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This is moved over from Forgotten Prophets. It was originally posted as a response to a series of exchanges between myself and Youssef, a Moslem advocate based in the Middle East. Here’s an excerpt from one of my own little efforts, The Serpent in Babel (which deals with the very most ancient of ancient history). The following was a bit of a digression from the major theme, but it seemed relevant, and is more relevant, here, given some of our conversations. So:The earliest line-writing, on pre-cuneiÂform tablets, repreÂsented the idea of God by using the symbol of three stars; this was simÂplified over time as a single star, which was further stylized into the precise form of a cross, which again was simÂplified into a sinÂgle line. It takes no imagination at all to find here the Trinity, the Crucifixion, and the One God.God manifests Himself in this universe as One God, who makes Himself known in three PerÂsons. These three Persons, who are One, are known as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is, to our natÂural minds, a parÂadox: how can one God be three persons? ShodÂdy objecÂtions abound, such as one plus one plus one do not equal one; to this, we need only reply that one times one times one does equal one. But the issue tranÂscends mere falÂlacious reasoning. We cerÂtainly cannot compreÂhend the true subtlety of the TriniÂty, any more than we can comÂprehend that light is both a particle and a wave. But we can appreÂhend it. We do not master this idea, but we can recognize that it is true.The idea of incomprehensible, unÂprovable truths is not in the least a religious one. It is the very heart of modern mathematics and physics, as demonÂstrated by, say, Gödel’s InÂcompleteness Theorem (which says the axioms of a system cannot be used to prove itself â a higher set of axioms must always be appealed to), or by Heisenberg’s UncerÂtainty Principle (which says that either the velocity or the location of a specific elecÂtron at a given moment can be known, but not both â by choosing one, you exclude the possiÂbilÂity of knowing the other). SinguÂlariÂties and quarks and virtual partiÂcles, and the square-root of negative one and non-EuÂcliÂdian geomeÂtry and the concept of infinÂity â all partake of the nature of things that are true, but not compreÂhendible.On a more mundane level, we find the very fundaments of the universe affirmÂing the TrinÂity. In its broadest aspect, naÂture is a triÂnity, of space, matter and time. There is no universe without these, and these do not exist without each other. Again, each of these is itself a trinity. Space is height, width and depth; each is fully and completely itÂself, and totalÂly perÂvades space, yet space is not any one of these things, but all of them together. Matter is energy, movement, and phenomena â power, action and effect â motive, motion and maniÂfestaÂtion. Time is past, present and fuÂture; it is not any absoÂlute division of these, but the fluid interacÂtion of all three.As for human existence, it is experiÂenced in space, exhibÂited by matter, and understood through time. We are body, mind or soul, and spirit; not mere matter, but some animating force; not mere mind, but tangible and eterÂnal; not spirit alone, but physical and conÂceptual. Even our minds are a trinity, of inÂtellect, emotion and will.It is certainly true that the Bible noÂwhere uses the term Trinity, but we must dismiss out of hand such a vapid arguÂment, since nowhere does the Bible use the word toenail â yet of course there are such things. An argument from silence is a logical fallacy. CompeÂtent study, in fact, reveals that the concept of the Trinity is spread throughout scripture in an unmistakÂable way.Whatever it is that a man worships, and prays to, and turns to for delivÂerÂance, this is his god (Is 44:7,17). The Bible tells us to worship Jesus, and He receives it (Phili 2:10, Heb 1:6; Lk 24:52). Steven prays to Jesus (Acts 7:59), and of course Jesus is the DelivÂerer. We are told in many places, expliÂcitly, that Jesus, the Word, is God (Jn 1:1,14). Witness the folÂlowing: âChrist, who is God over all, forever praisedâ (Rom 9:5); the ârighteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christâ (2P 1:1 â compare with 2P 3:18); the âgloÂrious appearÂing of our great God and SavÂior Jesus Christâ (Titus 2:13); about the Son, God (the Father) says, âYour throne, O God, is forever and everâ (Heb 1:8); doubting Thomas finally answered Jesus by calling him âMy Lord and my Godâ (Jn 20:28). We are told that it is the blood of God that was shed (Acts 20:28), redeemÂing the lost. Of the MesÂsiah, we are told: âBeÂhold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is transÂlated, ‘God with us.’