Quote:

“Do I agree with how most professing believers are reacting to this situation?  Not particularly.”

Let me link you to an article entitled The Soapbox of our Righteousness that can explain my above statement much better than I could have and even expounds more on where I would not have thought to.

Big thanks to Brian for introducing me to this article on his blog.

Many of you are acquainted with a move entitled “The Golden Compass” that was released out in theaters tonight. If not, here is a little background information on the movie and what the big issue is:

The Golden Compass is based on the first book of a series called His Dark Materials by British writer Philip Pullman, where the main premise of the series is that kids will eventually kill God Himself (or rather a weak, no where even close resemblance of Him that is portrayed in the series).  Is this where I was supposed to tag “spoiler warning” so as not to ruin it for you? Anyways, as you may have guessed Pullman is an atheist, but this is not the only reason he has people on the fritz. It is claimed and verified by Pullman himself that he intends to use this “watered down” version of his book in movie format to interest kids into buying and be influenced by the series. Both the Protestant and Catholic churches are in an uproar over this, and the atheists are upset claiming that his watering down of the books anti-religious views is castrating its main point. Seems like Pullman can’t make anyone happy. For more information on the movie and other articles, just see Wikipedia.

Thus introduced, I would like to make a few points in general after reflecting on the movie and the stir it has caused. This list is certainly not exhaustive so feel free to add to it.

1. A proper Christian world view must encompass all aspects of life, thus implying an ever increasing understanding of scripture, its application, and the ability to discern. It seems more and more Christians are either ignoring or loosing their ability to discern what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, and worthy of praise (Phil. 4:8). Our society is bombarded with all sorts of ungodliness, especially in education, books, and movies, yet it takes someone openly and outrightly disputing Christians for them to finally take notice. The church needs to learn that even though Christianity is a matter of the heart, the intellect can not be ignored either. The Golden Compass is another example of what a long line of ungodly men do, so why do we choose to thrust all our focus, efforts, and attention on this one little thing while ignoring other issues?

2. There must be a recovery of biblical parenting. Ever since the boom of “youth groups” within the church in the 20th and 21st century, the God ordained authority of the family, specifically with the teaching of children (Deut. 6), seems to be placed on the church and its youth ministers. The Bible itself attest to and history confirms that God’s intention for parents to teach their kids is by far the better for the health of children, and one or two ministers within the church cannot teach, hold accountable, or be more authoritative to children than their parents. Children must be taught a proper world view and their parents, with scripture, must use situations such as the Golden Compass issue to help develop discernment and a world view within a child.

3. The gospel and scripture must be recovered as the defense against ungodliness. Did Jesus march around with a pouty lip, angry eyes, and picket signs boycotting ungodliness? Certainly not! Christians must learn to combat ungodliness and wickedness with scripture and the preaching of the gospel, rather than hiding behind their boycotts and picket lines. You must live the gospel in your community, rather than yelling at it from the street corner.

Closing thoughts and statements: Will I go see the movie? Probably. Should you go see the movie? That is a matter of the conscience and another potential good post for discussion. Do I agree with how most professing believers are reacting to this situation? Not particularly. This issue a clear example of why the church needs to get away from programs and topical messages and back to a faith grounded in scripture, and a life wholly thrust upon Christ.

Happy Hallow-Reforma-Fall Festiva-Day!

This offer is only on reformation day (Oct. 31st) so do not miss out! There is no quantity limit to purchases.

Reformation Study Bible at Ligonier Ministries

So I must confess, I have not read this book in its entirety although it has been tempting because of its popularity. But alas, with so little time and so much reading to do, I can not bring myself to do it after reading the reviews.  I know not having read it this bothers many people and I have received comments such as “your argument loses any credibility for not reading this book,” but I just find statements like this foolish. Does a doctor have to send you to the surgeon and look at your insides to diagnose that you have bronchitis? Of course not. Just as a doctor looks at symptoms and reads notes on diagnosing, so can one look at pieces of a book and reviews by others to near accurately understand some of the good and bad content within it.

So, instead of actually giving the review myself, I will post a link to the review on the site of The Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (excellent ministry with staff members such as Ligon Duncan, C.J. Mahaney, and Wayne Grudem to name a few you might know).

And for all you bra burning women’s lib feminists thinking its the man trying to keep you down, please note that is review was written by a woman trough a Christian worldview.

Enjoy!

cbmw.org’s review of Capitvating 

This is a program that is honestly to good to be free.  Spybot is designed to search your computer (a scan takes about 15-20 minutes) and find all spyware giving you the choice of removing it.  Out of all programs like this, I find this the most recommended.  One great thing about this program is that it allows you to do registry backups before scans just in case a crucial registry file is deleted.  I would suggest running these backups if you have minimal computer knowledge.

IMPORTANT:  Most of my PC tips are aimed at providing free solutions to computer problems and upkeep.  Much of this will involve downloading freeware.  Spybot sometimes picks up this freeware, so be sure to scan what it picks up quickly to make sure you are not deleting any of your free programs.

Lastly, spybot can also “immunize” your system by blocking bad downloads.  I have not tried out this piece of the program yet, so if you get a chance, let me know how it works out.  Also, the site where you obtain this program from offers lots of other free programs, many of which I hope to be able to try and report to you in the future.

