Courage?

There has been a lot of talk about Bruce Jenner lately. If you don't know anything about it because you've been living, say, under a rock for the last few months, I envy you.. Also, here's a summary: 65-year-old former athlete decides he was always really a woman named Caitlyn, and took female hormones and had surgery to change his appearance.

Naturally, the "liberal" contingent fell all over themselves congratulating him. The word I kept hearing was "courage". Jenner was said to have shown great courage in telling his story.

But did he? Did it take a lot of courage to do a photo shoot with Vanity Fair, and appear on the cover of that magazine? Was it courageous to accept near-universal acclaim for his actions? How about getting his own TV show, decades after most of us had forgotten about him? Did that require an act of courage?

In short, to paraphrase CS Lewis, what did he expect would happen other than what actually did?

Let me tell you what comes to mind when I hear the word "courage". Imagine being thrown roughly into an arena. It could be as large as the Colosseum in Rome, or one of the countless smaller ones scattered throughout the Empire. Regardless, as your crying wife and children cling to you, you lead them to the center of the arena, where you fall to the bloody sand. "Let's pray," you say, and as they kneel close to you, your tears mix with their own. You try to pray, but the words don't come because as you start you hear the gate slide open to let the beasts out. You know that you'll be dead in ten seconds, and the last thing you're likely to see is your family, ripped apart. And it will be all your fault, because you told them about Christ in the first place. Yet you trust him anyway.

That's courage, not some washed-up athlete wanting attention.

Review: THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS by CS Lewis

This is the beginning, the book that put me on the road to God.

This is the first explicitly religious book I remember reading. (It also mentions the possibility of apostasy, which caused me no end of trouble in the first church I joined.) Unlike a lot of people, I can't point to a specific moment when I became a Christian. It was a long journey, and it began here.

I'm afraid I can't review this book dispassionately. All I can do is give it the highest possible recommendation. I know some people can read it with no effect at all, but I couldn't. I still can't.

1Chronicles 29

The Israelites were joyful because they gave willingly to build the temple. They could have been taxed for it, or just had armed thugs show up demanding money. Instead, they were allowed to give as they saw fit.

That way, it was their project too, and not just the king's.

2Chronicles starts Monday.

Review: ROUSSEAU IN 90 MINUTES by Paul Strathern

By now you should know what to expect from Strathern. He read Rousseau's books and somehow managed to summarize them and Rousseau's life in less than 100 pages. He even avoided getting bogged down in the tawdry details which fill biographies by lesser authors, gets in a little sarcasm as well.

By now you should also know that I like these books, too. I think they're interesting, and a good way to spend an hour and a half. I don't know of any other way to learn as much in as little time, and I recommend this one too.

1Chronicles 28

If is a very big word.

In this chapter God promises to make Solomon's kingdom last forever if he would remain faithful to God. Of course, Solomon didn't. It's like he forgot his kingdom was conditional. Maybe he did.

VIi. Baptism and the Lord's Supper

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper.

The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

1Chronicls 27

This one is essentially a list of names and numbers. While I've often said that everything in the Bible is necessary for someone somewhere, not everything is there for me right now now.

Like I said, 1Chronicles isn't a very interesting book.

Review: THE REASON FOR GOD by Timothy Keller

Timothy Keller is a Presbyterian pastor who planted a thriving church, by modern standards, in New York City. He's written several books, which have been very popular with Baptists.

This is an apologetic work, plain and simple. It gives Christians arguments they can use, and tries to convince non-Christiians to believe. The only problem is that there are a lot of books out there, and Keller's doesn't stand out. The problem is not that there's anything particularly wrong with it, but that there's nothing particularly right with it either.

I'm not even going to make a recommendation. It's a perfectly fine book, but there are better ones.

1Chronicles 26

more of the divvying up of the Levites. 1Chronicles is not a terribly exciting book.

David may not have been able to build the temple, but did everything he possibly could. By making sure that Solomon was well-supplied with materials and manpower, David ensured that all his son had accomplish was the actual brick-on-brick work.

As long as we're throwing out everything that's not falsifiable ...

One of the major scientific reasons for believing in the nonexistence of God is that he isn't falsifiable. That is, there's no experimental way to disprove his existence. Since it can't be disproven, it can't be proven, either.

In a sense that's true. God can't be proven or disproven by the scientific method. He doesn't show up just because we do an experiment. The mistake lies in taking that as evidence of his nonexistence.

