Zwingli Gallery

I’ve uploaded a number of pictures that will be of widespread interest- and I’ve called it the ‘Zwingli Gallery‘. If anyone knows where I can get a hat like his, let me know. And I’m serious.  Oh, and while you’re at it, join the best of all the Facebook Groups, Huldrych Zwingli.  All the really cool people belong.

Want To Understand the Lord’s Supper? Read Zwingli

Or, to be precise, read his booklet titled “Eine klare Unterrichtung vom Nachtmahl Christi” which he published on the 23rd of February in 1526. In it, in four parts, he discusses the phrase ‘this is my body’. He points out the erroneous understanding of both Luther on the one hand and the ‘Old believers’ (the Catholics) on the other. He offers ample scriptural proof and discounts inadequate readings in his grandly and insightfully Zwinglian way. Only the most obtuse and spiritually ill-informed could fail to agree with him.

One text in particular shows the silliness of Luther’s perspective: 1 Cor 15:25- of which Zwingli notes - ‘Sitzt er nun doben, so ist er nit hieniden’. And he ends with a cool little taunting poem:

Sag mir an, db du’s weist,
Das vatter, sun und geist,
Fleisch und blut, brot und wyn
Als sampt ein got mög sin?

Yup!  That pretty much says it all.

 

The Ark of the Covenant: Dilettante Magnet Supreme

There’s no magnet, it seems, which attracts more dilettantish nonsense than the Ark of the Covenant. I’ve been trying to find out more about the upcoming History Channel special and stumbled across this little tidbit:

Well i hope you don’t call the men with the straightjackets but this is what i believe. After Christ was cruxified there was an earthquake where cracks in the earth opened up. I think his blood ran into the cracks down through the passageways and into the ark of the covenant buried deep beneath the ground. There also was a resurrection of saints shortly thereafter and they went up to heaven and i think they are the 24 elders around God’s throne.

Spelling has remained as posted.

And then this one threw me for a loop

The apostle John the Revelator, states that the ARK will again be brought forth in the “last days.” Whether that copy of the law which God gave at Sinai will be brought out again or not there will be a copy of that law, traced as with a pen of fire in the heavens, before the wondering gaze of the inhabitants of earth, in connection with the second coming of Christ to the earth. That holy LAW is the STANDARD by which ALL will be JUDGED. That law will CONDEMN the GUILTY: for “sin is the transgression of the law.” That same law that condemns the sinner will witness to the righteousness of those who, through faith in Christ, have tried to walk in HARMONY with its holy precepts, humbly seeking forgiveness for every transgression. Now, isn’t this much better than mere SPECULATIONS, which lead us away from TRUTH, and into GROSS ERROR?

I don’t recall any such thing from ‘John the Revelator’. But I do think three things are self evident:

1- There’s a LOT of misinformation out there parading as ‘knowledge’ and it’s profoundly sad.
2- A LOT of people need to read Eric Clines’ book!
3- Scholars aren’t doing a very good job of ‘getting the word out’. I suppose that’s because some of them are too busy ‘pimping the Bible’ in order to make money.

The bad thing is that these comments are on the History Channel discussion site- where one might have some slim expectation that participants would actually have a bit of sense. Alas, not.

UPDATE: Shockingly, even the Daily Mail has fallen for the foolishness and writes

The real Indiana Jones: Intrepid British don Tudor Parfitt’s mission to find the Lord Ark [sic!!].

And they write a bit further on:

In the course of his epic search, which he has just completed, Parfitt became entangled in a modern-day religious saga. His extraordinary detective story would take him from Zimbabwe to Papua New Guinea, Israel, Egypt and Ethiopia - via the dusty Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. It would take him on a tour of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Tutankhamun treasures, the land of the Pharaohs and the Queen of Sheba, and into a complex world of codes, theories and mythical adventures. His eventual find could rewrite the history of the world as we know it.

What Dreck. If I subscribed to the Daily Mail I’d cancel my subscription and demand my money back. [Originally posted Feb 22].

UPDATE II: The History Channel website has this bit of information:

The existence and location of the Ark of the Covenant has remained one of the most enduring mysteries in archaeology. Professor Tudor Parfitt from London’s School of Oriental and African Studies will reveal where he believes the Ark is. Parfitt is well-known for discovering that the Lemba tribe in Zimbabwe is one of the lost tribes of Israel. Follow this global quest-detective as he decodes ancient texts and pieces together clues. Ultimately he builds a picture of what he thinks the Ark looks like and where it is. The journey takes viewers through Israelite wars, Philistine shrines, Solomon’s Temple and Africa to the final, critical clue which led Parfitt to its current location.

