While I Was Relaxing

I know you all peruse the Youtube universe just as much as I do. Tonight I was looking for some old Kate Bush concert footage. I first heard Kate on the eighties weekend overnight cable show "Night Flight." They had played a concert of hers at the Hammersmith Odeon from 1979 when the talented Ms. Bush was barely nineteen years old. She has a four octave range and I was spellbound for an hour while I watched her show. I immediately went out and bought every Kate Bush album I could find.

Coming back to the present, I did find some video of her and I am including the video of "Wuthering Heights," her most famous song at the time and the number that closed the show, but I am also including a video of Kris Shred also performing this song with just his guitar. I saw his video in a search for "Kate Bush," and thought to myself "A guy and his guitar performing Kate Bush, huh, this oughta be funny." I have never been more wrong in my life. If you do not know Kate Bush, watch her video first, and then watch Mr. Shred honor her beyond belief.

Global Bible Reader

Logos, the Bible software company I keep raving about, has introduced a beta of their new Bible reader software, and it looks pretty sweet. The idea is, as we begin a new year, to read through the Bible this coming year, with thousands of others around the world! I am so excited about this. I downloaded it today and was the 18th person to join. So it sets out your reading plan daily for you, has a checkmark for when you finish the reading, a daily reminder to keep you motivated, and, check this out, a forum for everyone involved to discuss the reading throughout the year. This forum could end up as somewhat of a commentary for future reference or it could degrade into feel-good, happy-clappy stuff, but since it is a beta, I suspect that, for this year at least, the former seems more likely. There is a button in the reader that will open your Libronix and the passage guide for that day's reading. Like, totally sweet!!! I encourage all who use Logos to download and use this. It is going to be a blast. You can download the software here. There is also a post on Still Truth you may want to read here.

I Didn't Want To Do It.

I had to turn on the word verification for comments today. I have been rather proud of the fact I have gone on for over four months without any spam comments. Well that came to an end today as I received my first. So sorry folks I had to turn on the word verification. Thanks for understanding.

But I Digress.

So, I thought I would try an experiment. As the traffic seems to be increasing and the percentage of those who comment is rather low, why don't we try this. Everyone who visits this post between now and January 2, 2008, and has a blog of their own, leave a comment with your blog's URL. I will visit every blog and comment there over the course of the next week. If everyone who blogs and visits here would post the same request on their blog, we might be able to generate some cross traffic. At the very least it could be fun.

In Christ
Alan

Joseph and Marriage

With the upcoming elections, one issue that is being debated is marriage and whether or not same-sex marriage should be legalized. Here's a thought during this Christmas season—Joseph is the ultimate example that God created marriage for a man and a woman, and that a family is meant to have both a mother and a father.

Mary was a virgin, impregnated by the Holy Spirit. Joseph didn't have to be there for biology's sake. But, God didn't leave Mary on her own to raise her child. He didn't have her stay with her parents or move into her cousin Elizabeth's home. And he didn't have her team up with another woman to raise Jesus, either. He provided for her through the care of a husband, Joseph. Doesn't this show that is the way God intended a family to be? A family should have both a mom and a dad.

Joseph was the man of the house. He took Mary to Bethlehem to be registered. He, along with Mary, took Jesus to be presented to the Lord. He was warned by angels to flee from Bethlehem and King Herod by taking Jesus and Mary to Egypt. Later, he again followed the direction of an angel and took his family to live in Nazareth. We can speculate that he trained Jesus in his craft, carpentry, too.

Joseph was not Jesus' biological father. But since it was important enough to God that Mary, the mother of His son, be married to a man, we should take our cue from this example. Marriage is the union of one man and one woman.

Blessings,
Lisa G.

Bibliography

Boice, James. Romans Volume 3. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1993.

Barnhouse, Donald Grey. Romans IV. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1963.

Barrett, C. K.. The Epistle to the Romans. Revised. London: A & C Black Limited, 1991.

Calvin, John. Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2005.

Cottrell, Jack. Romans(College Press NIV commentary). Joplin, MO: College Press, 1996.

Ironside, H. A. . Romans. Revised. Neptune, New Jersey: Loizeaux, 1998.

