eChurch Blog

This is an epic task.

Chris Juby plans to condense one chapter of the Bible per day into Twitters 140 character limit.

He’s on course to finish in November 2013 and as of today has reached Genesis chapter 6.

If you do want to keep up, here’s his Twitter:

@biblesummary

One wonders how he will deal with Psalm 119, but then he’ll be able to take his ease on the run-up with Psalm 117.

The Tweet I really can’t wait to see is for 1 Corinthians 15:

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.

But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?”  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Good luck with that….

Clayboy has posted a thought provoking blog post entitled, Fresh Expressions of Funeral, which is well worth a read.

In examining the provision of funerals in the UK, he makes this statement:

I have said before that I think Christian humanism offers far more to the celebration of human life, love, meaning and value than does an atheist humanism.

I have to confess that this is the first time I’ve come across the term Christian humanism. I also have to confess that even though I’ve had a cursory look online, I still can’t get my head around this concept. Here’s Wiki on the subject:

Christian Humanism is the belief that human freedom and individualism are intrinsic (natural) parts of, or are at least compatible with, Christian doctrine and practice. It is a philosophical union of Christian and humanist principles.

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Christian humanism saw an explosion in the Renaissance, emanating from an increased faith in the capabilities of Man, married with a still-firm devotion to Christianity. Plain Humanism might value earthly existence as something worthy in itself, whereas Christian humanism would value such existence, so long as it were combined with the Christian faith. One of the first texts regarding Christian humanism was Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man, in which he stressed that Men had the free will to travel up and down a moral scale, with God and angels being at the top, and Satan being at the bottom.

Here’s an intro to a website dedicated to Christian Humanism:

Is it possible to be a Christian without a belief in God?  I believe the answer is yes, that in our time being a Christian without a concept of God is both possible and necessary for those who find the life and teachings of Jesus compelling but have difficulty with the concept of God in traditional Christian theology.  The various articles on this website argue in favor of a non-theistic form of Christianity that is reasonably called Christian Humanism.

Given the fundamental premise of traditional Christian theology that we cannot bridge the gap to god with philosophy or science, that we cannot know god except through Jesus, that at least part of the meaning of the Trinity in Christian theology is that Jesus is god in the flesh living among us, and given our difficulty with that premise and our suspicion about the possibility of any meaningful talk about god, it may seem a stretch to talk about non-theistic Christianity but it is that improbability to which I have come in my search for a meaningful and rational basis for a personal faith.

Well, I’m still none the wiser and I can’t get beyond seeing Christian Humanism as a paradox. Does it make sense to anyone else or am I having a mental block?

Interestingly I also happened upon this in Wiki:

A 2005 survey published in Encyclopædia Britannica found that the non-religious made up about 11.9% of the world’s population, and atheists about 2.3%

Although there are many factors which make it difficult to quantify the number of atheists in the world, this does seem a surprisingly miniscule number.

Tim Kimberley over at the Parchment and Pen blog, is featuring a series based on the top ten Biblical discoveries in archaeology.

As promised, I intend to link to them from here, and so here is the seventh offering, at number four on the list:

Top Ten Biblical Discoveries in Archaeology – #4 Ketef Hinnom Silver Amulet Scroll

Praying for Abstinence is by Tom Rees of Epiphenom:

Religious people are less likely to drink heavily. However, there’s a chicken-and-egg problem here. Is it that turning to god help people stay off the demon drink, or is it that hard-core party animals are less likely to be religious?

These questions crop up a lot in studies of religion, but there are a couple of ways round them. Basically, you can look at what happens over time (does being religious at the start of the year predict alcohol consumption at the end), or you can encourage people to be religious and see what happens to their drinking.

That’s what Nathan Lambert, of Florida State University, and colleagues, have done (they’ve done a couple of similar similar studies in the past). They took a group of students  and found that, sure enough, the religious ones were less likely to binge drink. They also showed that religiosity at the start of the semester predicted less binge drinking at the end.

