Reloaded

Last night the 2009-2010 NBA season opened up with fantastic results. My Boston Celtics have been pegged as being "reloaded" in terms of its roster. We acquired some big names like Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels, and yes Kevin Garnett is back and he has a new knee and was in the starting lineup last night. So all eyes were on the reloaded Celtics. How did they do?

Well they took Lebron's Cavs on the road 95-89! A beautiful thing. Good strong performances by all. Ray Allen said he's in the best shape of his entire career, having a rigorous off-season conditioning routine, which could make a huge difference offensively this year. He was dashing to the hoop and getting lots of great assists. Paul Pierce is just a warrior and continues to prove his worth and greatness to the Celtics franchise. He's clutch, he plays defense, and he's a team leader. KG was impressive for his first game in months, he took a double-double. And the biggest thing that stood out to me is that the Celtics bench gave them the needed push when the starters took a rest. I think the fact that we have Rasheed Wallace coming off the bench for KG will provide a huge boost to the secondary. Marquis Daniels showed promise as well.

So what do we need to do this season? We need to stay healthy. I think if we do that we can be in contention for the title. I am sorry. The Lakers were not the best team in the league last season. A healthy Celtics squad would have taken them in 7. The Lakers have not found a reliable way to score without standing around and letting Kobe do his thing. Which works against an immature Magic defense. The Celtics will not stand for this defensively. If the Nuggets would have played any defense at all I don't think the Lakers would have made the finals. In the words of Paul Pierce at halftime of the 2008 NBA finals, "i'll guard kobe." That led to banner 17. The question this season is who can defend Pierce and the Celtics if they stay healthy. I'll be watching with a certain Irish stout in hand!

'This is mine Soce!'

And by the way, when your ace-in-the-hole pitcher looks you in the eye in the ALCS elimination game and says 'this is mine,' you let that boy pitch! Fortunately the bats saved soce's butt and the angels still won the game last night. However I still got pretty steamed when the yankees scored six runs off the bullpen. When Lackey looks at you like the ultimate warrior and tells you the game is his, i'm sorry, i think its good servant leadership to keep him in.

Western States

Everybody needs to go the itunes store and search "Matt Haeck" because you will find his newest EP entitled 'Western States' for sale. These are the songs I rocked with Matt over on the left coast. I was just the drummer in the back having some new castle and mouthing off with the keyboardist in between songs. Now the record is out. This EP is great. Matt has worked his arse off on getting this out, and his set to work off more arse touring in support of the record. Treat yourself and buy his EP. And Matt, you should play in Omaha.

Nathan Clark George

This is way late in coming, but our church just hosted a concert by singer-songwriter Nathan Clark George. He has a few albums out and is the midst of touring quite a bit.

It was a fantastic show. Being a picky listener, I was at first skeptical about how the show would go. But I quickly became a fan. He was fantastic live. His guitar chops are sick, he has a great voice, and he played a real dynamic set. All kinds of different styles. And what made it super special was having it in Harvest's old building here in Omaha. The acoustics are awesome, you could here every little pick of the string, it was pristine. Anyway, I hope more music can be hosted in this building. It is really a treat.

Anyway, Check out Nathan if you get a chance, especially you Matt Haeck.

The Law and the Gospel

I am re-reading parts of John Colquhoun's book, A Treatise on the Law and the Gospel simply because it is an amazing read. I came across this quote today that was too good not to share:

Regarding the relationship between the law of God and the Gospel, Colquhoun writes:

:"The gospel is the law immersed in the blood of Jesus Christ." Amen. Thankful for my savior today. A savior who lived for my righteousness and died for my sins and is now restoring me as his image-bearer, saving me as lawbreaker and changing me into a lawkeeper. That's good news.

Snow, Baby, and California Dreams

you need a machen fix

Here you go.

Communio Sanctorum

I thought I would post just a few more random thoughts on the idea of the communion of saints. So here goes.

Basically, one can see that there are far reaching applications to what we confess here. We are, as the Westminster confession states, obliged to one another as Christians. Moreover, we are bound to maintain an holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God (Heb 10:25). Notice too that we are also called to relieve each other in “outward things,” according to our abilities and necessities.

