7/11/14

From Jim McGuiggan... Rough justice or none at all!


Rough justice or none at all!

Here’s Harriet, she’s a single mother and a cocaine addict and she abuses her children severely and often. Here’s Henry, he’s ill and mentally challenged. He carries an iron bar and has taken to beating people with it.

What are we to do with them? We may not be sure but we are sure that we should do something to protect the defenceless and innocent and it doesn’t matter that Henry and Harriet are not in (complete) control of their actions. Harriet’s horrific background and Henry’s mental disability matter—of course—but these things have to be put aside until we deal with the very real threat these two people are to others.

“The standards of the law are standards of general application. The law takes no account of the infinite varieties of temperament, intellect, and education, which make the internal character of a given act so different in different men. It does not attempt to see men as God sees them, for more than one sufficient reason. In the first place, the impossibility of nicely measuring a man’s powers and limitations is far clearer than that of ascertaining his knowledge of law…When men live in society, a certain average of conduct, a sacrifice of individual peculiarities going beyond a certain point, is necessary to the general welfare. If, for instance, a man is born hasty and awkward, is always having accidents and hurting himself or his neighbors, no doubt his congenital defects will be allowed for in the courts of Heaven, but his slips are no less troublesome to his neighbors than if they sprang from guilty neglect. His neighbors accordingly require him, at his proper peril, to come up to their standard, and the courts which they establish decline to take his personal equation into account.” Oliver Wendell Holmes said that.

There must come a point when we render judgment because however disabled a transgressor is we simply can’t allow him to hurt his neighbor at will. At one level our response against sin (or crime) must ignore what motivates or what shaped the sinner/criminal. We have to develop, as Walter Moberly would put it, “a certain myopia” and get on with dealing with the case. He who knows all and knows how to judge all does not hold us responsible because we are not him and he expects us to judge within our limitations.

Explain it how we will, or for as long as we might, there are in fact those who are predators that hunt the defenseless. What the predator might have been or what he might be under other circumstances who can say? The man/woman before us is the one we have to deal with and not the one who might have been or might later be. When we deal severely (as we sometimes must) with transgressors we recognize our limits but we can do no other than to think that dispensing a rough sort of justice is better than dispensing no justice at all. And if we're sensitive to the fact that we too are under the Holy Father who judges all persons and takes into account all the factors that conspire to make a life then we’ll bear Matthew 7:1-5 in mind.

Aren’t we pleased that Christ is a great Savior?! The more complex and convoluted the entire human situation becomes to our eyes the more wondrous he has to be in order to save any of us. “For such a high priest is suited to our needs,” the Hebrew writer said. Pascal had good reason to say, “It is equally dangerous for man to know God without knowing his own wretchedness as it is to know his own wretchedness without knowing the Redeemer who can free him from it.”

But in saying Jesus Christ has to be great to save “any” of us I'm not suggesting we’re all equally bogged down in sins (plural) for manifestly we’re not. Or that we were all equally bogged down in sins (plural) because I know my record is in every way more littered with failures and positive trespasses than many I know. But whatever our individual differences are they came to us because we are part of a single human family. Neither sin nor righteousness began with me—they continue with me and whatever differences there are in the number of our sins or the grossness of our particular sins we’ve all been involved in the same uprising against God at some point and bear the sign of rebel on our forehead.

But I suspect if we had a richer biblical anthropology and a richer sense of human solidarity and if we were more enlightened about our limits as judges we could live more contentedly with “rough justice” and think we were being treated as well as is possible. Maybe resentment would be less of a hazard and we’d “do our time” with a freer heart.

I'm certain that if our human judges do their needed duty without arrogance and with some residue of good will toward us that we'd "take what's coming to us" in a better spirit. Then, again, even our judges have been shaped by that universal uprising against the Holy Father. Knowing what it was going to lead to in 70 AD, from the cross Jesus looked at his nation and said to his Holy Father, "They don't know what they're doing." Luke 23:14.

Only a God can judge wellonly a God like Jesus Christ can judge well. Until the day he does that and rights all wrongs [Acts 17:31] we'll have to bear with rough justice or none at all. 

by Eric Lyons, M.Min. ... Philip Pullman and The Golden Compass





http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=12&article=2336

Philip Pullman and The Golden Compass

by  Eric Lyons, M.Min.

