Against Nothingness

Substitutionary Atonement Theory: Fresh Debate I think most of the people who are reading this will know what an atonement theory is, and what this one in particular says, but I will give a brief explanation anyway. Atonement theories are theological ideas about the meaning of the death of Jesus on the cross. This one in particular, the substitutionary theory, claims that Jesus death on the cross was him taking the punishment, God's wrath, for our sins, thus buying us forgiveness, allowing God's justice and mercy to be satisfied at the same time. I hope that does justice to it; if you want to read up on it somemore there are lots of good sites on the web. ( here is a reformed theology page for example, took me 30 sec to find, looks decent, my thoughts on reformed theology notwithstanding :) It has been a long time since I began to have doubts as to the importance evangelicals proscribe this theory of the atonement. How many evangelicals even know that, without going i...

The Resurrection of the Son of God I just finished reading N.T. Wright's book, the title of this post, and it was excellent. I haven't fully processed everything yet, so this isn't going to be any kind of substantial post on it. These are just my initial thoughts and feelings. I always find the end of Wright's books to be the best, because it is at that point that he takes his historical conclusions, and his arguements, and all the questions he has answered and moves them up a level to ask, in one way or another, so what? I also find the end of Wright's books, at least the books in this series, to be the most frustrating. He always briefly mentions what is coming up in his next volume, and I never want to wait until his next volume is out. I want it now. F or this specific book, his conclusion is something I have heard from him before, in other books or maybe sermons or both. It is his threefold point on what the resurrection means. A summary: many peopl...

Letter: To those who struggle with the current state of the church, especially evangelicals. I know you struggle with many of the same things I do in regards to church. I have found the being so seperated from all of those things which frustrate me, and make me angry, in evangelicalism, and its attendant organizations, has allowed me to take a definitely needed step back. From this step back, I have realized many things; most of them are self-condemning, not in a bad way, but in that I have made many mistakes. I have allowed myself to become so critical and so cynical that I search for the bad without thought; I often do not give people the benefit of the doubt, or act in love as I should. I also have continually fought a losing battle with hope; that is, I have many times, and in many ways, lost hope. I have become lazy. I see problems, and though blessed with intelligence, education, opportunity, all in an abundance which most of the world does not have, I do next to nothing....

Recent Readings, Quotes "The current church culture in NA is on life support. It is living off the work, money and energy of previous generations from a previous world order. The plug will be pulled either when the money runs out (80 percent of money given to congregations comes from people aged fifty five and older) or when the remaining three fourths of a generation who are institutional loyalists die off or both..." "A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost their faith. They are leaving to preserve their faith." ( i McNeal, Reggie. The Present Future. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2003. p.1) "Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship. Then it moved to Greece and became a philosophy, then it went to Rome and became an institution, and then it went to Europe and became a government. Finally it came to America where we made it an enterprise."...

Love Grows O ften, in my marriage, and my relationship with my wife, I notice, and marvel, at how our love continually grows. If you had asked me when we first met, or even when we got engaged, if I could ever love someone this much, I would have had no concept of where I, and we, are at now. I am used to moments where I realize my love for her has grown. That happens fairly regularly in this marriage and, I hope, in most marriages. But something different happened recently. It was like I could feel my heart expanding. As if I could watch love envelope areas of my black heart that had been previously surrounded in selfishness, as they were washed in fresh blood and brought back to life. B ut, perhaps the most surprising part of this experience, this was not occuring because Kristina did anything wonderful for me. She does such things daily, and they do indeed bring us together and cause our love to grow. This time though, I was the one privileged to be doing something for ...

A Four Course Meal M y wife is hilarious. On an evening this last weekend, when she wasn't feeling very hungry, and I was complaining because I was, she decided to pull a prank... kind of. She locked me in the computer room, as only a woman can "Don't come out!!" (said with that tone), and prepared dinner for me. W hen I was allowed to exit, I found our apartment turned into a candlelit dining area, complete with nice place settings, and a waitress (Kristina, of course). Through the entire meal she refused to acknowledge that she was my wife, putting on a perfect impression of a paid servant. She then served me salad, 'crouton' with jam and peanut butter, nacho's with ground pork, chili powder, cheese and salsa, and 2 chocolate covered almonds for dessert (still not sure where she got those). I wasn't sure if I should laugh, or play along, or be really appreciative. I also wasn't sure if I should say something about the small por...

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex I just finished watching GITS: SAC last night, or at least the first season (the 2nd season is currently being aired, and only the first 15 episodes have been fansubbed so far. Haven't started that season yet). But, anyway, I finished the first season. I love anime, and while I haven't watched tons of it, I have seen a bit. This anime has to be the best I have watched to date, my new favorite. Its simply amazing. I liked the first movie, and if you did to, then you should definitely watch the series. Its awesome. And now the 2nd movie is out, and the 2nd season is airing as we speak. I can feel the tingles going up my spine.... ahhh, tingly tingles.

Berry Again Found another quote from Berry that very elegantly sums up my thoughts on a completely different issue than the one which Berry is speaking of. "A change of heart or of values without a (change of) practice is only another pointless luxury of a passively consumptive way of life." If that doesn't speak to the issue of conversion to Christianity viewed as merely a momentary, or even long term, assent to a belief and/or belief system, I don't what does.

