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| Wales-trekearth |
Gary Habermas interview from his site 2014 03-19
Dr. Habermas states again and again, basically (paraphrased in interviews) for the most part Biblical scholars conservative and liberal generally reason those that wrote the Scriptures honestly believed what they wrote (therefore the people noted within were real), but there is a difference in the acceptance of the supernatural related doctrines between conservative and liberal scholarship.
He mentioned in the interview that a recognized scholar would need to have to have a terminal degree from a (paraphrased) accredited institution, be working in the field and have a peer reviewed publication.
He stated that blogs are questionable for scholarship. Agreed.
Generally, bloggers are not scholars, but I am an exception, due to the nature of my work.
For disclaimer, I have met Dr. Habermas in person and have emailed with him for career advice.
He is quite helpful and a friend.
Although I do not have a peer reviewed journal article and do not work in the field as a primary career. I do consider myself a scholar, although certainly not well-known, due to the peer review nature of five hundred pages of major PhD and MPhil, United Kingdom theses, and as well my blogs, particularly this academic one which uses scholarly documentation.
I did do significant work in the areas of theodicy, the problem of evil, free will, determinism and embedded my own Reformed solution the problem of evil, within my PhD thesis.
That qualifies as scholarship.
If I stay outside of primary employment in the fields of philosophy of religion and religious studies and do not write any other major works this will keep me rather unknown but does not prevent me from writing shorter scholarly documented posts on this site or even on Satire And Theology.
I largely agree with Dr. Habermas in his evaluation of what is a scholar and the need to be careful when he states that many of the web sources in regard to philosophy of religion and religious studies today are questionable and lacking proper academic credentials, regardless if whether they are conservative or liberal, Christian or non-Christian in view.
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| South Wales-trekearth |
Just emailed today with a well-known philosopher of religion, historian and New Testament scholar that told me that among his friends, including me, basically no one is being hired, and he knows of another with two PhDs, including one from Wales. I of course have my PhD and MPhil research only degrees from Wales.
I will continue to earn my primary living elsewhere and continue with daily study.
ReplyDeleteWorship brings all kinds of responses, as I observed in church recently. An elderly woman was standing with eyes closed and hands raised in prayer and praise. The three-year-old standing in the pew in front of her turned around and gave her a high-five!
…..Doc’s Daily Chuckle (docsdailychuckle@associate.com) by way of “Christian Voices” (ChristianVoices@att.net)
CANADIAN JOKE
ReplyDeleteAn American, a Scot and a Canadian were in a terrible car accident. They were all brought to the same emergency room, but all three of them died before they arrived.. Just as they were about to put the toe tag on the American, he stirred and opened his eyes. Astonished, the doctors and nurses present asked him what happened.
'Well,' said the American, 'I remember the crash, and then there was a beautiful light, and then the Canadian and the Scot and I were standing at the gates of heaven. St.Peter approached us and said that we were all too young to die, and said that for a donation of $50, we could return to earth. So of course I pulled out my wallet and gave him the $50, and the next thing I knew I was back here'
'That's amazing!' said the one of the doctors, 'But what happened to the other two?'
'Last I saw them,' replied the American, 'the Scot was haggling over the price and the Canadian was waiting for the government to pay his.'
Show Them Jesus
ReplyDeleteI've just read Jack Klumpenhower's Show Them Jesus. It covers how you teach Bible stories to children, but it seems to me to be really about how to get the gospel through to all of us grownups, who keep on misunderstanding what the Lord is saying to us. We keep on thinking, God is good but why is he always pestering us to do so many hard things? But we have to try anyway, since he'll be mad at us if we don't, and make our lives even harder. The gospel of Jesus, that God loves us and gives us even his Beloved Son and all we'll ever need, just gets lost in the shuffle. We know it's gone since we're not feeling great about doing anything for his glory, and we've gotten used to thinking that's normal.
We read revival stories about when it was different from today, when it was a time of enthusiastic joy, but that was then, a time without our distractions. As I think of my teen years, when church was boring me stiff until I finally heard the gospel, I've sometimes thought, maybe my first preacher didn't know what it was? But with Klumpenhower telling me so much, right now I'm thinking about that this way: of course we'd all heard about Jesus Christ dying for our sins and being raised for our lives, but it just didn't mean much. That was because we moved on from there much too quickly, leaving the Good News behind as we went on to our unhappy obedient lives.
ReplyDeleteWhen in doubt, why not blame it on some preachers? Why do they tell us week after week what we need to do and leave out the Good News? They're about the same as those kids' teachers, aren't they? Could we all do it better? For years I've been fascinated and helped by those people who do "biblical theology," the way to look at the Bible and see Jesus everywhere. That's a grand beginning—but often it seems to me to be just descriptive, pointing us to a biblical tidbit we hadn't seen before, but leaving out the focus on how amazing and loving our Father is to us. I've also been deeply helped by the people who do biblical counseling, working hard to show us God's answers to our problems. They are down to earth practical—but I don't always see Jesus in what they encourage. The sermons I hear, and I preach, aren't really much help. Too often they just describe without enough Jesus in the story.