On December 7, 2007 theaters worldwide released the much anticipated movie The Golden Compass. The movie has generated a great deal of discussion, especially among Christians, because it is based upon Philip Pullman’s first novel in his controversial trilogy titled His Dark Materials. Critics contend that the trilogy is “anti-Christian” and “atheism for kids” (“Pullman Not...,” 2007), but Today on NBC and other media outlets contend that Pullman is “not promoting atheism” (“Pullman Not...,” 2007, emp. added). When interviewed on the Today show a month prior to the movie’s release and asked to respond to those who say The Golden Compass is anti-Christian, Pullman stated:
I always mistrust people who tell us how we should understand something. They know better than we do what the book means or what this means and how we should read it or whether we should read it or not. I don’t think that is democratic. I prefer to trust the reader. I prefer to trust what I call the democracy of reading. But everybody has the right to form their own opinions and read what they like and come to their own conclusions about it (“Pullman on...,” 2007).
If there ever was a politically correct statement, this was it. The question was, “What is your response that this book is anti-Christian?” Is it or isn’t it? Pullman evaded the question altogether and indirectly attacked his critics by painting them as untrustworthy know-it-alls.
Fortunately, Pullman elsewhere has addressed his thoughts concerning God and Christianity more directly, allowing the public to see beyond the politically correct answers he gave on the eve of The Golden Compass’s release in theaters. In 2001, he penned an article titled “The Republic of Heaven.” It appeared in The Horn Book Magazine—a bi-monthly journal of children’s and young adult literature (see “About Us,” 2007). Those familiar with Pullman’s trilogy know that his republic of Heaven represents the antithesis of the biblical, celestial heaven of Almighty God. The republic is the “here and now,” which supposedly is all there is, and is ruled by men, not by a King in Heaven. In addressing his “republic of Heaven,” Pullman wrote: “[W]e must find a way of believing that we are not subservient creatures dependent on the whim of some celestial monarch, but free citizens of the republic of Heaven” (2001). He pointed out early in the article that the children’s books he loves “are saying something important about the most important subject...which is the death of God and its consequences.” He continued: “I take it that there really is no God anymore; the old assumptions have all withered away. That’s my starting point: that the idea of God with which I was brought up is now perfectly incredible” (Pullman, 2001).
Despite Pullman’s attempt to skirt questions about the anti-God, humanistic ideologies in his writings, his anti-Christian sentiments as portrayed through his imagined republic are very clear. He hails a republic as the “antithesis” of a celestial realm ruled by God. “This world is where the things are that matter.... [T]his earth is our true home, and nowhere else is.” How do humans function in such a world? What about right and wrong? According to Pullman, “It’s no good to say, ‘X is good and Y is evil because God says they are’; the King is dead, and that argument won’t do for free citizens of the republic.... Satan; he’s dead, too. There’s no one responsible but us. Goodness and evil have always had a human origin” (2001, emp. added). Of course, Pullman’s ideology is also pro-evolution. In seeking to answer “Why does the world exist?” he contended that there is “overwhelmingly powerful evidence for evolution by natural selection. The neo-Darwinians tell us that the processes of life are blind and automatic; there has been no purpose in our coming here” (2001).
But, one might ask, are Pullman’s personal ideologies really played out in his books for young people? Pullman actually hinted that there is no better place to spread one’s ideas. He suggested:
[W]e need a story, because it’s no good persuading people to commit themselves to an idea on the grounds that it’s reasonable. How much effect would the Bible have had for generations and generations if it had just been a collection of laws and genealogies? What seized the mind and captured the heart were the stories it contains.
So if we are to see what a republic of Heaven might look like, we must look for evidence of it, as I’ve been suggesting, in the realm of stories. And one of the few places we can be certain of finding stories, these days, is in books that are read by children (2001, italics in orig.).
Pullman knows that a good story can impact the world—for good or bad. Sadly, the story of a great republic that he has been selling in His Dark Materials trilogy is anti-God, anti-Creation, and anti-Christianity. Perhaps the directors and producers of the movie The Golden Compass chose to downplay the deeper meaning of Pullman’s writings, but parents would be wise to pass on both the movie and the book on which it is based.

