I am really thankful for a several things we were involved with in the past week.

1. vtONE - Prepare the Way It was a great joy to speak to and challenge several hundred believers from all over the VT campus on the topic of "Unity for our Fractured Souls in Distracting Days." There are many pictures on the web site from this evening of prayer, worship and spiritual challenge. The audio from my message that evening is also online at www.powerofchange.org/talks
2. Second, our 5th annual AIA pizza eating contest was a huge success. About 160 athletes came out to the event where Corwin Anthony, Chaplain for the NFL's Miami Dolphin's shared about the work of Grace God has wrought in his life and family. Corwin and I had a great time together as brothers, discussing life, our Lord, AIA issues, and the work of God at VT. We have many, many students to follow up with after the evening. Oh yes, Women's softball and Men's Wrestling were the victorious eaters of the night.
3. We equipped our students for person reflection and outreach surrounding the Passion Movie with Viewing Guides from Breakpoint and books by John Piper about the real reasons for the death of Jesus

Its been a great week. Soli Deo Gloria - All glory, honor and praise to Him alone. --------

In 1 Kings 3 Solomon, the newly annointed King of Israel, is given a blank check from God. "Ask what I shall give you" is the charge given by God to Solomon. With such an unbelievable offer, from one who had infinite resources to deliver, what would Solomon request. Before he answers he reflects. He remembers the faithfulness of God to his father. He remembers that David's uprightness in heart before God. He acknowledges that he sat that day as King of Israel becaue of God's promises to his father. He realizes that this task of ruling a great multitude of people is beyond his abilities and answers with profound humilty "Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?" Solomon's plea for wisdom to serve and govern God's people pleased God. Solomon is granted his request and even more. The Lord knew that it would be easy for a mere man to ask for long life, riches, the life of enemies, etc. - but since Solomon asked for none of these, he grants them anyway.

What would you ask for if the Lord of the Universe literally gave you a blank check? What would I ask for?

Jesus gives us counsel here as well: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.Matt 6:33

What is this kingdom we should first seek? Love, Joy, Peace in the Holy Spirit - to Love God first and foremost and then to love our neighbors as ourselves. To care for the poor and the oppressed and preach the liberating gospel to those who walk in darkness...to acknowledge the rule and reign of the Word of God in our lives...such things are worth more than gold, more than anything conceived in the hearts of men - Seek these first!!!! The rest is gravy, yet gravy by itself makes for a very poor meal.

Yours for loving the true banquet of God, bone dry if he so calls...and if he chooses to add some gravy, well, that will be gravy.
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I am beginning to read the Book "Lost Christianities - The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew" by Bart Ehrman Phd (UNC Chapel Hill Religion Professor). The book is a look at the world of the early church, the religious sects existing at the time, and the texts which reflected beliefs which were "suppressed, discarded, and lost" when orthodox teaching was established in the first three centuries of the church. The author, a critical scholar has a tact to his work that is profoundly at odds with church tradition. I expected this and picked the book up for precisely this reason. I wanted to see how he presents the canonization of the New Testament documents in the complex world of the early church. I expect his position to be rather unnerving, but I did not expect to see such sloppy thinking like I ran across in Part 1 - Forgeries and Discoveries

In this section he introduces the discoveries of ancient texts as well as the universal agreement that all the non-canonical materials found are agreed to be forgeries by all scholars "liberal, conservative, fundamentalist, and atheist" -- What he continues with is the familiar claim that these forged (or pseudepigraphal) books are no different than some of the NT writings...in other words, the New Testament contains books which claim to be written by one author but this is not actually the case...2 Peter, and the Pastorals (1 & 2 Timothy, Titus) are claimed to be of this ilk. This is nothing new to "critical biblical scholarship." What is shocking is what he claims next; I quote:

How could forgeries make it into the New Testament? Possibly it is better to reverse the question: Why shouldn't forgeries have made it into the New Testament? Who was collecting the books? When did they do so? And how would they have known whether a book that claims to be written by Peter was actually written by Peter or that a book allegedly written by Paul was actually by Paul? So far as we know, none of these letters was included in a canon of sacred texts until decades after they were written, and the New Testament canon as a whole still had not reached final form for another two centuries after that. How would someone hundreds of years later know who had written these books?

