. As I was watching it I couldn't decide if the singer was Turkish. I think Alizee's rendition is pretty good. What do you think ? And apparently she's not Turkish after all but a French singer and dancer. Enjoy.

Movie Review : Ushpizin

It's an Israeli movie about an (ultra?) Orthodox couple in Jerusalem who are about to celebrate Succoth (the Festival of Tabernacles).

I first read rave reviews about it in the Jewish press some time ago.

So when I happened to see it at my friendly neigbourhood Blockbuster last weekend, I thought "Why not?" .

My wife and I watched it and, as a Christian, I recommend it (without giving away the plot) for the following reasons.

This is a film where :

God is real

Prayer is real

Righteousness is real

Life is real and

The people are real

I also loved the relationship between the husband and the wife which is really central to the plot.

Barot - Cultural Learnings of Another Kind

Watch the film HERE