There is an interesting article by Walter Brueggemann here. I particularly like his reference to idols as the ‘gods of scarcity.’
However I think he misunderstands the account of Achan’s sin, or misconstrues it support his argument:1
“…the political task of Christians is to be the church rather than to transform the world”–Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens.
This presents a false dichotomy. When Gideon and David were faithful, God went ahead of them and defeated their enemies. Would it be fair to assume that Hauerwas is just saying that political activism is getting the cart before the horse? If so, then I agree with him. When the church is faithful, the blessings of God transform the world around her.
“Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty man who shouts because of wine. And He beat back His enemies; He put them to a perpetual reproach.” Psalm 78:65-66
“I’m a 30 year old boy.” Edward Norton, Fight Club.
Guns are dangerous. They are so offensive in fact, that they should be prohibited altogether. And male leadership has been abused so much, and women exploited for so long, that such headship should also be shamed and even prohibited. And alcohol. Alcohol leads to so much misery that it also should be prohibited. Oh, wait. That’s us.
The quiet, daily betrayals are just as capable of turning an ardent Christian into a confirmed, if uncomfortable pagan. C. S. Lewis believed that the ‘softly, softly’ approach is one of the key tactics of the Devil. To paraphrase Screwtape, he aims to introduce into every life that revolves around God a slight change in orbit that will ever-so-slowly send them spinning into outer darkness.
Read Mark Hadley’s review of the film, Good.
“And all Israel stoned [Achan and his family] with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.”
Questions from blogger Blue Ollie:
Many still claim to get their morals from the Bible. Well, what does the Bible actually say?
The following is a very incomplete list but is nevertheless a valid list.
1. How do you determine if someone is guilty? Answer: gamble.
The heir to a hero of Chinese mission says the Christian press’ obsession with persecution in China is “misdirecting the mission world” away from effective gospel ministry in that nation.
China bashing distorts mission by Jeremy Halcrow
Things can look a bit different in hindsight, especially a presidential term or two.
To start with, Mr. Bush was right about Iraq. The world is safer without Saddam Hussein in power. And the former president was right to change strategy and surge more U.S. troops.
A legion of critics (including President Barack Obama) claimed it couldn’t work. They were wrong. Iraq is now on the mend, the war is on the path to victory, al Qaeda has been dealt a humiliating defeat, and a democracy in the heart of the Arab world is emerging. The success of Mr. Bush’s surge made it possible for President Obama to warn terrorists on Tuesday “you cannot outlast us.”
Mr. Bush was right to establish a doctrine that holds those who harbor, train and support terrorists as responsible as the terrorists themselves. He was right to take the war on terror abroad instead of waiting until dangers fully materialize here at home. He was right to strengthen the military and intelligence and to create the new tools to monitor the communications of terrorists, freeze their assets, foil their plots, and kill and capture their operators.
These tough decisions — which became unpopular in certain quarters only when memories of 9/11 began to fade — kept America safe for seven years and made it possible for Mr. Obama to tell the terrorists on Tuesday “we will defeat you.”
Full article by Karl Rove,
Bush Was Right When It Mattered Most
I hope the same can be said for his successor.
Was Moses a murderer?
Moses’ execution of the Egyptian was “good death.” It was judicial. Moses had the authority to pass judgment and execute the sentence, and later became the judge of his people. “And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds” (Acts 7:22). However, he rightly feared Pharaoh’s unjust reaction.
The Hebrews’ rejection of Moses as their judge condemned them to 40 years’ more slavery. They were at fault, not Moses.
Okay, so Moses did look this way and that, and buried the body in the sand. Yes, but the point was he feared Pharaoh’s reaction.
The Hebrews’ rejection of him as their judge condemned them to 40 years’ more slavery. Just as in the wilderness when Moses was their judge, it was the next generation that would be delivered. Moses was not condemned:
“The Bible never criticises Moses for this, but presents his action as righteous and faithful (Acts 7:24ff.; Heb. 11:24ff.). The execution of criminals is never said to defile the land, or to require atonement; such execution is itself the atonement required.” James B. Jordan, The Law of the Covenant, p. 254-5.
Moses’ judgment pictured the greater one to come upon the Egyptian taskmasters at his return—prefiguring Christ’s ministry in the first century.
Solomon continued David’s role as redeemer/blood avenger. Like Ham’s attack on Noah, and Absalom’s sin on the roof, Adonijah’s request for one of David’s concubines was recognised as a grasp for the throne. Joab was judged for his shedding of innocent blood, and although he grasped the horns of the altar, refuge was lawfully denied (Numbers 35:15-19).1
The last priest of the house of Eli, Abiathar, was exiled before the Ark was given a permanent house. Like Gideon’s bull, the guilty “died” on the old altar before a new one could be established.
Solomon’s judicial execution of his father’s enemies was not paranoid. It was “good death.” The Lord always builds His house out of the corpses and plunder of His enemies. As death precedes resurrection, so discipline must come before joy (Hebrews 12:11) and Solomon’s actions here demonstrated his great wisdom as a judge.
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1 “Why grasp the horns of the altar when you’re a fugitive in the temple? How is it legitimate to touch the horns, when the altar as a whole is forbidden to all but the priests? The answer to the first is found in the premise of the second: The altar is holy, and communicates holiness to anyone who touches it (if they aren’t holy already). When a fugitive grasps the horns of the altar, he becomes sanctified and hence inviolable. If found guilty, he will be killed (like Joab) because of a sacrilege; but if he is innocent, he protects himself with a taboo of holiness.” Peter J. Leithart, Horns of the Altar, www.leithart.com
Over and over again when I read essays decrying “violence” I see no definition of the term. What it seems to mean is doing things another person does not like. So, spanking your child is violent because he does not like it. It is violent because it violates his person.
From a Christian standpoint this is idiocy. From a Christian standpoint sinful violence violates God’s integrity and the integrity of the innocent. Sinners deserve and need to be violated. God is all in favour of violating sinners, and will do so to some people in hell forever. God delights to punish the wicked (Deuteronomy 28:63) and though Jesus wept over Jerusalem in AD30, He was delighting to destroy her in AD70 (Psalm 69:21-28), because she had violated His Bride.
The exercise of violence is not a failure of the community, as some have asserted, because the Trinity does not fail and the Trinity will send some people to hell. Get used to it. It is blasphemy to suggest otherwise. Punishing criminals and spanking children does not reveal a mournful failure of community but is in fact the joyous privilege of maintaining community.
Violence is not wrong. Violence can be good, depending on who’s doing it and what the situation is. The psalms, which we are commanded to sing before God in worship, are full of violence. The only question in violence is who is being violated and why.
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James B. Jordan, Evil Empire?, Biblical Horizons Newsletter No. 199, September 2008. Subscribe at www.biblicalhorizons.com
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