by Bret Capranica | Feb 14, 2006 | Uncategorized
The BBC reports that homosexual relationship create incredible stress and leads to severe health problems. Homosexual men are more likely to get HIV (really – I didn’t think HIV was a gay disease?). Homosexual women are more prone to breast cancer, heart disease and obesity. There is a greater risk for depression, drug abuse and suicidal tendencies among the homosexual community than the heterosexual community. What would begin to turn the tide? Some researchers are suggesting that if only they could marry or enter legal civil partnerships, their health issues would begin to subside. So in all reality, the health of the homosexual community is the fault of the heterosexual community who won’t let them marry. Another interesting twist in the saga of criminalizing the natural family in order to legalize the...
by Bret Capranica | Feb 13, 2006 | Uncategorized
FBC Jacksonville to vote on Dallas’ Mac Brunson as new pastor – (BP) First Baptist Church, Dallas will soon be without a pastor. . . again. Mac Brunson, who followed O.S. Hawkins, who followed Joel Gregory who followed W. A. Criswell (who followed the founding pastor, George Truett), will preach ‘in view of a call’ next Sunday at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville. I can’t help but believe that this is another sign of the times – and the times don’t seem to be that stable. Many of the significant voices that were used of God to bring change to the Southern Baptist Convention are now leaving the scene. Adrian Rodgers and W. A. Criswell gone to glory. Draper and Vines to retirement. Morris Chapman is not getting any younger. There is a change in the air. It is an interesting thought to consider what kind of leadership these mega ministries will now have and what sort of leadership will now begin to replace the passing generation of the conservative resergeance. Adrian Rodgers held a Q & A with students from The Master’s Seminary back in the late 90s. I asked Dr. Rodgers, after all he had been through and seen and from his present vantage point, what he thought was the Convention’s greatest challenge ahead. He did not hesitate. He said leadership. Without details, he intimated that he was concerned about the next generation of leaders, that they had more of a corporate, not ministry mindset. He reminisced about the days of prayer and fellowship with past conservative leaders. I am certainly at no vantage point to reflect...
by Bret Capranica | Feb 7, 2006 | Calvinism
O.K., continuing from last week, here’s the most debated petal in TULIP. Particular Redemption or Limited Atonement. In order secure their redemption, Jesus Christ came into the world and took upon Himself human nature so that He might identify Himself with His people and act as their legal representative or substitute. Historical or mainline Clavinism has consistently maintained that Christ’s redeeming work was definite in design and accomplishment – that it was intended to render complete satisfaction for certain specified sinners, and that it actually secured salvation for these individuals and for no one else. Christ did not die simply tomake it possible for God to pardon sinners. Neither does God leave it up to sinners to decide whether or not Christ’s work will be effective. On the contrary, all for whom Christ sacrificed Himself will be saved infallibly. Redeption, therefore, was designed to bring to pass God’s purpose of election. All Calvinists agree that Christ’s obedience and suffering were of infinite value, and that if God had so willed, the satisfaction rendered by Christ would have saved every member of the human race. The Arminians also place a limitation on the atoning work of Christ, but one of a much different nature. They hold that Christ’s saving work was designed to make possible the salvation of all men on the condition that they believe, but that Christ’s death in itself did not actually secure or guarantee salvation for anyone. Since not all men will be saved as the result of Christ’s redeeming work, a limitation must be admitted. Either the atonement was limited in that it was designed...
by Bret Capranica | Feb 7, 2006 | Uncategorized
2-9-06 UPDATED: Tim Challies points us to the new IE 7.0 in beta version – with tabbed browsing (of which I am very addicted). I downloaded it this morning and will be trying it out through the day. I’ll let you know how it goes. Well, actually, I encountered my first frustration with it. I went to post this blog about IE 7 througth my freshly installed IE browser – yet – when I type in the posting window, the text is white – I CAN’T SEE IT. So, I fired up my trusty Firefox and all is well. Thus – I’m posting about IE 7 from my Firefox browser. Is this a glimpse of frustrations to come? UPDATE (THURSDAY 12:19 p.m.): So far: Positive: Colors and graphics are clearer than Firefox So far it works with my Fingerprint Reader (Christmas gift – Firefox doesn’t work) – THIS IS BECOMING A REAL POSITIVE FEATURE It starts up faster than Firefox (not a huge issue) The QuickTab feater is excellent: I can view all open tabs in Thumbnail size and go to any of them quickly. It has its own feedreader capability. It checks a page for an RSS or Atom feed. You can then subscribe to it and it will automatically check for updates to the feed. I’m playing with this one. Equal: Tabbed browsing Include certain folders on the links toolbar Negative: Loads pages slower than firefox Firefox is easier to use in organizing links Still have some problems posting with Blogger Does not have near the toolbar or add-ons available as Firefox (i.e., no blogger toolbar that...
by Bret Capranica | Feb 7, 2006 | Uncategorized
Afghan police kill four in cartoon bloodshed – Yahoo! News One does have to wonder just exactly how the Islamic community in America is going to respond to all of the current mayhem over the dirty pictures of Mohammed published in Danish political cartoons. It seems that in America, Islam is much like Roman Catholicism. Each officially teaches an exclusivity within itself as to salvation and an acceptable approach to God – that is, outside America. The pressure of American pluralism seems to tame the theology of these two groups and flatten them into just another way to be religious. As a matter of fact, watch the next Larry King Live when the Catholic priest, muslicm theologian, Deepak Chopra and John MacArthur are on. The Catholic, the Muslim and the new ager will pluralistically parrot one another. But this tamed sort of Islam (or Catholicism) is not to be found in those countries whose governments are dominated by these religions. They tend toward violence as a means to silence their critics – just ask any protestant missionaries living in these countries. I think we are seeing a more pure expression of Islam in this current controversy – not the leashed type found within our own open (religiously speaking)...
