Oklahoma

From the local news station-

You and I are problem free tonight in comparison to the good people of Oklahoma.

Oklahoma

The school that was hit.

Oklahoma

From Micah on the twitter

Oklahoma

From @Ginger_Zee on the twitter-

The Latest From Oklahoma

Thirty-seven people were killed by the storm that hit the Oklahoma City area, the office of the state’s chief medical examiner said.  Of those killed, seven were children from the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, police said.

So CNN just now.   So lamentable.  Pray (and despair not- Baptist Disaster Relief is already being mobilized and will be helping those affected within hours).

Pray for Oklahoma

That is all.

A Noteworthy Anniversary You Probably Missed

But thankfully there are vigilant folk about to remind us that

Vor 80 Jahren, am 20. Mai 1933, nahmen Reformierte im Rheinland mit einer – maßgeblich von Karl Barth verfassten – “theologischen Erklärung zur Gestalt der Kirche” Stellung gegen eine Anpassung der Kirche an das nationalsozialistische Regime. In der ersten “Düsseldorfer These” heißt es: “Die heilige christliche Kirche, deren einziges Haupt Christus ist, ist aus dem Wort Gottes geboren; in demselben bleibt sie und hört nicht die Stimme eines Fremden.”

Unlike Bonhoeffer, Barth and Bultmann and Brunner all acted properly and still managed to decry the horrors of Hitler’s ideology.  Thank God for fearless theologians who remain Christian in deed as well as word.

Satan Has Hacked Joel Watts’ Twitter Account

It’s the only sensible explanation:

Answering Your Letters

Dear Jim,

You seem to talk a lot about the Reformers and you seem to admire them.  May I ask why?

Tony

Tony,

Simply because I find them honest, direct, not always right, usually not wrong, and terribly gifted writers.  I enjoy their wit and their abilities to turn phrases.  I appreciate their unwillingness to hedge their bets and I admire their fearlessness (and aspire thereto).

But mostly because I find them theologically insightful.  One can’t, or at least I can’t, read them without learning something.  By contrast, a lot of the stuff I read from modern theologians and biblical scholars is stuff that’s been said better, long ago (even though modern, or better, postmodern authors seem to think they’ve cornered the truth).

I like the Reformers for the same reason that people like various flavors of ice cream: just because.

Be well,

Jim

The (A-) Theology of Concession

A strange thing has happened to Christian theology: it has become a sort of (Neville) Chamberlain-esque bowing at the altar of concession. No longer do many theologians ‘proclaim’. Now they concede.

They concede to culture and they concede to science and they concede to opinion, even though none of those things have the right or the wisdom to dictate to them about things metaphysical.

And yet the theologians bow the knee and grovel and stoop. And concede. Ever so foolishly and stupidly, for none of those worldly things can ever be sufficiently appeased until faith is dead and secularism reugns supreme.

And still the theologians, hoping for just a scrap of respect from a system which despises it, beg.

As Peter said to Simon, who also wanted respect and approval and thought he could buy it (just as our theologians think they can buy it through always more concessions) I say to the theologians of concession: ‘to hell with you and your gold’.

Only a theology which esteems God as Lord OF ALL can call itself Christian. The rest can perish, and will. Along with those appeasers who profess them.