FUD

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.

Doctors and the end of life

There's a terrible story about a father dying after an attack in Bathurst St in Sydney, here.

But buried in the article is something else quite concerning:

Although doctors initially said he would not recover from his brain damage-induced coma, his family refused to let him die, demanding that doctors continue to provide "active" care.

"They said he wouldn't recover sufficiently for his quality of life to be good enough," Ms Gilsenan said.

"[But] he did get a lot better … he really did make progress and he got into rehab, which they told us he would never do."

So persistent was his recovery that just before Easter he was able to say the names of his daughters and even leave the hospital in a wheelchair to visit friends.

The article goes on to report that the man died of pneumonia.

What's concerning is that the doctors had clearly made a mistake about the man's prognosis, with the result that the family had to insist that he be given proper medical care. I wonder how often this happens?

I have heard two first-hand accounts of abortion being suggested as an option to parents where the child turned out to be completely healthy after birth.

Seeing the psychiatrist

"Do you know what? I think we solved all our problems, just sitting out here in the waiting room."

-from tonight's episode of Desperate Housewives.

A historian comments on a comment on Acts 17

Alex comments on Acts 17 and contextualization:

Sorry, Gordon, I know you are busy with other things, but I just couldn't resist to comment on this post.

Sarah's thesis that Paul re-contextualises Aratos gets strong support from the (in my view) most important book on the Areopagus speech (Bertil Gärtner, The Areopagus Speech and Natural Revelation, Uppsala 1955). Gärtner's main thesis is that Paul borrowed words and phrases from pagan writers, but the meaning he gives to them is completely different from that of their original context.

Those who defend the idea that the speech is Pauline (although the wording probably is Luke's) also see strong links between Acts 17 and Romans 1.

(For the historian there is also an interesting parallel between Aratos' l. 2: "For every street, every market-place is full of Zeus" and Acts 17,16 "the city was full of idols". Might be worth writing an article on that parallel and dedicate it to Sarah Fordham - if she doesn't want to write the article herself....)

Alex

Thanks Alex, yes I am a bit preoccupied, but your comment was worth dragging out of the comments page and reproducing here. Yes, I thought you might like what Sarah had to say ;-)

And I do like that you have referred to a Swede.

Acts 17

This comment by Sarah Fordham on an old post made me think carefully about the usefulness of history.

Paul does something very interesting in quoting the poet Aratus. He re-interprets, or should I say re-contextualises [to place (as a literary or artistic work) in a different context]. He seems to be ignoring the fact the poem is about Zeus and extolling the deity, nay false god, full on. It's like he is replacing the name Zeus with the name Jesus in his mind, and making out this is an OK thing to do. In v 29 we have the turning point: 'being then children of God' and it's a recontextualisation.

Let us begin with Zeus, whom we mortals never leave unspoken.
For every street, every market-place is full of Zeus.
Even the sea and the harbour are full of this deity.
Everywhere everyone is indebted to Zeus.
For we are indeed his offspring... (Phaenomena 1-5).

I would link this passage with what Paul says in Romans 1:'the pagans are without excuse because of the things that have been made...' He says that people suppress the truth - 'that which is known about God is evident within them.'

Sur[e]ly mission is about uncovering this truth no[w] it is no longer suppress[ed]? Wouldn't that entirely change the way we approach evangelism?

Sarah, all I can say is 'Pow, Bam' (I'm talking about the effect on me, reading it). It's a phenomenal quote, and quite possibly an answer to something I've been praying about on and off for the last little bit with a friend, which is about the value of the study of history. Thanks for helping clear away some barnacles.

I'm not sure I agree, however, that the truth is no longer being suppressed! (If that is what you were saying)

For all lovers of strategy

For all you lovers of strategy out there, Rick Warren is on your side.

Check this post on the Irish Calvinist website, entitled Rick Warren: "Your Preaching & Prayer will not grow your church, but your skill."

(Warning: If you're not keen on sarcasm, you will need to take a few deep breaths before, during and after the heavily editorialized YouTube video link that's included in this piece. But the points made by the editorializer are completely valid. The Rick Warren quotes, including the one from the blog post title, are spoken by the man himself. Towards the end are some observations by John Piper from Scripture that flatly contradict what Warren is asserting)

Rick Warren is an incredibly skilled and passionate communicator, and this makes his attack on biblical preaching all the more seductive and reprehensible.

Jesus is Lord

Nice.

Berlioz—Romeo et Juliette

Our choir's singing this on June 6 and 7

Someone cleverly managed some free advertising in the letters page of today's SMH

Next month the Sydney Symphony will perform Berlioz's dramatic symphony Romeo and Juliet, a work paid for by Niccolo Paganini, proving money can buy great art. Freed from the daily grind of writing newspaper articles for a crust, in nine months Berlioz conjured the high point of Western art music. Thank you, Mr Paganini.