MacArthur, John. Romans Chicago: Moody Press, 1996, c1991, c1994.

New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation,
1995.

Newman, Barclay Moon ; Nida, Eugene Albert: A Handbook on Paul's Letter to the
Romans. New York : United Bible Societies, 1994 (UBS Handbook Series; Helps
for Translators).

Reese, Gareth L.. Romans. Moberly, MO: Scripture Exposition Books, 1987.

Robertson, A.T.: Word Pictures in the New Testament. Oak Harbor : Logos Research
Systems, 1997.

Sproul, R. C.. The Gospel of God. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1999.

Why Was Jesus Born?

Was Jesus born to be an example for us? No.

Was Jesus born to enable us to have our best life now? No.

Was Jesus born to show us how to love? No.

Was Jesus born to free us from our bondage? No.

Was Jesus born to make us wealthy? No.

Was Jesus born to point us to God? No.

Was Jesus born to be our guide to life? No.

Was Jesus born because God was reaching down to earth to have a relationship with us? No.

Was Jesus born to teach us how to live a good, moral life? No.

Was Jesus born to teach about God? No.

Why was Jesus born? To die.

In Christ
Alan

12 Days

I know we only have 5 days but my step-daughter, Ana, just showed me this video and think it humorous enough to share with everyone. Enjoy.

Getting Paid To Blog?

I joined this "Blog for a year" group in an effort to get paid for a year to blog. The outlook is bleak as I peruse the site only to find out I have 5 votes and the person in first place currently has over 18,000! Oh well, if the Lord wills. I thought I would post about it and urge all visitors to this site to go to my profile here and vote for me, what have you got to lose?

In Christ
Alan

P.S. I am looking for a few good PR people, the pay is not good, nothing, but the reward of linking to this post on your blog must be worth the effort. Such a selfless act would bring about my gratitude for at least two days.

What's The Difference?

I have had much to think about recently. One of the things I have been looking into is how to increase traffic to my blog. This has led to some added widgets that I have found appealing, but it has also led me to other blogs, blogs I do not necessarily agree with. I found one of the best things one can do is to comment on other blogs. So I started doing this, first with other Christian blogs that do not fit into my nice "Reformed" box I have carved out for myself. This has resulted in a good conversation about women in ministry over at the M blog. I have also been having a dialog with an elder from one of my former churches. He happens, I don't know if happens is the right word, if he didn't find that conversation through my blog then it is more than coincidence, to have contributed greatly to that conversation and I think has eloquently expressed our shared position on the matter.

This journey has led me into some rather uncharted waters. I have found myself in a couple of dialogs on atheist blogs. I have found the conversations enlightening, they tend toward ad hominem attacks and to fallacious reasoning, but what does one expect when they so violently deny the truth and the one who is Truth. But this experience has brought me around full circle to the ongoing dialog I am having with my former elder on regeneration.

It has become apparent through some of the conversations I am having with some atheists that some of them know the Bible quite well, better than many Christians I know. They understand what the Bible teaches about sin, man's condition, God, Jesus' life, death, and ressurection, and salvation. They have all the facts, their minds comprehend what is said in the word of God. They are not mentally deficient, impaired in their thinking or on drugs. One of these men has, in my opinion, about the same knowledge of the Bible as I do. This leads me to a question. If we both have the same facts, the same information, the same revelation, why do I believe and he does not? Is there something I found in me, some spark deep down inside, hidden for a while, but alas I found this spark, this flame, this faith, inside me. Could this be the difference between us. We both have the same Jesus doing the same thing for me and for him since Jesus work on the cross was for all mankind equally, it must be this thing in me that is the difference. I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps and exercised this faith that was in me. I did this thing and he did not, there is the difference. What is different is what is in us, I found my faith, he did not. I would thank God for that but why would I do that? It was my faith that I excercised. I did it. I saved myself. When I die and stand before God and He asks, "What have you done that I should allow you into my kingdom?" I can boldly say, "I found faith inside me and I excercised it, it is because of my display of faith that you should allow me into your kingdom." Of course no Christian would agree with where I have taken this, but it is the logical outworking of the type of thinking that is running throughout modern evangelicalism.

