Think!

This is very serious: If you want to be a faithful and godly Christian in college, you must, you must, set up an alternative curriculum giving you some kind of Christian perspective on what you are studying. That means: read more books! But first, you need a philosophy of the Christian mind. On that I strongly recommend several books: JP Moreland, Love Your God With All Your Mind, 2nd ed; James Sire, The Universe Next Door, 5th ed. On a very beginning, but profound, level read John Stott, Your Mind Matters. Then: out-think the world for Christ.

Oh, and if you are really interested, consider our Apologetics and Ethics MA at Denver Seminary.

Love God With Your Mind

I am reading the second edition of JP Moreland's magisterial work, Love Your God With all Your Mind. I have taught from this for years and read it several times. Reading the new edition is edifying, challenging, and motivating. Give up five hours of TV or video games, of pointless texting and read it. It should change your priorities for the better, and God will be pleased.

From Preface to Haddad's Leaving Dirt Place

Love is an inescapable mystery that has stymied many of the best of philosophers, poets, and prophets. Yet love finds its answer--philosophically, theologically, and existentially--in the person of a crucified Jew, who, two thousand years ago, manifested the greatest love of all and who gathers all other loves under his suffering arms. Douglas Groothuis

"We all bear responsibility for every child, because we’re counting on everybody else to help look after ours, that we’re all parents, that they are all our children. This is our first task, caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged." -President Obama, on the eve of the Newtown Prayer Vigil.

It is pretty hard to take this seriously when he supports abortion on demand, partial-birth abortion, and now has us paying for abortion with our tax money, thanks to his statist takeover of healthcare.

Murder

The most important facts of murder in our country:

1. 54,000,000 human fetuses have been legally killed since Roe v. Wade in 1973. Under ObamaTakeover, your taxes will be paying for them. A one-child policy will likely come within a decade, as in China. That would mean forced abortions.
2. About 90% of all Down's fetuses are aborted: defective stuff, you know. Many view children as products, not as offspring. Shame on us.
3. Many abortions are done on viable fetuses, who are then left to die or actively killed outside the mother's womb. Obama supports this. And do you care, you who voted for him?!
4. In light of this, few care for "the least of these" in our country.
5. Repent, before it is too late.

Revelation 22:15

English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁵ Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

A Plea to all my friends: I haven't watched the television today (I was at the Hobbit with my daughter), and I'm not going to turn it on. I'll read a newspaper, blog, or facebook post, but no TV for me. Please consider, everyone, the harm that voyeurism does to your soul. Ask yourself, do I *really* need to sit here and watch this, hour after nauseating hour? Ask yourself another question. Has the impact of 24/7 news and our insatiable craving to be fed with violence helped control the violence, or perhaps let it out of Pandora's Box?--Pastor Douglas Van Dorn

Christmas kindness: 

Put money in the red pots. Talk to the bell-wringers. Ask if you can buy them a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, since many work in the cold. Give them a kind pat on the shoulder or shake their hand. Pray for them. Do this all for Christ, who is in them (Matt. 25:31-46).

Here are two recommended courses for the spring semester, 2013, which are a part of the fledgling Christian Apologetics and Ethics degree at Denver Seminary. 

1. Contemporary Apologists. Two credit hours, taught by Dr. Douglas Groothuis. 4:00pm-5:50pm, Wednesdays.

Catalog description: Helps students understand the works of key contemporary apologists so that they are equipped to engage in contemporary world apologetics. Offered spring semesters, odd years. 

Become conversant in the works of current key figures in the field of apologetics, and in the process, sharpen your own skills. 

2. Social Ethics, Two credit hours, taught by Dr. Larry Burtoft. 12:00pm-1:50pm, Tuesdays.

Catalog description: Constructs a biblically rooted paradigm to apply to contemporary social issues, responding to questions such as: What would a Christian social ethic look like? Has the church anything to offer in the way of public policy? Can the church hold definitive positions on issues such as human rights, politics, economics, poverty, racism, sexism, homosexuality, and bioethics? 

Help us spread the word about this program!

Christian Apologetics and Ethics on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DenverSeminaryApologetics

Official website: http://www.denverseminary.edu/apologetics/

An Argument Against the Koran from the Koran

AN Argument Against the Koran from the Koran

Summarized from “The Challenge of Islam” in Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics

1.     The Koran says to check the Bible for the Koran’s own accuracy.

2.     We have copies today of Bibles from the time of the writing of Koran.

3.     These Bibles are essentially the same as what we now have in contemporary translations.

4.     Our Bibles affirm the distinctive beliefs of Christianity that Islam denies:

a.     The Trinity (Matthew 28:18-20)

b.     The deity of Christ (John 1:1-3)

c.      Salvation by faith alone (Ephesians 2:8)

5.     Therefore (A), the Koran refutes itself when it can be verified by the Bible.

6.     Therefore (B), The Koran is false in its defining beliefs (denying the Trinity, the deity of Christ, and salvation by faith alone).

7.     Therefore (C), Islam is a false religion (1 John 4:1-6).

The Strange Case of Dinesh D'Souza

Successful author, speaking, and film-maker, Dinesh D'Souza recently resigned as President of a Christian College two days after he spoke at a Christian worldview conference, accompanied by a woman he introduced as his fiancee. The problem was that DD was not yet divorced from his wife of twenty years. A report in World Magazine claimed he spent the night with the woman in the hotel of the conference.

While much could be said about this, one point suffices. DD says in an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, that his career has never been better. Apparently, divorcing your wife of twenty years and introducing another woman as your fiance before the divorce is final does not detract too much from one's success.

Paul said to Timothy, "Guard your life and doctrine carefully." In God's eyes, worldly success means little if one's moral life is in decay, and if repentance has yet to emerge. Let that be a lesson to us all.

The Phenomenology of Angst

Fragmentation, acceleration
Peter Brotzmann
blasting, howling,
the world's sorrows and beauties
in my car.

Then...inside the store
Kenny G mangles an already
treacly Christmas song.

I fantasize:

The Highest Aesthetic Authorities apprehend G.--should have been done long ago...
They shear him of all hair above his neck.
They tie him to a wooden chair
in a room
with
Peter Brotzmann,
who proceeds to play every reed instrument
for two hours
with his trio.

What's left of G is
better for our world.
And I am vindicated.