Stolen…but in good faith

This post was so good I had to rip it off broaden its publication.

Do you know the Orphan Man?

If you know anything of George Muller, then you are probably thinking this thought: “orphan-man.” And rightly so. Through the five orphanages that George Muller established in Bristol, England, he provided care for 10,024 orphans, of which 4 to 5,000 became believers. He also established over 117 day schools, educating roughly 122,000 children in England, Scotland, India, Malacca, British Guiana, Essequibo, Belize, Spain, France and Italy. An estimated 20,000 of these children were converted. His Scripture Institute gave out more than 270,000 Bibles in various languages and 1,440,000 New Testaments. £258,000 was raised for missions. In today’s American dollar, that is approximately $24,764,891.69 (via Measuring Worth). Over 109,000,000 books, pamphlets, tracts were published and distributed. Nearly 500 missionaries were sent, converting an approximate 20,000 souls. At his death, his possessions were a few pieces of furniture, books and £60. No earthly treasures, no retirement fund, no inheritance.
Amazing… the power of a believing man. More amazing still, the power of what that man believed in, condescending to us, using us as a means to His merciful and gracious ends.

information from the book George Muller by William H. Harding

see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Muller

his original narratives via Dust and Ashes Publications

[Shamelessly appropriated from Mutiny. Thanks, SG!]

Crazy Pat Endorses Rudy

Pat Robertson endorsed Rudy G. for the presidency in 2008. I get the impression Doug Wilson thinks it is a bad idea.

[Edit: So, it seems, does Tony Woodlief.]

Bill’s Theme

So, I’m talking with Bill today and he says to me, he says, “Hey! Your blog theme is horrible. I can’t read it. You gotta do something different.” He then proceeded to say things about my mama, and, needless to say, I got a little huffy! My inclination was to say to Bill, “Hey! you can talk about my mama all you want, but leave my blog alone!”

Tim Keller, An Incomprehensible God, Hard Knox and The End of Time

Darryl at DashHouse.com summarizes one of Tim Keller’s talks at the 2007 EMA conference. This point stood out:

It is necessary to draw boundaries. What really matters is how we treat the people on the other side of those boundaries. People are watching. We’re going to win the younger leaders if we are the most gracious, kind, and the least self-righteous in controversy. The truth will ultimately lose if we hold the right doctrines, but do so with nasty attitudes and a lack of love.

Read Darryl’s entire summary here. It is a worthy investment of time to read it.

Theological Jackassery

R.C. Sproul taught me to think.

Warren Gage taught me to see Christ in the whole Bible.

Results

I remember doing elementary experiments in school.

1. Start with a theory - something like, “Water makes things wet and sorta change colors.”
2. Write your hypothesis -  “I hypothesize that pouring water on the red construction paper will make it wet and appear darker in color.”
3. State the procedure you’re going to employ - “I am going to pour water on the red construction paper.”
4. Conduct the experiment and record the results - “I poured water on the red construction paper and it got wet and appeared darker in color.”
5. State your conclusion which either confirms or debunks your hypothesis - “Water makes red construction paper wet and appear darker in color.”

Such was the experiment in traffic generation. I poured water on the construction paper. It got wet and changed color. I am simultaneously proud and ashamed.

Controversy

Warren Gage, Knox Seminary, R.C. Sproul, N.T. Wright, John Piper, Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt, John MacArthur, Emerging Church, New Perspectives on Paul, Federal Vision.

I post this as an experiment to see how my stats counter registers it. My hypothesis is that it will go nutty. Controversy sells.

I read this today: “The blogosphere is the friend of information but the enemy of thought,” (Alan Jacobs in Books & Culture.) (cited here).

I’ll report the results in a couple of days (although my guess is that the findings will generate far fewer visits). C’est la vie.

[edit: click here]

[CLICK HERE FOR EXPERIMENT'S SCANDALOUS RESULTS ...go ahead...you know you want to]

Green on the Atonement

I just finished The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views, and it finished reasonably well with Joel Green making a pretty good case for his kaleidoscopic view. Central to his thesis is that the atonement cannot be understood by merely one theme, but sees it as a multi-layered, multi-dimensional reality.

Some Thoughts on Atonement

Romans 8:18-21:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of glory of the children of God.

In working through the meaning of the atonement, a couple of things have occurred to me that are worth further consideration.

Reichenbach on Healing

Well, I got through Reichenbach’s contribution in The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views, and I must say that I gleaned more from him than I anticipated. His crankiness emerges from time to time, but maybe only because I’m looking for it. While I am unconvinced that his view should be viewed as the central or fundamental motif if the atonement, there were some brilliant reminders in his piece and he certainly added to the rich texture of it.