But let's get back to the question, what is different between the two of us. I went to the scripture to see if I could find an answer, and boy, did I find an answer.

"4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to dwell in your courts!"
The Holy Bible : English Standard Version., Ps 65:4 (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

"19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God."
The Holy Bible : English Standard Version., Eze 11:18-20 (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

"26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules."
The Holy Bible : English Standard Version., Eze 36:25-27 (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

"48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed."
The Holy Bible : English Standard Version., Ac 13:48 (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

"4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ"
The Holy Bible : English Standard Version., Eph 2:4-5 (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

"13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."
The Holy Bible : English Standard Version., Php 2:13 (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

"13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth."
The Holy Bible : English Standard Version., 2 Th 2:13 (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

"18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."
The Holy Bible : English Standard Version., Jas 1:18 (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

This giving us a heart of flesh and making we who were dead, alive and appointing to eternal life and this choosing is all of God. God chooses us, God makes us alive, God gives us hearts of flesh, God regenerates us, God gives us faith that we can then excercise after He saves us. This is important to understand. This is why we go and proclaim the gospel of God to all, resting fully assured that God will bring some to repentance and faith. As I have these discussions with unbelievers it is only because I know that my salvation is totally of the Lord that I can, with a humble heart, thank him for saving me from myself. It also lets me understand why He does not save everyone, so that I might know the richness of the salvation He has given me and that by knowing that I glorify the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Sola Deo Gloria!

In Christ
Alan

More Logos

I know what it's like to have someone tell you how great something is and to really not care all that much. But I can't emphasize enough how incredible this product is. It looks like it is only going to get better with the next generation(not sure of a release date but an unnamed insider told me about a year). Again call Jared Bryant at (800) 875-6467 ext. 2319 or email him at jared@logos.com. Tell him I sent you and he will get you the best price available. As I was saying words only go so far, Logos just released this video today and I am not wasting any time in putting it up. Watch this and I hope you will become more excited about this product and investigate adding it to your Bible study tools, you will not be sorry.

Logos/Libronix

My wife just blessed me with more books for my Logos library. She gave me the Baker New Testament Commentary, the only commentary set covering the entire NT from a reformed perspective. This was accompanied by Boice's Expositional Commentaries. James Boice was pastor of Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church until his death in 2000. This set has 27 volumes covering the old and new testaments. And I finally got the package I have wanted the longest, The Essential IVP Collection. This set has 18 dictionary/encyclopedias/commentaries from IVP, several of which retail for $50 each. This set retails for well over $600 but you can add it to Logos for just over $100.

I cannot say enough great things about this software. Anyone who is not excited about this and is not jumping on board and investing in the revolution in Bible study just does not know what is passing them by. No one could see what this software can do and say "No, that's not for me." If you study the Bible at all this is for you. I have almost 2500 volumes in my library and on top of being able to do any bible/word/topic studies in a fraction of the time I could before, I can also take my entire library with me wherever I go!

I have a link on the sidebar that will take you to a short video that will show you how you can get started with this software. I promise you this, you do not need to become efficient with anything before you start using this product. It is so intuitive you can literally begin your study within minutes of installing it. You can call or email Jared Bryant at Logos and he has personally guaranteed me he will give you the best possible price on any level of software if you tell him Alan Gielczyk has referred you. Call him at (800) 875-6467 ext. 2319 or email him at jared@logos.com. Buy this product. You will fall in love with it.

Do We Need To Know Greek?

I have been having a very charitable conversation with a dear friend of mine on whether or not regeneration precedes faith. In one of my responses I appealed to the Greek mood of a verb. My friend asked if he needed to know Greek to understand a passage. I have not answered him but this is exactly why I have undertaken the task of learning the original languages. One does not NEED to know Greek, but it sure would be helpful.



One of the biggest problems in modern evangelicalism is they read the indicative verbs as imperative. This causes great misunderstanding and heresy. Indicative verbs make a statement of how things are, they do not tell us to do things. Imperative verbs are commands we are to follow. This would be avoided if the interpreters of scripture understood the Greek grammar.

