Clipmarks | brazilnut72's 'theology' clips

Disturbing Dance

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:45:32 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: This is wrong on so many levels. Taking the grand biblical concept of the renewing of your mind (Romans 12) and reducing it to an 80's dance tune...and such BAD dancing at that.

Clip Source: purgatorio1.com

[Video]

Tags: bad dancing/theology

Brazil's "Evangélicos"

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:10:20 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: A colleague of mine gives a good analysis of modern evangelicalism in Brazil.

Clip Source: www.inafarplace.com

In Latin America as well as many African countries, evangelical
stats now include a hybrid of charismatic Pentecostalism termed
by some as renewalists. These teachings exported from the U.S.
during the 1970’s and 80’s are now producing celebrity
preachers and religious superstars that draw millions toward
hope in material wealth and miracles of all sorts. Through media,
mega gatherings, and temples open seven days a week, health-
wealth ministries manipulate millions of extremely desperate
people. This misplaced hope eventually leads to more
disappointment because our basic problem is not the lack of
health or wealth, as hard as that may be to see when you have

neither.

Today, when one says he is an evangélico it is
far more confusing than defining. There is no doubt that
evangelicals are having a major identity crisis. Most of the
gargantuan religious growth in Brazil is not evangelical at all
under the classical definition of the term.

Tags: brazil, theology, evangelical

Thoughts on Adulthood

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:50:10 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: From my Pa...who always made being an adult seem cool.

Clip Source: www.bbc-cortland.org

Being an adult has come on difficult times in recent years.

being an adult seems to be becoming something to avoid, like a terminal disease.

In recent years just about the only good that people see in being an "adult" seems to be the ability to "legally" access pornography and alcohol.

Could it be that somewhere along the line we have forgotten that adulthood is an adventure that carries with it responsibility which will have a bearing on our destiny?

Perhaps a lesson could be learned from the ancient kings of Judah.

In their youth they were men of faith. As they grew older they seemed more interested in safety. The change moved them from a daring trust in God to a groveling search for ungodly alliances which could give them the protection they craved.

If we are to return adulthood to imaginative desirability, we must stop bemoaning the loss of "youth" and present an enthusiasm for being an adult which can be expressed with robust authenticity of spirit

Tags: theology, adulthood

The Judas Hoax

Wed, 28 May 2008 13:18:06 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: Interesting findings about the so-called "Gospel of Judas"

Clip Source: www.albertmohler.com

There were disturbing elements to the story, however. The National Geographic Society clearly aimed at making a financial gain through the much-publicized book and television documentary. More importantly, the Society did not make the actual manuscript available for other scholars to check and consult.

A devastating analysis of the actual translation put forth by the Society and its chosen scholars came from Professor April D. DeConick of Rice University. In her book, The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says, DeConick proved that the most famous "finding" offered by the National Geographic Society translation (claiming that Judas was good and not evil) was a complete misrepresentation of the text and a profound mistranslation.

The paper performs a commendable service in providing an extensive analysis of the controversy surrounding the text and the project. Beyond doubt, there are major issues of scholarship and personal integrity at stake.

Tags: theology

The Failure of Post Modern "Theology"

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:31:19 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: Somebody on the writing team of ER (perhaps unwittingly) put their finger on the weakness of Post-Modern theology.

Clip Source: www.comingstobrazil.com

[Video]

A friend shared this video on Facebook (thanks Dave--this makes up for you beating me at every single Scraboulous game we have ever played), and I thought it was simply amazing. I did not watch the whole episode, and so I don't know how the screenwriters ended the story. However, in this clip they captured the essence of the bankruptcy of post-modern thought.

"Bring me a real chaplain, who believes in a real God and a real Hell." I wonder how many people who have spent their lives depending on feel-good theology get to the end and find themselves desperate for a little clarity.

Pullman's "Theology"

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:54:03 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: An interesting (and surprisingly balanced) look at the theology--or lack thereof-- behind "The Golden Compass".

Clip Source: www.equip.org

Satan, as the Angel of Light, came to Eve to warn her about the “God” who had set himself up as their creator. Yahweh, an angelic imposter, wanted to keep her and her husband in darkness and bondage by imposing his will on them and all of creation. Satan, on the other hand, was there to free them from their unconsciousness and help them experience the difference between good and evil while growing in wisdom and love. Humanity would then be freed from this tyrannical, self-centered, supposed creator and embark on a glorious mission — to form heaven on earth.