Rather more interesting was that they then did a trial in which they randomized students (all of them religious believers) to two groups. One group was asked to pray every day for their friends and family (they had to pick 5). The other group was asked simply to think positive thoughts daily about their friends and family.

By the end of the study, four weeks later, the  ‘good thoughts’ group were drinking nearly twice as much alcohol as the ‘prayer’ group.

So it seems that making nominally religious people actively engage in their beliefs can discourage them from drinking. But why?

Lambert has two theories. First is that prayer may help to improve your relationships with others (that’s something Lambert has shown in an earlier study). And if relationships are stronger, then you’ll have less need to turn to drink to overcome social barriers.

His second theory is that spirituality and alcohol consumption are alternative routes to relieve the ‘burden of self’. This is the idea that, particularly in Western cultures, people are under high pressure to succeed as individuals. By turning to prayer, people may have less need to turn to the bottle.

Personally, I think something else is going on here. By making people pray every day, what you are doing is reminding people constantly of their religion. It’s called priming. And by doing that, you remind them of their cultural expectations – and also remind them that god is watching them.

In other words, you’d expect daily prayer to encourage people to conform to whatever it is they think their god wants – in this case temperance!

Lambert, N., Fincham, F., Marks, L., & Stillman, T. (2010). Invocations and intoxication: Does prayer decrease alcohol consumption? Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 24 (2), 209-219 DOI: 10.1037/a0018746

Tonight, if you look up at a clear sky in the Northern hemisphere, you may be blessed to see the Perseid meteor shower, debris of the comet Swift-Tuttle whose “radiant” (point of apparent origin) is in the constellation of Perseus. This meteor shower is known as “the tears of St. Lawrence” because it is most visible at this time of year, though these streaks of light can sometimes be seen as early as 17 July and as late as 24 August.

Here’s a snippet about St Lawrence of Rome from Wiki:

Lawrence is one of the most widely venerated saints of the Roman Catholic Church. Devotion to him was widespread by the fourth century. As his martyrdom occurred very early in Church history, many other Christians honor him as well. Since the Perseid Meteor Shower typically occurs every year in mid-August, on or near Saint Lawrence’s feast day, some refer to the shower as the “Tears of Saint Lawrence.”

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After the death of Sixtus, the prefect of Rome demanded that Lawrence turn over the riches of the Church. Ambrose is the earliest source for the tale that Lawrence asked for three days to gather together the wealth. Lawrence worked swiftly to distribute as much Church property to the poor as possible, so as to prevent its being seized by the prefect. On the third day, at the head of a small delegation, he presented himself to the prefect, and when ordered to give up the treasures of the Church, he presented the poor, the crippled, the blind and the suffering, and said that these were the true treasures of the Church. One account records him declaring to the prefect, “The Church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor.” This act of defiance led directly to his martyrdom. This can be compared to the parallel Roman tale of the jewels of Cornelia.

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St Lawrence is especially honored in the city of Rome, where he is one of the city’s patrons. There are several churches in Rome dedicated to him, including San Lorenzo in Panisperna, traditionally identified as the place of his execution. He is invoked by librarians, cooks, and tanners as their patron. His celebration on 10 August has the rank of feast throughout the entire Catholic world. On this day, the reliquary containing his burnt head is displayed in the Vatican for veneration.

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Tradition holds that Lawrence was burned or “grilled” to death, hence his association with the gridiron. Tradition also holds that Lawrence joked about their cooking him enough to eat while he was burning on the gridiron, hence his patronage of cooks and chefs, stating something along the lines of, “turn me over … I’m done on this side”.

Wow….

So there you go, you learn a new thing every day…

NewsWise

The first major study to compare religion and relationship quality across America’s major racial and ethnic groups finds that for all groups, shared religious activity – attending church together and especially praying together – is linked to higher levels of relationship quality.

