Safe Haven

It comes to pass as I sit here and write this that my quest to find God's whole Truth (essentially to know Christ more fully) is not near over. Some days, I can picture being a Catholic with all that it means, while others, I simply sense of whole pile of unfalsifiable dogma, wrapped in a blanket of unfalsifiable ecclesial infalliability. I'd like to leap, and dare God to bless me, but as "Uncle Marty" might say, that's neither right nor safe to me at this time. Worse still, I love my place as a student at a Reformed seminary. I think the men and women they will graduate will be shown to be noble warriors for the cause of Christ, and it is my distinct honor to call so many friends. People are in great need, and so many will find rest for their souls in such people. And each day would be a battle I'd gladly take up. The world most certainly does not revolve around me. Yet I am confident enough to say that my denomination and the people we serve would be better ...

5 Reactions To The MA Special Election Last Night 5. Elected officials: fear the Tea Party. They nearly won NY-23 a few months ago, and they won last night. I doubt what we're seeing is a simple resurgence of the GOP. What we are seeing is an ideological war for the heart of conservatism. 4. Ding-dong, ObamaCare is dead! The remaining tricks left to avoid a vote/filibuster are devious, even for the Dems. And besides, you don't think those are all Pelosi/Obama Dems in the House, do you? They'll jump ship if Obama tries to pass the Senate bill word-for-word in the House. Just watch. Man, I love American electoral Kabuki! 3. Brown seems like a normal, good guy. Don't foul it up, sir. 2. I think I can retire all those "People's Republic of Massachusetts/Taxachusetts" jokes for awhile. 1. The whole legislative branch will be Republican come fall of 2012. You might want to dust off those inspirational speeches and find your inner Bill Clinton, (in a good way) M...

P.S. Note to First Things: Embedding people's mostly political blogs on your site is dumb if you care more about your message.

Instapundit has a link to Gateway Pundit, noting the fact that President Obama's nominee to head the Transportation Safety Administration, Erroll Southers, has withdrawn for allegedly making controversial statements comparing pro-life advocates to race terrorists. So I watched the video. My conclusion is: The game of "gotcha!" must stop. Put it this way: I consider myself pretty right-wing. I'm about to receive an NRA membership for my 30th birthday, and I couldn't be happier. I almost wrote in my friend Peter G. Klein for president in 2008. In fact, if you are looking for that perfect fusion between Reagan and Ron Paul, I am that guy. [ You shored up your right-wing bona fides by voting for Obama.--ed. ] Exactly. The point is, if you take the novel step, of you know, listening to the guy, he didn't say pro-lifers were terrorists; he merely noted (somewhat pointlessly) that a sub-group of white supremacists will identify as pro-life, probably as an excuse fo...

Alomar, PED, and the Hall of Fame There has been something of a minor furor over Roberto Alomar’s narrow failure to be elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame by 8 votes. Alomar, the celebrated second baseman whose prime in the 1990s was celebrated even at the time, famously spat in the face of an umpire while playing for Baltimore. In short, the word is that he may have ruffled more than a few feathers. And so the cycle begins anew each year, as decorated players from the media age end their careers with impressive but not certain cases for election. Sometimes, we get the added bonus of a personal cloud hanging over a player, as in this case. The age-old questions arise: Do we compare him to his contemporaries? Is dominance the measure of worthiness? To what extent do we consider his position, and the expected offensive (or defensive) production commensurate with it? For the era itself, we ask if league expansion has diluted the quality of competition. And surely we ask if the use of perf...

5 Songs In My Head When I Woke Up This Morning (Or Lines Therein) 5. "When it feels like the world is on your shoulders/And all of the madness has got you goin' crazy..." 4. "Oh when you walk by every night, talkin' sweet and looking fine/I get kinda hectic inside..." 3. "My love, there's only you in my life/The only thing that's right..." 2. "When can my heart beat again?/When does the pain ever end..." 1. "Sure, I think about you now and then/But it's been a long, long, time..." Bonus Track: "There was a girl from a wagon train/Who headed west across the plains..."

