That's About It

Today I put up links to my personal testimony and some book reviews. I am going to add a link to the pieces I did on Dispensationalism back when I started this blog and that will be it for old business. I could have done that much today, but I hurt my thumb last night - I cut it well washing dishes - and my hand hurts if I type too much. As far as I am concerned, its on to new business!

My Testimony

I grew up in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and life had not been good. My mother and my biological father had split up shortly after I was born. A sister of mine had died and the house was full of recriminations. My mother married my step-father when I was still a pre-schooler. He had a lot of things going for him but even when I was very young he was well on his way to becoming an alcoholic. Their marriage was stormy and short and ended with me being raised by my step-father. I sank into what I later realized was depression and became disconnected from those around me. The years from my parents’ divorce to my high school graduation were long and desperate. Once I reached eighteen I was ready to put it all behind me. To start my life over. That was what a move to Whitehorse, Yukon offered. I moved there because someone had offered me a summer job. I was at a turning point.

I had family in Whitehorse and began meeting lots of new people. One was a neighbor, a Pentecostal woman, named Lisa. She talked with me at great length, telling me what the Bible teaches and how the Spirit of God moved in her church. My childhood in a mainstream church did not include much in the way of Bible teaching. I had been allowed to skip church altogether from a young age so I was curious about the many things she told me. People were ‘healed’, people ‘danced in the Spirit’, they were ‘filled with the Holy Ghost’ and ‘spoke in other tongues’. She showed me accounts of miracles which had happened in the Bible, and she then explained that they still happened at her church.

With my curiosity aroused I decided to attend a service at the First Pentecostal Church of Whitehorse on the last Sunday of July, 1981, to see for myself. Even though I sat at the front, I spent much of the time watching the congregation worship. The Holy Spirit was strongly moving on me, and the very next week I returned to church and repented of my sins and was baptized by immersion in Jesus’ name. The church was constructing a new building, and I participated as much as I could. In the last service at the old building I went to the altar, and asked the Lord to fill me with His Spirit. I was filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with tongues, just as the church did on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2).

The year I spent in Whitehorse was the most important one of my life. I became a Christian and I met my future wife. In time we moved to Victoria, BC, to raise our family, and so that I could attend university. There were many blessings, particularly the birth of my two daughters, but there were also some hard trials. The hardest came in 1989, when my marriage ended. When we separated, my wife took the girls to her home in the Yukon, and I found myself sinking back into the same depression that had stolen much of my adolescence years.

When I became depressed my views and behaviour was undercut by feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. It destroyed all of my motivation and prevented me from reaching out or appreciating anything. Often I would question the value of serving the Lord, because my darkened mind rejected everything. But thankfully my earlier experience with the Lord prevented me from walking away. By that time I had lived for the Lord for the better part of a decade. I knew the truth of God’s Word and I knew the Lord personally. Even feeling that I was without hope, I knew that I had experiences I could not deny. In the Bible, when people began to be offended by Jesus’ teachings, many stopped following Him. He asked the twelve if they too would go. Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.’ (John 6:68) This scripture was one that spoke to me again and again throughout this period. Even though I didn’t feel I was currently getting anything at all out of my spiritual walk, I knew that there wasn’t anywhere else to turn which would offer me anything more than I’d already experienced in Jesus. I was fully persuaded!

After about a year of suffering, during some special services our church hosted, I went forward and asked for healing. As hands were laid on me and I was prayed for (1 Peter 2:24, James 5:14) the spirit of heaviness was lifted by the power and presence of the Almighty God. A couple of months later I recieved custody of my daughters. There were still trials ahead, but freed from the deadening, crippling depression, I was able to see past my circumstances. ‘[W]hen I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.’ (Micah 7:8)

Today I can look at where the Lord has me brought and appreciate all the blessings He has given me, including a strong family and a happy marriage, and the knowledge that His hand is on my life. Today I am setting down deeper roots in the Lord. Challenging myself and finding out that richer, greater levels of commitment are always met by a richer, greater flow of His Spirit in my life. When things are dark and I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, I know that He knows and that He will be there for me. It’s a question that was settled long ago and continually is bearing fruit today!

