Tag Archives: now reading

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I think I need to reduce "Currently Reading" (which means finishing a Christian book and a secular book quickly 😉

 

Currently Reading:

  • Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air (Francis Beckwith and Greg Koukl)
  • The Days of Noah (Fiction, Mark Goodwin)
  • A High View of Scripture (Craig D. Allert)
  • After the Event (Fiction, T.A. Williams)
  • Seven Days that divide the World (John C. Lennox)
  • Citizen Soldiers (History, Stephen E. Ambrose)
  • The Dangers of a Shallow Faith (A.W. Tozer)
  • The Sacrifice Game (Fiction, Brian D'Amato

Reading With a Group:

  • On Christian Doctrine (Augustine)

Finished and waiting to Review:

  • The Lost World of Genesis One (John H. Walton)
  • The Splendour Falls (Fiction, not reviewing)
  • 47 Ronin
  • Everyday Prayers (Scotty Smith)
  • Bonhoeffer: A Biography (Eric Metaxas) - review scheduled
  • God and the Gay Christian: A Response to Matthew Vines
  • The Formation of the Canon of the New Testament (B.B.Warfield)

Devotional On Deck (I don't use all of these all the time, sooo...just that.)

  • Lifting Up Our Hearts
  • Milk and Honey
  • New Morning Mercies (Paul David Tripp)
  • Joy:  A Godly Woman's Adornment (Lydia Brownback)
  • Praying for your Husband from Head to Toe (Sharon Jaynes - this might be moved from "Devotionals" since it's not set up very well)
  • Couples of the Bible (Robert and Bobbie Wolgemuth)
  • Worship Leaders, We Are Not Rock Stars (Stephen Miller)
  • Keeping the Ten Commandments (J.I. Packer)

Coming up Soon:

  • Biblical Inerrancy: the Historical Evidence
  • My Battle Against Hitler
  • Ten Myths About Calvinism

Working through a study

  • The Good News We Almost Forgot (dropped part way through, will pick up again)
  • Taking God at His Word (ditto)
  • New Testament Documents, Are They Reliable? (For a study
  • Jesus and the Eye Witnesses

 

 

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In a book that I'm reading (I'm not at a computer so I'll add the link later) the author talks about public prayer.

Says that if you're in any position of authority, no matter how small, you should brush up on public prayer.

I don't like praying publicly, but have on occasion prayed in a public setting. It's hard for me, and it was hard for my dad, so maybe I learned it from him.

I'm not sure how you pray, and pray *to* God, while also praying for the edification of those around you. I mean, I sort of get it, but where's the overlap - how do you tell when you take your attention off God, and start worrying "more" about the people you're with?

I don't think that prayers should be a sermon with your eyes closed. They shouldn't be used to guilt people into anything.

But...Jesus prayed for the benefit of His listeners. When He raised Lazarus, He prayed,

So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “ Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me

If we use the Lord's Prayer as a pattern for prayer, shouldn't we use this as a pattern for public prayer as well?

So yeah...authority or not, we should brush up on our public prayer.

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A couple of terms were introduced, both of which color the system's view of eschatology.

(note: the descriptions, as I understand them, apply only to end times.)

Dispensationalism: all things are interpreted literally, all promises to Abraham and David are yet to be fulfilled (no promises have already been fulfilled)

Preterist: most of all prophecies concerning the end times have already been fulfilled.

Riddlebarger explains that neither of these views are correct.

When Scripture uses figurative language, interpret it figuratively.  Dispensationalism takes the figurative and forces it into literalism.

Prophetic passages can also contain a "has passed, but has yet to come to pass" dual meaning.

Riddlebarger helps us understand that there were anti-Christ types before Jesus walked this earth, and that there have been many anti-Christs, and there will be more.

Therefore, since Antichrist has already come, remains with us today, and will come again, understanding the tension between the already and the not yet is the key to understanding what the doctrine of Antichrist actually entails, and understanding this tension enables us to know how we are to combat him.

Kim Riddlebarger. Man of Sin, The: Uncovering the Truth about the Antichrist (p. 36). Kindle Edition.

 

 

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Just finished it the first time.

Still don't get it, so I'll blog through it.

the first piece I'll work through is the "why" - why are we so fascinated with the "anti-christ?"

Riddlebarger says that it's because we don't quite see "evil" as evil unless we can put a face to it.  Communism is bad, but unless we can put an evil dictator's face to it, we don't seem to connect it to life.

Another thing is that the "Left Behind" series put a name to him.  That makes it more tantalizing and we "see" more clearly.

But what we think we know (via end times fiction) might not necessarily be what the Bible says about the "man of sin."

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Next question:  why am I interested in this topic?

End times in general, I think - everybody wants a glimpse into the future.  What will happen?  What will happen to those I love?  Will there be a rapture, or will we be here during the "great tribulation?"

I lean "a-mil" so I believe that Christians will be here during the great tribulation - we've been here before, we will be again.  The world hates us; and the more we love Jesus, the more they hate us.

Do I want to "date set?"  Since Christ left, Christians have looked forward to His return.  Is it near?  Is it far?  How do we know?

Is the Anti-Christ a sign?  Who is he?

In the end, curiosity brings me to this topic...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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★★★★★★I started this book once before and rarely do I find a book that is so antithetical to what I believe - that is presented as truth...that I am too distraught to read it.

"Allah - A Christian Response" is one of them

Three quotes:

What the Qur’an denies about God as the Holy Trinity has been denied by every great teacher of the church in the past and ought to be denied by every orthodox Christian today. I reject the idea that Muslim monotheism is incompatible with the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

Let's start with the Doctrine of the Trinity

They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity, for there is no god except One God." (Qur'an 5:73)

Then: Jesus is the Son of God and **IS** God.

Christ the son of Mary was no more than an apostle; many were the apostles that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how Allah doth make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth! (Qur'an 5:75)

I recognize that the author makes his statement in a squishy sort of way...it is difficult to prove a negative.

But what is essential is that neither religion AFFIRMS what the other religion teaches about their God.

Christians believe that Jesus IS God.
Muslims believe He was a prophet and no more.

Christian believe that we worship one God in Three Persons...blessed Trinity.
Muslims believe that is blaspheme.

The effort to show that we worship the same God is an effort in a slight of hand.

So...yup.  Zero stars