REFERENCES

“About Us” (2007), The Horn Book Magazine, [On-line], URL: http://www.hbook.com/aboutus/.
“Pullman Not Promoting Atheism in ‘Golden Compass’” (2007), Today, [On-line], URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21595083/.
“Pullman on the ‘Compass’ Controversy,” (2007), Today, [On-line], URL: http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&brand= msnbc&tab=m5&rf=http: //www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21595083/ &fg=&from=00&vid=aba48491- 7d9b-41ff-9e1c-d65ead8d6c6e&playlist= videoByTag:mk:us:vs:0:tag:News _Editors%20Picks:ns:MSNVideo_Top_Cat:ps: 10:sd:-1:ind:1:ff:8A.
Pullman, Philip (2001), “The Republic of Heaven,” The Horn Book Magazine, 77:655-667, November/December, [On-line], URL: http://www.hbook.com/magazine/articles/2001/nov01_pullman.asp.

From Mark Copeland... Paul Returns To Antioch (Acts 18:18-23)

                          "THE BOOK OF ACTS"

                  Paul Returns To Antioch (18:18-23)

INTRODUCTION

1. After a long and successful stay in Corinth, Paul...
   a. Began the last leg of his second missionary journey
   b. From Corinth to Antioch of Syria
   c. By way of Cenchrea, Ephesus, Caesarea, and Jerusalem

2. Luke's description of the last leg of Paul's second journey is 
   brief...
   a. Covered in only six verses - Ac 18:18-23
   b. Immediately followed by the start of his third journey - Ac 18:23

[Though brief, Luke's description contains several things of interest. 
So let's follow along on...]

I. THE LAST LEG OF THE JOURNEY

   A. FROM CORINTH TO EPHESUS...
      1. Paul left Corinth, joined by Aquila and Priscilla - Ac 18:18
         a. With whom Paul had stayed in Corinth - Ac 18:1-3
         b. Mentioned later in several epistles - Ro 16:3; 1Co 16:19;
            2Ti 4:19
      2. In nearby Cenchrea, Paul cut his hair - Ac 18:18
         a. Cenchrea - a port city, about nine miles from Corinth
         b. Home of Phoebe, a servant of the church there - Ro 16:1
         c. Paul had taken a vow, perhaps the Nazarite vow - cf. Num 6:1-21
         d. As a Jew, Paul had no problems observing certain elements of
            the Law, understanding it was not necessary to be saved - cf.
            Ac 21:20-26; 1Co 9:19-23; Ga 5:4-6
      3. Arriving at Ephesus - Ac 18:19-21
         a. Aquila and Priscilla stayed; they later had a church in
            their home - cf. 1Co 16:19
         b. Paul reasoned with the Jews in the synagogue - cf. Ac 17:1-3 
         c. The Jews wanted him to stay longer
            1) But he was anxious to get to Jerusalem
            2) Some manuscripts indicate it was to keep the feast
               (Passover - cf. Ramsay)
         d. He promised to return, God willing; which he did - cf. Ac 19:1

   B. FROM EPHESUS TO JERUSALEM...
      1. Paul sailed from Ephesus to Caesarea - Ac 18:21-22
         a. Caesarea was Palestine's chief port - ESV Study Bible
         b. Where Paul would visit again later - cf. Ac 21:8
      2. Went "up" (elevation-wise) and visited the church - Ac 18:22
         a. Most likely the church in Jerusalem
         b. "About sixty-five miles inland, the terms 'going up' and
            'going down' are used so frequently of the journey to and 
            from Jerusalem as to establish this usage." - Stott, J.R.W.
            (1994). The Message of Acts: the Spirit, the church & the 
            world. The Bible Speaks Today. Leicester, England: 
            InterVarsity Press.

   C. FROM JERUSALEM TO ANTIOCH...
      1. He went "down" to Antioch - Ac 18:22
         a. Antioch of Syria was actually north of Jerusalem
         b. But it was "downhill" in relation to Jerusalem
      2. He spent "some time" in Antioch of Syria - Ac 18:23
         a. Probably from early summer of AD 52 to early spring of 53
            - Stott, ibid.
         b. Thus Paul's second journey that began in Antioch was 
            completed - cf. Ac 15:36-40

[Luke immediately begins his record of Paul's third missionary journey
(Ac 18:23).  But let's use the rest of this study to summarize...]

