Zwingli For Today

Providentia est perpetuum et immutabile rerum universarum regnum et administratio.  — Huldrych Zwingli

Huldrych Zwingli

‘Silver and Gold Have I None…’

Giving the Gospel away has been eclipsed these days in many churches by clothing and gas giveaways. Yet few seem to notice the curious twist which has taken place since the days of the early church when stuff was secondary and the gospel primary. ‘Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ, get up!’ has been replaced by ‘come to our church early Saturday morning and we’ll make sure you have clothes to take to yard sales and sell for a profit of 100% while you laugh behind our backs at our silly gullibility’.

The church of Jesus Christ has lost its way. It has abandoned its center. It has become nothing more, indeed, nothing other in too many corners than a mere social club. It has become the Lion’s Club or the Rotary Club or the Masonic Lodge- doing charitable works, while the Gospel is shoved off to the side as sort of an auxiliary and secondary concern.

The Church should be the Church, not the Goodwill store or the restaurant.

Mind you, the Church must feed the hungry and clothe the naked and give water to the thirsty; but one is forced to wonder how many naked people stood in line in Bentonville? How much food is enough and how much is too much, making the fat fatter and the lazy lazier? How many clothes must stuff our closets before we say enough?

The Church has an inherent desire to help people. But the sort of help the Church has to offer must always and forever be predominately spiritual and secondarily physical. The reversal of this truth has led society to believe the Church exists for no other reason than to make it (society) more comfortable. Yet the real reason for the Church’s existence is to make people less comfortable, spiritually, – until they turn to Christ who alone provides eternal comfort.  To remind the world of the pointlessness of life outside of God, and to live its life in such a way that the wickedness of the world is clearly seen in contrast to the righteous deeds of the saints.  Not, though, to wrap a blanket around the overindulged and tell them that no matter what happens, we will take care of you in spite of your contempt for God.

What Is A Fiscal Conservative?

via Chuck Jones

Archaeology’s Misuse Continues

This tale reminds us, again, of the perilous state of biblical and archaeological studies went left in the hands of amateurs.

“We live in a time when the Bible has come under a lot of criticism and attack as not being reliable or authoritative,” [Pastor Carl] Morgan said. “Archaeology allows us to see the geography and historicity of the Bible is correct. Many times, we’ve been able to find a name or a city (on a dig) associated with a Biblical event, and we’re able to say to the critics, ‘They’re not myths. The Bible is accurate.’ It also helps build your faith.”

Archaeology doesn’t allow us to see any such thing. The ‘historicity’ of the Bible (whatever that’s supposed to mean) isn’t proven by juglets and sherds. To say such a thing is the equivalent of suggesting that there’s life on Mars because they’ve found water there. The one does not prove the other any more than a juglet proves Solomon and if the reverend needs proof to build his faith he doesn’t understand either the nature of proof or the function of faith.

Pottery includes terracotta dipping juglets and other household items from around the time of Job.

Now that’s amazing indeed. When did Job live?

“It’s hard to give exact dates when you get beyond the Early Bronze Age because the styles begin to run together,” said Morgan. “Pottery is how you determine dating for an archaeological site because pottery only changed every few hundred years with style, design and shape.” The north wall of the museum displays items from the Iron Age (1,250 BC to587 BC), or the time of Israel’s monarchy and King David to the Babylonian captivity in 587 BC.

Nah, it’s not hard, just assign dates and make stuff up so that the ‘evidence’ fits the biblical account. That’s what the monstrosity of inbreeding called ‘biblical archaeology’ does (because it’s neither biblical nor archaeology). Read the whole report if you’re in the mood to be annoyed. [via Jospeh Lauer].