Monthly Archives: April 2012

Court Records of Mark?

This topic was met with a lot of curiosity when I repeated some scholarly research I had memorized. The information was slightly foggy because my memory isn’t perfect and the material comes from almost three years ago. This what William Lane Craig AKA the heresy hunter’s sith lord has to say about the topic from page 317 of his book  Reasonable Faith…

And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” But he was silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am; and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.” And the high priest tore his mantle and said, “Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death. (Mark 14:60–64 rsv)

Here in one fell swoop Jesus affirms that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, and the coming Son of Man. He compounds his crime by adding that he is to be seated at God’s right hand, a claim that is truly blasphemous in Jewish ears.52 The trial scene beautifully illustrates how in Jesus’ self-understanding all the diverse claims blend together, thereby taking on  onnotations that outstrip any single term taken out of context.

So are these words of Jesus, which served as the basis for his condemnation by the Sanhedrin and for his delivery to the Roman authorities on charges of treason, authentic? In his meticulous commentary on Mark’s Gospel, Robert Gundry argues that the words of the high priest “Son of the Blessed (One)” are likely authentic because this use of a circumlocution for “God,” though common among Jews, was not characteristic of Christians; moreover, it appears only here in the Gospel of Mark, who elsewhere prefers the title “Son of God” (1:1; 3:11; 5:7; 15:39). As for Jesus’ reply to the high priest’s question, Gundry provides several lines of evidence in support of its authenticity: (1) the combination of sitting at God’s right hand and coming with the clouds of heaven appears nowhere in New Testament material except on Jesus’ lips; (2) the Son of Man is nowhere else associated with the notion of sitting at God’s right hand; (3) the saying exhibits the same blend of oblique self-reference and personally high claims that characterizes other Son of Man sayings (Mark 2:10, 28; 8:38; 13:26); (4) even though Psalm 110:1 concerning  sitting at the right hand of God is alluded to frequently in the New Testament, the substitution of “the Power” for “God,” though typical for Jewish reverential usage, occurs nowhere else in the New Testament; and (5) Mark is unlikely to have created a prediction to the Sanhedrin which they did not, in fact, see fulfilled.

In addition, Gundry notes the subtlety of the Markan account of the trial, which would escape a later Christian fabricator. Rules for dealing with capital blasphemy cases in the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 7.5) concern cases in which a person is accused of having pronounced on some previous occasion the divine name “Yahweh” so as to dishonor God. During the trial the alleged blasphemy of the accused is not actually repeated, but some substitute for the divine name is used. Only at the trial’s close is the courtroom cleared, and in the presence of the judges, the lead witness is instructed, “Say expressly what you heard.” He then repeats the blasphemous words uttered by the accused, at which all the judges stand and rend their clothes. In Jesus’ trial, the blasphemy occurs unexpectedly on the spot, so that only the high priest is standing and tears his garments. If Jesus actually uttered the divine name by saying, “You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Yahweh,” a report of what transpired in Jesus’ trial would not include the pronunciation of the divine name itself but some substitute for it, like “the Power.” Gundry concludes, “The collocation of capital blasphemy and clothes-rending in m. Sanh. 7.5 as well as in Mark favors . . . that Mark’s account of Jesus’ trial rests on trustworthy information. . . . For though Christians might have fabricated an account so defamatory of the Sanhedrin, Christians are unlikely to have fabricated—or even have been able to fabricate—an account corresponding so subtly to a later idealization of Sanhedrin jurisprudence in cases of capital blasphemy.”53 How did Jesus dishonor God? Gundry answers, “We may best think that the high priest and the rest of the Sanhedrin judge Jesus to have verbally robbed God of incommensurateness and unity by escalating himself to a superhuman level, by portraying himself as destined to sit at God’s right hand and come with the clouds of heaven.”54

For Jesus, then, titles like “Messiah” and “Son of God,” which need carry no connotation of divinity, become infused with such a connotation in his selfunderstanding and usage, just as they do in I Enoch and 4 Ezra, by his conviction that he is the Danielic Son of Man who is to be seated at God’s right hand.

Craig, William Lane., and William Lane. Craig. Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1994. Print.

Deep into the Greatest Commandment

A Topic in Christian Living and Reflection

Connecting and getting to know God, our Father, gives such a great amount of joy in a daily Christian life. Serving Him rewards us with comfort and great desire for Him. Although, we can point out so many things about glorifying Him, even God says it’s not enough. One might point to a fact that human beings cannot glorify God like Jesus can, but the real argument I want to clear up on is, “If serving, glorifying, praising, worshipping God is not enough, what must we also do while we live in flesh?”

