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Words mean things

Friday, 11 March 2005 by Editor

There is an interesting article in BusinessWeek Online about whether bloggers are journalists: So is a blogger a journalist? Certainly, some organizations have begun to legitimize Web logs as a valid grassroots form of journalism. In 2004, bloggers for the first time received press passes to cover the conventions during the Presidential elections. They have

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More on speculative theology

Wednesday, 09 March 2005 by Editor

I appreciate the sentiments expressed by Rey over at Bible Archive on God and the subjugated role of our opinions about Him. After writing a great parody piece on the need to worship God on the mountains, he followed up with a post about the Syrian assumption that the God of Israel was the God

speculative theology

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The relentless optimist

Monday, 07 March 2005 by Editor

I read through Hebrews recently and was amazed by the relentless optimism of the “heroes of faith” in chapter 11. Granted, the word “relentless” doesn’t usually have a positive connotation. But what word better explains the persistent faith of people like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the others listed in that chapter? And what is faith

faith optimism

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Do peace and liberty destroy unity?

Friday, 04 March 2005 by Editor

OK, so Scott Ott of Scrappleface wasn’t writing a parable about Christian peace, liberty, and unity. But, as Alexander Campbell might say, “The parable is just, and the interpretation thereof, easy and sure.” In a post entitled “Annan: Bush Destroying Arab Unity,” Scott writes with tongue firmly planted in cheek: (2005-03-04) — The Bush administration’s

liberty peace unity

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Fighting for truth

Wednesday, 02 March 2005 by Editor

We’ve probably all heard the expression “might doesn’t make right.” We can probably agree that right makes might, at least morally speaking. But does right make fight? Too often, I’ve felt the need to fight for every scrap of truth. Sometimes, like a dog fighting for a meaty bone, I was fighting to protect what

division unity

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Worshipping on Mountains

Wednesday, 02 March 2005 by Editor

I found a very funny and useful parody about “prooftexting” our beliefs, written by a blogger named Rey at BibleArchive.com. I disagree with Rey on some important points of theology, like “eternal security” and insisting that being immersed into Christ is trying to be saved by our “works.” Rey, my friend, keep reading those Scriptures

hermeneutics Pattern Theology speculative theology

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Follow the Leader, lead the follower

Tuesday, 01 March 2005 by Editor

What is a follower and what is a leader? Jesus blurred the distinction in many ways. Was He a forceful leader, or a meek follower? Or, perhaps, was he a meek leader, not a forceful follower? As I think about these questions, I realize now that at times I’ve been a forceful follower. All of

discipleship leadership

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CH_CH: What’s Missing?

Monday, 28 February 2005 by Editor

There’s a good article entitled “CH__CH: What’s Missing?” in the March issue of The Gospel Message. Brother Tom Woody and I undoubtedly share a profound love for assembling together with the Lord’s people, and his essay ought to get you fired up for it. The goal, of course, is not simply “attendence,” which is worthless

church

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Love unexpressed

Friday, 25 February 2005 by Editor

I was listening to a talk show recently where the discussion was centered on patriotism and love of country. Most were calling in talking about their appreciation for the freedoms they have in America. One person called in to say that, although he considered himself patriotic and felt that he loved his country, he didn’t

Dennis Prager love

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Christian friendly fire

Wednesday, 23 February 2005 by Editor

In most wars, a good percentage of the casualties comes from “friendly fire,” or ammunition that hits the wrong target due mostly to inadequate communication and misunderstandings about the orders given. I was surprised at the start of the current Iraq war that the number of casualties from these kinds of accidents, including overturned trucks

Bickering division unity

Published in Commentary, Love

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Barton Stone - "I blush for my fellows who hold up the Bible as the bond of union, yet make their opinions of it a test of fellowship; who plead for union of all Christians, yet refuse to fellowship with such as dissent from their notions. Vain men! Their zeal is not according to knowledge, nor is their spirit that of Christ. Such antisectarian-sectarians are doing more mischief to the cause and advancement of truth, the unity of Christians, and the salvation of the world, than all the skeptics in the world. In fact, they create skeptics."

Alexander Campbell - "We will not hearken to those questions which gender strife, nor discuss them at all. If a person says such is his private opinion, let him have it as his private opinion; but lay no stress upon it; and if it be a wrong private opinion, it will die a natural death much sooner than if you attempt to kill it."

Alexander Campbell - "But men cannot give up their opinions, and therefore, they can never unite, says one. We do not ask them to give up their opinions--we ask them only not to impose them upon others. Let them hold their opinions, but let them hold them as private property. The faith is public property; opinions are, and always have been private property. Men have foolishly attempted to make the deductions of some great minds the common measure of all Christians. Hence the deductions of a Luther, and a Calvin, and a Wesley, have been the rule and measure of all who coalesce under the names of these leaders. It is cruel to excommunicate a man because of the imbecility of his intellect."

Alexander Campbell - "Dear sir, this plan of making our own nest, and fluttering over our own brood; of building our own tent, and of confining all goodness and grace to our noble selves and the "elect few" who are like us, is the quintessence of sublimated pharisaism. The old Pharisees were but babes in comparison to the modern: and the longer I live, and the more I reflect upon God and man--heaven and earth--the Bible and the world--the Redeemer and his church--the more I am assured that all sectarianism is the offspring of hell; and that all differences about words, and names, and opinions, hatched in Egypt, or Rome, or Edinburgh, are like the frolics of drunken men; and that where there is a new creature, or a society of them, with all their imperfections and frailties, and errors in sentiment, in views, and opinions, they ought to receive one another, and the strong to support the weak, and not to please themselves. To lock ourselves up in the bandbox of our own little circle; to associate with a few units, tens, or hundreds, as the pure church, as the elect, is real Protestant monkery, it is evangelical pharisaism."

Alexander Campbell - "I have tried the pharisaic plan, and the monastic. I was once so straight, that, like the Indian's tree, I leaned a little the other way. And however much I may be slandered now as seeking "popularity" or a popular course, I have to rejoice that to my own satisfaction, as well as to others, I proved that truth, and not popularity, was my object; for I was once so strict a Separatist that I would neither pray nor sing praises with any one who was not as perfect as I supposed myself. In this most unpopular course I persisted until I discovered the mistake, and saw that on the principle embraced in my conduct, there never could be a congregation or church upon the earth."

Alexander Campbell - "I have no idea of adding to the catalogue of new sects. I labor to see sectarianism abolished and all Christians of every name united upon the one foundation upon which the apostolic church was founded."