Christianity – Page 65

Third Eagle of the Apocalypse: Is he the beast?

Well. World War Three didn’t kick off last week, as predicted by the Third Eagle of The Apocalypse. AKA William Tapley, AKA The Co-Prophet of the End Times.

He explains (you’ve probably already seen this video on Simone’s blog):

I love the use of a ballpoint pen to help us chart where he’s up to in the text he’s reading. That’s production values right there… he advertises a book in each of his videos. I’ve sent him a message asking if I can get hold of a copy.

“As you know. SATAN CONTROLS THE NEWS MEDIA.”

They’re covering up a story of a bomb blast in Iran. Which prevented full scale war.

That’s possible, but I would argue that it’s more plausible that William Tapley is actually the beast from Revelation.¹

Here is my reasoning. Were he one of the co-prophets of the end times you would expect him to be one of two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11:3. If that were the case he would be prophesying for 1,260 days wearing sackcloth. I haven’t seen him wearing sackcloth in any of his end times prophecies. Therefore he is a false prophet. If he is not, then by saying this, I have bought myself a nasty date with fire:

⁵And if anyone would harm them,fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed.

Also, it has been raining quite a bit during his days of prophesying.

⁶They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.

And flowing rivers feature quite prominently in his videos – yet none of them feature blood red water. Explain that Third Eagle!

More concerning is the possibility that he is actually the prostitute predicted in Revelation 17:

¹Thenone of the seven angels who hadthe seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, ² with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, andwith the wine of whose sexual immoralitythe dwellers on earth have become drunk.”

He is often seated by water (see the video above), and the water often looks different, and he does sound a bit like a drunk, jilted lover when he talks about politicians.

This conspiracy stuff is easy, and fun. You should also check out the comments on the Third Eagle’s videos. They are worrying and entertaining.
¹ Please note, I don’t think this is very plausible at all.

October 22, 2010

What Greek Teachers Won’t Tell You

When it comes to the Greek Language (at QTC at least) David Allen Black wrote the book. Literally. We use his introduction to Biblical Greek as our textbook. So I enjoyed this post of things your Greek teacher won’t tell you. If you haven’t got a Greek teacher then they’re still interesting. Sort of.

I think there’s some sort of double negative going on here. The list is a mix of Greek fallacies, and truths that you might not have heard. Anyway.

Here’s one of my favourite things from Greek (and Hebrew) this year.

“Greek words do not have one meaning. Yet how many times do we hear in a sermon, “The word in the Greek means…”? Most Greek words are polysemous, that is, they have many possible meanings, only one of which is its semantic contribution to any passage in which it occurs. (In case you were wondering: Reading all of the meanings of a Greek word into any particular passage in which it occurs is called “illegitimate totality transfer” by linguists.)”

October 12, 2010

Insanity prevails

The internet is atwitter (it’d be abuzz if Google’s social networking effort didn’t suck quite so much) with news that the Insane Clown Posse, famously shocking shock rockers who fuse professional wrestling, abhorrent lyrics about sex and gangster violence with clown make up and circus garb, have been covert Christians for 20 years, trying to bring people to Jesus through the power of gangster. If true they are the poster boys for “contextualisation” gone wrong.

Read a couple of articles… like this one, and this one, tell me what you think. There are lyrical clues in some of their songs. But they are alongside such gems as:

“She hit me in the balls. I grabbed her by her neck. And I bounced her off the walls. She said it was an accident and then apologised. But I still took my elbow and blackened both her eyes”

Which is apparently satire.

Or:

“Barrels in your mouth/bullets to your head/The back of your neck’s all over the shed/Boomshacka boom chop chop bang.”

Here’s their testimony in a newly released single to clear up years of “mystery” surrounding the clues they’ve dropped over the course of their career, including a six album series.

“F*** it, we got to tell.

All secrets will now be told

No more hidden messages

…Truth is we follow GOD!!!

We’ve always been behind him

The carnival is GOD

And may all juggalos find him

We’re not sorry if we tricked you.”

Interesting. Undercover gangster rapper agents might not have been quite what Paul had in mind when he spoke of being all things to all men. But here’s the rationale from the two insane clowns:

“You have to speak their language. You have to interest them, gain their trust, talk to them and show you’re one of them. You’re a person from the street and you speak of your experiences. Then at the end you can tell them: God has helped me.”

Even the journalist writing that article could spot a problem with the logic:

“Of course, one might argue that 20 years was, under the circumstances, an incredibly long time for them to have pretended to be unholy, and that, from a Christian perspective, the harm they did while feigning unholiness may even have outweighed the greater good.”

If you’re curious to see what undercover Christian gangster rappers look and sound like, here’s a video from one of their more overtly “Christian” songs. I haven’t listened to the words yet, but doubtless it needs a language warning (as do those links).

October 10, 2010

Systematics and the system

I was thinking this morning, sitting in church as Andrew preached a topical sermon, that the fruit of a generation of people faithfully preaching expositionally with sound exegesis is a generation of people who have had some of the hard work of exegesis done for them – at which point it’s much easier to systematise. Provided you trust the people who have taught you. It’s much easier to draw connections between different books and doctrines if people have done the hard work on those books and taught you from that platform already. Sometimes it can even feel intuitive when it seems to have been so hard won by that previous generation.