ReplyDeleteI taught church history, and often it came out flat. There was that Protestant Reformation, and Jesus became front and center—but Catholics and others could only see the missing consciousness of deep guilt, and how in the world could you ever expect people to be obedient to God without that? It was the same story when the Church of England rejected the Puritans who wanted to tell the world about how you could be joyfully confident that you were in God's family. The Scots had their Marrowmen who showed us our assurance, but they were rejected too for the same reason. Today there's deep uneasiness about "Sonship" and "Living in Grace." It all comes out like this, don't talk or think so much about God's love, that's bound to produce nothing but laziness with fuzzy emotion on top.
ReplyDeleteWhy does that keep happening? Why do we keep missing the point of God's love, of Jesus going to the cross because of his love for us? I think the answer is, our pride, our delight in being better than others so not really needing Jesus. As he said, if you're not sick why would you waste your time at the doctor's office? We don't believe that the Pharisees were right, but we can act their way.
ReplyDeleteThe old answer to this confusion was just, do a lot more with God's law, look harder at yourself till you see your sin—then you'll be ready to appreciate the gospel and want a lot more than a description. There's a lot to that. After Romans 6 and 7, with its "die to yourself and find life in Christ," the conclusion seems inevitable: "wretched man that I am," I do everything wrong. But then comes "thanks be to God," followed by Romans 9 unpacking all the ways God's love to us endures forever, when we mess up again, and again. But sometimes people took that to mean, think about hell a lot more and how you would feel there, but I doubt it would be easy to fit that part in with the "love that endures forever." This needs work, especially to learn how not just the law, but the gospel itself shows us our deep need. Why would the Lord give up his Beloved Son if our sin was just trivial? Why should we ever think of God's love and holiness apart from each other? Read again Hosea 11:9, the reason God doesn't give up on us is because he's holy, not like all the others who would. Of course God's love and his holiness belong together, but maybe his holiness doesn't have to come first?
One reason that we want to tune out God's love is what those Liberals did with it. What about the infants who never grew up to believe, do they go to hell, they demanded? Then they went on to, what about the adults all over the world who've never heard? What about a church that doesn't talk about loving and caring for the poor? Liberal chatter on "the love of God" became for us an indicator of theological weakness! To them love meant, of course God wouldn't condemn anyone because of the "imputation of Adam's sin," or wouldn't forgive you because of the "imputation of Christ's righteousness." The Liberal love of God came to mean the opposite of what the Bible says, especially about the gospel. Evangelicals know that God loves us just because he does, not at all because we're "worthy." We have to get over that liberal attack, not by tolerating unbiblical teaching, but by understanding how close to each other God's love and his grace really are, as we reject Liberalism and our feeble thinking at the same time.
ReplyDeleteFor me the top fascinating thing about Klumpenhower is that he thinks his lesson plan doesn't need to distinguish between what an unbeliever and a weak believer need to see in God's word. Everybody needs to see the same thing, right away! For both the thing to ask is just, "what can we learn about life with God from this story?" Now I can remember when there were two Sunday services, the morning for believers (who didn't party all Saturday night) and the evening for unbelievers (before TV reruns?). Were there two different ways of looking at the text, or even two different kinds of Bible stories? What if all of us need life with God, wherever we are in our journey? Can't we all follow along everywhere in the word, spotting the unexpected ways the Lord works with people? Now that is progress, we can talk about Jesus together without needing to know just where others are!
ReplyDeleteHere is Klumpenhower's challenge, one we all need to consider deeply and thoroughly: our young people are leaving us, what shall we do? Should we look harder at our covenant theology and assure each other that they'll come back? Or shouldn't we rather consider how we have talked with them before about Jesus and how to live for him? Or even how we have talked to ourselves? I'm thinking of our need for Awakening, Great or smaller. We've given too much attention to what happens in the Awakening, not to what came before. Yes, then even the worst preacher preached one grand sermon, showing Jesus Christ in all his glory and love, and many, many believed. But what came before that? Prayer, of course. What about? Yes, that God's church would be again empowered by the Holy Spirit, that many would turn from darkness to light, that God's people would show the way. But there was repentance too, and it especially meant, that we stop being so shallow in our faith, that we call on the Lord to open our hearts to see all that Jesus has done for us. The Lord heard that prayer, so well. Why are others are slow to turn to Christ? Both because of the weak way we model joy in who our Lord is—but also in the puny way we tell the world about it.
