We also got a new St. Anne’s Pub. The topic is Take Two: Rethinking the Folly of Hollywood. Unlike the most recent Credenda, this one is online

Interviews with Brian Godawa should be especially interesting, mixed in with all the other goodies always present.

We got the new Credenda in the mail today. The issue Thema is Academic Graveyard. The cover design is perhaps one of the best I’ve ever seen. Seriously. It is just fantastic.

Jeff Foxworthy eat your heart out

Last year for her birthday, G. got a Radio Flyer tricycle.

Last night I grilled some chicken, and she (and A.) were riding around on it while I cooked.

This morning, I ran over the back wheel with the car.

Some time between when I was grilling and when we called them in to get cleaned up, they had parked the trike on the passenger side of my car. which is opposite the house. Which means I didn’t see it sitting there when I came out this morning to go to work. I felt something bump as I was pulling out, and I looked, and there was the trike… one wheel down. I got out and looked at it, and, amazingly, it was only the wheel that was damaged. But, man, was it damaged. The steel spokes were just pulled this way and that, and is basically parallel to the ground when the trike is sitting up.

But, just a moment ago, I called Radio Flyer customer support, and ordered a new wheel (and locking hubcap). It’s ten bucks, and should be here in a week. Pretty cool.

I just hope the axle really is as straight as my initial assesment determined.

This coming Sunday, at Providence, there are going to be nine baptisms. Nine. One adult, and eight children are being baptized.

Glory to God!

Yesterday I listened to Pastor Randy Booths third sermon in his series The Story of the Bible which is called The House is a Wreck. It’s quite good, as is the whole series so far. I recommend it.

However, I do differ at one point in what was said. I think that Pastor Booth would agree with me (but maybe not), and he just misspoke. Or, rather, he used contemporary language that I believe is inadequate. I’ll jump right in…

He was talking about creation, and when God had finished creating it was all good. It was beautiful and the ‘house was in order’. He then said that there was one thing that was required in order to maintain this ‘good’ declaration that God had pronounced on creation. He said that if you ask most people, their response would be “perfect obedience”. But, he challenged that, and said that is the second answer. He argued that what comes first is faith.

The distinction is that Adam had to believe God, not ‘perfectly obey’ God. And this is where I see a deficiency.

Pastor Booth said that faith is manifested in obedience. Obedience, he said, is the fruit of faith. And disobedience is the fruit of unbelief.

Now, I would challenge that. Why? Because it still sets up a wall between faith and obedience. It says that you can have faith, and then the fruit will follow. But the Scriptures teach that faith is obedience. The first commandment includes faith in Christ. Unbelief is disobedience.

I think our contemporary undertanding of faith and works, and, therefore, the whole way we use language describing them, is screwy and unbiblical. At heart we have a dichotomy where one does not belong. In order to maintain the beautiful goodness declared by God at creation, Adam was required to obey perfectly, and that entails faith in God. Adam had to believe God, and in doing so would have obeyed God. Adam had to perfectly obey God, and that was believing what He had said.

I do agree with Pastor Booth that Adam’s primary sin against God was his unbelief, but even in this I feel I am giving something away. It is not as though one can believe God, and not do what He has commanded. And, likewise, one cannot disbelieve God, and then do what God has commanded. It just isn’t possible. It’s like dry water… it is just illogical, nonsensical pishposh. A square circle and all that. It just isn’t in accord with reality.

And, like I said earlier, I do believe Pastor Booth would largely agree with this. For, later in the sermon, he says that we have abused faith, and we have abused works. We swing from easy believism on side, to the opposite extreme of meritorious works. Both are in error, he said. He went so far as to say “justification is by faith and works”, referencing James. In this, I totally agree with him.