By Living Waters

Continued from part 1

The Historicity of the Gospels

Here I must quote Derren at length. I wish I could simply reproduce his paragraph without any breaks for commentary and interaction. That simply is not possible since he makes so many revealing or vulnerable assertions.

There are plenty of arguments like this, but all are based on the notion that we can take the New Testament stories as accounts of real events. But to decide that the Bible is history, one must ignore the vast amount of impartial biblical research that shows it really isn’t – in other words, to decide that one’s personal conviction means more than clear evidence. (14, italics added; to be continued below)

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Life is difficult for those who depend on Skype, as I do. For over a day now, their networks have been on the fritz.

Unfortunately for me, this means that my telephone is out. This summer I avoided getting a mobile phone and decided instead to get a “Skype in” phone number. It has been great. It is a Colorado Springs telephone number, thus placing it in good reach of those who work at Summit Ministries‘ main offices. When I’m online, people can ring me and I can answer them just as with any other telephone. When I’m offline (or feeling anti-social) they can leave a voice message.

This has been very useful since my laptop is now a virtual appendage for me. Then again, the Skype part of this virtual appendage isn’t feeling so well right now. Its a learning experience for folks at Skype, as well as for me. For me it is a reminder that utter dependence upon any particular facet of technology (or, perhaps, technologies more generally) is bound to disappoint from time to time.

I’m still hopeful that Skype will resume its normal reliability in the very near future. When in England, frankly, we enjoy clearer calls on Skype than on our land lines. But we’re not in England right now, and Skype is…you know. Nevertheless, I’d really like to avoid getting a mobile phone right now! Nor would I like to be incommunicado.

This evening, during an open forum with students, we ventured into the topic of spiritual warfare (as is common during open forums). Our time was limited, though the timing was just right (as I’ll explain below) to illustrate an important Christian posture towards experiences in general, and our perceptions of spiritual warfare in particular. I began to explain…

You see, a few weeks ago, in an open forum in Tennessee, a certain student and I were enjoying a disagreement of sorts. It was a somewhat tedious discussion since this student admitted and exhibited his ignorance of Scripture. (This always limits our discussion.) Nevertheless, I decided to boil down the discussion to some fundamental observations. To do this, I decided to ask a few questions (questions be sentences that end with something that looks like a fishhook).

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A while back I posted a link to Carl Trueman’s positive thoughts regarding Roman Catholicism. It has now come to my attention that he has also posted some criticisms of Roman Catholicism.

If one cares to read what some thoughtful Protestants take to be the core differences with Roman Catholicism, then one should also avail oneself of Peter Leithart’s 1995 First Things article, “Why Protestants Still Protest.”

I share some of the very concerns these men (and both are greater than I). I have several friends who have converted or reverted to Roman Catholicism. I know others who have been Roman Catholics all the way through. I’m not attracted to that road. If all roads lead to Rome, then perhaps I’m not on a road at all, but on a side path, one meandering through beautiful landscapes, providing me many opportunities to enjoy the luxurious grace of God.

A few months ago, a friend brought Derren Brown (a well-known British magician) to my attention, noting that a number of “episodes” from his programs could be watched on YouTube. I watched a number of them and found them, overall, to be fun and fascinating, with a few quite stunning and a few less than profound.

For the past fifteen years I’ve read about and into “the New Age movement,” often suspecting that some of the more prominent spokespersons were charlatans, or at least employed the methods and means of charlatans. Thus I’ve had a keen interest in “the debunkers,” those who expose the fakery and deception so often found among claimants to supernatural powers.

Thus I decided to purchase Derren Brown’s book, Tricks of the Mind (Amazon-UK, not available in the U.S. yet) and see if I could pick up some new pointers. I suspect I will, but in the meantime, I’ve been rather disappointed at his naïve and rather sophomoric departure from, and critique of, his former (and my current) Christian faith.

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Well, the time has come to mention Summit Ministries’ most recent and exciting venture: Summit Ministries’ Oxford Studies Centre.

Lord willing, the autumn of 2008 will witness the unveiling of a new facet of our work in Oxford, England. I’ve been asked to direct the program.

In the briefest of terms, we’ll host 15-20 students each semester, for two semesters a year. These will be Summit students who also will be associate students of Oxford University.

I’ll let you know more as our information and application are completed. Stay tuned!

Firewalking . . . oh, those amazing feats!

Perhaps you’ve seen them on late-night television. “Awaken the giant within,” and other such pseudo-promises.

The conferees line up – some are quietly confident, others are perspiringly nervous. They roll up their trousers or hike up their skirts and . . . off they go.

Sure, it’s virtual speed walking, but, look, no hands . . . and no burns either.

But is firewalking such an amazing feat?

In order to dispel any doubts, advocates should show that they not only can traverse a bed of hot coals, but they could do the same while the coals are covered with a piece of sheet metal.

It would be about the same temperature, right?

And isn’t that the clincher?

1200-degrees Fahrenheit, right?

So, try this at home (just kidding!): line up a row of skillets set to about 400-degree and scoot your amazing tootsies across as fast as you can.

I do have one suggestion though: make sure the skillets have a non-stick surface!

Then again, don’t be gullible. Don’t be deceived by the frauds.