Linkathon 5/19, part 2
Bill Kinnon: “Scripture speaks of plurality of leadership. Jesus calls that leadership to a radical understanding of the nature of that leadership – where the last are first and the first, last. The Western Christian fiction of the visionary CEO-style church leader who is the one who “hears from God” and the “sheep” then follow him is not supported in the New Testament.”
Ted R. and Patrick Kyle on the (mostly) well-received “satirical” video from North Point Church said to be poking fun at its own tribe, the attractional church. Fresh, critical takes amidst a sea of platitudes….
Gene Vieth, on former Congressman Mark Souder’s resignation over an affair: “That these two, both of whom are married, started their cheating while exercising their religiosity at a Christian radio station and while making videos on Christian sexual morality is just too much.”
Matt Chandler on being a reformed Charismatic,and on the call to ministry, and an update on his health (HT: Zach Nielsen).
Get Religion blog on the coverage of Ergun Caner.
Jim Hamilton: “The next issue of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 14.1 (2010) is soon to be released. The issue is on eschatology, and you can see the Table of Contents here. SBJT has generously made available what looks to be the most important essay in this issue: Peter J. Gentry, “Daniel’s Seventy Weeks and the New Exodus,” SBJT 14.1 (2010): 26–45.
Also from Hamilton: “David Instone-Brewer at Tyndale House has a great roundup of Electronic helps for Bible Study, several of which are freely available online. Check it out.”
Donald Miller: If you want to get to know someone, understand their story.
Jon Bloom on Jesus and Buddhism.
Erik Raymond: Legalists keep lists in their pockets, Christians keep nails.
Luke Gilkerson on Steve Jobs’ intentions to keep pornography off the iPhone.
Jon Acuff on weird prayer requests.
John Bohannon, a Virginia pastor, wrote an ebook available for free download from The Resurgence titled Preaching and the Emerging Church, examining the preaching of Dan Kimball, Mark Driscoll, Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt (HT: Kimball)
first!!
First not named London! 8)
What an outstanding Link-a-thon!
Excellent word, BrianD!
Steve Jobs’ public stance against porn is awesome… (as I type this from my macbook pro…with my wife’s G4 laptop and my original Mac Classic back at home 🙂 )
Wish it was the real Steve Jobs who commented on the PP…couldn’t be the real one, could it? Dare to dream.
Perusing the web on the iphone p*rn ban gives a mixed bag so I do not know what the truth is about the matter….
I don’t know why Veith is so shocked about this Congressman’s behavior.
If he’s a Lutheran, he should know that we’re saint and sinner.
Not trying to excuse what the guy did…but just sayin.’
Ok I have said this before I dont get the entire Caner ruckus he is doing what is not only recommended but it is almost a requirement. The one with the flash wins. I get it I really do, that sums up much of the public evangelical make up. I am actually rather bothered that people took the time to notice, I went back through the websites of many of Dr. Caners critics and saw not one mention of the witch children of Nigeria, granted that should not even cause the raise of an eyebrow in the west. Caner is just working the business, why are people ticked at him?
The link on Daniel and the Seventy weeks is excellent thanks…
brian, if you’re talking about child sacrifice over there in Nigeria – it raised eyebrows… just none that count, i guess 🙁
Just one on dozens of articles
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article7125914.ece
I guess my point is this, if the western /American evangelical church spoke up against such practices as it does concerning the “Homosexual Agenda” (TM), Prayer in school etc it might have an effect. Granted much of this comes from the local beliefs mixed with the Christian faith as they have it, and it was Christians that stopped much of it and offered help, but Satan is big business so is superstition. My point is maybe we / I need to reflect on our agendas. I wept watching this, and that means nothing it did not help these kids, I have given to some of the aid organizations to help, but not being rich that will little if any impact. “Aids and poverty take their toll” that is the true evil, and that is what breeds such events imo.
Peter Gentry needs to take an extended leave of absence from the position of explaining Biblical Eschatology.
http://www.god.tv/alert-100514
An aside and first I admit this is a personal, spiritual, moral, fill in the blank failing on my part, and I mean that. God Tv needs 4 million dollars to stay on the air in Jerusalem. I am looking at the program right now when they say if you give, Jesus will appear between Easter and Pentecost but basically only to those that give or that is the way I understand it. I admit I could be wrong. Personally I have never wanted to see Jesus, feel Him get a word etc. I beg God make me a better servant. I am tempted, and I know that is pathetic on my part, to hope that I could get in on this spiritual financial blessing because I so want to start a Christian oriented group facility.Rationally I understand this is all clap trap, but deep down I often hope, God could it be true, could a miracle happen, then I loath myself for even hinting at such a need.
I dont ever expect God to reveal Himself to me, because I see Him daily, in a smile, in a kind act, in one student helping another student get their lunch, push their wheel chair, encourage each other etc. Now the Pastor on God TV is telling my that I am climbing mount moriah as I push buttons on my touch tone phone, will God hear me if I have a rotary phone?
