Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 10:56

I post semi-regularly here: jeffreylo.tumblr.com.

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Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 20:23

To the Greenpeace girl with the Macintosh Laptop and the Climate Change folks meeting in Macintosh-Corry: I'm sure your waste of paper, your high-speed internet, your trendy clothes, your implicit embrace of capitalism all contribute to your "radical" cause.

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Saturday, August 8, 2009 at 22:52

I got into an argument with my dad the past week. These don't happen often, so when they do, the tension makes living at home awkward.

I've since then realized that my response was wrong, sinful, proud, arrogant, and hurtful. I am quick to judge, to anger, and slow to repent and ask for forgiveness.

Why do I have to learn this lesson after the fact? I'm a fool.

Learning To Love Correction from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.

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Sunday, July 26, 2009 at 1:08

I've been reading D.A. Carson's Christ and Culture Revisited. So far, it's been clear, concise, and captivating.

One notable section is Carson's pithy explanation of some topics under Biblical theology. It's been some of the best material I've read in this current time of repentance¹.

I particularly enjoyed this passage on Creation and Fall:

God made everything, and he made it good. He made human beings in his image and likeness. Our common parentage (cf. Acts 17:26-28) speaks against slavery, mutual degradation, and repulsive notions of "half-human, half-ape." Creation is what grounds all human accountability to God our Maker: we ought to delight in him, to serve him, to trust him, to obey him, not only because he is perfectly good, but because he made us for himself and sustains us, and therefore we owe him. The glories of that original creation continue to testify to God's existence and power; they continue to evoke awe and wonder, even if their present ordering includes death and disaster. (bolded emphasis mine)

--

What do we think about when we are presented with notions of "half-men, half-ape"? I've got a number of friends in the biological sciences.

One comes to mind. He was talking about one of the workshops the university was hosting as a celebration for the 200th birthday of Darwin². The workshop was titled something along the lines of "The problems Intelligent Design creates for us."

I don't really have a position on evolution. But I do have one on the Bible, that is, I believe it is the inspired Word of God and wholly inerrant, infalliable, and sufficient. How, or where, do these two convictions intersect? I must be faithful to the Word of God, but I don't want to denigrate the role of science either.

Some questions³ that I still need to think through:

1. What type of literature is Genesis 1? Why?
2. Paul's argument in Romans 5 seems to rest on the fact that there existed one man (i.e. Adam) who trangressed against God in one act. This was how sin entered the world. If evolution were true, does this negate Paul's argument? Alongside that, what if there was more than one man in the beginning?
3. Theistic evolution puts forth a statement that might not get the chronology of Genesis 1 right. Did humans have a sense of good and evil before the Fall? What was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Is this compatible with Collins' understanding of Moral Law?⁴

Within the Evangelical village, we do have a myriad of different perspectives on the first 12 chapters of Genesis. Non-Christians might not understand that. Tim Keller's chapter in The Reason for God is helpful in this regard:

Since Christian believers occupy different positions on both the meaning of Genesis 1 and on the nature of evolution, those who are considering Christianity as a whole should not allow themselves to be distracted by this intramural debate. The skeptical inquirer does not need to accept any one of these positions in order to embrace the Christian faith. Rather, he or she should concentrate on and weigh the central calims of Christianity. Only after drawing conclusions about the person of Christ, the resurrection, and the central tenets of the Christian message should one think through the various options with regard to creation and evolution. (emphasis mine)

This has its implications in Christian ministry. What this means is that we shouldn't get sidetracked when we evangelize to our non-Christian friends. The Gospel of Christ is of utmost importance and one need not get hung up on a topic where even Christians have much collegial debate about. We must preach the full Gospel, asking all to come to Christ.

I've had some experiences last year where this tangential tactic happened. I don't think I was well prepared for that and thus, let the conversation again go to Creationism⁵ vs. Evolution.

Preach Christ and let the rest of the pieces fall into place.

That said, even though your belief in evolution may not be bound to the central tenets of Christian faith, I do believe it is still an important issue to think through. Belief in evolution calls into the courtroom the reliability, interpretation, and sufficiency of our Scriptures. Should we be looking to and resting upon science for whatever the Bible does not explain? Surely this is a "Science-in-the-gaps" theory!

Working to display the glory of Christ in the world requires that we be master generalists of knowledge. Yes, specialities we must have, but if we commanded to always be prepared to give a defense of our faith, loving God with all of our mind would be good medicine in the days to come. May we honour Christ with our thoughts, actions, and speech as we engage the multitudes who do not know Him.

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Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 3:21

Friendships dissolve. It's clearer now as friends start packing up their lives into neat boxes and exchanging their last words with one another. What does it take to keep good friends?

I had a good friend once. We are acquaintances now.

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