Evangelism

"Evangelism: How to Share the Gospel Faithfully" (John MacArthur, et al) - This was a really good book.  Different chapters written by different people at Grace Community Church.  The best quote is "work like an Arminian, sleep like a Calvinist".  I also found a new appreciation for short-term missions, which must be viewed as first-most for encouraging long term missionaries.

State of Marriage

An old post from Albert Mohler I found at the bottom of my inbox...

I'm fascinated by the degree to which Postmillenialism dominates Christian thinking.  I would presume Mohler is a Premillenialist of some sort (being Baptist).  At most, amil.

We must understand that, fundamentally, the majority will always reject God ("the wide road").  The founders of America were not strong Christians, but they did operate under the assumption of a Christian worldview - and that the population would continue to hold that view.

We see now, the consequences of such a system; where the population ceases to hold that view.

Why does the State involve itself in marriage?

From a "Christian nation" point of view, it is to encourage the formation of families.  Tax breaks (in the form of tax tables, and benefits like health care) allow for one parent (originally the man) to provide for a family.  Single people complain of unfair treatment, and the "marriage penalty" is born.  Other groups seek State sanctification of what they call marriage - in order to access the benefits.

"There is no major society that exists without marriage, and those rare movements in history that sought to eliminate marriage led to disaster."

While true, we cannot operate from this motive (pragmatism, or even "the ends justify the means").

We are seeing the fallout of where a Christian derived system is reconciled with the majority rejecting Christ.  The question is: can a stable (and God-honoring) system be derived where the majority reject Him?

I don't know, but I don't know if anyone else is even asking the question.

Some are calling for the State to withdraw from involvement in the regulation of marriage - and I must agree (and disagree with Mohler's claim this "would lead to legal, moral, and cultural chaos").  There are standard forms for wills, etc. which are not blessed by the State.  Christian men will continue to provide for their families as best they are able.  Non-Christians will continue as well as they are able.

But this is just removing a vestigial remnant of the Christian worldview.  It does not address replacing and fortifying underlying structure.

End of Capitalism

(continuing my series on economics)

Finally getting around to another article which triggered this whole excursion...

I like his insight.  Marx saw inevitable problems with Capitalism, which made it unsustainable.  Marx then assumed there was a better way, and created Communism (of course, being blind to its own unsustainable problems :)

"Because the truth might just be that the global economy is in historic, generational trouble, plagued by problems the orthodoxy didn't expect, didn't see coming, and doesn't quite know what to do with."

Work Before the Fall

Now that I have laid some groundwork on economics and our current situation, we can examine the Biblical points on work and the economy.

There is little known about life before the Fall, but what we have is instructive.

First, we have God's work in Creation:

"And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made." (Gen 2:2)

The Hebrew word here is מְלַאכְתֹּ֖ו (mel-aw-kah).  It can be used for ministry, or deputyship in addition to "work".  It is not used for servile work.  It is used again in verse 3 (repeated reference to rest from His work).  After that, it does not appear until Exodus.


The work for the man (Adam) is described differently:

"And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." (Gen 2:15)

The word dress here (עָבְדָ֖)(aw-bad) is usually translated "serve" (also in the context of work).  In fact, in 290 uses, it is translated "serve" 227.  It is translated "dress" only twice (Deut 28:39 being the other one).  Usually "dress" comes from a different word, meaning "do".

("Keep" here means "guard", which is the subject for another day)

Finally, at the Fall:

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground" (Gen 3:19)

So we see a difference in the work of God, and the work of man (not surprising).  The man's work, even before the Fall, is servile (in service to God) - possibly even hard.

At the Fall, we see man's work changed.  Now it is literally "sweat" (zay-aw) to get bread.  This might refer to conditions changing to cause sweat when working (perhaps due to a change in diet - garden vs. bread), but seems to more refer to "frustration".  Before, the work was rewarding and pleasant - now it is tedious and often spoiled.