II. THE IMPACT OF PAUL'S SECOND JOURNEY

   A. ON CHURCHES...
      1. Paul was able to encourage churches 
         a. In Syria, Cilicia - Ac 15:41
         b. In Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia - Ac 16:1-5
      2. Paul was able to establish churches
         a. In Philippi - Ac 16:11-40
         b. In Thessalonica - Ac 17:1-4
         c. In Berea - Ac 17:10-12
         d. In Athens - Ac 17:34
         e. In Corinth - Ac 18:1-8

   B. ON BRETHREN...
      1. Paul began lasting relations with co-workers
         a. Silas - Ac 15:40; 16:19,25,40; 17:4,10,14-15; 18:5; 2Co 1:19;
            1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1
         b. Timothy - Ac 16:1; 17:14-15; 18:5; 19:22; 20:4; Ro 16:21;
            1Co 4:17; 16:10; 2Co 1:1,19; Php 1:1; 2:19; Col 1:1; 1Th 1:1;
            3:2,6; 2Th 1:1; 1Ti 1:2,18; 6:20; 2Ti 1:2; Phm 1; He 13:23
         c. Luke (author of Acts) - Ac 16:10-13,16; 20:6,13-15; 21:1-17;
            27:1-28:16; Col 4:14; 2Ti 4:11; Phm 24
         d. Aquila and Priscilla - Ac 18:1-3,18; Ro 16:3; 1Co 16:19;
            2Ti 4:19
      2. Paul began lasting relations with brethren
         a. Brethren at Philippi (Lydia, the jailor, Clement, Euodia,
            Syntche) - Php 1:3-8; 4:1-3,15-18
         b. Brethren at Thessalonica - 1Th 1:2-4; 2:17-20; 3:6-10; 2Th 1:3-4,11-12; 3:1-5
         c. Brethren at Corinth (Gaius, Chole, Crispus, household of
            Stephanas) - Ac 18:8; 1Co 1:11,14-16; 16:15,17; Ro 16:23

   C. ON HISTORICAL BACKGROUND...
      1. Mentioning churches to whom epistles were written
         a. Antioch of Pisidia, Lystra Iconium, Derbe (Galatians)
         b. Philippi (Philippians)
         c. Thessalonica (1st & 2nd Thessalonians)
         d. Corinth (1st & 2nd Corinthians)
      2. Introducing persons whose impact is felt in the books of the New
         Testament
         a. Luke (author of the gospel of Luke and book of Acts)
         b. Timothy (recipient of 1st & 2nd Timothy) 

CONCLUSION

1. Paul's second missionary also contained notable examples of 
   conversion...
   a. Lydia of Thyatira - Ac 16:13-15
   b. The Philippian jailer - Ac 16:25-34
   c. The Corinthians - Ac 18:8

2. We also read of worthy examples of character...
   a. Timothy, the dedicated disciple - Ac 16:1-3
   b. Lydia, the hospitable convert - Ac 16:15
   c. The noble (fair-minded) Bereans - Ac 17:11

May such examples of conversion and character inspire us us in our own
devotion to the Lord...!

Executable Outlines, Copyright © Mark A. Copeland, 2013

From Gary... SONSHINE


This picture brings a flood of memories to my mind. Our first house was in Valley Falls and had a beautiful sun porch a bit bigger than this.  Since we were located on a hill, there was a vista associated with the porch and I fondly recall the time I spent gazing through all those windows (there were at least two more banks in the lengthwise direction).  The things I saw though those panes are still in my mind- even after 30 years. And the brightness of the picture reminded me of the morning views I enjoyed (the windows had a South-Easterly orientation).  Naturally, I associate the following from the book of John with this...

John, Chapter 8 (NASB)
Joh 8:12  Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."

We spent many years in that wonderful little house and while living there I decided to become a Christian. We are old now, but inside I still feel young; especially when I remember how Jesus, as the light of my life has changed things. Drinking, smoking, bad language (and I mean really, really bad) are gone from my life and its all due to the light of the world (Jesus) who really does change people.  Remember this, the next time you look out a window into the bright sunshine (or should I say SONSHINE). God can change you too!!!!