Movements I found an interesting article on movements. Its actually about respecting the earth, the domestic arts, and the problems in our economy, but it begins with movements. Its an excellent article in and of itself, I could quote the whole thing, but for this blog entry, just the stuff about movements will do: "In Distrust of Movements" by: Wendell Barry " People in movements too readily learn to deny to others the rights and privileges they demand for themselves. They too easily become unable to mean their own language, as when a “peace movement” becomes violent. They often become too specialized, as if finally they cannot help taking refuge in the pinhole vision of the institutional intellectuals. They almost always fail to be radical enough, dealing finally in effects rather than causes. Or they deal with single issues or single solutions, as if to assure themselves that th...

Sick In Korea There are things that someone really needs to tell you before you go into a foreign country. Like how the medical system works. When we got our job, we were given the choice of getting medical insurance or not. We immediately, and fortunately, said yes. Everyone told us this was a good idea. Its actually very normal for teachers to get quite sick in their first month or two here. Combine the fact that you are getting exposed to all the new strains of viruses that you don't have at home with the fact that you are working with the primary spreader's of viruses, and you pretty much gaurantee you are going to get a cold/flu/stomach problem/etc. at least once. Kristina and I have been no exception. So far I have been sick twice; the flu, a few weeks ago, and a cold that I am almost completely recovered from. Nothing to write home about, nothing I went to the doctor for. Actually, come to think of it, I did write home about it. And this is the first thing y...

Here are some interesting links on bush and the election: First, some perspective on 87 billion dollars. Second, some interesting maps on how the voting population actually looks in the U.S. Thirdly, 4 interesting articles . I found the second and the last to be the best.

Pepero Day Today, Nov. 11th, is a special day in Korea. It is Pepero Day!!! Let me tell you about Pepero day: It is a day that has only been celebrated for 4 or 5 years here, and what you are supposed to do is give pepero sticks) to your friends and family. (Pepero sticks are the same as Pocki, if you have ever heard of that. Chocolate covered wafer sticks). Why did they start celebrating this holiday only such a short time ago? The answer to that is very simple. It was only such a short time ago that the marketting genius's at Lotte thought if it. Lotte is a very very large company over here; they have fast food restaurants, department stores, they make everything. One of the things they make is the candy called Pepero. Of course, now that there is a pepero day there are lots of imitations. Pipiro, Peperong, etc. etc. I guess it was only a matter of time before some company took advantage of this kind of thing. Every holiday is so commercialized anyway, why not make...

A Trip to Seoul This weekend Kristina and I took a trip to Seoul. Never been to Seoul? Let me tell you about it, and our trip. It started with a lazy saturday morning. Seoul is a 2-3 hour bus ride away, depending on traffic and such. But we didn't take the bus, we took the KTX. Hi-speed train. Not quite the bullet train, but it goes 3ookm/h. We really should have bought tickets ahead of time, or maybe gone earlier in the day. Most people get up early to make weekend trips, you know maximize your time and all that. Not us. Why move when you could not move? wake up when you could sleep? The KTX does the trip in 45 min, a vast improvement over the bus. And due to our laziness, we were forced to buy first class tickets (Darn!!). If riding a hispeed train is like anything, its like flying. You go fast, in a straight line, the washrooms look the same, they have TV's and stewardesses with free drinks and headphones. And you have more space. 3 seats to an aisle...

In Response to the Comments on my last post I don't like that bush won, but I don't think its the end of the world. I don't think the election was nearly as simple as you make it out to be anthony. I was thinking about what makes the U.S. vote for Bush when the rest of the world hates him? what do they see that we don't, or vice versa? And I think I came up with a theory. Bush is a bully. Nobody likes the bully unless he is on their side, and guess what? The U.S. public see him as on their side. I don't think he will run rampant on his second term because he has free mandate or something, he did whatever he wanted on his first term, so the second term won't be any different. He controlled/controls public opinion, right from the very start before he was even elected (i.e. the whole fox news thing, not to mention teh voter scandal in florida). I think its total close minded crap when people say they vote for him because he is a Christian. True he is prolife an...

Bush wins. I don't know what to say. You reap what you sow, and I hope his second term is better than his first.....

I can't sleep. I don't know what time the blog says I am posting this, but it is late. I left my blog on MST, but I think I am 18 hours ahead of that right now. It sucks not being able to sleep. Especially when I have to get up early tomrrow morning for school. It's also really wierd. I really feel like writing, or doing something productive. After all, I am up anyway, might as well use the time. Unfortunately I don't think I am really clear enough to do much besides ramble, watch something I could only half understand, or play very simple computer games. So, of those options, I am rambling. Why not? This is my website, my writing, and you don't have to read this, no one is making you. If there does happen to be someone out there with a gun to their head, being forced to read this blog, leave a comment, and let me know who the insane guy is with the gun so I can knock some sense into him. Wow, there are a lot of problems with that last propositio...

Another friend has a new blog. Justin , who is a good friend of mine, and a very good friend of Kristina's. It's in my links, "On the Campus."