Man's work was created on day 6 - before God rested, saying everything is good.  The Fall has brought frustration and sweat.

Next Review

There is a new biography of William Tyndale coming out.  It should arrive in a week or so, and will probably take a few weeks to read...  Looking forward to it!

Artificial Scarcity

As I said before, economics is the science of managing scarcity.

In an agricultural or industrial economy, this makes perfect sense.  There is only so much food, or physical goods to go around.  Some will have, and some will have not.

But the industrial economy has been slowly giving way to an "information economy" - where the people most in demand produce ideas (be it stories, movies, insightful commentary, whatever).

Information is not a physical good (although it requires physical goods to store and manipulate).  It can be transferred quickly and easily, and every transfer is an opportunity for copying (distribution is nearly free, and scales well over huge numbers of people).

At the same time, the industrial side of things have become immensely cheap and efficient.  China produces all the computers we can possibly need, each more powerful than a room size super computer from the 80's.

How do we handle this?

From very early on, the answer was "artificial scarcity" (it's in the Constitution!).  This is usually in the form of "patents", and "copyright".  A patent grants a monopoly to the inventor of a design for some time.  Copyright grants a monopoly to the author of a creative work.

It's unclear how well this ever worked (it has always sort of muddled along).  But in the age of the Internet, it is clearly failing badly.

Charles Stross eloquently identifies how the cure has been worse than the disease.

"As ebook sales mushroom, the Big Six's insistence on DRM has proven to be a hideous mistake. Rather than reducing piracy[*], it has locked customers in Amazon's walled garden, which in turn increases Amazon's leverage over publishers."

 Charlie is noting the problem in the publishing industry, but we see similar things in music (ruled by iTunes).  Movies suffer similarly, although no one agent has managed to corner the market (there have been huge upheavals - witnessed by the rapid move of new releases from theaters to DVD (to forestall piracy)).

The obvious solution is to not charge for distribution.  Money would need to be gathered beforehand (like the patronage system).  Obviously, a lot of kinks need to be worked out of the system, but it doesn't seem anyone is thinking this way...
(for example, why do we even need money)

The Skin Map

"The Skin Map" (Stephen Lawhead)(audio) - This book was provided for me by the publisher.

The Skin Map is the first book in a series very much like Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia".  You can also compare it to the purely secular "Merchant Princes" (Charles Stross).

The world is like our own, but there are "ley lines" which provide access to alternate Earths.  Like most alternate Earth settings, some worlds are behind in time (although, apparently you cannot move to a world ahead of your own time).

The main character is a young man (Kit Livingston), who has not made much of his life.  Kit is coming to that conclusion himself when everything changes.

The story follows Kit, his girlfriend, Kit's grandfather, and a mysterious man - who has the "skin map" tattooed on his person (as a flashback).


The ending is somewhat of a cliffhanger, but the book is satisfying in itself.




In the audio format, it is very accessible.  The reader has a soft, pleasant, English accent and the pace is steady (not too fast or slow).  His inflection is well modulated to indicate different speakers, with unique voices for all the characters.  There are only four or five tracks per CD, so if your player has trouble keeping your current place you might have some difficulties getting back to where you left off.

That covers the basic outline, but how does it look from a Christian perspective?

First, anyone who has problems with magic, or druidic sorts of things will not be happy.  Things like Stonehenge and ancient mounds form the basis of Kit's "ley line" travel.  It is really pretty time, in my view, but I want to give fair warning for the sensitive conscience.

Second, I didn't really see anything that promotes or encourages a Christian worldview, nor any Christian themes.  Again, that's not a problem for me.  It is much like Tolkien or Lewis.

Finally, I am most grateful that it is lacking in the gratuitous sex and course language that permeates most authors today.  I did notice one weird usage of part of Numbers 22:21 (KJV) ;)


Overall, I prefer Lawhead to Stross ("Merchant Princes").  It promises to be an interesting and well done series, and I will definitely read the next book.