Monday quote

Should the secular world acknowledge who Jesus is? Well, of course. We don't believe that all Christians need to be ministers. But we do believe that all people should be Christians.

Douglas Wilson

Clergy on the 10 commandments and the Lord's prayer

This is amusing yet concerning. Derek Wilson writes in The People's Bible: The Remarkable History of the King James Version,

As late as 1551, Hooper, the bishop of Gloucester in the process of a visitation of his 311 clergy discovered that 168 could not remember all the Ten Commandments, thirty-three could not locate them in the Bible, ten were unable to recite the Lord’s Prayer, and thirty-four did not know who its author was.

10% of your clergy not knowing who gave the Lord's prayer is a little on the high side, especially when there is a clue in the name. Kind of like not knowing who built Noah's Ark, or what is the colour of greenstone.

Monday quote

The classical view of tolerance lends itself much more readily to intelligent argumentation than does the modern view. It teaches that, while we may strongly disagree with dissenting opinions, we still treat the person behind those opinions with respect.

Alex and Brett Harris

Practicing the discipline of not having to have the last word

John Ortberg writes a eulogy for Dallas Willard. He was an intellectual that was big on spiritual formation. It mattered not just what we believe, but our character is major importance. Who we are matters, and winning others not the argument also matters.

In one of his classes a student challenged him with statements that were both offensive and incorrect. Dallas paused and told the class that that was a good place to end their discussion. Somebody asked Dallas afterward why he had not countered the students' argument and put him in his place. "I'm practicing the discipline of not having to have the last word.

"This is part of why Dallas would never debate non-believers. He would engage in a mutual conversation where both parties could seek for truth together. He would often say: "I'm sure Jesus is the kind of person who would be the first to say you must ruthlessly follow the truth wherever it leads." Through the last week of his life he was still hoping to help believers engage non-believers by looking together at questions where people get stuck in their actual lives rather than by trying to win arguments.

Hat tip: Wesleyan Arminian

Daughter in exchange for grain

Unplanned pregnancy (possibly in a time of poverty) encouraging people to sell their children. In this case to a childless couple.

My grandfather held his youngest daughter in one arm and his eldest with the crook of the other. When he handed over the baby, swathed in threadbare hand-me-downs, in exchange for the grain, his other daughter asked, “When is it my turn to be sold?” My grandfather, more leathery and grayed than he should have been at fortysomething, looked down at her, and at the twin bushels of grain in his other arm, and laughed. And then he wept.

Is Darius Artaxerxes?

I wrote an (incomplete) series on the Post-exilic chronology (Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4.) In it I listed the Persian kings mentioned in Ezra-Nehemiah.

King	Reference
Cyrus	Ezra 1:1–4:3
Ahasuerus	Ezra 4:6
Artaxerxes	Ezra 4:7–24
Darius	Ezra 4:24–6:22
Artaxerxes	Ezra 7:1–Nehemiah 13:9

The series began outlining the common reconstruction then argued for a what I labelled a sequential reconstruction. The sequential construction identifies Darius with the second Artaxerxes above. It is possible that Artaxerxes is a title like king or Pharaoh. Here I would like to consider (but not propose) that the first Artaxerxes above may also be Darius.

Ezra 4 opens with a complaint against the Jews addressed to Ahasuerus. This is followed by a letter to Artaxerxes which results in a decree to stop building the city.

Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes.... The king sent an answer:... make a decree that these men be made to cease, and that this city be not rebuilt, until a decree is made by me. (Ezra 4:8, 17, 21)

So the building stopped until the second year of Darius (Ezra 4:24). In response to the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah building recommences on the temple in the second year of Darius (Ezra 4:24; Haggai 1:14-15).

At this Tattenai the governor of the Trans-Euphrates asks the Jews what they are doing. They respond that the rebuilding is in response to Cyrus' earlier decree and Tattenai writes to Darius to confirm this. A search is made of the records and Cyrus' decree is reaffirmed and Darius offers to pay the cost from the royal treasury.

