the glory and the horror

Before I head off to bed, I just wanted to say that I truly enjoy hanging out with people and talking genuinely about faith, about doubts, about assumptions, about differences. In the last few weeks, I’ve had some stellar conversations with a devout Roman Catholic friend, a couple of high school seniors who grew up in the church and are doing some hard questioning and wondering, a Muslim friend from school, and some of the first years trying to work through the nature of God’s sovereignty in the saving of depraved, lost people and how man’s responsibility plays into it, according to Scripture.

Tonight, Kathleen and I went out to dinner, and ate outside. It was incredibly nice. Very comfortable, with a slight breeze. Perfect weather to eat outside. It’s nice to go on a laid-back “date” with your girlfriend. Nothing fancy planned, just some time to eat, share the experience of a new restaurant.

Quality. Simply fabulous.

Learning about all the things that can go wrong with your body make me very thankful that more doesn’t go wrong. It’s incredible.

Also, Dr. Fine reminded me today that it’s ok, and that I’m going to make it through medical school. I think I do enjoy medicine, but getting to that endpoint sometimes looks harder at times. I enjoy the learning, I despise studying stuff the way they want me to study it.

Something I posted on a webboard I have begun to visit of late, in regards to open theism:

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I think we differ on basic assumptions about the Bible. I consider it reliable and authoritative in matters of faith and action, regardless of what else may come up in this world that claims to “prove” the Bible is wrong (e.g. scientific evidence that shows that such and such could not have happened the way the Bible says it did). However, I admit that I do not understand everything perfectly about the Bible, and that there are things that I am wrong about, creation possibly being one of them.

Then my question is how you decide when to take something literally and when to take something figuratively? What hermeneutical standard do you use? Only ones that “line up” with science? If so, isn’t that the same as saying that science trumps Scripture?

As for extra-biblical stuff, I can’t say, because it’s not in what the Church has considered to be the authoritative Word of God. Virgin birth of someone else? possible, but what does it matter in this case?

I think stances on miracles do matter to the question of omniscience, because it shows what one is willing to consider is “reliable” from the Bible. Miracles are clearly not scientifically based,so when science contradicts the Bible in “miraculous” instances, you gotta decide which is reliable – scientific explanations (which says 5 loaves and 2 fish don’t feed 5000) or the Word of God. And if you’re going to pick and choose which miracles to believe (resurrection but not the flood), you’ve got to figure out why. Perhaps you have, and if you have, I’d love to hear how you decide which is reliable and trustworthy, and which ones are not.

The same would apply to the character of God – do you pick and choose which verses actually reveal the character of God and which do not?

But if one considers the Bible to be authoritative, then it’s not so hard to see that the Bible is pretty clear on the nature of God’s omniscience.

As for a Scriptural basis of God’s omniscience (all from NASB):

Job 37:16 “Do you know about the layers of the thick clouds, The wonders of one perfect in knowledge” – God, speaking to Job, referring to Himself
I John 3:20 “…for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. ”
1 Cor 2:10-11 “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. ”
Heb 4:13 “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
Isaiah 46:10 “Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’”
Matthew 6:8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Psalm 139, Isaiah 55:9, and other passages also lead one to the conclusion that God is perfect in knowledge.

I just grabbed some of this stuff straight out of Grudem’s Systematic Theology. I like his defintion of God’s omniscience: God fully knows himself and all things actual and possible in one simple and eternal act.

I base this not merely on Scripture, but on great people who have gone before us, and I realize that no one of us is perfect in our understanding of God, but I do believe that the Scripture and history give us some good ground to stand on.

Anyway, to sum up, if we differ on how much authority the Bible has, then we’re just talking on different wavelengths, and will never be able to get very far, since we’re differing in our most basic assumptions about how we find out things about the character of God.

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Interesting. Contrast this First Things article with this World Magazine article.

The difference is astounding. Both are the government. However, one feels that it is their duty to pursue “higher” goals, at the same time, trumping a man that says exactly the same thing. And then there’s the guy that’s stuck in the middle, wanting to live according to the “law,” only to find that, in principle, the Supreme Court and Judge Moore are doing exactly the same thing, just merely on opposite sides of the issue.

A Christian Witness to Roman Catholicism – Analysis of Roman Catholic Grace

Incredibly well-written. Interesting. Challenging. Insightful.

Harper’s Magazine: Jesus Plus Nothing

I’m not sure what to think of this. My initial reaction is one of incredulity and a strange desire to want to sit down with someone and hash out their theology just to figure out what they’re thinking.

Kathleen, you probably will NOT like these people.

Thank you, Sam, for writing what you write.

From Kristen and Mike:

1. When did you decide you wanted to be a doctor?

Well, this is a complicated one. I think I first decided for sure sometime at the end of my freshman year of college, making that late spring of 1998. The funny thing is, I’m not as sure now as I was then.

