Polytheism, henotheism, environmentalism and morality

Tuscany, Italy (photo from trekearth.com)

http://satireandtheology.blogspot.com/2008/05/formation-of-
biblical-canon.html

These are some of my recent comments on other blogs that I wish to share with my blog readers.

Comments appreciated:

http://mormonismreviewed.blogspot.com/2008/05/book-of-
mormon-guide-for-old-testament.html

That is a long article which I scan read, and I am not an expert on LDS Scripture. However...Certainly the Book of Mormon, being a much later text can borrow concepts from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. It can also attempt to amend concepts of the earlier books. I could begin writing a book today that would amend the Book of Mormon. But both Biblical Testaments state that there is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 43, 44,45, Mark 12). Christians and Jewish persons disagree on the deity of Christ, but any belief in polytheism and henotheism is strictly not a part of orthodox Judaeo-Christian tradition. The LDS scholar is therefore left with trying to find lost (non-existent) Biblical manuscripts which completely counter the tradition and explain that there is more than one God. Most orthodox/traditional Jewish and Christian scholars can pretty much agree on the original meanings of Old Testament texts, but the Christian scholar can see how the New Testament revelation sheds light on the older text without completely contradicting essential concepts concerning the ontology (nature) of God and soteriology (salvation).There is good reason why LDS scholarship has not been largely embraced on religious matters concerning the nature of God and salvation.

http://plainlutheran.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/environmental-cya/

I tell you what, if the auto manufacturers produce vehicles in conjunction with the oil companies that have emissions standards better for the environment, excellent. People will start buying these vehicles that would soon be the only ones available at dealerships, if fossil fuel vehicles were no longer primarily manufactured. Gasoline could be available for those with older vehicles for several years and for those who are classic car collectors on a permanent basis.
I oppose liberal tax grabs and guilt trips against the common person who just has to get to work! The Lower Mainland/Greater Vancouver where I live takes approximately 2 hours to drive across and people within it should not be punished or chastised because there are insufficient rapid transit options.

http://trinitariandon.blogspot.com/2008/04/civility-in-decline.html

I lived in England from 99-01 and there is a general lack of Christian belief in the UK of course, and often lack of respect for family and authority. There is also at times, a questionable understanding of morality. Japan comes to mind as a non-Christian nation that still honours family and authority and has a notable idea of morality, and so the UK seems worse off than many first world countries.

I have sleep apnea and I listen to BBC Five radio via the web in bed at times. One night a few months ago they had a call in show concerning abortions and married women were calling in explaining how they used abortion as birth control because they had all the children they wanted.

Additional:

Ronald Clements writes the henotheism is a term describing the exclusive worship of one God, while at the same time the existence of many Gods is held to. Clements (1999: 248). Clements provides the opinion that the study of ancient religion does the not produce the concept that polytheism and monotheism present distinct stages in a progression and development. Instead they indicate a contrast of emphasis in complex patterns of religious traditions. Clements (1999: 249).

CLEMENTS, RONALD (1999) ‘Henotheism’, in Alan Richardson and John Bowden (eds.), A New Dictionary of Christian Theology, Kent, SCM Press Ltd.


Thanks, Professor Howdy


Thanks, Mom

Is there a meaningful threat involved here? Society should be encouraging men to drink less.


Thanks, Mom and Happy Mother's Day.

More FAQs: Do I want to become the next Ernest Angley?

Vancouver, BC (photo from trekearth.com)



http://satireandtheology.blogspot.com/2008/05/what-is-
with-site-meter.html

My PhD work is ready to be sent to Wales and so I have some free time.

All prayers for me are appreciated!

Here are some more hypothetical FAQs. Please see previous posting.

Question: Do I want to be the next Ernest Angley? From Dad.

No, I do not. I am interested in academic philosophical theology and practical theology, and not televangelism. Besides, I do not think I could willingly wear a rug that looks like his hairdo. What would be worse, the Bob Ross afro, or the Ernest Angley ‘holy healin’ rug? Reverend Angley is looking older and within my satire and theology blog comments in the past my good friend Chucky has suggested that Angley point his hand at himself and yell ‘Be healed’!

Is there a demon of the crumpled face?

Question: Can you recommend reading on the problem of evil?

Sure, there is this blog of course and here are thirteen varied sources on theodicy/the problem of evil and the related subject of free will and determinism.

AUGUSTINE (388-395)(1964) On Free Choice of the Will, Translated by Anna S.Benjamin and L.H. Hackstaff, Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.