It’s set to last two hours. It sounds to me like a ‘live blogging’ opportunity for sure…

The Crisis of Academic Theology

Chris Tilling has mentioned this essay- which I find utterly incredible.  Is academic theology in crisis?  Oh yes- a resounding yes.  But not for the reasons Graf seems to suggest.  The real reason that Academic theology is in crisis is because it has precious little to do, at all, with the mass of Christians whom it is supposed to serve.  Not a single working Systematic theologian seems to have any notion of what it means to speak in the language of the ‘common’ believer.  The last great theologian who could do so was Emil Brunner.  Once he died, the connection between the theology of the Academy and the simple believer was severed.

Graf laments the loss of great theological minds whereas I lament the loss of any meaning in academic theology.   It - to be brutally blunt- serves no useful purpose so far as the Church is concerned.  It serves itself.  But nothing else.  Perhaps it’s time to return to the heady days of Dialectical theology- the last great theological movement; not because it was the finest (that honor is reserved to the Reformers) but because it was the last.

Not Even Nick Norelli Would Do This, I Hope

That is, use his child as a human shield to keep the police from using a taser, like this totally depraved ‘father’ did.  Sure, Nick will drop ‘em, toss ‘em, and use their clothes as a sack to carry ‘em, but he wouldn’t shield himself from the police with ‘em, would he?

Lüdemann’s Latest

Spotted by Antonio, these are the latest essays Gerd’s put up on his website: One on D.F. Strauss here, and another one here (which hosts several links). And still another Straussian exaltation here. (Note- they are all about Strauss- but not all by Gerd).

Lest We Forget…

It was the 23rd of February, 2000, that George Beasley-Murray left this life to ascend Jacob’s Ladder to the next. He was a fine scholar and a wonderful friend. May he continue resting in peace. Lest we forget…

Christian Zionists In Atlanta

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a report on the phenomenon (heresy) of Christian Zionism which begins

Israel is feeling the love from an unusual constituency. A slice of evangelical Christendom, which spent decades trying to convert Jews, has organized in recent years to support them. During a local show of support last Monday, 2,500 conservative Christians gathered in a Powder Springs church to wave Israeli and U.S. flags, bow their heads as a rabbi prayed, applaud local Jewish and Israeli dignitaries and shout out support for Israel, pep-rally style. The crowning speaker was the Rev. John Hagee. “Those who fight against Israel are fighting against God himself,” he told the cheering crowd.

John Hagee obviously isn’t aware of several facts: first, Israel isn’t God. Second, the modern state of Israel has as much to do with Biblical Israel as Britain has to do with the ‘Ten Lost Tribes’.

Hagee has become one of America’s best known proponents of a movement with a contradictory name: Christian Zionism. It is a marriage of politics and current events as seen though particular interpretations of biblical writings, a blend of red-blooded nationalism with evangelistic Protestantism.

And hence the nature of the heresy is exposed. It is a ‘blending’ of nationalism and theology. Or, more accurately- it is a bastardization of theology watered down by political opportunism.

Hagee said Scripture teaches that Israel is the only nation founded by divine decree, God gave Israelis the Mideast land, and the Bible directs people to help and support Israel. “We want to be on the right side of this,” Hagee said of his carte blanche support of Israel and denigration of Palestinian claims to land.

Hagee here demonstrates a profound lack of understanding- and proof that he has never really read the Bible or studied theology.

Thankfully, the essay doesn’t leave Hagee without challenge.

Timothy Weber of Denver, a Baptist former seminary dean, documented the rise of Christian Zionism in his book “On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friends.” The most ardent Israel supporters hold a controversial and convoluted end-time theology called Dispensationalism. In it, Israel and Jerusalem play central roles in Jesus’ eventual triumphal return to Earth, and current events can be foreseen by enlightened readers in symbolically dense biblical passages, Weber said. He said Jews pragmatically overlook theology that includes beliefs that they must either accept Jesus as messiah during the last days or perish.

But of course they do- Hagee and the Zionists serve their political ends. It’s easy to overlook all manner of madness when your pockets are lined and your foes cursed.