Apostasy

I am feeling sick again, not sure why, my arms and legs hurt and with the snow have not felt up to going to the doctor. I wanted to post something and ran across this video doing various searches on GodTube. It used music to evoke emotion which I am against in church but this time I am for it because it works. There are some disturbing images in the video. I warned you.

President

I have recently subscribed to "Human Events" in an effort to prepare for this coming election year. I am about as conservative as they come but since I started studying theology on an academic level have found myself woefully uninformed. I was beginning to like Mike Huckabee but in my first weekly issue found an article reporting his almost total lack of conservatism. Augustine over at "A Priori Assumptione" has done a post I am linking to mainly because he uses the words "twit," "stooge," and "nincompoop."

A priori assumptione: President?

More On Limited Atonement.

Here is a video that melds wonderfully with the last two doctrinal posts I have made. Watch carefully and learn.

Context, Context, Context!!

It never fails to amaze me that people will so often willfully disregard the first rule of hermeneutics when it contradicts what they want to believe. I have had a couple of conversations recently about this very verse and thought posting this video a good idea.

Prince Caspian

Now I can't decide if I am more excited about this, the X-files movie, or summer Greek. Anyway, here is the first trailer for the new Chronicles of Narnia film, enjoy.

More Apostatizing

Rick Warren is at it again. He has signed a document that is bringing together Muslims and Christians. What is the problem you ask? Notice who they are asking for forgiveness from.

"Before we “shake your hand” in responding to your letter, we ask forgiveness of the All-Merciful One and of the Muslim community around the world."

You can read the entire document here and see for yourself who all is involved. It is not just Warren but Bill Hybels, Robert Schuller, and a host of other heretics as well. I just do not understand how these men continue to garner such fame, oh wait, yes I do they run after it like fame has some sort of salvific power. Please pray for every man who signed this document.

Todd Friel on Way of the Master radio did a broadcast covering this as well that you can listen to here.

HT: Reformed Gadfly

For Whom Did Christ Die?

I wanted to address the topic of my last poll. The middle point of the 5 points of Calvinism—the so-called "Limited Atonement"—has been a stumbling block of many reformed people for generations. I was a self-proclaimed "4-point Calvinist" for quite some time.

Let's take a close look at this doctrine and find out where we end up if we deny it. First, if you do believe that Jesus died for the sins of all people, let me ask you this: is unbelief a sin? I hope you can see where you logically end up if you answer yes. If you can not, let me explain. If Jesus died for the sins of everyone and unbelief is a sin, then all are saved, none are unsaved. This is a syllogistic fallacy because we know there are those that are unsaved. This should be enough to convince everyone. It was what convinced me.

So let's look at some scripture and see where that leads us. Matthew 1:21 says:

²¹She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

The Holy Bible : English Standard Version., Mt 1:21 (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

He will save His people. Not all people but His people.

In John 17 verse 2, Jesus' high priestly prayer He says:

²since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

The Holy Bible : English Standard Version., Jn 17:1-2 (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

Notice, life is given to all whom God has given him, not to all. Further in verse 9 Jesus goes on to pray:

⁹I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

The Holy Bible : English Standard Version., Jn 17:8-9 (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

Jesus is only praying for the ones for whom He is going to redeem—the elect only.

In John 10:10-11, Jesus says:

¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. ¹¹I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

The Holy Bible : English Standard Version., Jn 10:10-11 (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep—not for the goats, nor for the wolves, but only for the sheep.

Now, let's take a look now at what most modern evangelicals will say: Jesus died for everyone, but only those who believe are saved. This would make the work Jesus did ineffectual; it would mean His death did not actually accomplish anything. Further, it puts salvation in the hands of man. If Jesus did the same work for you, a saved person, as He did for him, an unsaved person, then the only difference lies within you. Something you did actually saved you. This is a works salvation giving you something to boast about and is clearly refuted by scripture Romans 9:16 says:

¹⁶So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy."

The Holy Bible : English Standard Version., Ro 9:15-16 (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

I do not think it can get much clearer. If you do not believe the doctrine of limited atonement, you are believing in another gospel.