If we have a relationship with God, should we also have a relationship with others as well?

The answer is yes, and I have several passages from the Word of God we can all look to.

One of the Pharisees in his time asked our Lord a question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (Matthew 22:36)

Jesus replied with three answers in Matthew 22:37-40.

1)    Love the Lord with all of your heart, your soul, and your mind. (37)

2)    Love your neighbor as much as yourself. (39)

3)    All the Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.

Why did Jesus say these things, first of all?

From what I was taught from several ministries, the Pharisees, Jewish leaders, and the people around Jesus, first of all, did not have an authentic relationship with God.

Jesus called God his Father. In John 5:16-18 shows that the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Jesus for calling God his very own father because he was making himself equal with God. The case was actually about showing the position they were in. The people only called God THE Father, instead of calling God THEIR Father. Jesus previously spoke to a Samaritan woman about true worshippers of God. True worshippers of God worship in Spirit and in truth. (John 4:21-24)

This supports answer one from the main question. We must worship God with Spirit and in truth. The Spirit is our heart, and our soul. The truth is our mind that aligns with the Word of God.

Going back into John 5, there was a pool called Bethesda where so many of the sick and disabled lay. There was one specific man who has been disabled for 38 years. He was then cured by Jesus and was told to pick up his mat and walk. This was happening on a Sabbath, and the Jewish leaders saw this man carrying his mat. I’m not sure if they knew before that he was disabled, but the first thing that caught them is his mat instead of his past condition. Before the healing occurred, the man said this after Jesus asked him if he wanted to get well.

“I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” (John 5:7)

This caught my attention about the relationships that people were having with others around that time. Before I get into this part, carrying your mat on a Sabbath day was viewed as working on the Lord’s Day, referencing back to the 4th Commandment of His Law to only rest on the Sabbath. Carrying your mat was actually a man made Jewish Law that has nothing to do with work. Jesus telling the paralytic to carry his mat and walk during a Sabbath Day was done intentionally to get their attention so he can tell the leaders of his relationship with God by the way. John 5:41 and 43 is remarkable:

1)    I do not accept glory from human beings.

2)    I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.

This supports answer two of my main question. We are like them, and maybe usually, we pick and choose others, tending to leave others behind who don’t seem ‘worthy’. Jesus commanded to love others as much as we love ourselves, not love only the ones we are acceptable in society.

When Jesus said that the Law and the prophets hold on to these two commandments, he was stating it as a fact, not an suggestion, opinion, or interpretation. I will be using Hosea as an example: Hosea is a prophet who was commanded by God to love his unfaithful wife Gomer. Unfaithful as in she was a prostitute. God was giving one of the greatest examples about what true love is through Hosea’s harsh life. The gist of the Prophet Hosea is found in chapter 3 verse 1.

“Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes,” the Lord said to Hosea.

This passage shows that prophet Hosea was holding on to God, and also to Gomer. He loved God with all of his heart, his soul, and his mind. He loved Gomer, even though she was not like Hosea, or anybody that Hosea would find acceptable, tolerable, etc. He held on to these two commandments, thus proving Jesus right. This passage really hit me so much, and because of Hosea’s gospel, I was saved through those words, seeing God’s love for me, for you, and for all of us. This supports not just answer three, but all 3 answers of the main question, and hits it home.

Now, that we understand that, how about we look into our relationship with God, and many others in our life? We are going to emphasize the relationships with others more actually. The reason is that our relationships with others can be extremely difficult for all of us, and I’m not just talking about our relationships with our family, or our own friends. I want to use the teaching that Jesus gave to the Samaritan woman which is “Spirit and in truth.” I learned this great lesson from a great teacher by differentiating these two things.

1)    Worshipping God only in Spirit is considered idolatry. (Samaritan example)

2)    Worshipping God only in truth is considered hypocrisy. (Pharisee example)

3)    Worshipping God in Spirit and in truth is a must. (John 4:24)

I wanted to go deeper with that example, except that we will not worship others because it is not good to do so anyway. This is an amazing discovery by going deeper into this teaching of Jesus. I realized that by taking this lesson from our Lord, I wondered about my relationship with others recently.

I loved my friends and family without having to know much about them. I use to defend them, care for them, and even give to them by only by a little knowledge of their life. I was giving them praise, blindly because they just seemed to be so good in life. Wouldn’t that be considered idolizing your own friends? Did I just make them into heroes, or even gods?