So my generation has to maintain the balance of faithfully working through the Bible and doing the systematics stuff too. It’s a luxury of not having to function as a corrective.

So. Thanks oldies.

October 10, 2010

DeYoung and the restless

Kevin DeYoung is nominally appropriately one of the faces of “the young, restless and reformed” movement. I like him. He writes and speaks with a clarity I appreciate and without (mostly) the hubris I’m uncomfortable with in other prominent brothers.

I like what he’s had to say about appropriately defining the missional movement in this post so much that I’m going to post this extended quote from his appearance at the Desiring God conference in the states recently…

“(1) I am concerned that good behaviors are sometimes commended using the wrong categories. For example, many good deeds are promoted under the term “social justice” when I think “love your neighbor” is often a better category. Or, folks will talk about transforming the world, when I think being “a faithful presence in the world” is a better way to describe what we are trying to do and actually can do. Or, sometimes well meaning Christians talk about “building the kingdom” when actually the verbs associated with the kingdom are almost always passive (enter, receive, inherit). We’d do better to speak of living as citizens of the kingdom, rather than telling our people they build the kingdom.

(2) I am concerned that in our new found missional zeal we sometimes put hard “oughts” on Christians where there should be inviting “cans.” You ought to do something about human trafficking. You ought to do something about AIDS. You ought to do something about lack of good public education. When you say “ought” you imply that if the church does not tackle these problems we are being disobedient. It would be better to invite individual Christians in keeping with their gifts and calling to try to solve these problems rather than indicting the church for “not caring.”

(3) I am concerned that in all our passion for renewing the city or tackling social problems we run the risk of marginalizing the one thing that makes Christian mission Christian: namely, making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Now, having raised those concerns, I need to make sure you know what I am not saying. I do not want:

Christians to be indifferent toward the suffering around them and around the world.

Christians to think evangelism is the only thing in life that really counts or that helping the poor really only matters if it results in conversions.

Christians to stop dreaming of creative, courageous ways to love their neighbors and impact their cities.

But here’s some of what I do want:

I want the gospel—the good news of Christ’s death for sin and subsequent resurrection—to be of first importance in our churches.

I want Christians freed from false guilt, freed from thinking the church is either responsible for most of problems in the world or responsible to fix all of these problems.

I want the utterly unique task of the church—making disciples of Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit to the glory of God the Father—put front and center, not lost in a flurry of humanitarian good deeds or environmental concerns.”

Preach it brother.

October 8, 2010

New Third Eagle single out now

William Tapley aka the Third Eagle of the Apocalypse has a new song on YouTube.

I am going to make a Third Eagle Mix Tape. Anybody want one?

‘Don’t be dumb. Rapture comes. Trim your wick or face the gun.’

October 6, 2010

Al Mohler’s approach to politics

Al Mohler is a largely impressive figure. If you haven’t heard of him you should read his blog. You should also read this profile piece (H/T Gary). And especially, I think, these paragraphs about his approach to getting his opinions heard and engaging in the political sphere:

“Mohler is not so much an intellectual or theologian as he is an articulate controversialist, a popularizer and spokesman who has branded himself as one who speaks to and for evangelicals. His multimedia finesse makes Francis Schaeffer appear amateur. His books (one is titled He Is Not Silent, a nod to Schaeffer) rehearse familiar arguments about the importance of maintaining a biblical worldview, and offer little in the way of original analysis—though Mohler is capable of nuanced scholarship, such as the dissection of Barth in his dissertation. Ivory-tower discourse is simply not his primary calling.

Rather, his vocation is to redefine the notion of “culture warrior.” Mohler rejects the clich of infiltrating Washington to take dominion in Christ’s name. “I don’t invest a lot of hope in the political sphere,” he says. “I believe in Niebuhr’s analysis, and then some—evangelicals invest too much confidence in a political recovery that Scripture doesn’t prescribe.” Mohler prefers instead to offer a stream of commentary on a diverse range of subjects, provide the secular media with a consistent evangelical viewpoint, and give constituents talking points to defend the biblical worldview on any subject that might come their way—all while running a seminary and serving the SBC.”

October 5, 2010

C.S Lewis on democracy

Some time this week I’ll be reigniting my conversation on this post about gay marriage, politics, ethics and the Christian, there are a few points in the discussion that I’m yet to address, I just need some clear head space.

But I like this quote from C.S Lewis on democracy in the meantime. It nicely articulate why I lean libtertarian on matters of government intervention in certain elements of our lives.

” I am a democrat [proponent of democracy] because I believe in the Fall of Man.

I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that every one deserved a share in the government.

The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true. . . . I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost. Much less a nation. . . .

The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.”

It’s from his chapter “Equality,” in the book Present Concerns, which I haven’t read. But I lifted it holus bolus from this post from Justin Taylor.

October 5, 2010

Reflections on bad Christian music week

I think I’ve just realised, with profound clarity, why I find Christian cultural expression so horrid.

As Christians we’re called to be in the world, but not of it. Christian music, Christian television, and Christian fiction, indeed most Christian cultural expression tends to invert this notion – it ends up being of the world, but not in it.

October 2, 2010

How to stop street preachers

Ask where the pancake mix is…

EDIT: I should clarify that the preachers being heckled in the video were apparently Westboro Baptist style preachers so I think this is a case of meeting nonsense with nonsense.

September 26, 2010