Now the irony of the last sentence was evident to me right away and also to my brilliant, clear thinking wife :). Basically the author's argument is this:

1) The documents were written long before the people who selected the canon were doing their work.
2) This distance of time, some hundreds of years, would have made their knowledge of the authorship of books somewhat impossible.
3) Therefore, they included books which they may have thought to have apostolic authorship, but they really did not know.

The problem with this reasoning is evident. This very same author (see Ehrman, New Testament, 377-79.) makes the claim to know who the author of these books was not. In other words, critical scholars, tell us that Paul did not write the Pastoral epistles and that we should believe them about this "fact". But yet his own argument from long distances of time, which prevented those involved from an earlier era from knowing anything of the sort. Now if we apply this "time rubric" to the authors own claims, what do we find? Somehow "modern critical scholars" - writing close to 2000 years after the events, can know what those 200 years out could not. This seems rather arrogant to me. Especially when the Christians who met in council to recognize the canon, authentic writings which would become the rule of faith for the church, were dealing with their own tradition. In other words, it seems to me, that the early believers, followers of Christ and the apostolic witness were in an infinitely better position to judge such issues of authorship and authority. This unless one writes off these early believers (by theory alone) as ignorant, zealous, propagandists who are not as wise, objective and intelligent as the modern scholars viewing the Christian world through the lens of a few poorly attested, archaeologically unverified, fragmented texts (the so called "lost books") - Texts, mind you, that were thoroughly rejected by the early Christians as being false witnesses to Christ and a scourge to the Christian movement.

It seems to me quite easy to trust God's church to have done the right thing in recognizing the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament and rejecting the erroneous gospels of that day. Any good Pastor would do the same today - protect his flock from the flurries of false teachings abounding in the world. I think we should continue to follow the example set by the early councils and trust the Spirit inspired text.

Let not your hearts be troubled by the axes that "biased critical scholars" seem to continually want to grind with the Word of God.
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Too good not to share...

I know this feeling fills our epoch, and I think it freezes our epoch. For our Titanic purposes of faith and revolution, what we need is not the cold acceptance of the world as a compromise, but some way in which we can heartily hate and heartily love it. We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce a surly contentment; we want a fiercer delight and a fiercer discontent. We have to feel the universe at once as an ogre’s castle, to be stormed, and yet as our own cottage, to which we can return at evening.

No one doubts that an ordinary man can get on with this world: but we demand not strength enough to get on with it, but strength enough to get it on. Can he hate it enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it worth changing? Can he look up at its colossal good without once feeling acquiescence? Can he look up at its colossal evil without once feeling despair? Can he, in short, be at once not only a pessimist and an optimist, but a fanatical pessimist and a fanatical optimist? Is he enough of a pagan to die for the world, and enough of a Christian to die to it? In this combination, I maintain, it is the rational optimist who fails, the irrational optimist who succeeds. He is ready to smash the whole universe for the sake of itself.

GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy (New York: NY, Image books, 1959) 71

Yours for getting it on...The Revolution of the Crucified One continues
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I am working today quite a bit on Czech Project applications and I am just amazed at the young people applying for our summer adventure. It is so encouraging to see young people thirsting for the truth of the gospel, desiring to be effective and passionate witnesses in our world, and laying down their time, talents and treasures for him. I feel it such an enormous privilege to love, lead, teach and serve these students for 5 weeks this summer. It also is a bit satisfying to see what God is doing with some of our Czech Project alumni:

• One is currently in Czech doing missions
• Another heads over for a year there this spring
• Three on our AIA staff (Princeton, Ohio State, and AIA Headquarters
• One is studying at the Trinity Forum with Os Guinness
• One engaged in religious and philosophical studies at Princeton
• Another is starting new Bible studies at Harvard
• Another leading volunteer AIA ministry on her campus
• One more is a track coach and MDiv student at Liberty University

I am so thankful for the work of God in these young people and humbled to be a part of their lives...