The Folly of Dismissing the Mainstream and Popular in Music Let me begin this by saying that I despise musical snobbery. By this, I do not mean an appreciation for the high art involved in constructing music, nor an understanding of the language of music, nor a dogged appreciation of one style or genre of music. Rather, I mean an a priori rejection of a musical form or performer simply because it/he/she is popular. I do not say that popularity equates with quality, nor do I deny the possibility (cherished by music snobs) that truly great music is buried underneath piles of mindless dreck. But I do say that even buried within the art of those whose music we revile, the music which zooms up the charts inexplicably like funky swamp gas into your nostrils, is gold waiting to be mined. Maybe it's just a song that needed to bake in the oven of the AC charts for a time; maybe they wait while we mature, leaving the petty cliques of our youth (and their distinct sonic identities) behind....

5 Thoughts On My Hebrew Final Exam 5. "What is the root of this word?" 4. "What if this word isn't in my lexicon? Not in BDB, my ginormous $30 lexicon." 3. "This is a horribly hard text." 2. "I want to punch someone in the face." 1. "I wish my name was C. John Collins." P.S. It ain't over.

5 Thoughts For The Moment 5. Babyface is like a gateway drug; I'll bet on being a fan of Ken Hirai on the strength of this song. 4. Finish the post; you need sleep. 3. If you can be the best quarterback in football and the most overrated at the same time, Peyton Manning is it. 2. God bless the inventor(s) of Coca-Cola. 1. Happy Birthday, "JB." May your next 25 years be as criminally good-looking as these have been.

5 Inconvenient Dangerous Thoughts I Had During A Hermeneutics/Scripture Discussion 5. "Maybe Scripture isn't perspicuous." 4. "What is the 'gospel'"? 3. "That hermeneutical spiral thing you keep mentioning is a load of crap, and too much a concession to the postmodernists anyway." 2. "Maybe there's so many denominations because our final authority was not intended to be used for that purpose." 1. "Maybe there's so many denominations because we are angry malcontents and schism-artists." [ So are you ready to submit to the infalliable Roman Catholic Church, and the successor to St. Peter?--ed. ] No. But I salute them for provoking the question, and for providing a semi-palatable, alluring answer, even if it is highly convenient. Sola Ecclesia is better than No Ecclesia. Which is really what you've left us with, "Uncle Marty." That's another thing--James White, are you listening?--You're darn skipp...

Dangerous Jamie is at it again. Seriously, stop waiting around to read Bryan's essay on ecclesial deism; No, I don't care if you don't think Catholics are saved. You're wrong, anyway. The ecclesial infalliability claim bothers me too, but alas, I haven't read through Newman, so I reserve judgment at this time. This is THE question of the new decade: Is it time to go home? Co-belligerence is a failure; I'm telling you, non-Christians see right through it, and they wonder if it's just a ploy for a political program to "save America from the heathen" [read: Democrats, socialists, gays, peaceniks, and college professors. Yes, I know I repeat myself. Granted, in all seriousness, the only group I'd have no gripe with is the peaceniks, but the point is, "How's licking the boots of the GOP working out for you?" But I digress.]. The giant elephant in the room is: Can we sustain a protest on points of doctrine which we cannot verify, even ...

5 Thoughts On The Day In Football 5. Fear the Ravens. 4. The most important player on the Patriots is...Wes Welker? Who knew? 3. Good job remaining composed, Aaron Rodgers. I was wrong about you. 2. Ray Lewis is still the best linebacker in football. 1. Blitzing Kurt Warner is like wiping your buns and having a movement; just not smart.

With Respect, Brett Favre Is Your NFL MVP And it shouldn't have been close. The scandal of it is that Favre is already a three-time MVP (1995-97) which was a record until now. Favre had 33 touchdown passes this season, only 1 fewer than Drew Brees--who didn't win the award either--and threw the fewest interceptions, 7, of any starter in the league. Brees threw 11. The great Tom Brady threw the ball to the other squad 13 times. Peyton Manning threw sixteen interceptions, while throwing the same number of touchdown passes as Mr. Favre. The quarterback rating, whose formula is admittedly shrouded in mystery but combines completion percentage, passing yards, and passing touchdowns into a useful number--favors Favre over the winner Manning as well. Manning's rating was 99.9, with the best possible number being 158.3. Favre's was 107.2. Brees posted the best in the league at 109.6. The question is, with Manning leading in only one significant category with 4,500 passing yard...

