Busted….
Famous “Barefoot Bandit” Colton Harris-Moore was busted yesterday. Despite the fact that he obviously deserved everything that he has coming, it did make me a little sad to see the story end.
I know that my sad feelings are not right, But they are undoubtedly present. So why do I have them?
I would guess that we are all villains to one degree or another. Most of us have not gotten away with stealing airplanes, yachts and the like, but we all have had a fleeting thought of doing something like that. I remember walking by a unoccupied idling cop car once when I was Colton’s age, and thinking “What if”? Many of us love adventure. The thrill of the chase, and always staying a few steps ahead of the pursuit. We like to fantasies that we are smart enough, fast enough, or clever enough to trick people, and evade being found or found out.
Scotland Yard
I am glad that Harris-Moore got caught. That is inevitably what happens to us. I am kinda glad that I have a little sympathy for him too. There will be a day for all of us when we can no longer run and hide from our problems. The things we have done will all be undeniably shown for what they are. All of us are sinners — We pursue our own freedoms and our own way, often selfishly and thoughtlessly stepping on others in pursuit of our own desires. We do in little ways what Harris-Moore did in a big way.
Recognition of this state allows us to understand just how desperately we need God. Seeing Justice delivered reminds us that running, hiding, and excuses will not fly when we stand before the King to give an account. The truth will be the truth. We can accept that truth now, or we can cling to the lie that we will be able to trick him into seeing us for more than what we really are in the end.
We can be thankful that we have a just and merciful God who is offering to kill that villainous heart and replace it with a heart of love compassion and worship. And we can long for the day that that transformation is complete, rather than dreading the day that our lies are shown for what they are.
Anyway, I am thankful for the villain. I would prefer to live in the honesty that there is still a vicarious sinful nature in me than to lie and build a facade that makes me out as better than I am. I am still a sinner being cleansed. I need reminded of that, and my sympathy for this kid is a good reminder
Eschatological Flamebait. (Hank’s and mine)
I just finished Hank Hanegraaff’s book The Apocalypse Code: Find Out What the Bible REALLY Says About the End Times . . . and Why It Matters Today.
I am fairly sympathetic to Hanegraaff’s position, but I didn’t enjoy the book too much. The tone was just wrong. Every other sentence seemed to be about Tim Lehaye
Just for flamebait, I may as well lay out why the partial preterist position is appealing to me. For those that are not familiar, The idea is that the bulk of the prophecies in the new testament and the book of Revelation where describing the end of the Jewish Age, and the fall of the city of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Now not all of prophecy falls into this category – Jesus is still coming back in the future, there still is a judgment to come.
There are a ton of places where the new testament prophecies are framed with phrases like “This generation shall not pass until these things come about.” The way I see it, we have very few options here.. Either Jesus and the prophets where wrong, They weren’t speaking literally, or those things actually came about. The book of Revelation starts by saying that it is a vision describing things that are soon to take place. Most folks these days frame this word “Soon” as meaning “within the next 2000 years or so” which seems like a pretty big stretch.
Now most folks argue that Revelation was written in about 95 AD — Well after the fall of Jeruselem. They base this on external accounts.. For example they will study the churches mentioned in the letters and their condition, and say that it better matches the state of these churches in 95 AD.. (This method seems to ignore the fact that the book is supposed to be prophetic) They also will cite the testimony of Irenaeus, who seems to indicate that the book was seen around 95 AD.
But this ignores some pretty big internal evidence within the book of revelation itself. In Rev 11:1, John was told to go measure the temple.. It seems like the fact that the temple was destroyed 15 years prior would be at least worthy of a footnote. The fall of the temple would have to massively transform the vocabulary and context of Judeo-Christian worship and throughout the new testament, there is no more than a few verses that mention it in a vague future prophecy. It stands to reason that the whole cannon was likely completed before 70 A.D. because the fall of the temple would just be too newsworthy not to mention.
Revelation 17:10 is also quite interesting: “They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while” These seven kings where earlier referenced as being from the city of seven hills — Generally known to be Rome. So the preterist interpretation of this verse would say Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius where dead. Nero was alive. After he died, Galba succeeded him for 5 months or so, only to be overthrown in a a series of skirmishes causing Rome have 4 emporores over the course of 12 months (Can you imagine the Wars and Rumors of Wars?) The Julian Dynasty died at this point, and a new series of emperors took over. It seems that this passage is very chronological and thus intended to provide a reference point for where the author is in history. If it wasn’t talking about the Julian dynasty who was it talking about?
Matthew 24 seems to be the most convincing to me however. His disciples ask Jesus when the temple will be destroyed, and he warns them that when they see the abomination that causes desolation described in the book of Daniel standing in the temple they should flee. This would contrast with the Jewish instinct. The last conqueror who had desecrated the temple had been driven out in the Maccabees revolution. They had the festival of lights every year to celebrate this event. The Jewish mind would expect God to defend his temple. It was their ultimate ambush. The fact that a foreign Army would desecrate it would be a sure fire sign of that army’s imminent destruction. But Matthew 25 warns them this view is wrong. They should ignore anyone who says that they are the messiah coming back to destroy Rome and free Israel and instead, run. No brick will remain upon another. “I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ” -Matt 24:34. Considering what happened, I see no reason to take Jesus’s “this generation” term figuratively. I am more inclined to take his “The stars will melt away” figuratively — The same hyperbole was used by the prophets regarding the fall of other cities and empires such as Babylon and Assyria… It means the same thing as “lights out” does now. It is figurative.