Book Reviews

One things I have been doing at the other site is reviewing books. There aren't many, yet, and I am going to link directly to that site, instead of reposting here. Future reviews will be here at Christian Beta.

Jesus and Yahweh: The Divine Names

AD 381: Heretics, Pagans, And The Christian State

The Fall Of The Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside The Church

Quitting Church: Why The Faithful Are Leaving And What To Do About It

The Lost World of Genesis One

All Or Nothing: A Short History Of Abstinence In America

Relaunch Prep Continues

Looking over 2008 posts that might be reposted here, there aren't a lot to consider. I made 19 religious or spiritually themed posts in 2008. About one every two or three weeks. I know that's a lot for some bloggers. There were links to news items, countdowns on my 1000 day goal (more on that later), even a re-post from here. There were a couple of book reviews I am thinking of linking to here. You may have noticed that the links I did have here are gone. A couple were more a appropriate to the other blog and the rest were dead. A couple of years is a long time in cyberspace. One thing I will be reposting over here is my testimony. Before I do any of it though, I am going to look through the rest of my hiatus period and see if there is anything else I need to consider moving. I intend to have it all done by the end of the month.

Christian Beta Returns

After about 25 months I have decided to revive this blog. I am not entirely sure about the when and how at this point. Originally I put this one on hiatus and started another with the idea of putting all my interests under one roof, but over the last two years my other site, David Bird, came to represent my geekier interests (comics, SF, and such) and stopped being the more generalized site I had imagined. I am okay with that. It just developed its own identity over time. Rather than force it back into the orginally intended mold, I am bringing this one back. I will probably link to some of the stuff I have there, but I don't think I'll repost it here. We'll see. Anyway. Good to be back. I am looking forward to a good year for Christian Beta in 2009.

New Blog Is Active

A week today will mark a year since I started this blog. I averaged a post a week. But my new blog is up and this should be my last post at Christian Beta.

My new blog is simply David Bird. You'll find the same stuff there that you found here and a lot more.

Thanks. Its been fun.

New Subter Article

I have a new article up at subter, A Blank Cheque.

Still can't settle on a new name. Was going to go with Carl's idea (Bird's Eye View), but another person at blogger has it. Maybe I'll switch hosts.

More Blog News

I have been thinking about this for a while, but I have come to a decision. Soon Beta Christian will be no more. I have decided to create a blog with a more generalized focus: all of my interests, instead of just one. Religion will still be a big focus, of course. Its a big part of my life. But other things will be there too. Off the top of my head, I think comics will enjoy the highest post count. Its what I write about the most.

When I do set it up, I will post a link here and keep this blog up for a while before deleting it.

Now I just need a name. Sadly, Birdopedia and Birdology are the front runners. Any thoughts?

Religious Right Continues To Fall Behind

Last February I posted news about an attempt to move America's Evangelicals towards acting on environmental issues. It failed. It looks like another such attempt has failed. Joel Hunter, only recently elected to lead the powerful Christian Coalition, has resigned - even before taking office. He tried to get the organization interested in things other than abortion and opposing gay marriage and it said no. Its not that he wanted to change positions on those matters. He just wanted to reach out to more issues that Christians care about. Issues that aren't necessarily supported by the Republican party.

Some day James Dobson's calls won't get answered and incidents like this are why.

Blog Problems

You may notice that the profile to the right is not the Christian Beta profile. The new upgrades to the Blogger system are merging accounts. I am trying to get this fixed. Please be patient. If I can't, I'll look for a new host.

I am shutting off the e-mail and other options as they aren't currently correct, either.

Matthew 1:18-25

Continuing from September 6th

1:18-25: Jesus’ Birth

The story of Jesus’ birth is told in five parts, each centered around the fulfillment of a prophecy. The first part completes chapter one, and is the fullfilment of Isaiah 7:14-15, in which Isaiah is told by the Lord to reassure Ahaz, king of Judah. Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and Syria had allied together and laid seige to Jerusalem. God assured Ahaz that they would not succeed, and that the Northern Kingdom would fall. God even offered to give Ahaz a sign that it would come to pass, but Ahaz deferred, saying he didn’t want to tempt the Lord. God was unimpressed. He then gave Isaiah prophecies of God’s judgements, but also promises of His mercy, including a saviour:

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

Isaiah 7: 14-15

Immanuel means, as Matthew says, ‘God with us’, but Joseph is also instructed to actually name the child Jesus, because “he shall save his people from their sins.” The name Jesus means, 'Jehovah is salvation.' God is our source of salvation. It is a transliteration of the name Yeshua into Greek. Translated into English it is Joshua. The Greek language had dominated the eastern Mediterranean for three centuries by the time Jesus was born. While we assume his name actually was Yeshua, or an Aramaic version of the same, by the time of His birth it wasn’t uncommon for Jews to actually use the Greek version and it is the only version of His name found in scripture.

