The Truth Dude

The Existentialist and the Evangelist

christianmeme — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 01:16:41 -0400

In a crowded city street, filled with the smell of untasted foods and the shouts of foreign tongues, walks a man seeking answers. Dust fills the air from the shuffle of sandaled feet and traded goods as our man pushes his way through the crowd. Finally, he finds what he is looking for: overlooking the city like a mountain in the sea soars the great rock of Wisdom. Here thinkers and philosophers from every corner of the province, even the world, come to share their knowledge. Here inquisitive minds and lost souls like himself come from every academic building and dark corner seeking the same end, truth. The man takes his time with each speaker, he will not leave until he has found what he is looking for, spending a few minutes heeding their words and then moving on. It is a buffet of knowledge, truly a sight to see. But our man does not want a sampler platter, he wants the main dish.

Two voices in particular catch his ear. Two voices distinct and very different yet uniquely both real and optimistic. One calls himself an Existentialist. He has a humble confidence about him, a smirk on his face and a twinkle in his eye. He says that there is no God and life if is anguish, abandonment, and despair. The brutal honestly struck and intrigued our man, his life was not in good condition and he could relate to such a sentiment. The Existentialist says that we are in anguish because without God all of our decisions shape the mold by which we are claiming all men ought to live. On every action we bear the responsibility of the future of mankind. We are abandoned because there is no God and with his absence no divine hope; man is the only future of man. But now man has all the future ahead of him, mankind will be what we make of him and the future can contain great possibility. We are in despair, however, because the future is not where we live. We must live within the realm of possibility and no matter our actions, mankind could always go the other way. Mankind is desperately, inexorably, positively condemned to be free.

Our man feels the weight of the speaker’s pronouncement but feels an excitement at them as well. There is a rush at the thought of pure freedom and a pride in the power of participating in controlling and shaping the future of mankind. But as he continues to ponder and the existentialist trails on, another voice enters his mind. It is the voice of the other man, also with a confident humility but also an air of nobility like he hadn’t felt since as a dream. He called himself an Evangelist. He claimed the revelation of an unknown creator God and proclaimed repentance for the worship of idols and other sins. He spoke of a Kingdom not of this world and King yet to return. He spoke of a Spirit of Power and the resurrection of the dead. Anguish, abandonment, and despair were put to death, he said, and were replaced with joy, sonship, and hope. There was a spark of fire in his eyes and a whisper of magic in his breath.

Our man found a new excitement of different kind with these words. He remembered the words of the Existentialist. Would he believe the burden of defining himself and man in a world without God? Would he believe in a God that reveals himself and call us sons? Surely the world is much too cold for all that, surely the Christian is a hopeless optimist. Just then, the words of the Evangelist spoke the words of his so called messiah, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Our man had come here with a burden looking for release, he did not want to add another. Slowly he approached the Evangelist. After that day he carried a burden no more.

Love is a Verb

christianmeme — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 16:59:04 -0500

Often we Christians place such emphasis on what it takes for salvation, by grace alone through faith, that we depict Jesus as begging us to “accept” him into a vague and complacent belief instead of an active call to follow him, to serve, to love, and to go. May we not stagnate but hunger for growth.

That The Church May Fulfill It's Role As The Body Of Christ

christianmeme — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 15:11:59 -0500

How is that we, the Church, sing songs about how, “with God everything is possible,” we quote verses that say “I can do all things through Christ,” and then think we need the government to do the church’s job of taking care of the poor, the hungry, the orphan, widow, etc? “The Church just doesn’t have the resources,” we say. So Christ is able to save my everlasting soul but is insufficient to meet my physical needs? What a puny, inconsiderate God. Do we really think that we, the body of Christ, the very hands of God, are impotent to care for his children? Is the church unable to do what it was created for? No! God has seen and experienced all of our physical needs and weeps with us in them. That is why Jesus forgave and healed, for he has pity on us. That is why we, the body are Christ, are here. We are here to be Gods arms wrapped around His children, showing His love, sharing His gospel, doing His will on earth as it is in heaven.

