OD Today: 6 January 2009 (late edition)

This is a little early for a late edition, but I’ve got a lot to do this afternoon. More ReJesus, more Islam, and a cameo by Rick Warren. The best of the bunch is the second-least likely: one of the ODM detractors says global warming is done.

1. Student of megachurchs Ed Stetzer repeats an article he wrote for the Nashville Tennessean on how to stop the decline of the Southern Baptist Convention. “Yet, such change will require an openness to other approaches to church and ministry from different cultures and generations. Openness will be difficult since preaching against other ways of doing church still gets the “big amen” at the SBC meeting– even though the “Amen Corner” is getting older and smaller every year. If we share a common theology, we need to hold out a chair and ask new generations and ethnicities to sit at the table of leadership. We need leadership change.”
2. Ed Stetzer interviews Alan Hirsch, co-author of ReJesus. “Every time we attempt to image God, be it mental or metal, we limit him and thereby seek to control him. We must always allow Jesus to be beyond any stereotype that we might wish to make of him.”
3. Dan Phillips on analysis paralysis. “It’s just that we’ve moved the focus from my obeying right, in faith and by grace (which is an explicitly Biblical focus), to my yielding right (which is not). And I still fail, because I have to strike the right mystical attitude to shift into “J” for Jesus-life. If I’m not there, there’s something more for me to do.” This would be so much more helpful if he would point out examples of people recommending “doing nothing to avoid doing something in the flesh” rather than setting up a straw man and pushing it over. He mentions but does not cite Andrew Murray.
4. Bill at Defending Contending blames sin generally and divorce in particular for the current state of the American economy. “Capitalism must break down; it’s not designed for a completely unrighteous people. As America slips into paganism, our economy will become the economy of a pagan nation.”
5. James White on offending atheists; Daniel at Puritan Reformed amens. I haven’t seen or heard this sixteen-minute clip yet, but the “it’s time to stop being polite” argument sounds familiar to anyone who has listened to Richard Dawkins recently.
6. Daniel at Puritan Reformed offers a link to Brannon Howse interviewing Matt Smith; Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, attends Smith’s church. “Until and unless the people of the Middle East embrace Christ and surrender their hatred and their hearts to Him, there will be no peace in the region.”
7. Chris Lyons talks about the end of the global warming debate. Like Lyons we typically avoid the Huffington Post here, too. No quote necessary, really.
8. John Baker links to a Guardian (UK) article about the Richard Dawkins/New Atheist bus campaign. And with that color scheme I suspect Dunkin Donuts is involved somehow.
9. Bill Wilson talks about Islam in America, touches on the protests in Ft Lauderdale on December 30th. I think I also linked to this article dealing with those protests a few days ago. “Throughout the Bible it is shown that nations perish when they allow false religion to gain a foothold.” Yeah, that article on Dominionism is starting to feel overdue.
10. Speaking of which, Scott Isebrand at Religious Right Watch (not an ODM) tries “gays and lesbians are the new Jews” as a sound bite. “Fundamentalists the world over spread myths about gay people, sexual and reproductive health, and science, they do so hoping to leverage the fear they create into power and access for fundamentalist leaders and cultural influence for fundamentalism as a movement.” For the record, we here at ODT agree that some conservative Christians got way too cozy with Adolph Hitler and his ideas before and during World War II (but of course see also Dietrich Bonhoeffer). Are Christians (apart from maybe Fred Phelps?) recommending killing homosexuals?
11. James Swan spotlights Catholic apologist Tim Staples’s interpretation of Romans 5:12 (mp3 at link).
12. Paul Walker says the Southern Baptist Convention’s (offline?) Missions Mosaic magazine is recommending lectio divina and labrynth-walking. I can’t find original sources for any of this online.
13. Henry Neufeld starts off talking about Rick Warren’s “try it for sixty days” quote, ends up telling Christians generally to “get over it.” “What can we Christians be thinking? We expect Christianity to be easy (try it for 60 days). We expect to be prosperous, and for some reason, certainly not derived from experience, tradition, scripture, or even from any reasonable thought process, we think we shouldn’t be attacked, criticized, or ridiculed.”
14. David Reagan ponders the question of whether the Antichrist will be a Muslim. “I recently read four books that relate to this topic. One lays the biblical foundation without asserting that the Antichrist will actually be a Muslim. The other three use that foundation to make the assertion. Each of these books will be reviewed over the next couple of entries.”
15. Denise at Surph’s Side links to Clifton Loucks, who dissects and rejects the Apostles’ Creed. “What do unbelievers think as they attend our assemblies and hear us say, “He [Jesus Christ] descended into Hell” after his death, and then try to explain away the obvious meaning of the words by saying that Christ really didn’t go to Hell? Why should they believe anything else they hear in our assemblies?”
16. Chris Rosebrough: Book of Mormon “best used as toilet paper.” (~28:00).