There's plenty that can't be proven by the scientific method. "George Washington was the first president," can't be proven scientifically. You can't do an experiment to show that Santiago is the capital of Chile, that Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector of England, or that anchovies taste bad. 

Or evolution, for that matter.

It's true; the quintessential scientific theory, and the basis for all modern scientific inquiry, is itself unscientific. After all, it's never been observed, either in the wild or in the laboratory. No experiment can confirm or deny it. In a word, it's unfalsifiable.

Some will say that we have a lot of evidence that evolution is true in the form of fossils. I would respectfully disagree. A fossil can only tell someone two things: that a thing used to be alive, and that that thing is now dead. Anything -- anything -- beyond that is speculation. It may be very well-reasoned speculation, but it's still speculation.

It's somehow scientific to believe one unprovable assertion and not another. I say take what science tells us, "Question Everything", and do it, even when science says not to. Be curious. One unprovable assertion will withstand it; the other won't.

1Chnonicles 25

David organizes the musicians in this chapter.

This is still in preparation for his son building the temple. After all, without a staff, the temple would just have been a very pretty,very expensive empty building. So David found the people to work there.

Review: THE PURSUIT OF JOY by the Church of the Highlands

The first thing you need to know what this book is that it isn't a book at all. It's a series of sermons recorded at the Church of the Highlands' main campus.

I have several problems with the Church of the Highlands, but I'll focus on the sermons for now. They're what the New Testament calls "ear-tickling"; they tell people what they want to hear, and they use very old jokes to do it.

This speaker reminds me of nobody so much as Joel Osteen, and that's never good. For that reason alone I don't recommend it.

1Chronicles 24

As David did with the Levites, he did with the priests. That is, he organized them. Before he did so, though, he made two very good decisions. The first was to pass the throne down, which both acknowledged that he could no longer rule effectively and freed up a lot of time. The second was to find someone who knew the priesthood better than he did.

Remember, a leader doesn't have to know everything about something. He just has to know people who do.

Review: WHAT THE EARLY CHRISTIANS BELIEVED ABOUT SALVATION by David Bercot

Several of Bercot's audio lessons have been transcribed and edited into short books. This is one of them.

In a sense there are few surprises. Man can't earn his own salvation, nor can he accumulate enough goodness to help anyone else. Salvation is by an individual's choice to exercise faith, contrary to some Reformation doctrines. I'm short, it's pretty much what I've always been taught.

Except for one important respect. Though a person is completely cleansed of sin at the moment of salvation -- if he dies right then, there's nothing to prevent him going to Heaven -- but afterwards that salvation must be maintained. This is completely different from what I've been taught, especially as a Baptist. If I understand correctly, the early church wasn't saying that a person could lose his salvation, but they were saying he could throw it away.

As always, Bercot is true to Scripture and to the early church itself. That both encourages and disturbs me. I'm encouraged because I have learned to trust Bercot because he's so careful. I'm disturbed because if this book is true then I and millions of other people have been taught falsehoods, not out of malice but out of ignorance. Regardless, I highly recommend it; at worst it raises some worthwhile questions.

1Chronicles 23

If you don't need something for its original purpose, give it a new one.

That's what David did. Several families of the Levites had been tasked with moving the various elements of the tabernacle. That was fine for a nomadic people, but with the building of the temple there was no reason for the tabernacle to ever move again. So they got new jobs.

VI. The Church

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.

1Chronicles 22

The king provided for his son, charged him, and then spoke to his nobles. The land was at peace, it was true; the Lord had made sure of that. But it was not at peace just to give the Hebrews a break.

Nothing was supposed to stand in the way of building his house.

Review: THE PURSUIT OF HOLINESS by Jerry Bridges

Holiness is badly misunderstood among most Christians today. Simply put, to be holy is to be like God. Holiness doesn't come naturally to us, though it does to him. That's because the only place to get it is from the source, and the only source is God.

Christians are supposed to grow in holiness; that is, we're supposed to become more like God. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case. Most of my experience has been among Southern Baptists, and Baptists tend to view conversion as the goal. Once a person professes belief in Christ, he can sit in church for the next fifty years never growing at all, just because conversion is seen as the end of a process rather than the beginning of a life of greater and greater affinity to God.

Bridges tries to change that with this book, but is severely undercut by his own commitment to Calvinism. If everything, including one's growth in holiness, has already been determined by God, it's difficult to see why we should care about anything Bridges has to say.