Instead, we say its too hard for God, its too difficult for the body of Christ, we just dont have the resources. So we look to the man made governmental bureaucracy to do God’s work, giving the least of these a check, leaving them and us worse. Jesus told us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, and however we treated the least of these would be like how we were treating Jesus. Well something tells me Jesus doesn’t want a welfare check. The federal government spends 1.3 trillion every year on Health Care and Welfare. According to an approximate $40,000 median personal income, if nearly every person in America (300 million) gave just 10% of their income to their local church, ykno tithed, that would be $1.2 trillion. Cut out the bureaucracy and the waste, add the God-given talent and creativity of local charity, and you get less-expensive and real help. Yeah not everyone is gunna give to their church still, don’t tell me its impossible, that we don’t have the resources, that God is unable to equip His body to take care of His people.

Simply put, we don’t need Medicare or Welfare, we need people to actually care. Voting to take one person’s money and give it to another doesn’t make you compassionate or charitable. And in case you think the Church and government could work together, any scheme which seeks to save a rich man or help a poor man through forced and impersonal benevolence only makes one dependent and the other resentful because loving your neighbor simply cannot be compelled. Let the government focus on retributional justice, as they should, and the Church will worry about relational justice. We need real, personal, voluntary charity and love from the Body of Christ to those who need help, creating local and sustainable growth that justly restores relationships and cures spiritual poverty through the Gospel of Jesus. Oh, that the Church may rise up and fill its role fully as the Body of Christ!

maraclarkes: Your day has not been complete until this is on...

christianmeme — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:47:34 -0500

maraclarkes:

Your day has not been complete until this is on your dashboard.

Quick Thought On Secularization and the Place of Religion and Politics

christianmeme — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:35:50 -0500

A people will always create laws that reflect their morality, wherever it may come from. Throughout our history laws were based on the Judeo-Christian ethics and worldview. Recently, this has started to shift toward more of a secular humanist morality. I personally think this will have an ultimately negative result, but this is merely the nature of free and representative government. It is true that for me to say that only Christian morality may influence law, and for the Christian minority to seize power, preventing the majority from articulating their morality through law, would be a hijacking of government by religion and violate the very nature of government and civil law. One must also concede, however, (and this was my main point) that the other side of the coin is also true. For one to say only secular humanist morality may influence law, and that majority of people’s morality may not be reflected in law merely because it is from a religious perspective, also violates the purpose of and nature of a free civil government. This is basically what the First Amendment was originally intended to articulate. Congress shall make no law establishing one religion as the only true and official religion which informs all religious and civil decisions. No, in the marketplace of ideas, various religious and non-relgious ideas should compete to inform the morality and politics of the civil society, with the winners shaping law within the constrains of the constitution.

Voting for the Cool Kid: The Presidential Popularity Contest

christianmeme — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 22:16:05 -0500

Recently, I was recalling the joke that was the elections back in school for class president and whatnot. As young as elementary school, they had us voting on our classmates, like we knew crap about democracy and leadership. Not to mention it was a joke, student government has no real power its just a farce by the administration to make us feel included. But I digress… Do you remember how we elected our so called representatives? It had nothing to do with who was most qualified or who had the best ideas. It didn’t even have anything to do with who cared! It was all about who was coolest, who could make the best jokes, or who gave out free candy on election day. It was a popularity contest, plain and simple. Meanwhile, the poor kids who actually cared, nerds mostly, got defeated time and time again.

