Faith: February 2019 Archives
owen cyclops on Twitter - fairies, alien abductions, psychedelics, and the demonic
A fascinating but long and winding twitter thread in which the author (now a Christian) sees patterns and parallels between the stories told by people on psychedelic substances (with which he has extensive experience), and alien encounters, mysterious disappearances, demonic encounters, folklore about fairies and djinns, and fallen angels. In the end he provides a plausible explanation for why the word pharmakeia means sorcery, linking it to a passage in the apocryphal Book of Enoch.
Al Mohler's Incomplete Apology: My Story - Janet Mefferd Today
What in the world happened to Al Mohler?
"Dr. Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, apologized in the Houston Chronicle yesterday for his longtime support of a man the paper described as 'helping conceal sexual abuses at his former church' and 'for making a joke that (Mohler) said downplayed the severity of the allegations.'...
"I began covering the Sovereign Grace Ministries scandal in 2012, on my previous nationally syndicated Christian radio show. As I dug more deeply into sexual-abuse victims' accusations in a class-action lawsuit, spoke with some of those affected and began to conduct interviews to glean more information, I stated that the SGM scandal was American evangelicalism's biggest sex scandal to date.....
"In 2013, several months after I had been covering the SGM scandal, I was blindsided by two executives from my former radio network's corporate headquarters on an extended conference call.
"They told me that they had received a call from 'Al Mohler's office' that expressed 'concerns' over my radio interviews with [former SGM pastor and whistleblower Lee] Detwiler, who had weighed in on the class-action lawsuit filed against Mahaney and others. They communicated to me that Mohler's office did not believe Detwiler was a good guest choice.
"Knowing that Mohler served on our company's editorial board, I said, '"Mohler's office" didn't call you. You mean Al Mohler called you.'
"Neither executive denied it."
Waiting When God Seems Silent | Desiring God
Randy Alcorn writes:
"Waiting on God involves learning to lay our questions before him. It means that there is something better than knowing all the answers: knowing and trusting the only One who does know and will never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
"Trusting God when we don't hear him ultimately strengthens and purifies us. If our faith is based on lack of struggle and affliction and absence of doubt and questions, that's a foundation of sand. Such faith is only one frightening diagnosis or shattering phone call away from collapse. Token faith will not survive the dark night of the soul. When we think God is silent or absent, God may show us that our faith is false or superficial. Upon its ruin, we can learn to rebuild on God our Rock, the only foundation that can bear the weight of our trust. "
Pyromaniacs: Dwelling upon excellencies
C. H. Spurgeon: "I have already said, those who are doing no good are the very ones who are creating mischief. Have you ever observed that exceedingly acute critics are usually wise enough to write no works of their own? Judges of other men's works find the occupation of the judgment-seat so great a tax upon their energies that they attempt nothing on their own account."
Religion and Totalitarianism - Merited Impossibility
"My father was a closeted Christian in the USSR. There was no way for him to get his hands on a Bible or talk to a priest but he was desperate to learn about the teachings of Christ. So he'd pore over the textbooks in his university courses on Scientific Atheism (yes, that's the real, official name) that everybody had to take and he would underline every quote from the Bible that the textbooks included to demonstrate the supposed stupidity of Christianity. He didn't read the Soviet critique of the Bible that filled the space between the quotes. But the quotes were the only way for him to access the text of the Bible...."
Growing Up Fundamentalist, Part One: Salvation and Baptism | Religious Affections Ministries
A heartwarming testimony from Kevin T. Bauder, Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary.
"Later in the week the Baptist preacher stopped by our home to visit. My father was at work, but the pastor led my mother to the Lord. Though it was probably the first time she had ever heard the gospel, she understood that she was a sinner who needed to be saved. She believed that Jesus had died and risen again to save her. That day she became a child of God.
"When my father learned what had happened, he was dumbfounded. He had an aunt who claimed to be saved, and (as he later put it) everybody thought that she was a religious nut. What could it mean that his wife was now saved? He determined to find out, and the sooner the better. The next service of the church was supposed to be a prayer meeting on Wednesday night, so he took my mother on a fact-finding expedition...."