Tags: theology, golden compass

Thoughts on the Emerging Church

Thu, 10 May 2007 18:56:49 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: Some interesting comments from someone usually quite critical of the ECM.

Clip Source: teampyro.blogspot.com

ne genuine contribution the [Emerging Church Movement(ECM)] has made is in its analysis of the many failures of the contemporary evangelical mainstream. The ECM critique of the evangelical movement is for the most part right on target—especially when Emerging critics decry contemporary evangelicals' infatuation with everything frivolous, superficial, and self-centered. As a matter of fact, one of the major factors that seems to be propelling young people into the ECM is a loathing for the unbridled shallowness and self-absorption of modern evangelicalism. The publisher's ad copy for Russell Rathburn's Post-Rapture Radio (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005) expresses a typical sentiment: "Frustrated with the shallowness of the American Evangelical Movement of the past few decades, and seeing that many of his friends wanted to have nothing to do with Christianity, Russell . . . decided to create a church that his friends would want to come to."

Tags: emerging church, phil johnson, christianity, theology

Give Your Kids a Bible and a Legacy

Wed, 09 May 2007 19:28:05 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: I am going to do this!

Clip Source: www.esv.org

Once when he was giving a concert, I heard Michael Card say that he was reading his daughter’s Bible, which he explained that he bought each of his kids a Bible and read it before giving it to them. And as he read it, he made notes in the margins, speaking directly to whichever child’s Bible he was reading… so that years later as they read it, their father would be speaking to them in the margins concerning the text and its application for their lives. I was fascinated by this tradition… I loved it and wanted to do it immediately, but it scares me a little. I figure I’d get 1/3 or 1/2 through the first one, and that’d be it… one kid would get an incomplete effort and the other none at all. Still, it’d be powerful if I had more confidence in my own discipline to be able to finish it.

Tags: bible, christianity, theology, children, heritage

Thoughts on Missions, Part Two

Sat, 05 May 2007 21:15:31 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: Continuation of previous clip.

Clip Source: www.christianitytoday.com

So another piece of unlearning we must do is breaking the habit of using the term mission field to refer to everywhere else in the world except our home country in the West.

This God-centered refocusing of mission turns inside-out our obsession with mission plans, agendas, goals, strategies, and grand schemes.

We want to be driven by a purpose tailored for our individual lives, when we should be seeing the purpose of all life, including our own, wrapped up in the great mission of God for the whole of creation.

We wrestle to "make the gospel relevant to the world." But God is about the mission of transforming the world to fit the shape of the gospel.

We invite God's blessing on our human-centered mission strategies, but the only concept of mission into which God fits is the one of which he is the beginning and the end.

Tags: missions, missionaries, missionary, christianity, theology, baptist mid missions

Thoughts on Missions, Part One

Sat, 05 May 2007 18:18:08 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: Some interesting thoughts and statistics published in Christianity Today.

Clip Source: www.christianitytoday.com

The map of global Christianity that our grandparents knew has been turned upside-down.

More Christians worship in Anglican churches in Nigeria each week than in all the Episcopal and Anglican churches of Britain, Europe, and North America combined. There are more Baptists in Congo than in Britain. More people in church every Sunday in communist China than in all of Western Europe. Ten times more Assemblies of God members in Latin America than in the U.S.

Christianity has never had a territorial center. Our center is the person of Christ, and wherever he is known, there is another potential center of faith and witness.

There are many more Korean missionaries than British, and some Nigerian evangelical mission organizations are larger in personnel than most Western ones (while operating on budgets that are a fraction of their Western counterparts').

So you are as likely to meet a Brazilian missionary in North Africa as a British missionary in Brazil.

Tags: missions, missionary, brazil, christianity, theology

Growth of "Protestantism" in Brazil

Sat, 05 May 2007 17:08:47 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: In it's shift from ritualistic Catholicism to shallow Pentecostalism, Brazil is jumping from the spiritual frying pan into the spiritual fire.

People from the favelas flock to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God--but no transformation is taking place in the favelas. Indeed, the favelas are getting worse, which the Universal Church gets richer.

Clip Source: www.jamaica-gleaner.com

Although Brazil still has more Catholics than any other country in the world, with about 125 million, the percentage of believers that practise the Vatican's brand of Christianity has been dropping rapidly in the last three decades.