2. If you could pick just one part of your experience in East Asia, what do you think changed you the most?

Oooooohhhhh. That’s a good one. Hmmmmmm. I’d have to say my understanding of my role in the Body of Christ deepened significantly, thanks to great times with my team and Chris, my mentor/disicpler. Living life, all aspects, from the great and fun, to the dirty and sinful, in local community, and now that I’m back, maintaining communication with the Body around the world AND the local Christians in my immediate physcial proximity. That’s what changed me the most. Plus, finding out about people like Hauerwas while I was over there didn’t hurt.

3. What was your favorite non-academic thing about Rice?

The college system. Hands down. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s called the residential college system, and it exists in various forms in a handful of universities in the US, and comes from our cousins in the UK (Cambridge and Oxford were the first to have college systems). At Rice, it existed in lieu of a Greek system. Basically, everyone is a part of a college. Your level of involvement is up to you, but it becomes a part of who you are and what you do and how you learn. It’s not limited to a location on campus, like a dorm, although the college identity includes the on-campus living facilities. Faculty and staff are involved in colleges, from living with you on-campus, to hosting you at their homes for various events, to teaching extra-curricular “fun” classes like wine-tasting after dinner for seniors during their spring semester, etc. It’s really a way of creating a community, much like community within the Church – people take care of each other and serve each other (when people party too hard, need a hand in a subject, or something like that), people lead each other (each college had its own elected leadership, own budget, etc.), play together (some IM sports had specific “college” leagues where the colleges would play against each other). Our college masters (faculty that live with us) rents the ice skating rink in the Galleria every Christmas for the college. Stuff like that.

4. If you had to live in the states, where would you live?

Well, of the places I’ve been, I’m definitely torn between Texas and Colorado in an overall sense. California comes in close behind them. The biggest drawbacks here are the incredible traffic in the cities and some really stupid politics. Then again, I can’t really say I appreciate the power grab by the GOP here in Texas, and then the appropriately childish reciprocation by the Democrats.

5. What Caedmon’s Call song is your all-time, absolute favorite?

Ack. That’s an incredibly unfair question. There’s so much good stuff. If I HAD to pick, it’d be All I Know. Reminds me to be humble, and how it does all go back to who Christ is, and not about what I do, think, or say.

6. Are you nervous about UT Football coming to Rice this weekend? You are, aren’t you … just admit it. Really, it’s okay.

Actually, after that showing against Arkansas, I wouldn’t be surprised if UT beat themselves again this weekend. They had everything they could need to win, but they just lost it, mentally, I think. Didn’t have the edge. Anyway, I doubt that we’ll win, even if UT does self-destruct. We’re not great, but it’s hard to compete against a giant state school, especially in Texas. Although we did send UT home from Omaha in June.

::If you would like to participate too, here are your instructions:
1. Shoot me an email saying “interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions (not the same as you see here).
3. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

And the cycle continues, on and on and on::

Derek Webb tonight at Spring Valley United Methodist Church in Dallas, TX:

Faith My Eyes
She Must and Shall Go Free
Nobody Loves Me
Take to the World
Bob Dylan’s Every Grain of Sand
*NEW* I Repent
Dance
Lover
Wedding Dress
Awake My Soul

It was a wonderful concert of course, with great stories (an explanation of Dance, for example), and some interesting thoughts. For example, he called the church out on worshipping the “great idol of [our] preferences” in regards to the sorts of lines we draw within the Body of Christ. Is a difference in musical preference enough to separate out the church into different services, and even different buildings? He even mentioned the idea that maybe we should “dislike every 3rd song” because someone else in the congregation loves it, and are we willing to love them enough, and do we see Christ as sufficient enough in our struggle/discomfort at the moment? After all, how big of a deal is it?

He also mentioned a Scottish Puritan by the name of David Dixon, who said, “I have taken my good deeds and my bad deeds and thrown them together in a heap and fled from them both to Christ and in Him I have peace.” How often do we, do I, cling to my feeble attempts at righteousness, and hold them up before the world, and say, “Look, look at how good I’ve done?” instead of saying, “Look, look, how sinful and wretched I am, and how great is the love and the grace and the forgivness and the mercy of Christ!”

Kathleen, Kimbell, and I went up to talk with him for a bit after the concert, and he recognized me! After over 3 years since last seeing him in a one-on-one, non-concert setting, he recognized me! I was impressed! Anyway, it was nice to be recognized.

I’m in the middle of phlebotomy (drawing blood) training right now, and I’ve been doing ok. I’ve had to dig around on one person so far, and I feel bad for them. It can’t be comfortable to have that needle dig in there.

I have been making a point to say hello, and thank you when I’m done. Several patients have been very kind, smiling and thanking me as well. In English and Spanish.

I’ll have to pick up some spanish, too. Probably wise to pick up a book for a crash course in medical spanish.

I’m going to see Derek Webb in concert on Thursday night! Yay!