BASINGER, DAVID AND RANDALL BASINGER (1986) Predestination and Free Will, Downers Grove, Illinois, InterVarsity Press.

CALVIN, JOHN (1543)(1996) The Bondage and Liberation of the Will, Translated by G.I. Davies, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

EDWARDS, JONATHAN (1729)(2006) Sovereignty of God, New Haven, Connecticut, Jonathan Edwards Center, Yale University.
http://edwards.yale.edu/archive/documents/page?document_id
=10817&search_id=&source_type=edited&pagenumber=1.

FEINBERG, JOHN.S. (1994) The Many Faces of Evil, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.

FLEW, ANTONY (1955) ‘Divine Omnipotence and Human Freedom’, in Antony Flew and A. MacIntrye (eds), New Essays in Philosophical Theology, London, SCM.

HICK, JOHN (1970) Evil and The God of Love, London, The Fontana Library.

IRENAEUS. (c 175-185)(2005) Against Heresies, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103/htm.

LEIBNIZ, G.W. (1710)(1998) Theodicy, Translated by E.M. Huggard Chicago, Open Court Classics.

MACKIE, J.L. (1955)(1996) ‘Evil and Omnipotence’ in Mind, in Michael Peterson, William Hasker, Bruce Reichenbach, and David Basinger (eds.), Philosophy of Religion, Oxford, Oxford University Press

MOLTMANN, JÜRGEN (1993) The Crucified God, Minneapolis, Fortress Press.

PLANTINGA, ALVIN.C. (1977)(2002) God, Freedom, and Evil, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

VERMEER, PAUL (1999) Learning Theodicy, Leiden, Brill.

According to Jurgen Moltmann, it is believed that Christ will be God’s lieutenant in this godless world and bring about through his crucifixion and resurrection the promise of a better future which includes hope. Moltmann (1993: 256). The Kingdom of God was present in Christ and this has been defined in history. Moltmann (1993: 263).

Question: You seem very intense with blogging; what is your philosophy of blogging?

I have written on this issue previously. I have had struggles with sleep apnea my entire life and it was only diagnosed in 2004. I have been fatigued and unable to work as a part-time professor somewhere and work on very difficult MPhil and PhD theses at the same time. As well, I am not a preacher or pastor and have no calling in that area. Blogging allows me to provide a form of ministry to persons within and outside of the Church and provides me with public exposure. Additionally, the work I have done blogging has greatly contributed to my academic knowledge, despite the fact I have almost four degrees. Make no mistake, even the research and discussions that take place on satire and theology significantly assist me in my learning and knowledge. I hope and pray I grow closer to God through learning.

I am intense in working with these blogs, but I fully realize that the success of thekingpin68 and satire and theology is not primarily measured by traffic, links, readers, and comments; but the blogs are successful if they are pleasing to God. Lord willing, I will try to grow my blogs, and will continue to comment on other blogs, to support friendly Christian bloggers and those who are kind towards Christianity. I am becoming more busy and I will need to prioritise commenting on certain blogs, and so if you would like me to continue commenting on your blog in the long run, please link with me. Once I am working full-time, God willing, as a professor, most of my thekingpin68 articles will be based on work research, and I will not have near the time to comment on other blogs, or search for new links via BlogRush, Blogger Next Blog and Christian groups on the web.

I will not very likely join a group to link with a blog. I do not ask someone to join a group to link with me, and I do not expect to be asked to join a group to link with someone else. I also will not very likely sign up with a group that has rules on theological matters, or with how many times I post an article. If someone wants to know what my views are please do a search on this blog, or ask me. I am quite traditional and orthodox on Christian essentials. I will tend to shy away from blogs where the blog owner appears to be on an ego trip and is at all dictatorial and controlling on the blog. I want persons to think freely on this blog, and that is how I would like to be treated on other blogs.

Thanks

Russ:)

The number one FAQ

Cerphilly Castle, Wales (photo from trekearth.com)

http://satireandtheology.blogspot.com/2008/05/evangelize-while-in-
fight-for-your-life.html

Here is a hypothetical Frequently Asked Question and I really appreciate all my readers, commenters and links.

Question:

You state you hold to Believer’s baptism/credobaptism, although infant baptism/paedobaptism has some merit. If that is so, why are you a member of a Presbyterian Church in America?

