Thursday, August 28, 2008

A Form of Persecution

I received the following as part of an email from Voice of the Martyrs:

"Our website persecution.com has been attacked and overwhelmed by a concentrated effort from a source that our network engineers tell us originated from outside the USA. The intent has been to silence our voice in defense of the persecuted church through online means. The attack has caused irreversible damage to the site and it had to be taken offline. A new site is up now. When you type www.persecution.com it will take you to the new site. More will be added to this as we go on rebuilding the site."

I know from my own experience that China is full of cyber hackers and sophisticated cyber attacks. It is not rocket science to figure out where these attacks came from. Continue to pray for China.

Friday, August 22, 2008

atheism REMIX

Rev. Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, has published a new work that answers atheist Richard Dawkins et. al. This work is a publication of his 2008 W. H. Griffith Thomas Lectures delivered earlier this year at Dallas Theological Seminary. You may view the lectures here. Additionally, Notre Dame philosopher Calvin Plantinga has a devastating critique of Dawkins' The God Delusion at Christianity Today. I'm reading the book and viewing the lectures - great stuff that we have come to expect from Dr. Mohler.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Persecuted Church - China

Word has come that the Chinese arrested Pastor Zhang "Bike" Mingxuan two days before the Olympics began. Voice of the Martyrs reports that Pastor "Bike" was the inspiration for the Olympic Prayer Bands many of us are wearing. So much for freedom of religion.

Reading Group

Our Sovereign Grace Pastors group is going to read Richard Sibbes book Glorious Freedom. Since I've never read it and know very little of of Sibbes this is going to be fun. In conjunction I am reading Mark Dever's Richard Sibbes: Puritanism and Calvinism in Late Elizabethan and Early Stuart England. You may find Sibbes works listed at Monergism. You can buy the books through Westminster Seminary - see the links.

Friday, August 15, 2008

C.S. Lewis & "Mere Christianity"

Professor David Skell of the University of Pennsylvania Law School has a wonderful op-ed piece in today's Wall Street Journal. He mentions various books on apologetics, including PCA pastor Tim Keller's The Reason for God (#23 this week on the NY Times bestseller list.) the article may be reached here. The professor details his reasons for believing Mere Christianity is still superior to other books, although he believes Keller comes close. The professor also has a blog at lessthantheleast.

Are You a Liberal?

John Hawkins has published "25 reasons you might be a liberal" over at Townhall. You can find it here. Like the Prager piece it is a good read and a bit more humorous.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

A Good Read

I found Dennis Prager's republishing his essay "Why I Am Not a Liberal" to be compelling reading. You may find it here at the Townhall website.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Russia vs. Georgia

The great Russian Bear has roused itself and now seeks once again to dominate the Crimea and thrust a finger in the eye of the West. As one trained in history and a one time instructor of the same for high school and community college students, the lack of a speedy and definitive response by the Bush administration is appalling. W is at the Olympics and Condi is on vacation. The presidents response this afternoon was wimpy. Having spent some time recently in Ukraine and having talked with Ukrainians, this crisis must be met head on and forcefully. Bush seems a day late and a dollar short on this one - perhaps a true lame duck?