Don’t worry. I’m not giving marriage advice here. But I did read a very challenging and encouraging article by Lauren Winner on marriage. Those of you who are married, I would love to hear what you think about it.
March 24, 2009
March 10, 2009
Salvation is not being delivered from time, space, and matter; that’s death. Rather, salvation is being delivered from death itself – NT Wright.
Room Arrest
This spring break week I was suppose to be in Mississippi but instead, I’ve been relegated to my room due to pharyngitis. Physically, I feel much better than I did a few days ago but still can’t be too close to people. The good news is, I can catch up with things I’ve put off because of school, like blogging. The bad news, I get bored and lonely very quickly. It’s no fun being sick. I’ll be the first to confess that I’m absolutely useless when sick. All I care about is myself and getting better. I don’t think I could take on the sicknesses of others. In fact, I tend to shrink away from those who are sick. But this isn’t how Jesus acted. He actually cares about us more than his own physical comfort. The road to the cross was physically painful, yet he still walked it. Now here’s the part I don’t like; he calls us to follow him on that road. I would rather just stay in my room and be bored.
Science, Faith, and Scriptural Integrity
This is my first attempt at dealing with issues relating to science and faith. I’ve wrestled with it personally as a science student, but never out loud. Here is where I’m coming from. Growing up in a conservative church, I listened to guys like Kent Hovind and Ken Ham. When I went to college, I was exposed to the day-age theory as a christian alternative to creation in six days. At seminary, I heard about the frame-work theory. When I went back to school for pharmacy, I took some science classes from the local community college. In my first biology class, my teacher talked freely about (macro)evolution while professing faith. The following semester I took another biology class but this time, the professor was a theist and big proponent of Intelligent Design. I just recently listened, on the Veritas Forum, to a fascinating talk by Francis Collins about his faith and work. Collins was the director of the human genome project, a distinguished geneticist, theistic evolutionist, and author of “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief”. So what do I make of all this? I don’t have solid conclusions, just a bunch of doubts and questions. First, I doubt the earth is 8000 years old. So what if it’s 10 billion years old? Does that contradict scripture? or Science? Second, I have never been a fan of intelligent design. You could be talking about the great invisible alien in the sky as far as that goes. I’m a presuppositionist at heart: I need the God of the Bible. And thirdly, as much as I respect Collins as a scientist, I’m simply uncomfortable with his theistic evolution. I mean, seriously, do I allegorize everything in the Bible that doesn’t fit into my scientific scheme? Now to his credit, Collins does believe in the resurrection. But when it comes to the first few chapters of Genesis, you can throw historicity out the window and make way for evolution. I’m just not ready for that kind of reaction. Although I will admit, there is no concensus in the church about how to interpret the first two chapters of Genesis. Denying its historicity is not a viable option for me. There’s too much at stake. I have more thoughts on the topic, but for now, what do you think about it?