So Pentecost is happening on May 23 so Jesus will appear only to those whom believe and give. I would love the season of rest they talk about, being the dirt ball I am I dont expect it, but I would love that. My dream of heaven, what I do now to those I work with but without all my head trips, self righteousness, cynicism, etc. I would count that an honor, I dont get why that makes me a servant of Satan but I have been told at times it does.
Dr. Ron,
I don’t understand how you can dismiss that article so quickly.
It seemed very well researched and very cogent in focusing on the text.
Kinnon: “The Western Christian fiction of the visionary CEO-style church leader who is the one who ‘hears from God’ and the ‘sheep’ then follow him is not supported in the New Testament”
My thoughts exactly! Good find, BrainD!
Michael,
I’ll read any study that starts off like Gentry’s:
“We must not only pay attention to (1) the cultural and historical setting, and (2) the linguistic and textual data, but also carefully analyze and consider (3) the literary
structures, (4) the apocalyptic genre of the text, (5) the relation of Daniel 9 to other prophetic texts in the Old Testament, and above all (6) the metanarrative or biblicaltheological framework crucial for making sense of any individual text.”
Some may follow other interpretational models, such as:
– How does this line up with the chart on my wall?
– Does it relate a compelling simile?
– Does it link words together based on contemporary English usage?
– What did [insert favorite pastor] have to say about this?
– Does it reinforce things I already hold to be true?
– How does this fit my current situation?
The dangers of Church as a Business. A continuing discussion on the PP.
Still living this phenomena…live it up close and personal from a behind the scenes perspective…am permanently affected by it.
“CEO-style church leader who is the one who ‘hears from God’ (or as some in my situation articulate…’he is a prophet of God’)…and the ‘sheep’ then follow him…”
A lot of Truth in that assessment, IMO.
Plurality of Elders is a sham in the example of what I experience. There is a plurality in name only as the homogeny to the Prophet’s vision from God outranks any dissent. As long as the hand-picked elders do as they are told…or are easily persuaded by the manipulation…they get a seat in the Board Room.
If one challenges strongly enough…elder, staff, associate pastor (or son for that matter)…even on matters of clear-cut corruption and sin…they’re shown the door in a very corporate-like business-like manner (which insults some businesses…as I’ve seen worldly entities handle the firing or cutting-off with more grace and fairness).
Make no mistake…when the heads roll it is by direct result of the Prophet’s will…with full support and enabling of his right hand elder.
Matthew 24:15
This prophecy has already been fulfilled.
I’ve been reading up about it, and it seems that you can actually get porn on your iphone just fine.
Mat 7:21* ¶ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22* “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
23* “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
I never saw this before –they all had to be in the “the ministry”
They were so busy serving the ministry, they didn’t have time to serve Jesus
DMV…you’ve hit something with that observation. So true.
Ministry and the Ministry Machine becomes god to some.
There’s lots of p*rn related apps available on the iphone. I truly think that Jobs is just using the whole “we won’t be doing p*rn” on the ipads as a way to justify not having Adobe Flash installed on any of their machines.
There’s no way that he’ll be able to keep ipads from being used by people wanting to access p*rn. He’s only talking about video, not still images.
The one thing that people complain about most about iphones and ipads is their lack of Flash. I think this whole p*rn thing is just a clever marketing ploy to try to get people to get past that major flaw in the product.
my .02
There are NO porn related apps available from the Apple app store.
You must jailbreak the phone to be able to defile it.
This is nothing new for Steve…it’s been a concern of his for years.
I have an iphone. I can see the apps that are on the thing.
[My eyes recently fell on this informative and unsettling web item – Julius]
Liberty University & Libertines
Speaking of evangelical scandals and Liberty University in the same breath, readers can Google “Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal” (line-by-line proof that THE Jerry Falwell’s 1981 “Fundamentalist Phenomenon” book was a huge plagiarism of George Dollar’s 1973 “History of Fundamentalism in America”!). Also Google “Thomas Ice (Bloopers).” Ice is a prof at LU whose “Ph.D” was “obtained” from a tiny Texas school that was fined by the state of Texas for illegally issuing degrees! When “Dr.” Ice reproduced in 1989 Margaret Macdonald’s short “pre-tribulation rapture” revelation of 1830 (Margaret originated this 180-year-old escapist endtime view which has made millionaires of Lindsey, LaHaye etc.!), he somehow left out 49 words when copying it – the same 49 words LaHaye left out in the same sections when a book of his reproduced it three years later! (LaHaye has been one of LU’s biggest donors.) Ice, BTW, also had the same distinctive copying errors Lindsey had when he had reproduced MM’s revelation in his 1983 book! Since Liberty University is one of the top promoters of the same fringe-British-originated pretrib rapture fantasy, interested readers can also Google “Famous Rapture Watchers,” “Pretrib Rapture Diehards,” “Pretrib Rapture Secrecy,” “Letter from Mrs. Billy Graham,” and “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty” (documented plagiarism and other dishonesty since 1830 by some of the best known names in evangelicalism) – all uncovered by the author of the bestselling book “The Rapture Plot.” (Evangelicals should take some tranquilizers before reading the above!)