So the temple is completed in Darius' 6th year (Ezra 6:15). Previously I have argued that the temple completion passage should be translated,

They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius, that is Artaxerxes, king of Persia. (Ezra 6:14)

There seems little doubt to me that Artaxerxes of Ezra 7 (and Nehemiah) is Darius. But what of the earlier Artaxerxes? If he were an earlier king it would make sense of his letter commanding the building of Jerusalem to stop until a decree otherwise by him. If he were Darius then the subsequent letter to build the temple, and a latter command to Nehemiah to build the walls would seem to be a change of mind.

Yes, but. The first decree was to cease building the city, so building the temple may have been permitted even while the city was halted. Darius would not need to change policy so quickly to allow the temple to be built. Cyrus' decree could have led to a change of heart, but Darius may have just seen it addressing the issue of the temple. By the time of Nehemiah in Artaxerxes 20th year, a change of policy concerning the city, specifically the walls, would be reasonable. The behaviour of Judah towards Persia would be well assessed by that time.

It also seems that the duration the Jews were not engaged in building the temple was brief. They stopped when they received Artaxerxes' letter and restarted in Darius' 2nd year. Depending on how long Artaxerxes reigned (if he is not Darius) this may have been some years. Yet the response of the Jews to Tattenai was that the temple had been built continually (Ezra 5:16) from the time of Cyrus' decree until now (the second year of Darius). Building had stopped for a time as Haggai rebuked them for ceasing work on the temple and building panelled houses instead. If the first Artaxerxes is Darius then the letter from Rehum would be either in Artaxerxes accession year or his first year. If the command to stop came in his first year and building restarted in his second year then the temple could be said to have been being built from Cyrus to now with only several months break. This is especially the case if the Persians (or Ezra and Nehemiah) reckoned years from the 7th month (Neh 1:1; 2:1). The rebuilding started in the 9th month of Darius' second year which could mean only a few months break.

Bangladesh factory collapses

This is upsetting and seems unnecessary.

More than 600 bodies have been recovered from the garment-factory building that collapsed well over a week ago, police said today as the grim recovery work continued in one of the worst industrial accidents ever.

The building was structurally designed as a mall, but was used for industrial purposes with 3 extra stories added.

An architect whose firm designed the building said Sunday that it had not been designed to handle heavy industrial equipment, let alone the three floors that were later illegally added. The equipment used by the five garment factories that occupied Rana Plaza included huge generators that were turned on shortly before the building crumbled. Masood Reza, an architect with Vastukalpa Consultants, said the building was designed in 2004 as a shopping mall and not for any industrial purpose.

"We designed the building to have three stories for shops and another two for offices. I don't know how the additional floors were added and how factories were allowed on the top floors," Reza said.

I suspect a Western designed building may perhaps convert from retail to industrial relatively well, though adding 3 stories would require significant modifications as be mandated by consent approval.

Monday quote

When someone who supports the slaughter of babies in the wombs of their mothers tells me about humane cattle practices, I am morally obligated to not let them take authority in my life. They are saying, in effect, “Listen to me as I tell you what is evil and what is good.” For me to listen to them is for me to give them an authority in my life that they have no right to.

Rachel Jankovic

Monday quote

In those days he was wiser than he is now—he used to frequently take my advice.

Winston Churchill (1874–1965).

The semantic range of "to be"

Don Carson discusses several meanings for the linking verb "to be". He lists

1. Identity
2. Attribute
3. Cause
4. Resemblance
5. Fulfilment

Examples of these 5

1. A cat is an animal
2. The coat is leather
3. Listening is wisdom
4. People are sheep
5. That is what I said would happen

We can expand these sentences to restrict the semantic range of "is" and remove potential ambiguity by modifying the verb.

1. The cat belongs to the group animal
2. The coat is made of leather
3. Listening makes a person wise
4. People behave like sheep
5. This event corresponds to what I said would happen

Note that Identity is not always Equivalence. Equivalence is a special case of Identity where the subject and object can be interchanged such as "Clark Kent is Superman" or "aubergines are eggplants".