I had friends who I knew most of their life. Some may consider them that I was their best friend because I knew so much about them. Yet, even though, with all the knowledge I have about them, I also had no compassion towards them, and still, they were considered my ‘friends’. Didn’t I just tell you that I was being hypocritical? Was I lying to them the whole time?

Without those two things, our relationships with others are futile because it shows that we are not truly reflecting in God’s standards for our daily living, and also, not following the greatest commandment given to us.

A Moral Argument for Animalism

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending this conference. I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet some great philosophers and engage in some substantive discussion.

One of my favorite presentations was the second one by Andrew Bailey.  He defended a position known as ‘animalism’, which is the thesis that we, as individuals, are a type of animal. It is a position I am quite sympathetic to over substance dualism.

He starts with a moral datum (MD): To harm a human organism is, in the ordinary case, to harm a human animal. Bailey clarified that by ‘harm’ he meant the deprivation of some good which is supposed to be there. Now, as we know from Bayesian reasoning, if some event/hypothesis E which is actually the case is more likely to happen given some event F than given ~F, then E is evidence for F over ~F. But, Bailey argues, MD is true, and MD is more likely to be true given animalism than given the negation of animalism. Hence, MD provides evidence for animalism.

It seems that MD is true. When you cause pain in the organism to which we all agree I am related, you cause me pain. When you shoot a human organism you (at least in some way) harm a person. Moreover, it seem MD  is more likely given animalism than its negation for the simple reason that, on this hypothesis, the human organism you harm is identical to a human person. There need be no complex system of relations in virtue of which MD comes out true. Hence, MD provides evidence that animalism is true.

While I am very sympathetic to this position, I think there are a few places the anti-animalist will want to push. But what are your thoughts?

We must realize that what God wants, and what our blessed Lord wants, above all, is ourselves – what Scripture calls our ‘heart’. He wants the inner man, the heart. He wants our submission. He does not want merely our profession, our zeal, our fervour, our works, or anything else. He wants us.”

— Martin Loyd Jones

Why I Quit My Job

This Monday I decided to quit my job. From what I can tell, I had been working there for at least a month but over time, it just took too much out of me. For starters, I had to wake up early in the morning. Do you know how dreadful that is? I have been a night owl for what feels like centuries. My body surprisingly adjusted more quickly than I thought it would but it still didn’t change how much I missed my old habits. I had gotten used to sleeping at 3-4 am until I was forced to wake up at 9 am to work all the way until 9-10 pm. If that’s not a convincing reason, how about that burning oven I had to use to make pizza? Apparently my fingers are sensitive and are scared of screeching hot surfaces. Come on, I’m not alone right? You must realize that cooking is not something I normally do, but I am gifted in the art of microwaving. Hot chocolate? 2:30. Potatoes? 6-7 minutes. Popcorn? 2:15. Pizza? 3:00. Bam, there’s my food! Don’t be jealous though, I just got legit experience. If I could find a job doing that, I’d be living the dream! But the truth is, we cannot always get what we want. It’s just a matter of whether you’re willing to accept that or not. Those who demand things for themselves are the ones who are never satisfied with what they have.

In this post, I do not want to sound as if I am out to complain about how hard life is. Believe me, those are not my reasons for quitting. We have important obligations to others and ourselves that require sacrifice. Scripture itself warns that laziness produces hunger (Proverbs 19:15) but hard work produces wealth (Proverbs 14:23). The slacker’s craving will kill him because he refuses to work (Proverbs 21:25-26) but a righteous man will live because he gives. These principles are common sense but today it seems as if that has been waning. With the rise of entitlements comes a depreciation for work and a lack of good stewardship over money. Many are more interested in their video games, social networking, and movies. Even a person who desires to work can become entangled in distractions – which I personally know all too well. Like my dad says, if you decided not to go to work one day because you didn’t feel like it, you’d be living on the streets someday. That kind of laziness should not be tolerated in a work-based economy.