5 Thoughts On "Funny People" 5. Believe it or not, Judd Apatow is not without a moral. 4. Adam Sandler is definitely entering the realm of "Respected Actor." 3. This movie is crude, but laugh out loud funny most of the way (and appropriately serious the rest of the time). 2. James Taylor still sounds incredible. 1. Lord, give me a nerd for a wife.

5 Thoughts for Today 5. What do you mean, you've never heard of Steve Perry? 4. Returning that extra lexicon probably nets me enough for a new Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament. 3. She's definitely poem-worthy. 2. Snow and chill is my bitter pill. 1. "We're all lookin' for redemption/Just afraid to say the Name."

5 More Thoughts On Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 5. Verse 5 seems to strongly indicate (especially the Hebrew syntax) that Abraham believed Isaac would be alive after this ordeal, one way or another. 4. Abraham told his young servants to stay with the donkey. Was it a poorly-behaved donkey? And why did they not take it with them? [ Because it was a bad donkey, obviously.--ed. ] Maybe! 3. It may have been more culturally normative for Abraham to sacrifice his son than we realize, but Isaac obviously hadn't gotten the memo. 2. My teacher may be right to say it is harmful to teach this passage from the beginning with Isaac as a type of Christ, since he fades into the background in this story. 1. Fine, sir, you win. But take it up with the Fathers. Moreover, if I were a pastor, I'd keep this text in my Christmas or Easter liturgy out of (gentle) spite.

5 Reactions To Being Told "Genesis 22 is not about Christ." 5. What do you mean "about"? Isn't the whole Bible about Jesus? 4. The point that Isaac was meant as a burnt offering, and thus cannot be analogous to Christ's sacrifice is moot if Christ's cross subsumes all OT sacrifices into itself; better stated, that His cross has differing nodes or aspects in its fulfillment. Interesting side defense of my teacher's position: If he is correct to say that Gen. 22's (Abraham-Isaac, specifically) main thrust is the testing of Abraham, could we not say that Our Lord was similarly tested--and passed superabundantly--in a manner analogous to Abraham? And in this case, He was both the one tested, and the victim of the test. Isn't that amazing? 3. The Church Fathers disagree with you, sir. 2. No notion of sensus fidelium for you. Noted. 1. Not about Christ with respect to what?

5 Snarky Thoughts On J-Term Hebrew At Seminary 5. I wish I'd failed the final for the last class. 4. Two weeks of pure pain. 3. This is like "Armageddon"--except we don't have Bruce Willis. 2. "Proficiency is such a nebulous word; I prefer 'interact.' " 1. I will likely call my teacher a Samaritan--with all the scorn of a son of Jacob--by the end.

My Thoughts on the 2012 GOP Presidential Field First, the list: Palin, Jindal, Pawlenty, Barbour, Huckabee. I think only Huckabee has no shot, sorry to say. He's hated by vast portions of the electorate, and even the GOP primary electorate. No way he gets the fiscal wing or the "South Park Republicans." Bobby Jindal: Has a great shot, because he's positioned himself well against both the Democrats and the Bush Republicans. Weaknesses: He's Southern. The danger that we will become, or are a regional party is a real one. Obama will play on this for all it's worth. Ethnic bonus: Take the 'racist' card from Obama and the Dems. 'Historic' bonus as well. Palin: Beloved by the base, able to get moderate women/Clintonites, credible independent stance. It's hard for me to say a bad word about her. The legacy media's ability to slime her will further diminish, and the fact that they will try will only help her. Weaknesses: She needs to downplay...

The problem is, there are things I want to say. Deep things. And I have a friend who will tease me endlessly about my desperation, about my forthright, candid disclosures. I've tried to remember that anyone can read this, but now I no longer care. More than anything, I hate the terrifying thought that I'm completely a mystery to every other human being on this planet. Often, I wonder: Is everyone posturing all the time? Do any of us really know each other at all? What if we know images of each other, but never the real thing? God (allegedly) knows everything about us and loves us deeply, most especially His children, who believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Fair enough. But I need some kind of an idea that I'm not entirely alone in the human sense, and/or crazy. These very moments, I feel entirely unique. Different. Strange. I feel very stupid, because I still believe that pure love exists. I'd like to think I've given it, if only for a moment, and inconsistentl...