Richard Lynch, Waterloo

Psalm 46

To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song.

1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

Selah

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Selah

8 Come, behold the works of the LORD,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Selah

Deirdre Bromham

Fiona's mother Deirdre passed away early yesterday morning, Wednesday May 21, 2008.

Her passing was sudden but not unexpected. In God's kindness each of her family were able to say their farewells before she departed.

She'd recently celebrated her 80th birthday with family and friends at a hotel in Berrima.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)

Strategy

We must have one, or the gospel will not reach people!

Why?

Dunno. It's just what people keep telling me, a lot, and IN A LOUD VOICE.

Providence

Nicole:

I need to pray that next time I'm faced with the reality that life's not in my control, that I won't be surprised. And I need to pray that I start to trust that God's plans for my life are perfect. And that they are good.

That's not an easy thing to pray.

See here.

Contains undiluted heresy

“This book includes undiluted heresy.”

Well, Al, that means it is heresy that has been diluted in the form of a book.

Al is quoted somewhere here.

Sad news

We've experienced a loss in the family, and I will post again in due course. Prayers appreciated.

Zechariah 14: A vision of heaven and hell.

Barry Webb discusses Zechariah 14; a vision not merely of God’s judgement upon the nations attacking earthly Jerusalem, and the rebellious inhabitants of Jerusalem, but of the final coming of the kingdom of God:

But the joy of salvation, in the Bible, never descends into sentimentality; it is always grounded in reality and truth. And so it is here, for the term survivor is a two-edged sword. Not everyone will survive; some will be overthrown by God’s judgment. And the reason is simple: not everyone will go up to Jerusalem to worship the King (17). They will maintain their defiance to the end; and for them there will be no victory, and no joy, but want (no rain), plague and punishment (17-19). Zechariah’s vision of the coming kingdom of God is wonderfully inclusive: it embraces people of all nations. But it is not universalist in a sentimental, truth-evading way. Belonging to the people of God is not merely a matter of survival, as though all that is required is to be alive; it is also, more fundamentally, a matter of personal decision. One must choose to come to the feast, and join the worshippers. And Zechariah is quite clear that not everyone—nor even the majority—will choose to do so.

There is hell as well as heaven.

[bold mine. The numbers in the text refer to the verses of Zechariah 14].

-Webb, Barry G. The Message of Zechariah, from The Bible Speaks Today series (London: IVP, 2003) pp. 181-182.

Images of Hell

By divine coincidence, I came across this description of God's terrible judgement as I was working my way through Tim McMahon's excellent studies on the book of Zechariah, which I'm editing at the moment:

And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

That's Zechariah 14:12.

When I read passages like this, I wonder if our preaching of hell and judgement is somewhat weak and flaccid. I've never once heard the reality of hell preached in such terrible terms as this, and it makes me wonder if we shouldn't do it more. To the suggestion that it is excessive, the answer surely has to be that it's right there, in the Bible. And anyway, anyone who's read Lord of the Rings or played a Playstation video game would be able to connect to this imagery immediately.

(This coincidence relates to my blog post over on The Sola Panel.)

Suffering

We keep being surprised by our own suffering, as if it were a stranger or an interloper within our world. But this shouldn't be so. Because even if suffering is a stranger in our world, we've been clearly instructed not to be so inhospitable as to reject it, and by no fewer than four apostles.

Peter:

1 Pet. 4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

Paul:

Rom. 8:17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

James:

James 1:2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds

and John:

1 John 3:13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

Possibly we might add the writer to the Hebrews, assuming he is not one of the four already mentioned.

The crowning instruction comes from our Lord himself:

Mark 8:34 And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

So we should embrace our suffering not as a stranger, but as a friend sent by our Saviour to help us on our way.

Preaching hell to depressed teens

On the Sola Panel blog.

Brendan Nelson

Can't last long.

Poetry Friday

Friday, they do say, is Poets' Day.

So.

Although I've never been a hot shot in the poetry stakes, I thought I should at least do a bit of research to get myself up to speed. A bit of initial groundwork turned up this history of poetry.

I don't know much about poetry, but I know what I like, to coin a phrase. And I quite liked that.

Warning. If you actually do like poetry, I would nae click on that link if I were ye (as Robbie Burns might sae). Ye might find it a wee bit...disappointin'.

Move along poetry lovers, nothing to see here.

To blog or to pray?

Sometimes I think about whether to blog or to pray about some pressing matter, and I realize that it is more effective just to pray.

It's one of the difficulties about talking about Christian inaction in the face of certain issues, especially political ones. For those who have a strong trust that God keeps his word, we are persuaded by that word that the most effective 'action' of all is to ask God for things.