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From Newsweek...So why was the Gospel story, the story Gibson has drawn on told in a way that makes "the Jews" look worse than the Romans? The Bible did not descend from heaven fully formed and edged in gilt. The writers of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John shaped their narratives several decades after Jesus' death to attract converts and make their young religion understood by many Christians to be a faction of Judaism attractive to as broad an audience as possible. See article here - Who Killed Jesus? Newsweek Magazine Feb 8, 2004

A book by a "Jesus Scholar"...
Who Killed Jesus? is a study of the gospel accounts of the arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It is both a popularization of Crossan's earlier work The Cross That Spoke and a response to Raymond Brown's The Death of the Messiah. As motivation, Crossan argues that the anti-Jewish core of the passion narrative and its use in subsequent history make careful study of its historicity more than just an academic exercise. (He doesn't mention that the faith of many conservative Christians depends on the historicity of the passion narrative -- but then perhaps he doesn't expect them to be reading his book.) A book review by Danny Yee - © 1996 http://dannyreviews.com/

As the day approaches to the release of Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ there will be a considerable buzz surrounding the film. Just last week the cover story of Newsweek Magazine featured a look at the question "Who Killed Jesus?" with a discussion of the history of the gospels upon which this film is based. Monday night, Mel Gibson's interview on ABC with Diane Sawyer, featured additional questioning about the "history and facts" of the gospel depictions as well as the usual parade of "scholars" that question the gospels as political fabrications by 2nd or 3rd century Christians. ABC seems to be rolling out several other dramatic works as well, two I have noticed coming are about "Judas" and one about "St. Paul" - perhaps they will be very Biblical, perhaps not. The fact that the script of The Passion is based on the canonical gospels will have biblical critics and "experts" singing throughout the mainstream media. As these things occur I have found that students and others to whom I minister will have questions. Even mature believers and leaders may not have been exposed to some of the arguments they may hear on television interviews or in a religion class on campus. I thought it wise that we be prepared to intelligently discuss the issues, state our side of things effectively, and strengthen other believers confidence in the gospel accounts. By no means can one do this effectively in a short blog posting, but I thought I would point us towards some basic arguments in the debate and then some further reading. Most of all we should be in vigilant prayer, ready to give a reason for our hope in Jesus, and trusting God to be God and use his self-attesting word for his purposes in his world.

A preliminary remark - members of the so called and self-anointed "Jesus Seminar" may be raising their heads in these days, for a quick sketch of this group see the following: Jesus Seminar Under Fire

The question which I have already heard aired in public is one somewhat like this - Are the gospel accounts reliable depictions of the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus? The main arguments against the gospels is usually some sort of concocted conspiracy theory of latter disciples making up parts of the story to fit their own political agendas in the situations they were writing. The disciples were writing "religious propaganda" full of legendary development so to speak, to promote a cause and a Jesus they probably knew very little about. To answer this charge we can go several directions, I will just do a brief sketch here as an example of what evangelicals have said:

1) We know that the text we have is as it was written (within a reasonable limit) based on number of manuscript copies we have in Greek, Syriac, the Latin Vulgate, and quotations of close to the entire NT in the writings/sermons of the church fathers. Much of this is well established prior to 400AD.
2) We establish the early dates of the NT books and argue for the traditional authorship. The gospel tradition (our tradition) holds that authors, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote down either their own eyewitness accounts or carefully recorded the accounts of eyewitnesses (in the case of Mark - Peter's account, and Luke recording the results of his investigation with "who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word" - I have a paper on the Gospel Tradition drop me a note at monaghan@powerofchange.org if interested)...early dates for the gospels rules out the long periods of time needed for legendary developments in church tradition. Legends take a long time to grow and usually don't do to well when the actual people involved are still alive and could correct the story.
3) There is no good reason not to believe the testimony of these witnesses if - 1) they were able to tell the truth and desired to do so 2) their testimony was accurately reported and 3) there is external corroboration of the testimony.

