worship

i was reading the link that i put up a couple posts ago about the biblical meanings of words, and how they are different than our modern meanings: the one about worship. the conclusion struck me as very relevant.

In conclusion: "Worship" is often used to refer just to the time of singing and music in our services, but it is clear from contextual study that worship is a life and lifestyle, not just acts in isolated pockets of time. Worship can mean serving in a soup kitchen, or going on a mission trip, or conducting a ministry of some sort -- and we may consider deeply how far our Western, individualistic perceptions have in some cases taken us from the NT ideal.

i recommend you read that essay, and give some thought to it. we are instructed to pray continually. i think that we are also called to live lives of worhip.

the modal fallacy

ah, the english language; a source of wonderful beauty and mind numbing consternation. the way we naturally express our thoughts in english doesn't help when trying to explain very specific philosophical nuances. the modal fallacy goes like this. we would naturally say something like this:

if john has one son and two daughters, he has to have at least one daughter.
john has one son and two daughters.
therefore john has to have at least one daughter.

but think about it... that's rubbish. he doesn't' have to have any kids; daughters or sons. it is true that if john has one son and two daughters he will have at least one daughter, but it's not true that he must. in other words it is incorrect to mistake a logically necessary condition, as a logically necessary truth.

this holds for a number of philosophical problems. they are dependent on this misusing of modal concepts. if you're interested, please check out this article by Norman Swartz.

what does it all mean....

as christians reading the bible, and looking back on bible times, it is necessary that we understand what the authors meant when they talked of certain subjects. the culture of the ancient near east was very different to our modern western one. it's very dangerous for us to read the words of the bible using our modern vocabulary and understanding. thankfully there are serious scholars, of various faiths (or lack thereof) who study the way that people in the culture of the ancient near east thought and acted. three sources of this kind of information are: Malina's The New Testament World, Malina and Neyrey's Portraits of Paul: An Archaeology of Ancient Personality and deSilva's Honor, Patronage, Kinship and Purity.

to give a quick taste of what's inside, please check out these essays, they may change the way you think about your christian walk: what is faith, what is hope, what is love, what is mercy, what is worship, what is humility, what is repentance?

pax

code debunking

hi all. just in case you haven't read any really good articles debunking the rubbish in that book named after a renaissance man named leonardo, read this. if nothing else, mr. brown has got non-christians asking questions about christianity; this is good. so let's be prepared to answer them!

gridblog #1 - the good book

yes, i'm a little late to the blog-party, but here are my 2p...

the book is God's inerrant word. that statement has taken lifetimes of people far better qualified than i to explain. therefore i'll just give you some of my thoughts on what an impact that has on my life.

it is the revealed truth of how God relates to humanity, and how he expects us to behave as his children. it tells me how to relate to God, and everyone else in creation.

lately the all embracing nature of its truth has been changing the ways i look at many things in life. the presuppositions we bring to our day to day existence. how our world view is shaped, and the implications that has for how we live.

not to say that it's crystal clear and simple to apply. the christian walk might well not be so interesting if it was...

pax