Par-tay.

Get the John Calvin birthday clock at Calvin 500

You Can't Apologize if You Didn't Do It

The Senate has passed (unanimously) a resolution to apologize for slavery. The country is falling apart around us, and this is what they are working on? I suppose it's good to keep them distracted from ruining the economy further. Let's talk about apologies.

I do not apologize for slavery; I hold no slaves. The federal government owes no apology; they hold no slaves. There are no former slaves to whom anyone can apologize. Does this need to be pointed out? Really? Is someone of the African-descended persuasion's lot in life improved by Tom Harkin feeling sorry? Should it be?

Kidnapping, according to Scripture, is a capital offense. Those who rounded up Africans and forced them into servitude should have been executed for it. But they weren't. And instead of the proper course of action, we gave 600,000 lives and the Republic that was founded on July 4th, 1776. It is enough.

Someone in the Senate going to apologize for John Brown? How about for Lincoln?

Waterboarding

This came up on a friend's Facebook page, but I don't want to be a comments-monopolizer so I'll post my thoughts here.

If someone can make a Biblical defense of waterboarding, I'd like to read it. I can't imagine how that could be done.

There are two defenses of this procedure that I have heard. The first is that it doesn't really endanger or harm the recipient, and is therefore not torture. The second is that it has produced the desired results, and saved American lives.

Regarding the first point, does it matter if no real harm is done? You're inflicting torment on a guy to make him talk. He's suffering as if he were drowning. That's torture. If the practice is Biblically justifiable, then don't be a wuss and call it what it is and do it. If it is not justifiable, don't do it, ever.

The second point is simply the ends justifying the means. That trick never works. If God forbids this sort of thing, then obedience to Him is not going to result in disaster, and disobedience to Him cannot result in anything but disaster. Let those of us who are Calvinists think Calviny thoughts: God is sovereign.

I'm open to having my mind changed. To the Law and to the Testimony! Someone persuade me.

The Revelation

As I posted earlier, eschatology keeps rearing its head in several areas of my life lately (more on that later), and so I undertook another detailed look at the Revelation, this time transcribing it and working through Chilton's magnificent commentary on the book.

Just a few thoughts:

1. The book has very little to say about the end of the world.

2. The book has a lot to say about the end of the world--the old world, that is. It is so very obviously primarily concerned with the fall of Jerusalem and the end of the Old Covenant.

3. The similarities and parallel structure to Ezekiel's prophecy are staggering. Why was I never taught this?

4. I tend to agree with the hypothesis that the prophecy was meant to be read liturgically and not all at once.

5. Once one is familiar with the Bible's style of prophetic symbolism (another post on that soon too), the Revelation is not confusing in any way. It's actually very, very clear.

6. It's also very complex, in that the information communicated is very compact. There's much more to it than a quick reading will bring to mind, at least for those of us who aren't as Biblically literate as we should be (like yours truly).

7. There is no "battle of Armageddon." It doesn't ever happen, and there is no place called "Armageddon."

8. Chapter 19 ain't the Second Coming. John sees heaven opened, and Jesus seated on a horse. He doesn't "come" (go) anywhere.

9. The whole point is that Jesus rules, NOW, and we will be victorious in this present age.

10. We're very obviously living in the so-called "millennium." I don't see how anyone can not get that.

Bonus: Man, Dispensationalism is kooky. ;^)

Holy Week

Ride on! ride on in majesty!
Hark! all the tribes hosanna cry;
O Savior meek, pursue thy road
with palms and scattered garments strowed.

Ride on! ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die;
O Christ, thy triumphs now begin
o'er captive death and conquered sin.

Ride on! ride on in majesty!
The angel-squadrons of the sky
look down with sad and wondering eyes
to see the approaching sacrifice.

Ride on! ride on in majesty!
Thy last and fiercest strife is nigh;
the Father on his sapphire throne
expects his own anointed Son.

Ride on! ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die;
bow thy meek head to mortal pain,
then take, O God, thy power, and reign.