Bully's Blog

or Blood versus Water

They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham… You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.” (John 8:39, 44)

The theme of seed and fruit, or genealogy and mission, runs throughout the Bible. Genealogy is entirely objective. Our heredity is a factor in which we have no choice. It is the tree of life. But the fruit of our lives, what we choose to do with that life, involves our volition. Volition is mission. “It’s not about the hand you are dealt; it’s about how you play it.”

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or The New Commandment

1 John 5: 1-12   |   Sermon Notes   |   17 June 2012

Introduction

Jewish Christians were first opposed by unbelieving Jews, then by Jews who said they believed. Members of this latter group are called “Judaizers,” and they were the false teachers whom the apostles condemn in their letters.

Not only did these men pervert the gospel by including adherence to the Law of Moses, they also failed to keep the commandments of Jesus. This was Pharisaism dressed up in Christianity, the old leaven carried into the new age. The Pharisees loved to control people, while they failed to control themselves. This is the context of John’s letters to Jewish Christians: despite their profession, these men would be exposed by their lack of of certain things in their character.

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Just as the death and resurrection of Israel in Egypt follows the pattern of the Feasts, so does the death and resurrection of Israel in Babylon. [1]

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Covenant Theology on a keyboard

The three is a five. The four is a seven. The five is a seven. The seven is a twelve.

“Typologically speaking, life on other planets would be Creational ‘polygamy,’ something outside the character of God.”

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A few months ago I posted some lengthy quotations on Biblical gender roles. Richard Walker has provided a helpful summary. I know I’m quoting a blog that quotes this blog, but he wraps it up nicely.
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Here’s a discussion that’s gone on over at Doug Wilson’s blog. If you have read it there, you can skip it here. I’m posting it for those who haven’t, and also for my own future reference (there’s a book on baptism coming from me at some point not too far away). Also, if there is some more discussion over there I will add it over here.

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“Unlike YHWH of the Hebrews, the all-transcendent Allah does not stoop to make agreements with mere human beings.”

Having never been much interested in understanding Islam, it has been helpful to read David P. Goldman’s take on it. He is Jewish, (his glowing comments concerning modern Israel are a dead giveaway), but he is surprisingly objective concerning Christianity and Islam.

In the more circumspect of his recent books, he observes that the decisive difference between Judeo-Christianity and Islam cannot be found by arguing about the amount of violence in their respective histories. Their disparate characters are exposed somewhere closer to home:

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or This Is Not An Evil Age

By evil age, I do not mean the “terrible twos,” or even terrible teens. Many Christians believe they are living in the “evil age” Paul refers to in Galatians 1. They are wrong. Continue reading

Psalm 119 is all about the Law being a (Pentecostal) Light, a fire in the wilderness. It is fitting that it follows a Covenantal pattern. As usual each stanza is a miniature of the whole.

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