The angel speaks to Joseph. Throughout this account in Matthew the angel speaks only to Joseph, which reinforces the idea that this account, and its genealogy, are from his side of the family. The angel isn’t named, but, according to Luke, Gabriel spoke to Mary and its believed he spoke to Joseph too.

The account given by Matthew is very simple: Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, sexually, she was pregnant. Joseph decided to break the engagement, but before he did an angel came to assure him that Mary’s pregnancy was not what it appeared. God himself was the father. Though these scriptures don’t speak of ‘God the father’, rather, it’s the Holy Ghost. Throughout the Old Testament, when God acted in this world, it was said that His Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord, came, acted, or inspired. The same thing happened here. In fulfillment of the prophecy God had given Ahaz a virgin was pregnant and the messiah was about to be born. And we believe this because we know Him. We know the Risen Saviour.

And Mary believed because the angel Gabriel told her. She would have known she was pregnant and that she was a virgin, but not how such a thing could be. Joseph knew because an angel told him. But what of the people around them? An engagement was not a trivial matter; everyone knew that Mary was Joseph’s. And not only was she pregnant, it wasn’t his child. I don’t know if it’s possible for us today, at least in the West, to appreciate what that meant, but it links her to the four women already mentioned in this chapter. Like them, her life knew shame and humiliation. Yet, unlike them, hers came as a result of God’s blessing. How often do we despise the blessings of the Lord, taking our measure from the world?

What has always stood out to me in this passage was Joseph’s reaction, before the angel spoke to him, to the news of her pregnancy:

Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.

Matthew 1:19

My copy of Vine’s tells me that the word ‘just’ “denotes righteousness, a state of being right, or right conduct, judged by the Divine standard, or according to human standards of what is right.” And how does a just man repsond to this news? He didn’t want to marry her, it wasn’t his child, but he didn’t want to shame her either. By the day’s standards she was his and her pregnancy was a mark against his honour as much as hers, but he was happy to let that go. He didn’t see any value in humiliating her. People would talk. Both their reputations would be forever linked to this scandal. But because he was a righteous man, he didn’t see any need to strike out. To show the world that he was blameless; that the situation was not his fault. And when he received instructions on the matter from the Lord, he believed and he acted. He wed Mary, ignoring what others might say, he didn’t touch her until the baby was born, and then he named the child Jesus.

Much is made of Christ’s humility, and rightly so, but he had more than a heavenly Father to turn to for guidance. He had two earthly examples.

subter

I have added subter to my links. Yes, the s is supposed to be a small s. No, I am not sure why. Never asked.

My Hezbollah article is up. Next month I am planning to write one on cosmological terminology. Seriously. I am at work on the Matthew study, but I am not in a hurry. I am sure I could paste together an entry a week if I had to, but I am not trying to rush through this. I hope to be well into the Sermon on the Mount by the end of the year. That is as much of a timeline as I have. Right now I am looking at Mt 1:18-2:23 (the rest of chapter one and all of chapter two). These verses tell of Jesus' childhood and come in five similarly structured parts.

Christians Executed In Indonesia

Three men have been executed for their alleged role in sectarian riots six years ago. They were killed despite the lack of evidence against them and despite the fact that no Muslim involved in the rioting got more than a 15 year jail sentence. Many believed they were killed because it was politically expedient. The Bali bombers are due to be executed soon and Muslim extremists would not be happy to see these men released on the eve of their co-religionists' executions.

