Major Changes – Recanting Strong Articles

I have made the decisions to pull two top articles:

1] Why Ron Paul WILL win Super Tuesday (due to a factual error to be discussed with the author).

and

2] How can we avoid this recession?

Here is what I wrote at the Recession Article:

I have taken down my article.

A good friend of mine sent such good criticism that I made this decision. Here is what I wrote him:

You are a formidable opponent. Obviously. I regret posting something that can be argued so easily against. I still have some disagreements on the issues, but that doesn’t really matter to whether I should post the article. I appreciate your willingness to argue even when you DON’T want to have the conversation. It benefits me.

You are probably going to reduce me to not caring about anything but the war. Which I can’t really change.

Maybe that is all for the best. I will NEVER be, and will never be in the POSITION to be an economist. I should stick to the bible, and aiming at personal generosity to the poor about whom I DO care.

— even though I am taking down the post, these are ammendments I was going to make before I had decided that:

[I have changed some wording since first posting - I wanted to make sure it didn’t sound like I was accusing the other candidates of LYING about the economic plan. I meant that they weren’t going in right direction - in my opinion.]

changing from

— “He doesn’t just have the expertise we need, he actually is the only one telling the crucial truth we need at THIS moment:”

to

—”He doesn’t just have the expertise we need, he actually is the only one pointing to the crucial plan we need at THIS moment:”

 

That was the original intent of my phrase.

Miscarriage

We found out yesterday that our 12 week pregnancy was carrying a child that had stopped development about 4 1/2 weeks ago. We have miscarried. We had the blessing of being sent to a Catholic hospital who treated us in a very godly way, with respect to the life of the child. They spoke of our child in the realest of ways, it is a child, it is a life. Their only allowed manner of disposition of the child is burial. We may have chromosomal testing which may tell us why the child died. It may also tell us gender.

We announced the pregnancy early for the same reason that we freely announce our loss. We wouldn’t hide another child in a room, or a grandparent – not only is a child a person, an IMAGE OF GOD, but it’s also a CHILD OF THE COVENANT.

Psalm 22

9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
10 On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God .

Luke 18.15-17

15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

2 Chronicles 31.17-18

17 The enrollment of the priests was according to their fathers’ houses; that of the Levites from twenty years old and upward was according to their offices, by their divisions. 18 They were enrolled with all their little children, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, the whole assembly, for they were faithful in keeping themselves holy.

1 Corinthians 7.14

14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

Ps 71.4-6

4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.

Waiting for God to Answer [1]

This is the 1st entry in a Series that Walks through my Sermon preparation for this Sunday (2007/11/25). If you want to read them in another order choose one of the following:

Entry 2

Entry 3

Entry 4

I am preaching this Sunday, i.e. November 25. This is the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year, as the following Sunday December 2 is Advent 1, the first day of the new year.

I have preached the last Sunday of November for the last two years. Both years the last of november was the first of Advent. So without thinking to check the calendar, I assumed I was aiming at the first Sunday of Advent, whose theme, in many churches, is “hope.” That was all well and good, but I checked the calendar late, and found out I was off a week! I had already set a lectionary according to my first plan.

So my sermon has become a sermon about waiting in the long silent times when God seems not to answer. I am going to begin a set of entries here, published over today and tomorrow that move through my thought process, actually helping me to think.

Giving infants the ROYAL treatment they deserve.

I imagine that nobody has been on pins and needles to hear my review of chapter one of The Auburn Avenue Theology: Pros and Cons – Debating the Federal Vision. For some reason, I just CAN’T get through the review of chapter 1, even though I have read it three times.

—so—

Instead of waiting until I can get the whole thing together, I will skip the theaters and send this tidbit direct to video…or just play it here [much of this is my own wording or reasoning, but inspired by a paragraph in Wilson's work]:

Think of all the adult people you know at church.

Not just any long term visitor, but actual recognized members of the church. Now ask – do you treat these people like Christians? You have to treat them as Christians- unless you have enough proof to excommunicate them (declaring thus that they are not-faithfilled toward the Lord).

When an adult unbeliever converts – we baptize them, and afterwards everything we do toward them is with the normal assumption that they are Christians. BUT WAIT!, you say. Some of them will prove to be false.

You are right. But until they do, you base their treatment on their baptism; this is CLEAR:

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

(Gal 3.27)

In fact, Paul explicitly uses baptism of ALL church members to prove UNITY of all church members so that they have to treat each other equally; see the next verse.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

(3.28)

They are all ONE if they are “in Christ.”

—–So how do we know a man is “in Christ”?

—–ANSWER: “All the baptized have put on [become part of] the Christ, so none of you can act superior.”

If we treat Christians as Christians, then until a person proves to be a dead branch IN JESUS that God will break off and throw into the fire (John 15.1-6), we must accept them as part of the church – they are IN JESUS. And we say to them along with all of God’s people: “Hear O Israel, Yhwh OUR God, Yhwh is one God” (Deut 6.4 – My rephrasing – not inaccurate).

Here is the big therefore:

Therefore, we must treat baptized children the same way. Like Christians. WAIT, the Kingdom can’t belong to those too young to believe?

Now they were bringing EVEN INFANTS to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for TO SUCH BELONGS THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not RECEIVE THE KINGDOM LIKE A CHILD shall not enter it.”

(Luke 18.15-17)

Part of the rebuke to us is that THE PEOPLE WE SHOULD BE ASKING ADVICE FROM ABOUT HOW TO GET THE KINGDOM RIGHT IS THE INFANTS.

In the biblical pattern, it isn’t just any random child, or every child, but the children of believers who are set apart for God through his covenant. (Gen 17, Ac 2.38-39, 1 Cor 7.13-15).

Will some of them leave the church? Yes, some will. But in the same way as there are some adults who leave even after profession and baptism and who seem to be believers.

But we expect all people who are covenant members to be believers.  And we should expect it, trusting God’s promise in Baptism: that the people of God, as a group are saved. So we say to everyone in the group – “You are saved.” Even the Infants.

Which is what we do in Baptism, AND the Lord’s Supper.

______________________________________________________________

–All scripture referrences, unless otherwise noted, are English Standard Version, thanks to Bible Gateway.

New Video – New Page Tab [des Videos du Jour]

I have a new page tab at the top of the page: des Videos du Jour. Now there is a video there of Evangeline dancing.

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