I know all about this because I experienced it first. No, I was not the nerd who got defeated you jerks. My Junior year of High School I ran for Student Council Vice President against a well intentioned, very smart girl in my same class. She had a plan, she was gonna change things, and really wanted to put VP on her transcript. I, however, ran on a whim and spent about a month indoors (I was grounded) writing up my best stand up routine. I talked about combining the nutty Snickers faculty with the out of control Musketeers students to create the Milky Way democracy our school needed. I talked about my endorsement from the old drivers ed and golf coach. I may have even promised free ice cream fridays. Needless to say, I won. I won and then continued to not go to a single student body function the whole year.

You see, first of all, I really didn’t care about creating a Milky Way Democracy, I only cared about winning the popularity contest, having the title, the power, and I would say whatever I needed to. I was a demagogue, riling up the masses for my own personal interest. Ok I was really just a punk (Sorry Genevieve) but there is a lesson there.

But the biggest thing I learned from reflecting on this is how all of the students I grew up with, voting their representatives based on popularity, jokes, and free candy, are now voting for real representatives with real power at stake. Those same students, my generation, my peers, took that same attitude into the voting booth last week. Except now instead of free candy they’re being promised free condoms. Our presidential election has become nothing more than a big popularity contest. Obama is cool, he plays basketball, he hangs out with Jay-Z, he’s handsome and has lots of friends. Romney is a nerd. If the presidents had a talent competition Obama would shoot threes and Romney would start a successful business. Romney also advocated hard work and personal responsibility, Obama advocated free ice cream fridays.

You see children will never vote against Santa Clause and middle schoolers will never vote against the cool kid. I know there are intelligent, albeit misinformed, voters. But the cool kid isn’t just running to put it on his resume, there is real power and money at stake here. The demagogue is very good at looking cool and the con-man doesn’t look like on until its too late. So unless we grow up, America, the cool kid could end up being the bully after all and we just voted in our own wedgie.

The Progressive States of America hereby issue this Declaration of Dependence.

christianmeme — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 01:32:42 -0500

We hold these “truths” to be socially constructed, that all men, women, transgender, and whatever else your heart leads you to be, are evolved equally, that they are endowed by their government with certain politically expedient rights, that among these rights are government provided food, clothes, housing, and healthcare.

Evolution's Blind Faith

christianmeme — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 00:41:04 -0400

From a book review by the famous evolutionist Richard Lewontin. Lewontin wrote the following:
“Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”
Richard Lewontin (Harvard University geneticist), “Billions & Billions of Demons,” New York Times Book Reviews (9 Jan. 1997), p. 31 (italics in the original). The review is of Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
(Random House, 1997). Found this reference on Answersingenesis.com

Intellectual Anarchism: A Warning from 1915 Germany

christianmeme — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:09:54 -0400

In the prophetic 1915 book What’s Wrong with Germany? by William Harbutt Dawson I found this gem. He quotes German thinker Dr. Freidrich Paulsen on how on earth nihilistic atheist philosopher Nietzsche gained such popularity in Germany.

“How comes it,” he asks, “that young Germany welcomes a writer of this kind as a revelation? There must exist a condition of mind to which it responds; for Nietzsche can teach nobody; he would himself have laughed loud if anyone told him that he owed to him, the fugitivus errans [wandering exile], who never stood on firm ground himself, clear ideas and fixed convictions. What is this mood? I think it is just that from which Nietzsche suffers—intellectual anarchism; and the cause of this mood of depression (for it is a pathological condition) I deem to be the excess of pressure and compulsion to correctness to which everybody is exposed from youth to age. Intellectual anarchism if a reaction against the long-continued subjection imposed in the school, the Church, society, and the State. The effect of this ceaseless discipline is that correct idea upon all matters, historical and political, religious and moral, literary and philological, of which we are trained by long schooling and many examinations, by public opinion and private admonitions, by patriotic festivals with their eternally reiterated eloquence, by seduction and threat, at last appear to us so stale, insipid, and intolerable that we tear up and throw from us everything, the correct opinions with the old truths, the conventional standards with the worn-out relics, and eventually logic and morality with them, give ourselves over to saturnalia [wild party] of paradox, and celebrate a very feast of intellectual topsy-turvydom.”

