I'm back!

Wow! Life's been super busy as of late, but I decided to start blogging again. However, I'm moving over to Word Press. Here's my new blog. Come over and check it out. Thanks.

http://anchorforthesoul.wordpress.com/

Life

As of late, things have been really busy here. So I'm sorry that I haven't really posted much theology stuff recently.

This month has been crazy for our youth group with fundraisers, retreats, trips, etc. My head is swarming as I try to remember everything that I need to do. It seems like I'm bound to forget something. And that something will probably be important.

Last night I also received some bad news. Last year there was this one student "Robert" who occasionally came over and was involved in our ministry. This last semester he kinda just dropped out of our group. I knew that he was getting involved in drugs and I called him on it and he stopped coming and started getting in more trouble.

Well, a couple of nights ago some kids broke into Chadron High School and stole some stuff and vandalized things. When I first heard about it, I suspected "Robert." And last night, I found out the police figured out that he and one of his friends did it. I guess that they're charging him with 9 felonies. The worst part is he's only 15. It's sad to see a kid destroy his life. I would appreciate your prayers.

Sarge

My German Shepherd is really growing. In fact, he's already more than doubled his weight from when we first got him. He weighted ten pounds then and now he's more than 20 lbs. It's crazy how fast he's growing.

Observations on Dating

The title of this post may be a little misleading. It's not about social dating between couples. It's actually about the dating of historical documents, especially in reference to the gospels. I've been doing a lot of thinking about this after reading The Da Vinci Code this weekend.

Liberal scholars have for a long time dated the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) some time after 70 AD. This means that they must have been written several decades after Christ by folks that didn't really even know Jesus, and thus they must not be very reliable. The reason for this late date comes from a philosophical presupposition that impacts their scholarship. That presupposition is that the supernatural cannot happen. Absolutely.

This plays into their dating of the synoptics since in each of these gospels Jesus predicts the fall of Jerusalem which took place in 70 AD. So here's how they argue. The supernatural cannot happen. Thus, predictive prophecy can't happen. Thus, the synoptics had to be written after the fall of Jerusalem and not before it.

However, there are good reasons to believe that this reasoning is absolutely false. Let me demonstrate.

It is generally widely accepted that the Apostle Paul died during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero in 64 AD.

It's also generally accepted by all that the book of Acts was written by Luke before the death of Paul. This makes great sense because the book of Acts leaves off with Paul's imprisonment and immending trial. If something as important as Paul's death had taken place, Luke would have definitely recorded it. So that means that Paul hadn't died yet. So that means that Acts must have been written before 64 AD.

That leads us to another reasonable conclusion. The gospel of Luke must have been written before Paul's death since most folks will agree that Luke's gospel was written before Acts (cf. Acts 1:1).

And most scholars agree that Luke was the last of the synoptic gospels to be written. They base this on Luke 1:1-4 and on a detailed comparision of the gospels. That means that all of the synoptic gospels were written before 70 AD.

This seems to make good sense to me and it's a compelling argument for an early dating of the synoptic gospels.

Da Vinci Code

Just recently, I finished reading Dan Brown's popular book The Da Vinci Book since the movie is coming up soon and there's bound to be more discussion on it. It's both sad and funny how historically inaccurate this book is. Here's an article by Tom Wright on the book.

Sad

Recently I ran across the sad story of Bart Ehrman in the Washington Post. Check it out.

Wright on Postmodernism

Here's another excellent Tom Wright quote to think about.

"I believe it is part of the task of the church today to accept the postmodern critique of modernity but to insist that it is not the last word. Modernity stands accused of arrogance, with its technology, its philosophy, its economics and its empires--and, in a measure at least, its theology and exegesis. Postmodernity, with Marx, Freud and Nietzsche in its vanguard, has made its point. The world of the Enlightenment had a lot to do with money, sex and power. But, despite the misplaced enthusiasm of some, postmodernity does not give us a new home, a place to stay. What it provides is a fresh statement of the doctrine of the Fall, which in Christian theology ought always to invite a fresh statement, in symbol and practice as well as word, of redemption."

Exasperation

Over the last several months, I've been trying to memorize the book of Ephesians after being challenged to Scripture memory by John Piper's When I Don't Desire God. (It's an excellent book by the way. I would strongly encourage anyone to read it).

Well, I just recently have been doing a lot of thinking about this verse in chapter 6.

"Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. "

In the past, I was always puzzled about what exactly this means. How do you exasperate your children? What does that look like?

Now I realize that I don't know the first thing about parenting. I'm thrilled that in a few months Shelley and I are going to get the chance to find out, but when push comes to shove, I have to admit my ignorance on the subject. After all, I have no experience whatsoever.

But as I've worked on this verse, I've started to get an idea about what it means. And of course, my puppy Sarge is giving me a clue about it as well.

Here's what I'm thinking. As I've been potty training Sarge, I have realized that I need to put Sarge in situations where he is more likely to succeed than to fail. For instance, that means that I need to take him outside regularly and give him plenty of opportunities to do his business in the right way in order that he doesn't learn bad habits. That's the right way of potty training the dog.

The wrong way is if I put Sarge in a situation where he is bound to fail and then get on his case about it. Imagine if I were to keep the dog alone in the house all day and then come home eight hours later only to find messes everywhere. Then I severely scold the dog for his "misbehavior." But that's extremely unfair to the dog. I put the dog in a situation where he would inevitably fail and guess what--he failed. I think that what Paul means by the word "exasperate."

As a future parent, I want my kids to succeed. I want them to be godly kids. So in order to do that, I need to put them in situations where they have every opportunity to do so. Of course, that's easier said than done.