Christians and Tattoos: Wading Through the Bad Arguments (Part 2)

What about the idea of being marked out as a Christian, having one's self covered with Christian themed tattoos?

This is even more problematic.

Christians and Tattoos: Wading Through the Bad Arguments (Part 1)

It's a strange issue to have to discuss, all the more because it wasn't that long ago that this issue was unheard of. Tattoos were pretty rare and almost unheard of among Christians. Additionally the idea of Christian-themed tattoos would have been viewed as something not only bizarre but something laughable, absurd, an oxymoronic suggestion to be sure.

And yet culture changes and values shift and just because generations saw something as wrong, doesn't mean that they were always right. Maybe centuries of tradition on this point were mistaken and not only is it okay to get a tattoo but maybe Christians should do so as an act of devotion.

Legislation as a Form of Pedagogy

Christians differ over the role of law in society. Many believe that Biblical law is to be enforced, others believe Natural Law is sufficient. These are of course somewhat nebulous terms and there are many factions and internal debates over just what these terms mean, to what extent they can be known and as to what degree of certainty is attainable. The latter issue touches on the role of philosophy and questions of epistemology, coherence and inference.

Pentecost and the Framework of Redemptive History: Prolepsis, Asynchronicity and Eschatological Ethics (Part 2)

All that said, there is a sense in which Pentecost does have a special significance for NT believers.

I think it safe to say that as New Testament believers we experience life in the Spirit in a greater fullness. Old Testament figures would have the Spirit come upon them for great deeds and yet the True Presence was found with the Shekinah in the Holy of Holies. This again is another mind-bending revelatory truth in that believers possessed the Spirit, but not in its fullness, they were regenerated by the Spirit but the Spirit-Presence in space-time (for want of a better concept) was spatially located in the Temple. The typology and chronology bend, warp and are interwoven with the eternal-eschatological realities that believers participate in. A simple appeal to omnipresence does not alleviate the difficulty.

Pentecost and the Framework of Redemptive History: Prolepsis, Asynchronicity and Eschatological Ethics (Part 1)

What is the significance of Pentecost? It was the occasion in which the Holy Spirit descended on believers signifying the new age, the sealing of the promised work of Christ and the ratification of the era of the New Covenant. Christ's Ascension meant that the Holy Spirit could come as a Comforter, as the proleptic earnest of the Kingdom which would exist in its Already and Not-Yet form during the Parousia Interim, the period we know as the New Testament or Church Age. This interim is understood as the period in which the Parousia is in temporal suspension, paused and delayed from being fully completed or consummated, the period in which Divine Wrath and Judgment are deferred, that the Gentiles might be brought in.

American Evangelicalism, China and all things Eurasia (Part 2)

But perhaps the biggest and most destructive force is not found among the corrupt and ignorant leaders of American Evangelicalism. No, the worst offenders and enemies of the Kingdom of Truth (with regard to China) are found among the dissident Chinese who have sold out to become agents of the American Beast. 'God's Double Agent' as Bob Fu likes to call himself immediately comes to mind.

American Evangelicalism, China and all things Eurasia (Part 1)

Beijing's 'clampdown' on Chinese Churches is making a splash in Evangelical circles and as I've long followed the state of Christianity in China, I've certainly been paying attention.

And yet something is amiss. The Christian coverage of the situation is deficient and that's probably being kind. There's plenty of condemnation to be levied at Beijing and yet are these various reporting agencies, hosts, interviewers and ministries concerned with the truth or not? Is this just another case of American Right-wing politics criticising international opposition? Shouldn't we as Christians approach this issue a little differently? Shouldn't our concerns be divorced from the political interests of the United States?

Revisions and Reversals Part 3/Final

But there are other strange reversals too....

The First Amendment is now by some accounts a Right-wing issue. This strangely has an air of truth to it as the Left is becoming increasingly intolerant of free speech. The ACLU is practically in state of civil war. That said, Right-wing appeals to free speech concerns are disingenuous. They've always been the party of censorship. This is in part why some of the older generation of Leftists are reeling at present by both the Right's new narrative and legal strategy and the direction the Millennial Generation is taking First Amendment jurisprudence.

Revisions and Reversals Part 2

If these reversals and revisions weren't bizarre enough, the Right and especially the Christian Right have taken some rather unforeseen turns.

Revisions and Reversals Part 1

Culturally and politically we are undergoing a series of revisions and reversals. History is being re-written and in many cases historical positions and convictions once held by one political faction are being rejected and as a consequence embraced or appropriated by the other side. These shifts are producing chaos and confusion and in some cases a complete distortion and re-working of the historical record.

Supermarket Sacrilege

It was one of those culturally oppressive days. My wife and I were in a supermarket in a nearby town and it just seemed like everyone, even the older people were just covered in tattoos, piercings and other forms of obscenity and states of undress. Language was crude, children ill-behaved. It was a gruesome and disturbing scene reminding me of Peter's reference to Lot and the burden and vexation of living in Sodom.