Study’s Status

I just wanted to make a quick post and let you know that even though a week has passed without completing Matthew chapter one, I haven’t forgotten. I am at work on a couple of things. One is a word study I want to do before continuing with Matthew. There is something I want to study out before going further. I suspect this will happen again. I am looking at doing this for a long time, so I am trying not to be impatient.

The other thing is an article on Hezbollah. I am writing it for a webzine called subter, which is relaunching if October. I will list it in my links once it’s up. In school my area of study was political science, but this is the first time I’ve written anything like this in years. For November I am thinking of writing a piece on dispensationalism and America’s support for Israel. That one should also tie up some points here as well.

Matthew 1: 1-17

The Gospel of Matthew

Written by the disciple Matthew, a former publican (Matt 9:9), this was believed by the Church Fathers to be the first account of Jesus’ life – which is why it is placed first in the New Testament. This gospel was written for a Jewish audience and was often called The Gospel of the Hebrews in the early Church.

1:1-17: The Genealogy of Jesus

In the genealogy that begins this book, three things are emphasized.

The first is Jesus’ relationship to Abraham and to David. Abraham, of course, was the forefather of the Jews, but he was more than that. Every Jew, Christian, and Muslim is riding on the coattails of his relationship with God. There is no bigger forefather in the history of mankind’s religious and spiritual development. One of the promises God made to Abraham was that in him all the nations of the world would be blessed (Gen 18:18). Through Jesus this was about to happen. David was Israel’s greatest king, and it was through his lineage that God promised a messiah would come (Jer 33:15). Jesus is a part of that lineage – however humble his personal circumstances — and through Joseph’s bloodline, making him, legally at least, a direct male descendant of the royal household.

The next thing Matthew emphasizes is that there are three sets of fourteen people in the genealogy, from Abraham to David, from David to the Babylonian captivity, and from the Babylonian captivity to Jesus. Why he makes this threefold division isn’t clear. To do it he had to abridge the list of kings, a practice that does have scriptural precedence. And the last group, strangely, has only thirteen names. Many have speculated about this, but we have no clear answer. Dismissing it as a mistake doesn’t work. Clearly Matthew could count to fourteen. And so could the many scholars and scribes who followed him. A common explanation for the number fourteen draws on Jewish numerological studies, in which the name David has the value fourteen. According to this approach, emphasizing fourteen is another way of emphasizing His relationship with David.

The third thing emphasized is four of the women named. They serve as a bridge to the story of His birth. The first woman mentioned is Tamar. She was married to Judah’s first son Er, and was probably a Canaanite. Even though the Law was centuries away, the practice of Levirate marriage was already an established custom. Accordingly, if a man died without children, his widow would be married to his brother and any children this second marriage produced would be considered the children of the diseased husband. That way his name would be preserved. When Er died Tamar was given to the second brother, Onan. Onan, however, refused to honour his brother and God slew him. Judah then promised Tamar could marry the next brother, but he didn’t keep that promise. Desperate, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and took her father-in-law as a customer, and accepting his signet and staff as payment. When Judah learned that Tamar was pregnant, he ordered her killed as a punishment for her fornication; but when she produced his signet and staff he admitted that he was wrong not to keep his promise. Two children were born, and one, Pharez, is an ancestor of Jesus.

The next woman was Rahab. She was a prostitute, living in Jericho when the Israelites attacked the city. She hid their spies and in return was saved when Jericho was destroyed. She was given in marriage to Salmon and was the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite woman, the widow of a Judean from Bethlehem. She travelled with her mother-in-law to that city and married Boaz, a kinsman of her late husband.

Tamar had to prostitute herself. Rahab was a prostitute. Ruth was a respectable widow, but when she threw himself on the mercy of Boaz she was taking a real chance. Boaz was an honourable man, but she didn’t know that. Like the others she was a gentile. A serious strike against her in the eyes of the Jewish community Jesus was raised in. The last woman mentioned was not only a gentile, Bathsheba is one of history’s most famous adultresses. Yet of all the wives and mothers that could have been listed, these are the ones honoured here. Each was subject to shame and humiliation in the eyes of those around them, and that was something they shared with the next woman named.

Happy Anniversary!

I just got back from Seattle, where my wife and I were celebrating our first anniversay. It doesn't seem like its been only a year. I was single for a long time before re-marrying, and I wasn't seeking a mate. I was comfortable with my life the way it was. But when I met Emmie that all began to change. Fortunately, I had the sense to recognize a good thing when I saw it.