Enjoy!

Upcoming Topics:

The Pro’s and Con’s of online social networks through a Christian Worldview.

Google Desktop and iGoogle.

Disk Partitioning.

Book Review: A Pastor’s Sketches by Ichabod Spencer.

Book Review: Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge.

It seems that the craze to put your life out on the web for your friends or anyone to see has hit an all time high and seems to be topping that high every day.  One such web site that has generated from this hype myspace.

Its got everything a kid could want, picture uploading space, comment sections, customizable web pages, blogs, video uploading, music, and lots more.  Myself being an ex-myspacer, I will attempt to explain a few reasons why I feel myspace is a very dangerous place for young and mature believers alike.
First, myspace ads.  Ads online are bad enough as it is, but it seems every few pages on myspace seem to greet you with an eyeful of breasts and skin that some would almost call soft core porn.  These ads, often accompanied by words such as “Mate Finder” or “True Love,” only fuel the fire of the declining biblical view of sexuality, and often are a stumbling block to brothers who struggle with lust.

Secondly, not only the ads, but the people on myspace are becoming increasingly more sexual.  I have one day opened a page to a theology group that I was in, when overnight, mass amounts of women with actual pornographic pictures had joined the group, putting their pictures front page and center for everyone to see.  People like this have even sent me friend requests before, just that much more strengthening the side of the flesh in its on going battle with the mind and soul.  Myspace claims to regulate this sort of stuff, but it is clearly to rampant to control.

Thirdly, not only do women inappropriately display themselves in a seductive and sometimes pornographic manner, so do the men. It seems that spray painting over the visible private parts on a picture constitutes a picture “appropriate” in myspace.
But its not just the lustfulness of myspace that ruins it, the sheer content of the web pages do. People who constantly promote  sexual sin, illegal acts, lies, unedifying language and more.  Myspace also tends to skew who a person really is too, if it weren’t for the fact that I knew better, I would imagine some of the people I knew on there were just angry, hateful, always wallowing in self pity and ready to slit their wrists. Or maybe they really are that way……

To the previous paragraph on people not being portrayed as who they really are, one might interject that “anyone can do that on any social network, not just myspace.”  To that, I would just you just have to trust me, between the different social networks I have been on, myspace seems to have an “air about it” for these kind of things.

It is just a constant stream of sin and worldliness and any godliness that someone might try to portray on myspace has to be removed from under the pile of sinfulness one must migrate through to get to it.

Lastly, the thing that brought me to write this is that a few people, I won’t name any names, said they were making an “accountability group” on myspace (you can make groups for people to join), and that they were going to get people to join that group so that everyone can help hold eachother accountable.  I have differing opinions on accountability groups in general, but to that that I say:

“Why would anyone want to wade through shark infested waters to meet on an island when they just stepped off of perfectly good land to do so?”

My current alternative for myspace:  facebook.com  So far, it has proven itself fairly clean, private, and seems to not hold the air of sinfulness that myspace does.

You can download the free program here: http://free.grisoft.com/

Check it out and let me know how it works out for you.

I have decided to add the technology category because that is what consumes 50 plus hours a week right now between work and school, much of it at work being user based.  This category will be used for recommendations to every day users on how to properly maintain their PC’s (sorry Mac users, buy a PC) for optimal performance such as management, security, anti-virus, clean-up, and any other useful tips.

In light of my new technology category, please see my post below on Grisoft Anti-virus.

What is your favorite translation of the Bible? I personally like it untranslated, but unfortunately I can’t go more than one syllable without aid.

For casual reading I myself enojy using the English Standard Version (ESV) . I have also heard it called the SCV-Standard Calvinist Version, and even the ACV- Angry Calvinist Version. I think all three of those could be summed up into my personal favorite, the CTO, or Closer to The Original version.

For more in depth study of the Word I like to use the New American Srandard. As for a concordance I have come to greatly appreciate the Key Word study bible. I used to be a Strong’s man, but that changed and here is why in brief:

Foreknowledge in the New Testament always refers to God knowing persons, and not actions or events, even though he does know all actions and events. I am not going to explain this out fully because one: I want to put a plug in for Arthur W. Pink’s book The Attributes of God, and two: he can explain alot better than I.

Now, as I parused “The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible” I happened to come upon foreknowledge. Proginosko, and prognosis in the Greek. In the definition, the Strong’s goes on to say that “God’s ‘foreknowledge’ involves his electing gace, but this does not preclude human will. He ‘foreknows’ the exercises of faith which brings salvation.”

Wow. How easy is it for all to agree with predestination, when God simply foresee’s ones “exercise of fatih.” Too many people today will write off the true meaning of predestination with this very definition. Now preachers today can get away with talking about “election,” “chosen,” and “predestination” without offending not because they preach this “predestination by foreknowledge” but that they simply are ambiguous enough to allow minds to keep this wrong conclusion. I have heard the words “he does teach predestination,” and yet the tachings still allows way for sinful minds to still have their American “freedom of choice.” Using scripture to support your theology is one thing, but stating an incorrect translation to support your theology is another. So that is why I am no longer fond of the Strong’s Concordance, even though I still use it from time to time.

Hope I can blog soon and not keep all of my eager fans waiting.

Cc.