God has given the people of his church gifts not for themselves and for their benefit, but for the benefit of others in the church and for the glory of God. Thus, as Christians, should we not want to order our lives in such a way as to be able to be givers of gifts in the church? Sure, this can apply to tithes and offerings. We should want to order our lives financially in such a way so as to always be able to give what has been given to us monetarily. God loves a cheerful giver. But it goes much farther than that as well. If you have been given the gift of a house, why not order living in the house in such a way as to show hospitality to the saints. Have a house that you like having people over at, and a house that people like coming over to. The applications, I submit, could go on and on.  What are your gifts and how are you using them for others?

Again, this is not to promote some kind of huge program that the church needs to develop, or to promote some kind of baptized communism (notice the confession talks about how this fellowship does not cancel out the right of private possessions, the bible calls us not to steal, implying ownership of possessions). Rather, in the simple organic ways that God has given gifts to his people, so too they should seek out ways of giving those things for the health of the church.

One thinks of the woman in the gospels who gave her two mites. She did not give out of her abundance but out of her poverty. Even in tough times, the church expresses its counter-cultural nature (because it is the community receiving the kingdom of God, see Heb 11:28) in that it still gives: time, money, talents, hospitality, administration, etc. Everyone has gifts. The spiritual gifts, I believe, are natural gifts heightened when one becomes a Christian in order to be used for the body of Christ. And because everyone has gifts, and the church needs all its parts (1 Cor 12:12ff), everyone who calls on the name of Lord needs to recognize their vital union with Christ, and their corresponding communion with each other.

In closing, I think R. C. Sproul is right when he says that, “we must rid ourselves of the cavalier, casual attitude that we who bear the name of Christ can fail to participate in worship or in the fellowship of the body of Christ (Heb 10:25). It is our job to support and edify one another by gathering together for worship.” Indeed, in all the evangelism efforts that go on (broadly speaking), I am always tempted to ask, what is the church asking folks to join? Is ecclesiology so disattched from soteriology? I don’t think so. Instead, I think the scriptures and thus the confession make an intimate connection. May contemporary Christians go against the grain of our culture that wants to produce mere consumers, and start to see the biblical mandate to become members of Christ's church and enter into the discipline (Heb 12:7-11) and sweet fellowship of the church that is the communion of the saints.

Some exciting things

*Have you all seen the preview for "where the wild things are"? That looks great, especially with the arcade fire jamming on the soundtrack.

*U2 is going on a stadium tour. Bigger audiences meaning that prices are cheaper. Maybe they'll come some place close and we could actually afford to see them live?

*For you omahanians: Homer's on saddle-creek closed, Homer's downtown is moving a block down the street and is closed at the moment. And thus in wanting to pick up the Monsters-of-folk record, my journey was fruitless. No Homer's. Then, Drastic Plastic has depleted their stock and were not carrying the album. And who would actually buy monsters-of-folk at the antiquarium? You would be publicly scorned. Ever seen "high fidelity"? Yea, I couldn't make myself go and see if they had the record. How many lashes would I have received. Probably says more about me than the record shop that I love. At any rate, I am eager to hear the record. Heard a cut or two on myspace and liked what I heard.

*We had our teeth cleaned the other day and the dentist said I did not have any cavities. For any of you who know our california dental stories, this came as a shock. I have been told I have anywhere from 2 to 9 cavities, and now zero. amazing.

till next time.

Two Kingdoms

A great series of posts on the topic is going on at the white horse inn blog. Check out my favorite here. I think Dr. Mike offers a great response to popular rejoinder of the 2K doctrine.

Are the NT Documents Reliable? [updated version]

Thanks to Vinny for pointing out an error I made in a claim in point 1 regarding classical scholars and reliability. I had left out an entire quote and sentence, that is updated now. Also, I found that we have about 643 manuscripts of Homer's Illiad. I think that's the next best ancient text next to the NT.

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A good friend of mine posed this question to me the other night at the local watering hole. I think it is a question that is more prominently on people’s minds in our day than one might think. It is definitely a question I had to work through and know that many of my friends of the same age are trying to work through. Moreover, with the recent high-profile questioning of the reliability of the NT documents by notable ex-evangelical songwriter David Bazan who stated this issue as one of many things that has caused him to leave the faith of his youth, I have thought about the issue in the past few days and wanted to respond.

