It Is All According To Plan

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40 – ESV)

Reading the Bible as Christ as the center has caused me to ask more questions about the Bible. This makes Graeme Goldsworthy’s book According To Plan: the Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible a good companion to reading the Bible. Goldsworthy’s objective of this book is to demonstrate that there is a story and a unity to the Bible. Reading the Bible and tackling the diversity and complexity of its pages is a daunting project for anyone.

Goldsworthy’s book addresses questions like: How do the Old and New Testament fit together? What is the point of biblical theology? What is the overall story of the Bible? If you are new Christian, or been one for a few years, and would like to deepen your understanding of the God’s word, I highly recommend this book. This book is a great introduction to a deeper biblical theology that most of us are NOT getting in our diets in most American churches. The book also includes dozens of charts, highlighted summaries, study questions and concise chapters that makes this book very useful with personal and/or small group Bible studies. This a typical Christian book that you will never find a Christian bookstore, so order it on Amazon.

There is no question that the Bible has doctrine and we should all be engaged in the study of true biblical doctrine. The tragedy is that many Christians see the Bible as a book of “timeless truths,” a list of morals, or good principles to make our personal lives better and happier instead of seeing it as an unfolding redemptive story. It is a story about Christ (John 5:39-40). Many of us in the American Religion climate read the Bible but don’t read it with Christ as the center. The Bible is the story of the fall of humanity and how God redeemed his people through the perfect obedience of Christ!

The most important reading project that a Christian could ever do is to read the Bible. This book by Goldsworthy will help you read the Bible as one story with Christ as the center. One of my goals is not only to read scripture more but also to read more Christian books to compensate for not being able to attend church regularly (because of work). Thanks to this book by Goldsworthy I am more able to read the Bible with Christ as the center.

Your Brother,

Timotheus

What I Learned Most From Frances A. Schaeffer

Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you-- (Philemon 1:8-9 - ESV)

I became a Christian before I became a teenager. I lived most of my Christian teenage life with a lot of zeal but not according to knowledge. My apologetics was not focus on defending the existents of God or truth claims of Christianity. Instead my focused was on trivial issues like why is the King James Version of the Bible is the only Bible or defending moralism such as avoiding rock music, R-Rated movies, and other typical “Blue Laws” stuff. The tragic part of my teenage years was that there was no one who disciple me in the faith to help grow in knowledge. I craved knowledge. The hunger for the truth of God without the spiritual guidance led me to read really bad theologies like Chick Publications. During my teenager years my entire understanding of the Christian faith was almost entirely based on the Chick publications. I was poisoned with this spiritual trash!

Even while reading the spiritual trash I had some exposure to a few decent apologetic books. I had such zeal to defend the truth claims of the Christianity during my teenage years. I looked forward to the challenge of matching wits with my fellow pagan teenagers who can’t see that Christianity is RIGHT!

During the last semester of my senior year in high school I went to work for a Christian bookstore. The bookstore also had a film rental library. My responsibility at the time was to maintain the film library. Often I would watch some of the films in the library during my lunch break. One day I started to watch episodes of a film series How Should We Then Live by Frances Schaeffer. I was so intrigued by Frances Schaeffer that I started to read some of his books. For the first time I was hearing truth angles of the Christian faith that I was not getting in my spiritual diet from Chick Publications.

My method of apologetic changed over the years because of this man. The one thing I learned most from Frances Schaeffer’s apologetics was that apologetics should always be motivated by love, never to use to win arguments with skeptics. My method of confronting the skeptics during my high school days was to keep coming back with more aggressive refined arguments. My thinking was the more refined the arguments the more the skeptics will have to be compelled to see it MY WAY! It would frustrate me when the skeptic seems to not see the clear evidence for the Christian faith and convert! What I learned from Schaeffer that it is not about winning arguments but presenting the truth in love.

It is All about the Puppy

I just watched a fascinating movie titled Equilibrium staring Christian Bales and directed by Kurt Wimmer. The film is very good. This movie was recommended me by my best friend. Directed in a style very much like The Matrix but produced with a lot less money. Equilibrium tells the story of a futuristic world where a totalitarian government has eliminated war by mandating its citizens to take a drug called Prozium. Prozium suppresses human emotions. In this way the futuristic society can eliminate aggression that could lead to war! Not only emotions have been outlaw but all form of artistic expressions of emotions has been outlaw as well. In this futuristic world emotional feelings are punishable by death.

Christian Bale plays cleric agent John Preston. His job is to arrest or kill those who would defied the law by resisting to taking the emotion suppressing drug. After Preston himself stops taking the drug he starts to experience an emotional awaking and becomes the only hope for an underground movement that seeks to overthrow the regime.

I strongly recommend that all of my online friends check this movie out. One thing that I was thinking about when I was watching this movie was how many people in our culture that are mostly likely over medicated with emotional drugs like Prozac, and how children (mostly boys) who are prescribed Ritalin in order get a desired result in behavior. Now granted we are a long ways from mandatory drugs taking to get a desired behavioral result out of every citizen. However, in the film series How Should We Then Live the late Francis A. Schaeffer pointed out that thinkers like Arthur Koestler and Kermit Krantz have suggested that a chemical agent be develop and added to drinking water to rid humanity of aggression or to control over population.[1] Maybe the movie is not all that farfetched!

Of course the most important part of the movie is the puppy (It is a guy thing). Later in the story Preston as he began to experience real human emotions for the first time that results in his attachment to a puppy that he saved from execution. I knew when the puppy licked Preston in the face that no matter how cold his heart was the puppy can melt it. And as a man I have to ask myself, “would I kick some to save a puppy?!”

[1]The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaffer: A Christian Worldview, Volume Five, A Christian View of the West by Francis A. Schaeffer. Crossway Books – [1982] – (Pages 237-238)