First, let me point out that I am going to have to close comments on older posts, because the spam is getting to me. I will still leave comments open on newer posts.
Second, I had a sleep study this weekend. I slept very badly on a rock-hard mattress with 28 wires attached to various parts of my body, only to find out that, yes, I have trouble sleeping, and I will probably have to come back and have another one done to work out the solution to the problem in detail. If my doctor had ordered the more advanced test to begin with, we might have had it done in one night. This is a little frustrating. However, I had an interesting talk with the senior man on staff that night about Welsh history and early missionary activity in the British Isles; he is a history geek (and thanks to my efforts against British Israelism, I have had to pick up a little information here and there about Roman-era Britain). It’s funny how men size each other up when they start talking about something they know a little bit about. I’m hoping I get to talk to him again next time.
Third, my daughter did not faint this week in church, and I am glad of that.
Fourth, this Triablogue post and its comments are an interesting discussion about one of the big theological divides (and how a couple of atheists view that divide):
Arminian: God is willing but unable to save everyone.
Calvinist: God is able but unwilling to save everyone.
Fifth, Challies reviews a book that gets into something I’ve always been curious about, the “death experiences” of Christians who claim to go to heaven and then get sent back to life in this world. What really makes me wonder is this: a fundamental belief of orthodox Christianity is the idea that sanctification ends (or more properly reaches its goal), essentially, when the Christian dies and goes to heaven. At that moment sin is forever conquered in his life, both now and forever (not to say that sin wasn’t already conquered once for all at the cross, but reality breaks into this present age in an ongoing way in the believer’s life, which is to say that fighting sin, and repentance and faith, is a never-ending process while still in the flesh). Having been made perfect in death and reaching heaven, the Christian who is supposedly sent back must either remain perfect, or be given the “gift” of sin again in this world. Now, it sounds like this particular author, if he never laid eyes on Christ, might be able to argue that his sanctification wasn’t made complete even at the moment of death, but still, such mechanics are so far beyond what Scripture reveals to us (as Challies makes for his main point) that I’m not even sure we can take comfort in such a testimony. I guess I will refer back to my favorite passage in Luke (well, one of them):
Luke 16:27-31 Listen27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers [1]—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” (ESV)
Footnotes
[1] 16:28 Or brothers and sisters
Sixth, we’ve been tagged again by Matt Gumm. Patrick, take note. I’ll catch up on this at some point this week.