A 6th category (or perhaps a special case of "Attribute") is "Temporal/ Spatial," "the coat is on the floor."

Identity and Attribute can be essential (always belonging to the subject) or incidental (happening to belong to the subject).

Carson discusses this using the Greek verb (eimi) which appears to have a similar semantic range to English. His examples from the Bible are

1. Is the law sin? (Rom 7:7)
2. No one is good except God alone. (Mar 10:18)
3. To be carnally minded is death (Rom 8:6)
4. The tongue is a fire. (Jam 3:6)
5. This is what was spoken by the prophet (Act 2:16)

The context usually makes the meaning of "to be" clear, but discussion is needed about what is meant when there is ambiguity. Disputable or ambiguous passages include "this is my body" and "the Word was God".

Nebuchanezzar and the kings of Judah

Synchronisms of the reigning years for Nebuchanezzar king of Babylon and the kings of Judah. A is for accession year. Dates from Jeremiah, Kings, and Chronicles.

I date Jehoiakim's reign commencing c. 560 BC.

Nebuchadnezzar	Jehoiakim	Jehoiachin	Zedekiah
	A
	1
	2
A	3
1	4
2	5
3	6
4	7
5	8
6	9
7	10
8	11	A	A
9			1
10			2
11			3
12			4
13			5
14			6
15			7
16			8
17			9
18			10
19			11
20
21
22
23

Relevant texts: 2 Kings 23:36; 2 Kings 24:1; 2 Kings 24:12-14; 2 Kings 24:18; 2 Kings 25:1-4; 2 Kings 25:8-9; 2 Chronicles 36:5; 2 Chronicles 36:9-11; Jeremiah 1:1-3; Jeremiah 25:1; Jeremiah 25:8-12; Jeremiah 32:1; Jeremiah 38:28; Jeremiah 46:2; Jeremiah 52:1; Jeremiah 52:4-7; Jeremiah 52:12; Jeremiah 52:27-31; Daniel 1:1.

Significant passages on suffering

To come to a right perspective on suffering one needs to understand 3 significant passages of Scripture. There may be more but at minimum there are 3 aspects it would do well to fully comprehend. The 3 passages are found in Genesis, Job, and the Gospels.

1. Genesis 1-3 gives us the nature of the created world and the Fall of man.
2. Job discusses the suffering of the righteous.
3. The Gospels, especially the latter aspects of them, teaches us about redemption of suffering.

So the passages cover the:

1. Reason suffering exists;
2. Righteous suffering; and
3. Redemption of suffering.

The 3 passages primarily address each of these, though they also give us insight into the other 2.

Genesis
The world was broken by man when he choose disobedience over life. The world created perfect is now flawed as a result of Adam's sin. The choice to eat what they were forbidden to brought sin, suffering and death into this world. The entire universe suffered as a result of man's disobedience. All suffering came after this event and is caused by it. It is unlikely people can overestimate how great was our fall from grace. It is imperative to grasp that no sadness, pain or death existed in the world before the Fall; and that all suffering resulted from it.

Job
While the suffering of the wicked may appear consistent with justice, the suffering of the righteous seems unfair. And while all men are sinners, including Job, suffering is frequently not the result of personal sin. The innocent frequently suffer because of others. This strikes us as extremely unjust. The story of Job addresses this and teaches us that, contrary Job's friend's advice, the righteous do suffer. There is much to learn from Job including that suffering can do good. Not that suffering is good, rather it can produce good; God brings good out of evil, sometimes greater good than would have been had the evil not occurred, but woe to him who brings about evil (Mar 9:42; Rom 6:1-2).

Gospels
Jesus is the quintessential example of the righteous sufferer. The 3 aspects mentioned above occur in these and other passages. However we also learn about God's redemption of suffering. The death and resurrection of Jesus an enormous good out of such a horrendous evil. And God used it to redeem us. The death and resurrection work against the very core of suffering and removes it. It allows for God to completely do away with suffering. Sin, suffering, evil, sadness, pain and death itself are on their way out and will be no more.