Most dispensational teachers contend that Daniel’s prophecy is yet to be fulfilled — Even though Jesus told those hearing them that they would see it.
I do agree with Hanegraff on this: a literal reading of the bible takes literally what was meant to be literal, and takes symbolically what was intended to be symbolic. When we have a book that is symbolic such as revelation and we insist on reading it as literal we get sillyness. If we have to symbolize what was intended to be literal in order to do so, often we wind up making the prophets and even Jesus into liars, and they are not. We just wind up being very confused. We have to believe that Jesus didn’t mean what it seems like he very specifically said and instead he actually meant something much more vague. We ought to interpret what is vague in light of what is clear – we should not re-interpret what is clear to fit our understanding of the things that are vague.
When we do otherwise we give the skeptics plenty of very legitimate ammo.
Anyway, I don’t have my mind all of the way made up on eschatology – Many prophecies are fulfilled in a “Now but not yet” fashion, so the fact that Jerusalem fell much in the way that Revelation described doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a foreshadow of a greater apocalypse to come.
I do think it is dangerous to assume that things are going to get progressively worse until Jesus comes and snatches us out of the world, then torments those left behind. Nearly every generation since the crucifixion has expected their generation to be the last. I do believe that the injection of the Christian ethic is transforming the world. Probably in a “now but not yet” manner — but if folks like Martin Luther, William Wilburforce, Martin Luther King Jr. held the eschatological pessimism that has become so popular in recent years, I think this world would be a lot uglier than it is now.
The notion of a pretribulational rapture is a very new idea.
Anyway flame away!
Who’s your favorite heretic?
Well, I have been thinking about this question for quite a while, and after much pondering, I nominate myself for that role. I like GK Chesterton’s quote: “I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.”
I hope that my journey ends that way as well — Sometimes I wonder though — the fringes of the faith always have fascinating truths in them — You just don’t want to go too far — It is a sharp drop.
Where did you get the "ask me anything" idea? And… Can I steal it?
I use Formspring, a web service especially built for that question. Several blogs I follow have an “Ask Me Anything” link on them. One of my favorite sports is trying to get people to regret putting it there. The best ones are the ones that have a live web cam as well as a “ask anything”.. Then you get to watch the reaction when they read you question.
Hot topic of the day.
Hot topic of the day is mention here:
» Murderous Feminism | Denny Burk.
Eventually the truth becomes undeniable. Lies can only be sustained for so long. This is the reason that the Pro-Choice movement is faltering. They can try really hard to censor the profane pictures and billboards, pamphlets etc… But eventually the reason that they want the censorship will seep into everyone’s conscience. The profane documents are only documentary of the profane acts that are happening in real life.
Once that the public’s understanding of the truth has emerged, they are forced to retreat to an even less sustainable ground. “Yes, Abortion is killing, but it is the lesser of two evils”
Because it isn’t every day you get to Blog about Cow Poop:
Fungus Firearms – Answers in Genesis.
HT: Doug Wilson
Barbara Pitkin: The New Texan Textbooks’ Silver Lining
Barbara Pitkin: The New Texan Textbooks’ Silver Lining.
Wow, I am linking to the Huffington Post, How about that?
I had this discussion yesterday at Church.. Many people attach John Calvin’s name to an in house debate about election and predestination, and they overlook the rest of his work..
German historian Leopold Van Ranke claimed that John Calvin was the virtual founder of America. His work in delineating the roles of church and state where foundational to the protestant movement. Later reformers (French Huguenots and John Knox and his Reformed Scots) determined that if a state was not living up to it’s role (Defined by Calvin), it was the duty of the citizens to overthrow it. I don’t know that Calvin would have agreed with their logic, but his ideas where the foundation on which their ideas levered. Documents like Rex Lex and Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos where the basis for the ideas that Jefferson eventually (and perhaps somewhat reluctantly) penned into the declaration of independence. George III called the revolutionary war a “Presbyterian war”.
Certainly Jefferson doesn’t deserve to be omitted from the history books, but he doesn’t deserve ultimate credit for ideas that where spawned centuries earlier either .. It is good to trace ideas back, all of the way to their origin.
My Crazy Hobby.
I invented a new hobby. I call it “Contemporary Archeology Puzzles”. Basically, I find random stuff on the side of the road, then I take it to a friend, hand it to them and ask “Did you need one of these” Invariably the response is “What is it?” and my answer, is “I don’t know, that is why it is so darn cool!”
This was one of my latest finds. Words cannot explain it.
My second favorite find was this thing, which I found in the bushes near the crematorium by my office.
So can anyone top me in weird finds, or weird hobbies?
Another reason the iPad is a gamechanger.
What used to be hard and expensive is now a ton easier … Check this Aircraft dashboard out for example.
Finish the sentence: I just stepped in __________.
I just stepped in some SQL.
Messy!