â (Mt 1:23, cf. Is 7:14). ConÂsiÂdering the fact that here we have Matthew, Luke, John, Peter, Thomas, Paul and the writer of HeÂbrews, all teaching the doctrine that Jesus is God â surely this is sufficient testimoÂny.As for the Holy Spirit, He is called God in a number of places (Acts 5:3-4; 1Cor 6:19,21; Lk 1:68,70 compared with Acts 1:16; 1Cor 3:16 with 2Cor 6:16, Jer 10:10; Ps 78:17â18 with Is 63:10; Deut 32:12 with Is 63:14; Is 6:8-9 with Acts 28:25â26; 2Cor 3:17). He is the Creator (Gen 1:2, Ps 33:6, 104:14-16,30, Job 26:13). He is eternal (Heb 9:14), sovereign (Jn 3:8, 1Cor 12:11), omnipresÂent (Ps 139:7), omniÂscient (1Cor 2:10), and omnipotent (Micah 2:7). He is holy (Rom 1:4) and good (Neh 9:20, Ps 143:10 comÂpared with Mt 19:17), and can be blasphemed (Mk 3:29â30).He is so much identified as a person of the Godhead, that against the rules of Greek grammar, He is called âHeâ, instead of by the neuter pronoun, as proper gramÂmar would demand (Jn 15:26, 16:13-14). The Spirit speaks with a voice (cf. Heb 10:15; Act 10:19, 13:2; Jer 31:31; Eze 2:1â3, 3:24, 8:11,43â44). He has a sense of self-identity (Acts 13:2), and He has the three atÂtributes of personaliÂty, in mind, emotions and will. Thus, the Father knows the mind of the Spirit (Rom 8:27), and the Spirit searches, and knows the depths of the mind of God (1Cor 2:10-11). The Holy SpiÂrit loves (Rom 15:30), grieves (Eph 4:30), is vexed (Is 63:10), kind (Ps 143:10), and deÂsires (Jn 3:8). He wills (1Cor 12:11), is obeyed (Acts 10), and forbids (Acts 16:6,7). I have counted at least 39 separate types of actions which the Spirit is explicitly said to have done, all of which demand His being a person and / or God.So, a fair understanding of the teaching of the Bible recÂogÂnizes that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all identiÂfied as God. Yet there is only one God, who somehow parÂtakes in some sort of plurality. We know this from the Bible, as in the very word for God, Elohim, which is a singular root with a pluÂral ending; this ending is not that Hebrew partiÂcle which indiÂcates a plural of two, but rathÂer of three or more. Now, while elohim is used of mere men, as of judges or rulÂers, this use is employed only long after the word was used of God. If this were the only example of an indiÂcation of the Trinity, we would cerÂtainly dismiss it as an example of the semitic usage of the plural of majesÂty â something like the royal we, to indicate I. But taken in context, we cannot escape the pluralÂity of God.In Deut 6:4, we have the great declaration of Hebrew monotheism, âHear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.â What could be more plain? Yet the word for âoneâ, here, is ‘achad. In Hebrew there is a word for an absoÂlute unity, ‘iysh, used of an individual â an in-divide-able. Then there is the word of a composite unity, a single thing which in some manner is made up of parts. Thus a marÂried couple, which becomes one flesh, is ‘achad flesh; a bunch of grapes is an ‘achad of grapes. And the Lord our God, the Lord is achad â a composite unity.” When we consider that a much better word was available, if the intent had been to indicate a God of the MosÂlem type â utterly monolithic â then we are safe in concluding that achad, a comÂposite unity, was chosen for a purpose.So, while we cheerfully affirm that the Bible does not conÂtain the word Trinity, it certainly contains words which indiÂcate the Trinity. Just as gravity is not in any way visible, yet its effect is everywhere â so with the Trinity: it is imÂplicit, throughout the entire Bible. While this in itself is not proof that the universe actually is ruled by the Triune God, it is proof that the Bible, Old Testament and New, teaches that God is Triune.The question may well be asked, Why must we search this out? Why isnt the Trinity explicitly stated? To this, we can reply only with reasoned guesses. Perhaps, in the proÂphets efforts to combat idolatry and polytheÂism, the triunity of God was left implicit, to establish the correct concept of monotheÂism
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Chief among them was to cut his very long manuscript to a length more suitable for the genre.The writer listened to what he had been told and reworked the entire manuscript, cutting it down to a reasonable length and incorporating the other suggestions he’d received. A big clue that this writer’s manuscript was not ready was that he had begun marketing without having done any research into the appropriate number of words for a manuscript in his genre. The agent had said to go ahead and re-submit a previously rejected manuscript without making any mention of the fact that it had been sent before.A thoughtful member of the loop reminded everyone of Madeleine L’Engle’s struggles to get her novel, A Wrinkle in Time published.For those of you not familiar with L’Engle, she is now 78 years old. L’Engle insisted they publish it as a children’s book and, according to RH, it was the beginning of the FSG children’s list.The book was a runaway success (the Harry Potter of its day) and won the coveted Newbery Medal in 1963.I’m telling you all this just to underscore that you can do EVERYTHING right and still not get published or do EVERYTHING WRONG and be a success story.