Now this doesn't preclude the possibility of other action being taken as well. But it does mean that a great deal more might be happening that is unseen than our meagre minds can think or imagine.

Zechariah 4:10 says " For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel." It's about the rebuilding of Jerusalem, which will be effective against massive political odds because the LORD has decided that it will happen. The plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand is the sign that the small thing will grow into the big thing.

Prayer is smaller than a plumb line, but the God who stands behind it is a great God. v 10 continues "These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range through the whole earth."

That's a rather random cogitation and not really a model for how you read Zechariah 4.

(which I'm reading at the moment. If you forced me to explain I'd say my talk of prayer and plumb lines was a tangential application that highlights the key idea of the passage, which is that God sovereignly achieves everything he ever sets out to do, in accordance with his word)

But it struck me that it was more important to blog about prayer than about Burma, just this morning.

And also to pray.

An evangelical who won't sign

The evangelical manifesto, that is.

US Southern Baptist Richard Land talks about it here.

The more I've gone back to reading it myself, the more questions about meaning are opened up, and Richard offers a good collection of them. The meaning of 'evangelical' in the document is watery, and that's a pretty basic problem.

Good quote:

As I grow more mature in years I am more and more aware of just how wise Billy Graham’s policy is of never signing statements you haven’t written yourself.

Al Mohler's thoughts about it here.

Who gets comforted by judgement and wrath?

I read a blog post from The Pilgrim Penguin that links the judgement of God to the problem of evil.

In it she says

Most arguments for atheism, including one I heard recently from Peter Singer, revolve around unjust human suffering: if God cares about us, why does He allow so much suffering without intervening? Either God doesn't exist, or God is bad.

One facet of a response to this question is to consider the judgement of God.

This set me thinking about who will get comforted by the notion of God's judgement and wrath.

It is counter-intuitive to think of the judgement and wrath of God as a comforting idea. But those who suffer now cry out to God for his help and his justice. In Revelation 6, this call for justice continues even beyond death! In this passage, those who are martyred for the faith ask God to bring his judgement, and soon:

9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

Although Revelation 6 is written for all Christians, there will be a special group who should read it and draw particular comfort. They are the people mentioned in verse 11, the "fellow servants and their brothers" of those who have already suffered martyrdom, who are about to suffer in exactly the same way. If you were about to die for your faith, and to die in the most painful and excruciating way, the reminder of coming judgement would be the most wonderful comfort. All will be put right by our mighty avenging judge, the lamb on God's throne who is also the Lion of Judah.

If the thinking behind Revelation 6 is right (and how dare we suggest otherwise), the doctrine of coming judgement ought to be preached with greater severity to those who need comfort and feel abandoned by God. We must never, never, tone down the horror of God's wrath; in doing so we take away the comfort and encouragement of those who feel that God is a long way away.

I just want some friends

Facebook friends, that is.

If you haven't already, just sign up with facebook (so ensuring that you are permanently stalkable), and send me a friend request.

No reasonable offer refused.

If you send me too many offers of applications, you will be terminated. ;-)

Be warned though, I update my status irritatingly regularly.

Fair trade coffee

A worthwhile discussion of fair trade coffee has started over on the sola panel blog.

We've enabled comment moderation over there, and that seems to be working for us so far. The comments still manage to flow through in a reasonably prompt fashion, which means that a good and thoughtful discussion is possible. Why not head on over and add a comment, if you've had some ideas on the topic?

Burma, China

Here is another way to help; and the Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen has launched an appeal that you can donate to here.

We need to keep China in our prayers too. The government there has moved quickly and efficiently to bring help to those who need it.

US beats UN

In deed and not just word, the US has been better at getting aid to Burma, hindered only by Burma's own government.

How many days?

How many days should you wear a shirt? It's autumn in Sydney, and it's getting colder. If you have a laptop-pushing job like mine, you can actually reach the end of the day without cracking a sweat. Actually, if you have a laptop-pushing job like mine, where you also sometimes work from home by yourself, you can sit there wearing your wife's t-shirt that you slept in with the words 'I'm with stupid' lovingly texta-ed on by one of your daughters, and no-one will be any the wiser (no, fifi has no such t-shirt, but you get the picture).

So is it OK to wear a shirt 2 days straight? What if you get to the end of day 2 and it's still fine, in your opinion? What if you take it off and lie it over a chair for a few days, thus allowing it to breathe, and then wear it again? What if you're only seeing people off in the distance most of the time, or out in the open air where the odour of stale sweat is not nearly as obvious?

All just academic questions, you understand. But the washing does mount up a bit in winter.

Quake in China

SMH report on quake that has killed 5000.

Another!

Beautiful...Sydney autumn day.