The following is suggested for your own investigation:

Reference Materials on the Web

• This one is a bit lengthy - A thorough treatment and defense of the NT accounts is found here: Bias
  
• Josh McDowell's work on the NT reliability is still helpful and found here - Ready Defense
  
• Gary Habermas has great paper on the topic - NT Reliability
  
• A summary of the extra biblical corroboration of the biblical history

Books of Reference

• The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel is a good popular level treatment
  
• The works of Craig Blomberg (The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, Jesus and the Gospels), Gary Habermas (Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ), JP Moreland (Jesus under Fire, Scaling the Secular City) and FF Bruce's The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? are excellent resources.
• Can I trust the Bible - A short yet excellent booklet by Darrel Bock - Part of the RZIM critical question series.

Other resources
"Lost books of the Bible" such as the gospels of Thomas, Peter, Mary Magdelene, Phillip, etc. have been popularized of late by several books...even in the bestselling novel The Davinci Code. These "other gospels" can cause people to doubt the uniqueness and authenticity of the New Testament accounting of Matt, Mark, Luke and John. These resources may be helpful.

• No Lost Books of the Bible?
• Lost books This has actual links to the texts of some of these writings.
  
• An article about the Davinci Code from Christianity Today Magazine.
• A DTS Dialogue - Dallas Seminary Professors Discuss the DaVinci Code
• Breaking the DaVinci Code by Darrell Bock

Two Resources to Use in Ministry

• The Passion of Jesus Christ by John Piper. Great deal for purchasing by the case for give away
• Experiencing the Passion of Jesus A Discussion Guide on History's Most Important Event by Lee Stobel and Gary Poole
• Breakpoint's Passion Viewers Guide-A useful guide for questions about the film and a great list of resources - downloadable PDF available.

A few final thoughts as some of us will soon "watch Jesus on screen" again. Reminder about Jesus - he was Jewish as were the disciples and the early church was predominately Jewish...Jesus on film or in pictures can never be the real deal. We know that the Nordic European blue-eyed Jesus' are not accurate. Nor is afro-Jesus, nor Asian Jesus. The Jesus who walked our earth was a middle eastern Semitic Jewish Jesus....A seed of Abraham, of the line of David, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, A and O, the risen one, the same yesterday, today and forever, the one in whom the promises of God are YES! and the one through whom we speak the "Amen!!!!" Praying that we follow Him well, receiving his grace, as we labor for him in this season. May God bring forth the gospel greatly through this film and his servants.

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1 Kings 18:21: "And Elijah came near to all the people and said, 'How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him."

Such is the reality in the hearts of all men. Will God be God in the lives of his people? Or will other god(s) reign in his place. Such an offense is at the heart of spiritual unfaithfulness. We allow many other things have such a high place in our lives while we give only a nod, if any at all, the Creator of all things. In 1 Kings 18 we see the classic showdown between the prophets of Baal and the lone prophet of God, Elijah. Many times the man of God stands alone against the flooding torrents of popular opinions, and the currents of his time. Speaking from eternity, to souls bound to the earth, the man of God must speak. Here Elijah brings his challenge to God's own people Israel - make a choice, make the right choice...acknowledge the LORD as God and then follow. Such is a reasonable exhortation. Think for a minute. IF the LORD is God...IF he is the Sovereign of the world...IF he is the Creator of all things...IF he is the judge of the motives, intentions and thoughts of our hearts...IF he is the gracious, merciful, saving one...IF he possesses all wisdom, knowledge and is the fountain and essence of truth...if such things be true, IF the LORD is God, then only fools will not follow. How many times am I a fool, let not it be today Lord, not today, you are God.