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“The closer you get to the home, the more powerful the beneficial effects,” Wilcox said. “It makes sense that those who think about, talk about and practice their beliefs in the home, those who bring home their reflections on their marriage, derive stronger effects from those beliefs, especially compared to those who simply attend church weekly.

“I think forgiveness is probably a pretty key dimension to the link between shared religious practice – prayer in particular – and success in the relationship,” Wilcox said. In past studies, forgiveness has been found to be a key influence on the success of relationships, home life and even workplace happiness.

Previous research linking religious involvement to improved relationship quality has ascribed the connection to three factors, Wilcox explained.

First, religious communities typically promote ethical behavior (the Golden Rule, forgiveness) that helps define appropriate relationship conduct, encourage partners to fulfill their familial roles and responsibilities, and handle conflict in a constructive manner.

Second, family-centered social networks found in religious communities offer formal and informal support to couples and families, from financial help to models of healthy relationships, to advice from an elder about how to discipline a difficult child.

Third, religious belief seems to provide people with a sense of purpose and meaning about life in general and their relationship in particular, which increases resilience to stress.

Read all

Breaking news and I suspect this will swiftly become the ‘Christian persecution’ hot potato and the new front in the ‘war’…..

Christian Concern for our Nation:

Duke, a father of two and committed Christian, had worked for Wandsworth Council for 18 years and had an unblemished record. Yet, as a result of the comments he made in one 45 minute housing interview, he was subject to 6 months of investigations and three interviews with the Council. His solicitor was even told by the Council that saying “God bless” to a client would require an investigation if the client complained.

Gross misconduct usually covers such behaviour as violence in the workplace, theft or other such serious conduct. Yet the client herself expressly stated that she did not want Duke to be dismissed for what he had said and Duke had never been told that such small talk in a housing interview was prohibited. The Council have always accepted that Duke’s motivation in speaking to the client was purely one of compassion.

Duke, backed by the Christian Legal Centre, took his case to the tribunal where it was argued that the Council’s decision to dismiss him was grossly disproportionate and unfair, and that they had discriminated against him on the basis of his religion.

Despite the evidence that was presented to the tribunal, they decided that the Council’s response was reasonable. Duke and his legal team intend to appeal the decision.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, founder and director of the Christian Legal Centre said “We are stunned that the tribunal failed to recognise the draconian way in which Mr Amachree was treated and we are dismayed that they found that Mr Amachree had not been discriminated against on the grounds of his faith. This decision will send yet more shock waves through the Christian community when they realise that a couple of comments encouraging faith in God can lead to a person being dismissed for gross misconduct.”

Mr Amachree said “I am devastated by the outcome. This is a sad day for Christians who simply want to live out their faith in the workplace without fear. But my heartfelt thanks goes to the Christian Legal Centre and those who have stood by me from the beginning and I know they will continue to support me.”

British Humanist Association:

An evangelical Christian council worker who was dismissed for gross misconduct has lost his claim of religious discrimination. The British Humanist Association has welcomed the judgment as a sane response to ill-founded and illegitimate claims of persecution of Christians in the workplace.

The tribunal found that Duke Amachree, whose case was supported by the Christian Legal Centre, a Christian lobby group, was ‘fairly dismissed’ from his job as a Homelessness Prevention Officer with Wandsworth Borough Council. The council dismissed him following a complaint from a service user who was distressed when, after she revealed that she had an incurable disease, Mr Amachree used the opportunity  to evangelise for his religion in the course of his job and encouraged her to ‘put her faith in god’.

Andrew Copson, BHA Chief Executive, welcomed the judgment, saying, ‘When we take on jobs of service to others, we need to understand that our own prejudices and preferences come second to the needs of those we are employed to help and serve. The law has very properly upheld that principle today.’