NOTE: This is the subjection which happens when we teach kids how to sit still in their desks instead of how to think, how to stay in line instead of how to create, and how to do enough to not get in trouble instead of how to excell. They rebel against the systems which birthed them and, in turn, reality itself. They look for answers in the stupefaction of strong drinks or in a populist tyrant. It was the intellectually anarchist youth of 1915, spawned by “God is dead” Nietzsche, which voted for Hitler in 1933. Proof that when there is no truth, liars will define it.

christianmeme: Haitian people reading first world problems....

christianmeme — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 23:19:08 -0400

christianmeme:

Haitian people reading first world problems. puts things into perspective. God wants us to be radical, what are you going to do about it?First World Problems Anthem (by TheGiftOfWater)

Christian Ethics and Universal Hierarchy Explained

christianmeme — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 23:49:00 -0400

This is Part II. Again let me know if I stray, I think I stay solid even through the hypotheticals although I could have used more explanation for the last one.

The struggle with ethics for me is how to carry what I described below into a classroom or secular situation. It’s not that I’m afraid to bring up God or do not think he is not relevant. But usually, I try and start on common ground and lead people to God. I try and lead them to understanding how God is central to whatever we’re talking about and it all rests on him. However, in ethics this transition happens very quickly. I can talk about universals in general but the minute anyone bring up a dilemma, they think they’ve violated your universal and proved its all relative. Because with universals in general they should all be seen equally. The universal that killing is wrong should not be superior or inferior to the universal lying is wrong. But only by viewing universals in the light of God do we see how they carry different weights of importance while still being so drastically important. It is enough that God says it and it makes sense to us, but do want to attempt to think through it logically. We are created in the image of God and called to reflect that image. Any violation of the nature of God darkens that reflection and distances us from God. Because God is alive and other humans bear his image, God calls killing wrong. God is honest so God calls lying wrong. A lie darkens our reflection of God, but a death snuffs the reflection out entirely. Therefore, it would be better to darken our reflection rather than see a reflection eliminated. This raises a couple issues. First, the often thought Christian idea that God sees all sins equally. There is no difference, in God’s sight, between murder and lying. This comes from the idea that any sin, no matter how small, violates God’s holiness and removes us from the ability to be unified with him. We all are, therefore, sinners needing of forgiveness and atonement through the cross and are all forgiven when we call upon it. The murderer rapist and the lustful teenager are equally needing forgiveness and equally forgiven, both raised up and called sons of God. All of this is true. However, this does not mean that no matter how much we sin its like we’ve only sinned once because we need to be forgiven once and it doesn’t exclude that a greater amount of sins creates greater distance between one and God. Indeed, Jesus said, “He who is forgiven much, loves much.” This means one can be forgiven little as well! Therefore, since different sins create greater distance from God because they violate God’s intentions and universals in greater ways, some sins can be said to be preferable to others. Although the luster has already committed adultery in his heart in God’s eyes, lust does still not create the havoc and destruction that real adultery would. This does, of course, not mean that God wants any sin, but desires and demands holiness. But as previously mentioned, in a depraved world, God’s intentions are given in light of poor choices. I ought to be righteous. Given the choice, I should lust rather than commit adultery. On to the second issue, a more drastic choice often raised. A train is barreling down a track splitter you’re standing in front of. It is heading down the track that will leap off a cliff and kill all 100 people on board but if you switch tracks it will kill one person incidentally tied of on the tracks. This is not an easy situation and makes me want to say, “I don’t believe in hypotheticals, its like lying to your mind.” But it will only bug me so I persist. According to the principles I’ve laid out, the ethical decision would be to switch the track because in a given situation between two evils in a fallen world, one should seek the higher universal and make the choice to greatest protect the universal good, in this case the most lives. Now what if it was 51-49? I suppose 51 based on this principle. It’s not an easy question or decision but it makes sense and is better than my answer three years ago: fall on my knees and pray. Choosing to not act is still a choice. Now doesn’t this turn into the greatest good principle? Whatever is best for the most amount of people is the right decision? No, it doesn’t because it still based on universal ethics based in revelation from God. The greatest good principle is another one of those philosophies starting with the particulars and attempting to achieve a universal. But what happens when 51% of the people want to kill the 49%? This would not be an issue under the Biblical principle because the protection of life based on the image of God would be inviolate. In this situations it should also be noted that everything should be done to avoid this decision and save both lives or keep from violating any universals, even if it means laying down your own life. I’m reminded of the scene of the Dark Knight where the two boats had to choose to kill the other boat or they both would explode. One was even full of criminals. It is clear that the criminals still deserve respect and life despite their crimes, first of all. But most importantly, there is also still hope that something will keep both from exploding (because Batmans on it) and either boat should be willing to sacrifice themselves. Even now, hypothetical questions continue to come in my head. What if the train is full of old people and the one person on the track is a baby? Honestly, I think I save the baby. Why? Because the innocence and hope of new life outweighs the fatigue of old and I think the train of old people would want to me to. It’s not just a mathematical equation. Is there always an easy solution, no because we are in a fallen world facing less than ideal situations. These are also crazy hypotheticals. Its also late and my brain hurts. All I can do aim for the universals and pray I won’t face any of these situations. And if I do, I will trust that my knowledge of the universals and the presence of the Holy Spirit in me will lead me to make the right decision. That is the hope which God’s universals and Holy Spirit offer to the world of ethics. The “ought to” in easy as well as difficult situations and the presence of God with you to lead you through it all. Until then, I’m staying away from train tracks.