ReplyDeleteIt's elementary but profound. Our lives and our witness are weak, at least partly because we don't know how to think about the Lord and his love to us. We jump way too hurriedly to ask, is there anything else we should be doing, instead of just pausing and meditating as we look at his promises in the word, seeing that the Lord's kind compassion comes first, before what we're supposed to do. Do we resemble those little kids, who keep thinking that being a Christian is mostly about getting your life together—without asking at all, "what can we learn about life with God from this story?" We're starting to see it now: we begin with the Lord and we thank him for his love. Pause a minute, and praise him for it this time. Ask him to show you his love in the word, and in your life. He will.
ReplyDeleteD. Clair Davis
Aspire to inspire before you expire.
ReplyDeleteEvery morning is the dawn of a new error.
ReplyDeleteTake a Break with Jesus
ReplyDeleteWe can keep on thinking about those Ten Commandments/Words as the way to see how rich God's kindness is. There's one about Sabbath rest. That can seem hard to work with. My grandmother Liza was an amazing cook and her Sunday dinners were tasty—but they were all cold, cooked on Saturday. That was because the Old Testament says not to make a fire on the Sabbath. That was OK with me, her cold food was better than anyone else's hot. But I did ask my fresh little kid question, so why is the furnace running? All I got back was that it was 30 below outside, but that wasn't good enough. Let's not get into those details right now, let's do big picture.
God made everything in six days (how long? do that one later too). Then he took a break and rested. There are some 200 billion stars in the Milky Way alone. Is that enough? Of course, take a break Lord, you've earned it. I know God wasn't tired, but it gave him a chance to look around and say, it's all looking good. God wanted that to be a pattern for us: do all your work in six days, then take a break. All your work? How could that be? I still need to read two more books before I can evaluate that diss, but if the Lord says break, I will.
ReplyDeleteWork hard and then break, that's the way to do it. But the New Testament turns that all upside down: break first, on the first day of the week, since that's when Jesus was raised from the dead. Break first, when you're not even tired? European calendars fix that, they make Monday the first day of the week and Sunday the last. Airline schedules do the same, with Monday #1 day. But we have to do better than that.
ReplyDeleteI think the issue goes like this: do you rest after working because you've earned the break? Hard enough work is a great reason for a break? How can you enjoy looking at the job well done before you've done it? That story in Nehemiah 8 helps me see it another way. There they are, the Lord brought them back from exile, they've got the walls of Jerusalem up again, it's a safe place to be with God—and then they get together to read God's law from beginning to end. That makes sense, you're together again in God's place, so listen to him. But then they sob. When they hear again what God wants from them, they see clearly how they haven't done it, so what else could they do but sob and sob? Here comes the surprise as Nehemiah tells them, don't you know this is a holy day? Don't weep but celebrate, eat up! A holy day, a special day, God's day—so celebrate! There's even more to think about when you think of God's Holy name, eat up! Soon they do some massive repentance—but they and you get started by being totally glad you are the the Lord's and he's yours. That's the most special/holy thing there is in all of our lives.
ReplyDeleteJohn Calvin wasn't inspired but he said it well: How do we receive those benefits which the Father bestowed on his only begotten Son—not for Christ's own private use, but that he might enrich poor and needy men? First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. (Institutes, iii, i, i) You know I like that "first." How can we understand that, do you think?
ReplyDeleteLet God teach us. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
ReplyDeleteLet us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4: 8-16)
ReplyDeleteDo that step by step. 1. Let's not look back to creation again, it's "later on." 2. Resting is from our works, what we do. 3. But still we must "strive" to get rest. 4. God's word shows us our hearts. 5. Jesus our priest has been there and sympathizes with us. 6. With confidence receive God's grace in our needy time. I hope and pray we can scratch the surface. Our rest now is from our works, the way Galatians talks about it—lean on Jesus not on yourself. That's hard, we all have at least a trace of Pharisee, we think we're more worthy of God's blessing than most people are; so strive away to see yourself the way you are. God's word shows you your downside, Jesus' understanding and love is your upside. Is that's enough for today's "confidence?"
ReplyDeleteI think this is close: Jesus has done all that needs to be done, so he shares his break with you? He's totally at your side as you run toward his understanding of you as you see in his word, and as he cares for us in that "time of need?" I know, this is not a quickie, this is life-time. Battling off Pharisee, confident that his Cross and Resurrection is more than enough, being open with Jesus about your need and desire for more, more of him at your side.
O Lord, give us all that striving we need, we are so complacent about you. O Lord, give us that confidence to search our hearts for our sin as we lean heavily on Jesus. O Lord, may we overflow with deep gratitude for the work Jesus has done for us, as we may rejoice in his very own rest. Amen.
D. Clair Davis