He went on, to express the BHA’s concern about the growing prominence of cases such as Mr Amachree’s: ‘The growing trend for political Christian groups to bring nuisance cases of alleged discrimination is highly alarming. Even when the courts find – as they invariably have – no evidence of discrimination, these lobby groups, instead of accepting this, go on to claim instead that the whole system of law discriminates against them and that the whole of the law should shift to accommodate their prejudices. Theocratic arguments like this, advanced in the name of equality for Christians, need to be exposed for what they are.’

Forum 18

Turkey continues to interfere in the choices made by the Jewish, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic communities of who should lead them, Forum 18 News Service notes. The government makes no attempt to hide this interference, which raises serious questions in relation to its international human rights commitments to allow religious communities to select the leaders of their choice. It also interferes in the appointment of the leadership of the Diyanet (Presidency of Religious Affairs) and running of the Muslim community, the country’s largest religious community. Any resolution in line with Turkey’s international human rights obligations would also have to entail granting legal status to all existing religious communities. Communities of all Turkey’s faiths should be free to structure themselves as they choose. But at present no religious community in Turkey has independent legal status in its own right – which means for example that no religious community can own property. So the Jewish, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic leaders are chosen with government permission as leaders of religious communities which do not exist in law and whose personal positions are not recognised in law.

The Turkish government’s interference in whether or not the Armenian Apostolic community could elect a new leader and its decision to impose its choice on the community in June has highlighted again the government’s continued desire to prevent four specific religious communities from choosing their own leaders freely. The involvement of the government can also impose delays in these processes. Perhaps surprisingly, the government makes no attempt to hide this interference, which is incompatible Turkey’s commitments to allow religious communities to select the leaders of their choice.

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Most controversy over state interference in religious leadership affects the three religious communities – the Jewish, the Greek Orthodox and the Armenian Apostolic – which in the government’s interpretation of the 1923 Lausanne Treaty are the only three recognised ethnic/religious communities.

Read All

Fr. Stephen Smuts alerts us to the fact that the price of bread is to rise sharply due to the wildfires sweeping Russia. The Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill recently urged prayer for rain.

Eye Witness News:

Grain SA has said it cannot stop the bread price from going up even if it wanted to.

The organisation said the sector is producing way too little to prevent a sharp rise in the bread price, which is set to increase following an export ban in Russia.

The country is one of the world’s largest wheat producers but its industry was hit by wild fires, which obliterated many crops.

Grain SA said local farmers will not be able to help bread manufacturers keep prices low.

The organisation said the low price of wheat before the disaster in Russia resulted in many farmers planting fewer crops this year.

Consumers can expect to notice an increase in the price of a loaf of bread by October.

I don’t mean to go all prophetic and apocalyptic, but for some reason this reminds me of the following Scripture:

Revelation 6:6

And I heard a voice from among the four living beings say, “A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley will cost a day’s pay. And don’t waste the olive oil and wine.”

Marc Cortez has posted an interesting question relating to preachers using another persons sermon. His post reminded me of this tale.

Charles Spurgeon viewed the use of third party sermons as a form of dishonesty and fraud and he spoke harshly against it. He believed fervently that the sermon was powerful, by virtue of the fact that it had been formed in the preachers own heart by the inspiration of God. He described a true sermon as loading your own heart into a shotgun and firing both barrels at the congregation. He believed a preacher should live, breath and birth the sermon.

It came to Spurgeon’s attention that one of his students (who was already in his preaching training position) had been accused of regurgitating verbatim one of Spurgeon’s finest sermons.

The lad was duly hauled in front of Spurgeon and the accusation was laid before him. To everybody’s surprise the student utterly denied that he had plagiarised one of Spurgeon’s sermons. When firmly pressed on the matter, he did confess that the sermon in question was not of his own design, but had in fact been plagiarised from Whitfield.

Spurgeon then took took his own copy of Whitfield’s sermons from his bookcase, found the sermon in question, and rather red-faced realised that his own sermon had in fact been plagiarised from Whitfield…..