This passage is followed by a unique display of the power of God, manifesting in real space and time - a divine exhibition to settle this showdown between the false and the true. Although this type of event is unique in redemptive history (such is the case with all miracles) authenticating the message of Elijah, how often do we ignore the ever present speech and language of God in our midst. The Heavens declare!!! the Psalmist (Psalm 19) tells us. How often we ignore what even Kant declared he could not resist (Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and the more steadily we reflect on them: the
starry heavens above and the moral law within. 1788 - THE CRITIQUE OF PRACTICAL REASON by Immanuel Kant translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott) - The beauty of the created order of our world and the moral law written on our hearts demonstrates to all the reality of the divine author. Such witnesses, suppressed as they are by many, still beckon us, yes even puzzle us. In nature and conscience God does speak, yet only in Christ does he awaken. The imprint of God, lived out in space in time, incarnate glory, revealing to us God...He completes the picture and is the who, the what, the why of what we see each day. Only that our hearts would be captured, our wills submitted, and our loves awakened to the one who IS. After all, there is a showdown, there is a victor and the outcome is certain...If the Lord is God, follow Him.

Out.

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The account of King Solomon, the Son of David, is an intriguing story of a man tremendously blessed by God, yet has his heart sucked away towards the idolatry gods of the surrounding nations. A man with such a promising start has such an unsuccessful ending. How does it happen? In 1 KINGS 11; we find the answer...his heart was led astray by conflicting passions.

Solomon, in all his wisdom, wealth, and blessings from God, did not keep his passions intact and let them wander until they eroded his commitment to the commandments of his God. What was his weakness...it was women. With wisdom, wealth, and prestige, Solomon could have anything he wanted. And he wanted wives, princesses, and concubines. Despite the fact that God had already offered him anything he desired, and had given him all things, Solomon felt he needed more. Despite the fact that God had clearly forbidden Israel from mingling with foreign wives, Solomon felt he needed more. The results were inevitable - his wives captured his heart, and in order to please them, he built alters to their idols.

The ordering of our passions is so important to our fidelity to Christ, it seems that the road to idolatry is familiar.

1. Our hearts are enticed to love things that are not worthy of our affections
   
2. Some worldly thing (material wealth, power, position, sex, fame, other people, a certain man or woman) captures the affections.
   
3. Our love for these unworthy things rises higher than our love for Christ
   
4. We either consciously or subconsciously begin to worship and serve this idol rather than God
   
5. Sin, which has already bound the heart, consumes our lives
   

Warnings abound of having unfaithful and wandering affections 1 John 2, James 1:12-15

We need not go the way of Solomon. We need to cling to the Lord and allow him to pour his love into our hearts (Romans 5:5). Love for that which is glorious - love for God which will flow into all areas of our lives - especially love for our neighbors.

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We had an awesome weekend at the AIA MidAtlantic Retreat. 206 athletes and staff gathered for a time of worship, fellowship, teaching, and encouragement. Our speaker for the weekend,Derwin Gray, encouraged us to understand who we are in Jesus so that we might be free to live for him fully. It was a blessing to hear from a brother who is passionate about the Lord. Several VT students made commitments to Jesus Christ for the first time - for that we thank the Lord. Derwin and I taught an "optional" apologetics session in which almost all of the students took the "option" to attend. What a refreshing time to teach an important discipline as well as to field questions from hearts eager for truth. All the messages from the weekend, mine and Derwin's sections, are available for download here - MP3 Messages

Such a great opportunity to use our time, talents, and treasures for the Kingdom - may these young people be set aflame for the light of the gospel of the glory of God, revealed in the face of Christ Jesus...

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Tozer's Insight for Leaders - 2-6-04: "If you could increase the attendance of your church until there is no more room, if you could provide everything they have in churches that men want and love and value, and yet you didn't have the Holy Spirit, you might as well have nothing at all. For it is ''Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord Almighty' (Zechariah 4:6). Not by the eloquence of a man, not by good music, not by good preaching, but it is by the Spirit that God works His mighty works. The Counselor, 38-39. "

As we work this weekend on our conference for college athletes - may it truly be the Spirit of God at work, transforming hearts and lives. May excellence, dillegence, and perseverance, mark our labors, but may our labors not be in vain...may God's work blow stronger and be the source of all life transformation that takes place.

