Review: FLATLAND by Edwin Abbott Abbott

This is an unusual book, to say that least. On one hand, it's a book of planar geometry, though an old-fashioned one. On the other, it's a fairly mediocre novel. When the two are put together, though, the result is very strange.

Rather than just describing figures of zero, one, and two dimensions, Abbott tries to imagine what life would be like under these conditions. It makes for an odd, entertaining like book, and I recommend it.

Psalm 71

If he's cared for you this long, it's not like he's going to stop now.

Many of the psalms, like this one, ask for God to deliver the psalmist from his enemies. Here, he also asks for deliverance, but also recalls how God has protected him from birth and prays not to be forsaken now.

Romans 13 and why it doesn't mean Christians should be in the army

I've never made a secret of the fact that I don't think Christians don't have any business killing other people. By far the most common objection I've heard to this belief that Romans 13 allows it. I have two counterarguments to that.

First, that's allowing those few verses to override the entire tenor of the New Testament, including the example of Jesus Christ himself. That's what cults do, and to elevate one part of the Bible as more important than the rest sets a dangerous precedent.

Second, that's not what it says anyway. Paul's epistle to the Romans was written to Christians in Rome, and is mostly in the second person. That is, it's as if he was talking to the Romans. At several points, however, he switches to the third person; he's talking about someone. He's not writing to Christians who bear the sword, but to Christians about people who bear the sword. That's a big difference.

An announcement

I have a new post up at The Bible Exchange, "Christians don't need legends ".

Psalm 70

Is Scripture always right?

Many of the psalm wish curses on those opposed to the psalmist or to God. Loving enemies would seem to call for an opposite reaction. I believe the Bible is always correct, but our understanding isn't.

Review: STEPS TO CHRIST by Ellen G. White

I remember having a copy of this when I was in the Navy. It was a very thin paperback -- I can still remember how it looked and felt -- and I carried it in the left chest pocket of my coveralls for several years and never got around to reading it.

When I found another copy a few months ago I decided to fix that. By then I knew a little more, including that Ellen G. White was the founder of the Seventh-Day Adventists, a group many Christians consider a cult.

I was a little leery about starting this, but just as the Book of Mormon contains no Mormonism, this book series to contain any Seveth-Day Advenism. Instead, it's a simple message of evangelism (though pretty old-fashioned because it was written in the 1800s) and as such I recommend it.

Psalm 69

Not the album, which I've never heard, but the actual psalm. It's really just a cry for help,from a man to the God he trusts. When he finds himself in trouble, when the whole world is against him, he knows where to turn.

He turns to God, who has never failed him.

Review: LIEUTENANT HORNBLOWER by CS Forster

This is the second of the 12-book Hornblower series. It's also the last one I plan on reading, due to an unfortunate coincidence.

The unfortunate coincidence was that I started this about the same time I finally decided to turn everything over to God, including the books I read. Since this series is set in the midst of war, it contradicts my beliefs totally. The whole thing made me so uncomfortable that I promised never to do that to myself again.

This is a well-written book, and I've always liked sea stories, but I can't in good conscience recommend this novel.

Psalm 68

According to this psalm, the land of Israel didn't just lie fallow while it waited for the Israelites. It wasn't just exploited by the Canaanites, either. 

It was being restored by God. 

And lead us not into temptation

This is a simple request that God's leading not cause us to be tempted to do wrong. The book of James tells us that God never tempts anyone, so looked at in light of that it's asking him to protect us from ourselves.

We get tempted. It would make no sense for God to make a rule and then try to get us to break it. That just shows a really wrong-headed view of God as a cosmic tyrant instead of a loving father.

Psalm 67

We see God's work partly so that others can see the light of God reflected in our faces and praise him. Everything he does is from his desire to love and be loved. The world should see his love in us and want it for themselves.

But why is the reality so different?

Review: THE SECRET OF THE STRENGTH by Peter Hoover

This is a history of the early Anabaptist movement in the 1500s, and a comparison with the Anabaptists of today.

Hoover writes well, and all the historical information is much easier to read than in Finger's A Contemporary Anabaptist Theology. I recommend it,

Psalm 66

This psalm is nothing but praise to God. He is the maker and sustainer of everything, and he chose Israel and did many miracles for it.

Someone you just have to say thanks.

Why do I think of myself as a Mennonite?

In my current state, I've a lot of time to read and to think. One thing I've thought a lot about is what I believe. Of all the denominations I've looked at at, the only one I've found that didn't read into Scripture were the Anabaptists (some of them, anyway).

In America, there are basically three kinds of Anabaptists. There are the Amish, who everyone has heard of. I couldn't be one of those because I like electricity too much. There are the Hutterites, who no one has ever heard of. I couldn't be one of those because I don't want to live on a farm in North Dakota. Everyone else, no matter how conservative or liberal -- no matter how closely they stick to Scripture -- is called a Mennonite.

There are about 40 million different flavors of Mennonites, and I haven't figured out where I fit just yet. As long as I can't move or talk, it doesn't much matter outside my head anyway. I just wanted to share what I was thinking a little.

Psalm 65

Since God is literally infinite, he should satisfy us, right?

Yes, but too often he doesn't. We think we need something, that God has forbidden what would make us really happy and really fulfilled because he doesn't really want the best for us. That's the same lie Eve believed in the Garden of Eden, and we've been believing it ever since.

Review: THE CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM by Philip Schaff

This is a three-volume set consisting of every creed and confession of the Christian church translated and annotated by Philip Schaff. It is a tremendous resource, especially when you consider how cheap things are on the Kindle. 

The only disadvantage I could find was  that as an older Kindle book, it doesn't have a table of contents that is as useful as newer versions. The fact that that was the only thing I could find wrong should tell how good it is. I recommend it. 

Psalm 64

Even though people may try to hide, God will still find them. Even when they attack from ambush his arrows will always find them. Sometimes that's how God takes care of his people: by handling dangers they don't even know about.

That's looking out right there.

Review: TILL WE HAVE FACES by CS Lewis

This was CS Lewis' favorite of his books, and one of his last. It's a retelling of the myth of Eros and Psyche, told from the point of view of a sister of Psyche.

There has been a good deal of backlash against this book from Christians, mostly because it's a pagan myth by an ostensibly Christian author. Some have even taken this as proof that he wasn't really a Christian at all. The simple fact is that none of knows what was in Lewis' heart and mind when he wrote this, so we're not fit to judge his motives.

It's undeniably well-written, and though the story and its protagonist are emphatically not Christian, Lewis has earned my trust, and I recommend this book.

Psalm 63

How much do you want God?

In this psalm David says he wants God as much as he wants food and water. He values God up there with his bodily needs. How many of us do? I have to admit that I haven't, and there are many professing Christians who think he's completely irrelevant.

And forgive our trespasses, for we also forgive those indebted to us

This is a dangerous thing to pray. It admits that our being forgiven depends on our willingness to forgive others. It's more proof that God doesn't just want us when we die. He wants to change us now.