The argument basically goes like this: We do not have the original autographs (the autographa) of the New Testament writings, thus those documents have probably been corrupted in being passed down, how reliable can they really be?

Not claiming to be exhaustive I would just make a few points to this idea:

1) It is true. We don’t have the autographs. Anyone saying we do is delusional. But what we do have is about 5,000+ ancient copies of the Greek NT. This absolutely dwarfs any other piece of ancient literature ever written in terms of manuscript evidence. I believe the closest runner-up (correct me if I am wrong) is Homer’s Illiad with around 500 or so. Moreover, in comparison with other ancient literature, the latest possible dates for the earliest manuscripts of the NT (around 250 yrs. after the originals were written) we have are far closer to the originals than other ancient documents. Take the important ancient document, Ceasar’s Gallic War. This text is believed to have been composed around 58-50 BC. The earliest manuscript evidence we have of that text is from 9 or 10 good manuscripts 900 yrs. later. Or take the History of Thucydides (c. 460-400 BC) which is known to us from eight mss., the earliest belonging to about c. AD 900, and a few papyrus scraps belonging to the beginning of the Christian era. The same is true of the History of Herodotus (c. 488-428 BC). Yet as distinguished classicist scholar FF Bruce writes, "no classical scholar would listen to an argument that the authenticity of Herodotus or Thucydides is in doubt." So one can see, when it comes to the NT, no ancient document compares in the amount of copies that attest to it and in the proximity of those copies to the originals. All this evidence serves to solidify and not nullify confidence in the NT. Why?

2) In ancient times copies could only be produced by hand. Errors were bound to crop up. That was the nature of the business. So the plethora of copies actually helps to determine the original. A friend of mine gave me an example to explain this idea: Say I write a one-page letter. I then hire a copyist to make 10 copies of this letter. The original letter is then lost and so we are forced to come up with the original based on 10 copies. More than likely, any errors the copyist made will be in different spots in those 10 copies. Thus, we can put together the original based on comparing and contrasting the copies (this is the process of text criticism). Now if we only had 1 copy this would be impossible. If there was an error in that copy, we would not have anything to compare it to. Now think of the NT. We have 5,000+ copies, that is truly solid ground to stand on. We believe the autographa is contained in those copies. This is why we must undergo the messy job of text criticism of which some scholars have dedicated their entire lives to do.

3) Of all the text variants known to humanity, not one undermines any core doctrine of Christian orthodoxy. As NT scholar Dr. Steven Baugh has said, “no variant introduces insoluble heresy.” Moreover, of the variants we have to deal with, a vast majority make no difference to the meaning of a biblical passage. And many variants that do make a difference in the meaning of a passage, do not undermine a truth that can be found elsewhere in Scripture where there is not a variant reading. This should cause bible believing folks to have great confidence in what has been passed down.

4) We must remember that inerrancy is located in the autographs. Not the process of transmitting those autographs. But we know from comparing and contrasting the vast manuscript evidence that these autographs are contained in the Greek NT text as they stand or in the text variants found in the footnotes of our Greek bibles. That is why good English versions of the bible provide footnotes giving alternative readings due to text variants. You can be rest assured dear English reader, your bible is sound. Thus, as Dr. Baugh has said, “there are places where we have real doubts about what the original reading of the biblical text might be. Yet in no case can anyone responsibly assert that our Bible is full of errors which could undermine anyone's faith in the inerrant Word of God. If they do have doubts, it is not because of the facts of the case.”

In conclusion, it is true that we do not have the autographs of the NT. But when one takes a look at the evidence of the NT we do have, the facts do not destroy but support the reliability of the NT.

For further reading I recommend F. F. Bruce’s short book, "The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?" And Dr. Steven Baugh’s short essay found here: http://www.wscal.edu/alumni/facreflections/baugh_variations_inerrancy.php. For people enjoying longer works, read Richard Bauckham’s book, "Jesus and the Eyewitnesses" or Craig Blomberg's "Historical Reliability of the Gospels."

Remember, just click on those book links, and I will receive points, its that easy...