I'm not picking on Bridges in particular, and I admit that I'm judging "Reformed theology" from the outside, but Calvinism is too deeply embedded in this book to recommend it.

1Chronicles 21

Previously, we were told that God was behind the census. Now we're told it was Satan.

Is this one of those famous contradictions that supposedly fill the Bible? We might be forgiven for thinking so, if it weren't for the book of Job. The beginning of that book shows Satan needing God's permission to tempt someone. Even though it came from Satan,it was allowed by God.

John Wallace

Long ago, I knew a man named John Wallace.

I grew up in Columbiana,Alabama, which was a little south of nowhere, and graduated high school in 1992, which was good for exposing me to a lot of different kinds of music, but but not for teaching me much else about the world. That at least partially explains why I had never met anyone like John Wallace.

I've always thought of him that way, as "John Wallace", with both first and last names. I don't know why. Maybe it's just been a way of finding a middle ground. "Mr. Wallace" would have been too formal, and "John" would've been far too familiar. He was neither.

Of course, to his face I always said "Mr. Wallace" or "Sir". After all, he was a generation older than I was and even though I was a teenager, I'd been raised up right.

I met John Wallace when I was probably 15, and the last time I saw him I was 19. I had some difficult adolescent years, but knowing him helped me a great deal. He was the first person I ever met who was extremely intelligent and was neither apologetic or obnoxious about it. He also loved to read, and thought that was a good thing, and thought it was a good thing that I loved to read too.

Unfortunately I was a typical lazy, selfish, immature adolescent in the summer of 1993, the last time I saw him. The last I heard, he had cancer and had moved to Atlanta. I don't know if he's still there, or even still alive.

On the very, very small chance that he sees this, I want to tell him that I'm very sorry I acted like I did, and that he had a huge impact on my life. If you like me now, John Wallace is one of the people you should thank.

1Chronicles 20

This short chapter, like several others, is dedicated to the defeat of David 's enemies.

In many ways, David's reign was the high point of the monarchy and of the Hebrews' history in general. When he did wrong, he admitted it and made it right. His nation prospered because of it.

Review: THE PROBLEM OF PAIN by CS Lewis

This is not a long book, which is a little strange at first. After all, Lewis was a masterful apologist, and the pain and evil is one of the strongest arguments against Christianity. But then Lewis didn't need much space.

The good news about Lewis is that he was a great writer, very clear and very concise. The bad news is that he can come across as analytical and even cold. He sometimes treats great problems as games to be won, so his answers seem like the results of an intellectual exercise than pastoral advice.

In a way that's good, because he was an intellectual but not a pastor. The downside is that the book doesn't seem very comforting. It's hard to imagine anyone drawing strength from this when they're hurting. Lewis' own A Grief Observed is more personal and better for that purpose.

All that said, this is still a great book, and I recommend it. Just don't expect it to be something it's not.

1Chronicles 19

Well, it looks like the Syrians are out of the way for a while. We know from our reading that the Syrians were forever fighting against the Hebrews, for the Hebrews, or both. They were mercenary, fighting for the side that paid the most.

In this chapter King Hadadezer of Syria washes his hands of helping Ammon against Israel. That's at least a move in the right direction.

Review: THE DIVINE ARSONIST by Jacob Nordby

Sigh. More New Age jumbo-jumbo.

There's plenty I don't like about the New Age movement in general and this book in particular. Since I'm not writing a book, I'll just focus on one thing: the inherent racism.

How could the New Age be racist, especially inherently so? After all, it draws from all over the world and every group of people. And that's the problem. Indigenous people may have part of the truth, but to cherry-pick the good parts and put them all together takes a white person. Preferably a wealthy white person. Preferably a wealthy American white person.

Don't worry, tribal people. They're not stealing your culture. They're just patronizing it.

I don't recommend this book.

1Chronicles 18

If God gives the victories, he deserves the spoils.

David understood that. That's why the things he won were so often dedicated to the Lord. He knew it wasn't his own strength or intelligence that won all those battles, but God's. And he acted accordingly.

V. God's Purpose of Grace

Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility

All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

1Chronicles 17

This book really has no interest in Saul, despite his position as the first king of God's people. When he is briefly mentioned in this chapter, it isn't by name and is only as an example for David.

Of course, Saul was the people's idea of a king. David was God's.

Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM by William Shakespeare

This is one of the most popular of Shakespeare's plays, and is a far cry from his stodgy, stuffy historical tragedies. The use of fictional characters seems to have freed Shakespeare quite a bit, and I actually got some of the jokes, so there's hope for both of us.

I still don't see why Shakespeare is considered the greatest author in the history of the English language; in all honesty, I think some people say that because they're used to saying that. I still can't recommend it, because of the archaic language, but it at least is moving in the right direction.

Or I am.

1Chronicles 16

Most of this chapter seems to be a psalm.

The reason for that is that it is a psalm. It's a song in praise of God, directed to God. When it comes down to it, that's all a psalm is: a song inspired by God. We know that David wrote many in his youth, and we're never told he stopped.

Another post you knew was coming

A couple of weeks ago the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that homosexual marriages are equivalent in every way to heterosexual ones. That would make sense if the government had created marriage in the first place. But it didn't.

In fact,what became the United States wasn't even known to Europeans when marriage was invented. Europe wasn't known to Europeans. There weren't even any Europeans back then. There was just God, walking around in a garden with a couple of nudist vegetarians.

At least that's what the Bible says, though not in those exact words. Marriage was created by God, not by man, and last I heard he hadn't changed his mind about it.

As I've said before, you can't prove that homosexuality is right using the Bible. Some people have tried, though. An objection I've heard is that since Jesus never said anything about it, it must be okay. Of course, he never mentioned vandalism or killing baby seals either. Should we all go burn crosses because Jesus Christ didn't say we shouldn't?

Besides, he did speak against homosexuality. You see, Jesus was just the earthly Incarnation of the eternal Son of God, part of the triune Godhead. Simply put, he was God. The Holy Spirit, who inspired Scripture, was/ is also God. (Don't worry if you don't understand the Trinity. No one does.) So Jesus did say homosexuality was wrong, since he was the same one who inspired the Bible.

Next objection, please.

1Chronicles 15

This chapter gives a perfect example of why David was a man after God's own heart.

It wasn't because he never made mistakes. He made plenty of mistakes. The difference is that he also repented and found out how God wanted it done, and did it that way. That's what made him a man after God's own heart.

Review: PLATO IN 90 MINUTES by Paul Strathern

It's been said that all philosophy is a commentary on Plato. I don't know if that's true or not, but I know he's considered the greatest philosopher of all time. I'm sorry to say that I've read more about him than I've read his own work. Fortunately, Strathern has done the hard job already..

As with the other books in this series, this is very well-written, packing a lot of information in a very small package. I'm always impressed by his ability to condense a person's life and works into 90-odd pages, and I recommend it.

1Chronicles 14

We really only know anything about a few of David's sos. Like Abraham, he had several that are only names to us. The Bible doesn't tell us about them, which unfortunately opens things to speculation.

I just wonder what happened to Nogah.

Review: MERE CHRISTIANITY by CS Lewis

It's hard to hold any book, other than the Bible, in higher esteem than I do this one. I've probably read it twenty times, and it never gets old. The more I learn, the more I disagree with it, but I still love reading it. I first read it when I was a teenager and have rarely been without a copy in the 25-odd years since.

As you might have guessed, I like this book. I understand that some people don't, though. If you don't mind the veddy Blitish writing style, I highly recommend it.

1Chronicles 13

Uzzah was doing a good thing, wasn't he?

After all, he was bringing the ark back to Israel. Surely that was good. And he wanted to keep it from falling and being desecrated. That had to be a good thing. The only problem is that God had been very specific on how to move the ark, which was too holy to touch, and that Uzzah was ignoring that.

IV. Salvation

Salvation involves the  redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ.

A. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit by the conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds with repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.

Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and the commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.

B. Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His own righteousness of all who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God.

C. Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is brought into God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person's life.

D. Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.

1Chronicles 12

So far, this book isn't nearly as linear as the other historical books we've read. This chapter discusses the men sent from the various tribes to David's coronation, but it also flashes back to his dismissal from battle by the lords of the Philistines, and his time at Ziklag.

Review: NAZARENE MISSIONS INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK AND CONSTITUTION 2009-13 by NMI

I need to say up front that I'm not a member of the Church of the Nazarene. As far as I know, it isn't some weird cult. I actually attended one a few times in high school, but that was because the church bus picked me up and there were pretty girls there. At any rate, I now care about missions, and this book was free,so I got it.

It wasn't what I expected. Rather than a manual for missionaries, this helps churches set up their own missions programs. It's not a book that's meant to be read for pleasure; it's exactly as interesting as the title makes it sound.