Monday quote

Where a reputation for intolerance is more feared than a reputation for vice itself, all manner of evil may be expected to flourish.

Theodore Dalrymple, "A Horror Story."

Looking at the other guests

In an post about the gospel I discussed faith versus work in passing, but wish to expand on this further. We have Paul saying that faith not work saves (Eph 2:8-9) and James telling us faith without works is dead (Jam 2:14). And if both Paul and James were preaching the same gospel we need to resolve these and other statements.

No helping the issue is a definition of "work" by some which makes "work" a synonym of "do", and sometimes even "think"; but Greek has many words too.

Now clearly we do not gain salvation by works,

Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. (Rom 9:31-32)

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Gal 2:16)

 Yet we have much work to do, even Paul tells us this.

• For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:10)
• Women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. (1Ti 2:9-10)
• All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2Ti 3:16-17)
• Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. (Tit 2:7-8)
• Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Tit 2:13-14)
• The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. (Tit 3:8)
• let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful. (Tit 3:14)

So there is plenty for us to do.

Now it is clear that Paul does not equate working with doing or thinking for he tells us what we must do in order to be saved,

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

Confessing being something we do and believing being something we think.

Israel had it wrong because they were trying to earn their salvation. When Paul contrasts faith and work he is contrasting the gift freely given with the wages someone earns. Much of my activity could be considered work in that we are performing an action; expending energy—we could measure the wattage even and find a manpower to horsepower ratio. When we work for another we are earning wages whether we do that by manual or intellectual labour; or in Pauline terms obedience to God's Law. But we are fully incapable of obeying perfectly. We cannot earn the wages of obedience that we may buy salvation, we are only capable of earning the wages of sin and we don't like what that purchases  (Rom 6:23).

Isaiah teaches us as much,

Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live; (Isa 55:1-3)

God invites us to buy, but it is not with money we have earned. No, it is without cost. God gives to us freely. Certainly drinking and eating are activities and perhaps work in some men's eyes, but such activity is not earning and the feast is not paid for by us. Let us stop equivocating with the word "work" and consider are we trying to earn our way with God, or trusting him for what he has done? James can say that faith without works is dead because the work he is referring does not result in wages, it is not earning one's salvation. Such work is obedience to a God who saves us. If we are not eating at the feast we can hardly say we have accepted the invitation. Delighting yourself in rich food is not sitting at the table looking at the other guests.

Evidence and policy

I wanted to link to this column for the money quote.

Well, he’s a bishop, and churchmen don’t get listened to except when they say something insane.

I thought of using it as a stand alone quote but context helps somewhat here. The media ignore the church when she states the truth if the truth is offensive to their politically correct ears. But the nutcases....

West goes on to say,

People in more traditional relationships are more likely to vote Conservative – married women are far more likely to vote Tory or Republican than unmarried ones, so it makes sense for conservative parties to encourage conservative lifestyles. Financially punishing stay at home mums is a strange move for a Conservative government,

to which my immediate response was that conservative governments are not particularly conservative. West subsequently notes this,

The reason for this is probably that the British Conservative leadership are not really culturally conservative;

The article is quite good, my partial disagreement is with this comment,

Yet the whole point of evidence-based policy is that evidence is morally neutral; whether it’s offensive is irrelevant.

I am not certain it is morally neutral. Nevertheless, the problem here is that policy is not derived from evidence based research. Evidence can contribute to policy stating whether something works how it is intended, or not. But this is the is/ought problem. Ineffectual policy may be pointless, but effectual policy remains a moral decision. If seatbelts do not save lives it would be silly to legislate for them; yet if they do save lives this is not reason to mandate them. Personal liberty and responsibility may be overriding factors. I am not certain West would disagree with me here. I mention it as I constantly see evidence of benefit conflated with policy.