Praying that the Lord of Hosts meets afresh with our staff and students this weekend...

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AIA MidAtlantic Reteat is ramping up. Looks like we will be a bit larger than expected...around 215 athletes and staff will be in attendance this weekend. With our numbers swelling, we are sure to be a headache for the conf center - I pray they are patient with us. The Hokies look to bring about 70 athletes - a huge turnout for us if it holds. We had a good time creating a fun recruiting video this year at VT - my NonLinear Video Editing skills still have much to desire, but I am making slow progress with that arena.

With the e-mails and phone calls a flyin, things around here will be on the slowdown until next week.
I'm off to confirm the retreat commitments of some Hokie footballers.
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Tonight's AIA meeting was a blessing...former VTAIAer and football standout Andre Davis blessed us with a message about the centrality of faith. It is good to see Andre, now married and playing with the NFL's Cleveland Browns, walking with the Lord and being an influence on these younger Hokies.

We roll out Friday for the AIA MidAtlantic Retreat - we may take as many as 70 students from VT. We'll join others from schools all over VA for a time of encouragement, teaching, and fellowship. We are praying that many students will come to Christ this weekend.

Thanking God for His Faithfulnes...hittin the rack.

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More evidence that Western Popular Culture is heading towards savagery. Last night we simply shut down the Super Bowl half-time show and missed quite a show. It seems that entertainers will go to no ends to shock people and push envelopes. It seems there is quite an outrage because of the vulgarity of the show - but is it not a bit ironic that the very next show on CBS last night was "Survivor" - featuring a fully naked man with a small fuzzed out screen area. A few more quotes from Chesterton:

• Before one takes down a fence, one should ask why it was there in the first place...
• Meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain, meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure

From the sports world today we often see more of the same - sexual assaults, violent celebrations (Boston, last night), etc.. Yet there are bright spots there as well - we are priviledged to work with many of those.

February is always a crazy month for me. I will likely write between 300-400 e-mails this month (seriously). Between planning our AIA retreat, recruiting and corresponding with students applying/interested in the Czech Project, and serving the local VTAIA ministry - this month seems to be a flurry for us. There is a part of me which likes the activity, part of me which loathes it. I am praying that I make the time for reflection, study, and a little bloggin here and there this month. So far God has been faithful and is keeping me hungry for his Word.

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Many a skeptic has brought up questions about the faith dealing with the question of God's omnipotence. It is thought that God's omnipotence brings forth all sorts of logical conundrums. For instance if God is a being of unlimited power - he can do absolutely anything. It will be surprising, even to some believers, that there are some things that God simply cannot do. Now before one thinks I've left the camp, think for a moment with me about some basic questions.

1. First - Can God Lie? No, he cannot lie, not even by his omnipotence (Heb 6:18). If God is truth, then he cannot think of intentional falsification.
2. Second - Can God Change? No, he cannot change (Mal 3:6, Heb 13:8), not even using his own great power. With a second thought, God is also perfect and therefore has no need to change for the better, and could not change for the worst. So the idea of God's omnipotence being used to cause change in himself proves absurd right out the gate when considering God's perfections.

So, God cannot intentionally falsify (lie) and he does not change. These attributes consistently define what we mean when we say God is omni-potent, that God can do all possible things consistent with his revealed attributes.

Christians have held for centuries that this simply means God cannot perform contradictory things, things which are not logically possible (God certainly can do things that are humanly impossible - raise the dead, create worlds, speak to the wind and have it obey, etc.)...yet he cannot make square triangles, or make rocks so big he cannot move them.

A logic professor I had once put it this way...God can do all things, except stupid things. This also has implication for human freedom, but that is another loooooong discussion. Thanking God for these truths...witnessed in a worship song of David...

This God--his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

More of a Great Song - 2 Sam 22

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