I found an interesting article on AllAfrica.com about “fake” men of God exploiting Christians in Africa. One pastor was quoted saying:

those fake pastors who are exploiting the word of God at the expense of some vulnerable Christians must be very careful for they cannot stand the wrath of God on the judgment day.

It is difficult to hear this type of news, but the believers there know the Word of God and they know that there will always be people who try to use Christianity for their own appetites:

He quoted scripture saying that the weed and the fruits should be left to grow together until the harvest time when the weeds would be uprooted and burnt living the fruits.

He therefore explained that these fake men of God do not need to be curbed out of the system now but must be left because they will receive the reward of destruction at God’s own appointed time if they do not change their ways before the harvest (rapture).

Nevertheless, he cautioned Christians to shun the act of following prophecies and miracles performed by such Pastors and learn the word of God on their own in order to identify the fake men of God who take them for granted.

This reminded me of a great clip from John Piper:

Click here if the above link doesn’t work

The Herald Tribune is reporting that the cleric who was abducted earlier this week has been rescued! Praise God for this good news.

On the lighter side of things, apparently he was being held in “Batman”, which is a province in Turkey. Google Maps has verified:

View Larger Map

Michael Luo has a posting on the New York Times Politics blog describing Wednesday’s “CNN YouTube Republican” debate. He focused on one particular question given to Mit Romney about whether he believes the Christian Bible to be the word of God. Mit’s response wasn’t all that interesting, but I found the writer’s response very interesting:

As the Bible was compiled, organized, translated, and transcribed, many errors entered the text. The existence of such errors becomes apparent when one considers the numerous and often conflicting translations of the Bible in existence today. Careful students of the Bible are often puzzled by apparent contradictions and omissions. Many people have also been curious about references by biblical prophets to books or scriptural passages that are not currently in the Bible.

Huh?

It would be nice to have seen some references for this statement. This is a common belief for a lot of people though and we need to be thinking about it as we discuss these things with unbelievers. Monergism has a wealth of information to help you if you’d like some more information on biblical inerrancy, the formation of the canon, etc. to help with your apologetic formation.

Fred Sanders has an interesting post on Isaiah 63:17:

Why, O LORD, do You cause us to stray from Your ways
And harden our heart from fearing You?
Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.

In it, he references the perspectives of two commentators, one Calvinistic and one Wesleyan. The conclusions they draw are fairly similar in that neither one would say the author is passing the blame for their sins to God, making Him the author of their sins and making Him responsible for them.

Although not stated in the same way, we can see a similar situation in Exodus 4 when God says He will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will not let the Israelites leave Egypt. The difference here being Pharaoh did not believe in God and the person speaking in Isaiah 63 is an Israelite.

So, what can we glean from this passage in Isaiah? Obviously it is a great passage on the sovereignty of God and it reminds us that God is at work in all things for His name’s sake. But we can also find what the Israelites did when they were trapped in their sins; they focused on who God is. Look at verses 15-16 in that same chapter in Isaiah. The people revered God, they recalled His workings from of old and recognized Him as their redeemer. This is a great lesson for us when we are struggling with indwelling sin. Focus on the redeemer and not the redeemed.

Reformation Theology has a great post comparing Moses and Jesus and their journeys here on earth as aliens in a foreign land. Have a look and be asking yourself the questions, “where is my home and how do I know I’m focused on Him who reigns there?”

Always good deals and better books here.

After looking into eReaders and where this technology is going, one has to see the correlation between this technology and these types of projects. The Associated Press has an article on Carnegie Mellon University’s project to put books online, similar to the Gutenberg Project or Google’s book project. Currently, CMU’s project has about 1.5 million books with thousands more added each day.

Amazon’s Kindle is on the right track by including the ability to connect, via WIFI or broadband cellular, to the internet and download books to satisfy our “I want it now” cravings. Sure, Amazon will profit off of this and this will be good for them. But they are setting the bar. Someone will come along with the same desire to spread knowledge that founded the $100 laptop project and combine eReaders with online book projects and create an eReader that can access the online book projects almost anywhere you are.

I don’t think the technology is there yet, but I’m excited to see what is going on in this field. Store all of your books in one place so that you can access them at any time, search through all the text in all of your books, tag sections, add notes to the margins, sharing content with others….ok maybe not that last one but you see where I’m going. We did this with our music, we’re doing it with our movies/TV, books are next.

As a huge fan of reading, I think this field is moving in some good directions. People say that nothing will ever beat the feel of a thick, captivating novel on a cold and rainy day but I’m willing to give up feelings for features. Have a look at what others think:

• Ars Technica
• Stephen Shields
• Justin Taylor
• Tim Challies

I was going through the book of Job today, honestly one of my favorite books of the Bible, and stopped on a particular passage (Job 12:7-11):

7″But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.
8″Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare to you.
9″Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
10In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind?
11″Does not the ear test words,
As the palate tastes its food?

What caused me to stop here was Job’s apologetic, arguing for the sovereignty of God, which can be used to argue for the existence of God. Job goes about this by looking at nature and seeing God through it. This is commonly referred to as the argument from nature or creation and usually is meant to appeal to an unbeliever’s recognition that things in nature appear to have been created due to their commonality, beauty, and intricate inner-workings.

Beginning with verses 7 and 8, Job says that we should ask the beasts, birds, fish, and the earth itself who has done all of these things, who holds the very breath of life? Obviously Job isn’t telling his friends to go and speak to the animals or the physical earth. Job is saying that they should observe, question, and investigate nature and, using human reasoning, figure out where things came from. He is saying, “look around, everything you see has clearly been created.”

Then in verse 9, Job says, “Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this,” and from these we are left with some interesting questions. Job is saying that there isn’t anything we see that doesn’t lead us to a knowledge of a creator, but certainly some things today are difficult for the Christian community to explain. I have heard some good theories on dinosaurs, stars that have the appearance of exploding millions of years ago, carbon-dating, etc. but none are really nailed-down yet and this is a major hang-up for a lot of the more scientific unbelieving community. Job is saying that there is nothing created that will not testify of its creator.

Do we believe this? Do we believe, as verse 10 says, that God holds the lives of every living thing in His hand and that if He so chooses He can remove the very breath of life that was given? In other words, do we believe that God did create the dinosaurs within the timespan given in Genesis? Do we believe that He gave them life or possibly that He gave them life and removed their breath instantly as I’ve heard some apologists explain it? Verse 11 says that our ears should test every word they hear just as the mouth tastes all of the food it eats. Have you ever tried to not taste your food? We should be testing the words we hear from the scientific community as well as from the philosophic community and stacking up our case against those words. I don’t think these difficult questions will go away, they will continue to come up as we speak with those who do not believe in a creator.

Kingdom Surge has posted a great reminder to us about the persecuted church.

Also have a look at The Voice of the Martyrs, an excellent ministry that has been seeking to assist to those suffering for the sake of Christ and spread the news about what is going on in foreign lands. Be sure to sign up for their newsletter.

While I’m at it, if you haven’t read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs…..well….you should. Read it online for free as well.

Please continue to pray that God would comfort the families of those suffering and also that He would use these opportunities to draw more to Him and open doors to closed lands.