Over on Biblical Studies Resources to Het Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap, which besides maintaining an awesome website loaded with information, also maintains a ‘breaking news’ rss and web page for OT related news.

That according to a leading Evangelical spokesman.  I must say- wow- I’m shocked!  I always thought the Fundagelicals only loved the Elephant.  After all- it’s God’s Own Party, isn’t it?  What’s funny though is that the author of the editorial never says who he is (unless I just missed it).  So he can’t really be too willing to expose himself to criticism.  Hmmm…  Not exactly a person of too deep a conviction after all then, is he?

Schools- forget it. Some crazed kid may mow you down with momma’s .45. Church? Heck, even there you might get popped in the parking lot. And even a fast food joint isn’t safe, and hasn’t been for decades. And in case you’ve forgotten that hideous fact, today’s doings at a Wendy’s in Florida should remind you.

The Associated Press reports

A gunman in a jacket and tie wordlessly opened fire inside a Wendy’s during the lunchtime rush Monday, killing a firefighter who had gone back to fetch the toy left out of his child’s meal and wounding five others. He then committed suicide. “This was not a robbery. He didn’t demand anything,” said Paul Miller, a Palm Beach County sheriff’s spokesman. “Looks like this was just another random shooting like we’ve seen around the United States.” The 42-year-old victim, a Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue lieutenant who was not in uniform, had met his wife and child at the restaurant during a break in training down the street, Deputy Fire-Rescue Chief Steve Delai said. The family had gotten their food and walked out, but the man returned because the free toy was missing from the kids’ meal, he said. … Three of the survivors were critically wounded, but all had improved and were hospitalized in stable condition Monday evening, Miller said. They included a 43-year-old man, a 16-year-old girl, a 65-year-old man and his 62-year-old wife. One person was injured while running away.

So here’s a shout out to the NRA: your unstinting defense of the right of these halfwits to keep and bear arms has resulted in senseless death after senseless death just so you can keep your cold clenched hands grasping your sticks of stupidity. Here’s to you! And the fine judgment that will rightly descend on your death loving heads on the day when the judge of all the earth will haul you before the bar and repay you in kind.  And be sure to hold hands with all the shooters you’ve armed.  Since you love them so and they clearly love you too.

How? Well to get an interview with Chris Tilling! Of course I can only say that sort of mean thing because I like Tilling so much. It’s true. Stop shaking your head like that. Anyway, give a listen to the interview (it’s an mp3) here.

And that’s exactly how this particular Jewish woman sees it. Hagee and his ilk aren’t really pro-Israel at all. At heart, they are anti-Semites. As the aforementioned writer rightly notes

…if your goal is to eventually see the end of the Jewish religion through conversions, then guess what? You’re as much of an anti-Semite as Farrakhan, even if you think you just LOVE you some Jews!

That Christian Zionists are unable to see this bespeaks volumes of their lack of self awareness.  Further, the anti-Semitism of the early 20th century pales in comparison to the sort evinced by Hagee et al because Hagee’s and company is more insidious and disguises itself as love.  Read the whole piece linked to above (but pay no mind to the ‘party in hell’ bit- that’s just craziness).  With thanks to Katie for the tip.

And Kevin Wilson has it over at Blue Cord.  Take a look and enjoy!

I’ve been informed of the following:

I have just completed the hypertext interlinear (‘hyperlinear’) of the Thomas Gospel:

www.metalog.org/files/th_interlin.html

which is also linked direct from the website index page. There were numerous minor clarifications to the text plus a few major ones–thanks primarily to having Plumley’s grammar electronically searchable, but also to a careful review of the vocabulary via Crum and Liddell & Scott (also electronically searchable). I do hope you find it useful!

With best regards,

+Paterson Brown
Ecumencal Coptic Project
www.metalog.org

Enjoy!

David has written insightfully concerning the incredibly divisive Trinitarian debates that animated the early Church (because that Church sold its soul to Greek philosophy one must confess). I’m with him. At some gut level I understand the Trinity but trying to explain it is like trying to describe how light moves across space for me. And I also agree with Dave when he notes

I’ve just never got all that excited about trying to understand the Trinity.

And

I don’t want to dismiss the mystery. God exists in the realm of the unseen and unknowable together with particle physics and cell phone transmissions. I like it that way. I like getting brain cramps trying to fit the Old Testament Big Mean Deity in the same box with Jesus Surrounded By Happy Children. They don’t fit. But that says more about my box than it does about God.

Rightly so. In my humble opinion the ink spilled and the blood shed in trinitarian controversies was and is quite misguided.

And now, I can no longer agree with Ker (he’s only allowed one agreement per calendar year) if he posts some further insightful bit. Not that he normally does post more than one insightful bit per year- so here’s hoping he keeps up the pattern!

Antonio Lombatti has spotted a report from the Israel Antiquities Authority which tells of a few thieves caught red handed looting a site.

A band of antiquities robbers was appended [sic.  Most likely this should read 'apprehended'- ed.] on Sunday, 2/3/08, by the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robberies.

Following a stakeout that lasted several days, inspectors of the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robberies caught two suspects red-handed at the Mezad Seraya site next to the co-operative Israeli settlement Mei ‘Ami, near Nahal ‘Iron, while they were digging deep pits in the ground.

According to the director of the unit, Amir Ganor, “the suspects caused extensive and irreversible damage to the antiquities site. This is a declared antiquities site that dates to the Roman-Byzantine period where there are remains of public buildings, caves and probably an ancient pottery workshop. The site was established opposite a volcanic eruption that took place thousands of years ago. We can only assume that the suspects hoped to find coins, glass or oil lamps at the site, which they thought they could sell”.

The suspects, who are in their 20’s and from the village of ‘Ain Rehan located in the West Bank, were detained by inspectors of the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery and brought for questioning to the Umm el-Fahm police station. The suspects have confessed to the acts attributed to them. They are suspected of having committed offenses involving damage to an antiquities site, excavating an antiquities site without a permit and being in Israel illegally.

Good. May more such criminals receive the due recompense of their behavior. And, as a side note, I bet the band they belong to plays that disgusting rap ‘music’. Those are the sorts who steal. Rap sorts….

Soundbite theology: n., the falsely held belief that theological truths can be summarized in a single word, phrase, or short sentence.  Usage: The church has made use of soundbite theology in an effort to avoid the hard work of explaining its beliefs to itself and the world.

The most recent example of soundbite theology is linked to above and concerns a church where the Pastor imagines that the word ‘eternity’ painted on the Church’s roof serves as some sort of theological message.  It doesn’t.  ‘eternity’ is a word that is meaningless without substantive context.

The church has fallen victim to the moronic notion that one can explain theological themes ever so briefly.  Deceived by political soundbites and mottoes, themes, and pithy sayings from Madison Avenue, the church is once again betraying its center and behaving badly.   If your theology can be explained in a phrase, you should probably abandon theology altogether and take up accounting or advertising.