I have nothing against Nazares, but they sure have mastered the art of making a boring book. I don't recommend it.

1Chronicles 11

Though there's a mention early on of David's coronation, the real focus of this chapter is on his mighty men.

When they were mentioned before, they seemed almost tacked on. Here they're nearly as prominent as David himself. The three are warriors of legendary, almost superhuman power. The thirty aren't far behind.

Some stuff about me and the blog, since it's been a while

Since it's been a long time since I've done an introductory post, I'd like to tell you a little about myself and this blog.

My full name's Leslie Christoper Bloom, though I'm usually called Chris. In fact, only the government calls me "Leslie", which is a family name. Counting myself, I know of four generations of first sons named "Leslie Bloom", all of whom went by their middle names (Never thought of that, did you, Boy Named Sue?). Since I don't have any sons, I gave it to one of my daughters, and she seems to like it better than any of us.

I have two daughters, who aren't named Hazel and Gertrude, but I'm going to call them that because their real names are none of the interwebs' business. For the same reason, their mother -- my wife -- whose name is not Flo will be called that here until further notice. Hazel's 13, Gertrude just turned 9, and Flo is a little older. Flo and I have been married for over 16 years, and I still think she's smarter than me. And I'm going to be 41 next week, and I sure do love all three of my girls.

I had a brain stem stroke (look it up) back in 2013, and it left me with Locked-In Syndrome (look it up some more). The upshot is that I'm paralyzed from the eyeballs down,though I can still feel everything. Pretty much all I can do is read and write one letter at a time, so that's what I do.

Oh yeah, I haven't told you about the family I didn't make yet. I'm the oldest of four kids, with two little brothers (both of whom are bigger than me) and a little sister (who's also bigger than me). I love all of them, and the army of nieces and nephews that follow them around. And I love my parents, too, and the sisters who weren't born in my family but for some reason married into it.

As for the blog, I'll just tell you the schedule and let you go from there. Monday is for housekeeping (like this), medical posts, and what my bald brother who is not named Herman calls "rants". Wednesday is kind of a new believers' day: right now I'm going through the Southern Baptist Convention's Baptist Faith and Message (2000). Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday I post book reviews, and Mon.-Fri. I read and comment on a chapter of the Bible.

1Chronicles 10

In this short chapter, we finally get back to narrative.

It's interesting that the first event recorded here is the death of Saul. I know that 1/2Chronicles is the religious history of Judah, but it seems like the author is clearing the way for David. Or the Author.

Review: MARX IN 90 MINUTES by Paul Strathern

Karl Marx didn't invent communism. He was pretty good at it, though.

Of all the "Philosophers in 90 Minutes" books I've found, this one interested me the least. I thought I knew all about Marx, or at least that I knew as much as about him as any non-communist needed to. I was both right and wrong. I was right in that you can get along very well in 21st century America without knowing much of anything about Karl Marx. I was wrong in thinking I knew all about him.

Strathern has again done a very good job of taking an entire life and oeuvre and boiling it down to its fundamentals. The amazing thing is that while this is a very basic look at Marx's life and work, it never feels basic. I recommend it.

1Chronicles 9

This chapter has a genealogy of those who returned, as well as another one for Saul. Since we just got through with one, it's natural to ask if we need more. I take it as evidence that 1Chronicles was written by more than one person. This isn't to deny inspiration; there's no reason to think the Holy Spirit couldn't have inspired two (or two million) as easily as one.

And of course editors can be inspired, too.

Review: KNOWING GOD by JI Packer

First, the bad news: Packer is a Calvinist. (At least that's bad news from where I'm standing.) That means he believes some things that I don't.

The good news is that it is still a fantastic book. Little that's divisive among Christians comes through; instead, it is focused on common beliefs. As such,  i highly recommend it.

1Chronicles 8

This is a split genealogy, listing the descendants of Benjamin , but only in the line of Saul. There's a definitive beginning (Benjamin) and a clear goal (Saul). It's one of the few that works both ways.

Of course, that doesn't make it any more fun to read.

III. Man

Man is the special creation of God, made in His image. Male and female He created them as the crowning work of creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God's creation,. In the beginning, man was innocent of sin and endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice, man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and environment inclined toward sin. Therefore as soon as they are capable of moral choice, they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable him to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God made man in His own image, and that in Christ died for man; therefore every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.