On the other hand, this does not mean we cannot search for a job that is more enjoyable. If at all possible, it is better to do what you love to do than it is to do what you hate to do. For example, I am personally much more interested in philosophical and technological matters than I am with cooking. Nonetheless, I became business partners because I thought there was some potential in the pizza business. The opportunity just presented itself at the time and I was willing to help the christian owner in whatever way that I could. At the same time, I had doubts whether I’d be of any use in that business and resisted the idea of cooking but in the end, I had to surrender those inhibitions to start working. It may surprise you but this is actually the first time that I have ever worked for someone. For most of my life, I have been training to have my own business. It’s just that for this one time, I thought working in the “rat race” would provide a good experience and could potentially provide better results as far as finances are concerned. As for why I decided to quit, well, let’s start by going through the three reasons:

  1. God’s Will
    This is the most important to me. Without Him, all my efforts are in vain. Part of assessing God’s will is evaluating the circumstances around you as well as asking for counsel from other brethren that is in accord to God’s Truth. P.X. Chirho was a great influence here. Through him, I was able to discover God’s blessing over W.C. as well as find inspiration to be in the ministry as he was. If I have been blessed with skills in philosophy and technology, then it’s probably best that I make use of them for God’s kingdom. The desire to reach out to others has only been growing ever since I started to work. Making pizza just didn’t seem to have this “greater” purpose, let alone fit in with my desires and skills. I know God can work through all things, but I don’t think He would work through that for long. I believe God had me work there to learn some lessons in discipline and character, but that purpose had been completed and it was time to move on.

  2. Loving Others
    Unfortunately, my responsibility at work prevented me from spending time with those that I cared about. Because I was not there, I had friends who were lonely or depressed because of their love life and their lack of spiritual discipline. In particular, I had someone who I used to have regular Skype conversations with to read the Bible, sing, pray and fellowship with but thanks to my preoccupation, this person had been suffering and that just caused me to suffer as well. Maybe you can’t relate to this but I like to have friendships that are more than just a sharing of mutual interests in things. It’s about being there for them, thinking about them, and wanting what’s truly best for them – regardless of whether they end up hating you for it. I’m also discipling Michael but working there for those long hours prevented me from developing good lessons for us to go through. Failing to post on Walking Christian also meant neglecting to help others. Taken together, I think these are things that I am not willing to sacrifice.

  3. Financial Needs
    Turns out the business was not as financially promising as I had hoped. Despite my efforts to increase customers, it just didn’t seem to have the kind of effect that I wanted. Every day felt like we were barely surviving. There were legal problems with building permits, taxes, rent, and who knows what else. The owner had to pay tickets, do community service, and deal with court cases and child services. He had his own personal problems that I did not want to get involved in. Then some previous business partners came in and took back their stuff. They helped it become something great (these guys were chefs) but apparently, the owner’s personal expenses and problems got in the way of making the business truly succeed. I had been praying to God before for a sign that leaving would be the right decision (which I based on 1 & 2) and this seemed like the final confirmation. If these chefs could not succeed with him, how could I? The owner had already found a person who could cook pizza so everything just seemed to fall in place. He didn’t need me anymore and I didn’t want to be there because I need to support my family and any future family that I may have.

There are smaller details that I neglected to mention here but the conclusion is the same: it was not God’s will. I did learn some valuable lessons that I will cover in a later post but overall, I think this was pushing me to focus my resources elsewhere. Where do I go from here? I think I’ll be returning to Walking Christian and if possible, focus all my resources on this instead because it’s what I love doing. How will that support my financial needs? I honestly don’t know at the moment but I do have some design work for a church on the side that the Lord has graciously offered through Michael. That should help keep me going here. If any of you could pray for me, I would really appreciate that. I’ll continue to search for God’s will because wherever He wants me, there I will be.

Bible Study Time

Saturday evening, 8:00 PM Mountain Standard Time.

We will be chatting via text at http://tinychat.com/pxchirho just follow the link and log in.

When I get some decent video/audio equip, we can move up in the world to webcam chat but for now let’s start humble. Remember we will be talking about the passion narrative in Mark’s Gospel. Read up before hand.

God bless you guys and see you on Saturday. :)

My Blogging Plans For the Summer

Yes, it’s been a little while since I’ve made a blog post. Thanks to everyone else on the blog for making posts :) I wanted to just update everyone on some of the blog ideas I have planned for the future. I also want to build a little excitement for those who are following the blog that way people know what to expect. With finals coming up and the semester winding down, AND with me not attending summer school, I have a nice, long summer of relaxing, reading, and writing to do. Here’s what I got planned:

  1. I plan on writing part 2 of the moral relativism post I did a few weeks back.
  2. I plan on finishing the Read Along series for Edward Feser’s The Last Superstition
  3. Thanks to a request from one of our blog readers, I took it into consideration and decided I will do a post on Feser’s stance on social issues. Note that this will be Feser’s arguments and stances on issues. I may or may not agree with his stance and/or approach, but I think that’s unlikely. We’ll see ;)
  4. I will eventually (note eventually) do a post responding to some of Thompson’s Abortion arguments. Thanks for that suggestion a while back, Robert. :)
  5. If I study the material enough, I may do a thomistic response to the “evil god” challenge. This one is still up in the air, but it’s on my notebook as a possibility.
  6. I have a post that’s in the drafts section in which I’m going to write out my view of sexual ethics, natural law, and contraceptives. I’m actually pretty excited about this one.
  7. Once I get my hand on the kindle version, I’m going to read and post a review here of Gary Neal Hansen’s Kneeling With Giants: Learning to Pray With History’s Best Teachers. The book looks very interesting, and I’m excited to read a book that will hopefully enhance my prayer life. I’m also excited about sharing that resource with you all.
  8. When I write enough book reviews for apologetics 315, I’m going to bundle all the links together and post them here that way you all can access them. I’m honored to be on their book review team, and I love reading and review books to encourage others to read them. It’s my way of helping you all out by doing the dirty work of reading the book and telling you if it’s good or not so good. (By the way, if you’ve never checked out the site or heard of it, it’s a website ran by Brian Auten that features an ENORMOUS amount of apologetics resources. Audios, interviews, book reviews, books, giveaways, blog posts, quotes, you name it. Theology, philosophy, and all things Christianity oriented with an apologetics spin. Please, check them out here and subscribe to them if you haven’t already.)

I think that’s about all. I’ll be doing all this in addition to personal projects for school that I’ll be working on over the summer. I’m really excited to get some quality stuff done for WC. Also, stay tuned because there’s going to be a lot of changes and expansions to WC coming in the future. So stoked. God bless!

I Am The Book Worm!

Just look at these gorgeous books! If that’s not proof that I am the most amazing book worm ever, then I don’t know what is. You jealous? Yeah, you should be. Want my books? Too bad. Want to sniff it? Get out of my house! Okay okay, I am clearly kidding. This is not the most amazing collection of books you have ever seen and I am not the best reader in the world. Frankly, I’d nominate our fellow blogger David for a position as a book worm. He’ll literally read to the point of insanity. Ask him for more details! Well anyway, I was blessed to have received these books from a friend that I am not sure wants to be named here. And contrary to what the image humbly suggests, these books do not really belong to me as much as it belongs to the team at Walking Christian. If any of my fellow bloggers are interested in reading these books, feel free to let me know but please expect a 2-3 year shipping delay. There’s another book that I ordered via Kindle titled “Memorize the Faith!” – which for technical reasons could not be included in the image.

I personally prefer ebooks but nothing does beat the physical experience of waiting to receive a book in the mail and opening it up like it’s your first time getting a package. Oh, must I mention the life-changing experience of sniffing the book as you turn its lovely pages? It’s such an addictive drug, trust me. Try it out for yourself someday at a bookstore near you. For a philosopher though, the best part is sinking in all of that information and feeling like you’re becoming 10x smarter. I really couldn’t ask for a better gift. Though at first, I honestly resisted because I don’t want to be a free loader. He convinced me to accept the offer but I still feel as if nothing I can say or do could show my appreciation. It’s hard because I think other people are better than I am and deserve these things much more than I ever could (c.f, David the Book Worm). Nevertheless, it appears the Lord has blessed me with many things and I really do hope to share this knowledge with others on WC. Or perhaps you’ll have some insightful criticism (I’m looking at you, Robert!).

I’ll be discussing my reading habits soon, something that I am not particularly proud of but hopefully it’ll work as an inspiration for future discipline. I should note that one of the books (Think Christianly) was actually a gracious offer by the folks at Engaging Church. I’ll be providing a review to this ASAP. For those who want some quick links to the books that I just received, I’ll provide them in a second. Please note that these are affiliate links, so if you purchase them through us, you’ll be supporting the future growth of WC. I’ll explain why we’re doing that in the future as well but your support means a lot to us. Rest assured, we’re not a secret terrorist organization with an agenda to blow up abortion clinics. Your support will go toward the continuation of this ministry, not for future trips to Disney Land or Las Vegas. Here you go:

  1. The Last Superstition – Edward Feser
  2. An Introduction to Philosophy – Daniel J. Sullivan
  3. Think Christianly – Jonathan Morrow
  4. Questions that Matter – Ed. L. Miller, John Jensen
  5. Memorize the Faith! (And Most Anything Else) – Kevin Vost

Enjoy being a Book Worm!

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