Christian Ethics and the Universal Hierarchy Principle

christianmeme — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 23:44:00 -0400

Wrote an Ethics journal post and did some serious philosophizing. I started following a strain of logic and was thinking more abstractly rather than straight Biblically, so let me know if I stray. I don’t think I got heretical.

People forget there is a difference between morality and ethics. Morality is the mores, the morality, of a given culture or people. It is what is. Ethics is the ethos, or principles or actions. It is what ought to be. Morality deals with particulars while Ethics deals with universals. Often we try and define ethics by using particulars. We even think that one particular can negate a universal. Which seems to make sense, since a universal should be exactly that, universal and even one violation of exception would negate the universal. But ethics is very narrow and specific. What we ought to do would have to be narrow because for every righteous action there are many wicked perversions. There is, after all, many ways to fall down but only one way to stand up straight. It is conceivable then, in a given situation, what ought to be is not an option. One must choose between two evils because the world or situation is of such depraved morality and so distant from what ought to be. Therefore one may face a situation like the classic example, lying to the Nazi questioners in order to keep the Jews you’re hiding alive. But violating a universal for a particular situation does not eliminate the universal if the violation is done in order to uphold another, superior, universal. The value of human life is superior to the value of telling the truth. However, this also does not mean that the ends justify the means. The firm foundation of universal ethics prevents us from violating universals with candor and delight for a supposed greater cause. Rather, guided by the hierarchy of universals in world of depraved morality, one may through careful deliberation and thought make ethical decisions which violate some universals for the sake of a superior one. Of course, the question arises how we know what these universals are. If this source be of human origin, it is not universal at all but only a particular because it is coming from a particular human being with a limited grasp of the truth of the world around him. No, universals must come from a source with universal access and knowledge, or revelation from God. Now, there are many cultures and religions which claim revelation. Without getting into a long discussion of comparative religions, the Bible reveals a God which by far fits the reality which we perceive, particularly when it comes to morality and ethics. The God of the Bible (from now on referred to as God), lays down firm universal principles from which we are to discern which ought to be. However, because the world is sinful and corrupt, exceptions are allowed for in order to preserve a greater universal. For example, Jesus explains how in the beginning “God made them male and female” so they might cleave together and become “one flesh.” However, God gave a law through Moses which allowed for divorce in some circumstances such as marital infidelity because they were sinful people who, without such allowance, would neglect, abuse, or kill their spouses. The universal of God’s intentions for marriage was violated in order to protect the superior universal or protecting life. The same can be same of the allowance for polygamy or slavery (which was not racial or slave trading) in the Old Testament. But these exemptions do not change God’s intention for the universal or our responsibility to strive for the intention. As Jesus continued, “what God has brought together let man not tear apart.” When we have great knowledge of the hierarchy of universals, therefore, we are better able to discern our actions or decisions in particular situations. But without knowledge of God and his universal principles revealed in the Bible, we are unable to decipher any reasonable structure for ethics and what ought to be but only left with the particulars and morality that is relative to different cultures and people. But when morality is decided by 51% of the dominant culture, morality could become very unethical indeed.