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Bush could help break the diplomatic impasse.Oil falls below 0 on Iran hopes(Oh, Hells no!)LONDON, England (Reuters) — Oil fell below 0 on Monday on hopes tension over Iran’s nuclear ambition will ease after Tehran made an unprecedented move to contact Washington.U.S. light crude for June delivery was down 78 cents to 9.41 a barrel.
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Brad asked for more about my years in Sierra Leone. Though it’s something I’ve considered writing more about for quite a while, I don’t have time now, so instead I’ll repost the one previous post I’ve written about Sierra Leone. Besides, if I’m going to start recycling posts, I can think of worse blog fodder.In the summer of 1993, the great Mississippi, docile river of life1 that it usually is, swam right out of its banks. That same summer, I revoltingly discovered what it was to be an American boy.Having traded Freetown, Sierra Leone for Janesville, Wisconsin, my brother and I — nearly seven and barely ten, respectively — were strangers in a strange land. After three years in the third world jungle environ of West Africa, where my father had served as a mechanic for a bible translation team, we were now lost. Clueless among our peers, we were completely without friends, save each other. As the summer’s short showers and powerful downbursts continued, the Mississippi swelled and our comfort in this new place shrank.The strangeness of this new place — America — was overwhelming. Everything was too fast, too intense, too overdone: we had met a nation that refused to see context, didn’t want to know the realities of the big picture, and with its massive ego, couldn’t get over itself.The peak of the floods came in June and July, as large storms repeatedly battered the Midwest. Both the Mississippi and its tributaries, already pregnant, birthed chaos into the surrounding areas; after poundings like the one Cedar Rapids received on July 4th and 5th (six inches in two days),2 there was simply more water than there was space for. Other communities were similarly ravaged; all told, the flooding accounted for 52 deaths, 56,000 homes damaged, and 70,000 displaced.3Josh and I watched the news unaffected. Mired in civil war two years when we left, Sierra Leone had seen much worse; yet none of the war’s suffering casualties ever received a fraction of the flood’s fanfare. A civil war paid for with tens of thousands of lives4 and costing the displacement of well over two million people (almost half the nation’s population) — that was tragedy. In a war known for its brutality, Sierra Leone was ripped apart by campaigns of terror, widespread rape, childhood conscription (usually at machete-point), and every conceivable form of mutilation.In 1992’s coup, my brother and I had front-row seats when Lieutenant Valentine Strasser, just twenty-six, became the world’s youngest head of state. Living just uphill from the army barracks, we at first thought the tracer bullets whizzing over our roof were fireworks. Evacuated in great big us military c-130’s a few days later, the experience put a damper in our compassion for the Midwest’s plight. We had seen upheaval, and this flood was not it.News coverage portrayed the flood as great tragedy. We had seen senseless tragedy, and my brother and I knew that there was a bigger world outside the United States. This flood, preventable with better planning, was neither tragic nor senseless.Tragedy was a way of Sierra Leonean life, yet what I remember best of gaunt bony friends is their smiling faces, laughing “tamarrah” — always tomorrow. What wasn’t done today could be done then; life was not for rushing, but for enjoying. This was in a country with a life expectancy of forty or forty-five.5Now in America, with its life expectancy of seventy-five or eighty,6 what we saw saddened us. In a country full of comforts, smiling faces were rare; instead, we saw serious faces, full of worry, even as they sat atop those bloated fat bodies of theirs, exclaiming that what could be done tomorrow was better done today. Americans, we thought, were fat and stupid.Sadder still was riding our bikes past Woodman’s. The main grocery store