"The face of Christianity in Brazil, and all over the developing world, is increasingly Pentecostal,"

They belong to denominations such as the Assemblies of God and the Universal Church, which was started in a Rio de Janeiro funeral home in 1977 and now has more than two million members.

Pentecostalism is especially strong in poor urban areas, where the precariousness of daily life - blackouts, violent crime, high unemployment - can make people seek divine intervention.

"The language of evangelicals is simple, direct, with minimal theology, making it easily understood by the masses,"

Tags: brazil, brazilian, religion, charismaticism, catholicism, pentecostalism

Dan Phillips on Tolerance

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:14:37 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: Good remarks on the letter to the church at Thyatira in the book of Revelation.

Clip Source: teampyro.blogspot.com

Every spiritual blessing in them and abounding—yet Jesus has something against them: they tolerate false teaching. It isn't enough that they are personally holy, alive, growing. These are good things, they are signs of personal health. But there is a vital, crucial, missing element. A body that does not fight off infection, whatever its other strengths, is not a healthy body.

The job of a shepherd is not merely to guide and feed the sheep, though it is that. It is also to protect the sheep, by fighting off the wolves, even if it costs him personally. It is this commitment that sets him apart from a mere hireling (John 10:12-13).

Wonderful church, Thyatira. Good pastor. But -- he wouldn't draw the line, and so they didn't. They wouldn't enforce the edges.

And Jesus has that against them.

Tags: tolerance, theology, church, ecclesiology, revelation, dan phillips

Missions Statistics

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 18:17:56 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: The global missionary situation.

Clip Source: www.cmalliance.org

One third of earth’s people call themselves Christians.
One third of non-Christians live in already reached people groups.
One third of non-Christians live in unreached people groups.
680 million people (11.5%) are Evangelicals or Bible-reading Christians.

U.S. missionaries make up only 30 percent of the world’s missionaries. Our slightly declining annual number is being overtaken by increased participation from Africa, Latin America, and Korea.

Of those involved in missions in the US, 98% are Senders (Financial Supporters, Prayers, Letter, Mobilizers, Pastors, etc.), 0.5% are Servicers (Mobilizers, Administrative, Tech Support, Training, communications), 1.5% are Missionaries (Church Planting, Development, Tentmaking, Tribal Outreach, Health Services).

Tags: missions, mission, missionary, theology, evangelism, christianity, christian

When is Abortion Racism?

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 01:30:02 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: I clipped a portion of this message earlier, reprinted on a different page of this site. But I wanted to re-clip it here. People need to read the entirety of it.

Clip Source: www.desiringgod.org

When Is Abortion Racism?

My aim is that those who abhor racism will abhor abortion—“Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9). My aim is that abortion would be as culturally taboo as racism is. My aim is to hasten the day when being publicly pro-choice will be as reprehensible as being publicly racist. My aim is to hasten the day when declaring yourself pro-choice would be like declaring yourself a white supremacist.

Tags: abortion, theology, racism

Theology of Breakups

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:34:34 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: Breaking up is...a theological exercise.

Clip Source: worldofsven.co.uk

Theology of Break-Ups

Atheist: The burden of proof is on you to establish the existence of this so-called "god" but I believe that if there was any such divine entity "it" would not want us to continue dating.

Calvinist: We were predestined before the creation of the world to break up according to God's good pleasure. I am, on my own power, unable to break up with you apart from the irresistible draw of God's sovereign grace which leads me to end this relationship. Those that truly break up will not get back together in the end.

Arminian: While you love me and have a wonderful plan for my life, I have the power to resist your will. If I did not, love would not be possible. For our relationship to be loving it needs to include the possibility of breaking up--something I am doing right now.

Open Theist: I am not really sure if we are supposed to be together, because neither is God.

Emergent: The question if whether we are in relationship or not is mired in Modernity's obsession with propositional truth. A better a way to look at this is to enter into God's story about how he lead us together and is now leading us apart.

Lutheran: I want our relationship to continue, but first there are a few things about you that God wants to change. Here is a list of 95 that I made. What? OK, then, I guess we're done.

Episcopalian: Ummm... I'm gay.

Fundamentalist: You have tarnished the pure nature of our love by incorporating such heathen elements as "dating" and "fun." I am afraid I can no longer court you--yea, even speak to you--until you repent of this apostasy.

Tags: humor, theology, dating, breakups