Can you sing? Sing for Jesus.

christianmeme — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 11:11:18 -0400

Can you sing? Sing for Jesus.

Can you paint? Paint for Jesus.

Can you dance? Dance for Jesus.

Can you help others? Help others for Jesus.

Can you speak to a crowd? Speak for Jesus.

Can you give? Give for Jesus.

Anything you do, do it for Jesus. Blessings will come your way.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a box fan, right by your bed, in the middle of summer, in a house with...

christianmeme — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 23:10:38 -0400

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a box fan, right by your bed, in the middle of summer, in a house with no a/c.

"Bruce Metzger, who is a scholar from Princeton, made the comment; he said, ‘After you take the..."

christianmeme — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:12:34 -0400

“

Bruce Metzger, who is a scholar from Princeton, made the comment; he said, ‘After you take the 20,000 lines of the New Testament, it is safe for any scholar to say there’s at least a 99.6% accuracy.’ No ancient document—none—has the kind of documentary support that the Bible has; over 5,000 documents.

Even Time Magazine in ‘88 … Richard Ostling made the comment, ‘One thing we cannot deny the Christians,’ he said, ‘is the documentation that is available across the centuries; nothing in ancient literature matches it.’ Neither Homer, nor Escalus … nor the Gaelic wars of Caesar, whatever.

So, when you’ve got this kind of documentation, this kind of accuracy, that kind of a person in the person of Christ, I think you’ve got pretty compelling evidence to see why it is that we need to take Christ very seriously.

”

- Ravi Zacharias (via martelthechristianrapper)
Yeah mane

christianmeme: princessofyahweh89: brainfizzlesandsmiles: boyw...

christianmeme — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:53:38 -0400

christianmeme:

princessofyahweh89:

brainfizzlesandsmiles:

boywonder-uno:

Wendy’s speaks the truth you guys.

woot!

God is GOOD!

This is awesome! And the culture war begins because of chicken sandwiches…

Parable of the Lost Keys

christianmeme — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 10:19:02 -0400

The kingdom of heaven is like tearing apart your entire house looking for keys while you’re running late for work, only to realize they were in your pocket all along.

"If nothing is self-evident, nothing can be proved."

christianmeme — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 14:08:26 -0400

“If nothing is self-evident, nothing can be proved.”

- C.S. Lewis - Abolition of Man

Freedom begins with being able to say 2+2=4. All else follows

christianmeme — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 12:17:56 -0400

Freedom begins with being able to say 2+2=4. All else follows

"A cry for help from the heart of a childlike believer is sweet praise in the ears of God. Nothing..."

christianmeme — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 01:57:29 -0400

“A cry for help from the heart of a childlike believer is sweet praise in the ears of God. Nothing exalts Him more than the collapse of self-reliance which issues in passionate prayer for help. “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Ps. 50:15). Prayer is the translation into a thousand different words of a single sentence: “Apart from me [Christ] you can do nothing” (John 15:5).”

- John Piper (via lbow247)

Help me Jesus. Please.