in Janesville, it dwarfed both of Freetown’s main hotels;7 when Josh and I pedaled by, it physically hurt my eyes to look, to look and see all the people blithely shopping, piling their overflowing grocery bags into their shiny cars. So great was my contempt for the store that I as a pre-Africa first grader had enjoyed so much, I was unable to pass through its doors again until ninth grade. Grocery store re-acculturation cost me four full years.Hearing complaints about the rain was especially hard that summer; Americans had never really seen rain. The rainy season that pummeled Sierra Leone every year, that was rain. The quick downpours that fell every afternoon from May to December: that was rain. Two hundred inches a year: that was rain.Those complaining American voices never tasted the approaching rain, even as cotton trees let loose their white dander in the quickly hastening breeze. Those complaining voices never saw dark walls of September rain cross the black Atlantic,8 swiftly approaching the shore. Those complaining voices never watched the earth birth a watercolor, from its dull red-brown dust into vibrant and lush greens, both dark and golden, as it did with the first rains of December. They never watched from our veranda as the Atlantic two miles away became clay orange with the soil and garbage streaming off the land in suddenly angrily appearing runoff gullies — rivers, really. Those complaining voices never heard the rains pound on tin roofs, playing wipeout surround-sound loud. They never felt thunder clap deep inside the bones of their breast, rattling their sternum, and they never saw god dwarf every Fourth of July firework show with his original. Those complaining voices never saw a banana leaf umbrella, and they certainly never heard stories of children, none of whom could ever swim, swept out to sea after falling in a racing run-off river.Those complaining voices didn’t know anything about rain; they didn’t know anything about loss. They just didn’t know anything.My disgust at the emptiness of this new world only deepened at church. My brother and I, missing three-hour services, asked how services could close after only an hour. We asked how people sat so still; we longed for the praising, dancing singing passion we remembered. We asked how people sang so quietly, and such tired songs; we wanted the rhythm and bounce of the hymns we loved. We had left church soaked in sweat every Sunday for three years, and not just because of the humidity — we missed that exertion. Everything about church now — it lacked the vividness and worthiness of our old life.School was worse. Church may have been hard, but as the summer sank into fall, our disgust with Americans expanded to include ignorance and superficiality. After three-hour days four days a week, three months a year, we might have expected to lag academically, but instead we were far ahead. Eight-hour days dragged on, as we reviewed material we already knew.Boredom took a toll, but worse yet was the apathy of our classmates, none of whom seemed to appreciate the gifts of living in such a rich country. Unaware that some countries had literacy rates as low as 31% (as did Sierra Leone),9 they thought nothing of America’s 97%.10 Unaware that some countries had poverty rates of 80% or more, they thought America’s 9% was high.11 Their minds were small, I decided.Equally devastating, if not more so, was the social persecution. We were small — 45 lbs, 3′11 in 5th grade for melink
Roughly one-hundred American dollarsThis is what I came up with:1 Talking Heads • Hearing these CDs, I was stunned to realize how much people have swiped from them over the last forty/fifty-something years…)6 De La Soul • De La have tried and gotten close, but nothing beats their 1989…um…landmark debut)7 Talking Heads • Remain In Light (1983) (Yeah, didn’t have much Talking Heads.)8 Marvin Gaye • Let’s Get It On (1973) (How I didn’t have this CD in my collection until now in unforgivable, I tell ya)9 Bob Dylan • Nashville Skyline (1969) (Bob sings in a crazy voice, duets with Johnny Cash and comes up with Lay Lady Lay, which has gotta be one of his best songs)10 Getz/Gilberto •
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