I am not intending to debate the baptism issue in this article, but please feel free to review my article and link below. I have attended Baptist churches. I have earned a MTS degree at a Baptist seminary and have interacted with Baptist theology on the subject of baptism.

http://thekingpin68.blogspot.com/2007/08/some-thoughts-on-
infant-baptism.html

I am sure there are many godly Baptists out there, and I wish to have fellowship with many, but I have not found definitive Baptists, in particular, very supportive of me as a Christian. No one has ever reached out to me over a prolonged period within a Baptist church to guide me in my Christian walk and academic pursuits. As well, a Baptist pastor and theologian did a poor job in guiding and advising me at seminary and basically implied I was not good enough to write a thesis. The truth was although he was and is a very good theologian, he did a poor job advising his first thesis student. On that issue, he was not supported by the administration that pulled his negative letter concerning my thesis work off my record, when I strongly complained of the critique. He had taken a position at another institution.

With no additional training, and a new advisor at Wales, I went on to write a much more difficult 40, 000 word MPhil dissertation thesis by distance learning, without any local advisor and passed without revisions. I am in the process of completing a more difficult yet, distance learning PhD dissertation with Wales, which is from what I have read, by some standards, the second largest University in the United Kingdom. The Presbyterian church that I am a member of has very educated pastoral leadership that has assisted me with my PhD thesis and two of my pastors have commented on my blogs. My one pastor reads my blogs weekly.

As much as I have tried on-line, no definitive Baptist blogger has linked with me. I have contacted several, but they seem to show no interest in continually reading, commenting or linking with my blogs. I have, for example, links that are definitive Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, and persons that attend the Church of Christ.

Now, I must admit, I am not aware of the denomination of every one of my links and so some of you may be Baptists. But, from what I am aware, the definitive Baptists I have attempted to contact do not want to support my work. I have heard Baptist theologian Albert Mohler state on-line that those that hold to Baptist theology on the issue of baptism should attend a Baptist church. I reason that is too narrow of a perspective, particularly in the rather secular, unchurched Greater Vancouver area. The subject of Baptism would be one area of theological agreement, but as my pastor pointed out, there are more Presbyterians that hold to Reformed, Calvinist doctrines than there are Baptists.

I reason there are more important theological issues than the important issue of baptism. I hold to compatibilism and not incompatibilism. Some Reformed, Calvinist Baptist churches would agree with me on the issue of compatibilism and some non-Reformed Baptist churches would not. This is a crucial issue in regard to the problem of evil and how persons are saved or not saved by Christ. I reason God without the use of force or coercion predestines those who believe in Christ. God chooses to regenerate a person by God’s will alone. Some reason God chooses to regenerate everyone, but cannot because of human free will, but I reason the since all human beings have a corrupt nature, no one could or would choose Christ without being regenerated by God and his divine choice. God regenerates the elect and simultaneously gives persons the ability to freely believe and trust in Christ. Romans 1-3, Romans 8 and Ephesians 1 are important Chapters in regard to this topic.

Baptists are not providing me with compelling reasons to attend and join a Baptist church. I really would like to be linked with many Baptists, both Reformed and non-Reformed. But, I know from experience with two Baptist theology professors that they were skeptical concerning conservative philosophical theologians that were not pastors. If this is a common view with the Baptist movement, this is a tremendous negative.

Definitions and Bibliography

Incompatibilism:

Gregory A. Boyd explains that incompatibilism assumes since human beings are free, their wills and resulting actions are not, in any way, determined by any outside force. Boyd (2001: 52).

Compatibilism:

Compatibilism, would agree with incompatibilism that God or any other being cannot cause by force or coercion any significantly free human action, but contrary to incompatibilism thinks that God or an outside force can simultaneously determine/will significantly free human actions. Feinberg (1994: 60).

Philosopher Louis P. Pojman explains that within determinism or hard determinism, an outside force causes an act and no created being is responsible for his or her moral actions, while for compatibilism or soft determinism, although an outside force causes actions, created beings are responsible where they act voluntarily. Within hard determinism an outside force would be the only cause of human actions, while with soft determinism an outside force would be the primary cause of human actions and persons the secondary cause. Pojman (1996: 596). God would be the primary cause within Christian theism.

BOYD, GREGORY A. (2001) Satan and the Problem of Evil, Downers Grove, Illinois, InterVarsity Press.

FEINBERG, JOHN S. (1994) The Many Faces of Evil, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.

