Facebook Theology, The Stumbling Blocks of Satan and Real Estate

Napoleon facing the stumbling blocks of Satan, 1812, while trying to do God's will.When Christians cease to look for the spiritual enemy in circumstances and instead look for the image of God even in twisted, difficult circumstances, it may be that Christianity makes a little moral sense.

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Mercy Me: Ted Haggard and His Accusers

Not Pictured: Cloven Hoof

I've absolutely no opinion (or right to an opinion) on whether Ted Haggard should be restored to ministry. That's up to people who are in authority over him, if any, and up to the people he's in authority over. I'm sure there are very good reasons for the man to retire gently to the countryside to grow begonias or something.

But when you see the exfoliation of indignation set up in the place where it ought not to be (that is, in the comments section of an evangelical blog) it's usually worth a second look.

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Genesis 3: You Don't Get To Email Your Serpent Just Because It Speaks In The Bible

Updated on Tuesday, May 1, 2012 at 10:23PM by Otter

You’re reading historically, as though this were the documentation of facts about “what happened.” This is a huge mistake in any story with a main character named Humankind, a setting called The Garden of Delight, and a talking animal.

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Angels, Part 2: Census Information. Please Specify Cherub, Seraph, or Other.

Best guess: there are strong similarities between Jewish / Christian angelology / demonology and that of Zoroastrianism, and it’s very often thought that contact with Persian religion before the birth of Christ left this particular imprint on Judaism.

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Temptation & The Holy Spirit

Debbie at the Flying Cow Tavern was asking about Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, and Matthew's assertion that the Spirit led him out there to be tempted.  (He borrows the assertion from Mark, an earlier gospel, but embroiders it considerably from other sources.)

My reply:

Don't try to answer this question without attending to the author's perspective on the gospel and the specific audience he's trying to reach, and when and why.

In other words, stop reading theologically and read "dialogically," with an eye on what he's trying to say to somebody who needs to hear it exactly as he says it.

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Myth: What Is It?

On a homeschooling forum some of us were discussing C.S. Lewis and myth, and the notion that Genesis 1-11 is a "myth."

From The Mailbag:

I think I need to understand Myth better.

 I think I might be able to help you with that.

A "myth" is a story.

It aims to structure some aspect of experience by giving you a way of imagining  things you otherwise couldn't imagine.

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