An Interesting Idea

I was surfing the other day and ended up at Slate.com, where they have a blog Bible commentary. It occurred to me that this might be something to try over here. Not that I am a great scholar, but it struck me as having two benefits. First it would structure my own Bible study in a positive way. To explain something you have to understand it. Second, the more I post the more often I find reasons to post. If I were to make a commentary post once a week, I think I'd be more likely to be here more often.

I am thinking of concentrating on the New Testament.

Wikipedia and Jesus Only

I few weeks ago I logged on to wikipedia and discovered an entry for "Jesus Only." Content-wise it was okay. A little redundant given that there was already a "Oneness Pentecost" entry, but the term "Jesus Only" doesn't reflect the reality of our beliefs and has always been understood as derogatory and misrepresentative.

Why? Because it implies a denial of the Father and Holy Ghost. We don't deny the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost. We simply don't believe they exist as individual "persons". They are each a role, a manifestation, through which God has revealed Himself to us.

But… now I finally have the time to log on to the entry and attempt to do something about it, others have already been at work. Wouldn’t it be great if all the things we should have done were done in our absence?

Health Problems - Again

Almost two weeks ago now, I developed Bell's Palsy. This happens when a nerve in your face, for any one of a great many reasons, stops signalling the muscles its connected to and one side of your face becomes paralysed. In about half the cases recovery is within a short time. In another third, about a year. The remaining 15 per cent (approximately) may never recover. Fortunately for me, I seem to be in the first group. A lot of people have prayed for me, and I have seen a couple of doctors, and things are on course for a full recovery.

The last couple of years have been marked with a lot of health emergencies. Sometimes my back would act up so badly I couldn't work. I developed a hernia. My right knee has twice swollen so badly I couldn't walk. Now this. I've had a full physical. There's no connection. In fact, my overall health is excellent. In each case something specific would go seriously wrong and then recover. Other than my appendix bursting about eight years ago and my tonsils when a was a pre-schooler, I think a twisted ankle is the worse thing I'd had to deal with before now. I suppose I could mark it down to age, but I'm 43, not 63.

Personally, I tend to look at life as being full of events that, if they aren't random per se, are often just the consequence of too many things impacting you for there to really be any kind of pattern or plan at work. Yes, I understand and believe in providence, but looking for a reason for everything is also a sign of paranoia. Still, I am starting to wonder. Maybe there is a reason. Maybe I am being taught empathy. If I am, I certainly hope I recognize the lesson when it comes. I'd hate to go through this all and fail.

Israel At War

While I haven't posted anything on the current war(s) on Israeli's border, I hope to be a lot more diligent from now on. My time has been spent elsewhere.

Israel is fighting in the south (Gaza) and the north (Lebanon). Events began when an Israeli artillery shell struck a Gaza beach and killed eight members of a family. At that point Hamas militants renounced their cease-fire and kidnapped an Israeli soldier. Their aim was to arrange a prisoner swap. They wanted to free one to two hundred women and minors in Israeli custody. Tel Aviv’s response was a massive military invasion, which destroyed much of the Gaza’s infrastructure. Soon there was another kidnapping. This time from the north, where Hezbollah kidnapped more Israeli soldiers. Those who support a hardline position, and think its crazy that either group of militants could think to win anything through kidnappings, should remember that such prisoner exchanging have happened, and have even been sought out by hardliners like Sharon.

So why has Israeli responded as violently this time? “Enough is enough” hardly makes a credible answer when most of the insurgent’s reactions are a response to Israel’s actions – which have been condemned from the left and right. But not by Washington. The Bush administration is following its Israel at all costs policy. One that is strongly informed by the President’s religious views. A great book on this subject is On the Road to Armageddon, which goes into some depth in discussing the links with dispensational theology, and the political ties that exist between the state of Israel and the American Evangelical community. Many liberals, who have long distained even thinking about America’s religious right, simply have no idea how closely tied it is to the power brokers of Israel, and the Israeli right in particular.

Anyway. I have more to say on this subject and, I am afraid, there will be a lot of time yet to say it.