POJMAN, LOUIS P. (1996) Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, New York, Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Thanks Mom, a bad day...

Carson on Pantheism

Vancouver (photo from trekearth.com)

All is one and one for all. The Guru Musketeer

From:
http://thekingpin68.blogspot.com/2006/01/mphil-wales-2003.html

Pantheism

D.A. Carson stated:

Once again, there are many variations. The heart of the matter, however, is that this structure of thought insists that "god" and the universe are one. There is no chasm between creator and created. All that is, is god; god is whatever is.

In this worldview, not only adopted by most Hindus but the working assumption of the entire New Age movement, god is not a transcendent "other" who is personal, who can come from beyond to help us. The entire universe belongs to one order. Within this universe, however, there are levels of attainment. What Christians see as sin or evil, pantheists are likely to see as imperfections in reality that need to be removed by progressive self-realization, progressive self-improvement. The goal of human beings is not to have their sins forgiven and to be reconciled to a God who holds them to account, but to spiral up the cycle of life, perhaps through reincarnation, but certainly through meditation, self-focus, self-improvement. Carson (1990: 32)

Simon Blackburn stated concerning pantheism: "The view that God is in everything, or that God and the universe are one." Blackburn (1996: 276)

There are two major reasons why I, philosophically, dismiss pantheism. One, to me it is illogical to propose that an impersonal God can create, or somehow cause, personal beings. It makes sense that an infinite personal being could create finite personal beings with some similar characteristics, but for an impersonal being to create beings with personality seems untenable.

Two, Carson mentioned that the removal of evil in pantheism is believed to take place through self-progression. Without an objective personal God, however, what basis does pantheism have to call something evil? How is pantheism to determine what is out of order with the cosmic order? It would seem to me that an impersonal "it" that creates the Universe does not have character and is amoral, and thus it is neither good nor evil. The cosmos resulting from it would be amoral and nothing should be seen as evil within it.

It should be noted that there is a difference between God being in everything in pantheism, and God being omnipresent in Christianity. Pantheism assumes monism, God and Universe are one, God is everywhere and in everything so that each human being is in fact God. Christianity assumes God is everywhere but yet separate from his creation. What is the difference? Why am I not God? God is present where my spirit and body are present, yet he wills that I have a will separate from his, a life separate from his, the same is true for all his created beings. Therefore, I could, hypothetically, think that there is no God. As well, I could disobey him and sin.

Whereas in pantheism, those who do wrong are considered to be misunderstanding what they are a part of, however, I think this is untenable. If indeed we were part of God we could not depart from what we were, and there would be no fracture. The fact that we sin demonstrates that although God is infinite we still have the power to will not to be one with him in obedience, and thus evil exists.

The evil that exists in the world is a much greater testament to human separation from God as opposed to the concept of human union with God with misunderstanding. Human beings sin against God because their will is apart from him although his infinite being is always present, however, he can be present yet still have disobedience exist in his creation.

To make a convincing argument of how humanity, being divinity, fails to realize this fact and act accordingly, is very difficult. For divinity to remain pure and able to reincarnate human beings, for example, seems almost intellectually impossible to accomplish, when human beings within divinity continue to commit wrong actions. Pantheism does not make sense because it fails to separate God’s nature from that of his creation. If the nature was indeed the same, there would be no fracture.

BLACKBURN, S. (1996) Pantheism, in Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

CARSON, D.A. (1990) How Long, O Lord?, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

Please leave a comment.

However, if you want to be an evil clown on this blog. I probably will not publish your comment.;)


A photo by Sherry from Facebook. At Christmas time she is asking me to smile...

I think I needed a shave. Once I have my sleep apnea related surgery for a receding jaw, I shall have a new less 'kingpinnish' look. The lower mandible bone will be moved forward and my face will be restructured. I will appear to have more of a neck, although it is presently 20 inches in circumference. I take it the circumference of my neck is so large at the present that it contributes very much to my serious sleep apnea problems.

From:
http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol2/circumference.html


My neck, sort of...

The distance around a circle is called the circumference. The distance across a circle through the center is called the diameter. Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter. Thus, for any circle, if you divide the circumference by the diameter, you get a value close to Pi.

The radius of a circle is the distance from the center of a circle to any point on the circle. If you place two radii end-to-end in a circle, you would have the same length as one diameter. Thus, the diameter of a circle is twice as long as the radius.

http://satireandtheology.blogspot.com/2008/04/presumed-funny-
celebrity-statements.html